Ironman

The 404 904: Where it's safe to assume we're being sarcastic (podcast)

Robots are slowly taking over the world, and a startup in Illinois called Narrative Science is targeting journalism as the next profession to go extinct. Well, maybe just the journalists covering local youth sports and number-crunching quarterly earning reports, so we're safe for now, but let us know if they come out with a robot that can podcast and tell dirty jokes.

Not all robots are out to drive humans to obsolescence, though. We'll also report on a Japanese pet robot named Evolta training for the Hawaii triathlon. The little guy is only 20 inches tall and runs on two AA batteries, so officials are giving him 10 days to complete the 140-mile race.

After the break and a couple voice mails quizzing Wilson on high-school chemistry, we'll offer a couple pro tips on how to handle business in the office, inspired by this helpful article on Gawker. Can't give out too many details here, so check out the show today!

The 404 Digest for Episode 904

Journalism is the next victim of AI-assisted robotics. Tiny Japanese robot to tackle Ironman triathlon. Everything is new in Windows 8, including the Blue Screen of Death. Gawker tells us how to poop at work. The 404's daily bathroom break: Longboard fail like a boss.

Episode 904 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Evolta robot to tackle grueling Ironman triathlon

Panasonic's Evolta robot doesn't look like your typical top athlete. The little green and white guy can stand on the palm of your hand. He runs on rechargeable batteries.

The 7-inch-tall humanoid is also very ambitious. He is taking on Hawaii's famous Ironman Triathlon course, a competition that leaves many human athletes in the dust.

The athletic Evolta already climbed the Grand Canyon, survived 24 hours of Le Mans, and walked from Toyko to Kyoto. He will now swim, bike, and run for a total of more than 140 miles with a one-week time limit to cross the finish line.

Three specialized bodies powered by three AA batteries each are required to get through the event, which Panasonic conceived of to promote its Evolta line of rechargeable batteries. He'll be going day and night with breaks to recharge.

"Their biggest hurdle is the swim," Evolta developer Tomotaka Takahashi says in a press video. "They'll be swimming in the sea. There are huge waves, tides, and the wind on the ocean surface."

A forward-crawl swimming style was chosen to get the plucky little machine through the challenge. The swimming version of the bot is attached to flotation devices and has spinning arms for propulsion.… Read more

Embeddable tweets are the new 'air quotes'

The fact that Twitter is making all tweets easily embeddable is on the surface benign, but it does give pause when you think about a tweet being used as a quote.

It gets under my skin when a news broadcast uses tweets and Facebook screenshots as an indication that the network is "interactive." That isn't real interactivity. That is anecdotal proof of what a producer has already decided is the narrative of the story. Twitter's new feature will facilitate this a bit more easily across various media platforms: broadcast news, online news, blogs, etc. I'm … Read more

A scale for the Iron Man in your family

Those callous souls who gave their poor mums a Wii Fit for Mother's Day should take note: They can even the score between parents by giving a similarly subtle hint to dad this weekend. But why not be a little more creative?

Tanita is pushing its "BC-558 Tanita Ironman Segmental and Full Body Composition Monitor" as an ideal Father's Day gift. It's especially useful for those vain fathers who spend too much time at the gym and flexing in the bathroom mirror, because this scale measures the body by segments--as in arms, legs, and the … Read more

A mouse that doubles as a remote

The poor mouse. Apparently it needs to come up with more functions by the day to stave off extinction. Already they make phone calls, balance the checkbook, keep us warm, print labels, give massages, and even try to save jobs. They do everything but cook dinner (so far).

And yet we demand more. So once again, the selfless peripheral has stepped up with another function, this one as a remote control. It's not the first remote-mouse combo, but GeekAlerts says this one is wireless, which is everything when used for multimedia presentations. We just hope it'll work on … Read more

Control your iPod with your watch

Fumbling around with your iPod while it's in your pocket or engaging with it full-force may be getting old, especially when you're in the middle of a triathlon. Timex aims to fix that by putting basic iPod controls on its new iControl Ironman watch.

The new watch includes a dongle that attaches to the iPod or iPhone connector, allowing users to play, pause, navigate forward and backward, and turn up the volume remotely from their wrists.

Both Engadget and Gizmodo already have some hands-on experience with the watch, which lists for $125.

Although buying info for the watch … Read more