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Latte-froth printer

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:42:52 -0500

I bought a double-boiler, high-end espresso machine back in February and I'm brewing a pretty badass cuppa these days, but I can't quite perfect the art of making patterns in the latte froth (I'm pretty good at doing a flying spaghetti monster, but that's it).

Enter the latte-froth printer, which produces surprisingly hi-rez art in the top of the machine. Time to clear some more counter-space. Link (via Neatorama)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Apr 19, 2008, 6:34AM

HOWTO Make a t-shirt rug

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:33:23 -0500

Instructables user Randofo created this awesome HOWTO for turning your beloved old tees into a handsome rug. I have so many damned tees (and I give away a bushel's worth every year to charity) -- my only problem with this is that I'd eventually run out of floorspace. Maybe a layered look? Link (via Craft)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Apr 19, 2008, 6:24AM

60% of world's paintings come from one village in China

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:33:06 -0500

A single village in China is responsible for cranking out 60% of the world's paintings. The overwhelming majority of the paintings are slavish reproductions of famous paintings. The artists doing the work are very talented, however, and an organization called Regional asked some of the artists to paint themselves. The results are incredible.

Dafen is a village surrounded by the thriving metropolis of Shenzhen, and the origin of most of the world’s reproduction oil paintings. In the popular imagination Dafen’s artists produce anonymous works for unknown customers, operating no differently than a faceless factory churning out counterfeits, replicas and nothing close to what would be considered art.
Regional productively collaborated with the otherwise commoditized community in Dafen by asking selected individuals, some for the first time, to imagine themselves in their professional medium. The final works show the technical, creative, and professional facets of the artists identities subsumed by the styles and relationships they maintain with specific famous artists. The hybrid result of original subject with derivative style comments on originality, global cultural production and Regional's cooperation with emerging enterprise forms that are internationalizing the village.

Link (Thanks, Howard Rheingold!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Apr 18, 2008, 7:25PM

Droste Effect: when a package's artwork features the package itself

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:32:45 -0500

The Droste Effect is the name for packaging art that features the package itself in the artwork, in a recursive, diminishing marketfractal:

At my grocery store I could only find three examples: Land O’Lakes Butter, Morton Salt and Cracker Jacks. These packages each include a picture of the package itself and are often cited by writers discussing such pop-math-arcana as recursion, strange loops, self-similarity, and fractals.
This particular phenomenon, known as the “Droste effect,” is named after a 1904 package of Droste brand cocoa. The mathematical interest in these packaging illustrations is their implied infinity. If the resolution of the printing process—(and the determination and eyesight of the illustrator)—were not limiting factors, it would go on forever. A package within a package within a package... Like Russian dolls. Drosteroyal

Link (via Kottke)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Apr 18, 2008, 7:15PM

Web Zen: neo pop surrealist zen

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:32:12 -0500

amy casey
miles thompson
ryan heshka
naoto hattori
theo badiu
red nose studio
mark beam
tim mara
f. scott hess
robt. williams

previously on web zen:
lowbrow gogo pop zen

Link, Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!)

Image: Miles Thompson.

Originally from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin reBlogged by LO2 on Apr 18, 2008, 2:47PM

Celebrity robot tee

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:31:56 -0500

I love this "robot celebrity" tee from ChopShop -- science fictiontastic! Link (via Gizmodo)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Apr 18, 2008, 9:04AM

HOWTO Make a steampunk mouse

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:31:43 -0500

Here's a great in-depth build report from a steampunk mouse project in Custom PC:

I'd decided to use mahogany for the mouse body to give it a satisfyingly rich colour that would go well with the brass I'd be adding later. I bought a 1/4-in sheet of wood (picture 3), measuring 3in wide by 36in from a Hobbies shop. Using what was left of the mouse base and PCB as a template, I cut a hole in the wood with a fretsaw, and then sanded it for a snug fit.
Sorting out the scroll wheel came next. It was constructed from clear plastic and illuminated by a blue LED (picture 4), which wasn't exactly appropriate for a Steampunk-themed design. I desoldered the LED and used 22mm copper heating pipe to fashion a new wheel. I cut a very short length of the pipe (around 7mm) and carefully smoothed the edges using emery cloth on a flat surface. The 'wheel' had to be gradually reduced in diameter until it was a snug fit, before using Araldite to glue the two parts together. I used a Dremel for most of this work, before sandpapering it to finish it off.

Link (Thanks, Alex!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Apr 18, 2008, 6:01AM

Secret history of Infocom's abortive sequel to The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy text adventure, Milliways

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:31:34 -0500

Andy Baio's been slipped a hard drive containing the whole network share from Infocom, creators of the legendary text-adventure game Zork and The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy; he's mining the drive's many treasures and today he's published a long account of the abortivr Milliways game, a sequel to H2G2 set in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe:

1. It seems natural to include a scene in the restaurant, Milliways. Could be a bit of fun: strange parties, unctuous compere, self-introducing food. Perhaps there's an object there that you need to get. (It could be a SPORK, a spoon with sort of forky tines on the end. Or would that be a FOON?) It could be a vehicle from the car park -- Marvin has the keys. If you manage to re-enter Milliways at another time (oops! on another occasion), you will not meet yourself, "because of the embarrassment that usually causes." What about a visit to the Big Bang Burger Bar?
2. Given point 1, you must have a means (or several meanses) of time travel. In fact time travel instead of space travel could be the primary method of changing scene. In the original, the party got to Milliways by accident: in the radio version, a "hyperspatial field generator" overheated; in the book version, Zaphod's great-granddaddy screwed up the works of Eddie, the Heart of Gold computer. Maybe your trip to Milliways would require info from an anti-piracy device in the game package. Once at the restaurant, you can steal a timeship and go anywhen you want.
3. Given point 2, it seems natural for the "best ending" of the game to be your arrival on Earth before it's destroyed, which is the ending of both the first radio series and the second (namesake) book. The original route to this ending was an accidental landing on Golgafrincham Ark B, with its cargo of telephone sanitizers, marketing consultants, etc. (the ancestors of Earth's humans!). I rather like this bit, and hope we can work it into the game.
4. Okay, so what about the beginning of the game? The easy answer: take up the story where the "Hitchhiker's" game left off, namely the arrival on Magrathea. But in the original this arrival is followed by a travelogue of Magrathea and a flashback to the Deep Thought v. philosophers' union story (including the introduction of the "42" joke) and the joke about the true nature of mice. All funny bits, but I have a hard time envisioning how they can be made into interesting interactive versions. Perhaps you could time-travel to Deep Thought and interact with it yourself. The Magrathean catalog of planets on Sens-O-Tape could be useful.

Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Apr 18, 2008, 5:14AM

Trailer for documentary about virtual worlds

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:31:18 -0500

Victor Piñeiro says: "Just wanted to share my first feature documentary trailer with you, Second Skin. Its all about virtual worlds and the gamers who 'live' in them." Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Feb 5, 2008, 5:29PM

One Got Fat: 1962 bike safety film uses macabre monkey masks

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:31:11 -0500

Roger says: "Here's a review of an extremely weird vintage bicycle safety film from 1962 in which a group of kids show us the dangers of disobeying bicycle safety rules - all while wearing some of the creepiest monkey masks you'll ever see."

The typeface used in the title is excellent.

Link | Link to YouTube video

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Feb 5, 2008, 3:34PM

Perpetual motion contraption stumps MIT professor

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:25:25 -0500

Last week, Thane Heins of Ottawa took his perpetual motion device (the Perepiteia) to Boston to show it to Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Markus Zahn at MIT's Laboratory for Electromagentic and Electonic Systems.

Zahn says the device's performance was "unexpected and new."

It's now Jan. 28 – D Day. Heins has modified his test so the effects observed are difficult to deny. He holds a permanent magnet a few centimetres away from the driveshaft of an electric motor, and the magnetic field it creates causes the motor to accelerate. It went well.
Contacted by phone a few hours after the test, Zahn is genuinely stumped -- and surprised. He said the magnet shouldn't cause acceleration. "It's an unusual phenomena I wouldn't have predicted in advance. But I saw it. It's real. Now I'm just trying to figure it out."
There's no talk of perpetual motion. No whisper of broken scientific laws or free energy. Zahn would never go there -– at least not yet. But he does see the potential for making electric motors more efficient, and this itself is no small feat.
"To my mind this is unexpected and new, and it's worth exploring all the possible advantages once you're convinced it's a real effect," he added. "There are an infinite number of induction machines in people's homes and everywhere around the world. If you could make them more efficient, cumulatively, it could make a big difference."

Link | Videos of the Perepitea

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Feb 5, 2008, 12:42PM

Murakami takes graffitied Murakami billboard

David Pescovitz — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:19:04 -0500

In December, graffiti writers AUGER and REVOK modified a billboard advertising the wonderful Takashi Murakami exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Two days later, the billboard was removed. The LA Weekly now reports that Murakami himself saw online photos of the graffitied billboard and thought it to be "so wonderful, he had to have it for his collection," according to his representatives. So apparently he had it taken down and shipped to his studio in Japan. Link to LA Weekly, Link to LA MOCA's Murakami page

Originally from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz reBlogged by LO2 on Feb 5, 2008, 11:38AM

Anonymous Message to Pastafarianism / Leaked FSM video

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:18:38 -0500

Sean Bonner points us to these Pastafarian videos, which seem awfully reminiscent of some recently leaked creepy videos from another cult.

"I won't hesitate to put my noodle in someone else, because I put it ruthlessly in myself."

Anonymous Message to Pastafarianism:

Secret Pastafarian Video Exposed:

Both were created by Ed Adkins.

Originally from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin reBlogged by LO2 on Feb 5, 2008, 9:41AM

Web Zen: lego zen

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:18:22 -0500

honda
nathan sawaya
henry lim
eric harshbarger
album covers
theorists
nyc
guitars
phone
galvanic skin response detector
dice generator
lego's run
white stripes

Link, Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin reBlogged by LO2 on Feb 5, 2008, 12:05AM

Auction: "I will send maddening postcards from Poland to the person of your choosing"

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:13:43 -0500

Marilyn sez, "Brian Sack offers to drive a person of your choice crazy with mysterious postcards from Poland while he is vacationing there. The postcards will be laced with odd personal details about this person, supplied by you, and signed with an indecipherable signature. So far, Sack reports, some 73,000 people have bid on this since yesterday."

To add to the sheer confusion and genuine discomfort, one missive will be on an original promotional postcard announcing the 1995 television premiere of Central Park West on CBS.
Another will be a postcard celebrating Atlanta's disastrous hosting of the 1996 summer Olympic games.
Your mark will be at a complete loss, desperate for answers, debating contacting people he or she hasn't talked to in years.

Link (Thanks, Marilyn!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 20, 2007, 12:35AM

HOWTO Make a BristleBot vibrating toothbrush robot

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:12:20 -0500

Evil Mad Scientist Labs's BristleBot uses a pager motor and a toothbrush head to make a tiny, vibrating remote controlled robot. Looks like a fun xmas holidays project for the kids!

The BristleBot is a simple and tiny robot with an agenda. The ingredients? One toothbrush, a battery, and a pager motor. The result? Serious fun.
The BristleBot is our take on the popular vibrobot, a simple category of robot that is controlled by a single vibrating (eccentric) motor. Some neat varieties include the mint-tin version as seen in Make Magazine (check the video), and the kid's art bot: a vibrobot with pens for feet.

Link (via Gizmodo)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 20, 2007, 12:19AM

Japan's chief cabinet secretary says alien spacecraft are real

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:12:02 -0500

Japan Probe report that Japan's chief cabinet secretary Nobutaka Machimura said UFOs (meaning alien spacecraft, not flying objects that have not been identified) are real.

Yes, UFOs do exist, Japan’s top government spokesman said on Tuesday.
The comment by chief cabinet secretary Nobutaka Machimura drew laughter from reporters at his regular briefing on government policy.
Earlier the cabinet, responding to an opposition lawmaker’s question, issued a statement saying it could not confirm any cases of unidentified flying objects.
“This is an issue that the nation is interested in — it is a defence issue and a confirmation operation needs to take place,” Ryuji Yamane, a lawmaker from the main opposition Democratic Party who submitted the question to the cabinet, told Reuters.

Link | BBC story

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 19, 2007, 5:02PM

How the UK government deals with a broken light bulb

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:12:00 -0500

The House of Commons Commission issued this 10-step guide for dealing with broken light bulbs in Parliament.

Are the bulbs filled with anthrax spores?

UPDATE: The US EPA's 3-step procedure for dealing with broken CFLs makes more sense to me.

Link (Via Nothing To Do With Arbroath)

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 19, 2007, 2:17PM

UNICEF photo of the year

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:11:48 -0500

Stephanie Sinclair won the UNICEF photo of the year for her haunting picture of a 40-year-man and his 11-year-old bride in Afghanistan.

He’s forty, she’s eleven. And they are a couple – the Afghan man Mohammed F.* and the child Ghulam H.*. “We needed the money”, Ghulam’s parents said. Faiz claims he is going to send her to school. But the women of Damarda village in Afghanistan’s Ghor province know better: “Our men don’t want educated women.” They predict that Ghulam will be married within a few weeks after her engagement in 2006, so as to bear children for Faiz.
During her stay in Afghanistan, it consistently struck American photographer Stephanie Sinclair how many young girls are married to much older men. She decided to raise awareness about this topic with her pictures. Particularly as the official minimum age for brides in Afghanistan is sixteen and it is therefore illegal to marry children.

Link (Via Nothing To Do With Arbroath)

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 19, 2007, 2:05PM

Excellent short film made from public domain footage

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:09:35 -0500

Mental_Floss magazine has an article about debilitating parasites and to promote, they made a wonderful short film made from public domain footage.

The 1930's Universal Pictures style logo is wonderful!

Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 19, 2007, 1:38PM

Chicago police ask you to report people using maps or taking notes in public

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:09:24 -0500

Rogier says:

(Click on thumbnail for enlargement) The London police force clearly has the graphic-design edge , but the Chicago Police Department matches if not outshines the British bobbies for the ardor and toxic nuttiness with which it propagates anti-terrorist paranoia. Click on the image to read which categories of people are considered suspects now. You might want to duct-tape your jaw to your face first (be careful not to do this in public; I'm sure the cops consider duct tape highly fishy too).
Like the London example, this flyer is genuine. You can find it on the City of Chicago's website here.
If terrorists do their dirty work by spreading, well, terror, what should we call public servants who aggressively promote fear and unhinged suspicions by telling the public to report note takers, binoculars users, camera enthusiasts, map owners, and motorists who time traffic lights?

Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 19, 2007, 12:41PM

10 Habits of Highly Successful Brains

David Pescovitz — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:09:11 -0500

Alvaro Fernandez, co-founder of cognitive fitness firm SharpBrains, is now blogging at the Huffington Post. He just posted a thoughtful list of "10 Habits of Highly Successful Brains." Here are #1 and #5:

1. Learn what is the "It" in "Use It or Lose It". A basic understanding will serve you well to appreciate your brain's beauty as a living and constantly-developing dense forest with billions of neurons and synapses.

5. Thrive on Learning and Mental Challenges. The point of having a brain is precisely to learn and to adapt to challenging new environments. Once new neurons appear in your brain, where they stay in your brain and how long they survive depends on how you use them. "Use It or Lose It" does not mean "do crossword puzzle number 1,234,567". It means, "challenge your brain often with fundamentally new activities."

Link

Previously on BB:
• Mind gyms for cognitive fitness Link

Originally from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 19, 2007, 11:48AM

Village of reproduced paintings

David Pescovitz — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:09:06 -0500

Da Fen Oil Painting Village in Shenzhen, China is apparently home to thousands of artists who primarily paint inexpensive copies of famous art works by the old masters and others. Over at CT2, Kevin Kelly posted a short riff on these "original hyper fake reproductions." From his post:

In China there is an entire village given over to making money by fake paintings. These are not counterfeits intended to deceive. No one is fooled into thinking the Van Gogh painting they just bought is painted by Van Gogh. Rather the fake is like a reproduced poster of Van Gogh. But since it has been painted by hand, often with gusto and intelligence, it is much more interesting than a duplication of the original. It is an original reproduction. It is a hyperfake.

Re-painting masters is a venerable activity.

Link

Originally from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 19, 2007, 11:43AM

Push-button home in a converted shipping container -- Boing Boing Gadgets

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:08:50 -0500

Over on Boing Boing Gadgets, our Joel's spotted this drool-inducing "push button" house built into a shipping container. There are millions of empty shipping containers rattling around the global physicalnet, waiting for someone to think of something cool to do with them -- I nearly rented an office in a converted container last month. Handsome place, too.

When last we mentioned the Illy cafe built in a shipping container, we noted that Adam Kalkin had built other shipping container living spaces. Here's one.
Called the "Push Button House," it expands completely in 90 seconds. MoCo Loco has a nice little gallery of images.

Link, Discuss this on Boing Boing Gadgets

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 19, 2007, 12:51AM

Anti-paint dumping ad from WWF -- effective and haunting

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:08:10 -0500

I think that these World Wildlife Campaign posters are incredibly effective -- they depict a giant, skyscraper-sized used paint-can as the mouth of a river (one in the countryside, the other in Sydney), with the legend "A single tin of paint can pollute millions of litres of water." Link (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 18, 2007, 6:41AM

Wax cylinder xmas music MP3s

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:07:58 -0500

A wax-cylinder afficianado has produced a killer roundup of Christmas music digitized from the dead recording medium, all from the first couple-three decades of the twentieth century.

Last year I posted a series of entries entitled "Vintage Christmas Wax" which most folks were pretty happy about. Alas, several of the old links have expired. Rather than have everyone search for the active links, I decided to compile the remaining links into one simple post. So, once again, here is a collection of vintage wax recordings from the early 1900s through the late 1930s (my favorite continues to be Eddie Cantor). Many of these fantastic transfers are from The Antique Christmas Lights Museum. Others were sourced from The Cylinder Preservation & Digitization Project, Canada's Virtual Gramaphone, the Library & Archives Canada, The Library of Congress, The Edison National Historic Site, and the Internet Archive. Happy Holidays!!! NOTE: Some of the files may take some time to load.

Link (via Beyond the Beyond)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 18, 2007, 6:22AM

Shanghai adver-barge

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:07:53 -0500

Today in my series of photos from my travels: an adver-barge sailing down the ~~Yangtze~~ Huang Pu river with a giant illuminated billboard on it, steaming past enormous white-elephant skyscrapers (so tall and heavy that they're actually sinking in places!), skinned with illuminated advertising. Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 18, 2007, 1:54AM

Unusual old Japanese model kits

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:56:00 -0500

Gallery of old Japanese model kits -- sushi, robots, weird vehicles, Sphinxes, weapon launchers, defecating deer, boomboxes, squid guitarists, and wild boars that selfishly bowl without considering the safety of nearby monkeys. Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 17, 2007, 1:29PM

Worst Band Names of 2007

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:54:35 -0500

The Onion AV Club has posted an extensive and excellent list of redonkulous band names in 2007. I am fond of the "ANIMALS" section of this list:

Pistol Whipping Party Penguins

SuperHeavyGoatAss

Baboon Torture Division (Their site proudly boasts that it ranks "1 for Baboon Torture Porn on Google.")

Those Fucking Unicorns

Unicorn Dream Attack

Sex Rat

Penguins With Shotguns

Tigers Can Bite You

Link to full list, which includes links to real live band myspaces and websites on some of the internets. (thanks, Paul Hoffman)

Originally from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 14, 2007, 7:06PM

Pig toy returns to normal after being squashed - video

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:54:15 -0500

Lokulokus are little plastic toy pigs from Japan. Throw them onto a tabletop and they'll be squashed flat. Then they'll slowly return to their normal roly-poly shape. The video is a delight. Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 14, 2007, 3:08PM

Free ebook: The Best That Ever Did It

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:53:10 -0500

The Best That Ever Did It, by Leonard S. Zinberg (aka Ed Lacy), is a mystery novel from 1955.

Barney Harris, 248-pound auto mechanic and private investigator, is hired by a policeman's widow to root out police corruption and bring her husband’s murderer to justice.

Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 14, 2007, 12:15PM

The crackpot inventions of Bryan Mumford

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:52:48 -0500

Tim says: "Bryan Mumford makes some interesting gadgets -- none more interesting than the Mystery Box. Designed to look inviting, it automatically slams its lid when approached, then teasingly creeps it back open when you leave."

The Mystery Box consists of a polished cherry wood box placed on top of a spruce pedestal. The box has a hinged lid, which is open, and the inside is lined with black velvet.
When you see this box on a pedestal, you think to yourself
"This is some special box, and something special is inside of it."
So you walk over to look inside. But as soon as you get within 6 feet of the box, the hinged lid slams shut and won't open.
If you walk away from the box, it begins to feel safe again, and the lid opens an inch or so. If you leave it alone, after 5 or 10 seconds, it opens another inch or two. If you still leave it alone, it will open a bit more. Finally, it decides it's safe once again and, like a cautious anemone, it opens all the way up. But as soon as you approach it, it slams shut.
Yes, there is something special inside and no, I won't tell you what it is.

Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 14, 2007, 11:40AM

HOWTO defeat the shoe-scanner at Heathrow

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:51:40 -0500

Bruce Schneier just passed through Heathrow Airport and noticed that they're speeding up the shoe-scanning process by having you go through a metal detector first and then have your shoes scanned at a second system. Being a security guru, he gave it ten seconds' thought and figured out how to defeat it.

Here's how the attack works. Assume that you have two pairs of shoes: a clean pair that passes all levels of screening, and a dangerous pair that doesn't. (Ignore for a moment the ridiculousness of screening shoes in the first place, and assume that an X-ray machine can detect the dangerous pair.) Put the dangerous shoes on your feet and the clean shoes in your carry-on bag. Walk through the metal detector. Then, at the shoe X-ray machine, take the dangerous shoes off and put them in your bag, and take the clean shoes out of your bag and place them on the X-ray machine. You've now managed to get through security without having your shoes screened.

Of course, X-ray machines are useful for spotting metal, not plastic explosive, so none of this stuff matters anyway. Ho ho ho. Link

(Photo: Travel Hungry Shoes, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from Stuporglue's Flickr stream

)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 14, 2007, 6:53AM

UNetbootin: Create a dual boot Windows/Linux PC without a CD

Brad Linder — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:05:39 -0500

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Linux

UNetbootin is a tool that makes installing Linux about as easy as it can be. Like Wubi, you can install UNetbootin on a Windows partition to get started. Unlike Wubi, the end result with UNetbootin is a dual-boot machine that can boot either into a Windows partition or a Linux one.

So why use UNetbootin instead of downloading and burning a liveCD? Well, if you don't have a spare CD-R writing around, of if your computer doesn't have a CD burner, UNetbootin uses a network-based installation technique. Just select the flavor of UNetbootin you want to install, reboot your machine, and follow the on-screen instructions. This would be an awesome tool for anyone who has one of those super-portable laptops that don't come with optical disc drives.

You can use UNetbootin to install Debian, Arch Linux, Fedora, Mandriva, OpenSuse 10.2, and Ubuntu 6.06 - 7.10. There are Linux and Windows-based installers available which means you can use UNetbootin to add Ubuntu to your Windows PC or to ad Mandriva to your OpenSuse machine. Windows Vista isn't currently supported, but an update should be coming in a few weeks that will allow you to use UNetbootin with Vista.

[via Howtoforge]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Originally from Download Squad by Brad Linder reBlogged by LO2 on Oct 5, 2007, 10:00AM

UpdateStar keeps your software up to date

Brad Linder — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:05:29 -0500

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Windows, Shareware, Freeware, Beta

There are plenty of ways to check to see if your software needs updating. You can manually visit the website for each program you run on a regular basis. Or if you'd rather use a method that doesn't take all day, you can install an application that will check for updates automatically.

While we like File Hippo Update Checker and AppSnap, UpdateStar might just take the blue ribbon when it comes to freeware software updaters. UpdateStar won't automatically download and install software like AppSnap, but it makes up for that deficiency by offering a huge library of programs. It catches all sorts of installed and updateable software that the other programs miss.

UpdateStar will automatically scan your PC and search for any of 8000 applications. When it detects those programs on your computer it will check to see if newer versions are available. When you click on an application you get a brief description and a link to download the newer version.

Odds are you'll still have a few applications on your PC that UpdateStar will miss, including any application that didn't have an installer file. But of the update checkers we've tried, UpdateStar appears to be the most powerful.

[via gHacks]

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Originally from Download Squad by Brad Linder reBlogged by LO2 on Oct 10, 2007, 9:00AM

iTunes Alternatives

Christina Warren — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:04:06 -0500

Filed under: Audio, Features, Windows, Macintosh, Linux

As the comment section from our recent post about the latest iTunes update shows, not everyone is in love with iTunes. Especially for Windows users, the program can be buggy, hog memory/system resources and it tries to force users to organize and store their music in a certain way (hey, some of us have very specific, if a bit arcane, organizational methods and we don't want iTunes to force us to put everything in "My Music" in artist/album folders).

The program's strength lies with its perfect integration with the iPod and the iTunes Store (which for all intents and purposes, IS iTunes the application). So what do you do if you don't like iTunes - but still want a program that will easily (and reliably) work with your iPod? We've scoured the web and found the best iTunes alternatives, both for music and iPod management for Windows, Linux, and yes, even some OS X alternatives.

Here at DownloadSquad, we like software to be free - especially if it is replacing another free program - and almost every utility or program we mention is free or has a free version available.

Continue reading iTunes Alternatives

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Originally from Download Squad by Christina Warren reBlogged by LO2 on Nov 8, 2007, 10:30AM

Download EverNote for free (today only)

Brad Linder — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:03:35 -0500

Filed under: Windows, Productivity

Looking for a good solution for organizing all the notes in your life? EverNote is an application for saving web articles, snippets of Office documents, to-do lists, images, and other notes all in one handy package.

There's also handwriting recognition for Tablet or UMPC users, an OCR that lets you search for text inside of images, and a Google Desktop indexer, making it easy to search for notes stored within EverNote.

An EverNote license will normally set you back $50, but Giveaway of the Day is offering up a free copy today only. You'll have to download and register EverNote 2.2 before the end of the day in order to get a free license.

[via jkOnTheRun]

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Originally from Download Squad by Brad Linder reBlogged by LO2 on Nov 15, 2007, 4:00AM

Open up almost any file with Universal Extractor

Brad Linder — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:02:26 -0500

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

One of the first applications we install on every Windows PC and portable flash drive is 7-Zip. This handy little application has never met a ZIP, RAR, or otherwise archived file that it can't extract. But one thing 7-Zip can't handle is archived files that it doesn't think are archives. That's where Universal Extractor comes in handy.

Universal Extractor lets you peek inside the contents of EXE and MSI files. Once you install this free utility you can launch it to peek inside those hard to open archives. Or you can choose to add Universal Extractor options to your Windows context menu.

It's not that often that you really need to know what files are packaged in an EXE, but it's nice to have the option when you need it.

[via TechnoBuzz]

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Originally from Download Squad by Brad Linder reBlogged by LO2 on Nov 27, 2007, 11:00AM

How to disable automatic reboots with Windows XP SP2

Brad Linder — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:02:20 -0500

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Windows has this way of not just telling you when it's a good idea to reboot your computer, but nagging you incessantly until you apply. These little messages pop up after installing some software, and quite often after installing Windows Updates, especially if you're running Windows XP.

Last year, we gave you some tips on disabling or at least delaying the nag message. But if you're looking for a slightly more user friendly option, check out Auto Reboot Remover.

This little application does two things, and it does them well. Run it once, and select Disable Auto Reboot, and say goodbye to your warning messages. Run it again, and you can reenable the message. The program is an executable file, no installation required.

[via Life Rocks and gHacks]

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Originally from Download Squad by Brad Linder reBlogged by LO2 on Nov 28, 2007, 7:00AM

Supercharge your right-click menu with FileMenu Tools

Brad Linder — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:01:08 -0500

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

When you first load Windows onto a PC, you have a relatively clean right-click menu. Select a file or folder and right click with your mouse, and you have the option to copy, paste, delete, or do a few other actions. But the more software you install on your system, the longer that window gets with applications asking if you'd like to unzip, play, or do other unspeakable things to your files.

FileMenu Tools lets you customize the heck out of your right-click menu. You can either clean up all of the items you don't use or add a ton of new features like change file attributes, or shred files. You can also show the shortcuts added by other programs if you really want to.

FileMenu Tools is available as a free download, and works with Windows 98/XP/Vista.

[via Life Rocks 2.0]

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Originally from Download Squad by Brad Linder reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 10, 2007, 9:00AM

Lock away your PC files with My Lockbox

Brad Linder — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:59:28 -0500

Filed under: Security, Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Have a few files on your computer you'd like to hide from prying eyes? Don't worry, we're not passing judgment. But we do have a suggestion. You might want to check out My Lockbox for hiding your sensitive data. You know, like umm... business documents.

Here's how it works. Once you install My Lockbox, the application will create a hidden folder. By default that folder will be hanging out in your My Documents folder, but you can place it anywhere on your PC. The folder is password protected, and when you hit the "lock" button, nobody can open it. That means they can't copy or open files, and they can't save files to the folder. So if you'll need to unlock the folder in order to save new files to your lockbox.

Your files aren't encrypted, so if you want a bit more protection you might want to check out TrueCrypt. But My Lockbox is quite simple to use, and even hides your files when your PC is running in safe mode.

[via Freeware Genius]

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Originally from Download Squad by Brad Linder reBlogged by LO2 on Jan 30, 2008, 11:00AM

Spyware Terminator: The name says everything

Simon Kerbel — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:59:07 -0500

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Beta, Troubleshooting

Looking for a free spyware scanner with real-time spyware and virus protection? Look no further than Spyware Terminator.

Aside from the standard spyware scan, Spyware Terminator has some extra features not normally found in a free product:

Real-time protection that intercepts spyware before it installs
Includes antivirus protection, with an antivirus scanner and real-time protection
Web security guard ranks a website's threat level and notifies you about potential security risks on the page

The spyware scan can be scheduled or manually initiated; you also have the option of a deep, quick, or customized scan. Once the scan is over, Spyware Terminator will quarantine or delete the files with one click; and in the words of a famous character with the same moniker, "it's terminated" (Austrian accent not included, see store for details).

Spyware Terminator is currently in beta, and Windows only.

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Originally from Download Squad by Simon Kerbel reBlogged by LO2 on Jan 31, 2008, 9:00AM

Remap your boss's keyboard as a prank with SharpKeys

Brad Linder — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:58:52 -0500

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Have you ever bought a laptop that has a few keys that you're convinced our in the wrong place? We've seen keyboards that put the Windows key all the way in the top right corner, or which put the arrow keys a bit too closer to the shift key for comfort.

SharpKeys is a utility that lets you remap pretty much any key on your keyboard. Just fire SharpKeys up, select a key, and then decide what you would like its new function to be. To get the full effect, once you're done, you can even try prying the keys off of your keyboard and rearranging them. Just a quick warning though: your spacebar probably won't fit in the spot where the K key currently resides. We figured you probably knew that already, but figured we'd issue a disclaimer just in case spacial relations aren't your thing.

Also note that if anyone follows the recommendation in this post's title Download Squad and its parent company AOL will not be held responsible for the fallout. But if you happen to snap any pictures of the ensuing fun, please send them our way.

SharpKeys is designed for Window XP, 2000 and Vista.

[via jkOnTheRun]

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Originally from Download Squad by Brad Linder reBlogged by LO2 on Feb 1, 2008, 7:00AM

Windows Tip: Simulate "No to All" in file copy dialog

Brad Linder — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:56:18 -0500

Filed under: Windows, How-Tos

When you try to copy a group of files from one folder to another, Windows will bring up a handy little window if it notices files in the target directory with the same name as files from the source directory. You can manually choose which files to overwrite or leave be one by one. Or you can click "Yes to All" to effectively overwrite every file with a duplicate name in the target directory.

But what if you want to click "No to All?" There's no button for you, but that doesn't mean Windows won't let you skip all the duplicate files. All you have to do is hold down the Shift key and click No. Now Windows will skip all files with duplicate names and copy the rest of your files to the new directory, thus saving you a lot of time, heartache, and repetitive finger motions.

[via Online Tech Tips and Tech Xpress]

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Originally from Download Squad by Brad Linder reBlogged by LO2 on Apr 11, 2008, 12:00PM

Mixed in what key?!?!

Joey Celis — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:55:00 -0500

Filed under: Audio, Windows, Macintosh, Commercial

If you've ever played a musical instrument the concept of playing in key is nothing new. But what about DJs? Are there lessons out there that go over majors, minors or even basic chord progressions? Having 2 songs mixed in key gives the impression that the songs were made for each other.

MixedInKey has developed a software for DJs that will analyze your songs to determine what key they are in. That way when you are building your set you can select songs that where performed in the same key or a complementary key.

In order to have your mp3s analyzed add them to MixedInKey. From there, the software will determine its key and display them according to their Camelot Sound keycode. Add songs according to their keycode using your favorite mixing software and start mixing.

We had our reservations about this program, fearing that all your mixes will be in the same key leading to one boring set. But the system itself, teaches you musical concepts and if you follow the system you can move from one key to the next to add chord progressions to your mix.

MixedInKey is available for both Windows and Mac and cost $58.

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Originally from Download Squad by Joey Celis reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 22, 2008, 11:00AM

Drool-Inducing Wacom Cintiq Widescreen Tablets Are Hopefully Dribbleproof [Under Pressure]

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:55:55 -0600

I need one of these, pronto. I can take either the 12-inch 1,280 x 800-pixel Wacom Cintiq 12WX or the 20-inch Wacom Cintiq 20WSX, with it's glorious 1,680 x 1,050 pixels. Sure big is always better, as Russ Meyer would have agreed, but even the smaller model will allow me to speed up my cheapo Photochops by a factor of a lot. Or at least that's what I suppose, because Wacom doesn't allow me to test-drive one for the Giz. Too bad, because the specs look sweet:

QUICK FACTS - CINTIQ 20WSX
Overall Dimensions: 21.6"W x 14.5"H x 1.8"D without stand
Display Area: 17"W x 10.7"H
Screen Size: 20.1" diagonal
Native Resolution WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050)
Weight: 16.3 lbs without stand
20.0 lbs with stand
Aspect Ratio: 16:10
Pressure Levels: 1,024 on pen tip and eraser
Stand Adjustability: 10° to 65° incline
Rotation: +/- 180°
Warranty: 2 years

QUICK FACTS - CINTIQ 12WX

Overall Dimensions: 16" W x 10.5" H x .67" D
Display Area: 10.3" W x 6.4" H
Screen Size: 12.1" diagonal
Native Resolution WXGA (1280 x 800)
Weight: 4.4 lbs with video control unit
Aspect Ratio: 16:10
Pressure Levels: 1,024 on pen tip and eraser
Stand Adjustability: Flat on desktop, 25° to 60°
Rotation: 360° flat position on pivot
Warranty: 2 years

Unlike the prices. $1,999 for the 20-inch model and $999 for the 12-inch puts this out of most of digital artists aficionados. For professionals, however, they will pay themselves in no time. However, I'm curious about what normal users could do with this. [Wacom via MacNN]

Originally from Gizmodo by Jesus Diaz reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 3, 2007, 12:40PM

Cowon Q5W PMP Has Wi-Fi, Touchscreen, 60GB Storage, GPS [Gadgets]

Jason Chen — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:55:46 -0600

The Cowon Q5W could be one of the most feature-rich PMPs we've seen yet, even beating out Archos's big boys in terms of how much stuff you can cram into a music and video player. Oh, and it's not nearly as un-carriable as the Archos devices either, which is fantastic.

It's got Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 600MHz processor, 5-inch touchscreen LCD, 40-60GB of storage, flash-player, wireless remote, FM radio, voice recorder, stereo speakers, component/composite/S-Video TV out, RAW support for various cameras, super video codec support (DivX, XviD, MPEG4, WMV7/8/9) at 720x480, super audio support MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG, WAV, FLAC, APE, MPC), and a battery life of 13 hours (audio) and seven hours (video). Best of all it's only $549 for the 40GB version and $599 for the 60GB version. Even better? There's an optional car mount in order to either use all its multimedia capabilities on, OR, use it as a GPS! Stick around for a hands-on of this in the next couple of days. [Cowon]

Originally from Gizmodo by Jason Chen reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 3, 2007, 1:46PM

Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Keyboards Cracked for Coworker Espionage [Hax]

Matt Buchanan — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:55:34 -0600

The crackers at Dreamlab have busted open the wireless encryption on Microsoft's Optical Desktops 1000 and 2000, as well as any others using the same simplistic scheme: There's only about 256 possible encryption keys, making it like pie to crack after sniffing a few tens of keystrokes. So easy, in their demo they nail three keyboards at once.

If you don't wanna deal with the hack-speak, the bottom line is that a remotely enterprising and nosy co-worker could whip up a wireless keylogger to spy on the whole office. Then again, what office springs for wireless keyboards for everybody? [Remote-Exploit.org via Hackaday]

Originally from Gizmodo by Matt Buchanan reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 3, 2007, 4:00PM

If Apple Designed a Flashlight... [Concept]

Sean Fallon — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:55:30 -0600

Yes, the world has fallen in love with Apple's clean and sophisticated designs, but is making an Apple flashlight going too far? You bet it is. Still, designer Myoshimasato has developed a concept piece that attempts to illustrate what an iLight would look like if it actually existed. I'll admit, it does look like something Apple would design (or Nintendo for that matter), but the functionality makes what should be a simple device unnecessarily complex, and there is no real software component to speak of. Two qualities not generally associated with Apple products.

For starters, the light is touch sensitive. You can turn the light on and off with a single tap, or increase the brightness by flicking your finger forward. Double-tapping locks the device and the glowing Apple logo indicates battery status. You can even tap on the logo to automatically flash "Help" in Morse code. While that last part is definitely interesting, it may not be all that handy unless you are lost at sea or your neighbor has been stationed on a battleship or something. Would a product like this be useful or useless? Discuss. [Yanko Design]

Originally from Gizmodo by Sean Fallon reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 3, 2007, 5:20PM

USB Hub Has Individual On/Off Switches [Gadgets]

Jason Chen — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:52:10 -0600

USB Hubs come in all shapes and sizes (including fruit cake), but this is the first time we've seen a USB hub with individual on/off switches. This isn't only useful for switching off stuff without unplugging it and making a mess, it also helps save power when you're on laptop battery mode. It's a non-powered hub, however, so you won't be able to run four external USB hard drives off this thing. Those of you with four external hard drives should probably be getting a Windows Home Server unit and plugging those into there anyway. [Brando]

Originally from Gizmodo by Jason Chen reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 7, 2007, 6:00PM

USB Humping Dogs Get Upgraded, Now They Enjoy the Sex [Peripherals]

Sean Fallon — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:52:08 -0600

The USB Humping Dogs we all know and love have gotten a much needed upgrade. If you recall, previous versions looked as though they were indifferent towards all of the humping. I don't know about you, but if that was my sole purpose in life, I would be pretty happy about it. Apparently the manufacturers thought so too because the new versions feature smiling faces and perked up ears.

