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Madoff Coders Charged With Aiding Massive Ponzi Scheme
Two programmers who worked for convicted fraudster Bernard Madoff have been arrested and charged with providing technical support for the massive Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of an estimated $65 billion. Jerome O’Hara, 46, and George Perez, 43, were arrested Friday morning and charged with conspiracy for falsifying books and records for Madoff’s broker-dealer and [...]
11.13.09 -
7 More Alan Moore Comics That Could Get Librarians Fired
A library employee in Kentucky was so offended by Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentleman: The Black Dossier that she effectively took it out of circulation, and was recently fired for her efforts. But God knows what the amateur comics censor would have thought of the prolific Moore’s other titles, some of which make The [...]
11.13.09 -
Copyright Time Bomb Set to Disrupt Music, Publishing Industries
The late ’70s, when punk exploded and disco imploded, were tumultuous years for the music industry. A time bomb embedded in legislation from that era, the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, could bring another round of tumult to the business, due to provisions that allow authors or their heirs to terminate copyright grants — or [...]
11.13.09 -
Twitter: Time’s ‘Person’ of the Year?
It was “You” once. So, why not Twitter? Once upon a time Time Magazine picked a “Man of the Year” to ensure a guaranteed big story in the often lackluster holiday season. That honor became a “Person of the Year” in 1981, when a man won anyway. Anyway, it was a long overdue fix since Time [...]
11.13.09 -
Review: Modern Warfare 2 Kills Well With Others
Here’s what you need to know about Modern Warfare 2: It’s a magnificent multiplayer game. Yes, the incredibly popular new shooter for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (reviewed) comes bundled with an entertaining and substantial single-player storyline, one that has already stirred up a little controversy. See also: Test-Driving Modern Warfare 2’s Night-Vision Goggles Powerful [...]
11.13.09 -
Augmented Reality Ghost Hunting Creeps Into App Store
I ain’t afraid of no iGhost! I’m talking about this app Augmented Reality Ghost Hunting (ARGH), for the iPhone. The app festively debuted on this glorious Friday the 13th, and I guess it’s supposed to creep us out, but it just got me giggling. The objective of ARGH is to use your iPhone as a paranormal [...]
11.13.09 -
Great Documentation Is Key to Open Source Success
Listen up open source developers, if you want your project to succeed you’re going to have to do more than write great code; you’re going to have to document it, teach new users how it works and provide real-world examples of what you can do with it. That’s the message from Jacob Kaplan-Moss, one of the [...]
11.13.09 -
Mercedes Now Taking Gullwing Orders
We’ve been following Mercedes impressive and updated Gullwing for quite a while here at Autopia. Since Mercedes made it official, calling the reborn Gullwing the AMG-SLS, to the rumors of an electric version, to the stunning revelation that Mercedes will indeed be making one of the best EVs ever announced. But now comes word on [...]
11.13.09 -
Another Bugatti Veyron Bites The Dust
The Bugatti Veyron is the unequivocal king of function, flare and raw power on today’s tarmac. It has received much fan-fare for being the best at many things. Unfortunately for one man in Texas, seaworthiness is not one of them. As his woeful story goes, the driver was cruising by a lagoon when a “low-flying pelican” [...]
11.13.09 -
Lunar Impactor Finds Clear Evidence of Water Ice on Moon
There is water on the moon, NASA confirmed today, and lots of it. In the first look at results from the LCROSS mission, which sent a probe crashing into the Cabeus crater near the moon’s south pole, NASA’s main investigator said their instruments clearly detected water, despite the underwhelming plume. Within the field of view of their [...]
11.13.09
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Review: 2012 Displays Childlike Glee Amid Destruction
2012 is Roland Emmerich’s best movie since Independence Day. Take that however you please. The German director is a filmmaking Peter Pan. He won’t grow up. Like most kids, he undoubtedly created horrible scenarios with his toy train set. Unlike most kids, he probably added some lighter fluid and lit a match. In many ways, [...]
11.13.09 -
Final Fantasy XIII Gets U.S. Release Date, New Theme Song
The long-delayed Final Fantasy XIII will be released in the U.S. and Europe on March 9, 2010, Square Enix said Friday. Square Enix also said that the Western releases of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game would feature a new theme song — “My Hands,” by RCA Music Group recording artist Leona Lewis. The Japanese [...]
11.13.09 -
U.S. to Afghan Militias: Don’t Throw Away Your Guns
In Afghanistan’s Wardak Province, the U.S. military has overseen a modest experiment in giving Kalashnikovs, cash, and power to local militias to keep insurgents out of rural communities. Now the Afghan government and the U.S. military are set to try the experiment on a much larger scale. Reporting from Kabul, Jim Michaels of USA Today describes [...]
