Amazing Bioloid Humvee Transformer (Video)

Built out of a Bioloid Humanoid Robotics kit, this amazing Humvee transformer robot can actually transform from its initial truck form into a fully functional, badass-looking robot.

Not an average robot kit, the Bioloid Comprehensive Kit from Robotis allows you to build and configure over 26 robots! The Bioloid Robot Kits from Robotis are the first educational robot kit based around “smart serially controlled servos” which are not only capable of switching between positioning and full continuous rotation, but also provides you with access to sensory feedback such as position, speed, temperature, current draw and voltage of each servo. Bioloid kits are designed in a way that allow the user to construct multiple types of robots. In addition to the great hardware, the Bioloid Kit comes with some powerful GUI-based software. The software is freeware, so whether you’re using this kit for education, research, or personal recreation, you can download and install it on as many computers as you need. Bioloid Robot Kits are perfect for Education, Hobbies, Research and Competition.

[Via TechEblog]



Shootout at the FP Corral

By Will Sullivan
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

True home theater geeks know that in order to get a truly cinematic home theater image, you need a front projector (FP) projecting onto a large screen—100 inches or more—in the dark, just as in a real movie theater. Think about it: a 100-inch diagonal image is the equivalent of four 50-inch plasmas! Most “brick-and-mortar” audio/video stores, however, rarely have even one FP setup, let alone side-by-side setups for comparison of FPs…so, how to decide which one is right for your dream home theater?

In a nod, perhaps, to the paintball warrior in all of us—and to the real-world front projector “shootouts” among hard-core home theater cognoscenti—online projector retailer Visual Apex has unveiled a novel virtual PJ shootout gimmick, whereby you can pick among several of your favorite home theater front projectors and pit them head-to-head, two at a time on your PC, as they run simultaneous video clips. (And the video clips are truly spectacular.) A caveat, though: there’s the obvious problem of trying to demo supposedly “hi-def” clips in tiny 2 ½-inch X 3-inch windows, with far fewer pixels than you’d have in a real demo. Still, it’s a fun demo, so, if you’re looking for a shootout, it’s worth a drive-by—just cap that link below, and then comment. How killer are those video clips, hmmm?

[Visual Apex]



Apple iPhone 3G Hits that Magic $99.00 Number

By Will Sullivan,
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Nope, contrary to some recent speculation, it’s not from Wal-mart (where the “discount” is currently only two bucks). It’s from AT&T…

…the catch? It’s only the 8GB model…and it’s a refurb. (And there’s the obligatory two-year contract, natch.)

Still…it’s under a 100 clams! (The 16GB model, also reburbed, goes for a far less compelling, as I see it, $199.) And, it’s all only through New Year’s Eve…so if all Santa gave you for Christmas was a few lumps of coal, better head on over to the AT&T refurb site and snag ya a keeper!

[Via CNET]

Sony Debuts Silly New Movie and Music “Format”

By Will Sullivan,
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Alright, this seems silly to me: Sony is debuting movies and music on a new “format”: the ubiquitous USB flash drive. For about $30.00 for the 4GB drive ($20.00 for the 2GB version), you too can own a movie or some tunes AND add to the growing amount of crap lost in the cracks of your couch…is it just me, or is this just a whacked idea? Comments?

[Via Sound and Vision]

Disappointed Meteor-Shower Geeks May Get Second Chance

By Will Sullivan
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

If you missed this month’s usually spectacular Geminid meteor shower, due to the full moon’s brightness—or the Perseids back in August—you may get a relatively rare chance to check out another meteor event in the early morning hours of Saturday, January 3, 2009: the unpredictable Quadrantids.

Unlike the Geminid or Perseid showers, the Quadrantid shower lasts only for a few hours—from say 2:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m., and probably best right before dawn—and pretty much can only can be seen at its best in western North America. Still, this coming event will not be outshined by the moon, so if atmospheric conditions permit where you live in the western half of the U.S. or Canada, head for a wild spot away from ambient city light: you can expect one or two every minute at the peak. Even in the east, you might be able to see 30-60 per hour, in that very last hour before dawn. Mark your calendars!

[Via Space.com]

“The Craft of War: BLIND” will “WOW” you!

