I guess this means in 15 years or so we'll see photos just like this but with Segways instead >:D

Toplus, it's a crime of opportunity. The ne'er-do-well generally doesn't care about targetting a specific person - any rube will do. So he just has to target a large enough crowd with a covert reader and whilst it's unlikely he'll get everyone, he's still likely to get *someone*. Pretty much like a guy with a gun randomly firing in the general direction of a crowd. And the person who gets hit is going to have a generally crappy time thereafter in either case.

I'd rather have the option to remove the risk entirely.

I'm much happier with the "casual swing by" than I ever am with phone-calls. Since it actually requires a lot more effort than using the phone or IM, you're more likely to wait until it's sufficiently important... and you're less likely to keep doing it every 5 minutes.

Additionally, you can make your presence known and wait until the other person is ready to reply, instead of standing there screaming "DROP EVERYTHING AND TALK TO ME RIGHT NOW RIGHT NOW RIGHT NOW RIGHT NOW RIGHT NOW" like a phone ring does.

Actually, "Solid State Capacitors" isn't marketing gibberish at all, but notes that the motherboard doesn't use electrolytic caps. If you've ever had a motherboard die due to exploded/leaky/bad caps then you'll know it's a good thing.

It's fairly important to keep an eye on eukalypts and trim/chop them down if needed. They're *extremely* fast growing, and they aren't particularly strong - they have a real tendency to drop branches as they grow, potentially injuring or killing anyone unlucky enough to be under them.
(And double the risk if there's a dropbear living in it at the time!)

I've seen multiple gumtrees in my various backyards over the years snap in half or be clean torn out of the ground in bad weather too...

Oh, and "Billie Piper's fog killed four times." :)

"Killer toothpaste: Prepare to flee" Yikes!

This is obviously why they switched away from the old-fashioned steel soled shoes to rubber ones.

Microprocessors are fun, but much less reliable than a valve and a sparky bit.

Considering how troublesome those sparky bits have been on my last couple of gas stoves, I beg to disagree. :)

Besides, microprocessors aren't nearly as fragile as you suppose (thank god), and they certainly aren't prone to filling the room with flammable gas if they fail to turn on properly. :O

My flatmate and I bought a set of the battle helis each and went absolutely nuts over them for a few weeks straight, even though we only had our tiny kitchen/living room to fly them in. They really are fun - and a lot better fliers than most of the cheap chinese clones that are flooding the market.

I haven't flown them recently, but I'm just about to see the rest of the family for christmas and I reckon they're going to get a whole new workout. :D

Happy until he tries to ride it away, that is :D

Sadly KStop is correct - there is little-to-no actual robotics here. The primary eye-sphere can swivel, that's it. It also has some LED's and a speaker.

There are more details here: http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1937

Almost makes me want to buy another Tachikoma model expressly to pull it apart and integrate servos into it...