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• Maximum PC PSA: Keep Those Cat Collars Away from Electronics

  

  National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation reminded us that it's not a good idea to let your pets hang around dangling cords, especially those carrying an electric current. Cats and dogs tend to chew on such things and, well, the results aren't pretty. Here's another tip: keep your pets away from power strips.

  I had to learn this one the freakishly hard way when, earlier this morning, my cat Shizzle, who I may rename to Chev Chelios, decided to lay down next to my Belkin power strip. That usually wouldn't be cause for concern, except that he used it as a pillow with his metal ID tag draping dangerously closely to the sockets. Can you guess what happened next?

  

  One glance at the pic above says it all. Though I wasn't in the room at the time, I was told there were sparks and a crackling sound as the steel ID tag and power strip got up close and personal with each other. I could smell the smoke from the next room over.

  

  Notice that the ID tag didn't just get charred, it melted in two different places, which answers Physics Forum member "wj's" question on how to melt stell with electricity.

  

  As for Shizzle, cat lovers and our PETA readers will be happy to know that he's fine (and so are the electronics I had plugged into the outlet -- router and cable modem), albeit down to 8 lives, or 7 if you're deducting one for having him neutered. And his steel ID tag? He'll be wearing a plastic one next time.

  Do you have any freakish electronics stories? Share them in the comments section below!

• Nvidia Rolls Out GeForce GT 420 with Nary a Peep

  Without any fanfare or press release that we can find, Nvidia launched a new graphics card for OEMs this week, the GeForce GT 420.

  The GeForce GT 420 ranks as the first truly low-end Fermi part with support for DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4, and unless something changes, you won't find this card in retail. The OEM-only graphics card has found its way into a handful of Dell, HP, and other pre-built systems, and that's where it will probably stay.

  From a hardware standpoint, the GeForce GT 420 sports a 40nm GPU clocked at 700MHz, 48 CUDA cores, 2GB of GDDR3 clocked at 1800MHz on a 128-bit memory bus, and shaders clocked at 1400MHz. It also sports a low-profile design with DVI, HDMI, and D-sub outputs.

  

  Image Credit: Nvidia

• Study: Adults Catching Up to Teens in Text Messaging

  Call it a blatant stereotype if you will, but there's no way adult texters come close to text messaging teenage girls who send and receive thousands of texts every month. But that doesn't mean grownups are left living in the cell phone Stone Age, either. According to Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, 72 percent of adult cell phone owners now partake in texting.

  That still trails teens in general (male or female), of which 87 percent of those who carry a mobile phone keep in contact with friends and family through text messaging. And we don't even want to know how the comparison breaks down when looking at the total number of messages whisked through the airwaves, though Pew Research revealed this stat anyway. On average, your teenage son or daughter (or YOU, as the case may be) send some 50 text messages every day, compared to the "typical 10 text messages" adults send and receive on a daily basis.

  But let's forget about the quantity -- teens are always going to 'win' that one. What's interesting is the steady rise in the number of adults warming up to text messages. In December 2007, a little more than half -- 58 percent -- of adult cell phone owners participated in texting, and that number jumped to 65 percent in September 2009. 

  "It may be that folks have been pushed by pricing into unlimited texting plans, which has the effect of encouraging people with those plans to text more, because they no longer think of the cost, and then text more often," said Amanda Lenhart, Pew senior research specialist.