Monthly Archives: January 2010

Geek Pool: Belgium's Nemo 33

by Jayvee Fernandez
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Geek Pool: Belgium's Nemo 33

This is the deepest indoor pool in the world. The Nemo 33 was constructed back in 2004 and if you’re from Belgium, you’ve probably enjoyed 30 degrees Celsius of spa water (it’s non-chlorinated!) all year round. At over 33 meters deep (that’s about a little bit more than a hundred feet) the pool caters to the public who want to get away from the winter cold and to divers and would-be divers who are taking their certification courses. At over a hundred feet deep, you can actually take your open water and advanced open water courses here as the pool will suffice for a deep dive. Within the pool are Read more »

Who Needs More USB Ports?

by Noemi Twigg
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Who Needs More USB Ports?

I sometimes do, especially when I am using my trusty old MSI Wind. It has three USB ports, but there are times (not very often) when I find myself wishing I had an extra port or two. Never – not even in my frustrated moments – have I found myself needing or wanting 80 USB ports, though! I don’t think that I know anyone – not even the geekiest and most gadget crazy person I know – who would need 80 USB ports at a single time, do you? I guess the people at Thanko might have bought one gadget too many. They’re the ones promoting this board with 80 Read more »

Complete X-Com series for only USD $2.00

by Jayvee Fernandez
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Complete X-Com series for only USD $2.00

I remember the first time I hacked into X-Com’s hex codes. I was in middle school and it was right about that time when Norton DOS came out. Apart from the colorful menus and new command lines, it came with a Norton code editor and it was then I discovered the joys of manipulating the in-game weapon values. I found a way to edit the weapon templates so after saving a copy of the original file I’d have a little fun with the values. For instance, the stun rod was an instant kill. I changed the grenades and rockets to armor piercing, which became really hilarious to kill people by Read more »

PLEN Desktop Hobby Robot

by Darice de Cuba
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PLEN Desktop Hobby Robot

Meet PLEN, an android-robot created by Akazawa Japan. PLEN can walk, dance, skate and more. This cute little robot only 23 cm tall can be controlled through Bluetooth by your Android smartphone or PC. PLEN comes with 20 pre-programmed motions, it also comes with an Android app to program your own motions for it. There are only 50 units fabricated of PLEN, each costing 2999 dollars. So this is a very expensive limited edition android-robot. The PLEN is sold as an assembly kit, you’ll only need a cross point screw driver and some time and patience to get it assembled and going. This robot looks like a true collectors item Read more »

Bad Company 2's Open Beta impressions: Squad Respawns

by Jayvee Fernandez
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Bad Company 2's Open Beta impressions: Squad Respawns

It definitely isn’t a Modern Warfare 2 killer as I thought. As a fan of the Battlefield series from way back, Bad Company 2 brings back the same tactical excitement with the addition of vulgarity and adrenaline. So the short of it is if you’re wanting that fast, arcade action from shooters, Modern Warfare 2 is the Diablo II “quick in, quick out” of this genre. But if you’re looking for a deeper experience where “there is no I in team” and squad based tactics matter, Bad Company 2 should not be ignored. The depth of BC2 lies primarily with the fact that you can opt to respawn within your Read more »

State of the Multiverse 57

by Darren Burr
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Are the Martians coming?

Even more enticing was the vision of the War Of The Worlds type scenario, with giant tripods walking through the ruins of New York. Only these tripods look more like something that would come out of the Fault. Maybe my hopes for the Realm Of Kings storyline reaching earth will come true after all. Does this one panel make up for a rather lacklustre series? No, but it does whet my appetite for what comes next. Read more »

Yet another Excel-based Battleship, but now with collaborative features!

by Jayvee Fernandez
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Yet another Excel-based Battleship, but now with collaborative features!

If you’re an Excel geek you should have been aware of the many Battleship modifications for spreadsheets since Excel ’07. So while I was hanging out with some buddies from Microsoft, one of the tech specialists showed me yet another demo of Battleship (download it from my Skydrive account). Technically speaking you can play with any Excel file on Office Web apps as long as you have MS Office 2010 installed. So in this case, you have two “boards,” one for placing your ships and another for your targeting radar. Essentially, it’s the same for player two, except that his targeting radar are your ship placements and so on. This Read more »

Give Apple and the iPad a break.

by Darice de Cuba
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Give Apple and the iPad a break.

Yesterday for 45 minutes the internet went silent while “everyone” watched Steve Jobs present the iPad. I must say I was awed by it but then I didn’t spend months mulling over what Apple will be coming up with and setting my expectations higher and higher with each rumor. I did know what I don’t like about current products such as netbooks, the Kindle, the Nook and the also soon to be released HP Slate. A few highlights of the iPad: iPhone apps work on it. Full screen mode 10 hours of battery life Apple’s own processor; 1GHz Apple A4 When the presentation was done my Twitter stream sprang back Read more »

WoWeekly: Remember to Keep Your Accounts Secure!

by Lia
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WoWeekly: Remember to Keep Your Accounts Secure!

One of my guild mates got hacked a couple of days ago. Unfortunately for us, she was one of the officers of our guild. Our guild bank ended up getting hijacked. The hacker was able to steal all our pots, flasks and food buff that we have been saving for months. And then we were left with a measly 20k gold. I’m not sure how much gold we had originally but I definitely think we had more than that in our guild bank. My guild mate on the hand had most, if not all of her toons (alts included) stripped down to the bone! And to think she was one Read more »