Multi Medium

The WhyPad

Don’t get me wrong, I mostly like what I’ve seen of the iPad so far, I just have trouble identifying a reason why I would want one.

I have a PS2, but I got a PSP because I wanted a gaming platform (and media player) I could carry around in a pocket.  I have a laptop, but I got a Treo because I wanted internet access I could carry around in a pocket.  Then I decided that I really wanted a more format-agnostic media player, but I couldn’t rationalize adding yet another device to my portable ecosystem.  So I was tempted by the iPhone, but eventually ended up getting a Touch Pro2 because I wanted a physical keyboard and a high-resolution screen.

I also decided that I wanted a laptop that could fit in the side pocket of my semi-ubiquitous camera bag and go all day on a single battery charge, so I got an Eee 1005HA.  That would be the most likely candidate to be replaced by the iPad, but I just can’t figure out why I would want to pay $500 or more to replace it with something that’s roughly the same size and battery life but with fewer capabilities and no keyboard.  Maybe if the iPad were running Snow Leopard, but it’s not.  It’s running a scaled-up version of the non-multitasking iPhone OS, which gives me the same “Whyyyy?” reaction as when I see stories about netbooks running Android.  There’s just something kludgy about putting a mobile phone OS on something with a screen that big.

The only device that the iPad really seriously threatens is the Kindle DX and its plus-size brethren, which are the same size and price, but only do eBooks and some MP3s.  But I don’t think all that many people own or are looking to pay $500 for a ginormous eBook reader – they want something pocket or purse-sized, which the iPad is not.

This is not a shortcoming of the iPad itself, which I actually think is pretty cool, and probably the best possible implementation of the iPhone OS in a larger form-factor – it’s a shortcoming of the tablet computing genre as a whole, and the reason why it’s never caught on.  It’s not as capable as a netbook (especially now that the next generation has better screens, better HD video capabilities, better battery life and bigger hard drives) and not as portable as an iPhone.  It might carve out a niche as a prestige device, or as an eBook Reader/Media Player Plus, or as an art/graphic design tablet, but I just can’t see it catching fire, for the same reason that tablets have never caught fire.

I want to want the iPad, but it just doesn’t make a strong enough case for why I would want to pay $500 (or $830) to carry it around.

2 comments January 28th, 2010 at 11:41am Posted by Eli

Merry War On Christmas!

From, uh… cellphones.

(h/t Switched, by way of Engadget)

2 comments December 24th, 2009 at 10:56am Posted by Eli

Wankers Of The Day

The cable industry:

This Wednesday, the cable industry’s head lobbyist gave a speech claiming that Net Neutrality would violate the First Amendment. According to the NCTA’s Kyle McSlarrow, cable companies have free speech rights, while Americans (like you) don’t have rights to access or upload content on the Internet.

And Net Neutrality — a rule that would protect Internet users from cable and phone efforts to censor you online or to discriminate against your favorite Web sites — would abridge the speech rights of phone and cable companies.

Just repeating his argument shows how silly — and offensive — it is. McSlarrow specifically said that cable companies would “speak” by offering priority-treatment to some Web sites that pay cable companies more, at the expense of other sites that don’t pay them. Really. (It’s amazing what a 2-million-dollar lobbying salary will do to a man’s reason.)

He also said two things that directly contradicted one another (nothing new for phone and cable reps). He said (1) Net Neutrality is unnecessary because cable companies would not affect Internet traffic, let alone block it; and (2) Net Neutrality is “forced speech,” because it forces cable companies to carry speech they would, in fact, otherwise block or affect.

So… in other words, Net Neutrality would infringe on the cable companies’ First Amendment right to suppress speech.  Wow.

Add comment December 11th, 2009 at 12:22pm Posted by Eli

Wanker Of The Day, Part II

Shorter Apple: iSinglePayer iPhone app is too “politically charged”, but Conservative Talking Points app is totally cool.

