I’m not sure where the people who made this took their numbers, but some of the costs associated with Batman’s gear seem, in some cases, a little over the top. Check it out:
[Via Buzzfeed]
Earth’s Mightiest Manatees [Pics]
Thanks to artist Joel Harris, we now know what our favorite capes would look like as mermaids of the sea.
You can see more of his Super Manatees over at his Deviant Art – http://jharris.deviantart.com/gallery/
[Via BuzzFeed]
TARDIS Shed + Dalek [Pic]
Built by Tardisbuilders user Einstein19, this Tardis shed was built over a decade ago, but its creator has finally decided to share the masterpiece with the Internet this month.
[Via]
The World’s First Portable Computer: $20,000 and 55 Pounds [Pic]
- IBM Portable PC, model number 5100
- First introduced: September, 1975
- Cost: $19,975
- Weight: 55 pounds
- CPU: IBM proprietary, 1.9MHz
- RAM: 16K, 64K max
- Display: 5? monochrome monitor 64 X 16 text
- Storage: Internal 200K tape (DC300)
- Ports: tape / printer I/O port
- OS: APL and/or BASIC
[Via TNW]
Valve Software Chief: Windows 8 a “Catastrophe”
The head of Valve Software, the company behind the Steam platform, has called Windows 8 a “catastrophe” for the PC games market.
Gabe Newell predicted that Microsoft’s changes with the new system could be a major deterrent for games manufacturers. He warned that Windows could become far less open and in turn would stifle innovation.
Newell didn’t go into extensive detail, but his main concern appears to be the prospect of PC owners who run the default Metro setting in Windows 8 sticking only to the official Microsoft app store, rather than going to the effort of switching to the more traditional desktop display and installing software manually.
Valve, which distributes its own games directly though Steam, won’t be enthralled about the prospect of having to either agree to Microsoft getting a cut of its revenue, or missing out on potential sales. It’s also worried that games makers may be tempted to stick to the Microsoft store and miss out Steam altogether.
Newell also admitted that Valve’s recent efforts to bring Steam to Linux are a “hedging strategy” in case it does indeed see a drop in Windows business.
After noting that many online firms were only able to develop their services because the PC as a whole is a relatively open platform, Newell said of Microsoft that ” I think there’s a strong temptation to close the platform. If people look at what they can accomplish when they can limit competitors’ access to their platform, they say, ‘Wow, that’s really exciting.’… That’s not how we got here, and I don’t think that’s a very attractive future.”
And it’s not just gaming where Newell thinks there’ll be problems. He outright says that “I think that Windows 8 is kind of a catastrophe for everybody in the PC space. I think that we’re going to lose some of the top-tier PC [original equipment manufacturers]. They’ll exit the market. I think margins are going to be destroyed for a bunch of people. ”
(Image credit: Game Developers Choice Awards)
Cool Tee: Gryffindor Quidditch
Gryffindor Quidditch shirt done like an Abercrombie and Fitch athletic tee.
uTorrent Aims to Beat Piracy with Pre-Installed Software
There may be no effective answer to the problem of multimedia piracy through filesharing. And the latest suggestion from uTorrent is certainly no effective answer.
BitTorrent Inc, which produces the uTorrent software, has struck a deal with DJ Shadow that it hopes will be a model for helping artists make cash from legitimate use of filesharing. Unfortunately it’s not one that looks very attractive to users.
The logic behind the model is that many people are going to download copies of new music without paying and simply aren’t interested in handing over any cash for it. To counter this, DJ Shadow is releasing some new content (three unreleased songs plus some archive video footage and a photo “vault”) that will be available free of charge, exclusively through BitTorrent.
Where does the cash come from then? The download includes a copy of RealPlayer and both Shadow and BitTorrent Inc will get a royalty payment for every user who installs it (which is entirely optional.) Future releases may have other optional software such as antivirus packages. BitTorrent Inc says the plan is very much an experiment at this stage.
It’s hard to see how this can work. Anyone who really wants RealPlayer will likely have already got it. That leaves the revenue for the content reliant on people installing it out of the goodness of their heart to support the artist, or on people installing it by mistake because they missed a checkbox somewhere along the way, which is a bit sleazy.
As an anonymous commenter at TorrentFreak puts it “depending on your users to install crapware in order to make money is not a very sound business model.” Indeed, BitTorrent appears well aware of the risks of irritating users: those who download the torrent directly from the uTorrent website can opt for a package of files that doesn’t even include the bundled RealPlayer, so they don’t have to waste bandwidth or go to the tiny hassle of unchecking it in uTorrent. No doubt this will be the package that shows up on other torrent sites in a matter of days.
Frankly speaking, it doesn’t appear this is a serious proposition whatsoever, and it’s noticable it isn’t being trialed with a full album release. Instead it comes across more like BitTorrent Inc making a token effort to break down the natural mental association of “torrents” and “piracy”.
How Electronic Devices Really Work [Video]
Ohhhhh, now I get it! That’s where all those sounds coming out of our gadgets are coming from!
[Via Neatorama]