alexsah.com » Gadget

Super Mario Bros. Played on Musical Tesla Coil

alexsah — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 12:32:37 +0000

Quite honestly one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. I did not know that this actually worked, and by ‘this’ I mean that Tesla coils can produce sound. The sounds you are hearing is actually being produced by the electrical sparks themselves, and apparently it is incredibly loud, (over 110 dB’s). Enjoy! (I have also included the notes from the video, as I thought they were quite interesting.

[youtube B1O2jcfOylU]

Twin Solid State Musical Tesla coils playing Mario Bros theme song at the 2007 Lightning on the Lawn Teslathon sponsored by DC Cox (Resonance Research Corp) in Baraboo WI.
The music that you hear is coming from the sparks that these two identical high power solid state Tesla coils are generating. There are no speakers involved. The Tesla coils stand 7 feet tall and are each capable of putting out over 12 foot of spark. They are spaced about 18 feet apart. The coils are controlled over a fiber optic link by a single laptop computer. Each coil is assigned to a midi channel which it responds to by playing notes that are programed into the computer software. These coils were constructed by Steve Ward and Jeff Larson. Video was captured by Terry Blake. What is not obvious is how loud the coils are. They are well over 110dB If you look at another You Tube video which is from a different angle, you can hear the echo off the building and get a better idea of how loud it is.

Keyboard layout getting out of hand: Welcome the Ergodex!

alexsah — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 01:00:54 +0000

I have been gaming for roughly 15 years now, and I also use a lot of other software rather regularly. Now one thing that always seemed to be an issue was my keyboard. Particularly when you ended up playing a game with anything more than fifteen regularly used keys, or a program such as Photoshop with an incredibly large amount of keyboard based shortcuts.

One other thing that I always had to have was macros. Now for those of you that aren’t 100% on what a macro is, it’s a pre-recorded set of keystrokes that can be played back via a trigger. Now most modern above standard keyboards will support four macros, however there is now another solution for all these problems of the past.

The Ergodex DX1 allows for a user to have a fully customisable layout. That means you only put on the keys that you need.

Now as you can see you have a base, with a number of keys that you can place and move as you wish. Just in case you were wondering, there is also a pack of labels that comes with the Ergodex that allows you to label each of your keys as you wish. It also comes with blank labels for you to write your own. Now OK, we have buttons that we can move around and put where we like, so what. Well this is where the cool features come in. The beauty of it is it allows you to assign keys on the fly, using the button in the top right hand corner, so you can just place your keys on, and away you go. Macros are equally as easily created just by using another shortcut key. So this means you can navigate through menus, enter commands, activate shortcuts, or even start up a program just by pressing one key. Now due to my remote location here in Australia, which deprives us of all the latest gizmos and gadgets, I went and bought mine through Edmund Scientific. (Link to the item is here.)

Now all of you are asking, what does this mean for me? What can all this allow me to do? Well, in the end it means you can have funky layouts that do EXACTLY as much as you want them to do, however you feel comfortable. Below is an example of one possible configuration.

So as you can see, it can be whatever you want, with as many or as little keys as you would like! I have wondered where I was before this, it’s made gaming so much easier, but also as I said, it can make Photoshop a dream, particularly with it’s macro recording.

Links:
www.scientificsonline.com

New 40GB PS3 released in North American

alexsah — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:03:06 +0000

Sony has release a new PS3 for North America, at a discounted price. Their statement is as follows.

FOSTER CITY, Calif., October 18, 2007 – Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. (SCEA) today announced plans to introduce a new 40GB model of its PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) computer entertainment system. Beginning November 2nd, to further enhance the HD entertainment experience, the new 40GB PS3 model will come bundled with the blockbuster movie Spider-Man™ 3 Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and will be available in North America for a suggested retail price of $399 (USD/CND). The company also announced that effective immediately, the current 80GB PS3 model will be available in North America for $499 (USD/CND), $100 below the original launch price.

So they’ve release another PS3 with the current one at a discounted price, beginning to fall to affordable levels now. A full list of all the specifications of the new model can be seen on the Press Release from Sony’s website.