11.13.09 -
Dell Confirms Android Smart Phone, Specs Still Secret
Dell has, at long last, confirmed its intentions to get into the smartphone market. The company’s first handset will be the Mini 3, about which Dell is saying nothing other than that it will run on the Google-backed Android operating system. If we know Dell, it likely won’t matter, as there is sure to be [...]
11.13.09 -
Sleepbox, A Tiny, One-Person Hotel
Sleep customs vary across the world. Here in Spain we take long multi-hour lunch breaks and sleep awhile. It’s common to see old men snoozing in the public library in the afternoon. Back in England, you can never sleep on the job, even if you are rendered useless by fatigue. And nodding off in public is [...]
11.13.09 -
Israelis Want a Pain Ray of Their Own
The U.S. military spent tens of millions of dollars and years of work developing a microwave “pain beam,” but a combination of technical difficulties and political concerns kept the Pentagon from fielding the thing. Now, an Israeli team says they’re working on their own own portable version. And it’ll cost just $250,000. The American weapon, known [...]
11.13.09 -
Searching For a Motor To Drive Our DIY EV
Now that I’ve purchased a car to convert to electrical power, the next big step is finding an electric motor. Everything I’ve learned during my crash course in EV conversions suggests the most difficult part of the job will be mating an electric motor to the the four-speed transmission in the 1967 VW Beetle I’m converting. [...]
11.13.09 -
EyeClops Night Vision Binoculars: Same Tech, New Form Factor
Think winter’s early dusks reduce kids’ outdoor playtime? Not if they can see in the dark! Last year I reviewed a pair of Eyeclops night vision goggles, which offered a new and exciting product: night vision for kids. This year’s model is formatted as a pair of binoculars instead of goggles. At first glance, the EyeClops [...]
11.13.09 -
Vega Tablet Beats Apple and Crunchpad
The Vega, from Converged Devices, wants to be the mythical Apple Tablet, and at first it looks as if it really could be a great alternative to that still non-existent machine, not least because it is actually real. But dig into the specs and you start to see that this Android-powered (v2) tablet is not much [...]
11.13.09 -
Darpa: Freeze Soldiers to Save Injured Brains
The Pentagon’s mad-science division has a new way to deal with the 70,000+ troops diagnosed with traumatic brain injury: Freeze ‘em. Darpa, the military’s far-out research arm, is looking for research projects that would create a “therapeutic hypothermia device” to prevent traumatic brain injuries from causing permanent molecular damage to the brain. The idea is based [...]
11.13.09
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Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the… GameStop?
Image via Wikipedia We geeks have always had our easy targets for derision. Battlefield Earth. The Zune. Nokia’s N-Gage. Alaskan senator Ted Stevens. While we are likely the first to herald a critical success, we are equally quick to mock the epic failure. Such is our way. Yet lately it seems as though our ire has been [...]
11.13.09 -
Five for Fighting 11/13/09
# Qaeda big will go on trial, blocks from the World Trade Center # Feds seize NYC skyscraper from Iran front # U.S. wants China’s help in Afghanistan # Boston cops taking Twitter tips # Michael Jackson planned ‘robot duplicate‘ of himself
11.13.09 -
Stylish Swedish Watering Can With Silicon Spout
This Swedish watering can has brains as well as beauty. The 1.5 liter (3 pint) stainless steel body expresses its load through a silicon tube. The tube is joined at the bottom, just like any other can, but the top end is free. As you move it down and point it at the target plant [...]
11.13.09 -
One Person’s “Meep!” Is Another’s Poison
If you’re a Muppet lab assistant or a cartoon bird pursued by a hapless coyote, you are no longer welcome at Danvers High School in Massachusetts. Or, at least, you’d better keep your mouth shut if you visit, because the school’s principal seems to think that “meep” is murder. Or something like that. Because he has, [...]
11.13.09 -
Cute USB Stick Receives, Records Radio
Still listen to the radio? No, neither do we. We made a playlist of the hits of the 70s, 80s and 90s and it’s exactly the same as every commercial FM station, minus the ads. And we don’t even listen to that. If you live in Britain, though, you get BBC radio, and you may be [...]
11.13.09 -
Mini E Field Test Highlights Roadblocks Facing Electric Cars
WOODCLIFF LAKE, New Jersey — BMW has revealed the early results of field tests of its electric Mini, and the picture is not entirely rosy. Displaying considerable candor, BMW North America manager of electric vehicle operations and strategy Rich Steinberg said the small-scale rollout of several hundred of the electric two-seaters was more difficult than expected. [...]
11.13.09 -
10 Things Parents Should Know about Disney’s A Christmas Carol
I had planned on leading with a joke about seeing a Christmas movie on the first weekend of November, but GeekDad is running it’s holiday gift guide already, so the glass houses rule applies. Onward! Fair warning: I teach Dickens regularly, and so am a bit obsessive about the source material. Will I like it? Are [...]
