Web creator wants online freedom

Sir Tim Berners-Lee has hinted that the proposed new online web monitoring
software, such as Open Internet Exchange from Phorm, which is ostensibly
aimed at providing better online advert targeting could be used to monitor
personal web use and potentially break privacy laws.

The Cyborg Ninja wholly agrees with Sir Tim...the internet should be free,
open and seen as a utility to the same extent as water, electricity and
gas...

10 years on and still the greatest...

On this day 10 years ago, the McLaren F1 supercar broke the 240mph barrier and became the fastest car ever made, a record held for 7 years. Despite it now having been overtaken by a number of cars (Veyron, Koenigsegg, Shelby etc.) in terms of top speed, it still reigns as the greatest supercar of them all, a feat of engineering that was simply mindblowing and so cutting edge, it bled.

The Cyborg Ninja salutes Gordon Murray and the McLaren team for their lasting achievement...

Flexible Silicon unlocks vast potential...

The breakthrough creation of flexible silicon chips could potentially unlock a number of radical uses, including wearable IT, brain implants and heart monitors. The uses are possibly limitless.

This could allow the integration of electronics in a variety of ways in the human body - but the human body does not have the shape of a silicon wafer. Completely integrated, extremely bendable circuits have been talked about for many years but have not been demonstrated before...until now.

The slim line circuits, like conventional chips, are made of sandwiches of multiple materials to form the wires and different components. The depth and relative position of the different layers, including chromium, gold and silicon, was crucial and the key to unlocking this technology.

No doubt commercial uses will begin to emerge in the coming years...subcutaneous mobile communications anyone? Embedded streaming mp3 via Wi-Fi? Web portal access projected internally on your retina? Cyborg Ninja indeed....

Cutting edge technology....in 1860

Whilst this blog focuses on cutting edge technology, the Cyborg Ninja couldn't overlook the following news...

Details have emerged of the discovery of the oldest recording of the human voice. The historic archive pre-dates Edison's phonograph experiments by 17 years. The ten second clip is a recording of the French rhyme "Au clair de la lune" and can be heard by clicking here.

It was made on April 9, 1860, by Parisian inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville on a device called the phonautograph that scratched sound waves onto a sheet of paper blackened by the smoke of an oil lamp.

The technology involved sounds simply incredible - paper! - but the story has been verified. Amazing to think that the sound was recorded at the time of the French Revolution!

Morgan to enter Electric Car market

Another major car company has announced plans for an electric vehicle and it looks a bit special! Morgan Motor Company, renowned for making modern yet old-fashioned looking cars in a distinctly British style have unveiled their ‘LifeCar’ – a fuel cell powered, lightweight roadster capable of 200 miles on one charge.

They have collaborated with a number of notable companies from a variety of sectors including RiverSimple, Cranfield University, QinetiQ, Oxford University and Linde AG to create this zero emissions machine. The objective of the project is to lower the entry barriers for a vehicle powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.

Perhaps the impetus for electric vehicle adoption will need to come from smaller manufacturers such as Morgan and Tesla and the UK could stand to benefit thanks to its unique Single Vehicle Approval system, small car firms can bypass all the European Union regulations, and that’s why we have so many such firms in this country. This would help smaller firms establish their technologies without having to comply with often unnecessary safety regulations.

Either way, the Morgan looks like a perfect first step in to this market for the luxury car maker and hopefully more will follow…

Blu-Ray – Standards please!

Despite victory in the high definition ‘format war’, Blu-Ray has still to officially agree it’s own final internal technology standards. At present, the only Blu-Ray player capable of playing the current 1.1 and upcoming 2.0 standards is the Playstation 3.

Only when 2.0 goes live in June will full the internet, hard drive and wi-fi capabilities be unlocked. In addition, backwards-compatability for standard DVD is not mandatory in Blu–Ray players. This is one area where Blu-Ray lags behind the now defunct HD-DVD format.

However, one brighter development is the 200gig experimental Blu-Ray disc under development by TDK.

MGS 4 too big for Blu-Ray!

Apparently the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4 video game for the PS3 is too big to fit on one 50 gig Blu-Ray disc!!!!

Evidently the foreign voices are to be left off the Japanese edition and the Japanese voices will be left of the European and US editions to ensure the game fits on one disc...

High-Def gaming truly has arrived!

Who is the Cyborg Ninja?

Electric cars - high end, high class!

Two companies have recently unveiled their planned electric cars and have stirred the market with their models being more supercar than slumbercar!

Tesla Cars have just delivered their first roadster, based on a Lotus framework, whilst Fisker Automotive have released images of their Karma model. Both run close to $100,000 to buy but the financial saving from fuel, road tax, congestion charges etc. soon adds up to make these cars a very smart ethical buy. Beyond these two supercars, Smart Cars, owned by Mercedes have unveiled their own electric version of the popular Smart ForTwo town car - Smart ed (electric drive).

However, the real sleeper amongst this growing market is the Chevrolet Volt (see photo above) - a luxury futuristic-looking saloon car that will sell for approximately £20,000! This car may help finally launch electric cars to the mass-market.