Popular Science magazine has developed a totally new scale for measuring how "high-tech" a city is, and Houston did better than it usually does…

Houston Business Journal: Popular Science ranks Houston a top 10 tech metro – 2005-03-09.

Popular Science ranked cities in six categories. Houston placed:

• 2nd in use of technology in education including research and development spending by local universities and the number of students using computers in school;
• 2nd in transportation innovation, including the efficient use of mass transit and the prevalence of alternative fueling stations;
• 17th in the smart use of energy;
• 23rd in hospitals and in emergency response, including the number of clinical trials and the use of GPS by emergency-medical personnel;
• 68th in high-tech job opportunities per capita;
• 86th in connected citizenry, including the use of high-tech gadgets such as cell phones, HDTVs, computers and satellite cable.

Ouch! on high-tech job opps. Read the original Popular Science story here.