Offbeat Technique

Vintage Anatomy Illustrations

2009-05-23T10:45:00.000-07:00

Batmobile

2009-03-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

Batmobile is the personal automobile superhero Batman. The car has made its evolution from comic books to television and films. Every Batman has its own Batmobile...so here is some of the pictures from growing collection on the internet.
Lincoln division of Ford Motor Company designed and built a futuristic concept car called the Lincoln Futura in 1955. That was the start of it all.

In October of 1965, the Batmobile was born and television history was made. http://www.1966batmobile.com/

The "Batman Begins" Batmobile as a NASCAR pace car.

The Batmobile from Batman Forever movie.

"Batman & Robin" Batmobile.

Batmobile from the Tim Burton films.

Marlbara cellular phone

2008-12-10T04:05:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know, it’s not Marlboro, but it’s Chinese so it’s not that unusual.

By using this Chinese-made device you can fool people into thinking you’ve totally gone bananas and started talking on your cigarette pack. Although I’m sure it doesn’t have all the features of the latest mobile phones, but I know I’d love to have one,especially because it comes in a luxurious box, with a gold lighter and complementary cigarettes.Here are Marlbara’s specs:

- 900/1800 GSM/GPRS
- 1.5 inch 260k color 178×220 display
- 1.3 mega pixel camera
- microSD support
- stereo speakers
- measures 92×50.5×13 mm
- weighs 98 grams

Gamucci, the e-cigarette

2008-12-10T03:49:00.000-08:00

Finally, every smoker’s dream came true, a cigarette that’s not bad for you.

Gamucci is an e-cigarette that looks, feels and tastes like a real cigarette but doesn’t hurt you, the ones around you or the environment. It’s a rechargeable device that uses sophisticated micro-electronic technology to deliver a true smoking experience, only without the tobacco smoke and tar that contain over 4.000 toxins. It contains water, propylene glycol, nicotine and tobacco scent and, instead of exhaling smoke, you exhale harmless vapors. So your body receives all the nicotine it craves but without all the other nasty stuff, it’s a dream come true and best of all you can legally smoke it indoors.

One rechargeable Gamucci cartridge is the equivalent of 20 cigarettes and the device’s battery lasts a whole day, when used with normal use (whatever that means).

Logitech's V550 Nano Clip-and-Go Mouse

2008-09-10T07:41:00.000-07:00

Companies are always searching for creative ways to market mice to notebook users. The "smaller is better" maxim is true to a certain extent in regards to a mouse's stature, but design teams are beginning to realize that comfort is king, and you can't find comfort in the smallest of mice. A lightweight mouse is a plus, as well.

Logitech has made some ground in the notebook market by introducing a pair of interesting characteristics with their notebook mice. Previously, they introduced the set-it-and-forget-it micro transceiver that is so small you don't even know it's plugged into the USB port, and thus don't have to worry about removing it or having it run into anything.

Now, with the V550 Nano Notebook Mouse, they've introduced a spiffy way to carry your mouse by way of attaching it to the notebook via a clip-and-go dock. This is ideal for users who jump out of their seats, grab their notebook that's' full of top secret information, and bolt out the door.

Five Flash Gift Ideas

2007-12-10T12:31:00.000-08:00

Funny solution for finding unique and unusual flash gifts and presents for your special occasions.

USB Wristband Flash Memory Drive

This funny USB silicone wristband securely attaches to your wrist to store your favourite documents, photos, music, school assignments and more.

Its storage capacity is 1GB, it has a cool silicone look and it is available in capacities ranging fromm 32MB to 1GB. The bands can also be customised with a company logo or any message if you're willing to buy at least 100 of the things direct from Imation Japan. USB 2.0 data transfer rate up to 480 Mbps, no driver is needed for most operating systems. Plug it into any USB port, it looks and functions just like another hard drive.

Swarowski Heart Beat USB

Philips-Swarovski fashionable USB Flash Disk (UFD) “Heart Beat” is made Silver Shade Crystals set in Ceralun and polished stainless steel. It has 1 GB from external storage and a bunch of embedded Swarovski crystals on its case. "Heart Beat" is a two-piece heart-shaped locket drive, one of Philips-Swarovski’s “Active Crystals” series computing accessories.

Supertalent pen and USB Flash Drive

This NG Series 3-in-1 executive style Supertalent pen is a great gift idea. It is a laser p ointer, ink pen and USB flash drive combination.

It comes with a gift box and it has a glossy paint body with chrome trim and a twist mechanism in metal case design. This Supertalent pen is a large, elegant and smooth writing instrument. It has full compatibility with USB 1.1 and 2.0, supports password protection. LED indicates power and busy, there is no need for driver for most operating systems.

