Our review unit is an XPS M1330—Dell shipped us a fresh hard drive with Vista Ultimate and the latest Dell software. (The Dock will arrive on new Studio laptops, and eventually ship on some legacy systems, like the XPS M1330 and 1530.) Problem one is right when you boot it up. Windows started, and I thought they had accidentally given me a drive without the dock. The dock appeared a full minute after I started wondering WTF it was. Not a great start to the dock experience! A less savvy user might think the dock is just slow balls and turn it off. I did what I usually do when I get a notebook: Yank out the crapware, plus, in this case, the fingerprint reader and other Dell-specific software. Then reboot.

Dock comes up instantly. Yay. Okay, so while I don't find the default options useful, they were easy enough to swap out, move around, whatever. My desktop is spotless, the dock itself is beautiful. I'm happy—until I start using the computer. That's when I realize the dock's fatal flaw.

It's not a real "dock" but just a dumb, pretty shortcut bar. It can make your desktop tidy, but you still have to use the regular Windows taskbar to interact with applications and see what they're up to. When I minimize Firefox, it goes to the taskbar, and I can't pop the window back open from the dock. The AIM icon doesn't bounce when I have a new message. It just sits there, lifeless, looking high-res and pretty. And what I want, what I expect, what I'm subtly promised is something like OS X's dock. (Even if they won't let you stick it on the bottom.) If it was, and I could ditch the Windows taskbar, I would be in love with it. It would change the way a hefty chunk of the masses use their Vista computers, and maybe, just maybe, even keep them from making The Switch.

But it's not that. So instead of being in love with it, I'm just in like with it. [Dell]

Toughbooks have been pulled from car fires, blown up and stopped bullets. Their outer strength is derived from magnesium shells; Panasonic says they are 20x stronger than the typical plastic laptop case.

After the design comes the testing, where only the fittest prototypes and models survive. Fittingly, the slogan of the Kobe plant is "Productive Destruction." Toughbooks are put through a battery of tests under MIL-STD-810F. Here are some of the highlights of the super rugged laptop testing:

Drop Test
Also known as the "Transit Drop Test," this procedure involves dropping the powered-down machine from three feet onto each face, edge and corner a total of 26 times. The computers are dropped onto two-inch plywood placed over a steel plate on top of concrete—the triumvirate of hard everyday surfaces. Visual checks and a Windows boot-up are done after each test.

Water Resistance
The Toughbook is placed in a water spray chamber for 12 straight hours, powered on but with its ports closed tight. Afterwards comes an inspection for water "intrusion."

Thermal Shock and Temperature
When shut down, the computer is subjected to three cycles of massive temperature swings, from a balmy 205º F to a chilly -60º F. Separately, Toughbooks are turned on, and tested actually operating at temperatures ranging from -4ºF to 140º F. For these tests, Panasonic uses special environmental chambers made by a company called Espec. (Hopefully they don't also build saunas.)

Altitude
With the help of an outside firm, Toughbooks are tested to see if they withstand the most challenging air pressure conditions that could be encountered in military aircraft.

Humidity
This test takes 10 whole days to complete. Toughbooks are placed in a chamber with extreme jungle-like humidity at temperatures fluctuating between hot (86ºF) and impossibly hot (140ºF).

Dust Resistance
Superfine silica flour is applied to the machines in a 140º F environment at a facility in Yokohama; this punishment goes on for 8 hours while the laptops are turned on. They pass the test if moving parts don't bind or become blocked, and relays and contacts continue to operate properly.

Vibration
Toughbooks are clamped to aluminum plates that simulate the mounting in vehicles, and then are subjected to various intensities of vibration while turned off and on. When on, the HDD also spins.

Hinge Durability
In a test you can easily envision, Toughbooks are put through 30,000 cycles of open-and-close-and-open-and-close, testing hinge sturdiness.

Keyboard
Nasty-looking typing machines pound Toughbook keyboards through their paces, testing them to withstand 25 million keystrokes. (Wonder how long they have to type before complete works of Shakespeare appear...)

Spills
Toughbooks are tested for their ability to fend off spills, one of the more common assaults to a laptop. Mil-spec requires them to withstand more than 6 ounces (200 cc) of... whatever.

Compression
At the development stage, Toughbook covers and bases are squeezed super hard, tested to withstand over 980N (100kgf) of pressure.

Electromagnetic Interference
During development, electromagnetic wave testing is performed in the plant's 10m radio-frequency anechoic chamber, used to check conformity with CISPR and FCC electromagnetic regulations.

Although not to the level of the mil-spec lines, whose testing is detailed above, Panasonic's business-rugged models—the kind our Benny Goldman tested in his own, uh, laboratory—are dropped from 3 feet, pelted with dust, doused with 6 ounces of liquid (half a can of Coke), squeezed, pounded on the keyboard, stretched open for hinge reliability, and shocked with an electrostatic discharge. Notebooks also go on racks at the Kobe factory, and are given massages. Using Panasonic-branded handheld massagers (what else?) testers check for vibration resistance as part of an "aging" process. The vibe simulates shaking during shipping.

The plant was established in June 1990 and began PC production in August 1991, now turning out an average of 2,500 to 3,000 Toughbooks a day. In 2007 production hit 660,000 units—Panasonic plans to ramp up output to 800,000 units this year and then 1 million units by 2010. The plant can turn out Toughbooks in up to 2,000 variations of memory, hard disk, LCD panel, software and shiny magnesium-alloy shell, in 10 different colors. Repairs are also carried out on-site 365 days a year.

A Matsushita warehouse in nearby Osaka holds $14 million dollars worth of components, about 2.2 million pieces in 60,000 varieties. The warehouse operates under a system it calls "5S" for five words in Japanese: seiri (arrangement), seiton (tidy), seisou (cleaning), seiketsu (cleanliness), and shitsuke (discipline). Like the factory, which requires all visitors to remove their shoes and don slippers as in a Japanese home, it's spotless.

A Lego employee group of Lego UK employees built the Clone Trooper army in just six and a half hours to raise money for The National Autistic Society. The National Autistic Society is a British organization dedicated to helping "people with autism and Asperger syndrome live their lives with as much independence as possible."

When they started to explain the capacity of these storage areas, designed to accomodate the 19-Billion-piece-per-year production, I realized the unbelievable scale of all this. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing.

