Will It Blend? – iPad

So far, in their never-ending quest to blend everything, the people from Blendtec have tried destroying all portable Apple devices that have ever came out of Cupertino. As far as we know, the only thing that has ever survived their attempts is, unsurprisingly, a figurine of Chuck Norris. Will the new iPad be as resistant as our friend Chuck? Let’s find out:


And Man Created Woman…

Once you’ve creeped people out by building an Android replica of yourself, there’s only one way to up the eeriness ante: build a female version.

That’s what Hiroshi Ishiguro, a professor at Osaka University, has done. He’s already known for creating the Geminoid HI-1, a robot built to closely replicate his own appearance. It’s even controlled by Ishiguro’s own movements, meaning interacting with it is about as close to speaking to Ishiguro himself as it gets:

The android is designed not just to show off the technology, but to explore questions about the way humans and robots interact and the psychological effects involved.

Now Ishiguro wants to turn his work into more of a commercial operation and, as is common with many businesses, he’s going for visual appeal. The idea of his latest creation is to produce a more attractive, engaging android, which he’s done in the form of a young woman:

Fortunately for Ishiguro, he’s not had to resort to less savory methods to market the new android, Geminoid F. Instead, the $110,000 robot is designed for use in situations such as hospitals where it apparently gives patients “psychological security” via comforting smiles while patients are being examined.

Appearance aside, the main technical changes with this edition are that it uses just 12 actuators, the devices which control movement in the robot, compared with 46 in the original. It also has the air valves, which power some of the movements, built inside the body, leaving just a small compressor on the outside, unlike the original which required a bulky external box.

Ishiguro is keeping the identity of the human model used to create the new android under wraps, for understandable confidentiality reasons . He did note that he’d intentionally selected a model who was one-quarter non-Japanese to achieve a blend of appealing to both Japanese and international audiences.

Another goal, both in the selection of the model and the design of the android, was to specifically allow for a “toothy smile”, apparently as this seems more naturalistic.

[Picture credit: AFP Photo/Yoshikazu Tsuno]

Crumbling Biosphere 2 Looks Like the Something the Dharma Initiative Left Behind

I remember all the news about Biosphere, back in the early 90s when I was in elementary school. There was something so hopeful about it, so pioneering and unusual. We followed the stories of the people inside, and talked about self-sustaining ecosystems on the moon or planets not yet discovered. For a budding sci-fi geek, it was pretty rad (to use a time-appropriate term).

However, this morning while perusing Fark I came across some rather heartbreaking pictures documenting the crumbling facility of Biosphere 2. It looks like something the Dharma Initiative left behind. The project has failed utterly, but to give you an idea of the scope of what it once was, here’s what Wikipedia has to say:

Biosphere 2 contained representative biomes: a 1,900 square meter rainforest, an 850 square meter ocean with a coral reef, a 450 square meter mangrove wetlands, a 1,300 square meter savannah grassland, a 1,400 square meter fog desert, a 2,500 square meter agricultural system, a human habitat, and a below-ground level technical infrastructure. Heating and cooling water circulated through independent piping systems and passive solar input through the glass space frame panels covering most of the facility, and electrical power was supplied into Biosphere 2 from an onsite natural gas energy center through airtight penetrations.

[Divine Caroline via Fark; Image copyright Noah Sheldon]

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2010 Hugo Nominations

As I noted last year, the Hugo is one of the two major awards given in the world of science fiction and fantasy writing (the other being the Nebula). This year’s nominees were just announced, and the winners will be announced at Worldcon in September (held this year in Melbourne).

As always, these nominations are usually a great reading list, especially if you’re interested in short fiction. There are some familiar names on the list, like Nancy Kress, Mike Resnick, and John Scalzi, and quite a few I’ve never heard of. The only novel I’ve read from the list is Boneshaker by Cherie Priest – which I highly recommend, especially if you like steampunk and/or zombies.

There are also categories for graphic novels, films, and television shows. And in typical fashion, Doctor Who dominates the latter category (with Dollhouse and FlashForward also represented). As far as movies go, maybe Avatar will pick up a Hugo to make up for the Oscar snubs (though as far as writing goes, I think maybe Star Trek would have a better shot with the Worldcon crowd, or even Up).

Internet One-Up-Manship: Squirrel, Dog, Cat and Alpaca

One lucky cameraman happened to catch an unusual aquatic daredevil.
What you’re about to see is a Channel  News exclusive.
His name is Nutty the Squirrel, and he’s three years old.
How ’bout that? That squirrel can water-ski.

– Man, that’s hilarious.
– Yeah, that’s good.

–Anchorman

The world of the Internet is one where the bizarre and unusual just isn’t enough. We’ve all seen that waterskiing squirrel from Anchorman, being pulled by a remote controlled boat. We’ve all seen Tillman, the famous skateboarding bulldog who then learned how to surf. But was that enough? No, next we see Peruvian surfer Domingo Pianezzi teaching his cat to surf.

Now this leads to the logical question…what animal could possibly trump a squirrel, a dog and a surfing cat? Why a surfing Alpaca of course!

This my friends is a surfing Alpaca Llama!

[Link]

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Computer pioneer Ed Roberts: 1941-2010

The man who arguably inspired the creation of Microsoft has died at the age of 68. Ed Roberts launched the Altair 8800, one of the earliest home computers, and gave Bill Gates his first big break.

Roberts and his company Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems marketed a series of electronics kits in the early 1970s, including electronic calculators. In 1974 MITS launched the Altair 8800, a computer kit which started from $439 at a time when comparable machines cost thousands of dollars.

The machine featured on the front cover of the January 1975 edition of Popular Mechanics, an edition read by a man named Paul Allen who then showed it to his friend Bill Gates. The pair believed the cheap machine could spark a mass audience for computing which would make software a profitable outlet and offered to develop a programming language for the machine, known as Altair BASIC.

Roberts agreed to distribute it under license and it proved successful; it was also widely copied by hobbyists, prompting an infamous letter from Gates accusing them of theft. Gates and Allen formed “Micro-Soft” to take care of the business side of the licensing deal, and the rest is history.

In 1977, Roberts sold MITS and began studying medicine before becoming a doctor in Georgia for the rest of his working life.

Gates and Allen said today that “Ed was truly a pioneer in the personal computer revolution, and didn’t always get the recognition he deserved. He was an intense man with a great sense of humor, and he always cared deeply about the people who worked for him, including us. Ed was willing to take a chance on us – two young guys interested in computers long before they were commonplace – and we have always been grateful to him. The day our first untested software worked on his Altair was the start of a lot of great things.”