By Evan Ackerman It’s not sexy, but here it is: a real live commercially produced laser cannon. The FIRESTRIKE system, by Northrop Grumman, is a 15 kW electric laser capable of firing continuously as long as it gets power and coolant. It’s even got en Ethernet connection, so you can zap people and surf the internet […]
By Evan Ackerman
It’s not sexy, but here it is: a real live commercially produced laser cannon. The FIRESTRIKE system, by Northrop Grumman, is a 15 kW electric laser capable of firing continuously as long as it gets power and coolant. It’s even got en Ethernet connection, so you can zap people and surf the web at the same time! If you’re really ambitious, you can couple up to seven of them together to make a 100 kW laser, which is just about the minimum you’d need for an effective combat system.
The downside is that each module is about 400 pounds, which unfortunately puts it well out of the handheld class. And I assume you can’t just pop a couple Duracells in there, nor does it appear to have a wall plug. But the worst part is that it’s just not evil looking. I mean, it’s a mostly featureless absolutely boring gray box. It really should be put inside a case that looks like something from Star Wars (the third one, with the stupidly high SFX budget), with some skull and crossbones decals on it and an absurdly gigantic barrel with lots of blinky LED lights and smoke machines and sound effects.
Oh well, I can’t find a price, and if I were Northrop Grumman, I definitely wouldn’t sell a tactical laser system to someone like me.
By Evan Ackerman When taking a picture, timing is everything. Focus, exposure, lighting, composition, angle, depth of field, white balance, and subject are also everything, but timing is at least as important as the rest of those. Even if you have a fancy schmancy DSLR or one of those old cameras that takes, uh, film, that’s […]
By Evan Ackerman
When taking a picture, timing is everything. Focus, exposure, lighting, composition, angle, depth of field, white balance, and subject are also everything, but timing is at least as important as the rest of those. Even if you have a fancy schmancy DSLR or one of those old cameras that takes, uh, film, that’s it, film, sometimes our poor old brains just aren’t quick enough to trigger our shutter fingers to capture the perfect shot. The Universal Photo Timer has a much cleverer brain than you do, and is able to trigger your camera and up to 2 flash units with 100µs precision via either an infrared signal or a cable remote.
The Universal Photo Timer is certainly a timer, but the neatest bit is the modular triggering system, which can be set up in any number of different ways. Already built in is a microphone, which means that you can set the timer to trigger your camera as soon as (or after) it hears a loud noise. You can create or buy a whole bunch of other sensors, like optical sensors that will set the timer off when you shine a laser at them, or motion sensors that you can use to capture wildlife remotely. Not impressed yet? Here’s a sample of a picture that becomes a dead cinch to take with this system:
This picture was taken using a laser and optical sensor wired into the timer. The falling droplet of water broke the beam, triggering the timer, which set off the camera and flash after a delay to grant the droplet to make a splash. More samples, after the jump.
Exploding (while lit) light bulb. Taken by firing a pellet gun at the light bulb, and using the mic to trigger the timer.
Water drop falling onto a lit match. Taken with a laser and optical sensor controlling the timer.
The Universal Pic Timer costs $170, and all of the goodies will cost extra (if you don’t want to make your own). The most useful of these, the optical sensor, is another $25.
By Andrew Liszewski Over the past few years Takara has been releasing ‘Masterpiece’ editions of some of the more popular Transformers in the toy line, including Optimus Prime, Megatron and Starscream. The figures are considerably more massive and more pricey than the ones released in the 80’s, but the extra detail and articulation is enough to convince […]
By Andrew Liszewski
Over the past few years Takara has been releasing ‘Masterpiece’ editions of some of the more popular Transformers in the toy line, including Optimus Prime, Megatron and Starscream. The figures are considerably more massive and more high-priced than the ones released in the 80’s, but the extra detail and articulation is enough to convince geeks like me who grew up with the toys to shell out the extra money now that we have disposable incomes. And while Optimus and Megatron are definitely near the top of the Tranformers’ popularity list, I’m pretty sure if Takara had let the public choose their favorite character to get the Masterpiece treatment, there’s no question that Grimlock would have been first on deck. I don’t care if you sided with the Autobots or the Decepticons as a kid, everyone loved Grimlock.
The MP-08 Masterpiece Grimlock will supposedly come with an LED in his arm to illuminate his energy sword, and is made from a combination of plastic and die-cast metal parts. He’s currently available for pre-order from BigBadToyStore.com(it’s really not that bad) for $143.99, although he’s not scheduled to be released until March of 2009.
