Slashdot Mirror

>i was just going to head down to best buy next weekend for a large chunk of my christmas shopping

Yeah, but EVERY self respecting geek only purchases their Christmas loot from Think Geek. Why would anyone want to get anything from anybody who was not an OSDN company?

Oh, yea! Last year I got Penguins for everybody! 10 total! I need to submit those pictures for customer shots so I can get my $50 gift certificate that I so rightly deserve. You would split your sides if you saw my pictures!

>i was just going to head down to best buy next weekend for a large chunk of my christmas shopping

Yeah, but EVERY self respecting geek only purchases their Christmas loot from Think Geek. Why would anyone want to get anything from anybody who was not an OSDN company?

Oh, yea! Last year I got Penguins for everybody! 10 total! I need to submit those pictures for customer shots so I can get my $50 gift certificate that I so rightly deserve. You would split your sides if you saw my pictures!

People always say "get them what you want, what you'd like to get, and you're home safe"...

...which is a load of CRAP! My family has been following that logic for years, and all I get is tasteless crap that they'd love to get for themselves, but I hate and wouldn't ordinarily touch with a ten foot pole.

Consequently: don't get your parents what you'd like to get yourself, or what you think they should have. Get them something they actually want. My guess is that a website/blog is NOT on the top of your their whish list.

P.S.: For those of you who whish to buy ME a gift, you (almost) can't go wrong with Thinkgeek D.S.

From Article: First out of the door is the Israeli employment agency, which will replace 550 out of 700 users with OpenOffice.

Man, that's amazing. I can think of a a few employees where I work that I'd like to replace with OO as well. I'm sure a couple could even be replaced with a very small shell script.

I'm guessing they have an overall distorted view of reality...

They would have long since committed suicide had they viewed themselves as they actually appear.

Whereas we might only see a bloated, elitist, social invalid, this guy probably views himself as being an "ub3rl33t d00d".

I'm guessing they have an overall distorted view of reality...

They would have long since committed suicide had they viewed themselves as they actually appear.

Whereas we might only see a bloated, elitist, social invalid, this guy probably views himself as being an "ub3rl33t d00d".

Doesn't Slashdot have an archiving system that helps pages stay alive forever ?

They just post a dupe of the story every couple weeks, thus maintaining the data forever...

j/k - it's Monday here and I haven't had my caffeine yet...

I've wondered about the Lian-Li aquarium PC case. It comes with five plastic regular fish, all shaped the same, and one plastic percula. Did they put in a percula just because of Disney/Pixar Finding Nemo?

I've wondered about the Lian-Li aquarium PC case. It comes with five plastic regular fish, all shaped the same, and one plastic percula. Did they put in a percula just because of Disney/Pixar Finding Nemo?

who needs it when we have portable local FM broadcasting add-ons (let's see, like here). I'd love to see a crowd with many people useing these, you could just browse from person to person listening to what they're listening to.

Has anyone ever used one of these things? does it work well?

I like how that software he mentions only deals with software. But there are also Hardware Keyloggers available, and quite easy/quick to install as well.

If the submitter thinks that these should never have been made, then why does thinkgeek sell them Here?

u need this tshirt

Damn. I was hoping to add one to my list for Santa/Thinkgeek

I was in Taiwan two years ago and bought about 10 similar systems (no LCD display) to give as Christmas presents. They were pretty cheap, and each came with about 80 NES games. The controller plugs right into the RCA inputs of the TV, and oddly, the controller is a light gun as well, so Duck Hunt and Wild Gunman work. The best games were Super Mario Bros. 2 and Tetris. They didn't include any memory hogs such as Zelda or Ultima III. Several of the games were unplayably bad, and I had never heard of many of them. The controllers got flakey after a while, but nothing you couldn't fix by opening it up and tweaking things.

They were a lot of fun. Certainly worth the $15 each that I paid for them.

You mean an Airzooka Air Gun? So that's SCO's tactic!

Seiko has a watch that runs based on your arm motions. Think Geek also sells a flashlight that recharges itself by jacking it off.

INCOMPETENCE:
When You Earnestly Believe You Can Compensate For A Lack Of Skill By Doubling Your Efforts, There's No End To What You Can't Do.

If I had some mod points, you'd get Insightful easy.

