Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
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Someone passed this post along to us, and since our Chinese is limited here in CrunchGear-land, I’m afraid we can’t vouch for it. The video contained may, in truth, provide the recipe for a lovely London broil for all we know, so take it with several healthy grains of salt. But at least the basic premise is amusing. It seems that HP in China received a number of complaints about their wares. And, in an effort to spread out the responsibility, someone decided to point out that a computer user’s environment can impact the performance of the machine. Since the local authorities had to come in and remove the 49 cats from our 350-foot studio apartment, the fan on our computer have been running much more effectively. So there is undoubtedly some truth to the environmental factors argument. But we never thought they’d blame cockroaches. Somewhere, a lazy comedian just made a joke about software bugs.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
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Last year, Omega released a special edition timepiece to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo astronauts voyage to the moon. In 1969, the men in the space capsule wore Omegas so the firm decided to recreate that bit of history with a contemporary product. But what if Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong hadn’t worn Omegas at all? What if they had worn copies? And Omega knew that the men weren’t checking their timepieces, but rather an off-brand in space all those years ago. Does the big historical release make sense? What if Porsche released a recreation of the famous convertible that James Dean perished in, but in reality, he had been killed driving a kit car? What if Paul Newman didn’t really wear a Rolex, but the firm released a tribute to a knockoff on the famous actor’s wrist? Guitar manufacturer Gibson is navigating similar waters with their decision to issue a recreation of a copy. The firm has released a number of celebrity signature models over the last couple of years. Some of the instruments have proven to be very successful, while others (like the Buckethead model ) have been a bit more questionable. One of the undeniably successful ventures was collaboration with former Guns n’ Roses axe slinger Slash that produced several interesting models ranging from the couple-a-hundred-buck Epiphone to an aged-replica instrument that was an exact duplicate of the guitarist’s own instrument (all the way down to the scuffs and cigarette burns) that ran about ten grand. Late last week, Gibson made a big splash by announcing the newest model, The Slash Appetite Les Paul . Branded as the “the axe that launched a thousand riffs,” the instrument is described as an exact recreation of the axe Slash wielded on 1988’s landmark Appetite for Destruction record, all the way down to the capacitors and the pots. Weird thing is, Slash didn’t play a Gibson Les Paul on that record. The comment gallery was all over the Gibson website when this news was released. As many others have pointed out, Slash in fact played a copy of a Les Paul on Appetite for Destruction . In Slash’s 2007 best-selling memoir (co-authored by Anthony Bozza), he writes, “It was made by the late Jim Foot, who owned Music Works in Redondo Beach. He made about fifty of those Les Paul replicas entirely by hand with no detail overlooked” (page 172). In other sources, a luthier named Chris Derrig is credited with creating the instrument. Regardless, it wasn’t Gibson. All of this raises interesting questions about the psychology of collectors and the purchasing influence of a iconic association. True Slash fans know that his LP wasn’t a Gibson, so they’re not going to be fooled. They’ll judge the new Appetite model on it’s own merits. Or, they know it’s kind of a weird duck in the lineage perspective, but it’s got their beloved tone and they don’t care about anything else. And what of the more general fans? It’s hard to accuse Gibson of trying to dupe consumers because surely if you’re going to plop down the $4,728 MSRP on the Appetite model, aren’t you going to do a little homework first? And if mom and dad are rich enough to spend 5k simply because Junior likes Slash’s top hat, then there’s not much hope for them. And then when you start thinking about the fact that the Les Paul is, by very definition, a celebrity signature guitar and that now you’ve got signature versions of copied signature version and so forth, then your head might just explode. It all gets very meta.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
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Just hilarious. Apparently the U.S. intelligence community thought Wikileaks so odious that it labeled it a “potential force protection, counterintelligence, operational security (OPSEC), and information security (INFOSEC) threat to the US Army.” Good ol’ Wikileaks, bringing down the U.S. government . You can read the report [PDF!], and I do believe this qualifies as “irony,” on Wikileaks. You really only need to read the first paragraph to understand what’s going on. So, here you go! Wikileaks.org, a publicly accessible Internet Web site, represents a potential force protection, counterintelligence, operational security (OPSEC), and information security (INFOSEC) threat to the US Army. The intentional or unintentional leaking and posting of US Army sensitive or classified information to Wikileaks.org could result in increased threats to DoD personnel, equipment, facilities, or installations. The leakage of sensitive and classified DoD information also calls attention to the insider threat, when a person or persons motivated by a particular cause or issue wittingly provides information to domestic or foreign personnel or organizations to be published by the news media or on the Internet. Such information could be of value to foreign intelligence and security services (FISS), foreign military forces, foreign insurgents, and foreign terrorist groups for collecting information or for planning attacks against US force, both within the United States and abroad. Never let it be said that CrunchGear is above copy-pasting a paragraph so you don’t have to download an icky PDF. Now, I don’t know how familiar y’all are with Wikileaks, but it’s probably one of the more important Web sites on the Internet—much more so than fun, silly things like FourSquare or Chatroulette. It’s a centralizied location where people can leak information that’s of value to the public. The U.S. military has been embarrassed by Wikileaks leaks in the past, including the publication of details about the battle of Fallujah and the possible violation of the Chemical Warfare Convention Treaty, also in Iraq. Lots of bad stuff about Iraq, it seems. The intelligence community tried—all of this went down about two years ago—to target Wikileaks but creating a calculated attack on the site’s credibility. Clearly it didn’t work~!
