Oh sure, we joke about rogue AI all the time, and we’re aware that we’ll probably pollute ourselves to death well before the robots get us, but who really thinks flesh-eating machines are a good idea? Has Morpheus taught us nothing? The (patently evil) scientists behind the EATR project — no fair, they’re making their own jokes now too — say the reconnaissance bot is powered by foraging for and consuming biomatter, which to you and us simply means soft, pulsating, yummy humans. They call it fuel versatility, as gasoline, diesel, and solar power may also be used if available, yet we’ll offer no prizes for predicting which energy source these chainsaw-equipped robots will prefer.
You’ll find this guy on his couch, sporting an ironic t-shirt with a delivery-food stain of some kind. He “commuted” minutes earlier by rolling out of bed and over to his laptop in his shoebox-sized Brooklyn (Williamsburg) apartment littered with empty Redbull cans. He came to Gizmodo 9 months ago after deciding that “traditional media” wasn’t edgy enough (read: required pants and didn’t like it when he powered down walls of TVs). He only puts on pants in order to put electronics down them, and he gets very upset if you mess with his Star Wars legos. He genuinely believes that the hot PR girl is into him and not just trying to get a post. He overuses the word “fail.”
OK, so I might commute from my bed to my desk, sure. And yeah, I order a lot of delivery. But I live in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, not Williamsburg! And PR girls love me because I’m charming! Go ahead, ask any of them! Also, I don’t wear glasses. Fail, Best Buy. Major fail.
Update: It looks like he pulled the post for some reason. Here’s a screencap so you know I didn’t make this all up:
Update 2: Looks like his post is back up with a new ass-covering intro. We knew you were a good sport, Barry. [Barry Judge]
Phil Torrone and Limor Freid of Adafruit Industries have a video project called Citizen Engineer, where they aim to educate and entertain when it comes to various aspects of open source hacking. Now they’ve released a comic to go with it.
The inaugural book essentially mimics the video, but also happens to come complete with functioning QR code trickery and a SIM reader that you can use for fun (maybe profit?). The set costs $35 (purchasable here), but if you like, you can also print it out yourself. The downside is that you might not get the same, high quality look and you definitely won’t get a SIM reader. But then again you save $35. [Citizen Engineer]
I would have thought that there is a finite amount of engineering that could go into a football / soccer ball, but the Nike T90 has proven me wrong.
The new ball was designed for the three big football leagues (England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, and Italy’s Serie A) and it will undoubtedly lead to less games that end regulation tied 0-0. Essentially, Nike has expanded the sweet spot to cover the entire ball using a three-layer construction that will equate to longer kicks, greater accuracy and better speed. They have even updated the ball with a high tech look to increase visibility. If I had $140 and I wasn’t an American with little interest in soccer, I would be all over this. [Nike via Crunchgear]
Man, remember that wicked awesome 59 foot tall Gundam they erected in Tokyo? Well, those pictures we saw a month ago were cool, but they’re nothing compared to the splendor of the thing lit-up like a futuristic, killer Christmas tree. So hit the read link for some more kick-ass pics of the thing, but not before you peep the video after the break.
Sony’s VAIO P ‘mark 2′ hopefully learns from past mistakes While we had high hopes for Sony’s sleek and beautifully crafted VAIO P back in the day, it’s become a major point of frustration and thus, ridicule, ever since we first powered it up. This $900ish ultra-portable is the very symbol of what tends to go wrong at Sony: beautiful hardware is crippled by software leaving consumers wondering why they paid a premium for such an undistinguished user experience. Now Techradar is reporting that Sony has a VAIO P “mark 2″ ready to launch in October or November — we suspect right after Windows 7 launches. The only real detail provided is that the “mark 2″ will feature a “much-improved boot-up time.” Whether that’s the result of inherently fast-booting Windows 7 alone or via some third party Instant-on technology like Corel, well, Sony isn’t saying.
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As all you hardcore ASUS-heads undoubtedly recall, we got our first fleeting images of the Eee PC T101H way back in January. Now here we are six months later and man, how the world has changed: Jacko’s in a better place, there’s been a coup in Honduras, civil unrest in Iran, and Lindsay Lohan has started a new line of spray-on suntan. Sensing that the world is ripe for another bombshell, ASUS has finally released the specs on its up-and-coming 10.1-inch resistive touchscreen netvertible. Just like the 8.9-inch T91, the T101H sports an Intel Atom Z520 1.33GHz processor, a max 2GB memory and a 16GB SSD. The display supports 1024 x 600 resolution, and the battery boasts up to a 5.4 hour lifespan. According to SlashGear, “wireless options include WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth and a 3G module, together with GPS and digital TV, though it’s unclear whether those final three are standard on a single T101H model, or will be spread out among several versions as with the T91.” The bad boy is expected to launch by the end of August / early September 2009 in the UK. No word on the OS (Windows 7 doesn’t drop until late October, so Windows XP Home is a good guess) or price. Video after the break.
If you are running Chrome 2.0+ or FireFox 3.5+ you will notice a dot in the upper left corner of Google Maps that should, theoretically, be able to locate your position using the W3C Geolocation API.
We have been around this block before with apps like Geode and Google Gears, but it has yet to catch on like it has with cellphones. Of course, all of this will change as more location-specific services are implemented. At any rate, give it a shot and let us know how accurate it is. It worked pretty well for me. [TechCrunch]
This super-thin booth babe display was recently spotted on the floor of the high-octane International Stationary and Office Supply Fair (slogan: “You’ll get punched in the face with excitement!”).
this eye-catching digital signage system consists of a 0.3-millimeter-thick high-luminance rear-projection film (Vikuiti Rear Projection Film developed by 3M) applied to a 3-millimeter-thick glass substrate cut into the shape of a woman. A rear projector beams video onto the film, whose microbead-arrayed surface produces a crisp, brilliant image viewable from any angle, even in brightly lit environments.
That’s all well and good, but can she pretend to not be skeeved out by chubby, sweaty dudes who want their pictures taken with her? That’s the sign of a real booth babe. [Robot Watch via Pink Tentacle]