Tag: beschizza

The world’s littlest laptop is yours for $399, but is it the ultimate writers’ gadget?

The GPD Pocket is a wee laptop with a 7″ high-dpi touchscreen display and an enticing $399 price tag. It’ll be light on power, with an Intel Atom CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, but promises about 12 hours on a charge and two USB ports, one of them type C. There’s a ThinkBook-style tracknipple in lieu of a trackpad. It’ll run Ubuntu or Windows 10 and, somehow, they managed to sneak a headphone jack on there. (more…)

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The world’s littlest laptop is yours for $399, but is it the ultimate writers’ gadget?

10 hours of ambient noise from an icebreaker in the frozen arctic

Imagine the horror being trapped in a hostile landscape surrounded by snowflakes that were one objects of amusement but now form a blizzard of menacing proportions. Then smile because you’re not a fascist, and are merely stuck on a polar icebreaking vessel for 10 hours. 10 hours video of Arctic ambience with frozen ocean, ice craking, snow falling, icebreaker idling and distand howling wind sound. Natural white noise sounds generated by the wind and snow falling, combined with deep low frequencies with delta waves from the powerful icebreaker idling engines, recorded at 96 kHz – 24 bit and designed for relaxation, meditation, study and sleep.

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10 hours of ambient noise from an icebreaker in the frozen arctic

Civilization ported to 8-bit Commodore 64

Civilization was one of the classic games of the 16-bit age, when computers with speedy processors and hundreds of kilobytes of RAM made it possible to model and memorize complex, culture-bound simulations of human history. Twenty years on, though, it’s been ported back to a humble 8-bit system that predated it by years. The genius behind the conversion is Fabian Hertel, and it’s not just a mockup: a fully playable demo is available to enjoy . 8-bit Civ runs on Commodore 64 and, while reduced in scope, features cities, units, AI opponents, scientific advances and wonders of the world. 8 Bit Civilizations (working title) has understandably been reduced in scope from the original PC and Amiga versions. For example you can play against a maximum of 3 AI opponents (or 2 if barbarians are enabled), and the world map is not as large. However even in its current state, the game is every bit as fun as the original, and even includes some innovative new features. Such as you may chose the gender of your nation’s leader, so if you choose to play the English nation, you be Henry VIII as well as Elizabeth I. The game board is played from an isometric perspective, a feature which wasn’t added in the original line of games until Civilization II (1996). It clearly doesn’t shy much from the game’s complexity. Check out the traditionally numbing endgame going on in the screenshot below!

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Civilization ported to 8-bit Commodore 64

Laser cutter fumes suspected in deaths of California couple, cats

A young couple and two cats found dead in their Berkeley, Calif., apartment may have been overcome by fumes vented from a 3D printer , reports CBS News . 35-year-old Roger Morash and 32-year-old Valerie Morash were discovered in the morning by a visitor. The source said that the couple was using a laser 3-D printer that was venting into their residence. Symptoms and signs consistent with carbon monoxide poisoning were found in their bodies. Police evacuated the apartment building and called in PG&E and the fire department’s hazardous materials team to look for a gas leak or some other hazard but no contaminant was found. There’s some alarm online about the identification of a 3D printer as generating carbon monoxide (the fine particles are a known risk) . The source probably misidentified a another kind of machine such as a CNC or laser cutter. There’s a crowdfunding effort underway to support the victims’ families; SFGate reports that a memorial for the Morashes was held Saturday .

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Laser cutter fumes suspected in deaths of California couple, cats

Man attempts to sharpen a dollar-store kitchen knife

Using Japanese sharpening stones of various grits and considerable prices, Junskitchen set out to try and make an edge of a $1 kitchen knife. The results are impressive—but how long will they last? [1,000 and 6,000] grits would be enough for a normal household knife. I used grits 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 8,000, and 12,000 in this video. The higher the number, the finer the sanding and the sharper the knife will be.

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Man attempts to sharpen a dollar-store kitchen knife

e-ink keyboard changes for every purpose

I’ve been into old-fashioned mechanical keyboards lately; Sonder’s e-ink model promises to bring the fetish into the 21st century. Each key is both mechanical and a tiny e-Ink display that can change on a per-application basis. The Sonder Keyboard combines a sleek new design with a built-in rechargeable battery and enhanced key features. With an improved mechanical mechanism beneath each key for increased stability, as well as optimized key travel and a lower profile, the Sonder Keyboard provides a remarkably comfortable and precise typing experience. It pairs automatically with your Mac, so you can get to work right away. And the battery is incredibly long-lasting — it will power your keyboard for about a month or more between charges. The styling is minimal and Apple-oriented. Sonder’s keyboard uses Bluetooth, but comes with USB and a lightning port too. It’s $200, which seems reasonable for such a specialized device: compare to Art Lebedev’s Optimus Popularis color LED model, still a pricey curiosity at $1500.

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e-ink keyboard changes for every purpose

Magic use in Harry Potter novels charted

Skyler Johnson created an interactive infographic that charts the use of magic in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels . The spells are organized by count or time, with instances color-coded by the book they appear in. Hover over each use and you even get the quote, for context! [via Tor and Metafilter ] Emily Asher-Perrin writes: Perhaps not surprisingly, the spells that we see used most often are commonly used by Harry and his friends as means of non-violent resistance; Expecto Patronum; Expelliarmus; Stupefy. The Killing Curse appears sixth down on the list, which is fascinating–it is technically speaking the “most evil” of all the dark magic spells, and it is the most often used.

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Magic use in Harry Potter novels charted

Fury Road before the visual effects were added

They put out a compilation of scenes from Mad Max: Fury Road as they were shot, with no CGI or no artsy color grading. It makes me love the film even more: I want a minimalist cut of the whole thing like this, with the only CGI work being what’s absolutely necessary to make things work (painting out other cameras and wires, adding key explosions, the waterfall…) and CGI-heavy scenes like the sandstorm interior completely removed. One thought, though: this would probably make Fury Road’s sustained, stylized violence (which is rather different from the startling, crude violence of the first two Mad Max movies) less palatable. You’d be surprised how many people already have a problem with it, even if they love the series. It would be an interesting editing challenge. [via io9 ]

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Fury Road before the visual effects were added