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StCredZero (169093)

StCredZero
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StCredZero (169093)

Submitted by StCredZero on Wednesday June 04, @04:16PM
StCredZero writes "I keep seeing links on social news sites about using electrolysis to produce hydrogen or Brown's gas to mix into your car engine's intakes. Well, Stop It! It can't work. The Mythbusters do the calcs and show that it falls short by a factor of 6!"
http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9551919888/m/2321969559
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 [+] submission, science, transportation

  Awesome Modular Snake Robot![->] 2008-03-06 09:11 StCredZero

Submitted by StCredZero on Thursday March 06, @09:11AM
An awesome Modular Snake Robot! In addition to being able to traverse a wide variety of terrain, it can also climb poles, the inside of pipes and condiuts, small grooves in walls, and probably more. It can also swim. Many robots can do one of those tasks. This can do them all! That's quite an accomplishment. This has tremendous potential for the maintenance of fiber optic networks, pipelines, and plumbing in large buildings. It also has tremendous potential as a spy device. (I wonder how loud it is?)

Here is a link to the original researcher's website
http://youtube.com/watch?v=T62E-_pQt3c
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 [+] , hardware, robot

  Large Sheets of Carbon Nanotubes Produced[->] 2008-03-02 10:54 StCredZero

Submitted by StCredZero on Sunday March 02, @10:54AM
From the article: "Nanocomp Technologies of Concord, is producing sheets of carbon nanotubes that measure three feet by six feet and promising slabs 100 square feet in area as soon as this summer... One of many application of interests to futurists would be superior solar sails A carbon nanotube sail could reach 4% of the speed of light by just making a close flyby slingshot around the sun."
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/02/large-sheets-of-carbon-nanotube.html#links
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 [+] , hardware, space

  Magnetic Levitation Chaise Lounge[->] 2008-02-10 11:23 StCredZero

Submitted by StCredZero on Sunday February 10, @11:23AM
StCredZero writes "Someone's gone and done it! Someone went and implemented a levitating chaise lounge using acrylic and really strong magnets. It still uses two acrylic rods to keep the seat from sliding off, but the way they've done it looks cool! Can't wait until someone comes up with a DIY version."
http://www.hoverit.co.uk/
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 [+] submission, hardware, toy

  Science: Biofuels Make Greenhouse Gases Worse 2008-02-09 22:31

Posted by kdawson on Saturday February 09, @10:31PM
from the no-free-lunch dept.
vortex2.71 sends us to the Seattle Times for an account of two studies published in the prestigious journal Science pointing to the conclusion that almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse-gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these "green" fuels are taken into account. "The benefits of biofuels have come under increasing attack in recent months, as scientists took a closer look at the global environmental cost of their production. These plant-based fuels were originally billed as better than fossil fuels because the carbon released when they were burned was balanced by the carbon absorbed when the plants grew. But that equation proved overly simplistic because the process of turning plants into fuels causes its own emissions — for refining and transport, for example. These studies... for the first time take a detailed, comprehensive look at the emissions effects of the huge amount of natural land that is being converted to cropland globally to support biofuels development."
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 [+] story, science, earth, haha, oops, tnstaafl
Submitted by StCredZero on Saturday February 09, @06:00PM
From Science Daily: The ability to grow individual nanowires of unlimited length are now possible with a process developed by researchers at the University of Illinois. The Space Elevator is starting to look possible!
http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/08/0130nanofiber.html
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 [+] , science, space

  Hardware: Li-Ion Batteries Hit Final R&D Phase for Plug-in Cars 2008-02-07 09:44

Posted by Zonk on Thursday February 07, @09:44AM
from the and-then-i-was-like-vroom-vroom dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Tesla finally delivered its first production model of the all-electric Roadster this month. Coinciding with that, researchers from the big automakers and their outsourced startup labs are hitting stride in the development of cheap, high-powered lithium-ion batteries. These may actually end up in our garages. Toyota, in fact, says it's got enough of the chemistry down to roll out a test fleet for the plug-in Prius before the end of 2009. It's mass production of battery tech that's the holdup — which might mean Mercedes' electric hybrids beat the Prius to market en masse by 2010 or 2011."
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 [+] story, hardware, power, technology, transportation, hugeexplosion, goldrush

  Real Life Aliens Loader-Lifter Exo (Army R&D)[->] 2008-02-06 17:18 StCredZero

Submitted by StCredZero on Wednesday February 06, @05:18PM
StCredZero writes "This thing is damn close to the P-5000 Power Loader from Aliens. But it's not special effects, it's a real life mecha. Developed by Sarcos corporation for the US military, it's a real life realization of the exact same kind of exoskeleton mecha! Currently, it lacks hands, but Sarcos has already developed those — see the "Large Dextrous Arm" holding an anvil like a martini glass. Apparently, you can sling 70 pound ammo boxes of do 200 pound pull-downs all day in this thing."
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1319
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 [+] submission, hardware, robot

