Boing Boing Gadgets

Vinyl cutter makes CDs into 45 RPM records

2008-05-09T17:36:10Z

Over at the mother Boing, Cory spotted this fantastic mod: armed with a vintage vinyl record cutter, Aleks Kolkowski attended Manchester's Futuresonic 2008 festival, burning audio files for festival goers on old, discarded compact dics and making them capable of being played on any old phonograph. Golden-eared audiophiles will now have a new aspect to consider in the Vinyl vs. CD debate: does a record CD sound better than vinyl?

CD Recycled 45 RPM [Futuresonic via Oh Gizmo]

Zaurus gets Ubuntu: Will the Z rise from its grave?

2008-05-09T16:44:27Z

Sharp's Zaurus was a radical Linux PDA series back when that kind of thing just wasn't done. They were high-end, expensive, QWERTY slabs that just weren't that great compared to sensible Windows- and Palm-driven mainstays. But I loved mine, all the same, even when I sold it on eBay a few months after buying it. And now there is a version of Ubuntu that consents to run on it.

Early users should expect to encounter interesting puzzles and challenges. He comments, "There's a lot left to tweak of course, but a full-blown Ubuntu is on it's way."

Created by Omegamoon, it's a preliminary release that's not yet ready to replace Opie or whatever you've got on your own Z — you'll also want a more modern model than the one pictured, which I've selected for my own nostalgic reasons.

Source [Linuxdevices via Engadget]

Gaming grist from Rock, Paper, Shotgun

2008-05-09T14:53:51Z

After looking up the definition of "insouciant" — it's a quality expressed by sauce pans, I think — browsing the headlines of our favorite PC gaming blog Rock, Paper, Shotgun is my favorite mid-day work avoidance routine. Here are some of the week's best:

• Pirates director Gore Verbinski to direct a BioShock film. Says RPS, "The immediate problem with using the existing narrative is that, unlike the game, the audience isn’t in the shoes of the lead character, so Bioshock’s moments of greatest resonance will be that much tougher to achieve. Potentially the big reveal could be a bit Sixth Sense - which, in fairness, was reasonably affecting on the first viewing." As long as the Big Daddies have a love interest in the Little Sisters, re-cast as large-breasted algae farmers but still wearing the same filmy dresses, everything should be fine. Oh, and someone should ride a whale just ahead of a slow-motion explosion.

• Wolf 3D turns 16. I'm just linking this because of the Lego Hitler mecha.

• Is the future of consoles the PC? asks Rossignol, who posits future gaming will be done on a monolithic home computing slab which broadcasts the visuals over IP to the display and interface of your choice. My take: I think it will be just like that, but different.

• Spore and Mass Effect (PC) will have onerous, unnecessary DRM. I actually sold my 360 copy of Mass Effect in anticipation of the PC version. Ah well. More DRM-less Sins of a Solar Empire for me.

• Ken Levine and 2K Boston to remake X-Com? As one of the only games from that era that stands the test of time (some of the interface is a little rough, but more than ably smoothed over by the waves of general brilliance) X-Com deserves an all-star polishing up. But only if — and I acknowledge that I'm about to become the fussy, aging, ossifying gamer I loathe — it's turn-based.

Why are electronic payment systems such a wreck?

2008-05-09T14:36:46Z

Photo: mlaaker

Every time we pay for something over the internet — as anyone who loves technology and gadgets surely does — many of us still shrivel with fear inside. Some are just aware of identity theft and the army of fraudsters lurking in the system. Some may have established and maintained internet merchant setups, and know how byzantine and self-serving that system is. In the last day or so, two seemingly trivial discoveries made me cringe.

1. PayPal asks for a bank or credit card number before letting you close a PayPal account. PayPal then takes $1.50 out of that bank account, so that you can prove it's yours by reporting to PayPal the secret code it leaves in the transaction details there. PayPal will then refund the money within 24 hours — to the PayPal account you just shut down!

2. At the Authorize.net payment processor, if you try to refund two payments for the same amount from the same customer (for example, recurring subscription payments from sequential months), the system frequently thinks you're trying to refund the same transaction over and over again, and refuses to cooperate.