(start rant)

Fact is, people, most users are idiots. People run attachments and expect geeks to fix it, all the time blaming someone else for their stupidity.. Seriously, you will not believe the number of times I have been called over by a computer illiterate person, asking whether the Windows prompt boxes on their screens are real (it's really the web page ads that masquerade as prompt boxes). I wish there was some kind of mandatory license to use the Internet; if you know what the hell you're doing, fine, you get to use the internet with no restrictions. But if you fail, a Special Ops Geek Force will invade your home, and lockdown your computers (e.g. firewall, popup blockers, antivirus, etc, that all work automatically). And maybe we can have some fun educating some chicks about computers.

If I had some mod points, you'd get Insightful easy.

(start rant)

Fact is, people, most users are idiots. People run attachments and expect geeks to fix it, all the time blaming someone else for their stupidity.. Seriously, you will not believe the number of times I have been called over by a computer illiterate person, asking whether the Windows prompt boxes on their screens are real (it's really the web page ads that masquerade as prompt boxes). I wish there was some kind of mandatory license to use the Internet; if you know what the hell you're doing, fine, you get to use the internet with no restrictions. But if you fail, a Special Ops Geek Force will invade your home, and lockdown your computers (e.g. firewall, popup blockers, antivirus, etc, that all work automatically). And maybe we can have some fun educating some chicks about computers.

If I had some mod points, you'd get Insightful easy.

(start rant)

Fact is, people, most users are idiots. People run attachments and expect geeks to fix it, all the time blaming someone else for their stupidity.. Seriously, you will not believe the number of times I have been called over by a computer illiterate person, asking whether the Windows prompt boxes on their screens are real (it's really the web page ads that masquerade as prompt boxes). I wish there was some kind of mandatory license to use the Internet; if you know what the hell you're doing, fine, you get to use the internet with no restrictions. But if you fail, a Special Ops Geek Force will invade your home, and lockdown your computers (e.g. firewall, popup blockers, antivirus, etc, that all work automatically). And maybe we can have some fun educating some chicks about computers.

If I had some mod points, you'd get Insightful easy.

(start rant)

Fact is, people, most users are idiots. People run attachments and expect geeks to fix it, all the time blaming someone else for their stupidity.. Seriously, you will not believe the number of times I have been called over by a computer illiterate person, asking whether the Windows prompt boxes on their screens are real (it's really the web page ads that masquerade as prompt boxes). I wish there was some kind of mandatory license to use the Internet; if you know what the hell you're doing, fine, you get to use the internet with no restrictions. But if you fail, a Special Ops Geek Force will invade your home, and lockdown your computers (e.g. firewall, popup blockers, antivirus, etc, that all work automatically). And maybe we can have some fun educating some chicks about computers.

If I had some mod points, you'd get Insightful easy.

(start rant)

Fact is, people, most users are idiots. People run attachments and expect geeks to fix it, all the time blaming someone else for their stupidity.. Seriously, you will not believe the number of times I have been called over by a computer illiterate person, asking whether the Windows prompt boxes on their screens are real (it's really the web page ads that masquerade as prompt boxes). I wish there was some kind of mandatory license to use the Internet; if you know what the hell you're doing, fine, you get to use the internet with no restrictions. But if you fail, a Special Ops Geek Force will invade your home, and lockdown your computers (e.g. firewall, popup blockers, antivirus, etc, that all work automatically). And maybe we can have some fun educating some chicks about computers.

If I had some mod points, you'd get Insightful easy.

(start rant)

Fact is, people, most users are idiots. People run attachments and expect geeks to fix it, all the time blaming someone else for their stupidity.. Seriously, you will not believe the number of times I have been called over by a computer illiterate person, asking whether the Windows prompt boxes on their screens are real (it's really the web page ads that masquerade as prompt boxes). I wish there was some kind of mandatory license to use the Internet; if you know what the hell you're doing, fine, you get to use the internet with no restrictions. But if you fail, a Special Ops Geek Force will invade your home, and lockdown your computers (e.g. firewall, popup blockers, antivirus, etc, that all work automatically). And maybe we can have some fun educating some chicks about computers.

If I had some mod points, you'd get Insightful easy.

