Best Purchase is selling the Windows XP Eee Personal computer for $399, same as the Linux version. What a deal! Except that you’re actually missing a couple things, like the memory card slot, according to Best Buy’s specs—which is kind of a massive deal, given that the XP install will eat up a lot more of the Eee PC’s 4GB of storage than Linux. Topping it off, your warranty only lasts for a year, though the Linux model gets two years of warranty snugglage. Guess they had to trim somewhere. [Mobile Mag]

Via [Gizmodo]

Share This

Share This

When a team of Cornell students put Ranger to work tottering around the running track it just kept on walking, eventually achieving 45 laps before its batteries died and the poor thing toppled backwards. This 5.6-mile hike smashed the previous 20-lap record. The kneeless Ranger is designed to investigate aspects of locomotion so that robot walking can be improved, and hopefully prosthetics for humans too.

It’s designed to use gravity to aid its strides, tipping its feet to spring off the ground much like our legs do, and the team estimates it’s about as efficient at walking as we’re. Honda’s Asimo, for example, uses something like ten times as much energy, or so estimates the team. Sadly this new record is unofficial, as “there’s a lot of rigmarole” in getting Guinness in, apparently. Shame! All that striding for no official record. [Physorg]

Via [Gizmodo]

Share This

Share This

Fifty-thousand people compensating for something purchased the Hummer HT1 phone. The new HT2 pulls the same trick as the H2 truck—it shrinks the original and adds a brighter coat of paint, with a fresh splash of asinine. In this case, even more so, because it seems to pack the same ho-hum specs as the HT1. At least the camo paint let you pretend it was invisible—now the sunny brick will make sure everyone knows you’re a jackass. [Idnes via Slashphone]

Via [Gizmodo]

Share This

Share This