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clearview: one software to fix them all

no-spinning-beachball

Ah, software problems. We’ve all experienced them in varying degrees – sometimes it’s just a stupid online video that won’t load, and sometimes the operating system itself gives up. Now imagine a future where programs can still be compromised, or attacked, but will no longer crash or hang. A group of MIT researchers, led by…

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October 30th, 2009 comments stumble it! digg it! author: lambert v.

filed under: computing future tech strange + wonderful technology

gakken gmc-4: 4-bit microcomputer kit won’t play crysis

gakken_gmc-4_microcomputer

Sure, you might have just gone off and bought yourself a brand new 27-Inch iMac this week, but if that system seems like overkill for your needs, you could can always go to the opposite extreme. This computer kit not only doesn’t run any programs that you’d ever care to use, it doesn’t let you…

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October 22nd, 2009 comments stumble it! digg it! author: technabob

filed under: computing retro technology

perpetual storytelling apparatus turns literature into patent drawings

perpetual_storytelling_apparatus_2

We can file this under art, or under why?/why not?: Invented by Julius von Bismarck and Benjamin Maus, the Perpetual Storytelling Apparatus “downloads and parses a part of the text of a recent best-selling book” and then, for some strange reason, peruses the archives of the United States Patent and Trademark Office for drawings that…

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October 21st, 2009 comments (1) stumble it! digg it! author: lambert v.

filed under: design geek art + craft strange + wonderful technology

toys for big boys: iphone remote controls honda civic, blackberry remote controls f1 car

idriver

Man, these are smartphones indeed. The wise – and probably bored – folks at the University of Berlin made a one-of-a-kind iPhone app which they called iDriver, which allows them to control a Honda Civic via Wi-Fi. But it’s not like our German friends just coded the app and then began playing real-life Hot Wheels;…

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October 19th, 2009 comments (8) stumble it! digg it! author: lambert v.

filed under: computing cool toys gps + navigation hacks + mods just plain fun mobile tech technology

dad finds new use for cd-rom tray: baby rocker

baby-rocker

Ah, the ol’ CD drive. It can read CDs. It can write on CDs. Idiots use it as a coaster and then call tech support if it stops working. And it can put babies to sleep.

YouTube user macjonesnz MacGyvered a baby rocker using his baby’s car seat, a piece of string, his PC’s CD…

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August 27th, 2009 comments stumble it! digg it! author: lambert v.

filed under: computing gadgets hacks + mods just plain fun strange + wonderful technology

web coder bumper stickers: honk if you love to write code!

geek_code_bumper_stickers

Are you an unemployed web developer? Why not show off your resume credentials with these funny web technology bumper stickers.

John Freeborn’s CODE Stickers are perfect for building geek cred with the guy in your rear-view mirror. For just $5 bucks, you’ll get a set of 5 vinyl stickers, including .NET, PHP, CSS, AJAX and…

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August 24th, 2009 comments (1) stumble it! digg it! author: technabob

filed under: just plain fun technology

wiichuck: the quickest way to hack your nunchuck controller

wiichuck_adapter

This tiny little 1cm x 3cm circuit board may not look like much, but the WiiChuck is the easiest way ever to unlock the world of Wii Nunchuck hacking.

Just plug the WiiChuck into to bottom of your Wii Nunchuck controller, and you’ll have access to all of the wonderful data the controller can generate.…

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August 18th, 2009 comments stumble it! digg it! author: technabob

filed under: hacks + mods technology video games

computer algorithm does not play mario, it solves mario

mario_ai

The Mario AI Competition “is about learning, or otherwise developing, the best controller (agent) for a version of Super Mario Bros.” Programmers have to come up with AI that can solve a “heavily modified version” of the game Infinite Mario Bros. by Markus Persson. That’s all well and nerdy, but if you think this is…

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August 16th, 2009 comments stumble it! digg it! author: lambert v.

filed under: just plain fun strange + wonderful technology video games

paper beats computer: scientists hack voting machine

voting-machine-hacked

The man in the picture below is UC San Diego Computer Science Ph.D. student Stephen Checkoway. In his hands is a printout that proves that his team’s “return-oriented programming” exploit was successfully able to steal votes from a Sequoia AVC Advantage electronic voting machine. Checkoway was probably like, “Yay! Our democracy is in danger!” Just…

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August 12th, 2009 comments stumble it! digg it! author: lambert v.

filed under: computing hacks + mods strange + wonderful technology weird science

commodore 64 vs. the iphone 3gs: guess who won?

c64-versus-iphone-3gs

After the arguably unnecessary rejection of the Commodore 64 emulator for the iPhone, Technologizer’s Harry McCracken – whose last name would be much cooler if it ended with an exclamation point: McCracken! (and started with Zak) – decided to pit the iconic Commodore 64 with the future Hall of Famer, the iPhone 3GS, just for…

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June 26th, 2009 comments stumble it! digg it! author: lambert v.

filed under: computing just plain fun media players mobile tech retro technology

morals software for robots: life imitating asimov

ethical-robot

Asimov concocted the Three Laws of Robotics in 1942 and built many of his stories around these rules. While Asimov benefited greatly from those rules as an artistic concept, giving him ideas to explore, in the future our lives may really depend on robot ethics.  Fortunately, a computer science professor at Georgia Tech named Ronald…

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May 29th, 2009 comments (1) stumble it! digg it! author: lambert v.

filed under: future tech robots strange + wonderful technology

fuzebox: retro 8-bit gaming goes open source

fuzebox_open_source_8-bit

Always thought you could improve on the gameplay of Tetris? Fancy yourself the creator of the next Super Mario Brothers? Thanks to this open source gaming system – if you’ve got the programming chops, you’ve got the chance to make the next great 8-bit video game.

The Fuzebox is a complete 8-bit gaming platform in…

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March 11th, 2009 comments (2) stumble it! digg it! author: technabob

filed under: hacks + mods retro video games

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