Saturday, November 8, 2008
Software
Diebold Sued for GPL Violations, Allegations of Puppy Kicking to Come
11:00PM Gizmodo US Edition | Artifex, makers of the Linux Ghostscript Postscript interpreter, is suing Diebold for breaking the fair use terms of its software. Diebold used the freely-available software, which is fine, but when they authored some changes to Ghostscript Postscript, they neglected to follow the very reasonable rules such use requires. Biggies like HP, Xerox, and IBM all use Ghostscript legally and honestly, so why can’t Diebold? More »
Software
What Photoshop Would Look Like in Real Life
12:06PM Gizmodo US Edition | This project shows us what Photoshop would look like if the UI were rendered in real life. If you check out this Flickr gallery of how it was created, it seems safe to say that this display is tangible, and was not created by computer graphics, or even—you guessed it!—Photoshopped. [BoingBoing] More »
Phones
Mobile Millennium Project is a Poor Man’s Traffic-Relaying GPS
11:30AM Gizmodo US Edition | On Monday Nokia, NAVTEQ and UC Berkeley will launch the Mobile Millennium project which will use GPS data from thousands of mobile phones to gather traffic information in the San Francisco Bay Area. By having users relay and access the information, it will enable them to find and avoid traffic congestion, similar to the Dash Express GPS system. I’d participate, but I wonder how much researchers would benefit from my daily commute from bed to kitchen table.
Peripherals
Keep Your USB Drive Close with a Clothes Pin
10:37AM Gizmodo US Edition | USB drives are extremely useful when you need to inconspicuously tote around important files. However, it’s a known fact that tons of data is lost by people who misplace these teeny memory sticks. That’s why I think this Clothes Pin USB concept is a pretty good one. Just don’t forget to unclip it from your clothes before doing the laundry! See the closeup shot after the jump. [Poor.pl via Yanko] More »
Design
LED Bath Temperature Floaty 10x More Useful and Beautiful Than Rubber Ducky
10:00AM Brian Lam | This watertight, multicolour LED housing sits in a bath and changes hues according to water temperature. Simple and a lot more effective than a simple faucet mounted sensor that will not compensate for cooling off periods. But not as simple as dipping your toe into the water. If this were it, I’d probably recommend that this concept never see the light of day, but it also can be switched into a candle mode. [Yanko] galleryPost('ledbathsensor', 3, ''); More »
Robots
World’s Largest Robot Vehicle Coming from Caterpillar and Carnegie Mellon
9:30AM Wilson Rothman | The celebrated roboticists of Carnegie Mellon University are using their DARPA Urban Challenge know-how to give the gift of autonomous operation to a 700-ton mining truck formerly known as the Caterpillar 797B. As you might have suspected, the Japanese construction-gear firm Komatsu was actually first with an automated mining vehicle, but being Japanese, it’s more compact, OK puny. Officially no mobile robot will have weighed as much as this bright yellow bastard, according to Discovery. It’s way too easy to make a Terminator reference here, so I’m gonna have to play the Maximum Overdrive card. Not scared yet? Read on. More »
Gadgets
23 NASA Missions Omega Watches for Just $US125,000
9:00AM Jesus Diaz | Absolute. Spacenerdgasm. 23 Omega Speedmaster Watches. In a cool space suitcase. The first is a replica of the original 1957 Speedmaster Broad Arrow, while the next 22 of them are the NASA missions ones, with patches on the 9 O’Clock position from the coolest NASA missions ever. From the 1965 Gemini V launch to the November 1973 Skylab SL-4 mission, and going through the Apollo 11 watch, you have them all: More »
Toys
The Plain Old Stick Enters Into Toy Hall of Fame
8:40AM Sean Fallon | A plain wooden stick was entered into the National Toy Hall of Fame yesterday along with Baby Doll and the skateboard. These toys join 38 other classics like the bicycle, Mr. Potato Head, Crayola crayons, and the Atari 2600 video game system. So why the stick? Well, it has been a staple of imaginative play since time began and, as one curator noted, “it’s not just for humans anymore. You can find otters, chimps and dogs — especially dogs — playing with it.” Originally, the title of this post was “Stick Enters Toy Hall of Fame, Cardboard Box Snubbed.” However, I discovered that the cardboard box was inducted in 2005. It’s a good thing too—overlooking everyone’s favourite fort would have caused an outrage of epic proportions. [CNN via Boing Boing] More »
Entertainment
Hey Pam Beesly, Where Can I Get A Matsuhashi B-400?
8:20AM John Mahoney | Last time we checked, the world’s tiniest Bluetooth headset wasn’t quite as diminutive as the piece Jim and Pam used to keep in minute-by-minute contact last night, with hilarious (and, oh boy, disastrous) results. I’m heading out to the Village now, Pam, if you’re reading this–tell me where to go. And also, you are adorable. [The Office]
QOTD
