An awesome new cake by Chef JB Cada and Stephanie Santos from The Regali Kitchen.
“I walk across the dreaming sands under the pale moon: through the dreams of countries and cities, past dreams of places long gone and times beyond recall.” -Dream, in Brief Lives.
[Source: The Regali Kitchen]
Watch maker extraordinaire Romain Jerome never ceases to amaze me with its original and geeky watch designs. They’ve released plenty of geektastic designs in the past, and as usual, the company’s latest Pac-Man-themed design does not dissapoint. Check it out:
Get caught up in the “PAC-MANIA” and come to discover the four versions of the ultimate geek chic timepiece exclusively at colette, in Paris, from September 3 to 8. The pixelated characters will be on show at all RJ-Romain Jerome points of sale from September 10. YOU’LL EAT IT UP!
[Romain Jerome | Via HC]
A struggling inventor who originally made childrens technology products has turned his fortunes around after striking a deal with rock band Coldplay. Jason Regler is celebrating an order for two million wristbands that glow in time with music.
Regler originally built up his business in the mid 2000s but suffered a major setback when a major client failed to pay for a year’s worth of work. It was while dealing with this that he watched Coldplay perform at the 2005 Glastonbury Festival and the idea for glowing wristbands in time struck him as the band sang the line “lights will guide you home.”
A few years later Regler won tickets to a charity performance by the band that included a meet and greet session. He and his young son missed the gig thanks to heavy snow, but were later invited to meet the band during a rehearsal. While arranging the date he mentioned the idea to the band’s manager Phil Harvey and some time later Harvey got back in touch and said the band were interested in placing an order for a one-off show in Madrid.
The wristbands, marketed as Xylobands, proved such a success that the band then placed a full order so that every audience member could wear one across an ongoing world tour. The Xylobands will receive further TV exposure when Coldplay use them during a performance at the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games.
The glowing effect is actually a series of flashing LEDs. The Xylobands don’t directly respond to the audio “in the air” but rather house a radio frequency receiver hooked up to a central computer that’s been pre-programmed. The RF technique means the wristbands are currently limited to a 300 meter radius which is fine for indoor gig venues, but means they wouldn’t be ideal for major outdoor festivals without relay transmitters.
Regler is now looking at improvements such as using a rechargable battery (at the moment the wristbands are only designed for one-off use) or allowing people to use them at home and program them themselves, though he has some concerns about people then disrupting live events. He’s also looking at ways to divide the audience into sections to create more intricate visual effects across the arena.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RllQeMluqXc
If your baby’s attitude tends to be a little on the dark side, here’s a little something that will reflect his personality perfectly: A Darth Vader Onesie!
Don’t let the lack of cool Halloween costume for your baby disturb you! Dress your baby as the Sith Lord with the Darth Vader Onesie! The onesie comes with cape, pants, headpiece and booties to complete the Darth Vader look.
This totally awesome life-size 500-lb Darth Vader cake was made by the same person who created the equally big Stormtrooper cake we featured on [GAS] back in January. The cake was made for the 501st Legion to celebrate their 15th Anniversary in Orlando, FL.
[Source: Amanda Oakleaf | Via Blastr]
All I know is that this was caught at Celebration VI. Unfortunately, the source doesn’t have any details about the tattoo artist behind this piece.
[Source: jawshoouh_noonyez | Via FG]
World of Warcraft is supposed to take place in a fantasy online universe without the national borders of the real world. But if you live in Iran, you’ve been banished.
Blizzard has cut off access to players in the country, blaming United States trade sanctions. The company says it has recently tightened up its procedures for complying with these sanctions, which it says means it cannot do business with residents of certain nations, including Iran.
To make things even worse for affected players, Blizzard says the relevant law “prevents us from providing any refunds, credits, transfers, or other service options to accounts in these countries. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes and will happily lift these restrictions as soon as US law allows.”
The company notes that this issue is covered by its terms and conditions. In reality it doesn’t really matter if the law prevents it giving refunds as it’s unlikely anyone in Iran is going to have much luck taking the matter to court.
Iranian players had complained about not being able to access the site for several days, prompting speculation about government censorship. There have been uncomfirmed reports that some players have been diverted to a page saying the game’s references to supersitition and mythology, along with violent content and scantitly clad female characters all make it unsuitable. Blizzard says it “cannot speak to any reports surrounding the Iranian government restricting games from its citizens.”
For now at least it appears that using a proxy server that make the player appear to come from outside of Iran will allow continued play.
The incident comes a couple of months after Apple’s own implementation of the trade sanctions caused controversy. A US-born woman of Iranian heritage claimed she was barred from buying an iPad in a Georgia Apple store because a salesman overheard her speaking Farsi. Apple claimed the salesman had reason to believe the iPad was being bought with the intention of taking it to Iran, and that it was a breach of the trade embargo to sell it with that knowledge. US government officials later said this wasn’t the case and the ban only applied to the retailer physically exporting goods.