11.13.09 -
BigShot Kit Camera, Like Crack for Kids
What do these phrases mean to you? “Circuit board”, “gearbox”, “dynamo and battery”? If your answer is “digital camera” then you are either cheating or you already know about the BigShot, a kit camera designed to let kids learn about digicams by building one. The BigShot, still in testing, is a super-simple digicam from the Computer [...]
11.13.09 -
Nerdcore Invites Your Inner Nerd Out to Play
Everyone has an inner nerd. Isn't it time you let that inner nerd out to play? I take a look and listen at the Nerdcore music scene including a visit to Nerd Invasion in Pensacola, FL.
11.13.09 -
The Prisoner: An All-Star Appreciation
Patrick McGoohan’s stunning spy-fi series The Prisoner only lasted 17 episodes before sadly disappearing in 1969. But its revolutionary mix of geopolitics, sci-fi and psychedelia has influenced not just television, but also music, comics, film and more. It even made a deep impression on the most influential band of all time. “Before Magical Mystery Tour, the Beatles [...]
11.13.09
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Mercedes ‘mbraces’ Telematics
Mercedes-Benz is launching a voice-controlled telematics system that all but puts a personal assistant in the car to find most any location, answer most any question and cater to most any whim. The German automaker says “mbrace” provides “an unprecedented level of connectivity” and a suite of 18 services that do everything from locate your car [...]
11.13.09 -
October NPD: Wii Wins, Uncharted Charts
The U.S. videogame market fell 19% versus last year in October 2009, although certain games showed solid performance, the NPD Group reported Thursday. Average weekly sales of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 declined from last month, NPD said, although sales of PSP, Nintendo DS and Wii were up. PlayStation 3’s price cut did keep the console [...]
11.13.09 -
In Escalating War Against Verizon, AT&T; Is Getting Tone Deaf — and Outflanked
Just in time for the holidays, Verizon and AT&T are going to war: After taking direct aim at the 800-pound gorilla that is the iPhone with some funny and some cinematic TV ads for the Motorola Droid rollout last week, Verizon is flanking AT&T with a growing repertoire of teasing commercials that assert the reach of [...]
11.13.09 -
Movies: 2012 Turns Apocalypse Into Spectacle
Director Roland Emmerich vows that he’s had it with disaster pictures, but if that’s the case, he’s going out with a bang. The man behind Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow has assembled a cavalcade of special-effects catastrophes for 2012, which features John Cusack (pictured) as a family man reacting to a doomsday scenario [...]
11.12.09 -
Bush Feared Successor Might Revoke Telco Spy Immunity
The George W. Bush administration expressed concern future administrations might not use the legal amnesty it wanted to give the nation’s telecommunication companies that were being sued for assisting the president’s warrantless, electronic wiretapping program, according to internal documents released Thursday. The documents, unearthed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, [...]
11.12.09 -
Best Sci-Fi Flicks of the ’60s, ’70s, According to You
<< previous image | next image >> Readers’ Picks: Your Favorite Sci-Fi Flicks, From Metropolis Through the ’50s Wired’s Picks: Wired’s Favorite Sci-Fi Flicks of All Time — Pre–Star Wars Wired’s Favorite Sci-Fi Flicks of All Time — Star Wars and After The ’70s brought bigger budgets and critical acclaim, with blockbusters like Star Wars and Close Encounters [...]
11.12.09 -
Jailbreakers Battle Apple for Control of iPhone
When he was 17, George Hotz poured hundreds of hours of his summer vacation into a special project: learning the iPhone’s secrets. His unpaid labor eventually paid off. With the help of a soldering iron, he was the first to unlock the iPhone, delivering the handset to international networks before Apple had a chance to. He [...]
11.12.09 -
Peugeot’s Hybrid Trike Goes Topless
Peugeot has peeled the top off their Hybrid3 concept to reveal an open-air scooter with three wheels — and three separate motors to power them. Like an automotive Centaur, the Hybrid3 Evolution is the automaker’s latest attempt at bridging the gap between car and scooter for the benefit of urban motorists. “The architecture of the HYbrid3 [...]
11.12.09 -
Playlist: MGMT’s Goldwasser Walks You Through Killer Tracks
MGMT’s Ben Goldwasser shares a few tracks that influenced his songwriting, and talks about working with up-and-coming director Ray Tintori, in this week’s Playlist podcast. Tintori, who is featured in the November issue of Wired (”Music Video Auteur Sets His Sights on the Movies“), met MGMT in college when, appropriately enough, he was studying film and [...]
