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      by Published on July 29th, 2010 09:26 AM
      Categories:
      1. User Contributed

      I thought it would be great to have a thread showcasing awesome design.

      We're mostly here (I'd guess) because we've at some point bought gadgets or computers that cost us a bit more, but gave us a superior experience through better design. I'm sure our great taste extends to other things (not necessarily technology) that we've bought and we use on a daily basis.

      So - here's an opportunity to share those fantastically designed objects, and tell us why they're so great!



      My (first) choice is my Dualit toaster.

      Dualit have been making toasters for years, and this classic design is at least 50 years old. Handbuilt in England, it's entirely mechanical - the three controls are a timer (0 to 4 minutes, it just cuts the power when it's done), a switch for 1 or 2 slices and a lever to push the toast up for retrieval (no springs to wear out).

      The slots are wide enough to take a 'cage' - which lets you butter and toast up something like a grilled-cheese-sandwich. Any melted cheese or crumbs falls right down into a removable collection tray.

      In an age of plastic disposable hi-tech toasters that try to compute grilling time (and mostly fail) it's a joy to be able to just select a time and have done with it (crumpets 3 minutes, brown bread 2, white bread 1.5). The toasters cost around 6x more than a regular one - but everything can be replaced and fixed if it wears out, and the grill elements (which are covered with a sort of plastic layer to stop melted cheese and butter from sticking to them) are compatible with any model in the last 50 years.

      A fantastic item!

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      by Published on July 23rd, 2010 07:56 AM
      Categories:
      1. User Contributed

      A mystery man has been spotted appearing in the background at numerous news events across the UK. Have you seen him too?









      He hasn't gone unnoticed, and is the subject of a good deal of internet discussion...

      and now has his own Facebook page!

      UPDATE!

      As the below quote from Blue says, looks like this may be the same guy.

      Quote Originally Posted by Blue
      I hadn't noticed but I thought this was really peculiar until I found this.
      Comments
      by Published on July 23rd, 2010 07:51 AM
      Categories:
      1. User Contributed


      Try not to get dizzy.

      27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,28,0" id="_360_krpano_id_757083" name="_360_krpano_name_757083" width="600" height="400">
      by Published on July 12th, 2010 04:52 PM
      Categories:
      1. User Contributed



      The Planck satellite released its first microwave radiation map of the entire sky. The image is made from ten months of data and will be followed by three more all-sky surveys by the end of the European Space Agency’s mission in 2012.

      Astronomers will use the data to study the early universe and how stars and galaxies form.

      “This single image captures both our own cosmic backyard — the Milky Way galaxy that we live in — but also the subtle imprint of the Big Bang from which the whole Universe emerged,” David Parker of the UK Space Agency said in a press release July 5.

      The Milky Way galaxy dominates the center of the image, the blue light is the dust in the galaxy and the red is hot gas. The yellow-spotted areas are the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, which the oldest light in the universe. It was emitted 400,000 years after the Big Bang and reveals information about how galaxies first began to form.

      The mottled look of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation is the result of differences in temperature and density. The light from the Milky Way will be digitally removed from the image so that astronomers can study the most precise picture yet of the entire CMB. Planck records microwave radiation in nine different frequency bands, which will help scientists separate the light from the galaxy and the light from the early universe.

      “Just looking at the pictures you can tell we’re seeing new things about the structure of our galaxy,” David Clements of Imperial College London said in a press release. “Once we’ve done that, and stripped away these foregrounds, then it’s on to the Cosmic Microwave Background and the glow of the Big Bang itself!”
      Higher resolution image can be found at source.

      I know at least one person here who will appreciate this as much as I do.
      by Published on July 1st, 2010 08:38 AM
      Categories:
      1. User Contributed

      It's been a long time coming, but Wonder Woman finally has a new wardrobe. The DC comics superheroine has tossed off the star-spangled outfit that she has worn since 1941. Her new look -- dark leggings, a studded denim jacket and heeled boots -- might be something from the closet of Lisbeth Salander, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (but in a size zero).

