Wireless Paint ain't so new If you're amazed and thrilled by Alice's mention of Wireless Radio Wave Blocking Paint below, then you're probably not that old. Back in the Geriatic Age, we had radio blocking paint by the truckload, available for under $3 a gallon. It had lead in it. Not only did it block radio waves, but it did a darn good job as shielding against radiation from missiles armed with atomic warheads.
By the way, don't paint your house with the stuff if you're using an indoor TV antenna. Blocks those signals too.
iPod Cameras Remember when everything was iMac-colored see-through plastic? There were transparent green telephones, and red see-through answering machines and on and on.
Today, Kyocera has partnered with Apple to create digital cameras in the distinctive iPod Mini's 5 color scheme. Which can only mean one thing: an onslaught of iPod Mini-inspired answering machines and cordless phones and so on. Here we go again.... # Permalink
Posted at
3:02 PM
0 commentsEmail this
Link
Metal Rubber There is a great article from Popular Science on a new material called Metal Rubber. The hope is that it will lead to a breakthrough in wearable computing, but for now, it's mostly just really interesting. See for yourself:
"By Laura Allen: Terrible, horrible things can be done to this millimeters-thick patch of shimmering material crafted by chemists at NanoSonic in Blacksburg, Virginia. Twist it, stretch it double, fry it to 200 degrees C, douse it with jet fuel - the stuff survives. After the torment, it snaps like rubber back to its original shape, all the while conducting electricity like solid metal. 'Any other material would lose its conductivity,' says Jennifer Hoyt Lalli, NanoSonic's director of nanocomposites.
"The abused substance is called Metal Rubber, and, according to NanoSonic, its particular properties make it unique in the world of material chemistry. As a result, the company's small office has been flooded with calls from Fortune 500 companies and government agencies eager to test Metal Rubber's use in everything from artificial muscles to smart clothes to shape-shifting airplane wings." # Permalink
Posted at
12:28 PM
0 commentsEmail this
Link
Wireless Radio Wave-Blocking Paint Ok Now We've Really Seen It All Dept: DefendAir Radio Shield Paint ($68.00) "This specially formulated flat interior paint can help reduce the transmission of wireless radio waves through walls, ceilings and doors. Create a field of protection inside your home or office. Some radio waves may pass through depending on signal strength and other conditions.
"With 1 mil dry film thickness the product can be used to prevent radio wave bleeding and block radio interference and noise. Shielding range 100MHz-2.6GHz (see graph). Can shield frequencies up to 5GHz with multiple coats. Actual performance depends on the user environment. We recommend multiple coats for better shielding."
D-Link's New Wireless Pocket Router WiFi companies are finally getting wise to the fact that we want wireless networking when we hit the road. I've gotten many a cavity search when going through airport security because of my alarming array of routers and cables and power adapters. But I digress....
The AirPlus G DWL-G730AP Wireless Pocket Router/AP (Say that one three times quickly) is $99. # Permalink
Posted at
12:00 PM
0 commentsEmail this
Link
Got Floppy...? Bill's Rant of the Day Dept: Forget what a moustache might look like. The trend lately has been to delete the floppy drive from systems. It's old tech, barely used, and, besides, it will save the seller about $12.... Let me give you a tip on why you should definitely have a floppy drive in your computer: BIOS repair work.
Yeah, sure, I know, most if not all of the motherboards currently available have BIOS updating software supplied so it's no longer that arcane task it used to be. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work correctly. Like with my excruciatingly wonderful ASUS A8V motherboard. The ASUS BIOS updater was gladly willing to upload the latest (v 1.006) BIOS for it, assured me that everything was correct, both before and after it was done, and, wa-la (voila, for those of you who visit the continent), any time the system is rebooted the BIOS jumper needs to be moved first or else nothing happens.
Of course, the automated BIOS updater won't re-install the older BIOS because it's older. For that I need a copy of ASUS' AFUDOS software, booted from, you guessed it, the floppy. I await the arrival of two of those little beasties. Oh yeah, I need one for the Giga-byte motherboard in the "other" Athlon system. Good thing I have four Pentium-based computers too. # Permalink
Posted at
7:21 AM
0 commentsEmail this
Link
THE LATEST NEWS
Thursday, August 12, 2004
802.11n?? A new group called WWiSE (which right off the bat sounds STUpiD to us) has propsed a new WiFi standard called 802.11n. That part sounds SMaRT, esepcially since it will be backwards compatible with 802.11b and 802.11g. The proposed speed will be a blazing 540 Mbps which sounds great as well, although will probably cause your head to grow tumors while you download files. But again, this is all going to take awhile if waiting for 802.11g is any indicator. # Permalink
Posted at
5:00 PM
0 commentsEmail this
Link
DOOM III Easter Eggs PlanetDOOM has a great section on the latest and greatest Easter eggs hidden in Doom III.
