The Biggest n Meanest Machine in the World

 

The Bagger 288, also known as the Excavator 288, is the largest digging machine in the world. It was built by the German company Krupp for the energy and mining firm Rheinbraun. When its construction was completed in 1978, Bagger 288 superseded NASA's Crawler-Transporter, used to carry the Space Shuttle and Apollo Saturn V launch vehicle, as the largest tracked vehicle in the world at 13,500 tons.
Some facts:

 
* The machine is up to 220 m (721 ft) long and approximately 96 m (315 ft) high
* It weighs 13,500 tons
* It can excavate 240,000 tons of coal or 240,000 cubic meters of overburden daily - the equivalent of a football field dug to 30 m (98 ft) deep.
* The large surface area of the tracks means the ground pressure of the Bagger 288 is very small (17.1 N/cm2 or 24.8 psi). This allows the excavator to travel over gravel, earth and even grass without leaving a significant track.

 

Prank Your Friends With Effectiveness!

BSoD Prank 1.0

License model :
Free
Limitations
Not available
Operating systems
Windows 7, Windows 2003, Windows Me, Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows 3.x, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows NT, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008
Additional requirements
Not available .
Publisher's description

This eerily realistic blue screen prank allows you to prank your friends with effectiveness. This C++-based program is simple to use. Just open it and press Alt-Enter to trigger fullscreen. Maybe you could activate this program on every computer at a school, library or office to simulate an entire system crash! To exit, press Escape.

We Already Had Electricity 2000 Years Ago?

 If you thought electric bulbs and batteries were modern European inventions, here is something to put that fact to question! A 1936 excavation of some 2000-years-old ruins in an ancient Baghdad village unearthed a small yellow clay vase about 6 inches in height. It had a copper-sheet cylinder lining within it that measured 5 x 1.5 inches.
A soldering material (most probably lead and tin) was used at the top edge of this mysterious cylinder, bearing remarkable affinity to modern solder alloy. A punched-in copper disk at the base of this cylinder was sealed with asphalt or bitumen. A similar asphalt layer also found at the top end held together an iron rod, bearing acidic corrosion marks inserted within the cylinder.

 Ever since its recovery, several possibilities have been suggested by experts. Wilhelm König, the German archaeologist brought forth a startling idea that the clay pot could well be a form of electric battery. Following his theory, a Massachusetts based engineer Willard F.M. Gray created a model of this battery in 1940, filled it with copper sulfate solution and proved that it could produce electricity.

In 1970, the German Egyptologist Arne Eggebrecht followed in the footsteps of Gray. He supplanted the copper sulfate solution with fresh grape juice to generate about 0.87V of electricity for gold plating a silver statue. These experiments proved beyond doubt that 1,800 years old civilizations knew how to produce and utilize electricity by means of an acidic agent.

The path breaking conclusions of Konig lost its significance in the turmoil of the World War II. His European co-excavators had raised objection to his theories since the presence of batteries at a predominantly religious age seemed an unlikely possibility. However, soon a set of ‘ancient batteries’ were unearthed from the same sites in Iraq, inspiring a score of baffled propositions.

While some speculated that the electrochemical set up of the ‘batteries’ was meant to produce electricity, others refuted this claim. A series of thinly electroplated objects were found by König in Baghdad that probably used these cells though others opined that these were mainly fire-gilded. Demonstrative experiments have proved that though this battery uses a very primitive mechanism, it could plate a small object with a micrometer thick gold coat over two hours.
However, the electroplating theory was never unanimously accepted and other possible usages were suggested for these batteries. Paul Keyser hinted that the mild electric shock produced by using an iron bar in vinegar was used by healers or priests for electro-acupuncture. 

Currently the Baghdad batteries are preserved as valuable pieces of curios in the Baghdad Museum. The dating of these unique clay vases revealed them to be belonging to the Parthian occupation era, somewhere between 248 BCE and 226 CE, although disputed. The Parthian were predominantly a warrior clan and not given to scientific sophistications. Dr St John Simpson of the British Museum attributes the Baghdad batteries to Sassania.

Intel Core i7 Review

 Intel Core i7 is an Intel brand name for several families of desktop and laptop 64-bit x86-64 processors using the Nehalem microarchitecture that are marketed for the business and high-end consumer markets. The "Core i7" brand is intended to differentiate these processors from Core i5 processors intended for the main-stream consumer market and Core i3 processors intended for the entry-level consumer market.

"Core i7" is a successor to the Intel Core 2 brand. The Core i7 identifier was first applied to the initial family of processors codenamed Bloomfield introduced in 2008. In 2009 the name was applied to Lynnfield and Clarksfield models. Prior to 2010, all models were quad-core processors. In 2010, the name was applied to dual-core Arrandale models, and the Gulftown Core i7-980X Extreme processor which has six hyperthreaded cores.

