Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Vortex Fountain Scares the Piss Out of Traditional Fountains [Water Fountain]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/349539106/vortex-fountain-scares-the-piss-out-of-traditional-fountains

The Vortex Fountain eschews gentle, soothing streams for a powerful water funnel. The illusion of a standing block of water is created by an acrylic case hidden by transparency and water cascading down the sides, and the vortex itself is formed through the combination of strong, alternate currents of water that collide in the tank. Depending on the angle from which you view the fountain, it alternates between a majestic restraint of nature and an oversized science experiment involving expensive two-liters. Here's a clip of the Vortex Fountain in full vortexness:

[WilliamPye via OhGizmo]

WiBrain I1 UMPC Gets Intel Atom Processor [Wibrain I1]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/349726420/wibrain-i1-umpc-gets-intel-atom-processor

The original WiBrain B1E was relatively inexpensive for a UMPC at $699, but it definitely fell well short of greatness. However, the manufacturer has made some upgrades with the upcoming I1 model that should address some of its predecessor's shortcomings. New features include: your choice of 1.1GHz (Z510) and 1.33GHz (Z520) Atom processors, a WWAN antenna, SD card slot, an optional SSD and a slightly different finish. Users can also choose between a Linux and XP machine with a 30GB or 60GB hard drive or a 64GB SSD. Pricing and a release date have not been announced. [Dynamism via Pocketables]

SVATS Anti-Theft System Bands Cars Together to Fight Crime [Security]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/349731979/svats-anti+theft-system-bands-cars-together-to-fight-crime

What if all of the cars in a parking lot were wirelessly keeping an eye on one another just in case a member of the "herd" was damaged or stolen? Sencun Zhu, an assistant professor at Penn State University, wants to make this concept a reality with his new Sensor Vehicle Anti-Theft System (SVATS). This is how it works: each car is given a coin-sized sensor that wirelessly calls roll with other cars inside a certain range. If one of these cars fails to respond to the roll or issues a "goodbye" signal when it is unlocked, the system will assume that the car has been stolen and would respond by alerting a base station.

Zhu believes that the best solution would be for each car to have a master sensor that draws power from the car and backs it up using a series of battery-powered slave sensors hidden throughout the vehicle. If the master sensor was defeated by the thief, the slave sensors would jump in and take over. Mass produced, these sensors would be cheap enough for owners to hand out at commercial parking lots as a preventative measure. Again, the SVATS is only a concept at this point, but could it make it as a real-world product? The system is designed to prevent theft, not stop a theft in progress. In my opinion, it probably wouldn't be much more effective than a built-in alarm—and a lot more complicated to boot. [LiveScience]

Microsoft's 'Mojave' Bait-And-Switch Vista Experiment Video [Microsoft Vista]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/349759208/microsofts-mojave-bait+and+switch-vista-experiment-video

Remember Microsoft's Mojave experiment? Where they took XP users who didn't know a lot about Vista, stuck them in a room, showed them a mysterious OS that they loved, then revealed that it was Vista. Here's the video they took of the experiment.

What's interesting about this experiment is that sure, people who don't know anything/enough about Vista are kneejerking their way into hating it. These people are the ones that are easily convinced with a slight-of-hand that Vista is good. But what they didn't show was the day-to-day usage of Vista, like accidentally installing an XP printer driver and not being able to print. Sure, we like Vista just fine, but this demographic that Microsoft has in its video would be just the kind to not really be tech savvy enough to fix the aforementioned printer problem.

What can we conclude from the Mojave experiment? Pretty much exactly what we thought of Vista: that it's not that bad. Definitely not as bad as these people previously thought.

However, this is a video of people clueless about what Vista looks like in the first place. No Gizmodo readers would fall for such a ruse. Here's a video there of a guy recognizing Mojave as Vista:

Kudos to Windows Marketing for including cases like this, because there's no way that the public perceptions of Vista being not all that great/bad are solely based on prejudice. But maybe, just maybe, a lot of it is. [Mojave Experiment]

Hands On With the Microsoft Surface Sphere Prototype [Surface Sphere]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/349790865/hands-on-with-the-microsoft-surface-sphere-prototype

Microsoft's Surface Sphere operates a lot like the original Surface, utilizing a projector surrounded by a ring of IR cameras, which is then covered by a semi-opaque globe. The IR cameras detect when the beams are being blocked, and transmits it as contact. Using it, I found there are still a few early glitches, but this is an amazing piece of technology and far along for a prototype.

