projects

Bandai's A.i.R. Project for ambient lighting

Once in a while, toy maker Bandai gains some designer street cred with lifestyle products like its A.i.R. (Art in the Room) Project, or conceived by Japanese media artist Taro Suzuki as "art created from wind and light." You can't miss this in the home section of Tokyu Hands or even The Loft in Japan when this launches on April 25, since the laptop-size device is illuminated by 25 eye-catching LEDs.

At a glance, this looks like a collection of dancing blue lights that illuminate in a number of different patterns. What's less … Read more

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Project management system

Mindjet MindManager is a unique program aimed at business people keeping track of complicated projects with objectives that change on the fly. While this program offers users a chance to streamline their world, it is not something people can leap directly into and operate.

This program's main objective is project management. The goal is to provide a free-flowing chart, making even the most complex goals visible. This is accomplished through a flexible set of tools to map agendas, priorities, people working on the project, deadlines, and more, all with the ability to update and change.

MindManager is a complicated … Read more

Conficker flaw reveals which computers are infected

Even worm creators write buggy software.

Once it infects a computer, the Conficker worm closes the hole in Windows that it used to get onto the system so no other malware can get in. This also makes it difficult for organizations to detect which computers have the legitimate Microsoft patch and which have the fake Conficker patch.

However, Conficker's "patch" has a weakness that can be used to distinguish between patched computers and infected computers that look patched, according to the nonprofit Honeynet Project.

Some of the researchers have released a proof-of-concept scanner that can be used … Read more

Robo-octopus wanted by EU

While they're fascinating to watch and sometimes even delicious to eat, how many times a day do you really think about the octopus or what an amazing piece of natural machinery it is?

Cecilia Laschi, professor of industrial bioengineering at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy, is so impressed by the octopus she's leading an extensive team of roboticists and scientists to build the first soft-bodied robot replicate of one. Which may not seem that exciting, until you learn just how unique the muscle tissue and dexterity of the octopus is.

As New Scientist cleverly pointed out, if the "Octopus" project is successful a robot someday might be able to accomplish the task seen in this video by Dr. James B. Wood, an assistant research scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences who maintains a Web site on cephalopods.

If you think it through, the octopus is a very dexterous creature that if translated into a robot could provide endless capability for exploring hard to reach places in the ocean. While we've seen other aquatic robots reaching for the depths of the ocean or mimicking creatures like fish and snakes, a completely soft-bodied underwater robot would be groundbreaking.… Read more

EMI's catalog comes to Project Playlist

Buzzworthy social music service Project Playlist has signed another major-label deal: EMI Music has licensed its catalog to the company, which hired former Facebook executive Owen Van Natta as its CEO in November and says that over 52 million playlists have been created to date by its over 42 million registered users.

The first major-label deal for Project Playlist was with Sony BMG, an agreement announced in December. The company had previously been sued by a number of big players in the music industry, including EMI, because of the amount of unauthorized content uploaded to its servers. The Recording Industry … Read more

Reality TV star arrested for attacking ex with laptop

Welcome to "Reality TV meets Tech In A Nasty Head-On Collision Week."

After the hard-shoe conspiracy shuffle danced by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak this week, I now bring you Kenley Collins, a finalist in season 5 of "Project Runway."

Kenley was arrested early Tuesday morning after allegedly assaulting her ex-fiance with, among other things, a laptop.

You will all collectively breathe again when I tell you that the laptop was not, apparently, her first weapon of choice. No, that was the cat.

She allegedly threw poor Tiddles (yes, name made up by me) in her ex'… Read more

Google again delays debut of Project 10^100 ideas

Google had planned to announce on Tuesday the ideas for its Project 10-to-the-100th to improve the world through Google-sponsored work, but the search giant delayed the announcement a second time.

"We will unfortunately have to delay announcing the top ideas for Project 10^100 for a while longer. We've never managed a project like this and it's taken more time than we ever imagined possible. We apologize for our overoptimistic assumptions about how quickly we could analyze all the ideas that we've received, and thank everyone for their patience," said Andy Berndt, managing director of … Read more

Cool waveform bracelets--advice you can wear

The picture you see here is a bracelet modeled after the waveform of someone saying "I believe in you." Made by a group called The Sound Advice Project, it is a way for parents to record a message, which is then custom-made into a piece of jewelry as a gift to a teenage child. The purpose is for the child to always have a visual reminder of the advice.

Though primarily an effort against teen drug abuse (thus the focus on parent-child advice), the geeky-cool nature of this bracelet is undeniable. Check out the official site, where you … Read more