Watch the video and multiple that vision by 32. Try to imagine a 65.6-square-mile area (170 square kilometers) distributed among thousands of shelves. Looking down one of the aisles—there are four per building—I realized I was looking at tens of thousands of boxes full of Lego bricks and pieces. All of them completely full: "There are approximately half a million boxes here," they told me. Later I found out that it was 162.240 boxes in each of the old cathedrals (which went up to 13 meters high) and 262.128 in the new ones (the 20 meter high ones).

Up in the distance I could see a robot working. I zoomed with my camera and saw how it took some boxes out, then put others in. "They are taking the boxes to packaging and decoration," Jan—one of the Lego PR guys in Billund—pointed out, "every time there's a production run, computers order the robots to retrieve whatever boxes are needed," according to the number of bricks necessary for a set. Everything is done on demand," he said with a big smile, proud of the efficiency of their system.

Then, without any warning, the robot started to move up there in Lego heaven, accelerating almost immediately as it descended from the top of the building to the bottom, at the end of one of the aisles. The speed was staggering for such a giant metal thing, and we all watched in silence as the gigantic crane moved the bot gracefully, like a male dancer would hold a ballerina in The Nutcracker.

We kept walking and one of them came towards us, stopping smoothly at the end of aisle. My first thought was about jumping into it and waiting for the next request from the production computers to feel the thrill of going up through that massive space, holding my breath and watching the multi-colored boxes blur in front of my eyes, like a Lego Silver Surfer on top of that yellow bot. Probably thinking the same, Jan turned to me: "you know, if you cross that line, the entire production process will stop. It's a security measure." Yeah, on second thought it was probably for the better. Later I learnt there were four robots per cathedral, one per aisle, moving at 2.5 meters per second in the new buildings, and 1.5 meters per second in the old ones. It doesn't seem a lot, but watching they zooming in every direction it didn't look very safe for humans.

But as we walked out of the storage, continuing with our visit to the factory, I just couldn't stop imagining myself flying on top of that bot in one of those long trenches, looking for the exhaust port on the Lego Death Star, probably with Jan and the Lego security chasing me like Darth Vader and his two TIE fighter wingmen. Lego Star Wars", I thought, at the end everything comes full circle. And then I said to myself: "Jesus, you are such a dork." I was. Albeit a very happy, smiling one. [Giz's Lego Trip]

The iPhone 2.0 operating system Golden Master will follow the release of build 345, which has seen the activation of two code-signing and encryption features not previously available.

Keep in mind that this date is tentative, even if the source remarked that "this is the plan." Meanwhile, the iPhone Dev Team has confirmed they are working hard cracking the latest build, getting ready for the pwnage of the final release. Also, remember that releasing a Golden Master internally or to developers doesn't mean releasing it to the general public. As announced publicly during WWDC, Apple will make the update available in July.

I didn't know that when I was curiously ogling the oldest sets, from the 1950s. Jette Orduna—the curator for the Idea House, Lego's history museum set in the old family house of the owner, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen—was explaining the first Lego sets, obviously enjoying my enthusiasm. "Here's the wooden box that some shops around Denmark had, usually hairdressers or general stores" she would say while carefully opening it for me to see its contents, simple red and white bricks without tubes, some of them with windows on them, "they contained individual Lego bricks. Back then, parents bought them regularly to their children, so they could keep expanding their Lego system." Then she would turn her attention to another set, as I kept asking what was this or that. "Yes, it's called 'electronic' because this train could be activated by whistling," she would explain, whistling herself.

I was just enjoying it like an archeologist. Her explanations, the cool box designs, the quick evolution of the first years... I was amazed by the ingenuity of it all, curious about the origins of the myth. But that was it. Just simple curiosity. Until we got to the 1970s.

Knowing my previous comments, Jette went straight to one of the shelves, at the end of the long aisle. She looked up and down, her lips pressed together, concentrated in finding something. While she was doing this I was filming around, eyes wide open, thinking "oh, is that?" and "nah, that can't be... can it?" my excitement growing by the second. It was then when she took out a large rectangular box with yellow sides, saying "a-ha! Here it is."

I turned around and I saw what she had in her hands: the Lego Space Galaxy Explorer.

And then it hit me. Lift off. Godspeed. Boom.

A wave of emotions took control, hitting my head like a Lego Airbus 380. Dozens of images started to appear in my head, Polaroids of Xmas and birthdays that I thought were faded, completely fresh, color-corrected, and restored by the damn Lucasfilm for a Blu-ray re-release. I could even see the Hollywood quote whores saying "Better than ever!", "The past never looked so good!", and "Five stars!" embossed in silver on the special edition boxed set. There was my mother and father—who built a huge Lego ferris wheel and the Blue Train for us when we were too young to build it, then never stop giving us new sets every year—and then my two brothers and my sister, playing on the rug, building all kind of new and wonderful constructions populated by the strangest creatures. And that smell. The perfect smell of Lego bricks.

You know what I'm talking about, those were the days and all that jazz. But for real. Feelings and moments from times when everything was innocent and your only concern was your bike, a big carpet full of Lego bricks, and the amount of cocoa in your cereals.

After that, it was one wave after the other, jumping from Lego Space to Lego Technic to Lego Town to Lego Castle and Lego Pirates and Lego Star Wars. Each set a memory, a particular Kodak moment blurred by the occasional teary eye.

Soon, too soon, it was over. And as I was walking up the stairs, back to the present, slowly letting the past fade back into the treasure chest, I thought: "This must be it. This must be reason why Lego is so loved by almost everyone in the planet." Sure they are fun. The details, the incredible designs, the way you physically touch them, how they make you use both your hands, creativity, and logic. All that is there, all are parts of their universal appeal.

But there's a lot more. Something more fundamental, bigger than the sum of all those qualities. Underneath all that there's a primal connection, something that makes everyone tune into the childhoods when they see the bricks, and get back into brighter, careless moments, even at the subconscious levels.

And thinking that, I joined Jette and Jan in the Real World, with a grin on my face. Life wasn't that bad, after all. Not if something as simple as a colored brick can make me smile again.

I couldn't think of a better song to go with this story than the Johnny Cash version of Memories Are Made of This, from the album Unchained. Sadness and happiness at the same time, bringing so many other memories on its own. You can buy it at Amazon or the iTunes Music Store. In fact, get the whole album while you are it, because it's amazing (and so are the rest of the American Recordings series).