JetFlash DSC

Taiwanese manufacturer Transcend has extended USB Flash drive with a digicam/storage combo. Not only that the JetFlash DSC is a typical flash drive, there is a 640 x 480 digicam built in there too. The JetFlash DSC is available with 128MB or 256MB of memory, and the connector is a USB 1.1. It has a tiny rechargeable battery to keep it operational. The lens is a fixed-focus, you can't expect to take great pictures, but it can't be beaten for portability. With JetFlash DSC you can easely copy photos to your computer. The first of its kind was Philips Camera Key Ring, but it is less capacious and heavier.

USB Ghost Radar

SolidAlliance has come up with a GhostRadar USB flash memory that detects, ghosts :)

Basically, it responds to unusual magnetic waves with audible alerts and flashing red lights. This thing maybe useful for paranoid travelers who stay in all kinds of hotel rooms and need to check them out. USB Ghost Radar beeps in rhythm, and the lights are activated depending on the situation. The volume and intensity of the beeps supposedly indicates how close your ghost is. The lights are used to help you determine the ghost’s position, the ghost’s movement, and the risk possibilities.

Top 5 Autumn Gadgets

2007-11-25T05:02:00.000-08:00

Creative ZEN

This credit card-sized media player with 16.7 million color support is available in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities. It has a 2.5" color screen and is perfect for music, videos and photos.
Other characteristics: SD card expansion slot, an FM radio, a voice recorder, a user-definable EQ, large display, excellent audio and video quality.

Samsung SGH-U700

The U700 HSDPA ultra slider is equipped with a 3.2 Megapixel camera and VGA camera for 3G-enabled video telephony. It si 12.1 mm 0.48" thin and a it has 2.2" 240x320 QVGA resolution display. You can play music with multi audio formats and use USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0 for full connectivity options. It supports MP3, MPEG4, H.263 and real formats. It has the features like auto focus, tri-band GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS and HSDPA data, Bluetooth and micro SD expandable memory.

Philips 7FF1AW Digital Photo Display

This graceful digital Photo Display comes with 7" display, universal power supply, a sturdy metal stand, two USB cables for connecting the display to a digital camera or personal computer, 133ppi high resolution. It supports SD, MMC, Memory Stick and CompactFlash memory cards. It can be powered either from an internal battery or by using the supplied AC adaptor connected.

Swarowski Heart Beat USB

Philips-Swarovski fashionable USB Flash Disk (UFD) “Heart Beat” is made Silver Shade Crystals set in Ceralun and polished stainless steel. It has 1GBfrom external storage and a bunch of embedded Swarovski crystals on its case. "Heart Beat" is a two-piece heart-shaped locket drive, one of Philips-Swarovski’s “Active Crystals” series computing accessories.

Archos 405

The Archos 405 comes in only one model with a 2GB storage capacity and an SD expansion slot. SD expansion slot supports high-capacity Flash memory cards up to 16GB. 3.5" LCD screen supports a resolution of 480x272. The Archos 405 is small portable video and music player that comes with an MP3 player, video player, photo viewer, and PDF viewer, the music player supports MP3, WMA and WAV files. The Archos 405's video player supports playback of MPEG-4, AVI, and WMV formats at up to 30 frames per second. One great portable video player.

The Most Advanced Robots Today

2007-11-11T14:42:00.000-08:00

Aristotle was the first one who wrote something that nowdays can be understood as the idea of robotics. Aristotle wrote in "The Politics" nearly two dozen centuries ago - "This condition would be that each (inanimate) instrument could do its own work, at the word of command or by intelligent anticipation, like the statues of Daedalus or the tripods made by Hephaestus, of which Homer relates that "Of their own motion they entered the conclave of Gods on Olympus" as if a shuttle should weave of itself, and a plectrum should do its own harp playing."

Czech author and playwright Karel Čapek popularized the term robot in his 1920 play, RUR: Rossum's Universal Robots. "Robot" comes from the word "robota" meaning "labor".
Soon after W. Grey Walter 1948 built Elmer and Elsie, two autonomous robots that looked like turtles, Isaac Asimov wrote the Three Laws of Robotics which state:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

In the 1961 the first industrial robot, Unimate, was online at a General Motors automobile factory to work with heated machines. It's motorized arm weighs 4,000 pounds and has up to six fully programmable axes of motion. 1963, the Rancho Arm was the first computer controlled artificial robotic arm designed as a tool for the handicapped.
The first anthropomorphic robot built in the world (1973) was WABOT-1, made in Waseda University, Japan. It was able to communicate with a person in Japanese and to measure distances and directions to the objects using external receptors. It has artificial ears, eyes and an artificial mouth.

The Honda Motor Company developed ASIMO, the most advanced humanoid robot in the world.
ASIMO is the first humanoid robot in the world that can walk independently and climb stairs.
Honda wanted to create a robot that would be a helper for people so it can also understand spoken commands, recognize voices and faces and with its arms and hands it can turn on light switches, open doors, carry objects...

ASIMO

4 ft 3in (130 cm) high
119 pounds (54 kg) weight
walking speed 1.7 mph (2.7 km/hour)
running speed 3.7 mph (6 km/hour)

World's first running humanoid robot was SONY's QRIO (2003). QRIO can run at 23 cm/s, and is capable of voice and face recognition. It remembers people as well as their likes and dislikes. QRIO's internal battery lasts about 1 hour.

