Posts by Category: cool tech

Funky stuff, man!

cool tech November 15, 2005 posted by

The eNook.

The eNook multi-talented workspace. Gotta love the name, gotta love the concept. Although I’m not sure about forcing Dad to work out in the hallway while the family watches Lost in comfort like a pack of smug wombats. $399.00.  It charges, it flips, it stores and it works…First off eNook has channels for you to plug in and charge your electronic gadgetry – like your laptop, cell phones, PDAs and digital cameras. Then just flip it up to store your gear…


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cool tech November 10, 2005 posted by

Horse riding safety.

The Hit-Air Horse Riding Vest is an inflatable airbag vest which protects you if you’re thrown from yer horse. The Duke may not have needed one, but it looks pretty cool tech nonetheless.  When the rider is thrown away from the horse for certain distance, an airbag contained in the vest inflates instantly to protect the body. With a pulling force of over 25 kgs, a coiled wire, connecting the saddle and the airbag vest, pulls a key out of…


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but is it art? November 10, 2005 posted by

Colorization by numbers.

A team of researchers at Hebrew University in Israel have developed what seems to be a fast and simple way to colorize black and white still images and movies. This may be good news or bad, depending on which side of the ‘art is art’ divide you come from.   A major difficulty with colorization has been its labor-intensiveness. For example, in order to colorize a still image an artist typically begins by dividing the image into regions, and then proceeds to…


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Bookmark This! November 8, 2005 posted by

Tape it off the Internet.

Tape It Off The Internet. This is what marks out the new Internet from the old, a genuinely useful – albeit somewhat ambitious – service for all. Think global TV guide, which includes collaborative recommendations, BitTorrent listings, tags, feeds et al all wrapped up in a cool community type interface. Hope you can pull it off, guys, because this is cool stuff.  Television, drug of the nation, pacifier par excellence, we love you. Except you never quite have the things we…


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Bookmark This! November 2, 2005 posted by

WebORB.

WebORB. Heh, combine AJAX, Google maps and a chat room and what have you got? A totally funky application where you can see which town folks are chatting from in real time. I’m totally not sure whether this application can scale, or whether it would be useful in a real world environment, but it’s outstanding technology nonetheless. Nice one, guys.  This example demonstrates bi-directional messaging between heterogeneous (Flash and AJAX) clients and WebORB Message Server. The server performs additional processing…


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cool tech October 28, 2005 posted by

Plantic eco plastic.

Plantic is plastic made from plants. It looks like plastic, acts like it, but is compostable and dissolves in water. Great tech for reducing our reliance on oil?  Plantic finished products are priced competitively with plastic trays made from petrochemical plastics. Plantic trays are not subject to the dramatic price variations petrochemical products are exposed to. Plantic is suitable for dry foods packaging such as biscuit and confectionary trays, blister packaging, and trays for electronic components.


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cool tech October 27, 2005 posted by

Lancer, prancer, donner und blitzen.

The Mitsubishi Lancer MIEV. 268hp, 0–62 mph in under 8 seconds, 112 mph top speed, four individual in-wheel electric motors driven by Lithium-Ion batteries. Not yer grandma’s eco vehicle, folks.   The in-wheel motors and the lithium-ion battery system, which is located under the floor to reduce the center of gravity, accelerate Lancer Evolution MIEV from 0 km/h to 100 km/h in less than 8 seconds and up to a maximum speed of 180 km/h. This is a level of…


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cool tech October 14, 2005 posted by

Public IP.

Public IP. Free Open Source software for setting up your own free WiFi hotspot. Nice idea, the more of this the better I think.  Public IP provides hotspot operators with an extremely simple, highly versatile, FREE, open source hotspot solution. Public IP’s ZoneCD is freely distributed software that has been created to help implement safe, free, WiFi hotspots. The ZoneCD can be used by all levels of free WiFi providers, from experienced programmers to coffee house cashiers. Setting up a…


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cool tech October 6, 2005 posted by

Medic monitor.

Attach the AdvancedBPM wireless monitoring patch to your arm and you can rest easy knowing that your blood pressure, heart rate and blood oxygen levels are contiually being monitored by caring, lovely people who really want you to continue making the insurance payments. Prototype at the moment, more later no doubt. [via CNET Asia]  AdvancedBPM is a revolutionary solution in blood pressure diagnosis and management. Unlike conventional cuff-based blood pressure monitors, AdvancedBPM is a cuffless, wrist-worn sensor that continuously measures a patient’s blood pressure, heart…


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cool tech October 5, 2005 posted by

Binocular vision.

The Carl Zeiss-Jena Observation Binocular. I was so going to give this ugly green monster a miss when I happened to read the comment review from a user – ‘From my viewpoint , I have a free view of 50-60km.’ Er…60 km? That’s unbe-Peeping Tom-lievable. Anyway if you read the blurb this is the ultimate in optical marvels, only 400 ever made to secret plans and now selling for $2,299.00. Whoosh! [Thanks Jerry].  No finer optical fire control binocular/stereo rangefinder has…


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Bookmark This! October 5, 2005 posted by

Mapbuilder.

Mapbuilder. Create your own Google maps with location tags and everythang. And share them with the unwashed public too, if you like. Awesome example of yet more Google open-ness at work.  MapBuilder lets you build your own map with number of location and generate GoogleMap source code for this map. So you will be able to paste it directly into your web page and use it with your API key requested at Google. Also there is veriety of other solutions…


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cool tech October 4, 2005 posted by

Musician’s friend.

The Superscope PSD340 dual drive CD recorder for musicians. This is one cool tool for anyone who’s into creating music. For example, the dual CD lets you listen to an album, remove the vocals, tweak the tempo or pitch non destructively, and record yourself singing or playing along direct to CD-R or R/W. Great for practice or just composing. It accepts direct input balanced mics, guitars or whatever, and has way too many features to list. It’s also got to…


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cool tech October 4, 2005 posted by

Pedal hover.

Pedal Powered Hovercraft. Such a neat idea, but such hard work, matron! Plans available for $24.95.  Pedal powered hovercrafts make great science fair projects for students and scouts as well as competition between schools and other groups. Construction is from bike parts, wood & tarp material. Both models can be broken down for easy transportation. Empty weight – 75 lbs. Payload up to 300 lbs


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cool tech September 26, 2005 posted by

Cargo electric.

The Oxygen Cargo Electric Scooter. If’n you’re in Amsterdam order a Dominos’ Pizza and one of these is likely to turn up. Apparently. Swiftly silently and very ecologically. The future may just be closing in on us, despite our prejudices. 28 mph and 50 mile range.   The Oxygen Cargo represents a quiet and clean revolution in transporting goods around our choked-up towns and cities. It has a range of more than 50 miles, it’s quick (up to 28 mph)…


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cool tech September 20, 2005 posted by

Google WiFi Secure Access.

Google Secure Access. Not clear whether this works outside of San Francisco, but Google’s just introduced a secure WiFi service. Download the program, fire it up and it will automagically encrypt your data to and fro their servers. Very interesting Lucy, especially since it’s the fruit of a Google engineer’s spare time.   Why did Google develop Google Secure Access? One of our engineers recognized that secure WiFi was virtually non-existent at most locations. As a result, he used his…


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