Feb 15

Shirt Promises to Curb Your B.O.

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, Weird News

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Do you smell? Seriously, do you? You can let us know. Honestly, who can you tell, if not your friendly neighborhood gadget blog? We won’t judge. If you’ve got an issue with upper body stink, a Japanese company has the solution–the Otoko Kaoru, a shirt will a built-in scent. A good scent. Better than that horrible thing your own sweat glands are giving off.
The shirt apparently releases scent capsules as it rubs against your skin, releasing a smell that is, again, better than the one your own gross body produces. The shirt should last up to 10 washes. It’ll run you 3000 yen (around $35). The company is also working on a polo and pajama version, so there’s no a time when you can’t mask your own horrible, horrible smell.

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Feb 15

When Do Netflix Watch Instantly Movies Expire? QueueNoodle Knows

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili
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Netflix Watch Instantly giveth and Netflix Watch Instantly taketh away. The service can be a cruel mistress, constantly shuffling new titles in and out of its catalog, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. Thankfully, a handy new Twitter account called @QueueNoodle will do all of the tracking for you.

The account cleverly takes advantage of Netflix’s API to let you know when titles are going to drop off the list. Each tweet offers a title, rating, expiration date, and link to the movie on Netflix. Oh man, Donnie Darko is expiring on Monday-gotta go. 
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Feb 15

Boeing Unveils the 747-8I, Now the World’s Largest Commercial Airliner

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, Travel

Boeing 747-8I

If you thought the Airbus A380 was huge, you were right up until yesterday, when Boeing unveiled the brand new 747-8 Intercontinental, a near-supersonic massive commercial airliner that can fly at speeds of up to Mach 0.98, or 7 knots shy of breaking the sound barrier. Boeing has had the 747-8 in tests for months (with a freighter version of the aircraft already logged 1700 hours of flight time,) and in design for years, with the project running in parallel to the 787 Dreamliner project, both of which represent the next generation of Boeing’s airline fleet. 
The 747-8 is a wide-body airliner that, when completed, will be able to carry close to 500 passengers on-board There are already two airlines with orders in for the 747-8, including Lufthansa and Korean Air.
[via Wired]
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Feb 15

Julian Assange is Kind of a Big Jerk – Report

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, Weird News

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Julian Assange has become one of the most feared men amongst the governments of the world, thanks to his leadership of whistleblowing Website, Wikileaks.org. And if a new book from German I.T. worker, Daniel Domscheit-Berg is to be believed, he’s also kind of a giant jerk.

Domscheit-Berg became a colleague, friend, and roommate with Assange, and now he’s got some less than kind things to say about the Australian hacker-turned-activist in his book, Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website, due out today on Crown Publishers. The piece contains such revelations as, “In early 2010 his tone toward me changed radically. ‘If you f*** up, I’ll hunt you down and kill you,’ he once told me.”

Oh, and,

 

The absurd thing was that he was the one who was continually losing or forgetting things. And that was precisely what he was accusing me of. If Julian messed something up, on the other hand, something else was usually the reason. He always had an elaborate explanation, sometimes one that cast him as the hero.

More apparent insight into the man behind Wikileaks over at Vanity Fair.

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Feb 14

Civilization IV’s Baba Yetu Wins Grammy Honors

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Music, Today's Chili, video games

Civ4

If you don’t play video games, you’re missing out on some of the most meticulously arranged and elegantly performed orchestral and classical music produced today. Last night at the Grammy Awards, this point was made absolutely clear when Baba Yetu, a beautiful piece from Sid Meier’s Civilization IV, took the Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) award. 
The song is the original work of composer Christopher Tin, who composed the piece to be the theme song for the game and to appear on his first album, titled Calling All Dawns. The song appears in the opening sequence of the game, and was originally meant to be game’s theme song. The vocals are performed by Stanford Talisman, a choral group from Stanford University. The lyrics are a direct translation of The Lord’s Prayer in Swahili, and the song earned specific praise from game reviewers when Civilization IV came out. The Academy thought the song moving enough to earn Tin high praise for his work.
Civilization IV is only one of an entire new breed of video games that rely on orchestras and composers for their music, a far cry from the 8-bit MIDI loops that a lot of people still associated with video game music. Tin, for his part, is heading home with a lot of new attention on his work, and two new awards (the other was for Best Classical Crossover Album, for Calling All Dawns.) 
If you haven’t heard Baba Yetu, click the jump to hear it as part of the opening sequence to the game.
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Feb 14

Use Google Maps To Remind Your Valentine of a Special Place

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili

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If you still haven’t picked out a Valentine’s card yet, or heck, if you already got/ sent one, do two (you love them double, right?), create a personalized card with the help of Google Maps to remind your Valentine of a special place. As Google says, “Sometimes, what means the most isn’t something. It’s somewhere.”