The name continues the use of the Intel Core brand. Core i7, first assembled in Costa Rica, was officially launched on November 17, 2008 and is manufactured in Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon, though the Oregon (PTD, Fab D1D) plant has already moved to the next generation 32 nm process.

HP Mini 5103 with dual-core Atom N550 performance review

We realize keeping up with HP's model numbers can be as hard as keeping tabs on say, Lindsay Lohan's run-ins with the law, but the 5103 is notable in one major way -- it's one of the first netbooks to ship with Intel's dual-core Atom N550 processor. Like the 5102, the 5103 is still primarily aimed at business professionals. In fact, HP hardly messed with the look and feel of the aluminum dressed laptop -- the chassis and features are pretty much the exact same, although HP did ditch the black lid for an "Espresso" color and preload some new "Day Starter" instant-on OS. Obviously, the big deal here is the new processor and seeing as how we've been waiting on Intel to release a dual-core Atom CPU for netbooks since well, the first netbook we were eager to see how much power that extra core adds and if it impacts battery life. Hit the break to see some of the results.

Overall performance

 

The Mini 5103 HP sent us packs the new 1.5GHz Intel Atom N550 processor, 2GB of RAM, Broadcom's Crystal HD accelerator, and runs Windows 7 Professional. Now we'd like to say we felt the performance improvements over single-core netbooks almost instantaneously, but that's not the case thanks to an abundant amount of software preloaded up on the 5103. In fact, just like the 5102, the whole system was rather sluggish until we went and disabled two of the three McAfee security applications. When all is said and done, the 5103 definitely felt snappy for a netbook. 

The anecdotal performance and multitasking prowess is slightly better, as are the benchmark results. Just as we heard, there's about a 20 percent improvement -- most other single-core Atom N450 netbooks score around 1,200 on PCMark05, while the Mini 5103 notched a 1,866. That's a nice increase, but it's not quite as fast as AMD's single- and dual-core Nile "netbook" or ultra-thin platform.

Graphics (or lack thereof)

 

Intel's still relying on its GMA 3150 graphics so there isn't much of a change on the graphics front, though we've been told the processor alone should handle 720p content without a problem now as well as full screen flash video. The dual-core CPU also speeds up video encoding. Converting a 27MB .mov file to .mp4 took two minutes and 56 seconds on the Mini 5103, while it took 3:24 on the single core Toshiba Mini NB305. That's an improvement, but not as fast as the Eee PC 1215N's 2:03. Same goes for gaming -- it can handle World of Warcraft at 13 frames per second, but the new CPU doesn't change Atom's terrible gaming reputation.

Battery life

 

Intel promised that the extra core wouldn't impact battery life and the 5103's battery life is still impressive for a netbook. On our video rundown test, which loops the same standard definition video at 65 percent brightness with WiFi on, the 66Wh battery lasted for six hours and 16 minutes. That's decent for a netbook, but not as long as the 5102's eight hours. However, it's important to note that the Broadcom chip and the higher-resolution 1366 x 768 display on the 5103 could be affecting the endurance. The plus six hours of battery life is much better than the runtime we've seen on AMD's Nile systems, but very in line with the ASUS Eee PC 1215N.

Complicated Mechanisms Explained in simple animations

Sewing Machine

 

Manual Transmission Mechanism

The mechanism also called as “stick shift” is used in cars to change gears mannually.

Pistol Shooting Mechanism

 

 

 

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab is first DivX certified tablet

Looks like getting decent certification does not only apply to us human beings (when it comes to work, professional qualifications, etc), but it also trickles down to the gadget world as well. We’re talking about the latest Samsung Galaxy Tab Android-powered tablet device that looks primed to go up against the iPad from Apple, but one advantage that this puppy has would having received DivX certification recently, making this the first of its kind to do so. With that certification, you can be guaranteed that the recently revealed Galaxy Tab will be able to handle DivX HD video playback with aplomb regardless of whether you are at home or on the go.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab will arrive on European doorsteps later this month, where it will hit their friends across the Atlantic as well as select countries in Asia after that. For those who are not in the know, the Samsung Galaxy Tab will feature a generous 7-inch TFT display that is capable of delivering an unrivaled screen quality for a better viewing experience. It is pretty lightweight as well, tipping the scales at just 0.84 pounds (380g), where you have a choice of 16GB or 32GB of internal storage. Just in case that is not enough, you can always expand that further by another 32GB thanks to its microSD memory card slot.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab will come with Samsung’s own TouchWIZ user interface, Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS support, rear and front facing cameras and doubles up as a cellphone as well. We don’t suppose considering the fact that it runs on Android, this could very well be a smartphone (albeit a very large one). Take that, iPad! Since it will be Android-powered, the Galaxy Tab can access various applications from Android Market where applicable. Hopefully the battery life of this thing is going to last at decent levels, since it would definitely be a bummer to view your favorite movie halfway only to have it die on you.