      On the DC Comics site, writer J. Water Straczynski noted Wonder Woman's need for a restyling: "What woman only wears one outfit for 70 years? What woman doesn’t accessorize? And more to the point, as many women have lamented over the years…how does she fight in that thing?"

      Artist Jim Lee created the new costume, which replaces the red-white-and-blue themed bustier and knee-length boots. Here's how he described it: "Visually, the character seems edgier than before but stylish enough to warrant a second, albeit cautious, glance. The jacket and boots confirm the costume’s functionality and the open, thinner tiara and shaped bracelets reveal a lighter, even youthful, bent to the Amazonian Princess."

      I'll miss the classic costume, which I'm sure fueled lots of adolescent dreams. But the new look seems less like one concocted by a bunch of cheerleader-obsessed guys, and a lot less encumbered by World War II-era patriotic themes. It's a whole lot more appropriate to the 21st Century woman, that's for sure.
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      by Published on June 29th, 2010 12:24 PM
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      1. User Contributed

      Quote Originally Posted by Engadget
      Yeah, you heard that right. As of today, those among us who value quantity over speed in our storage can buy a whole trifecta of terabytes in one solitary package. Seagate has just unveiled the FreeAgent GoFlex Desk (did they have the teenage intern name this thing?), which is the first 3.5-inch drive to store quite so much data. It also comes with a USB 2.0 adapter that can be upgraded to USB 3.0 or Firewire 800, depending on your preference (and cash reserves). Priced at $250, this record-busting storage hub is available to buy today direct from Seagate.
      Nice price - unless you're one of the several billion people who doesn't live in North America.

      I'm becoming less and less enthused with storing so much data on one disk. Maybe it's becoming jaded from seeing so many 2TB disks fail in the last year at work - but I just don't trust it any more.

      RAID FTW.

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      by Published on June 29th, 2010 10:40 AM
      Categories:
      1. User Contributed

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...tive-pill.html

      (To make it easier to read I had to many corrections to their text. Someone published without even the most basic of proofreading. They used no apostrophes and decided to start a new paragraph for every "sentence". I won't even get into their awful sentence structure. They left a few typos as well. I sure hope whoever released that at The Telegraph isn't responsible for the studies discussed.)

      Until now all attempts to develop a male pill have failed with scientists working on a contraceptive jab for men given by doctors. But researchers in Israel have finally been able to create a oral pill that deactivates sperm before they reach the womb. And they've developed a version that means it only needs to be to be taken once every three months.

      The breakthrough pill could be available in as little as three years, according to the scientist behind the discovery. Unlike the jab form of the male pill it doesn't use a combination of the male hormone testosterone and the female hormone progesterone to block pregnancy.

      The scientist behind the male pill discovery has developed a tablet that removes a vital protein in sperm that is required for a woman to conceive. So while sperm still get through to the uterus they are unable to fertilise an egg. Using this approach, researchers believe they have a pill that is 100 pc effective at stopping pregnancy. Not only is it long lasting but it also has other pluses. There are no side effects as suffered by women who take the contraceptive pill. Men on the male equivalent hormone jabs, which are still undergoing trials report feelings of moodiness, depression and loss of sex drive.

      Professor of Haim Breitbart of Israel's Bar-Ilan University, who has helped develop the pill said: Men don't cope well with side effects and having side effects would probably put many off wanting to take a pill. We've had none of those problems with our pill.

      What we found is that by treating the mice with our molecule we can get sterility for a long period of time -in the lower dose, about one month, and in the higher dose we found three months of sterility.

      The mice behaved nicely, They ate and had sex. All I can say is that we couldn't see any behavioural side-effects - all their sex behaviour was retained, which is a very important consideration for men. Human trials of the pill are due to start next year.