Admittedly, this is a very early, and very rough demo, but the use of IR technology means that navigating the Sphere isn't quite as smooth or intuitive as a multi-touch display. Similar to the HP Touchsmart, I noticed that contact with the sphere had to be deliberate to get an accurate response. And one notable hurdle the Surface Sphere will have to overcome is light sensitivity. Flash photography affected the input mechanism, tricking the computer into thinking a giant hand was touching it.

Similar to the original Surface, photos and video tiles can be shuffled around the Sphere. The coolest demo was by far the Pong-style game, where blockades could be placed on the globe spontaneously using your hand or a Post-it note. There was also a neat demo where you could flick the sphere like a globe to make it simulate rotation, then drag your fingers across to create a paint trail. This has the potential to be pretty awesome.

The big question is why a sphere when so many of us are looking for a more practica! l applic ation for a surface table, not a less practical one? Walking around to use a UI could be complicated and annoying for the average PC user. Researchers said the sphere was the most challenging surface possible, and if they could get Surface-style multi-touch working on that, they could get it working on anything. Maybe they could use it to model Trident data on a touch globe. They also said that academics could make good use of it, and I agree that I can see this being useful for classroom collaboration. The obvious uses are in public and retail spaces, for advertising and marketing. And a fun implementation is that it could be used for multiplayer gaming, because you can't see the whole sphere at once.

California Earthquake: Don't Make Phone Calls, Use Text or IM Instead [Earthquake]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/349871401/california-earthquake-dont-make-phone-calls-use-text-or-im-instead

You might've noticed that the ground got a little rumbly California. You also might've noticed that the phone lines are basically blowing up. AT&T is officially recommending to only "make emergency or urgent calls" and use text messaging instead, to keep lines open for emergency personnel. Facebook and Twitter are other options (if you're one of those people), or reader Paul used his phone's IM client to talk to people. If you've got other non-phone suggestions, drop 'em in the comments, though stuff should be normal soon. Update: Everything should be cool now. [AP]

iPhone Apps We Like: Here I Am Location Sender [IPhone Apps]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/349960934/iphone-apps-we-like-here-i-am-location-sender

The idea of taking your current location and emailing it to one of your contacts is super simple, but super effective. If the recipient opens the resulting URL on their iPhone, it'll pop open the GMaps app and show exactly where you are, which can then be used as an endpoint for driving directions.

We just tested it ourselves and got to within 24m accuracy, which is pretty darn good for sitting on a couch inside a house. It's free, and you should download it now. Don't be confused with the other app named Here I am, which is much lousier. This one has an envelope icon. Grab that one here.

Stupid note: When you send an email, the subject reads "hereIam", which looks a lot like "HereLam" when read on the iPhone. Seeing as I was testing it out by sending my location to Lam, it was kind of funny. Thus ends the most boring anecdote you will read today.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Freecom Mobile Drive XXS Is the Smallest, Lightest 2.5-inch Hard Drive [Hard Drives]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/348562783/freecom-mobile-drive-xxs-is-the-smallest-lightest-25+inch-hard-drive

Freecom's just taken the portable hard drive crown with what they're claiming to be the smallest and lightest 2.5-inch USB drive on the market now. Their Mobile Drive XXS comes in 160GB, 250GB and 320GB sizes, and is bus-powered for one less thing you have to carry around. It seems like the race to having the smallest 2.5-inch hard drive is kind of ridiculous. The lowest you can go is down to the bare drive, which is exactly what someone should release (complete with USB adapter cable) and call themselves the ultimate victor in this competition no one cares about. [Reg Hardware]

Innovative Microwave Material Helps Cook Food Twice As Fast So You Can Get Back To Being Lonely [Microwave]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/348579024/innovative-microwave-material-helps-cook-food-twice-as-fast-so-you-can-get-back-to-being-lonely

Researchers in Japan and at Penn State have come up with a ceramic material that allows people to heat up their food twice as fast, allowing them to spend less time staring at the microwave and more time living their (read: our) rich, fulfilling lives. The new cookers are made up of 20% magnetite and 80% petalite, which unlike traditional bowls, heat up alongside the food so that the food isn't passing off heat by warming up the bowl. As an added bonus, the container stays hot for 15 minutes, meaning you really need oven mitts to transport this thing, Jason Statham style. If you can't wait for technology to catch up here, it's already on sale in Japan. [Live Science]

Contest Reminder: Win an iPhone [Contest]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/348622425/contest-reminder-win-an-iphone

Today's almost the last day to enter our Made in Eureka contest. Lock up the kids and send the spouse over to their parents', because tonight is your night to design your own entry. See our contest page for details.