Two trivial events, for sure. And they're not even the kind of thing that consumers are likely to ever confront. But they're perfect examples of how half-arsed and error-strewn the business of taking people's money online remains in 2007.

Consider that these companies now manage the transfer of colossal sums of money. Banks and credit card companies complain publicly about intermediaries like PayPal and CC processors. The truth, I suspect, is that they rely on them to soak up legal liability inherent in the messed-up world of card-not-present electronic transactions.

When you (either merchant or customer) get done over, who do you blame: shifty fraud-encouraging transaction skimmers like eBay and PayPal, or the banking industry types, such as VISA and Mastercard, which maintains the obsolete system that facilitates it all?

Transforming Optimus Prime iPod dock! Squee!

2008-05-09T14:22:01Z

For an 80's kid like me, Takara Tomy's transforming Optimus Prime iPod dock can't be described by words, only by phonemic abstractions meant to convey the most transcendental surges of consumerist joy. Words like SQUEE! and WOOBLEWOOP! But being an 80's kid, I'll simply fall back on a term burned into my language banks by a thousand hours of animated half-hour toy commercials. To borrow an expression from the common argot of our youths, this is just totally awesome.

$145 bucks, which is crazy, but fuck it, I'm getting one.

Transformers iPod Dock [Jlist via DVICE]

LED hula hoops... you know, for kids

2008-05-09T14:03:45Z

For $195, Etsy seller Schlabein will sell you this incredible LED Hula Hoop, which will allow you to swish a rainbow around your waist for up to 8 hours a charge. That may be worth the price if you're auditioning for Cirque du Soleil, but even I — flamboyant midnight hula hooper that I am — find it pretty steep. But if you're interested in a more basic model, Instructables can lead you through the process of building one for less than 20 bucks.

Also, full disclosure: I've stolen Technabob's pitch-perfect headline for this post. Full props to them! When discussing hula hoops, one can't improve on a Hudsucker Proxy reference.

LED Hula Hoop [Etsy via Technabob]

Guitar Hero pedals for amputees

2008-05-09T13:39:05Z

Portable console designer Ben Heck's latest project is a Guitar Hero hack that adds a useable floor pedal to the guitar controller. The pedal's most universal application is to allow you to use the whammy bar like a wa-wa pedal, but it also lets one-armed amputees play Guitar Hero by strumming with their foot. That's probably the way I'd use it too: as it is, it's hard to strum and keep your hand triumphantly aloft in a digital devil horns gesture.

Guitar Hero Pedal Controllers [Ben Heck]

World's most expensive shirt is mostly jewelry

2008-05-09T13:36:32Z

I don't mind "World's Most Expensive" items when the companies behind them acknowledge their nature as promotional stunt. Before this shirt from Eton will be auction off for charity it will be taking a tour through some of the company's stores in Europe. Brandish details the opulence:

Features the finest Egyptian cotton yarn. The studs and cufflinks are diamond encrusted, the studs have coloured diamonds and the cufflinks have the plain old normal diamonds, yawn!

So just jewels and nice fabric; surely for £23,000 they could have woven in a little tech trickery. Bullet resistance? Nipple de-chafer? The blood of campesinos?

This reminds me: I need to start putting all my cheap clothing in individual black hard-sided cases.

Eton release the world's most expensive shirt [Brandish]

1922 aerial captain predicts floating cities by the year 12,000

2008-05-09T13:30:17Z

Over at Paleo-Future, they have a scan of an article from the Februrary 12, 1922 issue of the Ogden Standard Examiner. Twitchy about predicting a more near-by future that might be flung back in his dotage, the author decided to predict the world of 11922 A.D.... a world in which sunken-chested bald men in jet packs zoom through the stratosphere to visit domed basilicas kept aloft on radioactive propulsor jets. Why would humanity make its cities so catastrophically disaster prone? A Captain Lawson ("of aerial fame") suggests that the inexorable impetus of human evolution will command us to build our cities at the top of the atmosphere, just as it commanded us to crawl upwards from the ooze of the deep sea floor and conquer land. Ah, the eerily accurate sooth saying of the randomly addressed ex-military man!

10,000 Years From Now [Paleo-Future]

Patent for vibration inside game controllers, your genitals, held by same company

2008-05-09T12:36:58Z

A company called "Immersion" holds a patent that allows them to claim royalties for things that vibrate or provide force-feedback. They're the reason that Sony's Playstation 3 controllers had no rumble features at first — it took losing an $82 million lawsuit before Sony capitulated.

