Borg Like Me?

[Street Tech Feature] Like Wired after its sale to Conde Nast, I am now officially “post-hip.” Last year, after decades of trying to shake off the pain of severe degenerative arthritis in my right hip (and nearly every other major joint in my body), I had a total hip replacement (“THR” in the trade). With months of Steve Austin/Six Million Dollar Man jokes under my belt, and after enduring such forehead-slapping questions as: “Will you set off metal detectors?” and “Is the Sony AIBO going to hump your bionic leg?,” I was suitably hardened for all manner of operating room torture.

Being told what the MatriX is…

EasyBuy2000, sellers of cutting-edge cheap Asian electro-crap, are now selling the The MatriX (US$60), a.k.a. Xodus, an XBox add-in chip that allows your ‘Box to play games in JAP and PAL formats. To get around legal “issues,” the chip is shipped unflashed — you add the FlashRAM yourself when you get it, so YOU’RE breaking the law, not them.

Zire Predictions

Palminfocenter has come up with some spy pics of Palm’s new upcoming handhelds, and they all are sure to spark the handheld war afresh; Palm’s low end unit will be called the Zire, will have 2 megs of RAM and cost just $99. According to Palminfocenter, the Tungsten line will be the high end line, and will include the first Palm OS5 handheld with ARM-based chip @ 175 MHz with 16 megs of RAM, internal Bluetooth, a “double density” 320×320 TFT screen with 65k colors and a fancy slide out Graffitti area cover with D-pad (pictured right). Another rumored device is a Palm PDA/Phone with similar features as the Tungsten T, but with wireless access and a biult-in keyboard for thumb-typists. Visit Palminfocenter for better pics and specs.

[Posted by Nate Heasley]

This is Your Brain on Free Roaming

From Ditherati:

“I think what we’re seeing is an almost biological evolution of the species. I think we’re building a global nervous system and brain.” Arlington Institute president John Petersen, on how incessant use of cell phones is really a sign of progress, Los Angeles Times, 19 September 2002

http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-lv-cellphone19sep19.story Gee, didn’t we hear the same thing about computers and the Internet, ya know, before they got taken over by viruses, spam and Nigerian email scams

ST Web Guru Nearly “Butted” By Goat

In a strange altercation that authorities are still trying to understand, Tim Tate, webmaster of the insanely popular website Street Tech, was nearly killed by a mountain goat this Saturday. Apparently Mr. Tate was attempting to involve the animal in some sort of bizarre pagan ritual and the goat didn’t take kindly to Mr. Tate’s advances. “He was always such a nice, quiet fellow,” said Gareth Branwyn, the cybernetic organism that runs the website. “I can’t imagine him being involved in anything like this. Last I heard, he was very involved in helping the Girl Scouts sell cookies.” Mr. Tate is currently in the hospital recovering from his injuries.