Cool & Geeky Gadgets

Japanese cell phone maker KDDI has teamed up with Hitachi to one-up your iPhone as the iPhone can’t manage 3D content. The Hitachi WOOO H001 will show you 3D versions of your phone’s still images and video.
But that’s not all, the phone also will give you a 5 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, microSD slot, and a 1Seg TV tuner. No word on price, but the handset should hit the Asian market by spring.

It’s an interesting looking phone for sure. But how many of us are really hankering to see our pictures in 3D if it’s not in hologram form?

Solar energy

Solar energy is the radiant light and heat from the Sun that has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation along with secondary solar resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass account for most of the available renewable energy on Earth. Only a minuscule fraction of the available solar energy is used. Solar power technologies provide electrical generation by means of heat engines or photovoltaics. Once converted its uses are only limited by human ingenuity. A partial list of solar applications includes space heating and cooling through solar architecture, potable water via distillation and disinfection, daylighting, hot water, thermal energy for cooking, and high temperature process heat for industrial purposes. Solar technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on the way they capture, convert and distribute sunlight. Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic panels, solar thermal collectors, with electrical or mechanical equipment, to convert sunlight into useful outputs. Passive solar techniques include orienting a building to the Sun, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light dispersing properties, and designing spaces that naturally circulate air.

Control a Mac and PC with one keyboard

If you've got a Mac and PC holding court on your desk while you roll your chair between them trying to get your work done, stop. You're working too hard. Synergy (for Windows and Mac) is a free, open-source application that has come to many a rescue by consolidating the controls of multiple computers on different operating systems to a single keyboard and mouse.
Each computer gets to keep its own monitor, which gives you more visual real estate while slashing hardware clutter. Here's another bonus: you don't have to physically switch between systems anymore, you can can stay put and let your mouse do the walking.
If desk space is no issue, Synergy is going to be a much more freeing solution than a KVM switch, which, in an important reversal, uses only one monitor to control multiple computers, won't let you see data side-by-side, and requires extra hardware. As another perk, Synergy merges your clipboards into one so you can copy and paste among platforms.
Synergy isn't limited to Macs and PCs; it can also work with two or more computers on the same platform, and there's a Linux build, too. Synergy involves a little more setup than your average application, but the results can be well worth it. has plenty of useful tips to get you started.

Rinspeed Squba Car

The submersible Rinspeed sQuba car
www.joernel.blogspot.comBack in 1977, in the James Bond Movie "The Spy Who Loved Me," Roger Moore's agent 007 had a very special Series 1 Lotus Esprit that converted from a sports car to a submarine. The Lotus had propellers and rudders and even a battery of harpoon launchers to help Bond fight off the bad guys. The submarine Lotus was more than just a prop; it did go underwater and the rudder and propellers worked. However, it wasn't actually water-tight, and so a stuntman with Scuba gear operated it inside behind the dark glass. The picture to the right shows a scale model of the submersible Lotus.
Well, now there is a real diving Lotus. Rinspeed, a Swiss tuner and builder of exotic concept cars and other futuristic vehicles built the Rinspeed sQuba, a drivable, divable concept car that really works. Based on a Lotus Elise, the electric-powered sQuba is the brainchild of Rinspeed founder Frank M. Rinderknecht, who never forgot that submersible car from the James Bond movie. “For three decades I have tried to imagine how it might be possible to build a car that can fly under water. Now we have made this dream come true,” Rinderknecht said.
How did they do it? First, there had to be some practical thinking. For example, even though the Lotus Elise is a very small car (only about 150 inches long), the enclosed volume of about 70 cubic feet would have required adding 4,400 pounds of weight. The necessary ballast tanks would have made for a large, bulky vehicle that didn't look anything like a sleek sports car. So Rinspeed decided to build the sQuba as an open vehicle with its passengers using built-in scuba gear while underwater. The car floats on water, then sinks when the doors are opened and water enters the car. However, without passengers it surfaces on its own.
What all did Rinspeed do to make this possible? Well, they removed the combustion engine and replaced it with a variety of electrical motors. For operation on land, the main electric motor makes 73 horsepower and 118 foot-pounds of torque at 4500 rpm. Rinspeed estimates the top speed to be "over 75 mph," but given the weight (less than 2,000 pounds) and power it's probaby over 100 mph. Floating in water, the sQuba uses two propellers in the back, powered by an 800 Watt electric motor each, good for a speed of about four knots. Underwater, propulsion is via two electric 5-horsepower Seabob jet drives that breathe through rotating louvers and expell the water through light but twist-resistant Carbon "nano tubes." That gives the sQuba an underwater speed of about two knots. Power is supplied by rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries. Rinspeed states "the sQuba's filling station is the water reservoir,” referring to the electric hydropower the Swiss are experts in. Operating diving depth is around 33 feet.
When going under, the car's occupants use an integrated air supply system with two gas tanks -- one 15 liters, the other 18 liters -- and Scubapro regulators, specifically Scubapro's classic and very reliable air-balanced G250V second stage. The Scubapro gear and the tanks are mounted behind the passengers.
The sQuba is chuck full of interesting technology, and not only for underwater operation. On land, it uses a laser scanner system to essentially drive itself. For underwater operation, Rinspeed and its partners designed a cockpit and instruments that's inspired by the elegant shape and lines of a Manta Ray. Individual instruments seem to float and have dials that are lined up like lenses. The main control cluster is futuristically lighted and sits behind a protective sheet of glass with a fisheye effect. Controls can be operated even with diving gloves.
How real is the Rinspeed sQuba? Real enough for an impressive video of its operation on land, floating and diving. You can see the movie as well as pictures on. It works. But it's also a concept and not meant for production at all. For that, it'd need a more powerful motor, and the market for diving cars is likely very small. But none of that matters. Concepts are limited only by the imagination. "For three decades I have tried to imagine how it might be possible to build a car that can fly under water," said Frank Rinderknecht. "Now we have made this dream come true.” Very cool.

