Recent Comments:
Cellphones are dangerous/not dangerous, bee killing edition {Engadget}
Apr 15th 2007 4:27PM This seems unlikely. Since the number of mobile phones in Europe is much greater than in the US, and the population density (and therefore the amount of phones and towers per square mile/km) is also higher, how could something like this spread from the US to Europe? Wouldn't the other way around make more sense? Also, if something is caused by a widespread environmental condition (cellphone radiation), how could it 'spread'? The fact that it seems to be spreading suggests some sort of biological factor. And finally, the 'research' cited in the article showing that having cellphones near hives causes bees to stay away is very misleading - radio power follows the inverse square law, so unless people are deciding to plant cell towers over beehives, or storing their phones in beehives, the amount of radiation actually affecting any given beehive must be barely measurable.
The Pentagon gets creative with Weapons of mini Destruction {Engadget}
Dec 21st 2006 12:14PM @Portwineboy - Pournelle and maybe Niven too, came up with something similar called "Thor", the idea being you'd have bundles of steerable rods in orbit, and could call them down against individual targets (such as tanks) with very little warning. They'd be purely kinetic energy weapons, and pretty much impossible to defend against.
The Pentagon gets creative with Weapons of mini Destruction {Engadget}
Dec 21st 2006 12:12PM @Alcaron: Oh please enlighten me, wise Alcaron.
The Pentagon gets creative with Weapons of mini Destruction {Engadget}
Dec 21st 2006 11:34AM "Perfect for acting on fleeting intelligence against teensy targets".
I find this rather scary. What if the fleeting intelligence (as fleeting intelligence so often is), is wrong? Within 60 minutes it's too late to do anything but say, "sorry we blew up your wedding party; someone told us it was an Al Queda terrorist meeting". After all, didn't that strike that was supposed to be against Saddam early in the current Iraq war just blow up a house and a restaurant full of innocent people? All based on the word of some informant...
The problem with this sort of technology is that there's so little pause between a decision to do something and the realization of this decision. Once you have a MIRV'd package of tungsten rods, every problem looks like it's about 3000 sq feet across...
Matsushita to begin production of new, non-explosive Li-ion batteries {Engadget}
Dec 18th 2006 3:49PM So does this mean that all the replacement batteries that were sent out (and one of which is currently chugging away on my desk) are still the explosive variety??
The HTC Cavalier: followup to the Excalibur {Engadget}
Nov 24th 2006 4:53PM This is looking more and more like a BlackBerry to me - I agree, though, the HTC people are fiends for productivity; too bad they're stuck with Windows Mobile, which I've abandoned now (hopefully for the last time) due to its clunkiness and general crappiness.
Engadget Black Friday giveaways (part 1): Xbox 360 Premium pack! {Engadget}
Nov 24th 2006 4:35PM The odds are against, it, but what the heck - here's my entry.
Engadget Black Friday giveaways (part 2): Nikon D40 DSLR! {Engadget}
Nov 24th 2006 4:17PM I'd be delighted to be a winner of this lovely camera.
Got ripped tunes on your iPod? Go directly to jail, mate {Engadget}
Nov 21st 2006 4:06PM What's with Australia? Not only are they copyright australopithicenes, but they (along with the U.S.) are the only big industrialized countries to reject Kyoto. Didn't they have some crazy anti-porn law in the works too?
Dialogue's Flybook V33i reviewed {Engadget}
Oct 2nd 2006 10:04AM This sounds almost exactly the same as the Fujitsu P1510D. Just picked one up on Ebay for under a grand, and other than the WWAN, the specs seem very similar for a computer that's a year older. The P1510D also gives you Tablet PC OS and is 2.2 lbs (and has a 6-7 hr extended battery)...