11.12.09 -
New Brain Cells May Knock Out Old Memories
Old memories may get the boot from new brain cells. A new rodent study shows that newborn neurons destabilize established connections among existing brain cells in the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in learning and memory. Clearing old memories from the hippocampus makes way for new learning, researchers from Japan suggest in the November [...]
11.12.09
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Navy Pirates Wired With Online Sea-Jacking Game
In July, Wired.com and Wired magazine launched an online strategy game, to explain how Somali pirates attacked and ransomed off ships. The U.S. Navy announced Thursday that it’s looking for an online strategy game centered around Somali pirates. The military game that the Navy is seeking proposals for won’t be exactly the same as Wired’s Cutthroat [...]
11.12.09 -
Singularity University: Rise of the Molecular Machines
A Singularity University student taped a picture of Ralph Merkle to a dorm room wall, executive director Salim Ismail tells me. Merkle makes an unlikely pinup, but I get it. He’s a great speaker, engaging students with unusual enthusiasm, clarity, and humor. It doesn’t hurt that what he’s explaining is one of the weirdest, scariest, [...]
11.12.09 -
Avatar: The Game Trailer Sidesteps Uncanny Valley
The folks behind James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game didn’t have to struggle too hard to make their videogame look lifelike. Director Cameron did most of the heavy lifting (and reportedly spent $500 million) when it came to clawing up and out of the uncanny valley. The new trailer for the Avatar videogame underlines the lengths [...]
11.12.09 -
BlackBerry Gets the Exclusive Official Craigslist App
The BlackBerry app store may be trailing the iPhone and Android app market but it’s got an exclusive that’s sure to leave other smartphone users envious. The official Craigslist app will soon be exclusively available to BlackBerry users. The $5 app created by Movela and Pyxis Mobile will allow users to browse and search through Craigslist [...]
11.12.09 -
Comet Hunter’s Last Look at Earth Is Haunting
This gorgeous image of a blue arc of the Earth against the blackness of space was captured by the Rosetta spacecraft as it swung by our planet. The European Space Agency mission is on its way to intercept the comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The ship will deploy a lander onto the comet’s surface, the first such attempt to [...]
11.12.09 -
Underwater Glider Hunts, Records Cryptic Whales
The mysterious beaked whale is the target of a new undersea glider trying to track the deep-diving mammals by their high-frequency clicks and squeals. A Seaglider unmanned underwater vehicle with an underwater microphone began patrolling the coast of Hawaii on October 27 and will finish up its initial mission on November 17. By then, it will [...]
11.12.09 -
Move Over, HTTP. Say ‘Hello World’ to SPDY
Google plans to introduce a new protocol for web transactions it says is more than 50 percent faster than HTTP. A post on Google’s Chromium blog describes the new protocol, SPDY, pronounced “Speedy”: SPDY is at its core an application-layer protocol for transporting content over the web. It is designed specifically for minimizing latency through features [...]
11.12.09 -
Gates to War Strategy Leakers: STFU
When Defense Secretary Bob Gates wanted to overhaul the Pentagon’s budget earlier this year, he took the unprecedented step on making everyone involved sign non-disclosure agreements. His staff set up an exclusive reading room for the financial documents. Only top-ranking generals—four stars—were allowed inside, and they weren’t permitted to take the briefings out. In meetings, [...]
11.12.09 -
Who Wants a Stylus? Apple Is Thinking About It
A recently published patent from Apple depicts pen-based handwriting recognition software that would work with tablet-like devices. The described invention (screenshot at right) demonstrates a method to make digital handwriting recognition better than technologies used in the past. An “ink manager” would attempt to recognize full phrases before sending them to the handwriting recognition engine, as [...]
11.12.09 -
T. Rex Finally Has a Buyer, We Just Don’t Know Who
The Tyrannosaurus rex that was featured in a Las Vegas auction in October finally has a home. We just can’t tell you where. Samson, as the giant fossil is affectionately known, failed to fetch enough at the live auction to satisfy the owner. In October, Tom Lindgren, who curated the natural history auction for Bonhams & [...]
11.12.09
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Review: Typekit Delivers Custom Web Fonts to the Masses
A new service called Typekit is now offering a legal, cloud-based method of using more elaborate typefaces on the web. The service has come out of beta and is serving up its fonts to web designers. Despite some inconsistencies between browsers (not Typekit’s fault) and a few other quirks, we found Typekit to be a viable [...]
11.12.09 -
Researchers: Flaw in Fed Wiretaps Could Allow Circumvention
People who think they are being wiretapped by the cops could disable the taps by sending a stream of text messages or making numerous VOIP calls to overwhelm the system’s thin bandwidth, researchers in Pennsylvania postulate. The researchers say they’ve found a vulnerability in U.S. law enforcement wiretaps, if only theoretical, that would allow a surveillance [...]