(h/t Daring Fireball, by way of Engadget)

Add comment September 29th, 2009 at 08:45pm Posted by Eli

Way Past The Last Straw

It’s not exactly news that both parties in this country are far too captive to corporate interests, but here’s yet another data point:

The FCC’s broadband task force is tasked with developing our national broadband policy. This is a project that FCC Commissioner Michael Copps ranks of the highest importance:

(…)

And so, because our government is run by corporations and for corporations even when it is controlled by Democrats, a telecom industry shill, Scott Wallstein, was named as economics director of that task force.  From a source close to the process, in the extended entry I proivde a thorough background on Wallstein’s industry connections and long history of fighting against American consumers:

[Exhaustive and depressing listing of pro-telecom wankery]

Snark aside, WTF?! Too many Democrats keep letting foxes into the henhouse. How many of our policies have to be dominated by bad-faith industry negotiators before we realize that continuing to give industry a seat at the policy table will never allow us to break away from our corporate kleptocracy? There better be a huge policy pay-off for consumers coming from this, but I am not holding my breath.

The legislative happenings of 2009 have brought the need for publicly financed elections and severe lobbying restrictions much closer to the forefront of my political thinking.  I don’t know how much support publicly financed elections might have in Congress, but there are good reasons to think that the situation will get worse before it gets better. The Supreme Court recently heard a case that could strike down the ban on corporate contributions to federal candidates.  As a party, we really need to start dumping bipartisanship and adopting a more populist attitude.

Amen on the need for publicly financed elections, but the trick is to get a majority (or supermajority) of incumbents to vote in favor of leveling the playing field for their challengers.  The campaign finance panel at Netroots Nation offered some encouragement, in that a lot of congresscritters are sick of spending huge chunks of their time begging for money instead of legislating or talking to their constituents (then again, a lot of them probably consider that a plus).

The public financing orgs like Change Congress and Public Campaign are also working on publicly shaming corporate mercenaries like Ben Nelson (it definitely got under his skin, but I’m not sure how much real impact it has either on him or his voters) and supporting public financing initiatives at the state level.

I think that last approach actually has the most promise, even though it’s a very long-term strategy.  I like the idea of building up a bench of progressive pro-public-financing state legislators who will be tomorrow’s senators and representatives, although there’s no guarantee that they won’t get corrupted as soon as they reach the federal level.

But until the money pipeline between corporations and elected officials is counterbalanced, our government is going to make the wrong decisions and hire the wrong people again and again.

Add comment August 30th, 2009 at 01:36pm Posted by Eli

My Secret Revealed

THIS IS EXACTLY RIGHT OMG

(From xkcd)

Add comment August 25th, 2009 at 07:00pm Posted by Eli

Best. ATM. Ever.

This is totally awesome:

The young people laughed when the ATM asked them if they required “some moolah for ya sky rocket”. The machine, in Spitalfields, was one of five Cockney cash dispensers from East London to Barnet that began dispensing “moolah” yesterday morning.

Bank Machine, which runs 2,500 ATMs across the country, was aiming to amuse, but it has grander ambitions too. It hopes to follow the Cockney cash machines with Brummie, Geordie, Scouse and Scots ATMs. It hopes that ATMs will serve to keep these dialects alive in Britain.

(…)

John Strachan, 52, an IT worker from Dundee, found the experience troubling. When it offered to serve him in English or Cockney, he suspected a hoax. He selected Cockney.

“Readin’ your bladder of lard”, read the message on the screen. It asked for his “Huckleberry Finn”. Then more bewildering questions: did he wanted to see his balance on the Charlie Sheen? Did he wish to change his Huckleberry Finn or did he simply require sausage and mash, with or without a receipt?

After the concept was explained to him, he was so indignant that he resorted to slang himself: “It’s complete pants,” he said. “Using an ATM is a very sensitive moment.”

(…)

[N]ext to the Cockney cash machine in Hackney, Roy Parker, 62, a bona fide Cockney, was working behind the counter of a mini-cab firm. So, what did he think of the ATM outside?

“Real Cockneys don’t have bank accounts or all that palava,” he said. “They put it under the mattress.”

I would totally use the Cockney ATMs.

(h/t Yahoo, by way of Engadget)

Add comment August 25th, 2009 at 07:12am Posted by Eli

Wanker Of The Month

Larry Proctor, biopirate:

US Patent Number 5,894,079, belonging Colorado’s Larry Proctor, has been struck down. Proctor brought home some yellow beans from a Mexican market and filed for a patent on them in the 1990s, neglecting to tell the USPTO that the beans had been a dietary staple in latinamerica for over a century.

Proctor called them “Enola beans” and began to receive a toll on every Enola bean imported into the US from latinamerica. He used this money to fund a series of defenses to challenges on his patent. Because the patent system continues to enforce challenged patents while the gears of litigation turn, for every year that went by, Proctor found himself richer and better-able to fund his defense, while the people who had grown and eaten the beans for a century got poorer.

