Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Considering that Polonium has been the poison of choice in a number of high-profile cases, tinkerers who tend to spend some serious time enjoying themselves at the local pub may want to invest some time building one of these. The homegrown Polonium Pen doesn't require a whole lot of hardware -- just two darlington transistors, a LED, homemade ion chamber, one or two resistors, a battery and a power switch -- and it allows the owner to hold it over their drink and watch for it to light up. Should the LED turn on, simply pass on the beverage, exit as soon as humanly possible and figure out why in the world someone in the mob wants you to vanish. Hit the read link for the full-blown how-to guide.

[Via HackADay]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Here's an interesting writers strike PR nugget I just found out: Turns out both sides, first the Hollywood moguls and then the WGA, wanted to hire former Clinton White House press secretary Joe Lockhart as their official mouthpiece. Lockhart, now founding partner and president of the consulting firm Glover Park Group specializing in advocacy advertising, gained fame for flacking the Clinton impeachment [...]

WE HEAR: that while taping the upcoming season of Celebrity Fit Club, megalomaniacal blogger Perez Hilton pooped himself on a treadmill.

The marketing geniuses at, Kotaku assume, at EA's UK offices may be on the receiving end of some advertising awards this year, as they've cleverly combined breasts and cars for a recent promotion for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 racer Need For Speed ProStreet. The promotion, featuring Page 3 girls Amii and Becky, explores what happens with four breasts are positioned within posing distance of a red Ferrari. Kotaku is still studying the results here at the Kotaku Media Labs, but at first blush, it seems that EA may have something here. Kotaku applauds them for being brave enough to think outside the box, looking forward to more bold endeavors from those responsible for this important Need For Speed ProStreet promo.

Edit: Kotaku has a link to the video and photo set. Beware kiddies you could be forever changed.

Some celebrity woman, hideously mutated by plastic surgery, tries to show off her dog to the paparazzi. She didnt count on her dog being absolutely terrified of her ugly face.

As the NFL gobbles up even more market share in the United States, it follows logic to see the next big in-home entertainment push side with it in order to garner attention. With every company and its third subsidiary twice removed trying to shove 3D into the home, we'd say starting with the NFL is a brilliant move. In a closed-to-the-public "proof of concept" demonstration, next week's matchup between the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders will air live in 3D to select theaters in Los Angeles, New York and Boston. Third-dimension mainstays 3ality Digital and RealD will play critical roles in the delivery, though it remains unclear what exactly the NFL and 3D backers in general plan to do afterwards. If you'll recall, this isn't the first pro sporting event this year that was beamed in 3D to nearby theaters, but we can't think of anything more appealing than 300-pound gentleman crushing each other just inches from your retinas.

[Thanks, Jesse]

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Live NFL broadcast to air in 3D as "proof of concept" originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Date Added: a german shepard barkign at dog with the title STFU newb on it 11/24/2007 12:32

This "super patch" includes hundreds of game enhancements and tweaks, a greatly improved AI, a map generator, and various bug fixes.

Director: Robert Celestino
Writer: Robert Celestino
Cast: Chazz Palminteri, Christine Lahti, Tom Guiry, Linus Roache, Michael Lerner
Genre: Drama
Release Date: January 9, 2009

Analysis: "You don't want to do it like that"...

Thanks to its rock-solid execution, Thrillville delivers an enjoyable batch of minigames in a lighthearted theme park environment.

It's all YouTube's fault.

The growing use of the Internet could overload the current capacity within two years unless backbone providers invest billions of dollars in new infrastructure. That's according to a new study from Nemertes Research Group, an independent analysis firm.

Ripten counts down the top ten most devastating weapons in video game history, bringing out the big guns with DOOM's BFG at #4.

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3

We're all familiar with the Ring of Death on the 360. If you see it, you know it is time to pull out the extended warranty slip -- or shell out another $400 -- because you're going to need it. Sony couldn't have any of that and are countering with their own: the Red Button and Beep of Death.

A newly purchased PS3 (and owner) had played Tony Hawk's Project 8 for a grand total of 30 minutes when the PS3 decided it didn't want any more of that. Maybe THP8 made the unit sick, the game doesn't exactly have a great image (pun intended). In any case, this is one unhappy PS3 consumer.

