Wired has published a particularly enjoyable series of interviews in celebration of Wargames' anniversary, which includes those who wrote and directed the film as well as those inventing all the hacks back in 1983. But our favorite moment that can't be missed from the article was a too-weird-to-be-made-up story from co-screenwriter Lawrence Lasker about visiting Norad and meeting its quirky commander:

As we're walking back to the bus that's going to take us to the hotel, James Hartinger [then commander in chief of Norad] walks up between me and Walter and plants a hand on the back of our necks: "I understand you boys are writing a movie about me!" he says. "Let's go to the bar." Walter says: "Well, we have to get on the bus to go back to our hotel." And Hartinger replies: "Are you insane? I've got 50,000 men under my command. You think I can't get you back to your hotel? Plus, I can't drink off the base. So c'mon." He was all for the message in our script. We kind of simplified it to "machines are taking over." He said, "God damn, you're right! I sleep well at night knowing I'm in charge."

Hit the link for the rest of Wired's oral history of Wargames. It's worth the read. [Wired]

[Wired]

YOUTUBE CONTENT NOW AVAILABLE ON SONY BRAVIA INTERNET VIDEO LINK Wired.com and Crackle's C-Spot Channels Also Added NEW YORK, June 5, 2008 - Sony announced today that YouTube is the latest online video provider to join the company's BRAVIA Internet Video Link service. The service went live today providing BRAVIA Internet Video Link users access to millions of videos on YouTube at no additional charge. Joining YouTube are Wired.com and C-Spot, which offers original episodic short comedy series. "Sony was one of the first to bring streaming Internet video to the television in the United States without a PC, and now you can access one of the most popular online video destinations, YouTube, on your BRAVIA TV," said Randy Waynick, senior vice president of Sony Electronics' Home Products Division. "There are literally millions of videos to choose from on the BRAVIA Internet Video Link service and we'll continue to add the most compelling content available on the web." The BRAVIA Internet Video Link is a small module that attaches to the back of a selection of the the company's 2007 and 2008 BRAVIA LCD flat-panel television models. The service seamlessly streams on-demand entertainment including movies, TV programs, your favorite YouTube videos and a variety of other free content as well as news, weather and traffic informaiton via an existing Ethernet connection without the use of a personal computer. A broadband connection of at least 2.5 Mbps is recommended. Content is easily navigated with Sony's Technical Emmy award-winning Xross Media Bar (XMB ) user interface. Once the TV and BRAVIA Internet Video Link module have been purchased, videos are available at no charge, bringing content to Sony televisions not found on network or cable/satellite TV stations. The new content adds to existing channels including Yahoo!, AOL, Sports Illustrated, blip.tv, Cond Net's Style.com, Men.Style.com, Epicurious and Concierge.com channels, Sony Pictures' Crackle, The Minisode Network and Inside Sony Pictures channels, FEARnet, Ford Models, SingingFool and VideoDetective. Sony will continue to add new content partners and increase the growing list of on-demand video content. "The partnership with Sony helps us achieve our goal of making YouTube accessible on any screen," said Chris Maxcy, YouTube's partner development director. "The integration of YouTube into the television enhances the living room entertainment experience by offering a large number of channels for people to select from, enabling them to watch what they want, when they want it." The Wired.com channel delivers exclusive, original reporting at the point where technology intersects with business, entertainment, politics, culture, science and art. Content will include Game|Life, Wired.com's weekly web video covering the world of gaming, and AltText, a satirical commentary on technology, business, entertainment, communications and culture. Crackle's C-spot offers original character and story-driven episodic series. The channel will offer series including "Hot Hot Los Angeles," "The Writer's Room," "Penn Says," and "The Roadents." Sony's BRAVIA Internet Video Link module is currently available for about $300. It can be purchased online at sonystyle.com, at Sony Style retail stores and at Sony authorized dealers across the country. The module used with a consumer's existing broadband Internet connection is compatible with a majority of the latest 2007 BRAVIA television models, as well many new 2008 models.