[Giz's Trip to Lego]

History & Design
By the spring of 1998, TiVo was developing what we all know now as the DVR. During the design stages, their designers knew they would not only need to create a DVR that was extremely functional, but also a corresponding remote control that would allow seamless and intuitive use.

This is where Paul Newby enters.

“I came to TiVo when we were still called Teleworld, and when we started off we grabbed off-the-shelf remotes. These remotes had multiple rows and columns of keys, and it was clear this wasn’t going to work. What we decided to do early on was make a remote that grabbed attention off the coffee table.”

When Newby pushed his designers to create a remote that would stand out, he was shocked by the initial designs. The reasonable ones resembled items like a bread-stick or a spatula, but there were few that were so crazy they looked more like a toad.

There was one designed that was nicknamed the Peanut. Once a few foam prototypes were made, the designers called the shape a success.

“It became obvious early on that to achieve the seamless trick play and control we were after for our new PVR/DVR creation, the remote must be comfortable for long periods of in-hand use. This and an iconic look, were motivations for the more distinctive, organic, peanut shape.”

This peanut shape saw slight variations from mold to mold, with some that were wafer thin to others that were more like a thick slab. With the final prototype, designers and the TiVo team felt that a medium amount of curve was the best for a remote.

Once the shape had been finalized, the designers and engineers began tackling other details to the remote. Aspects like button layout and electronics were now on the drawing board. But throughout the tedious work of refining, the designers began to poke fun at the decision they made.

“There were a lot of jokes about the shape. Not just the obvious ones,” said Newby. “I can remember some referencing to an earlobe, or the shape of the lower back/butt area."

Like any remote, the designers were adamant about keeping the remote’s button layout as simple as possible. But with the DVR’s numerous features, the designers needed to create lots of extra buttons. To keep things straight, each button needed to have a distinctive feel, giving the ability to control the remote without even looking at it, which Newby described as a “key Braille-ability" surprisingly helped by the "blank finger parking spots between keys" that were equally important.

Eight and a half months after the team started in July 1998, the first remote was done.

Throughout the whole design process, Newby continually told his design team to try anything, but to always keep two things in mind.

“Number one, get up from the desk, and number two, be ready to endure someone telling you in less than an ideal way that your baby stinks.”

Without knowing it, Newby’s last bit of advice was crucial when TiVo started to work with other manufacturers who were reluctant to use this strange Peanut remote.

Dealing With Manufacturers
At this point, TiVo's designers felt that they had developed one of the most ingenious remotes on the market. Sadly, when TiVo began working with manufacturers such as Sony and Hughes (Direct TV), they did not feel the same.

“The process was very very very, frustrating and quite frankly, I was surprised.”

Because some of the manufacturers didn’t want to use the Peanut shape at all, the TiVo decided that if a different remote was going to be supplemented, it had to have some core requirements.

A big yellow pause button and characterize thumb buttons were a necessity. But as hard as TiVo pushed, these were the exact type of buttons that the manufactures insisted against.

“Using a bright color on remotes was not something that these companies did. Anything thing with character images on it, the companies didn't want to use.”

In the end there was consensus, but it wasn't easy getting there.

Series Updates
With each Series update the Peanut saw a slight change in design.

“We’ve toyed with other shapes in the background but always come back to the peanut. The subtle shift from Series 1 to Series 2 allowed more free space between keys, space for partner branding, and improvements for manufacturability. The shift to Series 3 made refinements in key snap, backlight, fore/aft directionality, and balance.”

During the change from Series 1 to Series 2 there was an interesting internal change that many users never knew about.

“We set the IR emitter power fairly high on the early Series 1 production remotes. This had the effect of being able to control TiVo from any number of off angle positions. It also turned out that, in some cases, a user could even drape themselves and the remote completely in a blanket, yet still blast through the blanket to control TiVo.”

Among designing and updating the remote, this concern for battery life would stay as a major concern for adding features. For example, Newby's team has a Series 2 remote that was back-lit, but backed off because of power concerns.

With a back-light feature finally being added to the Series 3 remote, the team decided to use 4 AAA batteries rather than 2 AAs. (As a bonus, the heavier remote had a better center of gravity.) The batteries offset some of the power drain, but there is also a slight decrease in life, even with the light sensor selectively enabling the remote's illumination.

Even within the Series 3's lifetime the Peanut remote has seen some changes. When the first Series 3 remote shipped with the Series 3 TiVo, it had a painted gray bezel. Now that the Series 3 TiVo is being killed off for TiVo HD, TiVo’s flagship remote is the Glo remote. The major different between the original Series 3 remote and the new Glo remote is the bezel, which is now a shiny chrome which is cheaper to make.

Rare Remotes
Among the various colors of remotes that were produced, there are a few that were far less common.

For the first version of the remote, TiVo made a translucent array of colors that mimicked their logo's color. Sadly though, these remotes never actually made into the public's hands.

The rarest of them all is a rubberized blue five-year remote. This remote is only given to employees who have worked with TiVo for more than five years. More of an award than actual remote, it even has its own stand that displays it proudly. This remote was originally made in a rubberized Series 2 form, but has now been updated to the non-rubberized Glo form.

In the same vein as the five-year remote, there is now a 10-year.

“My team is working on a 10 year remote, and we're right on the cusp.”
“It will be a permutation of the Glo in a steel blue color.”

Future
With TiVo continually adding features to their DVRs, there is a growing need for a remote that will complement new features. The TiVo design team has acknowledged this, and Newby assures that they are are always working on improvements.

"There's probably about two and half of us at any given time designing the next remote."

With the next generation TiVo remote on the drawing board, I wondered what the possible additions could be.

When I asked if adding a small QWERTY keyboard was a possibility for the next generation, I was surprised by Newby’s answer.

"Let me just say we're ping-ponging the idea. You wouldn't be disappointed."

If they had given the idea of adding a keyboard though, then I figured I had to ask if there was possibility of incorporating a touchscreen for future use. Once again Newby’s response sparked my interest.

"We've either given it thought or were in the process of prototyping it. I'd say it's a healthy combination of both never been done, done before and what's been done well elsewhere."

"So you name it, were thinking about. But we are carefully at what we throw at it."

Also, thanks go to Danny.

The printing of these mini-figs is one of the most expensive and delicate processes at the Lego factory. The rubber stamping has to be done in a very precise way—printing feature by feature in layers—until it's done. [Giz's Lego Trip]

Gizmodo: What types of people do you see gravitating towards seasteading? What would the day-to-day benefits be that would draw people to the idea?

