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Alt Text: The Best New Webcomics of 2010
Christmas is a time of giving, so for my last pre-Christmas column, I’m going to give you the gift of people who are more talented than me. Each of these webcomics started this year, or late-ish last year, and each is worth your hard-earned minutes of staring at a screen for free. Scenes From a Multiverse Jon [...]
12.23.10 -
AirPlay Hack Streams Non-iTunes Video Between Mac, Apple TV
Apple’s AirPlay streaming feature enables the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad to stream video and audio to the Apple TV 2. But why stop there? Wired.com’s friend Erica Sadun has been hard at work hacking away at AirPlay to expand its powers. About a week ago she released AirPlayer, a Mac app to stream video from [...]
12.23.10 -
Viacom Sells Harmonix to Investment Firm Columbus Nova
After four years under the auspices of Viacom, Harmonix is independent again. Viacom has sold the Rock Band creator to an investment firm called Columbus Nova, it said Thursday. The New York-based Columbus Nova manages over $10 billion in assets worldwide, using what it calls “a value-oriented, long-term view to investing.” Harmonix will now be owned [...]
12.23.10 -
W3C Offers a Guide to Building Mobile Web Apps
If you’ve been wanting to start development on a web-based mobile app, but don’t know where to begin, the W3C has you covered. The web’s governing body has released a set of guidelines and best practices for developing mobile web applications. If you’ve already been keeping up with the latest in mobile web technologies, the guidelines [...]
12.23.10 -
IPads and iPhones Frolic in Holiday Video Starry Night
In the choreographed Christmas clip A Starry Night, indie web design company Torchbox is flush with holiday spirit, synchronized iPad and iPhones.
12.23.10 -
The Curious Evolution of Holiday Lights
In 1882, the look of the holiday season changed forever. Instead of decorating a Christmas tree with candles, Edward H. Johnson, inventor and vice president of Thomas Edison’s booming electric company, strung 80 red, white and blue light bulbs on his scrawny evergreen. The whole thing rotated six times per minute on an electric crank. “I need [...]
12.23.10 -
Porn Site Says Revealing Takedown Notices Infringe Copyright
Perfect 10, the porn website that bills itself as displaying “the world’s most beautiful natural women,” claims that disclosing its copyright takedown notices is a little too revealing. The copyright-infringement allegations are part of Perfect 10’s ongoing lawsuit against Google, a suit with a tortured procedural history. In 2007, a federal appeals court rendered a far-reaching [...]
12.23.10 -
New Privacy Icons Aim to Save You From Yourself
Mozilla has taken the lead among browser vendors to make a site’s privacy settings more explicitly visible. It’s doing so by proposing visual cues in the browser that indicate what level of privacy you’re currently browsing at, and what pieces of your personal data the site you’re currently visiting is sharing with the rest of [...]
12.23.10 -
China Matches U.S. Space Launches for First Time
Outwardly, it looked like just another big space launch -- and those happen about once a week, from spaceports all around the world. But Friday's blast-off of a rocket, carrying a Chinese GPS-style navigation satellite, from the Xi Chang Satellite Launch Center set a record for successful Chinese launches in one year: 15.
12.23.10 -
Activision Adds EA to $400 Million Infinity Ward Lawsuit
Activision fired a shot at its biggest rival this week, accusing fellow publisher Electronic Arts of “hijack[ing] Activision assets for personal greed and corporate gain.” In a Los Angeles court filing Tuesday, Activision asked for permission to amend its lawsuit against game developers Jason West and Vincent Zampella to include game publisher Electronic Arts. Activision alleges [...]
12.23.10
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New App Finds Street Parking From A Smartphone
Back in November we told you about Streetline, a new service that offers drivers and cities a real-time view of available parking spaces. The service just got a lot more driver-friendly yesterday, with the debut of a new iPhone app that points the way to roadways ripe with ample street parking. Parker, currently only available in [...]
12.23.10 -
The Search For Better Nozzles
Automakers aren’t the only ones looking to increase fuel efficiency and decrease emissions. Aircraft manufacturers are facing similar requirements, and they’re using high-tech gadgetry to help them meet those goals. Researchers at Iowa State University are using particle image velocimetry and molecular tagging velocimetry and thermometry to study the performance of nozzles that spray fuel into [...]
12.23.10 -
Limbo Offers Food For Thought
I’ve always been fascinated how one game can evoke very different reactions in different family members. Having played something together we often have very different reasons for liking it, and often spend mealtimes talking this over. Reading some of my friend’s reviews for Limbo reminded me about this aspect of gaming again. Although Limbo is a [...]
