You'd think that in a world of 24Mbps Internet, where color printers cost less than $65 and you can get free laptops with broadband subscriptions, fax machines would be as dead as jokes about the dodo. But no.
(Credit: Crave UK)If you were born, it's highly likely you'll die. Sorry about that. For consumer tech, it's not quite so cut-and-dried. There are some gadgets that just refuse to kick the shiny bucket, in the manner of Daniella Westbrook--the chick whose nose fell off.
Dearest reader, we're about to explore the technologies that defy the wishes of Silicon Heaven's Grim Reaper, and delve into the more pressing matter of why they refuse his cold embrace. Why do real people--not IT departments or tech professionals, but the chap in the street, who's paid taxes on his money--keep buying this obsolete junk? We'll start with something you'd be forgiven for thinking was a bizarre first choice.
Read more of "Why won't they die? The tech we won't forget" at Crave UK.
(Credit:
Jonathan Worth/PopSci)
I know most of you out there think we landed two Americans on the moon in 1969. Well, let me tell you that you're wrong. It's all a hoax! It was done on a sound stage and George Clooney and Dan Aykroyd were involved!
I mean, look at this real-life version of the Atari classic Lunar Lander vector game!
It took British engineer Iain Sharp less than $800 and a year to build this replica in his garage to honor the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, and it works almost like the real thing. It's powered by a pair of old PCs he wrote custom software for. In addition, the movements are controlled by things like old inkjet printer motors, and fishing line. But what's important is it works just like a real lunar lander would--if one existed.
If Sharp can make a device like this in his garage in his spare time then it's not a leap to assume the U.S. government could have made a full-size mock-up with the years and millions it took to make the so-called "moon shot" happen. This awesome toy might be all the evidence I need. Myth busted.
(Via PopSci)
(Credit:
Banpresto)
Looking at the Sega Mega Drive-modeled Zippo lighter reminds me of the actual console that I still have on top of my wardrobe. I remember spending a good deal of time on it playing Mortal Kombat and Sunset Riders with my friends. Those were the days when 16-bit graphics were more than enough, and 3D games were almost unheard of.
There's also a Sega Saturn version available, and both lighters retail for $114 each. Give the PlayStation 3 10 years, and I'm sure it'll be inducted into the Zippo game console hall of fame.
(Source: Crave Asia via Gearfuse)
(Credit:
A Dress A Day)
I don't know who you are, Erin, but this Tetris Dress that you made makes me kind of want to marry you. There isn't much more to say about this great garment than that. And sorry, people, but it's a one-of-a-kind, so you can't buy one. But if you're the crafty type you can get the fabric here and make your own fashion tribute to the iconic '80s puzzle game. I really hope this becomes a trend.
Erin, call me?
Not only is this Super Mario costume homemade and hilarious, the guy sure can boogie.
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET)Really, America? Can we talk?
You see, I received this press release from Experian Hitwise in my in-box about the most-searched-for Halloween costumes in the U.S., based on searches in the month ending October 24 that ended in "costume." And the ranking was led by "Michael Jackson costume" and "Balloon Boy costume." OK, so those are timely, albeit a little bit more than unimaginative.
But it doesn't stop there. Following that were "Tinkerbell," "Catwoman," and "Poison Ivy," indicating that most costume searches are either on behalf of women or men who really want to make a fool of themselves. Among the top costume searches beginning with the word "sexy" were "sexy sailor costume," "sexy nurse costume," "sexy witch costume," and "sexy Queen of Hearts costume." (What would Lewis Carroll think?) And high-ranking costume searches beginning with "adult" include "adult cat costume," "adult Snow White costume," and "adult Care Bear costume."
I don't care what you dress up as for Halloween. Have fun with it. But just think about it. Adult Care Bear costume. Really. It's a costume that's probably itchy and uncomfortable, unflattering, and will embarrass the heck out of your kids if you have any. Not to mention that there's no obvious relevance to current events or pop culture that would negate the creepiness factor, considering the last time I checked the Care Bears have been around since 1981. Whatever happened to cowboys and pirates and disgraced politicians? Hitwise stats have officially weirded me out.
