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Play game in a high-tech table worth $10,000. I don't know if you will you spend that amount in this kind of game - if this is really a game. :)

Watch the video and see what Microsoft has to offer. You can also check their site here.

This lamp has no cords or cables as it is powered by gravity. Even if you use it everyday, it has 200 year lifetime.

Gravia is an LED-lit floorlamp energized by people. To light Gravia, the user places a mass approximately 48" above the ground, that, in falling, powers a mechanism, generating electricity. Gravia harnesses the potential energy imparted by the user, rather than relying on any existing electrical infrastructure.

The design goal of Gravia is to provide light in a room (600-800 lumens—roughly equal to one 40 watt incandescent lightbulb), over a period of 4 hours, using people to generate power.

The precedent for this lamp lies within horology—the science of keeping time. Gravia recalls the archetypes of 'grandfather clock', 'hourglass' and 'wind-up clock'. User input provides the potential energy for these devices, and maintains a cycle of timely upkeep for the life of the object.

Gravia is also metaphor for an understanding of social activism. The mechanism of social activism is like a flywheel, where each participant in society is not necessarily required to provide all of the energy to power a movement, but instead, contributes with others, bits at a time to accomplish positive change.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's space agency launched an experimental communications satellite Saturday designed to enable super high-speed data transmission at home and in Southeast Asia.

The domestically developed H-2A rocket carrying the satellite, "Kizuna," was launched Saturday evening from the southern island of Tanegashima, according to a live Internet broadcast by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, known as JAXA.



The satellite, equipped with two large multi-beam antennas, separated from the rocket and successfully entered its intended orbit 175 miles from Earth, JAXA said in a statement.

The agency said it hoped to enable data transmission of up to 1.2 gigabytes per second at a low cost across Japan and in 19 different places in Southeast Asia. JAXA developed Kizuna with another government agency, the National Institute of Information and Communication Technology, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.

The cost of the satellite's development, launch and operation is estimated at $480 million, JAXA spokeswoman Asaka Hagiwara said.

Japan has yet to join the lucrative international satellite market, and Kizuna, which should be in operation for five years, is not intended for commercial use. Its large H-2A rocket is one of the most advanced and reliable in the world — Saturday's was its eighth straight successful launch.

Japan launched its first satellite in 1970 and has achieved several major scientific coups in space — including launching a probe that collected samples from an asteroid.

Japan is racing to catch up with regional rival China, which has put astronauts in space twice since 2003 and was the third country to send a human into orbit after Russia and the United States. Japan has since announced plans to send its first astronauts into space and set up a base on the moon by 2025.

In February 2007, the agency launched its fourth intelligence-gathering satellite amid concerns over neighboring North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Researchers have built a device resembling a knee brace that can generate usable amounts of electrical energy as a person walks. The brace, described in an article in the journal Science, stores the energy lost when a human brakes the knee after swinging the leg forward to take a step.



Wearing a device on each leg, an individual can generate up to 5 watts of electricity with little additional physical effort, according to the release. Walking quickly, however, generates as much as 13 watts. At that rate, when the energy is stored in a battery, one minute of walking time could provide enough electricity to sustain 30 minutes of talk-time on a mobile phone.

More: here and here

The AMD Phenom case will soon see the light of day as it's almost finished.

The case, sponsored by AMD, Thermaltake and PlanetAMD64 is set to be displayed at ceBIT in March.

Watch the video:

As of the time of writing this post, TrueCrypt has already reached 4,264,463 total number of downloads which strongly say how popular this software is.

Truecrypt is an open source, on-the-fly data encryption. It's free and available for Windows (Vista, XP, 2000, 2003), Mac OS/X, and Linux.

The latest version is out - v5.0!

Among the new features are the ability to encrypt a system partition or entire system drive (i.e. a drive where Windows is installed) with pre-boot authentication, pipelined operations increasing read/write speed by up to 100%, Mac OS X version, graphical interface for the Linux version, XTS mode, SHA-512, and more.

Download: here

Funneling Foam: M Ship M40 Sportfisher
What’s missing from the hulls makes the boats of M Ship of San Diego unique. Twin channels above the waterline mix air (in orange) with water displaced by the hull to create a foam (dark blue) that lessens resistance to the hull, reducing drag and increasing speed and mileage. The aerated water also stabilizes the boat during turns and narrows the craft’s wake. M Ship has implemented the concept in 8-ft.-long sailing dinghies, Venetian vaporetto ferries and even an 80-ft.-long stealth ship for the U.S. military. Latest to hit the market: the M40 Sportfisher, a 40-ft., $750,000 offshore-fishing boat. Cruising at 30 knots, the vessel can go 350 miles on a 300-gal. tank of fuel.


Shape Shifter: Proteus
It looks like a giant water-strider bug, and for good reason: The 100-ft.-long Proteus, launched in 2006 at a cost of $1.5 million, operates on a similar principle, gliding over the surface instead of pushing through it.




Over and Under: Seabreacher
Imagine a Jet Ski that can roll 360 degrees, plunge underwater and then leap nearly clear of the surface. That’s the idea behind the Innespace Seabreacher, a two-seat, 175-hp watertight speedster that’s capable of 35 knots on the surface and 17 knots below. “Certainly it’s the fastest submersible craft out there,” says Innespace co-founder Rob Innes.


The Hoverwing
$85,000 UH-18SPW Hoverwing, is obviously no ordinary watercraft. It’s not even a boat exactly. At low speeds it’s a hovercraft, skimming along like an air-hockey puck. But above a critical velocity of about 55 mph, its stubby wings generate enough lift to hoist it a few feet into the air.


Sailing on Stilts: Bladerider X8
Sailors need a rudder and centerboard to maneuver their vessels. But why does the rest of the boat have to be in the water? The T-shaped foils of the Australian-designed Bladerider X8 lift the boat several feet above the surface at about 6 to 10 knots, enabling it to reach downwind speeds of more than 25 knots by reducing wave resistance.

More here with video, also here.

EMMELOORD, Netherlands (Reuters) - Motorists nostalgic for the time they could sit tight while attendants braved windswept garage forecourts to fill their tanks may yet see those heady days return -- compliments of a Dutch robot.

Dutch inventors unveiled Monday a 75,000 euro ($111,100) car-fuelling robot they say is the first of its kind, working by registering the car on arrival at the filling station and matching it to a database of fuel cap designs and fuel types.



A robotic arm fitted with multiple sensors extends from a regular petrol pump, carefully opens the car's flap, unscrews the cap, picks up the fuel nozzle and directs it toward the tank opening, much as a human arm would, and as efficiently.

"I was on a farm and I saw a robotic arm milking a cow. If a robot can do that then why can't it fill a car tank, I thought," said developer and petrol station operator Nico van Staveren. "Drivers needn't get dirty hands or smell of petrol again."

He hopes to introduce the "Tankpitstop" robot in a handful of Dutch stations by the end of the year. It works for any car whose tank can be opened without a key, and whose contours and dimensions have been recorded to avoid scratching.

Asked whether he would trust his car to a robotic garage attendant, Jelger De Kroon, filling his black Alfa Romeo at a nearby petrol station, said: "Why not? I guess I could keep my hands free and clean, but I'd hope they have good insurance."