12.23.10 -
Dork Tower Thursday
Read all the Dork Towers that have run on GeekDad. Find the Dork Tower webcomic archives, DT printed collections, more cool comics, awesome games and a whole lot more at the Dork Tower Website.
12.23.10 -
Aussome: Electric Motorcyle GP Goes to Oz
The TTXGP electric motorcycle grand prix is becoming a truly global race series, with Australia becoming the latest country to hop on the e-bike bandwagon. The Australian FX-Superbike Championship has announced it will host TTXGP races at six events next year, creating the inaugural Australian national e-championship series with promoter ARTRP. Electric motorcycle grand prix founder [...]
12.23.10 -
Why I Hate Christmas (and Why I Hate That I Do) – GeekDad Wayback Machine
I really, really want to like Christmas. It would make my wife deliriously happy if I did, so I try hard every year. But I lose the battle every year. I was brought up culturally, though not very religiously, Jewish. Until I got married to a woman brought up Christian, Christmas was a day to go [...]
12.23.10 -
Geeking Out About Word Lens
I’m not an iPhone app junky. I only download apps I’m sure I’ll use, and I promptly delete any that disappoint me. And I certainly never pay for full versions of apps without first checking the reviews. What can I say? I’m a picky user. Then one day, a new language translation app exploded onto the [...]
12.23.10 -
Top 10 D&D; Modules I Found in Storage This Weekend #2 (GeekDad Wayback Machine)
We were digging through the storage shed this weekend to find just the right box of Christmas decorations that were needed to make things perfect before the party, when I should chance across the dusty stack of old Dungeons & Dragons modules I’ve had with me for… well, for a very long time. For [...]
12.23.10 -
Zombies, Sci-Fi and Alice: Wired.com’s Best Video Interviews of 2010
Wired.com interviewed some really amazing people in 2010. In these original clips, our finest of the year, we chat with hot directors like Tim Burton, Danny Boyle and Robert Rodriguez, and talk zombies with The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and "Godfather of the Dead" George A. Romero.
12.23.10 -
Rediscovering DSi-ware
Sometimes the best gifts are re-discovering what we already have. So I thought in the spirit of the season I’d try and bring some of that joy your way. If you are like me, you bought a DSi when it first came out, had a poke around the new menus and options, maybe even tried your [...]
12.23.10
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Rumor: iPad 2 Has Bigger Speaker, Flat Back, Smaller Body
Today’s iPad rumor comes courtesy of Japanese blog MacOtakara. According to “sources in China,” the iPad 2 will be smaller, flatter and have a bigger, beefier speaker. Even MacOtakara is skeptical of the rumors, but ??? true or not ??? they sound plausible. The new iPad will shave 3mm off the screen’s bezel, making for a [...]
12.23.10 -
Credit-Card Sized Camera Has Too Many Features to Be True
Iain Sinclair’s Poco Pro is a tiny, credit card-sized (although not credit-card thickness) camera. Despite its pocket friendly design, it manages to pack in a rather ridiculous number of features, especially given its projected ??200 ($307) price-tag. The sensor is a way-too-large 14 megapixels, which will also capture 1080p video. The blurb on the site says [...]
12.23.10 -
Solar Vox, a Portable Sun-Powered Charging Station
The Solar Vox, from Detroit-based designers????Eric Strebel and Jim Nogarian, is a USB charger powered by the sun. The project has been launched on Kickstarter, the place where potential customers can pledge their cash for startups, in exchange for getting one of the first products off the line. The Solar Vox consists of a solar panel [...]
12.23.10 -
Early Reports From the ‘Dark Matter’ of the Genome
A collection of new studies on the genomes of two model organisms has moved the frontiers of biology forward, and hints at methods that may someday make real the long-promised, as-yet-unfulfilled genomic revolution. Published in Nature and Science, the studies go far beyond the level of genes that code for proteins, which represent just a small [...]
12.22.10 -
Google Buys Giant New York Building for $1.9 Billion
Google is down with New York City. So down, in fact, that the web search titan just dropped $1.9 billion to acquire one of the largest and most historic buildings in all of the Big Apple. At nearly 3 million square feet, 111 Eighth Avenue, the former Port Authority building, sits like a beached, red-brick cruise [...]
12.22.10 -
Shadow Wars Get Big Bucks in Last-Minute Defense Bill
Fighting (or pretending to fight) al-Qaeda on behalf of the U.S.? Congress is your private Santa. Defying Beltway expectations, both chambers of Congress approved a $724.6 billion defense bill for the current fiscal year. Congress was feeling generous, and the money lavished on the United States’ proxies shows it. The big winner is Pakistan. The $400 [...]
