How freakin’ cool is this? Remember the Tandy Super Armatron, probably the most beloved of robot toys? This enterprising builder crossed it with another propellerhead favorite, the Jensen Hobby Steam Engine, to create a steampunk masterpiece: The Jensen Armatron.
MacBook Pro: The Laptop NOT for Your Lap
Gabriella Papic has a hysterical piece on Salon about the Core Duo MacBook Pro and how that’s “core” as in nuclear core, molten lava core, hard-core HOT. She writes:
“At first, I thought those guys at Apple were geniuses for making the built-in DVD burner smell like my favorite low-carb treat. Then I felt a stinging in my thigh muscles, although stinging isn’t quite the word I’m looking for to describe the burning sensation. It was more of a scalding, or a scorching, that felt worse than a rug burn but not as bad as, let’s say, reentry heat.”
Trying to determine if anything is wrong, she consults the User’s Guide and finds this statement:
“Do not leave the bottom of your MacBook Pro in contact with your lap or any surface of your body for extended periods. Prolonged contact with your body could cause discomfort and potentially a burn.”
So, it’s a laptop that can’t go near your lap, or any other part of your body.
Thanks, Kate!
HOW-TO: Robotized Webcam
Okay, so it looks like kludged-together crap, but this servo-controlled webcam project shows you how to turn any webcam into one o’ them expensive Orbit cams. Besides a cam, it requires two hobby servos and a Microchip pic16f628(a) microcontroller chip and a Pic Programmer and a perfboard and some misc electronic parts and a lot of patience. What you end up with is not likely to be the easiest or most elegant solution, but it’ll be a cool whirring little computer-controlled desktop machine that you built and programmed.
TiVo and Blockbuster – Less Than Perfect Together?
The rumored TiVo/Blockbastard partnership seems to be close to an announcement. Zatz is reporting that Blockbuster prematurely switched on the Web page promoting the deal. So what’s the skinny? Well that’s just it, it’s a much ado, basically a cross-marketing arrangement for TiVo subbers and Blockbusters’ NetFlix-like (but contract-dependent) DVD rental service. The deal would save dual-service monthly subscribers about US$8/month.
So, nothing really to text message your momma about. You’d think that TiVo would be burning the midnight conference room oil to come up with more market-compelling partnerships and product/service announcements than parental blocking software and $8/month discount coupons. And what about lifetime subbers? Are they SOL?
Smallest Game in Cyberspace
Who sez you need an inch or two of screen real estate on a gadget to have a usable interface? How about 16 wide and 16 tall, baby? Pixels. Okay, so playing Pong, PacMan, Asteroids, and other arcade classics on a screen the size of a hanging chad might be a bit of a trial, but maybe it’s to prove a point (that size doesn’t matter so much) — the company that makes the games also develops games for mobiles.
Strangest Robot Roundup
After drafting their list of the Ten Coolest Robots (which I’d take over Wired’s list any day), TechEBlog have now cast their vote for the Ten Strangest. I don’t know. I’ve. seen. stranger.
Thanks, Jay!
Dead Trees on E3
The Pipeline, Marc Perton’s mainstream media watch column on Engdaget does a tiddy little wrap up of the inkies’ coverage of E3. He also talks about the Walt Mossberg comment in his WSJ column that’s creating predictable blog buzz. The highly-respected, influencial Mossberg “let slip,” in his Thursday column that Apple was working on “a media-playing cellphone and a home-media hub.” When Walt sez it, it must be true, as he’s likely to be in the know. Could this be a portent of the upcoming media event at the New York Apple store? I wouldn’t get my hopes up. Remember the New Products Announcement a couple of month’s back?
Hey, Check Out My New Mac G6?
The same people who brought you Yahoo! China (legally) now bring you Apple Macintosh (illegally): Alibaba, the Hong Kong-based e-commerce company, is apparently selling PowerPC Mac G6 “clones,” worldwide, with free global shipping, for US$499. Not sold yet? They’ll even throw in Photoshop CS2 and MS Office 2004. For you, habibi, Alibaba makes a deal you can’t refuse!
Why do I feel like my credit card’s going to have a hard time releasing itself from my wallet?
[Via Engadget]
Microsoft BEAMbots?
Well, not exactly. But Make has a piece on their site about some Microsoft engineers that were showing off these BEAM robots at the Maker Faire. Apparently, the Big Soft encouraged all of its engineers with “Make-style hobbies” to show off some of the ol’ corporate joie de vivre at the annual geek-country faire. Several engineers brought photovore BEAMbots, and extremely cool ones at that. Here’s a link to some video footage of the sun-worshipping little automatons (the robots, not the MS engineers!). You can also find some macro shots here.
And, be sure to check out the website of VJ DeLeon, one of the bot-building engineers. He’s got some very juicey stuff here, including most of the info and diagrams you’d need to build the types of BEAMbots seen here. If you successfully build the two solarengine-based bot projects I have in Make No. 6, a bot like this, especially VJ’s FredFly (right), might be a suitable next project.
Look Who’s Back: The Robo-Roaches!
In December, we reported on the latest in insect-inspired robots, the Insbot, a robo-roach designed to hang out with their organic brethren, trick them into thinking they’re the real deal, and even influencing their behavior. ScienceDaily has an update on the Insbots. Researchers have come a long way in their experiments, using roach pheromones on the bots to get the roaches to do such unroachly things as traveling towards and hanging out around a bright light source. You can lead a roach to a bug rapper, but you can’t [ZZZZZIIIIIIITTTTT]. Oh look, it turns that you can!
Besides being able to lead pesky crawlies to their doom, this sort of technology could be used to influence and maximize the actions of beneficial critters too. Kinda coo, kinda creepy at the same time.
Thanks, Jay!