While I’m happy to hear that this asshat finally lost his patent, I’d feel a lot better if he were facing some kind of legal sanction for this kind of predatory fraud.  Preferably something harsh enough to deter others from doing the same.  Forcing him to return all the money he stole and/or throwing him in prison for several years (preferably one with a sizable Latino population) would be a good start.

Add comment July 28th, 2009 at 11:29am Posted by Eli

Re-Enactment Fail

Yer doin’ it wrong.

2 comments June 26th, 2009 at 09:16pm Posted by Eli

Could This Work?

I sure hope so, ‘cuz it sounds way cool.  Basically, it’s an electric car plan where you buy everything but the battery, and there’s an infrastructure with not just charging stations, but switching stations, where you can get  a low battery swapped out quickly and completely rather than waiting for it to charge up.

I’m rooting for ‘em, but I have no idea if it’s really feasible, especially on a national scale.  That’s a lot of charging and switching stations to build, and they don’t even have a car yet.

Add comment March 26th, 2009 at 06:50am Posted by Eli

Fun With CAT Scans

Separated at birth?

Barbie…

And Ghost Rider?

This is way cool:

Doctors and researchers regularly rely on CT scanners to create images of body parts like brains, chests and knees. But an artist-turned-medical-student in Manhattan is using one such machine to peer into the meat and guts of cultural icons like the Big Mac, the Barbie and the iPhone, creating whimsical and occasionally creepy images.

Satre Stuelke, 44, said his aim was to penetrate the metal, plastic or organic interiors of pop objects and foods, asking people to “think about how things are constructed.”

Check out the guy’s website. Amazing stuff.

Add comment March 24th, 2009 at 11:29am Posted by Eli

Netbook Or Notebook?

In case you’re not sure which one you have:

Handy!

(h/t Engadget)

Add comment March 14th, 2009 at 09:15pm Posted by Eli

When Life Hands You Lemons…

Steve Unwin

…Make yourself a mermaid:

[Nadya] Vessey’s mermaid tail was created by Wellington-based film industry wizards Weta Workshop after the Auckland woman wrote to them two years ago asking if they could make her a prosthetic tail. She was astounded when they agreed.

She lost both legs below the knee from a medical condition when she was a child and told Close Up last night her long-held dream had come true. “A prosthetic is a prosthetic, and your body has to be comfortable with it and you have to mentally make it part of yourself,” she said.

(…)

Weta costumer Lee Williams, who worked on the suit between film projects with seven other staff, told Close Up she “wanted [Nadya] to be beautiful and sexy”.

After seeing Ms Vessey test the tail in Kilbirnie pool then frolic in the harbour, Ms Williams was stoked. “It was absolutely amazing. It’s beautiful to watch Nadya swim and to see that dream come true and to be a part of that. I feel quite blessed.”

The suit was made mostly of wetsuit fabric and plastic moulds, and was covered in a digitally printed sock. Mermaid-like scales were painted by hand.

Mr Taylor said not only did the tail have to be functional, it was important it looked realistic. “What became apparent was that she actually physically wanted to look like a mermaid.”

This was easily the coolest, most amazing thing I’ve read all week.  Even cooler than the PC that fits inside its own power adapter!

(h/t Phoenix Woman)

Add comment February 25th, 2009 at 07:02pm Posted by Eli

New Horizons In All-In-One PCs

I’ve seen lots of PCs integrated into monitors, but this is a new one on me:

Marvell has the technology and the vision, and if the company gets its way the world will soon be overrun by lilliputian Linux machines. Hiding in wall warts and the like, these guys will begin quietly taking over tasks that we once relegated to servers and desktop machines. To this end, the company has just announced that they’ll be making the SheevaPlug dev kit available. This is the platform that PogoPlug is based on, consisting of a 1.2GHz Kirkwood processor, 512MB flash storage, 512MB DRAM, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and USB 2.0. This bad boy supports many standard Linux 2.6 kernel distributions, and the whole thing plugs directly into a standard wall socket, drawing “less than one tenth of the power of a typical PC” while in use. Currently available for $99, the company says that it anticipates a price drop to $49 “in the near future.”

That’s right, a PC that’s integrated into its own power adapter.  And it’s almost as powerful as my last PC was.  Amazing.