Cucku Social Backup Stores Your Data With Your Friend, Your Friend's Data With You [Cucku]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/348707421/cucku-social-backup-stores-your-data-with-your-friend-your-friends-data-with-you

Remember the concept of "porn buddy" as introduced on the UK show Coupling? You exchange keys with your most trusted friend, so in the event that you die an unexpected death, he (or she) would come over and take away all your porn so your family won't find it when going through your stuff. This backup service Cucku is similar to that, except instead of taking away your porn when you die, your porn buddy keeps it safe for you while you're still alive. Which is probably even better.

Cucku calls it "social backup", but it's just a program that transfers your data onto your friend's computer for safe keeping, and vice versa. Peer to peer backup would be as appropriate. Your backup is encrypted, so your partner can't go poking around your stuff, but still offers the reliability and safety of offsite storage.

We can see a few problems with this setup. Their estimate is that 500MB takes 4 hours to back up on a normal ADSL connection. This is fine if you only have 500MB, but if you want to image your entire drive—500GB or so—that'll take 4000 hours. That's 166 DAYS, or about five and a half MONTHS. This is why online backup solutions need an initial sneakernet transfer of hard drives loaded up with your data (which Cucku does not offer in its current implementation). Everything is fine when you're just doing incremental backups after the fact. Also, you're limited to how much storage space your friend has, so you'll probably need to buy him a new hard drive as well.

Is it a good idea? Sure, but only for your most valuable files, and only if they're not more than a few gigabytes in size. [Cucku]

Samsung intros two new Q1 Ultra UMPCs: one with Vista Business, one with HSDPA

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/348439582/

Filed under: Handhelds, Wireless

The next-generation Q1 Ultra may be due next year, but Sammy's trying to squeeze every bit of life it can out of the current iteration with two new flavors. Announced today, the Q1U-CMXP boasts an integrated HSDPA 3G cellular modem, while the Q1UP-V is a Q1 Ultra Premium featuring Vista Business. As for the former, it includes just about every connectivity option you could wish for: 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, Ethernet and a WWAN modem that connects to the AT&T Broadband Connect network; outside of the one new feature, however, the specifications are the same as the standard Q1 Ultra XP model that was launched in May of 2007. Both newcomers (if you can call 'em that) are available as we speak for $1,499 and $1,449 in order of mention.

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Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo spaceship carrier gets unveiled

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/348536019/

Filed under: Transportation

It looks like the Mojave Desert is once again the center of the private space industry, with Richard Branson and crew on hand to unveil Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo spaceship carrier as promised. This craft (only the first of more that are promised) has been named EVE (after Branson's mother) and, with a 140-foot wingspan, it's apparently now officially the largest all carbon-composite aircraft ever made. Eventually, it'll be used to help carry the yet-to-be-completed SpaceShipTwo craft in orbit although, as Burt Rutan himself tells Space.com, that's still a little ways off, with him saying that while could be ready to go after just 40 tests flights, they'll likely do a few more than that for good measure. Head on past the break for a few more pics.

Read - Space.com, "Virgin Galactic Unveils Space Liner Mothership "
Read - Wired Science, "First Look at Virgin Galactic's New Mothership, WhiteKnightTwo"

Continue reading Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo spaceship carrier gets unveiled

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Vizio readies 26-inch VMM monitor: its first LCD aimed at dedicated PC users

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/348593371/

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Vizio made some waves recently with the introduction of two bargain-priced plasmas, but it could garner attention from a whole new sect of individuals next month. Reportedly, the outfit is gearing up to launch "its first monitor tailored for dedicated PC users" in late August, the 26-inch widescreen VMM monitor. We are told that it'll boast HDMI inputs, reduced brightness and higher resolution "than typical IT displays," but aside from that (and the $449 price tag), the rest remains a mystery. Also of note, the company is expected to debut an "eco-friendly" line of TVs this October, which are said to "operate with 35- to 45-percent less power than traditional LCD TVs of comparable size." Way to keep us on the edge of our seats, Vizio.

[Via Electronista]

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Toshiba rolls out budget-priced Camileo H10 HD camcorder

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/348757324/

Filed under: Digital Cameras

It looks like those wanting to get some HD recoding done on the cheap but not willing to venture into some less familiar territory now have a new option to consider from Toshiba, which is set to release its new Camileo H10 camcorder. It'll give you the usual 720p recording, along with a 5x optical zoom, a 10-megapixel sensor, 64MB of memory, an SDHC card slot for expansion, image stabilization, motion detection and, of course, an HDMI output to let you view your low-budget masterpieces. No word on a release 'round these parts, unfortunately, but those in the UK can apparently get their hands on one at the end of the month for £180 ($360, or less once the VAT and whatnot are taken out of the equation).

[Via Tech Digest]

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