12.22.10 -
Video: Tron Fan Creates Light Cycle Race on Kitchen Floor
It cost Disney $140 million and two years to create the spectacular world of Tron: Legacy. Oklahoma City geek Kyle Roberts made his own stop-motion tribute to the fictional arcade game for no money in 22 hours on the floor of his kitchen.
12.22.10 -
Podcast Predictions: Tablets, High-Powered Processors and 3-D to Dominate CES
This week Brian X. Chen and I get all giddy and excited about the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, aka CES. Gadget Lab will be there blogging what we find at the weeklong preview of what kinds of gadgets you'll see in 2011 from January 4-9.
12.22.10 -
Firefox 4 Beta 8 Arrives With Faster Graphics, Better Sync
Mozilla has package-dropped the eighth beta release of Firefox 4. Originally intended as a quick update to fix some issues on beta 7, Firefox 4 beta 8 actually brings more than 1,400 bug fixes, some improvements to the new add-ons interface, better syncing and more hardware-accelerated WebGL support. There’s also a beta update for Android [...]
12.22.10 -
Video: Blue Eclipse on Mars
Earth isn't the only planet graced with gorgeous eclipses. On Nov. 9, the Mars rover Opportunity watched the larger of Mars's two moons, Phobos, slip quietly in front of the sun.
12.22.10
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The Army’s Future Vehicle: Whatever You Want It to Be
This is not what the Army’s next-generation vehicle will look like. The ground-pounders throw it out there as a “generic representation,” but they don’t have any stated preferences. However you want to design the Ground Combat Vehicle, the Army says, design it that way. This weekend, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army’s vice chief of staff, traveled [...]
12.22.10 -
Hands-On With Camera+ 2 for iPhone
Our favorite iPhone camera app just got a boatload of new features after its four-month exile from the App Store.
12.22.10 -
Firefox 4 Beta 8 Arrives With Faster Graphics, Better Sync
Mozilla has dropped the eighth beta release of Firefox 4. Originally intended as a quick update to fix some issues on beta 7, Firefox 4 beta 8 actually brings over 1,400 bug fixes, some improvements to the new add-ons interface, better syncing and more hardware accelerated WebGL support. There’s also a beta update for Android [...]
12.22.10 -
Fossil Finger DNA Points to New Type of Human
Continued study of an approximately 40,000 year old finger bone from Siberia has identified a previously unknown type of human — one that may have interbred with the ancestors of modern-day Melanesian people. The fossil scrap — just the tip of a juvenile female’s finger — was discovered in 2008 during excavations of Denisova cave in [...]
12.22.10 -
Rumor: Microsoft Working on New Windows Mobile? WTF
Microsoft plans to introduce a special version of Windows for low-power mobile devices like tablets at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show, according to multiple reports. The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg claim to have both heard that Microsoft will discuss a version of Windows that supports mobile ARM chips and other low-power processors. The Journal adds [...]
12.22.10 -
Video: Summer Wars’ Anime Avatars Enter Oscar Fray
Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda, using both computer-generated and hand-drawn images, tells the story of teen math prodigy Kenji, who accidentally breaches a security barricade that shields a global avatar community from virus attacks. In the exclusive clip embedded above, virtual warrior Kazma slugs it out with a malicious AI beast known as "Love Machine" while Kenji, taking shape as a yellow gopher, watches from the sidelines.
12.22.10 -
Pentagon Wants to Give Troops Terminator Vision
No more will soldiers’ vision be limited to the socket-embedded spheres that God intended. The Pentagon now wants troops to see dangers lurking behind them in real time, and be able to tell if an object a kilometer away is a walking stick or an AK-47. In a solicitation released today, Darpa, the Pentagon’s far-out research [...]
12.22.10 -
Microsoft Ups HTML5 Support With New HTML5 Labs Site
Internet Explorer 9 will be Microsoft’s most standards-compliant browser to date. But it still lags behind the rest of the pack when it comes to supporting the latest and greatest elements of HTML5 and CSS 3. To address that shortcoming, Microsoft has launched a new HTML5 Labs site to give interested web developers a way to [...]
12.22.10 -
Sync Adds Voice Control of Smartphone Apps
Ford is crazy for connectivity and longs for the day when smartphones are fully integrated into automobiles. It moved closer to that goal today with the introduction of a free app that gives Ford Fiesta drivers voice control of Pandora, Stitcher and OpenBeak on their phones. The introduction of AppLink means no more fumbling with your [...]
