New Lego Mindstorms Kit in August


Lego announced a new a new Mindstorms Kit, NXT, which will be available in August. The new kit comes with many new sensors, including vision, touch, sound, and light. Those sensors plug into the main NXT Brick via connectors that look like RJ-45 jacks. The kit will have software that is compatible with both PC and the Mac, has Bluetooth and USB 2.0 support. Suggested retail for this will be $249, and it will be available in August.

Jini Pumpkins


Jini Pumpkins turned out to be a lot more popular than I though they would be when I carved them last year.

It was fairly easy to do. I just took the logo, taped it on the pumpkin, outlined the design through the paper, and then cut it all up. It took a while, but it looks pretty good.

Patent crazy

There’s a flurry of news on the technology patent front in the last day or two. First,


Creative is accusing Apple of an iPod patent breach
, saying that the iPod’s user interface violates a patent that Creative has.

Then comes the news that Nintendo has patented the Sanity system for games.

THEN there’s news that even
ringtones can be patented
!

Things have gone absolutely nuts.

Via The Financial Times, Slashdot, and Engadget