Gizmodo Australia » fubar

Attack of the Spammies

Seamus Byrne — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 01:10:48 +0000

We’ve just had a major attack of the spammies, with thousands of attempted spam comments in about 30 minutes. All from different IPs. Damn you, zombies! So right now comments have been violently killed off until we can shut the attack down. If you try commenting, you’ll get a pretty fugly error. Sorry, but this is why. -SB

UPDATE: And we’re back!

Extreme Repair For Extremely F*cked Up CDs

Adrian Covert — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:55:06 +0000

Instructables has a tutorial on a CD repair technique designed to bring nearly any disc (barring any cracks, breaks, etc…) back from the dead. The fix requires you to heat the underside of the CD over a gas burner, boil it in water and dry off your freshly resurfaced disc. The process seems to leave a slim margin of error, so if you’re trying to recover something valuable, you better know what you’re doing. [Instructables]

Zune 8GB Gets Stripped, Starts Hearts Racing

Haroon Malik — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 13:45:00 +0000

Those great guys at Rapid Repair have done the dirty and stripped the 8GB of all its sexy clothing. There does not seem an awful lot to take note of, except Microsoft has done a good job, tightly packing in all the Zuney innards. The Rapid Repair peeps were less than thrilled at the implementation of the Zune pad, which is actually much unlike a sanitary pad, as it is effectively irreplaceable. Other than that, it seems like this a standard take down, and there does not seem to be anything unexpected cropping up. Still, if naked Zune shots get you all frisky, hit the link for your fill. Following that, hit the councilor’s for some much needed therapy—you weirdo. [Rapid Repair]

New Frontier Hotel Imploded Before Your Eyes, Now a Nondescript Pile of Rubble

Charlie White — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:21:44 +0000

If you want to see a building imploded with 1000 pounds of high explosives, Las Vegas was the place to be early yesterday morning. That’s when demolition experts finally got rid of the 16-story New Frontier Hotel in grand style, as only Las Vegas would be sleazy enough to do. Anyway, we never get tired of seeing them bring down the big buildings, but found all the fireworks just distracting. Just blow the thing up already.

By the way, this was the hotel where Elvis made his big Vegas debut back in ‘56. In the place of this pile of ashes, by 2011 a phoenix will rise in the form of the Plaza, an $8 billion luxo-palace complex on the Vegas strip that will specialize in fleecing those who don’t understand the difference between possibility and probability. [Metacafe and LA Times]

iPod is Blown Up, Encased in Resin, and Still Works

Adam Frucci — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:00:16 +0000

Artist Billy Chasen took an iPod, blew it apart, and encased it in resin. Big deal, right? Well, the cool thing about this is that the iPod still works. Yeah, despite being blown up and frozen in resin, he’s still able to play music off of it. This would be the best desk stereo ever just hook it up to speakers, get a remote control working on it, and you’ve got one distinctive piece of functional art on your desk. Awesome. Hit the jump for more pictures.
[Project Page via NotCot]

Australian Miners Wreck It

Haroon Malik — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 03:02:18 +0000

If you have always wondered how Australian miners amuse themselves when they are bored, wonder no longer. It is way cooler than any of us expected: they take a massive mining truck and use it to destroy land cruisers that are found unoccupied, all for funzies. Is there anything more fun than destroying large metal based structures with larger metal based structures? The video of the event indicates that there isn’t. Don’t believe us? Hit the video for the truth behind real good times. [Liveleak]

Flame-Grilled G4 Almost Kills Owner, Makes Him Love Apple More

Addy Dugdale — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:09:00 +0000

PowerBook user Jimm Lasser, was woken up by a noise from beneath his bed at around 1.30am on a Saturday. Investigating further, he found his G4, white hot and making a strange “Ffffffff” sound. When thick smoke started billowing out, he called 911. Despite it subsequently bursting into flames and burning his bedroom carpet, the whole experience made Jimm love Apple more. When the fire crew left, taking with them the burnt-out battery and the square of toxic carpet that is missing in the picture above, Jimm checked into a hotel for the night, returning the next day to clear up the mess. This included calling Apple’s customer service to discuss the matter. This is how the conversation went:

“Customer service, how can I help you?”

“Hi, my G4 Powerbook burst into flames last night while it, and I, were asleep. I was wondering who I could talk to about this?”

“What is your serial number, sir?”

(sounds of scraping)

“Hold on….”

“Sir?”

“Hold on, I am trying to scrape away all the burned metal to see if I can read it.”

The long and short of it is that Apple listened to Jimm, making him go over the near-fatal incident in detail in order that the company’s engineers can try to solve the problem for future laptops. They got Jimm’s fire report, his serial number from the Apple dealer he bought the G4 from, and the char-grilled machine itself. And Jimm got himself a brand new MacBook Pro gratis — as it should be. [Under Consideration via Wired]

The Y-Wing Underdog: Takeoff, Obliteration, and In-Flight Footage

Brian Lam — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:57:19 +0000

The X-Wing fighter at Plaster Blaster 6 this weekend got all the glory. But the model rocket with the biggest heart/size ratio goes to the underdog of a model based on the space bomber Y-Wing fighter. Ion cannons? Check. More torpedoes than the X-Wing? Check. Fewer parts to tear off on liftoff? Check…not that it lived to see a second flight. This reel has a bit of friendly yet competitive smacktalk about the X-Wing, the liftoff, and even a bit of in flight camera salvaged from the fake black box the team rigged up. Let’s face it together, Star Wars nerds—as much as it gives us a giant collective nerd-boner to imagine real, flying Star Wars vehicles, buzzing the air traffic controllers at JFK Intl’ airport, these things were designed by Lucas’s film masters, not aerospace engineers. Video and reporting by James Lee and JÃ©sus Diaz.

CrushBox Destroys the Evidence that You May Want to Hide

Addy Dugdale — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:11:32 +0000

Last week, Adam set about crushing unwanted gadgets with such glee that I think our Japanese brethren have found the perfect present for him at CEATEC. The CrushBox will pulverize everything from cards, cellphones, CD/DVD to videotape (are you listening Paris, Meg, Eva, Pamela?)—in short, anything gadget-y or tech-y that could compromise you. There’s a pic of the results below.Anyone who thinks it’s a good idea to get involved with Rick Solomon should really think about getting a CrushBox for the bedroom, although I’m not sure whether it is gonad-compatible. [Gizmodo Japan]

RAZR 2 Makes a Big Impact in Russia

Haroon Malik — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:45:00 +0000

Auto Blog Show has released these pictures of an incident, in Russia, involving a Motorola RAZR 2 advertising campaign and a nearby Mercedes.
Update: As some readers have already pointed out; everything is all well, it was a rather grand marketing scheme by Motorola. Hats off, good one, sirs.

Details are sketchy at the minute, but check back for updates. There were no paramedics on the scene, so we are guessing everyone escaped injury free. Everyone but the Mercedes, which surly has seen better days.
Update: As some readers have already pointed out; everything is all well, it was a rather grand marketing scheme by Motorola. Hats off, good one, sirs. [Auto Blog Show]