Hasta La Gadget!

There are a lot of reasons to be paranoid about our devices being perennially connected to the Internet. If you want to enhance your security with style, check out MAKE’s guide for creating an Internet kill switch for wired connections.

Get your toolbox then watch the video below:

The folks at Renholm Industries would go nuts for this.

[via MAKE]

Mona – an artist type human – makes what she calls Pokémayans: drawings of Pokémon that are supposedly done in the style of ancient Mayan art. The name fooled me into thinking that I’d see Pokémon crossed with the Wayans brothers, but I guess this one’s aight too.  If you browse Mona’s blog you’ll see that she significantly improved her Pokémayan style, culminating in her wonderful take on Gyarados.

Mona accepts commissions for Pokémayans and other Mayan-style art. She also put up her Gyarados illustration as a T-shirt design on Threadless, so vote for it if you want one.

[via Nerd Approved]

For YouTube’s Geek Week, Tested interviewed robotics enthusiast Mike McMaster about his remote-controlled and life-size Wall-E replica. McMaster is part of the Wall-E Builder’s Club, a group of hobbyists who started planning on building a replica of the lovable robot even before his movie came out.

Image by Mike McMaster

Watch Tested’s video to find out the effort and ingenuity that Mike and his friends put in to make the robot:

As Mike said, you should join the Wall-E Builder’s Club if you want to make your own Wall-E. I wonder if they can make a flying EVE.

[via Tastefully Offensive & Mike McMaster]

Last year we heard about Monitor2Go, a portable external monitor. It seems very well made and has lots of convenient features, but it’s also expensive. The Able-HD is on the other end of the spectrum. It’s a portable monitor at nearly a third of the price of Monitor2Go. There’s a reason it’s cheap though.

The Able-HD is basically a 17″ or 18″ LED laptop monitor. It just has a custom circuit board that makes it work without the rest of the laptop. Otherwise, it’s a standard LED monitor. It’s a 1080p display, it accepts HDMI, DVI, VGA and audio ports and it has a socket for a charger. With all of the unnecessary parts stripped away, the Able-HD weighs just 570g (approx. 1.26lb). In other words, it’s an 17″ or 18″ 1080p monitor that weighs less than an iPad.

Actually it is missing one necessary part: an external case. Its anonymous inventor said that future versions may have an aluminum case, but the first version of Able-HD – the one he’s offering as a reward on Kickstarter – will look exactly like the one you saw in the video. At least you can get or make a case with the money you save. Pledge at least $110 (USD) on Kickstarter to get an Able-HD as a reward. If you have a spare laptop screen, you can just pledge $35 to get the Able-HD conversion kit.

If you’re one of the thousands of kids who grew up playing Bill and Lance’s excellent adventure aka Contra, join me in ogling these custom action figures by John Harmon aka Mint Condition Customs. They even come with the different ammo types!

John imagined what Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone would look like if they starred in a live action Contra movie back in the 80s. That last qualifier is important; I certainly don’t want to see the Governator with his shirt off these days. The action figures are poseable and have swappable equipment, including ammo belts, flak vests and the machine gun, spread gun and laser ammo attachments.

BROTALITY. It would be awesome if they came in a box that played Contra’s title theme when it’s opened. These action figures are currently being auctioned off on eBay, where as of this writing the bid sits at a criminally low $41 (USD). Although I think part of the reason why it’s that low is because John won’t accept bids from buyers with 0 feedback. In other words, don’t bother signing up on eBay just to buy the action figures because John won’t entertain your bid anyway.

[via Destructoid]