Researchers at the University of the West of England have snagged a grant to fund the building of a whole new type of robot — a non-silicon, biological plasmobot, built using plasmodium, a vegetative type of slime mold. The mold, which is commonly found living in forests and gardens, is, according to researcher Andy Adamatzky, a “naturally occurring substance with its own built in intelligence,” which is capable of carrying out complex tasks, like figuring out the shortest path between two points — all on its own. The aim for the plasmobot will be for it to sense objects, span them in the shortest way possible, and carry tiny objects along pre-determined routes, controlled by light and electromagnetic fields. The plasmobot should also be capable of complex “number crunching power,” enabled by parallel inputs and outputs. Long-term uses could include using the bots within the human body to deliver drugs to specific targets. Though much of this is still purely theoretical (and extremely complicated), we look forward to the day when we’re all covered in mold, don’t you?
If two slides leaked to the Eeeuser.com forum are to be believed, ASUS has some pretty interesting — though not terrifically surprising — netbooks on the horizon. The slides, which are apparently the company’s roadmap for US products for the next two quarters, are chock full of refreshed product information. It looks like we’re going to be seeing a brand new Eee PC, the 12-inch 1201N, which will bring NVIDIA’s Ion platform to the line for the first time, with an Atom N270 CPU, 2GB RAM, a 250GB HDD, Bluetooth and 802.11n WiFi, running $499 for release in mid-October. Other than that, we can expect to see the 1005HA-P with the N280 processor and a 250GB HDD option running Windows 7 also arriving in October for $399, and the 1005HA-M with the N270 processor, a 250GB hard drive, and Windows 7 Starter Edition for $349. Finally, Netbook News is also reporting some new 1008HA models not listed on the slides, as well as a multitouch, Windows 7-running T91 convertible tablet with a 32GB SSD priced at $549. There’s no timeline mentioned for this one, but we’ll keep our ears to the ground expectantly. The other slide is after the break; hit the read link if you want the full details on each model.
Something about Le Petit Prince, the mobile, plant-loving greenhouse robot makes us indescribably sad. Is it his one, massive adorable eye? Or merely the fact that he’s named after one of the most depressing books ever written? Either way, we can’t really argue with his usefulness — the concept can carry about plants and care for them, all the while ravaging the terrain for further specimens. He’s also designed to learn about the optimal growing conditions of the plants he collects, which really makes us want one to care for a certain, finicky houseplant we won’t call out by name (but we’re looking at you, Venus Flytrap). Check out the darling video after the break.
Were you one of the unlucky ones getting booted from your Google Voice phone calls this week after 15 or so minutes of talk time? Good news. Google identified the problem early this morning and has reportedly issued a fix.
Just in case you weren’t affected, or don’t have Google Voice, or maybe you’re just reading this because you have nothing better to do, the problem was pretty much just as described above: Users were complaining that any call they made that passed the magic 15 or so minute threshold was mysterious cut off without explanation. Some users were being cut off a half dozen times or more. Others gave up and used their —*gasp*—regular phone service!
Said one user in the Google support forum, “Imagine my horror as I’m interviewing for a tech sales job and had 3 calls drop at 15 minutes each? Placed calls: 8/28/09 3:20 PM 15 minutes long 8/28/09 3:54 PM 15 minutes long Received calls: 8/28/09 3:37 PM 16 minutes long I hope someone at Google is listening.”
They were, and as of 12:34 a.m. this morning, they promised the issue was kaput. Was anyone in the Gizmodo commenter ranks negatively affected by this issue? Is it really fixed? [Google via TechCrunch]
Bell Canada’s latest Pre promo video is intended to illustrate the phone’s ease of use in a tongue-in-cheek way. But its opening line certainly caught our attention: “Unlike our neighbors to the south, Canadians are an active people…”
It’s a lighthearted dig for those with a sense of humor. But comes after Bell seemingly ripped off Apple’s iPhone ads last week. So friendly neighbors to the north, what gives, eh? [Thanks Denis!]
This guy doesn’t look like your average gadget shopper…unless he’s shopping in Walmart. We’ll I’ll be dammed—he is shopping in Walmart! I know this because the site People of Walmart told me so. Hilarous. Sad. Disturbing…check it out. [POW]
The Senate may be trying to pass a federal ban on texting while driving, but Utah recently passed a much stronger bill: It views the act is inherently reckless and punishes it as harshly as drunk driving.
Passed after a texting driver killed two scientists, the law would put texting while driving in the same legal category as drunk driving if any crash happens. It’s a far stronger law than most of those already existing in other states; California’s, for example, punishes offenders with a tiny fine, usually around $20.
In Utah, if you were to crash while texting, the punishment could be extremely severe—up to 15 years in prison. It’s a harsh law but we can’t deny that texting while driving is incredibly dangerous. [NYTimes]
We saw the poster and possible lenses for Canon’s EOS 7Dyesterday, and now it looks like the floodgates are open. A photography forum has most of the details you’ll need, except the exact price and release date.
It’ll have a 18MP sensor, dual DIGIC 4 processors, ISO from 100 to 6400 (and some crazy 12800 mode), a 3-inch LCD in addition to the 100% coverage viewfinder and of course HD video capabilities like its siblings. It looks like it’ll compete most directly with the king of prosumer DSLRs, the Nikon D300s. Past rumors have suggested it’ll cost around $2700, but we’ll wait and see: We wouldn’t be surprised if it was actually a lot less. [Engadget]
“He did a lot of LSD when he was young.” Is that supposed to explain how Philip Garrido invented a gadget to “control sound” with his “mental powers” while impregnating a girl he kidnapped and kept as a sex slave?
Somewhere between kidnapping Jaycee Dugard, keeping her as a sex slave, forcing her to bear several of his children, and proclaiming that this process cured him of his pedophelia, Garrido blogged under the name of THEMANWHOSPOKEWITHHISMIND. The least sick and most coherent of his writings explains that he desperately wants to patent a new gadget:
This document is to affirm that I Phillip Garrido have clearly demonstrated the ability to control sound with my mind and have developed a device for others to witness this phenomena. by using a sound generator to provide the sound, and a headphone amplification system, (a device to focus your hearing so as to increase the sensitivity of what one is listening to) I have produced a set of voices by effectively controlling the sound to pronounce words through my own mental powers.
Sure, the gadget sounds like something straight out of a nice sci-fi read and something we’d love to play around with, but it’s straight from the hallucinations of a man with issues that I can’t stomach listing.
BoingBoing’s Xeni Jardin ends her write up about Garrido with the words “May he rot in hell” and I don’t think any of us will disagree with the sentiment. Hell, one of our own editors expressed his feelings a bit more visually. [BoingBoing]
Tempting though it may be, shipments of HP and Compaq (another HP brand) laptops sent to various US state governments have been sent either back to the manufacturer or to local investigators with nary even a game of Spider Solitaire in its account logs. As it turns out, the packages of three to five machines sent to each state — West Virginia, Vermont, Wyoming, and Washington — were never ordered, and in at least three of the cases were purchased with fraudulent credit cards of unknown origin. Even with the shipments apparently coming from HP directly, officials are playing it safe and working under the guise of the machines possibly having malicious code running through its circuitry. You know who the biggest victim in all this is? That guy in Human Resources who legitimately bought a Mini 1000 and had it shipped to the state’s office for pickup. Worst. Timing. Ever.
Were you one of the unlucky ones getting 
The Senate may be trying to pass a federal ban on 
“He did a lot of LSD when he was young.” Is that supposed to explain how Philip Garrido invented a gadget to “control sound” with his “mental powers” while impregnating a girl he kidnapped and kept as a sex slave?
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