Unfortunately, the manufacturers did not see fit to actually add a memory component upgrade to the mix. With any luck, that is on the slate for Humping Dogs 3.0. If you can't wait that long, you could always use this hack and perform the upgrade yourself. Available for 998 yen or around $9. [Product Page via Gizmodo Japan via Everything USB]

Originally from Gizmodo by Sean Fallon reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 7, 2007, 6:20PM

Baroque Wars, Star Wars Gets Wiggy With It [Art]

Mark Wilson — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:51:39 -0600

We love a good Star Wars remix in these parts, and especially dig freelance illustrator Mattias Adolfsson's rendition of the story as told through Baroque era illustration. If Vader had the Death Star back somewhere between 1600 and 1750, this is how Lucas may have imagined the characters (with powdered wigs, rocking the counterpoint). [artist via superpunch]

Originally from Gizmodo by Mark Wilson reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 8, 2007, 11:54AM

Asus Eee Rocks Ubuntu in 3D [Media]

Mark Wilson — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:51:36 -0600

Linux add-on Compiz Fusion brings some fantastic 3D effects (along with a great deal of practical efficiency) to Ubuntu. Here's a video of the two programs loaded onto a completely stock, 512MB Asus Eee PC. We were way impressed by how the Eee doesn't break a sweat during all the effects. In our own experience, the only thing that seems to make the Eee chug is too many successive YouTube clips...so I'm thinking it's time to upgrade from the Eee's stock, Asus Linux OS with some dazzling Ubuntu style. [via digg]

Originally from Gizmodo by Mark Wilson reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 8, 2007, 1:34PM

Oblong Gear Clock Anything But Conventional [Clocks]

Adrian Covert — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:51:34 -0600

Now that timekeepers can be found on everything from computers to cellphones to dog collars (well, maybe not that), the wall clock lacks function, not to mention it's boring looking. This Oblong Gear Clock, however, eschews the round/proportionally square look for a tall, rectangular look thats jam-packed full of working gears. Even if the gears were just for show, I'd still like it just because it looks so nice. The Oblong Gear Clock can be yours now for $125. [Z Gallerie via 7 Gadgets]

Originally from Gizmodo by Adrian Covert reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 8, 2007, 2:20PM

Darth Vader Wii, Please Don't Buy it Now for $15,000 [Nintendo]

Mark Wilson — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:51:32 -0600

The Star Wars Vader Edition Wii is pretty hot. While we could honestly do without the Star Wars theme in our living rooms (at least while company visits), the black finish and corresponding red LED gives us visions of just how good a touch of the dark side could be for the Nintendo Wii. Screw cute, family friendly pastels. We want coal, blood and steel. And we want it to spew raw meat for our ingestion. Oh, and it'd be nice if it didn't cost $15,000.

To be fair, that's just the "buy it now" price...which maybe for this one listing should be renamed "I think Star Wars fans are both geeky AND stupid and/or I wanted to get good publicity" price. But you could (and will) end up snagging it for far less since there's no reserve. It also includes Wii Play ($10 value) and they've gone through the trouble of painting not one but two Wiimotes and nunchuks "Vader" black ($14,740 value). Well in that case, here's my Paypal. [ebay via technabob]

Originally from Gizmodo by Mark Wilson reBlogged by LO2 on Dec 8, 2007, 3:05PM

ASUS Eee PC models announced

Thomas Ricker — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:33:21 -0600

Filed under: Laptops

They're here, the Eee PC from ASUS, just announced in four ultra-portable flavors. Models offer between 8GB and 2GB of solid state disk capacity, 1GB to 256MB of DDR2 memory, and 3.5-hour or 2.8-hour batteries. Each sports an Intel CPU and chipset supporting Linux or XP, a 7-inch display, and Ethernet and WiFi. A video camera is only available in the 8GB and 4GB models. What's missing? The fracking price that's what. No worries, we expect the information to arrive courtesy of NewEgg and Best Buy over the next few hours if not minutes. In the meantime, see the model breakdown after the break.

[Via I4U]

Continue reading ASUS Eee PC models announced

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Thomas Ricker reBlogged by LO2 on Oct 16, 2007, 4:50AM

Apple responds to Greenpeace: what part of "end of 2008" didn't you understand?

Thomas Ricker — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:33:18 -0600

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Yesterday's battle between Greenpeace and Apple had the former publicly chastising the latter for its continued use of hazardous chemicals in its iPhone. While they conceded that Apple is compliant with Europe's RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) standard, they lambasted Cupertino for its continued use of PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) which, according to Greenpeace, "suggests that Apple is not making early progress towards its 2008 commitment to phase-out all uses of these materials." This morning, an Apple spokesperson told Macworld that, "Like all Apple products worldwide, iPhone complies with RoHS, the world's toughest restrictions on toxic substances in electronics. As we have said, Apple will voluntarily eliminate the use of PVC and BFRs by the end of 2008." Sure, you can fault Apple for not being as environmentally friendly as PVC-free Nokia, or Motorola and Sony Ericsson who offer some devices with BFR-free components. However, Greenpeace shouldn't feign surprise at what they found.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Thomas Ricker reBlogged by LO2 on Oct 16, 2007, 4:05AM

Lumenlab shoves PC inside 42-inch 1080p display, calls it Q

Darren Murph — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:33:00 -0600

Filed under: Desktops, Displays, HDTV

There's all-in-one PCs, and then there's the Q. This behemoth sports a unique identity crisis, as it attempts to pose as an aluminum-framed HDTV while featuring a full-fledged computer within. Nevertheless, the 42-inch Q packs a 1080p panel, compatibility with the Lumenlab's own Hotwire PnP powerline networking technology, a fanless design, 1TB of HDD storage, 2GB of RAM and an Intel Core Duo processor. Unfortunately, details beyond that are fairly slim, but we should get a better idea of specifications and pricing when its ship date draws closer.

[Thanks, Scott]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on Oct 16, 2007, 1:58AM

Hyundai shows off W-100 watch phone

Darren Murph — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:32:46 -0600

Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables

Remember that mysterious CECT cellphone watch we peeked back in July? Unless our eyes (badly) deceive us, that very piece has morphed into Hyundai's W-100, the latest watchphone in town. Reportedly, this device sports a 1.3-megapixel camera, a 176 x 144 resolution touchscreen, Bluetooth, support for English / Chinese languages, an integrated MP3 player and a microSD slot for loading up your tunes. Regrettably, no pricing or release information was readily available, but feel free to click on through for a couple more looks.

[Via AkihabaraNews]

Continue reading Hyundai shows off W-100 watch phone

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on Oct 16, 2007, 12:55AM

Zune crew wraps battery life tests, only does 4 hours video

Ryan Block — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:32:41 -0600

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Cesar on the Zune team says his crew's wrapped up its battery life tests on the new Zunes 80, 8, and 4, and the results are somewhat disappointing, even compared to what was previously posted on Amazon:

Zune 80

Audio: up to 30 hours
Video: up to 4 hours

Zune 8 and 4

Audio: up to 24 hours
Video: up to 4 hours

Not, it's not that terrible, but these tests were with wireless disabled (which isn't necessarily the most realistic method of testing), using 128Kbps WMA audio and 500Kbps WMV video. In other words, it's liable those numbers could go down even further when playing higher bitrate and/or non-Microsoft format files with wireless on and dormant most of the time. Bummer. We'll definitely let you know when we get ours and put it to the test.

[Thanks, Shawn and Daniel]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Ryan Block reBlogged by LO2 on Oct 15, 2007, 11:38PM

The Blusens catalog: a mythical garden of vaporous delights?

Nilay Patel — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:32:03 -0600

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs, Portable Audio, Portable Video

We've never paid much attention to Spain's Blusens, but we just got hold of the company's 2008 catalog and frankly, we're impressed. We don't know how much of this stuff will ever actually see the light of day, but there's some seriously sick (hypothetical) gear in there, like the G.41 PMP pictured above, which features a 4.3-inch screen, WiFi, MP3, WMA, MPEG4 and Ogg support, an integrated digital camera, voice recorder, FM radio, and what looks like a well-polished UI. Also worth noting is the G.71 media streamer / DVR, available in DVD or Blu-ray versions, which features a removable hard drive and external storage support, dual DVB-T tuners, IPTV support, Ethernet, WiFi, HDMI-out, and DivX / DivX HD / XviD, H.264 and MPEG2 support. Rounding out the highlights is the C.40 VoIP phone, which'll let you Skype it up over WiFi. Some of these designs rip pretty heavily from other companies, and again, we're not at all certain what's real and what's not, but damn -- Blusens, welcome to the scene. Peep the whole catalog in the gallery.

[Via Gizmología]

Gallery: The Blusens catalog: a mythical garden of vaporous delights?

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Nilay Patel reBlogged by LO2 on Oct 12, 2007, 6:08AM

DIY Google result-counter ring boosts self-esteem, isolation

Nilay Patel — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:30:09 -0600

Filed under: Wearables

Although Googling youself is a time-honored pastime, we're not certain broadcasting the results is going to get you anywhere except home alone on a Saturday night -- but that might change if German designer Markus Kison's DIY Google results ring ever catches on. The (enormous) ring eschews all those tacky rocks for a multi-line LCD, which is programmed to display the number of hits Google returns for a particular name. According to Kison, "in a post information society" it's not the size of your ice, but rather "the attention you get from the world's people that counts," and his ring merely updates traditional jewelry to reflect that. An interesting idea, but it certainly sounds like Markus doesn't know anyone named John Smith.

[Via Make Blog]

Read -- Video of the ring in action
Read -- Description

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Nilay Patel reBlogged by LO2 on Oct 12, 2007, 2:07AM

ASUS Eee PC ships this month: $199, but not for you

Thomas Ricker — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:28:05 -0600

Filed under: Laptops

Jonathan Tsang, ASUS president of Sales and Marketing, announced a, uh, announcement this morning. On October 16th, they'll announce the prices for their anticipated low-cost, ultra-portable laptop, the Eee PC. He did, however, offer some meat with that small potato: Best Buy and Newegg will carry unspecified configurations by the end of this month with prices not to be below $199. The $199 model? Sorry, it's only available for contract purchases.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Thomas Ricker reBlogged by LO2 on Oct 12, 2007, 1:23AM

Patent investigation could force hard drives off US market

Nilay Patel — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:27:41 -0600

Filed under: Storage

This one's still a ways off, but the International Trade Commission has just launched a patent investigation into five manufacturers that could result in a ban on hard drive imports if the agency finds evidence of infringement. The patents, which are owned by Californians Steven and Mary Reiber, cover a method of using "ceramic bonding tips" on the internal wiring of the drives, and the couple claims Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell have all infringed by importing the drives. Much like the Qualcomm case, the ITC has a variety of ways of dealing with the situation and the parties have a lot of methods of appeal, but products that infringe on US patents are barred from being imported, so this initial determination will set off a lot of dominoes when it gets made in 45 days. Details are still pretty sketchy on what exactly the ITC is investigating, but we'll definitely keep you updated as we get more info.

Disclaimer: Although this post was written by an attorney, it is not meant to be legal advice or analysis and should not be taken as such.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Nilay Patel reBlogged by LO2 on Oct 11, 2007, 7:15PM

The 24-carat gold MacBook Pro, with diamond studded Apple logo

Conrad Quilty-Harper — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:24:04 -0600

Filed under: Laptops

For Apple owners, there's one consistent event that can make their shiny new device seem dull and boring: the replacement of their specific device with a new one from Apple. Now there's a new Apple gadget on the block that literally makes every other Apple device look dull. A company called Computer Choppers has put together a Gold-plated MacBook Pro, with an appropriately diamond studded Apple logo. Should go nicely with your gold plated ... HP ... LaserJet. Yeah. Get ready to sell your house.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Conrad Quilty-Harper reBlogged by LO2 on Oct 6, 2007, 5:11PM

New Zunes support DVD quality video over TV-Out

Conrad Quilty-Harper — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:23:57 -0600

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Zune Insider has a little update about specifics of the new Zunes up on their site, with the rather minor -- but interesting -- tidbit that the new Zunes natively support video of up to 720x480 at 30fps, or 720x576 at 25fps. These formats will only play at full quality via TV-Out -- the Zune display is expected to be a regular 320 x 240 affair -- but it's nice to know that you'll be able to lug around full DVD resolution movies on the next Zune, right?

[Thanks, alexsv: via Zune Online]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Conrad Quilty-Harper reBlogged by LO2 on Oct 6, 2007, 11:50AM

Engadget founder Peter Rojas's new digital music site RCRD LBL launches

Ryan Block — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:08:43 -0600

Filed under: Announcements, Meta

Those paying close attention won't be surprised to find out that today marks a special day in the history of Engadget. It brings us no small amount of pride to help announce a dear friend and cohort's new venture: Peter Rojas, who founded Engadget, Joystiq, and Gizmodo, is launching his latest company today, RCRD LBL.

A joint venture with Downtown Records (who retain such acts as Gnarles Barkley and Cold War Kids), RCRD LBL represents a completely fresh take on the distribution structure of music, offering all-digital, all-free music for streaming or download without DRM. Yeah, seriously, free, unrestricted, legal music downloads. RCRD LBL's catalogue already has music from partner labels like Warp and Dim Mak, too, with tracks from a few artists you may have heard from like Mos Def, Bloc Party, and The Stills.

Of course, anyone who knows Pete knows he's one of the few people in this world fanatic enough about both technology and music to pull something like this off. So feel free to head on over to RCRD LBL and show some love -- and try not to blow up their servers too badly, ok? It's only day one for these guys.

-Ryan

P.S. -Oh, and no, this doesn't mean we're letting Peter go so easily. We've managed to retain his services a while longer, so those worried about missing out on some of his amazing and instantly recognizable writing need not worry, because he's still a part of team Engadget.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Ryan Block reBlogged by LO2 on Nov 15, 2007, 11:42AM

24 in 1994: the "lost pilot"

Paul Miller — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:08:43 -0600

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

How did Jack Bauer ever get by without his magical Treo? We figure it must've involved a whole lot more eyeball threatening than he usually manages to cram into a season of 24. Also, according to CollegeHumor's "unaired 1994 pilot" episode, it involved a pager and some really bad early 90's hair. Consider yourself warned, video is after the break.

Continue reading 24 in 1994: the "lost pilot"

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Paul Miller reBlogged by LO2 on Nov 9, 2007, 5:50PM

AOTS builds "world's largest arcade machine"

Paul Miller — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:08:43 -0600

Filed under: Gaming

We've never really watched much of Attack of the Show, but we hear it's hosted by some nerdy types that are somehow better looking than us -- which simply can't be correct. All that aside, those (debatably) sexy nerds have taken it upon themselves to build the world's largest arcade machine, and even invited over the Guinness Book of World Records folks to check it out on tonight's show. The arcade machine stands more than 13-feet tall, sports a 70-inch or so screen, and probably runs Doom. The show airs tonight at 7PM on G4, where hopefully they'll unveil the specs behind this bad boy.

Gallery: AOTS builds "world's largest arcade machine"

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Paul Miller reBlogged by LO2 on Nov 9, 2007, 5:15PM

Toshiba unveils Japan's "most eco-friendly" super toilet

Paul Miller — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:08:43 -0600

Filed under: Household

Apparently you don't have to be a weakly-premised NBC show to go green this week: Toshiba's joining in on the fun with its "industry's most eco-friendly" toilet. Of course, this is Japan, so that means bidet action, and Toshiba's new model can instantaneously heat up water for that purpose, instead of running continuously to keep a stash of water warm. The seat, which is of course heated as well, is also designed to prevent heat loss, and Toshiba claims 55% overall energy savings over competing products. If that wasn't enough, the lid automatically opens and closes when a sensor is tripped, and there's even a remote control so you can do your business touch-free. While we'd applaud Toshiba for its commitment to sustainability and innovation, we're really just too busy being jealous of how awesome Japanese toilets are.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Paul Miller reBlogged by LO2 on Nov 9, 2007, 12:26PM

Gamerator MAME cabinet features 187 games, built-in keg

Nilay Patel — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:08:43 -0600

Filed under: Gaming

187 MAME-emulated games, a 24-inch LCD, cupholders and a built-in kegerator? If it was up to us, the Gamerator would be the only piece of furniture in our living room. Yours now for $2K on eBay.

[Via TechDigest]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Nilay Patel reBlogged by LO2 on Nov 6, 2007, 6:28PM

WiebeTech HotPlug lets cops move desktops without shutting them down

Nilay Patel — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:08:43 -0600

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We've seen some interesting computer forensics gear from WiebeTech before, like the Mouse Jiggler USB key that prevents a system from locking the screen or going to sleep by subtly shaking the mouse cursor, and the company's latest addition to the investigator's toolkit, the HotPlug LT, solves an equally basic problem: how to move a desktop without powering it down. The HotPlug allows cops to seize machines without powering them down by switching power to a UPS, using some interesting power-management voodoo. The investigator simply plugs the HotPlug into the computer's powerstrip, and then unplugs the strip and plugs it into the UPS -- and takes the whole system away. If the machine is plugged directly into the wall, WiebeTech also has options for directly piercing the power cable or hijacking the outlet itself. Bottom line: the Man's getting your machine, like it or not. Peep a vid of the HotPlug in action after the break.

Continue reading WiebeTech HotPlug lets cops move desktops without shutting them down

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Originally from Engadget by Nilay Patel reBlogged by LO2 on Nov 6, 2007, 12:19PM

Customizable MIXA USB tape brings back the retro

Darren Murph — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:08:43 -0600

Filed under: Portable Audio, Storage

Looking to scratch that retro itch? If so, you'll likely find oodles of satisfaction in the MIXA USB tape, which not only weds the modernness of a USB flash drive with the old school flavor of a cassette, but also bows down to your funky fresh customization skills. You heard right -- those interested can select a black or white 1GB tape, add on any design they choose and cough up £19.99 ($41) to have it shipped anywhere in the world. Finally, the perfect complement to your shoulder-mounted USB boombox.

[Thanks, Earl]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on Nov 2, 2007, 10:46PM

World record 5GHz WiFi connection spans 189 miles

Paul Miller — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:59:05 -0500

Filed under: Wireless

Alright kids, time to put away the Pringles can and get serious about that inter-continental LAN party of yours, 'cause the Italian Center for Radio Activities (CISAR) is making you all look bad with its new world record. Stretching from Sardinia Island to Central Italy, the 189 mile connection ran on Ubiquiti's XtremeRange5 miniPCI module at 5Mbps, and used 35dBi 5GHz parabolic dish antennas to achieve the range. It's not exactly the furthest WiFi connection ever achieved, but it is the first to use the 5GHz frequency for 5Mbps speeds, and was purportedly a snap to set up with the Ubiquiti tech. It all seems almost silly in a world where we lose a few home WiFi bars when we take the laptop into the bathroom -- maybe it's time to do something about all that lead paint.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Paul Miller reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 27, 2007, 4:09PM

Die Electric socket blockers make better use of your AC outlets

Darren Murph — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:59:05 -0500

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Household

We're all for conserving electricity and all, but preventing every one of your AC outlets from actually passing energy onto your favorite gizmo is indeed extreme. Nevertheless, we can't help but be impressed with the variety of Die Electric insulators, which take on a plethora of shapes to not only prevent your outlets from actually passing electricity onward, but double as helpful household accessories (or just plain weird wall adornments). Of course, any halfway industrious individual could probably concoct their own Die Electric, but if you must go straight to the source, prototypes are available for sale now.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 27, 2007, 12:15PM

CEntrance's MicPort Pro makes your podcasting dreams come true

Joshua Topolsky — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:59:05 -0500

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Podcasts

You know, sometimes you want a preamp, but not too much preamp. Well, CEntrance has got you all-kinds of covered on that tip with its new, self-contained, microphone-attaching, USB-based MicPort Pro. The premise of the device is simple: it turns any single microphone or instrument into a self-powered, single channel, 24-bit / 96KHz audio interface -- all you have to do is hook it up to your computer with the supplied USB cable. The MicPort also features a headphone out, if you want to create the wackiest closed-loop situation ever, though it looks like the company is intending this for podcasters and the like, given that it allows any and all XLR-based mics to be plugged directly into your USB port. Shipping now (or so the company says) for $149.95.

[Via Harmony Central]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Joshua Topolsky reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 27, 2007, 9:36AM

Pano Logic's Pano: virtual XP or Vista in a box

Thomas Ricker — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:59:05 -0500

Check it CIOs, Pano Logic just announced their new Pano virtualization device which brings XP and Vista to your users without the need of a PC. According to the feisty startup, their new virtualization solution can cut your Total Cost of Ownership by 70% for a promised savings of $3,200 per desktop over three years. While you can ace the desktop PC, you'll still have to make the initial investment of $20 per month per device (one per user) with perpetual licenses available. The Pano device has no CPU, memory, operating system or drivers -- at least not in the way those items are typically perceived by your IT staff. A "Pano Logic chip" manages the virtualization. In other words: no client-side malware or hiccups for fewer deskside visits -- everything is managed centrally from your VMWare Server installation. The device does pack the required jacks for a VGA display (up to 1600 x 1200 pixels supported), USB keyboard and Mouse (3x total USB), 10/100Mbps Ethernet, and a pair of mini-jacks for audio in/out. Of course, the system is entirely dependent upon lickity quick, uncongested pipes so if you're sporting a latency above 5-ms, you can forget about Pano's virtualization. Check out the business minded, ass-end of the Pano after the break.

