Ashlee Simpson Edition iPod

I've heard of bad timing in my life, but this pretty much takes the cake. Maybe she can use it to lip synch while she's out and about.

Me personally; I'll spend my $349 elsewhere.

You got to wonder if this was just a publicity stunt.

--- Official Site --- [AirbagIndustries]

6 Grand In A Box

Ever seen a $6000.00 dollar computer? . . . Now you have.

The $6,077 Alienware SLI ALX X2: for when you like games and have a lot of money. The ALX X2 uses two $400 graphics cards together to render scenes nearly twice as fast, has two hard drives that spin at 10,000 RPM, a gig of memory, a liquid-cooled server-class Xeon processor, and…no monitor.

Sure, you can build your own comparable computer for much cheaper if you were so inclined, but you can also build your own hovercraft. I don’t know what I’m talking about anymore, really. I think I made a point. $6,000 computer.

--- Alienware ALX X2 --- [Alienware via Kotaku]

Grand Theftendo

This has got to be one of the greatest things I have seen in a while.

Grand Theftendo is a recreation of the first portion of Grand Theft Auto III, the Portland area of Liberty City. On an NES. This guy’s smart enough to write his own assembler for the NES, build his own development kit, write tools, and do all the art, yet dumb enough to violate copyright blatantly enough that he inevitably will be threatened with a lawsuit and have all that work be for nothing. Sure to bring cease and desist letters from both Rockstar and Nintendo by the end of next week.

--- Read Article --- [Brian Provinciano via Kotaku]

Delkin 24k Gold CD-R

For those who want to put some real class in their life, but are already weighed down by gold medallions and knuckle-spanning rings emblazoned with diamonds spelling out ROOT, Delkin has arrived on the scene with CD-R media containing some $0.20 worth of 24k gold per disc. Gold may not seem like a very sensible ingredient of optical media at firs--there are highly reflective materials that don't cost some $400 per ounce--but Delkin claims their "Archival Gold" discs will last a ridiculously long 300 years, unlike traditional CD-Rs which can go kaput in as little as 1-5. I'm skeptical that these discs will last anywhere near that long, but it's amusing to imagine the marketdroids jumping with joy, knowing that nobody alive today will be around in 300 years to call their bluff.

Delkin Releases CD-Rs with 24K Gold [DigitalMediaThoughts via Gizmodo]

Scientists Hope to Find More Tiny Indonesia Hominids

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian scientists who found a new species of hobbit-sized humans who lived about 13,000 years ago on an Indonesian island said on Thursday they expect to discover more new species of hominids on neighboring islands.

The partial skeleton of Homo floresiensis, found in a cave on the island of Flores in 2003, was of an adult female that was 3 feet tall, had a brain smaller than a chimpanzee's, and probably lived alongside modern humans on the island.

Australian and Indonesian scientists have since unearthed seven small hominids called "Flores man" from the Liang Bua limestone cave, the youngest living 13,000 years ago.

"The finding of this distinctive human species, this endemic human species on Flores, also implies that there will be similar endemic species on other islands in that vicinity,"

--- Read Article --- [!YahooNews]

Japanese PSP Launch Details

Some new (and accurate!) details have recently surfaced about the PSP's Japanese launch: its official release is slated for December 12, 2004; a paltry 10 days after the Japanese launch of the Nintendo DS. Furthermore, Sony has set the price at 19,800 Yen, which comes out to roughly 190 US dollars.

Looks like Nintendo's got a fight on their hands...

And if that wasn't enticing enough, Sony has also announced that a PSP Value Pack will be sold for 24,800 Yen; it will include a carrying case, headphones/line-in remote, battery pack, AC adapter, 32 MB Memory Stick Duo, and a swank carrying case.

Thanks [ConsoleConspiracy]

X-Ray Cameraphone Sees Through Clothes

Japanese company Yamada Denshi is selling a new add-on for mobile phones that will enable night-vision effects on the cameras—and it just happens to allow you to see through clothes. It's a lot like those Sony Handycams from a few years back that let you see underwear and the like through sheer clothing. Before any of you creeps start asking me where to buy one of the clip-on bits, let me tell you that I went looking for an online retailer and can't find one. You'll have to ask your local pervert professor for a clue.

Read Article [DailyRecordUK via Gizmodo]

Weird and Funny News

This is something new I'm going to try out. Drop me a comment as to whether you enjoy it or not.

