Archive for June 2009

Got one of those Texas Instruments graphing calculators? This nifty little program for  TI-83+SE, TI-84+, and TI-84+SE calculators lets you play Nintendo Game Boy games instead of doing your math problems. Written by Brendan Fletcher (aka “calc84maniac”), TI-Boy SE is a Game Boy emulator that runs on TI’s Z-80 based graphing calculators thanks to similarities between the CPUs of the two systems.

The Gundam statue isn’t even formally exhibited yet and we already have news on another 1:1 scale giant robot statue that will be built in Japan! Widely acknowledged as the first giant robot ever to be featured in manga, Tetsujin 28-go (“Iron Man 28”) is finally going to live up to its Westernized name, Gigantor.

I don’t know about you but this is new to me: apparently the English and the Australians are bitter cricket rivals, so much so that they have a tournament, popularly known as The Ashes series, which only features the two teams.

If you were just dying to drop another big pile of money on your Rock Band hobby, you’re in luck: check out this sweet ottoman designed to hold your gear! No more drum kit shoved into the corner of the living room.

If you use Twitter, odds are you occasionally inform your poor followers of some business that just really doesn’t matter. (How’s your sandwich, by the way?) Why not keep them updated on something that might actually matter, like your heart rate?

What would you say if I told you that your next car could run on air instead of gasoline, and that it would produce zero pollution? The MDI AIRpod might just bring that promise to reality when it hits the streets later this year.

Want to do something creative with color-changing LEDs? This new programmable LED module might be just what the doctor ordered. The BlinkM from ThingM (I just love saying that) is a compact module that contains an ultra-bright RGB LED and a microcontroller that you can program from your computer.

The quest to keep people indoors and separated from each other continues with the mydeskfriend robot toy penguin. The web-connected mydeskfriend will be able to connect to your Facebook account and read your messages and your feeds, in a robotic voice I assume.

Zombie Desert has everything you (and by you, I mean I) want in a game: zombies, violence, deserts, and the 1950s. Oh, wait, is that a tiny shotgun? I’ve died and gone to homebrew heaven. The design is simple, dark, pixelated, maybe even perfect for a run-and-gun zombie game.

No one likes the ugly sight of a condensation ring on the coffee table. This is a problem. Thankfully, there’s a solution, and it’s full of math. These coasters will match perfectly with your number lamp and your equation bookshelf, so long as all you care about is, uh, math.

Apparently, the folks in Japan have some different ways of chilling out in the tub than what I’m familiar with. Banpresto Fruit Palette are light-up fake fruit that you float around your bathtub while you soak to help you let your mind drift.

Let’s play six degrees of anything! How many objects do you think will it take to connect an extinct shark with a pair of headphones? The answer is – wait for it! One. Razer named their latest gaming headphones after a prehistoric gigantic shark, the megalodon.

Introduced in the early 1980s, three models from HP’s much-loved 10c series calculators get a savvy transition to the 21st century with their iPhone app counterparts. The 12c and the 12c Platinum are both financial calculators, while the 15c – an out of production calculator so in demand 2nd hand units sell for as much as $400 bucks – is a high-end scientific calculator.

The Shuttle X50 is a sleek, flat panel all-in-one PC – and now you can order one in a barebones configuration, which lets you put in your own choice of operating system, storage and memory to save a little money.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 has certainly had its ups and downs since its debut, but even the hatiest of haters must have a hard time denying that the console looks pretty good. That sleek black finish complements any gaming setup.

Sometimes I worry that the day would come when there’d be nothing weird to write about anymore. And sometimes I come across shit like this, a (fake) deer head mounted on a wooden plaque that can be ordered to “sing” Sweet Home Alabama whenever it senses movement.