Caltrans states that the pedestrian buttons will register up to two pulses.
In Irvine CA this is essential, in that you must press the button to get a walk signal, the duration of green lights is a little longer with the walk signal, and the walk signal does signal when to stop crossing which is crucial in that the signals switch rapidly here.

While the bulk of weapons systems presently under development are based on Clarke's story "Superiority".

I've got both a 770 and an 800. They're great little Linux boxen. They have considerable overlap in applications with my EEE and my Ubuntu desktop. With a bluetooth keyboard they are very serviceable linux computers. While I largely use my EEE for heavy typing, the N800 will work (just with the same resolution on a smaller display.
What the N800 really shines on is media and display tasks. Tricked out with Comix, FBReader and the native media player, it's great for video, CBR/CBZ files and e-books. Due to the identical software and resolution of my EEE and N800 I can transcode and optimize files for both units.

Spielberg is unacceptable.

The original manga is by Masamune Shirow with the two films by Mamoru Oshii. The combination of Shirow's cyberpunk procedural format and philosophy combined with Oshii's mastery of politics and surrealism produced two remarkable movies and three great series.

Both films, and particularly the second one, are continually contemplating what it means to be human and what the limits of knowledge are. In particular, consider the visit to the Kim's mansion in the second film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjHS433IKc4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuLrSxycB5o

A combination of mindbending imagery coupled with a wide ranging philosophical debate merging eastern and western worldviews. This is about as far from Spielberg's feelgood pablum as possible.

Quit your whining and get a cantenna and a yagi:
http://www.3nw.com/pda/wireless/wi_fi_pringles_can_yagi_antenna.htm
or turn in your geek credentials.
I've made some wifi yagis several meters long. Quite handy.

Case in point:
http://iputatextonimage.com/?p=123

As long as I can still get Cute and Fuzzy Cockfighting Seizure Monsters I'm ok.

Is there a cooler industry R&D shop name than "Phantom Works"?

Of course there is: Skunkworks
The original and the best (under Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson)

Its the entendue. Basically brightness vs area. You can't increase the entendue, and each stage of the projector reduces it. As a result the metal halide bulbs used in projectors generate very small but exceedingly bright (and white) points of light. The other problem is that metal halide bulbs tend to like to go out with a bang, so shielding is required.

The other problem is the totally out there lumen ratings. Projectors don't hit the lumen ratings they are speced for (they usually are on the order of 300-500 lumens) and even that is overkill for well designed home theater. The SMPTE standard for cinema screens is 15 lumens. That's not a typo.

Personally I use the Mitsubishi PK200 LED projector. It will project a very nice large image in a reasonably dark room.

I've had a EEE for about 6 weeks. Installed full desktop mode, Eclipse, Python, Stellarium, KStars, GIMP, Dia, VLC and InkScape. Integrated bluetooth, upgraded memory to 2GB and have a touchscreen being shipped to me shortly. The EEE has been indispensable to me for presentations and travel.

I hate laptops due to their weight and cost bu I love my EEE.

Given the subprime crisis and the tremendous bonuses and options excecutives are making for driving companies into the ground or outsourcing a modern map might have the classification:
"Upper-middle and Upper classes. Wealthy. Vicious, semi-criminal."

I'm always irritated by the "button minimalist" design school. It implies a "we know what is good for you" position when applied to high tech gear. The problem is that tech gear is highly flexible and is often used for purposes which they were never anticipated. In my opinion the best approach is to incorporate a "simple mode" with straighforward buttons coupled with an "advanced mode" accessed by navigation keys and a well designed menu.

The model in the illustration looks dumbed down to me. My Zojirushi has a full display and timer. Truly a fantastic appliance which does just what it says.

I also make stone cut oatmeal in it (1 cup water, 1/2 the unwashed rice measure cup on the porridge setting) and bake bread:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rcc_ITDgCY

Their hot water dispensers are fantastic as well.

They may cost a bit, but they are incredibly well built and well thought out.

This is the greatest toy evar!!! Every child in the country needs one especially when out in public or on an airline. Please tell me that they are soundproof.

Where's my V-22 mini-Osprey? If it's overpriced, won't fly right, and crashes all the time, it'll be just like the real thing!

Between this and the percolator post it has become apparent that Coffee Aficionados have developed an audiophile faction.

One of the things you are taught in grad school is how to handle cranks. You feign interest, don't disagree, announce that it isn't really your field of expertise and refer him to the next victim.

