One Laptop per Child

January 12th, 2010

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) association aims to provide the world’s children with an inexpensive laptop, to aid learning. To achieve some of the design goals, very innovative technology was applied.  This includes an LCD display that can be switched between backlight (colour) and reflective (mono) modes, making the display viewable even in direct sunlight. Read more about this low power, low cost display on the OLPC wiki.

Ylmf OS

January 11th, 2010

Ylmf OS is an Ubuntu distribution with a Windows XP look and feel. Looking at the screenshots, the creators have gone to a lot of trouble to really reproduce the look.

Ars Technica reports that Microsoft is not planning any legal action against its creators.

Real-time 2D to 3D TV

January 8th, 2010

Well, the new year is here and CES 2010 is well under way. Of the many many things being unveiled there, Toshiba’s latest TV caught my eye. It uses the Cell processor (the same chipset powering the Playstation 3) and among the features it touts proper 1080p upscaling from standard definition, and even real-time 2D to 3D conversion of any video feed!! Details here.

NASA Photos

January 7th, 2010

A wonderful collection of the best NASA photos are available on the Air & Space website, including a photo of the Shuttle Enterprise with the cast of Star Trek posing in front of it.

Open Source Operating Systems

January 6th, 2010

One of the fundamental decisions every person (read: geek ;) ) must make at some point in life is which operating system to use (and support until death). :) But there is a large number of operating systems that most people have never even heard of, and hence they cannot make a completely informed choice. :) Techradar recently featured a list of 10 less well known, open source operating systems.

The first entry on the list is ReactOS, originally created as an open source clone of Windows 95. Read more about it and the other 9 operating systems here.

LG’s Transparent Display

January 5th, 2010

LG showed off their concept transparent AMOLED display at the FPD 2009 show in Japan. Read more on Gizmodo and oled-display.net.

LG also announced that their 15″ AMOLED TV will go on sale worldwide sometime this year. Read more on Reuters, afterdawn.com, CrunchGear and oled-display.net.

Just think it…

January 4th, 2010

… and it happens! Honda Motor Company has created a device that can analyse thoughts and convert them into commands to control Asimo, their humanoid robot. Read more here.

Times Square Time Ball

January 1st, 2010

The Time Ball that drops in Times Square to signify the start of the new year, is a high tech device these days. But its beginnings were much more humble. Read more about its history on Gizmodo.

New OLED Application – Glowing Walls!

December 31st, 2009

Time Online reports that a Welsh company is developing a new lighting solution – light emitting wallpaper (and paint). Read more about this low power lighting option that should be on sale in 2012, here.

The alternative to a single 3D camera…

December 30th, 2009

… is to use two synchronised 2D cameras. You just need StereoData Maker, two cameras, a z-bar to mount the cameras, and a switch which you can build or buy.