iblog

Rushda: Here’s another thing to add to the evergrowing list of cool robots and advances in medicine. A new little device has been designed, called a Robobug which crawls over a beating heart and performs various operations after it attaches to the heart with its rubber feet. It works via a joystick which the surgeon controls and it can do a lot of precise things such as install pacemakers or inject drugs, much quicker and more efficiently than any manual surgeon can. It’s great enough when you hear about quirky robots, but ones that can play such a big part in helping people with their lives is even more incredible.

Virgil: Google is the search engine. I laugh in the face of others. If I don’t find something on Google, I won’t even bother to look somewhere else. If it’s not on Google, it’s not anywhere. But funnily enough, there is actually very little research to suggest that Google gives better results than other sites.

Yet this is the kind of “habitual” mindset that rival companies are up against. They want users to use their search engines, but how can they compete with a generation that has actually turned a corporate name into a verb?

google
1. noun, singular. An internet search engine.
2. verb, transitive. To search on the internet using Google. e.g. “I googled it.”

Companies such as Ask are overhauling their websites. Whilst Jeeves was a fun gimick, he was doing nothing to make people take the engine seriously. Now they, like so many others, are simplifying their front pages (this won Google a lot of kudos in the early years), trying to offer different tools, and new ways to search. They can’t just copy Google, they need to offer something different, or better, if they want to hope to break our Googling habits.

But the problem I see with this is simple. There aren’t that many funky things you want to do with a search engine. No one wants new ways to search or special tools. We just want good results, and, research or no research, Google does actually do the best. So to all those other companies, without shame I still laugh in their pathetic unPageRanked faces.

Rushda: Today we celebrate the fastest-selling mp3 player of all time, the iPod, sales of which have now broken records and reached the 100 million mark. The first iPod was released in November 2001 by the California-based company Apple, and since then later models have made the Ipod become a household name worldwide. Even the Queen and President Bush own one! Not only has the iPod become famous in its own right, but it has encouraged the sale of thousands of accessories to go with it, produced by many different companies. I’m not surprised about all the popularity, having owned numerous iPods myself. They really are so pretty and yet don’t seem to bow down to anything in terms of functionality either. Hooray!

Virgil: Nanotechnology, technology at the scale of atoms, is one of the most promising fields of research in modern science. The potential is there for achieving big tasks with things so small we wouldn’t even realise they existed. And not only that, the tiny machines will be able to achieve the tasks better than big clunky ones, as well as being able to do more tasks than their oversized counterparts. Whilst much speculation regarding this type of engineering is pure science fiction, other implementations are already in use (see this BBC News pictures article for examples).

However the government has failed to provide adequate funding into nanotechnology research, particularly in the area of deciding the dangers of the technology. Without this funding, Britain could lose its place as the pioneer in the field. Indeed, the research itself could be inhibited. Without this kind of input, Britain may be unable to collaborate with researchers abroad, shutting it out of the bigger picture. The nanotechnology sphere is expected to be worth trillions of pounds in the coming future.

Virgil: Wallace and Gromit, Britain’s favourite plasticine heros, are well known for their inventiveness. In the long line of wacky contraptions, they have produced mechanical trousers, mind-altering devices, rabbit-sucking machines, get-out-of-bed-o-trons, and even a spaceship. The nations Patent Office jokingly calls them “Britain’s foremost inventors”!

Nick Park, their creator, has now had his characters begin a partnership with the Patent Office. The ‘Cracking Ideas’ scheme encourages young children to come up with funky ideas for new inventions, and the scheme supports this by automatically patenting any of the feasible ideas. It’s just the kind of thing that Mr Park would have loved as a child, having decided from the age of 8 that he wanted to grow up and be an inventor, such that he could make a time machine and visit the dinosaurs. In his own words he describes his subsequent career - animating Wallace and Gromit, which can take up to 7 years per production - a kind of “mad inventor” activity too.

This all sounds fantastic and I’m glad kids are being encouraged to be creative. However I give an F-minus grade to one of the first inventions: a purpose-built ladder that helps spiders get out of the bath!