By Andrew Liszewski Whether you’re at home or one the road, this Hello Kitty portable alarm clock will wake you from a blissful slumber with one of three different Hello Kitty chimes, making it perfect for 9 year old girls or creepy 40 year old businessmen. It runs on 2 AAA batteries, weighs just 125g and […]
By Andrew Liszewski
Whether you’re at home or one the road, this Hello Kitty portable alarm clock will wake you from a blissful slumber with one of three different Hello Kitty chimes, making it perfect for 9 year old girls or creepy 40 year old businessmen. It runs on 2 AAA batteries, weighs just 125g and even features a thermometer, all for just $49 from Geek Stuff 4 U. All-in-all it seems pretty cute and innocuous, but let me remind you that I’ve already speculated about Hello Kitty’s true intentions in past articles. Perhaps this alarm clock is just another tool in the Kitty’s master plan to eventually overthrow and enslave humanity. Consider it…
PayPal cofounder, SpaceX Founer and Tesla CEO Elon Musk takes the stage this day at the Web 2.0 Summit to speak with John Battelle. What do space flights and electric vehicles have to do with Web 2.0? Completely nothing. Still, there will be lots to talk about. In September SpaceX put a Falcon rocket into Earth orbit, the first privately developed launch car to reach earth orbit from the ground. More recently, his Tesla Motors has gone through layoffs and raised another $40 million, and Musk took over the CEO role. There have also been some spectacular Tesla crashes. Our live notes of the interview are below.
PayPal cofounder, SpaceX Founer and Tesla CEO Elon Musk takes the stage today at the Web 2.0 Summit to talk with John Battelle.
What do space flights and electric vehicles have to do with Web 2.0? Absolutely nothing. Still, there will be lots to speak about. In September SpaceX put a Falcon rocket into Earth orbit, the first privately developed launch vehicle to reach earth orbit from the ground. More recently, his Tesla Motors has gone through layoffs and raised another $40 million, and Musk took over the CEO role. There have also been some spectacular Tesla crashes.
Our live notes of the interview are below:
Tesla:
Musk says they’ll be making 1,500 Tesla Roadsters a year at full productions. He says it’s faster than a Ferrari - 3.9 seconds 0-60, and more efficient than a Prius - about 130 MPG equivalent. There are 1,200 people on the waiting list.
The next product Tesla will launch is a sedan, the Model S, which will be unveiled in Q1 2009. It will be half the price of the $109k roadster. The third model will be a automobile that’s less than $30k, and they’ll create “hundreds of thousands” of them per year.
Battelle ask Musk about the recent layoffs, the funding and the CEO change. Musk states the last time there was a successful auto startup was Jeep in 1941. Building a car company is hard, he says, but that we can’t leave electric cars up to Detroit, because we’d be waiting too long.
Musk says they raised $40 million from existing investors instead of raising $100 million from new investors so that they’d maintain control of the company.
When Battelle asks why General Motors doesn’t purchase Tesla, Musk responds “They can’t afford us.”
Solar City:
Musk says he spends very tiny time on Solar City, which provides solar panels to residential customers, and lets buyers get the panels with no down payments.
SpaceX:
Musk states the Internet, energy and space exploration are the key areas of exploration for humanity. SpaceX is now six years old and he started it from scratch.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Every year at the Web 2.0 Summit, Morgan Stanley Internet analyst Mary Meeker gives her view of the world, the Web, and the technology industry by swiftly going through about 50 slides that illustrate the major trends she is tracking. Last year, she zeroed in on the China Bubble. This year, she speaks about the root causes of the current economic downturn, the outlook for Web businesses, and where she still sees major growth (mobile and emerging markets). She singles out the mobile industry as the one where both the most opportunity will be found and disruption will occur over the next five years. Moreover, she suggests that the U.S. is poised to lead the transition in mobile to a Web-centric model. (I absolutely agree). Interestingly, she points to the introduction of the first Android phone by T-Mobile, not the launch of the iPhone, as the key inflection point for the coming era of the mobile web. Meeker’s full presentation, which she gave yesterday, is in the video and slides embedded after the jump.
Each year at the Web 2.0 Summit, Morgan Stanley Internet analyst Mary Meeker gives her view of the world, the Web, and the technology industry by swiftly going through about 50 slides that illustrate the major trends she’s tracking. Last year, she zeroed in on the China Bubble. This year, she talks about the root causes of the current economic downturn, the outlook for Web businesses, and where she still sees major growth (mobile and emerging markets).
She singles out the mobile industry as the one where both the most opportunity will be found and disruption will occur over the next five years. Moreover, she recommends that the U.S. is poised to lead the transition in mobile to a Web-centric model. (I absolutely agree). Interestingly, she points to the introduction of the first Android phone by T-Mobile, not the launch of the iPhone, as the key inflection point for the coming era of the mobile web.
Meeker’s full presentation, which she gave yesterday, is in the video embedded above and her full slide deck is below (thank you, Henry Blodget, for uploading them). The slides are also available here.
