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Archive for January, 2009

TOXEL.COM posted pictures of 24 creative coffee mugs. Here are some that I found amusing. My favorite is the dunk mug.

Dunk Mug

This smart ceramic mug features a special compartment in which you can store cookies. [link]

Camera Zoom Lens Mug

Unfortunately, this is not a real mug, just a brilliant concept design.

Melting Icebergs Cup

The external surface of the cup is printed with a second layer of heat sensitive ink that is revealed when hot water is poured into the cup. [link]

Stacked Cups

Stacked is comfortable in the hand and amusing to the eye. No matter how you grab it, it’s guaranteed to enliven your coffee break and perk up your pantry. [link]

My Cuppa Mug

My Cuppa helps you mix your drink to the perfect consistency, based on the color-coded guide inside. Options include everything from a straightforward “milky” to an extra-strong “builder’s brew”. [link]

Drink Selector Mug

Tired of telling people how you like your tea or coffee? Twist rings to reveal your choice of drink and your milk and sugar preferences. [link]

On/Off Mug

At first glance it’s simply a standard black mug with big white letters that say “OFF”. Nothing fancy, but once you add the hot beverage of your choice, the mug changes color to white and in big black letters it states: “ON”. [link]

Link Mugs

Mugs that link together: An elegantly formed cross on the side of each mug fits neatly into the next, forming a self supporting row of up to 6 mugs. [link]

Crinkle Cup

Designed to look like a discarded, plastic coffee cup, the Crinkle Cup is actually made out of ceramic. [link]

SmileCups

Creative SmileCups designed by Studio Psyho. [link]

Me Cup

Me Cup is designed to keep your liquid hot and keep you fingers cool. The cup has empty chambers in its wall to prevent burns and to isolate the hot liquid. The cup comes with a saucer, which also has its role to play because it can be transformed in a lid to keep the heat inside and serves as a locking system to stack and store them on top of each other. [link]

Darth Vader Mug

Let the Dark Lord of the Sith watch over your coffee! [link]

Mr. P Lick Mug [link]

Anamorphic Cups

The Anamorphic Cup is the first product to employ the centuries old visual play of the anamorphic cylinder. The stainless steel cup has a polished mirror finish. The porcelain saucer is printed with distorted images or words. These graphics can only be viewed correctly though the curved, reflective surface of the cup. [link]

The Pessimist’s Mug

You’ll never see the glass as half-full again. [link]

Go to TOXEL.COM to see more unique mugs.

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Pixelar (http://www.pixelar.co.uk/ebookdetails.php?ID=1), for example, has released a new e-book reader. The Pixelar e-reader contains a relatively sufficient 512MB of internal flash memory that can hold up to 1,000 books. It emplos a 6 inch 600 x 800 resolution e-Ink technology display (similar to Kindles). The reader also has an SD card that effectively expands the memory to up to 4 GB. The Pixelar e-Reader is also quite svelte, measuring just 184 x 120 x 9.9mm and only ways 22 grams including the battery.

The Pixelar rates that the battery life will get up to 8,000 page turns. Of course, battery life will be much faster if you use the built in MP3 function. Pixelar’s reader can read the following formats: PDF, MOBI, DOC, WOLF, MP3, HTML, TXT, CHM, FB2, Djvu, PNG, TIF, GIF, BMP, JPG, PPT, EPUB, LIT and PRC.

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A team at Cambridge University has produced a new light bulb design which costs a mere $2.85 USD and despite being the size of a penny, produces similar light to a fluorescent bulb while lasting over four times as long with a lifetime of 60 years.

The new design triples fluorescent bulb efficiency and is 12 times more efficient than incandescent designs. Also, it’s capable of instantaneous illumination, so the light lag associated with fluorescent bulbs may soon be a thing of the past. The new bulbs last 100,000 hours.

Cambridge’s design is already being prototyped and readied for production. RFMD in County Durham, England is the first manufacturer to jump at the opportunity to mass produce and ship the high-performing LED bulbs.
Professor Colin Humphreys, head of the team at Cambridge states, “This could well be the holy grail in terms of providing our lighting needs for the future. We are very close to achieving highly efficient, low-cost white LEDs. That won’t just be good news for the environment. It will also benefit consumers by cutting their electricity bills. It is our belief they will render current energy-efficiency bulbs redundant.”

