Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs
Not like it’s any huge surprise or anything — after all, the HD DVD deathwatch is already in full effect — but Niveus has just informed us that due to “customer demand and format war influences,” it will be adding support for Blu-ray and “ceasing production of HD DVD-based servers.” According to CEO Tim Cutting, “incorporating Blu-ray into its offerings has always been part of the plan, but the demand from its customers, market trends, and recent announcements expedited its decision to come to market with Blu-ray support sooner rather than later.” Adding more salt to the wound, he continued by saying that “while it has stood behind HD DVD as a viable high-definition platform, company engineers have been running Blu-ray in its testing facilities and are very impressed with the performance and integration with its servers.” Another one bites the proverbial dust, eh?
There are quite a few email notifiers on the market, but none of those gadgets can give you the satisfaction that comes with building something with your own two hands. Given the fact that I am lazy and unskilled, I would just as soon purchase the device, but for anyone with skills and some determination, having a flashing notification of mail in your Gmail inbox can done with any output device you have lying around, an Arduino board, and some software. Hit the link for a full set of instructions. [
Physicists at Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics have developed a new atomic clock that is so accurate, it will not lose a second of time in more than 200 million years. That makes the old atomic clock record holder and its 80 million year accuracy rating look like something you would get out of a gumball machine. According to designer Jun Ye, the secret to making such an accurate clock is to speed up how fast it ticks. That way, any errors will be immediately recognized. This particular clock “ticks” 430 trillion times per second. That’s a hell of a lot of ticks. [
Remember the 
A solar farm has opened in Spain that consists of 120,000 solar panels over 100 hectares (247 acres). It also has a peak capacity of 20 megawatts and it can power up to 20,000 homes—making it the world’s largest solar farm to date. The farm is expected to generate an estimated annual income of $28 million and reduce CO2 emissions by about 42,000 tons a year. 
I think that most people will agree that charcoal grilled burgers taste better, but getting those little briquette bastards to light can be more trouble than it is worth. Fortunately, there are dangerous man-tools out there that can help get the job done. Hammacher has just such a device—in fact, they claim that their starter can ignite charcoal in 60 seconds without lighter fluid using air that is heated to 1,290 degrees Fahrenheit. Unfortunately, that kind of power requires an AC wall outlet, so you will be on a short leash when grilling outdoors. Available for $80. [
Rockwell Collins has been selected by the US Marines to deliver 3,000 of its ParaNav GPS units for parachutists. Soldiers plummeting towards earth will soon have the advantage of GPS navigation with a HUD that will help improve landing accuracy and allow for target zones to be easily changed on the fly. 
The system itself consists of a GPS unit that connects to the soldiers helmet and a full-color display attaches directly to goggles or helmet shields. It also “contains an 802.11 WiFi interface for Joint Precision Airdrop System data connectivity and custom circuitry that allows for dead reckoning calculations in the event of a GPS lock failure.” Plus it looks like the dude is rockin’ a sweet mohawk. [
The brilliant minds at Quaker Oats are currently hard at work at an alarm clock that’ll prepare a steaming bowl of oatmeal for you just as it wakes you up. Containing an insulated milk container, a clock and a heater, it’s got all the necessary equipment to make sure you stave off hunger with some hearty oats before work. Also, uh, diabeetus. That’s all I’ve got; it’s Friday afternoon, people, and I spent too much time on the retarded image you see to the left. Take what you can get. [
LEDs are popping up in all sorts of home products these days. Now I’m no interior designer, but I know that lighting can really make or break a space. With that in mind, here are 10 ways that anyone can utilize LEDs in their home (plus one way to outfit your wardrobe). And by anyone I mean people with eccentric tastes that don’t mind blinding headaches and pissing off their neighbors. 
It’s not exactly a secret that Sony/Sony Ericsson’s making a cellphone that has PSP features in it. Hell, even 
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