Rushda: Because of escalating violence against teenagers, many worried parents have resorted to buying special jackets in order to armour their children against attacks. These specially-designed jackets are stab and bullet-proof, and VestGuard UK, the company which sells them, have sold almost a hundred so far, each costing hundreds of pounds.

I think it’s such a sad fact that the company which mostly supplies armour to Ministry of Defence police and other teams needing serious protection are now producing the same kind of stuff for children (who we would have hoped are not in as much danger). Though I think it’s great that so many parents care so much for their children, I also think that if violence between children has increased so much that children have to wear such clothing even in places like schools, that is very shameful for society. It really reflects the fact that there are some parents and teachers who are failing their children.

Rushda: Some of you may have seen the film The Rocketeer, a cheesy 90s film about a person who discovers a jet pack that allows him to fly. Well, the idea isn’t as fictional as once thought, as a Swiss pilot has actually done the same thing and been able to fly by strapping a pair of wings and two jet engines to his back. The mas has to jump out of a plane as he can’t take off in the conventional way due to obviously not being able to run fast enough. But once he’s in the air he has been able to sustain over four minutes of free flight at 2500m, controlling himself with handles under the wings. It’s thrilling and much better than being a bird, he says. Sounds exciting, and the idealistic amongst us may now start imagining a future where human flight really is an everyday occurrence!

Virgil: Yesterday night saw the European release of Sony’s flagship next generation gaming console, the PlayStation 3, which was expected to be a major hit. Sony were so sure the console would sell like hotcakes that they even gave away free HDTV’s with every purchase in London. However, the turnout was not quite as expected - in many locations across Europe, the media present at the opening outnumbered the customers.

To top it off, Microsoft (the company behind the vastly popular Xbox 360 console, a next generation system that came out long before the PS3 made its entrance) really rubbed salt in the wounds. They gave out chairs to people who were waiting in queues, each printed with a website address - at which a user would find a chiding message to Sony, saying welcome to the next generation, but you’re quite late! In France, a boat covered in Xbox 360 logos sailed up and down the Seine whilst a moored Sony boat, selling PS3s, got no customers. On the other hand, in Berlin, people were given free PS3 consoles for publicly smashing their Xbox 360s to bits!

Whether the PS3 will be a hit or a flop remains to be seen, but it will suffer greatly from not only being late, but also being heavily priced.

Steve Robinson: The long-awaited PlayStation 3 is set to hit the UK at midnight tonight after suffering delays stretching back to 2006. The console was released on 17th November 2006 in the US, but Sony announced in September of last year that the next-generation gaming device would release later in Europe, blaming problems with the mass-production of the Blu-Ray disc drive. The shift to a Spring 2007 European release was seen as a blow to Sony’s market share, as it fell further behind Microsoft’s XBox 360 and Nintendo’s new Wii system. Many fans are excited however that the day has finally come when they can get their hands on the machine many consider to be the true ‘next generation’ console.

Issues still remain about price however, with many consumers unhappy that Sony decided to only release the more expensive, 60gb version for a pricey £425. Not only is the smaller, 20gb model (which retails for $499 in the US, roughly £255) not available at launch, but the 60gb option retailed for $599 - roughly £300 - at launch. With a four-month delay and a model-restricted supply at launch, how can Sony justify charging a massive £125 more in Europe than in America?
Though hardcore fans will not be deterred by the pricetag, industry experts believe the balance of power in the console industry may well shift in the coming months due to Sony’s hard line pricing strategy. With the cheaper, arguably more fun-filled Nintendo Wii available for a paltry £179, and the Xbox 360 celebrating a recent price reduction, it may well be tough going for the new kid on the block.

Rushda: I’ve often wondered about how elderly people and technophobes manage to use a mobile phone, especially as most mobiles nowadays are jampacked with many small fiddly buttons and whizzy features. I’m glad therefore that a new phone has come out especially for those who find it difficult to use them. This new initiative makes sense as elderly people would probably be most in need of a phone in case of emergencies. The Life Phone, by Emporia, which will go on sale in May, features a big screen and minimal big buttons, the most basic calling functions and a very handy big red emergency button on the back. The call and ring volume is also significantly higher than most other phones. Sounds great and if I didn’t love having the most advanced and pretty mobiles with every feature I could ever need, I’d have to snap one up myself!