Rubot II - The Rubik's cube solving bot

Get ready for AI invasion!

Nonetheless, it would be really cool to have Rubot at home.

The Ultimate Mustang!

This is my idea of a perfect Mustang!! Inshallah will build it someday......

Ultimate Mustang.s...

Hosted by eSnips

Now, getting a Mustang and modding it to this extent seems like a far-fetched idea right now, but maybe if I can find something like my "custom 'stang, (Mr. Smoke)", I can build a body kit to match this!

Even got a fair idea of what I'd like for performance........

A supercharged V8, catback exhaust, direct port NOS, and if possible, a twin-carb setup!

I'll be adding more to the list. The way I see it, I have a fresh view of life :)

Jack Morton in UAE

Quite out of nowhere, I got an email from Jack Morton firm, inviting for a film shooting for Nokia in Dubai (atleast I have an international readership).
Their representative, Sasha called today from London and said she would want me to gather more people interested in technology and gadgets, preferably local arabs.

Anyone from the readers interested, pls give me your contact details so that I can set up an interview. Who knows, you could be the next Nokia ad hero!

Cool PMP - Chinese rise up to beat IPOD and the likes

Believe it or not, this is not Ipod Nano. The chinese manufacturers have actually duplicated the Ipod Nano (sans the click-wheel) and have actually gone ahead and added quite a few extra features like:

Video playback
FM radio
Voice recording
E-book reader
Flash drive function.

Best of all, it costs less than 1/3rd the price....








Here is my latest gadget addition. A chinese PMP with amazing features:

Built-in 512 mb, expandable via SD card.
Video / Audio playback.
Super Nintendo game support (thru game card).
AV out / in with recording support
Scheduled recording
E-book reader

It never ceases to amaze me. Really addictive. Exceptional screen quality (3.2" TFT screen)

Playstation 3

Need I say more??

Imagine what would it be like to carry a complete tablet PC, no more than 7", completely able to replace your desktop and laptop, abundant with network and graphic capabilities and best of all, upgradable.

Seems too good to be true, but no more a whiz out of a movie!!

Now, all those carrying huge backpacks with their laptops can run for their lives!! Behold, the UMPCs are here and they're here to conquer!!

The first shipment of eo UMPC v7110 256/40 has just started in US, with a tag price of USD 900. Cheap when you look at the features, and considering that a laptop with probably lower configuration would cost somewhere around USD 1500.

Here's some pics and configurations:

CPU	VIA C7®-M ULV
CPU Speed	1.0 GHz
Operating System	Windows® XP Tablet PC Edition with Touch Pack
System Memory	1 x SODIMM slot 256MB Standard, (Upgradable to 1.0GB)
Hard Drive	2.5" 9.5mm, 40GB UDMA 133, 5,400rpm
Chipsets	VIA VN800 with integrated VIA UniChrome™ Pro graphics VT8237R Southbridge
Video Controller	VIA 16MB - 64MB
VGA Resolution	800x480 Native Zoom display 800x600, 1024x600 @ 800x480
Display	Ultra Slim 7 " Wide-Angle View TFT LCD
Input Device	Four wire resistive touch screen
User Interface	1 x Power on/off switch 1 x Wireless on/off switch 1 x D-pad with enter Left Mouse Button, Right Mouse Button 4x Function Keys PageUp, PageDown, Key Lock, Volume Up, Volume Down, Synaptics Transtouch Stick Cursor
Communications	QCOM 802.11b/g WLAN (5V and 3V solution) Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (IVT Corp.) Class 1

I/O Ports	2 x USB 2.0 1 x Headphone/Stereo Mic combo 1x 36-pin Cradle Connector (cradle provides 2xUSB 2.0, DB-15, 10/100 RJ-45, Power, Audio In, Audio Out)
Audio	VT1618 - AC97 Codec Built-In 1W Speaker 3.5mm Headphone & Stereo Microphone Combo Jack
Case	Plastic Case
Battery	Re-chargeable 26w Lithium ION Battery (2200mAh), 2.5+ hours battery life under mark 4.5 (4 hours with optional extended battery)
Accessories	Included: AC Adapter with Cord Set Headphone/Microphone Combo User's Manual Utility CDs (Restore & Utilities) 1 Year Limited Warranty Optional: External CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive USB Modem or GSRM Modem Docking Cradle with additional I/O Ports 2 Year & 3 Year Extended Warranty
Size	8.98" x 5.75 " x 0.98" (W x H x D)
Weight	<2>Battery Pack

The amazing new portable audio for your car

I just love this new gadget from Merlin. Although a lot of other companies have now produced the 'Car Mp3', Merlin version is the best so far.

