Blu-ray Disc Technology

Its has been more than year this technology is avilable. Most of the new Sony laptops has this technology. Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed by Sony to take the place of the standard DVD format. Its main purposes are high-definition video and data storage with 50GB per disc. The disc has the same physical dimensions as standard DVDs and CDs use to have.
The name Blu-ray Disc is derived from the blue laser used to read and write to this type of disc.

Pololu 3pi Robot

Just heard about 3pi robot on a magzine very good and cheap robot kit. 

That can be programmed in C language. I really

 like its speed. 

The Pololu 3pi robot is a complete, high-performance mobile platform featuring two micro metal gearmotors, five reflectance sensors, an 8×2 character LCD, a buzzer, and three user pushbuttons, all conn

ected to a C-programmable ATmega168 microcontroller. Capable of speeds exceeding 3 feet per second, 3pi is a

 great first robot for ambitious beginners

 and a perfect second robot for those looking to move up from non-programmable or slower beginner robots.

Visit http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/975 for more details.

Windows 7 Release Candidate

Welcome to Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) testing. We're on our way to Windows 7, and if you like trying out pre-release software, now’s your chance. You get to see what's coming, and we get to see if our changes and fixes from the Beta testing are working correctly.

How do you test the software? You put it on your PC, and then do what you'd normally do. Your PC will automatically and anonymously send our engineers the information they need to verify the fixes and changes they made based on the Windows 7 Beta tests

http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/Windows-7/download.aspx

Moduler Robot

A robot developed by robotics at the University of Pennsylvania is made of modules that can recognize each other and reassemble when kicked apart. When physically damaged, the T-1000 is capable of reforming itself in seconds, closing up bullet holes and reattaching limbs.

With an ultimate range up to 1000 km, a maximum operating depth of 6000 m, and a
generous payload capacity of 0.5 m3, Autosub6000 will be one of the world’s most
capable deep diving science Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). It is scheduled
for deep water trials on the RRS Discovery in September 2007, after which it will be
available for science missions. We encourage proposals for the use of Autosub6000 from
2008 onwards. We envisage its use in a wide variety of missions, for example : overflow
and exchanges across sills, abyssal circulation + mixing, Southern Ocean mixing
processes, ocean ridge, marine census, canyons and sea-mounts, ocean margins benthic
communities, gas hydrate surveys.


Autosub6000 is the latest 6000 m rated version of the Autosub AUV series, which has
been used extensively for ocean science during the last 10 years, including work under
ice operations in the Arctic and Antarctic. The design of the nose and tail sections,
including the navigation and control systems, are substantially inherited from the tried
and tested Autosub3. The main difference is the depth rating (6000m rather than 1600m),
and the energy system (Lithium Polymer rechargeable batteries rather than primary
manganese alkaline cells).



Dimensions 5.5 m long, 0.9 m diameter
Mass 2000 kg (Dry), 2800 kg (Wet).
Range, endurance 1000 km at 1 m/s (8.6 days). 400 km at 1.6 m/s. (2.9 days).
The 2007 version will have 50% of this range.
Depth capability 6000 m maximum.
Navigation 0.1% of distance travelled since last GPS or USBL fix.
Telemetry and
Tracking
Linkquest TrackLink 10000 USBL and bidirectional telemetry system.
Control Modes Constant depth, constant altitude (5 to 200m), profiling.
Recharge time 5 hours from fully exhausted lithium polymer battery pack.
Standard Sensor
Suite
300 kHz RDI Workhorse ADCP. Fitting of Seabird 911 CTD be requested
from NMFD.
There are plans to fit a Mulitbeam system by August 2008.
Payload Capacity Similar to Autosub3. Large (0.5 m3) volumes free in the nose area for
payloads.
Power for sensors Up to 250 Watts at 48 volt.
Data Handling 100 M bit s-1 TP Ethernet .200 G byte data storage. IEEE 802.11g WiFi for
data download.
Shipping One standard 20 foot shipping containers. Launch and recovery gantry.


A titanium tube housing the Inertial
Navigation Unit (IXSEA-PHINS), a 300 kHz
RDI ADCP, and a high performance Thales
GPS receiver. We are developing navigation
algorithms, involving processing of imaging
or multibeam data, which, for area survey
missions in deep water, will maintain GPS
quality accuracy over periods of several days.