Cambridge University professor Colin Humphreys shows off
his team’s new LED which is near to production. It will cost
around $2.85 to produce, and will last 60 years.

Read the entire article at DailyTech.

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College@Home posted an article listing 57 useful tools offered by Google. Now I confess that I’m not familiar with most of these so I copied the list for later review. I encourage you to view the original article at College@Home.

Must Haves

These Google products can make the most basic of computing tasks easy and are a must for any Google devotee.

1. Reader: Reader is a Web-based news aggregator that reads Atom and RSS feeds to allows users to easily subscribe, organize and share news items. It even has a mobile version allowing you to get your news on the go.
2. iGoogle: Create a custom designed home page with iGoogle. Users can choose to have their Gmail accounts, calendars, weather, news and more all integrated on one main page they can see when they open their browser. The site also offers a wide number of themes for further customization.
3. Picasa: This Google program makes it easy to manage your photos online and off. Users can download a photo editing and management program to their desktops which makes it easy to mail, upload or post photos to a blog or they can use the online albums provided by the program.
4. Docs: You no longer need desktop publishing applications installed on your computer to type out documents or create spreadsheets, you can do it entirely online with Google. The services allow users to create, publish, share and collaborate on their documents and presentations, and best of all, they’re available on any computer with an Internet connection.
5. Notebook: Research can be easier with this Web clipping application from Google. It makes it simple to clip text, images, and links from pages while researching and then save, retrieve or share the clips later.
6. Desktop: Make it easy to find everything on your desktop with this application from Google. It allows users to search through their email, computer files, music, photos, chats, and web history to find what they need and also allows them to install useful gadgets to their desktops.

Maps and Travel

Make getting from place to place a snap or explore the surface of another planet with these tools.

1. Ride Finder: Hook up with taxi, limousine and shuttle services through this search tool which uses GPS data from vehicles in 14 US cities. Users will access the program through Google Maps and any service that wants to participate in the program is accessible on the site.
2. Transit: Those taking public transportation will appreciate this mapping tool which helps users to plan a trip via the local public transportation options by using Google Maps.
3. Mars: Doing a little space exploration through these maps of Mars, created through a composite of images and data from two NASA missions to the planet. Users can see the elevation, infrared data and photos of Mars through the site.
4. Sky: Those hampered by bright city lights or clouds can still enjoy looking at the night sky with this program from Google. It provides easy access to images from the Hubble telescope through the Space Telescope Science Institute, allowing users to look through planets, stars, galaxies, satellites and more.
5. Earth: Travel around the world without leaving your desk with Google Earth. The program uses satellite imagery and mapping technology to allow you to find and see any location in the world through an attractive and easy to use interface. Some people have claimed the satellite pics comprimise personal and home security, but either way, it’s a useful tool.

Web Browsing and Development

Web developers, businesses and even students can benefit from these great Google tools that make using and creating websites easier.

1. SketchUp: SketchUp is a simple but effective 3D drawing tool designed for both Macs and PCs that can be a handy tool for architects, civil engineers, designers and even game developers. The program comes loaded with some innovative tools and also allows users to upload their drawings directly into GoogleEarth.
2. Checkout: Designed to simplifying the process of paying for things online, Google Checkout stores customer credit card and shipping information making it easy to purchase things with the click of a button. For added security, the site also offers fraud protection and package tracking.
3. Web Accelerator: Make webpages load a little faster by making use of this tool. It uses data compression, prefetching of content, and shared cached data to make even slow Internet connections less painful to use.
4. FeedBurner: FeedBurner can be an easy way to manage a variety of RSS feeds but it also provides a number of tools that are incredibly useful to bloggers, podcasters and other Web developers like traffic analysis and targeted advertising.
5. Web History: This feature from Google makes it easy to find search results that are most relevant to you, find sites you visited and follow trends in your Web browsing history.
6. Base: This tool from Google is an online database in which any user can add content– text, images, documents and webpages. It can be a great way to get your content out there, as if Google finds your information relevant to a search it may appear in search results, in Google Maps or on its shopping site.
7. Co-Op: Co-Op allows web developers to feature specialized information in Google searches, refine and categorize search queries and create customized search engines based on Google Web Search, making it easier to find information about their pages and on them.
8. App Engine: Developers can build and host websites on Google servers using this tool. At present, the site only offers limited free accounts, but in the future more fully-featured pay accounts will be opened up.
9. Website Optimizer: Make sure your site is ship-shape by putting it through the paces with this Google tool. It checks your webpage, testing the content, to help you create the most effective and profitable advertising campaigns, create user-friendly interfaces, and increase overall conversions.
10. Browser Sync: This tool, created by Google, allows users to sync their Firefox browser settings including passwords, bookmarks, history, tabs and open windows, to different computers via the Internet.
11. Click-to-Call: This advertising systems allows customers to call companies for free, or at least at Google’s expense, from search result pages. Users enter their phone number and Google calls them back, connecting them with the advertiser.
12. Page Creator: This program from Google allows users to design and build webpages and then publish them to sites hosted by Google. Users are offered 100 MB of storage and the program comes with a variety of preloaded templates and layouts.