Generally, most of these perpetual motion/net energy producing results come from the limitations of cheap meters. Odd waveforms and short duty cycle pulses wreak havoc with cheap meters designed for DC or sine waves. Getting an accurate measurement requires a high end "True RMS" meter or precision calorimeter .

I was just thinking how can we improve roaches? Thank you Russian space program!

I recently posted in make a truss dobsonian w/o a tube (airline transportable as well)
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/11/6_f5_airline_transportabl.html

ICKY2000@#32
It would be nice if Apple was going for making commodity products out of products, and if you had to seal off the package so be it.

But the EEE is the commodity laptop. It has commodity pricing $300-400. It has an utterly idiot proof interface in easy mode. And if you foul it up all you have to do is mount a USB key, boot it, wait a few minutes and it will be back to factory condition. I've done it, dead simple. In addition the thing is built like a tank. A perfect machine for Joe Sixpack.

But it also is dead simple to tear apart and hack. It's a full out linux distro, with gobs of precompiled packages for install. The hardware is dead simple to tear apart and put back together. And if you do mess up, its only $300 down the drain (not counting the spares for the next EEE you mod).

From what I hear the XO is the same only more so.

In comparison, I'd be terrified to touch an Air for fear of breaking it.

Apple missed badly on this one. When Sharp, Sony, Panasonic and Frikin Dell have nearly identical models it ain't an innovation.

The EEE on the other hand defines a price/size/performance point which is really exciting. The EEE is the volkswagen beetle of laptops. Tiny, cheap, funky and a joy to mod and hack. The laptop for the rest of us.

An EEE running Leopard, bluetooth, and touchscreen (all of which have been done already) and touted as the next eMate or iMac would have worked. Even with a 50% markup.

A tablet which was tightly integrated with Time Capsule would have worked too, particularly coupled with the new AppleTV and a good VNC/Synergy2 and bluetooth keyboard mouse release. Such a line would essentially divorce the keyboard, mouse, displays and hardware from each other. In essence you would just put the components anywhere you like and some OSX software would sort everything out. In essence your whole houses set of apple hardware would be one big ubiquitous computer. That would have been neat and innovative.

It must all be part of Charlie Stross' new counter terror plan:
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2007/12/security_pantomime.html

I've got both an eee and an N800, and they are quite different beasts.

I've tricked out the eee for editing (added Eclipse, dia, inkscape, and GIMP) and I find it very useful in this regard. Also, as a media player it is excellent particularly for high bitrate stuff.

While I have a folding bluetooth keyboard for the N800 it complements the eee by having a longer battery life and being easier to fish out of the bag and use for quick access.

I'll stick with my Zojirushi Electric Dispensing Pot. While it does cost ten times as much, it is well worth it. It keeps 2.2 liters of water at 145,195 or 208 degrees F in a well insulated container. And it never boils down. The microprocessor control automatically shuts the pot down and won't restart until the system is explicitly restarted by the user. Even if you unplug and plug back in the unit it will not restart until reset.

Also it features the same magnetic release cords as Apple laptops (although Zojirushi had them decades before Apple did).

As with astigmatic contacts, it is possible to weigh down the corner of the lens to orient it. In such a case the contacts would be plumb bob level.

In any case, I find your lack of faith in the Kitty ...disturbing.

Jack @32
Take a look at the chart on this link:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_12/012733.php
and then get back to me about limiting individual greed.

When you have executives who get yearly compensation in excess of what multiple employees make over their lifetimes when the company is failing the system is flat out broken. It's no longer capitalism it's literal kleptocracy.

Now we just need to rig a cold water trigger mechanism for Ranma 1/2 cosplay!

Kid @ 3

Even better, what about a 3d scanner/printer for custom falsies.

Damn! That's why they are going full tilt at implementing Gundams !
Hopefully they are really hot alien schoolteachers we can placate with sex and pocky.

a. Try working in the field where no flat surfaces are present.
b. I switched to trackballs when my rotator cuff felt like it was about to fall off after a day of drafting or drawing.
c. People don't mess w/ my computer because they don't know how my "mouse" works

Seeing Xeni like that has me singing Necrophilianomenon.

Anyway as far as zombie love stories go one word:
Stacy
Japanese Schoolgirl Zombie Love!

I wanna see "Coffee Bukkake Man vs Machine Girl.
Yakuza, Ninjas, Tempura, Starbucks!

Coffee and Drive by Bukake. Don't let the Irvine police (mildly NSFW news account) find out about this, the combination of their two favorite things would prove irresistible.