12.22.10 -
Good, Clean Fun With a Home-Brew EV Go-Kart
George Fortin was lamenting the dearth of electric vehicles from major automakers when inspiration struck. If he couldn’t buy one, he’d build one. “I wanted to??promote clean green transportation,” Fortin said. “I figured if I can build this in my garage using basic tools like a table saw and handheld grinder, then why aren’t the Big [...]
12.22.10
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Stash-Bag is a Travel-Friendly Gadget-Tidy
The Fluent Stash bag from Nau is all kinds of useful. It’s a purpose-made travel organizer rather than a take-everywhere bag, but this specialization means that, like an overbred dog, it’s very good for its single purpose. It’s a felt-flapped three way carrier, folding out to reveal three “stash” pockets plus a zippered mesh compartment for [...]
12.22.10 -
CIA’s WikiLeaks Task Force: WTF, Indeed
It can set up mirrored sites. It can bounce from server to server. But whatever impact WikiLeaks continues to have on the U.S. government after dumping tens of thousands of military reports and diplomatic cables, the CIA’s WikiLeaks Task Force is watching, studying, learning. It’s literally a WTF operation. Actually, what makes it a WTF operation [...]
12.22.10 -
Top 10 D&D; Modules I Found in Storage This Weekend #1 (GeekDad Wayback Machine)
We were digging through the storage shed this weekend to find just the right box of Christmas decorations that were needed to make things perfect before the party, when I should chance across the dusty stack of old Dungeons & Dragons modules I’ve had with me for… well, for a very long time.?? For all [...]
12.22.10 -
Review: Future Chair Offers Premium Experience For Less Than A Mortgage Payment
Like many people who work out of a home office, my workspace began as a bit of a hodgepodge of re-purposed furniture along with a few new pieces that got the job done. The bulk of my budget was dedicated toward equipment: computers, monitors, printers and the like. This served me well during the years [...]
12.22.10 -
IOne Chip is All-in-One Android Phone and Camera
See that wafer of silicon above? That’s the chip that will turn Android phones into video and photo powerhouses, and cameras into mobile studios. The iOne system-on-chip, from Amabarella, is both image processor and Android CPU, and is designed to bring internet connectivity to cameras. Inside, there is a Dual-core 1-GHz ARM CortexTM A9 CPU for [...]
12.22.10 -
Bespoke Innovations Makes Beautiful, Custom Prosthetic Legs
Why should amputees have to wear the same, boring prosthetics as one other, day after day? It turns out that they don't, if they buy a new leg from Bespoke Innovations.
12.22.10 -
GeekDad Giveaway: Win a Nikon Coolpix P7000 Camera!
Yes, we’re giveaway fools here at GeekDad! This time, you have exactly one week to enter to win a brand-new Nikon Coolpix P7000 camera. The Nikon Coolpix P7000 is a point-and-shoot camera that’s about as close to a DSLR as a point-and-shoot can get. It has a 10.1-megapixel sensor, a 7.1x wide-angle optical zoom Nikkor ED [...]
12.22.10 -
Looking for Last Minute Holiday Gifts? Try Some Comics
I decided to ditch my regular Comics Spotlight this week and instead wrap-up the year by recommending some of the comics I’ve reviewed this past year in case anyone out there is looking for last minute gifts. You can’t buy this particular comic but you can point your friends toward the holiday cheer in the most [...]
12.22.10 -
Indie Sensation Minecraft Enters Beta, Costs More Money
The biggest indie game of 2010 entered the long-awaited beta version on Monday, but heaven doesn’t come cheap. Minecraft will now cost 15 euros, or around $20, an increase from its previous 10 euro price point. Purchase of the beta will include all content updates up until the game’s full release, as well as bug fixes [...]
12.22.10 -
6 Strange Fossils That Enlightened Evolutionary Scientists
Critics of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution often cited the fossil record's lack of creatures ???caught in the act??? of evolution. And though fossils had been important to the development of Darwin???s evolutionary thoughts, these absences frustrated him.
12.22.10
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Book Excerpt: The Dinosaur Fossils That Changed Everything
Footprints and Feathers on the Sands of Time Humans have been finding the traces of extinct creatures for thousands of years. Unaware of their true identity, a variety of cultures have interpreted fossil footprints, shells and bones as the remnants of gods, heroes, saints and monsters. The cyclops, griffins and numerous other beings of myth and [...]
12.22.10 -
Blood, Sweat and Spandex: Indie Wrestlers Do It for Fans
Before wrestling became a TV business, every big name did battle at the Coliseum in Evansville. For some locals, that excitement never faded.
