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Credit Card Pic Leads to Fraud
Agence France Presse
published a photo of Katrina hurricane victim Latesha Vinette
holding her new Red Cross debit card, a picture instantly redistributed on
public wire service
web sites. The balance on the card dropped to
ZERO within minutes, as hundreds of fraudsters went
on shopping sprees with the card number. A few hours later,
Vinette was paged over the Reliant stadium speaker system to
receive a call from Mastercard, which wanted to know about
cash-advance requests totaling $65,237, and attempts to use the
card to buy a Ferrari and hundreds of other goods on eBay.
Worst
USB Peripheral Yet
This is why they
invented the Universal Serial Bus -- to power your
PENCIL SHARPENER.
Bad Robots
Japanese companies Tmsuk and NTT Communications plan to test
a mall robot that follows you around, gives you directions and shopping tips, and even
CARRIES YOUR BAGS
while you shop.
A Murata Manufacturing
technology showcase robot called Murata Boy rides a bike
WITHOUT FALLING DOWN (more accurately,
the bike is part of the robot). The robot has an internal sensor
that knows its own body's angle. When it starts to fall to one
side, its robot brain directs the arms to move the steering
wheel to stay upright. When it comes to a stop, a spinning disk
in its midsection keeps it from falling over. The robot is
controlled with a PC via Wi-Fi.
Sony is keeping up with
America's slide into bilingualism by introducing into the U.S.
market a new AIBO robot dog that speaks a lot of
English and
A
LITTLE
SPANISH.
NASA eggheads are working
on a rock-climbing robot for scaling the
CLIFFS OF MARS and collecting samples. The
Lemur IIb, a descendent of a crawling robot called Lemur, has a
12-inch disc-shaped body and four legs containing tactile
sensors in the tips. Lemur IIb climbs by gripping with three
legs, and feeling for a place to grip with the fourth.
Scientists may install a power drill into the tips, enabling the
robot to drill its own climbing grips.
Korean scientists and
technicians plan to develop a
BATTLEFIELD ROBOT with six or eight legs that can
run like a horse and climb over rough terrain. The robot will be
fitted with guns and cameras and will
be
able to operate via remote control or all by itself using
sophisticated artificial intelligence.
iRobot Corp., the company
that makes the Roomba vacuum cleaner robot, is working with
researchers at Boston University on an
ANTI-SNIPER
ROBOT. The tactical sensory system payload robot,
code-named REDOWL (Robot Enhanced Detection Outpost with Lasers)
can pinpoint snipers and mortars after the first shot fired.
REDOWL does this with an array of optics and acoustic detection
systems including a laser pointer and illuminator, acoustic
localizer and classifier, thermal imager, GPS positioning, an
infrared and daylight camera and two wide-angle cameras.
Don't Try This At Home
Modder Alan Kilian
needed to build a Linux PC to serve as a wireless controller in
a Science museum displaying mechanical art, so he built a PC out
of a
K'NEX construction toy set.
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Proof You Can Buy Anything on the
Web
Just fire up your browser and all
this can be yours:
Alien-abduction dog tags
The complete collection of
Super Mario Bros. MUSIC
and even
a flying car!
Fashion
Folly
Here's an idea for what to do
with those old
PC KEYBOARDS you have lying around somewhere...
Cell Phone Follies
I've
reported numerous times on Muslim cell phones,
mostly targeted at Muslim-majority countries. Now one of
them,
the
Ilkone i-800, which
I told you about in April 2004 on
Mike's List, has now shipped in the
Netherlands, and will soon become available France,
Germany, Italy, Denmark, Belgium and Bosnia. The phone has been
available in Lebanon, Malaysia, Turkey and Indonesia for some
time. The Ilkone i800 not only has a built-in compass that
points toward Mecca, but also contains a complete electronic
copy of the Koran (along with a translation into English and a
mini search engine).
Mike's List on
the Radio
Craig Crossman's
Computer America features Mike Elgan every
Thursday night. The show runs from 7pm to 9pm SVT (Silicon Valley Time). Listen
to Computer America on your local Business TalkRadio station or
over
the Internet every weeknight. Don't miss
Computer
America!
Gotta-Get-It
Gadgets
UK gadget web
sites are selling a
GRENADE ALARM from
Paladone called the Sonic Alarm.
You use it to wake
up other people, such as your lazy kids, hung-over roommate or
late-sleeping friend. Just pull the pin, shout "fire in the
hole!," lob it into their room, then close the door. The hideous
noise -- what the packaging characterizes as "three pitches of
skull-shattering sound" -- forces victims to crawl around in
search of the offending device so they can shut it off, thereby
wrecking their slumber irreversibly.
Microsoft Flight
Simulator? Ha! A company called Clarks Precision Machine and
Tool is planning to offer its F-18E Micro Simulator to
CIVILIANS. The $68,000 simulator duplicates the
Boeing/McDonald Douglas F-18 Hornet, including every instrument,
switch, dial, and push button. The Simulator has a USB PC
interface, so you can watch the simulated sky environment on
your giant-screen media center.
A $20,000 kit will transform
your Honda Reflex scooter into a
FLYING MOTORCYCLE! Tired of traffic? Just deploy
the Flite Bike's ram-air powered parachute canopy wing and take
off with enough fuel
to fly 2.5 hours.
Toyota will feature
in its Alphard minivan a new
TWO-VIEW screen technology that, from a single LCD
and multiple speakers, directs GPS images and sounds at the
driver, while directing TV or DVD movie video and sound at
whoever is riding shotgun. I want one.
 Mike's List Merchandise
By popular
demand, I now have a
Mike's List online store where you
can buy this
"Got
Mike?" mousepad and lots of other Mike's List goodies.
Twisted
Games
Monkey Dude
Sky Glide
Robots Attack
Sheep Game
Mystery Pic o'
the Week
What is it?
Send YOUR guess (be sure to say where you live).
If you're first with the right answer, I'll print your name in the
next issue of Mike's List!
 LAST WEEK'S
MYSTERY PIC:
No, it's not Saddam Hussein's version of the French Connection;
the effect of eight scotches, one scotch at a time; or even
Peter Sellers, as suggested by some readers. A 1999 article by
Garret B. Stanley published in the Journal of Neuroscience talks
about how neuron activity can be decoded into a reconstructed
image. Stanley claims this video shows (on the bottom row) the
raw output from visual centers in a cat brain. The top row is
computer-re-constructed versions of that video. So what we're
looking at here is a "cat
scan" of a feline brain, and what it sees. Mike's List
congratulates Greg DeMaderios of Salem, Oregon, for being first
with the right answer!
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