No much in the way of details but according the info you add a dash of salt in the water is all that’s needed for the clock to harvest energy and operate.

From the website:

This new clock has a set of metal electrodes inside that extracts energy from the compound particles that reside in water. It uses water (and a dash of salt) and turns it into energy to power the clock.

Sooo it’s like a chubby AA battery then. Not bad for $16 I guess.

http://www.bedolwhatsnext.com/clocks-waterpowered-clock-c-89_199.html

OK…wow. Slashdot always has something I like, once I sift through the venomous MS hating Tux worshiping articles…lol (just kiddin slashdot kids…sorta.)

From the project page:

To understand the Warcart requires one understand a bit of history first. Wardriving, that is, driving with a laptop computer and tracking WiFi access points, first became popular around 2001. Within a short time span, people invented warwalking, and millions flocked to walk the streets with a laptop and WiFi card in hand. Then the craze really took off when someone flew a Cessna airplane with a laptop and became the first warflyer. Within no time at all, the press and every tech blog on the internet was covering the latest war-something. There was warrocketing, warballooning, warbiking, and warboating. There were talks and seminars. News stories and blog posts. Television reports and radio shows. All about the latest in WiFi tracking. It soon became apparent to the larger community that most of these methods are highly elitist. Here are car-driving, personal-plane-owning, leisure-hot-air-ballooning, yachting aficionados armed with laptop computers. What the world needed was a low-cost, yet powerful alternative.

And thus, (mostly as a joke and for reasons that will be disclosed in this talk at Defcon 16), the Warcart was born.

Video after the break…

Nomad’s new pistol grip, which attaches directly to the bottom of the Nomad handheld with four screws looks to make in-the-field bar-code scanning point and shoot. The black rubber overmolding provides a cushioned, lightweight grip, and the trigger is built to accommodate a variety of hand sizes. Note the attached lanyard to help prevent drops for all you butter fingers.

The Nomad’s new love grip doesn’t compromise that sexy ruggedness. The new grip maintains an IP67 rating agianst dust and moisture, and it still meets those stringent MIL-STD-810F military standards for drops, vibration and temperature extremes…splendid.

In addition, the Nomad retains its all-day usage of eight hours on a battery charge, offers a range of compatible battery options, delivers a rate of up to three scans per second and offers easy field-to-office connectivity. See our previous review of the Recon X Series.

The new pistol grip has a suggested retail price of US$109 and is available through Nomad dealers. For more information on the Nomad, visit http://www.trimble.com/rugged

This past weekend, ‘The Last HOPE’ conference was held in the heart of New York City, at the legendary Hotel Pennsylvania. ‘HOPE’ of course stands for ‘Hackers on Planet Earth’, this latest iteration being the seventh, and also supposedly the ‘last’. The conference first launched in 1994 and proceeded to become a bi-annual affair in 2000. All but one conference was held at Hotel Penn, so over the years, the hotel itself has become an integral part of what makes HOPE the conference it is.

Quote:

The seventh HOPE conference was held this past weekend in NYC and I was there to take in the numerous talks. Such subjects covered were lock picking, Wikipedia’s evils, YouTube, FOIA, hardware hacking and a lot more. Special talks were also given by Steven Rambam, Steven Levy, Adam Savage and Jello Biafra.

http://techgage.com/article/hackers_on_planet_earth_2008_the_last_hope/

The waterproof Oregon features a high-sensitivity GPS receiver, preloaded mapping and a high-resolution, color 3-inch screen that reacts as users tap or drag through menus and options. Garmin’s new HotFix feature automatically calculates and stores critical satellite information and can use that information to quickly calculate a position without waiting for data collection from the satellites.

The Oregon 400t gives hikers preloaded U.S. topographic maps in state-of-the-art 3D elevation perspective. The Oregon 400i offers anglers shoreline details, depth contours and boat ramps for U.S. inland lakes and
navigable rivers. The Oregon 400c is a saltwater specialist, providing chart coverage for the coastal U.S. and Bahamas. The Oregon 300 features a worldwide basemap with shaded relief. The Oregon 200 provides a basemap that can be easily supplemented with additional mapping or charts for your adventures on and or at sea.

