20110210

7-year-old boy wins eBay auction for Harrier jet, dad not happy

bouhouhouuuuu i want a harrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeer, get me one pleeeeeeeeease :'(

 
 

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via SlashGear by Shane McGlaun on 2/10/11

When I was a kid the coolest jet to me was the Harrier. It wasn't the fastest jet or the best looking, but the thing was able to take off and land vertically so I could have one in my back yard. Apparently a 7-year-old boy from London though the same thing.

The kid happened on a Harrier up for auction on eBay that lacks weapon systems or the ability to fly. Those little details didn't keep the kid from bidding and winning the auction for the fighter jet. The kid bid about $113,000 on the aircraft at a fixed price.

The kid's dad notified the seller that his son had hit the buy now button and lacked the money in his piggy bank to cover the jet. The sellers weren't mad and removed the bid and say the boy did them a favor with the press the attempted purchase received more interest was generated when the jet was relisted. The jet would apparently cost millions of pounds to return to the air and is one of six left in the world.

Via MyFoxChicago

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20110208

iTunes salvation: Roman Catholic Church approves Confession app

first a robot army and then this......................................................................................................

 
 

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via Engadget by Tim Stevens on 2/8/11

Roman Catholic Church approves Confession app, salvation now available on iTunes
Are you a sinner? Don't worry, there's an app for that. The Roman Catholic Church has approved a recent iTunes addition called Confession, a $1.99 app that bills itself as "the perfect aid for every penitent." As you can see above, it lets you pick a commandment and tick off all your sins, keeping a running tally to bring into the confessional with you -- a sort of anti-tasklist, if you will. Can't find your particular misstep? No problem! You're able to add your own, custom dastardly deeds, filling in those gaps the app's authors didn't think anyone would fill. Now all it needs is a random sin selector: shake the phone to instantly get a wicked suggestion. That certainly could make boring Thursday nights at the dormitory a little more exciting.

iTunes salvation: Roman Catholic Church approves Confession app originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 07:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink BBC News  |  sourceConfession: A Roman Catholic App (iTunes)  | Email this | Comments

 
 

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South Park at the Superbowl

 
 

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Did you watch this weekend's Superbowl in Dallas, and if so, did you catch the little South Park clip?If not, have no fear -- you can see it here.

 
 

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20110207

2% of Soldiers in Afghanistan are Robots

The judgment day is near. \m/

 
 

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via SlashGear by Robert Evans on 2/7/11

Today, in 2011, one out of every fifty soldiers in Afghanistan has battery acid and lubricant instead of blood, sweat and tears. This means that, based on total army enlistment, "robot" is roughly as large a demographic as "asian". At least among the troops stationed in that theater.

It's worth noting that most of these droids are very simple, in terms of their higher-functioning capabilities. They work to disable (or set off) explosive devices and inspect vehicles and blaze trails and other dangerous tasks that are best handled by something that doesn't mind bullets. As it stands, our "AI" programming is too limited to allow any of these robots very much autonomy.

There are plenty of armed robots "over there", though, and there is a great deal of debate over how they should be used. The Conflict Monitoring Centre reported that the last five years saw as many as 2043 people killed in US drone attacks in North-East Pakistan. The majority were civilians- although identification either way is made difficult by the fact that robots can't tell the difference between civilian farmers with rifles and dangerous bandits with rifles.

So yeah…maybe those unmanned stealth bombers aren't the best idea ever.

[Via Wired]

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20110206

No more “big black blot” with a Transparent TV

this i want

 
 

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via SlashGear by Samia Perkins on 2/3/11

With a new design from Michael Friebe, TVs may start looking a lot cooler. The Loewe Invisio television is completely transparent, allowing it to blend in with the existing design in the home. As Yanko Design stated:  "This magnificent TV is not a big black blot in standby mode…It's a clear, frameless glass surface that keeps the room in its "visually unaltered" state."

According to Friebe, "As the first of its kind, the Loewe Invisio introduces technical innovation, combining conventional LCD and the latest TOLED display technology. This allows to create non-transparent / solid moving pictures with rich color reproduction and full contrast range from solid black to pristine white."

The Leowe Invisio has been entered for a 2011 IF Concept Design award, an international competition for professionals in the areas of design, architecture, marketing and engineering.
No word yet on how much one of these will cost, but this may just be the future of TV.

[via Yanko Design]

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iPad Radiology App for Mobile Diagnosis Approved by FDA

an application for the despicable iPad (software-wise) that is actually pretty interesting. This, along with this kinect mri hack, pave the way to a better world :P

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via SlashGear by Chris Burns on 2/5/11

Incase you are from outer space and do not know, FDA stands for US Food and Drug Administration, and they've just approved an app that'll work on both iPad and iPhone (and we assume iPod Touch too, since that's generally what happens,) that last surfaced when it won the Apple Design Award for "Best iPhone Healthcare & Fitness Application" in 2008. This app, the FDA notes, "is not intended to replace full workstations and is indicated for use only when there is no access to a workstation."

