Boeing teaches two UAVs to flock together

Boeing is always doing some interesting experiments with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) before, and they have just created a new “milestone” with multiple unmanned aerial drones.

Granted, it was only two drones (Boeing ScanEagles), but the company got them to fly together. These vehicles searched a test area through “self-generating waypoints and terrain mapping, and sent information to teams on the ground”.

This means that unmanned aircraft can collect and use data while communicating with each other for their mission. I’m sure that you can easily imagine more than two aircraft involved in a search-and-rescue mission or perhaps a military invasion.

Are we looking at a future where swarms of these automated airplanes will be our advanced Air Force? Think of the scene in Independence Day where all those tiny fighters invaded that base. We could be those aliens!

Of course, I wonder how in the world we can get all those planes to work together so they don’t shoot down the wrong targets. Something tells me that this is going to be a whole new type of interface.

Then there is that scary situation where the whole army of robot planes turn on us. Think of the movie Stealth but with many planes instead of just one. I hope that someone isn’t taking that idea and making a sequel to that film, because it was horrible.

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Vivitar 690HD Digital Video Recorder

Vivitar calls its 690HD camera a DVR. This is an abbreviation for Digital Video Recorder, but it has nothing to do with what your TiVo does.

The Vivitar 609HD is a handheld camera that looks like it should be held horizontally, but it is best used vertically as the user can see the 2-inch preview screen.

I got a chance to try it out, and the video is good for 1280 x 720 HD, 640 x 480 VGA, or 320 x 240 QVGA. The frame-rate is good for 25fps, 30fps, and 30fps, respectively. The camera is also capable of still shots, but I don’t have any word on the number of Megapixels.

The 690HD has very little built-in memory (8MB), but it can support an SDcard of up to 32GB. The SDcard is not included, but it does come with an AV Cable for watching the footage on your TV.

One major feature of the 690 DVR camera by Vivitar is that it is waterproof up to 10 feet. The packaging has scuba divers on it, which leads me to believe that this camera is marketed to the rugged extreme crowd.

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Cowboys And Aliens

Time for a movie review of Cowboys and Aliens!

Well, it may as well be said up front. This movie is very much one that will either be liked or hated, based on the person. It all depends on what you are expecting out of the movie, really.

Me? I liked it. It is a simple enough premise that borrows form established genres and pays affectionate homages to both. The movie begins with Daniel Craig waking up bloodied in the desert, with his memory gone, a mysterious bracelet firmly attached to his wrist, and a picture of a mysterious woman on the ground next to him.

As Craig wander into a dusty Western town, it is not long before he gets into trouble, drawing the attention of Olivia Wilde as an ethereal woman who knows about his past, and eventually irking Harrison Ford, in the role of a gruff cattle baron with a dark past. As Western drama erupts, aliens suddenly swoop in and begin capturing townspeople; causing Craig, Ford, and Wilde to join forces, form a posse, and begin hunting the aliens to their base in the desert.

The rest of the movie focuses on the chase, with our heroes tracking the aliens through the dusty West and running into bandits and hardship and Native Americans and savage aliens. The movie culminates in a thrilling showdown that is fairly epic and memorable. One thing is for sure. This movie is unique.

This movie is actually strongest when it is focusing on the Western themes. The set pieces and setup fall into familiar genre favorites, but it is still exciting and has great production values. That being said, the sci-fi/ western crossover does not always hold up awesomely well, but it is something new and fun enough that it can be overlooked.

Daniel Craig is great as a gruff grizzled dangerous guy, and Harrison Ford is… well… Harrison Ford. Which was fine with me. Olivia Wilde was fairly good as the mysterious woman who is not as she seems, in that ethereal glising… Olivia Wilde… kinda way.

The movie has been critically blasted, and has sharply divided audience opinion. I’ll say this though: I went into Cowboys and Aliens fully expecting it to suck. And I was pleasantly surprised by what it had to offer. Yeah, its kind of dumb and silly. But at the same time, it is a self aware work, and is therefore something that is presented unashamedly.

Final comments: This is one of the more interesting attempts at genre fusion, and was not presented at all in 3-D. That alone should give you a reason to go see it. For the first time since Avatar, an action movie that was shot and presented in 2-D without any kind of gimmickry. Thank. Goodness.

