Friday, May 4, 2007
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World’s Fastest Toilet is Jet, not Fart, Propelled
11:35PM Seamus Byrne | Well, Flame Grill my Whopper and call it Professor Caractacus Potts! Is there nothing sacred any more? Not even those precious moments when a man wants a little peace in the world so that he can go about his daily business without being disturbed? It seems not, but then the British always were a little strange. This is, apparently, the world’s fastest toilet. Powered by a Boeing Jet engine, the $10,000 vehicle’s top speed is in excess of 70mph, and it farts flames from its tailpipe – rather like, I would imagine, a man forced to eat ten vindaloos one after another. There’s a video, as well another pic of the flaming khazi in action and its inventor, Paul Stender, all after the jump. More »
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Digiworks USB Virus Chaser Kills Binary Critters by Lethal Injection
10:11PM Seamus Byrne | Not sure just how effective this will be, but you’ve got to admit that a portable anti-virus system can only be A Good Thing. This USB Virus Chaser, courtesy of Korean company Digiworks, is not the first anti-virus-system-in-a-USB, as they’ve been around for a couple of years (most notably Iocell’s VaccineDrive). The Virus Chaser is around from this month in 2GB and 4GB versions. – Ad Dugdale USB VIrus Chaser by Digiworks [Akihabara News] More »
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Stripped Nokias Don’t Show Pink, Still Quite Hot
9:43PM Seamus Byrne | Mehmet Erkök. The name sounds straight out of a Terry Gilliam movie and so do his customised Nokia phones, which is the sort of retro technology that you could have seen in 12 Monkeys. The orange one could have even made it in Barbarella no, not a Terry Gilliam movie but it has Jane Fonda running around half-naked, like these modded mobiles. Erkök is not a time traveller, though, but a lecturer at the Department of Industrial Product design in the Istanbul Teknik Ãœniversitesi, in Turkey. The picture of the blue one after the jump makes me want one. Now. More »
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LawnBott Remote-Controlled Mower for Lazy Gardeners
9:06PM Seamus Byrne | The LawnBott may look like Arnold Schwarznegger’s cycling helmet, but it’s actually a cordless, remote-controlled lawnmower with a flat blade that mulches the grass as it cuts it. Charge it up on its docking station and it will go for 4 hours—or 33,000 square feet—on one single charge. It’s apparently so quiet that you can let it run all night without bugging the neighbors, it doesn’t mind a bit of light rain, and a heavier shower will send it toddling back to its base station like the obedient little robot it is. It does hills—anything up to a 1:4 gradient, in fact—and only uses around $7 to $10 of electricity each year. The downside is the price: the LB2000 Professional will set you back $1,749. – Ad Dugdale Press Release [Productivity Inc. via Sci-Fi Tech] More »
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7:46PM Seamus Byrne | Think you’re the business on a virtual race track? Xbox is organising a big one-night tournament to be held on the big screen at Hoyts Entertainment Quarter (aka Fox Studios), Sydney, on May 23rd. Get yourself signed up right here for a spot on the knock-out roster, with the final eight players showing their moves on the big screen in front of the whole crowd. All Forza 2 action too, three weeks before official release in mid June.
If you love this racing stuff, get your name on the list fast — first 400 not only get the night of big screen racing action, but a sneak preview screening of ‘28 Weeks Later’… sequel to the great Sandra Bullock film, ‘28 Days’. Oh, sorry? Right. Correction. That’s the sequel to the zombie thriller ‘28 Days Later’. -Seamus Byrne
[ Xbox 360 Forza 2 Big Screen Racing Challenge ]
More »
Forza 2 pre-launch race event: r u fast or furious?
7:46PM Seamus Byrne | Think you’re the business on a virtual race track? Xbox is organising a big one-night tournament to be held on the big screen at Hoyts Entertainment Quarter (aka Fox Studios), Sydney, on May 23rd. Get yourself signed up right here for a spot on the knock-out roster, with the final eight players showing their moves on the big screen in front of the whole crowd. All Forza 2 action too, three weeks before official release in mid June.
If you love this racing stuff, get your name on the list fast — first 400 not only get the night of big screen racing action, but a sneak preview screening of ‘28 Weeks Later’… sequel to the great Sandra Bullock film, ‘28 Days’. Oh, sorry? Right. Correction. That’s the sequel to the zombie thriller ‘28 Days Later’. -Seamus Byrne
[ Xbox 360 Forza 2 Big Screen Racing Challenge ]
More »
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6:52PM Seamus Byrne | They make some of the coolest technology carry bags around and they’re from Melbourne, so it made sense that they’d put in a good showing. The quirkiest booth of the lot, come 4.00pm it was turned into a party zone as some good quality beer started flowing freely (and soft stuff of the Red Bull variety for sober travellers).
Add a big batch of giveaways and it was a stellar way to end the day. They taunted the gathered folk with the announcement of their next Beer for Bags promo — where you can buy specific beers to trade-in at Crumpler stores for their bags. But the announcement was for Toronto and New York. Bastards. More Beer for Bags scheduled for later this year here in Oz.
Party pics after the jump.
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PMA 07: Crumpler stand becomes party central
6:52PM Seamus Byrne | They make some of the coolest technology carry bags around and they’re from Melbourne, so it made sense that they’d put in a good showing. The quirkiest booth of the lot, come 4.00pm it was turned into a party zone as some good quality beer started flowing freely (and soft stuff of the Red Bull variety for sober travellers).