Pony in a hatchback.....its illegal
Where in the US is John Kerry. Apparently he's not too sure.
Sex + 911 = Funny
Now you can't even offend Wiccans.
Hospital kills man after beating Leukemia

Thanks go out to LiquidGlass for the latter links

Another Reason To Love SNL

Well if you haven't heard about it yet, here you go: It seems that Ashlee Simpson (aka lil sis of Jessica Simpson) was the guest star on SNL on Saturday. Well here's the kicker; as her second performance started, it was the same song she had just sang earlier, so she looked confused and started to dance and look around--While the VOCALS continued mind you-- and then she became disinterested and embarrassed and briskly walked offstage. I really hate I missed this live but thanks to the good ole internet its making its rounds. After the show she blamed it on the band for playing the wrong song.

To me this is a testament to what the music industry has become, cookie cutter people, with songs that were written for them, lip synching with audio equipment that was bought for them.

So watch it now folks, because I promise this will never be re-aired. (at least not unedited)

--- Original Video --- [collegehumor]
--- Apology Video --- [Askross]

Thanks to Defamer and Stribs for bringing this to my attention.

GTA San Andreas: GETS JACKED!!!

Rockstar has stated the following in response to the leak:

"The proper authorities are investigating the theft and are continuing to investigate all possible leads to ensure there is no further dissemination of our creative content. Downloading, possession and distribution of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, including making the game available on the internet, is theft.

We take the theft of our intellectual property very seriously and we are
and will continue to diligently and aggressively pursue this matter."

Well I guess we can come to expect this with high profile games in the future. I'm curious to see if they try to do anything about it. Just like Microsoft, Rockstar has yet to say anything about prosecuting or taking any legal action

BTW, once again in about thirty seconds of searching working torrent popped right up.

Thanks to ConsoleConspiracy for bringing this one to my attention.

Physicists transfer information between matter and light

A team of physicists at the Georgia Institute of Technology has taken a
significant step toward the development of quantum communications systems by successfully transferring quantum information from two different groups of atoms onto a single photon.

The work, to be published in the October 22 issue of the journal Science, represents a "building block" that could lead to development of large-scale quantum networks. Sponsored by the Research Corporation and NASA, the work is believed to be the first to demonstrate transfer of quantum information from matter to light.

--- Read Article --- [PhysOrg]

Kerry276 > Bush262 / minus Nader votes

Analysis Oct. 20, 11:00 a.m. ET: No change in the electoral vote count yet, but underlying currents are moving to Kerry. Latest polls suggest that a Florida shift to Kerry is more plausible than an Ohio shift to Bush, and a Kerry upset in West Virginia is more plausible than a Bush upset in New Jersey. The quantitative basis for ceding West Virginia to Bush is thin, and online and Democratic polls are making it thinner. We await the first neutral phone poll of October.

Note: Analysis in some states is based on surveys not yet posted in the tables.

Update 1:15 p.m. ET: New polls give Bush hope in New Hampshire but shore up New Mexico and Wisconsin for Kerry. The gradual isolation of Gallup in the latter two states makes us wonder whether to reexamine Gallup's numbers elsewhere.

--- Read Article and tables --- [Slate]

iPod want more can I say

Well if you haven't heard about it yet ....check it out now!! I usually don'twaste my time with these things, but this is a free deal that works. I have seen it happen.

--- Official Site ---

Wanna be in the NYTimes???

Firefox has announced a fund raiser to take out a full page ad in the NYTimes. The coolest part is that they are listing the names of everyone who donates to the campaign, along with a message about the benefits/features of Firefox.

The cost is $30 for individuals and $10 for students (business pricing also
available). They only have 2,500 slots, so get yours now!!!!!

--- Official site --- [via Kevinrose]

School demands proof of virginity from girls

A school in Peru is reportedly being investigated after officials demanded that all girls provide a virginity certificate while registering.

The mother of a girl at the Santa Rosa de Trujillo School in Trujillo complained to police about the school's requirements.

Cristian Cespede, a relative of the girl told Las Ultimas Noticias: "They are asking for a virginity and a drug test. This is so disrespectful."

Cespede said both the student and her mother are 'very depressed' over the school's request.

--- Read Article --- [Ananova]

TV Emits Distress Signal, Triggers Search

An Oregon man discovered earlier this month that his year-old Toshiba Corp.flat-screen TV was emitting an international distress signal picked up by a satellite, leading a search and rescue operation to his apartment in Corvallis, Oregon, 70 miles south of Portland.The signal from Chris van Rossmann's TV was routed by satellite to the Air Force Rescue Center at Langley Air Base in Virginia.

On Oct. 2, the 20 year-old college student was visited at his apartment in the small university town by a contingent of local police, civil air patrol and search and rescue personnel."They'd never seen signal come that strong from a home appliance," said van Rossmann. "They were quite surprised. I think we all were." Authorities had expected to find a boat or small plane with a malfunctioning transponder, the usual culprit in such incidents, emitting the 121.5 MHz frequency of the distress signal used internationally. Van Rossmann said he was told to keep his TV off to avoid paying a $10,000 fine for "willingly broadcasting a false distress signal." Toshiba contacted Rossmann and offered to provide him with a replacement set for free, he said.

