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Kids Are Tearing Apart The OLPC Laptop’s Keyboard Rather Easily

You’d think a laptop from the One Laptop Per Child project would, I don’t know, account for the fact that it’s being used by a child? A child that likes to tear crap apart? Stuff like keyboards? No? Which is why people are seeing keyboards being ripped up rubber piece by rubber piece. A few…

Far Out SciFi Worlds of Sid and Marty Krofft

Brothers Sid and Marty Krofft first came to fame with their touring puppet show “Les Poupées de Paris” in the 1970s which featured topless puppets, and puppet-on-puppet sex long before Avenue Q or Team America. They later made the move to television with the trippy H.R. Pufnstuf in 1969, which they swear was not drug…

Who Will Get Hacked First: Vista, OSX or Linux? Place Your Bets Here

Organizers behind the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver are putting together a “hacker superbowl” of sorts, pitting attendees’ skills against Vista, Mac OS X and Linux. Dubbed PWN 2 OWN (ewwww), the objective is to develop a brand-new “zero day” attack to take control of one of the three operating systems loaded onto laptops. There’s…

Postapocalyptic Images Made Out of Food

Photoimagist Carl Warner depicts what the apocalypse and beyond might look like in a captivating series of food shots staged to look like scenery. In this piece, a black olive-and-watermelon ship sails through a sea of cabbage seeking revenge on vegetarians who have virtually annihilated the entire fruit and vegetable population. More vegetable landscapes below.…

Cyber Smash Grip Add-on Turns Wiimotes Into DualShocks

Despite the supposedly game-changing motion controls that the Wii brings to gaming, a good portion of AAA games use the Wiimote in the more traditional controller sense. How do you make the one-handed controller more comfortable for two handed play? By shoving it inside a body that adds an “analog” stick and two DualShock-like grips.…

Make your voice heard, in possibly the most democratic set of science fiction awards of all. The Locus Awards are accepting your votes — including write-in votes for things not on the ballot — until April 15. You don’t have to pay anything, attend a convention, or even subscribe to Locus Magazine to vote. As…

Weird Combo of the Day: Free iPod Nano With Twelve-Pack of Caulk

Oh, caulk! Is there anything you can’t do? Not only do you allow us to plug up holes by squirting your oozing, white fluid-like substance all over the place, but you come in a long and pleasing missile shape. And if you get too difficult to clean up after using, all we have to do…

Bed Sheets Fan Blows In the Wrong Direction

According to the manufacturer, the Between the Sheet Fan will create a “cool personal microclimate between your bed sheets, allowing you to regulate your temperature as you sleep without disturbing a sleeping partner.” In other words, its two “whisper-quiet” 12-volt fans will keep your private parts fresh or toasty, pushing nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen and methane…

Home Modder Idol Ben Heck Gets Profiled

You’ve seen Ben Heck’s homemade gaming devices featured here a lot, and there’s a reason for it: Adam Frucci loves him. Which is why he slathered much praise on the hardware modder in this Reuters profile. What would you want to know about the guy that turns two handed controllers into one handed ones? How…

iPhone SDK Beta 2 Now Available

Potential iPhone developers should go and grab the latest release of the SDK, beta 2, and revel in the new Interface Builder. Make your own fancy UIs for your iPhone game, or maybe just make an improved iFartz. We’re cool with either. [Apple via Macworld]

Battlestar Finale Rewritten, Depressing

Click to viewThe best thing about the recent WGA strike? It gave Battlestar Galactica writers the chance to rethink and rewrite the entire second half of their final season, according to showrunner Ron Moore, saving us from episodes with titles called “Oh Jesus, Can I Have Five More Minutes? No? Okay, Then, This Time Around…

NVIDIA Responsible for Nearly 30% of Vista Crashes in 2007

It’s pretty easy to blame Microsoft for the buggy experiences many users of Vista have had, but they aren’t the only culprits in this mess of an OS. No, it turns out that NVIDIA’s craptastic drivers have been responsible for a whopping 28.8% of all Vista crashes. Yes, nearly 1/3rd of every single Vista crash…

Microsoft Surface in Your House in 2011

For Microsoft, full speed-ahead on a cheaper consumer version of Surface, its multi-touch computer table, means 2011. Tom Gibbons, VP of Microsoft specialized apps and devices group says that “In the three-year time window, we absolutely see how to get there. If we can beat that, we’ll try to beat that.” Alas, it’s Microsoft, so…

Sexually Transmitted Zombie Parasites From Space (NSFW)

Last year’s zero-budget movie Days of Darkness is a vital addition to the canon of zombie penis movies, as you’ll see from our collection of the grossest parts. The last survivors of a zombie outbreak, holed up in a bunker, discover that the zombies aren’t really classic old-school zombies, but rather victims of a sexually…

EZ Commander Media Center Remote Features Trackball, 1980s Beige Color Scheme

Ignoring the retro styling of this EZ Commander remote, it’s got one remarkable feature that makes the whole five-buck-design worthwhile: a trackball. Even though trackballs went out of style for most computer users (some die hards still swear by them) they make plenty of sense to use with a remote, so you can mouse around…

Question of the Day: Do Hourly Time Machine Backups Piss You Off?

Lately I’ve been getting really annoyed at Time Machine. It’s running over the network to a Time Capsule, so it’s basically got free rein to backup whenever it damn well pleases, or specifically once per hour, at a time of its own choosing. The result is a sudden system and network slowdown when I’m in…

A Spaceship On Fire Off The Shoulder Of Orion

Actually, we aren’t sure if this is Orion, but we just couldn’t pass up a nice Blade Runner reference. This spaceship or space station looks like it’s been attacked and is about to fall victim to the gravity of the planet below, and it couldn’t be more beautiful. John Berkey is one of those old-school…

Kodak Quick Touch Digital Photo Frames Are Ticklish on the Side

Kodak’s Quick Touch photo frames don’t quite go all the way on being touchscreen, though they’re spinning that as a plus, since you don’t leave grimy fingerprints on your screen. Instead, the border itself is a touchpad, so you can scroll through pics with swipes of your finger. https://gizmodo.com/realease-shogo-frame-is-first-with-touchscreen-and-wi-f-342280 The $180 M820 and $230 M1020…

The Mountain Goats Explain Why Ozzy Osbourne Is A Scifi Visionary

We were excited to interview folk/rock singer John Darnielle, from The Mountain Goats, because his songs had always seemed like the perfect alternative science fiction soundtrack to us. Maybe it’s the way they wrap otherworldly tropes, including alien invasions, in with their alienated ballads. Their latest album includes a song about H.P. Lovecraft, and Darnielle’s…

SlingPlayer TV-on-Cellphone Coming For Symbian UIQ This Summer

Just as Sling announced a few weeks ago, their Slingplayer cellphone player is getting added support for Symbian UIQ devices this summer. Among the sets being supported are the Sony Ericsson P1i, P990i, W960i, W950i and M600i, along with Moto’s MOTORIZR Z8. You’ll be able to see it in person at CTIA coming up next…