Tech Today w/ Ken May

Can’t stop banging out Rebecca Black’s oh-so-infectious jams on your knickerbockers? Korg’s Wavedrum Mini won’t make Friday any less awful, but it could make your inexcusable actions a wee bit less annoying. The Q3-bound Mini crams the company’s digital drum pad tech into a portable package with a built in speaker, and its myriad buttons let you choose from 100 different sounds including strings, synth tones, and a gaggle of percussion instruments. You’ll also get 100 preset rhythms for those who prefer their instruments play themselves, but surely that’s not you… right? Heck, there’s even a loop function so you can build layer upon layer (upon layer!) of cacophonous noise. The best part, however, is the included sensor, which can be clipped to almost anything, turning your ceaseless toe tapping into bass hits. If you can’t wait to see it in action, take a gander at the exceedingly long demo video after the break.

Continue reading Korg Wavedrum Mini makes music from your nervous tics (video)

Korg Wavedrum Mini makes music from your nervous tics (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba announced [PDF] it has developed a series of self-decrypting hard drives that automatically destroy their content when connected to an unknown piece of hardware. The company says it’s the first to make it possible to configure such devices, for example to invalidate protected data by command or on power cycle.

Not too surprisingly, the main target group are financial, governmental and medical institutions with a need to protect data stored in hard drives in PCs, copy machines, printers and other hardware.

Toshiba will offer the 2.5-inch/7,200rpm “Wipe Technology HDD” with 160/250/320/500 and 640GB (pictured) on board in June this year (the first samples will be shipped later this month).

More here:
Toshiba HDD Destroys Content Automatically When Connected To Unknown PC

IBM’s latest announcement probably won’t get us any closer to securing our very own in-house version of Watson, but the firm is boasting a new line of Power7 products that includes an upgraded version of the supercomputer’s server. First up are the BladeCenter PS703 and PS704, sporting 16 cores and 32 cores, respectively — the PS704 touts a 60 percent increase in speed over its predecessors. The Power 750, the same system that gave Watson the stuff to slaughter those humans on Jeopardy!, is getting an upgrade that supports as many as 32 cores and can run up to 128 simultaneous threads, while the Power 755 offers up high-performance computing with 32 cores of its own. The cheapest version of the Power 750 Express rings in at about $30,000. So, no, we won’t be battling Watson in a Jeopardy! Home Edition showdown anytime soon, but we’re happy to see that our favorite supercomputer could be even smarter — or at the very least, faster — the next time it shows up on the boob tube. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading IBM touts new Power7 systems, still no mass market Watson

IBM touts new Power7 systems, still no mass market Watson originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Truth: I've always wanted to be a brewer. Part cook, part scientist, part lush—it's really everything I ever wanted out of life. And while there are some home brewing kits that at least give me a glimpse into the experience, none of them holds a candle, it seems, to the WilliamsWarn Personal Brewery. More

In old Japan, myth has it that earthquakes are caused by a giant catfish (namazu). After the Great Ansei Earthquake of 1855 which hit Edo (now Japan Tokyo), a new type of color woodblock print blaming the fish became popular. Pink Tentacle explains:

These prints featured depictions of mythical giant catfish (namazu) who, according to popular legend, caused earthquakes by thrashing about in their underground lairs. In addition to providing humor and social commentary, many prints claimed to offer protection from future earthquakes.

Link

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Namazu: Giant Earthquake Catfish

Scientists from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Japan cultivated embryonic stem cells in a test tube and added proteins to coax them into developing. They had wanted it to form a recognizable organ, but were stunned to find that over 10 days, the stem cells had formed an embryonic eye:

Professor Yoshiki Sasai, lead author said: “What we’ve been able to do in this study is resolve a nearly century-old problem in embryology, by showing that retinal precursors have the inherent ability to give rise to the complex structure of the optic cup.”

His team, who filmed the technique as it unfolded, grew floating clusters of the mouse cells in a special tissue culture in the laboratory that had previously been successfully used to make a variety of brain cells.

By adding particular proteins they were able to get the cells to build a three dimensional layered structure reminiscent of the optic cup within 10 days.

Link – via TWYWKIWDBI

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Scientists Created Embryonic Eye in Test Tube

We’ve mentioned a few beginner soldering guides on Lifehacker in the past, but if you’re looking for something super simple and easy to follow, you can’t go wrong with this 7-page comic book. More

Intel’s Panther Point to include native USB 3.0 support, Z68 chipset to launch May 8th? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RE-35 is an awesome product: It’s a film-roll-shaped cartridge that you insert into any film camera, instantly transforming it into a digital camera. A “Flexisensor” sheet extends from the cartridge once inside the camera, using the existing lens to capture high-res digital images.

(more…)

Read more here:
Great New Way to Convert an Analog Camera to Digital… with One Catch

What makes a person lucky? Often it’s less about actual luck than it is about a person’s general outlook. Here’s why. More