Designed by Marie-Christine Lacasse and Marie Claude Savard, I almost like it. Almost. Big thumbs-up to the elongated rack—but I'm just not sure about that "autonomous" dishwasher unit that moves across the rack, rather like the printer head on an old dot matrix printer. And ladies, where was the spirit level in the making of your dishwasheur? Attention to detail, that's Giz all over, innit? [MoCo Loco]

Yuri Suzuki's design uses a Post-It pad to mark out the frequencies of pirate radio stations that caught her ear while living in North London. "My radio enables you to make notes about the radio station and mark its position," she says. "The radio looks like a memo pad, but underneath is a speaker; the pencil acts as the antenna that controls tuning and volume."

Yuri feels there is a connection between graffiti artists and pirate radio stations, as both are art forms that hack into public spaces. Her Future Pirate Radio lets you tune into pirate radio via QR codes. First, the graffiti artist stencils a QR code onto the wall, incorporating it into their work. Anyone who takes a picture of the graffiti will then be able to tune into the pirate radio station that inspired the artist via the internet.

Finally, Jochem Faudet's work consists of a pair of radios whose controls are grouped together in order to make it easier to use. Actually, it's rather complicated, so here's Jochem's own explanation.
"Radio 1: All the tuning and volume functions are grouped around the speaker. The On/Off switch and volume function is situated closest to the speaker. The AM/FM switch is situated at the end of the tuning circle, by flicking the switch down it points to the FM numbers situated on the outside of the circle or by flicking the switch up it points to AM numbers on the inside of the tuning semi-circle.

"Radio 2: The tuning function and volume function are separated from each other in this concept. To adjust the volume one has to turn the wheel with the integrated speaker, by sliding the AM/FM switch to FM it hides the frequencies of the AM and vice versa."

Nope, still too complicated for me, I'm afraid. [Dezeen]

With a .7 second look, both man and beast are on even ground, but with a 0.4 second or 0.2 second (!!) peek, the college kids got owned, completing it 40% of the time compared to the chimps' 80%. One thing's for sure— taking this test probably didn't help the college kids with their self esteem. While not as funny as a chimp working a typewriter while smoking a cigarette, the video above of brave Ayumu doing his thing is pretty damn amazing. Get that chimp a stylus!

And if you want to be impressed, see the next video, showing the chimps memorizing the digits after the mere peek.

[AP]

Anyone want to make me one for Hello Kitty? [Instructables]

I wish I would have done something like this at my graduation, but I was too hungover to handle anything more than walking across a stage and shaking hands. Hit the link below to see the detailed instructions of how he pulled it off. –Travis Hudson

Grad Hack [DavidWorden]

Project Page [Via Slashgear]

The FFM is a box on which the user can move around a specially equipped mouse. It has an Arduino i i/o board inside, which controls the servo-motors that position an electromagnet along the X and Y axis corresponding the mouse position. It also controls a relays board which sets the polarity of the electromagnet (which can be turned off, push or attract).

[Via Techeblog]

"The theft of music remains unacceptably high and undermines the industry's ability to invest in new music," whined Mitch Bainwol, the chief bottle washer of the RIAA. Before taking downloaders to court and suing them for those six-figure amounts, the RIAA usually settles for around $5000. There was no word about the exact amount of the RIAA's special settlement sale that's going on now. Jump to the list of schools on the hit list.

Here are the schools listed by the RIAA in its special sale on settlements for "music thieves:"

Arizona State University, Marshall University, North Carolina State University, North Dakota State University, Northern Illinois University, Ohio University, Syracuse University, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, University of South Florida, University of Southern California, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and University of Texas, Austin. – Charlie White

Music labels offer deal in download case [Yahoo News]

If you recall, yesterday we mentioned the program that Monclair State University has implemented. For a quick refresher, they gave all incoming freshman a cellphone that comes equipped with a GPS tracker. Sounds a little Big Brother-ish, right? Well not really. I had a chat with an MSU employee who gave me the full rundown of the program and how amazingly awesome it is. Hit the jump to get the full scoop.

The entire system is an opt-in system. So you have to opt-in for the GPS to be enabled, then the individual GPS features are also opt-in. So nobody has to be tracked, ever.

One of the safety features that was explained in a 15-minute Guardian. So for example if you are drunkenly stumbling back to your dorm room and concerned about getting mugged, simply enable the Guardian feature on your phone. A little blip of you will pop up at the police station and the Guardian will remain on for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes it will remind you to turn the Guardian off. If you don't because you were mugged, beaten, passed out, etc, the police will call the phone and also go to your location to find out what the problem was.

While the safety features are great. The social networking features of the GPS unit are what makes the program really shine my eyes and probably popular with the college kids. Using web-based software you can create special social groups and allow other people to see your location whenever you would like by enabling the GPS tracking. This could be especially convenient trying to meet up on campus for studying, or better yet, meeting up at the bars.

There are a wide variety of Nextel-based phones available and the basic plan costs are included in tuition and fees. So it may feel like it is a free phone, but you will be paying for it in the future. All-in-all this is an extremely handy system that can provide safety and fun for students. Good job, MSU. – Travis Hudson

Montclair State University

Montclair State University will soon be providing their students with more goodies than just textbooks and debt up to their eyeballs. Students enrolled at this New Jersey college will also receive a free cellphone. The premise behind this idea is to provide safety for students by allowing them to always have a way to call for help or even a DD. There is a bit of a catch, though. Each cellphone is equipped with a GPS tracking device so at any given time school administrators can pinpoint the exact location of a student.

Sure the GPS tracking is probably more for safety, but what happens when administrators see that you spent 20 of the past 24 hours at a strip club. What say ye' commenters? Good for safety, or crossing the line of privacy? – Travis Hudson

College giving out GPS cell phones to students [Sci-Fi]