But you know what else vibrates? Things you put inside yourself for sexual pleasure. (Including my personal all-natural pleasure generator: a jar of bees. Just be sure to keep the lid on tight or it won't just be a colony that's collapsing.)

Immersion didn't want to enforce its patents on teledildonic gaming devices — the name is also the cleaning instructions! — so they licensed the rights to the blandly named "Internet Services, LLC", who is in turn suing some other people and then the lawyer left so they sued him and oh I appear to be falling asleep.

Point is, the very same company who makes money for people putting pager motors in videogame controllers also will get money every time you use a USB pocket pleasurer or a commercial interactive deep core drilling simulation. Or would in theory, provided anyone actually used teledildonics for anything more than fodder for tittering.

Keker & Van Nest wants to get away from client with cybersex patent rights; won't say why [The Priot Art via Techdirt]

Previously • SeXBox: Using force feedback signals for sex toys [BB]

Is this gonna be a stand up fight, sir, or just another duck hunt?

2008-05-09T11:30:59Z

Craftster publishes a how-to, penned by someone by the name of "Fluffypants."

Duck Hunt zapper lamp [Craftster via ShinyShiny]

Power On Self Test: Interior misdesign

2008-05-09T11:05:25Z

Derived from Eurobad '74 - Europe's Worst Interiors

GTA IV critic busted lying about game

2008-05-09T10:38:26Z

Dan Isett, the Parents Television Council’s Director of Public Policy, was caught lying about the content of top-selling game GTA IV, and his experience of it, by an enterprising reporter who went to the trouble of actually playing it himself.

Have you played the game?
“I’ve actually played ‘Grand Theft Auto IV,’ and it’s right in keeping with previous versions. The series continues to lower the bar and this is the first game that has an alcohol content warning. You get points for driving drunk in this game.”

You know that’s not true, right? The game doesn’t have points.

“If nothing else, it’s a rewarded activity. Necessary for advancement.”

I don’t think so.

“But there’s an alcohol content warning and a scene of drunk driving, correct?”

They don't really care about the game; to its critics, it's just a button to push. But when everyone is generally savvier about the game's content than them, especially the media, how can they expect to be taken seriously?

"You get points for driving drunk in this game" [AZ Night Buzz]

Update: Reuters has a short feature on "Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do ," a new book from a husband-and-wife research team at Harvard Med that argues that the link between aggressive behavior in kids and violent videogames might be the inverse of the common argument.

The researchers found that 51 percent of boys who played M-rated games -- the industry's equivalent of an R-rated movie, meaning suitable for ages 17 and up -- had been in a fight in the past year, compared to 28 percent of non-M-rated gamers.

You have to love the hysteria implicit in the Reuters headline, too, as if the idea that videogames created killers was the consensus view until this new book was published. – Joel

Video games don't create killers, new book says [Reuters]

Video: BlackBerry 9000 Hands-On

2008-05-08T18:54:35Z

Crackberry bought an unreleased BlackBerry 9000 from eBay, making them one of the first to try out RIM's latest and greatest. It certainly looks like they addressed my primary gripe about BlackBerry devices: from the interface to the iPhone-influenced case design, the phone looks modern and clean inside and out. [via He Who Grübs]

Modern Mechanix Round-UP

2008-05-08T17:43:10Z

Today on Modern Mechanix we looked at these oh-so-cool sport binoculars, an advertisement for Harley Davidson's 1951 Hydra-Glide motorcycle, a centuries old automaton of an old woman that writes letters and learned that Canada is full of courteous people and fresh fish. This 1932 Modern Mechanix article documents the birth of the nascent US electronics industry, complete with a bunch of nifty photos. Also be sure to check out this 1968 Mechanix Illustrated article introducing the Boeing 747 and this 1934 piece about the construction of the Pan-American highway, stretching from Alaska to Argentina.

Sandio 3D Gaming Mouse gets productivity driver upgrade

2008-05-08T17:09:15Z

Sandio's crazy 3D mouse, which augments the standard layout with three analog thumb-joysticks, has new drivers which add support for modeling applications. AutoCAD, Maya and 3DStudio Max now map Cartesian mojo to the mouse's profusion of hats.

