As TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid said, you’ll only need three things to run the OS in your system. First you’ll need a Google Account ID, e.g. a Gmail account. Second, you’ll need the disk image itself, which you can either download via torrent (clicking that link will download the torrent file) or at gadget site gdgt. Finally, you’ll need VirtualBox, a free cross-platform virtualization program, although I see no reason why commercial alternatives like VMWare Fusion wouldn’t work.

If you’ve tried creating virtual machines before, the steps for installing Chrome OS are pretty straightforward. Just select Linux as the operating system and Ubuntu as the version, then choose “use existing hard disk” when asked which boot hard disk to use, next, next, next… and voila! You just installed the Chrome browser the hard way. Check out the full article at TechCrunch if you want a more detailed walkthrough.

The author of the article, DisplayMate president Dr. Raymond Soneira, singled-out the lack of a respectable viewing angle on LCD TVs, as seen in the pictures below. If you think that Dr. Soneira is nitpicking, think again. He adds, “The significance of this [the narrow viewing angle] is enormous, because it means that the ’sweet spot’ for seeing an accurate picture on an LCD HDTV is only one person wide, even for these top-of-the-line models, so essentially everyone looking at an LCD HDTV will see a picture with noticeably different coloration.” Wow.

But more than praising plasma technology, Dr. Soneira criticized the “marketing gimmicks” of all TV manufacturers – hyping their TVs with “features” like Dynamic Backlight, Dynamic Contrast, Dynamic Black, Dynamic White, and Dynamic Color that do nothing but “reduce picture quality and accuracy and introduce ugly image artifacts.” Other features such as contrast ratios and brightness were either exaggerated or “misunderstood.” The sad part? Most customers don’t care. Perhaps in the HDTV market, size is all that matters for most people.

[via NY Times via tv snob]

Pac-Man pain assessment gauge, spotted on Flickr. Currently, I feel a little Woopop myself.

Rhombus’ James and Boris dress shirts are just perfect for the computer geek with fashion sense (although I’m not sure how large that intersection would look on a Venn diagram). Each one is made from 97% cotton / 3% stretch fabric – dry clean only, so be careful not to spill too much Mountain Dew on yours!

And if Binary isn’t your language, there’s another pattern that’s made from old standardized tests (No. 2 pencil not included). There’s also a traditional gingham design, but who wants that?

The dress shirts sell for $75 each, and can be found over at Rhombuswear. For you cheapskates, be sure to check out the Thomas t-shirt — it comes in the same patterns, and sells for just $20 (short-sleeve) or $30 (long-sleeve).

[via geeksugar]

The Beta will feature three maps, Valhalla, High Ground and Snowbound and all three maps will only be playable in Matchmaking mode for now. You’ll get a chance to check out new weapons, at least one new grenade type and some “hidden features” in the Beta as well.

Bungie has also posted some really nice new screen shots and a video clip of multi-player mode in action (and quite a bit of behind the scenes footage.) Although it owes quite a bit to the Unreal franchise, I love the new “Man Cannon” which replaces the transporters as a means of getting around the map quickly. You can now look forward to shooting players out of the air as they’re trying to transport.

See you on Xbox Live on May 16th!