Linux has quietly been propagating itself everywhere. Mobile phones, PDAs, media players, broadband routers, wireless gears, NAS storage... embedded Linux is working dilligently without us noticing it. Bill Gates is quite visible in big PCs still. But tiny and smaller guys are slowly and steadily chewing him up.

Even a working Windows machine can be easily hijacked by Linux. Turbolinux Inc. of Shibuya, Tokyo, has realeased a strange Linux box called "Wizpy".

Turbolinux Wizpy. Standalone: Media player. Connected to USB: USB storage. Rebooted: Linux box.

Wizpy is, basically, a multimedia player in its size (84 x 42 x 12.2mm, 60g) and function, while working as a standalone. With 4GB of flash memory (1.5GB of it being used up for Linux system and applications). OCG/PM3/WMA/AACI player, MP3 recording, JPEG stills, DivX videos, FM radio, and text viewer on its 1.71-inch color display. But once connected to a Windows PC through USB and hardware rebooted, it totally hijacks the PC and its Linux starts up.
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Nintendo's new Wii has a rather interesting remote controller. It contains 3D (tri-axial) acceleration sensors in it, and is able to capture the movement of itself in the space. The Wii sensor chips are manufactured by European giant ST Microelectronics of Geneva, Switzerland. You've seen the WiiSport promo video already? Grabbing its remote controller like a tennis racket, and playing a heated tennis match on Wii... Rather a neat idea.

There is a pointing device which is freed from 2D desk surface. Peripheral manufacturer Melco/Buffalo of Nagoya, Japan, has released rather an expensive mouse BOMU-W24A/BL; the listed price of 20,769 yen.

Buffalo BOMU-W24A/BL space mouse. It can move around in 3D space, but still firmly caught on 2D plain.

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Winter is coming to the neighborhood with a vehemence. Those who live full-time between Cancer and Capricorn don't understand the art of winter computing, especially of the outdoor version, but it's a serious business. Ah well, at least overworked CPUs love winter very much. Lower temperature means less danger of heat stampede and subsequent heat death.

Chilblain? Toast your hands before the bottom panel of laptop. Heat management of laptop is usually so powerful that it can fully compete with a heat exchanger of Chernobyl-class nuclear reactor. Still, your fingers are numb from cold... All right, how about a USB-heated mouse?

Thanko USB Attaka Mouse USHOTMO1. Heat element shown is a bit exagerated. It does not glow red hot actually.

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Occultism can get along with digitalsphere very well, indeed. Nobody laughs at Feng Shui computer anymore. Holy texts from any human religions are in digital shape now, and can be displayed on LCD screen at will. Very convenient for pious believers.

At least in Japan, ionosphere is jampacked with all kinds of K-tai fortune-telling and oracle sites. Mobile users can't get no satisfaction from this abundance and demand more. Really, advance of digital technology makes people more kinky, I guess.

Kiyomizu-dera in spring. Always packed to the brim with tourists. No pilgrims and believers are welcome these days.

One of the most famous tourist traps in Kyoto, Japan, the venerable Kiyomizu-dera temple, has jumped onto the digital bandwagon, too. Yes, even the traditional religious institution with long and arduous history can't survive the 21 Century unless it fondles electrons.
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Can you do the "standing still" on your bicycle? This is a technique extremely useful in the inner cities where traffic lights block your way every 10m or so. Yes, I'm talkign standing still on only two wheels without setting one's foot on the ground for support... by balancing brakes, pressure on pedals and, overall, by micro-adjusting one's gravity center. Oh, it's not that difficult. After a few hours (or maybe, a few days?) of intensive practice, any bikers can master this impressive skill sooner or later.

Standing still on two wheelers automatically? That's no problem, either. If you spin a huge and heavy flywheel (say, of more than 200kg) vertically, and high-speed, any two-wheeler can stand still without falling. Or, for that matter, even any one-wheeler can do it, too! Like spinning a top, or a gyrostabilizer. This is an ancient technology.

But, how can you install a heavy and bulky flywheel and a powerful engine to spin it on a two-wheeler frame? The complete contraption would be a huge brontosaurus of a motorcycle. Nobody would dare to ride this kind of monster. And besides, flywheel motorcycle can easily run forwards and back on a straight line, but very hard to steer, if not entirely impossible. Yes, that is the fate of a gyrostabilizer.

Murata Seisaku-kun, the mad biker robot, standing still. Chest flywheel is spinning dilligently to keep his balance. Two black dots over the flywheel are supersonic echo radar. His backpack contains his brain and bulky Lithium-ion battery.

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