Patri: Pioneers - A lot of people have that desire to build something new on the frontier, and there aren't a lot of other frontiers left in the modern world.

Utopians - I don't mean this literally (after all, the word means "No Place"). I just mean people who see problems with current social/political/economic/legal systems, have ideas about better ones, and are into them enough to want to actually try them out.

The exact day-to-day benefits would depend on individual motivation, and what you don't like about current countries. For many it will be low environmental footprint and sustainable practices. Personally, I'm a libertarian and I want more freedom. I hate having my money stolen to fund pointless wars and biofuel subsidies that make food more expensive worldwide. I hate having to worry about going to jail just because some of my hobbies involve altering my brain chemistry with substances that don't come from big pharma companies. I hate that my hot tub has been sitting empty for months because the zoning department wants us to jump through all sorts of hoops. I hate living in a society so big that my voice doesn't get heard. And a lot of people tell me they feel the same way.

Gizmodo: What are the basic steps a normal person would have to go through to become a seasteader?

Patri: We're not quite sure how it will work, but one path we picture is slow, steady, incremental transition from ordinary life to the new one:

A person would need to find a group of like-minded folk who all agree on the vision for their society. Ideally, they'd live in the same area, and it would be on the water. Over the course of years, they'd meet, organize, set up the rules for their society, and save up the money to buy the physical platform (or build it themselves using our designs). Once they had the platform (in their local waters), they'd move onto it (as their leases come up / they sell their houses). They'd also be transitioning from their land-based jobs to seastead-based ones, and possibly becoming more self-sufficient if that's a goal of the community. Eventually, they'd move the platform offshore, perhaps first in commuting distance, and eventually out to the high seas.

Of course, someone could also join an existing community, which would be much quicker. Each community can set its own standards, but I imagine you'd have to like the society and its rules, and be able to make a living there (have a job, be able to telecommute, or be independently wealthy). Some may have more stringent requirements, others will have open borders.

Another option would be to start out vacationing there, perhaps via a 2-week / year timeshare. Over time, you could add onto the timeshare, and eventually make the transition to living there full-time. I think the timeshare model is a good one for the beginning, because there are way more people who'd be willing to try seasteading a couple weeks a year, as a vacation, than who are ready & able to move there full-time.

Gizmodo: What would you do if, say, a 30-year-old guy wanted to vacation at a seastead with his 14-year-old girlfriend? How will basic rules be enforced and decided upon?

Patri: Each community will decide and enforce its own rules. More importantly, each community will decide its own procedures for deciding on its rules. The point is not just to create one political system or type of system, but to make a turnkey product for creating new countries, so that lots of different groups will try lots of different things, and we can all learn from it.

The one rule I think seasteads should enforce on each other is the right for individuals to choose their society. As long as people are freely choosing their society, then as far as I'm concerned the society can pick whatever rules it wants.

Personally, I want a society that's very libertarian for internal affairs, except for strong national security rules against doing anything that will piss off a military power (exporting drugs, laundering money, polluting). Basically the vision of "As much freedom as we can reasonably get away with."

Gizmodo Even using a flag of convenience, do you think you'd find yourselves a target for pirates?

Patri: It's possible, but I really doubt it. You never hear of cruise ships getting attacked by pirates, only cargo ships, because the ratio of "people defending" vs. "movable cargo" is so dramatically different in the two cases. There's a huge difference between attacking a container ship with 10 or 20 crew and a sea colony with hundreds of people who would be defending their homes.

Some people have suggested that if there are rich residents, pirates would attack to get ransom, but that's just not what you see out in the world. Residensea, the first condo cruise ship, has units that start at $5M, so they have a very wealthy population, and they've had no problems. Ransom is dangerous—it's hard to hide from satellites on the ocean, so you can't easily kidnap someone, so basically you're stuck in a hostage situation with someone who has a lot more resources and power than you.

Also, the vast majority of piracy is restricted to a few areas, which we'd of course avoid.

That said, we wouldn't want to make ourselves an easy target, so having some weapons seems like a good idea, to defend against countries as well as pirates. There's nothing we can do to stop the US military, of course, but there are cost-effective defenses like ship-to-ship cruise missiles which we will want to investigate.

Gizmodo: What do you see as the biggest hurdle to this project becoming a reality?

Patri: Economics. The ocean is a harsh, resource-poor environment. Oil rigs can afford it because they are mining black gold. The price of low-end cruise lines makes me optimistic, but it's definitely going to be a challenge to make offshore real estate at a reasonable cost. Cost drives everything - if it's expensive, it'll just be for rich people, which might make a cool resort, but will fail at the goal of experimenting with new societies. If it's cheap enough, you'll get regular people just saying "screw normal life" and doing it. Or retiring there, like Americans who retire to Costa Rica. Also, there needs to be a seastead economy, or seasteads will be poor, and the cheaper the real estate, the less resources the ocean is draining, the more stuff will be profitable.

Governments are also a potential threat, but they're a bit of a wild card. I think we can live in a way which is new and different and doesn't bring down heat, but you never know when some politician will get pissed off. I think our strength will be in scale and diversity - it's easy to invade 1 sea-city, not so easy if there are hundreds and more springing up every day. That kind of success will bring govt. attention, but if it's decentralized it's going to be hard for them to do much about it. And eventually we'll be big enough to afford a military of our own. [Seasteading]

In Spain, for example, the 3G iPhone will be available for sale at the June 18th (according to our sources, the release date was changed at the last moment by Apple, and it's now July 11) grand opening of Telefonica's megastore—an Apple Store-like shop located in the company's historical building in Madrid's Gran Vía— with nationwide availability the next day or after a few hours. The other European countries with iPhone availability will have similar launch schedules.

According to another source involved in the launch, the 3G iPhone will no longer be available at a fixed price point—at least in some countries, and its launch will also bring new sales policies, although these have not been completely specified yet.

The move is a logical step, since the iPhone has clearly solidified its position as the cellphone to beat during the last 12 months, and companies in the cutthroat European cellphone market need to use it as an incentive to capture clients aggressively.

This most probably means the new 3G iPhone will be integrated in the usual marketing systems of carriers, with point-based trade-ups, discounts for carrier switchers and other service-based subvention packages.

Jesus Diaz: Tell me more about Lux. This is a framework that anybody can use, right? Under any platform?
Christian Moore: Well, yeah, is an open source framework I've been working on for experimenting with user interfaces. It's more a general framework than targeting one main deployment platform. That video is actually all AS3 running in Flash 9 over Mac OS X, but you can integrate it with any development system and platform.

