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Online Color Thesaurus

November 2nd, 2007 by iDunzo

Now here’s a great resource for anyone doing a project with color — from graphic designers to homeowners looking to paint their living room.

HP (yeah, the computer company) has launched an online color thesaurus.

It’s pretty easy to use too. All you do is simply type the color name in the text field, hit submit and magically they’ll provide you a list of similar color swatches along with their opposite.

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Steve Wozniak: Apple Should Unlock The iPhone

November 1st, 2007 by iDunzo

Steve Jobs got a suggestion the other day from an old friend and business partner — a guy named Steve Wozniak.

Unlock the Apple iPhone, Woz said:

I am really for the unlockers, the rebels trying to make it free. I’d really like it to be open to new applications.

Wozniak said in an interview with Laptop magazine:

From a business point of view, Apple owns what they have done. They have a right to lock it. But I’d really like it to be open to new applications. I’d like to install some nice games. Why in the world can I not install a ringtone that I’ve made? How would that hurt AT&T’s network?

He added:

Here is Steve Jobs sending letters to the record companies saying they should provide music that’s unprotected, but here he is taking the opposite approach with the iPhone.

The magazine covered a lot of ground in its interview. Highlights:

• He’s switching to Leopard “the first day it comes out.”
• He’s skeptical of Linux’s potential. “I don’t think it’s going to make a big mark.”
• “No, I haven’t tried Vista. I bought Parallels, but I didn’t install it. I don’t have any desire to try out Vista and haven’t seen the need to yet.”

To find out more, be sure to check out the complete interview with Steve Wozniak.

Posted in Apple + Technology + Toys & Gadgets + Wireless | Comments Off on Steve Wozniak: Apple Should Unlock The iPhone

What Happened to the Autonomous Heart Surgery Robot?

November 1st, 2007 by iDunzo

In May 2006, Engadget and a few thousand other sites featured variations on this headline, “Robot surgeon performs world’s first unassisted operation“.

Some of the write-ups around the web told of how the robot had been trained in the relatively simple heart surgery that stops atrial fibrillation, which is caused by chaotic electrical activity in the heart (almost like epilepsy for the brain).

To treat the condition, surgeons burn some of the heart flesh, to short-circuit the nerves causing the trouble.

Apparently, an Italian doctor, Carlo Pappone, had gotten a robot to do this surgery. The last sentence of the Engadget post contained this tantalizing promise:

Pappone, who initiated and monitored the latest surgery from a computer in Boston while it was occurring in Milan, plans to release a commercial version of the unnamed robosurgeon later this month.

But here we are, almost 18 months later, and no such robosurgeon has appeared in the market.

So, I’m putting out an APB for Dr. Pappone, the creator of the world’s only autonomous heart surgery robot.

After some exhaustive searching, I haven’t been able to find any good information on what Dr. Pappone has been up to since last May.

Did the robot encounter problems? Is it snaking its way through hearts in Italy or the 3rd world, but not in the US?

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A Welcome Sight for Those in Peril Upon the Sea

November 1st, 2007 by iDunzo

November 1, 1859: The second lighthouse at Cape Lookout, North Carolina, is lit for the first time.

Cape Lookout is situated along the Outer Banks, a treacherous stretch of coastal shoals and storm-tossed seas that has always presented a navigation hazard to mariners.

The original lighthouse, built in 1812, proved an unreliable navigational aid, so Congress appropriated $40,000 (about $900,000 in current dollars) for the construction of a much larger lighthouse.

The Cape Lookout Lighthouse stands 163-feet high — almost 70 feet taller than its predecessor — and its powerful Fresnel lens casts a light that is visible up to 19 miles out to sea. This was a marked improvement over the original and set the standard for lighthouses up and down the eastern seaboard.

Painted in a distinctive black-and-white diamond pattern, the tower is itself a navigational aid, at least in fair weather.

The lighthouse, with nine-foot-thick walls at its base, was built to withstand the pounding made inevitable by its exposed location. It would ultimately save the structure — but from a landward threat.

Just 18 months after the lighthouse opened, North Carolina seceded from the Union. As Federal troops advanced through the Carolinas in 1862, retreating Confederates destroyed a number of lighthouses, including the Cape Hatteras light. They tried to dynamite the Cape Lookout light, but those nine-foot-thick walls defeated them. They did, however, succeed in damaging the lens, knocking the lighthouse out of service.

After the war, repairs were made, and the lighthouse has remained in continuous service since. The last resident keeper left in 1950, when the lighthouse was fully automated.

In 1972, the original Fresnel lens was replaced by two 1,000-watt aerobeacons, each measuring 24-inches across.

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