--- Read Article --- [Yahoo!new]

PSP Delayed: Not really suprising.

Console Conspiracy is reporting that the PSP will not be out by the March 2005 release date.

Interviewed by Japanese site PC Watch, Izumi Kawanishi, who runs Sony Computer Entertainment's network systems division, indicated that the end-of-the-year launch window depends on games publishers.

It is yet to be seen however weather this is Sony's fault or the publishers.

Xbox 2 to Be Unveiled at CES?

CES has confirmed that Bill Gates will be giving the pre-show keynote at January's Consumer Electronics Show, a move that many are interpreting as the date Microsoft will finally unveil the Xbox 2. The PowerPC and ATI-powered development boxes are already in the hands of many developers, so it's reasonable to expect something soon, and Microsoft had initially planned to announce the original Xbox had the 2000 show, although that didn't work out quite as they had expected due to delays.

--- Read Article --- [GameIndustryBIZ via Gizmodo]

Galactika LED Toilet Seat

I'm not sure what's better: the fact that someone finally developed a toilet seat filled with LEDs or the fact that they named it GALACTIKA. There are those who believe... that what we do here... began out there. Far across the apartment. In the kitchen.

The GALACTIKA comes in a variety of sure-to-be-trippy colors and runs on 4 AA batteries that can be placed inconspicuously out of sight, powering the toilet seat for about a month. And it looks to me like you can order it and they'll be
happy to ship it across the Atlantic, if you have need for the reverse-venting of your peyote buttons to be any more epic.

--- Product Page ---[Kiss-TextilDE via DailyGadget via Gizmodo]

Drip, Drip, SPLASH: Halo 2 Leaked

Well I lost this bet. We were discussing over drinks whether or not Halo2 would be leaked at all; my prediction was only a day or two before release.

Microsoft has said it is trying to track down the people behind a pirated copy of the forthcoming Halo 2 game.

A version of the eagerly awaited Xbox game has appeared on net piracy sites and newsgroups, almost a month before making it into the shops.

In a statement, Microsoft said it was investigating the leak, adding that it was "aggressively pursuing the source of this illegal act".

Halo 2 is due to go on sale worldwide in the second week of November.

--- Read Article ---

*Webmasters note* It is true BTW, I found two working torrent links for it within about 30 seconds of searching.

Electric Wi-Fi Carts

A wireless internet service provider in Tempe, Arizona has retrofitted these two-seat electric cars as mobile Wi-Fi repeaters, allowing them to temporarily shore up holes in their network by deploying the carts to problem areas. Now that's an interesting idea.

--- Read Article --- [TianCC via Gizmodo]

"We Be Scrubbin"

As if we werent lazy enough as it is, especially when it comes to cleaning: now you can let "scrubbing bubbles" do the work for you. You know in the last few years they came out with spray cleaners for your shower, where all you have to do is spray it down after each shower, no wiping or scrubbing involved. But fear not, in George Jetson style you can now do it with a simple push of a button. I may actually plop down the money to try this one out. I'll let you know how it works.

--- Product page --- [SBASC via Gizmodo]

O'Reilly: Scandal of His Own

Looks like the big man in conservative radio hasn't been so off air. Hours after Bill O'Reilly accused her of a multimillion dollar shakedown attempt, a female Fox News producer fired back at the TV star today, filing a lawsuit claiming that he subjected her to repeated instances of sexual harassment and spoke often, and explicitly, to her about phone sex, vibrators, threesomes, masturbation, the loss of his virginity, and sexual fantasies.

--- Read More --- [TheSmokingGun via Drudge]

Trash the Spam

Are you tired of getting spammed to death every time you sign up for something: and then once you sign up you come to find out it wasn't even worth it in the first place. Well worry no more thanks to Dodgeit. Dodgeit is a free "receive only" web based email that uses no login and no signup. Pick a throw away address: "Peniswrinkle" and give it out when needed. If you need to check it, go the homepage and sign in. It's that simple.

--- Site ---

Use Gmail As A Hard Drive

GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google GMail account, allowing you to use GMail as a storage medium.

GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to.

--- Read Article --- [viksoe via KevinRose]

Astronaut Believed In UFO's

As I reported earlier. Gordon Cooper died today . . . but while reading about him on CNN I found out this intresting little tidbit of information. Here is the exert for you.

