Segways May Become War Machines

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Gambling Machines Much Safer Than
Electronic Voting Machines

Gambling Machines Much Safer Than
Electronic Voting Machines 06/14/2004 03:33 AM
It appears that making sure gambling is fair is much more important than making sure our elections are fair. One of the defenses pulled out by those who want to keep going with existing electronic voting machines is that no one seems to complain about electronic gambling machines. Perhaps that's because electronic gambling machines are held to a much higher standard than electronic voting machines. This NY Times editorial lists six different ways in which gambling machines in Nevada are under much more scrutiny than electronic voting machines. These include things like the fact that the state requires copies of the source code of all electronic gambling software, as well as their stringent licensing procedure for any company that wishes to sell electronic gambling machines. Employees of any such company have to go through background checks to make sure they have no criminal record. Considering that Diebold had convict ed felons involved with their electronic voting systems - you wonder if a similar licensing procedure might make sense for voting machines as well.

2 mln fax machines and combo machines
were sold in the US in 2004

2 mln fax machines and combo machines
were sold in the US in 2004 03/27/2005 05:50 AM
ZDNet Mar 27 2005 10:35AM GMT

Voting Machines Vs. Slot Machines

Voting Machines Vs. Slot Machines 12/04/2003 01:10 PM
Slashdot Dec 4 2003 12:50PM ET

Disney says no Segways

Disney says no Segways 02/10/2004 02:41 AM
Disney is saying to no to Segways, and is barring them from all of their theme parks. Read [Via TechDirt]...

Will Segways become battlefield bots?

Will Segways become battlefield bots? 12/07/2003 10:53 PM

Segways are brilliant, you idiots

Segways are brilliant, you idiots 07/30/2004 11:50 AM
Letters Whatever you say...

Segways Roll Over Chicago

Segways Roll Over Chicago 06/04/2004 03:30 PM

Polo, Segways and the IT crowd

Polo, Segways and the IT crowd 07/28/2004 08:22 PM

Direct and Related Links for 'Polo, Segways and the IT crowd'

Much like hockey, playing polo on Segways can get out of hand quite easily. According to the Register, a small group of wackos from the Bay Area armed with Segway scooters, specially designed mallets and a hankerin’ for polo gone wrong, have taken to the field. Oh my, this is what the IT crowd has come to?…

No Segways For Disney Visitors

No Segways For Disney Visitors 02/10/2004 02:41 AM
Sick of having to be pushed around in wheelchairs, a number of disabled guests to Disney's various amusement parks have been trying to bring their Segways along for easier transport through the park, but are being told that Disney is a no-Segway zone for visitors at the park. Disney's response is they only allow FDA approved medical devices - and the Segway isn't on the list.

Disney bans Segways in the parks

Disney bans Segways in the parks 02/10/2004 02:50 AM
Disabled Segway users are outraged at Disney's decision to ban Segways from the theme parks.

Disney World doesn't allow visitors, even those with disabilities like Exum, to use the self-balancing transportation machines in the parks. The policy angered some Segway owners with disabilities and surprised others since the Disney parks have a reputation for accommodating the disabled.

They said even some Disney employees use Segways, which are becoming increasingly popular with people who otherwise would have to use wheelchairs.

"I'm not prepared to let a corporate attorney dictate to me how I should be mobile," said Exum, who is technically quadriplegic from an injury as a teenager but functions as a paraplegic.

Link (via Gizmodo)

Could Segways replace soldiers as hired
killers?

Could Segways replace soldiers as hired
killers? 12/08/2003 10:30 AM
If DARPA says so

Bombardier Embrio - Unicycles Meet
Segways

Bombardier Embrio - Unicycles Meet
Segways 11/13/2003 06:36 AM
press release .. concept .. site

recreation.bombardier.com/En/Media/PressReleases.aspx?press=200 5
track this site | 7 links

Segways banned from 'happiest place on
Earth'

Segways banned from 'happiest place on
Earth' 02/10/2004 06:38 PM
Too goofy for Disney

DARPA: Could Segways replace soldiers as
hired killers?

DARPA: Could Segways replace soldiers as
hired killers? 12/09/2003 09:42 AM
robotic killer Segways .. Read article .. The Register

theregister.co.uk/content/6/34397.html
track this site | 7 links

Mean machines

Mean machines 07/29/2004 11:32 AM
With "I, Robot," Hollywood has returned to Asimov's three laws to keep robots in their place. But what would it really take to stop robots from hurting humans?

