Feature: The Ponginator – A Robotic Combination of King Kong and Ping Pong

By Brian Boyko Contributing Writer, [GAS] Ponginator is a robot, and as far as robots go, this one is fairly simple. It plays music, says a few words cribbed from audio files, and shoots ping-pong balls from pressurized air guns. We’ve been doing a series on crazy inventors with crazy inventions. Vernon Graner and the […]



The Motivations Behind Computer Hacking

Pablos Holman is a futurist, IT security expert, and notorious hacker with a unique view into both breaking and building new technologies. In the following presentation, he explains what drives computer hackers to do what they do best: break into gadgets, networks, and systems.

An introduction to functional programming

by Chip Camden Contributing Writer, [GAS] Way back in the dark ages when I first started programming in BASIC, the first stumblingblock I encountered on my quest for programmerhood was the statement: X = X + 1 My High School algebra training screamed out, “That’s an unsolvable equation!”  I soon learned that the above is […]



The Next Big Thing in Product Packing

Featured at the Nepcon world exposition in Japan, “Pack in Instance” is a new packing technology that allows you to perfectly pack sensitive items, regardless of size of item or boxes. Just insert packing material in the box, inject a special gel and… voilà!… instant protection for your valuable gear. [Via Newlauches]

RFID Wardriving for Fun and Profit

By hooking a $250 Motorola RFID reader and an antenna to his laptop, Chris Paget was able to easily harvest and clone multiple RFID identity documents while driving through San Francisco. Fortunately for the victims Chris is a white hat hacker and only did this to prove that using RFID-enabled identify cards can only be […]

Jon Stewart and the Robot Warriors

P.W. Singer was the Defense Policy Task Force coordinator for the Obama presidential campaign. He’s also a sexy geek. Jon Stewart calls him “the Shecky Greene of robotics.” Here he talks about the coming robot uprising and his book “Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century“.

Robotic Platforms Act as Walking Stepping Stones

Filmed during the Wired NextFest event located in Chicago in June 2005, (Yes, this is pretty old, but still cool nonetheless), these robotic stepping stones were used to demo a new kind of visual tracking system. Further details on what we think seems to be the same (or very similar) technology can be found here.

Revolutionary New Zumba Mobile Phone

Planned for release before the next holidays, the new Zumba phone, if it works as explained, will truly revolutionize the world of mobile phones. Unfortunately, I think this thing sounds a bit too good to be true. But who knows? I could be wrong.