There are many ways to hurt yourself on today’s streets but walking into lamp posts isn’t one that crops up too often. Until now.
Now, for those phone users who just can’t stop walking into them while ‘walking and texting’, there’s a solution. No, not some useful adverts and advice about watching where the bloody hell you are going but, padded lamp posts.
A trial in London’s busy Brick Lane is underway to help careless pedestrians from really injuring themselves when they smack into very visible, 15m tall metal poles. This time, they’ve got white padding to dull the impact. The pilot scheme is the work of Living Streets, a UK campaign group on behalf of pedestrians, who believe the crashes are really down to the crappy pavements and the "higgledy piggledy" layout of bins, signs and other objects. Right. Less mobile texting might help more.
If successful, the group is going to pad lamp posts in other major UK cities. I despair. What next, the automatic arse-wiping machine? Oh, there already is one of those. -Martin Lynch
Handguns have become fashion accessories in certain US states and what harassed celeb wouldn’t want their very own, teeny weenie diamond-studded lethal weapon?
This handgun is a blinged up version of the tiny 0.7oz Swiss MiniGun, measuring just 2.16in long. I know it looks like some fancy cigarette lighter but this is the real deal and it’s officially the smallest working handgun on the planet.
We have come across the promise of mind-controlled game systems before, like the one from Emotiv, but now PC component and peripheral outfit, OCZ Technology Group, is getting in on the act.
The company has unveiled its Neural Impulse Actuator (NIA) brain-computer interface game controller – take a deep breath – which it claims will allow people to play games without a keyboard and ‘minimal’ use of a mouse. The NIA is just gone into mass production and comprises a small metal chassis with USB 2.0 interface, streamlined headband with carbon interface sensors and some ‘user-friendly’ software.
The NIA converts EEG (electroencephalograph) signals into certain keystrokes, allowing it to be used with lots of different types of applications. That said, it’s being pitched at gamers.
Alex Mei, Executive Vice President and CMO of the OCZ Technology Group, claimed:
“The Neural Impulse Actuator (NIA) radically changes the ways that gamers can interact and control elements within games.”
Personally, I’ll believe it when I see it and it actually works because my home is already littered with the useless remains of the next BIG THINGS in gaming technology.-Martin Lynch
As predicted Asus has taken the wraps off a new Eee laptop, called the Eee 900, which will run Windows XP on its new hardware set-up.
The screen size has had a welcome bump from 7in to almost 9in and the resolution will be 1024 x 600 pixels, up from 800 x 480. The bigger screen has been facilitated by moving the speakers from the sides to underneath.
The anorexic MacBook Air has barely had time to float away on a gentle breeze before somebody has decided that it needs some gold and Swarovski pretties to tie it down.
This is the Golden Age MacBook Air – which somewhat resembles Cate Blanchett's clobber in the recent movie of the same name. It was unveiled this week at CeBIT 2008 to the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ of passers by. In fact the only thing that brought more gasps was the £20,000 price tag.
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