The entire article is a pair of spreads with gadgets strewn all over the page, with a black background (to Fetish's traditional white). The hed: Worst. Gadgets. Ever. And each entry has a caption with the date, price and a quip of a line taking the piss out of each. I would have PAID Wired to write this, by the way, but I'm sure current Fetish editor Mark McClusky took the same joy I would have in deconstructing it. Reading the copy from back issues makes me cringe—the voice is so hokey! Which is why I prefer current writer Joe Brown's tone of voice. I don't think he lets anyone edit him much, so it carries the tone of a real person talking about gear, not the over-polished copy that eventually makes a writer sound like a bit of a sales person.

Unfortunately, only five items I wrote with editor Rob Capps made it to the list, pulled from 442 pages of back issues: The Airstream Skydeck from April 2005, a $260k double decker recreational vehicle. It's the biggest item in Fetish, ever, but not the most expensive.

The Optimus Maximus is here from October 2005, with the slightly incorrect caption of "Shipping Soon!", but I guess the extended timeline for release does warrant that kind of critique, even if it's out right now.

Also on the list were the Iz, some dumb music toy Rob made me write about, and these cool Nike contact lenses with sunglass tint built in for athletes. I still might want to try those. There's also the Geneva Soundsystem iPod dock, which I admit, is garish.

All in all, I wish I had more items on this list. When talking to Rob, it was clear that we had one regret when it came to our work on Fetish: It's not that we didn't pick more timeless gear. It's that we didn't go insane enough in choosing truly crazy gadgets for the section. It's a hard section to put together. You have to find stuff three months ahead of when it's coming out, get a list of 20-30 things and the editor eventually gives the green light to 10 items. I'd write those, and four of them would get to the final list. If you could secure good prototypes for the photography. It was sometimes embarrassing how many leads would come from Gizmodo, which influenced my move here. Thinking about Fetish makes me proud to have contributed to it. If you're interested in helping the magazine out and need an internship, they're hiring.

In closing, I leave you with this old academic essay by Theresa Senft on modern fetish, which focuses on Wired's column. And, if you get a chance, check out the Worst of Fetish piece in this month's Wired.

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I'm Mr T, you pantyhose suckas! [Wired]

Joe Pugliese, the same guy who shot El Jobso minutes after his iPhone announcement, shot me, Adrian and Chris in my apartment. I love this place, but as you can see in the not too different from real life shot, it makes for cramped conditions and I'm moving today. Ya, I'm still packing too, because someone broke the embargo on the Dash GPS and Wilson and I had to hustle to get a review together. Anyhow, I am digressing like mad because I've been up 20 hours so far, and the day is not close to being over.

This piece is kind of strange and meta because before I worked at Giz, I worked at Wired, where I was low man on the totem pole. I really learned a lot from the 15 or so senior editors there, but I didn't ever get to do any real work. So to be honored in the pages of my still favorite magazine, well, I never thought I'd see the day. Some people were concerned about bias, but I'm pretty sure they got both the praise and hits in pretty square.

For instance, there is such heavy emphasis on the admittedly interesting and bizarre CES prank. Meanwhile, there isn't one mention of the Gates interview. First time the guy admitted on record that Vista was not so good. I mean, come on, thats's interesting. And ok, Blu-ray coverage at Giz was second to none, but of course, that's too boring to mention. All we get described as is juvenile. Well there's a reason why I insist on Gizmodo being lighthearted, and it makes a lot of sense. First of all, we don't write about cancer. This is not a serious topic, even if the work is taken seriously. If you can't enjoy yourself writing about what are essentially man toys, well, I feel like that is utter lack of perspective on life.

Secondly, there's that great William Gibson quote hanging over the wall at Wired—"The future is here, its just unevenly distributed." That may be the case when it comes to purchasing technology or having access to it, but when it comes to media, especially free media, there's no reason to keep technology in the hands and minds of only the nerds or the rich. So we write for the common people. There are plenty of Giz readers that aren't hardcore geeks but love technology. I'm happy to dress up the tech in humor to get the point to more people, and the let the medicine go down smoother. Not everyone gets that.