The Oregon series plays well with others, as the 400t, 400c, 400i and 300 allow for wireless exchange of tracks, waypoints and geocaches between other Oregon units and Colorado models. Each of these models is equipped with a barometric altimeter and electronic compass and is compatible with Garmin’s heart-rate monitors and speed/cadence sensors.

Weighing only 6.8 ounces with 16 hours of life from two AA batteries, the Oregon has a microSD card slot that is ideal for loading additional MapSource detail. For more about the Oregon’s features, pricing and availability, go to http://www.garmin.com and http://www.garmin.blogs.com

Source: Garmin gets official with the Oregon 200, 300, and 400 nav units

Handheld US introduced today the new Algiz 10 rugged tablet computer. This tablet PC with 10.4-inch screen was developed especially for harsh environmental conditions and physical stress. With shock-absorbing bumpers and a sturdy magnesium housing, the Algiz 10 meets rigorous MIL-STD-810F military standards for shock, vibration and moisture and has an IP54 rating for protection against dust and water. It also handles extreme temperatures, from -4 to 140 F.  (note: We have not tested these claims)

The Algiz 10 includes 1.2 GHz Intel Core Duo Yonah ULV Processor, an 80 GB shock-mounted hard drive and up to 2 GB RAM. Windows XP Tablet PC SP2 Edition operating on a nine-cell (7800 mAh) Li-ion battery runs up to seven hours. Also there is an optional solid state drive (32 GB SSD).

The Algiz 10 features integrated EDGE/GPRS, 802.11 a/b/g and Class II Bluetooth, making it compatible with any wireless network. Size is a chubby 11.8” (284 mm) x 8.2” (209 mm) x 2.5” (63 mm)  at a weight of 4.85 lb (2.2 kg).
 
http://www.handheld-us.com/prod_algiz_10.asp?m1=products&m2=algiz10

Ahhh! Nature! Get it off; get it off! Just kiddin, I live right on the Sammamish River Trail in Redmond. Yes that Redmond. The new PN-40 has some great features and I love to hop on the trail with my bike. Check it out:

* 32-channel Cartesio chipset (real fast and very sensitive)
* Dual-Core processor for uber fast screen re-draws
* 500 MB on board Flash memory
* 3-axis electronic compas w/accelerometer (useful for when you end up ass backwards off the trail and need to know wich way is up.
* SDHC card support for 32 GB and higher
* USB 2.0
* WAAS enabled
* 65K-color daylight readable TFT screen
* Sensitive barometric altimeter for reliably accurate altitude readings…wait what? I guess when satalite is not accurate enough or in sight…Spelunking?
* Topo USA 7.0 software with complete U.S. topo and street maps included. WooHoo!
* More detailed onboard base map data for the U.S.

Sooo it look like it’s coming out this fall and I am sure it will be freakishly expensive like all cool kit ends up being.

http://blog.delorme.com/2008/06/25/announcing-the-delorme-earthmate-pn-40/

Myvu Corporation’s myvu personal media viewer, crystal 701 allows viewers to experience their videos up close and personal from various portable media players, DVD players, mobile phones and game consoles.  The elegant eyewear brings traditional head-mounted displays out of the world of the techno-geek and into the world of the techno-chic.  Crystal provides VGA resolution and a significant increase in virtual screen size over current myvu models for true DVD-quality viewing experience. Complete with noise-reducing in-ear earbuds by Ultimate Ears for stereo sound and a rechargeable battery for up to 4 hours of viewing time, crystal provides a relaxing way for users to watch their favorite videos on-the-go. 

Macworld’s buying advice:

For $300 you’re going to be paying $100 more for the Crystal than for Myvu’s least-expensive video headset for the iPod, but you’re going to get better-quality video and a sleeker design. While it’s not perfect, Myvu’s Crystal provides you with quality, private video viewing on your iPod and iPhone—and these days, that’s about all you can ask for in the belly of coach class on most airlines.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,147504-pg,1/article.html

Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth.

