effect

This past week I had a chance to try out Sanyo's new rechargeable power supply for guitar pedals, called Pedal Juice. It's a weird name that to me conjures images of sweaty feet, but someone at Sanyo was smart to leave the name off the actual product.

Instead, the design is a stark, simple white box with a single button for power and a reassuring Eneloop logo. Initially, the color and dimensions of the box reminded me of a block of tofu, but after considering it, it dawned on me that Sanyo smartly modeled the form after a standard Boss guitar pedal. In fact, if you have a Boss-style pedal board, the Pedal Juice fits right in to the cutouts.

Even the most devoutly environmentally sensitive, patchouli-soaked, jam band in the world has to admit, $150 is a bitter price when compared with a disposable $2 9v battery or a $30 power adapter. Unless Sanyo is insane, there must be more to the product than Berkeley street cred.

Well, there is.… Read more

VENICE, Calif.--Just a few blocks from Venice Beach in Southern California is a rather nondescript warehouse--a few windows, a parking lot decorated with an old basketball hoop. If you drove by, you might mistake it for the Public Storage building on the next block over.

But inside is special effects shop Digital Domain, and the only stored relics you'll find are movie prop miniatures like a replica of the Titanic and a 3-foot-tall Apollo space capsule. The rest of the building is made up of meeting rooms, gadget-filled workstations, two screening theaters, and a server farm that's … Read more

If you asked the average moviegoer to name George Lucas' biggest influence on the film industry, they'd probably say "Star Wars." But while there's no arguing with the massive cultural and artistic impact of that film and its five sequels, a better answer might well be Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic.

To be sure, "Star Wars" and ILM are not unrelated--Lucas started ILM to create the visual effects for his groundbreaking movie. But the visual effects house has gone on to do a great deal more, and today is probably responsible for the look … Read more

Machinery is expensive to purchase, operate, and maintain, so operators need to maximize their equipment's output as well as reduce its associated costs. FullFact's OEE Toolkit offers measurable improvements in productivity. It's based on Overall Equipment Effectiveness, an operating efficiency metric for machinery and similar processes that's common in lean manufacturing environments. OEE Toolkit collects a range of data and applies analyses that reveal hidden costs and capacity.

OEE Toolkit is an extensive software package that comes with considerable documentation, including PDF-based manuals, and links to online resources like the OEE Industry Standard site. Its database … Read more

When BioWare announced Tuesday at the Gamescom conference in Germany that its Mass Effect 2--arguably the best game to hit store shelves so far in 2010--was coming to the PlayStation 3 in January, many wondered how Microsoft would respond.

Prior to the announcement, the Mass Effect franchise was available exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC gamers.

Microsoft won't say whether it's disappointed to lose Mass Effect 2's exclusivity, but the company was quick to point out in an interview with IGN, that it believes its console is still the best place to play the venerable title.

"… Read more

Today on preGame we pick out a nice suit and get our hands dirty with a live demo of Mafia II.

But first, we'll take an in-depth look at the trailer to last week's announcement of a brand-new BioShock game, BioShock Infinite. Does the game take place in the same universe as the original? Will there be Big Daddies in Infinite? Join us as we tackle some of the big questions raised from the thrilling video.

A ton of gaming news to hit today, so we round up the major stories including Mass Effect 2 coming to the … Read more

We frequently find ourselves needing to convert or resize images to e-mail to friends, post on blogs, or share on social networking Web sites. All the full-featured images editing programs can take care of these tasks, but we're sure we're not the only ones who don't want to launch a huge program for such a simple job. Kigo Image Converter is a lightweight program that makes quick work of image conversion and resizing, and offers a few extra features to boot.

The program's interface is plain and intuitive, and we had no trouble figuring out how … Read more

There are image editors available for users of every skill level, from teens who just want to add some bling to professional photographers who have heavy-duty work to do. SunlitGreen PhotoEdit is a simple program designed for users who have a little bit of photographic knowledge but aren't quite ready for some of the more sophisticated, full-featured program. It delivers basic image correction tools without a lot of fuss.

The program's interface is plain and intuitive, with a handful of buttons across the top and the rest of the features arranged in menus. All the typical features are … Read more

Picasa for Mac is a free app from Google for importing, editing, organizing, and sharing photos. The first time you launch it, Picasa can quickly search your hard drive (or select folders) for your existing photos, pulling them into the Picasa interface without actually duplicating them and taking up drive space.

Picasa's interface feels un-Mac-like at first, with a nonstandard scroll bar and even slightly fuzzy fonts--but it's still instantly recognizable (and usable) by anyone familiar with iPhoto, thanks to its similar toolbars and three-pane organization with folders and albums. Picasa makes it easy to create slideshows, movies, … Read more