1 comment February 25th, 2009 at 07:10am Posted by Eli

Happy Unixversary!

A Very Important Arbitrary Milestone for all you Unix fans out there:

As of 6:31:30PM ET this afternoon it will officially be 1234567890 Unix time, which started at zero and has been counting seconds since the stroke of midnight on January 1, 1970, not counting leap seconds. We suggest you put on your best watch or other geek chic and enjoy that one fateful second of sequential bliss — as the story goes, 1234567891, party over, oops, out of time.

Actual 1234567890 party locations can be found here. None in Pittsburgh, alas.

1 comment February 13th, 2009 at 12:38pm Posted by Eli

I Still Like My Idea Better…

Yeah, this is pretty cool…

he Rubik’s TouchCube is gearing up to join the Rubik’s 360 at the American International Toy Fair. Christened the “first completely electronic, solvable Rubik’s Cube,” this one maintains the shape of the original but replaces the colored stickers with actual lights. Users ready to engage their minds simply hit the scramble button on the cube, and then rearrange the blocks by swiping their finger. There’s no mention of when this will take store shelves by storm, but we’re pretty sure it’ll be around for the pre-Christmas rush.

But it still pales before my incredibly expensive genius idea.

Add comment February 12th, 2009 at 09:47pm Posted by Eli

Is The Future Here Yet?

This is amazing:

At TED last week, speaker Pattie Maes came onstage wearing something very cool indeed: a contraption, dangling from her neck, made from a Web cam, a 3M pico projector and a mirror, all connected wirelessly to a Bluetooth smartphone in her pocket.

Basically, the camera recognizes images, people or gestures you make in the air with your hands…. And the pico projector can project information onto any surface in front of you….

The point is to help you process information on the go, using the whole Internet as your right-hand man; the entire world becomes a multitouch surface.

(…)

* When you want to check the time, you draw a circle on your left wrist; the projector displays a clock right on your arm.

* You hold up your boarding pass; the words DELAYED 20 MINUTES or ON TIME are beamed onto it.

* You hold up your left hand, fingers pointing to the right. The system recognizes that you want to make a call, and projects a dialing pad onto your fingers. You tap the virtual keypad with your right hand to dial the call.

* You hold your fingers out at arm’s length forming a square, the way a cliché Hollywood director does to frame a scene. The system snaps a photo of what’s enclosed by your fingers. Later, you can sort, resize and fiddle with these photos by projecting them onto any wall and dragging their images with your fingertips, à la Microsoft Surface.

(…)

You can see the videos of these demonstrations here and here, although they’re missing the narration. It’s very rough, it’s still a prototype, and it’s not clear to me how many of these demos are just simulations. But it’s a very cool idea.

I. Want. This.

Add comment February 12th, 2009 at 07:15am Posted by Eli

The Most Awesome Watch EVAR!

At least, I think it’s a watch…

Free, disruptive. The latest Concord specimen grants time a space that is commensurate with its personality; that of freedom from constraints or ties. With an aerial bi-axial Tourbillon mechanism, a structure that makes emptiness its core material, a skeletized dial, functional elements fitted to the side of the carriage and an industrial and minimalist spirit, the C1 QuantumGravity timepiece defies all laws, including that of logic and most of all, of gravity.

The Tourbillon cage, which is fitted outside the movement and case where it is suspended, literally, rotates in a multi-dimensional manner on two axes, the main one being vertical. The structure of this disconcerting timepiece gives the cable-stayed bridges their rigid and light connection; an extended arm of cables fastened to the plate holds the cage in a vertical position, thus highlighting the sensation of autonomy.

Beneath the impressive sapphire crystal lies a panorama at its most extensive, giving shape to time, which becomes almost immaterial. While the dial strives to display the passing of time, it above all highlights empty space. The depth of its field of vision is dizzying and the feeling of levitation exhilarating. The officer-style hinged back excels in revealing the geometric circuit of the right-angled skeletized bridges in a titanic case measuring 47.5 mm in diameter and 22 mm in depth. Its infinite preciousness holds many more temporal surprises…

The C1 QuantumGravity timepiece, designed by the “C Lab Series” team in conjunction with BNB Concept, takes watchmaking experimentation even further. It follows the impulse of a brand that defends its conviction of time inevitably linked to space. In this parallel and unconventional world, infatuation with non-conformity underscores Concord’s creative spirit. C1 QuantumGravity is the latest living proof.

