A Collection of Links

ScientificsOnline has a high-security toy vault that’s a safe-cracking challenge! This safe has a maze stylus for you to connect the circuits without touching the sides, a digital readout, a keypad where you can enter the secret numbers to open the vault, a speaker, and a sonic dial where you can match tones to defeat the combination lock! Choose a secret PIN number and protect your favorite stuff, OR go up against 3 security systems to try and disable the locks.

F+R Hugs has a soft Lycra shirt with embedded sensors and electronics that allows to feel the physical closeness of a distant loved one, aparently bringing the sensation of a hug. The system works through a mobile phone network. The shirts receive the input of heart beat, touch and body temperature of the remote loved one, recreating (through actuators embedded in the shirt) over distance the pulsation, physical pressure, and warmth of a real hug.

Aaron Tang’s Anemone Clock awakens you by means of sound, light, movement, and interaction. When the alarm goes off, it rumbles intensely, making it harder to find the off switch. Due to the rumbling, the clock also bounces away from your bed table, so you have to get out of bed and chase it like a pet around the room if you want to silence it.

MobileReadtalks about a stable Wi-Fi broadband internet connection via satellite was successfully tested aboard a high-speed train – the Paris-Brussels route operated by Thalys. The record bandwidth attained was 4 Mbit/s downstream and 2 upstream at 300 km/h, comparable to the quality of an ADSL connection

One of my friends emailed me a copy of a Web Page describing an Online Chat Session where a user was boasting that he was a great hacker, and a member of the chat session gave him a challenge. To attack 127.0.0.1. This is the ‘Loopback’ address on every machine on the Net… And points back at the same machine. So the ‘Hacker’ tried, and his machine died. Then a couple of weeks later tried again with the same results. Then he accursed the people he was attacking of attacking him… You can read the details here if you really want too.