Japan's Age of Machines

Japan is the country in which most of us knows that have great expertise in creating innovations, specifically robots and machines.

I chose to make a time line of few of Japan's greatest achievements. Here is my compilation:

1945. The United States dropped the uranium A-bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki is devastated by the plutonium A-bomb "Fat Man" on August 9, leaving Japan to surrender on the war and to start all over from scratch.

1950. Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corp. (or Sony later) develops the G-type, Japan's first magnetic tape recorder.

1952. The debut of Astro Boy, a hero by manga guru Osama Tezuka. He is considered as more than just a fictional character but has become a cultural icon for the country.

1953. NHK begins TV broadcasting!

1955. Sony releases the TR-55, Japan's first pocket sized transistor radio after buying the license for transistor.

1957. Casio releases Casio 14-A, the world's first compact electronic calculator.

1960. Sony comes out with the world's first all transistor television set.

1964. First scheduled service of the Tokaido Shinkansen (bullet train) began.

1966. Middle-class consumers aims to get the "Three Cs" - a car, a color television and an air-condition.

1969. Kawasaki Heavy Industries begins manufacturing Japan's first industrial robot, Unimate 2000, primarily used to weld automotive parts together.

1970. Fujiko Fujio's comic strip about Doraemon, a robot cat from the future, debuts.

1973. NTT started offering fax services in all of Japan.

1976. JVC launches VHS-format video recorder.

1979. Sony releases its portable Walkman.

1981. Fujitsu Fanuc begins using robots to manufacture robot parts.

1982. Compact Discs and CD players go on sale, developed simultaneously by Sony and Philips.

1983. Nintendo releases Family Computer, also known as the Nintendo Entertainment System, bringing videogames to the living room.

1989. Nintendo comes out with portable Game Boy.

1994. Sony releases PlayStation game system.

1996. Nintendo 64, first 64-bit game system, goes to the market; DVD player released by Toshiba and Matsushita simultaneosly.

1997. Honda develops P3, a humaniod robot.

1999. Sony releases the Aibo robot dog.

2000. SoftBank cheif Masayoshi Son surpasses Microsoft's Bill Gates in paper wealth briefly.

These is just a brief summary and I may have left out some details. But if you wanted to add something, just leave out a comment. Thanks!

Sources: Time Magazine, May 2000 issue and Wikipedia.org

Most Annoying Alarm Clocks

Technology can go great just like Pleo. Innovations like these are so magnificent that one would awe and believe that we are very close to another age, the generation of technology. If you are thinking like this, continue reading, and then think twice.

I was actually browsing the internet and viola! I found lots of alarm clocks that are funny, innovative and not only it assures waking you up, sometimes, it will leave you in a bad mood the whole day. *groan*

There are lots of it and the following are just the few.

The Flying Alarm Clock.

This clock has a spinning top that goes off of it and flies around your room when the alarm turns on to the time you set it up. Geeky right. But wait there's a twist! You have to catch it and put it back on place to turn off the alarm! Still thinking it's still geeky?

Wake up? Five stars out of five!
Leave you annoyed for the rest of the day? Three stars out of five. To think that would be fun.

Chrome Clocky.

Alarm goes on. You still sleepy? Try to hit the snooze button and it will actually roll off of the night stand, fall on your room's floor and run. It will not just run, but worst, it will hide from you on a new spot everyday. And alarm only turns off ones you catch it.

Wake up? Five stars out of five!
Leave you annoyed for the rest of the day? Three stars out of five. At least you get a good morning exercise. lol!

Laser Target.

All you have to do, in order to turn off the alarm, is to shoot the target with its laser beam. Sound easy. Still dizzy? Snap out of it!!!!

Wake up? Five stars out of five!
Leave you annoyed for the rest of the day? Four stars out of five. Simply annoying.

Nooby.

Here is the machine that will verbally abuse you. It starts nice, waking you up with a greeting. “Rise and shine, it’s time to get up!” Ignored? It'll wake you up again. This time, it gets nasty. And in order to turn it off, simply wring the clock's blue neck. Be careful, once it senses that you are angry, it will ignore you.

Wake up? Five stars out of five!
Leave you annoyed for the rest of the day? Five stars out of five. I mean, think about it.

Puzzle Alarm and Whack-a-Mole Alarm.

Puzzle is a distant cousin of Whack-a-Mole, and both of them are bound to ruin your day. To turn the Puzzle alarm clock off, you have to solve the puzzle at its top. It gets hard when you are half asleep and the pieces you put together will go off if you don't solve the puzzle fast. Now imagine if it's dark. Nerve racking.

On the other hand, with Whack-a-Mole alarm clock, all you need to do to set it off is to, ofcourse, whack a mole. Now not just guarantees to wake you up, but also to leave you annoyed the rest of you day.

Wake up? Five stars out of five!
Leave you annoyed for the rest of the day? Five stars out of five. I've tested Whack-a-Mole. Trust me, you don't wanna try it.
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