
As much as I hate ‘knotty pine’ this is a very cool idea.
Eclectic junk from the four corners of the ‘Net. And pictures too!

Now this is one cool camera.
The TORTUGA 5 is the first panoramic pinhole camera (with 5 pinholes) in the world to be produced in small series. After years of development the prototype was ready for serial production which started in summer of 2004.

[via PictureMonkey]
Tortuga 5

I made one of these over the weekend and I must admit that for such a simple idea it is very handy. Now I can keep track of all the things I buy and I have a ’05-’06 calendar all in a small package. Perfect to fit in my ID card holder.
This site lets you print a piece of paper, but not just an ordinary piece of paper – it can be your free disposable personal organizer. Even if I might never use this site, I liked the idea and all effort someone has made to create this neat little flash application.
[ via Fosfor Gadgets]
PocketMod

The latest in a series of humanoid looking robot kits to come out of Japan is here. The Robofie is displays a surprising degree of freedom as opposed to other anthropomorphic robots, face it – every new kit is going to be better than the last. It can also make farting noises, remember this is Japan after all. The kit sells for about $1,800US but looks hot. It’s a bit smaller (30cm and 1kg) than a Robosapian but it’s not even a bet as to who would win in hand to hand combat.

This thing looks like it is built like a brick! he massive LCD on the top makes this even cooler.
Dana is a successful successor of Barbora. Thus you can find the same BLDC motors (each with 600W), motherboard with AMD K6 500MHz, 128MB RAM and 128MB CompactFlash, video input, 100Mb Ethernet and of course Linux. The navigation is based on odometry and infra sensors CN70 detecting the color of the floor under the robot. Camera is used to search for the pucks. The last sensor is a bumper to provide something as a “last hope” of catching that the more advanced sensors and algos missed.

A steady camera will allways help a photo look better, no matter what. You can only hold a camera so steady all by yourself, exposures under 1/30 of a second might start to look a little too artistic if your know what I mean. The ‘Pod’ is a clever design, a beanbag with a screwmount on it. Not too bad, I might pick one up and stick it in my camera bag for times when I don’t want to use my UltraPod.
BTW, if you want some advice on how to shoot better video (stills too) head on over to Ninja Team Video and watch an eposode.