JD: Why Flash?
CM: Because it's fast to prototype in. However, the software is broken into several segments. One C++ application that tracks hands that talks to Flash... WPF... or another C++ app... and basically everything you can imagine. You can enable multitouch in any environment, like Cocoa.

JD: So anyone can grab the framework and make native multitouch apps right in Mac OS X or Windows or Linux.
CM: Yeah. We have an Xcode-developed app for photo and paint coming, as well as a tracking application. But using Flash for this demo was the fastest way for us at the moment.

JD: How many people did this?
CM: I did the core system, but four people from the NUI Group contributed demos.

JD: What machine is running the demo in the video? Looks amazingly fast.
CM: Just a MacBook.

JD: And for the multitouch screen?
CM: I use a ~box from naturalui. It's ghetto tech, I know, but I developed the majority of Lux on a cardboard box. And it works great.

JD: Indeed, it looks like it works perfectly right. How does this compare to frameworks like UITouch, in the iPhone?
CM: Apple's UITouch its very, very well designed. It runs at the core level, while ours is more a free environment to develop on top... to learn about multitouch and share code.

[Lux and NUI Group]

[Video and images courtesy of Bob Parrish]

Update: Photos here!. We find out what's in the package.

Gizmodo:How did you come up with the name Sillof?
Sillof:I am a high school history teacher and Sillof was a fake name a few students and I came up with years ago. I used it as a running gag for giving generic examples; such as in the ancient kingdom Sillof, the loyal Sillofites, the might god Sillof, etc. When I began to look for an online alias I chose it.

I primarily use it to keep my personal and professional lives separated.

Gizmodo:When did you start customizing figures?
Sillof: Well, I did it a little when I was a kid, by cutting off Luke's hand or 3PO's arm, or putting Luke's head on the x-wing pilot's body. I later got more into it in the early 90's and then really started to make it a long term hobby. I met guys like Alex Newborn who inspired me and then the internet was just taking off and it really opened my imagination to the possibilities.

Gizmodo:What made you decide to take on this hobby?
Sillof: Initially I just wanted figures that they never made. The driving force was I had always loved The Cantina scene and Jabba's Palace scene in the Star Wars films and I wanted to recreate those scenes. I had built these miniature sets called dioramas, which are on my site, and wanted to fill them with all the movie aliens.

Gizmodo:Where do you get your ideas for themes and figures?
Sillof: Initially I just made the figures that I wanted but had not been made. I eventually got tired of just recreating existing designs and wanted to do something more creative. I am currently planning a line that is all original designs of my own original characters right now.

As for my process I just visualize a general idea in my head. I am always going for a figure that is very unique, yet recognizable as the intended character. Then I concentrate on the key elements that make the character recognizable - these are the elements I will try to represent in the new figure. I do a few sketches, one just straight ideas, and others that are a little more practical with regard to parts I could find and things I could make.

I then go about collecting pieces to use as parts and begin to combine them all. There is a fair amount of sanding, and dremeling, and cutting. Then use the parts like a skeleton sculpting my own designs using apoxie sculpting compound and then gluing any number of odds and ends to the figure. Then I paint the figure and give it a wash of diluted dark paint to antique it.

Gizmodo: Where do you source your materials - do you buy action figures as is or get them second hand?
Sillof: I have a large collection of toy "parts" and other miscellaneous found items that are not toy related. I buy some figures new and cut them up, I buy figures on eBay in large lots of played with toys, and there are some toy dealers in my area that pull things aside for me as they buy them.

Gizmodo:Has any company ever contacted you to work for them, doing this full time?
Sillof:I was approached to build replica props for a major company, but the idea of machining metal for a living, which was my father's job, did not seem that appealing to me. I was also approached for my diorama building by a new company in England, but moving was not an option as my wife was 7 months pregnant at the time.

Gizmodo:Would you want to do this full time if you could?
Sillof:I would love to try to make figures for a toy company full time. My dream job would be designing original props, costumes, or sets for movies. I do this on the side as another hobby for local films. My career actually gives me a sabbatical where they hold my job for a year and would allow me to explore the career. So I am always open to the idea to attempt this on a full time basis.

Gizmodo:If there was one piece of advice for aspiring custom action figure hobbyists that you wish someone had told you when you first started out, what would it be?

For a new customizer, I would just tell them to just keep making figures, practicing, and trying new techniques until they find what works for them, and never stop on a figure until you are 100% happy with it.

Personally, I would like go back and tell myself not to waste my time making figures of existing designs and just start doing my own original works.

[Sillof's Workshop]

First, let's revisit what we already know. Not only does the Miami Chamber of Commerce and BBB not know anything about any company named Psystar (confirmed by reader Travis through his contacts in the chamber), the actual physical address they listed on their website actually changed halfway through the day yesterday. What's going on here? Did they all of a sudden move from a home business into a new office space? Nope. Here's the deal.

Reader Michael went down to their first location, address courtesy of the Guardian's quick fingers, and saw that it was indeed a residential address. It's a one story house with a truck and sedan out front. Not a business, but still holds the possibility of being a small home business. Still, unlikely. Why would they change their address? Perhaps they saw all the reaction they were getting about their Open Mac products and wanted a bigger space?

Nope. Reader Kahri visited their second location and saw no Psystar, but a packing supply company called "USA KOEN PACK." Was Psystar leasing the place? No. He spoke with the manager, and they've never heard of Psystar, and USA KOEN PACK has been at that location for the last two years. KOEN PACK actually takes up from 10481 to 10490, so there's no chance of it being a mistaken address. Update: Looks like Psystar's changed their address once again to 10471.

Now that we know their storefront isn't actually there, how about their online presence? As other readers pointed out when they tried to purchase an Open Mac for themselves, at no point was the credit card transaction secure. Today, when you visit their store page, you get this:

Thank you for visiting Psystar. We're sorry but the store is temporarily down due to the fact that we are currently unable to process any credit card transactions. Please send an e-mail to support@psystar.com with the subject line "UPDATE" so that we can update you when the store comes back online. For customers who have already placed orders: if you received a confirmation e-mail then your item is in queue to be built and shipped.

Here's our recommendation. Don't buy anything from Psystar now until we can clear this up. We've contacted them for more information and a review unit too see if everything they're claiming is real. So far, no response. We'll keep at it, but for now if you're looking to get a Mac clone, you're better off building it yourself.

