SanDisk slashes some prices for the weekend, heading into world’s worst-named Monday
Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
Filed under: Portable Audio, Storage
SanDisk slashes some prices for the weekend, heading into world’s worst-named Monday originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Man hacks GameCube controller for the Wii with tremendous effort
Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
Update: As a bunch of commenters have pointed out, this can be done already by plugging the GameCube controller directly into the Wii. However, this mod lets you do it wirelessly — err, if you don’t count the big microcontroller and mess of wires.
Continue reading Man hacks GameCube controller for the Wii with tremendous effort
Filed under: Gaming
Man hacks GameCube controller for the Wii with tremendous effort originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Nov 2008 12:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Intel VP says netbooks are "fine for an hour"
Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
Intel’s never made a secret of the fact that it developed the now-ubiquitous Atom chipset primarily for mobile devices and low-powered netbooks for at emerging markets, so it’s not totally surprising to hear Intel sales VP Stu Pann say the company doesn’t see netbooks as potentially cannibalizing sales of its existing processors — but we are a bit intrigued by his seeming dismissal of netbooks as everyday machines. According to Stu, a netbook with a 10-inch screen is “fine for an hour. It’s not something you’re going to use day in and day out.” That’s probably true, of course, but it’s harsher language than we’ve heard from Intel in the past — and it’s more or less in line with AMD’s recent decision to ignore netbooks entirely in favor of more capable machines “above that form factor.” Of course, Intel execs can pretty much say whatever they want as long as the company is basically the only player in the netbook game, but we think a lot of people actually are willing to use a netbook as their primary machine, especially in this economy. Could you handle a netbook as your daily driver? The comment box awaits.[Via jkOnTheRun]
Filed under: Laptops
Intel VP says netbooks are “fine for an hour” originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Motorola cancels RAZR3 / Ruby, era comes closer to an end
Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
[Via UnwiredView]
Filed under: Cellphones
Motorola cancels RAZR3 / Ruby, era comes closer to an end originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Nov 2008 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Medion launches 5-inch GoPal P5430 GPS in Europe
Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
[Via NaviGadget]
Filed under: GPS
Medion launches 5-inch GoPal P5430 GPS in Europe originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Nov 2008 04:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Large Candy Cane Used To Beat Threatening Neighbor
Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
In what may be the only appropriate use for a Christmas lawn decoration, a Sacramento man grabbed a large candy-cane on his lawn and used it to beat a drunken knife-wielding neighbor who was threatening his Thanksgiving guests. He and his red-and-white weapon were able to hold the man until police arrived. Good thing he put those decorations out early. While it sounds like it came from the Onion, the story is in today’s Sacramento Bee.The attacker’s name is Donald Kercell, a 49-year old. I searched for his name and found this SacBee story from 2007, and archived in a library service.
Kercell is a 48-year-old resident of Rio Linda. In his youth, he discovered two things. One was that he had a talent for working with concrete. The other was methamphetamine.The former, coupled with an impressive work ethic, kept Kercell gainfully employed much of the time. The latter put him in prison.
Douglas Repetto’s Squirrel Cages
Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
Earlier in the fall, I had the opportunity to visit Douglas Repetto in his office at Columbia University in New York. The founder of Dorkbot and organizer of ArtBots, Doug is an artist and maker and he writes the “Art Work” column for Make magazine. When I visited Doug, he was working on a piece about Squirrel Cages. These cages are quite beautiful constructions, made out of wood with the assistance of a laser cutter.
At the time, I wasn’t familiar with the term “squirrel caging”, which means to turn things over in your mind without end. One writer describes squirrel caging as the “act of rumination on negative thoughts.” Whether they are good or bad thoughts, we all have had the experience of not being able to stop thinking about SOMETHING.
The completed work, “Distributed Squirrel Cage for Parallel Processing” was later exhibited at the Main Street Museum in White River Junction, Vermont. Doug explains:
Humans are invited to write obsessive thoughts on scraps of paper, deposit them in squirrel cages, and turn the crank, thus offloading the actual work of obsessing to the mechanism. This cutting-edge apparatus applies the latest techniques in distributed, massively parallel processing to the age-old problem of broken human minds.
