Tech News: Trending on Twitter

Facebook

RSS

September 12, 2011, 8:12 am

Happy Monday, here’s today’s tech and social network news.

Trending on Twitter today
Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s swagger doesn’t come cheaply: Thanks to the state’s lax ethics and campaign laws, rich Texans have paid for the governor's airfare, stays at luxury hotels, tickets to sporting events and concerts, and a vacation to Colorado. They've even helped pay the cable bill at his 4,600-square-foot mansion.

Additionally, Perry has accepted many gifts over the years, including 22 pairs of cowboy boots. Perry, however, has been cited for only a minor ethics violation, although he also paid more than $400,000 last year to settle a lawsuit alleging he accepted illegal contributions.

What's the diagnosis, Dr. Watson?
Watson, the IBM supercomputer that defeated its human opponents on Jeopardy!, has been hired by health-insurer WellPoint to help suggest treatments and diagnoses to doctors. Nurses will begin using Watson next year to review treatment requests by M.D.s. Later it will be made accessible to doctors themselves. The technology, according to IBM, can process 200 million pages of content every three seconds, which would help doctors review medical literature.

Skyride
The man who invented the Rollerblade is at it again. It’s a futuristic Skyride, suspended from a 12-foot aboveground track.

The mod-looking bright red capsule, called Skyride, hangs from a 12-foot-tall circular aboveground track. There are two versions, one that moves when you pedal and the other when you row. The elevated bike and row system may just get the test-drive of its life this week—earning Olson a shot at millions of dollars on the ABC series Shark Tank, where entrepreneurs compete for a blessing by venture capitalists.