Modern Robotics at Work

My first impression: If this thing came at me in the woods looking like that, and sounding like that, I would definitely be scared as hell.

My next thought: Where to begin with all the great possibilities for this technology?

A few uses that I can think of right off the bat:

• A pack mule that never gets tired and can be programmed to complete regular tasks unsupervised would be a God send for a small farm operator.
• A device that can climb small terrain, compensate for sudden changes in friction, as well as quickly recover from a sudden shift in balance would open the doors to advanced exploration on other planets.
• Camouflaged to look like a horse, people could ride around on one of these babies on their vacation property without the cost and effort of maintaining a living horse.

What do you think would be a possible application of this amazing technology?

(Thanks to @funkatron and @sevenzark for "tweeting" this video!)

Computers booting in just 4 seconds?

Photo courtesy of Flickr user "The Quux"

DownloadSquad posted an article today about miniature operating systems that could have your system up and ready for watching movies or browsing the web in just 4 seconds.

This is done by having a stripped down operating system built right in to the motherboard.

Not only can you start using your computer that fast, your real operating system such as Windows Vista or XP would be loading up in the background.

I can't tell you how much of my life has been spent waiting for various computers running one version of Windows or another to boot up, and I'm sure the total time spent would sicken me. Cutting out that waste of time is a huge gain in my book, not to mention the energy savings for folks who would hardly ever turn off their systems due to this lengthy boot process.

For as much time humans have wasted on booting up over the decades this is one of those advancements that make you wonder why someone didn't think of it sooner, like automatic shower cleaners or pasta pots with a lid for draining out the water.

Once this technology is in place I certainly will be an early adopter.