All in all, your pespective of this movie will all boil down to whether or not your appreciate the silliness of the premise and the straight way that they decided to implement the tone of the film.

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Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

The original Planet of the Apes movies were done well before my time. Back in 1968, a young Charlton Heston traveled to post apocalyptic earth to discover it was now run by gorillas, chimps, and orangutans. That began a successful string of films leading up to the 2001 Tim Burton remake of Planet of the Apes starring Mark Wahlberg. Fast forward to 2011. Anyone who had seen the original movies wondered how the Apes had taken over earth. The new film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, answers all of those questions, and foreshadows more prologues to the original films.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is not an action movie. If you are expecting to see hours of Ape v.s. Human combat, this is not the movie for you. The movie is about a young scientist played by James Franco, who has discovered a potential cure to Alzheimers. The lab tests the cure on apes, and Franco determines that the cure has been raising the intelligence of the apes. One of the apes has a baby, which Franco eventually takes home, names Caesar and raises him on his own.

Caesar displays enhanced intelligence and rapidly develops into a member of the family. Franco’s father suffers from Alzheimers, and Franco eventually steals some of the cure from the lab and uses it to cure his father. When Franco’s father relapses, Caesar comes to his aid to protect him, and ends up getting locked up by the authorities. I will not spoil the movie for you, but it is quite deep. Many dynamics are at work. Is Caesar a pet, a child or an equal? The intelligence Caesar displays is incredible, as he leads the apes to freedom.

The Graphics are on par with movies like Avatar. Every ape is entirely computer generated. The previous films feature humans with makeup and a bit of CGI assistance. The monkeys here were made from scratch and look absolutely incredible. Andy Serkis “plays” the role of Caesar. He himself is not in the film, but his face was used to help create the emotions that Caesar conveys through his emotive facial expressions.

There is a little bit of everything for people in this movie. There is love, action, death, drama and a bit of comedy. I enjoyed every minute of the movie and would recommend it to everyone. Once again, if you are expecting non stop action, this movie is not going to provide it. However, if you enjoy thought provoking movies with great acting, graphics and a stellar storyline, the Rise of the Planet of the Apes will not disappoint.

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Man narrowly escapes death after pet hamster bite

A father of two was almost killed after he was nipped by his daughter's pet hamster.

Ashley Green, 51, suffered an extreme allergic reaction to the bite after he tried to stop pet rodent Sydney from falling through a crack in the floor.

The frightened hamster sunk it's tiny teeth into Mr Green's thumb and palm and within minutes he had turned grey and begun making a gargling sound.

Mr Green has a severe allergic reaction to a hamster bite

His horrified wife, Michelle, 45, hurriedly dialled 999. Describing the dramatic ordeal she said: "Ashley was bleeding. Then his face went white and he said he felt itchy all over.

"Within seconds he began to wheeze. I knew straight away he must be allergic to the hamster bite because the previous year he had suffered a massive anaphylactic reaction to penicillin.

"Doctors warned he could develop allergies to anything. It meant we had to keep EpiPens - shots of adrenalin - in case of any unexpected reaction, and this was definitely it.

"He sank to the floor. I was so scared I pulled off his jeans. I plunged the EpiPen into his flesh - but he didn't react.

"His eyes were fluttering shut and it seemed like I was losing him."

Paramedics spent 10 minutes at the family home in Evesham, Worcs, trying to revive stricken Ashley with a host of drugs.

Michelle said: "One of them just turned to me and said: 'We can't seem to keep his blood pressure up'.

"All I could do was tap his face frantically. I was telling him to breathe, and begging him not to die.

"As we raced through the night in the ambulance, all I had to cling to was my prayers. Then as we pulled into the hospital, Ashley's eyelids began to flicker open.

"He had started to come round and I just broke down in relieved sobs. He clutched my hand and said: 'It'll take more than a hamster to finish me off'. Then he smiled."

It took doctors four days to stabilise Ashley's blood pressure, but he survived his bizarre brush with death.

Paramedic Stuart Philp said: "It was a highly unusual situation, We got the initial call to an allergic reaction but we didn't realise it was from a hamster until we got there.

"Calls to allergic reactions are fairly common but it's usually wasp or bee stings or sometimes people are allergic to medication. It's just a case of a particular hamster and a particular man ? it's very unlucky."

