Archive for December 2020

2020: it was an inextinguishable dumpster fire. And to celebrate its end/our survival, Antsy Labs is releasing this A.D. 2020: This Is Fine’ commemorative coin. Emblazoned with the year’s lowlights like the coronavirus, Australian wildfires, and murder hornets, it serves as a reminder of all the hardships we’ve overcome.

Created by Luckies of London Ltd. for those who enjoy rocking out but still respecting their roommate’s quiet-time hours, these are the Rock On headphone and accessory holders, shaped like a hand making the classic ‘sign of the horns’ hand gesture.

Our butts: just like our fingerprints, they’re all unique. And now scientists at Stanford University have developed a prototype ‘smart toilet’ (links to their scientific paper) that can identify an individual based on their unique, um, analprint.

The pinnacle of human achievement: we’ve finally reached it. What we have here is a never-ending bass solo generated by a recurrent neural network (RNN). It was trained on two hours of bass improvisation by musician Adam Neely.

I’ve watched lots of car races over the years. I’ve driven on race tracks and dragstrips, and have even been in a stock car at about 170 mph. But you know what I haven’t experienced yet?

Are you one of those people who loves to mount animal trophies on your wall, regardless of whether or not you actually were the one who slew the beast? Then have I got a prize for your collection!

Because boldly going where no man has gone before is excuse enough for a cocktail, this is the Star Trek: The Next Generation 5-Piece Whiskey Decanter Set from Robe Factory and available on Amazon for $100 (affiliate link).

You’re Batman. You work long hours in the Batcave solving the Riddler’s riddles and trying to thwart the Joker’s next attack on Gotham. But it’s not like you’re Catman, you can’t see in the dark. What do you need?

No stranger to making unbelievably realistic cakes, pastry artist Natalie Sideserf of Sideserf Cake Studio in Austin, Texas recently made a John McClane bust cake from Die Hard, one of everybody’s favorite Christmas movies. Welcome to the party, pal!

You know what the problem with televisions is? They’re too big. In the quest for constantly larger screens, our scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.

There’s nothing worse than a mimic chest. You think you’re about to score some sweet loot, but nope, you just get attacked instead. Now I have to roll to see how many teeth the cleric in my party has to remove from my rear.

Back in the 1980s, I was a serious Atari kid. I had an Atari 2600, an Atari 800, an Atari 7800, an Atari Lynx, and an Atari 520ST along the way. I was even president of an Atari Users Group.

Like everyone else in the universe, I can’t get enough of The Mandalorian on Disney+. Besides binge-watching episodes, I dote over my Baby Yoda Chia Pet and even my dog, Ziggy, guards his Baby Yoda dog toy just like Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin.

When it comes to the headphone audio that comes out of mobile phones, laptops, and tablets, the sound quality is generally decent, but rarely what I would call “audiophile-grade” or particularly loud. Using an external amplifier can help improve overall sound quality and volume, and HELM Audio’s DB12 AAAMP aims to do just that.

Move over baby Yoda, there’s a new precious Star Wars baby in the galaxy. Sculpted and cast by artist Nicholas J. Brown (aka LoreCraft), these baby Jabba silicone sculptures are based on a 3D character design created by fellow artist Leonardo Viti.

I’ve had a number of different home theater audio systems in my living room over the years, from component receiver/amp/speaker setups to one-piece soundbars. Each kind of sound system has its pros and cons, but my general feeling is that the best-of-all-worlds systems include a multi-channel soundbar with surround speakers and an external subwoofer.