"Users of CAD and rendering software; such as AutoDesk’s 3D Studio Max, and Maya can now move along and rotate around X, Y and Z axes in Screen and Camera modes without switching between 3D objects and operation menus.For PC gamers, the Sandio 3D Game O2 is the only mouse of its kind designed for RTS and RPG games. It improves 3D game navigation, makes it possible to effortlessly and intuitively manipulate camera views, and even provides a competitive edge with 16 programmable keys."

I requested a review unit ages ago, but ever since it arrived it's just sat there on the shelf, looking far too intimidating to actually break out the blisterpack and make a fool of myself with.

Product Page [Sandio]

Sandio has added new driver support for AutoCAD, Maya, and 3DStudio Max. The latest driver is available for download at the Sandio Technology website. Please select Engineer Evaluation II on www.sandiotech.com.
The Sandio 3D mouse enhances PC users total experience when working with 3D applications. Users of CAD and rendering software; such as AutoDesk’s 3D Studio Max, and Maya can now move along and rotate around X, Y and Z axes in Screen and Camera modes without switching between 3D objects and operation menus.

For PC gamers, the Sandio 3D Game O2 is the only mouse of its kind designed for RTS and RPG games. It improves 3D game navigation, makes it possible to effortlessly and intuitively manipulate camera views, and even provides a competitive edge with 16 programmable keys.

In addition, Second Life residents can use the Sandio 3D mouse to move forward, backward and sideways, as well as fly, crouch, and turn right and left using only the Sandio mouse, leaving their other hand for controlling avatar’s gestures or other options. Users of Google Earth and Virtual Earth can also use the Sandio 3D mouse to fly through the 3D Internet without having to deal with keyboard or on-screen navigation tabs.

Sandio is continually updating its software support to increase 3D users’ total experience.

Unicode > ASCII on the web

2008-05-08T16:36:04Z

Google's pushing Unicode 5.1, the latest version of the ginormous meta-lingual character set, less than a month after it was released. Though Unicode surpassed ASCII and other encoding systems a few months ago, googleblog now has a pretty graph.

I once wrote a script that would translate ISO to Mac Roman in whatever way needed, so this one server which ran on some ancient, decrepit Mac running something like system 8 wouldn't munge our text workflow at the place I worked at. I am particularly sensitive to the empty square boxes of doom. I have had dreams about giant grids, with hexadecimally-named columns and rows, where every cell contains only the proprietary Apple character. Or some random thingie with an umlaut or whatever the hell Apple decided to put where the apostrophe should be.

Moving to Unicode 5.1 [Googleblog]

Pedestrian crossing buttons: placebos or legit?

2008-05-08T16:14:14Z

After reading the recent New Yorker article about the secret life of elevators clued me in to the fact that elevator close door buttons were nothing but scams, I began wondering what other non-functioning buttons I might be in the habit of maniacally thumbing in fruitless pursuit of a social myth. Astute BBG readers can fill in the punch line to that filthy joke in the comments, since I'm over my quota for the day, but Canada.com has an interesting article exposing the truth about another widely suspected placebo button: the pedestrian crossing button.

The amazing revelation? They actually work. At least in Canada.

Transportation planners around Victoria say there are no such "placebo" buttons here, but they add that the effectiveness of the button varies by intersection and region.
Brad Dellebuur, city transportation planner, says pushing the button sends a signal to the intersection's traffic controller that a pedestrian is present and enters the "walk" signal into the system's cycle.

"If you don't press it, some intersections won't give a walk signal," Dellebuur says. The traffic light timing is also determined by the amount of vehicular traffic, which is picked up by sensors imbedded in the road.

This does seem to vary quite a bit from city to city and country to country: in 2002, a reporter for the Honolulu Advertiser reported that 35% of Honolulu's walk buttons were placebos. But in Europe, most pedestrian crossings are fully automatic, and have no buttons. So who knows? Since you can't be sure, we suggest rapidly hammering the button with your fist while jumping up and down impatiently, which is probably what you were doing all along anyway.

