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Stuff that's awesome. | |
Posted Mar 19, 2008 - 11:01:50
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 After last week's angst, I thought that it was due time to add some levity to this blog. Therefore, I have decided to do a quick write up of things that I've run across that are, for lack of a better word, awesome.
We'll start with the least awesome item, and that's just because it's a gun. Some guys thought it was a good idea to build a transforming sub machine gun which should make it significantly more difficult for people walking around with larger flashlights at night from avoiding getting shot by the cops. On the other hand, I keep seeing "MEGATRON" and think "Transforming Guns are neat!" Ah, when the realistic and gadget loving sides of my brain go to war, nobody wins.
But the thing is sort of awesome.
For something less... morally conflicting... I move onto one of the sweetest casemods I've seen in a long time. A guy made what would best be called a Mac Mini Pro. He took a Mac Mini and case modded it to look like the Mac Pro line. It's pretty damned sweet. The guy also dropped in a slightly faster processor and upgraded the hard drive too. Seriously, this is something no geek would mind having on his desk.
On a totally unrelated note, the Military's BigDog Robot is pretty sweet. The thing is a quadrupedal robot that can make it over almost any terrain. You can kick it, give it mountains, and pretty much throw anything at it... and the thing keeps moving forward. It can carry 300 lbs too, so it's pretty dang handy. It's also a bit terrifying looking, which will probably help in the battlefield.
But who cares about real military robots when you could have a fictional military robot? Have you ever wanted to have a full size Cylon Centurion in your house? I know I always have. Well, now's your chance! Sure, it's $7900, but it's worth every penny in my mind. Now if they only made a version that moved and, y'know, shot at your neighbors with paintballs or something.
That would be really sweet.
What could be more awesome than a full size Cylon? Well, to that I respond a product that combines my love of Nerf weaponry and my love of videogames. Nerf has made a combination Nerf Gun/Wii Blaster. You plug in either a Wiimote to use it with your Wii, or the Nerf cartridge to use it as a Nerf gun. It's pretty damn bad ass.
And now for the best, most awesome thing ever. Have you ever thought "Gee, I love Guitar Hero and I love the Commodore 64. I wish I could put those two things together." Well guess what? Someone much more awesome than you already has. That's right Shred64 is a Guitar Hero clone for the Commodore 64. The man who programmed this is officially my hero. He also built an adapter to use the PS2 controller with the game so you don't have to fake it with a keyboard. You have to admire the guy who came up with the idea -- the C64 has an impressive Midi chip, so the songs don't sound terrible either.
Just, y'know, like Midi songs.
So, that's the stuff that's awesome. I'm driving down to Milwaukee with Crysta on Thursday. We'll be in town until Monday, so if anyone wants to get ahold of me to do something, just give me a call.
- Traegorn
*Drools* Ooooooooohhhhh, Commodore 64 guitar goodness. That is quite possibly the most awesome thing I've seen in ages. It should have been so obvious to backport music games to old systems, the technology is definitely within their capabilities. After all, even the wii controller is just a higher-sensitivity version of the same technology that controlled the power glove and dance dance pads are just the old NES running pad rehashed. I want Samba for Atari!!!!
On another note, the dog thing would be fabulous if it didn't sound like a weed whacker when untethered. If they can solve that one then it will be terrifying.
Yar.
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