The DNA sequence is based on the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium which the team pared down to the bare essentials needed to support life, removing a fifth of its genetic make-up. The wholly synthetically reconstructed chromosome, which the team have christened Mycoplasma laboratorium, has been watermarked with inks for easy recognition.

It is then transplanted into a living bacterial cell and in the final stage of the process it is expected to take control of the cell and in effect become a new life form. The team of scientists has already successfully transplanted the genome of one type of bacterium into the cell of another, effectively changing the cell’s species. Mr Venter said he was “100% confident” the same technique would work for the artificially created chromosome.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/oct/06/genetics.climatechange
Source: Engadget

In the 40 years that humans have been traveling into space, the suits they wear have changed very little. The bulky, gas-pressurized outfits give astronauts a bubble of protection, but their significant mass and the pressure itself severely limit mobility.

Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at MIT, wants to change that.

Newman’s prototype suit is a revolutionary departure from the traditional model. Instead of using gas pressurization, which exerts a force on the astronaut’s body to protect it from the vacuum of space, the suit relies on mechanical counter-pressure, which involves wrapping tight layers of material around the body. The trick is to make a suit that is skintight but stretches with the body, allowing freedom of movement.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/biosuit-0716.html
Source: http://www.slashdot.org

Scientists have created the world’s first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs.

The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.

Professor Esmail Zanjani, of the University of Nevada, has spent seven years and £5million perfecting the technique, which involves injecting adult human cells into a sheep’s foetus.

He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of sheep.

The process would involve extracting stem cells from the donor’s bone marrow and injecting them into the peritoneum of a sheep’s foetus. When the lamb is born, two months later, it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human and available for transplant.

Now scientists create a sheep that’s 15% human

Tipster Matt Sparks informs us of a new patent that…well here read:

“Sticking to an exercise regime is always easier if there’s some sort of reward or punishment involved. Well, Sony Ericsson reckons that a phone or PDA could provide just the right incentive.

A wireless device could have a pedometer that set to a target - say 10,000 steps in a week. If the owner hits the target the device then downloads a ring tone, a music track or video clip by way of reward. Or, if the owner slacks off and misses the target, the device malevolently deletes a file from its memory.”

Hmmm…Sony’s new logo could be the carrot and stick.

http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn11308?DCMP=Matt_Sparkes&nsref=cell-treat

See…there is hope for those early arrives…

From the article:

“These large scale ‘blast’ waves occur infrequently, however, are very powerful. They quickly propagate in a matter of minutes covering the whole Sun, sweeping away filamentary material”, said Dr. K. S. Balasubramaniam. “It is unusual to see such powerful waves encompassing the whole sun from ground based observatories. Its significance comes from the fact that these waves are occurring near solar minimum, when intense activity is yet to pick up.”

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/061208_solar_tsunami.html

With professors uploading their daily lectures as podcasts, universities issuing free devices to freshmen, have iPod’s have evolved from the educator’s enemy to one of the strongest tools in modern academia? Organizations like iPREPpress would like to think so.

With students carrying these devices to and from class, it makes sense to use them as educational tools. Dozens of universities are embracing professor podcasts and Stanford is even using iTunes to take lectures globally.

”iPREPpress was founded with the purpose of converting existing educational materials to iPod format. Students can visit the site and download SparkNotes, study charts, dictionaries, encyclopedias and other beneficial resources. They expect to have over 30 publishers on board by December 2006.”

Looks like a great idea and will no doubt entrench Apple even deeper into areas other than pop culture. Too bad iPREPpress only offers this for the iPod and not PlaysForSure devices.

Anandtech found an interesting article on a concept SUV called the Terranaut from Nissan.

“Touch pads used to open the doors electrically are covered with a tactile silicon finish while the seats, which all feature air vents in the base and backrests feature ‘breathing’ fabrics. Colours chosen mix practical laboratory greys with warm beige and brown shades to bring a human touch to what is essentially a scientific environment.

Built to house three operators - a pilot, co-pilot and lab technician/scientist - Terranaut has enough refrigerated storage space to house food, water and other provisions for stays of upwards of a week out in the field. Lightweight tents, sleeping bags built for extreme conditions and simple cooking facilities are carried in storage compartments in the doors.”

More: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=817