11.12.09 -
Colfer’s Hitchhiker’s Guide Sequel Will Be His Last
For a soft-spoken man of gentle manners and slight build, writer Eoin Colfer has no shortage of creative courage. While others might have shied away from following in the legendary footsteps of the late Douglas Adams, the Irish author accepted the challenge of penning a new installment of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Still, despite [...]
11.12.09 -
Singularity University: Attack of the Spimes
What comes after Web 2.0? For David Orban, the next phase is the Internet of Things: a digital lattice of interconnected objects — cars, handbags, sneakers, thermoses. Orban calls these objects spimes. Coined by sci-fi god Bruce Sterling, the term denotes a networked thingy that’s aware of its orientation in space and time. Your cellphone [...]
11.12.09 -
Help Threat Level Examine Federal Spy Documents
We’re putting together a story about the behind-the-scenes negotiations that led to 2008 legislation immunizing the nation’s telecommunication companies from liability for assisting the government’s warrantless dragnet program — the hijacking of Americans’ electronic communications. Threat Level wants your assistance. Then-Sen. Barack Obama voted for the immunity package, which forced a San Francisco federal judge to dismiss [...]
11.12.09 -
Video Close-Up: The Sun’s Surface in Swirling Detail
A telescope carried by balloon to the edge of Earth’s stratosphere has returned the most detailed video of the sun’s surface to date. Released Wednesday by an international research team led by astronomers from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the video shows what the naked human eye could never see, even if we [...]
11.12.09 -
Bomb-Fighting Dog, MIA for a Year, is Found in Afghanistan
Amid all the gloomy news from Afghanistan (and the fingers-on-chalkboard strategy debate), here’s a cheerful headline: An Australian Special Forces explosives-sniffing dog has been found alive in Afghanistan — more than a year after she went MIA in firefight. According to a news release from the Australian military, Sabi, a Black Labrador, was found by a [...]
11.12.09 -
Here’s Your Chance to Drive a Tesla
At $121,000, you’ll probably never own a Tesla Roadster Sport. But you’ll get a chance to drive one. Videogame designer Kazunori Yamauchi told IGN.com the souped-up version of Tesla’s Roadster will appear in Gran Turismo 5. The guys at IGN, being gamers, not gearheads, show a picture of the Fisker Karma sedan (D’oh!) in the video [...]
11.12.09 -
Secret Math of Fly Eyes Could Overhaul Robot Vision
By turning the brain cell activity underlying fly eyesight into mathematical equations, researchers have found an ultra-efficient method for pulling motion patterns from raw visual data. Though they built the system, the researchers don’t quite understand how it works. But however mysterious the equations may be, they could still be used to program the vision systems [...]
11.12.09 -
Military to Obama: We Heart Our Nukes, Don’t Give ‘Em Up
President Barack Obama’s vision of a nuclear-free world has won a fair amount of attention — and a Nobel Prize. So how long, exactly, will it take to get to zero? According to the general in charge of the nukes, 40 years at the very minimum. Speaking Tuesday on Capitol Hill, Gen. Kevin Chilton, the head [...]
11.12.09
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Five for Fighting 11/12/09
# Obama rejects all Afghanistan troop options # Facebook update used as alibi # Robot negotiator ends Colorado siege # Taliban ringtones # Iraq ‘vet,’ Navy Cross ‘winner’ busted at high school reunion (High five: KA, @stevesilberman, @AfPakChannel)
11.12.09 -
Intel Pays AMD $1.25 billion To Settle All Disputes
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Chip makers Intel and Advanced Micro Devices said Thursday they have settled all outstanding legal disputes, including antitrust litigation and patent licensing issues. Intel said it will pay AMD $1.25 billion as part of the settlement, sending shares of AMD up nearly 30 percent. The two companies also sealed a five-year [...]
11.12.09 -
A Visit to Battleship Cove
My five-year old GeekSon has become interested in books about naval warships. So I thought I would take him to see some real warships. Luckily, we have a few choices in the Greater Boston area. I remember visiting Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts when I was kid. Would my kids like it? Battleship Cove bills itself [...]
11.12.09 -
Totality: Eclipses of the Sun
Nothing is more gorgeous than nature at its finest. A total solar eclipse is a prime example of that. Even a partial eclipse is a memorable experience, if you get outside and witness it first hand. I remember during a partial eclipse years ago, I went outside to play with the sun. The most fun [...]
11.12.09 -
Friendship Comes to The Clone Wars
Matt recently asked how we can help our kids become good adults, which is certainly a question any parent thinks about regularly. The familiar question contains a key assumption: that parents are the most significant factor in how children turn out. Judith Harris, the provocative developmental psychologist, has called this the “nurture assumption,” [...]
