Category: Tech

Taking it (whatever It is) to the streets

John Robb’s suggestion about showing off Segways at theme parks and state fairs reminds me about the first time I ever saw a home computer. I think it was 1978 (so I would have been 12 years old) and my mom took me to the San Diego County Fair. I couldn’t tell you a thing about the fair, because my attention was completely absorbed by the Apple Computer booth that was either in (or adjacent to) the flower show. On display was a first generation Apple II and it was the greatest thing I’d seen.

Automobile Death Ray

So the Star Wars anti-missile system works pretty well after all. That is if the incoming warheads are driving to their target in a BMW or Jeep.

President Bush’s son of star wars has neutralised its first targets in Yorkshire even before the British government has given the formal go-ahead for the RAF Fylingdales base on the moors to be used for the project.

The upgrading of the security and surveillance systems at the base, in preparation for an onslaught of peace protesters objecting to the scheme, is knocking out the electrical systems of expensive cars.

…

High power radar pulses trigger the immobilising devices of many makes of cars and motorcycles – BMW, Mercedes and Jeep among them. Many have had to be towed out of range of the base before they can be restarted.

Hmmm… How about the Star Wars anti-SUV defense system?

Airborne Holographic Projector

Can’t find the original article on the Sydney Morning Herald site, but the full text is here. The tech the article refers to was actually part of the USAF’s 2025 Report, which is basically a high-tech wish list of spook stuff.

We are in Baghdad in 1991, and something strange is happening. A hush falls over the city as a huge shimmering face materialises in the sky. Soldiers and citizens prostrate themselves as each hears the voice of Allah, commanding them to overthrow the evil and treacherous Saddam Hussein. Within minutes an angry mob is storming the palace as the guards flee…

This highly imaginative scenario was proposed by US Air Force (USAF) planners for a bloodless victory in the Gulf conflict. The idea of putting words in God’s mouth is not new. In the second century AD Lucian described a statue of the god Aesculapius that spoke to believers, aided by a hidden priest with a speaking tube.

The Baghdad plan involved projecting a giant hologram over Iraq. This kind of projection requires a mirror behind it. The scale of the project dictated a mirror several kilometres across up in space. So far the largest mirror developed has been 30 metres wide and present versions are too small to produce a convincing image at ground level.

If memory serves, I recall seeing an episode of The Bionic Woman that had this type of tech – only it was helicopter mounted and used to project images of flying saucers.

The first shambling down a long server migration road

I was tipped off to JohnCompanies awhile back by OxDECAFBAD and pulled the trigger on one of their Linux servers. Been steadily working on it and feeling that deep internal satisfaction you get from learning a new system (even if it just a plain ole Red Hat box).

The object is to merge together all the random servers and domains I’ve got scattered around out there and bring them all together – plus free up the poor battered home DSL line that’s been serving up the no-fi.com and chrisbarrus.com domains.

Still doing this with one hand on the O’Reilly books…

The Color of Cool: All about blue LEDs

Much like how the 1990s were dominated by black consumer technology design (black stereos, black refrigerators, black clock radios, etc.), the first decade of the 21st century will be remembered as the decade of brushed metal and blue LEDs. The metal look has already been around for a couple of years now with the trend towards steel “professional grade” kitchen appliances, car advertisements with silver cars, the Titanium PowerBook I’m typing this ‘blog entry on. Heck even most of the logos on movie posters.

Along with the bare metal, blue LEDs are the other key feature of early 21st century design. Admittedly, they do look very cool, but ten years from now we’ll look back the metal and blue as we do with the black (and impossible to see) stereos from the 1990s. Anyway, Business 2.0 looks at the current reign of blue.

Looking around for some blue here, and all I’ve got handy is the T68i phone which is blue, has blue LEDs, and connects to my computer over, er, Bluetooth.

[via Gizmodo]

RIAA Wants Background Checks on CD-RW Buyers

Keep telling yourself it’s only a parody…

Washington DC – The RIAA is lobbying for vendors of CD-RW drives to conduct background checks and require a 3 day waiting period before the drive can be sold.

The extensive background check would include cross referencing credit card numbers with local merchants sales logs looking for purchases of dual-cassette decks between the years of 1980 and 1987. It would also include checking for installation of file sharing software, knowledge of the Internet, and the ability to hum. Any of which would bar the purchaser from receiving his drive.

“A CD-RW can be a dangerous weapon when it falls into the wrong hands,” said RIAA President Hilary Rosen, “You wouldn’t sell a gun to a convicted felon and you shouldn’t sell a CD-RW drive to a Gnutella user. The 3 day waiting period gives us time to verify that no copyrighted material is on the purchasers hard drive and to make sure they have a membership in the Columbia House CD club.”

Instant “am I tacky or not” high society fun at BizBash

BizBash is actually a serious site for “Ideas and Resources for Special Events, Meetings and Event Marketing” and describes itself as “The Ultimate Online Destination for Event Planners”, but for the irony addicts out there it’s filled with retina-damaging reports of how those “high society” folks live it up at the Big Events for product launches, movie releases, awards shows.

Mozilla users beware – the site drips script code guano all over the top of the page.