Among them are…

Designing the Seiko Spring Drive watch (you can get one for $3500 here)

In March 2005 Seiko finally unveiled the Spring Drive at an international watch and jewelry show in Switzerland. Selling for something over $3000, each timepiece is hand-assembled by a master artisan. Seiko says it is the most accurate mechanical chronograph on the market, losing no more than 1 second per day.

One of the things that Koike likes most about working on the Spring Drive watches, he says, is that he knows their owners will appreciate them. Noting that the Japanese have a reputation for being extremely punctual, Koike says, “this watch will make them feel safe and secure.” You can’t really ask more of a wristwatch.

Building an electric dirt bike

Until a year ago, Kluge led a double life. Monday through Friday, he was a mild-mannered Silicon Valley engineer. On weekends, he was a top motorcycle track racer, competing in events all over the United States. Now, as Zero Motorcycle’s director of engineering, he has managed to merge his passion with his profession.

However, I just saw this video on CNN about a man from Indiana who installed a $100,000 oil well in his back yard and gets three barrels of crude a day. He claims that “it’s a money maker” (3*$100*365 = $109,500).

Video of the latest cash crop.

Project Details:

Phase I: March 2008 – August 2008

* Includes full-system automation, monitoring and smart meters for the first group of SmartGridCity customers. Involves upgrades to two substations, five feeders and nearly 15,000 meters (representing both residential, commercial and light industrial customers) in Boulder.
* A Web portal will provide consumers with insight into their energy use and information for better home energy management.
* A dedicated customer service phone number (1-877-887-3339) and e-mail address (SmartGridCity@xcelenergy.com) for SmartGridCity customers.
* Some customers can choose to have in-home automation tools, allowing increased control over home energy use and costs.
* By mid-August, initial capabilities should be demonstrated.

Phase II: September 2008 – December 2009

* Complete the installation of a distribution and communication network for remaining areas within Boulder (an additional two substations, 20 feeders and smart meters for an additional 35,000 premises).
* Expanded in-home automation installations.
* Enable Web portal access to all SmartGridCity customers.
* Begin initial integration of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, solar and wind co-generation sources onto the grid in Boulder.

Previous post on the SmartGridCity.

There are cell phone shortcuts you can use to bypass the greeting and start recording a message immediately. All you need to know is which carrier is used by the person you are calling.

If you call anyone on AT&T or T-Mobile, press the “#” button. For Verizon, press the “*” button, and use the “1” when calling anyone on Sprint.

from The Selling Sherpa (google search result)

“7″ also works for AT&T, which is my carrier. I’ll have to try ‘#’.

You may be able to use similar shortcuts on business phone systems.

And now, some LOL cats on the phone.

Which reminds me, I can’t wait for the movie Get Smart to come out (June 20th). A throwback to the awesome Get Smart television series from the late 60s (created by Mel Brooks).

Also, Watertown, SD, received 19″ of snow yesterday – the new all time record for one calendar day snowfall. It snowed last night and most of the morning here, but no accumulation, just windy and chilly at 40 F. It’s supposed to get down to 27 tonight!

How to build a robotic fly (video)

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – MAV surveillance to take flight with “Black Hornet”

Bendable, stretchable circuit sheets

RFID-based people tracking systems

CES 2008: Eye-Fi wireless SD camera card (video) – wireless download from the SD card to computer/network/web, www.eye.fi

Insert into camera, and viola!
Send pictures from your camera sans wires!

For car enthusiasts – examples of the latest developments in engine efficiency and interior technology
Green Machines By John Voelcker
This year’s top tech cars

+ We (the US) are finally getting the awesome Nissan GT-R!

Power Plant: 358-kW (480 hp) 3.8-L twin-turbocharged V6
Transmission: Rear transaxle with sequential 6-speed; paddle shift

From the IEEE blog, The Sandbox (China Gets In The Game).

The original article is here: Chinese Online Games to Top $3 bln in 2010.