Wow.   This might actually be the first TimeCube-compatible timepiece in recorded history.

(h/t Engadget)

1 comment January 20th, 2009 at 09:30pm Posted by Eli

Could This Be The Most Awesome Phone Ever?

Oh. My.

Add comment January 12th, 2009 at 06:35am Posted by Eli

More Technology Madness!

So, not only did I manage to get Linux running off a USB flash drive, but I managed to port that install over to my ginormous 64GB USB flash drive, and to get around the fact that when Linux is running off of the flash drive, it refuses to mount it in any visible way (I’m sure it’d be cake for a Linux guru, but I’m not one).  Basically, I figured that if it was mounted somewhere to run the OS, then it had to be there somewhere, so I ran a search for the folder I stashed all my flash drive data in, found it, and created a shortcut for it.  I also was able to map my network drives, so I’m pretty much in business.  Sweet.

Next step is to copy that Linux install onto a CompactFlash and/or Memory Stick Duo, so I can boot Linux from my camera or PSP.  This is completely impractical for anything other than annoying my girlfriend, but I think that’s reason enough.

In the other direction, I moved some partitions around and installed the Windows 7 beta, and so far it’s pretty darn slick.  I’ve installed most of my essential stuff, and I haven’t run into any bugs or compatibility issues yet.  I can even connect to public wifi, which I can’t do in Vista – or Linux, for that matter.  I am actually writing this post in Windows 7 right now, and look how much more awesome it is than all the posts I wrote in Vista and XP.

2 comments January 11th, 2009 at 04:55pm Posted by Eli

Verizon Fail

So, let’s recap:

AT&T got an exclusive deal to carry the iPhone.

Sprint got an exclusive deal to carry the Palm Pre, which is probably one aggressive product cycle away from being an iPhone killer, if it isn’t already (more on that later).

Verizon got an exclusive deal to carry… the Blackberry Storm.  Way to go, guys.  Great “get.”

This was not a great week for Apple either.  First they basically stood pat at MacWorld, now Palm announces a new phone that addresses a lot of the iPhone’s shortcomings.  Currently, I have five reasons not to buy an iPhone, and Apple seems pretty determined not to address any of them:

1) No Copy & Paste. I like being able to blog from my phone in a pinch, even if it probably is something only crazy people do.  Pretty hard to blog without being able to copy text.  Pre has copy & paste.

2) No Removable Battery. Sometimes you just can’t get to a charger, so it’s nice to have a spare.  Pre has a removable battery.

3) No Keyboard. When I get rolling, I can type in bursts of up to 45-50 words per minute on my Treo keyboard.  I’d probably be lucky to manage 10 on the iPhone’s virtual keyboard.  Pre has a slide-out keyboard that makes it look a bit like an ultra-long Treo Pro.

4) Crappy Video Codec Support. The iPhone doesn’t play DivX, Xvid, WMV, or Flash video other than YouTube.  Neither does the Pre, although I’m hoping someone can write an application for it… and get it published in the app store.

5) Lousy Carrier. I think Sprint has a better network than AT&T, but still not as nearly as good as Verizon’s.

Some other Pre highlights:

Screen: Slightly smaller than iPhone (3.1″ vs. 3.5″), same resolution (320 X 480).  Bigger and better than the Centro or any previous Treos.

Multitouch: Yes.

GPS: Yes.

On-Board Storage: 8GB, with MicroSD expansion slot, which currently means a max capacity of 24GB.

Browser: Webkit-based – apparently it’s tabbed, fast and capable.  I’d like to try it on some of the sites that always give me trouble before I pass judgment on it.

Operating System: Pretty slick, but hard to explain.  I’m still not entirely sure I follow it all myself, but it sounds like it’s amazingly good at multi-tasking, and making it easy to manage all the open applications.

Now, if they can just get the Pre close to the $199 price point…

UPDATE: D’oh! My bad, the Pre does not have a MicroSD slot. I saw MicroUSB and misread it. 8GB onboard is pretty damn good for a smartphone, but not so much if it wants to take on the iPhone as a multimedia device. Still, it’s only a first-generation device, so hopefully that will improve.

Add comment January 8th, 2009 at 07:31pm Posted by Eli

Technology MADNESS!!!

