Tuesday, November 27, 2007

'Segway of the Sky' Tops My Christmas Wish List [Definition Of Awesome]

bitar.jpgYes, the Segway is lame. But then, the Segway can't fly. If it could, I wouldn't judge its owners so harshly. Say hello to the VertiPod, which is basically just that. You stand on it and steer it around, and by leaning in one direction or another it'll point you in that direction. It all sounds terribly dangerous, and I want one.

The VertiPod looks a bit like a one-passenger helicopter turned upside-down. Its propeller is on the bottom and the pilot stands on a platform built around it with back support and controls at waist level.

It is powered by a 440-cubic-centimeter engine that runs on gasoline or ethanol and can be activated with a pull-start, like a lawnmower. The VertiPod is intended to travel five to 15 feet above ground at a top speed of 40 mph. Bitar said it will be sold for $10,000 in a kit that can be assembled in a weekend.

"It actually flies, unlike a hovercraft, which is just a ground effect," Bitar said. "It could have applications for law enforcement, especially border patrol, but it will also be available to the consumer market."

No word on when you can start putting yourself and others in harm's way with this thing, but we will, of course, keep you updated. [Product Page via Danger Room]

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False choices that work

Just finished buying some checks online. Got to the page with the ridiculous charges for shipping and handling. They were:

Slow...$14 (Expected delivery, December 15th)
Fast...$18 (Expected delivery, December 10th)
Expedited...$18 (Expected delivery, December 5th)

"Wow!" I said to myself, "I'll show them... I'll get the expedited shipping without paying a penny more than fast."

Perhaps I'm the only customer who had the insight, intelligence and flair to both realize it and take advantage of it. Perhaps some employee is quaking in his boots, fearful for his job because of the millions in losses his employers are going to take because he mispriced expedited shipping.

Or perhaps, perhaps, everybody chooses Expedited.

Nine times out of ten, especially online, people focus on comparisons, not absolutes.

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75-story Skyscraper on 53 West 53 rd Street by Jean Nouvel

November 27th, 2007 by Chantal

A new 75-story tower designed by the architect Jean Nouvel for a site next to the Museum of Modern Art in Midtownbetween 53rd and 54th streets just west of MoMA promises to be the most exhilarating addition to the skyline in a generation.

Its faceted exterior, tapering to a series of crystalline peaks, suggests an atavistic preoccupation with celestial heights. It brings to mind John Ruskin's praise for the irrationality of Gothic architecture:
"It not only dared, but delighted in, the infringement of every servile principle."

Its faceted exterior, tapering to a series of crystalline peaks, suggests an atavistic preoccupation with celestial heights. It brings to mind John Ruskin's praise for the irrationality of Gothic architecture: "It not only dared, but delighted in, the infringement of every servile principle."

Nouvel's bold design will rise 75 stories Currently, a mix of uses is contemplated for the building including: a 50,000-square-foot expansion of MoMA's galleries (levels two to five); a 100-room, seven-star hotel and 120 highest-end residential condominiums on the upper floors. The project will likely commence pre-sales in late 2008.

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Has CAPTCHA Been "Broken"?

Source: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001001.html

Programmers don't seem to understand what makes a CAPTCHA difficult to "break". But it's not difficult to find out. Heck, the hackers themselves will tell you how to do CAPTCHA correctly if you just know where to look. For example, this Chinese hacker's page breaks down a number of common CAPTCHAs , and the price of software he sells to defeat them at a certain percentage success rate:

the9
100%
$500
captcha-decoder-1.png
dvbbs
95%
$1,000
captcha-decoder-2.png
Shanda
90%
$1,500
captcha-decoder-3.png
Baidu
80%
$3,000
captcha-decoder-4.png
eBay
70%
$4,000
captcha-decoder-5.png
Ticketmaster
50%
$6,000
captcha-decoder-6.png
Google
(unbreakable)
captcha-decoder-7.png
Hotmail
(unbreakable)
captcha-decoder-8.png
Yahoo
(unbreakable)
captcha-decoder-9.png

