Category: Technology

Near Me – ????????????

Near Me

Sure, it looks like a possessed doll, but if you can’t have a real pet cat a robotic one might work for you. These should be out some time in August for about $350US (apx.). If this is like the Sony Aibo, it will take a data card but you don’t want to think of where it goes, if you know what I mean…
It walks, makes cat noises, looks like it will play with you, and will sit on a chair and blankly stare out a window for hours and hours just like a real cat does. If you ask me, a robot cat is a much better gadget than a robot dog. You expect a dog to be bounding all over the place at the drop of a hat. Getting a robot to do that is tough, you need to plug it into the wall or it will have a 10 min. run time. A cat on the other hand is in a perpetual natural power saving mode. Brilliant!

Near Me Robotic Cat
Video of the cat in action
(robot,cat,Sega,Japan)

Space Elevator

Space Elevator

I hope that one of these gets built before I die. Anything that will get mass out of the gravity well is a good thing. Something like this could make space travel a reality for just about anybody.

The Space Elevator Reference brought to you by SpaceRef
Space.com – The Space Elevator Comes Closer to Reality
Wired – To the moon in a space elevator?
NASA – Audacious & Outrageous: Space Elevators

(space elevator,science)

Owning a Hybird Car is Like Stealing from the State!

Gas Pump
You know, it looks good on paper but will it work?
California is faced with a dilemma, it has been pressing fuel efficient cars in order to reduce the pollution and to use less gasoline. That is fine, a car thats gets 60 MPG is better than one that gets only 20 MPG, but that means the citizen is buying less fuel and therefor the state is not getting as much tax revenue as they would like. D’oh! So, as officials are pretty keen on squeezing all the tax money out of its people as they can, the idea of a ‘tax by the mile’ system have come up. That would mean that when you did have to fuel your car a GPS unit built in to your vehicle would transmit information on how many miles you have driven and the times you drove them and charge you accordingly.
So if you think your going to save money by getting one of those gasoline/electric hybrids and you live in California think again.
I wonder how they will charge people that have all electric cars. Same system but the reader is in your house? Sometimes I wonder if it would just be better to fork over 90% of our paychecks and just let the state house and feed all of us. I hear soylent yellow is quite good if you serve it warm.
States Mull Taxing Drivers By Mile

(taxes,green,California)