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'Digital Lederhosen' Sport MP3
Player, Cell Phone
CeBIT fashion
took a turn for the worse with the introduction of "DIGITAL
LEDERHOSEN," complete with integrated MP3 player,
cell phone and fabric controls for both. These
pimped-out-yet-traditional German shorts were designed by
Munich-based firm Lodenfrey.
Intel Unveils Both Real and
Virtual Motorcycles
In its latest publicity stunt, chip giant Intel unveiled two
motorcycles: One real, loaded with Intel chips, and one virtual,
in the multiplayer game "Second Life." To highlight 30 years in
the embedded chip business, Intel showed off serious hardware in
the form of a
CUSTOM-BUILT MOTORCYCLE (built by Orange County
Choppers) with computerized controls and features that protect
the computing system from moisture, dirt, shock and vibration.
The hawg's computerized dashboard doubles as a mobile PC, and
displays showing camera video replace rear-view mirrors. I want
one.
Only
In Japan
Japan's Rare Mono Shop has
done it again with a new, breathtaking display of unanticipated
convergence. The catalog now sells a USB hub that doubles as a
SCOTCH TAPE DISPENSER, with one port in the back
and three in the front.
Bad Robots
This is the first
HAMSTER-CONTROLLED ROBOT I have ever seen -- and
hopefully the last!
The Dutch company Lely has
developed
SOLAR-POWERED ROBOTS that move an electric fence to
make sure dairy cows evenly graze their pastures. Two robots
each hold one side of the fence, and move very slowly, which
maximizes grass growth and prevents manure contamination. The
robots have sensors that monitor the angle and speed of the
fence, as well as tautness, and communicate with each other via
Bluetooth. The complete system costs $30,000.
Don't Try This At Home
Thayer School of Engineering
researchers at Dartmouth College discovered that their
"scalable, solar-powered, science platforms for the Antarctic"
not only pull their own weight on the snow, but can pull the
weight of a researcher (complete with laptop) on a sled, too
(sadly, at no more than 5 mph).
SOLAR ROBOT SNOW SURFING ANYONE?
Like the List?
Do you like this newsletter? You'll notice that Mike's List has
NO advertising, but costs a few hundred dollars each month to
publish. If you want to donate a few bucks to help the cause,
please GO
HERE.
This week's Mike's List
is brought to you by the following generous readers: Richard
Dinning ($20), Stan Gilbertson ($10), Don Kurtz ($10), Scott
Loddesol ($20), Jean Erwin ($20), Michael Weinberg ($20), Jonas
Hammarberg ($10), Robert Trefz ($20), F John Adams ($10), James
N Rogers ($10), AlphaGrip, Inc. ($20), Mark Ritchey ($20),
Karani Prabhakaran ($10) and Marie-Claude Cabana ($3). Thank
you, contributors!
Found Video
The Pentagon's DARPA is
currently testing an orbiting space robot system that repairs
and refuels the military's many spy and communications
satellites. The program is called
Orbital Express (sounds like a credit card you
might use in the space station gift shop), and involves two
spacecraft: A "mother ship" called NextSat built by Ball
Aerospace and Technologies Corp. that serves as a supply depot,
and a smaller robot called the ASTRO (Autonomous Space Transfer
and Robotic Orbiter) built by Boeing Phantom Works. The video is
taken from the ASTRO's robot arm, and shows how thou roughly it
can examine a satellite. Here comes the
VIDEO!
Cell Phone Follies
A new, $120 taser is hidden
inside a
FAKE CELL PHONE. Called the Cell Phone Stun Gun and
available from the Bud K Catalog, the phone emits 800k volts.
You may have heard of an
iPhone-like Pocket PC shareware GUI that was carefully designed
to avoid (technically) violating Apple's iPhone design
intellectual property. We'll see if they've succeeded. In the
meantime, here comes the
VIDEO!