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Monday, November 26, 2007

Olympus creates 360-degree HD camera and projector

Sure, regular HD is nice -- you really get a gander at an anchorman's makeup, and the stars' wrinkles are shocking -- but does it go far enough? Olympus doesn't think so. The camera company -- long known to bring the goods on the picture-takin' end -- has just created the first 360-degree, 1080i camera and projection solution. Utilizing a proprietary system based around an "axisymmetric free-form-surface lens," the camera can shoot video at horizontal and vertical viewing angles of 360-and-50-degrees, respectively; the images can then be projected in the same range by a separate unit. Obviously, you won't see this in the consumer sector any time soon, but it does open some pretty interesting opportunities for installations and security alike.

 

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Rockefeller Center Christmas tree goes LED

It looks like the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree will be a considerably smaller energy hog this holiday season than it has been in years past, as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday that the tree will be lit up with LED lights for the first time - 30,000 of 'em, to be specific. That'll apparently reduce the tree's energy consumption from 3,510 kilowatt hours per day to just 1,297 -- a savings that, as the AP points out, is roughly equivalent to the amount of electricity consumed by a typical 2,000-square-foot house in a month. While it's not clear if it'll be used for the tree or not, the owners of Rockefeller Center also took the opportunity to show off a new 365-panel solar array on the roof of one of the complex's buildings, which is apparently big enough to lay claim to the title of the largest privately owned solar roof in Manhattan. [Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]

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iPod touch has disabled audio line-in

Not that it took a lot of convincing for us or anything, but it turns out the audio input pins on the iPod touch are apparently active and able to record audio after all. Unfortunately the site detailing the relatively simple hack has already been demolished by info-hungry touch owners, but this certainly opens an interesting door or two. Next stop: figuring out how to get the headphone jack to do the same. [Via TUAW]

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Sarcos' military exoskeleton becomes a frightening reality

Have you been waiting for a legion of half-man, half-machine storm troopers to descend upon your city and blaze a round of hellfire in all general directions? If you said yes, that's kind of weird. At any rate, you can consider yourself one step closer to cyborg annihilation thanks to a company called Sarcos and its semi-scary exoskeleton -- which will make any regular old soldier into a Terminator-like killing machine (as far as we can tell). Sure, they demo the unit lifting heavy equipment and reducing fatigue of the user, but we know what this thing is really for -- and it doesn't involve food drops. Check the video after the break to have your mind shattered into a million delicious pieces.

Continue reading Sarcos' military exoskeleton becomes a frightening reality

 

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Maglev wind turbines 1000x more efficient than normal windmills

We've seen a couple innovative wind power solutions pop up, but none that claim to offer the benefits of maglev wind turbines, which use full-permanent magnets to nearly eliminate friction by "floating" the blades above the base. According to developers, the technology is capable of scaling to massive sizes, with a proposed $53M turbine able enough to replace 1000 traditional windmills and power 750 thousand homes. Additional benefits include the ability to generate power with winds as slow as three miles per hour, operational costs some 50 percent cheaper than windmills, and an estimated lifespan of 500 years. That all sounds great, but the real proof will come when these things get put to use, which may happen sooner than you'd think: Development is proceeding rapidly in both the US and China, with Chinese power company Zhongke Hengyuan Energy Technology currently building a $5M factory to produce the turbines in capacities from 400 to 5,000 watts.

