Hasta La Gadget!

If you happened upon architect Javier Corvalán‘s house in rural Paraguay while its roof was down, you probably wouldn’t give it a second thought—this tiny aluminum box looks more like a bunker than a home. But thanks to a simple winch, the client who lives inside can tilt the entire roof upward by 25 degrees to create a warm, open-air living room.

Read more…

We’ll admit to being puzzled by Sony’s recently uncovered QX10 and QX100 lens cameras — how do they work? Thankfully, SonyAlphaRumors has answered some of our questions with a leaked user manual. Both cameras are mostly independent from their mobile hosts, with each getting its own battery and storage. The two should also have their own shutter buttons and zoom levers, although the QX100 adds a ring control to go along with its larger sensor. The manual still doesn’t answer questions about price or availability, but there’s a chance that Sony will fill in those blanks at its IFA press event next month.

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Peripherals, Sony

Comments

Source: SonyAlphaRumors

(Credit: Nerd Block)

Do you like presents? Of course you do — and a new service lets you send geeky surprise gifts to yourself.

Nerd Block is a subscription-based nerd care package service which, for $19.99 a month (plus shipping), sends out a monthly package of geeky goodies. Partners so far for the fledgling service include Marvel, Nintendo, DC, “Adventure Time,” Disney, “Doctor Who,” and “Star Wars.”

Related stories

• Tardis street view: Google Maps goes inside Doctor’s blue box
• How to fake an Instagram girlfriend using nail polish
• Legoformers turn Legos into alien creatures

Each package contains a limited-edition T-shirt and a selection of five or six nerd-themed toys (which is pretty great for the price!), sent out around the 15th of every month and shipped all around the world. And, if you sign up and hate the packages, you can cancel at any time.

Payment options are Visa, MasterCard and PayPal, and the monthly fee will be directly debited from your account o… [Read more]

Related Links:
Harrison Ford brilliantly deals with time-warped nerds
Should Microsoft keep bashing Apple, Google?
Bob Mansfield bio vanishes from Apple executive leadership page
High-tech toilet gets hacker warning; nothing is safe
High-tech toilet gets hacker warning; nothing is safe

Saving the princess from danger is no good if you stink when you get there. It’s stinky to go alone, so take these Legend of Zelda themed rupee soap bars and smell like a million rupees.

Each set comes with four differently colored rupee soap bars: purple, red, blue and green. You will have rupees to make you feel rich and you will be clean. You can choose from several fragrances too. Would you rather be that sweet smelling guy who saved the princess, or that foul smelling guy who rescued her, but made her pass out?

It is just $5(USD) from Etsy seller smallthingsforsale. That’s hardly any rupees at all.

He's going to get you.

(Credit: compilarizTVi/YouTube Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

A dog might be a man’s best friend.

A cat, not so much.

It’s not merely that cats can be mercilessly self-centered beings. It’s that their hair might help convict you, should you be accused of a heinous crime.

In what’s said to be the first ever case of cat hair helping to catch a U.K. killer, scientists in Britain worked using a cat DNA database to identify cat hair found on a corpse.

As the Associated Press reports, the dismembered torso of David Guy was found stuffed in bag on a beach in July 2012. The Hampshire police worked hard to match the cat hair found around Guy’s body with a cat that belonged to a suspect, David Hilder.

But the DNA drawn from the cat hair was mitochondrial DNA, and lots of cats share this DNA.

Jon Wetton, a geneticist with the University of Leicester who created the cat DNA database, explained to the Daily Mail: “Within each cat hair are two types of DNA, individual-specific ‘nuclear DNA,’ detectable in the roots of some larger hairs, and ‘mitochondri… [Read more]

Related Links:
Surplus computing power on your Android? Donate it to science
Is a real-life ‘Sharknado’ possible?
Even with EFF’s Congressphone, activism is a hard sell
Faster brain scans offer new perspective on brain activity
Don’t worry, get Happier? This social network aims for the sunny side