I’ve spent a fair amount of time playing Playstation, but have also managed to do a little web browsing…Due to that, I’ve found a couple of links of interest (both from Slashdot, if you can believe it…)

First, there’s this article about GM’s plans for a fuel cell car. It’s quite ingenious really, since the fuel cell is more flexible than the internal combustion engine, it frees up the design limitations imposed by having such a large immovable engine. Instead, the fuel cell is basically flattened out to a 6″ slab, with an electric motor on each wheel - it eliminates the need for a drivetrain, long axles etc. Basically there’s way fewer moving parts, and the design is simplified incredibly. I think they should still put steering wheels in them (the current plan is for a joystick of some sort) just for familiarity’s sake. Still, it frees them up to design all kinds of different cars with the same basic mechanical underpinnings. I think this is an incredibly good design idea - one of those “now why didn’t I think of that” types of things that could change the way cars are built, sold, repaired etc. I’m pretty excited by this idea.

The second link is to this store which sells things like lincoln logs, erector set/meccano (I could swear that they went out of business - I guess someone bought the ideas) and stuff like that. I’m more putting this link here so that I can find it when I’m looking for it later. Lots of cool toys there.

Have a good day everyone - I know I will :)