Uh, does that gin bit at the beginning look odd to anyone else? Surely "the critical technology, for the early phase of the industrial revolution" was the *cotton gin*, not booze.

The Second Life aspect of this is largely irrelevant. This is just video streaming to an old computer. Whenever you need a bridging computer that does most of the heavy lifting you really haven't proven much.

Now, if someone took a C64 with an Ethernet cartridge and connected it directly to Second Life giving you the ability to text chat and teleport, *that* would be something.

Heck, if Second Life *itself* released 2D and textmode clients for old or limited hardware, *that* would be cool. Second Life on my Pocket PC or Nokia Series 60 mobile phone would rock.

You could probably do quite well with something the size of two or four AAAs. Particularly if there was a way to use two or four AAAs if you had to (like the battery 'cage' that the old Newton Messagepads used).

@eclectro I think you mean "squib".

And, frankly, if the police can pull this off they deserve to get a look inside the PC. I'd be surprised if the power cable stayed in both the wall/board AND the PC with all this jerking around.

Also, whose power cables are that easy to get to and untangle?

Anyone else find that their PC reboots a few seconds after clicking the "Sync" button?

@eh I put on my robe and wizard hat...

Uh, yeah. As an Australian I can say that I've never even seen, certainly not eaten, anything that looks like that. And we call them chips.

I loath those stupid trolley locks so much that I started a Facebook group. If anyone wants to sign up:

"I hate those stupid coin-operated shopping trolley locks"
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8719389708

This is why I like Twitter. You can post stuff via a web interface, an instant message or SMS. And thus you can post from pretty much anything.

And while microblogging is probably a bit small for any commercial blogging project, it's perfect for the typical personal ego stroke.

I could draw a diagram just as complicated explaining how my microblogging is piped around using RSS feeds and Twitter.

In fact, that sounds like a fun project for today.

At least 95% of the coupons I know about say something like "Not valid with any other offer, discount applies to full price only."

Here in Australia, business really don't understand coupons and are deathly afraid of anyone stacking discounts.

The problem is not with Ford. The problem is with Cafe Press letting Ford pull this crap. The club should just shop around for a different place to sell ALL their stuff.

A friend of mine is the Lintilla referenced in the story. (The one point in unarmed was a mis-click on a rabbit, that survived, and the dagger skill is from the stun attack, which I don't think he does anymore.) He's been quite active in trying to find ways to enjoy WoW that aren't on the rails that Blizzard wants you to stay on. I believe another of his characters collected heads (which is much harder to do now that dropping quests destroys quest items). He's also got a character that collects mounts. (That spectral tiger from the trading card game is expensive...)

I collect pets, but that's not particularly interesting. I also have alt-itis, like many in my main guild.

As someone who'll (*checks weather*) probably be riding to work on an electric scooter today, I have to say that no matter how cool it is, how light it is, how small it folds up, if it doesn't have pedals then you're going to be worrying about its charge all the damn time.

When my scooter dies (and it is just a cheap toy) I'm going to be getting an electric trike with decent carrying capacity and pedals.

I'm on a 3072x768 triplehead system at the moment, and the curve is definitely a good idea. I turn my two side monitors in a bit for comfort, as do most triple-head users.

If I didn't already have long term plans for a high-def projector-based home cinema system that I'll be plugging a PC into I could definitely see me sniffing around this monitor.

Funny. Since High Def started to make it to market I've never read so many books.

Next up, phrenology.

Standby power is a major problem. (See the One Watt Initiative.) It's not just chargers, but anything with a transformer.

Personally, I recently purchased a "Smart Power Strip. (Here's an old US model.) I got the "Click 6-way socket strip with overload protection and master-slave function" (cpb6ms), which is apparently not on the Internet anywhere. Basically, it monitors the master socket and when the power draw drops below 30W (for my model) it switches off all the slave sockets, ie; my monitors, speakers, iPod charger, etc.

As for my other chargers, I use a strip with switches for all the sockets.

But if you're coming up with a standard for charging small electronic devices, surely something based off USB would be the ideal solution. Did you know that you can get power out of a powered USB hub without having to plug it into a PC? Powered USB hubs should provide an extra port or two that's power-only, no data, so you can charge stuff via USB without it trying to connect to the PC.

And as a final note, why can't you buy computers without the power cables? I mean, who hasn't got a whole pile of those IEC leads kicking around? A network cable would be more useful than yet another power lead. Here in Australia they often come with TWO leads; a useless US one that you have to throw away and the Australian one added as an afterthought.

nthing #19. I bought a couple of packs of the USBcell batteries and they're great. They're not exactly cheap though.

I've just seen these little model fetuses (feti?) on the documentary "Jesus Camp", sans weapon, being used in a totally non-ironic (and more than slightly disturbing) way. I therefore did not assume satire. Thank god they are, so to speak.

I bet it's made in China.

That was so thoroughly appalling I don't know where to begin.

The voice acting, the lip sync, the dialogue in general, the mindless repetitiveness of the environment, the roaming critter bumping the player in the middle of the conversation, the conquest photo, the fact that the cheap whore will do it all for a single pelt.

And the main character is sterile?

I found something similar at a local Toys Rus back in June.

It's not going to fry MY car's microprocessor, it doesn't have one. However, if it can "overload wires" and stall the engine I'm going to crash because I'll lose my brakes.

Yeah, everything I've seen on these alternative clothes washing devices indicate that they're no better than just using water. I think they only sell because people don't know how well water alone washes stuff.

I tried to start up a small business supplying discount games to my local gaming community. The two major Australia games wholesalers I cared about (the two wholesalers for Looney Labs) simply refused to sell to me because I didn't have one of their acceptable business models. It wasn't about minimum order size or annual turnover, it was purely about propping up brick and mortar shops.

One of them at least told me this up front. The other strung me along for two months before finally telling me they wouldn't be shipping my initial order.

You should be aware that you should never have the power cable coiled for high power draw devices. Frankly, if someone used the example on the right with a heater turned up to full it could cause a fire.

I thought all Operation games already did that. Maybe the one I played as a kid was faulty...

Private comment, do not read.

I can't believe they took what must have been the worst mask/makeup of the season and turned it into a product.

If they use the LS-240 FD32MB Superdrive's 32MB format for 1.44MB floppies then they wouldn't even have to do anything special with the music.

http://www.chguy.net/news/feb01/fd32mb.html

Jeez Joel, WTF is wrong with you? I come to the comments section to see what other interesting ideas people may have about adding a touch of reality to models and I find you having a spat with a reader. Grow up.

Isn't this a good thing? Rather than pervert the law, he actually intended to add value to his IP to encourage repurchase. This sort of innovation is what we would have gotten if copyrights weren't effectively forever.