      A big drawback against men being in control of fertility is the fear they would forget to take a pill. Polls have repeatedly shown wives and partners do not trust their men to remember to pop a pill every day. But now that problem has been solved. The new pill can be taken either once a month or once every three months. Professor Breitbart said: "I think most women would trust their man to remember once a month or once a quarter.

      Breitbarts pill jams the sperm's chemical machinery that allows it to create a pregnancy. So while the sperm reaches the womb it dies away unable to fertilise the egg.

      He said: We looked at a number of compounds that have no effect on male sex drive, but succeed in impairing the reproductive ability of the sperm. Because there are no hormonal side effect we believe that it will be fairly easy to get approval for this pill.

      Professor Breitbat stunned the world of fertility science four years ago by revealing the commonly held belief that conception was immediate once sperm entered the womb. The research showed that sperm could survive for up to three days before fertilisation took place.

      Professor Breitbart said: I then decided to turn my interest to see how to stop that process. I wanted to develop a form of male contraception that would be free of an intervention using hormones.
      That is brilliant! Every 3 months?! I think I could probably trust a man to take something in a timeline like that. However, female (hormonal) contraceptive pills are MUCH more tedious. If you don't take them at the exact same time every freakin day things can go badly wrong. Even in the hands of the most trustworthy man I'd still always be worried he'd forget if he had to adhere to that strict schedule. Hormonal BC pills suck. I think women are more inspired to maintain the hassle because we hold the ultimate consequence. Even if that consequence is "only" light bleeding for having taken it a few hours late. (they are just that annoying.)

      Anyway, this is a fantastic development. I hope it clears testing and reaches the market. We really do need more (and improved) solutions to contraception.

      Comments
      by Published on June 29th, 2010 10:10 AM
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      1. User Contributed

      I'm posting this here because I'm thrilled of the news! Last year it was rumored that they might release a Blu-Ray of the first film... well of course after re-buying the 1st DVD they're releasing the whole set on Blu-Ray for it's 25th anniversary!

      Full details here: http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=4800

      New documentaries, deleted scenes, and bonus features. Best of all they restored the picture and removed all of the dirt and crap, but left the grain (yay no crappy smoothing). Apparently it looks better than it ever did in the theaters, woot! I'm excited to get this on Blu-Ray. One trilogy down, a few more to go.

      *happy geeky smile*

      Comments
      by Published on June 16th, 2010 03:10 PM
      Categories:
      1. User Contributed

      So, with the impending release of Toy Story 3 (Only 37 hours!), I thought I'd start a thread about my favorite studio in existance.

      What's your favorite Pixar movie?
      Favorite characters?
      Anything you wish Pixar would do?

      Really, whatever you want to say about Pixar is fair game.


      Anyway, I am really really excited that Toy Story 3 is coming out. I've been rewatching a whole bunch of Pixar movies the past week, my facebook profile picture and status have been based on a different movie each day, and I'm rewatching Toy Story 1 and Toy Story 2 on Blu-Ray before going to the 12:01am showing.

      To put it simply: I'm psyched!

      Comments
      by Published on June 3rd, 2010 09:53 PM
      Categories:
      1. The Daily Column

      Shit pisses me off. There, I said it.

      In and of itself, that statement isn’t groundbreaking; I’m sure we’ve all said it at some point or another (although if my son ever says it, he’s gonna sit in time-out).

      No, I’m talking about different shit. I’m talking about shit that bothers me, but likely doesn’t bother anyone else. Yes, I know when I have a headache it doesn’t bother you at all; that’s not what I’m talking about.

      If you know me in person you know that I’m not generally all that disagreeable; I often go along to get along, and even when I disagree I try to do it in as polite and considerate a way as possible (at least as the situation warrants). So even a lot of things that tend to bother lots of people don’t always get under my skin.

      I’m a quirky individual. I say and do a lot of shit that makes perfect sense to me, but leaves others scratching their collective heads. Don’t worry; I’ve never left anyone scratching their “special place.” An unfortunate side effect of these quirks is that I get very irritated by certain things that don’t bother the vast majority of people; or at least, things that bother me for different reasons.

