British Cthulhu emporium Yog-Sogoth have produced a lovely kit to accompany a manuscript for Albert Wilmarth’s HP Lovecraft’s story The Whisperer in Darkness: it includes a genuine musical wax cylinder with a 2:05 spooky composition meant to accompany the reading. I’ve got one on my desk and it is a fabulous bit of dead media, and perfectly fitting.

The prop kit features the following lovingly detailed items:

* Wax cylinder with a mysterious & chilling recording (2 minutes, 5 seconds).
* A 30 page copy of Albert Wilmarth’s manuscript describing the events in Vermont (HPL’s The Whisperer in Darkness).
* Two large (faux) contemporary photographs taken by Henry Akeley.
* A guide on how to handle your cylinder recording.
* A signed, sealed and numbered certificate of ownership.

The Whisperer in Wax: New Cylinder from Yog-Sothoth

Original post:
Lovecraft manuscript with musical wax cylinder

Too funny to un-friend, Failbook.

See original article:
Failbook: Yeah, It’s the Test’s Fault…

We’ve been hearing rumors of an 18-inch addition to the Alienware line for some time, and now its big-eyed visage is making an appearance — in Canada. The M18x configuration page has gone live on Dell‘s Canadian site, though curiously it’s displaying what looks to be a picture of the M17x. The system starts at just over $2,000 CAD with a 2.8GHz Core i7 processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 320GB of storage, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M graphics. But, our more well-heeled neighbors to the north can step up to a 3.4GHz processor, 8GB of memory, 750GB of storage, and dual AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics cards, pushing the price up nearly another $1,000. The 18.4-inch display manages a full 1080p resolution and you can have any operating system you like — so long as its Windows 7 Home Premium. The estimated ship date has this thing leaving the factory in early May, which means it should start hitting the domestic configurator soon enough.

Update: Daniel wrote in to let us know that the M14x is there as well — though it looks to be in the process of being taken down.

[Thanks, Nicklas]

Alienware M18x appears on Dell’s Canadian site, glares at you from afar originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Practical or not, there is no denying the nerd-gasm inducing wow factor of Microsoft’s Surface. Of course, Surface is expensive — like, unless you’re a millionaire you’re probably not buying one for personal use expensive. There are some DIY solutions out there, but designer and developer Seth Sandler has come up with the cheapest and easiest yet. Built from about $400 worth of material (some of which you probably have lying about your home / apartment / dungeon), the MTbiggie brings big-screen multitouch to the masses. Like the hacker’s previous homebrew multitouch device, the MTmini, there’s nothing particularly difficult to find here. All you need is a couple of chairs, a mirror, a projector, an infrared webcam (which you can easily hack together with some old film negatives and cardboard), a big sheet of paper and an equally large piece of clear acrylic. Just set it all up according to the instructions in the video below and in no time you be finger painting and playing Angry Birds on a screen that dwarfs your iPad — and possibly your kitchen table, too.

Continue reading MTbiggie is a DIY Surface for the masses (video)

MTbiggie is a DIY Surface for the masses (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TomTom’s new Active Driver Feedback will speak up to tell you about your fuel consumption, speeding, harsh steering, and braking. At the end of your trip it’ll summarize and chart how well you’ve been driving, too. [TomTom via Ubergizmo] More

Fed up with the simply unacceptable performance of your external Blu-ray writer? Of course you are. ASUS feels your pain, and it’s looking to ease it with the soothing balm of the BW-12D1S-U, a new 12X, USB 3.0 burner. The highly capable (and highly complex, we’re surmising) BW-12D1S-U offers realtime 2D to 3D conversion, 1080p video output and support for the usual complement of HD audio formats. But does it have a jewel-like, almost ominous translucent blue power button, you ask? Indeed it does, not to mention a sleek black finish and the ability to operate horizontally or vertically. The outfit has yet to put a price on having the fastest writer on the block, but don’t even pretend that you wouldn’t pay it. Whatever “it” ends up being.

ASUS’ 12x BW-12D1S-U external Blu-ray writer: world’s fastest, until the next one originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading RCA’s line of portable hybrid televisions now available

RCA’s line of portable hybrid televisions now available originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Practical or not, there is no denying the nerd-gasm inducing wow factor of Microsoft’s Surface. Of course, Surface is expensive — like, unless you’re a millionaire you’re probably not buying one for personal use expensive. There are some DIY solutions out there, but designer and developer Seth Sandler has come up with the cheapest and easiest yet. Built from about $400 worth of material (some of which you probably have lying about your home / apartment / dungeon), the MTbiggie brings big-screen multitouch to the masses. Like the hacker’s previous homebrew multitouch device, the MTmini, there’s nothing particularly difficult to find here. All you need is a couple of chairs, a mirror, a projector, an infrared webcam (which you can easily hack together with some old film negatives and cardboard), a big sheet of paper and an equally large piece of clear acrylic. Just set it all up according to the instructions in the video below and in no time you be finger painting and playing Angry Birds on a screen that dwarfs your iPad — and possibly your kitchen table, too.

Continue reading MTbiggie is a DIY Surface for the masses

MTbiggie is a DIY Surface for the masses originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The KinnowLS mandarin orange, pictured at right, is incredibly sweet, has almost no seeds, a skin so thin it’s easily peeled, and can grow in the desert. And it’s a mutant created almost the same way Spider-man was. More

Filed under: Etc., Safety

Car insurance rates are determined with a host of factors in mind. Objective items like a motorist’s age and driving record are the most-weighted factors insurers consider, but those items among a couple of dozens of things used to figure out what your premiums will be. Included in the CarInsurance.com graphic are stats like 2010’s most-expensive car to insure, the Porsche 911 GT2, and the least, the Mazda Tribute.

Behind driving record, age and marital status are factors like what you drive, your gender, your state and credit rating. While lots of the factors are things drivers have some control over, a small part of the insurance rate you pay comes down to what company you choose to go with and which policy you buy. Follow the jump for an expanded breakdown of insurance costs.

[Source: CarInsurance.com]

Continue reading Infographic: Why is your car insurance so high?

Infographic: Why is your car insurance so high? originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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