Hasta La Gadget!

I don’t see what the big deal is. I’d love to marry Heather Graham. Oh, wait. It’s not Heather Graham? It’s Holo-gram?!? My bad. Anyway, the world that we live in today is pretty, uh… What’s the word I’m looking for? F**ked up. Yeah, that’s it.  Yes, according to reports, a man in Japan recently got married to a hologram.

35-year old Akihiko Kondo held a two million yen (~$17,600) wedding ceremony for him and his $1500 holographic wife, virtual reality singer Hatsune Miku. Sadly, Akihiko Kondo’s mother refused an invitation to her only son’s wedding. Frankly, I think that was the right call. In fact, none of Kondo’s relatives attended his wedding to Miku. Nevertheless, he didn’t let that stop him from having a formal ceremony at a Tokyo hall. Around 40 guests watched as he tied the knot with his wife who was represented by a doll. Why bother with the doll when you have the hologram? I don’t get it.

This guy isn’t the only one of his kind either. Gatebox, the maker of the virtual reality holographic box girlfriends/wives, has issued over 3,700 certificates for “cross-dimension” marriages. Seriously, WTF people?

Wait until the hologram divorces start happening. When you divorce a hologram they don’t take half of your things, they take all of your heart. *Sad face*.

[via New launches via Geekologie]

Just as the rumors foretold, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is heading to PlayStation 4 next month. Ever since the game appeared on Xbox One at the tail end of 2017, we’ve been wondering when (or even if) a PS4 release would happen. It seems that whatever exclusivity period PUBG Corp struck with Microsoft will soon be coming to an end, as Sony … Continue reading

I believe that many of us who grew up around computers were exposed to a flat screen monitor, although for the older generation, fat and chunky CRTs were the flavor of the day. Modern day technology has seen how curved displays have taken over the visual department in living rooms all over the world, and the same has started to infiltrate the computer monitor industry. AOC, a worldwide leader in monitor display technology, has recently announced the C32V1Q. The C32V1Q is an immersive curved 32-inch monitor that has been specially built for work and home entertainment, with an asking price of a relatively affordable $229 — pretty much within the price range of a decent 32-inch TV actually.

Being the latest curved monitor from AOC, the C32V1Q will boast of a minimalistic well-built design complete with a glossy black body, metallic silver finish and sleek curves. In order to keep up with the times, it sports an ultra-slim frameless design that makes it the ideal set up for those who would like to seek an audience with multi-display viewing while enabling seamless multi-monitor setups designed to boost productivity.

The borderless display will deliver a detailed 1920×1080 resolution accompanied by a 60Hz refresh rate. The VA panel itself has viewing angles of 178 degrees, enabling users to enjoy consistent color uniformity and accuracy regardless of which angle that they are viewing it from. In addition, the C32V1Q curved monitor will feature a 20M:1 dynamic contrast with a 4ms response time. Where connectivity is concerned, expect the C32V1Q to be generous in nature with one VGA, one DisplayPort and one HDMI port.

You might be surprised to discover that the C32V1Q does more than just offer sharp picture quality and a beautiful design. It stands out with the addition of wellness features that will help reduce eye fatigue during screen time, relying on AOC’s exclusive Flicker-free technology that utilizes a hybrid solution to regulate brightness and reduce flicker which will lead to a more comfortable viewing experience. AOC’s LowBlue mode further reduces the amount of potentially irritating blue light emitted by the monitor, all without compromising the excellent image quality. Anyone interested?

Press Release
[ AOC reveals C32V1Q curved monitor copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

I don’t see what the big deal is. I’d love to marry Heather Graham. Oh, wait. It’s not Heather Graham? It’s Holo-gram?!? My bad. Anyway, the world that we live in today is pretty, uh… What’s the word I’m looking for? F**ked up. Yeah, that’s it.  Yes, according to reports, a man in Japan recently got married to a hologram.

35-year old Akihiko Kondo held a two million yen (~$17,600) wedding ceremony for him and his $1500 holographic wife, virtual reality singer Hatsune Miku. Sadly, Akihiko Kondo’s mother refused an invitation to her only son’s wedding. Frankly, I think that was the right call. In fact, none of Kondo’s relatives attended his wedding to Miku. Nevertheless, he didn’t let that stop him from having a formal ceremony at a Tokyo hall. Around 40 guests watched as he tied the knot with his wife who was represented by a doll. Why bother with the doll when you have the hologram? I don’t get it.

This guy isn’t the only one of his kind either. Gatebox, the maker of the virtual reality holographic box girlfriends/wives, has issued over 3,700 certificates for “cross-dimension” marriages. Seriously, WTF people?

Wait until the hologram divorces start happening. When you divorce a hologram they don’t take half of your things, they take all of your heart. *Sad face*.

[via New launches via Geekologie]

This simple spreadsheet of machine learning foibles may not look like much but it’s a fascinating exploration of how machines “think.” The list, compiled by researcher Victoria Krakovna, describes various situations in which robots followed the spirit and the letter of the law at the same time.

For example, in the video below a machine learning algorithm learned that it could rack up points not by taking part in a boat race but by flipping around in a circle to get points. In another simulation “where survival required energy but giving birth had no energy cost, one species evolved a sedentary lifestyle that consisted mostly of mating in order to produce new children which could be eaten (or used as mates to produce more edible children).” This led to what Krakovna called “indolent cannibals.”

It’s obvious that these machines aren’t “thinking” in any real sense but when given parameters and a the ability to evolve an answer, it’s also obvious that these robots will come up with some fun ideas. In other test, a robot learned to move a block by smacking the table with its arm and still another “genetic algorithm [was] supposed to configure a circuit into an oscillator, but instead [made] a radio to pick up signals from neighboring computers.” Another cancer-detecting system found that pictures of malignant tumors usually contained rulers and so gave plenty of false positives.

Each of these examples shows the unintended consequences of trusting machines to learn. They will learn but they will also confound us. Machine learning is just that – learning that is understandable only by machines.

One final example: in a game of Tetris in which a robot was required to “not lose” the program pauses “the game indefinitely to avoid losing.” Now it just needs to throw a tantrum and we’d have a clever three-year-old on our hands.