Skip navigation.

exploreopera

| Help

Sign up | Help

$öN@M M@╦HuR!@

Born On 9th Of June║Technolgy Is My Obsession

Posts tagged with "awesome"

12 Most Amazing Weapons, We Don`t Have…Yet

, , , ...

12. Ghostbusters Proton Pack - Ghostbusters

Dan Aykroyd first turns on his unlicensed particle accelerator in an elevator, which shakes with a subsonic rumble as the other Ghostbusters cower in the corner. Turns out special effects can deliver a rock-solid punch line.


11. Rail Gun - Eraser

A railgun is a form of gun that converts electrical energy (rather than the more conventional chemical energy from an explosive propellant) into projectile kinetic energy. It is not to be confused with a coilgun (Gauss gun). Rail guns use the magnetic pressure force to drive a projectile. Unlike gas pressure guns, rail guns are not limited by the speed of sound in a compressed gas, so they are capable of accelerating projectiles to extremely high speeds (many kilometers per second).


10. Freddy’s Glove - A Nightmare on Elm Street

‘One Two, Freddy’s Comin’ For You…Three Four, Better Lock The Door..’ We all know the rhyme, and for a few years, thanks to the industry inundating the screens with Freddy and his nightmares, we were all pretty well frightened, too. Freddy Krueger was a horribly disfigured and burnt walking cliche who also happened to own a killer metal glove featuring four fingers of razor sharp blades. He haunted the sleeping thoughts of the younger crowd ’surviving’ on Elm Street, and more often then not, disposed of them in any number of gory and vicious ways. But, most frequently, he employed the use of his ‘fist of fury’. Very sharp.


9. Portable Burst Missile Launcher - Spawn

The second most powerful weapon in the game, the Portable Burst Missile Launcher fires three missiles per cartridge. It causes tremendous damage, though it has a slow rate of fire and also slows Spawn’s movements while he wields it.


8. Phased-Plasma Rifle in the 40-Watt Range - The Terminator

Even though we don’t ever see this gun in action, the mere mention of it so blows the mind of Mr. Futterman the Gun Shop Owner that we just know we have to have one. And the fact that the Terminator walks out of the store with enough firepower to invade Cuba and still seems disappointed tells you all you need to know.


7. Noisy Cricket - Men in Black

What’s pocket-sized but still capable of destroying a city block?. It’s the MIB’s surprising li’l Cricket. This isn’t a gun to wave around when you want to scare someone, it’s one to whip out when you mean business. And think about it—it’s dainty, shiny, and fits easily into a handbag. It’s the perfect gift for the futuristic warrior woman in your life.


6. ZF-1 Assault Weapon - The Fifth Element

The Swiss Army Knife of assault rifles. The ZF has rockets, darts, tracer bullets, netting, a flame-thrower, freezing gas-anything and everything you need to destroy the universe. The only problem is, a crate of these bad boys will set you back four ancient, mystical stones each. We don’t care if you’re the Sultan of Dubai, that’s some serious scratch.


5. Glaive - Krull

A mystical weapon of unknown origin, the glaive might not be the most versatile weapon on the list—it is, essentially, an over-sized ninja throwing star—but it more than makes up for its shortcomings in style. Even if all you intend to do with it is chop blocks of cheese or scare your cat, you’ll look cool doing it. And it’ll end an “ultimate Frisbee” match in seconds.


4. Lightsabers - Star Wars

An elegant weapon, for a more civilized age.” Whether your particular brand comes in badass red, noble hero blue, or Samuel L. Jedi purple, the lightsaber is such an intimidator, it can even make a two-foot Muppet seem tough. You don’t even have to use it, just flick it on and its unmistakable hum clearly says: “Somebody’s walking out of here without a limb.”


3. Sick Stick - Minority Report

Cops in the future have come so far. No longer armed with lame wooden sticks that are only good for tapping on driver’s side windows, these new sticks make anyone you touch vomit instantly. Seriously—no tequila, no pictures of Britney Spears’ vagina, just a single touch! It’s fun, and it’ll also double as a convenient time-saver for your bulimic girlfriend.


2. Iron Giants - The Iron Giant

What could be better than a 50-foot robot armed with advanced alien weaponry? One that can also babysit the kids! One part nanny, one part War of the Worlds, the Iron Giant would be the ideal home defense choice for families. Kidnapping would practically be rendered nonexistent if we had these things to chaperone the kids at the park or take them to school.


