Cody Taylor

carusoj writes “The folks at iRobot apparently have plenty of time on their hands. They created a prototype wireless, robotic vacuum cleaner… powered by a hamster running inside a spinning ball. The rodent’s movements with the ball are fed to and analyzed by a complex set of sensors, which then guide the actual vacuum device to mimic the animal’s speed and direction. You can see where this is going: it’s a clever ploy to then get you to buy a second robot that would automatically feed, water, and clean up after the hamster in the first robot.”

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Must-have new apps on show at DEMO 09 day two

The laptop features a 1080p hi-def display, a Nvidia GeForce GT 130M graphics chip with 1GB of GDDR 3 video RAM andan Intel Core 2 Quad CPU, and 4GB of RAM. A true “Lamborghini” of laptops.

I love this amazing view of its cockpit. Looks like the cockpit in a military plane or spaceship rather than one in a passenger airliner.

Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef is a former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan. He spent almost four years in Guantanamo. He wears a black turban, has a thick beard, and is never without his Apple iPhone… said he has always been interested in technology despite his militant links. He used a laptop and satellite phone to access the Internet

narramissic writes “Patent reform legislation was introduced yesterday, which, if it passes, would be the first major overhaul of U.S. patent law in more than 50 years. (It should be noted that the new legislation is very similar to the Patent Reform Act of 2007, which died on the Senate floor last year.) The legislation would bring U.S. patent law in line with global laws, and introduce ‘reasonable royalty’ provisions, which change the way damages are calculated and would reduce the likelihood of massive payouts for some patent holders. Representatives from Google, HP and Intel were quick to say that the changes would cut down on frivolous patent lawsuits. But the Innovation Alliance, a group representing patent-holders that oppose the legislation said that it would ‘devalue all patents, invite infringement — including from companies in China, India and other countries — and generate more litigation that will further strain the courts.'”

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TechForensics writes “Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, is subtitled “the story of success”. It is a book that purports to explain why some people succeed far more than others. It suggests that a success like Bill Gates is more attributable to external factors than anything within the man. Even his birth date turns out to play a role of profound importance in the success of Bill Gates and Microsoft Corporation.” Look below for the rest of Leon’s review.

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An anonymous reader writes “A small software company is claiming that Red Hat’s JBoss open source middleware violates one of its patents and is asking a court to stop Red Hat from distributing the product. Software Tree LLC claims that JBoss infringes on its database patent for ‘exchanging data and commands between an object oriented system and a relational system.’ Software Tree’s partners include Microsoft, and that the suit was filed in Eastern Texas, which is known as a plaintiff’s paradise for patent actions.”

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palmsolo writes “The Amazon Kindle 2 just started shipping last week, but Amazon surprised everyone late on March 3rd by placing the Amazon Kindle software for the iPhone in the Apple App Store. With the Whispersync technology you can now keep your Kindle and iPhone ebooks in sync and read everywhere you go. Readers on the iPhone also now get access to over 200,000 ebook titles on the Amazon Kindle storefront. Check out the hands-on image gallery and video of the Amazon Kindle software on the iPhone and Kindle 2.”

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An anonymous reader writes “I am a trek fan and excited about the new movie, but this is too much. From the Trek Movie Article: ‘Genki Wear, known for its licensed science fiction jewelry and perfumes, has produced what might be the most unusual Star Trek product ever: Star Trek colognes and perfume based on the original 1960s television show. … There are three fragrances planned for 2009 with the monikers ‘Tiberius,” “Red Shirt” and “Ponn Farr.”‘” Are they telling us we stink?

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