Steve Chamberlin, a Belmont, California, videogame developer by day, set out on a quest to custom design and build his own 8-bit computer. The homebrew CPU would be called Big Mess of Wires or BMOW. Despite its name, it is a painstakingly created work of art.
From liftoff to splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, take a ride on Space Shuttle Atlantis solid rocket boosters with video from a camera located on the SRB's. If you're impatient, jump to about 22:45.
Cast your vote for your favorite technologies of 2008 in the Engadget Awards. I don't know about you, but my votes are going for the Guitar Hero: World Tour Kit, the iPhone 3G, the unibody MacBook Pro, and the New Xbox Experience. Vote here.
Phun is a fantastic 2D physics playground that is both fun and educational. Phun is a Master of Science Thesis by Computing Science student Emil Ernerfeldt for supervisor Kenneth Bodin at VRLab, Umeå University. Best of all, it's a free download for non-commercial use.
At the Game Developers Conference, Sony was showing off a head-tracking system that uses only the PS3's EyeToy camera. The system definitely has a lot of potential but no games using the technology have yet been announced.
First, here's a look at a more conventional head-tracking technique presented by Johnny Lee.
Hulu, the video site started by NBC Universal and News Corp, is offering beta invites to webware.com readers. If the thought of watching episodes of The Simpsons or The Office that you forgot to Tivo excites you, you can watch them on the surprisingly useful and entertaining hulu.com. Who would have thunk that the TV networks could come up with a streaming video site worth using? Last I checked, there were fewer than 1000 invites left, so click the link below and grab one soon. http://www.hulu.com/beta/webware
During the Super Bowl, you may have seen Ford's commercial promoting their "Built Ford Tough" ethos by showing an F-150 hooked up to a giant centrifuge. The giant contraption spins the truck at six Gs and therefore subjects the looped hooks to six times the truck's weight.
Emotiv Systems plans to unveil a consumer version of their impressive neurosystem headset at the upcoming Game Developers Conference.
According to the literature, the headset is described as containing "a high fidelity neuro-system that redefines the realm of human-computer interaction", and a special presentation showing its applications in creating "a new horizon for interactive gameplay" is promised.
The company's website also adds that licensed developers will have access to the Emotiv SDK in March 2008, and it consists of The Expressiv suite, which can identify facial expressions in real-time, the Affectiv suite, which measures players' discreet emotional states, and the Cognitiv suite, which detects players' conscious thoughts.
The DVD Forum voted to approve a 51-GB triple-layer hybrid HD-DVD spec. The new 51-GB capacity matches Blu Ray's 50-GB capacity and eliminates Blu Ray's main advantage over dual-layer HD-DVDs. I'm just glad that I haven't made the jump to a high-def optical format just yet.
doorman77 posted a video on LiveLeak showing the internal workings of a fourstroke combustion engine. The 1000 fps video from the high-pressure, heat-resistant camera shows the simple action of the engine in motion.
One of the coolest uses for this was maneuvering around Microsoft Virtual Earth using your hands. Microsoft showed off two methods, the first using a projector that gleams down on a table top. Using your hands, you can pull the map around, and zoom in and out by pinching in a similar fashion to what Apple has done with the iPhone.
