Big specials this Father's Day...

Keepon starring in Spoon video "Don't you Evah" with developer

Keepon is a dude

Check out this little dancing robot called "keepon". He (no anatomy shown but I'm just assuming because of his boppy dancing style) has as big a range of movement and number of dance moves that you could expect from a couple of balls placed one on top of the other, and can also respond to visual stimulation due to a couple of cameras. developed by a Japanaese guy Hideki Kozima (oviously) and programmed by Marek Michalowski, but not yet available for purchase.

More videos can be found on Youtube

Could definitely use this on my next camping trip

I'm not too sure on the size of this lamp, but the idea looks pretty good. Wind up torches (flashlights for the confused out there) have been out for a little while now, as a step up from the solar powered variety, potentially a lovely paperweight at night, but this new wind up LED lamp has me interested. I'm also not too certain on the full power of this lamp, since my school computer blocks any sales sites (and I'm not going to wait to write this till I get home), but if I can light a campsite area fairly well without involving lighting any gas, wood, or remembering to charge the batteries in my torch the night before my camping trip (normally a blur), then that'd be just great in my books.
Found the item yet again on gizmodo, which is generally reliable to have at least one decent item to check out on most days.
Will have to check out price and availability when I get home.

Just stick with one name, please

The photo section on news.com.au had me cackling at my desk at lunch today and I thought that no-one should miss out on a bit of a laugh, so check these out. Some name combos just should never happen. And I thought mo-fo was quirky enough.

photo gallery

Another reason just to never bother

Some people may take videos like this to be a bit of a personal challenge to get out there and get really good at something, whether it be whitling kangaroos, juggling, baking fantastic muffins, or merely burping the national anthem. For others like me, it makes me thankful that I never wasted the time and effort required, cos I never woulda been that good anyway.

Microsoft is on a winner here

I can think of way too many cool ways to use the technological potential shown by this table. Watch the video and try to come up with some other ways to use the table (or slightly larger versions of it.
In addition to the card games mentioned, can you imagine the fun you could have playing all the old regular board games on the screen like Monopoly, and Pictionary. I think that the real fun though would come in games like Risk, where battles could be played out on screen with some player involvement. The new territories could change colour when captured and certain victorious pieces could gain hero status and the like.
D&D players would be in a whole new world, with scenarios popping up in front of them as they move their characters through a new world without ever having to wait for turns. Each player can interact with the screen and their character at the same time. Real time battles could be experienced by multiple players on the one screen, and the fun shared together (not a whole lot different from regular console games with multiple controllers but you get the gist, no need to split the screen!).
Mix this surface computer with Microsoft's other surface computing technology (video found here) and we'll almost be at the same level as star wars. Still a short while away from Star Trek though.

You can also check out the Microsoft site's promo of the 'Surface' computer here

If only I was Indiana Jones

There are many times in my life that I've wished I was an Archaeologist and this is another one of them. I watched this video on the discovery channel a few months ago about a man who believes that he has discovered the true location of the lost city/ies of Atlantis as described in the writings of Plato.
After watching this video and recently travelling through China where I saw amazing historical relics from civilizations dating well before what I would call Chinese civilisation, I'm starting to put together in my head an idea of what truly existed before recorded time as we know it. The apparent connections of major and advanced civilisations from Egypt, Central China, central Asia, and South America are becoming way to strong to be random. There is growing evidence to show a level of technology and philosophical knowledge that rivals and in some cases betters our own from millenia ago. If that isn't amazing then I don't know what is. Simple things like the ability of potters in ancient China to add fine details to their artwork with apparently simple tools, in ways that we are unable to replicate today even with our 'new technologies', just makes me want to get out a shovel and start digging into more of the worlds historical wonders. It seems that as a world civilasation we have forgotten far more than we have learned.
Anyway, check out the video, but beware it's 50 minutes long.