There are a great many things I love about Japan. Sushi. Akihabara. Karate. Origami. Sake. The list goes on. But one of the very coolest things about Japan is the respect that is given to pop culture heroes. More »
Bandai’s $US2000 limited edition speaker has a glowing, moving, living diorama of Tokyo’s Ginza district as seen in 1955. I don’t care how it sounds, it’s the coolest speaker I’ve seen all year.
There is no doubt about it—a 50cm tall R/C Mechagodzilla is something a lot of kids (and quite a few adults) would like to get their hands on this holiday season. The size is definitely impressive, but Bandai has also thrown in some spinning hands and decked it out with LEDs to sweeten the deal. However, the best part has to be the 360 degree rotating head that can go all Linda Blair at the push of a button. On the negative side, the fact that it is a Japan-only release is a real kick in the groin for fans in the states. Then the $US830 price tag swoops in to deliver the knockout punch.
Over two months after The Mystery of Godzilla and the Undersea Cables, a mini-series starring Tom Selleck and Dyan Cannon, at last we have closure. Two ships, one Korean and one Iraqi—typing fingers at the ready, conspiracy theorists—were impounded by the authorities in Dubai a couple of months ago and, following payment of a rather large fine by the Korean ship, it has been allowed to leave. More below.
Three of the 5 undersea cables cut by Gozilla, Jaws, Captain Nemo’s Ghost, Namor the Submariner, and the Coppertone Baby are scheduled to be repaired this weekend. That is all. [Reuters]
Not a week after two massive undersea telecom cables were snapped—according to BBC News, most likely due not to Godzilla but a single tanker “dragging its anchor along the sea bed”—and the repairs are well underway. But how in the hell do you repair a nine-layer steel-reinforced cable located deep beneath the surface of the Mediterranean?
Tukwila is Intel’s new server-oriented Itanium-family processor, the first in the world to pack two billion transistors. Most of these are used for cache memory, needed to keep its four 2GHz 65-nanometer cores fed at all times with data, instructions and probably giant radioactive lizard meat. I don’t know about what kind of power is hidden into thy fearful symmetry, Tukwila, but I have to admit you look so makey-outy for being a CPU. [BBC]
One of today’s biggest stories is the fact that India and the Middle East had about 75% of their digital connection to Europe cut off when two cables on the floor of the Mediterranean snapped under mysterious circumstances. Cables get damaged all the time, but never have two gone out simultaneously. It will take days, or even a week to repair the cables. No one knows the cause—or do they? See update below.