12.22.10 -
Warrantless-Wiretap Win Nets Victims a Paltry $40K
A federal judge on Tuesday awarded $20,400 each to two American lawyers illegally wiretapped by the George W. Bush administration, and granted their counsel $2.5 million for the costs litigating the case for more than four years. It was the first and likely only lawsuit in which there was a ruling against the former administration’s secret [...]
12.21.10 -
8-Year-Olds Publish Scientific Bee Study
A group of British schoolchildren may be the youngest scientists ever to have their work published in a peer-reviewed journal. In a new paper in Biology Letters, 25 8- to 10-year-old children from Blackawton Primary School report that buff-tailed bumblebees can learn to recognize nourishing flowers based on colors and patterns. “We discovered that bumblebees can [...]
12.21.10 -
Decoder Ring: Using Social Media to Find a Missing Person
Decoder Ring looks at an Evan Ratliff-style search for a missing person, the predictable tragedy of the Spider-Man musical, The Amazing Race's singular winners, festively colored movie trailers, and the birthday of the crossword puzzle.
12.21.10 -
Black Ghost Knifefish Robot Unmasks Movement Secrets
Borrowing biological designs from the black ghost knifefish, engineers have built a swimming robot that reveals how the animal???s trick of vertical movement works.
12.21.10 -
What’s Inside the New Nuke Arms Treaty
Back from the brink of annihilation, the Obama administration’s treaty with Russia on reducing nuclear weapons is looking like it’ll pass the Senate after all, possibly as early as Wednesday. The only thing that everyone’s overlooked in the past several months’ political theater over the treaty is what it actually does — and doesn’t do. [...]
12.21.10 -
How to Fly the Harrier Jump Jet
The Harrier made its final flight with the British RAF last week, marking one end to the jet famous for being able to take off and land vertically. The jet's recently declassified flight manual shows just how extraordinary it is.
12.21.10 -
Scan Dark Skies DVD Box Set, Score Alien Swag
Alien invasion series Dark Skies only soared from 1996-1997 but long-time loyalists and late adopters can soon dig into an exhaustive DVD box set, which maxes out at six discs with hours of bonus content. If you want to score one of 10 free copies of the Dark Skies DVD set that Wired.com is giving away [...]
12.21.10 -
$3,000 Star Wars: Frames Book Set Features George Lucas’ Favorite Images
Though he's missing the Christmas rush, George Lucas will introduce early next year a deluxe keepsake for the well-heeled sci-fi fanatic who has everything. Priced at $3,000, the 'Star Wars: Frames' boxed book set documents each installment from the sci-fi saga with film images hand-picked by the filmmaker.
12.21.10
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Apple Bans Lame WikiLeaks App
Apple on Monday banned an iPhone and iPad app designed to facilitate access to WikiLeaks’ unfolding cache of leaked U.S. diplomatic cables, putting the company on the growing list of U.S. corporations aligned against the secret-spilling site. “We removed the WikiLeaks app from the App Store because it violated our developer guidelines,” a spokeswoman told Threat [...]
12.21.10 -
Video: Navy’s Electromagnetic Plane Launch
Has the era of the steam-powered airplane catapult ended? The Navy released this video today to suggest that future of shipboard airplane launch is all electromagnetic. As Danger Room first reported yesterday, the Navy successfully got an F/A-18E Super Hornet airborne using its new-model catapult, the Electromagnetic Aviation Launch System, or EMALS. To call the Navy [...]
12.21.10 -
Acidifying Oceans Could Upset Life’s Nitrogen Cycles
An experimental simulation of near-future changes in ocean chemistry suggests that aquatic nitrogen cycles could be profoundly disrupted, altering the basic structure of Earth’s food webs. Nitrogen is one of life’s crucial elements, used by all organisms to make proteins. Bacterial communities are responsible for cycling nitrogen in the ocean, and they appear sensitive to water [...]
12.21.10 -
Super-Secret Russian Laser Tank Revealed!
I don’t know how much firepower this secret Soviet laser tank has, but it sure looks like the kind of thing I’d like to have handy in case of alien invasion. It isn’t nearly as deadly as the 33-megajoules Navy railgun, that’s for sure. In fact, the 1K17 tank???which used 66-pound synthetic ruby rods at the [...]
12.21.10 -
FCC Passes Compromise Net Neutrality Rules
In a closely watched vote, the Federal Communications Commission approved compromise net neutrality rules Tuesday that would forbid the nation’s largest cable and DSL internet service providers from blocking or slowing online services, while leaving wireless companies with much more latitude. After five years of contentious debate that polarized the tech-policy world, FCC chief Julius Genachowski [...]