Social Networking and Communication

Keep in touch with friends, family and coworkers by using these programs offered by Google.

1. Orkut: This social networking service used to be invitation only, but since 2006 has been open for anyone to join. It allows users to create an account, list information and interests and talk with and add friends to a profile. While less popular in the United States, the site is one of the biggest in both India and Brazil and can be a great way to meet people from around the world.
2. Android: Android is an open source mobile phone platform that is based in the Linux OS and is in the later stages of development by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. When it is released in late 2008, it will allow users to have more control over their mobile devices and, Google hopes, encourage them to use Google products from just about everywhere.
3. Send to Phone: Send yourself a message from the Web with this tool. It allows users to send text messages to their mobile phones about anything they want to remember or share from a simple Google website or through a Firefox extension.
4. Shared Stuff: Google offers this free Web page sharing system that allows users to save and share pages they find interesting on the Web with others. The program can also be integrated into Facebook or del.icio.us.
5. Talk: You may have heard of Google Talk but did you know that it’s not only a chat tool but can be used for VoIP conversations as well? Users can make the most of the service, and enjoy its integration into their Gmail accounts.
6. Dodgeball: This social networking site was created for use on mobile phones and allows users to text in their current location and get information about friends and interesting events that are nearby, as well as the ability to invite friends to come to their current location. It’s currently available in 22 cities in the US.
7. Friend Connect: This new feature offered by Google allows users to easily add social networking functionality to their sites. You can integrate the program with sites like Facebook and Orkut and best of all it requires no in-depth programming know-how.
8. GrandCentral: GrandCentral is a VoIP service that allows customers to link several phone numbers. Users can set up the service to ring certain numbers at certain times of the day or to go through a series of numbers in order to contact them. As an added bonus, it also features a unified voice mail service. The service is currently in the beta stages and users will have to request an invite to get a number.
9. Sites: Create and collaborate on shared websites with this tool from Google. Users can create a simple webpage, collect relevant information and choose who can edit and work on the project with them.

Custom Search Tools

Narrow down your search with these effective online tools.

1. Scholar: Google Scholar provides a great way to search through the full text of scholarly literature from all fields and formats. The index of materials gives easy search capabilities to nearly all peer-reviewed journals that appear online and has a “cited by” feature that can make is easier to find related materials and gather sources.
2. Patent Search: This specialized search tool from Google allows users to search through millions of patents from 1979 to the present to see if a particular design or idea has already been claimed. Each patent results page will come complete with citations, drawings and claims from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
3. Sets: More of a fun tool than a search engine, Google Sets allows you to enter a few items of a set into a search query and the site will try to predict other items in the set. While it’s right on a majority of the time, some results will undoubtedly produce a chuckle.
4. Catalogs: Tired of those old catalogs piling up or filling your mailbox? Unsubscribe to them and browse through catalogs with Google instead, which has collected over 6,600 print catalogs.
5. Search by Number: Did you know you can enter an area code, parcel tracking number or flight information into Google and get the information you need quickly and easily? Simply type in what you’re searching for and Google will do the rest.
6. Accessible Search: This search engine is designed especially to aid those who are visually impaired or blind by giving priority to sites that have been designed for usability by everyone.
7. Trends: Get easy to read graphs of Web trends over time with this tool. It allows users to track searches over city, region or country to see when certain topics were of more interest to browsers. Users can also take a look at Hot Trends which displays the most popular searches over the past hour.
8. Book Search: Formerly known as Google Print, this tool allows users to search through the full text of books that are scanned and stored in the Google database. Results range from entire books to short excerpts depending on arrangements with publishers and copyright issues with the materials.
9. News Archive Search: Browse articles that go back over 200 years with this integrated feature of Google News. Users can find articles from sources like the New York Times, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and more.
10. Special Searches: Google offers a wide variety of special search tools that can help narrow down what you’re looking for. Choose from searches that specialize in universities, the government, public service, Linux, Microsoft, Apple and more.

