That is to say, he made a 3D printing of a dead firefly and crammed three LEDs inside. As bizarre as this is, a whole swarm of these would make for an interesting chandelier. [Design News Now via No Smarties via Boing Boing]

Tegra is a huge strength for tiny devices like the upcoming Zune HD, but in a full-sized netbook, it'll have a hard time running media or multitasking. OS is a problem too—does anybody actually like Windows CE? Maybe a Linux distro (or Chrome OS) could work, but even that's kind of pushing it. Regardless, it's rumored to have a September release date, though of course we hardly know anything about the product and don't have any particular reason to trust that date. Come on, Nvidia, just stick the Tegra in a bunch of smartphones where it belongs! [Semi-Accurate News via Crunchgear]

Unsurprisingly, Colbert sent legions from the Colbert Nation to the poll to write in "Colbert," and now it's beating Serenity by more than 15,000 votes. If you have serious issues with part of the space station being named after a Comedy Central personality, by all means go and vote for Serenity. Alternately, if you think it's hilarious that a part of the ISS could be named Colbert, go ahead and vote accordingly.

Although it isn't clear whether or not NASA will indeed follow the will of the people if Colbert wins, as there's a clause in the voting rules that states that the results "are not binding on NASA and NASA reserves the right to ultimately select a name." We'll see what happens! [AP]

As of right now, "Serenity" is dominating an open vote for Node 3's new name. This ship from Joss Whedon's short-lived show Firefly has 82% of the total vote, with second place going to Earthrise (with 7% of the vote).

What can we say to such adolescent nomenclature?

This. Is. Awesome.

Voting will be open until March 20th, so let's vote early and often to seal the deal for Serentiy. And don't worry Star Wars fans, we'll have your back for whenever SDI is up and running. [NASA via Discover]

It's air-cooled, with dual fans sitting under the speakers, which are themselves surrounded by heat-sink-like heavy metal grills. Phil says he's actually sat with the 13-lb laptop on his lap, and it doesn't heat up in any uncomfortable way.

The thing's insides are sick enough to repeat: Dual graphics cards, quad-core processor and what they call 5.1 sound, though there are only four speakers plus the subwoofer under the wrist pad. (This is a strange design choice, because it means you need to lay on the hands to get the maximum movie-sound experience.) It didn't get too loud, in the demo, but it did sound full, especially sitting right in front of it.

Phil says they jokingly refer to the battery as a UPS—the battery life is the equivalent of a Hummer's fuel efficiency. The powerbrick is the big-ass one they ship with the Firebird desktop. Not slim and sexy, but gets the job done.

Phil said that the only bag it fits is an extra-large Timbuk2, but Giz staffers can think of several others that probably fit, XXLs from Rickshaw or Crumpler, for example.

Forward looking tech includes wireless USB and a multitouch trackpad that uses standard app-related API. (Presumably the Windows 7 multitouch interface would work fine, though he was running Vista.)

It's an interesting engineering oddity, fun to toy with, but it's no wonder they only built 50 or 60 of them, with no plan to release them commercially. Shave off 10 pounds, make the second screen bigger, and I think they got something. [HP]

LaptopMag has a full hands-on with a prototype unit, which should be on display at CES. They're generally impressed, as for all the bold changes in form factor, this hunkering monstrosity still seems to retain its usability.

The secondary screen got mixed reviews. It's sharp, at 800x480, but a bit too small for displaying such finely resolved text. The Voodoo's multitouch trackpad has evolved, and it's apparently lovely and the placement is a welcome change for occasional mouseless gaming.

The Firefly concept is not currently slated for production, but seeing as Voodoo and HP don't currently have a desktop replacement notebook of this caliber, we'll probably see something similar ship before too long. [LaptopMag via Electronista]

Here's the whole feature list:

* Alliance Database
* U Control: Mr. Universe Compendium
* U Control: Digital Tour of Serenity
* U Control: Picture in Picture
* U Control: Visual Commentary with Writer/Director Joss Whedon & Cast
* BD Live: My Scenes Sharing
* Feature Commentery with Writer / Director Joss Whedon
* Feature Commentary with Writer / Director Joss Whedon & Cast Members Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Ron Glass
* Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Director Joss Whedon
* Future History - The Story of Earth That Was
* What's In A Firefly
* Re-Lighting The Firefly
* A Filmmaker's Journey
* We'll Have A Fruity Oaty Good Time!
* Extended Scenes
* Take A Walk On Serenity
* The Green Clan
* Session 416

Now if Universal will just bless with The Big Lebowski on Blu-ray, I can die happy. [The HD Room - Thanks Chris!]

Even if you disturb their perfection with a flashlight, the system will eventually self-correct:

The code works like this:

Each firefly has a value that stands for the power to flash. This value rises over time. If the power reaches a certain limit, the firefly flashes and the power is reset to zero. If the firefly detects another flash nearby, it increases the power by a small boost value. That way it will flash slightly earlier than last time. Doing so over and over again may lead to all fireflies flashing in sync.

For instructions on making your own, check out: [Tinkerlog via MAKE]

The Firefly was a "pocketable" explosive cylinder that came with its own time delay fuse, designed for dropping into gas tanks. (If used improperly, it would have given new meaning to the word "hotpants.") The Limpet was a submersible explosive that latched onto the hull of a boat and blew a 25-square-foot hole. Best of all, its timer could be set for not just hours, but days.

The OSS .22 caliber cigarette pistol above was for close ranges and single uses. One of Spycraft's authors, Keith Melton, explains that it might have been best used as a distraction, if not a lethal weapon. "Say you're caught by Gestapo," he says. Engage the weapon and "there's a deafening noise in a confined space—disorder, confusion. Remember, any chance you might escape is better than no chance."As a guy who's baked a loaf of bread or two in his day, my favorite resistance weapon was the edible explosive flour dubbed "Aunt Jemima." You could eat it. Let me repeat that: You could eat it. It tasted a little gritty, but hey, there was a war on. Baking wasn't a big deal, because, according to Melton, it needed an accelerant and a small detonator before it would go boom.

The OSS had a different mission than the CIA, as Spytech's authors tell us. Back then during WWII, it was imperative to disrupt the enemy in any possible way, and covert weaponry was paramount. After a bit of organizational confusion in the 1940s and early 1950s, the CIA realized that its primary goal was to steal information alone, without leaving a trace—or any dead bodies. Hence the disappearance of cigarette guns, and the appearance of Zippo cameras. [Spytech Book Review]

The game is called Firefly, though the good ship Serenity is nowhere in sight. Instead, you grab fireflies as they flit around the screen, pulling them into your glass jar. The graphics are beautiful, and the interface looks very organic, so we have no doubt Surface will eventually lead to some sweet gaming. But this appears to take the "anyone can play" theme a little too far, to the nursery-schoolish "anyone can win."

As Doc from SarcasticGamer says, "Anyone can herd fireflies." True, but most people would probably choose not to. [SarcasticGamer.com]

In any case, $99 gives you one bulb-lamp, which you should probably store in a place where you won't accidentally trip, knock over, and embed shards of glass and fireflies in your face. – Jason Chen

Product Page [via Crib Candy]