More depressing figures: Compared with the same time period last year, Hitwise found a 97 percent jump in searches for "pet costumes" this year. Those poor dogs.
In one of Apple's latest TV ads featuring the omnipresent Mac (Justin Long) and PC (John Hodgman), we see PC going retro. It's actually a cute ad as PC regresses back in time with various incarnations of himself through the years, each time promising that a particular version of Windows won't suck. "Trust me," he says. Sure thing, PC. And nice wig.
But since we're going retro, maybe we should look at a few of Apple's ads from around the time PC and Mac apparently met (according to the ad): the '90s.
For those who don't remember Apple's advertisements from then, I offer a collection of some of the most sucktastic ads Apple has ever had (remember Think Different? Yeah, me too). Enjoy them. You can thank me later.
... Read moreSo you're a programmer deciding where to invest your energy. What's a better idea: the latest Apple device, where hot new games can mean big bucks and millions of users, or a calculator introduced 10 years ago?
ticalc.org news editor Michael Vincent
(Credit: Michael Vincent)Most go for iPhones and iPods. But another community thrives in its own way. These are the folks who spend hours trying to elevate their Texas Instruments calculators to a level far surpassing their modest roots.
Among their achievements: adding new features, creating new operating systems, connecting the calculator to keyboards and other hardware, playing a video excerpt from "The Matrix," and even running Nintendo Game Boy video games. Not bad for calculators such as the $100 TI-83 Plus, introduced in 1999 with a Z80 processor running at 6MHz, 24KB of memory, 160KB of flash memory, and a 96x64 pixel display.
Why all this work for projects that realistically are not going to reshape the future of computing? Much of the motivation parallels mountaineer George Mallory's rationale for climbing Mount Everest: "Because it's there."
TI's graphing calculators are programmable, affordable, and widely used in schools--a lot more approachable than a Himalayan peak. That doesn't mean they're easy. The calculators must be programmed in assembly language--a slightly more human-readable version of the very basic machine code the calculators execute, but hardly something more easily read and debugged such as C or Java.
... Read more
Few things are as universally awesome as a cheap keyboard or drum machine. As a child of the '80s, I can vividly remember the first time I got my hands on a toy Casio keyboard and spent the afternoon sampling obscenities into the built-in microphone and playing through all the different preset sounds (I can still hear the Casio demo song in my head).
The Stylophone Beatbox ($25) is a retro music toy of a slightly different breed than my Casio, fusing together the design of a 1967 Stylophone pocket synthesizer with the sampled percussion layout of a modern day Akai MPC or Roland HandSonic.
However you choose to categorize it, the Stylophone Beatbox is exactly the sort of weird, noisy, cheap piece of tech I go nuts for. It's surprisingly sophisticated, too, allowing you to record loops of sounds, route in an MP3 player, and even adjust pitch and tempo. Check out some clever demo videos after the break.... Read more
The photoshopped screen in this picture betrays its true nature. The real screen is glossy--real glossy.
(Credit: Josh P. Miller/CNET)The LED revolution has truly begun. In the last month or so, we've reviewed three LED-based LCD computer monitors, and we expect that they won't be the last.
Last week, we looked at the LG Flatron W2386L. It's an LED-based monitor that, while offering great game performance and a thin design, could not compare performancewise to the current LED king, the Samsung SyncMaster XL2370.
This week, we reviewed the AOC V22 LED monitor. Unlike many recent monitors, this one has a 16:10 aspect ratio instead of 16:9, Also, it has an extremely glossy screen--like "I can pick food out of my teeth looking at this thing" glossy.
More monitor reviews can be found here.
Why is Luigi the queen and not Princess Peach?
(Credit: Think Geek)I've seen more than a few licensed-character editions of chess, but I have to admit, this one is kinda cute.
This chess set, available for $39.99 from Think Geek, features 32 hand-painted characters from the Super Mario Bros. series of video games, with the villains on one side and our heroes on the other.
I don't know that I would get this--not because I don't like it, but because I totally suck at chess. My strategy would consist of jumping the Mario piece around the board, shouting "It's-a meeee, Mario!"
Yeah. Viswanathan Anand really has nothing to worry about.
