Author: Ben

Just get me one of these. I’ll be perfectly happy.

This one if for Jeff. A company in Darien, CT (right up the road from me) called HoloTouch is now licensing their technology. From the site:

Combining holographic images of what would otherwise be the buttons of cell phones, PDAs, laptops, video games or hand-helds with a wave sensor scanning the plane of those images, HoloTouch enhances comfortable, reliable operation, where keypad size has shrunk below normal finger size, and continues to dwindle. With HoloTouch, images of keypads can be any size, entirely independent of the size of the hardware. Holographic images of the keypad are projected into the air in front of the equipment. An infra-red detector scans the plane of those holographic images to detect the intrusion of a finger into the desired portion of those images, identifies which number or symbol has been selected, and transmits that selection from the equipment’s internal software, much the same way pressing a button on an ordinary keypad would.

Good thing I got rid of my Macintosh. Otherwise I might have lost my eternal soul.

I’m starting some Shuttle mods thanks to some tips from the forums over at Sudhian Media. So far, I’ve replaced the CPU / Case fan with an Enermax 80mm fan that got rave reviews over at directron. I’ve also replaced the PSU fan with an ADDA 40mm fan, but it’s still too loud.

My new mission is to make this thing as quiet as possible, so I’ve ordered a replacement PSU fan, a Zalman ZM80a-HP GPU cooler to replace the video card fan and a Zalman NB-32J heatsink for the Northbridge, which is currently cooled using a fan. I’m also getting a 120GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9, which has fluid dynamic bearings for ultra-quiet operation. All in all, this thing should rock the house, quiet style. I’ve been continually impressed with the performance of the box, but it’s just too loud in the stock configuration.

Artima.com has a nice set of interviews with a number of different people. Check it out.