1. The Death Star - Star Wars

Talk about home defense. The only thing more efficient than owning a weapon to protect your house is actually living inside the weapon. The Death Star can entertain a small country’s worth of houseguests, has plenty of parking space, a recycling plant on the premises, and enough firepower to destroy an entire planet. You might want to slap a screen door on some of those thermal exhaust ports, but otherwise you’re living in the lap of destructive luxury

Top Tech Challenges Of The Century

, , , ...

Scientists Identify 14 Major Hurdles Which Can Vastly Improve Quality Of Life On Earth


A panel of experts from around the world have identified 14 grand challenges for engineering that, if met, may significantly improve the quality of life on Earth.


The US Nationat Academy of Engineering(NAE) has revealed that the panels choices fall into four groups that are essential for humanity to flourish namely, sustainability, health, reducing vulnerability and joy of living.


The panel, established in 2006 at the request of the US National Science Foundation, met several times to discuss and develop the list of challenges. Its effort recieved worldwide input from prominent engineers and scientists as well as general public, through an interactive website. Even my suggestion was selected, about e-medicine, albeit some changes.


Over 50 subject-matter experts reviewed the panels conclusion.


The committee did not attempt to include every important challenge, nor did it endorse particular approaches to meeting those selected.


Instead of focussing on predictions or gee-whiz gadgets, it decided to identify what needs to be done to help people and the planet thrive.



Here is the list....



Advance health informatics
Stronger health information systems not only improve everyday medical visits, but they are essential to counter pandemics and biological or chemical attacks

Engineer better medicines
Engineers are developing new systems to use genetic information, sense, small changes in the body, assess new drugs, and deliver vaccines

Advance personalised learning
Instruction can be individualized based on learning styles, speeds, and interests to make learning more reliable

Provide access to clean water
The world's water supplies are facing new threats, affordable, advanced technologies could make a difference for millions of people around the world

Make solar energy economical
Solar energy
provides less than 1% of the world's total energy, but it has the potential to provide much more

Manage the nitrogen cycle
Engineers can help restore balance to the nitrogen cycle with better fertilization technologies and by capturing and recycling waste

Reverse engineer the brain
The intersection of engineering and neuroscience promises great advantage in health care, manufacturing, and communication

Engineer the tools of scientific discovery
In the century ahead, engineers will continue to be partners with scientists in the great quest for understanding many unanswered questions of nature

Provide energy from fusion
Human-engineered fusion has been demonstrated on a small scale. The challenge is to scale up the process to commercial proportions, in an efficient, economical, and environmently benign way

Develop carbon sequestration methods
Engineers are working on ways to capture and store excess carbon dioxide to prevent global warming

Prevent nuclear terror
The need for technologies to prevent and respond to a nuclear attack is growing

Secure Cyberspace
Its more than preventing identity theft. Critical systems in banking, national security, and physical infrastructure may be at risk

Enhance Virtual reality
True virtual reality creates the illusion of actually being in a different space. It can be used for training, treatment and communication

Restore and improve urban infrastructure
Good design and advanced materials can improve transportation and energy, water and waste systems and also create more sustainable urban environments

Sony Annual Product Sneak Peek: My Favorites

, , , ...


Sony put on a big bash in Las Vegas this week, showing off its latest wares in its Annual Product Showcase, and we were there, snooping around just for you. The company was strutting around like a barnyard rooster, crowing about its Blu-ray victory over the hapless HD DVD format, and showing off a couple of new Blu-ray players that’ll be shipping later this year.

Sony’s also expanding its LCD TV line, now at a mind-numbing 51 choices, and all are LCD panels with nary a plasma display in sight. Noticeably absent were the rear-projection TVs Sony was so adamant about sticking with last year at this time, but hey, time marches on. Looking forward to the future, click Continue and read all about our faves we picked from the scores of products on display at Sony's mega-demo.

Brave New Bravias: Front and center were dozens of super-pretty Bravia LCD TVs, most stuffed with the latest 1080p-ness and many sporting helpful, creative and even whimsical program menu systems that resemble a PlayStation. Some of the smaller TVs, such as the S-Series you see pictured above, will soon be available in candy colors, too. There was also an impressive demo of how 120Hz refresh rates can make a big difference in moving video, along with the announcement that the fast 120Hz screen tech is moving downmarket into about a dozen more Sony models.

