jpreardon.com

How did I miss this? I should have been well aware of this Nabaztag bunny last year. I will immediately adjust my RSS feeds so I’m get the appropriate level of gadget news and this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.

The latest Wi-Fi bunny, Nabaztag/tag, has a few more features than the original, including a bellybutton and and RFID reader. But, both can do all sorts of cool, internet connected type things. Best of all is the API. What’s better than a programmable bunny? Oh, so many possibilities.

Just one example is this Nabaztag/tag enabled build status notification. It helps a group of software developers know if their current projects are being built without errors. The bunny is in tune with their CruiseControl continuous build system. Good builds mean a happy bunny. Problems in the build process make the bunny sad–and nobody wants a sad bunny around the office.

I was skeptically excited when I read that Steorn would demonstrate their free energy machine in London this week. This machine would negate many years of science–enter my skepticism. I was excited because if they had the braggadocio to trot this thing out for all to see, they must have had something that, at least, looked like it worked.

Skepticism was the correct path. The deadline came and went but the free energy machine did not work. Today, Engadget has the full scoop, including video of Steorn’s CEO, Sean McCarthy, stating that the demonstration was a failure. McCarthy goes on to say that they will be back with a working machine on a yet to be determined date.

Its a good thing they didn’t cancel the Live Earth concerts today in anticipation of all the free energy that could be produced by Steorn’s magic machine.

The Mars Pathfinder Sojourner Rover, Unimate, R2-D2, and HAL 9000 were inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame yesterday at the Carnegie Science Center. Conspicuously absent from the list of inductees was Bender (pictured left) of Futurama fame. How could the jury overlook the work of Bender the robot? I can’t help but think that it had something to do with his abrasive personality. Does this mean that we can expect only robots that are soft spoken or emit useless beeps to make it to the hall of fame? Bender might not be as lethal as HAL 9000 or as cute as R2-D2 but he certainly deserves a place in the robot hall of fame. Don’t let this happen again next year, nominate Bender now!

How long until you have to sign one of these for your HMO: Smokers ‘to sign pledge’ with doctors

Old news is still good news: Josef Zeitler of AQWON-MOTORS has developed a hydrogen powered scooter which was presented at the ‘03 Hannover Fair in April. The scooter can travel at speeds of up to 31 mph and can be refueled by anyone safely. The hydrogen delivery system operates at low pressure so if the fuel tank is breached, the hydrogen will freeze rather than catching fire. It looks like AQWON has also developed a filling station that makes the hydrogen using solar energy. This zero emission vehicle has a sticker price of a mere 5600 €. I’m glad to see what appears to be a viable hydrogen powered vehicle coming to market. With mass production, the price will surely drop. Now if it only looked more like a Vespa…

via slashdot

The New York Times reports that researchers have found players of “first-person-shooter” video games to have much better visual attention skills than non players.

The article states that better visual attention skills are helpful in many different tasks such as flying, driving, radiology and airport screening. I’m willing to bet that avid gamers would also be good at shooting monsters if the opportunity ever presented itself.

NASA tells us that there will be a Lunar Eclipse visible from North and South America tonight starting around 22:00 EDT. Here’s an excerpt from their site:

“At first the moon will seem pale and bright, as usual. During the hour that follows, however, it will plunge into the darkest part of our planet’s shadow–a region astronomers call “the umbra.” Jack was inside the umbra when he saw the sunset-red ring around Earth.”

Read more about Jack and his adventures inside the umbra on NASA’s Lunar Eclipse page. There is also some practical scientific type information on that page, if you are in to that sort of thing.