- Tech News
Music for (and by) Software Testers
“This is music I make to listen to while at work,” says Mark Rushton of Iowa City, Iowa, at the start of the 60th episode of his Ambient Podcast. For some two decades, Rushton has worked as a software tester, and in his off hours he is a prolific maker of electronic music. As he … Continued
- Tech NewsSploid
You can buy the real Han Solo DL-44 Blaster used in Star Wars
Do you want to buy a house or a piece of Star Wars history? Would you like a Ferrari or the DL-44 Blaster that Harrison Ford used? A college education or a toy gun? The answer is obvious right? It’s Han Solo’s DL-44 Blaster every time. The blaster pistol made famous by Han Solo is … Continued
By Casey Chan - Tech NewsSploid
Super stealth MIT camera can take 3D images in complete darkness
Anyone with a smartphone knows how impossible it is to take pictures in the dark. At best you get a picture that looks like a pile of dark to darker grains of sand. Researchers, however, have come up with a better way. They’ve been able to take ‘ultra sharp images’ with little to no light. … Continued
By Casey Chan - Tech NewsSploid
Spin around a mountain in super speed like Superman
Things that usually spin really, really fast: a top, the wheel of fortune wheel, other wheels, circular objects, knobs and other things of that nature. Not a mountain! Well, unless you’re Superman and can fly around it. Newsflash: we’re not Superman. However! Kevin Parry and Andrea Nesbitt of Candy Glass Productions might be. They created … Continued
By Casey Chan - Tech NewsSploid
These museums are actually unbelievable gingerbread houses
Anyone trying to make a gingerbread house for the holidays this year can pretty much give up right now. Just eat everything instead because no matter what you do, you can’t possibly top the artistry of these gingerbread museums. Designed by Caitlin Levin and Henry Hargreaves for Dylan’s Candy Bar, they capture the world’s most … Continued
By Casey Chan - Tech NewsSploid
The new World Trade Center screams like a banshee in strong winds
The new World Trade Center is bland and boring by day but, when the night comes, if there’s a strong wind, it will scream like a demon, waking people up and sending a chill down everyone’s spine. I hope the people living around it stock up on ear plugs. Listen.
By Jesus Diaz - Tech News
Volvo Plans to Put Self-Driving Cars on City Streets by 2017
Volvo’s hitting the gas on its plan to sell self-driving cars. The Swedish (but Chinese-owned) company just announced a trial that will put 100 driverless cars on the streets of Gothenburg in 2017. They’ll navigate traffic, dodge pedestrians, and even park themselves. Pretty futuristic! Actually, it’s about time. It’s been almost a decade since DARPA’s … Continued
- Tech News
Watch: The World Trade Center Wails In Strong Winds
New Yorkers who live near One World Trade Center already have to contend with “fortress-like isolation” caused by the imposing NYPD security perimeter. But according to neighborhood residents, there’s something far spookier going on at the WTC site: A “ghoulish” howling that happens during storms and high winds. The Tribeca Citizenrecently posteda new video of … Continued
- Tech News
The Fascinating Journey Your T-Shirt Took to Get to You
In an age that encourages everything organic, fairly traded, and USA-made, it’s easy to overlook the less-celebrated (and often significantly more common) goods we use on a daily basis. Take the shirt on your back, for example—because NPR certainly did. The new Planet Money installment, commissioned by NPR, looks at the entire, remarkable process behind … Continued
- Tech NewsSploid
This is Kliuchevskoi, an active volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula, photographed from an extremely oblique angle by astronauts onboard the International Space Station. We’re used to photos taken from space to be flat, 900 miles straight from the top shots. This one, however, is an extremely oblique angle shot,which makes the scenery look like a … Continued
By Jesus Diaz - Tech News
5 Barbacking Gadgets for the Harried Holiday Party Host
It’s your Festivus party; you should be out there schmoozing with guests, not stuck in the kitchen pouring drinks. With these mechanical mixologists at your side, you’ll be able to pour a professional cocktail and still have time to be the life of the party. The Smoking Gun 1987 called, it wants its paprika-coated deviled … Continued
- Tech News
LED Blades Turn This RC Toy Helicopter Into an Airborne Messenger
Sometimes well-placed propaganda is the strongest weapon of all. So the folks at Brando have come across what could be the most dangerous RC toy ever devised, armed with an extra spinning rotor that displays custom messages. Because a foam arrow to the eye doesn’t hurt nearly as much as the revelation that “Jason smells … Continued
- Tech News
An Aid Group is 3D-Printing Medical Supplies in Haiti
It’s been three years since a massive earthquake ravaged Haiti, and the island nation is still recovering. One large and pervasive obstacle is a lack of supplies—specifically, medical supplies. So iLab Haiti is exploring how 3D printing can be used to just make them on the spot. The group’s Ashley Dara just returned from a … Continued
By Leslie Horn - Tech News
Time Warner Is Setting HBO Free For $30/Month
Time Warner is now offering a new, affordable plan that lets you get HBO and about 20 channels for just $30/month for the first year. Great news for anyone who doesn’t want to be saddled with 70 channels they’re never watching. TWC’s new offering includes all your local broadcasters, in addition to your C-SPANs, shopping … Continued
By Leslie Horn - Tech News
Holy Scheisse, There’s a Shazam For Nazi Music
German authorities have developed a special app that allows them to identify extremist, right-wing music from just a brief clip, according to the German newspaper Der Spiegel. The new app works much like “Nazi Shazam.” According to the report, the app isn’t currently in use, and authorities from the Interior Ministry are currently meeting to … Continued
- Tech NewsSploid
Video shows eagle stealing a camera and taking it for a 68-mile spin
The Australian ABC News service has posted this video captured by a sea eagle. The bird stole a wildlife camera in a crocodile meat trap in the Margaret River, Western Australia, taking it on a 68-mile trip. The camera was found by aboriginal rangers weeks later, at a different river. Man, I never thought I … Continued
By Jesus Diaz - Tech News
Exploding Hog-Manure Foam Is Costing Farmers Millions
Hog farmers across the country are dealing with a pretty shitty problem. A mysterious fecal foam has begun bubbling up from beneath barn floors, down in the darkness where pig manure falls, burping dangerous quantities of methane and hydrogen sulfide. Sometimes, though, it ignites, blowing up not just the barn but all of the pigs … Continued
- Tech News
Driving is slowly killing us, a freeway expansion uncovers geological treasures, Londoners protest the city’s poor cycling conditions, what dive bar bathrooms can tell us about our neighborhood, and a quick look at San Francisco’s real underground (not BART). All in this week’s urban reads. Can inner-city farms, pocket parks, and urban orchards really save … Continued