LAN 'twist' cable

www.joernel.blogspot.com

The standard LAN twist cable, as shown in the picture to the left, satisfies most computer-to-computer connections but there are occasions when this type of interconnection is known to cause network failures.

This is due to the cable not being terminated correctly by either or both LAN adapter interfaces resulting in the cable "ringing". Other known causes are high drive levels of some LAN adapters which then overload the receive circuitry of the adapter it is connected to.
The circuit shown below combats both these issues. It is nothing more than two 6dB (approx) attenuators (one for each leg or path). Attenuators exhibit two fundamental and valuable properties. They offer the cable a reasonable termination point as well as attenuating any reflections that may be present on the line.

If the problem is merely one of overloaded receive circuitry placing a 6dB attenuator in circuit reduces the voltage by 2 (power by 4). As the LAN specification calls for a transmit level of 2Vp-p and a receive sensitivity of greater than 350mVp-p the attenuator will not affect normal drive levels (6dB resulting in 1Vp-p in normal conditions). The attenuator now allows for a maximum of 4Vp-p before any overloading would occur.
If ringing or reflections are the problem, usually caused by a bad termination at the receive end, the attenuator, being resistors, damps any oscillations appearing on the cable. Any reflections caused at the receive end are reduced by 6db before it reaches the transmitter. When reflected back they are again reduced by further 6dB thus our 6db attenuator offers a total 12dB attenuation on any reflections.

These attenuators are easily built into CAT5 junction boxes (as can be seen alongside) or directly into a short LAN cable (ensuring no possible short reducing the reliability of the cable).
The using of this circuit has resulted in the stabilising of a number of problematic LAN connections and implementation is recommended after all normal possible faults have been eliminated (bad connectors etc).
NOTE: Resistors are standard carbon film 1/8 watt or above and values are in ohms. Attenuators of other values or impedance can be calculated with the aid of the attenuator tables found at The diagram to the right shows the numbering of a RJ45 connector (from the left with cable entry to the bottom, pins to the top and facing you).

LAN COLOURS

TIA/EIA 568A ............................ TIA/EIA 568B

Pin Numbers

1 - TX_D1+

2 - TX_D1-

3 - RX_D2+

4 - BI_D3+

5 - BI_D3-

6 - RX_D2-

7 - BI_D4+

8 - BI_D4-

Notes:
LAN cables are generically called UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) and are identified with a category rating. When installing new cable, unless there is a very good reason not to, you should be using category 5, 5e or 6 UTP which is rated for both 10 and 100mb LAN operation.Info on Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) cabling.

