Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

When you absolutely have to have it there in 20 minutes - use a low-flying military helicopter.

Link from BBC News, if only for the wonderful end line: "The Ministry of Defence spokesman was unable to confirm what toppings were on the pizza.".

An interesting new Google beta - Google Maps. An interesting mix of search and mapping - so you can search for something near somewhere.

Now, if only it covered more than just the USA.

(Oh, and if you have found that Google seems to persist in throwing you to google.co.uk, then you can just click on the "go to google.com" link on the Google UK page. It'll reset the cookie Google uses to direct you to a country specific version of the site. Thanks to wendyg for the tip!)

Real science catches up with science fiction, turning autopope's and Karl Schroeder's suppositions into facts...

The suggestion is based on Spitzer telescope observations, which detail a dusty disc around a brown dwarf, a star too small to ignite its nuclear fuel.

The star, named OTS 44, is only about 15 times the mass of Jupiter.

(cf. Glasshouse and Permanence, both of which use brown dwarf systems as major plot tools...)

Handmade PodBrix figures, a la iPod silhouette adverts, customised from Lego minifigs.

All sold out, unfortunately. But still teh cut3n3ss

i-mate (one of the many companies who rebadge HTC's Windows Smartphone and Pocket PC Phone devices) will be announcing a parnership with Skype at 3GSM next week...

Skype on your mobile anyone? I can see people using a new generation of GSM/GPRS/WiFi mobiles as GSM phones out on the road, and as VOIP devices when they're at home or in a WiFI hotspot. Now, I wonder if this will be a platform for Skype-In?

(Initial press release just in by email)