Gizmodo: cartel

CarTel Device Attacks Traffic Jams with Fleet of Networked Smart Cars

Jack Loftus — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:00:00 EDT

Researchers at MIT are using computer networks and cabbies to tackle a routine problem that I, personally, can attest to: Boston area traffic jams. Called CarTel (get it?), the system creates a network by way of cell phone-sized black boxes. The boxes currently sit on board 50 cars and taxis in the Boston area. Drivers access the CarTel web portal for real-time info on their own vehicle as well as those around them. "Everybody's data is contributing to collective views of what congestion looks like," said MIT associate professor Samuel Madden.

Currently, CarTel tracks traffic data by logging a car's speed during different point during the trip. Madden said the system differentiates itself from similar sounding systems because it actually understands where traffic delays are, and recommends the best routes to avoid them. MIT professor Hari Balakrishnan said the system has already chopped 25% off his commute since January thanks to a little number crunching on the part of the computer:

It recommended a new route that, although a few miles longer than the approach suggested by some mapping web sites, is considerably faster in practice.

CarTel also has the ability to link into a car's diagnostic system and inform the driver when to get service or if something is malfunctioning. Don't tell it John Connor's present location. Time travel is one hell of a commute. [MIT]

Dr. Pepper Pays Boy Band To Live, Perform In Bubble

Wilson Rothman — Wed, 23 May 2007 13:00:00 EDT

The latest installment in the "if dumb people watch, it must be smart" genre—a category that brought us Big Brother, The Real World, Making The Band and David Blaine—is the descriptively named Band In A Bubble, airing tomorrow on MTV. Somehow, we got blueprints of the bubble.

A band I've never heard of called Cartel will be locked up inside this spherical-domed tent on one of New York City's piers for 20 days to record an album while 23 cameras stream footage to the Web. It's the usual invasion of privacy: night vision in the bedroom, a shower cam, and something called a "KFC cam" in kitchen.

While it will be a decent test of Adobe's new Flash Media Encoder, we doubt that's why a bunch of 13-year-old girls will sit outside the bubble, screaming and crying while their moms wonder where they went wrong. Anyway, these are all matters to keep in mind when you devise your own bubble using the blueprints and renderings below. (Cameras and desperate fame seekers sold separately.)

A word of advice to Cartel: See how your name is the same size as Wal-Mart's? That's a sure sign you should fire your agent. Good luck in the bubble! – Wilson Rothman

Dr Pepper Hopes MTV Show Will Sell Soda [AP]

CD Punch: Ruin a Disc, Save Your Pride

Mark Wilson — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 17:30:03 EST

We know you've been feeling guilty about your CD and DVD "backups". At first it seemed so innocent, just this one time you wouldn't make the trip to Blockbuster. But before you knew it, you were trapped at the center of a bootleg cartel, hiring goons to film shaky versions of Oscar candidates while you snorted coke off blank CD-Rs.

Before it's too late, purchase a $6 CD punch. You've already got your secluded fortress mansion and the gold-plated speed boat. Now destroy the "evidence" that you once listened to Cher...way back in 1999. – Mark Wilson

Product Page [via crunchgear]