(BTW, this is why I love Pogue videos. Funny thing, in the story, the man who sings songs about TiVo is quoted in the story as saying that gadget bloggers have to figure out what they want to be when we grow up. For me, when I grow up, I want to do exactly what Pogue does, but I am not musically gifted. I wouldn't call that growing up, though, Dave. I'd call it staying young. A good thing.)

On the other hand, Dan Lyons, Fake Steve, who is like some sort of Giz big brother at this point, totally gets what we do. Or he flatters me with his faith. Either way, I trust in his insight, so to be understood by him and misunderstood by so many others, well, I'd rather have Dan on my side than a bunch of commentards. (Not you guys, the guys we already banned and other twits in the press.)

But I'm nit picking. I don't think anyone can call the story anything but fair, generous and fun. And again, I'm pretty flattered and grateful anyone would think to write a feature on our little corner of the internet, let alone my favorite magazine where all my old mentors work.

OK, I gotta pack. Moving van is here in 3 hours and I have like a dozen boxes to go.

Did I mention I'm going on vacation next week, too? Can't come soon enough. I need to recharge the batteries!

Rambling is a late phase of exhaustion. [Wired]

In that time, I think I've probably gained 50 pounds, and you've maybe been hitched, lost your virginity, gained some grays, or earned a few degrees.

The piece is based on editor Leander Kahney's new book Inside Steve's Brain, which comes out in a few weeks. I was lukewarm on posting the cover without any excerpts, turning it into a highly promotional piece for the magazine without any meat (the story goes live later this week). Leander responded, saying he understood and made an offhand mention that he'd be sending the cover to a competitor in an hour. I knew they wouldn't post, and called his bluff, but also recognized the tactic: From the book of Jobs, where he'd often play Newsweek and Time off of each other for access. That got a good chuckle out of both of us. And here I am, posting on the cover. So I guess it worked.

Most people remember it as so, but the old article from the 1997 "Pray" cover was never a slam piece. It was 100 bullets of advice for the then struggling company. Some of the advice was never put into play, but a lot of it was and for the best. [Pray, Inside Steve's Brain]

Instead of using the typical heavy cranes and tugs, they do their jobs very cheaply using computer models of the ship's intricate ballast systems, heavy cutting and drilling tools, pumps (and more than a bit of personal risk.) And salvage like this, recognized as a form of legal modern piracy, is compensated by a percentage of the value of the loot they save. Generally millions for jobs only days long. Here's how they flipped her around:

This is the best feature I've read in a long time. It's worth checking out. [Wired]

The idea is that your devices have a "plug" with sharp pins at different spacings, to pick up the correct voltage offered by the concealed wires. You'd just push the plug onto the wallpaper, it would make contact and remain in place either via the pins, or adhesively. Philips believes the idea could extend to ceiling and floor coverings too, basically letting you plug in stuff anywhere. Maybe they could combine it with this light-up wallpaper for a fully electric-wall experience. [New Scientist via Physorg]

It's smarter, with a killer video-processing chip that helped it ace all our tests, syncing up and smoothing out the noisiest screwball video we threw its way.

Although it wasn't the first NTSC color TV set to ship to consumers (that honor goes to Westinghouse, which first shipped its color TV set in February, 1954), the RCA Victor CT-100 was the first to ship in volume, with the company planning a production run of 2000 TVs. The CT-100 had a 15-inch screen, 37 tubes inside and in its console form factor weighed 175 pounds. It was first shipped in late April, 1954, and sold for $1000, the equivalent of about $7500 in today's money.

