2008 August | NewsLickr

Archive for August, 2008

China court sentences police killer to death

Aug 31, 2008 World News

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A Chinese court sentenced a man to death on Monday for knifing to death six police officers in a case that spurred controversy over police treatment of suspects.

Tags: world

Dell replacing XPS touchpad with touchscreen… or someone, somewhere owns Photoshop

Aug 31, 2008 Blogs, Technology

Filed under: Laptops

There are two kinds of Dell rumors: sure things, and ones that aren’t sure things. This one falls in the latter camp, so proceed with caution. We’ve got a tipster who says a friend of his from Dell handed him this shot of what is purportedly a new XPS M1330 / M1530 design. As you can see, pretty much the same old fare… but what’s this? A large glossy touchpad? Here’s our hunch: Dell is tired of drawing inspiration from Apple after the fact, and decided to turn the tables by capitalizing on one of the most persisten (and outlandish) Apple rumors in existence. A good capacitive touchscreen for the trackpad on a laptop would undoubtedly be a blast if it was done right, with the right software support, and at least seems like a good gimmick. Or maybe it’d just be lame. We won’t go further than that, this could just as easily be a Photoshop, but we will be keeping an eye out.

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Tags: computers, gadgets, Technology

Russia Web site owner killed after arrest

Aug 31, 2008 World News

Owner of opposition Internet news site in Russia’s volatile Ingushetia region shot and killed after being detained by police.

Tags: international, national, world

A ray of hope for Algeria’s crumbling Casbah?

Aug 31, 2008 World News

ALGIERS (Reuters) - From cutlass and canon to earthquake and flood, powerful forces have long done damage to the Algiers Casbah, fabled bastion of Barbary pirates who plied the Mediterranean for centuries in defiance of European power.

Tags: world

A functional Meizu M8 UI, CEO Jack Wong finally caught on video

Aug 31, 2008 Blogs, Technology

Filed under: Cellphones

After what feels like centuries of waiting (and suffering through that painful CeBIT demo), we finally get to see the Meizu M8’s OS in action… and it’s not as bad as you think. Sure, the interface is totally derivative of the iPhone, and there is that pesky cursor floating around, but all-in-all it looks like the company has managed to knock out a decent — if incredibly familiar — UI for its long-delayed phone. Still, there’s some low rent hilarity in this video. Our favorites? The smattering of soft porn pictures and video, and Meizu CEO and all-around bon vivant Jack Wong revealed in a reflection… wearing a face mask! Don’t believe it? Check the clip after the break (and freeze frame of Mr. Wong).

[Thanks, Patrick P.]

Continue reading A functional Meizu M8 UI, CEO Jack Wong finally caught on video

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Tags: computers, gadgets, Technology

Jumbo Airplane Hotel Allows Mile High Club Experience on the Ground [Airplanes]

Aug 31, 2008 Blogs, Technology

Back in 2006, Oscar Diös heard there was a dead Boeing 747-200 built in 1976 on one of the runways at Arlanda Airport, the largest international airport in Sweden, north of Stockholm. It was once owned by a Swedish company called Transjet, who used it to fly muslim pilgrims to Mecca, as well as doing charter flights around the world until it was grounded for “organizational problems” in 2002. The noble Jumbo was in a bad state, but Oscar saw the possibilities right away. Probably after way too many glasses of akvavit that day, Diös thought he had the perfect idea: to buy the 747 and convert it into a low-cost hotel.

I was getting ready to expand my hostel business in 2006 when I heard about an old wreck of an aircraft for sale at Arlanda. Since I had for a long time wanted to establish my business at Arlanda I didn’t hesitate for a second when this opportunity struck.

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The connection doesn’t seem too logic. In fact, it may even seem crazy to most, but it is not. After all, Oscar is the modest owner of the hostel Uppsala Vandrarhem och Hotell, in Uppsala, so he must know how expensive is to actually find a terrain near a busy airport like Arlanda, then actually build an entire hotel from scratch.

That’s why, when he learnt about the dead Jumbo, Oscar only saw cheap space for rooms and decided it was time to continue his inexpensive hotel business right next to Arlanda. He thought that, being the busiest, largest international airport in his country, there was going to lots of clients looking for cheap accommodation.

However, from buying the airplane to setting up the hostel there was a long way. First he needed to get the OK from the authorities of Sigtuna, which is the town that controls the terrains in which the Arlanda Airport is based. He had the perfect pitch for them: it was going to be a unique landmark, he thought. He wanted to place it right at the entrance of the airport itself, on top of a concrete foundation with the landing gear tied to two steel cradles. The authorities heard the story and, surprisingly enough, they agreed to the plan and granted him permission to set it up.

The hotel itself was also a challenge. It wasn’t going to be as easy as to install a few beds, and start selling curry kyckling macka, small beer cans, lousy pot coffee, and peanut bags at the plane second level cafeteria. The Boeing 747-200 interior—with 450 seats—needed to be completely dismantled and sanitized. Then, it needed to be insulated, divided into 25 rooms (each of them 6 square meters, with 3 meters to ceiling), and completely rewired. It also needed new plumbing, bathrooms, sanitation, and a new climate control system, since the windows on planes are fixed and can’t be opened. And to finish it all, the whole result had to adhere to the strict construction policies of Sweden.

