May 27th, 2006
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Tallahassee Regional Airport played host to a demonstration of a new fire fighting tool.
The converted 747 dropped its payload of 20,500 gallons of water at an altitude of 500 feet, flying at 180 MPH.
The super tanker can fly faster, higher and farther than current planes in use and drop seven times more water.
May 16th, 2006
Direct Link to NASA
May 16th, 2006
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How many times have you walked up to a building and thought, “I wish I could just catapult myself onto the roof?”
Apparently, someone at DARPA did and designed and patented a “controllable launcher”.
The patent abstract reads:
A controllable launcher for propelling a payload through a predictable and repeatable trajectory to a desired height. The launcher has an energy source for propelling a carriage and a piston in substantially opposing directions and a controller for controlling the trajectory of the propelled payload to enable the payload to land gently at a safe impact distance from the edge of a destination structure.
I bet medieval kings would have given their right hand for one of these.
Further Reading:
May 12th, 2006
Well it’s been some time since I’ve been able to update CN. I’m sure you were able to survive without me; although life was much less interesting. 
Just wanted to give a shout out saying that updates are coming soon, including posts about:
- Explaining Google’s Orkut
- Fresh Logic Studio’s Atlas
- The Aiken Flat Screen Television from 1951
- Much, Much More….
April 12th, 2006
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I’ve finally found it; a useful Web 2.0 web site. I became aware of PriceHeat.com this morning when the owner announced the beta at an online community I participate in. Right off the bat I loved what I saw.
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The basic premises is to compare item prices while shopping, not a new idea for sure, but PriceHeat does something interesting. They have used Amazon.com as a catalyst for the online shopper.
You simply add a link to your links bar on your browser and go shopping at Amazon. Once you find an item you like, simply click the PriceHeat link and you are presented with not only Amazon’s price, but the prices from competitors. Sometimes Amazon is cheapest, some times not, but you always find the best deal.
I did a search on Amazon.com for Achtung Baby by U2. $12.98 isn’t so bad for a CD, but with PriceHeat I found that Walmart had the exact some album for only $9.72
Further Reading
Super Tanker to Fight Fire