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
Roland just started shipping the AC-33 Acoustic Chorus Guitar Amplifier. This cool gadget is world’s first battery powered amp built specifically for acoustic guitar. With a 30-watt amp and 5 inch speakers, you’re not going to rock Knebworth with this thing. But if you’re trying to impress the college girls at the local coffee house with your re-interpretation of “Your Body is a Wonderland” or if you’re staking out a corner in the local subway station, then this baby is for you. It uses eight AAA batteries if you’re not plugged into the wall, weighs only 10 pounds, and carries a street price of $558.50. At that price, you’ll have to accumulate a fair number dollar bills dropped into your guitar case, but hey, can you really put a price on coffeeshop immortality?
Posted by 010081
Tech
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
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Let me catch you up. We received a tip back on Monday indicating that the Adamo XPS had disappeared from Dell.com. This of course caught our attention as the super-thin Dell was just announced back in late October and only available for purchase since December. We of course checked it out and found that the XPS model wasn’t found on the Adamo microsite (www.AdamoByDell.Com), which just so happens to be the first site listed on Google for that model. The Adamo XPS also wasn’t listed alongside the other Adamo models or on Dell.com’s master notebook list that also includes Alienware models. The only way you can find it on Dell.com is if you use the search tool and even then the purchase link on the product page is dead . We then reached out to our Dell contacts, but they didn’t respond in a timely manner. I then asked two separate Dell chat agents who both clearly stated that the Adamo XPS was discontinued. Satisfied with the conclusion that the XPS was in fact gone, I ran the post not thinking anything of it. It was just another news story to me. But not to dell apparently. Several other sites ran similar stories on Monday except they simply asked the question whether or not the Adamo XPS was discontinued rather than stating my conclusion that it was dead. Throughout the day, these stories were updated, quoting an official dell spokesmen that stated that the model was in fact still around and not discontinued. Dell finally emailed us and commented on our story nearly six hours later. The comment : Hi Mark. I saw your article and thought I’d drop a quick comment to clarify the issue. The first point I’d like to make is that the Adamo XPS is still available in the U.S. at select Best Buy Stores and on bestbuy.com, still starting at $1,999.00. It has not been “discontinued” as such, but was meant to be a proof point to Dell’s design and engineer capabilities. Because of this, it was similar to a “limited edition”, and most of the original supply has since been accounted for. Those who want one can still get it from the aforementioned sources. Also of note: the original Adamo is still available on adamobydell.com with a starting price point of $999. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions 
JohnBatDell First, my name is Matt, not Mark. But that comment just confirmed my post. It states that most of the Adamo XPS’s limited supply have nearly been exhausted and the model is currently only available from Best Buy. Right? That’s what it says. Ok, so maybe calling the Adamo XPS discontinued is a wrong choice of words, because apparently it was only intended to be a limited edition model anyway. But it’s a fact that the model has reached the end of its life and therefore deserves the R.I.P sentiment I gave it in the post’s picture. This brings us to today as Gizmodo finally ran its Adamo XPS R.I.P. post . (they later pulled it from the front page) Dell quickly sent us an email asking when were we going to update our post because apparently we got it all wrong and Gizmodo ousted us as their source — even though they didn’t in the post, but I still love Rosa. Dell’s request didn’t sit very well with me so I pulled out my Sherlock Holmes pipe and went to work reconfirming my original post. Once again I confirmed that the Adamo XPS is no longer on Dell.com. It’s still not listed as a current model or available to purchase. The only way you can pull up the model is still by searching for it. AdamoByDell.com , Adamo models , master list . Then John Biggs and I both contacted Dell Chat Support and were told that the model was “discontinued” and “reached its end of life.” Check the gallery below for transcripts. Fair enough, Dell told us that Best Buy still had it online and in stores so I checked that out, too. The only thing is we can’t find it in any store besides one in New Jersey. It’s not at any location in Detroit, Flint, San Francisco, SoCal, Denver, Phoenix, Philidelphia, Boston, Minneapolis, upstate New York, or New York City proving that it’s in very limited supply. Once again, check the pics below. I then called my local Best Buy location where I was told that yes, I could still order it, but I better hurry because it was discontinued. What it seems we have here is a company trying to save face. You see, the Adamo XPS only hit retail shelves back in December and people just started to get their hands on the product. Laptop Magazine posted their review of it the same day I wrote its obituary. It could be true that the Adamo XPS was just a limited-time product, but it was never marketed as such. Even if it was a Halo project of sorts, why remove nearly every instance from Dell.com and the Adamo microsite? It’s an amazing piece of modern technology that Dell should display for the whole world to see — even if it’s at the end of its intended life. It’s true that you can still buy the Adamo XPS brand new in the box from a few retailers. It’s just like how you can still buy 2009 model year cars even though they are really discontinued. Except you don’t get a discount on the Adamo XPS.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
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It finally happened. A Muslim woman in Manchester refused to submit to a full-body airport body scanner and was thus barred from boarding her flight. She cited her Muslim faith, which might have been expected , as to why she refused to submit to the scan. I don’t trust the Internet to react to this news with any aplomb whatsoever. The woman, who was to fly to Pakistan, was randomly selected at the Manchester airport to be scanned. Another woman, her travel buddy, also refused to submit to the body scan, but because of medical reasons. In the UK, passengers who refuse to submit to body scans once they’ve been selected for one are barred from boarding said flight. There’s no Plan B—you can’t say, “I don’t want to be scanned, but I’ll let you pad me down or whatever.” Scan or go home. What are you more comfortable with, people refusing to be scanned because of religious reasons or because of health reasons? What’s also worth mentioning is that the two women were barred from boarding a flight two weeks ago over security concerns. That probably means that they’re being “randomly selected” for scans is total bunk. The illusion of security continues, I suppose.