Tech Files for the weekend

Isn't that a one cool monitor? Investment bankers may go home with lots of money but no-one gets to play with better gadgets than engineers! The monitor above is 8 LCDs in one and is typically used for industrial applications like managing power plants or global communications systems. Still, put it on the list for outfitting your subterranean lair before James Bond gets there to blow it up. On a more reasonable note, here is a version you can actually buy for your home.

In the battle to claim the biggest display, the Siemens megamonitor is claiming victory at 60 million pixels. Ridiculous! The US. Air Force has a simulator made by Evans & Sutherland with 160 million pixels. It's the so called 20/20 system, so named because with perfect 20/20 vision the system fills a round room around the user with continuous pixels below the resolution limit, which means the simulation is as perfect as you can see all the way around. I've seen it, but I don't have really good link. The actual name is the M2DART system and it is publicly revealed (lousy link that wants money for a govt report).

[Important note: if you are actually going to build a secret fortress from which to rule the world please invite me to the grand opening and don't forget to review the evil overlord to-do list so you don't forget anything.]

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Now these are gadgets my wife will appreciate. See those art images above? Those are the speakers! See here for a more coverage, they are made by SoundArt - a British company. While they aren't a completely new concept, the execution seems quite good. When the HDTV DVD format wars die down and I set up a new HD system at home I'm sure the wife will want a set of these for the sound. The only discussion from me will be what image to put on them.

Have a good weekend,

FW.