Hasta La Gadget!

As soon as a novel piece of tech makes it to the masses, it never takes long until hackers start appropriating it for all manner of unintended uses. And that’s exactly what’s starting to happen now with Xbox’s recently-released controller-free gaming system, Kinect.

One such techno-tinkerer is Oliver Kreylos who has developed a method to create 3D rendering based on video collected from the Kinect–in real-time.

This technique allows users to create a fairly impressive 3D rendering of themselves and the surrounding environment (with the one exception that the single vantage point of the Kinect creates some holes or “shadows” in the rendering). The rendered environment can be explored as any digital 3D space, allowing viewers to virtually walk through any area within the Kinect’s view.

The tech works off of C++ code which Oliver has made available on his site under a General Public Use license. This cheap and accessible tech could have various applications down the road–everything from communications to security/surveillance to new forms of social gaming.

Be sure to watch the whole video after the jump to get a full appreciation of the possibilities.

via Hack a Day 

The ultimate sign of celebrity in 2010? When your Twitter mistake causes a minor pop cultural sensation. About halfway through the summer, three-quarters term Alaskan governor Sarah Palin made a linguistic mistake on the micro-blogging site–something politicians have been doing since well before Twitter became something more than a nonsense word itself.

In July, Palin tweeted the following,

Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate.

Critics quickly pounced on the made up word “refudiate,” which it seemed was something of an amalgamation of “refute” and “repudiate.” Palin pulled the word, replacing it with the former–which, honestly, didn’t make all that much sense in context either.

Supporters, on the other hand, embraced the made up word. Vindication, it seems, is theirs. The Oxford English Dictionary has deemed “refudiate” its “Word of the Year.” The Twitter-friendly word joined such terms as retweet, Webisode, crowdsourcing, gleek, and nom nom.

That’s what you get for misunderestimating the Shakespeare of our time.

Last year’s Word of the Year went to another tech-friendly term: unfriend.

Are people still complaining about economic downturn-this and stagnant recovery-that? BORING! So 2009. Thankfully one Dubai-based company is bucking all that recession talk by giving the world what it so desperately wants: temporary tattoos made from 24 karat gold.

Precious Skin currently operates two outlets throughout the desert playground (or prudish outpost, whatever). The company can apply temporary tattoos, which last up to a week and are made out of 99.9% gold or platinum.

The process originated in Japan but was brought to Dubai by managing director Arnaud Flambeau who thought this could be sold as a premium version of the henna tattoos that are customary among Gulf women for weddings and other special occasions.

Pricing for the tattoos starts at a quite-reasonable $50, and can go as high as $5,500 for more elaborate designs.

pic via

This week in Twitter was full of memes. From “Things That Piss Me Off,” to “Confession Time,” we learned things that we wish we hadn’t about some of the people we follow. In celebrity news, there was a mega Jonas Brothers/Bieber battle. Also, Conan and Olbermann came back! If you missed out on these, or some of the other hot topics on Twitter this week, we got you covered. Here are this week’s top trends on Twitter:

1. Jonas Brothers / Jonas Fans

The battle of the Bros vs. Bieber is on. Fans of the Jonas Brothers tweeted why they think they’re more likable than Justin Bieber fans. If only Celebrity Deathmatch was still on MTV. #jonasfans

2. Bieber / Justin Bieber / 6millionbeliebers
The Biebs himself claimed to have 6 million fans, or “Beliebers,” as they like to call themselves. Of course, this was part of the Jonas vs. Bieber war. #6millionbeliebers

3. Call of Duty / COD Black / Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops, a highly-anticipated edition to the series of Call of Duty first-person shooter games, was released this week. It set a new sales record — not just for video games, but for entertainment in general. It made $360 million in sales in 24 hours in the US. That’s even more than Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince made in its first weekend. #blackops

4. Things That Piss Me Off
#ThingsThatPissMeOff: when people are tweeting about things that piss them off.

5. Conan / #TeamCoco
Conan O’Brien came back to the comfort of our living room this week via his new show on TBS, “Conan.” Guests included Jon Hamm, Andy Richter, Lea Michele, Seth Rogen, Jack White, Norm MacDonald, and Tom Hanks.#Conan

Check out the next five after the jump!

Amazon came under fire yet again this week after protesters brought to light the fact that the site was selling a book titled The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover’s Code of Conduct.

Of course, this isn’t the first time the company has been at the center of controversy. After all, when you’re the United States’ largest retailer, odds are pretty good that you’re going to stock content that not everyone agrees with.

Amazon has had plenty of ups and downs since launching in 1994. Here are a few of the more colorful controversies the site has had to contend with over the years.