Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Friday, March 5th, 2010
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If you guys weren’t terrified of North Korea by now, here’s more evidence that the country is absolutely nuts: they’ve developed their own Linux distribution! It’s called Red Star OS , and we can thank a Russian student for unearthing it for us. I now fully expect to see knee-jerk reactions like, “Down with Linux!” even though that makes no sense at all. The distro costs $5, and the included readme file contains kind words from Kim Jong Il, who says that it’s important that the DPRK have an operating system that gels with its values. Install time takes about 15 minutes, and there’s one language available: Korean. Judging by the screenshots, it doesn’t look too crazy at all; it’s your standard Linux distro. (If I were to go Linux full-time, I’d probably go with Linux Mint, merely because it looks neat.) My concern is that people who don’t really understand tech too well will see that North Korea has this, and will automatically assume that Linux is Evil. That’s clearly not true. The fact is, it’s fairly easy to whip up your own Linux distro these days. I’d be surprised if the neighborhood geek doesn’t have his own distro at this point. Now all we need is for the ISO to be released so we can all give it a shot. via Network World
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
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It’s not the first device of its kind, but it’s pretty cheap and compact: Japan-based Novac announced [JP] the NV-CR001U today, a player for both LPs and cassettes that helps to digitize music stored on those media (almost) hassle-free. All you need to do is to connect the device to your Windows XP/Vista/7 machine via USB 1.1 or 2.0, run a special piece of software and choose which cassette or LP you want to copy over to your PC. The music will be stored as MP3, WAV or WMA files with bit rates of 32/64/128/192 or 320kbps. Sized at just 324 x 274 x 125mm, the NV-CR001U weighs 2.5kg. Novac is planning to sell the device in Japan starting Friday (price: $170). It’s Japan-only at this point, but you can ask import/export specialists like the Japan Trend Shop or Geek Stuff 4 U to ship one to your country.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Monday, March 1st, 2010
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Kobe Bryant: huge nerd . Granted, he’s probably the best basketball player since Michael Jordan—LeBron would really benefit from winning a ring or two—but if you’re traveling the country armed with a fully portable Xbox 360 and customized PSP, then yeah, you’re a huge nerd. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course. You’ll recall that the NBA All-Star weekend was a few weeks ago, and the players all got a chance to mingle in various video game lounges. ESPN was there, and discovered that, yeah, a lot of these guys are complete gamers. The Chicago Bulls’ Taj Gibson, for example, listed Final Fantasy as one of his favorite video game series. Now, if Final Fantasy doesn’t scream “huge gamer!” then I don’t know what would. On the hardware front, you’ll find that Sony gave Chris Paul a PSP emblazoned with his CP3 logo, as seen here. 2K Sports even gave Kobe a briefcase with a built-in Xbox 360. When on the road, he and the guys spend the time playing a little NBA 2K 10 . I haven’t played a 2K Sports game since the original NFL 2K and NBA 2K for the DreamCast—are they any good? So if you think about it, we’re halfway to being multi-millionaire NBA players. All we need is to be a good nine inches taller and actually posses skills. via Destructoid
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
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I don’t know how to begin this, so I’ll get right to it: A Japanese company called K’s Japan is offering an “electric guitar” [JP] that’s just made to get destroyed. And, after you smashed the thing to bits, you can recycle it. So what we have here is a “destroyable price and recyclable system” (K’s Japan’s official tag line), which is ideal for guitarists who want to look cool without sacrificing their real instrument. The eco-friendly guitar, aptly named SMASH, is available in either black or white (see below). When you smash the guitar, you’ll be able to hear a special “devastating” sound coming from it. K’s Japan says every single part of the instrument, which weighs 2.5kg, is recyclable. Send the parts back to the company, and it will reassemble them to create a new guitar that can be given to charity. You need to be over 18 to buy the SMASH. It’s already available in Japan where it costs $60. Contact import/export specialists like the Japan Trend Shop or Rinkya if you’re interested in getting one but live outside this country. Via Mycom Journal [JP] Hat tip to Akky Akimoto [JP]!
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
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Computer equipment maker Buffalo is pretty bullish about USB 3.0 . The company today announced a total of five new USB 3.0 HDDs for the Japanese market, namely two “compact models” (81×130×16mm) and three bigger (45×175×156mm) devices [JP]. The HD-PEU3-BK (pictured above), the compact type, will be available in a version that holds 500 GB (price: $200) and another one with 640GB ($250). Buffalo also presented three more conventional HDDs with 1TB ($230), 1.5TB ($300) and 2GB ($420), respectively (pictured below). Just like the compact models, these drives from the HD-HXU3 series are compatible with Windows XP/7/Vista and Mac OSX 10.4. All of these devices are backwards compatible to USB 2.0. Buffalo says they will start selling all five new HDDs in Japan at the beginning of next month. The company does sell hardware outside Japan, too, so you can expect the devies to go on sale outside this country some day as well.