  Where's my flying car? eBay![->] 2008-01-13 11:54 StCredZero

Submitted by StCredZero on Sunday January 13 2008, @11:54AM
StCredZero writes "I got this via Boing Boing The thing looks like a speeder that right out of Mos Eisley in Star Wars. 'A concept Sky Commuter aircraft that absorbed $6 mil in startup capital is for sale on eBay. The seller appears to be one of the engineers, and the long description associated with the listing is a heartbreaking (and eccentrically punctuated) story of a beautiful, dashed dream...In a brief description of the ship: It has a operational electric gas assisted lexan bubble canopy. Electric controled directional driving and landing lights. Electric Joystick and two foot pedals on both side and the craft was meant to be controlled from either seat. Advanced front dash shell made of Carbonfiber and Kevlar. Rear engine and electronics bay accessible by tilting seats forward and removing the back panel. (3) huge 3 foot lifting fans CCW/CW rotation. This was made to take off in vertical fight and land. It can be landed on water and float like a boat and take off of water. The targeted dream was to lift above it all and not deal with the daily gridlock traffic. Nearly at the finish line it all came to a abrupt stop and all the years and investment and R&D and production, Remains in this one craft shown here.'

Now, it's on eBay."
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=reddit+downmod+greasemonkey+script&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
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 [+] submission, hardware, toy

  From NAND to Tetris in 12 Steps[->] 2008-01-08 20:21 StCredZero

Submitted by StCredZero on Tuesday January 08 2008, @08:21PM
StCredZero writes "In graduate school, I taught a course like this, but this stuff is a step above! The course takes you from the NAND gate, and builds up to basic logic, components like mux, memory, an ALU, cpu, then an object oriented language, an operating system, and old-school video games like Tetris and Space Invaders!

All of the steps build on top of the last one. You literally go from NAND to Tetris and every place in between. If civilization fell, someone who paid attention in this course could restart the hardware and software industry. (Especially if you saw the video on Hand Made Vaccuum Tubes) Have any holes in your CompSci education? This could be just the thing to pull it all together!

Also, all of the software is Open Source. NAND to Tetris in 12 Steps There's also a A great Google Tech Talk"
http://cs.bc.edu/announcements/schocken_talk_2005_12_12
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 [+] submission, developers, programming, fresh, slownewsday
Submitted by StCredZero on Tuesday January 08 2008, @01:01PM
StCredZero writes "17 Sensational, Free and Downloadable Graphic Novels. Some of these are by very well known mainstream authors. (Gaiman, Moore, Morrison)"
http://www.dailybits.com/17-sensational-free-and-downloadable-graphic-novels/
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 [+] submission, links, slownewsday, binspam

  TV Industry Using Piracy As A Measure Of Success 2007-12-13 16:12

Posted by Zonk on Thursday December 13 2007, @04:12PM
from the talking-out-of-both-sides-of-their-face dept.
mrspin writes "Last100 has an interesting post from Guinevere Orvis, a web producer who works in the broadcast industry, who describes the way in which 'unofficial' but sanctioned BitTorrent leaks are being used as a measurement of a TV show's likely success. Orvis writes: 'Broadcasters aren't posting their shows directly on PirateBay yet, but they are talking informally and giving copies of shows to a friend of a friend who is unaffiliated with the company to make a torrent ... it's partially an experiment, but the hope is that distribution of content this way will lead to new viewers that wouldn't have been reached through traditional marketing means.'"

  3rd Party Apps on iPhone[->] 2007-10-18 17:09 StCredZero

Submitted by StCredZero on Thursday October 18 2007, @05:09PM
StCredZero writes "Third Party apps are coming to the iPhone! Nuff said!"
http://www.thegadgetlocker.com/article_info.php?ref=4&articles_id=35
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 [+] submission, apple, announcement, slownewsday
Submitted by StCredZero on Friday October 05 2007, @11:45AM
StCredZero writes "An interesting bit from the article:

The scientists solved a problem that has confounded engineers and scientists for decades: Individual nano-size building blocks such as nanotubes, nanosheets and nanorods are ultrastrong. But larger materials made out of bonded nano-size building blocks were comparatively weak. Until now.

"When you tried to build something you can hold in your arms, scientists had difficulties transferring the strength of individual nanosheets or nanotubes to the entire material," Kotov said. "We've demonstrated that one can achieve almost ideal transfer of stress between nanosheets and a polymer matrix."
Making composites from nanotubes is exactly the problem that needs to be solved in order to build a Space Elevator!"
http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/8152
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 [+] submission, science, space, slownewsday

  Scientists Develop Cyborg Interface Algorithm[->] 2007-10-04 11:13 StCredZero

Submitted by StCredZero on Thursday October 04 2007, @11:13AM
From the article: 'Scientists are making progress on neural devices that can translate the thoughts of a paralyzed person into driving action for a prosthetic device.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Wednesday that they've developed an algorithm for a neural prosthetic aid that can link an individual's brain activity to the person's intentions; and then translate that intention into movement.'

Only a matter of time before 14 year old kids are saving the world by piloting Giant Robots.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9790825-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
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 [+] , science, inputdev

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