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Best of the Week: Spam, Polaroid 'Instant' Film Are Back



Even in our ever-accelerating, technologically turbulent world, we can count on some things to remain the same. Baby boomers, the generation that virtually invented short-lived trends, experienced another one with Facebook. After joining in droves last year, they started dropping from it like flies this spring. At the other end of the generational spectrum, teenagers continue to do really dumb things that get them in trouble. This time it was a texting teen who crashed her car into a cop -- on a day when she was playing hooky, no less. And, after a brief lull following the take-down of digital junkmailer McColo Corporation, spam volume has swelled back to 90 percent of all e-mail traffic. In other news...

Editor's Picks, Green Tech

6 Gadgets to Clean and Green Your Garden



Summer is, give or take a couple of weeks, here. That means BBQs, baseball, new love and -- of course -- yardwork. Given our preference for keyboards and joysticks over rakes and hoes, we sought out the best gizmos to minimize our outdoor chores.

Green Tech

Power to the Poo: Yamaha's Methane-Powered Golf Cart

Here's one for you...what do you get when you take Japanese ingenuity, cow dung, four-wheeled transportation, and a bio-fuel processing plant and mix them all together? Why a poo-powered golf cart, of course.

Okay, Yamaha's experimental golf cart runs on methane, but that gas is developed from cow dung. This magical process takes place in Japan's Kartori region at a lovely sounding 'burg called Biomass Town, where the, ahem, solid waste is processed into bio-fuel.

The golf cart comes equipped with a newly-developed 'active carbon' tank filled with low pressure methane, which allows the it to hold up to 30 times its own volume in gas. An added bonus -- it also costs less than a high pressure system.

We aren't sold on methane as a sustainable source of energy (it is still a green house gas, you know), but the process is a fascinating one nonetheless... as long as your not stuck behind it in traffic. And how! [From: DVICE]

Green Tech, Visionaries

MIT Robot Gardeners Can Grow Tomatoes, But Can't Pick Them


Undergraduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are currently developing a team of robots that they hope will be able to streamline agricultural labor, USA Today reports.

A year ago, Professor Daniela Rus, who heads MIT's Distributed Robotics Lab, challenged her students to build a "distributed robotic garden" during this most recent Fall semester, the second half of their two-semester-long course. By Christmas break, the students were watching with satisfaction as a crew of shin-high, roving robots brought a small garden of cherry tomato plants to life.

Informed by sensors embedded in the plants' soil, the robots are able to automatically deliver fertilizer and water to the tomato plants when necessary. The robots are also equipped with cameras, with which they document each plant's yield, and with software that informs them of how long it typically takes the tomatoes to ripen. Ideally, this technology would enable the robots to nurture and harvest the plants, potentially reducing the need for farm labor and lessening the environmental impact of indiscriminate fertilization. But, as is often the case, the results of the project have not been ideal.

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Audio/Video

Track Plant Growth with the Timelapse Garden Video Camera


For those of you looking to prove just how green your thumb really is, have a gander at the Timelapse Garden Video Camera. Offered up at the always intriguing Hammacher Schlemmer, this weatherproof garden tool engages in the tedious task of taking snapshots of your flora in customizable intervals and then weaving them together into a single 1,280 x 1,024 AVI video. The lens can focus as close as 20-inches away, and with the bundled 2GB USB flash drive, upwards of 18,000 photos can be stored at a time. Amazingly, we're told that it can operate for up to four months using four AA cells, and it even turns itself off at night and back on in the morning in order to not waste capture space and battery life. It's shipping now to hedgers, groundkeepers and everyday plantsmen for $159.95. [Via OhGizmo]

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Latest Reviews from CNET.com

CNET provides the latest tech news, unbiased reviews, videos, podcasts, software, and downloads, making tech products easy to find, understand and use.

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    Incredibly well-featured 7.1-channel receiver; excellent sound quality; three HDMI inputs; converts analog video to HDMI output; upconverts analog video to 720p/1080i HD resolution; iPod and USB MP3 player connectivity; Internet radio and MP3/WMA streaming audio via built-in Ethernet port; XM Satellite Radio compatible; touch-screen remote; multizone, multisource operation; browser-based control via home network; accurate autocalibration routine. Full Review

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    The KEF KHT-3005 is one compact, beautifully designed speaker package with solid aluminum satellites that feature unique driver technology to produce incredible clarity. Meanwhile, the equally astounding dual 10-inch, 250-watt powered subwoofer delivers ultradeep bass. Full Review

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    Extremely fast, 10-megapixel continuous shooting; very low noise; highly customizable; well-designed body with weather sealing; 3-inch LCD; abundant optional accessories. Full Review

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    Very low noise, high quality images; 21.1 megapixels; live view shooting; pro-level build-quality and performance. Full Review

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    Velocity Micro Edge Z30 (Intel Core i7)
    Best value among midrange gaming PCs; Velocity Micro's consistently high build quality; compact case makes few sacrifices; second graphics card slot previously uncommon at this price. Full Review

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    Velocity Raptor Signature Edition Gaming PC
    One of the fastest PCs we've tested; a PCI Express RAID card helps media encoding performance; typically immaculate Velocity Micro assembly; strong, three-year warranty. Full Review

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