frankk74 writes "For those of you interested in Historical Computing and the Apollo manned spaceflights Ron Burkey has created a open source emulation of the Apollo Guidance Computer called vAGC. I use it as my desktop clock of choice. Note it only keeps mission time so after 24 hours you have reset the time :-). P.S. Another cool Apollo toy free and payware can be found here."

jed101 writes "I just stumbled upon this news release by Sharp introducing a 3D monitor that doesn't require special glasses. The technology was devised for high end medical instuments and such but this could be the gamers new dream toy."

saikatguha266 writes "BBC is reporting that five types of memory cards were dipped into cola, put through a washing machine, dunked in coffee, trampled by a skateboard, run over by a child's toy car, given to a six-year-old boy to destroy, smashed by a sledgehammer and nailed to a tree. It was still possible to retrieve photos from the xD and Smartmedia cards while the others didn't survive just the last two tests. "

Jon H asks: "I'd like to teach myself various platforms or technologies, involving accessing databases. The problem is, my ideas for projects to learn on usually are boring, toy projects, involving lots of boring data entry in order to create a useful database. Things like personal library databases. This doesn't particularly interest me. It would be much easier if I had a big, interesting dataset which I could load into an SQL database without too much trouble. Then I could spend my time on the php, or WebObjects, or JBoss, or whatever. I'd like something more real than the usual toy demo databases. Something weighty, 20 megabytes and up, big enough for poor software design to cause performance issues which might not be seen in smaller databases. Ideally, it'd be in a form that could easily be loaded into an SQL database, perhaps even including a schema. Any links would be appreciated. Do such beasts exist?

jagripino writes "Brazilian SEGA licensee Tec Toy has announced a new edition of the Sega Master System hardware, the Master System Handy (Google Translation), another one in their series of portable SMS, following the SMS Compact and the pink SMS Girl. The system sports a new design, resembling a Dreamcast controller, comes with 27 built-in games and Composite Video Out (the previous compact systems had RF output only). No details yet on whether or not it has a cartridge port. Note to would-be importers: the system runs in PAL-M, it will work on NTSC TV sets in black & white. It's probably a trivial mod to make its output pure NTSC, but I won't know until I can get my hands on one." Definitely interesting to note that TecToy is a legitimate Sega licensee, unlike most third-party console hardware.

theodp writes "Responding to a Toys R Us lawsuit accusing Amazon of breaching exclusivity provisions of its $50M-a- year tenancy agreement, Amazon has countersued the giant toy retailer, asking the Court to terminate its Toysrus.com partnership and award it damages of more than $750M, arguing that Toysrus.com's failure to effectively choose top toys and baby products and to keep products in stock leaves Amazon with no other choice but to enable more sellers to sell these products."

An anonymous reader writes "The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany is reporting in Science Magazine today on an example of successful human to non-human communication: Rico, a collie trained on a vocabulary of 200 words. Their conclusion is that 'brain structures that support this kind of learning are not unique to humans...[Rico has a] retrieval rate comparable to the performance of three-year-old toddlers'. In case you ever wondered if your dog understands what you are saying, Rico 'can learn the names of unfamiliar toys after just one exposure to the new word-toy combination.'"

Sqwubbsy writes "Stumbling through Google, looking for info on the Big Trak by Milton Bradley, I came across an article about one that was retrofitted with an OOPic controller. I was wondering if anyone else had a good story about a retrofitted toy that they beefed up?"

pvdabeel writes "Gentoo/PPC developer, IBM employee and former PPC64 kernel maintainer Tom Gall has announced beta-level live CDs and stages for ppc64. The hardware supported by gentoo-ppc64 is PowerMacintosh G5, IBM pSeries, older IBM 64 bit RS/6000s (such as the model 260, 270, F80, H80, see linuxppc64.org for a complete list) and soon IBM iSeries hardware. Gentoo-ppc64 is the other side of the ppc equation, it is a 64-bit kernel as well as a 64 bit user space. We are the first linux distribution to offer a 64-bit top-to-bottom solution which is not a toy environment. This is a significant and exciting step as there is interest in cluster computing circles, users of java, and more generally those who have needs of large address spaces. It's fairly exciting to be on the forefront and continue to push the capabilities of linux on ppc64 forward."

Alex Garrett writes "First, a quibble. Hardcore Java is not hardcore. Hardcore is implementing coroutines in assembly language or creating a full-fledged OO system in 6K. But if you ignore the title and judge the book solely on its merits you'll find that a Java novice will find a good selection of interesting topics and even an expert will learn a few things. The expert will also find plenty of things to disagree with -- some matters of opinion and others of fact." With that start, read on for the rest of Garrett's review of Hardcore Java, a book in which he finds slightly more worth for Java novices than experts.

