Technabob » wikipedia

Wikireader: the World’S Most Semi-Trusted Encyclopedia at Your Fingertips

Lambert Varias — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:12:49 +0000

Don’t you just love Wikipedia? Whether you’re a high school student writing a paper on some obscure old or dead person, a tech blogger who knows nothing about tech, or a lowly prankster who wants people to think, even for just 50 seconds, that the name “Microsoft” is really a description of someone’s primary sexual characteristic, the crowd-sourced encyclopedia has something for everyone. Now you can take (English) Wikipedia with you, thanks to the Wikireader. Unfortunately for pranksters it’s not possible to edit Wiki articles on the Wikireader. It’s not called Wikireaderandeditor, is it?

The Wikireader’s interface, as you can see, was made to be as simple as possible. There’s a search button, which I assume brings up the on-screen keyboard when pressed; there’s also a history button which gives you a list of entries you’ve browsed, and a random button, for nerds who can’t think of anything better to do with their time. I’m sure my right index finger and the random button will be friends in no time at all.

The simple interface, predictive text input plus the fact that it doesn’t need an Internet connection makes this a must-have gadget for me. I think the device could use a bigger screen, but yeah I’m sold. WANT. Openmoko also claims that the device can last a year on just 2 AAA batteries. Actually that’s not hard to believe, considering it’ll only display text in black & white.

You can get a Wikireader for $100 (USD) at the product’s website; a memory card containing with “over 3 million” English Wikipedia entries is included with each purchase. There are two planned update schemes: you can either download updates for free, or for an annual fee of $29, have the updates delivered to you in the form of microSD cards. While the Wikireader does have a Wikipedia entry, you’ll learn more if you check out it’s website instead.

[via gadgetizer]

I Love Those Toyota Priora: Origins of Popular Hi-Tech Names

Lambert Varias — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:30:21 +0000

If you happen to meet an Indonesian man and you tell him that you like watching TV programs at Hulu, he may tell you that he just likes staring at Hulus. That’s because “Hulu” means “butt” in Indonesian. So…we’ve been watching videos from a butt. I knew it.

Mentalfloss has the details on that as well as on 7 other hi-tech names, like Toyota’s Prius (whose plural is still Prius according to the Japanese automaker), and Wikipedia (“wiki” means “fast” in Hawaiian). It’s something you can use to strike up a conversation with that cute geek you’ve been eyeing. You just walk up to her and go, “Did you know that Hulu means “butt”?” Nevermind. It’s all useless information.

Also, as you can see I have once again leveled-up my Photoshop skillz. They’re now at a world class level -7.

[via Gizmodo]

Sony Edits Halo 3 Wikipedia Entry, Slams on Graphics

Technabob — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:13:12 +0000

You’ve gotta love this. Apparently some dirty little troll over at SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) has been sneaking around over at Wikipedia and edited Microsoft’s Halo 3 entry.

Back in April, the SCEE poster added the small notation “Although it wont look any better than Halo 2″ to the listing, implying that the game’s graphics won’t live up to the Xbox 360′s potential. According to Wikiscanner, the edit came from IP address 217.18.23.2, which happens to be an IP address owned by SCEE.

Fortunately, it looks like Wikipedia authorities on the topic have since deleted the nasty little dig, but it’s really a sad state of affairs when these kind of immature, amateurish acts originate behind the doors of a major corporation.

Sony why don’t you ask your employees to focus on making some quality games instead of this kind of crap? (And no, System Update v1.92 is not a game.)

[via Destructoid]