[Via PCMag]

Continue reading Pano Logic's Pano: virtual XP or Vista in a box

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Thomas Ricker reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 27, 2007, 8:10AM

Video of the Vast memory card PS2 modchip working

Nilay Patel — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:59:05 -0500

Filed under: Gaming

We were skeptical of Vast's claims to have developed a PS2 modchip that works simply by plugging in a memory card when we first heard about it earlier this week, but the company sent MaxConsole a video of the chip in action and it looks pretty convincing. The demo PS2 first fails to boot a backup disc, but then the demonstrator inserts the Vast card and the disc starts right up. Impressive, but we're still a little wary, especially since the demo PS2 in the video is totally opened up. Let's see this on a fresh console straight from the box, shall we? Check the full video after the break.

Continue reading Video of the Vast memory card PS2 modchip working

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Nilay Patel reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 24, 2007, 7:47PM

DIY'er builds 'world's smallest" Pong game

Darren Murph — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:59:05 -0500

Filed under: Gaming

We're going to have to go on record and claim that the Pong wristwatch still looks to be the smallest iteration of Pong that we've seen to date, but we'll let Ronald Dekker shakily hold the record for the smallest version that's easily channeled to a TV set. Nevertheless, the µPONG creation is indeed quite diminutive, using just "an eight-pin PIC processor along with two potentiometers for the bat controls, just as the original." Per usual, the circuity knowledge used to actually assemble this thing is a hair beyond our realm of expertise, but judging by the extensive lineup of graphs and figures shown in the read link, those even partially in the know may be able to pull something similar off themselves.

[Via MAKE]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 24, 2007, 8:01AM

Creative's latest iPod shuffle speaker, the TravelSound i50

Nilay Patel — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:59:05 -0500

Filed under: Portable Audio

Creative's done quite the about-face from the early days of calling the iPod Shuffle "worse than the worst Chinese player" -- the company's latest DAP speaker dock, the TravelSound i50, is designed to work exclusively with Apple's smallest player, and the clean lines complement the Shuffle's minimalist style in a pleasingly different way. Not much else to see here -- you plug in the Shuffle and it plays your tunes -- but you've got to wonder why Creative isn't lavishing the Zen line with such stylish accessories.

[Via epiZENter]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Nilay Patel reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 24, 2007, 6:04AM

$150 Zunes -- buy one, please buy one

Ryan Block — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:59:05 -0500

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

We're not sure we want to know what frightening methods of coercion Woot used to snag enough (white) Zunes to sell on the site for $150 apiece, but if you're looking for a deal that won't get rejected on the grounds of it being, well, erroneous, now's your chance. Commence Apple / Microsoft fanboy "debate" in three, two...

[Thanks, Marc]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Ryan Block reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 22, 2007, 3:16AM

The cellphone piano fulfills the full range of our childhood fantasies

Paul Miller — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:59:05 -0500

Filed under: Cellphones

Each key on the piano is wired to a key on a phone, and while we haven't heard it in action, this contraption is sure to produce the most beautiful noise known to man -- or at least since your older brother figured out "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on the touchtone in middle school. If only Chopin had technology like this at his disposal back in the day.

[Via textually.org]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Paul Miller reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 21, 2007, 12:45PM

Sony's new remotes keep it real simple

Joshua Topolsky — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:59:05 -0500

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Isn't it possible that our remotes have gotten too complex? Do you ever long for a time when a basic control was all you needed to navigate the seas of home entertainment? Well, perhaps Sony is feeling your nostalgic vibe, because the company has just launched a new group of remotes in Japan that definitely harken back to a simpler time. The RM-PZ1FD (above) appears to be Sony's answer to the clutter of your everyday universal behemoth. The model comes in three retro colors, and is strangely waterproof (for those simpler times by the pool). The company is also releasing two other "vertical" models, the RM-PZ1SD and RM-PZ1D, if you're a stickler for single-handed operation. All controls available in Japan in late August for ¥2,468, or about $21.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Joshua Topolsky reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 17, 2007, 1:21PM

Papercraft stirling engine that runs on coffee

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Dan sez, "Astromedia is a German science gizmo company that specializes in die-cut cardboard widgets: astrolabes, sextants, telescopes, etc. But this new one takes the biscuit -- a Stirling engine that works on the heat from a cup of coffee. Apparently, if you set it on a frozen compress ("Setzen Sie ihn auf eine Kaltkompresse..."), it runs for hours." Link (Thanks, Dan!)

Update: Pschemp prepared this translation for us!

The Stirling Engine
Runs on a cup of coffee or an ice pack
The revolutionary concept for this hot-air engine was discovered in 1816 by the Scottish minister Robert Stirling and has been updated for today. The principle is as ingenious as it is simple: In a sealed cylinder, heated from the underside, a piston pushes the enclosed air back and forth between the hot and the cold side. The air therefore expands out and compress together every cycle and that movement is converted via a moving piston and crankshaft into rotary motion.
As an energy source, any type of warmth or cooling that produces a temperature differential can be used, from an open fire to solar energy or any other unused source of heat or cold.
Set this fully functional Stirling engine on a cup with boiling hot coffee (Tea or water also works of course) - give the flywheel a small push to the left - and the apparatus begins simply to pump up and down - for up to an hour!
This isn't everything it can do: Set it on an ice pack or ice cubes from the freezer and turn the flywheel to the right and it will also pump up and down for an even longer time.
(Caption:It is really a marvel)
Kit made from sturdy punched cardboard with gold stamping, complete with all accessories including laser cut aluminium plates, low-friction plastic axle bearings and spring steel bent wire.
Height 16.5 cm, width and depth 12.6 cm.

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 11, 2007, 12:36AM

Stephen Colbert portrait in 768 mini Rubik's Cubes.

Xeni Jardin — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Xeni Jardin:

Link to explanatory blog post, here's the photo set. (thanks, Ryan Russell)

Originally from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 10, 2007, 7:55PM

Hot Stormtroopers in love

Xeni Jardin — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Xeni Jardin:

BB pal Bonnie says,

Red and Jonny are are married artists who live in Ontario, Canada -- who like to photograph themselves wearing stormtrooper helmets frolicking on the beach and in the grocery store. If you're the type of fan who likes to look at bikini girls wearing stormtrooper helmets, then you're in luck.

Link. I think some of my favorite photos from these guys are in their "Country Stormtroopers" photoset: Link. Absolute faves: one and two.

Originally from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 10, 2007, 3:14PM

Patrick O'Brien's ALS documentary and fundraiser

David Pescovitz — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

David Pescovitz: Last year, I posted about underground filmmaker Patrick O'Brien who is suffering from a terminal disease called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, AKA Lou Gehrig's Disease. With just a few years to live, Patrick is making a documentary about his experiences. Sales of the "beer in a feeding tube" poster seen below go to support the film and ALS research. And this Monday, August 13, the Patrick O'Brien Foundation is holding a fundraiser and party celebrating the release of "Everything Will Be Okay or How I Learned to Transcend Form, Live in the Now, and Make Love in my Electric Wheelchair," a DVD of excerpts from the feature length documentary he's still shooting. You can also buy the DVD online.

From the description:

Underground Filmmaker Patrick Sean O'Brien was looking for a story about the disabled, until a disability found him. O'Brien, seen by millions worldwide on TV and the internet, is known for his darkly humorous, controversial and sometimes disturbing films, animations and photographs. Now, for the first time on DVD, follow "The Notorious POB" on an odyssey from the short films that brought him so much notoriety, to the humbling search for truth in excerpts from his first feature length film.

Link (Thanks, Jemma Hostetler!)

Previously on BB:
• Beer in a feeding tube poster Link

Originally from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 10, 2007, 1:29PM

Extra stuff photoshopping contest

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Cory Doctorow:
Today's Something Awful Photoshop Phriday theme is "Add Something" -- extra eyes on a frog, extra legs on a goose. Overall, this isn't one of the better Photoshop Phridays, but the best entries are absolute stunners: extra-teeth shark, triple-decker London bus, and Lady Liberty with two torches.

Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 10, 2007, 10:17AM

Two-word license agreement: "FUCK YOU!"

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Cory Doctorow: The license agreement for a codec from hotelcode.com reads, simply, "FUCK YOU!"

End User License Agreements -- that boilerplate text you have to click through every time you turn around -- have a justified reputation for being abusive and one-sided. This EULA is just a little more to the point than most, saying in two words what many EULAs take several screens to say.

I still use the Reasonable Agreement EULA at the bottom of all my emails: "READ CAREFULLY. By reading this email, you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies ("BOGUS AGREEMENTS") that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer." Link (Thanks, Ben!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 8, 2007, 6:13PM

Free "CC-licensed" banjo lessons from famous banjo author

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Patrick Costello sez,

I am the author of several of CC-licensed music books including The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo, A Book of Five Strings and The How and the Tao of Folk Guitar.
The Creative Commons concept has worked pretty well for us in terms of book sales over the last three years so I have decided to make my services as a music teach available under the same concept. I have posted a .pdf file on my blog stating that I am available for lessons or workshops on an expenses-only basis.
Right now there are groups in the UK and Australia working on setting up workshops - but I'm also hoping that we'll get some gigs closer to home.

Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 8, 2007, 4:11PM

Iranian Kool-Aid packet

Mark Frauenfelder — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Mark Frauenfelder:

Would Cheney be so eager to bomb Iran if he knew Iranian children enjoyed Kool-Aid, just as he did in his youth after a hard day busting broncos on his daddy's ranch in Wyoming? Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 8, 2007, 3:09PM

Return of the radioactive boy scout

Mark Frauenfelder — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Mark Frauenfelder: A couple of years ago, Rudy Rucker posted an entry about the boy scout who tried to make a nuclear reactor in his garden shed. Years later, he's been caught again trying to do the same thing.

Now, it seems as if he has yet to learn his lesson, as he has been busted once again, this time for stealing smoke detectors in an effort to experiment with radioactive materials.

Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 8, 2007, 1:36PM

Jay Kinney reviews Zeitgeist, the Movie

Mark Frauenfelder — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Mark Frauenfelder:

For the last couple of months, Boing Boing readers have been emailing me about a two-hour documentary available on Google Video called Zeitgeist, the Movie. I finally got around to viewing it.

In three parts, Zeitgeist (which has no credits) attempts to show that 1) Christianity is rehashed pagan sun-worship and is used by the rich and powerful to control people, 2) the 9/11 tragedies were part of an elite conspiracy, and 3) ever since World War I, the ultra-rich have been secretly manufacturing wars and financial collapses to control the populace and to get richer and more powerful.

I don't know enough about politics, history, or religion to have a valid opinion of Zeitgeist, but I was interested in getting a well-informed person's assessment of the documentary. I could think of no one better suited than Jay Kinney. He's the publisher of Gnosis magazine, the author of several books on Western esoteric and occult traditions, and the author of The Masonic Enigma, "a journey of discovery into the real facts (and mysteries) of Masonry's history and symbols." He's also an amazingly talented cartoonist, and contributed to The Whole Earth Review which is how I first learned about him. (His 1987 article, "If Software Companies Ran the Country," where he compares Al Capp's Shmoos to infinitely-copyable software, remains as fresh and powerful today as it did 20 years ago).

At my request, Jay watched the movie, and kindly wrote the following review for Boing Boing:

Zeiting the Geist
The latest bit of guerilla media to take the online universe by storm is “Zeitgeist, the Movie.” Clocking in at close to two hours’ length, and with over a million views on Google Video since its June 26th “official” release, Zeitgeist is a grabby, cranky, can’t-stop-watching-it documentary that purports to tell the real truth about Christianity, 9/11, and the International Bankers.
Exactly who is behind the video is unclear, although someone with the moniker of “Peter J.” has posted an online letter claiming credit and explaining Zeitgeist’s message to those who may have somehow failed to grasp the worldview that the video hammers home.
And what is that worldview, pray tell? Religions in general, and Christianity in particular, are primarily systems of social control. 9/11 was an inside job and the destruction of the WTC twin towers and building 7 were aided by controlled demolition. And finally, International Bankers, through the Federal Reserve and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), control our money and our future, leading to, ta da, the coming One World Government and the microchipping of everyone.
Exactly how all this fits together is left to the viewer’s imagination or, presumably, the film-maker’s hash pipe. Are those who manipulate Christianity for control purposes in cahoots with the Bankers, and were the Bankers in on the 9/11 caper? Zeitgeist sidesteps such logical questions through the use of the all-purpose term, “the elite,” a shadowy group of rich and powerful men who want nothing more than to enslave humanity and reap block-buster profits through the promotion of wars and financial crises.
For conspiracy buffs, this is all pretty standard fare, and, indeed, aficionados of the genre will find little new in “Zeitgeist.” The notions that most religions were originally a kind of solar worship, and that the Jesus Christ story recapitulated the mythos of numerous other “dying gods,” were floating around in the late 1700s. Fittingly, the video features a quote from Thomas Paine reducing Christianity to warmed-over sun worship, which was a daring bit of religion-baiting 200 years ago, albeit not so earth-shattering today.
The nefarious International Bankers meme has been propagating itself since at least the mid-1800s and has long been a mainstay of radical right-wing circles where it has often overlapped with mutterings about Jewish cabals.
The 9/11 truth segment of the video is, of course, of much more recent vintage, but, here too, it mostly repeats accusations that have gotten widespread play in the uber-skeptic milieu.
Breaking new factual ground is not what Zeitgeist is about, however. Rather, the video is a powerful and fast-acting dose of agitprop, hawking its conclusions as givens. Unfortunately, like most propaganda, it doesn’t play fair with its intended audience. At times, while watching it, I felt like I was getting Malcolm McDowell’s treatment in Clockwork Orange: eyes pried wide open while getting bombarded with quick-cut atrocity photos.
At other times, Zeitgeist engages in willful confusion by showing TV screen shots of network or cable news with voice-overs from unidentified people not associated with the news programs. If one weren’t paying close attention, the effect would be to confer the status and authority of TV news upon the words being spoken. Even when quotes or sound bites are attributed to a source, there’s no way to tell if they are quoted correctly or in context.
Late in the video, there’s a supposed quote from David Rockefeller, which, if genuine, would be an astounding confession of complicity in mass manipulation. But, of course, the quote is not sourced or dated, which renders it useless. (The video’s website does feature a Sources page, but a hodge-podge list of books, with no page numbers cited, is of little value for source verification.)
The over-all temper of the video is rather like the John Birch Society on acid, with interludes by Harry Smith. Incongruously, after spending nearly two hours trying to scare the bejeezis out of its viewers, Zeitgeist ends on an oddly upbeat note, telling us that Love — not Fear — is the answer, We are all One, and featuring sound-bites from Ram Dass and Carl Sagan.
It’s a shame, really, that Zeitgeist is, ultimately, such a mess. There are plenty of legitimate questions about what transpired on 9/11, just as there are plenty of shady doings in international finance or puzzling aspects of religious history, for that matter. And what is coming down in the name of National Security is truly unnerving. Yet, bundling them all together in disjointed fashion does justice to none of them. Time and again, Zeitgeist maximizes emotional impact at the expense of a more reasoned weighing of evidence. But, perhaps that’s the intention.
I’ve often pondered about what it might take to snap everyone out of the walking dream we collectively entered on 9/11/01. Just as the fall of the Berlin Wall provided the emotional pivot for the end of the Cold War, only a collective experience of an intensity equal to that of 9/11 might jolt us awake as to what is really happening in the corridors of power and certain undisclosed locations.
It’s my hunch that Zeitgeist is one attempt to provide such a jolt, and it does indeed pack a certain punch. Too bad it also runs off in three directions at once, and is so indiscriminate in its sources and overly certain of its conclusions. Zeitgeist may be powerful, but its power is tainted with some simplistic and pernicious memes that have already received more propagation than they deserve. The video’s producer does inform us that “It is my hope that people will not take what is said in the film as the truth . . .”
Indeed.

Link to Google Video page | Link to torrent files

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 6, 2007, 7:13PM

A surreal and supremely inane compendium of miscellaneous knowledge, Vol 10

Mark Frauenfelder — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Mark Frauenfelder:

Archie panel from the Spire Christian Comics era. Link

Video -- Great commercial for an awful toy from the 1960s called the Swing Wing. It's a beanie with a pendulum. You put on your head and swing it around. I have a dim memory of seeing this on TV when it originally appeared. Link

MP3s -- "Hobo Conversations and Interviews - Conversations with Sidedoor Pullman Kid Hop-A-Long Chet Dante and Austin John." Link

Video -- shouting match between Bill O'Reilly and Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut. Link

The art of Hannes Bok, 1950s science fiction illustrator. Link

Polygon Pete uses ZBrush ("(It's like finding a box of infinite Sculpey!!!) ") to made 3-D drawings of Woodring characters. Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 6, 2007, 3:12PM

Murals of South Philadelphia

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Time's photo-essay on the murals of South Philly has some stunners in it -- I've seen a number of these in person and I never thought a photo (especially one as small and ungenerous as the ones that Time has put online) could do them justice, but these are very good indeed. I like the shorts of the works in progress and the artists, too. Link (via Make)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 6, 2007, 8:36AM

Medeco "unpickable" locks picked and pwned

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Dave sez, "So the formerly unpickable/unbumpable high security locks Medeco has made for 30 years and that are used everywhere from the White House to the Pentagon have been compromised with picking bumping. I took the photos, and was paid by Wired to do so (and to cover Defcon in general)."

To demonstrate their crack of Medeco's M3 lock for Wired News, Tobias took a lock and inserted one of the keys that he and his researchers designed from Medeco's codes. Then he hit it several times with a bump hammer and turned the key.
The deadbolt was opened just as quickly with an even simpler technique using the wire shim and screwdriver. Tobias pointed out, however, that this cracking technique works only on deadbolts that have a single-sided key entry with a flip switch on one side, not on deadbolts that require a key on both sides of the lock.

Link (Thanks, Dave!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 6, 2007, 8:31AM

Steampunk toon: A Gentleman's Duel

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Cory Doctorow:
In the 8-minute animated short "A Gentleman's Duel," what starts off as a sexist little cartoon about a Frenchman and a Brit vying for the attention and affection of an improbable-breasted bimbo builds up a rapid head of steam as the antagonists climb into their giant Victorian mecha suits and kick the snot out of each other, with a lot of Road Runner-esque funny gracenotes. Link (Thanks, Andrew!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 5, 2007, 11:38AM

Donate to the Academic Film Institute and save a rare movie

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Geoff sez, "The Academic Film Achive of North America's "Save a Film" inititative encourages people to sponsor the uploading of a rare film from our 6,000+ 16mm film archive to the Internet Archive for free public viewing. Subject areas include animation, art, documentary, and science. The site decribes how to navigate the AFA's chronological list of film shows from which to pick a film, and even offers a page of suggested films. Sponsorship is tax-deductable, and the sponsor gets credit on Internet Archive's site for helping to save this important element of cinematic history." Link (Thanks, Geoff!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 5, 2007, 2:02AM

Animated Alan Watts

David Pescovitz — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

David Pescovitz: South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and their pals animated several audio recordings of Alan Watts, an iconic philosopher and writer who turned scores of people on to Zen Buddhism.
Link (Thanks, Anthony Hall!)

Originally from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 5, 2007, 12:15AM

Typewriter art

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Cory Doctorow:
Andrew Macrae creates lovely text art on acid-free paper using a 1965 Olympia SG3 and a 1968 Hermes 3000 typewriter and colored ribbons. No Wite-Out, either! Impressive. Link (Thanks, Andrew!)

Update: Ben sez, "I thought it might interest you to know that he did the cover of my autobiography, Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth, which was published by Wheatland Press late last year. He won an award for the cover."

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 4, 2007, 7:54PM

When Amber met Amber

Xeni Jardin — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Xeni Jardin:

Video and performance artist Amber Hawk Swanson ordered a life-sized, realistic sex doll made to look just like her, and named it Amber. The couple scampered off to Vegas and got married. "Their wedding video and other footage documenting their relationship will screen for the public this week," reports the Chicago Reader. Link. (Thanks, Susannah Breslin)

Originally from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 4, 2007, 12:44PM

Webb Alert day 2

Mark Frauenfelder — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Mark Frauenfelder:
Webb Alert, the new daily Internet news roundup hosted by Morgan Webb promises to be a terrific five-minute Web video show.