11.12.09 -
Premium Car Buyers Shaken by Recession, Stirred by Conscience
WOODCLIFF LAKE, New Jersey — Rampant unemployment and a gyrating stock market have changed American consumers forever, and unlike previous recessions this one will leave lasting scars on our shopping psyches. But people still will buy pricey items if they’re presented as a socially responsible choice, says market research firm DYG. This permanent shift has replaced [...]
11.12.09 -
In The Driver’s Seat Gives Girls the Keys to Smart Car Ownership
When I bought my first car, I had my brother the mechanic come with me, and simply listened to his excellent advice. But if your daughter is not so lucky, this is the book you need. The subtitle of “In the Driver’s Seat” is “A Girl’s Guide to Her First Car,” but it’s so clear and [...]
11.12.09 -
Latest Taser Could Zap Farther, Shock Longer, Hurt Kids
A new electroshock weapon being developed by Taser could zap people up to 175 feet away — and keep on applying pain for as long as three minutes in a row. Which is pretty tough to take, since it only takes a second or two of shocks to make most people cry out in agony. The [...]
11.12.09 -
Game Party 3: Bring out Your Lawn-Dart Lovin’ Alter-Ego
For the past couple of weeks, my family has been testing out a review copy of Party Games 3. We’ve had some fun, laughed at the graphics, and seen our competitive edge come out in unusual ways. Game Party 3 is a new release from Warner Bros. Games for the Wii platform. Building on the game [...]
11.12.09 -
Emmerich Rewrites History, the Future (After Destroying Earth)
Following Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, Roland Emmerich will destroy the world for the third time in the apocalyptic fantasia 2012. You’ve probably seen the previews and posters for 2012, which opens Friday: Los Angeles melts into the ground, the USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier casually decimates the White House, and tidal waves [...]
11.12.09
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Tauntaun Sleeping Bag Becomes Pre-Order Reality
What once was a clever April Fool’s gag could become one of the hotter gift ideas as the holidays approach. Back on April 1, ThinkGeek.com unveiled a fake bit of Star Wars merchandise — a Tauntaun Sleeping bag. Your little tyke could roll up snug and warm in the intestines of Hoth’s mightiest steed. But the plush [...]
11.12.09 -
The Fight for the Ninth Planet
If there’s still someone out there who thinks science and politics never mix, the story behind the Battle of Prague should change your mind. Find out more about Pluto in a Q&A with the author. Alan Boyle is the science editor for MSNBC.com, an award-winning journalist, a contributor to “A Field Guide for Science Writers,” and the blogger [...]
11.11.09 -
Pluto 2015: Journey to the Rim of the Solar System
An epic 10-year, 3-billion-mile journey from Cape Canaveral to the rim of the solar system is almost halfway complete, and in 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will allow us to lay eyes directly on the mysterious, beloved Pluto for the first time. “Every time that we go to a new kind of place, we find out [...]
11.11.09 -
Dwarf-Planet Rebranding Contest
Pluto is no longer a planet. Sorry, folks, those are just the facts. But that doesn’t mean that Pluto will be a lonely exile without any friends. In fact, there are four other dwarf planets to keep it company, and maybe even more on the way. Dwarf planets have been defined by the International Astronomical Union since [...]
11.11.09 -
Prisoner Rollout Includes Online Comic, Pop-Cult Timeline
With less than a week to go before its Sunday airing of The Prisoner, AMC is rolling out the internet red carpet for its reboot of Patrick McGoohan’s influential cult series. The latest internet peripherals include an online graphic novel; the first part, “Book One: As the Air, Invulnerable,” premiered Wednesday. It’s a Flash-based motion comic [...]
11.11.09 -
Google Poised to Become Your Phone Company
Google is set to become your new phone company, perhaps reducing your phone bill to zilch in the process. Seriously. Google has bought Gizmo5, an online phone company that is akin to Skype — but based on open protocols and with a lot fewer users. TechCrunch, which broke the news on Monday, reported that Google spent $30 [...]
11.11.09 -
Whedon’s Dollhouse Is Fox’s Latest Sci-Fi Fatality
Joss Whedon’s low-rated sci-fi series Dollhouse survived the ax last May and lived to see a second season. But after failing to gain traction in its deadly Friday night slot this fall, the show has been canceled by Fox. Prospects looked dim for Whedon and star-producer Eliza Dushku when Fox yanked Dollhouse from its November [...]
11.11.09 -
[Microsoft's Bing + x(Wolfram|Alpha)] > Google?
Microsoft’s search engine Bing will soon feature results from the innovative Wolfram|Alpha web service that attempts to compute answers to searchers’ questions, rather than link to web pages. Bing and Wolfram announced Wednesday that Microsoft would begin using Wolfram Alpha’s service to power certain queries about math, health and nutrition as part of Bing’s attempt to [...]
