Monday, July 12, 2010

Guy With Metal Detector Finds $1 Million in Roman Coins [BuriedTreasure]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5584032/dude-with-metal-detector-finds-1-million-in-roman-coins

Guy With Metal Detector Finds src=Considering how thrilled I was just to find this story, I can only imagine the delirious, all-consuming excitement felt by Dave Crisp, a British hospital chef, when his metal detector uncovered this pot of 52,000 Roman coins.

Crisp was lolling with his detector in a field in southwestern England when he made the discovery, eventually unearthing some 50,000 silver and bronze coins dating from 253 to 293 AD. Over 700 of them bear the face of Marcus Aurelius Carausius, a Roman general who ruled Britain and was the first to make coins in the region.

Crisp, a self-described "metal detectorist," explained that he would have to share the coins' estimated $1 million value with the farmer who owns the land on which they were buried. Still, I imagine that the prospect of a $500,000 payday will be enough to inspire a whole new generation of detectorists. [CNN]

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Lego ML-Explorer 01 Not Practical, But Beautiful [Lego]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5584256/lego-ml+explorer-01-not-practical-but-beautiful

Lego ML-Explorer 01 Not Practical, But BeautifulI can't see NASA clamoring to get this Lego design onto the Moon or Mars anytime soon, but man is it neat to look at when it gyrates across that glass table. [Catarino's Flickr via Brothers Brick]

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LG is the Next TV Maker to Join Google TV? [TVs]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5584693/lg-is-the-next-tv-maker-to-join-google-tv

LG is the Next TV Maker to Join Google TV?Simon Kang, the chief exec of LG's Home Entertainment division, has said the Korean manufacturer is considering signing up to Google's TV initiative, fearing it could be left out of a web-connected TV BOOM if it doesn't. Saying he doesn't want LG to "end up as just a hardware provider" the move would make LG only the second TV maker to announce Google TV support—behind early adopter Sony. [WSJ Business]

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Intel's smart TV remote will recognize you, tailor content to your wishes

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/12/intels-smart-tv-remote-will-recognize-you-tailor-content-to-yo/

It's all about how you hold it, apparently. Intel's Labs have churned out a proposal for a new user-identifying system to be embedded into remote controls. Given a bit of time to familiarize itself with particular users, this new motion sensor-equipped channel switcher is capable of correctly recognizing its holder just by the way he operates it. Taking accelerometer readings every 100 nanoseconds, the researchers were able to build a data set of idiosyncrasies about each person, which would then be applied the next time he picked up the remote. Alas, accuracy rates are still well short of 100 percent, but there's always hope for improving things and for now it's being suggested that the system could be employed to help with targeted advertising -- which is annoying anyway, whoever it may think you are.

Intel's smart TV remote will recognize you, tailor content to your wishes originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 07:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink New Scientist  |  sourceBranislav Kveton [PDF]  | Email this | Comments

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Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter cuts the cable, writes to memory cards

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/12/pandigital-personal-photo-scanner-converter-cuts-the-cable-writ/

Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter cuts the cable, writes to memory cards
The act of scanning a photo generally entails something along the lines of placing the photo onto a device, loading some photo software, waiting while the scanner groans away, cropping the resulting image, and then shuffling the resulting bits off into a folder somewhere. Pandigital's latest, the Personal Photo Scanner/Converter, helps to cut down on that process -- a little bit, anyway. You can simply feed documents through it (up to 8.5 x 11 in size) and have them written straight to memory card (SD, Memory Stick, etc.) at 600dpi resolution, which could certainly speed up your workflow and let you run through reams of photos without lugging that dusty 'ol album to your computer. (You can still connect it via miniUSB and do it the old fashioned way, if you like.) The one thing we're not seeing in the specs is a battery, which would make this thing truly portable, but for $149.99 you can't have everything. It is, at least, available now.

Continue reading Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter cuts the cable, writes to memory cards

Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter cuts the cable, writes to memory cards originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourcePandigital  | Email this | Comments

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