12.21.10 -
Honda Takes to the Sky
Honda, the company that brought us awesome hardware like the CR-X and CBR-600, has made its first flight of an FAA-conforming HondaJet. The plane took off Monday from an airport in Greensboro, North Carolina near Honda Aircraft Co. headquarters. The flight lasted 51 minutes, during which the airplane’s flight characteristics and performance were analyzed and various [...]
12.21.10 -
Reader Photos: Lunar Eclipse Solstice Special
Last night, the Earth passed between the sun and the moon, turning the moon a deep blood red and sending astronomy buffs to their cameras. As a bonus, this lunar eclipse was the first to fall on the winter solstice since 1638. The next solstice eclipse won’t be until 2094. But if you missed it, [...]
12.21.10 -
Easel JS Simplifies Working With HTML5 Canvas
The HTML5 Canvas element promises web developers a web-native way to create animations, interactive charts and even full-fledged apps like image editors and complicated games. Canvas may well be the best thing about HTML5. But unfortunately, it can be kind of a pain to work with, especially for those coming from a Flash animation background. Easel [...]
12.21.10 -
Mercs Win Billion Dollar Afghan Cop Deal. Again.
The solution for Afghanistan’s endlessly troubled police force? According to the Army, the same contractors that have trained them for the past seven years. Danger Room has confirmed that DynCorp, one of the leading private-security firms, has held on to a contract with the Army worth up to $1 billion for training Afghanistan’s police over the [...]
12.21.10 -
Newspaper Lawsuit Factory Sues Over ‘Death Ray’ Image
Righthaven, the Las Vegas copyright troll formed this spring, has moved beyond lawsuits over newspaper articles and begun targeting websites for the unauthorized reposting of images. First up, more than a dozen infringement lawsuits concerning the so-called Vdara “death ray.” The Vdara “death ray” describes the south-facing tower at the Vdara Hotel along the Las Vegas [...]
12.21.10
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All-Electric Trash Truck Cleans Up a Dirty Job
The makers of a new all-electric trash truck soon to be plying the streets of a Paris suburb promise that the only fumes coming from the truck will involve rotten fruit and expired cheese, not clouds of diesel exhaust. Despite what gets loaded into the hopper, the 26-ton truck’s emissions are clean, with each truck saving [...]
12.21.10 -
Videos: Do Electric Sheep Dream of Dancing Fractals?
These visually intoxicating fractal animations, known as Electric Sheep, were created by a screensaver program that harnesses the power of many computers to create abstract art.
12.21.10 -
Dragon Quest VI Remake Sliming U.S. in February
The DS remake of Japanese roleplaying game Dragon Quest VI will hit the United States on February 14, Nintendo said Monday. Despite critical and commercial success in Japan, this installment of the popular RPG series has yet to make an appearance in the States. Shortly after Dragon Quest VI’s original Super Famicom release in 1995, publisher [...]
12.21.10 -
Dec. 21, 1842: Birth of an Anarchist, and Darwin’s Critic
1842: Peter Alekseevich Kropotkin, Russian geographer, biologist and anarchist revolutionary, is born. Kropotkin was the son of Russian nobles but came of age during a period of intellectual upheaval in the country, which had a profound effect on his social and political development. The miserable state of the peasant class especially bothered him, and the failure [...]
12.21.10 -
The 10 Most Disappointing Games of 2010
2010 was the year we made contact with a lot of half-assed videogames. While there was much for gamers to celebrate over the past 12 months, gamemakers also delivered an inordinate number of flops. Here are the 10 biggest turkeys of '10.
12.21.10 -
Lasers, Custom Putters Will Fix Your Short Game
Putting a golf ball is the dark art of sports. There are otherwise great golfers who can’t putt a bit. Sometimes, a world-class putter will suddenly and completely lose the ability to sink even the shortest gimme. There are the dreaded “yips,” where a golfer’s mind renders their body unable to make a smooth stroke, [...]
12.21.10 -
FCC Net Neutrality Rules Slammed From All Sides
The federal government’s new internet fairness policy — designed to prevent the nation’s cable and DSL internet service providers from meddling with the open, free-wheeling nature of the internet — was met with boisterous criticism Monday night from all sides of the political spectrum. Republicans, including FCC commissioner Robert McDowell, blasted the new rules as an [...]
12.20.10 -
Video: Sweet Sci-Fi Electronica Hits Home in Sam Prekop’s ‘Silhouettes’
A cute alien in search of light lands on Earth in hopes of building a faraway sun in musician Sam Prekop’s adorable new video “The Silhouettes.” Animated by Jordan Kim — who’s crafted cartoons for kids in shows like Yo Gabba Gabba! and non-kids in Adult Swim’s Tom Goes to the Mayor — the video for [...]
