This is a project you don’t see every day. Could it be more practical and more cooler than it is ? probably not. I mean I want it, i know you will too. I think they should mass produce these things. Now for those of you who don’t get the ideea, this is a cube with a light inside, you hook it to your computer and when there is new mail the cube lights up green.
If you don’t happen to have a glowing cube lying around, you can modify this to work with almost any output device you could think of, from a simple LED, or a buzzer, to something far more clever like moving a servo. The interface between the cube and your computer its done via an Arduino board. The Arduino talks with your computer over a serial connection, which runs over the normal USB cable you use to communicate with your Arduino. This is quite simple to do, and fully documented on project page so follow the links if you decide to build this project.
Gmail Light Cube - New Email Notifier: [Link]
MSI usually not very well known for innovations in the Motherboard area of the market has come up with a design that i think it will sure influence other Motherboard manufacturers in the future. Because the race to more efficient and green electronics has started its just a matter of time until all motherboards will use solutions like this one. Talking about the MSI’s Stirling Engine its simple, the CPU drives its own fan. MSI’s Air Power Cooler uses the energy inherent in the expansion of air as it warms up to drive a fan. As the CPU gets hot, it causes air in a piston to expand. That pushes out the piston rod, which turns the fan rotor, pulling air over a heatpipe-fed heatsink. The heatsing helps cool the piston, so the air inside becomes more dense, pulling the piston rod back to its original position.
The mechanism is well known and documented as the Stirling Engine and its named after its creator, Scottish engineer Robert Stirling, who described it in 1816, though the principles on which his machine were based were uncovered in the 17th Century.
MSI’s version can transfer over 70 per cent of the heat power to motive power, the company claimed, and it doesn’t use a drop of electricity to drive the fan. It’s not totally efficient, which is why it won’t run in perpetuity, but it is kicked into motion simply by the heat generated by the chip.
MSI has built the powerless cooler and placed it on a motherboard, which it’ll demo at the CeBIT show in Hanover, next week.
Freeloader is an advanced portable charging system that can power any hand held device anywhere, anytime.Freeloader takes power from its solar panels or via a supplied charge cable that plugs into a computers’ USB. Once charged, Freeloaders internal battery can power an iPod for 18hours, a mobile phone for 44 hours, PSP for 2.5 hours a PDA for 22 hours and much much more.Supplied in a tough but stylish aluminium body, Freeloader can take the knocks of every day life whether on a business trip in New York, back packing in the Andes or chilling on a Caribbean beach..