They've added an RSS feed so you can subscribe and watch it on your iPod or on Miro.

Congratulations and best of luck, Morgan and Rob! Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 3, 2007, 5:45PM

Henry Rollins rants about Internet freedom

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Former Black Flag frontman and inveterate ranter Henry Rollins did a serious tear on the systematic attacks on the Internet from government and corporations. The video is fantastic, profane and inspiring. Link (Thanks, Steve!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 3, 2007, 1:06PM

Mantelpiece art-deco PC is a universal photo

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Jeffrey Stephenson, a PC builder, designed and executed this incredible mantelpiece PC in a stained-wood cabinet. The cabinet is fronted by a vertically oriented LCD and the housing is modelled on an art-deco, 1931 Hammond Gregory clock. The net effect is of a mantelpiece painting that will display any image in your photo-library, or the live web. Stephenson has posted a detailed build-log from the project. Link (via Gizmodo)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 3, 2007, 12:15PM

Books shaped like cigarettes

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Tankbooks are novels printed to look like cigarette packs:

Tank is launching a series of books designed to mimic cigarette packs – the same size, packaged in flip-top cartons with silver foil wrapping and sealed in cellophane.
TankBooks pay homage to this monumentally successful piece of packaging design by employing it in the service of great literature. Cigarette packs are iconic objects, familiar, tried and tested, and over time TankBooks will become iconic objects in their own right. The launch titles are by authors of great stature – classic stories presented in classic packaging; objects desirable for both their literary merit and their unique design.

Link (Thanks, Stu!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Jul 31, 2007, 9:52AM

My ComicCon photos

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Cory Doctorow: I've just finished uploading and tagging my photos from Comic-Con 2007. It was my first Comic-Con and I was absolutely blown away. 175,000 people, but it still retained its essential fannish nature, with tons of artisanal material, creators mingling with readers, and playful cosplayers. I especially love how my shots from the panel on action-figure modding came out. Link, Link to "comiccon" tag for all Flickr shots

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Jul 30, 2007, 12:37AM

NYT mag: The Real Transformers

Xeni Jardin — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Xeni Jardin: This weekend's New York Times magazine features a huge robot-themed feature by Robin Marantz Henig. Ten whopping pages online, with embedded video and photographs. Snip:

At the Humanoid Robotics Group at M.I.T., a robot’s “humanoid” qualities can include fallibility and whininess as much as physical traits like head, arms and torso. This is where our cultural images of robots as superhumans run headlong into the reality of motors, actuators and cold computer code. Today’s humanoids are not the sophisticated machines we might have expected by now, which just shows how complicated a task it was that scientists embarked on 15 years ago when they began working on a robot that could think. They are not the docile companions of our collective dreams, robots designed to flawlessly serve our dinners, fold our clothes and do the dull or dangerous jobs that we don’t want to do. Nor are they the villains of our collective nightmares, poised for robotic rebellion against humans whose machine creations have become smarter than the humans themselves. They are, instead, hunks of metal tethered to computers, which need their human designers to get them going and to smooth the hiccups along the way.
But these early incarnations of sociable robots are also much more than meets the eye. Bill Gates has said that personal robotics today is at the stage that personal computers were in the mid-1970s. Thirty years ago, few people guessed that the bulky, slow computers being used by a handful of businesses would by 2007 insinuate themselves into our lives via applications like Google, e-mail, YouTube, Skype and MySpace. In much the same way, the robots being built today, still unwieldy and temperamental even in the most capable hands, probably offer only hints of the way we might be using robots in another 30 years.

Link (Thanks, Susannah!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin reBlogged by LO2 on Jul 29, 2007, 6:45PM

Incredible Polish movie posters

David Pescovitz — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

David Pescovitz:
This gallery of mostly-Polish vintage movie posters, many for American-made films, is absolutely amazing. At left, "The Golem" (1979). At right, "A Coeur Jole" (1967). Link (via Drawn!)

UPDATE: BB reader Perian Sully points to a terrific online resource where you can learn about the artists and buy many mind-blowing Polish film posters. Link

Originally from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz reBlogged by LO2 on Jul 28, 2007, 3:06PM

Secret Jewish identity of comic book heros

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Wired News has interviewed Danny Fingeroth, author of Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics and the Creation of the Superhero -- a book about the legion of underwear perverts created by Eastern European Jewish immigrants (something that's brilliantly fictionalized in Chabon's Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay -- and that I wrote about in my Jewish superman story, The Super-Man and the Bugout, published in my collection A Place So Foreign and Eight More)

WN: You're Jewish yourself. Are you worried that your book might give ammunition to anti-Semites who like to make claims about Jewish domination?
Fingeroth: My joke is that it's of most interest to Jews and anti-Semites. Most other people don’t give a shit. I think it's one of the best things I've written, but it was one of the hardest to write, too, because of how careful I wanted to be about how I framed things so as not to give ammunition to bigots who might want to twist what I was saying. I ultimately decided that if I was going to write this book, and I did and do think it was important to write, I had to put that fear out of my mind and figure that if someone has a reason to hate Jews, they don’t need to me as an excuse to do it.

Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Jul 28, 2007, 11:58AM

Japanese Rube Goldberg videos

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:40:33 -0500

Cory Doctorow: The Japanese TV show Pythagora Switch uses adorable little videos of complex Rube Goldberg machines as idents/interstitials. Someone's collected a zillion of them and youtubed 'em. Link (Thanks, 5000!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Jul 28, 2007, 2:30AM

iPhone returns from service with 'official iPhone tool'

Darren Murph — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 19:54:23 -0500

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals

Call us crazy, but it certainly appears that Apple's unofficially official iPhone tool has ripped off MacGyver's lifeline. According to an iPhone user that sent his handset in for warranty service, it arrived back with this here piece of equipment, complete with Apple's famed display label and plastic bag. Heck, if having a malfunctioning iPhone is the only way to snag one of these bad boys, we're definitely crossing our fingers for an excuse to send ours in.

[Thanks, Matthew V.]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 3, 2007, 2:46PM

Ion Audio set to introduce TAPE2PC USB tape deck

Donald Melanson — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 19:54:23 -0500

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals

It looks like Ion Audio is leaving no old school audio format behind, with the company now following up its USB turntables with its TAPE2PC USB tape deck. As the name suggests, the device will let you dust off your collection of Huey Lewis and the News cassettes and enjoy 'em in spruced up digital form. What's more, those looking to revive the art of the mix tape can use to system to make as many copies as they like, with settings available for both metal and CrO2 type tapes. According to Digital Lifestyles, UK retailer Firebox will be offering the device for "just under £100" (o $104) sometime before the end of the year, although we presume it'll also be available elsewhere. Still no word on a USB 8-track deck though.

[Thanks, Simon]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Donald Melanson reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 3, 2007, 7:15AM

Lip syncing Tengu adds some merriment to your USB port

Darren Murph — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 19:54:23 -0500

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Portable Audio

We know, you're probably on your third USB hub by now, but even if this forces you to purchase an entirely new machine in order to cram one more USB-powered whatchamacallit into it, it's simply a must. Meet Tengu, the USB lip syncer that politely sits beside your machine until it gets wind of nearby tunes, after which its face lights up and the digital mouth begins to try its best at matching the words coming from your speakers. Unsurprisingly, the design will reportedly be manufactured by none other than Solid Alliance, and while it's hard to realize how awe-inspiring this thing is in just the picture above, click on through for a video demonstration you won't soon forget.

[Via EverythingUSB]

Continue reading Lip syncing Tengu adds some merriment to your USB port

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on Aug 3, 2007, 5:58AM

Pink solar cells provide green power on the cheap

Nilay Patel — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 19:54:23 -0500

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

The race to build a cheaper solar cell continues to produce results, as researchers at Ohio State have developed a nanotech solar cell with a unique pink color that they say will one day be able to produce as much power as traditional silicon cells for a quarter of the cost. The dye-sensitive solar cells, or DSSCs, get their pink color from a mixture of ruthenium and either titanium or zinc oxide particles that absorb sunlight, while nanowires link the particles to provide power transfer. So far the team have gotten the cells to produce half as much power as traditional cells, but the next step is to start using nanowire "trees" to improve efficiency to equal or surpass those levels. No word on when we'll see this tech hit the market, but surely the prospect of a hot pink solar Cadillac isn't too far off.

[Photo is of an unrelated DSSC concept from New Zealand]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Nilay Patel reBlogged by LO2 on Jul 30, 2007, 10:50PM

LG Philips develops oil and water based flexible display

Joshua Topolsky — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 19:54:23 -0500

Filed under: Displays

LG Philips, known for its nearly constant pursuit of new flexible display solutions, has recently applied for a patent on a bendable OLED screen technology which would use oil and water to produce images. Apparently, current flexible OLED displays are hampered by the fact that the OLEDs get hotter than the plastic substrate, making manufacture difficult and expensive. The new process that the company is developing would circumvent those problems by making pixels out of oil and water connected to plastic electrodes. The opaque oil would float on the water and obscure a colored surface beneath -- when an electric charge was applied to the field it would reveal the surface and change the color of the pixel. The process is cheap and simple, which hopefully means a future of reading a completely digital morning paper for all of us.

[Via NewScientist, thanks Alan]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Joshua Topolsky reBlogged by LO2 on Jul 30, 2007, 9:31AM

Apple prepping a cheaper iPhone? Probably.

Paul Miller — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 22:18:57 -0500

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Yeah, don't pretend like you didn't see this one coming. Completely unsubstantiated "market sources" rumors are making the rounds that Apple is already prepping a lower cost iPhone variant. Warning: completely mundane "analysis" follows. According to American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu, "Apple needs to round out its iPhone product line at lower price points (similar to iPod) if it expects to replicate the success of its iPod with sales of 100 million units." Shaw Wu has been right on a couple Apple predictions in the past, but it doesn't take much to guess that Apple is currently at work on, or at least thinking about, a second generation of iPhone. Price drops also seem inevitable, and Shaw's predictions hold few surprises. He claims to have heard of "lower cost iPhone prototypes for release at unspecified future dates" from his sources, and maybe he has, but we're not going to start proclaiming Apple's dominion over all form factors and price points (as entertainingly conceptualized above) just yet.

[Via The Raw Feed]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Paul Miller reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 19, 2007, 10:07PM

Rock Band Stratocaster controller revealed

Darren Murph — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 22:18:57 -0500

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

It's always comforting to put a face to a name, and for those who have been raucously awaiting more details on the elusive Rock Band controller, dig in. According to a purported GameStop newsletter, the ten-button axe does indeed favor a Fender Stratocaster, and while the frets appear fairly subtle head-on, those looking down on the device will notice the colorful labels (shown after the jump) that they've grown used to. Additionally, the tidbit also divulged that the instrument "would allow players to manipulate sound through reverb, flange, wah, delay and more," but there was no mention of the presumably lofty pricetag that this thing would eventually sport. Looks like the Fender fanboys will soon be able to really duel it out with the Gibson purists, eh?

Continue reading Rock Band Stratocaster controller revealed

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 19, 2007, 5:55PM

Iriver's D5 electronic dictionary makes us want to learn Korean

Thomas Ricker — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 22:18:57 -0500

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Damn if iriver can't build'em some sexy. Meet the D5, the Brad to the NV's Angelina. As we heard last week, the D5 is an electronic dictionary... but also so much more. At just 14.9-mm thick closed, the D5 Dicple packs a 3.0-inch, 480 x 272 pixel TFT display for all your flash and MPEG-4 video while sporting an FM radio (with voice and FM recording skills) as well as MP3, WMA, OGG audio. It even packs a 52-key QWERTY into this shirt-pocketable device. Sadly, as an eDic, it won't be escaping Asia for a Stateside stay so you'll have to satiate your lust in the gallery for now.

Gallery: Iriver's D5 electronic dictionary makes us want to learn Korean

[Via AVING]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Thomas Ricker reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 19, 2007, 1:16AM

Moneual intros sub-$1000 301 HTPC

Darren Murph — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 22:18:57 -0500

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs

You may be rather used to hearing from Moneual every few months or so, but the engineering department has apparently been on top of things lately. A mere three days after witnessing the firm's colorful lineup of Inovys, the company's 301 HTPC is being offered up as well, and we must say that the simple, sleek styling is quite attractive. Internally, you'll notice a water-cooled AMD 64 Athlon X2 4400 handling the processing duties, 2GB of RAM, 7.1-channel audio, dual FireWire ports, a 250GB hard drive, dual-layer DVD writer, HDMI / VGA outputs, five USB 2.0 connectors, Ethernet, and a wireless keyboard / remote to keep things tidy. Most impressive, however, is the price, as this decently-spec'd media PC will only run you $995 (sans any TV tuning abilities, of course).

[Via eHomeUpgrade]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 15, 2007, 6:04PM

Texas Legislature bans speed cameras, requires warning signs for red light snappers

Darren Murph — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:32:48 -0500

Filed under: Transportation

Ah, Texas. Home to internet hunting, overhead bananas, and WiFi'ed rest stops, the Lonestar State will set yet another precedent by passing a bill onto the governor that would ban speeding cameras and require warning signs to be posted around red-light cameras. Yes, the same state that wanted transponders in every single car registered in the state is now just one signature away from giving heavy-footed drivers something to cheer about. Both measures "were adopted in the state House by unanimous votes," and along with the speed camera ban comes legislation that will put an end to the ticketing programs run by the cities of Rhome and Marble Falls while prohibiting any other cities from enacting such practices in the future. Of course, it should be noted that the bills wouldn't go into effect until September 1st of this year, so you should probably still utilize your cruise control whilst traveling over this long weekend.

[Via Autoblog]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on May 25, 2007, 6:46AM

Sony really knows how to screw its customers

Ryan Block — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:32:48 -0500

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We know there are many costs associated with the complicated process of screw production -- especially the process of fabricating special screws -- but this $82 unit really hurts. Although to be fair, the above Sony screw might not have been Sony itself screwing a customer, but rather some screwball retailer drilling down on Sony's behalf.

[Via Gadget Lab]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Ryan Block reBlogged by LO2 on May 25, 2007, 2:24AM

Paper Four initiative developing talking paper

Darren Murph — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Interactive billboards and advertisements have been (trying) to catch our eyes for some time now, but a team of Swedes are apparently hoping that adding speech abilities might convince you to take an even closer look. The Paper Four project has reportedly developed a prototype digital paper that uses embedded sensors to detect touch, and when you graze over a certain spot, it actually talks back to you via "printed speakers." Now in the fourth generation of development, the device combines paper with "printed graphic codes and electronically conductive ink that is sensitive to pressure," and it is already being showcased as a way to invite tourists or other customers to get up close and personal with ads in order to hear auditory information. Best of all, the team has hosted up a video showing exactly how this stuff works, so do yourself a favor and hit the read link to catch a peek.

[Via BBC]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 6, 2007, 9:04AM

Kansei makes a comeback with reactive facial expressions

Darren Murph — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Robots

Quite a lot has transpired in the android universe in the past two years, and it's fairly safe to say that Kansei has made a few solid strides during that time as well. A Japanese research team has purportedly crafted a working prototype that can "pull up to 36 different facial expressions based on a program which creates word associations from a self-updating online database of 500,000 keywords." According to a professor at Meiji University's School of Science and Technology, the idea of the project is to "create a flow of consciousness in robots so that they can make the relevant facial expressions," and the device relies on 19 movable parts and a silicon face mask in order to work its magic. Developers also noted that speech abilities should be added within a few years, and while we doubt you had to guess, it's quite likely that fully developed Kanseis will one day roam nursing homes as Japan seeks to care for its quickly growing geriatric set.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 6, 2007, 8:14AM

The Hello Kitty LaVie: is this really "the life" NEC?

Thomas Ricker — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Laptops

Egads NEC, show some pride... a Hello Kitty LaVie? Say it ain't so! Your LaVie series of laptops were already totin' some serious Alice-the-housekeeper frump, and now this? What can we say, that puss dominates Japan like a pink, mouthless Godzilla... really, what could poor NEC do. Available now for ¥199,500 or about $1,645 with plenty of pasted-on Swarovski nuggets destined for the recessed folds at the pit of your man-bag. Sure, you'll buy it for your daughter but we know who'll use it... sissy.

[Via Impress]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Thomas Ricker reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 6, 2007, 6:47AM

FRETBUZZ app turns your Guitar Hero stylings into real musicks

Paul Miller — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Gaming

Non-nerds need not apply, but if Guitar Hero has whetted your appetite for rockstardom, and you don't want to mess with any of those nasty string-based things of your predecessors, FRETBUZZ should be able to help you and your Guitar Hero controller on the path to glory. The app is written in Max/MSP, and requires you to download the runtime environment to fire it up, not to mention the fact that you'll need quite a bit of technical chops to get it past that point and making music for you. Luckily, the creator of the app is part of The Guitar Zeros, which naturally makes its sounds using this very method, and there are some decent instructions for doing your thing. Rock on, just remember to leave us a spot on your guestlist when you get all rich and famous changing the face of music forever.

[Thanks, Jake]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Paul Miller reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 6, 2007, 1:02AM

CompUSA sells an empty Canon A630 box for $269, won't issue refund

Nilay Patel — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Digital Cameras

CompUSA has been trying to turn itself around for a while now -- it closed a ton of stores earlier this year and has generally been pretty aggressive in trying to cut costs. No matter how bad things get, though, sometimes a company's gotta bite the bullet and do the right thing by its customers, and it looks like the $269 CompUSA is holding back from Texas consultant Terry Heaton might end up costing it a lot more than it anticipated. Seems as though Terry purchased what he thought was a Canon A630 from one of the stores CompUSA was closing back in March, but when his step-daughter opened the box a few weeks ago, it was empty. Assuming he'd get a refund, Terry drove to the nearest CompUSA, where he was told that all liquidation sales were handled by a third party and not CompUSA, and that he would have to contact CompUSA's attorneys to secure a refund. Undaunted, Terry then wrote a letter to CompUSA's CEO, whose "Executive Care" assistant replied and said that Terry should have been more careful to inspect the box when he purchased the camera, and that the prominent ALL SALES ARE FINAL signs around the store and on the receipt weren't just for show. That's pretty callous, if you ask us -- while we're always extra-careful when we buy clearance items, we can't imagine CompUSA (or its liquidators) knowingly marked an empty box with a $269 price tag, and we can't imagine seeing that price and thinking the box might be empty. So come on, CompUSA -- let's see some customer friggin service, okay?

[Via LostRemote, thanks, James]

Update: Heaton got his cash back! Well, in the form of a gift certificate, which kind of sucks, but still, we're glad for him.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Nilay Patel reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 5, 2007, 4:10PM

Drobo review

Ryan Block — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Features, Peripherals, Storage

Anyone who's ever futzed with a drive array on the fritz or tried to upgrade their large home storage system knows the plight well -- disks will eventually fail and/or run out of space, and when they do, neither scenario is particularly pleasant for a RAID user. (Trust us, we have the horror stories to prove it.) Even though the Data Robotics Drobo isn't ready to take the place of your NAS, if you've been looking for a simple, convenient, reliable method of keeping vast amounts of data in one spot, this may be the way to go. We've been fortunate enough to have a Drobo of our own to fool around with for the past few weeks, and we're pretty excited about how it's gone. Read on for our thoughts.

Gallery: Drobo review

Continue reading Drobo review

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Ryan Block reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 5, 2007, 12:12PM

Apple iPod hacked into iTop handheld

Darren Murph — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops, Portable Audio, Portable Video

We've seen a plethora of devices that seem to convert your iPod into a laptop of sorts without voiding the warranty, but after you've broken the screen and have nothing to lose, why spend money on a pre-fabricated alternative? The iTop is essentially a hacked iPod that now resembles a white MacBook in some strange parallel universe, and while it's definitely a stretch to deem this thing an iPod laptop, it can reportedly run a full build of Linux. Of course, the protruding hard drive may detract from the overall appearance, but at least it performs the task of holding the device upright whilst sitting. Unfortunately, there aren't too many details to assist those who'd like to replicate this feat, but click on through for a few more snaps of this bizarre creation.

