RSS Feeds
Computers
Black Box Case Mod Scoffs at Server Crashes
Posted by Mark Wilson at 11:45 PM on June 12, 2008
While most of us wonder why planes aren't built of the crash-proof "black box" flight recorder material, one modder has requisitioned a black box of his own to use as a PC case. While the package itself is quite large (and disappointingly red), the interior is so cramped that only a Mini-ITX motherboard could fit inside, running Slackware Linux on a 800MHz Via C3. But have you ever seen the inside of a black box before?
MGM announced its intentions to resurrect the Robocop franchise earlier this year, but you know Hollywood, it's all just meaningless backseat fellatio until we see the first promotion poster/they call us back about that role. And from the looks of it, Robocop isn't losing the 80s style...but he is getting a red Cylon-eye makeover. Oohh, maybe there's a bad Robocop? (Note: that question is rhetorical, so don't tell us in the comments if you've read the spoilers or something.)
Ah, a digital watch with an LED display that's not 
A Don at Oxford University has come up with a novel way to measure the hotness of chilli peppers objectively. Using carbon nanotubes and adsortive stripping voltammetry, Professor Richard Compton's idea could end up replacing the Scoville test, a subjective taste test created almost a century ago, that uses volunteers, and works on a "which is hotter than which" basis.
You know Guitar Hero has gotten ridiculously big when the franchise gets its own Nintendo DS. Coordinated with the 
For those who've been eagerly awaiting the next Firefox but have been too scared to deal with release candidates, Firefox 3 will be released Tuesday, June 17th. (That's just next week.) And yes, they're trying to set a 
This is what happens when you get a couple of cheap RC cars and add proximity sensors, extra batteries, robot brains, and name them Steve McQueen and Burt Reynolds: totally-automated racing all around your house. These electric robocars can detect the walls around them and race against each other for as long as the batteries last. The resulting Tron-lightcycle-like action is impressive.
Gizmodo readers and conspiracy theorist aficionados Nathan Ziehnert & Friends have spent a few hours analysing the footage from the WWDC08 keynote like CSI agents investigating the Zapruder film. The result: they found what they believe could be a front-facing videocamera in Applemeister Phil Schiller's demo iPhone 3G. Is this a prototype or just a—likely—greasy fingerprint? Check out the video and the captures and tell us what you think.
Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology has created this prototype physical 3D display that works a little differently than the 
Behold the Greatest Workstation of All Time: the Emperor. I mean, come on, anything that looks like it can control a turbolaser battery or fire a giant anti-matter death ray must be the greatest workstation of all time, period. But according to Patrick Laflamme Duval—business developer for manufacturer Novelquest—the name is not a Star Wars nod, but a reference to the emperor scorpion's tail:
First I thought "ah... what a cute gimmick" about this Is.a.Brella thing, but then I realised the essential cleverness of the design. You're in a rush to get on the train on a rainy day: furl your Is.a.Brella, leap aboard, slide it into the bottle cover keeping it compact and tidy, and stop all those trapped raindrops from splashing onto people nearby. Neat, and pretty unusual looking too. So I get it... but what I don't get is the marketing-speak from the website, auto-translated by Google.
Hot on the heels of the announcement that iPhone users in Spain and the UK will get their iPhone 3G for 
A mugger who stole jewelry from a teenager on a tram has dropped himself right in it, after he clocked himself in the on-board security cameras. The victim, a 16-year-old boy, was travelling with two friends on a tram in Bromley, a South London suburb, when he was approached by another kid who, after admiring the necklace and bracelet, snatched them. Rather than fleeing immediately, the dumbass tea-leaf sauntered up to the CCTV camera on board the tram, and struck a pose with the stolen items. The mugger, who claimed he was carrying a knife when the victim asked for his gear back, was described by a British Transport policeman, as "not the brightest spark. He was there for a long time and either didn't care or wasn't aware he was being filmed." [
This concept from designer Kong Fanwen lies somewhere between minimalist Apple keyboards, and projecting 
Yamaha has teamed up with lighting experts Koizumi to create these home theatre speakers with built-in lighting. Each unit has three 25W halogen lamps that are remote control-dimmable down to 20% brightness, designed to reduce the contrast between your TV picture and the wall behind to "ease the burden on your eyes." So, a kind of one-colour, non-reactive ambilight then, but the effect they produce is pretty subtle and saves you from installing 
Over at Intel's R&D fair, 
The Gadget: The Sony VAIO LT is an attractive all-in-one that has a 22-inch, 1680x1050 widescreen display, BD-RW drive, integrated webcam, wireless keyboard and mouse, an external cable card tuner and Vista Media Centre, powered by a 2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 4GB RAM.
Not since Adam Frucci's last house party have we seen anything get lit as fast as Panasonic's Pa-Look fluorescent bulbs. These use a hybrid lighting method that makes for "instant bulb brightness," which is more convenient for bathrooms where you want to get light right away and not accidentally step on errant urine. Inside is a "quick lamp" that brings the goods 50 to 60% faster, and then cuts off when the regular fluorescent reaches optimum lighting. Fantastic for the slightly impatient. [
Aerovironment has developed a range of modular wind turbines designed to clamp on to existing architecture, called 'Architectural Wind'. The units, which can be easily teamed together, sit around the edge of a structure's roof and use specially designed low-speed turbines to take advantage of the breeze that naturally travels up tall buildings' walls.
AMD and NVIDIA have decided they're done waiting for Intel to give them the data they need to create USB 3.0 compliant products, and plan to launch their own spec to launch against the USB 3.0 data protocol. Intel says they haven't finalised the spec and want to prevent people from developing hardware based on multiple versions. AMD and NVIDIA aren't satisfied with such an answer and feel Intel is trying to gain a sizeable lead on market share. They will apparently have their first clandestine meeting next week. I wonder if "HD DVD" will be the secret password. [
Voodoo's Omen gaming desktop is the 
The burnout has an appeal that only a car lovin', Nascar watchin' man could possibly explain. However, only Steven Laurie dared to eliminate the vehicle from the equation and bring the burnout to its essence...all in the name of art. The device he created looks something like a lawnmower sitting atop an axle, but it does manage to create some skid marks and smoke. The only problem is that the Burnout machine is fairly underwhelming when fired up, as you can see in the demo video below.