Other manufacturers such as Motorola, Admiral and Hoffman also shipped limited quantities of color TVs in 1954 at similar prices. Later that year, RCA rolled out a 21-inch color receiver, and by two years later, the color TV revolution had temporarily stalled. Even though color TV prices had dropped as low as $495, that was still too expensive for most consumers. Also slowing sales to a crawl was the fact that few color broadcasts were available and there was a perception that color TVs were unreliable and difficult to adjust. Color TV sales didn't really take off until about 10 years later. [Wired and Steve's Vintage Color TV Page]

The top 64 gadgets of all time were nominated by Wired website visitors last month, and now this is the final tournament where a winner will be announced on August 8 at 9 p.m. Pacific Time. Log in, submit your picks, and see if you have your fingers on the pulse, the Zeitgeist of gadget fans wordwide. It's all up to you, troops. We know someone from Gizmodo can take it all, winning that coveted iPhone. Go for it!

The only downside is that you have to give Wired magazine and Voxpop.tv your name and email address, signing up for who knows what. [Wired's Greatest Gadget Tournament]

Sure, it's really cool looking and it would make for a unique birthday party, but you can't eat the thing! You can't eat it for a couple of reasons, the first being that it's full of sticks for structural support, the second being that it's made without baking soda so it'll taste like a big pile of ass. So basically, Wired has created instructions for making the biggest cocktease ever for overweight video game nerds: a cake they can't eat shaped like a video game console they can't play. That's tough to swallow, but we can't deny the allure of a gigantic video-game themed pastry. [Wired]

Hey, this could be useful. What's the catch, though?

Of course, this stuff ain't cheap, costing you $129.99 for 20 feet of component video cable, and $44.75 for 25 feet of speaker wire. Plus, the connectors are sold separately, so we're talking Monster Cable pricing territory or higher. However, these wires actually bring some value to that pricing equation. It's especially useful the way you can fold the wires onto themselves, and still paint over them. This tech has been floating around for a few years, but the company says it's finally being brought to market now. – Charlie White

Product Page [Flatwire Solutions]

- Switch Keyboards to Dvorak
- Hide a Mouse's Trackball
- Use Mac Remote to F&*# With People, Making Them Weep Into Their Lattes

I mean, there may or Most Definitely Will Not Be iPhone news today. And we mean absolutely none. But to our defense, I didn't expect anyone would take it seriously...again. – Mark Wilson

April Fools' Pranks For Nerds [wired]

Video of the aerial cam after the jump:

This info came to me by Wired's Geek Dad Blog, which is maybe their best blog yet. Maybe that's because more than a few editors there are entering parenthood right now. I can feel the excitement for both their kids and the granular tech coming through in each post; that's something you don't feel in every big-picture tech story.

P.S. I've done round ups of R/C Plane reviews for Wired, and I'd think many of those models I'd recommended then, are as good or better now.–Brian Lam

Geek Dad Blog [Wired]

It's said that the rich are different from you and me. Yeah, some of them are just incredibly stupid. Follow along in the gallery and be shocked, amazed and disgusted with levels of excess unseen since the French Revolution. – Charlie White

The World's Most Expensive Cell Phones [Wired]

Who would win a stare down contest, Anna Wintour or FSJ? What would happen if FSJ became fashion editor at GQ?

It's a brilliant move by each party, but beware RSJ's spinning beach ball of death. –Brian Lam

The rest of the pilot includes segments on an undersea NASA training facility, meteorite hunters, and jetpacks. You can watch the pilot tonight 8pm on PBS, or you can download the entire show here.

Another piece of vaporware noted by Wired is the "iPod Killer." Thinking about the year in review it does seem every month there was another new iPod killer that ultimately failed (even the biggest iPod killer of all, the Zune). Topping the list as the number one piece of vaporware of 2006 is actually a repeat winner: Duke Nukem Forever. Congrats, Duke. – Travis Hudson

Vaporware '06: Return of the King [Wired News]

They didn't just measure download and upload speed, either. Sure, infrastructure had something to do with it, but the surveys and studies also considered whether professors posted course materials online, what kind of computer training was available, and what sorts of distance learning and high-tech courses were offered. Plus, they've figured in whether the school allows peer-to-peer (cough!bittorrent!cough) connections. How did the schools stack up? We'll go 10 better: jump for the top 20.

