We’re not really into fashion accessories at our-picks.com unless they can do 0-60 in under five seconds but we spotted this little gem posted at The Gadget Blog. With mother’s day coming up it’s the ideal present for a geeky mother or a geek’s mom, either way she’ll be the talk of the town as she strolls down the main street of town with this slung over her shoulder!

The handbag is available from fractal spin, a snip at US$55. Apparently the sliding metal doors have been glued to prevent snagging on your clothing and a magnetic latch holds the top edges together! Other geek-inspired mother’s day gifts include resistor bunch earrings, a fan guard chain necklace and a circuitboard memo pad. Of course a real geek/son would make these from her old PC.

Featured Tags diskette, fashion_accessories, mother_s_day_gifts


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Although sometimes I get the impression my cats are clever enough to open a tin of cat food by themselves, they can be rest assured that if I ever suffer a disability that prevents me from reaching down to stock up their food bowls there is a device that will ensure that they are still well fed.

Ray Dinham from Somerset in England has invented the DinnerUp, a device to raise and lower pet food bowls – yes your fido will still be well fed too. The DinnerUp can be attached to a either a wall or kitchen unit and by using a handle you can raise or lower a tray.

It’s refreshing to see in this day and age a device that is exceedingly low-tech – the DinnerUp has no ‘Intel Inside’ stickers on it – yet solving a problem for some many people. In fact the DinnerUp has been shortlisted for an award at the annual disability show, Naidex held in the UK.

Source: BBC

Featured Tags disability, gadgets


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Ah, the all seeing eye, the font of all knowledge that we know as Google. Well, they’ve fluffed up this time. Despite having their village named after a Chilean independence hero Bernardo O’Higgins, the inhabitants of Villa O’Higgins are Argentinean according to the great Google. Needless to say Chile are hoping the guys at the plex will re-draw their maps and put the villagers back where they belong.

So the next time you use Google to find the nearest liquor store that sells the finest Chilean Merlot, don’t be surprised if you get the details of the closest Argentinean beef importer. Cheers Google.

Featured Tags bernardo_o_higgins, chile, google


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Renown theoretical physicist Stephen Hawkings is captured on video spinning like a whirling dervish in zero gravity aboard a Boeing 727. He experienced eight twenty-five seconds bursts of zero g as the specially modified 727 peaked on its roller coaster flight path, lucky devil.

But it wasn’t all about having a weightless joyride, the flight raised US$150,000 for various charities including one for Lou Gehrig’s disease, from which Stephen has suffered for 40 years. He also hoped that the flight would ‘encourage copycats’ and make people say “If he can do it, I can, too.”. Good on ya Stephen and apparently no barf bag was required!

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The change from XP to Vista wasn’t as sudden as most would have expected. Despite the craze that has surrounded Microsoft’s newest product, not everybody was ready to drop their former operating system (namely Windows XP, because I doubt many Mac or Linux users made the change) and switch to Vista.
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Featured Tags microsoft, windows-vista, windows_xp


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Featured Tags funny, picture, vista


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A young Australian start-up technology company, MOR(F) Dynamics, is taking instant messaging and social worlds to new heights of interactivity and intelligence. Since 2005, the Company has been busy implementing advanced techniques in language technologies, artificial intelligence and real-time 3D systems into a next-generation public instant messenger, dubbed the Moji Intelligent Messenger™.

MOR(F) has created the first instant messenger client and social worlds application that dynamically responds, reacts to and understands human language. The technology works by extracting meaning and emotion derived from a user’s chat dialogues and blogs in order to trigger a range of visual responses within the applications, thereby introducing a brand new immersive and deeply personal dimension to the user’s online and offline experience. By utilising the power of language analysis, the application is able to detect if a user is sad or moody and to then dynamically change elements such as the user’s wallpapers, music or widgets to either reflect that particular mood, or to alter the state of the environment such that the user feels better.

The Moji Intelligent Messenger™ is a fully 3-dimensional system that features intelligent virtual pets that feed off a user’s language. MOR(F) CEO, Robert Fong, describes the innovations of this product best when he says that “…for too long, public instant messengers have been uninteresting with few innovations that fail to enhance and improve human to computer interactions. The massive adoption of concepts such as virtual worlds and MMOGs is proving that users are immersing themselves into products that can interact with them on a deeply personal and emotional level. Two people chatting to each other and slinging emoticons back and forth is one thing. But throw in a personalised virtual pet that absorbs, learns, lives and communicates to the users, and immediately, the dynamic changes. All of a sudden you are no longer merely controlling an avatar to mimic your expressions. Instead, the pet has now entered into your own dimension. It can communicate its desires and thoughts to you. It understands you and can react to the way you feel or the things you like and dislike. We are confident that this kind of technology will enhance a user’s experience by making the way we interact with computers more life-like”.

The Intelligent Messenger translates beautifully into the company’s social world, the MojiKan™. By utilizing the same techniques as found in the messenger, MojiKan™ is an online place where users can explore a world of interactive pets, meet other “virtual pet-owners” with similar personalities, purchase new accessories for their pets, download new language capabilities, create their own personal page and to write blogs. The difference obviously is that all content within MojiKan™ responds and reacts to users’ language. In addition, users’ pets feature on their personal page as widget-pets that can communicate with friends and visitors to a particular personal page (see related press coverage on MOR(F)’s I-Widgets). “By analysing and observing patterns in a user’s blogs or personality descriptions, we use that information in many diverse ways from changing a user’s online environment to reflect his or her current mood to matching users to other compatible users that match their personalities, interests etc.” said Project Manager, Harris Roland. “We do this to such an extent that users can feel the power and influence of their language on their online experience and in the existence of their virtual pets. This is a real breakthrough for us”.

Robert adds that the company is currently targeting the massive instant messaging and social world communities especially teenagers and young adults. However, he also believes that there is a tremendous amount of potential in child safety utilising language technologies and a kid’s version is not far off (see related press coverage on MOR(F)’s child safety system). In the future, the company hopes to expand into areas such as market research, product placement and advertising, as well as mobile applications.

MOR(F) is currently in the last phases of their development and says that a commercial beta launch is due out mid-2007. The entire team is excited of the new possibilities that will confront users with the Moji Intelligent Messenger and are keen to obtain feedback from the general public as soon as possible. As a result, they are releasing a teaser campaign that introduces some of their innovations in the form of interactive “widget-pets”. Users can download and insert these widgets into their blog or social network sites and are invited to head over to www.mojikan.com where they would also be able to pre-register for a beta tester account to test-drive the Moji Intelligent Messenger™ and to provide feedback to the company.

Thanks, Robert

Featured Tags messenger, mojikan, pets


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