Hardware Beyond the Hype
Merry “X” Mass (where “X” equals the winter festival of your choice) from all of the meatbots, cyborgs, and robot minions here at Street Tech Labs. Here’s to a happy ending to your year and to all good things in 2006. Peace out.
[Image of CyberSanta by Jim Leftwich]
All I want for Christmas is the ability to download the movie of my choice at 300k/sec, at a reasonable price. I’m tired of having to get in line for 20 minutes to rent a DVD for five bucks. I’m tired of waiting for Netflix to stock enough copies of Battlestar Galactica so I don’t have to wait three weeks for it. I’m sick of crappy, slow torrents that take two days to download. That is all. Carry on…
What do YOU want for Christmas, that should exist but doesn’t?
The cult of Pastafarianism grows and rears its starchy tentacles in the most unlikely places. This pic was snapped by DC-area slam poet Kate Dillon in the Hampden area of Baltimore, MD. It’s just there, assuming and enigmatic, on the side of a building. And no, it’s not a computer store, comic book shop, or other likely geek enclave.
Thanks, Kate!
Taking a cue from NetFlix, an Internet-based handbag company called Frombagstoriches is offering a similar type of borrowing service for handbags. Now fashionistas on a budget can kick it like Paris Hilton, never being seen with the same handbag twice.
We’d love to see this model catch on in other product areas. Personally, I’d love to subscribe to a boardgame service or a robot rental. Luckily, many of the robots and robot building sets I own, I didn’t pay for (review units), but honestly, most of them only hold my attention for a few solid days and then I’m done. I’d love to be able to mess with a Robosapien or a nuvo or whatever for a few weeks and then send it back so that another bot can show up on my doorstep.
[Via Gizmag]
We love the Sharpies here at Street Tech Labs; black Sharpies that make us hallucinate on the fumes every time we use them to label our CDs, DVDs, and our interns (it’s so hard to keep them all straight). But that permanent jet-black ink and head-lightening marker aroma may come at a price: the long-term survivability of your disc-based media (oh, and maybe blood poisoning of the interns).
According to a piece on the Media Sciences website, solvent-based markers (like our beloved Sharpies) are the riskiest to use, as the solvent can lead to data degradation. Water-based markers are better. The best thing to do is to write on the plastic center ring of the disc. While some discs are designed to protect the readout surface from marker solvents, others aren’t, and it’s not always clear what kind of discs you have. Of course, we’re talking about long-term degradation, so this is only an issue if you’re looking at long-term storage. For most of us, just using water-based markers is good enough. Dang, we’re going to miss our Sharpie high. I think one of our interns needs a new “tattoo.”
Giant Robot, known for their zuparcuul Creative Communist T-shirts, has introduced a new version: the Che Doctorow.
The “Che Guevara-inspired shirt, featuring BoingBoing editor and EFF people’s hero Cory Doctorow,” is available in classic copyleftist olive-drab, though kids will have to settle for ‘prairie dust,’ ’cause apparently, there’s been a run on freedom-fighter tees for the kids.
Price is US$8, with a buck from each purchase going to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
[Editorial Disclosure: The designer of this shirt works for Street Tech, but isn’t making a dime.]
Six students from the Royal College of Art in London are putting on a show that explores the statue-like forms people assume while playing with a Playstation Portable (or any other gaming handheld for that matter). From studying these gaming postures, the students designed cocoon-like “furniture” that conforms to the gaming postures. Visitors to the show are encourage to climb into the pieces.
Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch was given a first look at the alpha version of Riya (formerly Ojos), the next-gen photo sharing/storage service that uses facial and text recognition technologies to auto-tag photos. Mikey likes it. Read the piece and see screenshots here.
The latest installment of Gina Trapani’s Lifehacker column, Geek to Live, is a decent set of tips on how to set up your house for greater personal productivity.
MBoffin.com has a nice set of tips on improving gas mileage. The author claims to have improved mileage from 19 to 25 mph, on a mini-van, by following these practices. Fuel prices being what they are, that’s savings worth taking note of.
[Via Lifehacker]