Press Release

Latest Invention: Cell Phone with Portable Microscope for Spotting and Tracking Diseases

A team of scientists from the United States developed a portable microscope that is connected to a camera phone. Their latest invention thus can be used to diagnose dangerous diseases in blood and sputum samples, the latter are obtained by coughing deeply, which allows expelling the substance from the lungs into a sterile cup.

It is worth mentioning that light microscopy is a very important tool that can be used to diagnose malaria, tuberculosis and other dangerous diseases. The digital images of cell samples, taken by camera-equipped lab microscopes can be transmitted via Internet to specialists at different health centers for additional studies.

Together with his colleagues from the University of California in San Francisco, Daniel Fletcher at the University of California in Berkeley, though about exploiting the already existing technologies, widely used by people in everyday lives, such as cell phones, for medical reasons.

In this image you can see malaria-infected blood. According to one of the latest UN reports, about 60 percent of people around the globe use cell phones. The team realized that cell phone networks represent an inexpensive and fast way to convey medical information wirelessly. For their latest invention scientists used off-the-shelf parts to create an inexpensive and portable microscope attachment which connects to a Nokia N73 phone camera.

Using microscope, researchers can identify objects that are only 1.2 micrometers across. Red blood cells are usually from 6 to 8 micrometers across. In order to take clear picture of medical sample natural light is quite enough. Still, scientists decided to add a battery-powered LED lamp and several filters so their gadget could also work as a fluorescent microscope, reports New Scientist.

Researchers tested their latest invention against several widespread diseases and conditions. They found the results promising, saying that pictures of malaria-infected blood were good enough to be able to diagnose the disease. Besides, the system could also help diagnose sickle-cell anaemia from blood samples, thus researchers will be able to spot the presence of tuberculosis.

"Cell counting is the main thing we have done. Additional things could include annotating an image to point out a problem or a question to be answered by a doctor at a central hospital," says Fletcher. Using the device combined with detailed information about the patient and location, could help track the spread of dangerous diseases.

Robot that Writes Prescriptions and Distributes Drugs to Patients

Japanese tech giant Panasonic recently unveiled its latest invention - a robot able to distribute drugs to patients. In addition, according to a Japanese online news source, the robot will have the ability to complete prescriptions. Nikkei Net reports that Panasonic's latest invention will hit the market in a few months.

To be able to write prescriptions and dole out drugs, engineers will connect the machine to electronic medical online records. Thus the robot will scuttle across Japanese hospitals and pick prescriptions for the patients. For the past several years Japanese researchers managed to create a wide range of robots that are already helping people around the world; at infoniac.com you can find more news on robots and a wide list of latest inventions.

According to Nikkei, the robot will need 2 hours to complete the whole job in a hospital with 400 beds. It is worth mentioning that in general it takes about 4 hours for a skilled pharmacist to do the same job, reports TG Daily.

Panasonic looks forward to sell its latest invention in Europe and the United States as well. Besides, the company has plans to create other medical robots.

3D Sensors to Allow Interact with Computers Without Touch

If you ever watched "Minority Report" you most likely noticed Tom Cruise's character controlling a computer by simply moving his hands in front of the monitor. Recently scientists announced they managed to create an image sensor that would allow consumers to interact with various devices a similar way. It is worth mentioning that image sensors represent computers chips incorporated in digital cameras, the chips being sensitive to the light. Common sensors see and record 2D images, unlike the new generation sensors, which are able to see in 3D. Besides recording the picture, these sensors can also record the distance from the camera. Engineers believe that their latest invention3D space and see pictures as 3D objects. could be used in various ways. For example, they could track movements throughout

Video Games
It is most likely that this latest invention could be widely used in video games. The software giant, Microsoft, already made a step towards the no-touch interface with its Project Natal. Canestra is a company that in May presented a somewhat similar technology, allowing users to change channels and adjust the volume on their TV by simply waving their hands. According to Jim Spare, Canesta's CEO, if a standard Webcam is replaced with a three-dimensional sensor, users will have the ability to control their computers by moving their hands in front of it. In addition, the latest invention could be used in smartphones, transforming the touch-screen technology into a no-touch one.
It is worth mentioning that Canesta is a company that develops 3D image sensors and it boasts partnerships with such giants as Honda and Hitachi. Mr. Spare believes that the company's invention could become available for anyone. It managed to create a sensor built on only one CMOS microchip. Thus the company will be able to start mass production of its latest invention and at a relatively low cost. Consumer gadgets that will include Canesta'a sensors will be available in 2010.
Outside and Inside Cars
The 3D sensors could replace ultrasonic sensors that some carmakers place in the rear bumpers to signal drivers when they are close to hitting an object or a person. Canesta also believes that the sensors could be place inside a vehicle, replacing weight detectors when identifying whether a child is in a seat and if an air bag should deploy. Besides, the sensors could detect when there's someone in the vehicle when they aren't supposed to be.