Gizmodo: tribute

A Geeky Tribute to the Late Bea Arthur

Jack Loftus — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 11:00:00 EDT

Call it a stretch all you want, but today I was wracking my brain trying to figure out ways to pay tribute to Bea Arthur on a gadget blog. I think I've figured it out.

With a little help from an earlier tribute by Neatorama, I learned about, and will bring to you, two geektastic clips from her seven decade career.

The first clip comes to us from the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, one of the four black marks George Lucas bestowed on the franchise (the others being Episodes 1-3 in their entirety). Bea Arthur played Ackmena, the singing nightshift bartender at Chalmun's Cantina on Tatooine.

The second clip is from Futurama. Arthur played Femputer, the computer leader of a tribe of Amazonian women who didn't care much for men (See? A man-hating computer—that's a gadget, right?)

Sure, she'll be remembered mostly for her role on Golden Girls, but it was nice to see Bea Arthur let her geek flag fly once in a while too. RIP. [Neatorama]

'CrackBerry Love' Tribute Ruins Ten Years of BlackBerry in About Four Minutes

John Herrman — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:55:56 EST

Gadget-inspired songs are almost always terrible, but this, this is something else. A kind-of-spoof, kind-of-ad performed by legendary nobody Caitlen Moe, "Crackberry Love" is an unmitigated disaster. Things to watch for: a man in a BlackBerry suit, endless T-Mobile shout-outs that the company almost certainly didn't ask for, and the line "my Crack and I, we got a date." Slightly NSFW for language, and because your boss might hate it enough to just fire you out of spite. [CrackBerry]

Mini Slasher Musical Movie Inspired by Macs Vs PCs Debate

Kit Eaton — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:15:00 EDT

Forget the old Macs Vs PCs rap and its slightly worn-out ilk, this has to be my new fave geek-inspired musical tribute. If only for its Dusk Till Dawn-alike transformation into a slasher gore-fest after a few minutes. Seriously—beating someone to death with a MacBook? Strange stuff. There's just one flaw taking the shine off its geek status: the iPhone doesn't have a flash, guys! [YouTube Thanks David!]

MIT Students Create Giant 20-Sided Die In Honor of Gary Gygax

Sean Fallon — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:40:00 EDT

I haven't played Dungeons and Dragons since I was a little kid, but I remember the time I spent geeking out with my friends fondly. So, when D&D co-creator Gary Gygax passed away earlier this month, I couldn't help but feel a little bummed. Apparently, a group of students at MIT felt the same way—which is why they erected this huge 20-sided die on the campus in his honor. It doesn't appear to be anything more than some cloth draped around a framework—but it is a fitting tribute nonetheless. [The Tech via Laughing Squid via CNET Photo via Eric Schmiedl]

Rollei dx63 Tribute: Small Camera, Big Viewfinder

Charlie White — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 08:59:28 EDT

Rollei knows how to make its cameras small, and its dx63 Tribute is no exception, packing big features inside its diminutive black metal housing. The 6.36 megapixel ultracompact has a 3x optical zoom, but we're wondering how they were able to shoehorn a relatively large 3-inch LCD viewfinder onto the back of this ultraminiature digital camera.

It has 32MB of internal memory and you can insert a secure digital card with up to 1GB capacity, which might come in handy especially if you feel like shooting some 640x480 video at 30 frames per second. Looks like this one will drop sometime next week at an entirely reasonable price of $381. – Charlie White

Rollei dx63 [LetsGoDigital]