Milk’s Site

I thought I better clear out my PagesToLookAt backlog so here’s a selection of ten nifty tech links.

10 – Personal Video Players

Here’s a handy table listing loads of these doohickies and their features.

9 – Orac3 Case-mod

Orac3 is one sweet case-mod. Check out the close-ups on the later pages; they’re more like shots of some space age movie prop than of a computer.

8 – Fast Broadband in Japan

Yahoo!’s Japanese ADSL service provides 50Mbit/s downstream and 3Mbit/s upstream for just over ?20 ($38) per month. Or alternatively, if you live in a metropolitan area, you could go for a 100MBit/s fibre connection for just over ?20 per month. Nice.

7 – Transparent Concrete

I posted about this ages ago, but the stuff’s nifty so here’s a newer article about it.

6 – PS2s in TVs

Sony will be putting PlayStation 2 boards inside some of their flat-screen TV range later on this year. Kind of related to this is the new Apple iMac G5. I say kind of…

5 – Sharp’s Colour eBook

This prototype colour eBook from Sharp looks pretty nifty. Still can’t roll it though.. yet.

4 – Moving VR floor

This piece of technology promises to solve one of the major stumbling blocks of Virtual Reality – being able walking around. The user stands upon special tiles which move around in a certain way to keep them on the same spot, whichever direction they decide to head off in. This is the same principal as how a holodeck in Star Trek moves people around, but it uses force fields. Well, kind of the same.

3 – Video to animation

This article talks about software project by a few Microsoft engineers to convert digital video into an animated cartoon. If you’ve got broadband, I’d highly recommend watching the related video.

2 – Ultra-High Definition Video

What video format has has 22.2 channels of audio (10 speakers at ear level, 9 above and 3 below, 2 subs), runs at 60fps with a resolution of 7,680px by 4,320px, takes up 24 gigabits of space per second and is best viewed on a 450-inch screen? Why, UHDV of course!

1 – Bluetooth Wireless Headphones

The title says it all really. No more headphone cabling, ever. I know I normally hate Bluetooth but this is a one off (the headphones can be used with Bluetooth mobile phones though). Sweet.

Links: Hardware Pacers, Gizmodo, iPodLounge.

This is quick post to recap the fortnight between my being in Devon and going to Infest (which I’ll post about soon. I promise).

The journey back from Devon wasn’t as bad as the journey down – only 15 hours rather than 18, although I had to keep snorting some stuff for my congested nose every few hours. Bristol looked really nice when we went through it, must have a proper visit someday. After a relatively short stop in Glasgow (only an hour and a half, whee) I boarded another coach for the last leg of my trip. I always love the Glasgow to Dundee part of return National Express journeys between Scotland and England as the driver always floors it through the streetlamp lit darkness on the dual carriageway that winds out of Glasgow and heads towards Stirling then home. Past Findo Gask and Inchyra of course.

Went out to Sin the next Friday – it was one of the best I’ve been to in a long time, probably because they played so many of my requests and I ended up dancing for more than half the night. The venue (formerly a strip club) seems to improve every month – they’ve recently installed a stonking new sound system, doubled the size of the dancefloor, and have installed a large plasma screen on one of the walls (although it was so new, DJ’s Matt and Barry hadn’t thought up a use for it that Sin). Afterwards, , and became the first guests to visit my new flat. Oh yeah, I’d just moved into a new flat that afternoon between work and Sin.

My new flat is very nice. It has a lounge, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and hallway – all to myself for ?200 a month! I think you’ll agree, Dundee housing prices are pretty fucking good. It’s on the second floor, the ceilings are very high, and the lounge is painted a nice violet colour. Everything was moved in with time to spare thanks to my parents helping me with their car. My new flat is closer to the town centre – well, it’s about 250m along the road from my old flat ;) . Saturday was spent arranging furniture and shoving unpacked boxes into the back of the hooooooge wardrobe in the bedroom (a hoooooge wardrobe is an essential for my well-being, natch). I went with my parents to Dens Road Market (think charity shop meets massive warehouse) to get a fridge and picked up a black real leather sofa (slightly damaged) for ?35. I’ll get some pics of it up soon. I’ll also need to have a flatwarming soon – expect a post on that in the next few days.