Being on the Net almost daily searching for new content, I regularly stumble upon game-based fan-created films, and most of the time, they suck real bad. But once in a while, I end up on a real gem, something that just WOWs me with its polish and originality. This is certainly the case with “The Craft of War: Blind”.

This fan-made short has been produced using the World of Warcraft universe and is supposed to be the first episode in a series of many. Let’s just hope that the author will keep his word and produce many other ones like this! Check it out:

9: Our World is Ending – Life Must Go On (Trailer)

Based on a short film of the same name but now produced by Tim Burton, the new version of 9 features a computer animated post-apocalyptic future where the very fabric of life is constantly threatened.

Here’s the official synopsis:

When 9 (Wood) first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they’ll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them.

Patently ridiculous

While most of us think of this time of year as the season of giving, corporations seem preoccupied with keeping, or even taking — via outrageous patents.

One current trend in graphical user interfaces these days is the use of live icons to indicate files, where the icon represents a mini-preview or thumbnail of the document in question.  Think Windows Explorer, Apple Finder, or the default home page in Google Chrome.   For those who like GUIs, it’s a time saver — the user can more easily recognize which document to open, without first loading the application used to open it fully.  But Cygnus Systems, Inc. says “that’s our invention!” and is seeking damages and a permanent injunction against further infringement by Microsoft, Apple, and Google of their US patent 7,346,850 which describes that sort of interface.  Pull it, guys!

Moving to the other end of the usability spectrum, RIM (the makers of the popular BlackBerry mobile device) wants to patent what seems to be a bone-headed “improvement” over their SureType keyboard technology.  Instead of combining a numeric and QWERTY keypad in the same interface, RIM’s US patent application 20080318617 describes a keypad that starts out with the familiar numeric layout, and then folds out into a QWERTY keyboard — with two letters sharing each key.  Couldn’t they just keep things simple and provide a clay tablet interface instead?  This is one patent that I doubt they’ll ever need to defend.

While we’re on keyboards, Apple has filed a patent application covering the use of swiping gestures on touch screen keyboards.  Examples include swiping down for Return, swiping left for Delete, etc.  The number of fingers used in a gesture could change the meaning of a directional swipe — for instance, a one-finger swipe to the right could add a space, while using two fingers would add a period.  While these features certainly seem like they’d be useful shortcuts for advanced touch screen users, the idea seems much too broad for a patent — and there’s probably plenty of prior art.  Apple, if you’re trying to tell us that certain finger gestures can have meaning for only your devices, then I’ve got a single-finger gesture of my own for you to interpret.

Rails 3.0 to become Merb 2.0, and vice versa

(Actually, that could be one equal sign, or maybe three, depending on how this works out).

Yesterday, key developers of both Merb and Rails announced that the two popular web frameworks for Ruby will be merging.

This decision comes as a shock to must Ruby web developers, given the history and philosophy of the two frameworks.  Rails has been described as a monolithic, instant web application generator that likes default configurations.  It’s very easy to create a fully functional web application, but not so easy to slim it down or to use other than the default stack.  Plugins for Rails often break between versions because there is no clearly defined API.

Merb was largely created as a reaction against those issues — preferring a modular approach with a lightweight core, agnostic of object-relational mapper (ORM) and JavaScript libraries, and having a well-documented API for extensions.

According to the announcements, the Rails team has finally seen the Merb light.  Rails 3.0 will incorporate multiple features of Merb:

  • An option to generate a Rails app with only minimum core support.  This means making the Rails code more modular.
  • Performance improvements taken directly from Merb code.
  • An easier way to use other than the defaults for ORM, JavaScript libraries, templating, and testing framework.
  • A well-documented API for plugins, with a test suite for that API.

Merb will also be evolving towards that same codebase, with the plan that Merb 2.0 will be Rails 3.0.  Both teams plan to devote a lot of effort towards making migration of existing apps as easy as possible.

Combining these frameworks will not be a trivial task, but I’m thinking it may prove even more difficult to combine the personalities on the two teams.  Has DHH really converted to the Merb way, or will there be further conflict between the two approaches?  Not that that’s a bad thing, but how easily will those conflicts be resolved?