A ritual crossing Canada.com via Museum of Hoaxes]

Octocube radiator looks like cubist brain meat

2008-05-08T15:42:56Z

The Octocube radiator is a sculptural concept heater by Vivien Muller that would probably be pretty good at heating up a cold room, given all that surface area. But I can't help but think that with a thin slathering of translucent gelatin and some Pollackesque splatters of red paint, I'd have a lovely Spam-like cube of quivering cerebellum heating my living room.

Octocube [Vivien Muller via Gizmodo via Yanko]

Next rash of Dell Inspirons surprisingly svelte

2008-05-08T14:29:49Z

Rather unexpectedly, leaked images of the next batch of Dell Inspirons are somewhat exciting. Is that an actual stab at aesthetically pleasing design we're seeing here? A stab, yes. Even more impressive: is Dell actually thinking of building a laptop that will not weigh so much as to be capable of crushing a large wharf rat when dropped upon it from a height of a few inches? We can hope.

The Inspiron 1435, 1535 and 1735 will taper from a svelte 1-inch thickness to a more robust 1.5, making it MacBook Pro thin. Additionally, the three laptops will sport slot-loading drives (including a Blu-Ray option), WWAN support and processors up to Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz. Not too shabby. According to Engadget, the 1535 will be dropping on May 26th and we should see the 1735 by June 9th.

Let's all give Dell the slow clap for coming up with a laptop design that does not immediately make me want to horf.

Dell Inspiron 1435, 1535 and 1735 leaked [Engadget]

Colorful and flamboyant Bluetooth headsets by Bluetrek

2008-05-08T14:03:14Z

Many people want their Bluetooth headsets to be as subtle as possible. I am not one of them. In Berlin, there are only two sorts of people who stand in the middle of the streets, loudly talking to themselves, and the sort with whom I would avoid being mistakenly associated tends to wildly jactitate with the DTs when not complaining about the invisible insects crawling all over them. That vibrant, colorful Bluetooth headset, nuzzled in my ear canal? Irrefutable proof that I am not a lunatic. Or at least not by dint of loudly talking to no one.

So I approve of Bluetrek's limited edition Bizz and UFO Bluetooth headsets. Each one is decorated by artist Manuel Angot, and they come in all sorts of lurid patterns and colorful, chromatic swirlings. True, they aren't suitable for any professionals short of the most flamboyant of businessmen, but for the sort of hipsters who like colorful glasses and tech, these are pretty neat. At £79 a pop, though, I think I'll stick with my glitter, feathers and sparkles.

Bluetrek Bluetooth Earpieces [Techdigest]

The Giger chair (xenomorphs not included)

2008-05-08T13:21:56Z

Designer Tim Sugden claims that the inspiration for his Giger Chair came from the anamorphic aliens of its namesake, Mr. H.R. Giger. This does not grok: it is not pieced together from nearly enough rotting animal skeletons for that, nor is it shaped like an extraterrestrial vagina. Rather, it looks more like the sort of chair that Buck Rogers might lounge in while receiving futuristic, twenty-fifth century lap dances, or the sort of chair into which Dr. Heywood Floyd might strap himself during a flight aboard a Pan-American space plane in order to scrutinize a mysterious obelisk on the surface of the moon.

Giger Chair [Tim Sugden via Born Rich]

Breville iKon BKT500 toaster also burns coffee

2008-05-08T12:51:58Z

I don't quite understand my particular fascination with toasters — I rarely eat toast — especially since I'm comfortably of the school that specialized gadgets have no place in a proper kitchen. Still I haul my Back-to-Basics toaster from under the counter from time to time, hoping the collected dust and hairballs on the unused egg poaching tray won't make their way into my bagel, trying desperately to forget that brief three-day honeymoon when I scarfed down Egg McMuffin clones.

So let's ignore that the Breville iKon toaster has a built-in coffee kettle (a percolator, I believe) and instead focus on the welcome addition of its "A Bit More" button which pulls your bread back down for a final round of browning, obviating the need for that annoying "wait for the coils to cool but not too much" routine.

Like most combo kitchen devices, this one costs more than the two items it would be replacing. It's $130.