11.11.09 -
White Rabbit Has Pink Eye in New Alice in Wonderland Image
Which is creepier: The faces in the flowers or that demanding little white rabbit with the pocket watch? Disney released this second new image from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland Wednesday, along with a Facebook ransom note. See also: First Look: Tim Burton Takes Alice to Weird, Wild Wonderland “The Mad Hatter has truly gone mad,” the [...]
11.11.09 -
Don’t-Miss Video: Incredible Look at U.S. Airways Flight 1549
We’ve seen a lot of simulations of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 going into the Hudson River, but a new video painstakingly compiled by an engineer offers the most comprehensive and compelling look yet at the airliner’s short but incredible flight. When the plane went down in January, it didn’t take long before the internet was flush [...]
11.11.09
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New Kick-Ass Trailer Kicks a Little Amateur Superhero Ass
Meet the scruffy superheroes of Kick-Ass: Big Daddy, Red Mist, Hit-Girl and the title character. These underpowered amateur crime-fighters, shown in the trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s down-and-dirty comic book (embedded right), put a low-budget comedic spin on the superhero mythos. (The trailer is viewable in HD on MySpace’s [...]
11.11.09 -
Debating Modern Warfare 2 On News Radio
Wednesday morning, I was a guest on the KSRO early-morning news broadcast out of Sonoma County, California. The subject was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and violence in videogames. The entire exchange is already archived at the station’s website. The description of the clip makes it sound like KSRO was out for blood, but the [...]
11.11.09 -
Convicted Murderer Sues Wikipedia, Demands Removal of His Name
Wikipedia is under a censorship attack by a convicted murderer who is invoking Germany’s privacy laws in a bid to remove references to his killing of a Bavarian actor in 1990. Lawyers for Wolfgang Werle, of Erding, Germany, sent a cease-and-desist letter (.pdf) demanding removal of Werle’s name from the Wikipedia entry on actor Walter Sedlmayr. [...]
11.11.09 -
You Can’t Get Whale-Penis Leather Seats After All
What’s the world coming to when you can get your $1.45 million bulletproof SUV with gold trim, a ridiculously expensive Vertu cellphone and three bottles of premium vodka, but you can’t get the whale-penis-skin interior? We have environmentalists and Pamela Anderson to thank for this. This bizarre story starts in Russia with a company called Dartz, which [...]
11.11.09 -
‘Call of Duty Endowment’ Aids Unemployed Vets
Activision Blizzard has established a charity to help find jobs for unemployed veterans, it said Monday. The Modern Warfare publisher has committed to raising millions of dollars through a new foundation called the Call of Duty Endowment, a non-profit dedicated to helping soldiers find work. This announcement coincided with the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [...]
11.11.09 -
Singularity University: Heat of the Moment
It takes a lot of juice to power the contemporary lifestyle. How to keep the AC going without turning up the burner under Hothouse Earth? That’s probably the wrong question, says Michel Gelobter, Environment & Energy Track Chair at Singularity University. A better one would be, How much more do we have to mess up the [...]
11.11.09 -
Videogames Will Make ‘Space Mountain’ Line Less Interminable
Disney’s imagineers have installed original videogames to help entertain parkgoers waiting to ride Space Mountain. Renovations to the popular ride at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, which has been offline since April, are currently under way. One of the big changes will be a series of videogame diversions. The games will stick close to the [...]
11.11.09 -
2012’s Doomsday Predecessors: An Apocalyptic Primer
The sky is falling, again, as three upcoming movies explore the end of days, the apocalypse or whatever you want to call the dead-end ash heap that strikes fear in the hearts of true believers — and conjures visions of box office gold in the minds of Hollywood executives. See also: The 2012 Apocalypse — And [...]
11.11.09 -
Meet Go, Google’s New Programming Language
Google has released a brand-new programming language it hopes will solve some of the problems with existing languages such as Java and C++. The language is called Go, and it was released under an open source license Tuesday. Google is no stranger to the open source world. The company has released the underlying code for [...]
11.11.09 -
Google Cuts Online Storage Pricing, Fuels Anticipation for Cheap Cloud-Based OS
Google has dropped the prices for extra storage space in Gmail and Picasa. Ostensibly the prices have gone down because storage costs have dropped, but it might also be a necessary move anticipating the coming Chrome OS, which will likely need sizable online storage space. For now, if you need some extra space for your Gmail [...]
11.11.09
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Japan’s New ‘UFO Catcher’ Prize: Fresh-Baked Cakes
OSAKA, Japan — A Japanese arcade is pulling the stuffed animals out of some of its prize machines and replacing them with something that appeals to an older audience: freshly made baked goods. One on One, an entertainment center in Osaka, offers Japan’s first “sweets crane game.” Alongside traditional claw vending machines full of stuffed toys [...]