Thanks to Kahri, Mike and Travis!

Update: Reader Robert did some more digging in the Florida Corporate filing office, and it seems that Psystar's principles are Rodolfo and Roberto Pedraza, who are officers or agents on a whole crapload of companies. Only one of these companies besides Psystar is currently active: Floridatek. As Robert says, "These guys are obviously clowns."

Update 2: Someone just brought up the point that he could actually work at USA KOEN PACK and is just using his workplace as an address. Interesting possibility, but somewhat unlikely.

Update 3: Ha! It looks like Psystar changed their address again. Here are their first two: image. Their third one is below.

Update 4: They've changed the address for a third time! Thanks Wild Homes.

Update 5: Reader Joe poked around the FloridaTek site and it seems that a bunch of links are just links to an automatic download of an executable file. Phishing? Watch out.

Update 6: Tom's Hardware talked to Pedraza and got a couple quotes from him. You should hop over to see more, but they do admit that their address on the site was incorrect and they'll correct it to the right one. What we don't get is why it would be incorrect 3 times in a row. Until things clear up, our recommendation still stands. Don't buy anything from Psystar. (We attempted to contact the company and have received no response to any of these allegations.)

Update 7: They've got a new note up now on their site explaining the reason for all the address changes. It doesn't explain why they went from their home address to 10481, to 10471, then finally to 10475. Our guy Kahri went to scope out 10471 yesterday and didn't find anything tying that address to KOEN, but did see a sign for Logistic Solutions. Unfortunately Logistic Solutions isn't one of the registered companies these guys belong to. Not much we can tell from this. Kahri says:

Hey folks, I went back yesterday to check their new address 10471 (today it's 10475). Really whether it's 10471, 10481 or 10475, it doesn't mean anything because it's all the same big warehouse building which covers the block between 104th and 105th.

Update 8: Reader Greg dug up this find on their current address, 10475 NW 28th Street, which was once for sale for $5,990,000. If this really is them, then they're occupying a $6 million building.

Update 9: Another reader went to visit 10481, the first address listed, and found that KOEN PACK actually isn't the company there (it's to the left of it). 10481 belongs to a company called cotton images. What's interesting about this is that the cotton images guy actually KNOWS Rudy Peraza, and Rudy worked for them in the past. This explains WHY Psystar used the 10481 address first (because he worked there), and why he had to change the address so suddenly. Are they really renting out 10475, the current address? It's hard to say. ZDNet seems to have some clear pictures of that unit, but our reader below went to 10871 to scope it out.

I went to the 10481 address on April 16. Koen Pack is not at that address, it is to the left of it. I went inside the 10481 address and spoke with employees of cottonimages.com

I spoke with the first employee I encountered. I pointed out on her
browser that Psystar was listing the 10481 address on Psystar's page
and that other people like me were sure to follow - since Psystar had
earned international press. She seemed surprised and brought me to
"Scott", who told me his wife owns the cottonimages.com business.

When I mentioned Rudy Peraza was listed as the Psystar owner, he told
me that Rudy used to work for him and he had nothing but praise for him
but with that name he could make a phone call. He promptly got on the
cell phone and called someone.

When he was done on the phone, he told me that Rudy had definitely
listed the wrong address but that he had been informed by Rudy that
Rudy was going to rent the space immediately next door. We both walked
over to 10871 next door. We found the place closed but it was clearly
being renovated for a new tenant.

Scott seemed genuine and surprised (annoyed?) to find his address
listed as Psystar's. I suspect that is the reason Psystar's address
changed yet again the following day.

When I asked Scott if I could give him my number to pass on to Rudy, I
was told that he couldn't do that. He said Rudy is apparently
overwhelmed by the attention and demand. I can't fault Scott, he
doesn't need additional headaches.

While I can cut a small business owner some slack, and understand what
happens when demand explodes, I'm disappointed. I had intented to go
their address and expected to find a small store with products to sell.
I thought I would confirm them using the well known Antec P180 case,
and look and see what motherboard they were using. I did not find any
of that.

Mostly, what Psystar's owner needs to do now is make a public
statement. In fact, a lot of them, including an interview. He should
address the fundamental questions surrounding his business. Miami
Herald, where are you?

Lacking that and further transparency, this one potential customer will
stay away until I get the same level of transparency I get from any
other business I deal with.

Update 10: Our scout Kahri says that he's going to scout out 10475 and see if there's any existence of Psystar being there. He says that it's possible Psystar has just acquired that side of the building, but hasn't put up signage yet. Check back later for pictures and info.

Update 11: This doesn't really serve any use except for curiosity's sake, but here's Psystar's weblog stats. Thanks tipster!

Update 12: It seems like credit cards are starting to get billed? Reader Yariv sends in this super weird credit card statement of tons of $9.99 charges that supposedly add up to $399. We're not sure about this one. There's nothing there that ties these charges to Psystar. Has anyone else purchased a machine and gotten billed for it? Let us know. My email's on the left side of the page. Hopefully we can either confirm or smash whether cards are being charged yet. See Update 14.

Update 13: This is a big find. Kahri just went down to Psystar and took this shot of their window. This is the first indication that Psystar actually exists at that location. Amazing!

Update 14: Reader Derek says he didn't have any strange anomalies with his order, and was billed for the exact amount listed. He also received a call from a 305 number (Miami), that asked him if he wanted to purchase a separate OS because he ordered his machine without one. Anyone else receive their shipping notification yet? Email me if you have.

Update 15: Here's Psystar's official picture of their logo on the door. Looks good! But not open to the public.

Apart from the previous unlocking and jailbreaking, the new version has three main features:

• Easily customizable images for start and restore screens.
• You can use packages to customize your firmware and install software right away, on one single update.
• You can now pwn iPhone 1.2.0 beta 3.

We also got confirmation of what we already hinted last week: Apple is preparing up to battle the hackers, with more and more code running signed and secured inside the iPhone. This will make things more difficult for the iPhone Dev Team.

How much more difficult? Would this be a real challenge to the iPhone Dev Team's current dominance in the hacking war? According to them, it may be. But it just makes things more interesting and fun, which is exactly what we wanted to hear.

Get your update now. [iPhone Dev Team via Pwnage in Gizmodo]

I've got pics from the DARPA cars at the Pentagon. The six finalist teams were there for the Urban challenge and they had a briefing at 1145 in the auditorium as well as showed off the vehicles from 0945-1300 in the center courtyard.

