Blog

PC Magazine has a review of the RadioShack VEX Robotics system. The VEX system was built with the education market in mind and is part of Dean Kamen’s popular FIRST Robotics competitions. At $299.99 (not counting batteries), the VEX System is more than just a kiddy construction set. It is best suited for the scientifically inclined teen (or classroom), and is a perfect fit for the robo-hobbyist who can’t afford an AIBO, but might be willing to build his own metal companion. Link.

Here’s a neat site that will speak the RSS feeds (the headlines and news) from many web sites using its PanaVox Speak Perfect Speech Technology. At the bottom of the site there’s a link where you can add your own. It doesn’t seem read RSS ads (interesting). So anyway, tried it and recorded the output. It read the MAKE feeds from June 8th and it turned out okay, I like that the robotic sounding voice has a Scottish accents. Here’s the MP3 I made.

Simple and nice how-to on building an electromagnet from Science Bob. Try making this special kind of magnet at home from things you may already have around the house. You will need: A large iron nail (about 3 inches), about 3 feet of THIN COATED copper wire, a fresh D size battery and some paper clips. Good project for the young MAKErs. Link.

As each hour goes by we’re getting closer to hacking up the $30 CVS one Time Use Camcorder. Here’s a flyer (View image)that actually has it for $19.99. Over on the camera hack forums you can check out the latest. New photos, USB dumps, parts lists and a lot of people about to literally crack this. By this weekend, I think it’s be out in the wild. Link.

Which models are these? What will TI do with the recalled calcs? Texas Instruments is replacing thousands of calculators issued to students in Virginia after a sixth-grader discovered that pressing a certain two keys converts decimals into fractions. That would have given students an unfair advantage on Virginia’s standardized tests, which require youngsters to know how to make such conversions with pencil and paper. Link.

It’s not exactly useful (yet) but…This app is just like the Paradox dumper that has given us the releases that have been released lately for PSP. Unlike the paradox app that is unreleased, this one is available to all and with this you can dump any UMD disk to a memstick. Althought it is kinda pointless right now besides being able to collect UMD images, we will have to see what the future holds for us in regards to having a way to play the images. Link.