Category: Geek

Those relentlessly curious geeks at Ars Technica have done a thorough autopsy on Apple’s new Mighty Mouse. If you’re curious how this tech works, this should answer your questions, without you having to cannibalize a Mighty of your own.

Who needs a cheap Bose or JBL iPod amplifier when, for a mere US$1,200, you can listen to your lossy-compressed MP3 files the way they were MEANT to be heard – through the pure sonic experience that only a TUBE-based iPod amp can provide. Good grief!

[Thanks, Jay!]

More CNC Milling Machine madness, here a Japanese iPod Photo is given the armored car treatment with a thick, beautifully milled hard case.

Given the recent spate of iPod muggings, you might want to interest yourself in a Kevlar batsuit to go along with the Pod armor.

We all know how much video gaming has become a significant part of pop culture, but this point gets sharper as you peruse sites like Costume GET!, a blog entirely dedicated to the outfits that characters wear in video games. With companies like Garnier running “Manga Head” contests to push their extreme styling putty and G4 putting on Video Vixen beauty pageants, it’s only a matter of time before People and E! start doing Best/Worst Dressed Avatars of the Year. We live in interesting times.

[This was submitted by (I surmise) one of the guys who runs this site, and reads like ad copy, but it’s a worthwhile resource, so I’m posting it anyway. – Gar]

WARspy LA is Los Angeles’ first and only WARspy resource. This is the place to look for the latest WARspy information.

But WARspy LA’s star is the “WARspy Challenge,” where we challenge you to find our cameras. Please surf around our Web site, participate in our challenges and send us any information you think we should add, and make sure to participate in our challenges.

WARspy Los Angeles

More cyberpunky keyboard action, this one, just stupid IMHO; a stealth-black keyboard with no key markings whatsoever. Apparently for “l33t” programmers only. Now, c’mon, how many deep geeks do you know who are brilliant touch typists and know every key on the board? I do get a kick out of the idea of Haxxor wannabes buying this thing and then spending inordinate amounts of time randomly pressing keys trying to find the ones they want. Just what we need, even worse spelling from geeks.

There are some things money can’t buy, for everything else, there’s MasterCard — for things like Geiger Alien plushy face huggers!

Watch your Internet date run screaming from your bedroom when she finds one of these babies nestled between the bed pillows. Ah…good times, good times.

And while you’re at it, you may want to toss a chest burster into your virtual shopping cart too. I smell baby shower present!

In the immortal words of Joni: “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” As much as I was a vocal critic of TechTV, I would give anything to have it back, now that Comcast has bought the network, gutted it, and reconstituted it as the MTV-ized and unwatchable: G4TV.

Luckily, we can get some of it back, thanks to the efforts of TechTV alums Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, and Kevin Rose. Leo and company resurfaced a month or so ago in a podcast, first dubbed “Revenge of the Screensavers,” and then renamed This Week in Tech (or TWiT), after the guys got pulled over by G4’s IP police. Up to six episodes now, TWiT basically has the same vibe and content as The Screensavers. There’s a lot of banter between the hosts and guests that might be boring to those not fans of the old show and the program will likely appeal to deep geeks only, but after watching the empty-headed G4 for months, it’s great to have Leo and the crew back. And it’s also a testament to their true geekitude that they would want to devote themselves to a free podcast like this.

You may have heard through the Blogosphere that Kevin Rose, the only remotely decent meatbot remaining at G4, left the network recently. Besides being part of TWiTs, he now has his own Torrented video show called SYSTM. Just watched the premiere episode, available for Mac in h.264 QT 7 format, in PSP format, Xvid, Theora, as well as good ol’ Windows Media. Very professionally done and hacker-friendly. The first episode details (okay, breezes over is more like it, but details are promised via the show’s website) the making of a “War Spying” rig for sniffing out wireless security cameras. Can’t wait to see what they do with future programs.

And you thought that last Mech was wackadoodle, check out this one being built by an Alaskan ironworker. It’s 18′ tall! It hasn’t actually walked yet, and seeing the pics and vids on the site, I have serious doubts. Let’s just hope there’s serious, redundant stabilization technology and lots of padding and shock absorption in the pilot cabin. I would NOT want to be in this thing when it fell over. The builder plans on making a number of these and doing combat in an arena. I’ll have what he’s smokin’

As Andrew posted earlier, employers are nervous about huge numbers of workers calling in sick on Thursday, when the new Star Wars film opens. There’s even a term for it now: the “Sith Flu.” Best Buy’s tech support subsidiary, GeekSquad, has a goofy excuse note you can print out for your boss. Good way to get yo ass fired but good.

BTW: GeekSquad is an official sponsor of the NYC Star Wars line. That’s right, you heard me, the freakin’ line has a sponsor and a website. GeekSquad has even rolled up the “Docking Bay,” a sorta Internet cafe on wheels, so that those in line can, ya know, read about themselves waiting in line online and talk to each other in chat rooms. I can only hope that Triumph the Insult Comic Dog pays a visit like he did for Attack of the Clones.