I have spent a good chunk of two nights messing around with it, but I finally managed to install Ubuntu Linux (”Intrepid Ibex”) onto a USB thumbdrive that I can actually boot and run my laptop from.  In fact, I’m writing my post in Linux running off my USB drive RIGHT NOW (well, not exactly right now, as this is a time-release post, but it is written in Linux).  It’s not all the way there in terms of user-friendliness or hardware compatibility, but Linux has come a long, long way since I first started dabbling with it in the days before Windows XP came out, and it’s pretty close to a normal Windows/MS-Office experience now.  I just have to mount my Windows partitions so I can get at all my stuff, and then I should be golden.

Also: I totally want a 2-terabyte(!) SD card now.  God only knows when we’ll actually see SD cards that big, but I love the idea of being able to store all my data on one tiny little card.  And if I could  put a 2TB card in my camera, I would probably never have to delete a photo off of it for as long as I live.  And just think about iPods and iPhones with capacities measured in TB instead of GB.  Awesome.

1 comment January 8th, 2009 at 11:18am Posted by Eli

Lying: If It’s Good Enough For The Bush Administration, It’s Good Enough For You

Or maybe it’s like when criminals make sure the new guy does at least some of the dirty work, so he can’t rat them out later…

Ruegsegger was one of 100 people at a Bond Hill meeting Tuesday about the digital TV conversion with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin.

Most of the questions were about flaws in a program – now out of money – by another federal agency to provide two free $40 coupons for converters enabling old analog sets to receive digital signals.

The government has ordered full-power TV stations to switch to digital signals on Feb. 17, which Martin called “the biggest change in TV history since color television.”

More than a dozen people complained to Martin that their coupons had expired in 90 days, before they could purchase converters, a clock-radio-size device.

Because the government will not reissue coupons to the same address, Martin recommended that those needing coupons ask a friend, neighbor or relative with cable or satellite service, or new digital TVs – who don’t need the converters – to apply for them.

“Find someone else to apply and get them for you. They are fully transferable. What’s important is that you get a coupon and go get a converter box,” Martin said.

Ruegsegger tried to do just that with a neighbor – but they halted the online process when the neighbor was required to lie about needing coupons for his own home.

“That’s not right, to make you falsify an application,” Ruegsegger told Martin, while several applauded at the Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency conference room.

Martin agreed, but said that’s what the coupon agency – the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration – “is telling people to do. They’re saying it’s OK. I’m here to tell you it’s OK,” he said.

Not only are the Bushies operating under a completely different moral code than most people, it doesn’t even occur to them that everyone else doesn’t think the exact same way.  They’re cool with lying, so they figure we are, too – especially if they’ve told us it’s okay.

Also: Why not just have the coupons expire on, say, February 17th?

Add comment January 7th, 2009 at 07:45pm Posted by Eli

The Most Insane Sewing Machine I Have Ever Seen

For the love of God, it has THREE USB PORTS. Whyyy.

The latest piece of tech in the war on grandmas has gotta be Brother’s Quattro 6000D sewing machine, a beastly machine with specs that will help even the most diligent granny patch up those quilts or ripped teddies more efficiently. Once you get past the huge 50-inch workspace, you’ll notice the 4.5 x 7-inch Sharp HD LCD display and embedded runway lighting. Brother’s “InnovEye” and “Up-Close Viewer” technology places a camera right next to the needle to give the user a birds-eye view on the LCD to allow perfect placement before stitching. Advanced embroidery features and built-in tutorials should certainly mitigate any mishaps, and should you get the urge to plug every flash drive you own into it, there are 3 USB ports.

Surely this is madness.

1 comment December 30th, 2008 at 10:50pm Posted by Eli

Pre-Christmas Awesomeness, Part I

The rivalry between India and Pakistan heats up even more:

A nine year-old girl in India named M. Lavinashree has passed the Microsoft Certified Professional Exam, becoming the youngest person to ever pull it off (smashing the record previously held by a 10 year-old Pakistani girl). The youngster has a long history of making records in her short life — including reciting all 1,300 couplets of a 2,000 year-old Tamil epic at the age of three — and now she’s now cramming for the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer Exam.

Way cool, and perhaps a little scary…

Add comment December 24th, 2008 at 08:01am Posted by Eli

Great Moments In Robot Acting

Ohhh dear:

First there were dancing robots, then house-sitting robots and now a new breed of acting robots is making its big debut on the Japanese stage.