DENVER – Xcel Energy announced today it will put in motion its vision to make Boulder, Colo. the nation’s first fully integrated Smart Grid City.

Smart Grid City could feature a number of infrastructure upgrades and customer offerings – for the first time fully integrated through the partnership’s efforts in Boulder – including:

· Transformation of existing metering infrastructure to a robust, dynamic electric system communications network, providing real-time, high-speed, two-way communication throughout the distribution grid;
· Conversion of substations to “smart” substations capable of remote monitoring, near real-time data and optimized performance;
· At the customer’s invitation, installation of programmable in-home control devices and the necessary systems to fully automate home energy use; and
· Integration of infrastructure to support easily dispatched distributed generation technologies (such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles with vehicle-to-grid technology; battery systems; wind turbines; and solar panels).

The potential benefits of the Smart Grid City include operational savings, customer-choice energy management, better grid reliability, greater energy efficiency and conservation options, increased use of renewable energy sources, and support for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and intelligent-home appliances.

The first phase of Smart Grid City is expected to be in place by as early as August 2008, with implementation throughout the city continuing through 2009. Beginning in 2009, the consortium also expects to begin an initial assessment of the technologies.

Xcel Energy also unveiled a Smart Grid Consortium web site today, www.xcelenergy.com/smartgrid, which has graphics and educational materials explaining its Smart Grid vision.

Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) is a major U.S. electricity and natural gas company with regulated operations in eight Western and Midwestern states. Xcel Energy provides a comprehensive portfolio of energy-related products and services to 3.3 million electricity customers and 1.8 million natural gas customers through its regulated operating companies. Company headquarters are located in Minneapolis. More information is available at www.xcelenergy.com.

There’s a 7 minute video on the smartgrid page.

We’ll see how all that works out.

And so when you look past the Blu-ray victory, the latest ­developments in digital movies are all about downloads, not disks.

At MacWorld, which directly ­followed CES, Steve Jobs announced a new download service for ­renting ­movies. As with music, Apple has struck deals with the major movie ­studios. You can begin a show on your ­computer or television and finish watching it on your iPod or iPhone. The service started in February with 1000 ­movies, ­costing US $2.99 to $3.99 each.

…

So do we really need to trudge out to Blockbuster, Best Buy, or Wal-Mart for a disk? Or wait for the now-­familiar red envelope from Netflix? A lot of ­companies, including Apple and Netflix itself, are ­betting no. Sony and the other movie studios, even though they get a cut from movie downloads, hope the ­competition is wrong. I don’t think they are.

One thing I’ve noticed that is missing from the online/download movies is the extra features that are usually on the DVDs. Plus downloaded movies lack the easy of portability that disks provide.

And here’s a word of advice to anyone using a GPS to find a quick meal near an airport – they obviously don’t filter the restaurants inside the airport terminal from the search results. Maybe they think you might need to use your GPS to navigate the airport to find the shortest route from concourse A to B via Chili’s? Our team in MN found that out when the GPS unit tried to steer us to the McDonald’s located inside the Minneapolis airport while we were driving around waiting to pick up a co-worker.

More on bad GPS directions at The Map Room.

Best Buy and Netflix have both just announced that they will be promoting Blu-ray over HD DVD.

That comes on the heels of last month’s announcement by Warner Bros. that they will stop selling HD DVDs and sell only Blu-ray disks in the future. It just so happens that Warner Bros. is Hollywood’s biggest seller of DVDs. Blockbuster had already said that they would only rent Blu-ray disks in the brick-and-mortar stores, while making both formats available for their online customers.

It’s too bad format wars like this end with the early adopters of the losing format getting screwed and stuck with obsolete hardware and media. Hopefully the industry standardization will bring the prices of Blu-ray players down, as they are currently much higher than the HD DVD players from Toshiba. My brief price research shows that you can get a 1080p HD player for $200, while a 1080p Blu-ray player is $350-400. Also, with HD DVD you can opt for a 720p HD DVD player for around $150.

Time to get a PS3?

Update: Toshiba waves the white flag of surrender.