Eric Limer

This Custom Datacenter Rack Has 160 Mac Minis Crammed Inside of It

If you’re hankering for an Xserve, you’ve been out of luck since 2011. But there’s always an alternative. You can make your own by squeezing a whole 160 Mac Minis into a custom rack, for instance. That’s what a fellow named Steve did, and the results are staggering. Working with a vendor to get some…

Here’s a New Yorker Cover Made With Nothing But Emoji

When you think of The New Yorker, chances are that legions of emoji aren’t the first thing that come to mind. They will be after you’ve seen this full rendition of the magazine’s entire cover composed of nothing but. Dubbed “Eustace Emoji” after the magazine’s signature dandy, the cover cover was whipped up for a…

The Muppet Movie: It’s Time For a Road Trip

In 1979 Jim Henson brought the Muppets to the big screen with the aptly titled film “The Muppet Movie.” On December 5th, the Muppet Movie came to Netflix. Tonight, you should watch it. I probably don’t have to extol its virtues to most of you, but for the one of you out there who may…

Brain Pacemakers Are Starting To Be Used To Fight Alzheimer’s Disease

Deep-brain stimulation— the practice of implanting a pacemaker-like shocker deep in the recesses of your dome—have been used for treating conditions like Parkinson’s or even depression, but now they’ve got a new mountain to climb: Alzheimer’s. For the very first times, surgeons at Johns Hopkins have used a brain-implanted pacemaker device to try to slow…

This Is Iran’s New State-Sponsored YouTube Clone

Iran’s never been a fan of the real Internet. It completely blocked off Google and Gmail back in September before walking things back and letting Gmail through. Now, it’s launched its own heavily-monitored, “safe” version of YouTube. https://gizmodo.com/iran-shuts-down-google-will-completely-cut-citizens-of-5945862 Called “Mehr” which is a Farsi word for affection, the site provides a limited version of the…

Instagram Pictures In Twitter Are Now Totally Gone and Gone For Good

Instagram pictures have been wonky inside of Twitter ever since Instagram disabled Twitter cards in hopes of driving users to its own web interface. Now Instagram pictures aren’t showing at all in Twitter’s native web client, and that change is permanent. https://gizmodo.com/why-your-instagram-pics-look-weird-on-twitter-now-upda-5965835 From now on, links to Instagram pictures on Twitter will work as links…

Google, Facebook, and Others Are Begging The Courts To Smack Down Absurdly Vague Patents

Patent litigation is all over the place these days, and regardless of who’s in the right or wrong in any specific case, it’s eating up a whole bunch of resources. That’s why Facebook, Google, and a number of other companies have rallied together with an amicus brief kindly asking the U.S. State Court of Appeals…

HBO Just Greenlit a Silicon Valley Comedy By Mike Judge That Could Actually Be Good

If Bravo’s Start-Ups: Silicon Valley makes you gag and, in turn, makes your gags want to gag, you could be in luck. HBO has bought the pilot for a very different Silicon Valley that might serve as an effective antidote to that reality TV schlock. https://gizmodo.com/oh-god-bravos-silicon-valley-show-looks-even-worse-tha-5949966 The Silicon Valley that HBO is interested in is…

Do You Ever Judge People Based on Only Their Choice of Phone?

In some ways, a person’s choice of phone might say a lot about them. In other ways, it doesn’t. And as much as you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, we’re all guilty of it from time to time. Do you ever infer things about people’s personalities based on little more than what kind…

Watch This Phallic UAV Get All Grabby With Its Scary Six-Foot Arm

When it comes to handy features for UAVs, your mind probably doesn’t jump to towering, phallic protuberances and grabby arms for gingerly setting things down before darting away. Well DARPA’s does, which is why they funded and demonstrated this monstrosity. The drone you see here is the MLB Company’s V-Bat and it’s designed specifically to…

Square Is Rolling Out Digital Gift Cards for Your Phone

Who needs a piece of plastic to give a gift card anymore? Not you if you go through Square. A new update to the Square Wallet app adds digital giftcards you can give right from your phone right to someone else’s. And if your gift-target is running iOS 6, it’ll show up in their Passbook.…

Russia and China Are Pushing For More Government Control Over the Internet Because Duh

With the WCIT-12 in full swing, it’s pretty much inevitable that some countries’ views on the Internet and the direction they are trying to push it will leak out. In this case, the news is about a coalition led by Russia and China that aims to find ways to exert more government control over the…

Sony’s Putting Its Handheld Cassette Recorders In That Old Junk Drawer In the Sky

It’s the end of an era. Or more accurately, it’s effectively been the end of an era for a while and this is another part of it. In early 2013, Sony will stop producing its three remaining models of handheld cassette recorders, meaning first the Walkman and now its cousins are on their final march…

This Smokestack Looks Like It’s Sliced Up and Floating In Mid-Air

Normally you might consider a smokestack to be something of an eye-sore, but this “Sky Stack” Is very much the opposite. With parts of it seemingly missing, the whole thing turns into an awesome fixture. Sky Stack, designed by Hamburg-based asdfg architekten, sports five reflective rings around its neck that under the right viewing circumstances,…

Watch These Kids Play Musical Instruments Made Out of Trash

Sometimes you’ve just got to make do with what you’ve got, but that doesn’t mean you have to want for things, things like musical instruments. The upcoming documentary Landfill Harmonic (a totally righteous pun, I feel obligated to note) is about a slum in Cateura, Paraguay that still has an orchestra, and orchestra with instruments…

John Lennon: Imagine

Today in 1980, the world lost a true music icon much of whose work is as relevant today as it ever was. While it’s pretty futile to try and touch on John Lennon’s influence on modern music in its entirety, “Imagine” stands as a classic that sounds just as good today as it ever has.…

All Burritos Should Be Delivered By a Bomber Like This One

Remember the Tacocopter, that delicious hoax? Thought that may not have been real, the Burrito Bomber is, and though it may not be able to bomb a burritos at you yet, maybe someday it will. After all, the onslaught of food drones is pretty much inevitable. https://gizmodo.com/the-tacocopters-are-coming-for-real-5939895 Developed by Darwin Aerospace, the Buritto Bomber is…

Best Buy Screw-Up Results In an Amazing “Buy One Get Five” Deal on iPads

Most of the time a shipping error is a pain in the ass for you. Maybe you get the wrong thing, maybe you don’t get anything. Sometimes though, it can be a huge boon, like when Best Buy accidentally sends you five iPads instead of one and then says “You know what? Keep ’em.” That’s…

Starting tomorrow, the Nook Simple Touch has a new, lower price: $79. [Engadget]

Mitsubishi’s Remote Control Tankbot Is Yet Another Member of the Robot Clean-Up Crew Army

We may not have had the wide variety of radiation-resistant robots we needed before Fukushima, but we’re certainly getting it now. Following Toshiba’s four-legged dogbot, Mitsubishi is rolling out their own four-tredded tankbot that aims to fix up a disaster site without sending anyone in. https://gizmodo.com/this-chunky-four-legged-robot-scopes-out-danger-so-you-5963046 Dubbed the MEISTeR for Maintenance Equipment Integrated System of…