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decentblogger.com is here again wid d most common problem that many of us are presently facing or has faced previously....many of us wen get frustrated by this heads towards system format...but something can also b done to overcome from[...]
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Robot builder Matt Denton apparently first built a one-off Hexapod robot for himself some time ago, but he’s now taken things one big step further and is offering a kit of a similar bot to the general public through Micromagic Systems. In addition to being excessively creepy (just check out the video after the break), the MSR-101 Hexapod also looks to be relatively simple to get going straight out of the box, with it boasting a built-in HexEngine with plenty of pre-loaded settings, and built-in PS2 controller suppport, which’ll let you parade your creation about without having to mess around with it too much beforehand. Of course, there’s also plenty of room for more experienced robot builders to get their hands dirty, and Micromagic is more than happy to sell you a whole slew of optional add-ons for the kit. Those just looking to get started, however, can simply grab the base kit in their choice of black, red, or silver for an entirely reasonable €105, or roughly $168 — just don’t blame us if you never get a good night’s sleep again.
It goes unsaid that Halloween have bigger deals than even Black Friday. Just think about all those tiny, defenseless kids walking around with pillow cases chock full of candy. Oh, and you can score deals on TVs, DVDs and other stuff, too.
Always classy, always feature-packed, and usually too expensive PMP manufacturer Iriver is dropping prices on their current lineup starting today. The drool-worthy Spinn drops from $250 and $280 for 4GB and 8GB, respectively, to a more affordable $190 and $230. The more entry-level E100 and Lplayer drop $40, down to $70 and $100 for those same capacities. I love Iriver and it’s great to see the prices coming out of the stratosphere, but Iriver’s gotta bump up those capacities to be a competitor here in the bigger-is-better States. Now, a 16GB Spinn for $230? That’d be a Dealzmodo. [CNET]
In London, public trash cans are hard to come by, as they’re an easy receptacle for bombs. Which makes it hard to throw things away properly! Now, the city is going to bring trash cans back, but they’re going to be big, hulking masses, totally bomb-proof and equipped with LCD screens to tell you the days news as you throw away your coffee cup.
The city intends to install dozens of the fancy waste receptacles in London’s financial district next year. And boy, do they sound expensive!
The technology reduces the shockwave of an explosion — which usually creates devastation by destroying nearby objects such as windows — and because most of the bin is made of steel, it can contain the heat and shrapnel generated. He said that the technology “reduces the peak pressure of an explosion and extinguishes the fireball”.
The green bins will double as an information service called Renew, with large screens on each side of the device relaying the latest news.
Traders walking past on their lunch break will be able to check the latest share prices, but on their way home the screens will display travel information and other news. The authorities will also be able to use the screens to relay urgent security information.
Is it just me or does it seem like every single decision the British government makes hinges on the threat of terrorism? You guys are starting to seem a bit obsessed over there. [Times Online]
Time Magazine has gone through all of the inventions of 2008, from walking chairs to spaghetti forks, and declared to best 50 of the year (and of course, a winner, which was this at-home genetic testing service by 23andMe). Many of their choices are predictable, like the Large Hadron Collider. Some are easy to overlook, like the Global Seed Vault. And others are straight-up controversial, like the baseball instant replay or the game Spore.
Time has the full list on their site, but it’s divided into 50 different pages. So we’ve condensed it into easy list form:
Time Top 50 Inventions 2008
1. The Retail DNA Test 2. The Tesla Roadster 3. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter 4. Hulu.com 5. The Large Hadron Collider 6. The Global Seed Vault 7. The Chevy Volt 8. Bullets That Shoot Bullets 9. The Orbital Internet 10. The World’s Fastest Computer 11. Green Crude 12. Housing Funds 13. The Memristor 14. The Bionic Hand 15. The Direct-to-Web Supervilian Musical 16. The Dynamic Tower 17. The Mobile, Dexterous, Social Robot 18. The New Mars Rover 19. Montreal’s Public Bike System 20. The Everything Game 21. The Synthetic Organism 22. The Shadowless Skyscraper 23. The Branded Candidate 24. Bionic Contacts 25. Thin-Film Solar Panels 26. The Speedo LZR Racer 27. Bubble Photography 28. The Invisibility Cloak 29. The 46th Mersenne Prime 30. The Internet of Things 31. Einstein’s Fridge 32. Facebook for Spies 33. Biochemical Energy Harvester 34. Made-in-Transit Packaging 35. Airborne Wind Power 36. The New Ping-Pong Serve 37. Smog-Eating Cement 38. The Baseball Instant Replay 39. Enhanced Fingerprints 40. The Seven New Deadly Sins 41. The Peraves MonoTracer 42. Disenvoweling 43. High-Tech Running Shoes 44. Sunscreen for Plants 45. The Short Refinance 46. Aptera Electric Car 47. Google’s Floating Data Center 48. The Time Eater Clock 49. Sound-Enhanced Food 50. A Camera for the Blind
Read the reasoning behind the decisions over at Time. [Time]
Today, a Federal court of appeals ruling definitely caught the attention of tech companies world wide: in a 9-3 ruling, the court effectively made patenting anything not directly related to an actual machine or object—most purely software-only patents, for example—against the law. As you might imagine, this has massive implications, and the battle is likely to carry on to the Supreme Court.
