Paris Hilton Hack Explained

Link to Washington Post

Pocket NES

Some [very bored] dudes in Japan decided that they wanted to take their NES action everywhere...

Display Heaven

Samsung announced a 50" OLED screen last week. There's no word on pricing and availability yet, but I'm drooling already.

Forgot why OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) was so much cooler than normal LCDs (what we see all over the place now), so I dug up my notes from the displays class I took, back in grad school.

Basically, LCDs are nonorganic, nonemissive light devices. They block/pass light reflected from an external light source or provided by a back lighting system. The back lighting system accounts for half of the LCD power requirements, which is the reason for their increased power consumption.

OLEDs are devices with carbon-based films placed between two electrodes (for positive and negative charges). When current is applied to OLED, the positive and negative charges recombine and generates electro-luminescent light. There's no need for backlighting in the packaging. And since it is emissive, that translates to better view angle. It's main advantages over LCDs are: more durable, increased brightness/contrast, lighter, thinner, faster response time, consumes less power.


"Your privates will become this small if you keep on using CRTs" -- The Samsung model points out the painfully obvious advantage of developing new devices with lower electromagnetic emissions. A MUST for engineers and geeks.

More Episode Three Noise

I present to you the successor of Vader: Darf Spud I kid you not. This is a real toy from Hasbro; and this is a review of the toy.

In other news, researchers in Italy created a R2-D2 prototype as a companion robot with a friendly user interface. This sucker costed 50000 euros and supposedly runs away from people with light sabers.

Post RoTS

I had the opportunity to watch Episode 3 - RoTS last night... Wasn't really impressed by it, though it was better than the first two prequels. Then again, it's not that hard to make something better than the first two prequels. Those videos we made for projects in high school German and chemistry classes probabaly had more entertainment value than Episodes 1 and 2 combined. Anyhoo, doesn't really matter how crappy a movie is when the size of the fan base outnumbers the clone army.

Some random thoughts on Episode 3:
1. Yoda seems to be able to sense things better than other Jedi Masters... Perhaps his (antennae) ears have something to do with it?
2. I tried very hard to keep a straight face when they first put the mask on Vader, and the Emperor asks, "Vader, can you hear me?" I know it was the moment, but I was almost expecting the guy from the Verizon commercials to pop in or something.
3. They show Vader going berserk soon after getting his new suit. If someone gave me that iconic samurai-ish mask and a billowing cape to wear, and then put crappy 70's-looking analog buttons on my chest plate, I'd go crazy and build a Death Star too. C'mon... all the fighters have cool digital instrumentation and screens, and all Darth Vader gets is measly buttons. For crying out loud, even my TV remote control is higher tech. He needs to visit those "Pimp My Ride" people on MTV and get a 10" LCD screen and DVD player hooked up.
4. For some strange reason, Lucas loves showing off the myriad of spacecrafts. Nothing wrong with some creativity, but why does he feel compelled to show the landing/docking sequences for most of these crafts? Next time you watch Episode Three, make a note of how often you see a spacecraft land (i.e. extend its landing gear, or dock with another spacecraft).
5. The only reason why this movie was over 2 hours was because we spend about half the time watching spacecrafts land, battle scenes in space, or light saber duels. They could have used some of this time to better explain the story or something.... instead of having the audience watch how Anakin turns over to the dark side in the matter of 30 seconds.

Upgraded

Woohoo... My computer is now DVD-capable. Next task -- buy DVD+/-R discs and figure out how to write DVDs. But that's for another day. Long day tomorrow.

Braindead

'Tis "dark side" + E3 week. There have been a number of fairly decent reviews on Episode 3 - RoTS, so it might be worthwhile to catch it on the big screen. Just gotta find a digital screen in the area first. Can't wait for all the next-gen video game consoles to come out. All the teraflops and home media convergence possibilities has got me salivating. I guess I'm a geek after all.

Another one of those stupid emails:
-------------------------------------------------------------

Things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.

Q: Are you sexually active?
A: No, I just lie there.

Q: What is your date of birth?
A: July 15.
Q: What year?
A: Every year.

Q: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
A: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.

Q: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
A: Yes.
Q: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
A: I forget.
Q: You forget? Can you give us an example of something that you've forgotten?

Q: How old is your son, the one living with you?
A: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which.
Q: How long has he lived with you?
A: Forty-five years.

Q: What was the first thing your husband said to you when he woke up that morning?
A: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"
Q: And why did that upset you?
A: My name is Susan.

Q: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo or the occult?
A: We both do.
Q: Voodoo?
A: We do.
Q: You do?
A: Yes, voodoo.

Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
A: Did you actually pass the bar exam?

Q: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?

Q: Were you present when your picture was taken?

Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
A: Yes.
Q: And what were you doing at that time?

Q: She had three children, right?
A: Yes.
Q: How many were boys?
A: None.
Q: Were there any girls?

Q: How was your first marriage terminated?
A: By death.
Q: And by whose death was it terminated?

Q: Can you describe the individual?
A: He was about medium height and had a beard.
Q: Was this a male, or a female

Q: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
A: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.

Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.

Q: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
A: Oral.

Q: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
A: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
Q: And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time?
A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy.

Q: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?

Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for blood pressure?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for breathing?
A: No.
Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Q: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.

USB Part 2

Related to my previous post, this is the best that the western civilization has to offer in return...

Part of the Geek Diet

Today, we'll take a look at the fusion between technology and sushi, two cultural staples of Japan... It's kinda cool, but in a geeky way.

If you've been to Japan, or even certain Japanese restaurants here in the states, you might recognize these fake plastic sushi items that they love to display to showcase their menu. I just get a kick out of the new twist added by Solid Alliance. Too bad they're just so darn overpriced.


For the less-fortunate, technologically-impared people, these are USB flash drives made in the shape of food. If you don't know what a USB flash drive is, go look it up on some search engine.

Too Much Time?

This is what happens when you mix a lot of time and craziness together and stir... This guy is a bit nuts, if you ask me, but this is what 33000 pieces of Legos can get you. Note that the Pocari Sweat bottle is NOT a scale model.

Inside Defcon

I spent a sizeable amount of time fighting spyware in the past 24 hours. A combination of Ad-Adware, Spybot S&D, and good, old-fashioned registry tinkering fixed my problems. Or, I think the problems are fixed. At least I'm no longer seeing windows popping up and all scans have checked out fine.

I'm tired from fixing my computer and the 2+ hours of pick-up bball this afternoon (with 3 blisters to show for it), so all you'll get is links.

Popsci had this interesting article. A fun read. =)

Cool Toys

1) I'm tempted to find out where they sell these suckers and buy a couple to play with....
2) The Clocky-killer.
3) Clocky-killer 2.
4) These things would really sell in Asia...