1 Villanova University
2 M.I.T.
3 Indiana University Bloomington
4 Swarthmore College
5 Creighton University
6 University of Illinois
7 Michigan Tech University
8 University of Southern California
9 Quinnipiac University
10 University of Oklahoma
11 United States Military Academy
12 University of Minnesota Twin Cities
13 St. John's University
14 Clarkson University
15 Temple University
16 Stevens Institute of Technology
17 Stanford University
18 Eckerd College
19 Pomona College
20 University of Virginia

Hey, where's my beloved alma mater, University of Miami? Oh well, perhaps hardy partying schoolboys are too hungover for online activities. Sigh. – Charlie White

Top 10 Wired Colleges [PC Magazine]

First, Mark McClusky and Sean Captain give the K100D the Editor's Choice in Wired's Test issue. He chooses the budget-ish DSLR over the top of the line Canon 30D and Nikon D200 because of built in image stabilization and low noise at high light sensitivity modes ISOs (1600 is its max.)

Then Pop Photo gives the higher end K10D a similar thumbs up for the same low noise characteristics. The camera also gets...

high marks for its fog, snow, and dust resistant shell. Pop Photo has a small but annotated gallery that shows off the camera's ability to shoot low light. –Brian Lam

Pentax k100d [Wired Test]
k10D [Pentax]

The winner? A Sanyo that doesn't even beep when its done. The Zojirushi was even topped by a Cuisinart. Just goes to show ya: even if you eat 100 pounds of rice a year, you can still learn something new about how to cook it. Asians everywhere, I suspect, will share my surprise. But a fair fight is a fair fight, and I assure you that those two know how to test gadgets. –Brian Lam

Go With the Grain [Wired]

It occurs when the touchy elements inside a Li-ion battery heat up to the point where the internal reaction accelerates, creating even more heat. In the case of a laptop flameout, the chemicals break out of their metal casing. Because lithium ignites when it makes contact with the moisture in the air, the battery bursts into flame.

But the best part is the info graphic sidebar that tell us that the future of the laptop battery involves multiple cells custom built for each component. Graphic of the futuristic after the jump...

The piece is long&mdash and surprisingly technical when it comes to explaining how batteries work. But man, I couldn't sit through it. On one hand, its nice to see Wired get back to its geek roots after a period where it just seemed like it was tech newbie-ish. On the other hand, the feature gets into a depth that even Popsci wouldn't attempt. Hardcore stuff. –Brian Lam

Building a Better Battery [Wired]

Gizmondo, if you don't remember is the hand held gaming device decked out with GPS, motion-sensing, Bluetooth, and every other gadget buzz word you can think of. We'd seen prototypes, but it never seemed like the thing would get off the ground. That became the truth shortly after the CEO smashed up of a 660-hp Ferrari Enzo early one Spring morning. The rest is history, and now a legendary tale filled with ex convict Gizmondo executives, Swedish mafia thugs, stolen exotic cars, stock fraud, and extortion. Jump for the sweet opener.

THE BUMP IN THE ROAD that ended Bo Stefan Eriksson's fantastic ride is practically invisible. From 10 feet away, all you can see is the ragged edge of a tar-seamed crack in an otherwise smooth sheet of pavement...there's barely enough lip to stub a toe. Of course, when you hit it at close to 200 miles per hour, as police say Eriksson did in the predawn light last February 21, while behind the wheel of a 660-horsepower Ferrari Enzo, consequences magnify.

Gizmondo's Spectacular Crack-up [Wired]

Wired's How To Issue [ Wired Magazine ]

Interest design ideas from a company long associated with boring industrial design. Hats off, lads and ladies.

More info
Plantronics debuts Bluetooth, other stereo headsets [MacNN]