Hasta La Gadget!

As many of you who read my work here on SlashGear know, I’m an avid technology lover. My entire life has been dedicated to learning about technology, leveraging the tools that work best, and educating others on the value of it. From a young age, I was building my own PCs and taking apart products to see how they worked. It wasn’t long that I realized that having some sort of career in this fascinating world was a good idea.

[Image courtesy VintageComputing]

But over the last decade or so, I’ve seen a shift in the technology industry that makes me worry about the future. The technology industry was once a haven for folks like me (and perhaps you) that wanted to immerse themselves in electronics and use them as much as possible to get work done. For us, technology wasn’t an interest; it was a way of life.

Back then, those of us who loved technology had formed a special bond. We were speaking another language that many folks didn’t quite understand, and we were able to solve problems that others couldn’t. It was a special thing. And it was ours.

But over the last decade, I’ve watched my beloved technology industry become awfully commercial. Products are no longer judged solely on their usability or component power. Instead, products are judged based on their looks and how “intuitive” they are for the average technology user. Value has won out over power. And those of us who remember the old days are left scratching our heads.

“Computers are now personality-extensions, with branding and design to reflect that”

See, the technology industry is now a key component of pop culture. There’s not a day that goes by that someone on the news or a late night show or on MTV won’t mention an iPhone, iPad, or Android-based device. Computers were once purely functional pieces of equipment that helped us get work done. Now, they’re extensions of our personality, and have branding and design features to reflect that.

It’s now cool to go to school with the latest gadget in hand and show it off to friends. While discussing “gigabytes” and “Flash” and other topics were once reserved for the so-called “geeks,” they’re now commonplace in discussions with supposedly ordinary people.

Of course, some in the industry believe this is a good thing. As technology has become more accepted, major companies have generated more cash. Small companies built out of the success of larger firms are thriving. And more and more people are being employed by the industry.

It’s hard to argue with that. The technology industry really has become the cornerstone of the world economy. And companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Samsung are employing thousands of people that, 20 years ago, wouldn’t have had a job.

But excuse me for believing that maybe – just maybe – there was something special about the old days. The technology industry might not have been “cool,” but it was fun and exciting. And it was unique.

Maybe the old days are gone. But there’s something to be said about remembering – and honoring – your history.

Is the Technology World Too ‘Pop Culture’? is written by Don Reisinger & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Even though they’re much more awesome than conventional printers, 3D printers still need “ink”, or what is known as filament. While this can come in many forms – sand, chocolate, living cells – most projects require plastic filament. There are many companies that sell filament, but wouldn’t it be awesome if you could just make your own?

That’s the idea behind Tyler McNaney’s invention, the Filabot. According to Wired, Tyler got the idea to make Filabot because he wanted to dive into 3D printing but didn’t have a lot of money to buy filament. What the Filabot does is reduce the process of making filament into a small, personal scale. It melts various types of plastic – including commonly used ones such as PET, HDPE and ABS – extrudes or forces the molten plastic through nozzles and flattens them to the users’ desired diameter using rollers. This way you can turn plastic bottles, packaging and even old or failed 3D printed objects into filament.

Tyler already raised $32,330 (USD) from a recent Kickstarter campaign, where he sold Filabots for as low as $350 (USD) each. For now you can sign up for an email notification on the Filabot website to know when you can turn your little brother’s LEGO into a 3D printed turd. Just kidding. It’s inevitable though.

[Filabot via Gajitz via Reddit]

Oh, how I love wacky Japanese gadgets. And how I hate cleaning. So when Francesco over at Hobby Media[IT] tipped me off to these Japanese cleaning robots, I was just about in heaven.

These inexpensive robots from Kyosho don’t aim to be as sophisticated as something like a Roomba or Wall-E, but then they don’t cost hundreds of dollars either. The Sugoi remote control vehicles come in two versions – one that’s a dust mop, and the other is a trash bin on wheels. Both can be driven around using an included RF remote control, so you can clean without getting your lazy behind up off the couch. In case you need a visual explanation, check them out in the video below:

What’s not to like? I can imagine sitting on the sofa during the big game, and with a push of the button, in pops my R/C garbage can, ready to receive my empties. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to get these in time to clean up my mess after this year’s Super Bowl, since they’re currently only for sale in Japan.

You can find the garbage can here, and the dust mop here. They each sell for ¥2079 (~$21 USD), and you can try and see if someone like White Rabbit Express can import them for you. While you’re at it, you might want to pick up one of these.

[via Hobby Media]

Dell Wyse – the cloud computing company acquired by Dell in May 2012 – may soon be entering its bet on the emerging PC on a stick genre. While the previous examples of these flash drive computers we’ve seen use Android as their primary operating system, Dell’s product will also run on Android, but will give customers the freedom to choose from different OSes to actually use.

Currently known as “Project Ophelia,” the computer is meant to be used mainly as a gateway to Dell Wyse’s cloud services. According to Quartz, “It allows access to Windows, Mac OS, Google’s Chrome OS, Dell’s custom cloud solutions, Citrix cloud software, and even Google’s Chrome OS, using virtual instances of those operating systems running in the cloud.” The PC will plug into (and draw power from) a display via USB. Then it will connect to Dell Wyse’s servers via Wi-Fi and to hardware peripherals via Bluetooth.

Dell’s vice president of cloud operations Tarkan Maner said that they’re planning to sell Ophelia for only $50 (USD) each, though he didn’t mention how much the cloud services would cost. That’s probably where they’ll generate most of their revenue.

From a tech support perspective, this could make it a lot easier to secure and manage a large number of computers. But I wonder if it also poses a risk of data theft, disconnection or lack of access on a massive scale should things go wrong. It also takes away a lot of control from the user in return for the convenience it provides. Either way, it’s too early to see what kind of effect Ophelia may have on the PC industry.

[via Quartz via Boy Genius Report]

There’s nothing worse when you learn that your job is about to be outsourced to another country. Apparently, one U.S. software developer took matters into his own hands and outsourced not just his own job, but a couple of his jobs to China – raking in the profits.

*Not the actual programmer who pulled off this scheme.

No matter what you think about this, you have to admit that this was a clever scheme, especially since the employee had this con going on in a couple of different companies, earning him a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year. While he was at work, he checked Reddit, surfed the net, watched videos, and checked up on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Verizon noticed this after a company asked them about some odd activity on the firm’s VPN logs. The records show that the employee was logged in from China, while at the same time he was sitting in front of his monitor at work. While he was running his scheme, the employee received great performance reviews, and was considered an expert in C, C++, Perl, Java, Ruby, PHP and Python. Apparently, he paid the the Chinese firm about $50,000 a year.