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Aardvark Daily

New Zealand's longest-running online daily news and commentary publication, now in its 14th year. The opinion pieces presented here are not purported to be fact but reasonable effort is made to ensure accuracy.

Content copyright © 1995 - 2010 to Bruce Simpson (aka Aardvark), the logo was kindly created for Aardvark Daily by the folks at aardvark.co.uk



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Dick Tracy got it backwards

2 September 2010

Do you have a watch? I know I don't.

From about the age of eight or so, I always wore a watch. At first it was a simple "17 jewel" mechanical wind-up watch that my parents bought me as a Christmas gift while I was still at primary school but I've had quite a few wristy-timepieces over the years.

I recall buying one of the new-fangled LED watches while living in Sydney in the 1970s, it was awfully pricey but a wonder of modern (for the time) miniaturisation and sophistication.

the batteries only lasted about two weeks because everyone wanted to see it light up and display the time with its tiny seven-segment LED display.

Continued...

 

The DIY alien invasion?

Most regular readers will know that I ruffled a few feathers with my low-cost cruise missile project back in 2003.

The goal of this project was to wake folks up to the stunning technology that can be bought "off the shelf" these days and exactly what the capabilities of that technology could be if used in unexpected ways.

Well yesterday I spied another bit of "really cool" stuff that I thought I'd share with you and think you may be impressed by.

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All of the bits used to build this device were bought online from a Hong Kong based hobby supplier and in isolation, look pretty "ordinary".

There are small electric motors, an RC set, some LED strip-lights and some bits of aluminium tube along with some gyros and motor controllers. To top it off, the whole thing is powered with a cheap lithium polymer battery.

But just take a look at the effect:

This particular device was built by a Kiwi and is based on instructions posted in a public internet forum by someone in the USA (I think).

Now can you imagine what one of these hovering over a built-up area would do?

Perhaps the addition of a few green lasers would make it look even more ominous and threatening?

Yes, it seems that for just a couple of hundred dollars and a few hours of spare time, now you can build your own DIY UFO that looks pretty damned convincing!

How long before the first MSM news item claiming "UFO sited" I wonder?

Remember, you saw it here first!

Have your say.

And yes... the Sci-Tech headlines links are updated again today with some great stories!

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The internet: king-maker, nation-builder?
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Is hi-tech making us dumber?
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