Thank goodness for eliminating customer choice! Must be the reason for Apple's dominant market share.

This morning I realized I had to take a series of closely spaced photographs in differing wavelength ranges with differing fields of view for a proposal I'm writing. Tomorrow I'll be using my trusty Nikon Coolpix 990 with interchangeable teleconverters coupled with an IR filter and mounted on a wide baseline stereo bar. If only Nikon would only sell fixed focus cameras with no attachments!

What? All those *.txt files are pirated ebooks anyway!

Finally a good argument to transcode everything to OGG Vorbis/Theora files.

That or encode everything in PGP container files.

Every time the MAFIAA pushes these things they just make transfer and sharing that much more robust.

What happens when drives no longer contain avi, divx, mp3, mpeg etc. files for the MAFIAA to scan for?

Thats just like the universe, kill you for looking at it funny.

Warren Ellis added his (colorfully worded)take while looking forward to Cory's take:
http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=5342

It depends on the role of the UI. If the UI is meant to be peripheral that is a good criteria (being able to drive while using the UI is another one). On the other hand if the UI is immersive, it might be best if it utilized all cognitive resources.

It's much worse than an over-reliance or mis-application of technology, or having the means justify the end, it's mistaking a means for an end.

Jeff Huber just put up an excellent essay on this which can be summed up by the two quotes by Clausewitz:
"Policy is the guiding intelligence and war only the instrument, not vice versa."
and
"If we do not learn to regard a war, and the separate campaigns of which it is composed, as a chain of linked engagements each leading to the next, but instead succumb to the idea that the capture of certain geographical points or the seizure of undefended provinces are of value in themselves, we are liable to regard them as windfall profits."

The most efficient "kill-chain" won't do squat unless there is a clear and achievable objective. The other problem is that the "kill-chain" that is being used is purpose built for set piece battles between great powers basically 2nd generation warfare (web 1.0) versus 4th generation asymmetric warfare. (not to say that a theoretical "kill-chain" couldn't be constructed to be effective for insurgencies but that simply isn't sexy enough to be funded)

You don't even need Clausewitz, Powell will suffice. To use a shortened version of the Powell doctrine:
- Do we have a clear attainable objective?
- Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
- Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
- Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?
- Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?

#4: as long as the gag reflex is integrated I doubt the otakus will have much use for it.

As for QuestionAthority:
I'm all for it but the devil is in the details. What I'd love to see him link up with David Brin and George Soros and hammer out a common position paper. If those three could hammer out a common understanding that they would sign their name to, and bring in people who agree with them I'd really get behind this.

As for the Open Source Party:
Get RMS, Linus, Bruce Perens, and Mark Shuttleworth to sign on and we have a movement.

I'm holding out for an Amazon Kindle bound in human skin, preferably Jeff Bezos' skin.

Well seasoned travelers do have access to a variety of tools to get more accurate ASDI information such as flightaware.com. But seasoned travelers tend to know better than to make complete arse's of themselves, which on the other hand, seems to be a degree conferred upon Apple owners.

On the other hand the pilot's reply is a heavy handed takedown performed by a threatened authority figure.

The lesson is:
a. There are ways to get better info on flight delays .
b. It's not going to change the delay one whit, but it will allow you to better plan and compensate.

I just realized something, if the EVDO doesn't explicitly shut off the Kindle is DOA. If you can't use it on a plane you just lost a large chunk of your market.

Gitbo@8

But the iPod supports direct loading of MP3s which are much more likely to be there than DRM'ed content. (At $1 a pop who's going to fill up a 80 GB iPod).

This piece of junk on the other hand is so control freakish that you can't even dump RTFs on it without paying/(or running it past) Amazon for the privilege.

How many books will fit on an 8 GB SD? Pure text, with zip compression roughly 16,000 copies of War and Peace. Project Gutenberg has 17,000 titles on one DVD (assuming about 4.7 GB). Toss in the text of the wikipedia as well. Either you do it at $0.1 a pop ($1,700) or for free. Think about if the Bookeen or Sony threw that in for free.

You might argue about DRM, but the lack of reasonable non-DRMed content will kill the Kindle.

ack!
It's astounding when somebody can come up with less functionality and greater cost than Sony.

Server based book storage? EVDO dependent? Amazon Customer service?

I'll wait for the bookeen or grab a PRS-500 at Costco for $250.

UsefulCat @13

Yep thats the basic setup, the LEDs and the filter are the primary components needed.