The app is called "Mobile MIM" an essentially displays on a screen what you'd normally see printed on film and hung up on a light wall. When you get a broken bone, or for example when police officers want to see how many bullets you've swallowed by looking at an x-ray – this is the sort of thing you'll be able to see now on your iPad, doctors. Much quicker than the alternative and apparently just as accurate.
The images that'll be able to be viewed in this app are what William Maisel, MD, MPH, the chief scientist and deputy director for science in the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health says are "based on computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and nuclear medicine technology, such as positron emission tomography (PET)."
The FDA evaluated this app based on measured luminance, resolution, and noise according to international guidelines and standards. After reviewing results from qualified radiologists conducting demo studies under all manner of conditions of light, all participants agreed that the app was sufficient for diagnostic image interpretation under the recommended lighting conditions."
This app, now approved, will be available sometime next week in the Apple App store in 14 languages in 34 countries. Take a peek at some of the screenshots provided by Apple Insider below —
[Via Apple Insider]
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20110205

Piracy Increases Anime DVD Sales, Study Concludes

Piracy can be considered as advertisement of a product, since pirated media help to spread the word about them.

This would be negative for the industry only if the distribution networks were far too conspicuous and the content pricing too expensive.

So, for the content industry to achieve the maximum gain, the status quo should remain as it is. The industry should maintain a reasonable pricing for the content and keep fending off piracy, so that it will not become pervasive, but not eradicate it, since would also annihilate a really effective advertisement system.

 
 

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via OSNews by donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) on 2/4/11

Piracy hurts the content industry. This has been the common line of thought in the piracy and copyright debate for years now, and even though study after study highlight that this is simply not the case - or at least, not as clear-cut a case - the content industry and its avid fans continue to spread this party line. Well, yet another study, this time from the Japanese government, has concluded that piracy actually increases anime DVD sales.

 
 

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20110204

Hotmail announces disposable e-mail addresses, those with disposable persona...

That is a rather interesting idea. As a matter of fact it might prove entirely useful and I must confess I didn't know that yahoo and gmail have implemented similar features :)

 
 

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via Engadget by Tim Stevens on 2/4/11

Hotmail announces disposable e-mail addresses, trolls with disposable personas rejoyce
It's 3:27am and something is wrong on the internet. You just have to rip that hipster blogger a new one but don't want all the hateful responses from the Kool-Aid drinkers going to your precious Hotmail account that contains just your first name and year of birth -- plus your zip and area codes too. What do you do? You try out Hotmail Aliases, which let you create multiple, "disposable" e-mail accounts that all filter back to your primary one. This is something that you can do on Yahoo, but there you have to pay extra for Plus service and, while Gmail will let you create unique addresses too, there you can only add an extension to your existing handle. Here you're home free to create anything you want. Might we suggest GasPoweredLoverEVsSuck3915@hotmail.com?

Hotmail announces disposable e-mail addresses, those with disposable personas rejoice originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CNET  |  sourceWindows Live Hotmail  | Email this | Comments

 
 

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Last net addresses get handed out

While I was reading this, I remembered the nu metal anthem "Everything Ends" by Slipknot from the Iowa album

I think I'm gonna be sick and it's your fault
This is the end of everything
You are the end of everything

\m/

 
 

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via BBC News - Home on 2/4/11

The last five blocks of net addresses have been handed out to regional agencies that distribute them to ISPs

 
 

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PSP-playing boy falls onto train tracks, saved by a real life hero (video)

nicely done :)

 
 

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via Engadget by Vlad Savov on 2/3/11

Not the best news for Sony execs to be waking up to this morning, as the company's PSP has played a starring role in an unfortunate, though thankfully innocuous, incident. A 10-year old Milanese boy was recently so absorbed by his portable's make.believe world that he forgot the real one around him had boundaries with bright lines painted around them. A moment later the young gamer found himself next to the train tracks a few feet below the platform designed for human occupation, though he wasn't there long as an off-duty policeman by the name of Alessandro Micalizzi quickly leapt down and lifted him to safety. See it on video below and feel free to draw your own conclusions about your gaming habits.

Continue reading PSP-playing boy falls onto train tracks, saved by a real life hero (video)

PSP-playing boy falls onto train tracks, saved by a real life hero (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 02:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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20110201

Interesting lecture from R. D. Wolff

Hi!

Today a friend sent me the link to a video recording of a lecture by Richard Wolff, which explains in layman's terms how the economic system works and how Greece entered the turmoil it's in (that is characterized by disappointed citizens, continuous strikes and so on).

Ta ta,elias a.k.a. diluted
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20110131

Bullet counter leaps off PC FPS shooter screen and lands on real weapon

transform modern warfare to an arcade-like (or doom-quake-call of duty, if you will) experience :P

 
 

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via SlashGear by Shane McGlaun on 1/31/11

One of the things that most FPS gamers are used to are bullet counters that tell you how much ammo is left in your digital weapon. I reckon that is an important bit of info to know in the real world too if you are in some sort of firefight.

