Author: John

Toshiba Develope Fuel Cell for Small Electronics

Toshiba Fuel Cell Player

You can’t tell me that once these come on the market some modding geek with a bit too much pocket money won’t go out and buy one of these and hack it apart just to use the power supply on another device? Sounds like a perfect way to power an iPod Shuffle or whatever is going to be around in 2007, that’s when they are expected to hit the market.

he company developed fuel cell units with 100mW and 300mW output, intended to be used with portable audio players that have internal flash memory or internal hard drives. The company announced fuel cells for portable audio products back in 2004, and at that time stated that they intended for implementation of the technology some time during 2005.

The 100mW unit measures 75 x 23 x 10mm (H x W x T) and is about the size of a few sticks of gum. 3.5ml of pure methanol (99.5% pure) is injected into its tank, and it can provide life for roughly 35 hours. The 300mW unit measures 75 x 60 x 10mm (same) and provides around 60 hours of playback time from 10ml of fuel.

These fuel cells that were developed are a passive type that is suited for smaller products. Unlike conventional fuel cells that require the methanol to be diluted to under 30% concentration, these units can use methanol with no need to dilute it. The company is looking for basic adoption of the technology during or after 2007, and is accelerating development o­n all fronts, including manufacturing technology

Toshiba developers fuel cell hard drive/flash players

Luxe Asian City Guide Books

This is the fist I have herd of these travel guides, sounds like i should be picking up the ones for Bangkok and Hong Kong! Not that I’d be able to afford most of the things listed in their guide books but it is nice to know that they are there.
Concise and hip, the Luxe guide books are updated twice a year and are very affordable (about $9US). Each is packed with information on the best things you can find in each city plus ‘secret’ things that only the contributions (the live in the cities they write about) know about.
The guide books cover most major cities in the Pacific rim area:

Bali
Bangkok
Beijing
Hanoi
Ho Chi Minh City
Hong Kong
Shanghai
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Melbourne
Sydney
Tokyo

So if your going to be visiting any of these places you might want to pick up a Luxe book and see what you might be missing.

Luxe City Guides

‘Otaku idol’ dazzles Tokyo Game Show

Shoko Nakagwa

And why don’t these things happen here in the US I ask…

Shoko Nakagawa, a former pin-up queen for Miss Magazine, dazzled the Tokyo Game Show by appearing on stage dressed in a costume from a popular martial arts game.

Nakagawa, clad as a character from the “King of Fighters,” wowed the audience during a talk show and photo session that followed it on the final day of the country’s biggest game event.

“I like games more than eating,” Nakagawa said. “Sometimes, I’ll even dress up and head off to the convenience store.”

Anyway, loads of cosplay photos to be had here, go have a look.

Cosplay
‘Otaku idol’ dazzles Tokyo Game Show

Screen Wars

Screen Wars

For a long time I’ve been aware that there was a movie making community here in Phoenix but they didn’t make their presence shown very often. Last year I took part in a 48 hour film contest that overwhelmed the people running it by having no less than 50 teams competing in it (I think they had expected about ten). There were so many people that the theater they had rented for the showing of the films couldn’t hold everyone, I and about a hundred more never even got in to see what we had worked on! So it was pretty obvious that the film community here was ready for action and willing to work. Fast forward to about a month ago. I was walking out of a local Staples and I happened to notice what looked like a nightclub promotional postcard on the ground next to my car. Normally I wouldn’t give it a second glance but this one caught my eye. It had the words ‘SCREEN WARS’ on it in big white letters. ‘Screen Wars’? What the heck is that? I picked it up and read the copy, “Screen Wars features short films from across Arizona in comedy, action, western, drama, and horror/scifi. Watch and vote: You decide the winners!” and the cable and over the air channels and a time. No way! I local on going movie contest that gets airplay?
So I went to the web page and took a look around. It’s sponsored by the Phoenix Film Project and a local independent TV station. Here’s a bit from the web site:

Screen Wars is a weekly thirty minute television show produced by the non-profit Phoenix Film Project, under the Phoenix Film Foundation. The show is directed and produced by members of the Board of Directors. The crew is all volunteer and we have have students from UAT, SCC, ASU and Collins College work on the show, as well as other film enthusiasts from across the valley. If you’d like to work on the show, please contact Amanda@PhoenixFilmProject.com.
Season One featured five weeks of Comedic films, five weeks of Action films, five weeks of Western films, five weeks of Dramatic films and five weeks of Horror/Sci-Fi films.

Looks pretty solid, I’m going to be setting my DVR to record this, maybe I’ll even get a chance to vote on a few.

Screen Wars