Tuesday, July 31, 2007
New Phone for People Who Like Mushrooms, Hate Poisonings
11:49PM Seamus Byrne | Foraging for mushrooms can be fun, but getting poisoned by the wrong species always ruins a nice afternoon. Researchers at the Hagenberg College in Austria have developed software that can identify which mushrooms are safe to eat and which are poisonous, just from a photograph. This means it could easily be run on a mobile phone with a camera, to create a handy tool for foragers. It’s not sure yet clear whether magic mushrooms have been placed in the safe or poisonous category – maybe that will be a user option. [Metro] More »
Craziest, Weirdest, Coolest Soviet Airplanes Ever
11:40PM Seamus Byrne | If you didn’t get enough with the Typhoon closing on the Hercules, check this Sukhoi SU-27UB whizzing by just 4 feet above the runway. However, this isn’t the most impressive thing flying at the Russian 2007 Air Show. Check out some of the strangest and coolest airplanes you will ever see, after the jump. More »
DeLorean Going Back Into Production
11:35PM Seamus Byrne | The DeLorean, the car from Back to the Future with the gull wing doors and gleaming stainless steel finish, has come back to the future, going into extremely limited production thanks to a group of greasemonkeys in Houston who like to refurbish cars. They have about 200 of the original DeLorean 2.8 L V-6 engines on hand, and will start making the cars from scratch next year. More »
Niles IC2, the Mother of All Universal Remotes
11:13PM Seamus Byrne | Niles, remote makers to the stars and NBA basketball players, has finally decided to upgrade its venerable easy-to-use Intellicontrol remote control to the IC2, an even simpler version with larger buttons and up-to-date devices. Long a mainstay of the high-end home theater installation market, the Intellicontrol has been around for 12 years, and is the device that inspired lots of universal remotes, including our favorite Logitech Harmony line that lets you just push one button to get everything going for about a tenth the price. galleryPost('nilesremote', 4, 'Niles IC2'); More »
Anti-GPS Tracking Devices Plugs into Cigarette Jack and Loses You Your Tail
11:12PM Seamus Byrne | If you’re important enough to have one, that is. This is a small jamming device that you plug into the cigarette lighter of your car and it blocks any GPS tracking devices that might be trained on your vehicle. It’s probably illegal, but hey, so is sex with your sister. More »
Casio’s USB Printer for Labels, Egg-Shaped, Useful, from Brando
10:57PM Seamus Byrne | Brando is firing on all cylinders today with this eggy USB label printer from Casio. I didn’t think it got any better than the iPhone battery but a girl can make mistakes. Features and price are below the gallery. galleryPost('casiousbprinter', 4, 'casiousbprinter'); More »
28-Wheel Truck Climbs Mountains, Builds Telescopes
10:04PM Seamus Byrne | What has 28 wheels, is 20m long, weighs 130 tonnes and has as much power as two Formula One cars? This truck does, and it’s been built to haul 115-tonne telescope parts 5,000m up the Chilean Andes. At that height the driver won’t be able to breathe, so the seat has been designed so that a person can sit with an oxygen tank on. More »
Futurama Back in November as a Feature-Length HD DVD
10:02PM Seamus Byrne | Cult cartoon Futurama is coming back later this year as a full-length film. The movie, Bender’s Big Score, will be available to buy on November 27 as a high-definition DVD, and will be followed by three other feature-length movies. Each movie will, however, be divided into four separate episodes and will be aired on TV. Comedy Central will be showing the 16 episodes. Not much is known about them, apart from a few juicy tidbits from Bender’s Big Score. Apparently it involves nudist aliens and the secret of time travel ñ- which apparently has something to do with Fry’s buttock. [TV Squad via Slashdot] More »Acer going Ubuntu
9:54PM Seamus Byrne | If you’re a Linux fan, then your options just got bigger. It seems like Acer are following in Dell’s footsteps, and starting to offer Ubuntu preloaded on some machines. [Hardware Zone] More »