A few slides in particular stuck out for me. First, the growth rates for both e-commerce sales and World wide web advertising are normalizing much faster than anyone expected they would compared to offline growth rates for retail sales and advertising. No doubt, this steep slowdown in growth is being compounded by the overall economic situation. In the first slide below, the red line is U.S. retail sales growth and the yellow line is e-commerce sales growth. See where the yellow line is headed?
In the second slide, the top green line is World wide web advertising growth. At least it is still above all the other kinds of advertising and not yet in negative territory, but the trend does not look good.
In fact, as ad budgets decline and Web pages keep growing, the bigger problem is that the supply of ad slots on the Web is becoming greater than the demand to fill them. The only way to fill those slots is to lower the price of each spot. As the slide below illustrates, ad impressions keep growing, but the cost per thousand (CPM) keeps dropping (on average, to about $1.50 for banner ads and to just above $20 for rich media ads):
On the bright side, compared to the overall spending on other forms of advertising such as Television, print, and direct mail, World wide web advertising still has a lot of share to gain, and will likely continue to do so.
By David Ponce The PC-building saga continues. So far I’ve installed the motherboard, connected the front panel and power supply and inserted the RAM. Fun stuff. To see me basically saying what I just wrote, watch the above clip. To see a bunch of pictures of the installation process, follow the link below. [ Building […]
By David Ponce
The PC-building saga continues. So far I’ve installed the motherboard, connected the front panel and power supply and inserted the RAM. Fun stuff. To see me basically saying what I just wrote, watch the above clip.
To see a bunch of photos of the installation process, follow the link below.
This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net Are you an old school gamer? No, I don’t want to hear about your awesome NES skills, I’m talking about really old, Atari style. If you haven’t spent hours playing Pong, Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Araknoid, I’m not talking to you. If you’re looking for a way to […]
This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net
Are you an old school gamer? No, I don’t want to hear about your awesome NES skills, I’m speaking about really old, Atari style. If you haven’t spent hours playing Pong, Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Araknoid, I’m not talking to you. If you’re looking for a way to show off your affinity for the classics, here are some awesome Space Invaders dog tags.
These excellent (and colorful) creations are the perfect way to show your love for our 8-bit alien overlords. There are 10 different styles to choose from, and you can pick them up for around $9 each.
NBC has launched its on the internet video hub for the 2008 Olympics, which features free on-demand video for over 20 sports. In order to maximize quality, the videos are available as downloads (you can begin watching before the download finishes) and will be in “up to HD” quality. Unfortunately, the video downloads will only […]
NBC has launched its on the internet video hub for the 2008 Olympics, which features free on-demand video for over 20 sports. In order to maximize quality, the videos are available as downloads (you can begin watching before the download finishes) and will be in “up to HD” quality. Unfortunately, the video downloads will only be available on Windows machines running Windows Media Center - once again Mac users are left in the cold, likely because of DRM issues (and the fact that Lenovo and Microsoft are sponsors).
While the Olympic ceremonies don’t kick off until August 8, NBC has already posted footage of Olympic trials. Once the games start, NBC expects to have the footage available around 12 hours after each competition (which shouldn’t be too annoying given the time difference).
Microsoft is participating in the partnership, so access to the videos will be integrated into Media Center’s main panel. Users can also visit this TVTonic page, and the content will be available directly from NBCOlympics.com beginning next week. You can read more about the service at the TVTonic blog post here.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
By Andrew Liszewski I know this is probably better suited for a Friday here at OhGizmo!, but when it comes to Clionidae, I just can’t wait! If you’re like me, you’re probably exhausted of having to pay those exorbitant public aquarium fees just to have the opportunity to see a Clionidae, or ’sea angel’, up close. […]
By Andrew Liszewski
I know this is probably better suited for a Friday here at OhGizmo!, but when it comes to Clionidae, I just can’t wait! If you’re like me, you’re probably fatigued of having to pay those exorbitant public aquarium fees just to have the opportunity to see a Clionidae, or ’sea angel’, up close. But thanks to Tokyo-based Genesys World, you can now have the pleasure of viewing and even breeding Clionidae in the comfort of your own home.
Their Qulio fish tank recreates the conditions of the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic waters where the Clionidae are found, and although it appears to automatically regulate the tank’s temperature, it also includes an emergency alarm should the water temperature rise above acceptable levels. And for your viewing pleasure, the Qulio tank also features a seven color LED interior lighting system which should make the sea angels easier to see. The tank has a price tag of 89,250 YEN, which works out to about $900 US dollars, and I assume it doesn’t come pre-inhabited with Clionidae.
PayPal cofounder, SpaceX Founer and Tesla CEO 
Every year at the 
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