Miscellaneous Google Tools

These various Google tools can keep you busy for hours or make doing a wide variety of things even easier.

1. Google Pack: Windows users can take advantage of this collection of software from Google and partner companies. It includes popular Google programs like Desktop, Picasa, Toolbar, Earth and Talk as well as third party applications like Firefox, Adobe Reader, Skype and StarOffice.
2. Gadgets: These mini-applications can by placed on a webpage or on your iGoogle site or if you have Google Desktop to your desktop as well. They make it easy to keep track of events, to-do lists, check the weather, or even just play games.
3. Pinyin IME: With an increasingly global economy, it can be useful to have tools that make it easy to communicate with those speaking other languages. This tool from Google China allows users to convert Pinyin characters that can be entered on a western style keyboard to Chinese characters.
4. Image Labeler: Users can help label images for better search results with this tool that uses a game-like interface. Users compete against another player to label images, creating an enjoyable time for them and helping Google create a more accurate search database.
5. Code Search: Programmers looking for help with code or open source code to use will get directed results with this specialized search tool.
6. Alerts: This email notification service sends out alerts based on categories like news, web and groups. Users are alerted when new articles make in into the top ten news articles or top twenty search results for that item.
7. Apps: Businesses can use Google products within their own domain names with this tool. The standard edition is free, and users can upgrade if they need more storage to use Gmail, Talk, Docs and more.
8. GOOG-411: Google offers users a free 411 service when calls are made from anywhere in the United States and Canada. The service uses speech recognition to help users find a local business or service in their area.
9. Google Moblizer: Make any webpage mobile friendly with this great tool. If you can’t seem to get a page to display right on your PDA or iPhone, pop the URL into this tool and Google will display a stripped down, simpler version of the page that’s easier to see on your mobile device.
10. Gears: Gears is an open source project that gives Web applications more versatility and power by adding new features to your web browser that can include storing data locally, interacting with desktop products and running JavaScript in the background.

Third Party Tools

These applications are based on Google’s search technology, but allow you to do a wide variety of things more easily than with current Google-created programs.

1. Simply Google: This site provides access to all of Google’s specialized searches in one easy-to-use place.
2. Googlematic: With this helpful tool, you’ll be able to search Google using AIM or MSN Messenger.
3. Goofresh: Want to know what’s fresh to the Internet? This site allows you to use Google to search for sites that have been added today, yesterday or within the last week or month.
4. Cooking With Google: Have some random ingredients in the fridge but aren’t sure what to make with them? Maybe this Google-based tool can help. Enter in a few ingredients and it will give you recipes in several different categories.
5. Babelplex: Want to search through Google in multiple languages? This tool can help you do that, acting as a cross between a search engine and a translation tool for 29 language combinations.

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Posted by Andy Palay on gmailblog.

Web-based email is great because you can check it from any computer, but there’s one little catch: it’s inherently limited by your internet connection. From public WiFi to smartphones equipped with 3G, from mobile broadband cards to fledgling in-flight wireless on airplanes, Internet access is becoming more and more ubiquitous — but there are still times when you can’t access your webmail because of an unreliable or unavailable connection.

Today we’re starting to roll out an experimental feature in Gmail Labs that should help fill in those gaps: offline Gmail. So even if you’re offline, you can open your web browser, go to gmail.com, and get to your mail just like you’re used to.