QRIO AIBO
2 ft (60 cm) high
16 pounds (7.3 kg) weight

QRIO is credited in Guinness World Records (2005 edition) as being the first robot capable of running.QRIO follow up on the success of SONY's AIBO toy. AIBO robotic pet is able to walk, "see" its environment via camera, and recognize spoken commands, AIBOware is the software the AIBO runs on its memory stick. Sony stoped development of the AIBO in 2006.

Robosapien

Robosapien is robot designed by Mark Tilden (robotics physicist who worked for NASA) and produced by Wow Wee toys. The Robosapien is preprogrammed with moves, and also can be controlled by an infrared remote control, or by either a personal computer equipped with an infrared transmitter, and an infrared transmitter-equipped PDA. WowWee has also in its production Roboraptor, Roboreptile, Robosapien v2, Robopet, Robopanda, Roboquad, Flytech, Mini Robos, SpiderSapien, Homersapien and other robots.

Mindstorm

NXT Intelligent Brick, LEGO's Mindstorms robot's "brain," features a powerful 32-bit microprocessor and more memory, plus support for USB 2.0, Bluetooth...
It has 3 Interactive servo motors feature built-in rotation sensors to align speed for precise control.

EMIEW

Hitachi's robot EMIEW use wheels instead of feet.
The 4.2 ft (1.3 m) EMIEW was the world's quickest-moving robot yet at 3.7 miles per hour (6 km/h). It has the features of recognition of voices and sounds from a distance, high-speed and agile movement, ability to get around obstructions and natural arm movement like a human.

Toyota robots

Car maker Toyota also made its trumpet-playing humanoid robot.
Toyota robot is designed for healthcare. It can blow air through a trumpet and finger the valves to actually play a musical instrument.

PaPeRo

PaPeRo was developed by Japanese firm, NEC Corporation. It has the ability to remember its owners interests and preference and can recognize 650 phrases and speak more than 3000. When it cannot see a face well or if the distance or location is not satisfactory, it will adjust the distance on its own or tell the person," It's too dark."

1.26 ft (38.5 cm) high
11 pounds (5 kg) weight

Murphy's Laws

--- Never trust modern technology. Trust it only when it is old technology.
--- Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable. Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable.
--- To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.
--- We don't know one millionth of one percent about anything.
--- The primary function of the design engineer is to make things difficult for the fabricator and impossible for the serviceman.
--- If it works in theory, it won't work in practice.
If it works in practice it won't work in theory.

Arthur C. Clark
--- A computer makes as many mistakes in two seconds as 20 men working 20 years make.

The 10 Cosa Nostra Commandments

2007-11-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

After arresting a top Godfather near Palermo, Sicily's police have found what may be the legendary mafiosa "10 Commandments" at the house of a Mob boss, detailing how to get "made" and what level of loyalty is required. Lo Piccolo apparently carried the papers everywhere with him. It has given investigators a unique insight into what makes a perfect mobster.

1. No one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person to do it.

2. Never look at the wives of friends.

3. Never be seen with cops.

4. Don't go to pubs and clubs.

5. Always be available for Cosa Nostra, even if your wife's about to give birth.

6. Appointments must be respected.

7. Wives must be treated with respect.

8. When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.

9. Money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or to other families.

10. People who can't be part of Cosa Nostra are anyone with a close relative in the police, with a two-timing relative in the family, anyone who behaves badly and doesn't hold to moral values.

Avant-garde constructions

2007-11-11T14:31:00.000-08:00

David Fisher, with a group of American architects who's been living in the famous city of Italian art, Florence, for thirty years, started a new series of a futuristic projects - a buildings made of prefabricated units, each of which can rotate independently from the others. That allows the building to continually change its shape.

This project will start in one of the biggest centre of modern architecture and one of the wealthiest cities today, Dubai, a city which over the last few years has undergone a true urbanistic boom by becoming home to some of the most avant-garde constructions and where the deep pockets of oil-rich developers drive some of the most eccentric building projects in the world.

David Fisher and his collegues designed a 68-story combination hotel, apartment and office tower where the floors would rotate 360 degrees. Each floor would rotate independently, creating a constantly changing architectural form.

The rotating towers get their electrical power from wind turbines that are placed between floors and which rotate freely with the wind. Additional power is provided from solar cells on the tops of the individual floors.

Each individual floor is able to rotate slowly, and it can be controled by the owners of apartments on that floor. The rotation of the floors does not produce power.

Dynamic Architecture buildings will have path-breaking safety features and electronic control systems along with their futuristic design and unique luxury finishing.

Money Quotes

Anon
- Money talks...but all mine ever says is good-bye.

Donald Trump
- Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.

Neil Simon
- Finance is the art of passing currency from hand to hand until it finally disappears.

William Jennings Bryan
- No one can earn a million dollars honestly.

Rotating Buildings in Dubai