Yeah, robots are cool. That's pretty much a universally-accepted fact. What's even cooler, though, are steam-powered robots. This marriage of old and new school is so damn... cool that I get goosebumps whenever I see or hear about stuff like it. Just imagine my delight when I laid my eyes upon the Steam Walker.

The Steam Walker is a Japanese-designed steam-powered walking robot complete with a loud internal combustion engine and ta whole Sakura Taisen/Hayao Miyazaki vibe. The combustion chamber is housed in the robot's head along with the boiler, the fuel input port, and the exhaust hole. The rear deck has an engine that runs the gearboxes that make the whole thing move. It even has a kitschy little water bucket.

Of course, if you want your 'bots all nice and shiny and futuristic, you won't see a lot of things worth raving about. For the true steampunk fan, however, the detail, the weathering.. heck, everything about this little robot is one hell of a treat. Judging from the video, it's about a foot high and would make for a great conversation piece.

Source: QJ.net

Ultreo has finally launched the Ultreo ultrasonic toothbrush - the latest weapon in the ongoing effort to further advance dental hygiene. While it's not exactly a revolutionary idea (sonic toothbrushes like Sonicare have been around for a couple of years now), Ultreo promises that this new toothbrush will bring about "the ultimate clean" with its combination of ultrasound waveguide technology and sonic bristle action.

According to its creators, Ultreo uses a tuned sonic/ultrasonic (over 20,000Hz) combo to clean teeth as compared to the more traditional sonic units that only use audible frequencies of 20Hz to 20,000Hz. The Ultreo also has a programmable replacement indicator that tells you to change brush heads every three months as well as a two-minute auto shut-off timer so that you can get more cleaning mileage out of it.

The Ultreo ultrasound toothbrush ships Spring 2007, dental hygiene addicts (which should be all of us) can pre-order one now for US 149.00.

Source: QJ.net

Well xflash can contribute to pimping the psp so heres the latest X-Flash version 18k!
For version updates and to see what's new look at this post!Here


Download!


I have nothing to do with X-Flash once soever

After almost two months of no releases, Booster has come out today with a brand new release of Devhook, v0.52.0100. While there aren't any new exciting features in the latest release, the main difference is the ability to boot Firmware 3.11 from Firmware 1.50. While I've preferred to stay with Dark_AleX's OE releases, I know quite a few people who would rather stay at FW 1.50, probably for nostalgia sake. The changes are so minor that there aren't any new changes in the Devhook files itself, just a new folder called 311 in the dh folder.

Once downloaded, extract the contents of the MS_ROOT/dh folder into the already existing dh folder in the root of your Memory Stick. This means that if you don't have an older version of Devhook on your Memory Stick, the upgrade files are useless. For that reason, here's a link to the previous version.

Installing the previous version is as simple as following the instructions on the linked page. Then, just dump Firmware 3.11 using the dumper here, using the previous devhook's firmware dumping instructions as a reference. Once it is dumped, just move the dump to the proper folder inside the dh folder and extract this devhook's new files in there.



Source: QJ.net

Remember undertaxxx? Well, if you you could recall those XMB battery edits that you've grown so fond of, then you probably have heard of this guy because he is the creator of those mods. Anyhow, going through our forums, wee were informed that he has concocted another way to pimp your PSP's XMB - the "ultimate" black PSP XMB. Check out the screens wee got here:





Anyhow, undertaxxx mentioned that this was originally made by S rgio Catumba and Innercy, but he decided to re-style everything on the XMB so that it would look perfect with the high-res icons. The package includes the following:

    * 32 bits High-Res Black Icons
    * 32 bits High-Res Battery Icon
    * 32 bits High-Res Volume bar
    * 32 Bits month background Bogus Waves
    * 32 Bits High Res Load Icon (game, savedata, photo & corrupt)
    * 32 bits High Res Load Circle (Right Corner thing)
    * Xmb line, Shadow, Selectbar  customized to Black/Crom
    * All other that's included and i forgot

He also mentions that this slick-looking XMB isn't gonna work on Dark_AleX's 3.10 OE. With all that said, the download link below contains the zip files for the Devianart icons noir black styled and the black glass photo load icon.



Source: QJ.net

A US 25,000 reward has been offered for either the drive itself or information regarding the location of a certain Iomega hard drive that has been missing from the FBI's VA office in the Pickwick Convention Center, Birmingham, AL. since January 2007. Apparently, the drive belongs to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Some really classified information must be on it for it to fetch such a hefty bounty since the drive isn't that expensive (it goes as high as US 300 for the 500 GB version).

This reward is also extended to any information regarding the identities of those involved in the disappearance of the item. If anybody out there has information regarding this loss, wee think it might be a good idea to call the FBI and inform them about it. If not for the money, then do it because it's the right thing to do. Seriously.

To contact the FBI:


VA MEDICAL CENTER BIRMINGHAM: 205-933-8101 EXT: 4401
FBI BIRMINGHAM: 205-326-6166
VA OIG HOTLINE: 1-800-488-8244
VA MEDICAL CENTER POLICE (24 HRS.): 205-933-8101 EXT: 6444

Source: QJ.net

pj1115 has released PRX module that allows you to hide your Video content. This prx is made to be used with one of Dark_ALex's custom firmwares.

Instructions:

• Place prx in ms:/SEPLUGINS and make it show up in the recovery menu it by adding "ms0:/SEplugins/module.prx" (without quotation marks) to the VSH.txt.
  
• Like all other prx's you must enable in the recovery menu.
  
• When enabled the psp will state:"There are no videos" when looking in the Video menu.
  
• When the button combination ([Home]+[L]) is pressed, the PRX lets the video menu find your files again.
  
• To Quickly enable the prx use ([Home]+[R]) button combination.
  

Two things to remember:

• If you've entered the video menu while it's unclocked, and then you lock it, anyone can still see what you've got in the menu (the PSP cache's it). To "refresh" the video menu, just go into the memory stick option of another feature (such as game, saved games, photo, etc)!, and the cache will be cleared! (Pj1115 is trying to find a way to fix this).
  
• This isn't completely secure. If someone knows what they're doing, they can disable the module from the OE recovery menu!
  

HideMov BETA




Thank the Author

SETI@home claims its first major discovery: a 'borrowed' laptop

Although this case doesn't represent the first time a thief has been tracked down by the very item he / she swiped, it does mark the first time in the history of SETI@home that the number crunching actually discovered something substantial. In another tale of good things happening to diligent people, a Minnesota husband installed the Berkeley-created software onto his wife's laptop to run whilst sitting unused, but he probably never imagined that having it check in with the California-based servers every so often would help him track down a crook. The lappie, which just so happened to house numerous crucial documents from his wife's writing collection, was jacked from their possession on New Year's Day, but as any determined and intelligent being would do, James Melin monitored the SETI@home database until the missing machine logged back into the UC mainframe, where a subpoena was then used to unearth the physical location of the 'borrowed' property. As of now, no arrests have been made, and while no pertinent documents were deleted or tampered with, Mrs. Melin noted that the perpetrator (or the eventual underground buyer's) taste in music was among the worst she's ever heard of judging by the foreign tracks that were gifted to her when the laptop returned. But what wee really have here is just another good reason to join Engadget's Folding@home team!

[source=http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/22/seti-home-claims-its-first-major-discovery-a-'borrowed'-laptop/]Engadget[/source]