dmvA: blob VB3

This thing is ridiculously cool-- it's a portable house/room/living space made mostly of polyester.

belgian architectural firm dmvA designed 'blob VB3', a mobile unit for the office of xfactoragencies as an extension to the 'house'. the  space - egg house consists of a bathroom, kitchen, lighting, a bed and several niches for storage. the nose can be opened automatically and functions as a kind of porch. it [is] easily transportable and can also be used as an office, guestroom or garden house.

Click the link to see some awesome interior shots.

dmvA: blob VB3.

How To Convert A Tanker Truck Into A Post-Apocalyptic Home (io9)

This is exactly  what I'm talking about.  Designer Artistide Antonas has come up with a genius way to convert a tanker truck into a post-zombie meltdown living space.

Although it may not be a 5 star hotel, it looks pretty comfortable to me-- it would especially be comfortable knowing that the zombies/infected would have a hard time breaking through the thick metal walls of the tanker.  good luck getting from the tanker to the driver's seat though.

How To Convert A Tanker Truck Into A Post-Apocalyptic Home.

Take a People-Free Photo in a Crowded Place-LifeHacker

Ever been in front of some ancient ruin or really scenic place and tried to take a people free picture?  It's annoying.  Why are all those people here too?  It's almost like they came just to ruin your picture.

Luckily there's a way around it.  It requires a tripod and some photoshoppery.  Actually the magic is in the photoshoppery, but it's probably easier than you think.  Click through to check it out.

Take a People-Free Photo in a Crowded Place.

Going hypersonic with the X-51A Waverider - CNET News

Supersonic speed is so 2000's.  What do you know about that hypersonic speed?  Apparently Boeing does.  They've made a hypersonic scramjet that can reach speeds of up to 4000 mph.  The X-51A was set to be tested yesterday but was postponed.

Beyond supersonic speeds lies the realm of the hypersonic--faster than Mach 5.0, or in somewhat more down-to-earth terms, in excess of just under 4,000 miles per hour. On Tuesday, the U.S. Air Force plans to venture into that realm with the test flight of a chisel-shaped aircraft called the X-51A Waverider.

X-51A Waverider image - Going hypersonic with the X-51A Waverider (images) - CNET News.

Bedazzler - DIY non-lethal weaponry

The bedazzler is a nonlethal, flashlight-ish device/"hand-held incapacitator" (totally nonlethal).  It causes nausea, eye pain, and sometimes vomiting.  No word on how effective it is but according to the site it does do what it says it will.

After attending a conference where the $1 million "sea-sick flashlight" (named "THE DAZZLER") was demonstrated by the US Dept. of Homeland Security, we decided to create our own version. For under $250, you can build your own dazzler and we've released the source code, schematics and PCB files to make it easy. A great Arduino project for people who really like blinking LEDs. We also added in a mode selection so you can put it into some pretty color-swirl modes, great for raves and parties!

Yes this project does indeed cause: Nausea, dizziness, headache, flashblindness, eye pain and (occasional?) vomiting! So don't use it on your friends or pets

Bedazzler - DIY non-lethal weaponry.

LittleDog is getting more nimble/terrifying (Via Gizmodo)

Ok so uh...this is exciting but to be honest this is the most horrifying thing I have ever seen.  LittleDog is the youthie version of BigDog, a robotic quadruped that can not only walk and move on all fours, but it can walk over rocky, unstable terrain, right itself when knocked over, and basically band together with other BigDog's to parade down the streets enforcing the city-wide curfew.

Both "Dogs" are being developed under DARPA's robot locomotion initiative at USC.  LittleDog has apparently learned some of BigDog's tricks, including the ability to assess the viability of a foothold and adjust its footstep accordingly.  If this thing learns to climb walls I'm moving to South America-- I'm not trying to be here long enough to see a T-800 walking one of these down the street.  "Can I pet your emotionless quadrupedal killingbot?"

Every time I read an article like this I want to either get like 20 of my own or just hope that while I'm on stumbleupon, that I'll come across some blueprints for a laser cannon.  Either way, the implications of robotics are on both sides of a tightrope and it's pretty windy if you catch my drift.

Click here to go to Gizmodo for an unnerving video of this thing in action:

LittleDog Learns Several Terrifying New Tricks.

Turn your USB flash drive into a tiny computer.

A post on suite 101 by Ben Lingenfelter.  This post compares linux distributions able to be launched from a USB drive.  For the non-linux initiated, this means that you can have your own personal virtual computer complete with your applications, documents, and information wherever you go.

There are several methods of turning a regular USB Flash or "pen" drive into a bootable drive running a Linux OS platform, and there are lots of advantages to doing so. First, it's like carrying a pocket-sized personal computer. Second, booting from it essentially changes every different computer into the same one.

Read more at Suite101: Best Linux Distro for USB Flash Pen Drives: Comparing Puppy, Slax, xPUD, and DSL Linux Distributions http://freeware-shareware.suite101.com/article.cfm/best_linux_distro_for_usb_flash_pen_drives#ixzz0oWRKh6UA

Kill Off Your Online Identities With The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine - The Consumerist

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Photo: Gage Skidmore"][/caption]

This is a cool service that allows you to erase your bebo, bandspace, and other social networking sites you were a member of but don't even remember or visit. This is really important if you are in any sort of business in which your online reputation matters. Having a bunch of unattended social network pages is not only spreading elements of your identity thinner than you can manage, but it also looks unprofessional.  This saves the time of having to navigate to the armpit of the internet and erase them by hand.

This machine lets you delete all your energy sucking social-networking profiles, kill your fake virtual friends, and completely do away with your Web2.0 alterego. The machine is just a metaphor for the website which moddr_ is hosting; the belly of the beast where the web2.0 suicide scripts are maintained. Our services currently runs with Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and LinkedIn!

Kill Off Your Online Identities With The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine - The Consumerist.

360 degree video for next-to-nothing - Hack a Day

360 degree video for next-to-nothing - Hack a Day.

This is a way to make 360 degree viewable video...raven style (cheap).  The possibilities with this are endless

Focus Booster - the pomodoro technique

This is an software implementation of a productivity technique known as the "Pomodoro Technique".

Quoted from the app's home page:

"The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method created by Francesco Cirillo. It can be used for any kind of task and enables you to view time as a valuable ally in acomplishing what you want to do.

focus booster is a digital pomodoro timer to help you implement the Pomodoro Technique as quickly and efficiently as possible. Use it with ease and no fuss to focus on the things that are important, ignoring the distractions."

Click through to see: focus booster - the pomodoro technique.

Portable Solar Panel

A portable solar panel capable of charging a laptop.  This means you can fully disconnect from your desk and get your work done in a meadow or on a mountain or on a beach.  You can skype from a canoe (assuming you get internet reception...and assuming you are even a fan of canoe-skyping).

Check it out.

How to Access Blocked Stuff on the Web (Via Lifehacker)

Not sure if you read Lifehacker...I do.  Because of stuff like this.

Good for all sorts of content that is restricted or blocked because of the nation you currently occupy.  It is always good to stay conscious of the world media, including all those Jerkin videos that will inevitably show up on European youtube in like 3 months. A more useful example would probably be if you're on vacation or business in a different country and you really want to watch Hulu, perhaps getting to gMail when it's down, control computers at home, etc.

Click here to check it out.