Your Tax Dollars At
Work
NASA's new moon robot, built
by Lockheed Martin, is designed to find, dig up and carry the
right kind of lunar soil back to a moon-based processing plant
that will
EXTRACT OXYGEN from the soil for air. It's part of
NASA's PILOT (Precursor In-situ Lunar Oxygen Testbed) program,
which will build itself and create its own air supply before any
human astronauts even land on the moon. I want one.
Gotta-Get-It
Gadgets
Pyramat's
$199.99 PM440w Deluxe Wireless Sound Rocker chair connects to
your network and turns game sounds into
HEAVY VIBRATIONS. You
can also feel your music and shake with movie crashes and
explosions.
The 6-megapixel Tekom GX652
digital camera sports a standard 3.5mm jack you can use to connect a GX1 GPS
receiver. If connected, the camera "GEOTAGS"
photos with location data, which can later be uploaded to Google
Earth.
This $1,270
SPY CAP records CCTV video using a nearly invisible
camera and microphone. A color display unit shows video in 720 x
480 resolution, controls the camera and records to an SD card.
This is the hottest
and possibly the heaviest iPod accessory yet: The FRP-4300
Fireplace comes with built-in speakers and
INTEGRATED iPOD DOCK.
The Red Envelope
catalog offers a fish tank that comes with decorations and
ornaments for
MAXIMUM FISH
PRODUCTIVITY, including a PC, desk, filing cabinet,
chair, lamp and others.
Shameless Self-Promotion
 The
Raw Feed - The
blog
that feeds Mike's List.Computerworld - Mike's
column about
gadgets and mobile computing.
Datamation - Mike's
column about using
technology to be more productive.
Computer America
- The nationwide radio
show that runs daily from 7pm to 9pm Silly Con Valley Time (Mike
appears in
the last half-hour each Thursday nights). (Podcast)
Vegetarian Organic Life - the awesome
healthy living
newsletter,
blog and
RSS feed
published by Mike's vegetarian organic wife.
Mike's List Online Store - Let 'em
know you're an annoying geek
know-it-all.
Wacky
Web Sites
Everyone
has a web site nowadays -- even
Cats That Look Like Hitler! Mein Cat!
Who needs the
universe when you have a web site like
this?
Here's something for the easily
amused (hey, we're people, too): The Neave.com web site
reacts to any noise it hears.
Roommates not doing their fair
share around the apartment? Who you gonna call? (Chore Buster!)
And every subject has a TV show.
Now you can tune in to
CheddarVision and watch cheese as it ages!
Twisted
Games
Five
Minutes to Kill Yourself
Toilet Quest
Onslaught
Jelly Jumper
They Flogged the Blog!
Loopy Gadgets
Educated Earth
Warning: Life
Under Construction
ProductCritic
Rapid Fire Dreams
RickLeaf.com
Masti Ki Paathshala
Heck of a Guy
BambisMusings
Bored and Blogging
Doug's Dynamic Drivel
If you have a blog, let's trade links! Please add the Mike's
List blog, which is called The Raw Feed, to your blogroll or as
part of a post, and I'll link to you right here in Mike's List!
The URL for The Raw Feed is:
http://www.therawfeed.com
Once you've created
the link, let me know by dropping me a line at
this address!
Mystery Pic o'
the Week
What is it?
Send YOUR guess (along
with your name and your location).
If you're first with the right answer, you'll earn the dubious
honor of getting your name in the
next issue of Mike's List!
 LAST WEEK'S
MYSTERY PIC:
No, it's not a "portable igloo," the "mailbox of the future," or
even "home of the
Stay Puft Marshmallow Man," as suggested by some
readers. In fact, last week's Mystery Pic shows
prototype
inflatable tents built by ILC Dover, LP., under a NASA
contract, to be used as part of a moon base. Astronauts could go
"camping" in these tents on the moon within 13 years. Here comes
the
VIDEO! The Mike's List reader who was first with the
right answer was Roland Piquepaille. I disqualified Roland
immediately, however, because it was on his
excellent blog that I
discovered the moon tents in the first place. Mega props to Gary
L. Priest of Westport, Massachusetts, for being second with the
right answer.
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