Tech Culture

Superstorm Sandy 'hurricane hackers' gather to help

A new kind of digital activist has emerged from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy this week -- the hurricane hacker.

This weekend, an in-person "Sandy CrisisCamp" will take place in Boston, cities on the West Coast, and even New Zealand. The events are basically set up as cross between a hack-a-thon and a workshop where geeks come together to design and code projects that can help local communities prepare for and cope with crisis.

Among some of the projects CrisisCampers will be working on are crowdsourcing tools to categorize images for building damage, allowing FEMA to prioritize its efforts, and a simple Google doc that attempts to keep track of all the sources of Sandy recovery data in a single place.… Read more

Channel William Shatner with new 'Shatoetry' spoken word app

iPhone users can now make William Shatneresque poetry, filled with his dramatic pauses and unique inflections, thanks to an app released today.

Called Shatoetry, the app lets users choose from a library of prerecorded words to create what Shatner -- or his marketing people -- has branded "Shatisms," phrases played out in Shatner's voice. It's like making poetry with refrigerator magnets, but with the "Star Trek" icon and Priceline.com spokesman guiding your artistry. … Read more

Luke and Leia battle the Empire in Angry Birds Star Wars trailer

Angry Birds fans anxiously awaiting the new Star Wars version can grab a quick look at the action in a new 57-second trailer.

The first half of the trailer teases you with scenes of Angry Bird Luke trying to impress Angry Bird Leia with his light saber skills. But after Leia yawns in boredom, the galactic action finally revs up.

We're first taken to Luke's home world of Tatooine where he attacks the Empire's evil pigges with his light sabre. Next we travel to the ice world of Hoth where Leia takes down one of the giant … Read more

'Requiem for lives lost': Making music from Mexico's guns

That crazy-looking flute in the above picture? Chances are it was a weapon in Mexico's drug war.

Or parts of it were, at least. Now those pieces make up one of 50 working musical instruments engineered from confiscated Mexican revolvers, shotguns, and machine guns that were once scheduled for public destruction.

Mexico City-based artist Pedro Reyes conceived of the project, titled "Imagine," as a statement on widespread gun violence in the country. … Read more

Ode to Buckyballs, on the day of their demise

Buckyballs, I hardly knew ye. The powerful little magnets came into my life only recently. Lured by a $5-per-set blowout sale, I loaded up with purple and orange Buckyballs and silver and gold Buckycubes.

When I opened my first box, I thought, "How tiny!" And then I began to play. Sure, they're supposed to be relaxing desk toys, but I found myself bent over the table, squinting and swearing, as I tried to form them back into the perfect square they came in.

When I finally achieved the box structure, I felt triumphant. Then I squished the shape into amorphous oblivion once again. This is the joy of Buckyballs. The power of creation. The power of destruction. The challenge of building beautiful, orderly forms from magnetic chaos.… Read more

Halloween pumpkin art: Carving the zombie apocalypse

The only thing better than a zombie pumpkin is a 6-foot-tall rotting zombie pumpkin.

In a marvelous tribute to the coming zombie apocalypse, Phoenix-based master pumpkin carver Ray Villafane and his team have chopped up super-squashes at the New York Botanical Garden.

The Haunted Pumpkin Garden exhibit opened earlier this month but its main attraction, the zombie harvester, is now rotting beautifully. … Read more

Wii U 'deluxe' promotion aims to boost game downloads

If you're willing to invest in new games for your long-awaited Wii U home console, a Nintendo promotion will grant you an extra $5 for every $50 you spend.

The Wii U, due to go on sale starting November 18, will come in two bundles: a $299 basic set and a $349 deluxe set that comes with additional accessories and the Nintendo Land game disc.

If you purchase the more-expensive bundle, you can use the promotion to earn points when purchasing downloadable games. These points can then be converted into discounts and will accumulate until the end of 2014. … Read more

Sandy video: Falling trees. Fire. 'Apocalypse'

It begins with: "This is the apocalypse."

A video shot by YouTube member Imasharky seems to offer a very realistic flavor of the drama and fear engendered by Hurricane Sandy.

Trees crash down on cars. Fires ignite. Fear abounds. (Yes, the word "s***" does appear a couple of times, but is that surprising?)

Sharky describes himself as a 16-year-old from the "good old Empire State" and Mashable was first to spot his film's dramatic nature.

Some might find it moving that -- in the face of so much destruction -- the family reacts … Read more

Lucas: Disney might have been Star Wars' only hope

In a video released today, "Star Wars" creator George Lucas explained that he decided to sell his media empire to The Walt Disney Company for $4.05 billion because he believed it would "protect" Lucasfilm and its cash cow, the "Star Wars" franchise.

Sitting at a table alongside Lucasfilm co-chairman Kathleen Kennedy -- who will be Lucasfilm's president under Disney -- Lucas explained that in recent months, as he had mulled retirement and what he wanted to do with his life, he realized that the "perfect person to take over the company … Read more

Rockstar sets Grand Theft Auto V for spring 2013

Developer Rockstar Games announced today a worldwide spring 2013 release period for Grand Theft Auto V for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, inspiring gamers everywhere to brush up on their reckless-driving skills.

To further excite the masses, Rockstar also noted that Grand Theft Auto V goes up for pre-order "everywhere" on November 5 and promised to release a "host of new information" related to the game. In the past several months, Rockstar teased curious gamers with a dozen screenshots from GTA V, which you can check out in the gallery below. … Read more