12.20.10 -
It’s Official: Warner Bros. Has No Plans for Deleted 2001: A Space Odyssey Vault Footage
What’s going to happen to those 17 minutes of “lost” footage from 2001: A Space Odyssey? The movie’s visual effects supervisor Douglas Trumball wowed film buffs in Toronto when he revealed that perfectly preserved negatives, shot by director Stanley Kubrick but unseen in the theatrical release, sit in a salt mine in Kansas where [...]
12.20.10 -
Video: The Time Julian Assange Hacked the Pentagon
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange reflects on his hacking of a Defense Department network in the 1990s.
12.20.10
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Tecmo Bowl Fans Bring NFL Highlights to Life
Follow us on Twitter at @erikmal and @wiredplaybook, and on Facebook. [...]
12.20.10 -
Video: Jumping 361 Feet — on a Snowmobile
361 feet = football field with end zones. We said snowmobile, dude.
12.20.10 -
Win Jeff Bridges’ Photo Book Making Tron: Legacy
Win a Copy of Making Tron: Legacy Unavailable in bookstores, Making Tron: Legacy is printed in a limited edition of 1,000 copies. To toast the success of Tron: Legacy, which topped the box office this weekend with $43 million, Wired.com is teaming with Disney to give away three copies of the book. To enter the contest, [...]
12.20.10 -
AT&T; Rings Up $2 Billion Mobile Upgrade
AT&T is looking to put the “phone” back into iPhone. Better service may be on the horizon for AT&T’s long-suffering wireless customers if the mobile giant can close a deal, announced today, to purchase nearly $2 billion worth of prime wireless spectrum licenses from Qualcomm. AT&T, the second largest mobile service provider in the country, will [...]
12.20.10 -
Chevrolet Volt, Now With Recycled Oil Booms
About 100 miles of oil-drenched boom material used to contain the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico is being used to make plastic parts for the Chevrolet Volt. General Motors said it is recycling enough material used off the coast of Alabama and Louisiana to produce more than 100,000 pounds of plastic resin. GM will [...]
12.20.10 -
Sneak a Peek at the Process Behind 37Signals’ Redesigned Site
If you’ve ever wanted a peek behind the scenes of a redesign, the 37Signals blog has a fascinating look at the design iterations for the company’s new website. 37Signals is best known for its Basecamp project management software and the Ruby on Rails platform, which grew out of the former. Even if you don’t like the [...]
12.20.10 -
Yahoo Looking to Sell, Not Shut Down Delicious
Good news Delicious fans — Yahoo has finally made something of an announcement, saying that the bookmarking service will not be shut down, but sold off. Despite a leaked, internal image that listed Delicious and other services in a “sunset” category, Yahoo denies it is planning to shut the bookmarking service down. The Delicious blog says [...]
12.20.10 -
RelayRides Lets You Share Your Car for Cash
A Boston startup that lets car owners enlist their own rides in an ad hoc car-sharing fleet has expanded to San Francisco. Backers of the venture are hoping that the chance to make some cash will get people saying, “Dude, share my car!” RelayRides lets car owners set their own rates, starting at $6 per hour. [...]
12.20.10 -
Exclusive: Stormtrooper Super Shogun Time-Travels to Christmas Past
Nothing says "season's greetings" like a gun-toting stormtrooper with enormous fists. A new series of clever advertising images transports the neo-retro Star Wars action figure back through the years to a Christmas a long time ago but not too far away.
12.20.10 -
Dec. 20, 1996: Science Loses Its Most Visible Public Champion
1996: Carl Sagan dies. Calling Carl Sagan a scientist is a little like calling the Beatles a rock band. Sagan was certainly a scientist (an astronomer, biologist and astrophysicist, to be precise). But he was also science’s most visible public advocate, a secular humanist, a fervent believer in extraterrestrial life, a teacher, an author, a television [...]
12.20.10
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Craigslist Shuts Down International “Adult Services” Sections
Craigslist, the popular online classified ad service, has seemingly shut down its controversial “adult services” section worldwide. In early September, Craigslist shuttered that section in the U.S., following years of being dogged on the issue by states attorneys general and some human trafficking groups, which eventually led to a hearing before Congress. The section included ads [...]
12.18.10 -
Details of Sex Crime Allegations Against WikiLeaks’ Assange Surface
Leaked police reports from Sweden are providing the most detailed account to date of the rape and molestation allegations circling WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Assange was freed from a London jail on $300,000 bail on Thursday, after being held for nine days on an arrest warrant issued from Sweden, where prosecutors are investigation allegations made by [...]