In his post-NASA career, Cooper became known as an outspoken believer in UFOs and charged that the government was covering up its knowledge of extraterrestrial activity.

"I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets, which obviously are a little more technically
advanced than we are here on Earth," he told a United Nations panel in 1985.

"I feel that we need to have a top-level, coordinated program to scientifically collect and analyze data from all over the Earth concerning any type of encounter, and to determine how best to interface with these visitors in a friendly fashion."

He added, "For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists and astronauts. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us."

--- Full Article --- [CNN]

Get Foxy!!

Aight people, if you have not yet tried Firefox from Mozilla: Get it now. The IE killer is here, and its kicking ass and taking names. I personally use it and its great. You can import all your IE bookmarks right over with a simple click, and save yourself from pop up, malicious scripts, most spyware, and unclutter your desktop with tabbed browsing

And if your thinking but I still need to use IE for some applications-- Well wait no longer, because you can run Firefox right along side IE.

USAF WANTS ANTIMATTER WEAPONS

No way. "The U.S. Air Force is quietly spending millions of dollars investigating ways to use a radical power source -- antimatter, the eerie 'mirror' of ordinary matter -- in future weapons," the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Beyond the pointed-ear cool factor, antimatter would make a powerful weapon -- at least in theory. "If electrons or protons collide with their antimatter counterparts, they annihilate each other. In so doing, they unleash more energy than any other known energy source, even thermonuclear bombs," the Chron explains.

--- Read Article --- [SFChronicle via DefenseTech]

Soaring Into History

MOJAVE DESERT, California (CNN) -- SpaceShipOne achieved its most spectacular flight yet, climbing to an altitude of 377,591 feet (71 1/2 miles) to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize on Monday.

XPrize officials said it set an altitude record exceeding the military X-15's top altitude of 354,200 feet (67 miles) set on August 22, 1963.

With a wish of "Good luck and Godspeed," mission control sent the privately funded craft toward space for the second time in a week, the requirements for winning the X Prize.

"Today we have made history. Today we go to the stars," said Peter Diamandis, co-founder of the X Prize Foundation.

The $10 million award is intended to spur civilian spaceflight.

"You have raised a tide that will bring billions of dollars into the industry and fund other teams to compete," Diamandis said. "We will begin a new era of spaceflight."

--- Read Article --- [CNN]
* In contrasting and sad news, Nasa is confirming that Gordon Cooper, one of the
nations first astronauts on the Mercury and Gemini missions has died. I'll bring
you more details when they come.*

~Update on Cooper~

"Shes Gonna Blow"

Mount St. Helens May Take Weeks to Erupt

MOUNT ST. HELENS NATIONAL MONUMENT, Wash. -

Mount St. Helens stewed in volcanic gases and low-level earthquakes Sunday, with crowds of eager tourists hoping to glimpse an eruption that scientists said could happen immediately or take a few weeks.

--- Read Article --- [Yahoo! News]

~Update~ It spewed quite of bit of gas today... Looks like the eruption is
just that more imminent.

Power over Ethernet

Looking to add an addition access point, but no power outlet near by?

Not to worry, the guys over at NYC Wireless have figured out a way to run 12v power over the unused wires in a standard Ethernet cable. Sounds cool -

It will be intresting to see what kinda things this leads too.

--- Read More --- [nycwireless via kevinrose]

Orgies are the way to ease social tensions, claims US judge

He is the conservative bastion of the US supreme court, a favourite of President Bush, and a hunting partner of the vice-president. He has argued vociferously against abortion rights, and in favour of anti-sodomy laws.

But it turns out that there is another side to Justice Antonin Scalia: he thinks Americans ought to be having more orgies.

Challenged about his views on sexual morality, Justice Scalia surprised his audience at Harvard University, telling them: "I even take the position that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged."

It seems unlikely that this is what President Bush meant when he promised to appoint more judges like Scalia to the court, should the opportunity arise. Crucially, Justice Scalia is one of the judges in favour of overturning Roe v Wade, the landmark judgment protecting abortion as a constitutional right.

One audience member also asked the judge "whether you have any gay friends, and, if not, whether you'd like to be my friend," the Harvard Crimson newspaper reported. "I probably do have some gay friends, but I have never pressed the point," Justice Scalia responded. He offered no clue to the logic behind his claim that orgies eliminate social tensions. Nobody asked him whether he was familiar with Rick Moody's novel The Ice Storm, turned into a movie by Ang Lee, which appeared to suggest the exact opposite.

--- Read Article --- [TheGuardian]
*webmasters note* Let me just say I never thought I would see the phrases: US supreme court, vociferously, abortion, anti-sodomy, bush, hunting, orgies , conservative, and releaving Social tension in one Article.~