Bonus: He's also anti-intelligent-design. He gets a gold star!

Posted by maddh at 10:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 02, 2005

PocketMod: The Other Flexible Roll-out Display

If you want flexible roll-out displays but don't want to wait for Phillips to commercialize their technology, we've got a solution for you. The PocketMod is a cheap, simple to use, flexible PDA (actually PAA) that you can make at home, out of paper. In the spirit of the Hipster PDA, PocketMod is the solution for people who realize they don't need a $500 PDA, AC adapter, USB cables, and 2 hours of training to write down appointments and phone numbers. Customize the pocket mod for your needs through the website's interface, and print out your new organizer and use "analog ink" to record things. When its used up, just throw it out and print a new one.

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Flexible Roll-out Displays - 1 step closer to the promised land

Phillips has developed a prototype display that is able to be rolled out to a face-melting 320x240 2bit grayscale 5" screen. Although we've all been waiting for this for a while, they have no plans to commercialize it just yet. I'm only marginally impressed, call me when they develop the 17" color holographic touch-sensitive wireless internet enabled version of the rollout display. Also it should hover instead of being held.

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September 01, 2005

Jump Rope for the Rich and Lonely

Can we have one activity that technology doesn't ruin? Techno-artists Portugaly Orna, Talithman Daphna, and Younger Sharon have created a system that allows children to jump rope, alone, and in a dark windowless room, using $20K in equipment. A virtually projected man (like an actual man would twirl double-dutch?) spins a virtually projected rope across the floor and uses motion capture cameras to ensure you're jumping. Your performance will determine the path of the game's story. The game will not, however, provide counseling to children 15 years later when they discover they can't maintain healthy relationships with non-projected people.

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August 30, 2005

WTF Japan: Making handmade CD players in school

A group of 4th graders in Japan who attended Sony's ExploraScience event were able to create working homemade (and hand cranked) CD players as they learn about basics of its digital signal technology. They were provided simple optical sensors to read paper cutouts that had different notes encoded in face-melting 3-bit audio (enough for 8 notes). <rant> This is what's wrong with America. Over there they are teaching kids how to understand technology and science, but over here we are replacing biology books with bibles. In 20 years Japan will be in its protective orbital hover-dome looking down on us as we Americans sacrifice virgins to please the sun, ensuring it will rise the next day. </rant> I guess we shall always look to Japan for a glimpse of the future (actually it's already wednesday there).

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August 25, 2005

The Sims present R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet"

For those of you not familiar with "Trapped in the Closet", it's R-Kelly's latest opus where he does the same song 5 different times and sing-describes every minute action of a love triangle drama. For those you not familiar with Machinima, it's a form of media using 3D videogame engines to create and direct scripted movies. Where these two converge is Kendra Flemons's recreations of all 5 chapters of Trapped in the Closet using the Sims engine. Do to some limitations though, there are no guns, sex is replaced with hugging, and bad acting is replaced with great 3D animations.

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August 23, 2005

3D tactile feedback using air

Dorkingout field correspondent Torquil has submitted this link for perusal. The scienticians at the NTT Cyber Communications Laboratory Group in Japan have created an unteathered 3D force feedback device using grids of tiny individually controlled air holes in the surface of the table. It simulates the height or contact of a 3D object by adjusting the air pressure towards a pointing wand with an air scoop at the end. Before you ask, yes this may be used in the distant future to have cyber sex with your computer. However in the meantime I expect a few of the "Do It Yourself" inventor crowd to get caught by their mothers humping the airhockey table. "Its a prototype!"

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August 19, 2005

Like a magic wand, for Pr0n

From the uberhackers at i-hacked.com, you can use a $12 universal remote from radio shack to +o+a11y h4x0r the PayPerView system in hotels and get programming for free. (I suggest March of the Penguins) The directions seem pretty simple enough, now if it could only open the snack bar and activate the vibrating bed.

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August 18, 2005

omg chng me lolz! (^_^)

Are you sitting down? Prepare to have your mind blown. Fujitsu has developed a light bulb that will send a SMS txt msg through the internet (what no tiny phone inside?) alerting you when it's burnt out. I shit you not. Have we already approached the technological singularity where this is what counts as progress? You know how I know when a bulb has burnt out? When I flip the switch and the room is still dark. No need to tie up the internet with useless information as people might not be able to get through to the important stuff.

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August 16, 2005

WD-Pentium2

We could play Germany or Florida on this one, but as we all know, Florida doesn't have computers yet. So its Germany. This guy has submerged his computer in vegetable oil to keep it cool. The oil is not electrically conductive but it does absorb heat well so in a way its almost ideal. The drives and connectors sit outside the oil tank to take care of the obvious questions. I'd expect this out of UB3r-1337 overclockers trying to get the most out of their very expensive rigs, but this thing is a Celeron 550Mhz, you could almost run it without fans just how it is in the first place. It's kinda overkill for such an old computer, but maybe he misses the days of boot disks and HIMEM loaders. I mean come on, it couldn't even reliably play his anime porn or David Hasselhoff mp3s. Oh well, sometimes its better not to question the hobbies of Germans, just let them do their thing. Alles klar?

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One step closer!

Geeks rejoice, your ultrarealistic pleasure androids are one itsy bitsy step closer, as scientists in Japan (as if you thought anywhere else) have developed a flexible artificial skin that combines pressure and temperature sensors in some creepy looking skin. Eventually advances will require skin to be moisturized to maintain realism, in which case you can finally say "It rubs the lotion on itself, or it gets the hose!"

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August 15, 2005

Pee-powered battery smaller than a credit card

It's about time, because my old suitcase sized pee-powered battery was such a pain to lug around and fill. Plus I lost the lid so it was prone to spilling. Physicists in Singapore have developed a credit card sized power source able to deliver 1.5uW at 1.5V using .2ml of fresh urine as a catalyst. If only Howard Hughes could have known it was power he was collecting in jars, not just fetid urine. It is meant for one-off disposable items (home medical testing kits are one application) to deliver low power for several hours, so we're not yet to the point of peeing directly into the laptop (solving two problems at once for marathon coders/gamers). Get ready for the custom case badges "Powered By [Mountain Dew/Coffee/Budweiser/Unicorn Blood]".

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omg pls cll 911, cnt feel my lgs :'-(

Laws are changing in Oceania (or the UK), where getting caught txtng whl drvn can land you a hefty fine. It is pretty dangerous when you think about it, which I don't. So for those of you in England who steer with your knee while having an extended AIM mobile conversation about the American Beauty deleted scenes you're watching on your in-dash DVD player in between bites of your french dipped sandwich and sips of hot coffee which you hold between your legs without a lid on, be careful, that could now cost you £1000, or $1400 euros, or $20,000 US.

The Mirror UK [via Engadget]

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August 12, 2005

Future Door!

So we all have fantasies about what the doors in the future will be like, will it be the lame left-to-right stupid noise making doors of Star Trek? Will they be the dangerously fast potentially fatal vertically sliding doors of the Death Star? Or maybe some circular closing steel iris design like the Stargate? Tanaka Seisakusyo's idea is a series of strips that open just enough to let someone (or something) through. Its based on IR sensors detecting exactly where and how much the strips need to be opened. According to the video, its barely functional and extremely impractical, but its important for Japan to constantly convince everyone else they live 50 years in the future. Unfortunately, I think the good old fashioned turn-the-handle-with-your-hand-and-pull method will probably last us the next 10,000 years. (unless we make room-to-room matter transporters first, doors R s0 t3h g4y!1!!)

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