      The easy thing to do would be to come up with a list of everything that pisses me off, but that wouldn’t be very interesting – after all, it’s not hard to find people who dislike rude drivers, people who pop their gum (Shelley!), noisy children, people who make cell phone calls at the movies, or hollandaise sauce with too much lemon.

      Okay, maybe not that last one – but you get my point.

      And so, here’s a list:

      1. Whistling. I don’t mean a brief wolf whistle, I’m talking about whistling a tune. It absolutely drives me nuts, probably in part because it’s just plain annoying, but probably also because my ears are very sensitive to loud noises. Music that you like to jam to very likely causes me physical pain. It’s not because I’m old, my ears have always been sensitive to loud noises. My son has apparently inherited it from me. But all that aside, the sound of someone whistling a song irritates me to no end.

      2. Singing along to the radio. This isn’t about hurting my ears, it’s about the fact that the reason I turned the goddamn radio on in the first place was because I wanted to hear the sonofabitch on the radio sing. When I want to hear YOU sing, I’ll turn YOU on. And yes, that’s what I meant.

      3. Folding a magazine/map/newspaper over on itself. There’s no reason whatsoever for me to dislike this, except that it might damage the spine of the magazine, or it might not “lay” right afterward; both are really small potatoes. No, this is just a quirk of mine – my mind just tells me “it’s not supposed to be that way,” so it bothers me.

      4. Refilling my tea without bringing me more lemon. I once wrote an entire rant on iced tea; I’ll try to post it here sometime. But when I order “iced tea with lemon,” and you refill my glass with iced tea and NO lemon, then you’re not quite giving me what I asked for. You don’t want me going into the kitchen to get it myself, did you? I didn’t think so.

      5. Erasing a white board and leaving a tiny mark unerased. This borders on OCD, but I’ve seen it done so many times it’s almost painful. I’ll watch a teacher or professor erase the board and leave a single mark – perhaps a 1″ segment of a letter N off to the side – unerased, and not realize it. From that point on, I lose my focus; all I can see is the stray mark. If you’re going to bother erasing at all, please do a thorough job.

      6. Being called a liar. Most people take some sort of offense to this, but I don’t think to the level that I do. I take great pride in speaking to people truthfully – indeed, if you ask me a question I don’t want to answer truthfully, I just won’t answer. My wife appreciates my honesty. With me, you have to be careful asking me a question, because you might not like the answer you get. But I do not, and will not, tell a lie to save your feelings or mine – just because YOU might do it, don’t accuse ME of it.

      7. Kanye West. Sorry, I violated my rule above; I’m pretty sure he annoys just about everyone.

      8. People who pick up groceries from a refrigerated/frozen case, then drop them off somewhere else. I completely understand that you changed your mind about buying the Rocky Road; but it’s not that fucking hard to put it back in the freezer. Don’t put it next to the bread where it’s going to melt. That’s a complete lack of effort and consideration. “It’s not mine, why should I worry about it?” Bugs the shit out of me.

      9. Being rushed. The curious thing behind this is, I very often feel rushed, even though nobody’s rushing me. Shelley used to rush me – not really, but little shit like asking me, “Are you ready?” when I’m shopping. I knowshe’s not rushing me, it just feels like it. But since I’ve called her out on it, she doesn’t even do that anymore; but still, just seeing her standing there, however patiently, makes me feel like I need to hurry the fuck up, and I hate it.

      10. Knowing there’s more that I want to say, but not being able to remember it.
      Oh, look out – I’m about to go off on someone….

    • Recent Blog Posts Recent Blog Posts

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    • Recent Forum Posts Recent Forum Posts

      I bought the Raptor 600.

      Reasoning...

      I think this is going to provide me with the best overall experience right now. It'll totally cure my space issue. My current speed is OK with the Raptor... Go to last post

      firestarter On July 28th, 2010

      SSD boot disk?

