Lifters : Real world antigravity?

This site has some interesting experiments with "antigravity" though your guess is as good as mine if this is actually what it is or not. There are several videos in the 'experiment' links about half way down the page.

read more | digg story

Build your own Hoverboard!

I have wanted one of these things for almost 20 years now (ever since Back to the Future 2). These aren't exactly like the ones in the movie, but its a start!

read more | digg story

Despite the lack of posts, I am still out here

To some speculation, I have not abandoned my dear to my heart tech blog. I have been writing/covering some newsworthy jems for the guys over at Gear Live. A good news and reviews site. On another note, I'm finding more and more that we are all reporting the same stories. All my favorite blogs and sites such as... Engadet, Gizomodo, Kotaku, Joystiq, and the Gawker gang to name a few blogs and I like digg.com for the occasional can't miss site, tip or deal. But now, everytime I find a story that I think is incredible or worth telling, it's already told. Shouted from the rooftop. Someone has already posted it on one of the "Golden Blogs" and it made it's rounds and lo and behold I go to submit it to Digg... and it's already there too. A day in the life. Just ranting... Anyways, blog blah blah. Read more of my editorials at Gear Live

Amazon has a Pre-Order for Apple's OS X Tiger

Amazon has a pre-order page for Apple’s next revision of OS X, 10.4, or ‘Tiger.’ While there’s no release date, the $35 mail-in rebate shows a ‘postmark by’ date of May 31st, so I would expect it to arrive reasonable soon before then. If you’re a Mac user, there’s much to recommend Tiger, from the previews, including system-wide search indexing and upgraded versions of many of the bundled programs.
Amazon lists the features as: - Expected to be available in first half of 2005. - Surf, receive RSS news-feeds, personalize content, and view Web pages in 1 place - Safari RSS consolidates most recent news and info from the Web - iChat AV multi-way video and audio conferencing with a stunning 3D interface - Open and close Dashboard instantly using function key to access Widget mini-applications
Amazon Pre-Order

Hypersonic Sound Will Change the Way we Listen Forever

Rarely is an invention so unique, so visceral and so simple that in 15 seconds most people who experience it realize it could alter everyday life. But that's what happens to just about anyone who steps out to the back parking lot of American Technology Corp. (ATC) here for a demonstration of its invention called HyperSonic Sound (HSS). Essentially, HSS for the first time does for sound what the laser did for light — intensely focuses and channels it so it can travel great distances without dispersing. In the demo, a technician points a speaker the size of a cereal box at someone standing 100 yards away. Amid the din of the nearby freeway, the technician plays a recording of ice cubes clinking into a glass. To the listener, the sound comes across as if it were through headphones, totally unlike a sound blaring from a distant speaker over oppressive car noise. Take two steps to the side, out of the sound beam, and you hear nothing at all. Step back in, and there it is again. "I am certain that in time, HSS will be used everywhere," says Dionyssis Angelopoulos of Athens, Greece. He read about HSS, came to San Diego to hear it and went back to his Greek company to build it into commercial sound systems. Though the technology is still years from becoming mainstream, HSS could be used to make laptop speakers that blare music to the person in front of the screen, while no one else could hear it. It could allow a grocery store to play audio advertisements that seem to come from, say, the display of Duracell batteries, yet the ad could be heard only by the shopper in front of the display. An HSS-equipped car could play one CD for the parents up front and another for kids in the back. Neither would hear even a whisper of the others' music. The technology is winning believers from Wal-Mart to McDonald's, Fox television, the Los Angeles Police Department, Procter & Gamble, the U.S. Navy and Cirque de Soleil. It is looking into whether HSS could be used to communicate instructions, midact, from the ground to a trapeze artist without the audience hearing. Companies are experimenting with HSS in TVs, rock concerts, museums, war and airport gates. Imagine hearing only your flight's announcements. In 2002, Popular Science magazine awarded HSS the grand prize for inventions. The Segway personal transporter took second. "It offers huge benefits over your standard speaker systems," says Sony executive Simon Beesley, who is working on HSS in commercial settings, such as stores or restaurants. "The technology is in its infancy, but I am sure it will very quickly expand." As it does, HSS will probably rattle the speaker industry, which has been selling a variation of the same technology for nearly 80 years. The impact could be like that of the jet engine on propeller planes or the PC on the mainframe — a major shift that ushers in an era.
Via USA Today

Toyota New Scion T2B Concept Car

The inside of the new T2B concept car unveiled at last week’s New York Auto Show is half slick, half sci-fi nightmare, featuring a multimedia dashboard that presents information in ticker tape format. It also provides access to movies and games that can be projected onto the rear glass, plus music downloads via the internet.
Via Engadget

Nasa's Deep Impact Comet Crusher Problems

NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft is on course for a July 4 encounter with comet Tempel 1, but mission officials are trying to determine why one of the probe's telescopes has not focused properly. (Photo: Xinhua/AFP) NASA's comet-slamming Deep Impact spacecraft, which is on scheduled course for a July 4 collision with comet Tempel 1, has a minor glitch with one camera, according to the space agency. After performing a test called "bake-out," a procedure that heats up the instrument to remove moisture, mission managers noticed the High Resolution Instrument (HRI) has not reached perfect focus. NASA has formed a team to investigate. It might be possible to bring the camera into full focus. "This in no way will affect our ability to impact the comet on July 4," Rick Grammier, Deep Impact project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement.

