Tech News

The Secret Online Weapons Store That’ll Sell Anyone Anything

The Bushmaster M4 is a 3-foot rifle capable of firing thirty 5.56×45mm NATO rounds, and used by spec ops forces throughout Afghanistan. It’s a serious weapon. But in the Internet’s darkest black market, it’s all yours. Who needs a background check? Nobody. The Armory began as an offshoot of The Silk Road, notable as the…

How to Avoid Spoilers on Twitter

Along with propagating inane hashtags like #NameYourDickAfterAMovie*, Twitter is also horribly ruthless when it comes to spoiling movies and TV shows. To prevent an unwelcome spoiler, you have to basically abstain from Twitter when a show like Breaking Bad comes on or when a big movie like The Dark Knight Rises comes out. But that’s…

The Future of Watching Sports: A View Inside A Pro Athlete’s Body

Increasingly, the image of a “sports nerd” is a pasty weakling with a laptop and a spreadsheet. It’s Moneyball’s fault, or something. But for more fluid sports like soccer, deep statistical analysis has proven challenging. Not anymore. Adidas is tracking every movement of every player in the MLS—and soon, maybe all of sports. A new…

Could You Be Tracked With GPS and Taxed To Drive?

The San Francisco Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission wants to stick a GPS module on every resident’s car, track the total miles driven—and then tax the accordingly. Mass transit and carpooling are fine ideas, but this doesn’t seem like such a great thing. According to CBS Bay Area, the commission wants to launch a study…

Turning to Reddit for OkCupid Advice Is Horrifying and Depressing

Not everyone is lucky in love, or in life. Sometimes that’s just the way it is—highs and lows, ebbs and flows. But if you’re striking out on OkCupid, here’s an idea that will not help you at all: Crowdsourcing your romantic woes on Reddit. Reddit is great for some things—startling videos, startling racism, celebrity Q&A,…

Inside iRobot’s Vault of Failed Experimental Robots

The Roomba wasn’t the first machine iRobot had in the works. In fact, at the company’s headquarters in Massachusetts, all the flawed prototypes reside in a secret vault of old bots—mechanized ideas that never came to fruition. In the above video, Nancy Dussault Smith, iRobot’s VP of marketing and communications, takes you on a tour…

The Ultimate Portable Kitchen Puts Propane Stoves To Shame

Designed to roam through the rural regions of the Netherlands and follow the various harvests throughout the year, the Buijtenkitchen packs everything a seasoned chef could need to prepare sumptuous meals away from their home kitchen. So if you’re tired of slaving over a tiny propane-powered grill when camping, maybe it’s time to consider building…

Have You Ever Used Your Thunderbolt Port? Ever? For Anything?

Thunderbolt was one of the killer features last year. 10 gigabits! But since then, there have been a few Thunderbolt products, and a few comically absentee ones, but it feels like most of us have never even used the port—Mini Displayport double duty notwithstanding. Anyone getting actual use out of the thing, or is it…

8 Gorgeous Items with Retro Style from the 2013 Ikea Catalog

The genius behind Ikea is that they’ve streamlined the furniture production process to near-optimum efficiency. If you consider having to assemble the furniture yourself to be efficient, that is. This week, Ikea released their 2013 catalog, which is chock full of new products that allow the masses to get their hands on pretty decent modern…

How to Make Beer and Influence People

Ok, real talk. How cool are you? Like, on a scale of 1-10. A six, maybe a seven? Are you content with that? Wouldn’t you like for more people to like you more? Well, friend, it’s totally possible. “How?” you might ask. It’s easy! Give them beer! “But beer costs money,” you say. Not if…

Wallet Stand Proves There’s Hope for Novelty iPhone Cases

In general, we despise iPhone cases, but the Wallet Stand is so genius that we might actually buy it. As its name implies, the case is both a wallet and a stand, built into a protective case for your iPhone. It’s certainly not the first multi-function case to do these things. It just actually does…

Tiny Rooftop Turbine Could Make Urban Wind Farms A Reality

There’s a reason that wind farms are placed offshore rather than in urban areas—the turbines are typically huge, difficult to erect, and need a solid sustained gust to produce any meaningful amount of current. This prototype, on the other hand, will assemble easily and take up little space as it quietly produces kilowatts atop skyscrapers.…

Samsung’s New 75-Inch HDTV Is a Beautiful Beast

Cue the ohhing and ahhing. Yesterday Samsung unveiled its new crown jewel—the ES9000, a 75-inch gorgeous giant of a TV. With a super-sharp display and a barely-there bezel, it’s hypnotizingly beautiful. https://gizmodo.com/you-want-samsungs-top-tv-itll-cost-you-ten-grand-and-a-5926773 At $10,000, chances are, this isn’t your next TV. Unless you recently learned of a long-lost rich uncle who left you a fortune.…

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How NASA Uses the Ocean to Train Astronauts for its Most Dangerous Missions

The astronauts are wearing white suits with American flags and mission patches on them. They’re aware but unworried about the hostile environment inches away from their noses. They’d be dead in seconds if it were not for their air supply. As they bound nimbly along in a state of near-weightlessness, all each astronaut can hear…

This Could Be the World’s First Computer Generated Animation

It’s almost impossible to pin down when and where the first computer animation was created, given several companies and research facilities were dabbling in the new medium at the same time. But AT&T—formerly Bell Labs—and others believe this simple clip dating back to 1963 could indeed be the world’s first CG animation. Not surprisingly, the…

These Five Men Volunteered to Let a Nuke Explode Over Them

Sixty five years ago today, the Department of Defense launched a nuclear missile test in Nevada, as they would hundreds of times again. But this time, five guys and a cameraman were placed right underneath the massive atomic explosion. Why? The DoD, NPR explains, wanted to show that nuclear warfare was safe, and that an…

Feds Are Going After Swizz Beatz to Take Down Megaupload

The feds are looking for an angle that lets them prosecute Megaupload on U.S. soil. And apparently the way they’re trying to make it happen is by pulling rapper and producer Swizz Beatz (a.k.a. Mr. Alicia Keys) into the case, by claiming he was CEO of the company. But wait—wasn’t this cleared up in January?…

1927 Magazine Looks at Metropolis, “A Movie Based On Science”

Last week Geeta Dayal over at Wired published portions of a very cool 32-page program for the 1927 futuristic film Metropolis. The program is for sale at a rare book shop in London and seeing the blog post reminded me of an article in one of my magazines from 1927. It took me a little…

This Terrifying Killing Machine Can Loiter for Six Hours Before Attacking Its Target Like a Mad Hawk

The Fire Shadow is an unmanned flying machine that can loiter unnoticed, hovering over an area for six hours, waiting to receive a kill order on any designated moving or static target—and then fall on it like a suicidal bird of prey to destroy it. This video shows exactly that, hitting a car full of…