(start rant)

Fact is, people, most users are idiots. People run attachments and expect geeks to fix it, all the time blaming someone else for their stupidity.. Seriously, you will not believe the number of times I have been called over by a computer illiterate person, asking whether the Windows prompt boxes on their screens are real (it's really the web page ads that masquerade as prompt boxes). I wish there was some kind of mandatory license to use the Internet; if you know what the hell you're doing, fine, you get to use the internet with no restrictions. But if you fail, a Special Ops Geek Force will invade your home, and lockdown your computers (e.g. firewall, popup blockers, antivirus, etc, that all work automatically). And maybe we can have some fun educating some chicks about computers.

If I had some mod points, you'd get Insightful easy.

(start rant)

Fact is, people, most users are idiots. People run attachments and expect geeks to fix it, all the time blaming someone else for their stupidity.. Seriously, you will not believe the number of times I have been called over by a computer illiterate person, asking whether the Windows prompt boxes on their screens are real (it's really the web page ads that masquerade as prompt boxes). I wish there was some kind of mandatory license to use the Internet; if you know what the hell you're doing, fine, you get to use the internet with no restrictions. But if you fail, a Special Ops Geek Force will invade your home, and lockdown your computers (e.g. firewall, popup blockers, antivirus, etc, that all work automatically). And maybe we can have some fun educating some chicks about computers.

If I had some mod points, you'd get Insightful easy.

(start rant)

Fact is, people, most users are idiots. People run attachments and expect geeks to fix it, all the time blaming someone else for their stupidity.. Seriously, you will not believe the number of times I have been called over by a computer illiterate person, asking whether the Windows prompt boxes on their screens are real (it's really the web page ads that masquerade as prompt boxes). I wish there was some kind of mandatory license to use the Internet; if you know what the hell you're doing, fine, you get to use the internet with no restrictions. But if you fail, a Special Ops Geek Force will invade your home, and lockdown your computers (e.g. firewall, popup blockers, antivirus, etc, that all work automatically). And maybe we can have some fun educating some chicks about computers.

If I had some mod points, you'd get Insightful easy.

(start rant)

Fact is, people, most users are idiots. People run attachments and expect geeks to fix it, all the time blaming someone else for their stupidity.. Seriously, you will not believe the number of times I have been called over by a computer illiterate person, asking whether the Windows prompt boxes on their screens are real (it's really the web page ads that masquerade as prompt boxes). I wish there was some kind of mandatory license to use the Internet; if you know what the hell you're doing, fine, you get to use the internet with no restrictions. But if you fail, a Special Ops Geek Force will invade your home, and lockdown your computers (e.g. firewall, popup blockers, antivirus, etc, that all work automatically). And maybe we can have some fun educating some chicks about computers.

If I had some mod points, you'd get Insightful easy.

(start rant)

Fact is, people, most users are idiots. People run attachments and expect geeks to fix it, all the time blaming someone else for their stupidity.. Seriously, you will not believe the number of times I have been called over by a computer illiterate person, asking whether the Windows prompt boxes on their screens are real (it's really the web page ads that masquerade as prompt boxes). I wish there was some kind of mandatory license to use the Internet; if you know what the hell you're doing, fine, you get to use the internet with no restrictions. But if you fail, a Special Ops Geek Force will invade your home, and lockdown your computers (e.g. firewall, popup blockers, antivirus, etc, that all work automatically). And maybe we can have some fun educating some chicks about computers.

The Mr. Sparkle name likely came from an MS product manager who is playing with a Sparklez from Think Geek ... wind-up cubicle toy he was watching as it wobbled erratically around his desk as small sparks are produced as the wheel rotates.

He thought this is a perfect name for our next great product.

Let the battle begin !
BR> Tacoguy

In food. Specificly, these

This is such an awesome concept. I hope they didn't do too much R&D though.. seeing that the soundbug has been around for a while doing the same thing based off the same concept..
oh well..

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/5a15/

except it's only $27

with almost any flat surface, with this litte device, and it's significantly cheaper, at $26.99

SoundBug.

Ok, so you can't turn your head into a speaker, but you can with practically any smooth surface.

And for a lot less than $1500.

To solve the problem of heat in the cluster room, they just bought 5500 of this

Then I actually read (well, skimmed) the webpage. Quoth ESR:

Why from you?

Because I maintain the How To Become A Hacker document, A Brief History of Hackerdom, the Jargon File, and am more or less the hackers' resident historian. It's my job to think of these things.

Well, damn. That almost seems reasonable. Okay, buddy (I get to call you "buddy" cause you've made yourself a public figure). In this case, damn you, you seem to have a good idea and a reasonable reason why you should be proclaiming it thusly.