Sony is certainly starting to push their luck with these PS3 problems. Yes, the 360 had its own set of issues, but we figure Sony should have learned from Microsoft's mistakes; instead we get this mess. We wish they'd put just a smidgen of quality assurance behind their product. Let's hope Nintendo doesn't break its streak of quality hardware; a triple play may turn consumers off console gaming. Check after the break for the video.

[Thanks, Kumar Shah]

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SPONSORED BY: Age of Empires III - Real-Time Strategy Game Control a European power on a quest to colonize and conquer the New World. AOE3 introduces new gameplay elements, as well as new civilizations, units, and technologies. http://www.ageofempires3.com/

test of the game on one of those notebook laptops. It's called Crayon Physics Deluxe and it's a sequel to a freeware game. The game's website is at http://www.kloonigames.com/crayon/ Ranked 3.60 / 5 | 204 views | 1 comment

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Submitted By: videosultras
Tags: physics game beta kloonigames video crayon deluxe 

Hungarian film site Moziplussz has posted the first photos of Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman on the set for Season of the Witch . The photos came by way area tabloid paper Blikk . Filming is currently taking place in Alpes, Austria. Production will then shift to Hungary at the end of the month and continue until March 2009.

Thoughts and images from eight days of the strike.

This week's edition of the regular Critical Reception column examines online reaction to Super Mario Galaxy, the long-awaited Wii entry in Nintendo's flagship franchise that some critics are calling "an exceptional game by any standard."

Since the release of the Nintendo Wii late last year, perhaps no title has been as highly anticipated as Super Mario Galaxy. Galaxy's release has become even more important at this point in the Wii's lifespan, following the recent announcement that Nintendo's other likely holiday hit, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, would not see release until 2008.

Early previews and trade show demos for Super Mario Galaxy were almost universally met with a positive response from gamers in the months leading up to the title's release, and the retail release of Super Mario Galaxy appears to be no different, earning a Metacritic-averaged score of 97 out of 100 from critics.

IGN's most wanted games gets Medieval on your ass.

Design and share your own scrapbooks, photo books, and more with this software/online messaging service combo.

Marquee progenitors Noah Tepperberg and Jason Strauss (who were the subjects of this Grigoriadis-Schoeneman... piece of writing) recently celebrated the second year anniversary of their Vegas shitshow Tao. That's where this picture was taken. Strauss looks more and more like Carson Daly mixed with a character from "The Incredibles." Tepperberg looks something like a 40-year-old suburban dad, as he pretty much has since he was 16. [DBTH]

Avaya is targeting unmet pockets of user demand in the telecom industry with the release of three new offerings this week: a contact center product focused on outbound messaging and self-service, a speech-to-text application, and a unified communications package that bundles licenses of various products.

Fox's Shepard Smith slips up in an oh-so-Freudian way reporting on how J. Lo is still an around-the-way girl.

Runtime: 35 sec

Yup, the new demo for Uncharted Drake's Fortune seems to run only on U.S console regarding new post on Neogaf forums. PS3 are freezing with a black screen or they ask you to insert a disc.
Maybe it's just a bug, who knows ?

Here there is one post illustrating the problem
"The people complaining about the two problems (blank screen, insert game disc), do you have a PAL system? I'm wondering if somehow there's something messed up there."

baby and father need woman Ranked 3.85 / 5 | 207 views | No comments

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Submitted By: miliana
Tags: comedy funny humor fun entertainment sexy woman sports amazing 

Linux Blog recommends an interview up on the O'Reilly site with Greg Kroah-Hartman, long-time Linux kernel hacker and the current Linux kernel maintainer for the USB driver core. He updates the free Linux driver program announced almost two years ago, which has really caught traction now with more than 300 developers volunteering. The interviewer begins by asking about Kroah-Hartman's claim that the Linux kernel now supports more devices than any other operating system ever has. "[One factor is] the ease of writing drivers; Linux drivers are at normally one-third smaller than Windows drivers or other operating system drivers. We have all the examples there, so it's trivial to write a new one if you have new hardware, usually because you can copy the code and go. We maintain them... forever, so the old ones don't disappear and we run on every single processor out there. I mean Linux is 80% of the world's top 500 super computers right now and we're also the number one embedded operating system today. We've got both sides of the market because it's — yeah it's pretty amazing. I don't know why, but we're doing something right."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Milenia Grafter Server is a very simple and powerful Flash media server. It features live audio/video streaming, live stream recording, powerful stream access control, lightweight client/server communication, a client mode, server-to-server data/audio/video communication, and an admin console.

Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight

• At 7, CBS has a new 60 Minutes, followed by the season premiere of The Amazing Race and new episodes of Cold Case and Shark.
• The CW has a new CW Now at 7.
• At 7:30, ABC has a new America's Funniest Home Videos.
• At 8, FOX has a new Simpsons, then two new episodes of Family Guy and a new American Dad.
• The CW has a new Life is Wild at 8.
• There's a new Nature on PBS at 8, then a new Masterpiece Theatre.
• TBS has Lindsay Lohan in Herbie: Fully Loaded at 8 (then again at 10). Please insert your own "Lindsay Lohan/Fully Loaded" joke here.
• Food Network has a new Challenge at 8, followed by a new Next Iron Chef.
• Also at 8: Nickelodeon has a new Zoey 101, then a new Unfabulous.
• At 9, HBO has a new Tell Me You Love Me, followed by a new Curb Your Enthusiasm.
• Showtime has a new Dexter at 9, then a new Brotherhood.
• At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Robot Chicken, then a new Metalocalypse.

Check your local TV listings for more.

 

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6 new shots posted.

Filed under: Industry, Programming

We first told you about this back in August, and now the complete list is out: Turner Classic Movies is letting celebrities program the network for the month of November. Each celeb is picking three or four films, and here are a few of the more interesting choices (it started Thursday with Alfred Molina's picks).

Whoopi Goldberg likes A Face in the Crowd and Funny Girl. Jerry Stiller likes A Night At The Opera. Kermit The Frog loves dancing to Singin' In The Rain and The Band Wagon. Martha Stewart would probably have some decorating ideas as Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.

Continue reading TCM is letting celebrities pick the movies in November

 

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Take a look at this awesome clip for The Club.

Yeah, its an unboxing of a Philip's latest 7-inch photo frame! You gotta a problem with that?

Here's why you should care, numb skull: Most photo frames these days are big on bells and whistles, but the LCDs look like ass. Color accuracy is important for video, but when it comes to still images, if the color ain't right, grandma's tan is going to make skin look the hue of Tang. Not pretty. This is an update of their last 7-inch frame, and its cheaper at $199, holds about 50% more photos, and has interchangeable borders, like the striking red you see above.

Philips LCDs aren't the biggest, and unlike others, they don't have WiFi. But this 7-inch model is bright, at 200 nits, which is less than a big old computer LCD, but it still holds up in daylight. The LCD runs at 800 by 480, which is a pretty tight res for such a small screen. And what else can I say about it? The shit looks good.

Read on for the gallery, info on the luscious borders, brilliant features, and a bug or two...

It comes with 4 different borders that click into its plexiglass frame. The colors? Red, White, Silver, and Black. It reads SD and CF memory cards, or can be accessed as a mass storage device by PC, so you can load photos direct by wire. The frame copies photos to its internal memory, resizing them to its native res first, so the frame can hold up to 150 images. Some problems? Some portrait photos I uploaded didn't rotate properly, and the slideshow tech are kind. A really smart feature is that the frame has about 45 minutes of battery life, so you can unplug it, and pass it around to friends and family without it dropping dead. And speaking of power, there's a timer that'll shut the LCD off at certain times of day, so you're not wasting juice. Also, its pretty efficient, soaking up only 12 watts.

In a sentence, it's pretty, the screen is gorgeous, although it lacks the features of other net enabled photo frames.–Brian Lam

Philips [Philips]

A long-simmering debate over whether the results of government-funded research should be made freely available to the public could take a big step toward resolution as members of a House and Senate conference committee meet today to finalize the 2008 Department of Health and Human Services approp...

Ripten lists its top ten developers of all time, as they hyduken their way to Capcom at #3.

Data center power costs often are included in overall facilities spending instead of IT budgets, leaving some IT managers without a good understanding of their energy usage.

Ripten lists its top ten developers of all time, moving in stealth for the kill at #5 with Ubisoft.

Livingroom shredders have a new stage on which to rock

The Sharp LC-32D40U Aquos isn't the least expensive 32-inch liquid crystal widescreen television out there, but it provided the most natural, realistic picture I've seen among similar displays.

5 new shots posted.

For those aspiring or already doing business as an e-tail merchant, there is no shortage of e-commerce software developers with shopping cart technology for start-ups and small to medium-sized businesses. The real difficulty may lie in choosing among them and then putting it to productive use.

