Geelong Ring Road Live in Google Maps. (Almost!)

     I just noticed this morning that the final section of the Geelong ring road has finally made it into Google maps.  Well, kind of.  It knows about the ring road when it's working out directions but the road itself still isn't shown.  I'd imagine it cant be far off if the topography data is already uploaded though.  Hooray!

Hidden Ring Road Section On Google Maps

Live link to google maps:

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2010 Pike's Peak Hillclimb Video

     Hit this link for 10 minutes of motoring bliss, watching Nobuhiro Tajima throw his 670kW Suzuki up Pike's Peak.  Amazing stuff, I wish I could do that.  Unfortunately I've neither got the opportunity or the skill!
     The fact that it's not a perfect run - there's at least a couple of traffic cones and a haybale that don't survive the run - shows how hard he's pushing the car.  He takes some pretty scary lines around some of those corners as well, with more than a little of his wheels hanging out in fresh air at times.
     Great camera angles, great driving and a great sounding engine.  I could watch this over and over.

Source: Youtube via Wired

Oracle suing Google over Java usage.

     So apparently Oracle are suing Google with patent and copyright infringement charges, relating to the usage of Java as an underpinning for Android.
     Heh!  Good luck with that one Oracle.  If you're planning on snapping up a company and using it for patent trolling (R.I.P. Sun!) you might want to get in before they open source a lot of their most interesting developments!
     I hope this case gets stomped on really quickly.  I wonder if the EFF is going to offer to support Google?  The thought of that makes me smile a little.

Source: Marketwatch

Yeah, I'm never climbing while hungover....

     You really just need to go and watch this video.  His friend (the blogger I believe) is remarkably calm about it.  That's the kind of guy you want to go climbing with. :)

Pyramid of Conservation

     This is a neat little graphic for anybody that ever wondered about the various payoffs from "Greening" their home, cutting energy usage and so forth.  There's so many possible projects that it can sometimes be hard to find a starting point.  Start at the bottom for the biggest bang for buck and work your way to the top.

     I'm very impressed that this was put together by an energy supplier, the more people take this advice to heart the less they stand to make.  Kudos to them.

Source: Minnesota Power via Treehugger

Purple Carrot Health Benefits

     So it seems like purple carrots are useful for more than just looking funky.  Apparently some research carried out at the University of Southern Queensland have shown some pretty remarkable effects, although it's only an early study at the minute.
     Rats were fed a high fat, high carbohydrate diet (sounds like my usual fare) for 16 weeks, and had number of unhealthy conditions as a result.  They grew fat, became glucose intolerant and suffered liver and heart damage (maybe I need to rethink my diet).  For the next 8 weeks the rats had their diet supplemented with purple carrot juice.  The negative effects of their diet disappeared.
     Apparently a lot of the benefits may be due to a high level of anthocyanins - which are the same antioxidant giving blueberries their colour.

     On a completely unrelated note - did I mention I ordered some purple carrot seeds?

Source: The Age

Implantable Glowing Glucose Monitor

     A group of researchers from Tokyo University and the BEANS research group have come up with an implantable gel which can be made to glow in the presence of either high or low blood glucose levels.  This would be a wonderful thing for diabetics, allowing them to more easily monitor their blood sugar and adjust their diet/medication accordingly.
     It would also be a fantastic thing for people that just like body modification I think.  Though I couldn't help playing with it if I had one, overloading on sugar to see how much I could make it glow.  It'd probably cause me personally a lot more health problems.
     It seems like they've still got some issues to work out at the minute though, one of them being the bodies tendency to form a pocket of scar tissue around foreign objects - reducing the light output.
     Apparently "5-10 years" before they've got something to market.

Source: DigInfo via Engadget

iPhoto Tips

     Macworld has an article up with a half dozen tips for improving your photo editing workflow in iPhoto. Clever ones, most of which I didn't know about!
     My two favourites are:  Holding down the shift key while editing toggles between the original picture and your modified version, and having the Adjustment palette open before hitting the enhance button will show just what Apple thinks it needed to do to enhance your photo.  Both very neat and useful tricks.