Add a big batch of giveaways and it was a stellar way to end the day. They taunted the gathered folk with the announcement of their next Beer for Bags promo — where you can buy specific beers to trade-in at Crumpler stores for their bags. But the announcement was for Toronto and New York. Bastards. More Beer for Bags scheduled for later this year here in Oz.
Party pics after the jump.
More »
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1:39PM Seamus Byrne | When you try and pull out the required TENS OF THOUSANDS (last look this had just broken $20,000), you can tell your S.O. it is for charity. Sick kids need your years salary!
It really is an awesome piece of work. Airbrushed Halo 3 art, signed by the team at Bungie.
This isn’t the first of the Konsoles for Kids charity auctions, with the earlier consoles getting a mix response — some going below retail. But they were ‘damaged’, particularly the Kerri-Anne Kennerley Konsole, and does anyone really support the Queensland Reds? I’m sure this Halo 3 result is sure to make up for the mediocre earlier responses. The global response is such that they’re offering an NTSC console to the winner if necessary.
Check out the buyer information to see some of the recent auctions. -Seamus Byrne
[ The Halo 3 Xbox 360 auction ]
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Masterful Halo 3 Xbox 360 on eBay Australia
1:39PM Seamus Byrne | When you try and pull out the required TENS OF THOUSANDS (last look this had just broken $20,000), you can tell your S.O. it is for charity. Sick kids need your years salary!
It really is an awesome piece of work. Airbrushed Halo 3 art, signed by the team at Bungie.
This isn’t the first of the Konsoles for Kids charity auctions, with the earlier consoles getting a mix response — some going below retail. But they were ‘damaged’, particularly the Kerri-Anne Kennerley Konsole, and does anyone really support the Queensland Reds? I’m sure this Halo 3 result is sure to make up for the mediocre earlier responses. The global response is such that they’re offering an NTSC console to the winner if necessary.
Check out the buyer information to see some of the recent auctions. -Seamus Byrne
[ The Halo 3 Xbox 360 auction ]
More »
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1:17PM Seamus Byrne | I’ve tinkered with screen prints and thermal prints and the rest, but getting a great result from your own designs is pretty hit and miss. There have been a few recent showings of fabric printing (I saw it at an HP show in Singapore a couple of years ago), but they’ve been slow to translate to fabrics actually being available for purchase.
Now Giclee Media Supplies are distributing a US fabric type, with its special coating that lets you drop it into a standard inkjet and go for it. They used the Epson 9800 on this example on their stand, and it looked awesome — not my taste in a skirt, but I’m not one for pastels when I hit the town.
Apparently you can choose from lots of fabrics (this is a silk), or even send them your own which they will treat and add the necessary paper backing to (you remove the paper after printing, unless you like the feel of paper on your skin… no, I don’t want to know). -Seamus Byrne
[ Giclee Media Supplies ]
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PMA 07: DIY high-art suits and frocks: fabric prints get easy
1:17PM Seamus Byrne | I’ve tinkered with screen prints and thermal prints and the rest, but getting a great result from your own designs is pretty hit and miss. There have been a few recent showings of fabric printing (I saw it at an HP show in Singapore a couple of years ago), but they’ve been slow to translate to fabrics actually being available for purchase.
Now Giclee Media Supplies are distributing a US fabric type, with its special coating that lets you drop it into a standard inkjet and go for it. They used the Epson 9800 on this example on their stand, and it looked awesome — not my taste in a skirt, but I’m not one for pastels when I hit the town.
Apparently you can choose from lots of fabrics (this is a silk), or even send them your own which they will treat and add the necessary paper backing to (you remove the paper after printing, unless you like the feel of paper on your skin… no, I don’t want to know). -Seamus Byrne
[ Giclee Media Supplies ]
More »
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BlackBerry Curve Review Roundup
1:16PM Seamus Byrne | Now that the BlackBerry Curve has been officially announced, you’re probably wondering how it is. We’ve got you covered. Here’s a roundup of all the curve reviews on the net. More »
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1:05PM Seamus Byrne | A lot of the show has some spectacular paper on display. 100% cottons, watercolours, silver film, lightbox film, canvas. All for use in inkjets with standard inkjet ink (read: don’t go messing around with shitty 3rd-party inks here — use the real stuff and you’ll get what you paid for).
But of course, I can’t really show you on a screen. I’ll do what I can, but this is about the finish, the polish, the texture. C’mon, reach out and touch it through your screen if you think you can.
Anyway, it’s all about the fancy coatings, really, that is how these gorgeous materials can be used in your inkjet even though they look compeletely incompatible. Like the fabric in the entry… -Seamus Byrne
[ Stand in the picture is paper by Canson Arches ]
Local distributor [Kayell]
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PMA 07: Paper and the web really don’t get along
1:05PM Seamus Byrne | A lot of the show has some spectacular paper on display. 100% cottons, watercolours, silver film, lightbox film, canvas. All for use in inkjets with standard inkjet ink (read: don’t go messing around with shitty 3rd-party inks here — use the real stuff and you’ll get what you paid for).
But of course, I can’t really show you on a screen. I’ll do what I can, but this is about the finish, the polish, the texture. C’mon, reach out and touch it through your screen if you think you can.
Anyway, it’s all about the fancy coatings, really, that is how these gorgeous materials can be used in your inkjet even though they look compeletely incompatible. Like the fabric in the entry… -Seamus Byrne
[ Stand in the picture is paper by Canson Arches ]
Local distributor [Kayell]
More » 