Why would you want to build a 100-strong swarm of mini robots? Well, aside from having them as your minions, you might be able to learn about “artificial self-organization,” and “control in large robotic groups,” which should come in useful during the inevitable robot insurrection. The swarm robot project, undertaken by the Universities of Stuttgart and Karlsruhe in Germany, aims to produce mini drones that can communicate with one another to avoid collisions, while keeping to a volume of less than three centimeters cubed. Built using open source software and hardware (full list of components is available under the GPL), the latest prototype, titled Jasmine III, achieves those goals while also being able to run “perpetually” thanks to a wireless charging platform. You can see it in close-up after the break, or hit the read link for all the geeky details.
Why would you want to build a 100-strong swarm of mini robots? Well, aside from having them as your minions, you might be able to learn about “artificial self-organization,” and “control in large robotic groups,” which should come in useful during the inevitable robot insurrection. The swarm robot project, undertaken by the Universities of Stuttgart and Karlsruhe in Germany, aims to produce mini drones that can communicate with one another to avoid collisions, while keeping to a volume of less than three centimeters cubed. Built using open source software and hardware (full list of components is available under the GPL), the latest prototype, titled Jasmine III, achieves those goals while also being able to run “perpetually” thanks to a wireless charging platform. You can see it in close-up after the break, or hit the read link for all the geeky details.
Two Lenovo leaks in one day? Our cup runneth over. It feels like we just played with the T400s and the T400s touch just yesterday, but we did see some leaked slides forecasting a T410s for January back in June, so these images are basically right on schedule. Big changes include a couple more USB ports here and there, some cleaned-up design, and — big news — the addition of a second display-mounted ThinkLight keyboard light. That’s simply decadence, friends. No word on specs, pricing or a release date, but we’ve got a feeling we’ll be finding out more real soon.
Worthy of a sultry Number Six, but priced at a more commonfolk level, the MK 2 Circuit watch from Storm of London is one of those rare gadgety watches that actually displays the time in a meaningful manner.
There’s no chronograph, or really anything else other than time and date, but it’s got a slick look that can no doubt be read in the dark, in a black Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am, or in the blackness of deep space amongst the gods.
What better way to, um, end the This Cyborg Life theme week than a post about a British guy with a bionic ass?
Meet Ged Galvin, a 55-year-old chap from Barnsley, south Yorkshire, who is currently in possession of a very special remote control. A remote control that, when engaged, controls Galvin’s bowels and allows him to go to the bathroom with dignity. Dignity that was, sadly, robbed from him in the wake of a horrific motorcycle accident that nearly killed him.
At first, the operation that saved his life left him unable to control his bowels. That meant a colostomy bag and all the inconvenience and potential embarrassment that comes with such an arrangement. But then in stepped more doctors. They had a plan. They could rebuild him, make his sphincter stronger. And that’s exactly what they did.
Using muscle from Galvin’s knee, the doctors wrapped his sphincter muscle and attached a number of electrodes to the muscle nerves. Enter the remote control, which Galvin compares to a chubby cellphone, and bowel function was restored. It’s as easy as an on/off switch, he said in an interview with the Telegraph, “just like switching on the TV.”
Britain is calling him the man with the bionic bottom, and he’s just fine with that. After all, he could be dead. This is better, and while he’s not as beautiful as guest editor Aimee Mullins, he’s a great fit for This Cyborg Life, and I wish him well. [Telegraph via Geekologie]
So, how exactly did Microsoft—those bastards!—end up patenting Sudo, a years-old Linux command line tool, without someone stepping in to stop them? Easy! They didn’t.
The story inspired widespread hyperventilation last week, most of which revolved around a few impassioned quotes:
Here it is, patent number7617530. Thanks, USPTO, for giving Microsoft, which is already a monopoly, a monopoly on something that’s been in use since 1980 and wasn’t invented by Microsoft. Here’s Wikipedia’s description of sudo, which you can meaningfully compare to Microsoft’s description of its “invention”.