I've been using it for the past 3 months and thoroughly enjoy it. The convenience really

pays off as I have a 1GB SD card in my PDA, with loads of

music. I just plug in the SD card in my ultra-compact card

reader (check out the next entry) and hook up the card

reader to the device.....
the days of magazine style CD changers are long gone.

The best part about this device is that it transmits over a range of selectable FM frequencies, so your favorite radio channels do not get blanketed, and it transmits the audio in stereo, with virtually no loss in quality.
Another cool thing is that it has a prioritised Line-in jack, which means you can connect your mp3 players or Ipods.
Last, but not the least, price is peanuts compared to the Ipod compatible FM transmitters (which by the way only cater to IPods).

Handy though not too techy

The latest addition in my portable Always-on-me gadgets is this mini card reader. Though nothing too techy about it, it does come in very handy in data transfer and in my FM transmitter mp3 player I use in my car.

Reads 13 types of mostly used cards and costs only DHS 15!

MYT - 'Mighty Yet Tiny' Engine

Althought I'm not much of a 'compact car - compact engine' guy, this new innovation in Internal Combustion engine sounds interesting.

Review Source: Autoblog

An outfit called Angel Labs has come up with the Massive Yet Tiny (MYT) engine, an innovative internal-combustion configuration that it claims "will spawn the next industrial revolution." Um, okay... so exactly what is it that inspires such hyperbole? Keep reading, as we'll try to find out.

To start, let's examine the operating principle. The MYT uses a single toroidal cylinder/combustion chamber, in which rides a total of eight "pistons," arranged in two pairs of four each. Located at the periphery is a set of two intake and exhaust ports (each located 180 degrees from each other), with two spark devices also located 180 apart ,and clocked 90 degrees relative to the ports. The two pairs of pistons use indexed motion to provide the typical four strokes of combustion. Confused? Just check out the animation.

The system packs a large amount of displacement and combustion cycles into a small package, which means that the engine looks to be capable of producing incredible power for its size - hence the name. The engine produces that power by providing large amounts of torque at a very low speed, which has the potential to significantly reduce drivetrain complexity.

There appear to be some significant issues that could stand between it and mass production, however. First, forming the toroidal "cylinder" doesn't look to be a trivial task, as the toroid must be split in two to allow for engine. Getting the two halves to form a perfect circular cross-section would seem to be quite a feat. There's also the issue of producing the indexed motion of the two piston pairs, which is certainly not a straightforward affair. Combine this with the claimed output torque of over 800 ft-lbs., and we see a potential durability problem.

The size of the engine also yields its own problem, in that there does not appear to be sufficient material to support the type of output that the inventors claim. There are good reasons that every other engine appears monstrous in comparison to the MYT, and we don't think it's because current engine designers lack an understanding of material characteristics. It's not just important to understand the ultimate strength of the material and construction something to withstand a single cycle, but fatigue must also be accounted for in any design that's expected to withstand literally billions of cycles. While there are several high-strength materials that may be able to provide adequate strength, they are typically not used in internal-combustion applications. Then there's the matter of lubrication and cooling, both of which seem problematic given the "cylinder" configuration.

Somehow, I dont feel its gonna make it too big in the industry. Even if it does, I'm gonna stick to good ol' montrous, grunting american powerhouses that sounds as mean as they look!!
'Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!'

Google Earth coming to cars

With the increasing features in today's automobiles, it seems we will soon have UIVs (Unmanned, Intelligent Vehicles).

The cars of today are becoming more and more adaptive and situation aware and are already assisting drivers in many ways to ensure safety and luxury.

The latest upgrade in Navigation System is being implemented in the form of our beloved Google Earth!!

VW recently showed off its Google Earth based navigation system and now, Honda has picked up the application in its upcoming models. Google Earth will interface with the existing navigation service, adding high-resolution satellite images of cities to current traffic information downloaded via the car's wireless internet connection.

FLYBOOK-small can be beautiful.....and powerful!!

The Flybook sports an A5 form factor and a weight of only 1.2kg, making it one of the smallest Windows XP laptops - it can even be used as a Tablet PC. With a 8.9-inch TFT screen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS, optional UMTS and GPS module, it would also make an incredible travel companion.