12.17.10 -
Robot Chicken High-Fives Palpatine in Final Star Wars Spoof
In Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III, Emperor Palpatine is less the universe's evil incarnate and more the overwhelmed multigalactic CEO encumbered with ambitious yet hapless employees like Darth Vader. Matt Senreich talks about making George Lucas laugh and searching for a new sci-fi franchise to parody.
12.17.10 -
Yahoo Says Delicious For Sale, Blames Press for Confusion
Despite the fact that a leaked presentation slide from Yahoo clearly shows social-media pioneer Delicious in the “sunset” column — which is a euphemism for “closure” — the purple portal now says that it intends to sell the site, not close it. “While we have determined that there is not a strategic fit at Yahoo, we [...]
12.17.10 -
Spidey’s Broadway Opener Gets Postponed Until February
Julie Taymor’s arguably cursed Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is postponing its opening night until Feb. 7, 2011. Costing $65 million so far and plagued by everything from budget problems and technical difficulties to injured players and quitting stars, Taymor’s ambitious Spidey spectacle has stumbled through its previews at Foxwoods Theatre and now delayed [...]
12.17.10 -
New Facebook Photo Page [Updated]
Update 4:00 p.m. EST: Facebook emails to say that this is not one of the leaked products that caused them to shut down the site. “This is not a new feature,” the spokesperson wrote. “This is part of our photos updates we made in early October.?? It’s currently only available to a percentage of users as [...]
12.17.10 -
Exclusive: Olly Moss Reimagines Original Star Wars Trilogy for Mondo
British poster artist Olly Moss shows his nerdy love for the original Star Wars trilogy in a trio of new posters he created for collectible art house Mondo. See the latest additions to the Alamo Drafthouse's stunning sci-fi poster series in this gallery of Star Wars prints.
12.17.10 -
Twitter’s Happy Problem: It Can’t Meet Advertiser Demand
Twitter isn’t prepared to say just how well its advertising initiatives are going — as a private company, it doesn’t have to. But days after the micro-blogging phenom said it had accepted a $200 million cash infusion, the company is acknowledging that it literally doesn’t have enough sales people to keep up with voracious advertiser [...]
12.17.10 -
Mobile Carriers Dream of Charging per Page
Just a week before the FCC holds a vote on whether to apply fairness rules to some of the nation’s internet service providers, two companies that sell their services to the country’s largest cellular companies showed off a different vision of the future: one where you’ll have to pay extra to watch YouTube or use [...]
12.17.10 -
Gears of War 3 Beta Slated for April, Bulletstorm Buyers Get In
Epic Games will give early access to the Gears of War 3 beta to anyone who buys Bulletstorm for Xbox 360, the publisher said Friday. The “Epic Edition” of Bulletstorm will be available alongside retail copies on February 22. The $60 game will come bundled with 25,000 free in-game experience points and some bonus gear. It [...]
12.17.10
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8-Year-Olds Publish Scientific Bee Study
12.21.10 -
Google Buys Giant New York Building for $1.9 Billion
12.22.10 -
Fossil Finger DNA Points to New Type of Human
12.22.10 -
Pentagon Wants to Give Troops Terminator Vision
12.22.10 -
Video: Blue Eclipse on Mars
12.22.10 -
The 10 Most Disappointing Games of 2010
12.21.10 -
Firefox 4 Beta 8 Arrives With Faster Graphics, Better Sync
12.22.10 -
Early Reports From the ‘Dark Matter’ of the Genome
12.22.10 -
6 Strange Fossils That Enlightened Evolutionary Scientists
12.22.10 -
How to Fly the Harrier Jump Jet
12.21.10 -
Podcast Predictions: Tablets, High-Powered Processors and 3-D to Dominate CES
12.22.10 -
Rumor: Microsoft Working on New Windows Mobile? WTF
12.22.10 -
Zombies, Sci-Fi and Alice: Wired.com’s Best Video Interviews of 2010
12.23.10 -
Blood, Sweat and Spandex: Indie Wrestlers Do It for Fans
12.22.10 -
Hands-On With Camera+ 2 for iPhone
12.22.10 -
Killer Drones Converge on California, Ready to Take Off
12.21.10 -
Bespoke Innovations Makes Beautiful, Custom Prosthetic Legs
12.22.10 -
Super-Secret Russian Laser Tank Revealed!
12.21.10 -
Indie Sensation Minecraft Enters Beta, Costs More Money
12.22.10 -
What’s Inside the New Nuke Arms Treaty
12.21.10
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