Actually I just remembered that I have a security cam sitting on my table with an IR pass filter and IR ring light(my desk has many wondrous things). Grabbing a few cameras I tested it out. Definite cat's eye detection.

Anonymous @5
Not Quite.
Light Emitting Diodes simply emit light from energy transitions from higher energy state to a lower one. The excitation mechanism is the drop in energy states at the junction between appropriately doped crystals.

Light Emission by Stimulated Emmission of Radiation (LASER) devices on the other hand have material that is in a higher energy state which does not immediately transition down by emmiting a photon but rather is an inverted population of more elevated states than lower states. Occasionally a photon is emmitted and when it strikes an atom in the higher energy state two photons are emmited of the same wavelength and direction. This leads to a chain reaction producing a coherent monochromatic beam which may be collimated by the appropriate optics. But in order to continuously do this it is generally necessary to have a resonant cavity with parallel reflective faces.

If stimulated emission occurs but does not predominate you get a superluminescent diode.

Generally, laser diodes and LEDs are made out of similar semiconductor structures, but a laser is much tougher to make than an LED.

(obviously glossed over a lot of tech here but you get the idea)

Cats eye effect.
When you have a lens focusing on a reflective surface it becomes a retroreflector. I.E. It bounces light back along the same path as it came from (as per joggers vests, and bike reflectors). This is why cats eyes light up when you photograph them with a flash near the camera lens.
If you illuminate a scene with a modulated light source next to the lens flipping the light on and off on every other frame and subtract the alternating frames (and threshold the results) you pull out the retroreflections. These may be eyes or cameras. If you peak the illumination at points where silicon peaks in reflection but not retinas you have a pretty good camera detector.

Of course this is still crude, otherwise snipers wouldn't be able to ply their trade.

This is probably a spinoff of MPAA anti camcorder tech.

iLive is that some new package for iLife

Hey, it's portable. The perfect carry on!

Arguably he had an immense impact on anime and manga . Many of the notable features of anime/manga especially big eyes and the like derived from Japanese adoption of the styling of Betty Boop and early Disney.

$60 "dev board" (miniATX C7 motherboard) good for those of us who will not buy from walmart for any reason:
http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4842001

Neat.

In the same vein be sure to look at the classic backgrounds in all of the Studio Ghibli Anime and the Studio Gainax work in Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise. Honneamise in particular is remarkable in that it is set on a parallel earth with nearly every detail re-imagined to be familiar enough to grasp but radically different:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cp0cPyggH4

So, since he's a Republican that's an endorsement, right?

Well at least they are bucking the boring old "lead added" bandwagon!

In the same vein but with much less pathos is the Japanese media phenomenon Densha Otoko(train man). Beginning with a novel supposedly based on a true story, it has spawned a movie, tv series, anime and several manga. The story revolves around an otaku who rescues a pretty lady from a drunk on the train. As events transpire, he eventually gets the girl, but only with the extensive help and encouragement of his anonymous friends on the ascii only forum 2chan.

All the versions of the story retain the "low tech" ascii forum coupled with some real world geek toys such as PDAs. In fact, it is just the "nobody knows you're a dog" aspect of the forum which has the most effect, as each telling envisions the differing correspondents and their actions beyond the forum.

Don't let Mickey Kaus anywhere near this thing.

Sadly in Orange County police discharge things other than their firearms (mildly NSFW description). I'm waiting for the appropriate guncam for this problem.

I'd love to see the cheaper models available. The $200-$300 price points would be great.

@Benny:
In part its the collapsing dollar thats driving the price up.

I'd much rather see a parade based on the procession from Ghibli's Pom Poko.

Phikus @#5:
Japanese vending machines dispense hot and warm drinks as well:

Do you want a drink? It's warm by my body temperature

But Cory, you're nowhere near the cryonic vaults underneath Disneyland!

It's the economic equivalent of the long tail theory.

I'm going to patent a stylus that allows you to write on the iPhone without smudging it up!

The same problem is occurring with respect to the two huge blimp hangars in Tustin, CA. These are truly astounding structures the like of which may never be seen again.

The problem is the kettle used. The only proper electric kettles are the type made by Zojirushi they're microprocessor controlled, have multiple temperature settings (140F,195F and 208F) allowing for optimal brewing of different grades of teas. They have a sleep mode for when you are at work or asleep, automatically shut off with error indications when they boil down, have a nonstick pot, and originated the magnetic cords Apple uses for their laptops. A pilot tube indicates how much water is in the reservoir.
Simply put, they are the perfect electric water boiler and pretty much present in most Japanese homes.

