Hasta La Gadget!

You know how the hero in the movie that you’re watching suddenly takes over the controls of the plane or helicopter, right before it crashes into the ground or something, and manages to fly it well because he or she played flight simulation games on the PC or on some other platform?

Well, don’t expect the same thing to happen to you with the newest “true-to-life” simulation game to hit the interwebs called Surgeon Simulator.

While you might be able to perform open heart surgery in the game (or not), I doubt you’ll find yourself being able to do the same thing in real life.

The video game was created by Bossa Studios for the 2013 Global Game Jam. You, the player, are supposed to control the hands of a not-so-skilled surgeon using your keyboard and mouse.

You are Nigel Burke… an ordinary guy, with no outstanding skills. Somehow forced to perform a heart transplant, using any tools available. Complete the operation in the quickest time possible, with minimal blood loss! Features Revolutionary 1 to 1 finger manipulation control system realistic surgical tool physics. Professional voice acting. Thumping soundtrack. This is, Surgeon Simulator 2013.

Despite the precision controls, so far, no one’s managed to complete the surgery successfully, but who knows? You might be the first one. Give it your best shot now.

[via Laughing Squid]

Beauty isn’t only skin deep. Sometimes, the most beautiful people on the outside happen to be the nastiest, ugliest people on the inside. Similarly, plain Janes and boring Johns might not look like much physically, but they can have the purest, kindest hearts of gold.

Remember how Wes Naman used Scotch tape to show just how easy it is to uglify people on the outside? Another photographer took a page from Naman’s book to come up with a series of photographs of ugly people – this time, made ugly with nothing more than a pane of glass.

Unlike tape, you can’t actually see the glass in the picture except for the drops of water on some parts of it. I’m sure you’ve tried pressing your face to the glass and making weird and funny faces when you were a kid; these models were tasked to do the same thing, and the effects aren’t pretty.

And of course, on the other side of the glass, photographer Rut Mackel was there to capture the results for the world to see.

[via PetaPixel]

Wedding invitations don’t get any geekier than this. Bill Porter and his fiance Mara really wanted to come up with invitations that popped and screamed geek all the way. With their wedding theme being ‘Circuits and Swirls,’ the power couple put their heads together to come up with DIY invitations that involved circuit boards and embedded LED lights.

Like most couples, Bill and Mara’s main constraints were time and money, but they were able to get the job done – and by that, we mean all of 50 wedding invitations – by being resourceful and smart about it.

Each invitation had a battery and several blinking LEDs built into it which were controlled by a microcontroller. They embedded a light sensor into each invitation as well, which signaled the LEDs to light up when the invitation was opened.

The coolest part? When the light level detected by the sensor falls below a certain limit, a secret Morse code message is flashed for the guest to figure out.

Bill detailed how the invites were conceptualized and made on his blog, which you can check out right here.

[via Hack a Day via Dvice]

Since I already have an AR.Drone 2.0, I’m not really sure I need another quadrocopter. But that doesn’t mean I can’t want another quadcopter – especially one that I can fit in the palm of my hand.

This awesome bit of tech is called the Crazyflie, and it’s a complete pocket-sized quadrotor. This little thing weights just 19 grams, and measures about 9cm x 9cm (~3.5″ square.) It can fly up to 7 minutes at a time on a 20 minute charge, and can even lift a miniscule payload of up to about 10 grams. Under its hood (if it had a hood), it sports a microcontroller, accelerometer, gyroscope, and a tiny 2.4GHz receiver for accepting commands from your computer or other wireless device.

It’s incredibly fast, agile and stable as you can see from the video clip below:

Sure, it sounds like a swarm of angry mosquitoes buzzing around, but that’s kind of what I love about it.

The tiny quadrotor is sold in kit form, and is completely open source, so you can create your own custom applications and modifications. Keep in mind that you’ll need soldering skills to assemble it, and its creators clearly state that this thing is not a kids toy. Though it might be one for us grown-ups.

You can pre-order a Crazyflie kit from now through February 18, with an estimated ship date of April 25. Prices start at $149 for the basic kit, and go up to $173 for the 10 DOF version, which has extra sensors fo altitude and heading measurements – though you’ll have to write your own code to take advantage of the added sensors.

Even though nothing official has been announced by Sony, gamers all around the world are looking forward to the launch of the Sony PlayStation 4. The new game console has been rumored to launch sometime this year. Recently, Sony sent out invitations to a press event being held in New York City on February 20 at 6pm EST. Of course speculation has gamers all around the world excited that Sony could be unveiling the PS4 at the event.

So far, the only details on what will be covered in the event Sony has offered is that “we will be talking about the PlayStation business.” Previous rumors attributed to vague unnamed sources have claimed that the PS4 would be unveiled this month and launch before Christmas 2013.

I hope the event is for the unveiling of the PlayStation 4, but I wouldn’t put it past Sony to invite a bunch people out for a mundane PlayStation realm announcement either. February 20 is only a couple weeks away, so at least we don’t have to wait that long to see what Sony has up its sleeve.

If you’re interested on getting the scoop as soon as Sony announces it, you can sign up for updates over on the Playstation website.

[PlayStation Blog via Telegraph]