Anyone who has ever been so unfortunate to have Time Warner Cable as their cable and Internet provider will agree that it is so completely awful. Whether it’s Internet outages or slow trickling speed or screwy HD channels or all of the above, I’ve never known anyone to not hate Time Warner. Hell, even the guys of Star Trek—Patrick Stewart, William Shatner and George Takei—have teamed up against TWC. More »
Your beat-up ride may not be able to make the Kessel Run, is smaller on the inside and can only go where you’ve already gone before, but you can always use your imagination. Though that could be mentally taxing depending on the state of your car, so you might want to make it easier with these geeky car emblems.
The official-looking emblems are made from silicone and then painted black and chrome to look like a traditional car badge. It already comes with “all-weather, automotive grade” double sided adhesive so your only problem will be deciding where to stick it.
Etsy seller EmpiraCraft makes these geeky car emblems, which are typically priced between $12 to $15 (USD). Hate your car? There’s an emblem for that.
[via Daily of the Day]
Over the years, we’ve come across some unusually geeky stained glass items, and the latest to pop up over on Etsy is this handmade glass Starship Enterprise.
It was made by artist Patricia Meehand, using fused and stained glass pieces, and is a pretty solid replica of Captain Kirk’s ship. Though I have to say the “NOC-1701″ is bugging me. Isn’t that supposed to read “NCC-1701?” It’s still a cool piece if you’re not a stickler for accuracy. And we all know that Trekkies can let something like this slide. Or maybe not.
The glasswork is set into an 18-1/2″ x 23″ black picture frame, and would look great hanging in a window or with lights behind it. If you want it, have Scotty beam you over to Etsy, where you can grab it for $200 (USD).
While much of the world knows the game with a round black and white ball as “football,” here in the U.S., we call the game “soccer.” So this picture of multiple Spocks dressed up in soccer uniforms probably only makes sense here, in Canada and maybe Australia. Er, actually, it doesn’t make sense at all.
But that doesn’t mean the image doesn’t make me giggle like a little schoolgirl. There’s just something so silly about this image by artist Tommervik that I want to make it the wallpaper on my computer now.
But if your ambitions are greater than desktop wallpaper, you can pick up an 11×14 canvas print of this goofy image over on Etsy for $140(USD). It’ll look great alongside that Mona Lisa you picked up a couple of years back.
This is the most awesome bit of science news I’ve heard in a long time. Scientists have determined that a warp drive similar to what the Enterprise used to get around the universe is actually more plausible than previously thought. Back in 1994, a Mexican physicist named Miguel Alcubierre proposed a spacecraft that had a ring around a football-shaped craft.
The idea was that the ring, constructed from exotic matter, would warp space-time around ship creating contracted space in front and expanded space behind, pushing the craft at faster-than-light speeds without breaking the cosmic speed limit, about ten times the speed of light. The problem was that further research concluded that the spacecraft would need a minimum amount of energy equal to the mass-energy of Jupiter.
Further investigation by scientist Harold White from the NASA Johnson Space Center has determined that the needed amount of energy is actually much less than previously believed – with a few tweaks to the design of the ship. Rather than using a flat ring, White proposed a ring shaped like a rounded doughnut and determined that using that shape the warp drive could be powered by a mass about the size of the spacecraft like the Voyager 1 probe. White also said that by oscillating the intensity of the space warps the energy could be reduced even more. As a result of White’s recent findings, further research will be conducted on the possibility of warp travel.
[via Space.com]
The group of folks bent on crafting a real-life version of Star Trek’s “Holodeck” — a virtual playground, essentially — are getting official support from gaming hardware company Razer. That support means not only access to Razer’s hardware but also the company’s staff of trained professionals. The Project Holodeck team have already implemented Razer’s “Hydra” — a PC-based motion controller that originally shipped with Portal 2 — into their work on Holodeck showcase game, “Wild Skies.”