Electric Datsun 1200, 10.4sec Quarter Mile

     Now this is an electric car I'd be happy to own.  Sure it's a hand crafted one off, focussed at drag racing rather than being a car you'd be happy to live with every day, but still....  I want it.  Kudos to the guys that have put this together, looks like an incredible machine.  I'd love to see it in the flesh.
     More details about the "White Zombie" at their website.  They've actually broken down the history of the changes made to the car throughout it's life, interesting stuff.

Toshiba Libretto W100

     Ok so the link is just pointing at Toshiba's website for this laptop, but I think I love the concept.  A dual screen netbook sized clamshell laptop.  Instead of a keyboard, you have a touch screen.  I'll be very interested in seeing one of these, but there's a big caveat.
     The secret behind making a device like this desirable is going to be all about getting the user interface right.  Last time I looked Toshiba was a hardware company, so that makes me think that their first foray into this market is going to be a little clumsy.  Having it paired with windows wouldn't be my first preference either, but if I was trying to get the device to market it'd probably be what I'd choose too.
     On a portable device though, where space is at a premium, taking up, at a minimum, a third of the physical real estate just for a keyboard seems to be a very unwise choice when there's newer technology available.  The ubiquity of other touch screen devices (*cough* iPhone *cough*) will have undoubtedly helped to warm the market up to the idea of doing away with the keyboard entirely.
     I want my next laptop to be configured like this.

And Google Waved Goodbye

     Awww, I'm sorry to see the Google wave project die.  I have to admit though, the main reason I'm sorry to see it go is the name.  (Firefly fan here.)  The project always seemed like a mish-mash of ideas with no real purpose to me.
     The most interesting thing to me is that Google has killed off such a high profile project.  They must have had some serious man-hours devoted to it if they've pulled the plug so publicly.  They typically just let abandoned projects languish without further updates.

Madget Physical Actuated Widgets

     Youtube link to a video in the title, showing off what the Media Computing Group is calling Madgets.  These things are pretty neat, though they need to run on a custom built surface at the minute.  Essentially these guys have layered together an LCD screen, a bunch of electromagnets and a camera for object detection into a very impressive input/output device.  Watch the linked video, it explains what they've done very clearly.
     I can envisage a lot of situations where this would be really handy.  I'd love to have a giant touchscreen desk as my main computer interface.  Having the ability to add little actuated controls would be fantastic.  Imagine working with a mouse (mice are still much better for some input tasks) then just flicking it off to a corner of the desk when you don't need it.  When you do want it back, you could just gesture on the table/screen and the mouse would come scurrying back to your hand.  Or being able to hit a key and have all your input devices move out to the edges of the table to leave you a completely clear screen to work with.  Tap another button and the devices (mice, keyboard, dials, whatever) all rearrange themselves back to their home locations.
     Get it to market guys!

Deadwood on ABC2

     So I was flicking through the TV guide to see if there was anything good on TV tonight.  Turns out, Deadwood is getting an Australian airing.  Yay, I liked Deadwood the first time I saw it.  Then I looked a little closer:

     Notice the channel it's playing on?  Deadwood is airing on ABC2.  ABC2 being the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's dedicated kids channel.  Hmmm.  Now as I said, I really liked Deadwood, but I think it's definitely a show that's going to educate kids language in areas where most parents won't want it educated.

     I'm not going to add any links, but if you don't know the show just search youtube for Deadwood Swearing and you'll get the idea quick enough.

Clueless Family Gets Stranded Following GPS Directions And Lives To Tell About It!

     Ok, so my headline is a little different from the one in The Age but it probably highlights the more important part of the story.  Anybody that blindly follows GPS directions rather than real signs and local knowledge is asking for trouble.  GPS maps tend to be updated at _most_ once per year.  Roads, and gravel/dirt roads in particular, can change wildly over the course of a single week.
     I love taking shortcuts that my GPS highlights, but it boggles my mind that there's people who trust them over signage clearly stating "Don't Come This Way!"