First off, I hope everyone who stayed behind in the path of Hurricane Ike is OK this morning. Second, we know what we knew about Ike due in part to the guys, gals and tech shown in these storm chaser photographs. The photo above shows a “Smurf,” or the Stepped-Frequency Microwave Radiometer, which has adorned the wings of hurricane hunting WC-130J aircraft since 2007. The device, and the 24/7 missions run by the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, have helped increase the National Hurricane Center’s accuracy rate by 30%.
The Smurf works by measuring wind speed at the surface of the ocean, and then combines that information with rainfall rates from within the storm system (in case you didn’t know, these guys fly into the hurricanes we flee from). As the incredible 100+ mph winds whip around the outside of the plane, they create foam, which the Smurf sniffs for microwave radiation. From that radiation, the storm chasers can calculate wind speed. It sure beats the hell out of the Loftus Method, which involves a wet finger, an open window, and a steady wind. Accuracy rate? Slightly less than the Smurf. Slightly. [CNET]
Not that we haven’t seen robotic Guitar Hero mastersbefore, but Cyth Systems’ egotistically named Cythbot is just a full cut above the rest. Boasting some of the most advanced, high-dollar equipment known to mankind (okay, so maybe that’s a stretch, but just barely), the creation uses a highly sophisticated viewing method to determine which notes to hit, and it can even decide whether slamming the whammy bar is a good idea or not. Too bad you’ll be entirely too distracted by the introverted hosts to even notice how awesome this thing is, but the video’s in the read link if you care to try.
I’m sure all of the iPhone owners out there were chomping at the bit to download the 2.1 update when it hit today. After all, it does claim to fix major problems like call drops, crashes, slow syncing and bad battery life. I’ve been busy, so I haven’t had a chance to install it myself—so help me out with this. How are the individual bug fixes working out for you?
Another week, another AMD leak about taking it directly to Intel’s minimalist Atom. No, not with Bobcat, but with the new Athlon Ultra-Value Client (UVC) series. AMD is targeting the 230 with its 2650e, a single-core 1.6 GHz chip, and the 330 with its 3250e dual-core 1.5 GHz processor. Both have 512KB of cache per-core, matching the competition, but are rated at 15- and 22-watts respectively, much higher than the Atom’s miserly 4-watts. It’s unclear if that rating is current for just the CPU or the matching 740 chipset as well, but given the fact that AMD’s Athlon 64 2000+ is already quite frugal we wouldn’t be surprised if it were for the package. There’s no mention of price, and right now these chips are just for desktop OEMs, but laptop versions are said to be in the works and could be quite popular amongst the netbook crowd — if they’re cheap enough. 1.2GHz of Turon can do wonders, and we’re hoping for even better from 1.6.
One of our readers recently subscribed to Chrysler’s Autonet service, essentially a Wi-Fi router for your car that connects to the internet through 3G. And after some use, he’s found that it works (he wrote us using the service), but it’s still working out some important kinks, like maintaining its EVDO connection and protecting its precious 1GB download cap:
When i first got it, it did not work. I had to call support. It is obvious its a small company. Support guy called back on his cell. But he did call back, and I was happy about that.
The main issues i have with it are: It constantly is switching to 1x (yes it uses CDMA). So its…slow. It has a VERY hard time switching to EVDO, even when its available. Also, it has a very sloppy interface. It uses WEP for encryption (who uses that anymore?). And there is not much to change. Nothing for IP, NATing, port forwarding—pretty much just encryption.
Oh, here is the best part. So the standard plan has a one gig cap. And autonet ships them with NO encryption. So average guy never sets up encryption (nothing in the manual telling you need to). He plugs it in and parks in front of his apartment with 200 neighbors. Some kids finds it and downloads the full season of The Office. Customer gets a $800 bill. Nice.
Halloween is going to be here before you know it, so it is time to start getting prepared. But why should you be the only one getting dressed up? Throwing this screaming skull cover over your PS3 not only protects it from scratches, it also scares children. When they come ringing to trick or treat, open the door quickly, make a lot of noise and hurl your screaming skull PS3 in the air. The cover should protect it right? Available for $11. [Sourcing Map via Chip Chick]
Tech and the Olympics are a recipe for controversy. Before double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius (right) was finally approved to compete in the Olympics (he failed to qualify, barely), naysayers claimed his carbon-fiber Cheetah blade prostheses gave him an advantage over non-cyborg competitors. And Speedo’s LZR suit has been decried for rendering meaningless any world records that came before. But that debate is dropped entirely for the Paralympic Games, which are currently going on in Beijing and as we see in today’s Big Picture, is where the sports tech comes out in force.
Prosthethics tech is where some of our baddest engineers are working today, from Dean Kamen’s Luke Skywalker arm to the Cheetah itself, which is one of the first prosthetic legs to allow near-natural sprinting. But beyond that, tech aids large and small are what helps level (and then raise) the playing field of the Paralympics. Whether it’s super-aerodynamic sprinting wheelchairs as advanced and light as any Olympic road cycle, or simple mods to make things possible in sports where they wouldn’t be for disabled athletes under normal circumstances.
We know what you’re thinking: your Roomba 532 really does a number on the carpet, but where is the love? At this year’s SIGGRAPH in Los Angeles, Taisuck Kwon (from the Kyushu Institute of Design) demonstrated his latest work in the realm of “photo real” robots: robots designed to reproduce the facial expressions that human beings take for granted. Unlike the robots that assemble consumer electronics or detonate IEDs, the photo real robots convey emotions, using articulated humanoid facial features designed to put people at ease, “especially seniors and toddlers.” The robots have an underlying mechanical configuration that mimics the muscle structure of the human face, involving 26 moving units in total, with servomotors and actuators used to manipulate “muscles” beneath the “skin.” Our only regret is that this technology wasn’t available when Disney World last updated its Hall Of Presidents.
I’m sure all of the iPhone owners out there were chomping at the bit to download the 2.1 update when it hit today. After all, it does claim to fix major problems like call drops, crashes, slow syncing and bad battery life. I’ve been busy, so I haven’t had a chance to install it myself—so help me out with this. How are the individual bug fixes working out for you?
It looks like there’s some good news for folks that feel that the current crop of netbooks just aren’t BenQ enough, as BenQ has now finally joined the fray with its new Joybook Lite U101 netbook. This one packs a 10.1-inch 1,024 x 600 display (an 8.9-inch version will apparently also be available), along with the usual 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, a hard drive of unspecified size, a 3-cell battery, XP or Linux and, as is becoming increasingly common, optional 3G. Hit up the link below for a few more pics, and look for the 8.9-inch and 10.1-inch versions to roll out in October and November, respectively.
First off, I hope everyone who stayed behind in the path of Hurricane Ike is OK this morning. Second, we know what we knew about Ike due in part to the guys, gals and tech shown in these storm chaser photographs. The photo above shows a “Smurf,” or the Stepped-Frequency Microwave Radiometer, which has adorned the wings of hurricane hunting WC-130J aircraft since 2007. The device, and the 24/7 missions run by the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, have helped increase the National Hurricane Center’s accuracy rate by 30%.
I’m sure all of the iPhone owners out there were chomping at the bit to download the 
One of our readers recently subscribed to Chrysler’s 
Halloween is going to be here before you know it, so it is time to start getting prepared. But why should you be the only one getting dressed up? Throwing this screaming skull cover over your 
Tech and the Olympics are a recipe for controversy. Before double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius (right) was finally 
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