Whether it’s for your mom and dad, roommate, or that special someone, you can easily (and quickly) e-mail them a unique card that’s sure to stand out. Now you just have to think up a specific, meaningful location, but come one, that’s not that hard. I could be a vacation spot, first date location, where you met, where you honeymooned, or someplace fun and goofy. When you Valentine gets the card, they can zoom in and out and switch from map view to street view to relive all the memories associated with the place (so you better pick a good location).

All you have to do is go to www.mapyourvalentine.com, type in your Valentine’s e-mail address, your e-mail, the location, and a personal message. Viola! A cute and heartfelt Valentine’s card. And it didn’t cost you a dime or kill any tress. Map Your Valentine FTW.

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Feb 14

HP’s “Everybody On” Ad During Grammys Not a Hit

Posted in: HP, Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili

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Sunday night during the Grammys, HP introduced the world to its riff of Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” in it’s new ad. Needless to say, it’s not going to be a hit.

HP decided to take the classic song of rebellion and replace the lyrics about cross dressing and sexing and drugging up with lyrics about tweeting, skyping, printing, and fragging. Not surprisingly, the ad didn’t receive many praising comments for the song choice on the HP computers YouTube page. Examples: “worst commercial of all time?” “Way to bastardize an amazing song. Way to turn me off of your products even more.” and “Wow, i actually cringed at this.”

Honestly, the ad itself is actually kind of good, but what were they thinking choosing to butcher the lyrics to that song? Plus, they probably had to hand over a pretty heavy chunk of change for the right to it. Way to go, HP. Looks like “Everybody On” turned “Everybody off.”

Check out the ad after the jump!

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Feb 14

5 Geeky Marriage Proposals

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, Weird News

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Today is Valentine’s Day, love is in the air, and many couples may be wondering when their partner will pop the question. Sure, you can propose at a restaurant or even during the half-time show at your favorite team’s game, but that’s all boring. And truthfully, if you’re reading this blog, you’re into the more nerdy/finer things in life. 

From programming proposals into video games, to tweeting the big question for the whole world to see, here’s proof that you can still be totally romantic by using the thing you love second to your soon-to-be fiancée: technology. Check out Gearlog’s geekiest marriage proposals after the jump.

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Feb 13

This Week’s Best YouTube Videos: The Wrath of Khan, A Floppy Disk Concerto, Ninjas, and More

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, videos, YouTube

Enter The Ninja

If you ask most people which Star Trek movie is their favorite, they’d probably laugh at you and call you a nerd. If you ask Star Trek fans which movie is their favorite, most of them I’ll bet would tell you it’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It’s so popular that scenes from it are mainstay in pop culture, and if you haven’t seen it, this week you will: in 60 seconds. Don’t worry, it’s enough. 
Also in the roundup this week, a floppy disk does Toccata and Fugue (and a number of you ponder “What’s a floppy disk,”) a helmet that shaves your head for you and doesn’t demand a tip, an all-too-short Superman cartoon done in the classic style, and, of course, ninjas.
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Feb 13

Twitter’s Trending Topics of the Week: Gaga, Bieber, Puppies, and More

Posted in: Google, Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, twitter, Weird News

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This week we celebrated the births of two of history’s greats, Jules Verne and Thomas Edison, with two really cool Google Doodles. We also lost Thin Lizzy’s legendary guitarist Gary Moore. The rest of Twitter was buzzing with the lighter things in life, such as the Puppy Bowl, Justin Bieber, and Lady Gaga. We rounded up the most buzzed-about topics, and compiled a nice, easy-to-read list for you.

Here are the top trending Twitter topics for the week ending on February 11:

1. SuperBowl
The Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl XLV, defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 in Arlington, Texas. Besides talking football, Twitter users created trends about Super Bowl ads, the Black Eyed Peas half-time show, and Animal Planet’s popular Puppy Bowl. #superbowl

2. Puppy Bowl
The only thing better than the Super Bowl? The Puppy Bowl, of course! The Animal Planet hosts a Puppy Bowl every Super Bowl Sunday. This was Puppy Bowl VII, and, as usual, it features puppies playing on a miniature football field, a water-bowl cam, being generally adorable, and, this year, a blimp operated by hamsters. #PuppyBowl 

[Photo above via Animal Planet]

3. Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga released her newest single, “Born This Way,” on Friday, February 11. She also reached eight million Twitter followers and is still the most-followed user on Twitter. #LadyGaga #BornThisWayFriday

4. Gary Moore
The legendary Belfast-born guitarist Gary Moore (ex-Thin Lizzy) died in his sleep last Saturday night, while on holiday in Spain. #GaryMoore

5. I Don’t Understand Why
People are tweeting about things they don’t understand. For example, #Idontunderstand why this is such a huge meme.

Check out the rest of the list after the jump!

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