Fouth-highest pay rates in world, finds study.

IT managers in the UK are among the best-paid in the world, making £62,180 a year on average to put them in fourth place in the global pay charts behind Switzerland, Denmark and Belgium.

Works With U: "Apple, while its products may be prettier and more intuitive than Microsoft's (or so I'm told; I've never really used a Mac, iPod or iPhone myself), is in some respects worse than Redmond when it comes to respecting the fundamentals of software freedom."

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals

Dheera Venkatraman, a crafty MIT student, has just completed the latest iteration in a series of upgrades to his dorm room door lock. Now because MIT's administration doesn't like it if you hack the door locks or the strike plates, Dheera needed an innovative way to enter his own room without using a key. He's gone through a series of various door-opening mechanisms over the last couple of years -- our favorite one required scanning a barcode on a box of EZ Mac to gain entry -- but he's finally settled on the simplest design, a computer-less setup that involves a microcontroller, a motor, and a PS/2 (waterproof) keyboard. (He's got a much more technical explanation, including a circuit diagram and drivers on his website, in case your SO / parents / kids also have rules about messing with your house). We're now taking bets on how long it takes his MIT classmates to crack his password.

[Via MAKE: Blog]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

1UP:
"Early in September, Microsoft held a media briefing in Tokyo where they outlined goals for the 360 in Japan, announcing price cuts and showing off a number of games. From what we're piecing together, however, it seems like Gears of War 2 won't be one of those games releasing in Japan"

It's raining games, as headliners join Midnight Club, PS3 trio of BioShock, Eternal Sonata, Rock Band 2, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Portal: Still Alive, and more.

Macware today released a new way to clean up, optimize, and backup Mac systems. The software -- titled MacTuneUp -- is designed to prevent system instability and speed up a Mac in a few simple steps. The application quickly discovers as well as fixes problems, restores hard disk space, creates bootable disk backups, and maximizes internet as well a...

I'm a Ninja.. expert. Not the bulls** Ninjitsu! I'm talkin bout the AUTHENTIC Bujinkan Ninjitsu as taught by Master Hatsumi Sensei!

People (putative authors especially) tend to have a lot of misconceptions about what editors do - and, more importantly, don't do. The one that tickles my funny bone the hardest is the misconception that editors sit at their desks during the day and, like, edit books. HA! As fucking if. More likely, editors are answering a phone that never stops ringing while trying to answer emails, coordinate schedules, put out fires, amateur-therapize authors, actually sort of skim some small percentage of their submissions, and make sure all the other departments are actually doing what they're supposed to be doing on behalf of the editor's books (they're usually not). Okay, I caught that yawn. On to the more digestible Unsolisticle portion of the column, where we'll explore what an editor isn't in more detail.

So we've established that editors don't edit (except at night and on the weekends. Sigh). Editors also don't:

• know everything there is to know about spelling and grammar and punctuation. The people who get paid to know that shit are copyeditors. I know plenty of editors who can't spell. Spelling turns out not to be related to literary savvy at all. Take that, snobby commenters!

•sit on submissions because they're afraid of offending the author/agent with a rejection. More likely, we just haven't read the damn thing. And if you pressure us for an answer rightnow (without any offers in your hand), the answer is going to be 'no.' Happy?

•have some magical power that enables us to know whether or not something is crap or good (or, you know, good, marketable crap. Da Vinci crap.) We just use our common sense and our opinions. Oh, and also Bookscan.

• find things in the slush pile. If you can't ally yourself with one of the ten bazillion agents who currently exist, there is something really wrong with you. Also, most publishing houses have ironclad no-unsolicited-submissions policies. So get an agent. It's not that hard! (to get a crappy one). It is hard to get a good one, but that's another Unsolicited.

• lead glamorous lives. Maybe there is, like, one rockstareditor left in this city, swilling hard liquor long into the night with his rockstarauthors while discussing, you know, Sartre v. Camus. He is statistically insignificant compared to the thousands of us who steal milk and toilet paper from the office because we can't afford our own, and go to readings for the free canapés.

• want to hear about your genius idea for a book. I'm talking to you, Uncle Morty. If it's Thanksgiving and I have a drink in one hand, I do not want to be holding your proposal for a children's book about The Tree Who Had No Friends in the other hand. I can't help you. Even if I wanted to, I still wouldn't be able to help you. Talk to God. Last time I checked, s/he was the one in charge of handing out talent.

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