11.11.09 -
Mozilla Paves the Way for Firefox 3.6 With Second Beta Release
Just two weeks after the first beta release of Firefox 3.6, Mozilla has already pushed out a second beta for users to test. Mozilla is making good on its promise to deliver Firefox 3.6 without the extended delays that plagued the 3.5 release. Firefox 3.6 beta 2, released Wednesday, brings 190 more bug fixes to [...]
11.11.09 -
YouTube’s Skippable Ads Could Command a Premium
Google launched a “small test of skippable pre-roll” video advertisements on YouTube that asks users to “opt in” to advertisements by not opting out using a skip button in the upper right corner of the viewing area, potentially making them more valuable to advertisers. Directors of commercials will need to up their games if they want [...]
11.11.09 -
Alt Text: Clever Murdoch Turns News Into Hip Underground Club
Let me be the first, and possibly only, person to say it: I love Rupert Murdoch like a mother. I’m not sure whether I mean that I love him as if I were his mother, or I love him as if he were my mother, but in either case the love is as heartfelt as [...]
11.10.09 -
Government Will Pay $3 Million in Coffee Table Spying Suit
The U.S. has agreed to pay $3 million to a former government worker who accused officials with the CIA and State Department of spying on him with a bugged coffee table. Rather than comply with a court order to provide lawyers in the case with what the U.S. government says is classified information, the government has [...]
11.10.09 -
Powerful Modern Warfare 2 Plot Hits Close to Home
The early hours of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 take gamers around the world and back again, but the new game’s story hits close to home. Military scenarios, violent police actions and straight-from-the-big-screen massive firefights take place in such far-flung locales as Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Brazil. But things don’t really get interesting until the action [...]
11.10.09 -
Test-Driving Modern Warfare 2’s Night-Vision Goggles
While millions of American gamers were standing in line to pick up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 last night, I was skulking around in the bushes. Like most major game releases, the first-person shooter from Infinity Ward was available in several different elaborate collector’s edition bundles when it was released Tuesday. The grandest of them [...]
11.10.09 -
Feds Charge $522K for FOIA Request
The Treasury Department wants more than $500,000 to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, a fee an attorney on the case suggested Tuesday might be one of the largest bills of its kind. “I have not seen one that has been larger,” said Noah Wood, a Missouri attorney suing the government to comply with [...]
11.10.09 -
Shit My Dad Says: Twitter Got Me a Sitcom Deal
Justin Halpern’s dad says the darndest things, and tons of folks are listening — including CBS, which plans to make a television show based on the 73-year-old’s goofball musings. Started in August, Halpern’s hilarious Shit My Dad Says Twitter feed has attracted 700,000 followers. Now CBS plans to produce a sitcom pilot based on the comic [...]
11.10.09 -
2011: Obama’s Coup Fails Injects Politics Into Strategy Game
Foes of President Barack Obama and his policies can vent their frustrations by engaging in fictional warfare, thanks to a new online strategy game with a heavy political component. The satirical game 2011: Obama’s Coup Fails, launched last month by a group of Ron Paul supporters that call themselves The Founders, throws players into combat against [...]
11.10.09
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Best Sci-Fi Flicks of the ’60s, ’70s, According to You
11.12.09 -
Jailbreak Community Battles Apple for Control of iPhone
11.12.09 -
Don’t-Miss Video: Incredible Look at U.S. Airways Flight 1549
11.11.09 -
New Brain Cells May Knock Out Old Memories
11.12.09 -
Dell’s Zino HD is a Candy-Colored Mac Mini Killer
11.12.09 -
Comet Hunter’s Last Look at Earth Is Haunting
11.12.09 -
Secret Math of Fly Eyes Could Overhaul Robot Vision
11.12.09 -
Navy Pirates Wired With Online Sea-Jacking Game
11.12.09 -
Designer Duo Create a Dress With 24,000 LEDs
11.12.09 -
Google Poised to Become Your Phone Company
11.11.09 -
Video Close-Up: The Sun’s Surface in Swirling Detail
11.12.09 -
Underwater Glider Hunts, Records Cryptic Whales
11.12.09 -
Colfer’s Hitchhiker’s Guide Sequel Will Be His Last
11.12.09 -
Bush Feared Successor Might Revoke Telco Spy Immunity
11.12.09 -
Mercedes ‘mbraces’ Telematics
11.13.09 -
New Milky Way Image Shows Best of All Spectra
11.11.09 -
Underdog Planet: Why We Love Pluto
11.11.09 -
You Can’t Get Whale-Penis Leather Seats After All
11.11.09 -
In Escalating War Against Verizon, AT&T; Is Getting Tone Deaf — and Outflanked
11.13.09 -
Test-Driving Modern Warfare 2’s Night-Vision Goggles
11.10.09
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