New Nokia N-Series, targets everyone, not just geeks.

alexsah — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:18:43 +0000

Nokia has announced they are releasing the next phone in the n-series, the N810 Internet Tablet.

“The Nokia N810 packs the power of a traditional computer into a pocket-sized format. Its open standard technology accelerates the convergence of multiple functionalities and services into a single device”, said Ari Virtanen, Vice President, Convergence Products, Multimedia, Nokia. “Our new Nokia N810 offers users a true Web 2.0 experience in a compact, stylish, yet affordable package – it connects people to what matters to them.”

The phone comes with a linux based OS, has wifi, bluetooth, flash, “enhanced audio and video support”, and ajax support, which to most people means nothing, but it means you can run sites like facebook and myspace without too many hassles. So it will be good for everyone who is hooked into the “web 2.0″ world we are currently living in.

Images from nokia.com below, (click on each one for higher resolution images):

Read the press release for more information.

Wearable Computers: Where are we now?

alexsah — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:11:10 +0000

I found this article through google before and was dying to get the video, (below). The state of wearable computers is actually getting far better than I had ever imagined, from the glove ipod remote, to the actual worn computer at the end of the video, it really does instil my faith in progression of technology to a practical state. Most people would think it’s ridiculous to have wearable computers. I for one, was one of these cynics, however I have seen the practicality for a wearable computer purely by this video alone. Most would say it would be pointless to have an ipod remote glove, after all, how hard is it to use an ipod? Well if it was all in your hand, it would be far safer to change tracks while driving than it would to find the ipod, hold it in your hand, and change the song, (in fact here it would most likely be illegal, as it could pass for a mobile phone and we aren’t allowed to touch a mobile phone while the car is in motion.)

The actual wearable computer, shows it’s practicality as the man explains how he had great difficulty typing, (yes this computer actually allows you to type), due to dyslexia, he would be very tense, and so he found that writing while walking didn’t allow him to become tense. Do watch the video, it is incredibly interesting.

[youtube 9DNXLAogM7Q]

Ipod Touch Ad

alexsah — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:34:34 +0000

Below is the Ipod Touch Ad. Shows you the basics of it, looks quite good.

[youtube wa9ELtwG5L8]

New Ipod Nano has been released

alexsah — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:14:54 +0000

A new Ipod Nano has been released, looks quite cool. I’ve got the ad below:

[youtube 8qP79rRzzh4]

Update:
Also found a site with some pics of the ipod in action, check it out!

Samsung Giorgio Armani Phone

alexsah — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:49:53 +0000

Samsung and Giogio Armani have teamed up to put together a new phone.

As you can see they seem to have pulled if off quite well. I also found a video on youtube, check it out below.

[youtube atuh4YN8eg4]

OpenMoko Open Source Phone

alexsah — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 02:21:01 +0000

It’s now available to buy, the OpenMoko open source phone. Now you have a few questions, one may be, what is an open source phone? It’s a phone who’s entire software base is free. Nothing special right? Wrong, it means that ANY applcations you get for it are free, and for those of you who understand programming, you are able to hack and mod your software, however you want. There is also a developer pack that comes with screwdrivers and a debugboard and comes in a “Ruggedised Toolbox”. Ok so far nothing for the general user? How about a fully functional PDA phone, with the following features:

2.8″ VGA TFT color display
Touchscreen, usable with stylus or fingers
266MHz Samsung System on a Chip (SOC)
USB 1.1, switchable between Client and Host (unpowered)
Integrated AGPS
2.5G GSM – quad band, voice, CSD, GPRS
Bluetooth 2.0
Micro SD slot
High Quality audio codec

It’s priced at US$300 for the base model, and US$450 for the advanced one. No contracts, no other rubbish usable in nearly any country in the world, on any carrier. Now to me that sounds like a pretty sweet deal.

It also comes with GPS inbuilt.

Now it is actually better than it sounds because it isn’t 100% functional yet, and there still is some problems, thus why it is still in it’s developer stage. So I’m not saying you should go buy it now, but do keep an eye out for it.

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