Month: December 2012

The edge of Murray-Sunset National Park on the border of South Australia and Victoria.

Vicki

We had a good run mocking iOS 6 maps for its wrong turns and bizarre aerial shots, but that’s all over now that Australian police have actually deemed the app a danger to the public.

A statement on the Victoria police website has officially decreed Apple’s contribution to the navigation world untrustworthy, after several users ended up 70km (about 43.4mi) off-course stranded in the wilderness and had to be rescued by police.

“Local police have been called to assist distressed motorists who have become stranded within the Murray-Sunset National Park after following directions on their Apple iPhone,” reads the statement from the Mildura police department.

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from Ars Technica

Filed under: Videos, Military, Middle East, Design/Style

Going up against an organized military must be quite a challenge, but Syrian rebels have used a little ingenuity to give themselves a fighting chance in the country’s civil war. Judging by the fact that the uprising has lasted for more than a year now, the fighters definitely have skills in weapons and military tactics, but some of the rebels have displayed a different sort of skill by busting out their torches and welders to create this homemade tank.

Looking like something you’d see on an old episode of The A-Team, this armored assault vehicle started life as some sort of diesel truck and was converted to its current state using a lot of steel and a big gun. The occupants, engine and tires are all protected by thick metal, and the vehicle uses four cameras (including a gunner camera that can be zoomed in by what appears to be a Playstation controller) and a rear-facing camera to help the driver pilot the massive vehicle.

We don’t know how well this vehicle performs when in action, but we’re sure Hannibal, Face, Murdock and B.A. Baracus would all be proud of the effort. Scroll down to see the tank in action, courtesy of a video posted by Russia Today on YouTube, including running over a helpless pile of branches.

Syrian rebels show off their inner A-Team with homemade tank originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Autoblog

Microsoft gave Windows 7 users a way to run older applications via Windows XP Mode. With Windows 8, however, that mode is no longer officially supported, and if you want to run Windows XP in a virtual machine, you need the license for it. Lifehacker reader Miloš, however, has found a workaround. More »

from Lifehacker

League of Legends might be one of the biggest games in the world, but it’s not without its share of problems. Chief among them the fact many of its players are hostile, anti-social assholes. More »

from Kotaku

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from Ars Technica

The four major US carriers have joined forces and agreed to create a nationwide 911 texting service. It will allow their customers to send a text message in the case of emergency rather than making a voice call. More »

from Gizmodo

The lack of reliable electricity in developing countries puts a damper on more than just technology use — having to run kerosene lamps, or even those based on solar power, often involves recurring costs that whittle away at very modest incomes. GravityLight has built an LED lamp that just might lift the burden. As the name implies, a weight (usually the very bag that the lamp ships in) generates electricity through natural force: the few seconds it takes to lift the weight can generate 30 minutes of light without ever replacing a battery or fuel supply. The simple construction also has helpful side benefits, such as powering up other devices and a clip that can replace the bag with most anything that weighs around 20 pounds. The crowdfunded project’s donation tiers ask $25 to donate a light to the developing world or $50 to also get one for yourself, but it’s a small price to pay in the long run — and when mass production should see prices fall below $5, the GravityLight might just change the lighting landscape for those who need it most.

Continue reading GravityLight uses weight to illuminate without batteries or fuel (video)

Filed under: Household

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Source: IndieGogo

from Engadget