Maybe Doug could set up a Squirrel Cage installation somewhere down on Wall Street.
Canada’s Internet is crap
Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
Jesse Brown from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Search Engine has written a stirring editorial about the ways in which Canada’s internet infrastructure is being turned into second-rate cable TV by greedy telcos and incompetent regulators.Every time I think about moving back to Canada some day, I remind myself of how miserable the national Internet infrastructure is — and how awful the big telcos are, and how weak-kneed and ass-licking the telcoms regulator is — and I realize I can’t possibly move home. The Internet’s where I live, it’s how I earn my income. Living on Canada’s Internet would be better than living on China’s Internet, say, but that’s a pretty low bar to hurdle.
1. Last week the CRTC sided with Bell against a group of small Internet Service Providers who want to offer their customers unthrottled connections where what they download is their own business and not subject to interference.Is Canada becoming a digital ghetto? (Thanks, Jesse!)2. In last week’s throne speech the Conservative government renewed their intention to “modernize” Canadian copyright law. Their effort to do so last session was Bill C-61, a woefully unbalanced and retrograde piece of legislation that led to the greatest citizen backlash to any proposed bill in recent memory. Yet there has been no indication from new Industry Minister Tony Clement that a much-needed public consultation will take place. The best he has offered is the possibility of a “slightly different” version of the bill.
3. Twitter has just announced that they are killing outbound SMS messaging in Canada due to exorbitant and constant rate hikes from Canadian cell providers (former Industry Minister Jim Prentice vowed to get tough on SMS price gouging, then backpeddled). Cell phone rates in Canada are among the highest in the world, and the result is that mobile penetration is pathetically low and that emerging new cultural platforms like Twitter are being hobbled.
Family of disabled boy whose pony is to be taken away starts a fundraising drive
Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
The mother of the disabled child who may lose his miniature pony — his only means of moving independently — because his neighbours (who live next to a cow farm) complained about the smell — has established a PayPal account to fund the legal work of keeping the pony. That address: antoniaspiteri82@hotmail.com .Mother begins work to keep her son’s pony (Thanks, Jeremy!)
She has had numerous Caledon businesses ask if they can post a petition for her, has received a number of offers from local stables who would like to house Emily the pony for her, and is constantly fielding calls and letters from people who would like to meet and lend support to Sam and Emily.“One thing we are considering is planning some sort of meet and greet,” said Spiteri. “We have had so many people ask to meet with us, that we want to plan a day where people can visit our property and meet Sam and Emily themselves, see where we house her, and the situation we’re in.”
According to Spiteri, the Town informed her that the next available committee date will be November 12. Until then, she will work on finishing all of her paperwork, and raising the funds needed for the application. Spiteri said she needs to pay a fee of 0 for the application.
Wal-Mart Worker Crushed to Death on Black Friday; Union Responds
Saturday, November 29th, 2008 | Fun Tech | No Comments
A worker at a New York Wal-Mart location was crushed to death this morning, “Black Friday,” when hordes of shoppers overwhelmed to get inside for bargain-hunting. Snip from AP account:At least four other people were injured, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island was closed. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, Ark., called the incident a “tragic situation” and said the employee came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store.The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, which represented the deceased worker, has called for a investigation by OSHA and the NY State labor department.“He was bum-rushed by 200 people,” co-worker Jimmy Overby, 43, told the Daily News. “They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too. … I literally had to fight people off my back.”
Director of Special Projects for Local 1500 Patrick Purcell called Wal-mart’s comments in response to the incident both “cold and heartless.” “If the safety of their customers and workers was a top priority, then this never would have happened,” Purcell stated. “Wal-mart must step up to the plate and ensure that all those injured, as well as the family of the deceased, be financially compensated for their injuries and their losses. Their words are weak. The community demands action,” Purcell concluded.(Thanks, Derek Bledsoe)Purcell also suggested that people visit the website walmartcrimereport.com to review other incidents of Wal-mart not providing a safe work and shopping experience.