At the end, and after a two year odyssey, he did it: the Jumbo Hostel—as Oscar called his creation—has been towed to its final destination, and bookings will start in December. All in the name of inexpensive accommodation, pilots and stewardesses sex fantasies, and crazy Swedish landmarks. Pass the akvavit Oscar, next time I go to that part of the world, I’ll be checking in. [Jumbo Hostel via Random Good Stuff]

Tags: gadgets, Technology

Nearly two million flee Hurricane Gustav

Aug 31, 2008 Science, Technology

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Nearly two million people fled the Louisiana coast on Sunday as Hurricane Gustav moved within hours of striking land, possibly with a weaker punch than 2005’s devastating Hurricane Katrina.

Tags: Science, Technology

Robot Uses Master/Slave Remote Control Suit [Robots]

Aug 31, 2008 Blogs, Technology

newVideoPlayer(”/marufightingbots_giz.flv”, 475, 376,”"); Naoki Maru may live in Hikone, north of Kyoto, down the road from a samurai castle full of katana swords and armor, but for him, the ancient Japanese art of bushido is best carried out with robots, not people. King Kizer, the Maru family robot, has dominated the Robo-One tourney over the past three years, collecting $50,000 in prize money. Maru, a factory engineer by day, is trying to perfect a way to make Kizer even more of an ass kicker using a technique he had seen many times in anime: A harness that captures human movements and translates them into robotic attacks and other gestures.

Check out video footage of the harness in action below, plus our exclusive interview, where Maru discusses the what it takes to win a robotic deathmatch. galleryPost(’marubots’, 3, ”);

Maru builds the bots; his sons Kenta and Ryoma operate them in the combat tournaments. For a prizefighter, King Kizer is only 16 inches tall but has a lightweight aluminum frame, very rapid servomotors and sensors that help it maintain its balance and detect its enemies. Kizer uses the latter to launch speedy, autonomous attacks on foes.

The harness creates a master-slave connection with Kenta. When the boy moves his upper body during combat, sensors with voltage potentiometers transmit the motions via a Bluetooth link to Kizer, which reproduces them. In the video, you can see that there’s a bit of a delay, but apparently robot combat is still clumsy enough for this to not have too great an impact. The lower body is still controlled with a gamepad.

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We recently visited the Maru dojo to discuss King Kizer and new fighting-robot technologies:

How does the “master-slave” control technology work? Where did you get the idea? Have you used it in Robo-One tournaments?
The master-slave control idea goes a long way back. The concept has a long history in robot anime, and it has been implemented in surgical devices. I’ve been using it since I first entered Robo-One.

The equipment affixed to the operator’s body is known as a “master suit,” and I concentrated on making this lightweight.

The strong point of the system is that it’s great for adapting to the requirements of the moment. Other systems can only be operated through preprogrammed robot motions. For instance, in hand-to-hand combat, if you encounter a robot that is shorter than what you expected to go up against, your machine will be punching air instead of metal. But with a master-slave control system, that’s not a problem you encounter.

The weak point of my current master-slave system is that it’s limited to the upper half of the controller’s body. But this is a problem that I believe I can solve. I’m also making improvements to use the system in non-combat applications. As you saw, it can also be used to handle eggs!

How do you build your robots?
When I decided to make my first bipedal robot from scratch, I had to study. The manufacturing process includes making the aluminum panels—cutting, bending and finishing—, plus vacuum form molding, resin casting and other techniques. The design is done in 2D CAD, and then I make a model, printing the frame on paper. Once I confirm the mechanical structure of the paper model, I start creating the actual aluminum panels. Since I don’t do it in 3D CAD [just 2D CAD], this work process is really critical.

I already had computer programming skills, so making the robot’s control system wasn’t so difficult for me.

What is the role of your sons in your robot activity?
They’re more than operators—our team is like the driver and mechanics in an F1 race car team. But their most important role is that they keep me motivated. I give it my all so that my sons can be victorious. I doubt I would have the power to keep winning at Robo-One if I had to create and operate the robots and compete in the tournaments all by myself!

Also, my sons sometimes provide me with unexpected inspiration. As children, their perspectives on robot making are invaluable.

In only three years of robot fighting, you have collected about $50,000 in prize money at Robo-One. Why is the Maru family team so successful?
I could not do this if I were not part of a family team. Most competitors in Robo-One are bachelors—there are few family teams. And I don’t want to see my kids cry if they lose at the tournament!

Another reason for our success is not the technological power of our hardware and software, but how we manage our team. There isn’t a great difference between competitors. in Robo-One. Fighting really hinges not on the actual winning or losing, but on seemingly trivial factors that are not obvious.

To give you some specific examples, one must consider things like safety parameters that are in your robot’s design and how they’ll affect performance, readiness for bugs that crop up during a fight, as well as strategies and practice based on your study of opponents. You can’t count on having a winning streak if all you have done is create a robot with some cool abilities.

What is special about Japanese robots in general?
For Japanese people, a robot means a humanoid, bipedal robot. It seems Japanese are unique in the world in this way of thinking about robots. Many of the competitors in Robo-One watched robot anime when they were kids and that really influenced them. Robots are part of their childhood dreams, and that is reflected in their robot designs and fighting techniques.

Music for the second clip: “Prelude No. 1″ by The Grift; no frikkin’ clue what the song in the first clip is.

Tags: gadgets, Technology

Microsoft to cut Xbox 360 price in Japan: Nikkei

Aug 31, 2008 Technology

TOKYO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp will cut the price of its Xbox 360 game console in Japan by about 30 percent, aiming to gain market share from leader Nintendo Co , the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday.