Sep 08

Power-Plug Concept Fails to Out-Coddle UK Version

Posted in: household, Today's Chili

I regularly laugh and snicker at the Great British Power Plug and Socket, a pair of devices so safe, so mollycoddling that they are almost physically wrapped in cotton-wool. But today I will not laugh, at least not at this particular British shame. Today I shall point out that this over-protective system actually solves many problems in a surprisingly elegant way. Don’t worry, though. I shall instead be ridiculing a U.S-born contraption, the Safety Plug.

The Safety Plug does two things. It stops itself from being yanked from the wall, and it stops fingers from touching the bare prongs as they slide in and out of their wall-slots. Noble cauuses both, but the implementation is pretty clunky, verging on awful.

To protect the fingers from accidental touching bare, live metal, the plug has a plastic hood that concertinas open and shut. Compare this to the UK plug. It has three prongs. The third “earth” or ground pin is longer than the others and must be there in order to let the other two pins in. The live and neutral holes are actually closed until the earth pin is inserted. As well from stopping kids poking things into the holes, this also works to stop any exposed metal from showing when live.

The conducting pins are also covered in plastic for around a quarter-inch from their bases, so they are even safer.

And accidental yanking? The Safety Plug takes care of this with a squeezable switch that needs to be pressed to release a catch. The Brit plug? Just try pulling it from the wall. The cable exits from the bottom of the plug, perpendicular to the prongs. The cable will be ripped from the plug before the plug leaves the wall.

It’s a nice idea, and at least it doesn’t require that the entire U.S power infrastructure be redesigned. What next? An American making a proper cup of tea?

Total Plug Safety [Yanko]

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Sep 08

Researchers Invent Telepathic Powers. Really.

Posted in: Today's Chili

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Remember that movie The Shining? Well, now it’s completely true. More or less. Researchers at the University of Utah have created a way to use electrodes to read human thoughts (which is basically telepathy–sort of). Redrum, alas.

The research team is working on giving severely brain injured patients the ability to communicate. By placing 16 microelectrodes underneath the skull, but above a brain area known to process speech, the team has managed able to decipher words directly from brain activity. Which, in effect, means reading thoughts.

Right now the tech has only been able to decipher 10 basic words: yes, no, hot, cold, hungry, thirsty, hello, goodbye, more, and less. And, as of now, it only correctly guess the words between 76 and 90 percent of the time. This is not practical by any means, but a very promising proof of concept. This is a huge first step on the way to helping people with severe brain trauma and other maladies communicate with the world.

It should also be noted that, down the line, this will inevitably lead to other tech-fueled ramifications. In the future, this technology will allow humans to interact with their phones, TVs, and other assorted electronic whoozy-woos using only their thoughts. In a way, we will all be psychic. Let’s just hoping we all turn out to be nice, wholesome psychics like Sookie from True Blood rather than that head-exploding crew from Scanners.

via Medical Daily

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Sep 08

Homemade Rocket Launch Postponed Until 2011

Posted in: diy, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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Danish amateur rocketeers Peter Madsen and Kristian von Bengtsson spent the past two years building a vessel they hope will be capable of reaching orbit. The initial launch attempt from a barge in the Baltic Sea took place this past Sunday and was broadcast live on Danish television. Unfortunately, following a series of technical difficulties and facing a narrowing launch window, the pair made the decision to wait until June 2011 to try launching again.

Their 30-foot high prototype, dubbed the HEAT1X-TYCHO BRAHE in honor of the Danish astronomer, is an attempt to break space travel away from the soul purview of “rich countries.” The rocket was financed for around $65,000 via 2,000 individual contributors and 20 corporate sponsors. The vessel also carried a dummy astronaut in tow, building towards the team’s hopes of sending a person into space within four years.

Here’s a link (via Google Translate) to a Danish engineering magazine that has more technical deets on the project.

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Sep 08

The Real ‘Stuff White People Like’ [Sex]

Posted in: feature, Today's Chili, top

What makes a culture unique? How are whites, blacks, Asians, whoever different from everybody else? What tastes, interests, and concepts define an ethnicity? Is there any way to make fun of other races in public and get away with it? More »

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Sep 08

Cooler Master Shows Off Smallest 95W Power Adapter

Posted in: Today's Chili

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Power adapters have been one major grievance most notebook users have, simply because it’s added weight and takes up space that you would, otherwise, rather have.

Cooler Master has released a new power adapter solution to calm your power brick woes. It’s the smallest 95W adapter in the world, measuring 2.4 by .7 by 4.1-inches, the USNA 95 will provide you with a mobile adapter solution for your PC. It comes with 9 charger tips that are compatible with “most laptops.” There’s also a USB port to charge your portable devices as well.

This item is currently available for $69.99 (list).

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Sep 08

Seiko’s ‘active matrix’ E Ink watch will be on sale by end of 2010

Posted in: e ink, solar power, SolarPower, Today's Chili, watch

It’s always good to see a concept, particularly one as appealing as Seiko’s “active matrix” E Ink watch, make it to retail product. The company’s had a thing for E Ink timepieces for a while now, but what sets this new one apart is the supposed 180-degree viewing angle it affords — and, of course, those retro good looks do it no harm either. Then there’s also the radio-controlled movement, which receives its time from the nearest atomic clock, and the solar cells framing that electrophoretic display. All very nice and neat, but the best news is that it might (might!) be priced within reach of regular Joes and Vlads like us. We’ll know soon enough, a retail release is expected by the end of the year.