ATA, given a choice I'd rather take Aeroflot!

What about a gumstix goliath
Just be sure to get a spiffy case so the TSA doesn't declare it an improvised electronic device

domeier@10 and absent@11
Dead on! And the same apple fanbois will rationalize anything he does. Frankly the best thing that could happen to Apple is for the iPhone and crippled iPod classics to tank, forcing Jobs to wake up before he re-emulates 70's Detroit and ends up with a

Jimson weed (thorn apple) was commonly used on travelers by the Thuggee in India. The thuggee would mix it in their food and use the resulting delirium to kill them by strangulation for their version of the Goddess Kali.

Let's not and say we did.

The fact that people can't distinguish NTSC from HDTV ought to tell you something. The fact that the studio's are issuing takedown notices over YouTube content at sub-VGA resolution says an awful lot about how essential HDTV is (for content, DRM is a different matter) .

So go out, play a DVD with an upconverter. We won't tell.

I think she must be cosplaying Nadesco's Ruri Hoshino in her Neko Pajamas

Sadly, a Iraq war soldier with 2 amputations (not uncommon w/IEDs) will run $36,000 in iLimbs alone:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/18/robo_hand_gets_big_hand/

epp_b@#2

Amen to that, I use a Palm T|X with TCPMP, it supports 4 GB SD-card removable media and sports a 480x320 display which is perfect for widescreen viewing of movies.

Robert X Cringley is reporting several additional new "features" showing up in the new "Classic" models:
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070914_002928.html
* VERY Slow menu switching response
* Display of clock rather than song info when “Now Playing”
* Inability to use existing AUTHORIZED 3rd party dock products (including Apple-advertised)
* Audio skipping during operation
* Slow connection to Macs and PCs
* Inability to disable “split-screen” menus
* Lagging and unresponsive Click Wheel
* Camera connector not working
* Inability to use EQ settings without skipping and distortion

But since St. Jobs can do no wrong, this must be a brilliant Strategy (like the ROKR) to shift people over to iPod touch or something.

Yes there should be a separation between the Lords Temporal and Lords Spiritual.

But it could be worse, Kevin Warwick could be involved.

Actually it looks suspiciously close to the "disposable" video cameras presently available for $20, short of the USB port.
It would be interesting if somebody would target near disposable price video and camera systems with USB integrated and make their money on volume and web tie-ins

Tubman @14
Actually, when playing Divx straight off the net the T|X does a journeyman task, pray tell what does the touch do? Sure, transcoding to 480x320 15 fps is preferred (and a single drag and drop operation for files, or a simple setting for fairuse wizard). And of course this reduces even a large feature film to hundreds of megabytes. TCPMP easily handles these files without a single skip. I easily pack half a dozen films on a 4 GB card (and carry as many of those as I like.) Of course you don't need to pass files through a program coughiTunescough.

And, no I don't need a stylus to play music on the Palm T|X, fingers will do nicely, although fingerprints all over the screen does detract from the cinema experience for me. Actually, the palm has a little two dimensional side controller with tactile feedback as well as a stylus.

As for the bluetooth GPS, word processing, real keyboards, I want a single tool, not an expensive toy and status symbol.

But it is terribly unfair to compare iPod touch with a general computer, I'll compare it with heavily DRMed 8 GB PMPs. Oh yeah, really next level.

dculberson @10
Yea pity about the Palm T|X the iPod just takes it to the next level! I mean the SDK... well the thousands of third party apps... the removable media...the lack of DRM...the eBook support...the capacity to play just about any audio or video format w/ TCPMP... the bluetooth... the capacity to use real keyboards... the bluetooth GPS support... truly makes it so next level. Oh wait, those aren't iPod features! Well something must be next level, maybe the pricing!

Seriously, this is the 5 millionth "Steve Jobs meant to do that" post in the past 10 seconds. The truly astounding thing about the reality distortion field is that it convinces everybody that whatever action made by apple is de facto not only brilliant, but by definition the best possible strategy! This coupled with the insane level of hype drives a mediocre line of products.

For example, I already have a compact 3.75" diagonal touchsceen video/mp3 player with bluetooth and wifi, a very good browser, an 4GB of removable memory. It has a huge base of applications (I can even control my telescope with it) and can keep up with the iPod touch at every turn. It was released over 2 years ago. The one problem is that since it's stamped with a Palm logo (Palm T|X to be precise) it isn't given the time of day. While the wholly derivative ipod touch is feted as the latest second coming.