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A businessman in the UK has come up with a novel way to deal with potential thieves: firing chickenshit at them from a 30-foot catapult. Joe Watson-Webb, a retired showman, had the iron trebuchet left over from his days as a showman, and gets his avian ammo from the farm next door. Local cops have…
Some kid used his cellphone-connected watch to receive incriminating text messages during a college-entry exam in Thailand and now “all kinds of watches” have been banned from 18 exam centers. Thailand has a seriously competitive testing system, with selectivity in some engineering and medicine programs reaching 1 in 100. Still, you’d think that a kid…
While many people who value their privacy got pretty pissed when they found out that companies such as AT&T were illegally tapping their phones for the NSA, President Bush doesn’t see it that way. In fact, he thinks the wiretapping telcos are American heroes, and anyone who thinks differently is straight-up unpatriotic. https://gizmodo.com/senate-gives-telcos-free-pass-on-warrantless-domestic-s-355698 Now the…
For those who’ve been considering purchasing an HD TiVo but were hesitant about the price, Woot’s deal today is a refurbished TiVo HD for $179.99 plus a reasonable $5 shipping. The first three months of service are free with the offer to delay the inevitable soul-sucking monthly payment scheme of most DVR services. [woot via…
A new patent filing by RIM for a “hybrid portrait-landscape handheld device with trackball navigation and Qwerty hide-away keyboard” suggests that future Blackberrys may remind us pretty strongly of a SideKick Slide, or perhaps an HTC Tilt without the tilt. We’re guessing that the trackball is a version of their pearl controller, though the patent…
Any fan of Futurama will recognize Slurm as the official soft drink of the 31st century. You remember the slogan—”It’s highly addictive.” But if a recent trademark filing by Twentieth Century Fox is any indication, Slurm could be coming to store shelves sometime in the less distant future. The “Slurm” trademark includes: …carbonated and non-carbonated…
I was working on my 24-inch iMac today when I noticed my cursor moving a little bit erratically. I didn’t know what was wrong. The computer is almost new, I haven’t installed anything recently, and the mouse itself looked ok, as you can see in the photo above. Then I turned it around to discover…
For those who love everything R/C, this Lynxmotion hexapod kit is pretty dorktastically awesome. While technically 2 legs short of spider status, this hexapod has excellent mobility, as 18 servos drive the legs (featuring 3 degrees of freedom) a foot per second and over obstacles up to 4″ high. Oh, and it’s preprogrammed to work…
Okay, so the CD is maybe slowly on its way out but for a while there’ll be enough around to make the Ripserver NAS gadget useful. In use it’s as simple as its case design: slot in a CD, and it automatically rips it, archives to its hard drive, and spits the CD out again.…
For those who need to lug around a desktop computer, Pelican makes “portable” cases for industrial use. Their newest offering supports 24-inch iMacs. It’s water and air tight and promises to be indestructible. So while others might see the iMCruzer as the perfect trade show accessory, we see it as a perfect companion in wilderness…
Microsoft hating is something of a national pastime, but Yahoo’s desire to avoid a Redmond takeover has apparently driven them to seek a cozy relationship with Time Warner. Yes, some geniuses out there are actually concocting “a deal that would fold Time Warner’s AOL Internet unit into Yahoo.” I’m sorry, but hasn’t history proven that…
Designer Hung Chih Wang thinks the inkjet printer market has room for an ultra-mobile concept: his “Trak” design is a mini printer that snaps onto the lid of your laptop. Handy for hardcopies on-the-go, it’s small enough to be USB powered and even has a detachable print head for easy travel storage. There’s no mention…
By the power of Grayskull and the Wii TV Guide Channel, I shall now use my Mighty Wiimote to ride the TV channels and command the TV volume, and from now on, thou shall be known as… TWiimote! At last, the circle is complete. [Nintendo Wii Fanboy]
The Simtrix Slider joins the list of strange pointing devices like the finger mouse designed for mobile computing. Held between thumb and finger, it’s designed to slide right over the keys on your laptop, making the whole keyboard a mousepad. Supposedly this offers efficiency savings, as your hands don’t have to dart off to a…
This Japanese mechanical urinal in Osaka is an all-laughing, all-singing clown with a huge mouth. Yes, you read that well: it sings and moves up and down as you pee in it. And it has teeth. I know. After seeing it in action, I found it so wrong on so many levels that I had…
Over 100,000 construction workers on the 2012 Olympics venue in London will be subjected to biometric tests while they build the site. The two-tier system will scan hands and faces, and should be up and running by June this year, when work starts on the 50-acre site. And these measures, part of the $700 million…
The Air Force has bought 300 PlayStation 3s for “research.” Whether “research” means “let’s play a massive Call of Duty 4 game” or “let’s start building SkyNet with 300 PlayStation 3 nodes” or “let’s create a giant black mecha with Blu-ray lasers” is yet to be seen. According to the Air Force, they need the…
Moritz Waldemeyer, London-based shiny, spangly design person, has designed what must be the most expensive pair of spoke lights evah. Auctioned off at the ICA Gala Fundraiser in London last week, the Joyrider LEDs, which put a smile on the wheels of your bike, went for almost $4,000. Perhaps that’s because they came attached to…
According to a Circuit City employee in Chicago, the consumer electronics chain is trading in HD DVD players bought into their stores “within 3 months of the announcement,” as opposed to their 30-day return policy. According to the internal memo announcing the demise of the format, they will either give customers a Blu-ray player—paying the…
So, you’re at your desk typing away, but what are your feet doing? If they’re wandering about aimlessly, put them to work by investing in a Footime Mouse, which allows you to control your cursor by using feet-based gestures. Retailing at $199, the Footime Mouse could actually provide great functionality for those with physical disabilities,…