Sex Machines At Work

Sex Machines At Work 08/29/2004 03:57 PM
Xeni Jardin: Online photo gallery with portraits of garage-geek inventors of "sex machines" -- and the people who use them -- shot by photographer Timothy Archibold. I hatehatehate the site's 1.5MB gorilla Flash interface, and I hate that I can't copy and paste some of the project notes for you here in text. But the images and the subject matter they detail (online communities that connect people who imagine, build, and use these machines) are fascinating. At left: "Scott at his kitchen table, Sex Machines Unlimited." Link (NSFW). (Thanks, alfie)

Better Answering Machines

Better Answering Machines 12/05/2003 02:11 AM
My old faithful answering machine is a dinosaur and I had to re-record my message on it this morning for...

Speaking machines!

Speaking machines! 01/04/2004 01:14 PM
A brief history of speech synthesis : an interesting read, with photos and sound samples!

Getting Misty Over Old Machines

Getting Misty Over Old Machines 08/19/2004 03:21 PM

You ever get sentimental over an old computer? One that you just can't throw away?

Back in 1998, I worked part-time at Best Buy so Annie and I could pay cash for our wedding the next summer. That Christmas season was the year a complete PC system (computer, monitor, printer) broke the $1,000 barrier.

I still remember the doors opening on Sunday mornings to a throng people nearly drooling at the prospect of a system for $999. You used to have to hold up the weekly flier, point to a package, and say, "Everyone who wants this, go over there, and, " — pointing at a different one — "everyone who wants this, come over here." It was crazy.

Anyway, sometime during that job, someone returned a Compaq Presario 4508 mini-tower, and I persuaded the inventory guy to let me buy it as-is for $200. The box said it was 200 MHz, but BIOS told me 233. It had 24MB of RAM, but only 1MB of video memory, so I dropped $20 on a used 4MB video card, taking up one of the two PCI slots in the process. The hard drive was a monstrous 4.3GB.

That computer served me well for almost four years. I managed to cram 48MB of memory in it — the most it would take (the case design was so poor that adding memory was a 30-minute operation). It ran Windows 95 for all those years until I got a new machine (a 1 GHz Athlon, which I still use today) and I put Linux on it briefly. I remember installing Office 2000, then having to uninstall it because it was just too slow.

About three years ago, I passed the computer on to my mother-in-law. She's one of those folks who does two things: surfs the Web and sends email. In that capacity, the little machine has worked great, until now.

I think it's finally started to die. The hard drive cycles endlessly, and every once in a while it reboots to Safe Mode, a phenomenon I can only attribute to some obscure bit of hardware going to pieces so that it doesn't respond correctly on reboot. I have it running Windows 98 SE, stripped down to virtually nothing. Everything that can be removed has been, but it's still using 10MB more memory than it has immediately after rebooting.

I'm going to start looking for another machine for my mother-in-law, but I just can't bear to throw the old Presario away. It's chugged along for seven years now, and enabled the sending and receiving of countless baby pictures. I'm a little sentimental about the old bird, and I think I'll just store it away in the basement for a while in the hopes that my wife never finds it and sells it at a garage sale one day.

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When machines breed

When machines breed 08/12/2004 09:23 AM
Evolvable hardware -- gadgets that design themselves -- can get the job done, even if humans have no idea how they do it.

Rage Against the Machines

Rage Against the Machines 12/25/2004 04:45 PM
Slashdot Dec 24 2004 7:37PM GMT

Rise of the Machines

Rise of the Machines 04/09/2004 04:01 PM
Conn Hallinan, an "analyst" for Foreign Policy in Focus, a liberal/left-wing think tank, has written a strange agitprop piece on military robotics. In it he explains that the DARPA Grand Challenge and military robots in general are a "coldly calculated" conservative plot masterminded by Bush, a "powerful circle of arms manufactures", and an "empire-minded group of politicians" to develop "Frankenstein killing machines" that target civilians. His article also appears in the Asia Times online with an amusing illustration that adds to the humor.

How Many Google Machines, Really?

