Author: Gary Cutlack
Man invented the Nintendo Wii eight years ago, in his underpants, using a Dreamcast
This footage is, allegedly, of an ex-Midway developer. Using his Dreamcast, his glorious, beautiful Dreamcast, he pretty much designed and built a control system identical to that which now powers the Nintendo Wii’s little motion sensitive remote. Only this was built back in the year 2000, when Nintendo was a distant third place in the console race thanks to no one really being that bothered about the N64 and its Gamecube still a distant dream that wouldn’t flop onto European shelves until 2002.
Here is some actual, visual proof – as if more was needed! – that Dreamcast was way ahead of its time and a misunderstood victim that deserved so much better:
Internet self-diagnosis and illegal drug-shopping is the new "going to the doctor"
Yeah, it’s probably cancer. Or maybe just indigestion. Or a stomach ulcer. Or a bruise from sleeping funny.
You must’ve done it – put the symptoms of some sort of medical complaint into Google, then had a look at what other sufferers of the same inexplicable dull ache just beneath the ribs think their problem might be in the various discussion forums that pop up.
In the last two years I’ve convinced myself I’ve had liver failure, a cyst on my neck, broken ribs and a phantom pregnancy…
Microsoft in trouble again with EU anti-trust people – Office and IE the offenders this time
The European Union is looking into another two Microsoft anti-competition issues, it said today, with its aggressive bundling and software interoperability coming under fire from the Brussels-based freedom fighters.
At the centre of the new EU competition worries is the way MS Office interacts with rival products (ie, it often doesn’t), plus the way some of its products are locked down and force users to use Internet Explorer…
Floating cities now a sort of reality – Manned Cloud airship hotel launching soon
It is not an alien space-whale coming to eat all our birds and fish. It is a floating hotel, designed by Jean Marie Massaud.
With room for up to 40 guests, the “Manned Cloud” is a proper thing that’s going to get made – not just your usual concept nonsense. French national aerospace research lab ONERA has been helping spec-up the thing, which, to quote…
CES 2008 LEFTOVERS: iRiver SPINN – complete with novelty knob
None of our CES field reporters have done anything on this yet. Odd, seeing how staggering cool it looks. iRiver’s silver Spinn handles MP3 tunes, MP4 movies, has an FM tuner, a 3.2″ LCD, does Bluetooth 2.0 with ease, has a microphone and a 160GB hard drive and so on – all the sort of stuff you’d expect from a modern electric thing that fits inside the pocket of even your tightest trousers.
BUT! iRiver’s newest media matchbox has a clever little gimmick. An analogue knob. That twiddly bit on the right there. This makes it easier for people to find and play stuff, apparently, with iRiver touting this as its “Extremely Intuitive User Interface.”
LAPTOP PRICE CRASH! OLPC spin-off Pixel Qi planning a $75 laptop
The One Laptop Per Child project which is giving much cheap happiness to deprived children and – more importantly – gave us rich lot the awesome Eee PC for Christmas, has a newer, cheaper rival on the horizon.
Start-up Pixel Qi has set out to trump the OLPC’s “$100 laptop” scheme by aiming to build screen components for a laptop that, once done, will cost $75 per unit to manufacture.
Behind PixelQi is Mary Lou Jepsen, who was chief technology officer of the One Laptop Per Child project. Her company’s web site
The Battle of Pelennor Fields – recreated in sweets by Lord of the Rings-loving lunatics
Cashing in on the staggering popularity of last year’s Helm’s Deep made out of sweets, serial Tolkien-thing-out-of-sweets-makers have made another Tolkien scene out of sweets.
They do not say why. It just seems to be how that particularly family celebrates Christmas.
“All told this year’s project took about seven days of off and on work” say the makers of their mammoth sugary enterprise, and here is but a sample of what they made.
The sensational Smoker Bell for those of you who continue to ignore government health warnings
Poor cool people. They all have to stand out on the pavement like Big Issue sellers in order to enjoy a cigarette these days, getting their hair wet and catching colds while bitching about all the uncool people who are still sitting inside.
But no more! This genius device is an outdoor pod, designed to keep fashionable hairstyles intact even during the most furious winter weather. It even has a little table for putting bottles of fashionable and little-known East European beers on while enjoying taking half an hour of the end of your life.
SCIENTISTS – "We are all doomed" as the Sun gets ready to EXPLODE
That headline’s perhaps a bit dramatic. That’s not really what the weather-watchers at The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said at all.
The point is this – our Sun appears to be going into a new cycle of sunspot activity, which could, possibly, maybe if it goes “2 da Xtreme,” interfere with all the cool electric stuff we so dearly rely upon.
The solar breakout could lead to mobile networks breaking, GPS systems crashing and the power grids…
The PSP Skype microphone and headset combi – finally pictured properly
The excruciatingly slow drip-drip-drip news of the arrival of PSP Skype finally reaches its DRAMATIC CONCLUSION today, with this – an official picture of the mess of cables, headphones, bendy call-centre microphone and little in-line volume controller needed to operate it.
It’s going to get amazingly tangled up. And surely any benefit that comes from being able to make free Skype calls on your PSP will be outweighed by the man-hours invested in untangling all that cabling each time you want to make a call?