[Via Hack-A-Day]

Continue reading Apple iPod hacked into iTop handheld

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 5, 2007, 10:46AM

The Re-nano titanium iPod nano case: only $800

Thomas Ricker — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Portable Audio

So you've given in and finally picked up an iPod nano, eh? So how do you go about differentiating yourself from the white-bud wearin' cattle around you? Easy, slip that skinny slab of flash into the massive FACTRON Re-nano case made of solid Titanium, boy. The ¥99,750 (about $818) case made by Kiwami Studios will be available for your $149 nano starting June 5th. Crazy huh? Then again, we never thought we'd feel the need for a $1,500 keyboard either.

Gallery: The Re-nano titanium iPod nano case: only $800

[Via Impress]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Thomas Ricker reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 5, 2007, 6:11AM

VIA intros NanoBook Ultra Mobile Device - $600 ultraportable laptop

Peter Rojas — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Laptops

Uh, Palm, the Foleo just got shown up. VIA just announced the NanoBook Ultra Mobile Device, a reference design for a new ultraportable laptop which just happens to be lighter and smaller than the Foleo -- and which will supposedly retail for just $600. The NanoBook runs on either Windows XP or Vista, weighs less than 850g (1.87 pounds), and sports a 1.2GHz VIA C7-M processor, up to 1GB of RAM, a 30GB hard drive, a 7-inch WVGA display, 802.11g WiFi, Bluetooth (they don't specify which kind), DVI-out, a slot next to the screen where you can pop in a GPS, VoIP, or WWAN module (the module in the pic above is some world clock thing), and up to five hours of battery life. Packard Bell has already signed on to use the reference design as the basis for the EasyNote XS, which is due out in Europe later this year; VIA tells us that at least one other OEM is on-board, but they weren't ready to announce who it was yet.

Continue reading VIA intros NanoBook Ultra Mobile Device - $600 ultraportable laptop

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Peter Rojas reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 5, 2007, 2:51AM

Bob Marley's "Exodus" released on limited edition USB stick

Donald Melanson — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Portable Audio, Storage

It's not the first album to be released on a USB stick, but this new limited edition drive packing Bob Marley's classic "Exodus" is certainly one of the highest-profile releases to date, and apparently the first from a major label catalog artist. While the exact capacity of the drive isn't clear, there's at least enough space to store three videos of Bob Marley's 1977 performance at London's Rainbow Theatre in addition to the ten tracks from the album itself. As it's not coming from a record label that's seen fit to ditch DRM, however, there's also presumably a few restrictions on how you can use those tracks, so you'll just have to save your rendition of "No DRM, No Cry" for another day. You'll also have to act pretty fast to get one, as there'll apparently only be 4000 drives produced, with them only available to those joining the Bob Marley Passport Fan Club for $45 a year.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Donald Melanson reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 5, 2007, 2:22AM

Hasbro unveils Real Gear Transformers based on real life gadgets

Nilay Patel — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Those of you not able to bust out your cardboard box Optimus Prime costume and make a scene at your local theaters next month when the new Transformers movie hits can at least comfort yourselves with the most amazing onslaught of merchandise tie-ins and cross-promotions we've yet seen out of Hollywood -- Hasbro's Real Gear line of bots are an Engadget editor's geeky wet dream mashup of gadgets and Transformers. See: Speed Dial 800 (pictured), which seems to have copped his look from a Star Trek, or Power Up VT6, which from what we can tell is the unholy marriage of Sega Game Gear and first-gen Game Boy Advance. Pics of all the new Real Gear Transformers (with our guesses as to which devices they likeliest correspond to) in the gallery.

[Via Crave]

Gallery: Hasbro unveils Real Gear Transformers based on real life gadgets

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Nilay Patel reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 2, 2007, 12:30AM

Guitar Hero III wireless Les Paul spotted

Ryan Block — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Wireless

Are you ready to rock? I can't hear you... are you ready to RAWK?!

If you answered yes to both the above questions, please check out the early sneak peak of the Guitar Hero III wireless Les Paul controller IGN's got. It's got an improved button layout, it's wireless, and just generally makes our crappy white X-Plorers look totally ancient and pathetic. Thanks a lot, guys.

[Via Wii Fanboy]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Ryan Block reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 1, 2007, 4:26PM

Stephen Colbert makes play for iPhone at D5

Chris Ziegler — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

For most of us, having Steve Jobs' direct attention is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (well, actually, it's a never-in-a-lifetime event for the overwhelming majority of the populace, but stay with us here). Stephen Colbert got his this week, introducing Viacom CEO Phillipe Dauman via video clip at D5. Jobs was, of course, a big player at D, and Colbert did his best to take advantage by suggesting that a gratis iPhone in his pocket -- followed by a mention on his show -- might be just the trick to spurring sales (notice that he's ogling an imaginary iPhone in this screen grab). We suspect the effort was for naught; iPhones are as scarce now as they've ever been, never mind the fact that the media has generated pretty much all the buzz Apple can handle free of charge. Might we suggest working a company that's a little less stingy with prerelease units, Stephen?

Continue reading Stephen Colbert makes play for iPhone at D5

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Chris Ziegler reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 1, 2007, 11:49AM

The Digital Gramophone: original design or DIY shortcut?

Thomas Ricker — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Mmm, the digital gramophone. New and old in a union of laser and nostalgia sure to make T.A. Edison's prodigy swoon. Designed by Yong Jieyu & Ama Xue Hong Bin, the Phonograph CD Player consists of a disassembled CD player with the laser positioned like a classic needle tracing a wax groove. While we like the idea of the exposed disc assembly, we imagine the sound to be fairly consistent with those early 19th century recordings. While the designers claim that their aim was to "analyze a product in its history and function and redesign it," we can't help but wonder if this isn't just a masked DIY gramophone kit available on Amazon.co.jp for years. Just sayin' is all.

[Via Akihabara News]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Thomas Ricker reBlogged by LO2 on May 31, 2007, 9:43AM

Microsoft Surface hands-on

Ryan Block — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Displays, Features

If you're any kind of nerd you probably already caught Microsoft's Surface at this point. We don't have a lot to add with our little photo gallery, but damned if this wasn't one of the coolest technology demoes we've seen in long while -- bugs and all. Oh, and for those wondering, all the trickiness in getting the Surface demo tables to identify the objects resting on it wasn't due to NFC or RFID (yet, anyway); the Surface demo unit instead uses a visual code identifier on the bottom of each object, and behaves accordingly. We want.

Gallery: Microsoft Surface hands-on

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Ryan Block reBlogged by LO2 on May 31, 2007, 1:02AM

Palm Foleo gallery

Peter Rojas — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Handhelds

That's right, we've got a gallery full of shots of the freshly-announced Palm Foleo for ya.

Gallery: Palm Foleo

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Peter Rojas reBlogged by LO2 on May 30, 2007, 2:19PM

Ruh Roh Shaggy: Art Army Van weds iPod dock, Mystery Machine

Darren Murph — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio, Portable Video, Transportation

We've seen our fair share of far-out iPod docks, but Mike Leavitt's latest go at creating a piece of functional art makes us yearn to bust out the tie-dyed bandannas and throw a Scooby-Doo marathon bash. The Art Army Van is a modified plastic Mystery Machine toy, which now includes a modernized paint scheme, removable rear CD rack, passenger seat-mounted speaker, and the obligatory iPod jack in the captain's chair. The wheeled machine comes in at 10- x 6- x 6-inches in size, and while we're not entirely confident that such a masterpiece is worthy of a whole $200, we can't deny the temptation to snap one up. Click through to see this groove rider in action.

Continue reading Ruh Roh Shaggy: Art Army Van weds iPod dock, Mystery Machine

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on May 30, 2007, 10:28AM

The SMS M500 GSM Watchfone: the 58 year wait is over

Thomas Ricker — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables

Calling all cars, calling all cars... be on the look out for the SMS M500 GSM Watchfone. That's right, the first shipments of the M300 followup are said to be leaving Hong Kong as of tomorrow, May 30th. Now we can all get a little Dick Tracy with "the world's smallest mobile phone" -- or so says SMS Technology Australia. Unlike Dick's 2-way Wrist Radio which emerged in 1949, this pup goes quad-band GSM while packing a 1.5-inch touchscreen with itty bitty, built-in stylus; Bluetooth 2.0; and all the 120 x 160 pixel MP4 video (or MP3/AAC audio) you can pack into its 128MB of storage. The watch weights just 60-grams and should hold-up to about 200 minutes of talk or 80 hours standby before needing a USB recharge. Now if someone could just hook us up with a jetpack we can get to living in the future promised to us by Uncle Walt (no, the other one) in those free lovin' 70s.

Gallery: The SMS M500 GSM Watchfone: the 58 year wait is over

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Thomas Ricker reBlogged by LO2 on May 29, 2007, 5:25AM

Is this the iPhone in the wild?

Evan Blass — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:25:23 -0500

Filed under: Cellphones

Cameraphones have never been known to snap the best photos (except for you, dear N95), and the purported 'in the wild' shot of Apple's impending iPhone that you see above is 'clearly' no different. Supposedly captured by an editor of the Geeknuz blog at a Silicon Valley restaurant, the pic is said to show an Apple employee dinging around with his unreleased handset, "taking pictures of the person he was with and...talking about the functions of the phone." Apparently the Man from Cupertino made no effort to hide the fact that he was sporting one of the most anticipated consumer electronics products in history, even responding -- albeit quite tersely, it seems -- to a Geeknuz inquiry about the lack of third-party application support. But while this whole story certainly sounds plausible, the unidentifiable device in the gentleman's hand could be anything from an old HP iPaq to a five-dollar tip calculator, so please do your duty as responsible readers and begin dropping your wild theories and baseless debunks into the comments below...

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Evan Blass reBlogged by LO2 on May 27, 2007, 12:59PM

Speed Racer's Mach 5 comes to life

Darren Murph — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:57:33 -0500

Filed under: Transportation

Sorry K.I.T.T., you had a nice run there, but we're pretty certain the newly created Mach 5 could destroy you in the quarter mile. As the crew readies for the Speed Racer-inspired motion picture to land in May 2008, this blast from the animated past has finally become a reality, and it even parked for a photograph and an unveiling ceremony, too. The sparkly white ride sports a blinding red interior, stripped down dashboard, push button start, and a hint of nostalgia to boot. We know, next May is a long ways off, but feel free to click through and see the presentation of the tangible Mach 5 in all of its glory -- now go, Speed Racer, go.

[Via CNET]

Continue reading Speed Racer's Mach 5 comes to life

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 8, 2007, 4:23PM

Prototype Super Famicom / PlayStation console unearthed?

Darren Murph — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:57:33 -0500

Filed under: Gaming

If you think these nuggets were the rarest of the rare, just take a look at the PlayStation / Super Famicom prototype pictured above. Back when Sony was reportedly looking to collaborate with Nintendo on a machine, this here device was supposedly the offspring of their collective imaginations, but over a decade later we're finally seeing dusty images of what could have been. Of course, there's no way of telling whether this shot is actually authentic, and Game-Rave certainly doesn't go out of its way to lend any further credibility to the situation, but feel free to click on through for a shot of the rear and take guesses as to how much it'll fetch on The Bay if real.

[Via NintendoWiiFanboy]

Continue reading Prototype Super Famicom / PlayStation console unearthed?

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 8, 2007, 8:33AM

Dell 1907FP gets flamboyant steampunk makeover

Darren Murph — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:57:33 -0500

Filed under: Displays

The antique-minded modder over at Steampunk Workshop had it right: what good is a brass-clad mouse and keyboard with a 21st century monitor destroying the mojo? Fret not, as a Dell 1907FP was torn apart, blasted with gold Krylon, and decorated to the hilt with flashy pieces that your great (great) grandmother would surely love. Best of all, this here creator went above the call of duty by dressing up the monitor with gilded triggers to depress the monitor adjustment buttons underneath the panel. Trust us, you need to see this one to appreciate the passion behind it, so feel free to visit the read link for a plethora of photographs and even a few vids.

[Via Digg]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Darren Murph reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 7, 2007, 5:56PM

Engadget Chinese gets its hands on Asus' Eee PC 701

Donald Melanson — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:57:33 -0500

Filed under: Laptops

Those as intrigued as we were with Asus' newly-announced Eee PC 701 ultralight will likely want to take the short hop over to Engadget Chinese, which has managed to gets its hands on the device and dig up a few more details on it. Perhaps most interestingly, Asus' product manger told them that while Windows XP has been successfully tested with the device, the final product will likely come with only Linux pre-installed, with XP driver support thrown in for good measure. What's more, Asus also said that the mini-laptop could eventually pack as much as 32GB of SSD storage, and even hinted at the possibility of either an optional built-in 3G module or a separate dongle. Asus also reiterated that seemingly too good to be true $200 starting price, adding that a version for "English speaking countries" could be available "as early as August this year."

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Originally from Engadget by Donald Melanson reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 6, 2007, 3:59PM

Great Pyramid II: Gigantic 3000-foot Pyramid Proposed for Tokyo Bay

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

Here's an 8-minute video that shows you a grandiose idea somebody dreamed up: building a 3000 foot-tall pyramid in Tokyo Bay. This megacity would be so tall, and would have such tremendous volume that 24 80-story skyscrapers could be suspended within, and people would travel inside it via the tubes that are also supporting the enormous structure. It's extreme engineering, indeed.

You gotta feel sorry for those people living in Tokyo, all crammed together like sardines in a can, so maybe this wild idea could give them some elbow room. To rent the amount of space made by this huge structure, it would cost $10 billion a year within the city of Tokyo. If built, it will be the largest structure in the world. Go for it! – Charlie White

Living in a Pyramid Random Good Stuff

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 12, 2007, 11:15AM

KeyLust: Kensington Ci70 Wireless Desktop is a Lovely Girlfriend for Your Cinema Display

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

If you're looking for a perfect match for your Mac Pro, Apple Cinema display or MacBook Pro, you may have just found it with this Kensington Ci70 wireless desktop set. Somebody with some design chops just got on board at Kensington, because this baby is thin enough to be a runway model, has a slim mouse that docks into the keyboard, and it's made of titanium. Woo, woo.

Although it works with a PC, too, Mac users were certainly top of mind, as evidenced by little details such as that eject button. But then the Windows users aren't ignored, either, because look there, it's the Windows Start button. This looks like it could be a way-expensive set, but surprisingly, it's $79.99, and it's available for pre-order now.

And get this: There's a slot for a picture on the underside of this keyboard, and when you're done for the day you can just dock the little mouse inside, and turn the keyboard over, displaying that one special shot that waits for you when you return. Wow. Nice touch. It's like the little bud vase in a Volkswagen. – Charlie White

Product Page [Kensington]
Review of the Kensington Ci70 Wireless Desktop [The Techie Diva]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 12, 2007, 9:30AM

You See Something New Every Day: Amputee Dancer/Incredible Prosthetics

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

Lisa Bufano is a dancer and performing artist who has gone through bilateral below knee and finger amputation. Here is a performance from "Five Open Mouths" in which she wears some extremely awesome prosthetic springing feet.

Hit the jump for a shot of her another one of her setups—a spider-like four-appendage extension.

While the video doesn't strike me as high art, I'm guessing much of her show is nothing less than living Manga. – Mark Wilson

Dancer With A Difference [via gearfuse]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 9, 2007, 11:32AM

What Is This: Super Famicom/PlayStation Prototype?

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

For those of you with short memories, Sony and Nintendo were working together in the mid '90s on a CD-based Nintendo console when negotiations fell apart and both Japanese companies went their separate ways. Sony with the PlayStation and Nintendo with the N64—and we all know what happened since.

This console posted on game-rave is supposedly a prototype of the PlayStation/Super Famicom unit. They claim it's real, but whether or not Sony and Nintendo actually got to the point where they made prototypes is unclear. Still, this seems like an interesting box and gives us a chance to stroll down memory lane. Ahh, look, there's the house of noogies to your right. – Jason Chen

Game Rave

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 8, 2007, 12:37PM

I Love Liverpool: Crazy Rotating Wall Makes You Wonder if You Are Crazy Too

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

The UK city of Liverpool is playing host to a rather kooky piece of artwork for the next 18 months. Called Turning The Place Over (I do hope that's not a reference to Scousers being nifty burglars) by Richard Wilson, it consists of a rotating wall that turns 360º. Cut in the wall of an old Yates's Wine Lodge, the installation sits opposite one of the city's train stations and is costing almost $900,000 - that's $50,000 for each month of its existence.

I guess it will make moving in so much easier: you will be able to just "open" the wall and get that grand piano in without having to use two spazmos* who think they are Laurel and Hardy. – Ad Dugdale

* Spazmos-Spazmozikis: noun. Ancient greek. Very stupid man. Very.

City's new room with a view - but is it art? [icLiverpool]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 8, 2007, 9:20AM

Security: Controller Lock Keeps Your Paused FFXII Game Safe From Evildoers

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

Of all the things that you need to keep locked up and secure, how far down the list is your console gaming controller? Is it even on the list? Yeah, it's not on mine either. But hey, apparently some people are really concerned about their controllers getting used when they aren't around, and that necessitated a new product.

This thing snaps onto the thumbsticks of your PS2/3 controller and won't let go unless you know the super-secure, 3-digit combo. Or you could just take the controller with this thing attached and then smash it with a hammer once you get home. But I'm sure the idea of putting that much effort in will make potential controller thieves look elsewhere, right?

Peep another shot after the hop.

–Adam Frucci

Interesting security device for portable game controller [Aving]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 8, 2007, 8:30AM

Future Tech: Sony's Secret R&D Open House

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

Once a year in Tokyo, Sony invites some lucky people to check out the super-secret stuff their Computer Science Laboratories (CSL) have been cooking up. What's the CSL? It's the R&D division that explores future technologies with no specific product or division in mind, so they aren't forced to only work on Blu-ray products or phone technologies.

Well, this year's open house just happened, and Sony had some pretty neat stuff to show off.

Up at the top there is a speaker with ferromagnetic nano particles inside, dancing and reacting to the music playing.

Next up is ChatScape, a circular table with a projector shooting down images on it, allowing users to email photos from their phone and have them show up in real time. Think of it as a poor-man's Microsoft Surface Table.

There's plenty more to check out, so head on over to Digital World Tokyo and get the whole story straight from the horse's mouth. –Adam Frucci

Sony's geeky backside exposed in Tokyo R&D extravaganza [Digital World Tokyo]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 8, 2007, 7:45AM

Clips: Close-up Video of a Watch's Movement

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

Got three minutes to kill? Check out this video of an extreme closeup of how a watch works. It's very odd, and unless you were a watchmaker, something you've never seen before. Careful not to watch this video too many times, or else you'll start getting delusions of grandeur and start chopping off the tops of people's heads just to look at it. – Jason Chen

Internal Workings [Boing Boing]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 7, 2007, 1:10PM

Series Of Tubes: Shuttle and ESTI Create a Tube-Totin' Two-Headed Home Theater Monster

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

This prototype tube amp and PC combo from Shuttle (pictured at right) and ESTI (on the left) is fancy enough to call itself the Digital Video Opera (DVO) series. Don't be fooled by its old-school tubes, though, because when you team up these two tube-spangled boxes in the home theater, you get a Vista-running system with HDMI, 7.1 channel DTS, built-in Wi-Fi and a remote control.

You can't see in the pictures, but it has a front-mounted Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD) that really sells its tubular style. We're assuming that each unit is available in either black or silver so they actually do match each other, but neither company is talking about when we might see this pretty pair available in the real world, or at what price. – Charlie White

Tubes are back & custom XPCs crop up [Bit-Tech]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 7, 2007, 11:50AM

Pocket Browser: Asus Eee PC Gets Pricing and Release Date

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

Asus' tiny Internet PC just got a little sweeter. The 7-inch handheld is rumored to be coming out this August for a mere $199. That's less than half the price of the Palm Foleo. There's even rumblings that future versions might have a 3G radio embedded. So between the Foleo and the NanoBook, the Eee PC still has the upper hand in my book. – Louis Ramirez

Product Page [Gadget Lab]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 7, 2007, 11:10AM

Car As Gadget: Smartinor, The Fugly Car Only This Babe Could Love

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

We're not sure whether we are dumbstruck more by this crazy concept car's design or that babe standing in front of it. This is what happens when a Smart ForTwo Car and a weirded-out '70s Eleanor Mustang from Gone in 60 Seconds get drunk and start talking shit to each other, ending up in some fleabag flophouse with the end result being a positive pregnancy test. Here's their progeny, a combination Smart Car and Eleanor Mustang, dubbed Smartinor.

