The first (mostly) self-replicating printer has been demonstrated at this event. Not only is it licensed under GPL, but it only costs around $600 to put it together! It takes about 2.5 days to print itself out.

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...I designed a workable flying saucer, using well-understood, existing tech. The only problem: It'd probably cost $50k to prototype, and then probably $5 mil to get approved by the FAA (if I actually wanted to market them).

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One of the steps in my 30-year plan looks to be only about 10 years off from commercial development.

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What is this number, you might ask? The "Base Score" rating on the machine I just finished putting together. Drool, baby, drool. (:

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You will be missed. *sigh*

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There's a new power source being developed. Certain types of plastics ("ionic polymers") generate small amounts of electricity when they bend. The city of Vandergrift, Pennsylvania is looking into putting arrays of them into a nearby river. They're even plant and fish friendly - they just look like some small-tendril plants sitting on the bottom ( Read more... )

Here's an interesting article about the first paper-based transistor.

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So, I was thinking about how much I disliked the current designs for wireless mesh networking, and then I realized why: Nearly all current mesh network designs, such as 802.11s, are designed for mostly-static nodes of similar broadcast strength, and when I envision wireless mesh networking, I think of tens or hundreds of mostly-moving mobile ( Read more... )

Here's a little peek into one little part of the future. And by "future" I don't mean 2050. I'm talking more like, say, 2012 ( Read more... )

DARPA is now funding research into plasma disruption through EM fields and acoustics, or more simply put, containing and suppressing fire (which is just a cold form of plasma) with electric fields and sound.

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