Sky Diving with North London Skydiving @ Cambridgeshire

LEGO Rammstein - Feuer Frei

This is an old vid but I still think it is pretty awesome. Well cause LEGO is a cool toy, Rammstein is a cool band. What can go wrong when putting two cool things together? NO-thing !

Nice little Otaku area

Symphony Of Science

From http://www.symphonyofscience.com.
I never thought I could describe something as both geeky and cool at the same time but here it is:



"The goal of the project is to bring scientific knowledge and philosophy to the public, in a novel way, through the medium of music." - And that is way cool.

My New Ride

Anyone that knows me personally would think that my new ride would be something like the latest Honda Type-R. Well in the UK its not so cost effective to get petrol powered vehicle. Anyway this is my new ride, an electric powered Windsor LPX. Specification as below:~

• 6 speed shimano gears
• 200W intelligent brushless motor
• Throttle and pedal assist modes
• 26V/10.5Ah Lithium Polymer lightweight battery
• Charging time 2 - 4 hours (from flat)
• up to 30 mile range
• Top speed up to 15 mph

Music In Malaysia

I'm a really music buff. Not one of pure heart, I'm bias for certain genre but I'll accept anything with really good meaningful lyrics. I'm glad that the music taste in Malaysia is stepping up a lot and evolving into something that is modern and upbeat (yes we used to have really 60s styled songs written in the 90s). Now local artists are more open to sing about life, love and troubles of modern life and not only about nature! A nice piece by OAG:

And one from Estrella. She is such a sweet thing!

All I Want for Christmas is...

a Ferrari F2008


nah~ I mean a LEGO Ferrari F2008


Yeah, who wouldn't want one of this? I won't even mind hanging around to demolish it piece by piece later on too ;)

During the annual ‘Lego World’ event in Holland, Amsterdam, 12k-20k invested and 80,000 LEGO pieces were put together to create the biggest and most lifelike LEGO F1 car. This Ferrari F1, based on the F2008, is 1:1 scale, which is fully apparently drivable model.

Full story here.

Minority Report Comes to Life

Oblong's g-speak is the OS that combines "gestural i/o, recombinant networking, and real-world pixels" to creating the dream-OS of every geek's desires.
Ref: http://oblong.com

Best Anime of 2007

Another year has gone by and Japan has its call out for the top animes of the year. Reported by Yahoo Japan, over 2 million Japanese anime fans voted for their fave anime of 2007. The top 10 out of 100 titles where as follows. For English discription on the below anime, visit AnimeNewsNetwork.

1. Sola
2. Lucky Star
3. Katekyo Hitman Reborn
4. Ookiku Furikabutte
5. Higurashi
6. Gintama
7. Nanoha StrikerS
8. Nanatsuiro Drops
9. Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei
10. Hidamari Sketch

One that I like

Mac Book Air

Yeah as part of the "Techie" society, again I'm being fooled by Apple's lastest gadgets. Just a while back (1/10/2007) when the iPhone was shipped, I couldn't help myself but to drop by the nearest 02 to get a feel of the sweet thing.

Then the new IPod Nano came along, being this cute irresistable thing that can fit into my slim wallet, its just the thing I love just looking at. Its not something I need but just something that cute that I like. With video capabilities it looks like the baby version of the IPod Video.

But browsing the web few weeks back make me want another Apple item...The Mac Book Air.

Yeah at 1.94cm thick and weight at 1.36kg you might think what the hack can it do? And with a Intel Core 2 Duo processor, I wonder how did they even put in a decent fan. The higher end of the Mac Book Air, it also has all the common stuff on any laptop, 2GB RAM (on board), multi touch trackpad, Intel GMA X3100 144MB shared memory, etc. But at a price of £1,199.00 / £2,028.00, you are most likely paying for the coolness of having something "IN" for the times.

Here are some videos on Mac Book Air's intro at Mac World 2008...

LEGO® “Toy of the Century”

January marks the passing of LEGO® half a decade of fun play. LEGO bricks was nomiated as the "Toy of the Century" by both Fortune Magazine in the US and the Britsh Association of Toy Retailers.

The History
1932, Ole Kirk Christansen founded a small factory for wooden toys in Billund in the south Denmark. LEGO is a fusion of the Danish words “LEg” and “GOdt” (“play well”).
1947, Christiansen discovered plastic as the ideal material for toy production, and bought the first injection moulding machine in Denmark.
1949, he developed the LEGO brick prototype.
1963, production of LEGO bricks with Acrylonitrile Butadine Styrene (ABS) began.

The Bricks
There have been adjustments in shape, colour and design from time to time, but today’s LEGO bricks still fit bricks from 1958. LEGO bricks are produced in special plants in Denmark, the Czech Republic and Mexico. The ABS compound is delivered in granules, which are heated to 232° C until they melt. Injection moulding machines (weighing up to 150 tons) presses the hotplastic mass into LEGO brick shapes and is left to dry and harden. Each injection mould is permitted a tolerance of no more than one thousandth of a millimetre, so that bricks of every colour and size stay firmly connected. There are 2,400 different LEGO brick shapes. LEGO bricks in boxes that are not sold are melted again and turned into new bricks, in accordance with waste prevention and environmental responsibility.

What I really wanted to talk about
LEGO® MINDSTORM® is made up of several main components the NXT (the brains), touch sensors, sound sensors, light sensors, untrasonic sensors (detects distance), and servo motors (for movement). There are several development areas that basically lets you go into robotics without any skillsets. Areas to explore

1. NXT firmware development for the ARM7 ATMEL microcontroller and the 8-bit AVR ATMEL microcontroller.
2. Software development using SDK. The software controllers can also be easily developed using LabView, NBC (Next Byte Codes), Microsoft Robotics Studio, and Gostai URBI for LEGO Mindstorms NXT.
   
3. Custom hardware development using HDK. Mindstorm competible hardware are HiTechnic Products and Mindsensors.
   
4. Custom hardware communication development using BDK (Bluetooth Development Kit).

Getting started with some of MINDSTORM's robots with blueprints and guides. Meet the robots;
Alpha Rex (Humanoid) has sight(an ultrasonic sensor), hearing (a sound sensor), voice(a built-in Speaker on the NXT brick and sounds from the NXT Software), mobility (2 servo motors) and sense (touch and light sensors).

Spike (Insect Scorpion) has movement (six legs), a set of pincer arms (pedipalps), sight(an Ultrasonic Sensor) and hear (a sound sensor) and attacks with its stinger (a touch sensor).

RoboArm T-56 (Machine) can lift, pivot, and grab objects with its claws. It can detect colors (a light sensor)feel objects (a touch sensor) arm mobility (3 servo motors - 1 for the grabber claws, 2 for the robotic arm to move up, down, and turn).

Tribot (Vehicle) can grab a ball when you give it a sound command (a sound sensor), move following a line (a light sensor), feel objects (a touch sensor) and see objects(an ultrasonic sensor).

I think this is really a cool toy to get for any child. I'm thinking of getting one (heh...). However it does cost GBP179.99 (estimate RM1155.52)