Smallist

Thanks to the continuing shrinkage of PC components, it’s now possible to get the whole thing into a GameBoy shell. This little guy uses a 4GB compact flash card and an EPIA PX10000G motherboard. That’s Pico-ITX, for anyone keeping track — it can take a 1 GHz processor. Cleverly, the flash card goes into the cartridge shell and the former A and B buttons are now activity and power lights.

Via Engadget.

Tiny sumo matches are all the rage, in a place called Raglan Shire. (is that wash and wear, or dry clean only?) Also in the news, Second Life has newscasts.

If you don’t need much more than the regular office suite and browser, you might get along fine with a Zonbox, by Zonbu. $100 gets you the box, a small and efficient Small form factor PC. Then $12.95 gets you an always-patched OS and twenty included open source apps. The price seems a bit high for apps that are generally free, so a lot depends on their software offerings… but at the moment their site requires signup.

Via Engadget.

You know how new PC’s come with a bunch of crap you don’t need? The PC Decrapifier removes it. Of course, one man’s crap is another man’s gold, so it’s courteous enough to show you a list of what it’s about to remove. Their list of crap is impressive. Not sure what Quicken 2006 is doing on there though… is it that bad a program?

Now that the Blackberry Curve is said to have the smallest qwerty keyboard, I suppose I should pay it some notice. Gizmodo has an excellent roundup of reviews. Go buy one now! Get a long contract! Because Zeus knows when a cooler phone will come out.

In all honesty, something like this might be just the thing if the iPhone turns out to be not-so-great, or if the on-screen qwerty is hard to use. I’ve been using a Treo 600 for at least three years now, and I’m ready for something new.

The NYT covers three ultraportable notebooks today. The Vaio TXN15 (center) sports an instant-on operating system if you don’t want to go into Vista, along with fingerprint security and a svelte 2.8 pound weight. But it’s a bit pricey at $2000. The Fujitsu Lifebook P7230 (right) weighs even less, at 2.63 pounds. PCMag review rates the Sony and the Lifebook about equally. Averatec will be offering a no-frills model, the 1579, around May 11th. It’s a little heavier at 3.6 pounds, but the price is much lower than the other two, at $1300.

If you want a little more exercise, the 13" Macbook is roughly the same size, and rates 6 hours of battery life, even if it weighs 5.2 pounds. Of course, if you’re a Mac lover (or hater), there’s no comparison.

Designed for the developing world, the KVA MATx Portable Light is a flexible, solar-powered LED light. It charges in 5 hours over the day, and then provides 4 hours of 160-lumen light. It can be rolled up or folded, and weighs less than 8 ounces. By comparison, a standard 40 watt incandescent puts out about 480 lumens — so it’s not going to light up the whole yurt, but it’s better than an itty-bitty booklight.

Via the IHT’s Socially Responsible Design coverage, via Metafilter, where, predictably, they’re arguing whether the OLPC is sufficiently socially responsible to be included.

You know the old joke: Nasa spends millions of dollars developing a pen that writes upside-down, and the Soviets just use a pencil? Well Arriva has cut the Gordian knot of headphone wires in a very clever way: They just mount the iPod Shuffle between two earpieces. Elegant! Unfortunately, so far it’s vaporware.

Via Engadget.

Have a breeze on your roof? Toby Kinkaid’s Helix Wind Generator might be just the thing. It’s only 40 inches tall, cute, and can generate about 40 watts. That’s not a lot of power (a laptop needs about 60), but a few of these things could take a chunk out of your monthly utility bill. Kinkaid thinks with mass production, the cost could come down to $1.50 per watt, excluding installation.

Compare with the previously mentioned Skystream, which can generate a house-powering 1.8 kw, but may have the Homeowner’s association at your door with pitchforks, torches, and hounds.

More about the Helix here. And a local news story here. Via MetaEfficient.

Scientists have created a neural simulator the size of one half a mouse brain. It runs at 1/10th the speed, but that should still be enough to read and enjoy “Who moved my Cheese?”.

I was all set to put up a picture of Pinky and the Brain, but these guys got to the joke first.

Via BoingBoing.