KFIR

As promised on the Morning Show, here's the video demonstrating Microsoft's Project Natal and "Milo". Lionhead Studios, creator of the popular franchises Fable and Black & White, have made a remarkably convincing combination of virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

Watch as Milo, a young, virtual boy, interacts with Clair with uncanny realism. As stated in the video, the feeling of "presence" (that you're actually standing in the virtual world) is so powerful that your instinctual reactions take over. About 1 minute, 20 seconds into the video Clair naturally reaches out to "catch" a pair of virtual goggles. The voice and optical recognition truly is amazing and I can't wait to try it out myself.

ECS is well known among geeks for their motherboards and other hardware that goes inside a computer. Generally, they're not well known for complete systems. But at this year's Computex they unveiled a new desktop, no, let's try livingroom form factor—a computer in a vase!

And it is quite the capable little machine, too. It sports an Intel Atom 230 processor and nVidia's ION platform which makes it capable of playing fairly graphics intensive games as well as being able to handle HD video playback. Even sports HDMI output and a Blu-ray drive so it is set to be the perfect pairing for your livingroom's HDTV. Hit the link below to check out Engadget's gallery of photos of this "suburban camo" machine.

Via Engadget

Okay, so watching the grass grow is normally one of those phrases associated with boredom. But, not if you have a timelapse camera to capture all the excitement! Enter the Brinno "Timelapse Garden Video Camera" equipped with a 1.3 megapixel camera, a 2GB USB flash drive and a sensor that let's it save battery life at night (can't take photos in the dark, after all). Powered by 4 AA batteries, this puppy will shoot 18,000 photos over the course of 4 months while taking one photo an hour before sucking all the juice out of said batteries. But, you can set it to take shots at any interval you like from 5 seconds up to once a day.

A lump sum of $159.95 gets you up and running.

Via OhGizmo!

I came across this article over at Psychology Today that gives some great tips on improving your learning experience. Some of the tips are things we've all learned in school, but tend to forget to put into practice. Take a read through it and put his tips to work for you. Head over to Smarts: Four things worth learning about learning by Tad Waddington, Ph.D.

Are you still bewildered by the complexity of the problem that is the "Credit Crisis"? Well, Jonathan Jarvis is here to help try to demystify the situation. He put together a great "infographic" animation, The Crisis of Credit Visualized, to help explain the problem and its root causes. This is one of the most concise and useful explanations I've seen yet. If you're still trying to get the whole thing figured out, take a peek!

Watch in HD on Vimeo and get more information at crisisofcredit.com.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Terry Wilmeth is the world land speed record holder on an ATV, set at 155.04 mph on June 16th, 2007. This record was set while riding his AlbaAction / Fullbore / Powroll Rocket Raptor Version 5.0 at the Madras Airport in Madras, Oregon.

I found this series of videos on YouTube that form a full length documentary about his saga and attempts to go even faster! Appropriately, this was filmed and produced by Oregonians at Compel Media of Canby, Oregon. Take a look at the first below, and then hit the link to see the rest. Very cool to see a fellow Oregonian tackling this fast moving "problem".

Wetsuits are usually plain...black...boring. Well, one designer isn't too happy about that and has set out to change the face of the scene by adding some texture.

Diddo has applied various textures to wetsuits using "custom inks and unique printing techniques" to create something new. Although I've never surfed, wake boarded or done any such activity that requires a wet suit, I do have to say these are quite exciting. There are examples of suits bearing very fitting textures—a whale shark's skin and the muscles of the human body. As well as more unique and humorous—rusting metal and a simulated shark attack!