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Why, Wyzo?

A company named Wyzo recently released the first public version of its flagship product, the Wyzo browser. Built off the open-source Mozilla Firefox base, Wyzo is notable for incorporating the ability to download torrent files directly from the browser interface without a separate BitTorrent application.

Wyzo offers the ability to download torrent files only because of an extension named FireTorrent that comes pre-installed with the browser. The FireTorrent add-on uses technology such as iP2P, STUNT and unP2P to translate a torrent file into the actual download that the torrent represents. Unfortunately, one big problem I had with Wyzo was that I wasn't able to kill/remove any torrent downloads that stalled because of a lack of peers.… Read more

Georgia and Florida: They're smokin'

Nashville is hundreds of miles from the nearest forest fires. Recently smoke levels there were 20 times normal. Health officials in the southeastern U.S. can now look at maps showing where the smoke is, and where it's going.

This smoke forecasting is being done by the Center for Forest Disturbance Science in Athens, Ga. Both hourly forecast updates and daily peak values of smoke concentrations are available on the Internet.

The 6-week-old fires have burned a half-million acres. And they're still outta control. These fires are a record for Georgia. That's sparked debate over lack of … Read more

Maker Faire 2007: Robots, fire, music & more

I've just returned from an amazing weekend at the second annual Maker Faire held in San Mateo, CA. The event is packed with booths featuring hundreds of inventors and crafters showing off their latest and greatest projects. We're still collecting our notes and getting our photos together, but here are a few projects we really enjoyed.

Jeremy Boyle constructed an amazing MIDI-controlled music kit called the Trio1 that used dozens of pneumatic pistons to play a drum kit and electric guitar.

Roboticist Crabfu had his steam-powered R2S2 robot on display. I've seen his robots on video before, … Read more

BitTorrent to fire up CNET Live

In the Internet world, peer-to-peer sharing has always sparked discussion. This week on CNET Live, Ashwin Navin, president and co-founder of file-sharing site BitTorrent, will sound off on the hot topic. Navin contributed his perspective earlier this month about Ohio University's decision to ban peer-to-peer applications on campus. What does this mean for the rest of us? Tom Merritt is going to find out.

In addition to that fiery topic, the boys are going to figure out what is behind all those blazing batteries in laptops. Brian will reveal what tops his Crave list, and Tom is going to … Read more

Where there's smoke, robot smells fire

A few months ago we wrote of a rather odd-looking Japanese bot named "Ubiko" whose purpose was somewhat vague--"to replace humans for such tasks as welcoming clients, promote products on site." (The "replacing humans" phrase freaked us out a bit.) Now we find out its true mission: a rolling smoke detector of the future.

Ubiko doesn't just beep when your macaroni and cheese starts to burn; it actually has olfactory sensors designed specifically to react to odors associated with fire. The robot had its first public demonstration yesterday, which Pink Tentacle described … Read more

Red cell phones for your Valentine

Valentine's Day is almost upon us, and there may be a few red cell phones out there for you to give your loved one on that special day (or that commercialized, overhyped holiday, depending on your point of view).

Cingular/AT&T launched the Samsung Sync in red earlier this month, and we've heard that Verizon will launch not one but two red phones soon. According to the My:Tech News Blog, a red Motorola Krzr K1m (dubbed the Krzr Fire) and a red LG Chocolate (dubbed the Strawberry Chocolate) have appeared on Verizon's "testman" Web site, … Read more

Nokia exonerates 2125i cell phone in California fire

With cell phones being blamed for everything from bad driving to lower sperm counts these days, you might almost feel sorry for them, particularly after investigators blamed a cell phone for starting a fire earlier this week that seriously injured a California man. But now it appears the gadgets aren't all bad. Fire officials in Vallejo, Calif., reversed course and ruled out the man's Nokia 2125i as the cause of the blaze.

Today's announcement came three days after 59-year-old Luis Picaso received second- and third-degree burns from a fire that started in his residential hotel room while … Read more