      I'm running an Intel G2 160GB in my 09 Mac Pro. It stays close to 75% full most of the time. Very good performance.

      To make up for the loss of storage space I loaded bay 2, 3, and 4 with 2TB WD... Go to last post

      Cynicalone On July 28th, 2010

      SSD boot disk?

      Hmm. I'm not sure that high transactions per second database or web server loads are the same sort of 'real world' tasks that I do. I am slightly suspicious of some of these benchmarks to be honest.... Go to last post

      firestarter On July 28th, 2010

      SSD boot disk?

      I'm running an intel g2 as my boot disk in my early 2008 MP. I love it. The speed is great and I try not to run it more than 70% full. I'm not sure I could go back to anything under 10,000 RPM if I... Go to last post

      jessica On July 28th, 2010

      SSD boot disk?

      Tests 600Gb 'raptors in RAID and non-RAID configurations vs a SSD: http://www.storagereview.com/western_digital_velociraptors_raid_ssd_alternative

      The SSD destroys a single 'raptor in real-world... Go to last post

      robbieduncan On July 28th, 2010

      SSD boot disk?

      Wanted to get a few opinions from Teh Private hive mind.

      I've got a MacPro, which I use for general computer type stuff - plus creative stuff (Lightroom, Logic and Final Cut).

      For the last... Go to last post

      firestarter On July 28th, 2010

      SSD boot disk?

      Did I forget the :p again. The iPhone is so powerful and everyone has one that Im sure combined the radiation will kill us all. Go to last post

      MacNut On July 28th, 2010

      Have Apple Jumped The Shark?

      Why? Go to last post

      anjinhamarota On July 27th, 2010

      Have Apple Jumped The Shark?

      Left thumb dementia, coming up? Go to last post

      iJH On July 27th, 2010

      Have Apple Jumped The Shark?

      Smart Arse! Go to last post

      Bartelby On July 27th, 2010

      Have Apple Jumped The Shark?

      Wireless charging by means of radiation is known as a Solar Panel :D Go to last post

      Queso On July 27th, 2010

      Have Apple Jumped The Shark?

      ^^^ No way! :eek:

      Are you saying something on the internet might give me false information. :o :mad: !!!

      Sorry guys, the source looked fairly credible to me and my knowledge of the subject is... Go to last post

      mscriv On July 27th, 2010

      Have Apple Jumped The Shark?

      It may happen - but the problem is that the charger always need to have a lead. Kind of pointless to rest the keyboard on something with a lead when you could just put a lead on the keyboard in the... Go to last post

      firestarter On July 27th, 2010

      Have Apple Jumped The Shark?

      Doesn't the new bluetooth spec use less power consumption, add in a way to charge wirelessly and we can get longer life batteries and less charging cycles. Go to last post

      MacNut On July 27th, 2010

      Have Apple Jumped The Shark?

      LINK

      It won't be too long before it happens. The inductive charging pads hit the mainstream consumer market not too long ago. Go to last post

      mscriv On July 27th, 2010

      Have Apple Jumped The Shark?

      I bet all the iPhones are doing that already. Go to last post

      MacNut On July 27th, 2010

      Have Apple Jumped The Shark?

      Then we can all suffer from exposure to radiation!
      YAY!! Go to last post

      Bartelby On July 27th, 2010

      Have Apple Jumped The Shark?

      Apple needs to invent wireless charging technology. Go to last post

      MacNut On July 27th, 2010

      Have Apple Jumped The Shark?

      Just another way for Apple to make money, but as it is pointed out it isn't a bad price, it is supposed to be greener than normal chargers and on top of all that it is convenient to talk into the... Go to last post

      maestro On July 27th, 2010

      Have Apple Jumped The Shark?

      I wouldn't expect a built-in battery on a mouse until there's a dock for it. And I would expect a non-removable battery in a Bluetooth keyboard, well, never. If you have to plug the keyboard in... Go to last post

      Tomorrow On July 27th, 2010

      Have Apple Jumped The Shark?