If real bullets were coming my way, I would be too busy screaming like a little girl to count my shots. I would need something like this sweet bullet counter. It attaches to a weapon and counts the bullets as they are fired.

It is able to count the bullets using an integrated microcontroller and an accelerometer. The accelerometer registers a single bullet when it recognizes recoil in excess of 22.5g. It has time out so rounds fired aren't messed up by vibrations after the shot. It's apparently accurate enough that it could count automatic fire better than the people shooting and filming could.

Via Kotaku

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BP and Russia sign Arctic oil deal

BP will open a portal to another galaxy and BP's CEO will send video messages declaring that he is sorry.. truly sorry :P

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via BBC News - Home on 1/14/11

BP has signed a joint venture with Russian energy firm Rosneft to exploit potentially huge deposits of oil and gas in Russia's Arctic shelf.

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20110129

diluHome after interior design

Hi!

In the following link, photos from my newly painted home can be found:
http://dilu.no-ip.info/wiki/index.php/HomePhotos

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted
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20110127

house painted

Hi!

Here are some photos of my house's living room painted:

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The apocalypse of synergy

Hi!

In my work I use two computers (a linux and a windows box) side by side. I was just fine until now with two keyboards and two mice.
A colleague then introduced me to synergy, which is a great tool for sharing the screens (and the clipboards) of two entirely different computers using the same mouse and keyboard. Words cannot describe the magic. Here's a video though :P

Ta ta,
--
elias a.k.a. diluted
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20110125

Italian Scientists Demonstrate Cold Fusion?

wow. the sweetest of all is that it converts nickel to copper. imagine converting platinum to gold and palladium to silver.

 
 

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via Slashdot: Hardware by CmdrTaco on 1/24/11

Haffner quotes physorg which says "Italian scientists Andrea Rossi and Sergio Focardi of the University of Bologna announced that they developed a cold fusion device capable of producing 12,400 W of heat power with an input of just 400 W....when the atomic nuclei of nickel and hydrogen are fused in their reactor, the reaction produces copper and a large amount of energy. The reactor uses less than 1 gram of hydrogen and starts with about 1,000 W of electricity, which is reduced to 400 W after a few minutes. Every minute, the reaction can convert 292 grams of 20C water into dry steam at about 101C. Since raising the temperature of water by 80C and converting it to steam requires about 12,400 W of power, the experiment provides a power gain of 12,400/400 = 31."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


 
 

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20110124

Laser popcorn cooking is awesome (but time consuming) [Video]

Popcorn as it was meant to be prepared. :D

 
 

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via SlashGear by Chris Davies on 1/14/11

You're desperate for popcorn, but you've only got a pair of Arctic Spyder III lasers to play with; can you still enjoy a movie theater style treat? According to WorldScott, the answer is yes, as long as you also have plenty of time on your hands or very little appetite. His video shows that with some patience – we're talking kernel by kernel here – you can create popcorn using just the strength of the two high-powered lasers.

Video after the cut

It takes a couple of minutes, and involves balancing the kernel on a swivelling platter and keeping a steady hand, but it's undoubtedly another important step in combining cooking and lasers. At $299.95 a piece, however, lasers probably aren't the cheapest way to make a movie time snack.

[via Twitter]


 
 

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20110121

Kinect combos Street Fighter IV, fires single-fisted boomsticks at the FPS c...

OMG, I want a kinect now :D

 
 

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via Engadget by Sean Hollister on 1/20/11


Oh sure, we've seen the Kinect assist a hadouken or two, but that wasn't the same: here, the YouTube user who brought us Call of Duty via Wiimote, Nunchuk and Kinect is throwing fireballs and taking names in the real game. Demize2010 manipulated the FAAST emulator to recognize a variety of virtual martial arts gestures, including the infamous dragon uppercut and whirlwind kick -- giving him everything he needs for a flowchart victory with only his bare hands.

Meanwhile, one Bill Maxwell has taken the Kinect and made it recognize his fist, the better to control first-person shooter games with requiring an Wiimote intermediary. He's developed a "high-speed kinematic tracker" called MaxFPS that monitors his hand's position in real time, allowing him to move, turn, jump, and reload with quick swipes of his paw. How do you shoot? Why, by punching those baddies' lights out, of course. See it on video after the break.

Continue reading Kinect combos Street Fighter IV, fires single-fisted boomsticks at the FPS crowd (video)

Kinect combos Street Fighter IV, fires single-fisted boomsticks at the FPS crowd (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink GeekWord, Joystiq  |  sourceInside Kinect, demize2010 (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

 
 

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20110119

How the Berkeley Overmind Won the 2010 StarCraft AI Competition

WOW the team chose the Zerg and named their AI "overmind". Excellent.

 
 

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via OSNews by donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) on 1/19/11

"StarCraft, one of the most popular games ever made, also serves as the perfect proving ground for artificial intelligence. Here's the inside story of how a Berkeley team won the world's first StarCraft AI competition with code that can beat even pro-level human players."

 
 

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