Gizmodo: ray

Heat Ray Causes Unintelligible Yelping from 60 Minutes Reporter

Christopher Mascari — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:00:57 EST

Remember the US Military ray gun that makes people feel like they're on fire? Well, 60 Minutes sent out a reporter to see if he could take the heat. Standing in plain view of the ray gun made his body feel like "scalding water," so David Martin attempted, with little success, to hide behind a piece of plywood and later a mattress. Some claim they can only take the heat ray 4 - 5 seconds, so when David tried it we think he only made it 2 seconds, even if he did say, "ONE ONE THOUSAND TWO ONE THOUSAND THREE ONEEEAAHHHHRRHHR" [CBS via TechEBlog]

HD DVD Losing Its Arsenal in Japan

Haroon Malik — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:59:26 EST

The HD DVD troopers are surely fighting the losing battle, as new research from Japan details a surge in Blu-Ray recorder ownership. The study surveyed buying trends from 2,300 electronic stores across Japan, and the statistics showed that next-generation DVD-unit sales rocketed from 6.1% in October to 20% in November and December. As the next-generation recorders have a higher price point, they managed to account for some 35% of the total DVD player market value. However, Blu-Ray walked home with the largest market share of the two.

Blu-Ray made up 90% of all next-generation DVD player sales. Now, we aren't mathematicians, but that is a hell of a lot. In fact, it is so much, looking at this image now actually leaves a ferrous-like taste in our mouths, due to its shocking, 90% increased, ironic eye candy status. [Japan Today; image via Picasa Online]

Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader

Joel — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 08:18:40 EDT

Ray Kurzweil is going to make big money from the blind—up to $3,500 a pop for his 'K-NFB,' a device that scans printed text and repeats it audibly.

"This has probably taken something like three years' effort by some fairly diligent scientists," explained Mervin Robertson, managing director of Sight & Sound Technology, who will be selling the device in the UK.
"Effectively, it's a software cost that makes up the vast majority of this."

Short for the modestly-named 'Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader,' the K-NFB was developed with the help of a $2 million grant from the federation that shares its name. We can only presume the two million bucks were used to pay for the sort of "fairly diligent" work one can expect from those who have dedicated their ten-to-four workday to bettering the lives of the disabled by selling them a glorified PDA. – Joel Johnson

Reading 'to go' for blind people [BBC via /.]