Seiko’s ‘active matrix’ E Ink watch will be on sale by end of 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 08

Don’t Recycle? Your Trash Can Will Tell On You

Posted in: household, Today's Chili

Image of RFID-enabled recycling bins via RecycleBank

The long-promised “internet of things” is here — and already, it’s in the trash.

Cleveland is equipping new trash and recycling cans and carts with radio frequency identification (or RFID) chips and bar codes. If you don’t bring your recycling bin to the curb for a few weeks, city workers go through your trash. If they find more than 10% recyclable material, you’ll get fined $100.

It’s not for love of the environment. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the city “pays $30 a ton to dump garbage in landfills, but earns $26 a ton for recyclables.”

Cleveland has had a smart-cart pilot program in place since 2007, and just expanded it to include 25,000 households. They plan to cover the entire city within 5 years.

However, Cleveland and other cities should be wary of any environmental or cost-savings claims coming from the makers of smart-trash-tech themselves. In Philadelphia, the City Controller just released a due diligence report claiming that the city’s much-heralded solar-powered trash compactors haven’t produced their promised savings.

Story via @iftf and Techdirt.

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Sep 08

Mad Catz’s Black Ops PrecisionAim gamepads and Stealth mouse hands-on

Posted in: controller, hands-on, Peripherals, playstation 3, Playstation3, ps3, Today's Chili, xbox 360, Xbox360

Mad Catz’ Modern Warfare 2 peripherals won’t know what hit them when Black Ops debuts this fall — the quality of the company’s gamepads has increased yet again, and of course, this year the Call of Duty-flavored lineup ships with a genuine R.A.T. mouse. We snuck down the streets of San Francisco for a top secret rendezvous to test these controllers out, and discovered a pair of the most comfortable gamepads we’ve tried for our trouble. Read our full impressions after the break — totally declassified.

Gallery: Mad Catz’s Black Ops PrecisionAIM controllers, hands-on

Continue reading Mad Catz’s Black Ops PrecisionAim gamepads and Stealth mouse hands-on

Mad Catz’s Black Ops PrecisionAim gamepads and Stealth mouse hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 08

Modular Cogs Bring Belt-Drives to Any Bike

Posted in: R&D and Inventions, Today's Chili

I’m not writing this post only because the company involved has the awesome name of Schlumpf, but it certainly played a big part. The gadget in question is a new kind of belt-drive for bikes, the Advanced Belt Drive System, or ABDS.

The innovation here isn’t in the belts: the drive uses standard 14mm-pitch belts. It’s in the modular setup that uses a few standardized parts which can be changed around to work with pretty much any bike or belt you like.

Belt drives have a few advantages over chains, the most obvious being cleanliness. The belts require no lubricant, so there’s no dirt-collecting oil to soil your pants. They’re also lighter than chains. But there are disadvantages, too. For regular gearing, the “wrap-angle” around the rear sprocket is not big enough to prevent slippage. The answer has been to tense the belt, making it very tight. This increases wear and also reduces efficiency.

With Schlumpf’s ABDS, the bottom bracket has a gearing system, which means the rear sprocket can be bigger and pre-tensioning isn’t needed. Because of this, a bigger pitch (gap between teeth) can be used. 14mm is the industry-standard, but this is often reduced to 11mm for pre-tensioned systems just to get enough teeth engaged around the small sprocket.

The parts slot together like Meccano, and by combining several thin sprocket “plates”, you can make a kind of laminated sprocket of any width. The “chainline” can also be adjusted by moving around these plates relative to the adapters that hold them in place. And yes, you could even put one on a fixed-gear bike: Schlumpf makes an adapter for track hubs.

Whether belts will ever replace chains is questionable, but they’re getting more and more popular. Hell, even I want to try one out now.

ABDS Advanced Belt Drive System [Schlumpf via Eco Velo]

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Sep 08

When CEOs Attack: HP/Oracle Sexy Executive Battle Devolves into Name-Calling

Posted in: HP, Today's Chili

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[Above, Larry Ellison eats a hot dog, angrily.]

Well, that turned to name calling pretty quickly, didn’t it? Not that it’s a major surprise or anything–after all, this whole HP/Oracle battle has been pretty odd from the get-go. Where to start? Well, there’s Mark Hurd, who jumped ship (or, more likely, was pushed) from HP roughly this time, last month.

The official justification for the exit was “accounting irregularities,” suggesting that Hurd had, more or less, fudged some expense reports. The timing, however, was awfully suspect. The CEO, who had taken over for the controversial Carly Fiorina (declared by some to be the “anti-Steve Jobs”) was the target of a sexual harassment suit. The plaintiff in the suit was Jodie Fisher, an actress who had appeared in such high profile Hollywood blockbusters as Intimate Obsession and Body of Influence 2.

On Hurd’s exit, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison told The New York Times,

[T]he HP Board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple Board fired Steve Jobs many years ago. That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn’t come back and saved them. HP had a long list of failed CEOs until they hired Mark who has spent the last five years doing a brilliant job reviving HP to its former greatness.

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