Blu-ray Strut: Of course, Sony wanted to push Blu-ray and showed off two new players that are great-looking and unusually thin and narrow. The new BDP-S350 (picture at top, both look almost identical) ships this summer for about $400, and will be capable of picture-in-picture (but there are no discs using this yet) and will be “BD-Live ready,” meaning it’s capable of downloading content from the web if you add flash storage to it.
The higher-end BDP-S550 Blu-ray player ships this fall for $499, and it actually includes a gig of storage for that web downloading thing, all part of the new Blu-ray Profile 2.0 standard that brings the tech up to the standard held by the dead HD DVD since its beginning. A-V-ophiles will love this one’s DTS-HD Master Audio Decoding and 7.1 analog outputs. What we really wanted to know about these two new players was the load times, but the Sony reps weren’t willing to demo that. Let’s hope it takes less than the leisurely minute-plus of Sony’s current models.




Microvault Click Drive: Here’s a trifle, but it shows that Sony still has some creativity left: This Microvault Click is a new take on the thumb drive. It isn’t the first capless design, but it’s the first to work just like a ball-point pen. Neat.

Phave Phones: My favorite part of the show was the fabulous noise-canceling headphones that Sony announced last month and ships in a few weeks. The guy who designed the $400 cans was standing right there, and we talked with him about these superphones

Sub-$3000 projector, looking good: The Sony VPL-VW40 front projector spits out 1080p with aplomb, using its Bravia engine that digitally enhances each frame in real time. The result was a razor-sharp image on the 100-inch screen hidden away in a pitch-dark viewing area. It’s not the brightest projector we’ve ever seen, but its 15,000:1 contrast ratio and super-quiet operation caught our attention. To our eyes, this is the best sub-$3000 1080p projector we’ve seen yet.

Titanium jewel: Amid all the noise about face detection, smile detection and now a goofy in-camera smile repair feature, this new $350 DSC-W300 was the standout. This is one gorgeous point-and-shoot camera, festooned with a swanky-looking titanium coating. Remarkably, it can fire off five frames per second. If it’s megapixels you want, the W300’s loaded with 13.6 of them. Never mind all those numbers; it’s simply the prettiest point-and-shoot camera ever. Behold its beauty:

Awesome Gadgets For One And All !!

, , , ...

