Wednesday, April 29, 2009
USB Flash Drive Watch
Hide a flash driveSince you are probably the clever type, we suspect you could easily find many places to hide a small USB flash drive. Some of these hiding spots may be perfectly legit, but others might just be too clever for your own good. So, to protect you from yourself we'd like to introduce a watch with the ideal hiding spot already built-in. This watch features an ample 8GB capacity USB flash drive that slips neatly into the watch case. Simply remove, add data and then re-insert and you're ready to conduct secret missions to building B on the other side of campus.
This watch has a plastic case covered by stainless steel mask with brushed silver finish and convex mineral glass with shiny raised index. The USB flash drive fits flush with the watch case - ready to hold your data safe and secure. You may even forget it's there until you're ready to use it.
This is cellphone.
The transparent laptop
Transparent desktop screens mean the desktop of your laptop screen gives an impression of being transparent such that you can see all objects behind it. No, your screen does not become transparent. It is a smart visual trick which requires some smart photography, image cropping and perfect laptop placement.
Just take a photo of the background you want on the laptop screen. Using any image editing software like Photoshop, Irfanview, or your computers Windows Paint software, crop it to the correct size to match with the background. Make a 800×600 image if your screen resolution is 800×600. Do not stretch any part of the image. Obviously, you have taken the image with a high resolution camera, which is much larger than the screen area, such that you can simply crop it.
Select the image as the background image and fit it to the screen. Since you have cropped to size of the laptop screen, you will not have any abberations of edges. Now is the need to perfectly place your laptop in the correct position and angle such that the image seems to be perfectly match with the background and your screen appears to be transparent.
An amazing gallery of such transparent screens mentioned on the Flicker blog is found on the Flickr Transparent Screens compiled by w00kie. The image of this post is also derived from that gallery.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Just like a toy
The Californian motorspecialist Arlen Ness, the best Harley-Davidson tuner, had only one dream: to built worlds biggest dragster. After five years this dream came true.
Ness invested about $100,000 of his own money in his dream project. As starting point he took the 1200 cc engine of a Harley-Davidson. He took the huge pistons from an 8 cylinder Chevrolet, and he gave each cylinder a supercharger and two double carburetteurs. For the back wheel, he chose a huge Pirelli car tyre of 265/60 x 16".
Because a dragster has to accelerate fast, Ness used a technique which was used in World War II in aeroplanes. It was an injection of nitro oxygen which increased the power by 40%.
Specifications: 2-cylinder V-engine, air-cooled, 2089 cc, o.h.v. engine, 2 superchargers, 4 twin choke Dell'Orto carburretteurs and Nitro injection, double secondary transmission, aluminium frame, upside-down frontfork, solid back end, twin front disc brakes, twin back disc brakes, backtyre 265/60 x 16", 5 years of building time, abnormal performance.
country of origin: Italy
The engineers of Moto Guzzi have been some of the most creative in the motorcycle industry. The 500 cc V8 Grand Prix, designed by Giulio Carnaco, is evidence of this.
This V8 engine is unique in the history of the motorcycle, because it poses technical problems which no other manufacturer ever solved. There were alternatives, but they weren't the same as the 500 cc V8 of Moto Guzzi. Examples include the Galbusera V8 from 1938, but that was a two stroke engine. In 1979 Honda made the NR 500, but this was like a V4 with double pistons.
Specifications: 8 cylinder 4 stroke V engine, liquid cooled, 2 DOHC's, 499 cc (44 x 41 mm), 78 HP at 12000 rpm, 8 Dell'Orto 20 mm carburretteurs, choice of 4, 5 or 6 gears, drum brakes, front tyre 2.75" x 19", back tyre 3.00" x 20", mass 150 kg, maximum speed 275 km/h.
The Harley Davidson is the only manufacturer from all of American motorcycle history which still exists. But in the past there were many more motorcycles types, like the Indian 441.
The model in the picture is one of the most beautiful American four cylinder motorbikes. The enormous mudguards are very typical for the American style in these years. After 1942 this model wasn't produced anymore, so this is the last American four cylinder motorcycle.
Specifications: 4 cylinder, 4 stroke, air-cooled, 1265 cc (69.9 x 82.6 mm), 40 HP, single Schebler carburretteurs, 3 manual gears, Indian 4.50 x 18" or 5.00 x 16" tyres, mass 258 kg, maximum speed about 160 km/h.
What a bikes
From the middle of the 19th century, people were thinking about motorising bicycles. The first attempts are from 1864, when the French Michaux and Perreaux mounted a steam engine on their bikes. S.H. Roper did almost the same in the United States, but used a petrol internal combustion engine instead of steam.
In fact it is coincidence that the first actual motor vehicle was one with two wheels. The German Gottlieb Daimler in 1885 built a one cylinder motorcycle with a mechanical exhaust valve and an automatic input valve. First he tried the machine in a boat and a carriage, and later he mounted it in a massive wooden chassis on two wheels. In that way Daimlers "Reitwagen mit Petroleum Motor" was born.
When his 2 cylinder engine was working properly, Daimler started to work with four wheels. He did this with Carl Benz, and this was the beginning of one of the most famous car manufacturers, Daimler-Benz. Later this became Mercedes-Benz.
Specifications: Single cylinder 4-stroke with forced air cooling, 264 cc, 0,5 HP at 700 rpm, mechanical exhaust valve and automatic input valve, vaporization carburetteurs, glowtube ignition, handstart, wooden chassis with extra wheels, bar steering, wooden wheels with metal tyres, mass 90 kg, maximum speed 6 to 12 km/h.
Daimler's wooden motorcycle burned in 1903, but there are replicas in museums in Munchen, Neckarsulm and Augsburg.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Some interesting Facts
You shouldn’t believe everything you read on the internet. For example, there are plenty of pages that solemnly tell you flamingoes bend their knees backwards. In fact, all birds have forward-facing knees: the knee is up in their feathers, the ankle is the bit that goes backwards, their foot bones are fused together, and birds walk on their toes. This is because birds are dinosaurs: T. rex walked the same way, but his foot bones weren’t fused yet. Isn’t the real story usually more interesting?
This is my personal collection of strange but true zoological trivia. Why should you believe me when I say it's true? Good question. All these facts were taken from original research by scientists, and as I work on this page I’ll be adding references so if you wanted you could go check. Until then I can supply references if you e-mail me. Don’t take my word for anything. Nullius in verba. That’s why science works.
Campbell, Kenneth E., and Eduardo Tonni (1983). Auk 100:390–403.
Grützner, Frank et al (2004). Nature 432, 913–917. 
Disclaimer: Third eye is microscopic and present briefly in hatchlings. Third eye presented for informational purposes only and tuatara assume no responsibility for functionality or visibility, stated or implied.