Includes a shot at Valve, a code from the original Doom and all sorts of other things you have to really love the series to appreciate. And we mean really... # Permalink
Posted at
4:53 PM
0 commentsEmail this
Link
AOL to Offer Cheap PCs UPDATED: AOL just announced that it was going to start selling ultra-cheap ($300) PCs plus a printer to groups that have not yet signed up for dial-up. To us this sounds like a desperate act that has failed in the past - the "FREE or nearly Free PC If You do X" concept went down in flames with many a start-up.
Reuters reported, "The launch is part of a broad strategy at the recovering online service, which watched 2.2 million members abandon its service. Over the past two years, the company has attempted to find new sources of revenue by appealing to different categories of customers including the Spanish-speaking and teen markets. Executives said it hoped to attract the 27 percent of U.S. households comprised of seniors, African Americans and Hispanics who do not yet own a PC." # Permalink
Posted at
9:56 AM
0 commentsEmail this
Link
Microsoft to Temporarily Stop Auto-Update of SP2 Matt Cameron At OverClockers Corner has the following info on the Service Pak 2 debacle: "Microsoft said that they will be giving customers a tool to prevent SP2 to from being automatically installed on their computer via Automatic Update or Windows Update. Microsoft originally was going to 'force' the new service pack upon users but because there is so much controversy over the potential of applications no longer working after install the Service Pack, Microsoft has decide to make it a choice of the users." # Permalink
Posted at
9:41 AM
0 commentsEmail this
Link
Innovative Bus/Train New Buzzword Dept: Get ready for the DMV or dual-mode vehicle.
Japan is experimenting with a combo bus/train that can break free of railway tracks and use roads, or bust out of traffic and use the railway lines. Sounds like a lot of logistical management is needed to avoid train collisions, but the new cars are lighter for railway use and hopefully will help cut down track damage as a result.
Lighted Umbrella This is definitely shaping up to be weird tech day, or is that near-tech day? Never mind.
Here is an umbrella sold in the UK (naturally) that illuminates you as you walk. I guess that these should appeal to the demographic of people desperate for attention or those truly lost in the dark. The rest of us will get by with the $4 cheapies you buy off the street corner when it rains. # Permalink
Posted at
1:07 PM
0 commentsEmail this
Link
High Tech Toast Ok, so maybe this isn't the most "tech" thing going, but we will always applaud anyone who takes an ancient design or ho hum product and seriously updates it. In this case, Trabo's Black "Tech combi toaster ABS black, double function 'pop-up' and traditional (pull-up), electronic timer, stop and cancel function, removable crumb tray. Removable cable. LED On/Off. Cool walls." It's like the Death Star of Toasters! # Permalink
Posted at
8:58 AM
1 commentsEmail this
Link
THE LATEST NEWS
Monday, August 09, 2004
IBM puts the skids on SP2 Well, we've all been waiting for the much vaunted Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, haven't we? Apparently, not all of us. In a memo to employees, seen by CNET News.com, IBM's internal technology department stated that Windows XP SP2 will "change the behavior of Internet Explorer and cause some application incompatibilities." The memo also noted that some "high-profile, business-critical applications are also known to conflict with SP2."
Last week, Microsoft warned that customers using Microsoft Business Solutions CRM Sales for Outlook 1.2 will encounter problems with the software if they install SP2. Microsoft posted a patch to its Web site that it says fixes the problem.
I first heard the technical term for what's happening here annunciated in the movie 'Heartbreak Ridge' starring Clint Eastwood. The terminology contained two words and the first one is "cluster."
Smart Truck III Dumb Idea? Bill's Rant of the Day: So let's see, we have a truck LOADED with electronics (see below) used as a command and control center in, let's say, Iraq... Ground troops and other military elements are deployed, waiting for instructions, and some college boy Al Qaeda (probably with a degree from some Florida University) sets off an RFI bomb near the truck. (Or maybe just shoots it with an RPG in that big, inviting front grille...)
It's one thing to sit back and dream up all the gee-whiz stuff in the world. It's another thing entirely when my tax money is paying to build it. We need a practicality assessment policy. # Permalink
Posted at
11:43 AM
0 commentsEmail this
Link
"For the Air Force, it can be a command-and-control center designed to monitor airfields and their vast surrounding areas. For the Border Patrol and U.S. Marshals, SMARTRUCK III will detect the movement of personnel or vehicles in remote areas. For Homeland Security, it is configured to monitor both bio threats and personnel movements.