Hello Kitty debuts remote-controlled belly fat burner Although I can hardly get five minutes of attention from most of my female friends when I talk tech, for some reason if I mention the name Hello Kitty I get full attention. This belated Valentine’s Day post is for them. The Hello Kitty Slender Shaper is the latest in the trend of belly shakers claiming to burn the fat off your midsection. And, in the tradition of the newly popular Wii, the device even comes with a cute little remote allowing you to shake your booty faster or slower with just the push of a button. The entire package, including branded carrying case will run you just 13,800 yen ($127.52) here. SHIFT: Are solid-state drives really better than hard disks? When Apple rolled out the MacBook Air with its solid-state disk (SSD) inside, it felt like a new era in laptop computing had begun. Are solid-state state drives poised to replace those spinning hard disks we've become accustomed to over the past few decades? Not so fast. Although there's a transition underway, for all that sexy new technology, you'll pay a whole lot more to be an early adopter. In this case, solid-state drives will cost you at least $1,000 more for a 64GB drive in laptops from Apple, Toshiba or Dell, but offer you less space and sometimes slower speeds than conventional hard drives. I talked with experts and analysts about the latest solid-state drive offerings, trying to find out if the time is right to go for the latest disk tech. Follow the Continue link to read my findings. Kinetic phone is charged with motion and wishes Boy, do I ever love concept designs like this. Designers just love to create these fantastical designs with absolutely no basis in reality. I mean, hey, that's what engineers are for, right? Figuring out how to make designs work? If so, some poor engineer really has his work cut out for him. The Kinetic phone only has basic cell functions, no multimedia stuff that might suck up unnecessary juice. Why? Because all you have to do to charge it is "give it a few upside down turns to get the kinetic rotors going again." That's it. You never have to plug it in. Boy, you've got to wonder why no phones work like this if it's possible to do, right? A real, working underwater convertible When it comes to vehicles from famous movies, they don't get too much cooler than James Bond's Lotus convertible that can also function as a submarine. Unfortunately, the very idea of a convertible submarine is nonsensical, so we'll probably never see it in real life. Or will we? We will! Check out this Rinspee sQuba! It's a convertible that's also a submarine! You need to wear scuba masks attached to the built-in air tanks to drive it underwater, but how badass is this? In addition, it's a zero-emissions vehicle, running on a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery, so you can pretend to be a secret agent without wrecking the environment. That's it, I'm sold. Where do I sign? Table with four space-saving chairs makes the most of cramped quarters Designer Marta Antoszkiewicz unifies table and chairs with Kitchenette, a smoothly rounded set that hides away its four chairs when you're not using them. While it might look a bit like a painted cardboard box, its construction is sturdy with square steel tube legs holding up the heat-formed laminate table and its form-fitting seating. Conveniently located in the tabletop's center are recessed areas where silicone pads are stored, perfect for placing hot pans without scorching. In case you get into a messy food fight because of those limited confines in which you're forced to live every day, those comfy cushions are washable, and the rest of the table can be simply hosed down. Once the commotion dies down, those four chairs snap into place with their little strategically-placed magnets attracting their metal counterparts on the table's legs. Neat. Unbelievable animation: close encounters of the desktop kind
http://view.break.com/443897 - Watch more free videos
You may never look at your cell phone the same way again after seeing this UFO landing on some innocent soul's desk. What a convincing special effect! Quick, look under your desk to see if any tiny aliens are crawling around down there. It's not only the realistic sounds that sell the visuals, but the camera movement and shifting focus makes it look like it was shot with a handheld camcorder. Remarkable. Order coffee directly from your iPhone Soon, thanks to Apple's deal with Starbucks for free access to WiFi at their stores, ordering overpriced coffee will be easier than ever. There'll be no more of that undesirable "interacting with fellow humans" that mars any good transaction, thank heavens. That's because you'll be able to order and pay for your drinks directly from your iPhone or iPod Touch using the fancy new Starbucks program. You can choose exactly what you want in your drink, be it just a normal coffee or some horrible half-caf soy mocha teacchino or whatever it is they sell there. At long last, your dreams of ordering coffee from your phone will be realized. Thanks, Apple! 20 toys for girls that don't look like, er, toys for girls For all you girls who are alone on Valentine's Day — or you guys who want to get your GFs a little something more than just chocolate and roses — vibrators personal massagers are always a good option. The problem is, vibrators personal massagers aren't something discerning girls want to be seen with. The usual choices are freakish models that look like something out of a David Cronenberg movie, or sleek ones that aren't scary but also aren't going to hide the fact that your date for tonight runs on electricity. So this Valentine's Day we scoured the planet to find you ladies some better options, discrete vibrators personal massagers that you can have lying around the house and, if they're uncovered, no one will be the wiser to your AAA activities. So read on if you want to cheer yourself up today. Or you can, you know, use them with friends, if that's how you roll. (Note: Some links might be vaguely NSFW, but not by much. Most of these are available on Amazon.com, though.) Shell-shaped Nautilus House is gorgeous inside and out Who cares what the neighbors think? Let's build a house that looks like a snail shell! That's just what a Mexico City couple did, with the help of the astonishing imagination of those wild and wooly architects at Senosiain Arquitectos. Unlike that House of the Future we showed you yesterday, this abode is built now and the couple is already living in it with their two small children. It's more of a sculpture than a dwelling. Taking cues from a Nautilus shell, the house is put together using ferrocement construction, a technique involving a frame of steel-reinforced chicken wire with a special two-inch-thick composite of concrete spread over it, resulting in a structure that's earthquake-proof and maintenance-free. The open concept inside the house is dominated by smooth surfaces, spiral stairs and natural plantings that makes the inhabitants feel like they're living inside a snail who swallowed the entire contents of somebody's back yard. While the house is surrounded on three sides by the bustling Mexico City, its West side (where most of its portal-style windows are located) has a breathtaking view of the mountains. Wow. Maybe someday all houses will be made this way. Acne-clearing MP3 player makes us wonder if there really is a sucker born every minute We've seen some pretty goofy MP3 players in our day, from this one that claims to massage you to this one that claims to help you relax and concentrate. The latest in the "wellbeing plus music" category is the mpion, an MP3 player that claims to fight acne. Since it costs $184 and only holds 128 megabytes of music, we hope (but seriously doubt) that it actually works. In fact, 128 MB is more than enough memory to hold the twenty minutes worth of music that you'll listen to while holding the player up to your face and thinking positive thoughts. Remember the band Everclear, anyone? Dual Pizza Oven Delivers Dinner in 90 Seconds or Less It's not clear what kind of voodoo is working here, but somehow this Dual Pizza Oven can take your dinner from a pile of dough, cheese and toppings to a steaming, crispy pizza in 90 seconds flat. Not only that, but it can do that magic on two 12-inch pizzas simultaneously. We expect frozen pizzas to take a bit longer, but even so, this is the fastest pizza cooking we've seen this side of a microwave, and who would want to destroy a pizza with that food-ruining contraption, anyway? This oven works by combining 1440-watt coil heating elements with ceramic pizza stones that distribute that heat evenly. The missing number here is the amount of time it takes to cook a frozen pizza, a wildly popular culinary feast that's gone from inedible to mediocre in the past few years. Sure, that 90-second cooking time is impressive, but if you're making your own fresh pizza from scratch, that time savings might be offset. Still, the lure of a 90-second meal is powerful, even if Hammacher is asking $249.95 for the thing. Nature Aquariums let your fish live in style That beautiful image you see above isn't a painting or a Photoshop. No, it's an actual fish tank. Created by George and Steven Lo of Aqua Forest Aquarium in San Francisco, these "Nature Aquariums" are built using real plants to create beautiful, natural dioramas for fish to live in. Sure, putting one of these things together take a lot of time, money, and effort, but your fish deserve the best, don't they? And there's nothing fish like more than swimming around in weird, fake versions of places they naturally are unable to go. Hit the jump for another awesome aquarium shot. RoboPorter robot caddie is going to make a lot of RealPorters mad Weary travelers flying into Japan's Kita Kyushu airport will be pleased to know that they can give their arms a rest — on certain afternoons, Yaskawa Electric will have RoboPorters cruising the airport, ready to serve. Each RoboPorter can haul over 100 pounds to any destinations it's programmed to go to. Just tell it where you're headed or, if you're not quite sure, the 'bot has a display on it with a virtual assistant, map of the airport and additional information. Right now the RoboPorters are only programmed to head off to airport locations for taxis, buses and cars, but, as the tests progress the porters will no doubt learn new tricks.

