(Published in the June 1999 issue)More: The Maverick Flying CarThe first time I tried hang gliding I crashed on takeoff. I had signed up for hang gliding 101 and my instructor told me to heft the wing over my head and run as fast as I could across a field. Seemed simple enough, and back in those days I was able to gallop along at a pretty good clip. Trouble was, I had a trick left shoulder, and it decided to pop out just as my stride hit high gear....
Roadwork can be a total nightmare, but if you catch the right job at the right time, you can see some really righteous machinery at work. Chris Boden of The Geek Group had just that sort of luck when he spotted a gnarly hole-driller just across the street from the group’s lab and makerspace. The street this bad boy is drilling on had recently been repaved, but the coat of asphalt left the manholes sort of uneven with the surface of the street....
Media Platforms Design TeamJust a few days ago, Toyota added to an already swollen recent recall list with another monstrous 2.3-million vehicle callback. Now the company will stop producing affected vehicles as it searches for a remedy.The issue lies in the throttle linkage. In some cars, the linkage may get sticky and potentially keep the throttle open after the driver has released the gas pedal. Apparently, Toyota has not yet found a quick, effective fix and has immediately stopped sales of the affected models....
The finals of the DARPA Robotics Challenge featured its fair share of hilarious robot faceplants, but there was plenty of success, too. South Korea’s Team KAIST walked away with the $2 million prize after earning eight out of eight points with a time of just under 45 minutes.KAIST’s robotic champion was the transforming DRC-Hubo, which avoided the dangers of falling by scooting around in a clever sort of kneeling posture using wheels on its knees....
Media Platforms Design TeamOver the weekend, Paul Thurrott, a well-known and connected blogger on all things Windows, leaked that Microsoft is gearing up for a major OS shift. According to Thurrott, the new OS announcement will come at the BUILD developers conference in April 2014 in San Francisco. A year later Microsoft will issue this major release, which is currently known as codename “Threshold” but most likely will be called Windows 9....
Because the Voyager spacecraft are still zooming out of the solar system and reporting their positions back to NASA, it’s probably safe to assume that aliens have not intercepted the twin probes, deciphered the instructions on how to play an LP, and listened to the sounds of Earth contained within. But you can: NASA just uploaded the contents of the Golden Records to Soundcloud, where they can become your playlist for the afternoon....
Media Platforms Design TeamOn Sale: Spring 2011Price: $20,900 to $24,540 (depending on options packages)Competitors: Honda ST1300, Kawasaki Concours 14, Yamaha FJR 1300Powertrain: 1.6-liter I6; 160 hp, 129 lb-ft; six-speed manualEPA Fuel Economy: 52 mpg (estimated)What’s New: Everything. The K 1600 GT is a completely fresh, clean sheet machine from the tires up. A four-year technological incubation in Munich’s clean rooms has produced a motorcycle that possesses the comfort and ridability we’ve long admired in touring BMWs, blended with the company’s rapidly evolving penchant for high performance (i....
Media Platforms Design TeamAboard Lufthansa Flight 8942, March 21—It took a mere 16 seconds for the largest airplane in the world to lift off runway 4L at JFK International Airport. The short takeoff, which we could watch on our individual TV screens thanks to cameras positioned on the plane’s exterior, confirmed that the world’s largest jetliner could use less runway than many smaller jets. It also was testimony to the force of the aircraft’s four Rolls Royce engines—which each provide about 70,000 lbs....
In a breakthrough that likely provides scientists with their best opportunity ever to investigate extraterrestrial life, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has apparently spotted water ice on Mars. If the robotic spacecraft can now reach out and grab the vaporized frozen water it first photographed five days ago, it will be “mission accomplished” for arguably the space agency’s most important interplanetary research venture in a decade.“These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it’s ice,” said Peter Smith, principal investigator for the Phoenix mission, which earlier this week had sparked a hot debate among researchers as to whether it had found ice–or scooped up disappearing chunks of a “sublimated” material that might have just been salt....
Media Platforms Design TeamThe movie theater has always been a place to escape reality, whether it’s by breaking the laws of space, time or physics. In order to create the alternate reality that a director envisions, a film crew must often think outside the box. During the heyday of the western in 1946, long before the development of green screens and other next-gen F/X tools, Popular Mechanics examined the safety methods and devices ensuring that stuntmen’s risk of life and limb would go no further than absolutely necessary....