Once you turn on this feature, Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you’re connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail’s servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer’s hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you’re used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection. And if you’re on an unreliable or slow connection (like when you’re “borrowing” your neighbor’s wireless), you can choose to use “flaky connection mode,” which is somewhere in between: it uses the local cache as if you were disconnected, but still synchronizes your mail with the server in the background. Our goal is to provide nearly the same browser-based Gmail experience whether you’re using the data cached on your computer or talking directly to the server.

Offline Gmail is still an early experimental feature, so don’t be surprised if you run into some kinks that haven’t been completely ironed out yet.

Read the entire article posted by Andy Palay on gmailblog.

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Western Digital announced its long-awaited 2-terabyte hard drive on Tuesday. The model is an internal one; an external version of the drive will be forthcoming.

The WD Caviar Green 2 TB, part of its cool and quiet “WD Caviar Green family, is shipping and is priced at $299.00. Versions in 1.5 terabytes and 1 terabyte will also be available.

“While some in the industry wondered if the end consumer would buy a 1 TB drive, already some 10 percent of 3.5-inch hard drive sales are at the 1 TB level or higher, serving demand from video applications and expanding consumer media libraries,” said Mark Geenen, president of Trend Focus, in a statement. “The 2 TB hard drives will continue to satisfy end user’s insatiable desire to store more data on ever larger hard drives.”

WD’s drive houses 500 Gbytes per platter, with 32 Mbytes of cache used to increase throughput. The drive will prodcued anywhere from 26 to 29 dBA of noise from idle to seek, consuming 4.0 watts when idling and up to 7.4 watts when seeking.

Originally posted on ExtremeTech.

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Tool for extracting icons or icon arrays from files (EXE, DLL, OCX, etc.) with ability to scan folders to search for EXE, DLL and OCX files, which contain icons.

Extracted icons can be saved (exported) to file – all or selected icon to ICO, BMP, JPEG, EMF files and all icons as one picture to BMP, JPEG, or EMF file. There is an ability to extract and save all icons from all files in selected folder at once. Also, all icons from the selected file can be exported to HTML document (.htm, .html) or dBase 5 file (.dbf). Saving high color icons (wich have more than 16 colors) is also possible. Export operations can be performed also via command line.

Download a free copy of Icons from File.

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Proving once again that the best ideas are often the simplest, 21-year-old student/inventor/entrepreneur Emily Cummins has designed a brilliant portable solar-powered refrigerator that works based upon the principle of evaporation.

Not only is the fridge solar powered, it can also be built from household materials – making it ideal for the Third World. Employing a combination of conduction and convection, the refrigerator requires no electricity and can be made from commonly available materials like cardboard, sand, and recycled metal.

Emily Cummins, 21, came up with the idea while working on a school project in her grandfather’s potting shed. The fridge is now improving the lives of thousands of poverty-stricken Africans.

Miss Cummins hopes to patent a more sophisticated portable model for use in transporting medical supplies around hot countries.

From the age of four, when she was given a hammer as a gift, Miss Cummins has spent much of her spare time making things out of ordinary materials. She has won awards for a toothpaste squeezer for arthritis sufferers and for a water-carrying device, again for Third World use.

Simply place perishable foods or temperature-sensitive medications in the solar refrigerator’s interior metal chamber and seal it. In-between the inner and outer chamber, organic material like sand, wool or soil is then saturated with water. As the sun warms the organic material, water evaporates, reducing the temperature of the inner chamber to a cool, 6 ºC [43 ºF] for days at a time!

After winning £5,000 from York Merchant Adventurers for her idea, Emily delayed going to college for a year to take her refrigerator to Africa for further development. She made six versions during the initial phase of production and helped make more than 50 during the trip where locals in Namibia nicknamed her “The Fridge Lady“. The refrigerator has since rolled out in Zambia, Namibia and South Africa and Emily believes thousands more may be in use as the design passes from community to community through word-of-mouth.

Emily explained: “I set about looking at how I could make a sustainable version after asking people what luxury they couldn’t live without and one of the answers that kept coming up was ‘fridge’…I wanted to keep it really simple and so I set about researching how we cooled things years ago. The simplest method of cooling something could be seen when you look at how we cool biologically—through sweating or evaporation. That idea led me to the design and the fridge was born.”