Therefore... count me in! When do the Life-Hacker iconized coffee mugs appear in ThinkGeek?

Money is much more appreciated than presents, even if they're expensive presents.

What you can do is give them money (say $1200), and offer them champagne, or even geek stuff @ thinkgeek. $300 makes nice presents, and $1200 money is always appreciated !

Don't want a logo?

I've got a logo for you!

Actually, I'd vote some sort of raccoon. Smart, great at getting around access controls, love to go dumpster-diving. Raccoons are hackers.

(For that matter, those monkies using sticks to fish out termites could be considered hackers as well, but I still think raccoons seem cooler.)

The caffeine molecule, a substance that permeates hacker culture.
It even symbolises some of the humour that hackers are known for.

The Hacker Element

I thought Hackers/Crackers were represented by "the hat" You can even buy one at thinkgeek

You all talk about a hacker nuking ssh and some lady browsing the web with FireBird. That's all small 'taters. If you really want to see Linux in a movie check this out. Oh yes.

ThinkGeek is your friend. Fans, power supplies.

ThinkGeek is your friend. Fans, power supplies.

While I'm not the kind of person that needs a silent PC, I know there are a lot of people that require a low noise polution level in their home or work environments. Several studies show that having computers perpetually running can cause people to become aggrivated often, due in part to the noise produced by loud fans or hard drives.

When I had my first computer, I remember every 2-3 minutes the fan would intermittantly become about 40db louder than it should be, warranting a swift kick (or 2,3,4,..) to the side or front panels of the case (and I'm not a violent man). So I can definitely sympathize with why some people find a quiet computing environment optimal.

Sorry, little walk through nostalgia lane. But that said, I do have a few recommendations for people that don't want to build their own wooden case just to limit noise output.

* Buy quiet fans * Buy quiet hard drives * Make sure things are mounted securely! * NEVER skimp out when buying a case

If you follow these very simple, unspecific guidelines, you will be well on your way to a quieter computer (at least one that doesn't require you to kick its ass at regular intervals)

I appologize if this didn't turn out coherent, I tried to proofread, but I'm a little out of it ~~

Try a Zalman silent CPU cooler. They cool very well with only a tiny, low RPM fan due to the immense surface area of the heatsink. I bet you can pick one up somewhere else for less money than Thinkgeek.

Gotta have one of these on gaming machine. People say you can use it for other stuff (graphics editing, or anything else that you could use a keyboard macro for).... I'll believe them. Actually had to use a keyboard the other day for BF1942.... that was tough. Think Geek Plug

capturing rain would be an interesting application, if problematic. the occurence of rain would most likely be insufficent for dependable energy generation. and a method to collect enough rain (usually fairly evenly spread over an area) into one location to filter through the aparatus would be tricky. creating these blocks in an array to cover a large area directly would certainly take quite a bit of energy, and would not be a realistic solution (given the ease at which these holes could be obstructed with just about any natural debris). this process nearly demands a controlled water source.

as for putting these blocks under, say, a fish tank - the water would slowly collect in a bucket below the tank (or on your floor). and you would have to refill the tank as it drained to continue power generation. so either you are drawing from the energy used to pressurize the water system (if you leave a tap on) or you use the human kinetic energy necessary to dump the contents of the bucket back into the tank to restart the process (or you could even run an electrical pump to pump the water directly back to the tank from the bucket - but that again would draw power).

so you either have a lossy system, or perpetual motion. (otherwise someone would have made power plants that pumping water to turn a watermill years ago)

if you don't mind lifting the bucket a few times a day, its possible it could generate enough energy to be worthwhile, but it's fairly unlikely to be widely accepted.

again, its most intriguing application would be for energy storage, as pressure is fairly easy to maintain once it is achieved (much more so than preserving the reactivity of chemical battery components).

an interesting possibility is 'shaking' such a water-battery to use human energy to 'recharge' it. of course, one could already use a magnet and a coil to manage this with faraday's principle (eg forever flashlight), so again, it's a matter of how efficient the process is.

again, just my opinion, but it's an effect more interesting for energy -storage- potential rather than direct generation. the controlled environment of a battery allows noncorrosive liquids to be used, and removes possible clogging debris, removing two of the primary problem spots right off. furthermore it is competing with the 30% efficiency of chemical batteries instead of the much higher efficiencies of carbon-based fuels or nuclear power.