The non-profit group SRI International is designing a wall-climbing robot to be unveil it at the International Conference of Robotics and Automation. Popular Mechanics has a video of it climbing on a lot of common building materials. The robot uses electro-adhesion to stick to the wall — is the same technology robots are already using to pick up silicon wafers on assembly lines.

If this thing works out, the applications are endless, wall climbing attack droid, toys, surveillance, and search and rescue just to name a few.

[via Popular Mechanics]

Filed under: Gaming

We've still got a few weeks left to see how we'll do going up against the Nintendo-made workout routines of the Wii Fit, but we can tell you that we've had some mixed results early on. We'll do a full wrap-up later, but for now some initial notes.

We were off to a pretty good start in the first couple of days -- but be warned, you do need plenty of space where you intend to work out, especially as you get started in the strength training. We were a little surprised at just how much space was needed at times, so unless you've got plenty of it you may end up like us, spending plenty of time shuffling and reshuffling the balance board back and forth.

Players (exercisers?) are rewarded with more reps and new routines as they log hours, and if you're unfit (like we are) even some of the beginner exercises will undoubtedly reveal all those atrophied muscles (especially the push-ups / side-plank and jackknife routines, which are killers). Wii Fit's use of a plain, clearly visualized trainer makes learning the exercises -- and even the more complicated yoga poses -- easy for newbs. More after the break.

Continue reading Wii Fit: feelin' the burn (part 1)

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A new Simpsons-themed ride opened at Universal Studios in Hollywood on Monday and travel site Jaunted.com seems to indicate that it’s a worthwhile stop on your list of things to do if you’re in the area. The ride itself is a motion-simulated affair “full of major lifts and falls, twists and turns and a little bit of water.” Hit the jump for a video.

Looks pretty cool. Check out Jaunted.com for more info and photos.

As announced here last month, Graphing Social Patterns East is an indispensable conference for technology decision-makers, executives, product strategists, entrepreneurs, marketers and application developers who want to exploit the hottest trend on the Internet.

Mashable readers can save 15% off registration fees for GSP East – just use code “gspe08mash” http://conferences.oreilly.com/gspeast. However, we’re also giving away two tickets to the event (you must be able to provide your own lodging and transportation.

The most creative answer to the following question will get a piece of the prize:

What is your favorite type of social application platform and why?

And now, the fine print:

***Only one attendee per pass (two people cannot share the same pass to attend the conference on separate days).

The prize is nontransferable and non-endorsable; no cash or other substitutions will be offered. Winner cannot sell his/her pass.

The winner consents to the use of his/her name and/or likeness for publicity, advertising, and commercial purposes, in perpetuity, without further compensation unless prohibited by law. O’Reilly Media and its agents are not responsible for lost entries for whatever reason. Entries will be disqualified if O’Reilly Media determines, at its sole discretion, that entrants have attempted to circumvent the terms and conditions of these rules. All decisions by O’Reilly Media are final.mashable109:http://mashable.com/2008/05/21/gsp-east-contest/

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Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Chance to Win 1 of 4 tickets to Future of Web Apps Miami
Future of Web Apps Miami Mini-Contest Winners
4 Tickets to Future of Web Apps Miami Mini-Contest
Announcing O’Reilly Graphing Social Patterns East: June 9-11, 2008
Mashable Announces SecondBrain Beta Launch: Win a MacBook Air
Jamglue Launches Contest for “Duet” with the Stars
Mister Wong’s Search for Non-Racist Logo Presses On

Filed under: Laptops

Call us crazy, but these new low-end ultraportable laptops are beginning to look mighty familiar. At least Bestlink has an angle here -- make it dirt cheap -- so its entry isn't totally without merit. The Alpha 400 will apparently be priced from $250 (or $180 in volume), sport a 400MHz (!) Xburst CPU, 128MB of RAM, 1GB or 2GB of flash memory, a 7-inch 800 x 400 display, and will run Windows CE or some form of Linux. The manufacturer says storage can be expanded via SD card or USB drives, and WiFi, CDMA, GPRS, and ADSL will all be available via external add-ons. So... worth about $250, wouldn't you say?

