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Nanotech Pinball and Miniature Engines
glenmark writes "Researchers at the Solid State Electronics Laboratory at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have developed the world's smallest pinball game. The video is fascinating. The flippers are electrostatically-actuated monocrystalline silicon cantilevers. I hope Pat Lawlor and Steve Ritchie see this. I have a feeling they would get a kick out of it." And in another nanotech story, psmears writes "Three hundred times more powerful than ordinary batteries, but much lighter and smaller? Researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a micro-engine that will allow people to charge mobile phones using lighter fluid. Further information at Research-TV including photos and a film."
That thing sure is sensitive to tilt. A minor gravitational fluctuation sets it off.
This is great news! Just the other day, my boss discovered the worlds smallest game of pocket pool. If I bought him one of these pinball machines, he could have his own private arcade.
Where is the quarter slot?
Trolling is a art,
Solid State Electronics Laboratory for the smallest balls known to exist!
In C++, friends can touch each others private parts.
Some people still do. They call them MPEGS.
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
"Rows and columns of tiny nano-pinball games" That sounds like I'm hallucinating quite badly.
"Electostatic actuation" - now maybe they could drive the music for it through nano-elctrostatic speakers:
"He's a nano wizard
There's got to be a spin
A nano wizard
S'got monocrystalline"
Esteem isn't a zero sum game
And the Tony goes to:
David Spade; the world's smallest pinball wizard.
I assert that my comment is only my opinion, not that of any employer, past, present or future.
Now nano sized soldiers will have equipment to perfect their hand eye coordination before they launch their attack on mankind.
You are so going to be turning off your cell phone at the gas station now!
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
When I tried to watch the film, I got this javascript "error":
There seems to be a problem with your system. Browser not Microsoft Internet Explorer
That's a problem?
We'll find WMD's in Iraq as soon as we plant them there.
And a new record for the fastest slashdotting of a University website... Insert obligatory joke about Nanoseconds here.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
have developed a micro-engine that will allow people to charge mobile phones using lighter fluid.
Great. Now I can add my laptop and cell phone, along with nail clippers and wooden slupting tools, to list the of things you can be detained Airport Security guards can pull me out of line and strip search me down for...
on the other hand I wonder what MacGuyver could do with one of these, a pack of toothpicks and some loose sweater yarn...
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle...
I've been saving this up for a moment like this:
Ever since I heard of Unix
I've always had a ball,
From Berkeley up to Linux
I must've run 'em all;
But I ain't seen nothing like him
On systems large or small
That tired, squinting, blind kid
Sure makes a mean sys call!
He sits just like a statue,
Like part of the machine,
Feeling all the limits,
Knows what signals mean,
Hacks by intuition,
His process never stalls,
That tired, squinting, blind kid
Sure makes a mean sys call!
He's a Unix Wizard,
I just can't get the gist
A Unix wizard's
Got such a mental twist.
How do you think he does it?
I don't know!
What makes him so good?
Ain't got no distractions,
Don't hear no biffs or bells,
Don't see no lights a flashin'
Ignores his sense of smell,
Patches running kernels
Dumps no core at all,
That tired, squinting, blind kid
Sure makes a mean sys call!
I thought I was
The process table king,
But I've just handed
My root password to him.
Even on my own hot boxes,
His hacks can beat my best.
The network leads him in,
And he just does the rest.
He's got crazy Finger servers
Never will seg-fault...
That tired, squinting, blind kid
Sure makes a mean sys call!
Specifically, I was commenting on the fact that the micro-engine uses lighter fluid to charge the cellphone. I feel uncomfortable enough putting a cellphone up to my ear under normal circumstances. I'd feel quite a bit more apprehensive if I'd just loaded it up with lighter fluid.
"Carl, you see if you can figure out what's wrong with this thang. It won't crank up and ever'thang seems to be put together right."
"It ain't got no gais in it!"
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
It's slashtilted...
"Investigators at the School of Engineering are the first to manufacture these engines in a durable, heat resistant material such as ceramic or silicon carbide."
Apparently their ear is resistant (up to 2700K).
Maybe yours would become too ceramic too - after the first bake.
Wait, and there is more - some solid propellants, used by military and in shuttle SRBs have pretty high energy/weight index ratio too. And it is easy to operate and get a great thrust from a small ammount of stuff. [Once you lit the fuse on the recharging rocket cell-phone fuel cartridge, you may have to hold tight on your mobile phone for next 30 seconds.]
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it