The Microtransit Challenge.

This is a testament to Moore's law.

Ten years ago this was 100% science fiction.  Five years ago someone could talk about it.  2006 they held it on a lake.

This year its across the Atlantic.

...and it's at hobby prices.

One of the entrants, the Pinta, cost the competitors £2,500.  Umm...you could build it in your garage if you had the programming chops.

Big deal you say, it's just a glorified model sailboat.  Well yes and no.  Yes they look like simple little sailboats but they've got: Solar power, automated sensors, GPS positioning and course navigation software.  They obviously have a much simpler algorithm than the DARPA Grand Challenge cars, but still need to get from point A to point B.

Also this technology will be a boon to climate science.  At £2,500 a pop you can make hundreds and send them out into the oceans and go anywhere and report back anything you can imagine.  A mobile science buoy.

News Article: Pinta the robot sailing boat takes on Atlantic challenge

IMB live piracy map 2008

Just providing a service folks.

What is remarkable from a technical perspective is that you can access this map anywhere in the world where you can get an internet connection.  It's updated in real time so you can keep track of activity. 

I wonder if the captain of the Le Ponant knew about this service and if not does that make the ship company liable for endangering the passengers and crew?

According to the ship owner's Web site, the three-mast, 64-passenger Le Ponant features four decks, two restaurants, and indoor and outdoor luxury lounges. About a dozen pirates stormed the yacht April 4 as it was returning without passengers from the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, toward the Mediterranean Sea.

...ah it was empty of passengers.

1. New blog discovered: Sci Fi Tech 

Better than Gizmodo with a 100th the traffic.  Go and enjoy.  Where else are you going to find the transparent car.

2. Cool Thing:

I don't know what it is about this, but it just looks really cool.  It kinda reminds me of the steampunk keyboard.  Wouldn't the set just make your workspace ultimately cool.

This would make you the coolest kid on the steampunk block. The envy of your wire rimmed glasses wearing, top hat sportin' crowd.

3. Cool Website: The size of things.

So this grew out of my last "4 things" post while I was trying to dig up the original source for the size of our world email I got [linky] I found this which shows the size of things ranging from the univers down to the smallest of the small, the quark.  All in flash pretty cool. [linky]

4. Cool Tangible Thing: Fastest Sailboat in the World

47.6 knots! That's about 60 Miles per hour, in a sailboat. Albiet a state of the art hydrofoil sailboat but a sailboat nonetheless.

And it did this in 25 knots of wind.  This can be confusing to some people, "How can a sailboat go faster than the wind?"  You just have to remember that it isn't the speed of the wind but the energy it provides and how it is harnessed that is important.

And OH MY but how the L’Hydroptère harnesses that power!