What are they doing there?

Besides launching a robotic coup against the U.S. military? They are really just showing off what they've done. Because the actual DARPA Urban Challenge comp has already happened, they are really here to just show off what DARPA has been up to to the military brass.

I don't know how familiar you are with this, but the DARPA challenge had two parts: the off-road, and the Urban. The Urban was obviously a much greater challenge and in talking with the guys there were something like 90 teams who had to have their vehicles navigate a military air base (think small suburb) with their vehicles and hit a series of GPS check points.

According to them they were allowed to drive around the area 24 hours before so they could get a feel of it, but then on the day of they were given a USB stick that had 10-15 gps check points the cars had to hit. So they loaded that into the computer, but were not allowed to load any sort of "route" in. Then they just had to it start on the autonomous vehicles and hope for the best. What's really cool—like all of this isn't already—is that they had something like 50 stunt drivers drive around the area while the robocars were moving to challenge the vehicles and make sure they didn't collide. As you can tell, 6 of 90 teams (it could have been a few more) were the only ones able to succeed, so it was quite the task.

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Bonus Option: none of the above, just this:

[Gizmodo]

Located in Bordeaux, France, this house is like a space station waiting to be launched into orbit. Looking at it, you would expect the X-Men to walk by at any time. However, it also has a warm, sunny quality that makes it absolutely amazing. Koolhass Houselife is a film that captures these qualities perfectly, but adds another, more practical dimension to it by showing this high-tech home from the perspective of Guadalupe Acedo, the housekeeper and the person who actually has to take care of keeping all this amazing design alive.

Jesús Díaz: I find very interesting that you decided to focus on the live of the house itself, through the life of the housekeeper. What made you take that view?"
Ila Bêka: Koolhaas HouseLife is the first film of a series we are making on contemporary architecture entitled "Living Architectures." The concept of these movies is to develop a look on contemporary architecture that tries to escape from a strong current tendency of idealized representation of our architectural heritage that show us architecture as perfect icons and break the link between architecture and the life which is inside.

The character of the housekeeper, Guadalupe Acedo, embodies in itself this image reversal we are looking for, because during all the film she points out the complex world of daily life, the care and maintenance such a house requires.

JD: What was the main challenge in filming this house, compared to your other architecture pieces?
IB: The three films we have already done are each one exploring a different scale. Koolhaas HouseLife enters in the daily life intimacy of a private house. Pomerol, Herzog & de Meuron talks about a Herzog & de Meuron refectory for grape pickers, and Xmas Meier is a urban investigation of the impact of the Richard Meier's new church in the Tor Tre Teste neighbourhood, in the suburbs of Rome.

But the main intention of the Koolhaas HouseLife project was to "give life" to one of these architectural masterpieces that we can see everywhere without never being able to see them how they "really" are in everyday life.

JD: The concept is great indeed, but also the photography, which is beautiful. What equipment did you use for filming and editing?
IB: For this type of projects we have to be very "light" in order to be almost "forgotten" by the persons we follow in their daily activities. We try to work only in two, one for the camera and one for the sound. The video editing has been made on Final Cut Pro and the sound editing with Logic Studio, with a last generation Mac Pro. [Bêkafilms, Stories of Houses, and Wikipedia via Archidose]

Whats new? Visible changes are:

• Exchange Support
• Appstore
• Parental Controls
• SDK Support
• Calculator is more advanced
• CISCO VPN support
• Mail mass deletion

Features not included:

• There is no spotlight icon

[Gizmodo's iPhone Hacking Coverage and Hacint0sh]

pwned firmware means it's custom [firmware], you can have it install anything you would ever want :-) Pwned works with some magic, it will be hard to close but nothing is impossible (from Apple) with a mindtwist. But first, we will enjoy :)

They told us that this is all part of their previous Pwnage project, which instead of trying to hack into the iPhone, directly patches the firmware itself to both unlock it, so you can use the iPhone with any carrier you want, and allow you to install any applications you want. You can see how it works here:

According to the Dev Team, the custom 2.0 firmware (technically, 1.2.0,) is now up and running without problems in many of their iPhones, running unsigned applications without a single problem. However, current Installer.app applications need to be changed: "they changed lots of the API, a lot. We will see how much has to be changed to the Toolchain [the previous development tool for iPhone independent developers] to still work after 2.0."

The best news, however, is this: "the hacked 1.2 firmware works with anything. AT&T and others, it's pwned. And Apple will not really be able to patch it this time... somehow :-)"

I'm flabbergasted. As Han Solo would say, "that's one in a million, kid!" Once again.

The cool thing here is that Dev Team told us that this is 1) a true unlock and 2) Apple will have a very difficult time closing this hole. That's the news, not just jailbreak—in fact, it's not even jailbreak in the classic sense. It's built-in the hacked firmware, which allows for installation of any application, unsigned or "Apple Approved"

In other words, true carrier and applications independence. And for a long time.

Note: as you can see, the Dev Team is still working hard in making the iPhone a completely open, carrier-independent platform. If you want to help them, please send a Paypal donation to iphone.devteam@gmail.com or join them at hackint0sh.org.

Jesús Díaz: How long have you been a LEGO fan?
Will Chapman: I'm 39 now, and I remember getting Lego for birthday presents ever since I was 5 years old. I still remember the surprise of getting my first Technic vehicle as a teen, and being absolutely thrilled with the rack-and-pinion steering system, and holes in the bricks and pegs that allowed for incredible new possibilities. Just before leaving for college, I gave my collection to a neighbor boy, and I don't remember buying another set until after I was married and had my first son...

JD: ... and then it all came back.
WC: Yeah, a few years later, in 1993, I decided to introduce him to Lego when he was 2, and he took to them immediately. His enthusiasm was a real eye-opener, and I realized how much I missed having Lego in my life. I promptly went on a spending spree and bought almost everything I could find on the shelves —including the entire line of Lego 9V trains. My son fell in love with them instantly, and we decided to bring the trains and every brick we owned to a local Model Railroad show in Seattle, where we let all of the attending kids run the trains, and build with our bricks. We brought our Lego trains to the show for a few years after that, each time bringing more and more of our creations, and bringing more and more trains and bricks for the kids to play with.