The play, which had its premiere at Osaka University, is one of Japan’s first robot-human theatre productions.

The machines were specially programmed to speak lines with human actors and move around the stage with them.

Playwright Oriza Hirata says the work raises questions about the relationship between humanity and technology.

The play, called Hataraku Watashi (I, Worker), is set in the near future.

It focuses on a young couple who own two housekeeping robots, one of which loses its motivation to work.

In the play, the robot complains that it has been forced into boring and demeaning jobs and enters into a discussion with the humans about its role in their lives.

So far, the play is only 20 minutes long but it is hoped to become a full-length production by 2010.

This can only end badly.

(h/t Engadget)

Add comment November 27th, 2008 at 05:30pm Posted by Eli

You Will Be Assimilated.

Not that I would ever try to do this…

A one-eyed San Francisco artist wants to replace her missing eye with a Web cam – and tech experts say it’s possible.

“I’d always given thought to using cameras to restore sight to the blind,” said Dr. William Danz, whose patient, Tanya Vlach, wants the groundbreaking device. “This is a little different, more like James Bond stuff.”

Vlach, who lost her eye in a 2005 car accident, wears a realistic acrylic prosthesis, but she’s issued a challenge to engineers on her blog: build an “eye cam” for her prosthesis that can dilate with changes of light and allow her to blink to control its zoom, focus, and on/off switch.

“There have been all sorts of cyborgs in science fiction for a long time, and I’m sort of a sci-fi geek,” said Vlach, 35. “With the advancement of technology, I thought, ‘Why not?’”

The eye cam could allow her to record her entire life or even shoot a reality TV show from her eye’s perspective. Vlach said she will let inspiration strike once she has the device.

“There are a lot of ideas floating around…nothing too exploitative,” said Vlach. “I don’t want to be a spy and infringe on people’s rights, and at the same time, there are amazing possibilities.”

(…)

“It is possible to build a wireless camera with the dimensions of the eyeball,” said [Roy] Want, a senior principal engineer at Intel. “You can find spy cams or nanny cams designed to fit into inconspicuous places in the home.”

Want said the camera, which would be encased in Vlach’s prosthesis to avoid moisture, could link wirelessly to a smart phone.

The smart phone could send power to the camera wirelessly and relay the camera’s video feed by cell phone network to another person, a TV studio or a computer.

In a world where eye cams are common, they might serve as a kind of computerized backup to people’s memories, Want said.

“You’d never need to forget anything again,” he said. “You’d never lose anything. You could ask it, ‘Where was the last time I saw my keys?’”

Pretty cool, but my standards are a little more… exacting:

I would like to add the following to my happy fantasy dream world: A professional-quality 20-megapixel thought-controlled eye camera, with a zoom lens that can instantly go from ultra-wide fisheye to ultrasupermegazoom (so much for wearing glasses). Also, it would have to be wireless so I wouldn’t have to stick USB cables up my nose.

Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about.

Add comment November 16th, 2008 at 02:52pm Posted by Eli

Gah!

This is just creepy and wrong:

According to VW’s PR team, the BabyMaker3000 has brought 314,384 digital babies into the world since going live a month ago — surpassing the number of real babies born in the U.S. during a comparable timeframe (295,075). An estimated half million visitors have checked out the site, a pretty mind-boggling number that probably says something about our desire for this type of technology in the real world.

The animated sample baby at the BabyMaker3000 site is creeping me right out.  No, I have not tried it.

Add comment November 10th, 2008 at 07:24am Posted by Eli

Clock Of The Month

Instructibles shows you how to make a clock out of old hard drive parts.

What are you waiting for?

(h/t Unplggd, by way of Engadget)

Add comment November 9th, 2008 at 01:28pm Posted by Eli

Waiting For The Future

I recently predicted in an e-mail that when I buy my next cellphone in early 2010, that it will be far superior to anything on the market today… and I certainly won’t even be getting the best cellphone available.

Cellphone manufacturer Ericsson has gone me one further and predicted that my next cellphone after that will have the power and screen resolution of a 1998 PC, the megapixels of a digital camera, the video resolution of a 1080 HD video camera, and a faster connection than FiOS.  (Although I notice they don’t say anything about storage capacity – I’ll place my bet on 128GB or more.)

Bring. It. On.

(h/t Engadget)

Add comment November 7th, 2008 at 05:44pm Posted by Eli