A 60-footer that goes by the name of Hydroptère is hoping to travel at over 50 knots (58mph) and become the world’s fastest racing ship. Using “wings”, the French-built craft glides over the waves, instead of ploughing through them like a traditional sailing vessel. Even the captain, Alain Thébault, who has crossed the English Channel in just over half an hour, reckons it’s more like flying a glider than piloting a yacht.
The FogScreen is the advertising industry’s latest weapon in the fight against peace and quiet. The projector can fill spaces like subway tunnels with floating ads that you can actually walk through. It sprays a very fine mist of dry fog, created from water by an ultrasonic wave, which can then be projected on to just as if it were a hard surface.
Yves Rossy is an absolute lunatic, but we love him for it. He has been involved in human jet-powered flight since 2001, back in April he survived a potentially life threatening incident when his jet wings encountered problems mid flight. Since then he has been working on repairing and improving the system, he has been so busy with the repairs process he has not been giving any interviews whatsoever.galleryPost('Rossy', 8, 'Rossy');
I’m not usually an “old media, new media” guy. In fact, I regularly write for the Sydney Morning Herald. So it isn’t with great pleasure that I point to a pissweak story about the mothership from Edmund Tadros at SMH, who thought it was just wonderful to flag Gizmodo being duped by a young Aussie rumour faker, Tom Oliveri.
Apparently, the “Tech world” fell for “Tom’s foolery”. On a Sunday. For so long that the post wasn’t even available to us here at Giz AU in our overnight feedbag. You can see what is left of it right here.
Actually, if tech world = Gizmodo, then thanks for the compliment, Tadros. We pretty much think this blog rules the school too.
At the Sydney Boat Show (still happening, ends tomorrow), Sony showed they were ready to pump out the tunes for all those keen on a bit of high-fidelity on the high seas (or on a lake, or river, or whatever else floats your boat).
It’s a scene dominated by Clarion, so a bit of new competition is healthy like some sea air. And with their first showing of gear offering a full install at less than $1,000, suited best to boats running $50,000+, it’s no surprise the Sony crew were telling us they are struggling to keep up with demand.
No surprise again that the gear is largely adapted from their car range, so they aren’t exactly starting from scratch either…
So you wake up one morning to find that the whole world’s shut down. Some inexplicable event has rendered technology useless *gasp* and 99.9 per cent of the population has vanished. OK, the name of the show is a slight giveaway to its post-apocalyptic theme but check out the preview of Afterworld’s first episode before you dismiss it.
We started watching to ‘research’ the Sci-Fi Channel’s ad campaign on Giz and are digging it after a dozen episodes, not least ‘cos of the slick, game-esque graphics. The studio uses Poser to build the characters, After Effects for compositing and Lightwave for the 3D extras. The backgrounds are stylised from hi-def 2D stills and animations are dropped on, anime-style.
There’s going to be 130 two-three minute episodes altogether, shown every weeknight at 7:30pm from TONIGHT, 6 August, on Foxtel/Austar’s Sci-Fi Channel (channel number 132). For the traditionalists, there will be 30-minute catchup episodes every Wednesday fortnight at 8.30pm, starting 15 August (also on the Sci-Fi Channel, with a total of 13 half-hour episodes akin to a conventional season).
Verdict: Max Payne meets Lost but BETTER.
Afterworld [Sci-Fi Channel]
newVideoPlayer("stormtrooper_stripper_gawker.flv", 475, 376); I see your schwartz is as big as mine. [kontraband]
Remember that Ten Commandments of Data Loss Prevention we ran a few days ago? Well the team at CBL has decided to extend the hand of love to one lucky Giz reader, in the form of a special ‘Get out of Jail Free’ card. Just like Monopoly, only this time the escape is from one serious disk meltdown. CBL puts the value of this card at $3500 – so if your system gets fried, burned, flooded, stabbed, shot, whatever, they will go the distance to try and restore as much of your data as can possibly be restored.
Like the sound of that? All you have to do is comment below and tell us your data loss horror stories. Entries close Friday August 17, so you’ve got more than a week to visit the therapist and unleash those repressed memories of woeful data disasters. Terms and Conditions
If you live in Turkey not only do you have the best kebabs in the World, but you also have the finest geek boutique to have graced our watery planet. Even though the owner of the store has the intricate Google logo down to the correct spelling and colour, we are still confident in calling this a hoax. Please do not ask us to justify ourselves, on this one trust us – we have a strange feeling in our tummies.
Soup weather this morning. Too cold by far (in my parts, anyway). Enjoy the catch up.
Audi Type C Roadster: greatest pedal car of all time. Yeah, costs more than your real car, but just look at the thing! Make mine man-sized!
Check if your 360 will die in one easy step. All it takes is a camera with a flash and you’re set.
Battlemodo: The iPod dock FINAL. Griffin Amplifi versus Altec Lansing IMV712!
Optimus Prime case mod stands near seven feet tall. Breaks apart rather than transforms. Still awesome.
Desk made entirely out of LEGO. Complete with seven drawers, and studs up top for more LEGO hijinks.
Gigantic match strikes a gigantic fireball. 15,000 matches died in the making of this one uber match.
NBC DefCon mole outed, chased from building. Because it’s always smart to try and deceive a conference of hackers.