 

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Displaytech FLCOS microdisplays to be used in embeddable pico-projectors

We've heard our fair share of promises when it comes to embeddable micro-projectors, but it sounds like the gears may actually be turning in the race to crank out cellphones, PDAs and other handheld gizmos with integrated PJs. Displaytech, best known for its LCOS microdisplays, announced today that it is hooking 13 companies up with Ferroelectric-LCOS (FLCOS) displays that can be used in uber-small projectors within diminutive devices of all flavors. Unfortunately, no word was given on exactly what companies are placing orders, but Displaytech did admit that it expects to see "a number of ultra small projectors containing its FLCOS panels to be demonstrated at CES." We'll be on the lookout. [Image courtesy of Displaytech]

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Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Apple to Run iPod Touch Ad...Made By a Teen Fanboy

Arn over at Macrumors points out this cool story of an iPod Touch ad being run by Apple. The thing is, it was made by Nick Haley, an 18-year old student, inspired by "Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex" by CSS. Nick was flown in to the LA offices of TBWA/Chiat/Day to do a HD version of the spot. UPDATE: Apparently this was in a Zune ad first. [NYT via Macrumors]

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Software Radios Boost Crappy Cellphone Reception Cheap and Easy

cell_tower.jpgMid-Tex Cellular systems out of De Leon, Texas is currently running both GSM and CDMA network using a software-based radio system on nine of of their cellular towers. Because the Vanu, Inc. designed software can be upgraded easily, there is no need for costly new hardware when supporting new or incompatible networks. If this technology is widely adopted, cellphone carriers will be able to upgrade and adjust to new standards more cheaply and users will see bigger, better, and possibly cheaper coverage.

Currently, Vanu is looking to expand their business outside of Texas with 200 towers set to go up in Alaska. They have also announced a prototype of a "femtocell" device —a base station of sorts for a single house or office. The plan is to use the device with the 700-MHz spectrum band that is coming up for auction from the FCC in January 2008. [Wired]

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Monday, November 19, 2007

SiCortex intros SC072 Catapult -- 72 processor cluster for $15000

Off hand, we can't think of how we'd truly utilize the horsepower generated by a 72-processor cluster shoved into a "whisper-quiet, low-power deskside cabinet," but we'd happily draw up a plan if forced. SiCortex -- the same folks who delivered the bicycle-powered supercomputer -- has introduced its new SO072 Catapult, which features a standard Linux environment, 48GB of RAM and a trio of (optional) PCIExpress slots. This aptly categorized high performance computer (HPC) sucks down less than 200-watts of power, sports a pair of gigabit Ethernet ports and has room for six internal hard drives. Reportedly, each of the 12 SC072 nodes is a multi-core chip with six CPU cores, and while $15,000 may seem steep for your average tower, we'd say this is a pretty good value considering the hardware.

[Via Gadgetopia]

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Nanotube batteries could power printed electronics


We've seen some interesting nanotech power concepts in the past, but researchers at UCLA have gone back to basics and developed a printable nanotech version of a traditional battery they say could power other printed, flexible nanotech devices. The batteries, which are less than a millimeter thin, feature the same zinc-carbon makeup as traditional rechargables, but are made by depositing thin layers of zinc and manganese oxide over a layer of nanotubes. Sadly, tech isn't producing usable amounts of power yet, but lead scientist George Gruner says the simplicity of the underlying tech should make it easy to solve that problem. Damn straight -- we're not giving up till we get a pair of electric underpants to call our own.

[Image courtesy of CNano]

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Gigabyte reveals M704 UMPC

Call us crazy, but Gigabyte's new M704 looks awfully familiar to the U60, but we'll give the nod to this bugger in the style department. Freshened up with a sleeker, sexier motif, the firm's latest UMPC packs a 1.2GHz VIA Esther ULV C7 processor, a VX-700 chipset, seven-inch 1,024 x 600 LED-backlit touchscreen, your choice of 40GB / 60GB hard drives, a multicard reader, twin USB 2.0 ports and a VGA output. On top of all that, you'll also find 802.11b/g WiFi, a Li-ion battery good for around three hours, a slide out QWERTY keyboard and a 1.3-megapixel CMOS camera. As expected, Gigabyte hasn't bothered to tell us when or where we'll find this machine on sale, and yeah, the price is still a mystery, too.

[Via I4U News]

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