MIT Genius Invents 'Desktop Printer' For Eyeglass Lenses
MIT student Saul Griffith was awarded the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for Inventiveness for his $30,000 "desktop printer for glasses." The device enables vision info to be punched into a computer. After the optometrist hits the "Print" button, the machine grinds the prescription on the spot. The main benefits of the invention is to make eyeglasses cheaper and Griffith richer.
UK service provider Telewest Broadband is testing a system that enables e-mails to activate an odor-generating peripheral device. It's hard to imagine a more obviously bad idea -- allowing strangers to activate smells in your home or office. The idea is that marketers can use people's olfactory senses to sell more products -- advertising pitching bread or coffee will smell like bread and coffee. But will spam smell like Spam? What about porn spam -- what will THAT smell like? Marketers: Get a grip. Nobody wants ads that stink.
Rise of the Machines: Robot Humvee Rolled Out at Intel Event
Carnegie Mellon University's entry in DARPA's upcoming desert robot race was unveiled at the Intel Developer's Forum (I'm posting this from the IDF press room) today in San Francisco, Calif. The car is called Sandstorm, and its purpose is to prove that a totally autonomous vehicle, giving only information about the destination, can drive itself from L.A. to Vegas without stopping to ask for directions.
I thought I would reflect on an ironic milestone in the history of computing. Twenty years ago, Steve Jobs famously lured John Scully away from Pepsi to become Apple's CEO by telling him: "You can either sell sugared water to kids or you can help to change the world." Well, it's interesting to note that, although Apple hasn't changed the world recently, it has started selling "sugared water." Scully, come back! Apple needs your expertise now more than ever!
Blog Details Technique for Choosing Only Pepsi Bottles with Free Download Caps
A Pepsi/Apple Super Bowl ad announced that one out of three bottles of Pepsi would contain a cap that enables a free song download from Apple's iTunes. The blog MacMerc details how to spot the winning bottles -- before you buy 'em. Now you can download songs until you slip into a sugar-induced diabetic coma from drinking so much Pepsi.
Matsushita Building 2-Megapixel Camera for Cell Phones
Mass production on Matsushita's Maicovicon sensor, which will enable camera phones to offer 2-megapixel resolutions, starts next month, according to a report. I'm going to need a tripod for this sucker.
Rise of the Machines: Robot Librarians Never Sleep
Valparaiso University has hired librarian robots that fetch books "ordered" via the internet. Shhhhhhhh. Be quiet in the library or the librarian will crush your skull.
IT'S AN HONOR JUST TO BE NOMINATED. Likewise, it's a diss to not be nominated, especially for an actor who "stole the show" in the most-nominated, highest-grossing and, IMHO, best movie of the year. I'm talking, of course, about Gollum, a.k.a. Smeagol, a.k.a. Andy Serkis (the actor who played the digitally enhanced character in "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"). Serkis was not nominated for Best Supporting Actor by the Academy, but should have won the award. Here's why.
Mobile Scope plans to release via download in March a game called Moorhen Camera X, which players interact with by moving their cell phones. Apparently, the phone's built-in camera detects the motion.
Vulcan Inc., the company run by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, showed off for the first time ever its FlipStart at the exclusive DEMO 2004 conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. FlipStart is a "MiniPC" prototype, a fully functional Windows XP PC in a PDA size. FlipStart features integrated 802.11b/g wireless and sports options like Bluetooth. Its 1GHz Processor, 256MB RAM, 30GB internal hard drive, 1024x600 display, 1.3 megapixel digital camera, USB 2.0 port and QWERTY keyboard set FlipStart apart from regular PDAs.
UK service provider Telewest Broadband is testing a system that enables e-mails to 
