Gizmodo: australian

UK's Sky TV Makes Upside-Down Remote For Australians

Jason Chen — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:00:00 EDT

In honor of some sport nobody here cares about, British satellite company is releasing upside-down remotes for Australians—because the two are playing each other in said sporting match. [Forever Geek via Technabob]

Retromodo: Astounding Analog Traffic Signal

Jason Chen — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:40:00 EDT

This analog traffic signal was in use from the 1940s through the 1970s in Australia, eventually replaced by whatever it is they've got going there now (Koala bears on poles holding flash cards, we think). It's fantastic.

Instead of solid lights, the analog rotating signal shows you exactly how much time you've got left in a green or a red, allowing you to better time your "floor it, we can make it" so as to not run the light and get caught by the intersection cameras. It's an easy solution that can be rigged into current light schemes by putting a countdown number in each light instead of just a solid color. I need to patent this. [Infosthetics via Make via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Australians Boast 5Gbps Wireless Speeds

Eric Sheline — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:34:45 EST

As usual, just as 802.11n is being finalized news hits about a much faster wireless specification. An Australian NICTA team claims to have made a CMOS chip capable of 5Gbps transmission speeds at a distance of 32ft. Their so called "GiFi" transmitter is small and cheap, but is not yet approved by the IEEE nor independently speed tested. Even if this is real, the 2W power consumption will prevent it from dethroning 802.11n in mobile devices. [Ars]

Australian Miners Wreck It

Haroon Malik — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 22:02:18 EST

If you have always wondered how Australian miners amuse themselves when they are bored, wonder no longer. It is way cooler than any of us expected: they take a massive mining truck and use it to destroy land cruisers that are found unoccupied, all for funzies. Is there anything more fun than destroying large metal based structures with larger metal based structures? The video of the event indicates that there isn't. Don't believe us? Hit the video for the truth behind real good times. [Liveleak]