Hasta La Gadget!

If you have even just one important digital file, you owe it to yourself and that intangible bundle of electricity that you hold dear to sign up for a cloud file storage service. Many of them have entry level services that offer a few gigabytes of storage for free. Of course they’ll happily sell you more space if you need to back up more data. But a small startup called Space Monkey wants you to trust in other users instead.

Space Monkey is a backup service that will offer 1TB of both local and online storage for $10 (USD) per month. The local storage is straightforward – you will simply use a complementary app to back up your files to the Space Monkey computer (pictured above), as if you were using an external drive. The online storage is where Space Monkey gets eccentric. Instead of setting up expensive and complicated datacenters, all Space Monkey subscribers act as each other’s datacenters. Bits of your data are encrypted and scattered among the Space Monkey computers of other subscribers, and vice versa.

It’s like the reverse of Bittorrent. In theory, the more subscribers that join Space Monkey, the more collective storage you all have and the more secure your data will be. And because they don’t have to setup datacenters, that also means less expenses and maintenance on the part of Space Monkey. Clever eh?

Is it just me or does the name Space Monkey just not fit into the product? They should’ve called it Data Offcenter. A pledge of at least $119 on Kickstarter lets you sign up for a 1 year 1TB subscription with Space Monkey.

If you’re not that familiar with online storage I highly recommend you shop around first. I can see what Space Monkey is getting at but there are dependable and affordable cloud services out there like CrashPlan or Backblaze. Or as I said earlier, try a free service first like the ones offered by Dropbox and Google to see if it’s good enough for you.

If you’re into steampunk cosplay, you know that it’s important to have the right weapon in your arsenal. While there are plenty of manly steampunk weapons out there, there aren’t too many for the ladies. The Lady Froggy aims to change that.

This eight-barreled, wrist-mounted gatling gun is sure to take down any evil top-hatted, mustache-twirling lotharios you might encounter on your steam-powered journey through the 1890s.

The Lady Froggy Gatling gun is handmade by Arsenal Best Armory, using polished brass, plastic, a metallic lacquer coating and embellished with Swarovski crystals. Because what lady weapon doesn’t have Swarovski crystals on it?

Keep in mind that the Lady Froggy Gatling gun doesn’t actually fire projectiles, but you probably will still have some ‘splainin’ to do if you try and wear it through airport security. They do have security checkpoints for dirigible flights, right?

Etsy shop Haute Mess makes Grillain Villains, a line of handmade aprons that are based on the costumes of famous supervillains. Haute Mess gleefully proclaims, “If you gotta cook and clean why not look evil doing so?!” Because you want people to eat what you cook? Oh was that a rhetorical question? Okay then!

The Krang apron is my favorite of all the designs, although just about all of the women’s aprons look neat. I don’t recommend the Boba Fett men’s apron though, unless you want to be the evil Thong Man.

Summon your minions and head to Haute Mess to order a Grillain Villain apron. They cost between $40 to $150 (USD) depending on the design.

[via Hi Consumption via Design You Trust]

Ever wished you had more control over how your flashlight worked? Or did you run out of gadgets to tinker and mess with? Then the HexBright Flex is for you. The flashlight has three modes of light by default, but you can also re-program it using Arduino code.

Aside from having open source software, the Hexbright Flex also has great hardware. It has a Cree XM-L LED with a maximum brightness of 500 lumens, an aluminum body and a rechargeable and replaceable battery.

You can order the HexBright Flex from its official website for $119 (USD). I bet some of you can program it to emit darkness.

[via GearHungry]

The Empire had one last shot at destroying the Rebel Alliance, having built up an army of hundreds of thousands of ships and Destoyers with which to attack Rebel scum. Unfortunately for the Empire, the Alliance had discovered a rare species of Space Kraken. And, deciding that “Kraken” was a lame name, re-named their discovery the KR-KN, which is much more advanced piece of nomenclature.

Sending thousands of Ewoks to their unfortunate deaths on a series of suicide missions, the Alliance was eventually able to implant computers in the minds of the KR-KN that they had discovered, allowing them to control these beasts.

Their diet? Empire Destroyers.

This incredible LEGO creation was built by Iain Heath, a master of building awesome stuff, and was originally shown off at the 2013 Emerald Comicon. It is now, however, at its permanent residence in Tableau Software, shown below.

As you can see, the KR-KN Destroyer Destroyer was tactfully placed in front of the company’s “Tangled Sperm” masterpiece, which is juxtaposed with their “Floating Pieces of Goldfish” painting. Iain Heath originally created the piece because of the criticism that LEGO Destroyers were receiving for being big, gray, and boring. And, since Iain is such a logical man, he came to the conclusion that nothing adds a little spice to a work of art like a giant octopus.

New video game idea: play as the KR-KN and float around in never-ending, randomly generated space maps until you find something, at which point you hit all of the buttons at the same time and wildly swing your eight limbs until you kill it. I would buy that game in a second, especially if they added some KR-KN on KR-KN action with customizable tentacle suction cups and such.

If you love giant octopi, you are probably an octophile or perhaps an octogenarian. You should also go take a look at these Octopus Chandeliers and these LEGO Star Wars Mosaics, which are awesome.

Jack Kieffer owns Cool Gizmo Toys, a site where geeks go to do awesome things and then pass out on my fancy futons.