But that’s not the only big news for Project Holodeck, as the team recently swapped Microsoft’s Kinect motion tech for Sony’s PlayStation Move motion tech. Project lead James Iliff told RoadtoVR.com, “The Kinect hardware is extremely lacking in fidelity. Every point the Kinect tracks is filled with unmanageable jitter, rendering the data useless for anything other than the most simple of interactions. We tried very hard to get around this with several software algorithms we wrote, to get multiple Kinects to communicate with each other, however this did not really make anything more accurate unfortunately.” In place of Kinect, the team strapped a PlayStation Move setup to a Pro-Tec skateboard helmet, and combined that tracking with the Hydra’s motion control and Oculus Rift’s head-mounted display. The result is … well, it’s a person standing in a room with a whole bunch of electronics attached to their person. But also, it allows players to interact in a 3D environment — from perception to engagement. The team’s still got plenty of work ahead of them, as evidenced by their latest video (below), but it sounds like things are coming together more cohesively than before.
Continue reading Project Holodeck gets help from Razer, swaps Kinect for Move tracking
Filed under: Gaming
Project Holodeck gets help from Razer, swaps Kinect for Move tracking originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Live long and prosper by upgrading your diet with more cookies! That’s right, carbs are good for you! Just look what they’ve done for William Shatner! Whether you prefer Kirk, Spock, Bones or Scotty, you’ll love these Star Trek cookie cutters and the delicious baked treats you can make with them.
With these in your mess hall, you’ll be replicating cookies that look like the Starship Enterprise, a phaser, Spock’s hand, the Federation or Klingon logo. The set comes with one each of the aforementioned shapes, though there’s no guarantee that your cookies will be iced as nicely as the examples provided here. That’s up to you and your steady hand. Just be sure not to wear a red shirt while baking, or your oven might explode.
You can grab the full set of Star Trek cookie cutters over at ThinkGeek for $19.99 (USD). I wonder how much that is in Federation Credits.
[via That’s Nerdalicious]
If you’re a fan of Star Trek, you’ll undoubtedly recognize this Klingon weapon. The weapon is called a Bat’leth and is a two-handed bladed weapon the Klingon’s use to cleave enemies in twain. This miniaturized version is sharp and designed to rip your mail open.
Nothing says “I’m a Trekkie” like a tiny little Klingon weapon sitting on your desk. ThinkGeek describes the device is an incredibly sharp Bat’Leth letter opener and it isn’t a toy. The device is made of durable stainless steel and has a cast resin display stand that holds it.
The letter opener is eight-inches long and the opener and the base together weigh 8 ounces. The mini-weapon is in stock right now for $24.99(USD) and will have you shouting will Ni’tokor bak’to! as you slice open your cable bill.
So you are a huge Star Trek fan and figured out that interstellar travel does get boring after a while, leading you to think of new ways to make sure that the next frontier you explore will be accompanied by some comfort food from earth, and what better combination that milk and cookies to whet that appetite? This is where the $19.99 Star Trek Cookie Cutters come in, where you are able to play around with a set of five out of this world cookie cutters. These come spring-mounted die for imprinting designs, allowing budding cookie lovers to help you in the kitchen as you regale them with tales of your space travel, back in the days when Spock was still young.
Just what kind of designs will the five cookie cutters come in? For starters, they feature the symbols of the Federation and Klingon Empire, the U.S.S. Enterprise, a phaser, and a Live Long and Prosper hand. This is an officially licensed Star Trek collectible just in case you were wondering, so do not worry that you would be purchasing a knockoff with this puppy.
[ Star Trek Cookie Cutters copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Do you love being captain of your own destiny? I suppose if you have answered in the affirmative, then you would be interested in the Star Trek Inflatable Captain’s Chair from Thinkgeek, where depending on the size of the chair, you would have to fork out $24.99 to $34.99 to fit bottoms of two sizes – that of a kid and an adult. Hey, there are leaders who are made, while others are natural born, so if your little one happens to fall under the latter, the Star Trek Inflatable Captain’s Chair does seem to be the right start in life.
This is an officially licensed Star Trek collectible, where it comes with a host of buttons and lights that have been printed on the arms so that one can tickle one’s imagination during playtime. The Captain has the authority to set Red Alert, Yellow Alert, or choose to Jettison Pod, depending on the theoretical situation. The kid and adult chairs will be able to handle a maximum weight of 120 lbs and 250 lbs, respectively.
[ Star Trek Inflatable Captain’s Chair copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
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