This 1959 Bell Labs film provides a glimpse into a world where computers were little more than a collection of clever mechanical and magnetic tricks for storing anything in memory. It’s the story of engineers seeking to develop a solution to store binary data that was fast, reliable, and non-volatile, and could be accessed at any time without having to wait for a drum to spin or a tape to scan. One segment stands out for its innovative solution: the Twistor memory.
Arnold (Arnov) Sharma grew up playing Mega Man X on an ancient Windows 98 computer. Years later, he turned those hazy memories of his childhood into something he could wear on his forearm. It’s not just a replica but a functional Mega Buster, also known as the Rock Buster. Every detail on this replica stays true to the original, thanks to accurate measurements made in Fusion 360, which started with a reference image scaled to 330 mm in length.
NASA’s Perseverance rover has just reached a small but significant milestone on Mars. After five years of carefully traveling about the bottom of Jezero Crater, the rover now knows exactly where it is without having to rely on a crew on Earth. A new system called Mars Global Localization has made the task possible in less than two minutes, with accuracy to within ten inches.
Today, a single 1.44MB floppy disk is sufficient to run an entire operating system and a functional web server. Despite the fact that hardware costs are soaring, this demonstrates that you don’t need the latest and greatest to support a server; just a little old-fashioned efficiency.
A gravity-wielding winder appears, which resembles a sci-fi gadget rather than something you’d want on your desk. Metilis refers to it as the Gravity Furnace, which will come as no surprise. This single-watch winder spins automatic watches with the precision of a Swiss watchmaker, but instead of a boring wooden box, it resembles a chunky robot from an old-school anime.
Moree, in the northwest of New South Wales, has become a trial ground for something new in Australian policing. There are now two drones sitting atop the local police station, ready to take flight at a moment’s notice, but there is a catch: they are being guided by pilots hundreds of kilometers away in Sydney. This marks the start of PolAir-rural, a six-month experiment that will discreetly alter the way police manage crime in rural areas.
When it comes to serious outdoor pursuits and long, multi-day journeys that require performance tracking, the Garmin epix Pro (Gen 2) Sapphire Edition, priced at $449.99 (was $999.99), outperforms the Apple Watch Ultra. For starters, it’s definitely no slouch in the battery life department, as it lasts 16 days in smartwatch mode and 30 hours of straight GPS tracking.
DM Performance took a close look at the Renault Twizy and simply had to get their hands on it. They thought the conventional 17 HP electric motor was severely inadequate. So they decided to replace it with the entire assembly from a Stark Varg electric motocross bike. This gives the little two-seater an impressive 80 horsepower and a whopping 692 pound-feet of torque, thanks to a unique chain drive system that replaces the usual setup.
The Philips Fidelio FT1 combines vinyl as well as CDs in one sleek package, and the quality is surprisingly natural. This turntable can play vinyl records at 33 1/3 and 45 rpm using a belt-driven system, and the CD tray at the front of the unit accepts CDs, including CD-Rs, CD-RWs, and MP3 discs. Using the front-facing buttons or the included software, you can easily choose between formats. When you have an album on both vinyl and CD, there is no need to use separate players.
Microsoft’s Project Silica has reached a significant milestone in its goal to develop ultra-long-lasting storage that can survive for generations. Researchers in the field have just published a paper in Nature outlining a major breakthrough in the approach, as they are now using good old-fashioned kitchen cookware glass, such as that found in an oven door or a Pyrex dish, rather than super-specialized glass that is far too expensive for the job.