Did you know that like many other interesting scientific discoveries, the first LED was discovered by accident? The following documentary will give a brief tour through the world of the light-emitting diode. Learn who invented it, how to use it, and how to make your own.
[Via Make]
Being an IT guy, it stands to reason that I consider the IT crowd as my favorite sitcom of all time! So for those of you, just like me, who can’t get enough of the show (I must have watched the previous 2 seasons at least 3 times), you’ll be glad to hear that season three has started last Friday.
Although Reynholm jumped out of a high window in the last series, his playboy son Douglas (Matt Berry) shows every sign of carrying on the family name (plundering the pension fund, putting flakes of gold in the drinking water, etc) and more or less takes over tonight’s very funny opening episode. That leaves our IT-department trio of geeky Moss, lazy Roy and uptight Jen slightly overshadowed. But the sweet scene where Moss and Roy try some role-play to help Moss deal with park bullies just about makes up for it.
–The IT Crowd (Official site)
–Watch season 3 episode #1 online (UK Only – Or use a UK-based proxy)
[Via RadioTimes]
In the following 28-minute video presentation, Charles Elachi shares stories from NASA’s legendary Jet Propulsion Lab — including tales and videos from the Mars Rover project.
By Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
Forty-five years ago today, An Unearthly Child aired on BBC, marking the beginning of an epic science fiction journey and a pop culture legend. It’s a little crazy to think that Doctor Who is still going strong after all these years (thanks to being resurrected by RTD in 2005). In any case, I thought it deserved a passing mention!
The Underwire dug up this fantastic fan tribute on YouTube, created by Babelcolour. Eight minutes, forty-five years, and 700something episodes. If you’re a fan, you’ll definitely get a kick out of this:
By Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
In a fit of boredom I decided to try out a bunch of iPhone apps yesterday, and have decided that Ocarina is a keeper. This is one of those concepts that really makes me wonder what the developer was thinking: (1) let’s turn the iPhone into a wind instrument by blowing into the microphone, and (2) hey, wouldn’t it be cool if it were an ocarina like in Zelda? I think that the combination of those two things make it officially the geekiest musical instrument ever. It’s a phone dressed up as an instrument from a video game. (Of course, the ocarina did not come to be with the N64, but the iPhone version even features a “Zeldarian” scale mode.) Here’s how it works:
Of course, after playing with it for twenty minutes, I sound nothing like that. It’s just like any other musical instrument, I guess–it requires practice. You should have heard me playing the oboe when I first picked it up in the sixth grade. It sounded like I was strangling a duck.
One of the coolest things about the Ocarina, however, is that it’s not just something to practice alone and then whip out to impress your friends–there’s a community component, too. The website has forums where Ocarina enthusiasts post sheet music for how to play different songs. Even better, there’s a “World” mode on the Ocarina where you can listen to someone else anywhere in the world playing; there’s a neat rendering of a globe that spins, and it displays the username of the person playing and a pinpoint of where they are. Last night I listened to someone in southern China trying out a pretty convincing rendition of the Star Wars theme.
Scheduled to be released in movie theaters on February 6th 2009 (it was pushed back many times, so who knows if this is the final release date?), Fanboys promises to be one of the most geek-acclaimed comedy of the decade. Check it out and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
[Via Neatorama]
By Jimmy Rogers
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
That’s right – yet another upgrade to the mighty JesusPhone. Why do we report on this stuff? Because people want to know, that’s why!
iPhone users received an email today telling them to upgrade to firmware version 2.2. It’s been a little while since a major upgrade was made, so not only will the new features be of immediate interest, but so will the enhancements to performance and general usability. With the previous iteration of the firmware I had a lot of problems syncing and the device crashed much more often (though the latter may be the result of poor App design).
By Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
Apparently Guitar Praise is supposed to be a big seller this holiday season. The idea makes sense in theory–basically a port of Guitar Hero with all of the music replaced with Christian rock for those who have issues with secular music–but it could have been executed so much better if it were an official Guitar Hero product, like the Aerosmith version (or for example, how Karaoke Revolution had a country music version). Instead it just comes off as a lame rip-off. Check out the commercial:
The voice-over sounds like your dorky dad reading a script that he thinks is “how all the kids are talking these days.” “You can move around the room as you rock!” “Shred those rifts!” “Soon you’ll be rockin’ with the best of them while conveying that positive Christian message!”
It just looks like an inferior product, from having to be played on a computer to the lack of character graphics. And that has nothing to do with the music… I was actually a big fan of the Newsboys back in junior high (kind of surprised they’re still around, actually!). Still, I guess if you’re a kid and your parents won’t let you play videogames because they’re all terrible influences on you, and this is the best you’re going to get, then it’s not bad.
Of course, this whole thing just makes me think of other Christian versions of games… like this amazing rip-off of Wolfenstein 3D. SUPER NOAH’S ARK 3D. Because shooting zombies and Nazis is evil, but plugging goats with a slingshot is wholesome (and apparently, educational).
Am I the only one that thinks that this is absolutely awesome? This show took place last June during the Star Wars Weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Be sure to watch it till the end, unless you don’t mind missing Lord Vader’s awesome performance.
By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
Google has introduced a very interesting new feature to their search index – Digg-style voting buttons, where you can vote websites up and down using your Google account.
This is something which apparently has been tested for a long time by Google and which has now been released for prime time. Once you make your search for something, you can show your approval or disapproval by clicking the up or down arrow and your name will appear underneath the result. If you give something a thumb up, it will bring the item on top of the search results for the keyword you just typed in.
According to the official Google blog, this will have no effect whatsoever on actual search ranking. The feature is only there to tweak what is displayed on your own search result pages.
Your thoughts?