9 Awesome Gadgets from Battlestar Galactica

, , , ...


When most people think of the SCI FI series Battlestar Galactica, they think of super-sophisticated synthetic lifeforms (a.k.a. Cylons) and starships that travel faster than light. But those aren't the show's only high-tech wonders; check out these mind-blowing futuristic devices that make this show a paragon of cutting-edge science fiction.

1. Ultra-Durable Phones
The phones on the Galactica are built to last. Forget your RAZR or your iPhone, these are the next step in telecommunications: armored, indestructible handsets. And note the wire connecting it to a network: no dropped calls with these babies! Best part? They're sound-activated, so you never run out of battery power.








2. Radio Detection and Ranging
Forget those losers on Star Trek or Stargate who have ships with big-screen plasma TVs as their window on the universe. The battlestar Galactica detects nearby objects by bouncing radio waves off of them via a system called DRADIS. If Roddenberry were alive, we bet he would've wished he'd thought of that!










3. Hard Projectiles
Talk about tactical brilliance. Instead of shooting big, slow pulses of energy, or charged plasma, or whatever it is that goons on other sci-fi series use to miss their targets, the troops and fighter aircraft on the Galactica use slugs of metal propelled by chemical combustion. For every glowing tracer round you actually see, you're probably getting hit by 10 you didn't. We predict this will be the badass weapon of the future.








4. External Appendages
Powered exoskeletons and cybernetic prostheses are so last week. The BSG guys remembered the principle of Occam's razor and concocted therapeutic devices that are easy to use and incredibly energy-efficient: one is a rod you lean on while walking, and the other is a pair of ingenious, stilt-like supports that you prop under your armpits. Where do they get these brilliant ideas?








5. Impact Tools
If you had to fix a malfunctioning faster-than-light jump engine, you'd probably expect to use a dynoscanner or a gravitic caliper or some similar supercomplicated gadget, right? Wrong. As we've all learned from watching BSG, you need more brawn than finesse, slamming the problem mechanism with a percussive tool. If none are available, the heel of your shoe would probably do the trick.








6. Non-Networked Computers
Can you remember the last time you used a computer that didn't connect to the Internet? Neither can we. That's what's so mind-blowing about the electronics on the Galactica. Imagine: an entire starship full of advanced computing technology, and no e-mail. They finally solved the spam problem! If that's not pie-in-the-sky science fiction, we don't know what is.








7. Erasable Marker Boards
No chalk on board the Galactica: Probably one of the coolest things ever seen on a science-fiction TV series: they write in what looks like ink on these big, white boards — and then, they erase the ink and write something else! Wild! Where can we get one?












8. Solid-State Tactical Planning Tools
Forget your holographic models or your CGI simulations, this is the way to plan a war: with not-to-scale models on a big table. Best of all, if you run out of pieces for something important, like Vipers, you can just substitute spare change or something.










9. Gamma-Ray Photographs
Okay, this is pretty intense: these guys have devices that can look through soft tissue and take pictures of people's frickin' skeletons. That's just creepy. Good thing it's a technology that you can only find in deep space.
July 2008
SMTWTFS
June 2008August 2008
12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031