8.7 Magnitude Earthquake in Southeast Asia

"The U.S. Geological Survey raised the magnitude of the earthquake that shook Southeast Asia today to 8.7. There are unconfirmed reports of deaths on the island of Nias, off the Sumatran coast of Indonesia, the U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs said." CNN.com

Walking octopuses discovered

Two little species of Indian Ocean octopus can tuck up six of their arms while running on the other two, US researchers have reported. They can use their other six arms to disguise themselves from predators, either as rolling coconuts or clumps of floating algae, the team at the University of California Berkeley and Universitas Sam Ratulangi in North Sulawesi, Indonesia found. The discovery, published in the journal Science, discredits theories that walking requires hard bones and skeletal muscle, as octopuses have neither. Via Walking octopuses discovered | TECHNOLOGY | NEWS | tvnz.co.nz

Dinosaur Fossil Could Contain Cells

A 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil dug out of a hunk of sandstone has yielded soft tissue, including blood vessels and perhaps even whole cells, US researchers reported. Paleontologists forced to break the creature's massive thighbone to get it on a helicopter found not a solid piece of fossilized bone, but instead something looking a bit less like a rock. When they got it into a lab and chemically removed the hard minerals, they found what looked like blood vessels, bone cells and perhaps even blood cells. ViaTECHNOLOGY | NEWS | tvnz.co.nz

Nintendo Revolution to Include a Touchscreen Controller?

Mr. Hat writes in that this month’s Game Informer may let the cat out of the bag about what’s so revolutionary about the Revolution. Hasn’t this been done before? Mr. Hat writes… For months and months we’ve all been wondering what the new and “revolutionary” aspects of the Nintendo Revolution would be. It looks like we finally have an answer… I just got the newest issue of Game Informer today, and there’s a pretty lengthy article in there about everything the magazine knows so far about the next generation consoles. Hidden pretty well in there is the Nintendo update- “However, Nintendo may have to pull a rabbit out of it’s hat to become a major player in the next generation. That rabbit, GI has learned, *is a touch screen*. A source at a major development studio recently revealed to us details regarding Nintedo’s devlopment kit for the Revolution… The most shocking is that the Revolution *Uses a touch screen as it’s controller. There is no analog stick or shoulder buttons. The touch screen on the face of the controller is designed to be fully customizable. So, the developer can configure the buttons any way they se4e fit, instead opting for virtual levers or other stylus-related inputs.*” This makes perfect sense- even though the touch screen is currently being utilized with the DS, it’s still a technology that hasn’t been widely used before. This also speaks to Iwata’s statement that developers may be wary of the new technology- after all, we’ve spent a decade expecting to control our characters with some kind of D-Pad or Analog stick. This would change everything, and could potentially scare people away. I’m betting that this is for real.
Article at Joystiq

Apple Developing a Two Button Mouse?

Appleinsider claims that Apple is "feverishly working" on a two-button wireless optical mouse to be released soon. According to the rumor site, the reason for the departure from the single-mouse stance stems from Apple's recent foray into attracting the low-end PC market with the Mac Mini. One teaser quote included claims "Jaws will drop". No timeframe for introduction is provided. Two buttoned mice have been long rumored from Apple. The earliest in our archives date back to 2002. Meanwhile, a October 2000 Wired article speculating the introduction of a two-button Apple mouse for the (then) beta Mac OS X.Mac Rumors: Apple Mac Rumors and News You Care About

Comcast and TiVo Strike a Deal

It's official. After reported rumors in both the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, TiVo and Comcast have announced a deal this morning. Comcast Corp. expects to begin selling the new DVRs, which will carry the TiVo brand, by mid to late 2006. Financial details were not disclosed but it was reported that Comcast will let TiVo extend to Comcast subscribers the advertising it sells in the form of interactive video clips that automatically appear in the TiVo menu.

MSNBC - Moon probe could kill conspiracy theory

A European spacecraft now orbiting the moon could turn out to be a time machine of sorts as it photographs old landing sites of Soviet robotic probes and the areas where American Apollo crews set down and explored. New imagery of old Apollo touchdown spots, from the European Space Agency’s SMART-1 probe, might put to rest conspiratorial thoughts that U.S. astronauts didn’t go the distance and scuff up the lunar landscape. NASA carried out six piloted landings on the moon between 1969 and 1972. Fringe theorists have said images of the waving flag — on a moon with no atmosphere — and other oddities show that NASA never really went to the moon. No serious scientist or spaceflight historian doubts the success of the Apollo program, however. MSNBC - Moon probe could kill conspiracy theory

Track Your Family with Microsoft

Microsoft researchers have put a new twist on telling time, creating a digital wall clock with hands for each member of the family. Instead of numbers, the hands point to places — work, school, home — and can track a person's location to show where he or she is at any time. Not good for teenagers, perhaps, but something parents might find interesting. Don't expect to buy the clock in stores anytime soon. That invention, and hundreds of others, were on display yesterday at Microsoft's annual science fair of the most futuristic ideas from the company's research division. The people-tracking clock is an idea out of Microsoft's research laboratories in Cambridge, England. Technology in cellphones these days can easily track a person's location, and that information could be sent to the clock to be seen by those at home. "It sounds very trivial but it has very nice properties," said Andrew Herbert, the managing director of the Cambridge lab. "You can glance at it and know where everyone is." The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Microsoft's festival of future