Saturday, February 17, 2007
How to Secure Your Car
Thursday, February 15, 2007
RFID: Powder
This is some scary stuff. They can now make RFID chips so small you can barely see them. These chips contain information that can be read by a scanner. Such chips are great for replacing barcodes as merchandise markers. But they can be used for all kinds of insidious purposes as well. Say goodbye to privacy.
At 5 microns thick, the RFID chips can more easily be embedded in sheets of paper, meaning they can be used in paper currency, gift certificates and identification. But since existing tags are already small enough to embed in paper, it leads one to wonder what new applications the developers have in mind.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Robo-Plow
This cool Japanese robot processes snow and makes blocks of ice out of it while clearing the roads.
The friendly-looking Yuki-taro measures 160 x 95 x 75 cm (63 x 37 x 30 in.) and weighs 400 kg (880 lbs). Armed with GPS and a pair of video cameras embedded in its eyes, the self-guided robot seeks out snow and gobbles it up into its large mouth. Yuki-taro’s insides consist of a system that compresses the snow into hard blocks measuring 60 x 30 x 15 cm (24 x 12 x 6 in.), which Yuki-taro expels from its rear end. The blocks can then be stacked and stored until summer, when they can be used as an alternative source of refrigeration or cooling.
Monday, February 05, 2007
The New Folding ChairWow, this is amazing. I don’t know how comfortable it is, though.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Nano Machines Now!A breakthrough in nanotech sounds like just what was needed to make the serious applications possible. Like what? Think Star Trek Replicators and cures for everything from pollution to cancer and AIDs.
The new motor mechanism will enable scientists to do things that are much closer to what biological machines do.
Nanotechnology is already being used in cosmetics, computer chips, sunscreens, self-cleaning windows and stain-resistant clothing.
Leigh believes nanoscale science and engineering could have a huge impact on society—comparable to the impact of electricity, the steam engine and the Internet.
But quite how, is difficult to predict.
“It a bit like when stone-age man made his wheel asking him to predict the motorway,” he said.
“It is a machine mechanism that is going to take molecular machines a step forward to the realization of the future world of nanotechnology. Things that seem like a
Harry Potter film now are going to be a reality.”
Monday, January 15, 2007
Water Machine FollowupLast year I ran a story on a machine that can produce water out of thin air. I remember several people on the blog (logically, I might add) questioned it was real. Well, here’s more info. Apparently, it is.
Amazing. A gizmo which sucks the air in, then sucks the water out of the air, and then spews out clean fresh water. 500 Gallons of it – a day. Every off-grid home should have one. Only problem is it’ll set you back a cool $500,000 . FEMA have already bought two, and the US Army is said to be on the verge of buying many, because getting our boys pure water is one of the key logistics requirements of any operational planning.
The box o’ tricks is from Aqua Sciences Inc, and the company says the high cost is justified because in the end it “only costs you $0.25 per gallon.” For those of us without an entire battalion at our command, however the price is still a little steep. The makers are working on a consumer model, but it won’t be out any time soon.
Its precise workings aren’t public, but they use a chemical process similar to the one that causes salt to absorb moisture from the air (and clump up your saltshaker). The water-harvesting technology was originally the brainchild of the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which sought ways to ensure sustainable water supplies for U.S. combat troops deployed in arid regions like Iraq.