Thanks to BoingBoing for pointing to a ChannelNewsAsia story discussing a 'dinosaur' sighting in webcam pictures of a remote New Zealand volcano. The latest live webcam picture shows the offending creature, with Geonet spokesperson John Callan saying: "Some wag has glued a [toy] pink dinosaur in front of our digital camera", even though "...most people do not go ashore on the uninhabited, rumbling" White Island, east of Auckland, where the webcam is located. Apparently, the dinosaur will stay for now, since authorities "are not planning on removing it, counting on the sulphur and high acid environment to deal to the creature."

Treebiter1 writes "Happy Worker, a specialty toy developer, has introduced a new action figure the "GeekMan Action Figure." Billed as the "a hunk o' hunk of nerdly love." His "super powers" include ungodly coding abilities; opposite sex repulsion; analytical reasoning; ability to create technical acronyms; less than ideal personal hygiene routine. This is kind of an oddity, perhpas I should say it is an oddity, but it might make a funny gag gift."

Thanks to GameSpot for its coverage of Sony Europe's announcement of Eye Toy: Chat for PlayStation 2, a piece of software that works with Sony's Eye Toy USB camera and "allows users to communicate with each other in four different ways, namely text, voice, video mail, and one-to-one video chat." It's also explained: "While engaging in a one-on-one video chat, users will have the option to play games against each other, including chess, checkers, and naval war." The article has further clarification on potential worries for parents: "SCEE is eager to point out that that it has been working very closely with several children's charities in order to ensure that EyeToy: Chat is safe for even the youngest PS2 fans to enjoy."

ferralis (Not an EE) asks: "Recently I've come up with a design for a very fun toy (to be unveiled later if I'm successful). What's missing is a means to send electrical power over a distance of five to ten centimeters (2-4 inches). I've done some research (mostly online) and have found extremely limited information. Even my beloved Google has forsaken me, and even my pleadings to eldritch information deities such as AltaVista have gone unrewarded. Can anyone help?"

Gamaroo writes "EuroGamer.net has up an interesting editorial by Kristan Reed in regards to the lack of hits that result from so many game releases near the Christmas shopping season, and the resulting post-Xmas lull. As Reed stated, 'Note to publishers; we can't afford to buy 20 games in the run up to Christmas. Even 10 would be a struggle, and the truth is gamers are forced to play safe and go for the games they know are going to be good.' He goes on to state that, 'Of the eight or so games that Microsoft put out exclusively on Xbox, just one of them (Project Gotham Racing 2) actually sold in decent numbers. Of Sony's extensive line up, literally all of them flopped; leaving its summer hit Eye Toy: Play to fly the flag for its first party strategy.'" It's worth noting that the editorial refers to the UK charts/sales figures, so Xmas release dates differed somewhat from the States.

FloggingMollyrox writes "UGO looks at the recent 2004 Toy Fair's Top 10 Strangest Products. Forget about Lord of the Rings and Spider-Man, the real stuff was an art farm that grows vegetables, a pogo stick that shoots you over the moon, 'real' shrunken heads, and an educational plush toy based on an alien invasion."

Onnimikki writes "Mark Tilden has been building really cool BEAM robots for a long time. Now, he's come up with RoboSapien, a toy that no self-respecting geek can go without. Videos of the RoboSapien at the 2004 New York City Toy Fair have been made available by Solarbotics. Mark offers some really good explanations about what makes them work."

An anonymous reader writes "Germany's local and city councils have been pioneering the migration from Windows to Linux. Now, one of the IT staff behind one move has revealed how they persuaded workers to accept the changes. Stuffed toy penguins and Linux t-shirts helped to create an open-source love-in at the council offices, and they got a senior chairwoman to demonstrate the new system to the troops. Male ego stopped anyone claiming that Linux was difficult to use, once they'd seen that the 'weaker sex' could master it :)"

rm007 writes "The BBC is reporting that Bandai is going to re-release its (in-)famous Tamagotchi toy next month. The new Tamagotchi's habits will be more grown up than the original version; it will be able to mingle, chat and date with other Tamagotchis using infrared portals, and even marry and have babies. The original Tamagotchi was first launched in 1996 and had sold 40 million units within a couple of years. The new version, called Tamagotchi Plus will go on sale on 2 March priced at 1,980 yen ($19)."

sonictooth asks: "I have dreams of writing a toy operating system, as I know some people have already done in college. Unfortunately, I don't have that opportunity. I was wondering what books (as there are so many) and methods people [have used], either in college or on their own. Amazon is littered with books from varying authors, Tanenbaum in particular, and there are both positive and negative reviews of his books. Does anyone recommend a simple book to walk you through the early stages, and then explain the more complex theories later on."