How Many Google Machines, Really? 05/02/2004 12:51 PM

How many Google machines

How many Google machines 05/03/2004 02:23 AM
Google's bajillion servers. Everywhere I've worked, they never have enough servers. Apart from Time Out, I guess. They had enough. Oh yeah .. How many systems does Google have? .. Quote

tnl.net/blog/entry/How_many_Google_machines
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"How many Google machines"

"How many Google machines" 05/03/2004 09:24 AM

Inferior machines

Inferior machines 11/12/2003 10:24 PM

Les Orchard: I see that Mark Pilgrim has posted a picture of himself as a kid, working at an Apple //e. Based on what I wrote this past Summer about being Newly Digital in 1983, I would guess that around the same time I was working on a Commodore 64, and I would have teased him in a relentlessly geeky way about his clearly inferior machine.

Bah.  In 1983, I was working on a 3033.  (16 MB RAM, 4.7 MIPs).

Of course, this probably could have been replaced with a Palm Pilot Tungsten W...

Vending Machines of Japan

Vending Machines of Japan 04/30/2004 11:54 AM
Vending Machines of Japan PhotoMann recently decided to 'collect' images of unique vending machines found in Japan. They are everywhere. Estimates suggest there are 5.6 million vending machines which works out to be one for every 20 people in Japan. Sales from vending machines in 2000 totaled $56 billion! The most common are drink and cigarette machines followed by machines with pornography

Japanese vending-machines

Japanese vending-machines 05/05/2004 12:52 PM
Great page with photos and notes on vending machines that can be found in and around Tokyo. Link (Thanks, Infospigot!)

"Vending Machines of Japan"

"Vending Machines of Japan" 05/06/2004 09:52 PM

Next News: Rise of the machines

Next News: Rise of the machines 04/22/2004 02:41 PM
US News Apr 22 2004 7:11PM GMT

China had first complex machines

China had first complex machines 06/10/2004 05:56 PM
Craftsmen in ancient China were using complex machines to work jewellery long before such devices are traditionally thought to have been invented.

Print on the old RISO machines

Print on the old RISO machines 04/15/2004 11:43 AM
If you are using an old RISOgraph with OS 9 because the company that makes RISO claims that the old printers will not work with the new drivers, don't upgrade to their new $30,000 printer just yet. Instead, use the old RISO w...

Right-Click, add Machines to a
Collection!

Right-Click, add Machines to a
Collection! 07/29/2004 08:21 PM

Fla. vote machines flawed

Fla. vote machines flawed 06/14/2004 06:15 PM
USA Today Jun 14 2004 9:54PM GMT

am3 Anime Vending Machines

am3 Anime Vending Machines 07/08/2004 08:44 AM

Thanks to Tyler and Mohammed and everybody else that sent in pictures of these am3 Anime Vending machines for the Advance Movie player. I'm fairly sure that eh one of the left (the Pokemon-branded one) is the newer model, while the one on the right is the older, less full-featured model that has been out for a while. I love that in an all-digital machine, they've somehow still found it necessary to incorporate a giant crank dial on the front.
Look - am3?GBA [Watch.Impress]
Look - Product Page

Related
am3 Sets Up Anime Vending Machines for Game Boy Advance [Gizmodo]

Sexing Up Green Machines

Sexing Up Green Machines 11/04/2003 06:05 PM
techtv Nov 4 2003 5:31PM ET

Will Perspex Machines Lead to AI?

Will Perspex Machines Lead to AI? 02/05/2005 09:44 PM
According to a University of Reading press release, Dr. James Anderson of Reading's Department of Computer Science has developed a new way to write computer programs. Instead of code, he uses a geometrical structure that he calls a perspective simplex or Perspex. A Perspex exists in Perspex space and, it is claimed, can do anything a computer program written as instructions of code can do. The developer alleges the Pespex "provides one solution to the centuries-old problem of how mind arises in physical bodies" and "provides a model that is accurate enough for a robot to use to describe its own mind and body". Dr. Anderson details his invention in "The Book of Paragon" which provides a detailed explanation of the Perspex Machine (PDF format). Meanwhile, the University website has further information under the more mundane name of "New Artificial Neuron" and includes the bizarre statement "In theory, perspex neurons could process an infinitely long program and thereby become omniscient, but, in practice, physical limitations force them to work only with finite programs".

Rise of the (sewing) machines

Rise of the (sewing) machines 09/22/2004 10:52 PM
Sympatico Sep 23 2004 2:48AM GMT

Machines of Loving Grace

Machines of Loving Grace 11/04/2003 12:06 PM
Machines of Loving Grace, an early to mid 90s Industrial Rock group, makes their appearance on the iTMS. First up is their last release...
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Segways May Become War Machines

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