"For a war zone, it brings state-of-the-art communications and detection systems while offering up-armored protection to withstand terrorist and insurgent roadside attacks. The SmarTruck III was built for the NAC, the Army's official link to developing collaborative technologies with commercial and academic partners, by Integrated Concepts & Research Corporation (ICRC) of Madison Heights, MI, and Heart International of Grand Blanc, MI."
TiVo Halves Prices to Drive Sales Alice's Rant of the Day: The BBC just announced that TiVo is slashing prices 50 percent to get 10 million users by 2008. If you haven't purchased a TiVo yet (ARE YOU THAT CLUELESS????) this is your chance to experience the magic for a mere $100.
Do we need to drive you to a store?? TiVo will change your life. Period.
Get the Most Out of Doom 3 Doom 3 is heating up the Internet again, and it even made me order a new PC! To get the most out of the game, I found this awesome guide from UpsetChaps that basically has everything you need to get the most out of Doom 3.
Date Rescue Here's a fun use of technology. Fake rescue calls are now available on Cingular and Virgin to help people escape bad dates from Hell.
According to a report from AP: "For both Cingular and Virgin Mobile, the prerecorded messages are created at a high-tech central command in California's Silicon Valley. There, five people with doctorates in linguistics dream up excuses for folks to repeat before suddenly dropping a date gone sour. Dan Enthoven, director of marketing for BeVocal, the California company that designs complex voice-driven software for the telecom market, said the number of rescue calls go up on weekends, especially Fridays at about 8 p.m. BeVocal's two rescue-call clients in North America, Cingular and Virgin Mobile, generate at least 10,000 calls a month, he said."
Remember when everything was iMac-colored see-through plastic? There were transparent green telephones, and red see-through answering machines and on and on.
There is a great article from Popular Science on a new material called Metal Rubber. The hope is that it will lead to a breakthrough in wearable computing, but for now, it's mostly just really interesting. See for yourself:
Ok Now We've Really Seen It All Dept: DefendAir Radio Shield Paint ($68.00) "This specially formulated flat interior paint can help reduce the transmission of wireless radio waves through walls, ceilings and doors. Create a field of protection inside your home or office. Some radio waves may pass through depending on signal strength and other conditions. 
WiFi companies are finally getting wise to the fact that we want wireless networking when we hit the road. I've gotten many a cavity search when going through airport security because of my alarming array of routers and cables and power adapters. But I digress....
Bill's Rant of the Day Dept: Forget what a moustache might look like. The trend lately has been to delete the floppy drive from systems. It's old tech, barely used, and, besides, it will save the seller about $12.... Let me give you a tip on why you should definitely have a floppy drive in your computer: BIOS repair work.
PlanetDOOM has a great section on the latest and greatest Easter eggs hidden in Doom III.
Reuters reported, "The launch is part of a broad strategy at the recovering online service, which watched 2.2 million members abandon its service. Over the past two years, the company has attempted to find new sources of revenue by appealing to different categories of customers including the Spanish-speaking and teen markets. Executives said it hoped to attract the 27 percent of U.S. households comprised of seniors, African Americans and Hispanics who do not yet own a PC."
New Buzzword Dept: Get ready for the DMV or dual-mode vehicle. 
This is definitely shaping up to be weird tech day, or is that near-tech day? Never mind.
Ok, so maybe this isn't the most "tech" thing going, but we will always applaud anyone who takes an ancient design or ho hum product and seriously updates it. In this case, Trabo's Black "Tech combi toaster ABS black, double function 'pop-up' and traditional (pull-up), electronic timer, stop and cancel function, removable crumb tray. Removable cable. LED On/Off. Cool walls." It's like the Death Star of Toasters!
Beep Beep Dept: Gizmo.com has a great piece on the ultimate truck, the SmarTruck III. Here are some highlights:
Alice's Rant of the Day: The BBC just announced that TiVo is slashing prices 50 percent to get 10 million users by 2008. If you haven't purchased a TiVo yet (ARE YOU THAT CLUELESS????) this is your chance to experience the magic for a mere $100.
Doom 3 is heating up the Internet again, and it even made me order a new PC! To get the most out of the game, I found this awesome guide from UpsetChaps that basically has everything you need to get the most out of Doom 3.
Here's a fun use of technology. Fake rescue calls are now available on Cingular and Virgin to help people escape bad dates from Hell.