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A History of Early Computing, Warning: Learning is Involved
Posted by Sean Fallon at 12:00 PM on January 26, 2008
The folks over at Neatorama have put together a good semi-brief history of the world of early computing for anyone interested in learning a thing or two. By the way, when I say early, I mean really early—the saga begins with a 35,000-year-old baboon fibula that early bushmen were using as a makeshift calculator. Admittedly, there are a few glaring omissions, but sacrifices had to me made. I mean, I want to learn—but not if it is going to take all day. [Neatorama]
If you have been thinking about remodelling your home, and you just can't get enough of the 
Man, I love the guys at Worldwide Fred—but parents and janitors probably feel differently thanks to this ZING! spring-loaded spoon launcher. The way I see it, if you are going to go into battle, you had better have the right equipment. Loading up a round of vegetables in this thing will surely give you an edge over your enemy. Peas will rain down like hellfire. Pricing not yet available. [
Circuit City has a cobalt blue/black DS Lite for preorder on their website. Considering three minutes have passed since the last time the DS got a costume change, this makes perfect sense to us. No word on the release date, but as always, it's US$130. Get it now to complete your collection and make Nintendo 
A newly unearthed patent application from Motorola has revealed a design for a mobile that features a foldable / roll-upable display and keypad. While the concept is 
This new device from Brando claims to have the ability to 
I have absolutely no sense of direction, so having a GPS unit in my car is a necessity. Others may find it useful for travelling or as a tool to aid them in their vehicle-bound jobs. Now that many of these devices are fairly affordable, the question is: Have you got on the GPS bandwagon yet?
Remember that 
Yesterday, word was that Best Buy is days away from 
As 
The only time we use Bluetooth is to yap about in our cars while we're driving or for transferring photos to and from our computer, but Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Bleill is using it to help him walk again. The Iraq veteran has dual prosthesis with Bluetooth transmitters on board that sends signals between each motor, which updates each piece of the legs on what the others are doing, how it's moving, and whether or not they need to make adjustments. 
Have you seen Bono more uncomfortable than this? Caption this picture of him supporting the 
A series of demo runs were held with the Robovie robot in the Universal Citywalk Osaka shopping centre earlier this week in Japan trying to see how good the droid is at helping out lost shoppers. Here's how it works.
OLPC was supposed to be a beacon of hope and gleaming digital light for children all around the developing world. Lately, it's been more like a 
You may recall that 
Apparently money has burned quite the hole in Bill Gates' philanthropic pocket, as during this week's World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Gates pledged US$306 million in grants to fund farming in in poor/developing countries through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. To the audience he said:
So you really like turntables, do you? Perhaps you're a self-styled DJ, or maybe you're just one of those awkward vinyl aficionados who tut-tuts every time someone talks about MP3s. In any case, I'm sure you're looking to rub what you consider to be such a sweet hobby/obsession in the faces of others. This turntable watch is modelled after the classic Technics 1200 down to the tiniest detail, so much so that you'd swear you could spin some wax on it if only records came in such wee sizes. It's available now for US$65 and a small shred of your dignity. [
Despite looking like a freaky PC case-mod for your head, researchers say this helmet may serve as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease. It directs low levels of infrared light at the skulls of Alzheimer's sufferers in order to combat the disease by stimulating brain cell growth.
After 
When most of us think fibre optic lamps, we have visions of black plastic casing emitting rainbow effects through fibre optic tubes sticking out in pony tail fashion. GloFab challenges the ugly fibre optic stereotype by weaving together what is almost a fibre optic fabric around a single light source, and shaping it into spheres or various custom fixtures. Staring at this ceiling fan that we've meant to replace for years, we're given more ideas, but sadly, not any addition motivation.
Marshall says that their new MXL USB.009 USB microphone is the first in the world to record at 24-bit/96 kHz without needing some expensive A/D converter. The 24-bit sampling gives your tracks very high-resolution detail for your mixing, capturing every single detail of your off-key singing. The mike has a gold sputtered diaphragm, with a high dynamic range of 114 dB; it also has a headphone jack for zero-latency monitoring and comes with a stand and flight case. Compatible with Macs and PCs, it's out later in the US Spring for US$400. [
