technology, internet oddities & other random stuff
Archive for September, 2007
Bose do more than just speakers
Sep 22nd
They’re a serious R&D outfit that will take on anything that takes their fancy. They’ve been working on active suspension for a few years. Springs and dampers are reactive. A bump in the road hits them, and the springs compress to soak up most of the jolt. The damper then slows down the decompression so the car doesn’t kangaroo down the street. No two bumps are the same severity, so even the best mechanical suspension systems can only cope best with an average bump at an average speed.
Cars roll when going around corners. Again, passive systems can only do More >
New Ad on the TV
Sep 21st
I’m watching the boob tube and this ad comes on for a new product called "Fibresure". If you didn’t Google it you’d have a hard time guessing what it was for. The ad has lots of girls larking about in a swimming pool looking all happy and stuff and they talk about a powder that you can mix with water, but you don’t taste it. Even their website says that you need fibre, but nowhere does it say why.
Dudley Moore was right in Crazy People. Why not just say that it helps you go to the toilet!!!!!
All Blacks playing football against Portugal
Sep 19th
Immediately after hammering Portugal 103-18 in the World Cup, they gave them a chance to even the score at soccer (they lost 3-1), and they all ended up drinking beer in the NZ dressing room afterwards. Now that’s sportsmanship!
From The Times RWC blog
Irish firm launches ‘global’ mobile phone
Sep 19th
Hmmm… Cubic Telecom have come up with a SIM (called "MAXroam") that will be accepted as a local one where ever in the world you use it. They’re using SIP (VoIP) to back haul the call from the caller’s area to the destination, avoiding international call rates, so the total cost is that of a mobile call from the caller to a local number, and from a local number at the other end to the destination.
They’re also going to have phones with wi-fi, which, in conjunction with a free hotspot, will avoid one of the calls, instead connecting directly to their More >
IBM workers picket Second Life
Sep 18th
It’s a fundamental right of workers to protest at mistreatment, and staff at IBM Italy have had to take a €1000 pay cut that they’re not happy about. Pickets normally take place either at the factory gates or somewhere more public. The RSU union have decided to go down the “more public” route.
Marketing execs are seeing Second Life, the leading “virtual reality” world online, as a new way for large corporates, such as Dell, Cisco and IBM to have a “presence”. They spend big money to design, construct and maintain showrooms that people can wander through and virtually examine their wares. Many argue More >