The display is a full 225mm (8.9-inch) screen that you can rotate and close perfectly back onto its keyboard, tranforming it into a Tablet PC. The screen’s format is 16:9, with a resolution of 1024x600 pixels, thus should be very comfortable to look at. The touch-sensitive screen can be managed with a stylus pen - navigate and use commands with a tap of the stylus.

You can write on the screen in smooth electronic ink and Flybook automatically converts your handwriting into text. So, as well as being a fully functioning computer, Flybook is as free and easy to use as a sheet of paper, letting you write, draw and make notes - whenever and wherever your thoughts take you.

Of course the Flybook has all conceivable connections such as FireWire, two fast USB ports, 10/100 or even Gigabit Ethernet (V33i). The Flybook guarantee maximum mobility, connectivity and flexibility. The Flybook A33i uses a 1GHz Transmeta Crusoe TM-5800 processor, whereas the Flybook V33i uses Intel’s low-energy Centrino mobile processor.

Other standard features include 512MB of RAM, ATI Radeon Mobility graphics chip, and a 40GB of hard disk loaded with Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.

Hehehe!! Believe it or not! the "Jetsons" era is here!!

Bluetooth enabled, it uses infrared to project a clear and crisp keyboard onto your desktop, and then transfers your keystrokes via wireless networking to your PDA, Pocket PC or smart phone - it sounds far too futuristic to be true. But it's very much for real, and it's awesome.

This 22nd Century gadget is about half the size of your average deck of cards, sits wirelessly on any flat surface, and projects a red standard QWERTY-layout keyboard on any flat opaque surface. Using detection technology it "watches" your fingers hit the key locations it has projected, and then sends the keystrokes through to your PDA, smart phone or pocket PC via Bluetooth.

The projected keyboard is highly visible even in strong light (though it does of course look spectacularly cool in the dark). It's highly portable as well, though it will make you look a bit of a lunatic at the local, as you will look like you're typing on nothing more than the pub table (which also raises some serious health and safety concerns), and you will of course be interrupted every fourteen seconds with someone coming over and wanting to know where they can get one.

There is no cooler keyboard in the known universe.

Robosapien V2

If you ask me what I want for my next birthday, I'd say "Robosapein V2" (btw, my b'day is 14th Sept, incase you're kind enough!).

It is the brainchild of NASA scientist Mark Tilden, its friendly, its rude, but its outright cute and intelligent!!

Compared to V1, Robosapien V2 is a mighty 2ft (60cm) tall and towers over his earlier incarnation, but of course not only is he butcher (not a real butcher, it would be inadvisable to let him lose with sharp objects), he's had a massive brain implant. He now has a multi-sensory, interactive humanoid personality and is now capable of autonomous behaviour - reacting to things he sees, sounds he hears, (as well as people and objects), which is a lot more interaction than you get from your boss!!

The main features (of course, except the endless possibilities of "hacking") of Robosapien V2 are:

Features

• Humanoid body movement, including bending, sitting and standing, lying down and getting up, waving, martial arts etc.
• True bi-pedal walking with multiple gaits.
• Precision gripping, articulated fingers.
• Realistic 2-axis turning head with animated LED eyes.
• Interactive sensors.
• Reactive movement - will get up if knocked down.
• Speech: responds verbally to environmental stimuli and to controller commands.
• Colour vision system: recognizes colours and skin tones: interacts with objects and people.
• IR vision: detects and avoids obstacles and table edges: tracks moving objects.

• Actions and Programming:
• Has the ability to perform over 80 actions with programming.
• Actions: Walks / Kicks / Picks up and throws objects / Responds to commands / Dances / Rap routine / Kung-fu moves / Farts / Belches / Whistle / Listens for sounds / Reacts to your touch.
• Three demo modes: Disco; Rude behaviour and Kung Fu Kata.
• Wakes up on start with a yawn and says uh-huh.
• After a time of non-use he goes to sleep and snores
• He will stop when he bumps into walls
• He can pick up objects and throw them, lean forwards, backwards and take steps
• Bulldoze through clutter
• Knocks things over with sweeping arm action
• Can high 5
• Left and right sensor programme - he can follow up to 6 commands on each side, after programming touch one of the left or the right sensors on his body and he will perform the programme.
• Sonic sensor programme - he can follow up to 6 commands - after programming Robosapien will remember and perform this programme when he is in listen mode.
• Master programme - can follow up to 14 commands - having entered 14 actions he will go through each one automatically

• Size: 61cm tall
• Requires 6 x D cell batteries and 3 x AAA batteries(not included)
• Batteries last for about 15 hours of play.
• Ages 5+ (add 25 to that pls)