UTP comes in two forms SOLID or STRANDED. SOLID refers to the fact that each internal conductor is made up of a single (solid!) wire, STRANDED means that each conductor is made up of multiple smaller wires. Stranded cable (which is typically more expensive) has a smaller 'bend- radius' (you can squeeze the cable round tighter corners with lower loss) and due to its flexibility should be used where you plug and unplug the cable frequently. All other things being equal the performance of both types of cable is the same. In general, solid cable is used for backbone wiring and stranded for PC to wall plug (patch) cables. Beware: Each type of wire, solid or stranded, needs its own connector type.

There is NO excuse with all the choice of color cable and other techniques available to-day for not being able to visually spot the difference between at least a straight and a crossed cable before you spend 1 hour fitting the wrong cable into your network. For cheap-skates (which includes us) you can get heat-shrink colour tubing in a slew of colours which you fit on each end of the cable beside the connector to indicate the wiring type and standard instead of using different coloured cables. The advantage of this scheme is that when you change your wiring standard you can just change the sleeve colour - you don't have to rip out the cable.

Disadvantage: You have to remember to put the tubing on BEFORE the connector!
You CAN use 100base-TX wiring with a 10base-T network (but not always the other way round). In general ALWAYS use 100baseTX/T4 wiring standards.
If you are using category 5, 5e or 6 wiring EVERYWHERE you can use the 100base-TX standard (this only uses 2 pairs , 4 conductors). Most of the information below assumes you are using category 5, 5e or 6 cables.

If you are using category 3 or 4 cables with 100M LANs ANYWHERE you MUST use the 100Base-T4 standard and this has ADDITIONAL RESTRICTIONS documented throughout (it uses all 4 pairs, 8 conductors). LAN connections/pinouts are defined by IEEE 802.3u.
Maximum LAN cable runs are 100 meters (~300ft).

We provide a Cabling FAQ. which provides additional information or background.
We have added an article on mixing 100 MB LAN and Telephony. on a single category 5(e) or 5 cable. It can be done but you must be very cautious.

We have updated some of the material for 1000base-T (Gigabit Ethernet 802.3ab) which uses all 4 pairs (8 conductors) and added notes where relevant about Power-over-Ethernet (PoE 802.3af). A copper standard for 10GB Ethernet is being worked on (802.3an) but as of February 2005 the IEEE was still standardizing away.

Tech News

www.joernel.blogspot.com

I actually want this Segway, it's like a mini-tank version for cyber-gladiators to parade out to the arena on, with knobby knuckle wheels that look like they're ripped off the Iron Monger. The RMP's guts are basically the original Segway's on steroids, jacked up to haul 400 lbs of fat cop. The bizarre wheels allow it to smoothly move in any direction, which actually looks kind of freaky in motion. Check out the video of its oddly seductive shimmying after the jump, since you can't afford it: It "might" run $50,000.

Sometimes we come across gadgets that really get us excited! However after we read the specs of said gadgets more closely our little gadget balloons get deflated. Case in point, the Pet's Eye View Digital Camera. This compact digital camera attaches to your your pet's collar and is made of ultra durable water-resistant ABS plastic. Photos are shot at 640x480 resolution at intervals of either 1, 5, or 15 minutes. Sounds great, so what's the catch? According to the product description there's only enough internal memory to hold roughly 35 photos, which means at best you're only going to capture a little over eight hours in the life of your pet before you'll run out of space. (No mention of a memory card slot to add extra memory either, bummer.)

T-Mobile to throttle G1 speed after 1GB a month?

www.joernel.blogspot.com


T-Mobile is warning G1 customers that they could get placed into the slow lane if they use more than 1GB of data in a billing cycle.

Engadget spotted the fine print underneath T-Mobile's G1 page on its Web site trumpeting the arrival of the first phone to run Google's Android software. "If your total data usage in any billing cycle is more than 1GB, your data throughput for the remainder of that cycle may be reduced to 50 kbps or less," the company warned.

Now, that doesn't apply to anything you download or upload over a Wi-Fi connection, and may not be much of an obstacle for some users. But if you're like a few folks inside our office--one of whom has used 187MBs in just the past 24 hours on his iPhone 3G--you're liable to hit that speed bump pretty quick. Downloading almost anything on a 50Kbps connection is going to be extremely frustrating.

T-Mobile might have trouble enforcing this cap, but they appear to be putting it in the contract. It's a confusing move, given the trend among carriers toward all-you-can-eat data plans, but could be a defensive maneuver to protect T-Mobile's young 3G network from being overwhelmed by G1 users.