WC: It was about this time that I posted our experiences on the web, a web that had very few Lego sites at the time, and we attracted many Adult Fans of Lego (AFOLs) to our shows. I met some incredible individuals, and helped inspire them to create the first Lego Train Club, the Pacific Northwest Lego Train Club, the founding members of are still active in the Lego Train scene today. As my older son grew, he stopped playing with Lego trains, and we moved on to building other things while my youngest son has shown renewed interest in everything Lego! We continue to collect a lot of Lego, with vehicles, Technic, robotics, and minifigures dominating our purchases. The Lego is all "Family" Lego, with all of the parts and sets blended into a community collection that fills an entire wall of our Lego room.

JD: So when was the point in which you decided to get into the business of creating weapons for minifigs and military minifigs?
WC: When my youngest son turned 9 in 2006, he became interested in WW2 history and weaponry and wondered where we could find compatible WW2 minifig accessories for our army. I looked and looked and found no one provided them, so we decided to make them ourselves. I have always been interested in 3D design, so we started with a few US and German weapons from WW2 and realized that we might as well make enough parts for everyone that wanted them! And so, BrickArms was born.

JD: Do you have any real weapons yourself?
WC: No. I have never owned a real weapon. I am married, and while my wife tolerates the miniature toy BrickArms, she would never tolerate real firearms of any kind. Honestly, I count myself lucky to have such an understanding spouse as far as the BrickArms are concerned.

JD: I know that LEGO has always been obsessed about the use of weapons in their sets; was that the reason for you to jump in and start doing BrickArms?
WC: Although Lego makes some nice weapons, they did not offer modern ones. When BrickArms was founded in 2006, the most modern weapon available from Lego was a Wild West carbine dating to the 1800's. It just wouldn't work for WW2 and the modern era. Lego had always said they did not like producing modern weapons, and until their licensed Batman series and Star Wars clone series, they had not. Now they do, but they still don't provide the items that my son and I were interested in, and we knew we could make some terrific ones. The only reason BrickArms exists is because Lego does not provide modern, well-designed, minifig-compatible weapons.

JD: Did they (LEGO) contacted you about these creations in any way?
WC: Yes, I have been contacted by the Lego company about BrickArms, but never in any negative way. They were very interested in my custom minifigure designs and weapons designs and per their request, I sent them copies of each one. The company seems to be supportive of anything that promotes Lego with the hobbyists, including AFOLs.

JD: I think the simplification of the real world weapons is amazing. How is the creative process? How do you decide on one weapon or another?
WC: Mostly, Ian (my youngest son) finds a weapon interesting and asks if we could make it. It is that simple. Once he finds one he likes, I study it and I abstract the design into minifig-scale. For some weapons, it is a distinctive stock, while for others it might be the angle of the grip, or the size and shape of the magazine clip. Finally, I study the design and look for as many places as possible for the oversized minifigure hand to grip the weapon, and I scale the proportions accordingly. There are a few dimensions that you absolutely cannot deviate from, and the grip is one of those locations. Each grip must be exact. If it is too small, it will be too loose in the minifig's hand, and will also slip out of any mounting areas on accessories, like gun racks.

JD: How do you actually produce the weapons? What technology do you use?
WC: Once my designs are completed, I check them by placing them in the hand of a virtual minifig in my CAD program. Once everything looks good, I cut small trial injection molds out of aluminum, on my small Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) mill in my garage. After the mold is cut, I inject it with hot ABS plastic—the same plastic Lego uses. I then give it to Ian to play with and if it passes his approval I send the samples to my quality team (super-fans and moderators of the BrickArms Forums) for further evaluation.

Once a design gets the thumbs-up from everyone, I save the design and after I collect enough designs to fill a production mold (10-15), I send it to a professional tooling company to produce a mold from hardened steel. Once the mold is cut, it is sent to an injection molding company to shoot hot ABS into the mold and produce the finished BrickArms parts. The whole process can take up to 12 weeks from start to completion and is definitely not for the faint of heart. It is very important to choose the very best tooling and molding companies, or it will cost you much more than you bargained for in the long run. I chose the best, and products are of very high quality, and can stand up to the scrutiny of hardcore Lego fans.

JD: What about the custom minifigs?
WC: The custom minifigs give my customers something different than the standard offering from Lego, and allows them to buy not only the weapons from a certain period (like WW2), but also minifigs with the uniforms of the period as well. The custom minifigs also help my son create the armies he always wanted. Okay, the armies *I* always wanted! I have my own small decal printer, and I design and produce professional decals for the custom minifigs I create and sell. I also license designs from talented minifig decal designers that I've met on the web, and offer their licensed designs on custom minifigs. I can produce decal designs for soldiers that Lego would never dream of producing—or at least that is what I thought before the Lego released their Indiana Jones series this year, with their Lego German Army soldiers!

JD: Do you sell a lot of these? What's your most popular model?
WC: Custom minifigure accessories are a very small niche market. I do this mostly for the love of designing something that hasn't ever been produced at this scale, and also for the challenges it provides in creating small recognizable designs. So far, the US M4 carbine is very popular along with an Aliens-inspired M41a Sci-Fi blaster. While sales are good, I still have a day job, with BrickArms being run out of my garage. I have a new mold of all new designs that is almost ready for sale. In this mold are some terrific new items that I hope will be even popular than anything else I have offered. I will have an M1 Garand, a Light Machine Gun, bipods and monopods for mounting BrickArms, as well as new sci-fi pistols and rifles and Personal Defense Weapons (PDWs).

[Brickarms via Geekologie]

"Heck yeah!" Apple CEO shouted at a reporter. "We can't wait to see what our great clients and fantastic developers can do with that. Hahahahaha. Ha. OK, maybe we don't actually want to see it, but you know what I mean." Jobs said before leaving the room with a sightly pale green face, mumbling something that sounded remarkably similar to "no more cocktails made by Phil in the morning."

According to sources, testing of the new system just finished a few days ago directed by Peter "Pit" Pinkerton (pictured above). He was the head of the test team in the London Apple Store at Regent Street.

Asked about how the system worked by a Daily Mirror reporter at his home in Islington, the octogenarian porn expert declined to comment under a non disclosure agreement with the Californian company. He only muttered "hehehehe. That Steve," before closing the door of his beige one bedroom flat. It's rumored that Mr. Pinkerton was also a contributor to Gizmodo's The Most Disgusting and Gross Tech Gear Gallery Ever and a personal friend of Jason Chen.

Jason Chen declined to comment for this article, citing the same NDA wit