Thalon Design likes to play games with car mods, and it's outdone itself with this one. Another pic of this shapely young lady falling all over this transmogrified car, after the jump.

It's a test concept, but this could be just striking enough to make it to market. If that sleek young filly comes along with it, we're in. – Charlie White

The Smart Eleanor [Thalon Design, via Autoblog and Jalopnik]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 7, 2007, 10:30AM

Travel: Dual-Access Bag Keeps Your Laptop at Hand

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

This is actually a pretty brilliant design. The Dual-Access Rolling Bag features a laptop-sized pocket on its top, so when you have your bag stored under the seat in front of you on an airplane, you can just slide you computer out without pulling out and opening your whole bag up. It makes getting to your laptop quick and easy, leaving everything else untouched. Seriously, why didn't someone think of this earlier? Frequent travelers are gonna love this thing. –Adam Frucci

Product Page [via Book of Joe]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 7, 2007, 9:45AM

Software: The Best Way to Track Your Packages

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

I showed this to Pash over at Lifehacker before, but I thought I'd share this with you all as well. If you order a lot of stuff (and you should, since you read Giz), you'll love this Delivery Status package tracker for Apple's Dashboard. Hands down the best package tracker we've seen on any platform, including Yahoo, Google and Vista Gadgets.

Each delivery system is color coded and styled based on their logo, so you can easily see what packages are coming and how many days are left before you get it. We use it all the time, and you know we get a lot of boxes. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Mikepiontek]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 6, 2007, 3:20PM

Robots: Robotic Piggy Bank Eats Money, Gives Me Nightmares

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

I don't know about you, but I don't think I can ever sleep or get an erection after watching this robotic piggy bank do its thing. Seriously, eating your coins is one thing, but designing the face like a demonic orangutan baby? That's not cool, guys. Totally not cool. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Strapya World via Tokyo Mango]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 6, 2007, 2:10PM

Review: Chargepod Universal Six-Way Charging System Hands-on (Verdict: It Revolutionizes Charging)

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

When we first heard about Chargepod's six-way charging system with its custom adapters and all-in-one body, we were skeptical. Is it really worth the price premium to combine all our gadget charging into one place?

After getting our hands on it and testing it out on just about every portable device we have, we've come to the conclusion that the Chargepod is the future of gadget charging.

That's a bold claim, but once you use it, you'll come to agree with us. See, with standard AC adapters, you'll be hard pressed to fit them all on one power strip because quite a few are large and oddly shaped. Then you'll have to get two power strips (or a power squid), which then means both of your outlets are now occupado. With Chargepod, you take up one outlet in one power strip and you're done.

Although the fanned-out orientation while charging makes it take up about a square foot's worth of surface area, it doesn't occupy all that much space when compared to individual chargers. Then there's just the coolness of (there are six blue LEDs that tell you when something's inserted) being able to charge all your stuff with the same device.

The basics of Chargepod are obvious from the picture. You have one center base station with a lead that plugs into the wall. Then you've got six interchangeable adapters that you can plug just about anything into.

As for the chargers, there's USB, miniUSB, BlackBerry, Motorola, Sony Ericsson (phones and Bluetooth headsets), Sanyo, Samsung phones, Samsung headsets, Qualcomm, Kyocera, Audiovox, LG, Toshiba, Pantech, Palm (Treo, LifeDrive, Tungsten), Nokia, DS, DS Lite, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Micro, Nextel, Jabra, Sidekick, and various other phones I forgot to list. Essentially, it covers the whole spectrum of phones, headsets, and other gadgets.

Here's the downside: price. The base unit costs $49 and additional charger tips costs $9.95. This means that you'll have to buy at least five extra adapters (your first one's free) in order to fill up the entire body. That's over $100 to get yourself set up.

At this point, we can recommend Chargepod based on its convenience and ability to charge things as well as individual chargers, but if Callpod can get the price somewhere down to $39 for the base unit and $5 or $6 per adapter, then we can recommend this to everyone—even the cash strapped. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Callpod]

Chargepod adapters [Callpod]

The Gallery [Gizmodo]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 6, 2007, 12:20PM

Notebook Lust: Asus Wooden Laptop Prototypes Give Us Wood

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

Asus opened up the doors to the woodshop to make three gorgeous laptops for the Computex Taipei 2007 show. Although company reps say they don't have any specific plans to actually sell these PCs, they're part of a skilled design exercise that shows an delicate interplay between craftsmanship and tech.

Take a look at the gallery full of true laptop porn, where you'll notice there are three showcase designs of wooden laptops with magnesium frames that aren't necessarily portable, and then you'll also see some wood and bamboo faceplates that Asus also brought out later, to much appreciation. In fact, the designs won an award, named some of the best products at Computex 2007. – Charlie White

Computex 2007: Design 1, Design 2, Design 3 [Aving, via Chinese Engadget]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 6, 2007, 12:00PM

Beam Me Up, Sooty: Star Trek Goes Steampunk as Steam Trek

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

We couldn't resist directing your attention to this beautifully done Star Trek parody, created in 1994 but looking like it was made a hundred years ago. Steam Trek is Star Trek, steampunk style! – Charlie White

Steampunk Star Trek [Boing Boing]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 6, 2007, 10:15AM

For The Tribe: Say-A-Blessing Makes a Better Jew Out of You

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

Hey, Jews! Isn't it hard remembering all the different blessings there are to say before eating different things? Don't you wish there was some shortcut through them to get to the food when you're hungry? Boy, your mother should be ashamed of you. But I'm not your mother, so here's something to help.

The Say-a-Blessing keychain can get through those pesky blessings for you with the push of a button for whatever type of food you're about to eat (except pork and shellfish for some odd reason), allowing you to cut to the chase without pissing off the big man upstairs. Everybody wins? Oy vey. –Adam Frucci

Product Page [Jewish Learning Group]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 5, 2007, 4:15PM

More Facts: Thinkpad Reserve: $5000, June 15th

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:03:44 -0500

A reliable source just gave us some more details on the leather-bound Thinkpad Reserve.
•The Limited Edition run will go for $5000
•is being made to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Thinkpad
•more will be revealed on June 15th.

Right now, all you can do is click around the website, thinkpadreserve.com, which is heavy with images of leather, but nothing else. The password protected flash program has been taken apart by readers, and they've only found a mail-to form to the Razorfish ad agency. – Brian Lam

[Thanks Tipster]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 5, 2007, 3:38PM

Cat has camera on collar so we can see what he does

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Mark Frauenfelder: Jim says:

Mr. Lee is a cat in Germany, whose owner has attached a camera to his collar so that we can share his daily adventures! Some of the photos are mysterious. Others are beautiful. I love this!

Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 6, 2007, 5:01PM

Realist archive project

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Mark Frauenfelder:
The Realist was a satirical newsletter founded by Paul Krassner from in 1958. It mixed true stories with parodies, and sometimes it was hard to tell the difference. It was a freak's version of Mad magazine (and I just discovered on Wikipedia that the first issue was produced in Mad's offices).

When Krassner relaunched The Realist in the 1980s I devoured each issue as it arrived in my mailbox. It was a major inspiration for bOING bOING, the zine. If fact if you look at the subject matter covered in The Realist, you'll see that much of it is remarkably similar to the stuff you'll find on Boing Boing today. For example, the June 1963 issue (shown above) had the following articles: The Arrest of Lenny Bruce, "Negative Thinking" by Robert Anton Wilson, Epizootics by Gershon Legman, the FDA vs Scientology, and weird items clipped from the mainstream press. I can hardly believe this is from a magazine published 44 years ago! Mind blowing.

I have only seen a couple of the early issues of The Realist, so I was elated to learn that outre-culture archivist Ethan Persoff has started on online archive for this eccentric and delightful newsletter.

Announcing The REALIST Archive Project. A complete republishing of all 146 issues of Paul Krassner's classic THE REALIST Magazine. Every page from the Realist that was ever printed will be included within this archive. A wealth of incredible things coming up for you. Posted with permission. Our thanks to Paul Krassner.
Issue No. 44 - Lenny Bruce arrested (1963)
Issue No. 66 - An Abortionist for the FBI (1966)
Issue No. 74 - The full Disneyland Memorial Orgy issue (1967)
-and-
Issue No. 81 - The Digger Papers (1968).
----------------------------------------------------------
Also: writing from Robert Anton Wilson and from Gershon Legman. Tips on child pornography found in Reader's Digest, and much much more.
Four new issues posted every month until the archive is complete.

Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 6, 2007, 3:27PM

Other Side: moving, haunting Vietnam War comic

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow: I found Other Side, Jason Aaron and Cameron Stewart's gripping, savage, thoughtful Vietnam War comic, by going into Secret Headquarters (my favorite comic shop) and asking "What's good?" Dave, the co-owner, said, "I just sent this guy my first-ever fan letter" and passed me a copy.

It was a well-deserved fan-letter. Aaron is the cousin of Gustav Hasford, the Vietnam War correspondent who wrote the book that became "Full Metal Jacket." Through Hasford, Aaron found himself spending a lot of time in the company of other old Vietnam correspondents, hearing their stories. This inspired him to travel to Vietnam and research the experiences of Vietnamese soldiers who fought on the other side.

The result is Other Side, which tells the parallel life stories of an ~~ARVN~~ font color="red">NVA

irregular and a US Marine who join up at the same time and visit the seven hells of a pointless war engineered by liars who tempted boys to war with propaganda and scaremongering.

The story follows some of the conventions of a traditional Vietnam story, but quickly veers into new territory as both of them experience numinous hallucinations -- the Marine is haunted by the ghosts of other dead Marines (including a spirit that makes his rifle whisper obscene, suicidal messages out of its barrel) while the ~~ARVN~~ NVA soldier is haunted by Buddhist ghosts brought on by the scorching fever of malaria. These spirit visitations tell another parallel story, about the real reasons each of them is fighting.

The artwork is superb, reminiscent of the most graphic of the EC Comics -- cartoony but not silly, exploiting the wide-open nature of comics graphics to tell a story that couldn't ever be adequately captured in film or in mere words.

This is Jason Aaron's first graphic novel, but I'm sure it won't be his last. I know I'll be actively hunting down the rest of his work as it emerges. Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 6, 2007, 9:08AM

Steampunk Star Trek

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Steam Trek is a 1994 Star Trek fan video that recasts the voyages of the Enterprise as a late Victorian silent "moving picture" with great, Voyage to the Moon-style graphics and hilarious slates for dialog. Link (Thanks, Danny and everyone else who suggested this story!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 6, 2007, 8:45AM

True historic origins of the Laugh Out Loud cats - UPDATED

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Xeni Jardin:

Prolific illustrator and historian Apelad tells BoingBoing, "The truth can finally be told regarding the turn-of-the-20th Century origin of the Laugh Out Loud Cats." Snip:

Not many people know this, but my great grandfather Aloysius "Gorilla" Koford, was also a cartoonist. From 1912-1913 he produced a comic strip which was featured in 17 newspapers, including the Philadephia Star-Democrat, the Tampa Telegraph, and the Santa Fe Good-Newser. The strip was entitled "the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats" and featured the exploits of one Meowlin Q. Kitteh (a sort of cat hobo-raconteur) and his young hapless kitten friend, Pip. The strip did not last long due to a run-in my great-grandfather had with none other than William Randolph Hearst.
See, the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats was run by a one of Heart's competitors, so “Big Willy” (as Hearst was known in his day) used the bully pulpit of his media empire to hound and mock the efforts of my great-grandfather. Hearst scribes insinuated Aloysius was an actual trained gorilla and purported to have evidence in the form of banana shipping statements.

Link to the rest of the tale.

Reader comment: TK says,

Silly Apelad, he should be more careful next time. Cheeseburger was invented as early as 1924 so 1912-1913 timeline wouldn't work! Link. Nice try!

Cheeseburger and LOLcat historian Apelad replies:

Eat it, cheesburger pedants.

His evidence, in the form of an ancient Lascaux JPEG, below.

Adam Morris says,

The Laugh Out Loud Cats obviously inspired George Herriman who produced Krazy Kat cartoons in the 1920s and 1930s. Krazy Kat speaks a mangled form of English as illustrated in this example: GIF link.

Originally from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 5, 2007, 2:23PM

Knife block terrorizes little man

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Who needs a pierced-head knife-block, or a pierced voodoo doll knife-block, when you can have a man-in-mortal- terror-cowering- from-your-knives knife-block?

Inspired by the Sword Cabinet illusion beloved by magicians, this novel knife holder features a crouching figure behind glass. Slots on the top hold 5 knives of varying widths and lengths, from a paring knife to a chef's knife with 9" blade. Cabinet is MDF with a black finish. 7 ¼" W x 11 ¾"H x 4"D. Knives not included. Exlcusive to our company.

Link (via Cribcandy)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 4, 2007, 9:13PM

CompUSA is selling empty boxes

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Mark Frauenfelder: Jesse says:

Wow. A man buys a digital camera from CompUSA for $269, and when he gives it as a gift, he discovers that there's no camera in the box. When he tries to take it back, they blame it on him for not inspecting the box! Unfathomable.

Link

Reader comment:

Rjones says:

Here is another tale. I bought a printer from CompUSA. The Box was shrinkwrapped and I grabbed it and paid for it. I don't recall if it had the antitheft bungees on it or not.
Anyway, I got home opened the box, opened the shrinkwrap, and instead of the printer, in the box about the same approximate size and weight, was some VHS marketing video on starting your own Barbershop.
I took it back with my receipt, and told the returns clerk they may want to call a manager up for this. I showed them the 'printer' I had just bought. I told them that someone must have brought it back for a return earlier, and as it was shrinkwrapped, it was not inspected at the time of return. I just wanted to swap out for what I had purchased, and the exchange went fairly smoothly. I noticed that none of the other boxes were shrinkwrapped. They may have had those antitheft bungees, the tags that wrap around the box with cord. I asked if i could please inspect before I left with this exchange, I got a printer, and it works.
Shrinkwrap means NADA, any jerk with access to the wrap can scam.

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 4, 2007, 3:24PM

Do the Right Thing recreated with Sesame Street toys

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow:
Andrew sez, "This is a Sesame Street / Do The Right Thing mash-up that has been made using Fisher-Price's classic line of Sesame Street "Little People" toys, recasting the film's roles with Sesame Street characters. It's really detailed with a lot of great gags for anyone who knows their Spike Lee and Sesame and pretty retro-cool if like me you played with these toys as a little kid."

Holy crap, this is teh awesome.

Link (Thanks, Andrew!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 4, 2007, 12:56PM

Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith's hard-boiled FELL

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Just finished Fell: Feral City, the first collected volume of Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith's new hard-boiled, surreal, ultra-violent comic. I've loved Ellis's writing since Transmetropolitan (the comic that got me reading comics again), but I've only just started to notice Templesmith's unique brand of abstract, kinetic, moody painting (see, for example, Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse and 30 Days of Night). Together, they just can't be beat.

Fell is about a fallen cop who has banished to "Snowtown," an abandoned DMZ "on the other side of the bridge," where he is one of three-and-a-half detectives charged with investigating the hundreds of murders that sweep through it like the plague. Detective Fell is like Dante, exploring hell, getting stabbed and having guns thrust in his face, bearing up under heaps of abuse and navigating a police squad where the Lieutenant is a pill-freak who hallucinates and reads Crowley on "magick" as a way of solving the squad's problems.

The characters are somewhat stock -- batty Lt; beautiful, smart, fucked-up barmaid girlfriend; disgusting coroner, criminal scum -- but that just leaves more room for Ellis and Templesmith to really explore the outer reaches of the hard-boiled genre, combining comedy with sickening violence in a way that is half Transmetropolitan, half Serpico.

Each of the eight collected stories is a stand-alone, and the format will be familiar to lovers of Transmet -- Detective Fell shows us a new aspect of the hell of Snowtown in each: the old lady who runs a thrift shop and has a dark secret; the sniper who hates women; the way that the murder victim got so much booze into him without having a drink.

The art and the writing here are perfect complements to each other, and you get a sense of Ellis and Templesmith egging each other on to see who can top whom. I don't know who won, except that the readers all come out ahead. Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 2, 2007, 1:27PM

A fine end to a week of pan-LOLism

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Xeni Jardin:

From BB reader Cody Klingbeil.

Originally from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 1, 2007, 11:25PM

Tezuka Osamu, Astroboy creator, museum exhibition

David Pescovitz — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

David Pescovitz: Tomorrow, San Francisco's Asian Art Museum opens their huge retrospective on Tezuka Osamu (1928-1989), the pioneering master of manga who created Astro Boy and so, so much more. The exhibition features 200 works, including original art, covers, posters, anime, and adult manga. (Seen here, the slip-case design for Teskuka's Metropolis (Metoroporisu), a 1949 manga starring inspired by a photo of the robot Maria from Fritz Lang's film.) For those unable to see this show at its only US venue, the (Flash) site has a ton of information, including a series of video podcasts celebrating the artist.
Link

UPDATE: Scott De Las Casas writes:

Growing up I was a huge fan of Tezuka's Tatsuo Yoshida's Speed Racer, while my sister preferred (Tezuka's) Kimba the White Lion, another anime classic by "the god of manga." USA Today has a first look at the the Wachowskis's Brothers SPEED RACER adaptation, including an exclusive premiere of the Mach 5. It appears that the movie will be true to the spirit of series, although based on the synopsis I'll withhold celebrating until I see it. Now if only we could get Carroll Ballard (Duma, Fly Away Home, The Black Stallion) to make a live-action Kimba movie... Link

Originally from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 1, 2007, 3:26PM

Schroedinger's LOLCat

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow:
As LOLCats go, this one is pretty spesh. Schroedinger's LOLCat indeed. (via AccordionGuy)

Update: Rob sez, "That lolcat belongs to Kevin Steele of Mackerel fame!"

Update 2: Dan sez, "Just wanted to give you a link to the Flickr page of my lolcat, which gives due credit to those where credit is due."

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 1, 2007, 2:40PM

Tell the Eccentric Genius what to build

David Pescovitz — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

David Pescovitz: We've featured the incredible artisan Kaden Harris several times on BB. He makes exquisitely-crafted "antiques from a parallel universe," from desktop guillotines to mindwarping machines (image left) to insanely intricate smoking devices (image below) that would be right at home on Jules Verne's Nautilus. He sells his creations via his Eccentric Genius Web site, but he's not sure what people actually want to buy. So he's written the request below of BB readers. Please don't email me with your responses, but post them on the QuickTopic board instead! Kaden says:

My drawing board is overfull of stuff that's through R&D and waiting to be fabricated, but it's all stuff that either resonates really strongly with my personal tastes, or stuff that has grown around a specific scrapyard archaeology artifact that happened to catch my eye (I have about 3 tons of scrapyard brass scattered around Eccentric Manors...inspiration is kinda hard to avoid). Knowing my personal tastes is one thing; knowing what my marketplace likes is entirely another, and due to my *close* personal relationship with my raw material inventory, it's kinda hard to step back and view things with an unbiased eye.

So waddaya think I oughta build? Whatever it is, it has to actually function: I look on bricolage as a waste of perfectly good components. I build mechanisms...purposeful things. Anything less is an insult to the mojo of the componentry.

Link to discussion board, Link to Eccentric Genius

Previously on BB:
• Dangerous Things on your desk Link
• Retro bong designed and built in 11 minutes Link

Originally from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 1, 2007, 12:56PM

Artist Within: photobook of comic artists in their studios

David Pescovitz — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

David Pescovitz:
I've posted here before that I love seeing where creative people work: mechanics' garages, artist's studios, scientists' labs, writers' offices. The folks at Dark Horse Comics apparently do too! In July, they're publishing a beautiful hardcover book called "The Artist Within: Portraits of Cartoonist, Comic Book Artists, Animators, and Others." Inside are Greg Preston's striking photos of some of my favorite artists--Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Robert Crumb, Frank Miller, Adrian Tomine, Coop, Los Bros Hernandez, Peter Bagge, Art Spiegelman, and dozens of others--in their natural habitats. The book features 100 photographs, 100 illustrations, and brief profiles of the subjects and their work. The Artist Within is filled with intimate glimpses of people who have entertained me for years, many of them decades, but most of whom I've never met. It's a delight to put faces with the names and a real treat to finally see where the magic happens.