Product Page [Breville.com.au via Like Cool via Oh Gizmo]

Suissa's Enlighten PC looks like anything but

2008-05-08T12:50:28Z

Someone once described G.K. Chesterton as a man who could rediscover the magic of a lamp post every time he encountered one. He would experience it with a fresh mind, delighted by the post's rigid contours or the magical glowing of the electrically-charged bulb. As much as I love Chesterton, I have to admit, I always thought this description of Chesterton was not meant kindly: hang out with the sort of giggling man-child constantly rediscovering the "magic" of salt shakers and mailboxes and I guarantee you'll want to karate chop his thorax within a few minutes.

Still, I'd like to impart at least some tincture of that world view into my day-to-day life. After all, why do things always look like the things they look like? That may seem like a question only grammatically clever and in actuality pretty stupid, but bear with me: why must a stereo look like a stereo, or a computer look like a computer? Their appearances are only casings for the jumble of guts within. And, in truth, designers do seem to experiment with gadgets that eschew the traditional design motifs of, say, a "computer" or "stereo..." but ultimately, people don't really want a G.K. Chesterton experience when they walk into a room. They don't want to have to rediscover the magic of a computer or a stereo when they walk into a new room: they just want to be able to use it. Usability will always trump design in importance, and the truth of the matter is that 9/10ths of usability is through familiarity.

Anyway, just some early morning navel gazing, prompted by the Suissa Enlighten Computer... a wooden cased PC containing a quad-core Intel processor, a 1 TB drive and 4GB of memory and which looks absolutely nothing like a PC. You can't buy it, only commission it, so it doubtlessly costs gobs. That's fine: if it was more attainable, it might become popular, and if it became popular, it would be emulated, and then it'd lose its real appeal (at least to me): it'd start looking like a PC again.

Suissa Enlighten Computer [Official Site via Red Ferret]

Under-the-desk machine charges batteries with your idle pedaling

2008-05-08T12:21:53Z

Although its taking a bit of a drubbing as it passes through the chuckling locker room of gadget blogdom, this pedal-powered charger isn't as daft as its out-of-fashion powder blue design might imply. Called "Energized by You" — or at least that's what we're going to call it, since it appears to be one of those Chinese products that has so many names it's impossible to tell which one is the brand or model — the concept should be obvious to anyone at a glance: pump the pedals to recharge the battery.

And what's wrong with that? The little under-the-desk pedal exercisers might be a bit goofy, but working out while working is an idea that seems to be building momentum. Gym-class cardio machines are getting iPod docks; why couldn't the machines also use your exertion to top off your iPod's battery? Harvesting excess energy, however incidental it might be, is a solid idea.

If you'd like to purchase this particular implementation, Japanese retailer Rakuten is selling them for ¥14,800, plus shipping.

Catalog Page [Rakuten.co.jp (Machine Translated) via TFTS via Gizmodo]

The BBQ Sword for swashbuckling wurst roasters

2008-05-08T12:09:56Z

The BBQ Sword is for the cook out cavalier who wishes to roast his wiener in Zorro-like anonymity. For £14.95, it even comes with an identity-obfuscating face mask, although for full effect you will need to bring your own pink satin cape and matching banana hammock... at least at the sort of cookouts I regularly and enthusiastically attend, where everyone's already wearing face masks anyway.

BBQ Sword [Firebox]

Rainbow stacking, musical toy by Heiko Hillig

2008-05-08T11:56:00Z

"Rainbow" is a simple wooden stacking toy designed by Heiko Hillig. It's been around for over ten years — it won some German design awards in '97 and '98 — but I'd never seen the colored plywood half-hoops that can not only be appealing arrayed but also make different notes when struck with a mallet. Gracefully simple — and expensive at $175.

I can usually tell I'm going to like a product when the image makes me think, "That would look nice meandering down the front page of the site."

Catalog Page [Fawn and Forest via NotCot]

Morning Tech Deals Highlights

2008-05-08T11:33:53Z

• Wi-Fi Router – Newegg is selling the Linksys WRT150N wireless router — capable of being flashed with DD-WRT or other third-party firmwares — for $60, shipped. That's about $20 off the going price. [Slickdeals]

• Tiny MP3 Player – SanDisk Sansa Clip 1GB MP3 player for $29, shipped. Destroys the iPod shuffle on a feature-by-feature basis. [Dealnews]

• Woot-Off! – Come on feel the noise.