Ten best geek videos ever, courtesy of the geeks at Valleywag


The loveable, yet slightly-angry ginger, Nick Douglas (who I must admit I stalk via Twitter, Vox, his personal blogs, plus Valleywag, the blog he was formerly editor of before being given the boot by Jason Calacanis’s number one frenemy), has collected the ten best geek dances of the past twenty years or so and posted them on Valleywag for not only our viewing pleasure…

Get your geek on for this year's holiday: Lost Weekend's top techie trips

Haven’t feasted your eyes on our new men’s blog, Lost Weekend? Perfect for planning that boozy trip away with Gazza, Rob and Christos, and now…helping you get your geek on by giving you six of the best techie destinations to holiday at. Just don’t drag the missus along, unless she too owns a pair of Spock ears.

Featuring trips to CERN in Switzerland, Futuroscope in France, Sega Joypolis, plus many other destinations rimming to the brim…

Using noise to increase laser signal

lasers_x220.jpg

While noise is usually a bad thing for your signal (hence the ‘signal to noise ratio’ concept) a group of researchers from Belgium, France and Spain have found that adding a tiny dose of noise to a an electrical current can make a smoothly controlled laser where before they had an uncontrolled one. The vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) would be extremely useful in boosting bandwidth if they were reliable (unlike now). They’re not sure why it works – noise ought to generally be a negative deal – but there’s another truism: whatever works, works. [GT]

Controlling Lasers with Chaos

Related posts
Multi Meter with spirit level and laser
Shiny Video Review: Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop Keyboard and Mouse
SeeReal Hologram Television: buy this TV and dinosaurs will eat you

Hard drives with ultra-powerful zaps of LASER beams

200762831.jpg

New tests, from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, show pulses from ultra-powerful lasers outperform magnets by two orders of magnitude. By flipping polarity of the laser to either positive or negative, binary sequences of one or zero are indicated. Data in these tests transfered in intervals of 40 quadrillionths of a second, which is about a hundred times faster than we’ve got now, which means we could store a hundred times as many Lol cats pictures in the same amount of time. Oh, efficiency! [GT]

Lighting a Fire Under Hard Drives (via Crunchgear)

Related posts
Ewedrive launches pay-as-you-go online data backup service
PNY boosts capacity and adds some swivel to its Attaché drives
Freecom Hard Drive Pro – up to 750GB of storage with USB/Firewire

USB virtual friends from Brando finally hit Europe

friend%283%29_640.jpg

While it may be that you can pick your friends, with Brando’s USB virtual friends you can pick their very souls! (Maniacal laughter) With 100 preset catchphrases and a personality editor to allow you to fine tune exactly how your minions, er, friends, behave, they also have a little photo frame where their face should be, so you can paste in someone you love, or just want to dominate. We’ve been waiting eagerly since they were announced, and finally, they’re on sale! $17 each or $30 for the pair. [GT]

USB virtual friends

Related posts
Fancy a virtual USB boyfriend or girlfriend?
Pop-up Pirate: the USB hub you can stab
RedPost/Kit: DIY digital photo frame

Ultra Slim Bluetooth Dongle

bluetoothdongle.jpg

Now here’s a USB device you’ve got room to slip in your loafer — since it’s barely bigger than a penny! The Ultra Slim Bluetooth Dongle is only 4.5mm thick and has a slide cover so there’s nothing, as it were, to lose. It imparts Bluetooth 1.2 connectivity with a 10m radius range. £20. [GT]

Ultra Slim Bluetooth Dongle (via Red Ferret Journal)

Related posts
Gear4’s Bluphones – Bluetooth stereo headphones for under £50
iBluon Bluetooth stereo audio transmitter
Samsin SBS-6600 wireless rechargeable Bluetooth speakers