Tests later showed that Ashley was allergic to proteins in hamster saliva.

Now Sydney, who was bought as a gift for their daughters Annie and Sarah, has been sent packing to a relative's to live.

Wife Michelle said: "Doctors said they can't tell what he might become allergic to next but we have identified one irritant that had to go.

"We sent Sydney to live with Ashley's brother."

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2013 Mazda MX-5 Miata

There are several rumors flying around for these couple of years about the condition of Mazda MX-5 Miata. There are rumors that the new 2013 Mazda MX-5 Miata will be produced and returned to the basic styling of its 1989 model, so the new 2013 model will be fuel efficient (more efficient than the previous one), lighter, and also cleaner.

But now there’s realistic and official news from the company about the new 2013 Mazda Mx-5 Miata. Based on the realistic source – and also the drawing from the manufacturers’ artists itself – the rumors about the new ride seems to be confirmed. With the roadster style, the company is working very hard on the aesthetic part.

On the outer side of the car, there will be oval front grille that goes along the line of the side car. It’s based on the smiling face grille – which is kind of cute styling. The headlights will be available in teardrop shape with slanting model. Based on the sketch, the 2013 Mazda MX-5 Miatadefinitely goes back to its 1989 root. However, there’s a slight change on the machine area with the engine of Skyactive-G with 1.5 liter capacity, producing about 125 hp, along with 50 mpg system and also manual six speed transmissions. However, for American market, the engine will be available with 2.0 liter machine producing 145 hp.

The 2013 Mazda MX-5 Miata release date will be available around 2013 fall, with debut around March 2013 at Geneva Auto Show.

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Microsoft Kinect Hacked to play World of Warcraft

Living Rooms all around the world are shaking with fear of users actually taking swords and attacking their big screens thanks to a new hack for the MicrosoftKinect that allows gamers to play World of Warcraft without a keyboard.

It’s no secret that the Kinect is rapidly becoming the most hacked device since the Hackintosh, but students at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies have takent he next step in developing a software hack which enables gamers to use the motion device to immerse themselves even deeper into the online Mid-evil world.

The hack is called the “Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit, (FAAST) and it uses full-body motion control. Gamer can not only wield a sword or axe to take out a feisty orc, but they can also cast spells, making it nirvana for those who secretly love to dress up to play their favorite game. And it’s only a matter of time before someone figures out a way to use their light saber collection to battle someone online.

But with everyone creating bold new uses for the Kinect and porting it over to the PC, the sky is truly the limit for what can be done with this game changing device. And it makes the world of Minority Report that much closer, but in a bold and exciting way. Imagine editing video’s just with a snip of your fingers and a wave of your hand? Designing in CAD programs Tony Stark style. And getting rid of the keyboard forever?

It’s not just for games anymore and that’s a cool thing.

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Vending machines spit out 3D glasses now

Aren’t you glad that 3D glasses are something that you wear across the front of your face, and not as personal as a pair of earbuds? Good thing this makes it easier to use 3D glasses in movie theaters, never mind that a gazillion other people have also worn the same pair of glasses before you did. Well, the next time you want to catch the next big 3D flick, how about bringing your very own pair of glasses along so that there is no more need to share with anyone else?

Marchon3D is the brains behind this idea, where they have teamed up with Cinemark and UltraStar Cinemas in San Diego and Huntington Beach to deliver the first in-theater, self-service vending machines of its kind. Needless to say, these vending machines won’t deliver popcorn for you – but rather, it will spit out Marchon3D’s line of patented, curved RealD 3D compatible glasses known as EX3D Eyewear.

EX3D is a recently launched brand of Marchon3D, where they intend to make 3D glasses fashionable instead of dorky looking. Well, I guess this is fine and dandy for those who have perfect vision or are wearing contacts, what about the group of people who wear glasses that have bulkier than normal frames? Will Marchon3D be able to provide a decent and yet stylish pair to wear over the glasses?

Movie fans will be spoilt for choice as they can pick from fashion, sport, casual and kids styles in a variety of trendy colors and fashionable shapes. Apart from that, my question above has been answered – EX3D will also deliver smart solutions for prescription glasses wearers such as clip-on lenses. It really depends on the kind of style that you want, as each pair will retail anywhere from $22 to $30, although there is this bunch of limited edition models that can cost you around $70.

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