A very good friend of mine just launched a website called StyleShark, where you can find relatively tasteful entertainment news geared for men. Think Maxim Online, and you’ll get an idea of the flavor. I’m plugging his site here because frankly he’s a good friend of mine, but mostly because it actually is really good.
Above you can see one of the StyleShark girls, Anne, talking about the top 5 “technologies” for sex since it’s somewhat appropriate for a tech audience. She’s fun to listen to, trust me. But don’t, if hearing about natural acts committed between consenting adults somehow offends you. It’s not explicit, but well… you’ve been warned.
On his site, you can expect pictures, articles and original videos that a male audience will appreciate. Just don’t expect anything obscene.
Created by Japan’s Mile Project, the Good Afternoon Clock features no hands or even a face for that matter. Instead, a set of slits that encircle the inside of the clock’s bezel allow narrow beams of light to shine through that end up representing the second, minute and hour hands when seen on a wall or other flat surface. And while I’m sure the clock exists in some form or another, I’m afraid you won’t be getting your hands on one anytime soon.
These days there are mice that cater to everyone from gamers to road warriors, so why should the DJ’ing community be left out? The DJ Mouse from DJ-Tech is designed to work with the company’s Deckadance software and features a multi-function jog wheel for scratching or cuing up tracks that’s also back-lit with a glowing blue ring making it easier to see in the dark. The DJ Mouse also features a scroll wheel and a set of standard mouse buttons that can be configured to control a host of other features in the Deckadance software like triggering loops and samples, controlling knobs and faders or setting cue points. $79 available directly from DJ-Tech.
A lot of people were quite upset to hear that Polaroid would be stopping production of their instant film and cameras back in 2008. In fact, it inspired a group know known as The Impossible Project to buy up all the company’s machinery and production equipment to hopefully bring the cameras back in 2010. But if you simply can’t wait that long, Urban Outfitters will be selling 700 hand-numbered deadstock Polaroid kits in their stores, starting August 21.
The kit includes the Polaroid ONE600 Classic instant camera as well as a pack of Polaroid instant film, but UO will also be selling deadstock original Type 779 film until the limited remaining stock runs out.
I haven’t owned a dog in some time, but my childhood dog hated storms. She was a big German Shepard, but would cower in a corner at the first clap of thunder. We usually did our best to calm her down, but she never did get used to it. One company believes that they have the solution for dogs that get upset over storms and other loud noises.
The K-9 Calming Vest is supposed to reduce your dog’s anxiety by hugging them tightly. Apparently the tight nature of the vest calms your pet, and distracts them enough that they don’t notice the loud noises. So basically, this thing will be so tight and annoying that your dog won’t care about anything other than removing it. Oh, and good luck getting them to hold still long enough to strap them in, after a couple of times they’re going to learn to hate it.
I’ve been a PC gamer for a long time, and while I find that having a few extra buttons on my mouse can be very helpful, more is not always better. After using a wide variety of gaming mice, I’ve discovered that 3-4 extra buttons is about perfect. Any more and it seems like you have to put extra effort into not accidentally hitting them, which makes it less comfortable to use. So needless to say, I’m not exactly getting excited about Razer’s latest mouse, dubbed the Naga.
The Razer Naga features a whopping 12-key grid on the side where your thumb should rest. This means that your thumb will almost always be pressing against these. I’m going to guess that they take a good little bit of pressure to register, but I’m still not comfortable resting my fingers on that many buttons. I also wonder how easy it will be to hit each of them as quickly as you need to. I suppose it’s one of those things that will just have to be tried out to really understand. If you need a dozen extra keys on your mouse, then the Naga will set you back about $80.
Remember Banpresto’s Face Bank? The one that literally eats your coins but looked kind of freaky while doing it? Well this Hungry Pig bank is the same idea, though it’s far less nightmare-inducing to look at. Just stick a coin in Babe’s mouth and a motion sensor will activate the ‘chewing’ action until the currency is swallowed. A great gift idea for impresionable kids who might not have already had the idea to put coins in their mouths! ~$33 from BB Shopping.
Robots are now learning how to lie. Here’s how it happened. Researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne setup an experiment with a bunch of autonomous bots. They programmed them to look for food (a light colored ring on the floor) and avoid poison (a dark ring). The bots also had a blue light that could be detected by the other bots. The longer the bots stayed around the food, the more points they got. Since space was limited, bots would jostle around the food while simultaneously creating a cluster of blue lights that could serve as a beacon for other bots that food had been found.
The researchers then introduced “evolution” into the experiment by “by copying and combining the artificial neural networks of the most successful robots. The scientists also added a few random changes to their code to mimic biological mutations.” By the 50th generation the found that robots were flashing their blue lights less and less when they found food. A few hundred generations later and hardly any robots flashed their lights once they had found the food, thereby increasing their chances of getting more points while concealing their find to their neighbors.
The slimy bastards.
Researchers concluded this study may help them better understand the evolution of biological communication systems.
Don’t shortchange your kid and give him regular old Crayons when you could be giving him these Rich Color Crayons. They’re pretty much made of the same material as regular Crayons, but instead of being one solid color, they’re marbled with a variety of color speckles that produce a richer color pattern. As you can see from the image above, the results can be impressive. Then again, these are obviously marketing renderings made by some kind of professional. But still, the idea is interesting.
Seeing as you can’t quite give each crayon an actual color name, they’ve been affectionately dubbed “Passion & Orange”, “StrawberrySpecial”, “CandyPop”, “CitrusHerb”, “BerryMix” and “ChocolateAlmond”. A box of these six “flavors” will set you back 1,200 Yen, or about $13.
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