This from Groklaw, a site that specializes in free and open source software legal affairs, i.e. exactly this kind of thing. But for whatever reason—zeal? clicks?—their reading of the patent, which we picked up, turn out to overblown. Says Sudo maintainer Todd Miller, via Ars:
I’ve already received a number of questions about US patent 7,617,530 that some people seem to believe might cover sudo. I don’t think that is the case,” he wrote. “Sudo simply doesn’t work this way. When a command is run via sudo the user is actively running the command as a different user. What is described in the patent is a mechanism whereby an application or the operating system detects that an action needs to be run with increased privileges and automatically prompts the user with a list of potential users that have the appropriate privilege level to perform the task.
So, if not this, then what does the Microsoft patent cover? Back to Ars:
Specifically, it describes a user interface which displays accounts that have the necessary rights to perform an action when the user is blocked from performing an action that requires higher access privileges.
These are similar, but not patent similar.
Turns out, though, that there is a Linux tool called PolicyKit just like what Microsoft patented, which prompts users to switch to a higher-level user account when they hit against a permissions barrier. It was created after the patent was filed. So, Microsoft, on all counts: not guilty. [ArsTechnica]
If the rumors swirling this weekend are to be believed, the Leica M7 Hermes—a limited edition film camera with a run of only 100 units—will arrive on Monday for a lofty $14,000.
Rumors surrounding the launch of this expensive little retro looker have been with us since about November 10, when the expertly named Leica Rumors site broke word that the company sharing their namesake was all but prepared to reveal a limited edition film camera.
Two weeks before that, the M7 Hermes camera was showcased in Tokyo, looking gorgeous. Its presence there was no accident, apparently, as the latest tidbits, mentioned above, are that this M7 Hermes thing is about to skip onto the scene in a mere 24 hours.
For the price of a compact sedan, it could be yours. [Leica Rumors]
Shack Friday! Get it?! Instead of Black Friday? You still there? Is this thing on? Anyway, the RadoShack Black Friday ad has leaked to the Internet, and with it a number of purported “deals” and discounts on popular electronics. [CrunchGear]
I’m all for naughty, oh-come-treat-me-like-a-bad-girl-tonight scraps of lace. What I’m not such a fan of is trashy oh-come-follow-me-using-the-built-in-GPS lingerie. I don’t care if it’s pretty, frilly designer lingerie. It’s got a damn tracking system embedded in the fabric.
Designed by Lucia Lorio, this fashion line is dubbed “Find Me If You Can.” But how could you not find someone when they’re running around with a pager-sized GPS device sewn into a bodice? While the fact that it would be impossible to not notice the gadget makes me laugh off the whole paranoia of jealous men using this as a sneaky way to keep tabs on their lovers, I still think it’s a ridiculous design. Why you would spend between $1200 and $1600 for something intended to be ripped off a body. [The Age via GizmoWatch]
We’re really into the new influx of inexpensive CULV-based laptops that’s arrived with Windows 7, and just like the ASUS UL80Vt, we knew we had to check out the starts-at-$599 HP dm3t the second we saw the first leak. In many ways, it’s the perfect throw-it-in-a-bag-and-go portable on paper, with a sleek and rigid case design, a 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 Core 2 Duo processor, and a 13.3-inch screen, but there’s a big difference between loving a machine’s spec sheets and reviews and loving it in real life, so we spent a couple days playing with a spec’d-up $819 model — read on for our impressions.
Worthy of a sultry Number Six, but priced at a more commonfolk level, the 
What better way to, um, end the 
So, how exactly did Microsoft—those bastards!—end up 
If the rumors swirling this weekend are to be believed, the 
Two weeks before that, the M7 Hermes camera was showcased in Tokyo, looking gorgeous. Its presence there was no accident, apparently, as the latest tidbits, mentioned above, are that this M7 Hermes thing is about to skip onto the scene in a mere 24 hours.
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