Media Platforms Design TeamHow to make a dent, so to speak, in the traditionally linear realm of 1/2, 3/4, and full-face motorcycle helmets?Bell recently launched an aptly named hybrid helmet that combines a three-quarter style design with a curious “Muzzle” attachment made of neopryne which secures via a magnetic closure. The Scotts Valley, California-based lid manufacturer says the Rogue helmet is aimed squarely at the cruiser demographic, and that the muzzle, though it lacks crash protection, double as a sort of bandana for shielding from the elements....
View full post on YoutubeOver time your drill bits, router bits, and saw blades, will accumulate dirt and baked on deposits. Dirty cutters lose their effectiveness and cause bits to heat up more, which diminishes their lifespan. Instead of cleaning your bits and blades with toxic chemicals that require gloves and proper ventilation, use your liquid laundry detergent for surprising results.Mix a 1:1 solution of laundry detergent and water in a bowl, and allow your drill bits to soak for about 10 minutes....
It’s easy to instantly share a link with a friend, but with a whole room? That’s a nightmare. Now Google has figured out a solution, using a new Chrome extension called Tone that transmits URLs from one computer to several others within hearing range.Tone emits an audible sound that other computers can understand. It tells them to open up a webpage, making sharing seamless. It only works if others are using Chrome, have the extension installed, and have the computer’s mic on, which might a be a privacy concern for some....
Media Platforms Design TeamDaniel H. Wilson’s first book, How to Survive a Robot Uprising, poked holes in our Hollywood-supplied anxiety over automaton-on-man violence, while quietly educating us on real-life robotics. Now the renowned author—and PM’s resident roboticist—is taking on the jetpack-commuting, Smell-O-Vision-scented future that never happened. His new book, Where’s My Jetpack? ($14.95, Bloomsbury, due out this week), is funny—but it also turns out to be a tribute to the far-fetched ideas that often drive progress....
If you look at your private pictures in Google’s new Photos service and right-click on one of them, you’ll get a plain old URL. If you send that URL to someone else, they’ll be able to see the picture too. Anyone can—that URL is totally public. But even if that seems wildly insecure, it’s actually totally safe.This seemingly weird and insecure part of Google Photos service was dug up by a Redditor who immediately experimented with a ton of ways to look at the link: Incognito tabs, VPNs, separate devices....
Media Platforms Design TeamAccording to security software company Symantec, 2009 was a banner year for malicious software, or malware, with up to 100 attacks per second from 240 new programs found in the wild. This is a 100 percent increase over 2008’s numbers. And the character of these attacks has evolved: The semi-intelligent viruses, worms and other digital creepy crawlies that hitch rides on e-mails, fool you into executing them, then self-replicate on your computer are already on the decline as the hackers’ tools of choice....
Media Platforms Design TeamTheH-Prize might not be as much fun to win as the Ansari X Prize that mobilized the first privately funded race to space, but then again, the morning commute is not nearly as exhilirating as blasting off into space. But it’s no less important. In a move to kickstart the race towards alternative energy, the House just passed The H-Prize Act of 2006, authorizing the Secretary of Energy to establish millions of dollars in prizes for private companies making headway in the struggle to overcome the barriers associated with hydrogen energy....
QMy Samsung DLP TV is supposed to be 3D-capable, but I can’t find any DVDs that are in 3D. Is there any 3D content out there, and how can I get it?AMost of Samsung’s latest DLPHDTVs (and a few of the company’s plasmas) are “3D-capable”–albeit with the use of special 3D goggles. But the selection of movie content is a bit slim for now. That’s because movies that were originally filmed in 2D need to undergo time-consuming, frame-by-frame conversion to look their best in 3D....
Media Platforms Design TeamThe Mitsubishi Mirage is not regarded as a great car. Compared to its subcompact competitors, the Mirage is slow and lacking in interior comfort. But there are two things that make the tiny, Thai-built Mitsu stand out: a low base price of $13,790 and an EPA rating of 37 city/44 highway for the CVT model. The latter figure is the currently on sale.best nondiesel, nonhybrid numberIf you’ve got, flaunt it, as the saying goes....
She’s been an astronaut, a doctor, and a paratrooper. And while she may never be something as far-out as a toy with proportions befitting an actual, real adult female, she at least has a new and empowering job to put on her resume: pocket knife. Mikeasaurus, an Instructables user with designs for shaving with an ax, a car key screwdriver, and drinking liquor out of a baby doll has a new Instructable for turning Barbie into a utility knife for emergency preparedness....
