Category: Cool

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From Engadget: Nokia N900 rises from the grave, replaces robot’s head

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Nokia’s buried-but-beloved N900 smartphone has performed many parlor tricks in the past, but its latest role as a carbon-fiber swaddled cyborg cranium just might take the cake. Using the equally forsaken MeeGo OS, a roboticist by the name of Sascha hacked his way into the phone’s three-axis controller and other components in order to bring his Bioloid creation to life. The smartphone’s video streaming and remote access functions may also give this bipedal mech a leg-up on the last N900 robo we admired — but we’ll need to see some video of it all in action before we make that call. Meanwhile, let’s just hope that this unholy union of rejected parts doesn’t become self-aware and turn on the company that cast it away.

 

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From Engadget: AmazonSupply launches, offers up lab and janitorial supplies in same convenient location

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If you’re like us, there’s nothing you hate more than having to go to different sites to pick up your pneumatics and abrasives. Thankfully, Amazon, that aggregator of all things with a price tag, has launched AmazonSupply, a site serving a broad range of industrial and business categories, including such favorites as fasteners, power & hand tools, fleet & vehicle maintenance and cutting tools. The site also offers up such Amazonian favorites as free shipping for Prime customers. AmazonSupply features some 500,000 plus items at present and 365-day returns. More info can be found in the press release after the break.

Continue reading AmazonSupply launches, offers up lab and janitorial supplies in same convenient location

 

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From Engadget: New research brings better wireless to remote locations, 80 percent faster GoT downloads

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Not getting the bandwidth you need, Heidi? Then maybe the folks at North Carolina State University can help. They’ve figured out a way to boost multi-hop networks, where data is forwarded across two or more nodes (hops) in order to reach far-flung users. Networks like this can often get bogged down by interference between neighboring nodes. But by using algorithms to automatically modulate the power of each link, the NC State scientists have managed to jump efficiency by up to 80 percent. This has the effect of not only increasing speed, but also saving juice if the systems are battery powered — like those used by the US Army, which sponsored the research. After all, just because you’re away from the throne doesn’t mean you have to be out of the game.

 

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From Engadget: Helium-filled floating wind turbine, renewable energy with style

Helium-filled floating wind turbine, renewable energy with style

There’s no doubting that the cause of renewable energy is a noble one. But, ethics aside, it also gives birth to the occasional technical marvel. Altaeros Energies, a company from Massachusetts (with MIT and Harvard blood in its veins) has created one such curiosity. The prototype is a wind-turbine that doesn’t just languish on a hill-top, cutting a line in the horizon. No, this one has a helium-filled outer-section which allows it to deploy itself to 1,000 feet, where it can benefit from stronger, more consistent winds and gives nearly twice the power yields of its land bound brethren. That’s all very nice, but we just thought it looked dang cool in action.

 

from Engadget

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From Autoblog: Animated engines clear up the mysteries of combustion

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Animated engines

For some, learning by example is the best way to get info sealed into the noggin. If engines are the thing they want to learn about, then Matt Keveny’s site, Animated Engines, should be the first stop.

Unlike the engines profiled, the site couldn’t be simpler: clicking one of the 21 different engine types will take you to a page demonstrating how that engine creates power. The animations can be run anywhere from one to 25 frames per second to provide a crystalline breakdown of an engine’s combustive ballet.

There’s even knowledge for the engine expert, with animations detailing some forgotten freaskshows of the pistoned world, including the Unknown Beam, Low Differential Stirling and Crank Substitute. Head on overto check out some line-drawing gearhead pr0n.

Animated engines clear up the mysteries of combustion originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 22 Apr 2012 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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From Engadget: New material brings semiconducting to the graphene party

New material brings semiconducting to the graphene party

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee have cooked up a new graphene-based material that could provide a speed boost for all electronics. We’ve seen the carbon allotrope turn up in circuitry and transistors before, but the new chemical modification — graphene monoxide — is said to be easier to scale up, and most importantly is semiconducting, unlike the insulating or conducting forms that have preceded it. This also means graphene can now provide the triad of electrical conductivity characteristics. The scientists were honest enough to admit the discovery was as much by chance as design, with it coming to light while investigating another material containing carbon nanotubes and tin oxide. We’re sure they’re not the first to make a discovery this way, we just haven’t had time to check the notes to be sure of it.

 

from Engadget