[Via Desktop Linux]

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Virtual worlds are everywhere, and ever since Second Life became a popular web-based virtual world, we’ve all been waiting for the other shoe to drop in terms of virtual world potential for integrated social media and marketing.

We’ve seen a good deal of development towards this arena, with things like Armani stores in Second Life, Sears clothing for your Meez, and branded products available for decorating your 3D room in SceneCaster.

SmallWorlds is a new web-based virtual world offering that is looking to combine several aspects of current trends, with a great focus on social media. So you can use Flickr images as posters in your virtual bedroom, or watch YouTube clips on your 3D living room television.

Other applications, like Grafiti, that have become popular on networks like Facebook, are also present in SmallWorlds. Games, such as pool, can also be played within SmallWorlds, in a similar fashion as gameplay on a portal like Yahoo Games.

What SmallWorlds is looking to do is bring the actual social media web experience into a virtual world, not through recration of various social activities, but the more direct application of media within SmallWorlds. The public beta of SmallWorlds launches today, if you’d like to try it out.

mashable109:http://mashable.com/2008/05/21/smallworld/

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is now giving the closing keynote at the Advance08 Conference in Redmond, Washington. The big news is Live Search Cashback, announced earlier. The live stream began at about 10:30 am PST.

A big part of the keynote is about applying logic to searches to help determine intent. The main types of search: entertainment, commerce and reference (and navigation). Microsoft’s strategy is to try to simplify key tasks and innovate in the business model. The focus right now is on commercial search.

Commerce represents about a third or all searches, but the “dominant” share of revenue from search advertising. It’s a “very big part of the $20 billion search market.” Microsoft cites eMarketer: U.S. online retail is projected to grow to $335 billion by 2012, and today 68 percent of all those retail transactions begin at a search engine. This translates to 3.7 billion commerce-related queries a month.

Live Search Cashback is today’s announcement around commerce search. Gates says to expect big announcements around search every six months going forward. 2008 is the year, he says, that people will look back and say that search got competitive.

Gates concluded at 11 am, and Satya Nadella, Senior Vice President, Search, Portal & Advertising Platform Group, took the stage to talk about Live Search Cashback from a product perspective.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Ah, springtime; when a man’s fancy turns to newer, younger, more nimble versions of popular web browsers. Take Firefox 3, for example. It’ll be here “sometime in June,” Mozilla’s VP of engineering, Mike Schroepfer told CNET.

Apparently everything’s running relatively smoothly…

“We’re in a phase where we’re letting add-ons get a chance to update,” Schroepfer said. “We like to have RCs (release candidates) out for a while to gather feedback.”

More release candidates are possible, he said. With Firefox 2, there were three. “We’re in better shape this time, but there’s no reason to rush this,” he said.

Schroepfer also commented that the final version of Firefox 3 will be “2 to 3 times faster than the previous version and nearly 10 times faster than IE 7.”

More details on Steven Spielberg’s upcoming ghost and UFO based social network, which we first wrote about in early March and followed up with additional details a week later. The site will reportedly be called “Rising” or “The Rising” (our understanding is that they have acquired both .com domain names), and the logo above and animated logo below are at least preliminary versions of the final.

We originally heard that The Rising is being created in partnership with Windsor Media, Terry Semel’s investment firm, but we still haven’t gotten confirmation of their involvement. Windsor was created by Semel before he went to Yahoo, was put on hold during his tenure there, and fired up again after his departure last year.

The Rising will have original video content with a permanent host in addition to the social network where users can share stories and experiences, tapping into serious demand for this kind of thing. There are thousands of forums dedicated to paranormal and UFO topics today - among them is, yes, a Meetup site for ghost trackers.

Rumored launch date is this summer.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0