Emily has been inventing from an early age – she received her first hammer at the tender age of four from her grandfather who was an engineer, and she soon set to work making toys and rabbit hutches. At 16 Emily won a regional Young Engineer for Britain Award for creating a toothpaste squeezer for people with arthritis, and the next year went on to win a Sustainable Design Award for a water-carrier made from wood and rubber tubing. In 2007 Emily was named the British Female Innovator of the Year, and last year was short-listed for Cosmopolitan’s 2008 Ultimate Women of the Year Competition.

“I do want to use my skills to make a difference,” Emily says. “I’m not interested in making a bigger TV or greater sound system. I want to create change for the better.” Well said. We know we’ll hear much more from Emily in the future.

See the original postings on inhabitat and Mail Online.

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After decades of limited application, artificial intelligence is everywhere. And it really works this time.

January 26, 2009 (Computerworld) “Stair, please fetch the stapler from the lab,” says the man seated at a conference room table. The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Robot, standing nearby, replies in a nasal monotone, “I will get the stapler for you.” Stair pivots and wheels into the adjacent lab, avoiding a number of obstacles on the way. Its stereoscopic camera eyes swivel back and forth, taking in the contents of the room. It seems to think for a moment, then approaches a table for a closer look at an oblong metallic object. Its articulated arm reaches out, swivels here and there, and then gently picks up the stapler with long, rubber-clad fingers. It heads back to the conference room. “Here is your stapler,” says Stair, handing it to the man. “Have a nice day.” These are indeed nice days for artificial intelligence researchers. While Stair’s performance might not seem much better than that of a dog fetching the newspaper, it’s a technological tour de force unimaginable just a few years ago. Indeed, Stair represents a new wave of AI, one that integrates learning, vision, navigation, manipulation, planning, reasoning, speech and natural-language processing. It also marks a transition of AI from narrow, carefully defined domains to real-world situations in which systems learn to deal with complex data and adapt to uncertainty.

The Stanford Artificial Intelligence Robot (Stair)

Read the entire article at ComputerWorld.

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Helicopters for Everybody

The Hoppicopter is evolving into a comfortably single-seat helicopter that will supply you with cheap air transportation.

By Frank Tinsley

BACK in the 30’s, a Seattle aeronautical engineer named Horace T. Pentecost became convinced that he could design a set of personal wings. As an engineer and student of aviation history, Pentecost was well aware of the shortcomings of man-made flapping wings, so he gave the problem an entirely different solution. In place of rosy pinions, he substituted the whirling blades of the modern helicopter. His first machine, designed for army paratroopers, was intended to supplant the clumsy and uncontrollable parachute. Strapped to the wearer’s back, it was christened “Hoppicopter” because the trooper literally hopped off and landed on his own two feet. It consisted of little more than an engine, rotors and control stick, mounted on a tubular frame that was strapped over the flier’s shoulders and back.

The Hoppicopter’s dependence upon human legs as landing gear proved its ultimate undoing. Landing on rough terrain, the wearers frequently stumbled and fell, smashing the whirling vanes against the ground. This was not only embarrassing but expensive.

The next model boasted a light tube-and-canvas seat and three landing wheels arranged in a triangle, supported on spindly, insect-like legs. In flight, the pilot felt somewhat more at ease, not as though he were hanging in space like a fish on the end of a line. The working parts were unchanged, however. A hot, noisy motor still nestled coyly against the back of the pilot’s neck. The gas tank was suspended directly above him with no fire protection.

The third model has corrected some of the above mentioned faults. The engine now is slung under the seat directly beneath the center of gravity. This warms the pilot in cold air and improves the machine’s balance. The model at present is being tested. There still remains, however, the sense of insecurity—of riding a flying swivel chair with no visible means of support. Pentecost and his associates are perfectly well aware of this natural reaction and have planned a weatherproof enclosure for the machine.

In the illustration one version of such a streamlined housing is shown. With this addition, our Hoppicopter becomes a vehicle of true utility. Such a machine would be practical, cheap to buy and maintain and could easily be the answer to the demand for a “Model T” helicopter.

See the original posting of the 1951 Mechanix Illustrated article on modernmechanix.

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