The beginning part of the video is a message Dr.Light records over 100 years ago, his lab is now abandoned. As the camera moves into the capsule you see a still running testing parameter where Mega Man X fights a hologram or drone in the form of Protoman. […]
Shopping: Then and Now [Comic]
I plugged in this lamp and my dog went rigid, spoke a sentence of perfect Akkadian, and then was hurled sideways through the picture window. Even worse, it’s one of those lamps where the switch is on the cord.
[Source: XKCD]
YOU’RE A GEEK! [Pic]
An Up Close and Wonderful View at Insects [Video]
Macrovideo of insects made with Canon 7D and 65mm MP-E and Canon 100mm f/2.8 L IS.
Video Games Unplugged: Symphony of Legends
If you’re down-under, a music geek and a gamer, the Symphony of Legends might be an event that you wouldn’t want to miss. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is going to be performing music from some big-name games such as Skyrim, Bioshock 2, Final Fantasy VII (OMG), Civilisation IV and more.
It’s showing at the Melbourne Convention and exhibition centre on Thursday 12th April at 7pm and tickets range from AU$49 to AU$139.
Did I mention that Wil Wheaton is going to be making an appearance? There will also be a whole lot of cut scenes, special lighting events and even solos by musicians who played on the original games. Pretty damned cool.
[More info | Book at Ticketmaster]
A Garbage Pail Kids Card for $4,250?
Collecting is a very difficult market to predict, and one man’s motorcycle sounds in the spokes of his BMX is another man’s ultimate treasure.
But io9.com came across an obscure collectable on eBay, and I was surprised to see the numbers attached to these very rare cards – Garbage Pail Kids cards!
For those not in the know, in the early 80s Cabbage Patch Kids were the coveted toys for both boys and girls. Each one was different, they came with a unique birth certificate, and people went insane for them. The highest form of flattery is imitation, and while card collecting expanded beyond sports cards, the satirical Garbage Pail Kids were an instant success.
Each card featured a very Cabbage Patch looking Kid in a crazy spoof of disgusting and rejected Kids with their own unique and disturbing names. I remember these cards being popular and I even had some of them myself! There was even a movie in 1987 and there is talks of a remake happening right now.
The most coveted of all these Garbage Pail Kids was called Adam Bomb, depicting a Garbage Pail Kid pressing a red button igniting a nuclear blast out of his head. There is an eBay auction for a rare proof card authenticated by Topps (the company that made these cards) currently standing at $4,250USD
While a recent Adam Bomb did sell for just under $100USD, Garbage Pail Kid Aficionado and author of the definitive Garbage Pail Kids collecting guide Barren Aaron admits even for a proof the price is inflated.
I think what is making this card valued so high – even if it doesn’t get its asking price – is a combination of a number of conditions. As popular as the Garbage Pail Kids were, no one expected these cards to be of any value. They were a spoof of a popular toy at the time and rightly so, no one took them seriously at all. Of course this means that there are just not that many of these cards around anymore. Even the more common cards are going to have value to a collector who wants them. You couldn’t have planned this.
Anything can be collected, and any collectable is as valuable as what someone might pay for it. But is it insane that something like Garbage Pail Kids could go for this much?
Find the Cat in the Photos [Pics]
I have to admit, when I first saw these I was sure that they were a hoax designed to waste my time. I have since found all five kitties.
Warning: it’s not easy. Only a true geek will be victorious.
Check out the comments in Pleated Jean’s post if you’re going insane and need some help!
Malware creates half a million dirty Macs
If you somehow still believed that Apple computers are immune to malware, it’s time to get real. A security researcher is reporting that more than half a million Macs have been infected with a Trojan known as Backdoor.Flashback.
According to Doctor Web, a Russian seller of anti-virus software, the Trojan works along lines that are very familiar from the PC sector. A dodgy link takes the browser to an infected website that uses Javascript to get the infection onto the computer. At least four million webpages currently house the virus, and it appears many are using the .nu domain that is officially for sites based on the small Pacific island of Niue, but actually often used by foreign firms for its linguistic appeal.
The Flashback name comes from the way the Trojan was originally housed within a bogus update for Adobe Flash, before the creators switched to the infected website strategy.
Once installed the software hooks up with a control server and awaits further instructions. The control server is able to send out and run executable files on the infected machines. Doctor Web has intercepted these communications and found 550,000 separate machines have been compromised in this way, with 76 percent located in the US or Canada (see image above).
The Trojan takes advantage of several vulnerabilities in the Java feature on the latest editions of OS X, most notably a breach that means the sandbox protection on Java is compromised, allowing code to be run without the user’s express permission. Apple is urging users to update their system to Java version 1.6.0_31 via the software update option in the system preferences panel. There’s been some controversy as Java creator Oracle came up with a fix back in February, but it’s only just been made available by Apple to Mac users.
The good news is that so far it doesn’t appear the creators have been able to capitalize on the network of infected machines yet.
The incident should serve as a reminder that although Macs have a better security record, this is a combination of a smaller target audience and less user control to be exploited, rather than Apple computers being magically immune. That brings into question some Apple adverts that, while not specifically claiming Macs can’t be hit by viruses, has been perhaps over-dismissive of the potential risks.