The case originally centered on a patent for “a method of managing the risk of bad weather through commodities trading”—which falls more under the “business process” bucket, but the same ruling effectively makes patenting a specific software process impossible. The previous ruling allowed such patents, so long as computers were involved and the process produced a “useful, concrete, and tangible result.” This ruling rejects that premise, favoring instead an older test that only allows patents for things involving an actual machine or a transformation of a tangible object into a different state.
So basically, for the moment, our patent law has been brought back to the 19th century. But a shift in this direction for more of a compromise will help curb the ridiculous, constant, non-stop patent war, along with the associated big-time litigation and the shaft that gets handed down to open-source projects trying to abide by the laws.
Either way, this case is almost certainly headed for the Supreme Court. [eweek]
In the spirit of Halloween, I wanted to show you this absolutely amazing video of Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo training for an escaped rhino by dressing up two guys in a big rhino costume. Instead of candy, they’re dressing up for safety.
Watch! As the “rhino” walks slowly towards the security force! Listen! To the very dramatic music! Look incredulously! As the “rhino” is pushed aside by small poking sticks! Laugh! As two guys in a rhino costume are shot with tranquilizer darts from a van! I only wish all emergency preparedness drills were this hilarious. [Arbroath via Neatorama]
The guys over at TechOn weren’t content to merely handle the G1 Android phone—they wanted to play with its innards too. There was an immediate snag: two chassis screws wouldn’t undo, so they had to force the casing. Once inside though, the phone revealed itself to be the standard messy circuitry and wire-looms affair, with a couple of minor surprises. First, the trackball module is the same part that RIM uses in Blackberrys; and second, the phone comes with two vibrator motors, one in the screen half, one in the keyboard module. Maybe HTC’s engineers like a bit of buzzin’ action? Those into cellphone-guts porn will enjoy the gallery below, and can check out the TechOn link for the full teardown with videos. [TechOn]
This six-legged, pimp-headed robot dancing to Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5” is all sorts of freaky. It’s been on YouTube for a few weeks, but I thought it was perfect for Halloween, as evidenced by that pins-and-needles feeling I get watching it. Remember that scene in Toy Story when the maltreated toys go after Buzz and Woody? Why the hell would someone want to replicate toys so scary? It’s enough to make me go running and screaming like a girl—wait, I totally forgot, I am a girl. Maybe you guys should show your lady friends this clip, so you can magically morph into Prince Charmings to protect and console them. [Geekologie]
If Sprint’s website is any indication, and it probably is, the Palm Treo Pro will be arriving to the service sometime in the near to far future. There’s no formal page for the Europe-only handset at this time, but it’s been spotted in a product drop-down menu (pictured here). If you’ve been waiting to upgrade your Palm on your Sprint contract, know that the currently available 800W is basically the same thing. Both handsets run Windows Mobile and feature a 320×320 screen, GPS and Wi-Fi. The Pro is just a bit thinner with a nicer battery. [Sprint via brighthand]
It goes unsaid that Halloween have bigger deals than even Black Friday. Just think about all those tiny, defenseless kids walking around with pillow cases chock full of candy. Oh, and you can score deals on TVs, DVDs and other stuff, too.
Always classy, always feature-packed, and usually too expensive PMP manufacturer Iriver is dropping prices on their current lineup starting today. The drool-worthy Spinn drops from $250 and $280 for 4GB and 8GB, respectively, to a more affordable $190 and $230. The more entry-level E100 and Lplayer drop $40, down to $70 and $100 for those same capacities. I love Iriver and it’s great to see the prices coming out of the stratosphere, but Iriver’s gotta bump up those capacities to be a competitor here in the bigger-is-better States. Now, a 16GB Spinn for $230? That’d be a Dealzmodo. [
In London, public trash cans are hard to come by, as they’re an easy receptacle for bombs. Which makes it hard to throw things away properly! Now, the city is going to bring trash cans back, but they’re going to be big, hulking masses, totally bomb-proof and equipped with LCD screens to tell you the days news as you throw away your coffee cup.
Time Magazine has gone through all of the inventions of 2008, from 
Today, a Federal court of appeals ruling definitely caught the attention of tech companies world wide: in a 9-3 ruling, the court effectively made patenting anything not directly related to an actual machine or object—most purely software-only patents, for example—against the law. As you might imagine, this has massive implications, and the battle is likely to carry on to the Supreme Court.
The guys over at 
If Sprint’s website is any indication, and it probably is, the Palm Treo Pro will be arriving to the service sometime in the near to far future. There’s no formal page for the Europe-only handset at this time, but it’s been spotted in a product drop-down menu (pictured here). If you’ve been waiting to upgrade your Palm on your Sprint contract, know that the currently available 800W is basically the same thing. Both handsets run Windows Mobile and feature a 320×320 screen, GPS and Wi-Fi. The Pro is just a bit thinner with a nicer battery. [