Link to buy the book, Link to a flipbook preview

Originally from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 1, 2007, 12:18PM

Recordings of concert intermissions

David Pescovitz — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

David Pescovitz: "Favorite Intermissions: Music Before and Between Beethoven, Stravisnky, Holst" is a collection of the ambient intermission sounds--murmurs, coughs, tuning, musical warm-ups--before and after orchestral performances. John Cage would be proud. The compiler, sound artist Christopher DeLaurenti, bootlegged the recordings while attending concerts for seven years. This is his greatest hits from more than 50 recorded hours, presented in 3D binaural audio. John Cage would be proud. From the New York Times, where you can also hear selections from the CD:

“Every composer, every sound artist, every musician, poses a fundamental question to everyone else,” Mr. DeLaurenti said in an interview. “It’s a request to listen. I have faith that in any sound or collection of sounds, music lies therein.

“It does sound crazy,” he continued. “Craziness is the root of many great musical ideas and the source for new ways of listening and considering the world around us..."

Virtually all concert halls ban photography or recording, and contracts with musicians’ unions strictly govern what can be preserved, so Mr. DeLaurenti had to go under cover. He said he was never caught but occasionally drew suspicious looks from ushers.

He honed a technique of often shifting his posture and moving around. “Most people are not observant and rarely look at one thing for longer than 10 seconds,” he said. He also showed unfailing courtesy when questioned. “People don’t want trouble,” he explained.

Link to New York Times, Link to purchase the disc(Thanks, Vann Hall!)

Originally from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz reBlogged by LO2 on Jun 1, 2007, 12:14AM

LOLbots

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Xeni Jardin: Goddammit. Every time I swear I'm gonna put a kibosh on any plural noun that begins with LOL, someone reboots the meme in a genuinely funny way. And so it is with LOLbots, which was created by Dieselsweeties' R. Stevens.

I hate myself for blogging you. LOLS. ROFL. NSFW. LMAO.

Incidentally, I hear Scott Beale's working on a dissertation-sized über-düper post of every LOL variant evar. I promise not to blog that, either. (posted from the road, in central america / xeni)

Originally from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin reBlogged by LO2 on May 31, 2007, 12:37AM

To do in DC Friday: Mingering Mike gallery opening

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Xeni Jardin:

A retrospective of works by the "imaginary soul superstar" I reported on for NPR not long ago (Link 1 / Link 2) will open Friday in Washington, DC, at this gallery: Link. If I wasn't approximately one gajillion miles away this week, I'd totally be there. If you are nearby, I heartily encourage you to attend -- I hear Mr. Mike will be in the house signing copies of his excellent new book, and he seems truly a wonderful and talented human being. There will also be a listening booth where you can listen to his tunes.

Previously:

The Mystery of Mingering Mike: part 1, part 2, proto-post

(posted from the road in Central America / Xeni)

Originally from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin reBlogged by LO2 on May 31, 2007, 12:11AM

Little boy ruins sand mandala

David Pescovitz — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

David Pescovitz: Last week, eight Tibetan monks were halfway complete with an incredibly intricate sand mandala they were creating in Kansas City's Union Station when a young boy went under the protective rope and messed up the entire design. The monks were gone when it happened but the episode was caught on a security camera. From the Associated Press (photo by monk Dhukar Tsering):

"He did a little tap dance on it, completely destroying it," said Lama Chuck Stanford, of the Rime Buddhist Center in Kansas City.

A security tape shows the boy's mother returning to the mandala, grabbing her son by the arm and walking out of camera range...

"No problem," Geshe Lobsang Sumdup, leader of the group from the Drepung Gomang Monastery in southern India, said through a translator. "We didn't get despondent. We have three days more. So we will have to work harder."

Link (Thanks, Jennifer Lum!)

Originally from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz reBlogged by LO2 on May 30, 2007, 10:47PM

HOWTO make Tetris ice-cubes

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Instructables's latest HOWTO shows you how to make a silicone ice-cube tray that you can use to make Tetris ice-cubes -- or anything else moldable. Tetris beef-chunks, for example. Link (via Make)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on May 30, 2007, 7:42PM

Gear clock

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow: The Wall Gear Clock (out of stock) is pretty snappy. I'm a sucker for any exposed clockwork mechanisms. Link (via OhGizmo)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on May 30, 2007, 11:45AM

Bradbury's Farewell Summer, a 50 year+ anticipated sequel to Dandelion Wine

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow: I've just read Ray Bradbury's Farewell Summer, the 50+-years-later sequel to Dandelion Wine, and it feels like I'm drunk.

Dandelion Wine is one of my favorite novels ever, period. It's an incredibly lush, juicy story about boys and summer and grandparents and mystery, a book that sits on the line between poetry and prose, a book that seems like the most incredible dream you ever had, that feels like lying in a hammock with your eyes have closed, listening to the wind soughing through the trees. I read it when I was 17, and it made me nostalgic for my youth -- even though I was in the middle of it.

Farewell Summer comes from the typewriter of a much more mature, more experienced writer. It follows the stories of the people in Dandelion Wine as their long summer stretches into October and gets good to the boys who pack around town, skinny dipping, eating candies, and discovering magic. These boys decide to make their summer last forever, to reject aging, and to do so by targeting the evil, childless old men who run the Board of Education.

They plot a magic war against the Board, a series of mystical attacks against its members and its trappings, and draw the ire of the town's adults. The story is magic, makes you feel the everyday magic of young invention and delight and rage.

Bradbury manages to make Farewell Summer every bit as delightful and magical as Dandelion Wine was, but he does at a much shorter length, using language that, by Bradbury standards, is as unadorned as Hemingway's. It's as though a lifetime of word-drunkenness has given him a connoisseur's palate and the ability to substitute one perfectly chosen word for a whole paragraph of beautiful alternatives.

It felt like I was drunk after I'd finished the 211 large-print pages of this book. The world didn't look the same, and there was a strange, pleasant taste in my mouth. What a wonderful book. It was worth the half-century wait.

Inside, honey lay sheathed in warm African chocolate. Plunged and captured in amber treasure lay fresh Brazil nuts, almonds, and glazed clusters of snowy coconut. June butter and August wheat were clothed in dark sugars. All were crinkled in folded tinfoil, then wrapped in red and blue papers that told the weight, ingredients and manufacturer. In bright bouquets the candies lay, caramels to glue the teeth, licorice to blacken the heart, chewy wax bottles filled with sickening mint and strawberry sap, Tootsie Rolls to hold like cigars, red-tipped chalk-mint cigarettes for chill mornings when your breath smoked on the air.
The boys, in the middle of the shop, saw diamonds to crunch, fabulous liquors to swig. Persimmon-colored pop bottles swam, clinking softly, in the Nile waters of the refrigerated box, its water cold enough to cut your skin. Above, on glass shelves, lay cordwood piles of gingersnaps, macaroons, chocolate bits, vanilla wafers shaped like moons, and marshmallow dips, white surprises under black masquerades. All of this to coat the tongue, plaster the palate.

Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on May 29, 2007, 8:57AM

Microswitch keyboard DIY

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Riazm sez, "This guy apparently was permanently dissatisfied with commercial keyboards and the quality of their microswitches, so he designed the massive custom behemoth. He also has a customised mouse, some footpedals and a variety of custom programmable keypads to do stuff with. Overall his desk must look pretty intimidating."

I will be goddamned if this isn't the coolest keyboard in the multiverse.

It is normal to rest some weight on the fingers during typing. The need to lift fingers from the keyboard to avoid pressing keys seems likely to generate a fairly continuous low-level stress. Typists spend a lot of their time doing this anyway - and so far additional stress is not noticable.
Touch typing demands that the fingers feel their way to the correct positions to some extent. Though the activation force on the keys is very low, they still have a couple of millimeters of travel - and it remains reasonably practical for fingers to feel the locations of the keys without actually pressing them.
Another problem is accidental keypresses. These tend to be caused by reaching for one key without fully retracting the other fingers.
These drawbacks would become increasingly severe if the activation forces were reduced further - and could be alleviated by increasing them somewhat.

Link (Thanks, Riazm!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on May 28, 2007, 11:26PM

Slave Leias at Star Wars Celebration I

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Mark Frauenfelder: Bonnie Burton says: "Since I shot some footage of the one thing most fanboys want to see at Star Wars Celebration IV, I thought you might like it: Slave Leias at Star Wars Celebration IV." Link to photos | Video

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on May 27, 2007, 1:28PM

HOWTO get your security deposit back when you move out

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow: WikiHow has a great HOWTO for vacating an apartment without surrendering your security deposit -- not just how to clean it, but how to clean it in such a way that your landlord can't claim that you still owe. Wish I'd known about this before: I once had a crooked landlord keep back some of my deposit for failing to clean an oven that I had never, ever used during my tenancy (and this was after the landlord inspected my apartment and told me it was all OK). Link (via Consumerist)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on May 27, 2007, 12:17PM

Oddball screws and the blogger who loves them

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Following on the heels of yesterday's post about Sony charging $82 for a simple replacement screw, the blog Screw Asylum does nothing but document weird, proprietary machine screws that cost a fortune and badly mangled screws. Link (Thanks, Reevo!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on May 27, 2007, 12:04PM

Creation Museum opens Monday

David Pescovitz — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

David Pescovitz: Some silly creationists are finally opening their wacky $27 million Creation Museum on Monday in Petersburg, Kentucky. The slogan on the museum's site? "Prepare to believe." From Reuters:

Here exhibits show the Grand Canyon took just days to form during Noah's flood, dinosaurs coexisted with humans and had a place on Noah's Ark, and Cain married his sister to people the earth, among other Biblical wonders.

Scientists, secularists and moderate Christians have pledged to protest the museum's public opening on Monday. An airplane trailing a "Thou Shalt Not Lie" banner buzzed overhead during the museum's opening news conference....

A Gallup poll last year showed almost half of Americans believe that humans did not evolve but were created by God in their present form within the last 10,000 years.

Three of 10 Republican presidential candidates said in a recent debate that they did not believe in evolution.

Link to Reuters article, Link to reactions at the National Center for Science Education site, Link to New York Times coverage, Link to Scientific American's "15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense" (Thanks, Sean Ness!)

Previously on BB:
• Profile of Creation Museum founder Link
• Kentucky creationist museum online Link
• Creationist museum opening soon Link

Originally from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz reBlogged by LO2 on May 26, 2007, 8:15PM

Fox Rent A Car's bureaucratic idiocy

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow: Yesterday, I flew into Oakland airport on Southwest Air and dropped by the Fox Rent-A-Car counter to pick up the car I'd reserved using Southwest's website. Ten minutes later, I left, without my car, hopping mad and swearing never to do business with Fox again.

The problem was that I wanted to use a debit card to pay for my car (I got rid of all my credit cards a few years back when I paid off the last of my debts). I rent cars all the time with a debit card and I'm used to rental agencies taking a small deposit (usually $250) on the card, or, in some extreme cases, requesting my Social Security Number and doing a credit check on me.

But Fox had a genuinely idiotic policy for debit-card payers: they needed a copy of my Southwest flight itinerary. It wasn't enough for me to show them the itinerary on my laptop's screen. They couldn't take it on a USB stick and print it themselves. I either had to take a taxi to a Kinko's and print it and come back or call Southwest and have them fax the itinerary to Fox.

An itinerary proves exactly nothing, of course. You can make any itinerary you want on your computer and print it off. Given that Fox got this reservation from Southwest, anything I printed for them was totally redundant. The clerk kept repeating that he needed "proof" that I was flying out of Oakland again. I offered to let him photograph my screen with his cameraphone, but for some reason, that isn't "proof," while going to a print-shop and screen-dumping to a printer would be.

I spoke to a supervisor (who told me that this was my fault for not noticing this bizarre requirement in the five screens' worth of fine print in their reservation "agreement"), called Fox corporate HQ and left a message, then turned around, walked up to the Hertz counter with my debit card and drove off in one of their cars five minutes later.

Update: Brendan sez, "I recently did a little googling about Fox Rent-A-Car in preparation for a trip to California. It turns out they're listed with the Better Business Bureau for bad business practices. The Attorney General of California seems to have some interest in them too. Maybe it's a good thing they made it so difficult to rent."

Update 2: Doug did some digging into Fox: "I followed one of the links to the California Attourney General's site and found that there was a judgment in place against Fox Rentals for various business practices which were illegal under California law.

"What made the hair on the back of my neck stand up however, was the statement on the Attourney General's Website that Fox routinely tracks their customers by GPS. They have used this to illegally charge their customers for driving out of a three state area, but hey, they could certainly use it for other purposes."

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on May 26, 2007, 7:57PM

Bike/bike lock sculpture

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow:
Love this bicycle/bike-lock sculpture from Vancouver. Having had a dozen bikes stolen over the years, I feel the artist's pain. Link (Thanks, Dustin!)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on May 26, 2007, 5:49PM

Sony charges $82 for replacement screw

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow:
God help you if you need a new screw for your Sony stuff: Sony charges 61 Euros (more than $82) for a replacement. Sony: we know screw-jobs. Link (via Global Nerdy)

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on May 26, 2007, 5:47PM

Graphic novel history of Nat Turner's slave revolt

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow:
Kyle Baker's two-volume history of Nat Turner, an African slave who led a bloody revolt in the American south, is gripping, heart-wrenching, and glorious. I first encountered Baker's work in his uproariously funny Why I Hate Saturn and I pegged him immediately as a deliriously funny, raunchy comic creator that I wanted to follow for the rest of my life.

But the Nat Turner books are nothing like Why I Hate Saturn and many of his other books -- they've every bit as brilliant, but without a shred of whimsy. Instead, these expressively illustrated black-and-white pages, with almost no text (what text there is is lifted from Turner's confession before he went to his execution) are as savage a tale of the slave-trade as you could hope to find.

Great artists are often incredibly versatile and Baker is no exception. These books will haunt me. Link to book 1, Link to book 2, Link to Kyle Baker's pages for the Nat Turner collections

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on May 26, 2007, 12:50AM

HOWTO trick wiretaps into thinking you've hung up

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Cory Doctorow: A downloadable MP3 of a C-pitched tone fools many wiretaps into thinking that your conversation has ended, which makes them switch off. If you're worried about being tapped, playing this tone into the receiver might keep your calls a little bit more private. Then again, maybe not.

Download Blaze’s C tone and broadcast it continuously during phone calls. You can play the tone at low volume so it just seems like ambient room noise...
Don’t stop there – befuddle your foes. Play the C for a second in the middle of a call, then without hanging up, dial another number. Analog wiretap systems will interpret this as a new call. You may be chatting with a friend, but now the spooks think you’re talking to Domino’s.

Link

Update: Mark sez, "This would be completely ineffective against the most simple and least effective wiretaps like a wireless transmitter or a voice activated tape recorder attached to your phone line."

Originally from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow reBlogged by LO2 on May 26, 2007, 12:38AM

Boy shoots half-ton wild hog

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Mark Frauenfelder: An 11-year-old boy in Alabama shot a monstrously large wild hog. It's an AP story, so I am guessing this astonishing photo is legit. Link

Reader comment:

Mike says:

Just to put in my two cent's worth, something about that hog photo isn't right. I'm not saying it has been doctored, but i suspect the kid is standing further behind the hog than is readily apparent. The article says the measurement around the hog's head is 56 inches. Half that would be 28 inches (a normal small human waist measurement) and the kid in the photo probably has at LEAST that waist measurement (if not MORE) but the hog head in the photo looks to be 3 or 4 times that measurement size when you compare the two (kid and hog). Seriously. PLUS, the hog in that photo looks to be the size of a goddamned RHINO, and your average rhino weighs about 5000 lbs (the hog in the photo weighs approx. 1/5th that, just over 1000 lbs) so again, something isn't right with the pic IMO. Thanks!

Also says:

More pictures of the hog that are a bit more realistic. The hog definitely is not as impressive as the original news photo. Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on May 25, 2007, 6:10PM

Sounds for the Space Set!! a free album from the "RIAA"

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Mark Frauenfelder: The RIAA (Robotic Intergalactic Astro-Artists) are presenting for your acceptance this 22-song album, called "Sounds For The Space-Set!!," described as a "mashup tribute to the pioneers of electronic music." Link (Via PCL Linkdump)

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on May 25, 2007, 5:53PM

Darth Vader helmet art show

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Mark Frauenfelder:
Bonnie Burton took this photo of a Darth Vader helmet on display at the Star Wars Celebration IV convention. A bunch of artists were invited to participate by painting a helmet.

Walking through The Vader Project exhibit at Celebration IV is like taking a stroll through a Darth Vader tribute done by the coolest lowbrow and urban artists on the planet. Frank Kozik, Paul Frank Sunich, Marc Ecko and Urban Medium (among numerous others) gave Darth Vader’s helmet a hipster makeover. As fans walk through the exhibit they can see the artist’s own unique style featured on each helmet. Whether it’s a Tiki-inspired design from Shag or a girlie 1940’s style pinup from Marc Ecko — it’s apparent each artist took time to pay special tribute to the headwear of the Sith.

This site has more information, along with a video about the helmet show. Link

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on May 25, 2007, 5:32PM

Win a copy of the new Gama-Go book

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Mark Frauenfelder: The Gama-Go clothing company, which features the art of Tim Biskup, has a new book coming out called, Limited Edition: Art & Design of Gama-Go (release date: June 16, 2007).

Boing Boing is holding a contest to give away four copies of this book. To enter, draw or paint a picture on your hand, then submit a photograph or scan of it. Send entries to gama.go.hand.art@gmail.com. We'll pick our favorites and announce the winners and show their, ahem, handiwork on Boing Boing. Contest ends at Noon Pacific time, June 1st, 2007.

GAMA-GO and Last Gasp have teamed up to make a gem of a book.
What happens when an art school dropout, a traveling curmudgeon, and an amateur taxidermist take on the massive apparel-industry juggernaut? If on the way to work they're kidnapped by a Yeti, you end up with a company like Gama-Go.
Gama-Go co-founders Tim, Chris, and Greg have combed through six years of illustrations to hand-pick this hard-bound 400-page collection.
Since everything we make is limited and all the designs are immediately retired, there's never been a way to view all of our work -- until now.

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on May 25, 2007, 12:58PM

Pogo collectors: Fantagraphics needs your help.

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Mark Frauenfelder: Gary Groth, founder of Fantagraphics, says:

CALLING ALL POGO FANS & COLLECTORS:
We are requesting the help of Pogo collectors who may have original art or high quality reproductions of Walt Kelly’s Pogo strip.
We are currently assembling Walt Kelly’s POGO: The Complete Daily & Sunday Strips. We are looking for the best possible black-and-white reproduction of both Sundays and dailies — especially the Sundays. If you have original art or proofs that you would be willing to let us scan, we would be grateful if you’d contact us. You may e-mail me directly at groth@fantagraphics.com
(Please put POGO in the header). Thank you.

Originally from Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder reBlogged by LO2 on May 25, 2007, 12:32PM

San Quentin prison scrapbook from 1932

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:11 -0500

Xeni Jardin:

( posted from Guatemala / Xeni ) Here's a creepy, interesting, and real eBay find: a scrapbook documenting life among the prison population of San Quentin in 1932.

Chapters include "Mystery of Pervert Solved," profiles of jailhouse characters like "Chloroform Kate," stories of genital modification performed by disturbed inmates, the tale of a child born in prison, photos of theatrical plays that include cross-dressing strip shows, suicide tallies, and more. Don't miss "Pervert blows air into penis." Snip:

Fifty-two pages titled "Suicides of San Quentin." Total of 29 listings each with a mug shot, name, date, method, and details of the suicide. Remaining pages include more information on San Quentin including a medical case involving a mans penis with pictures, a note from a black inmate regarding him being mistreating by other inmates, [and] information and photos of two men found in a "compromising position"...

Auction link. You gotta love the seller's name: "dead.peoples.stuff."

Originally from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin reBlogged by LO2 on May 25, 2007, 10:09AM