Author Archive for sansandl – Page 2

Kindle DX For Going Green

kindle-dxThat’s right, believe it or not, Amazon is actually helping out the environment by churning out another Kindle, just months after the latest one. Apparently, the Kindle 2 is not enough for avid newspaper readers and magazine subscribers. So to save more trees, they rolled out the Kindle DX.

This device, a bigger and badder big brother of the Kindle 2, has been in the rumor mill for a couple of weeks now. Boasting of a 9.7″ display, it’s fronting to be just as thick as regular magazines. We can forgive Amazon for not making this wafer-thin, considering the power they packed in it.

My favorite bit of the Kindle DX? Built-in PDF reader — it’s about time they recognized this program that mobile readers cannot ignore. How can you resist some of the free e-books floating around?

Of course, Amazon wants you to buy your e-Books from them too, which is why the Kindle DX is marketed as an alternative to magazines, newspapers, and textbooks. Yep, students will no longer have to shield their nicely Stabilo-ed textbooks from their delinquent classmates. Now all their textbooks fit nice and easy in their Kindle DX. To make sure that this becomes a reality, 5 publishers have already signed in with Amazon to publish Kindle-friendly versions of some textbooks.

Did I mention that connecting to the Kindle bookstore is free of charge? The Kindle bookstore can be accessed via wireless 3G, but logging in to it is paid for by Amazon. Who says there’s no such thing as a free breakfast?

Pre-order your Kindle DX here.

Hurry, it’s on a first come first served basis. So the sooner your order, the sooner you’ll get it right at your doorstep.

Coat of Invisibility

Now you see me, now you don’t! Whoever thought that Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak is impossible is definitely a clueless non-geekie. With technology, anything is possible. That’s exactly what Japanese scientist Susumu Tachi created.

invisible-coat

There’s no magic wand involved here, or some top-secret scientific discovery about manipulating light and image. It’s simply a reflective material that houses a camera at the back, and some image-projecting sensors in front. Voila! You have your own invisibility coat.

Though I’m sure the military will be interested in such a break-through, I doubt we’ll be seeing this coat in Gap anytime soon. So if you’re sneaking out at night, well you’ll still have to wait a few more light years before you can truly render yourself invisible.

Geek-Style Boxing

Over here at Geekie we’re experiencing a little bit of boxing fever from the recently-concluded, monumental, historical event.

Allow me a little digression. What an awesome fight between Pacman and the Hitman! Two effing rounds, are you kidding?

So since we’re not over the boxing fever, and we want to do our own little KO the techie way, here are two ways to train your power hooks the Geekie way.

usb-boxerTest your punches and rhythm, and train those fingers as you pound on your keyboards. The USB Boxer gives you full control of the punching. With every press of the keyboard, you feel this little guys lethal throws on that tiny punching bag. Pound the keyboard your way to becoming a pound for pound champion yourself. Just plug in this power boxer in your USB port, load up and log in, and punch your way to a high score. Click here to get your own.

Want to try out your skills against an opponent? Think you’re ready to leave the training robot-boxingarena and get right in the ring with a mean killing machine? Duke it out first with the Rockem Sockem Robots. Popular back in the 60s, the Pacquiao vs. Hatton match-up should inspire you again to try out your punching power with this toy. You can move your little robot around this ring, and throw in some mean jabs as well. Here’s hoping you see that momentous KO. Grab yours here.

The Flu Is Out To Get You

1918flu

Caught your attention yet?

If you’re still not convinced about the severity of the Swine Flu, and you think you’re untouchable and this virus will simply kill itself and leave you alone — well there’s nothing much we at Geekie can do to convince you otherwise.

So we’ll leave it up to the government to do that. And boy they’re doing it geekie style.

The U.S. National Archives has put up an online exhibit on the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, an occurence that the Swine Flu is so often compared to. Here you’ll see the gravity of this aggressive virus through images, testimonials, and personal accounts. 40 to 100 million lives were claimed by the Spanish Flu. Though thankfully the Swine Flu is currentl nowhere near, the U.S. Government still advises to stay on your toes, and close your nose.

The Influenze Epidemic of 1918 Online Exhibit is right here.

Need To Shoot 6.1M Frames Per Second?

fast-cameraWell all that’s possible with the fastest camera-slinger in the West!

High-speed video cameras area already being used on both the entertainment and scientific front. Now the image camera can join the party. Researchers at the UCLA Henri Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have found a way to make a camera capture 6.1 million images per second, and it’s shutter speed can reach 440 trillionths of a second. Well, that’s a mighty lot of pictures to sift through.

Well we wouldn’t advise that you use this to capture your kid’s first birthday party. On the scientific development front though, it’s the perfect device for blood analysis and finding developing tumors.

A little digicam 101: