Take a break from digging, building or replicating the universe in Minecraft and pop open a refreshing drink with this officially licensed Minecraft Pickaxe Bottle Opener.
Even though it looks like an Iron Pickaxe, I’m pretty sure you can use it more than 251 times – thanks to its sturdy zinc alloy construction.
I’m not sure if it can open a diamond bottle crown though.
Dig your way to ThinkGeek and order the Minecraft Pickaxe Bottle Opener for $20 (USD).
Like the Blue Screen of Death, brightly colored pixelated display glitches are a familiar sight to computer users with failing hardware or buggy software. We’re seeing less and less of it though; if you’ve grown fond of it take a good look at these throw pillows made by Benjamin Berg aka Stallio.
I’m not sure if Berg based the designs on actual glitches or if he just ingests bath salts through his eyes then wilds out on Photoshop.
You can order the pillows on Berg’s shop at Society6 for $20 to $35(USD). Many of the designs are also available as prints, t-shirts and gadgets skins or cases.
[via it8bit]
The classic arcade shooter Galaga celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. That means we’re growing old faster than we think. It also means celebratory trinkets. If you’ve ever wondered what the tiny space fighter would look like in real life, this model kit provides a potential answer.
For comaprison’s sake, here’s a supersized shot of the original ship courtesy of Fanpop:
I don’t understand Japanese, but from what I understand the model was designed by Kow Yokoyama, the artist who co-created the popular Maschinen Krieger model series. The ship does have a beat-up look found in MaK models, but again I’m not 100% sure about that bit. One feature that fans will appreciate is that two models can be linked together, a nod to the double shooter mode in the game.
You can pre-order the Galaga fighter from Rakuten for ￥3,240 (~$40 USD), but don’t think it’ll land on your doorstep right away; Wave Corporation won’t release the toy until March 2013.
Modder Ben Heck has removed one of the few remaining advantages of videogame consoles over the PC master race: the analog stick. Heck sacrificed an Xbox 360 controller to make the W, A, S and D keys on his keyboard behave like the left stick on the controller, i.e. the harder he presses the keys, the faster his character moves in game. Or whatever “-er” is supposed to happen.
Aside from an Xbox 360 controller, Ben Heck also used magnets, Hall effect sensors and a microcontroller to complete the mod. He ends up with WASD keys that are much more useful in PC games that support gamepads. You can skip to about 10:00 in the video to see Heck test his modded keyboard:
If you already had your soldering spellbook and modding whatzits close at hand, head to Ben Heck’s website to grab the files and code you’ll need for the mod.
It’s not obvious from the pictures, but apparently this mini-fridge is spacious enough to hold a 6-pack of 12 oz. soda. That’s some Time Lord wizardry right there. Place it inside one of these TARDIS fridges and you’ve got yourself a time machine within a time machine. A Horadric Cube within an inventory. A physics problem.
As if it wasn’t powerful enough, the fridge can also function as a heater at the flick of a switch. It also has a tiny light up top and makes the VWORP VWORP sound effect when the door is opened or closed.
You can order the TARDIS Mini Fridge from ThinkGeek for $80 (USD). Sadly it does not come with a one-eleventh scale Doctor.
[via Craziest Gadgets]
We’re almost at the final level of this year. I know you’re still resting from beating the Thanksgiving buffet and wounded from your encounter with the Black Friday hordes, but we must be steadfast! The last big holiday of the year is upon us. Some say the world might even end before it gets here! Or worse, the world doesn’t end and you’ll have to withstand a second wave of your relatives and in laws, so soon from their last assault! So stock up on cheer while there’s still time. These cards should help.
Made by the fine elves at GamerPrint, these cards comes in 10 different designs, each featuring a popular video game character. And a pair of underpants. Oh wait that’s Samus.
I found the Metal Gear Solid card most impressive. GamerPrint sells the cards for £8 (~$13 USD) per pack of 10.
[via NintendoFuse]
These are awesome action figures of the player’s avatar in Minecraft. If you play the game then these are also action figures of yourself. Although you can’t customize Steve’s skin, he – or she – does have a ball-jointed head and poseable arms.
Steve comes in two variants, both 6″ tall. The simpler version comes with Steve in his default clothes, along with his trust pickaxe and a 2″ dirt block. Then there’s the more experienced and battle ready Steve, who’s wearing diamond armor along with removable diamond sword and diamond helmet.
You can buy both Steves from J!NX for just $30 (USD) each. The store also sells the Creeper action figure seen in a couple of shots in the gallery above.
[via Gamefreaks]
Everything looks more interesting in slow motion, even if it’s just some dude choking on cinnamon dust. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you perceived your surroundings in slow motion? The Decelerator Helmet was made precisely for that purpose.
The helmet was made by Lorenz Potthast, who by the way has not figured out a way to control the flow of time. A small computer inside the helmet processes the footage coming from a webcam facing outward. The footage is then displayed to the wearer via a head-mounted display. The footage is also shown to outsiders via an external display – that large rectangle in front of the helmet – which of course does little to prevent the wearer from looking like you’re a bit slow yourself. But the cool thing about the helmet is that the wearer can control how just how slow the footage will be.
Potthast made the helmet for an Interaction Design course at the University of Art in Bremen, Germany, where they were talking about the “increasingly hectic, overstimulated and restless environment we are living in.” But Potthast thinks that the helmet can also serve as a metaphor for people who stay stuck in the past. I wonder if he’s also aware that the helmet will be a massive hit with pot heads.
[via NOTCOT]
A programmer named Darius Kazemi made Random Shopper, a software ‘bot that buys random items from Amazon. Why? Kazemi wanted to replicate the feeling of receiving an item that you already forgot you bought. It’s like a surprise gift from yourself to you! Welcome to Forever Alone: Holiday Edition.
Random Shopper starts by getting a random word from the Wordnik API then searching for that word on Amazon. It will then buy the first item it finds under its budget, which for now is $50 (USD). Then it will look for another item that’s within what’s left of its money and so on. But Kazemi cheated a bit because the Random Shopper isn’t that random: it will only buy the item if it’s a CD, DVD or a paperback book. I guess that’s a reasonable rule. That way the money isn’t completely wasted on some random crap that Kazemi won’t use.
The packages shown in the top picture are the first batch of Random Shopper’s “gifts” to Kazemi. You can check out what’s inside them on his Random Shopper blog. What I want now is a robot that secretly takes money from my wallet then randomly places it into my other stuff, so I can replicate the feeling of finding money I didn’t know I had.
[Random Shopper via Engadget]
The Macintosh Portable was Apple’s first battery-powered portable computer. Released in 1989, it weighed 16lbs., had a 16MHz CPU, a black and white screen and lead-acid batteries, hence its nickname, “Macintosh Luggable.” People had to pay $6,500 for the curse of owning this darned thing. Which is why I find this hack to be so funny.
Yes, that Macintosh Portable has a color screen and is running Mac OS X. Patrick Blampied used the hardware from his old Toshiba NB100 netbook to make this modern miracle possible. In other words, it’s a Hackintosh. Blampied also painstakingly rewired and soldered a Dell keyboard to a USB controller for this project. The classic Apple mouse has an optical mouse in its guts, though it still only has one button. Finally, in place of the lead-acid batteries Blampied put the battery from a cordless drill.
The only thing this computer has over Apple’s current lineup is that sweet rainbow logo. Blampied said he’ll upload more pictures and information about his hack on his blog.
[via TUAW]
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