Finally, something to convert the garage full of dusty Betamax tapes in to High Definition DVD…
Boasts some amazing features:
- One button transfer between Betamax and HD-DVD
- Play and Record both Super and regular BetaMax
- Blah, blah, blah
- Uses electricity
- Has a manual
- Something else
- Frakkin’ sweet remote
- You aren’t even reading this
Check out the promotional video:
So there’s this project called the RepRap, which sounds pretty impressive according to it’s entry in Wikipedia:
The RepRap Project is a project aimed at creating a self-replicating machine… a 3D printer that is able to fabricate three dimensional artifacts from a computer-based model. Due to the replicating ability of the machine, authors envision the possibility to cheaply distribute RepRap units to people and communities, enabling them to create (or download from the internet) complex products and artifacts without the need for expensive industrial infrastructure. They further speculate that the RepRap will eventually demonstrate evolution in this process as well as being able to increase in number exponentially.
Even the prototype (shown above) looks pretty intriguing…
But then I saw this video demonstrating one of the parts - The Bendy Extruder.
That has to be the singlemost impressive thing I’ve EVER seen. I might have to have those immortal words tattooed onto my FACE, to remind me of this moment of epiphany:
This is the Bendy Extruder to get things straight. It has a peice of steel hawser between the motor and the drive screw, which allows you to put a straight rod down the extruder without it being bent, as it has to go into the part where the screw thread is. The hawser transmits the torque very successfully through a corner, and indeed the windings of the hawser are such that the predominant direction of the screw thread is tending to tighten the wires in the hawser.
(Amanda)
Inside your monitor are lots of little Japanese men struggling to keep up with your mouse movements…
(click the link and turn your sound on)
(B3ta)
See it in action here.
Now buy one (if you live in America). £62 at the current exchange rate. Found in “Sky Mall” in-flight magazine, United Airlines Chicago to Utah, a couple of days ago.
Tim - you so want one of these toys…
(needs sound)
With the recent news of the Apple iPhone, combining the MP3 capabilities of an iPod with a fully functional mobile phone, Microsoft unveils their plans to modify their Zune player: the ZunePhone.
The Toshiba SD-360E is a cheap (60GBP) upscaling DVD player, which will give you 720p/1080i output over HDMI, until you eventually get a HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player. When it works, it’s good, but mine only lasted 6 months before it started freezing all the time, failed to recognize discs, and eventually displayed this:
I was just packing it up ready to send back, and I just thought I’d put this on the site for anyone researching it on the net - you get what you pay for.
Please feel free to ask me any questions about this model that I may be able to answer, having owned one.
Update - 12/02/2007
On the plus side, Toshiba will replace the faulty item by directly courier, if they have it in stock, which they now have done. Mind you, I’ve only had the new one a week, and it’s already frozen twice, each time for about 10 seconds, so already I’m getting a bad feeling.
