Pika-Prom?

Were you planning on cosplaying to your prom?

Now are you planning on cosplaying to your prom?

Get it on Etsy for 50USD.

[Via Fashionably Geek]



Monster Cables face off against Coat Hangers

I love my movies, and by association aside from being a movie geek, that also makes me a home theater geek, or an Audiophile.

With the onset of each improvement in home theater technology I have to resist the urge to run out to the local big box electronics shop and indebt myself to their unfair interest rates to get the latest and greatest gadgets. As much as I want to be, I am not an early adopter. I do however, manage to resist (mostly) until the true early adopters have expressed their regrets and the shiny new price tags fade a little and they offer up more reasonable prices.

I always make sure I don’t cheap out, which sometimes means buying the more expensive cables and higher gauge speaker wires. All this leads me to a very interesting impromptu case study to determine if the hefty exaggerated cost of the MONSTER brand cables is really worth it.

The test set a small group of self-confessed audiophiles to listen to a selection of “smooth trio easy listening jazz” on a Martin Logan SL-3 speaker set at 75db and 1000KHz. The Monster 1000 audio cables (retailing at around $180 for a 12ft cable) connected one set of speakers and were facing off against another connection made from coat hangers!

Not kidding. In order to REALLY put a quality gap between the two samplings almost guaranteeing a winner, a coat hanger was jury rigged with audio connectors on each end and set to square off against a $180 24k gold tipped, noise-shielded, engineered multigauge braided audio cable.

After sampling the music a number of times in a blind test, the audiophiles could not distinguish which was the monster cable and which was the “other” cable. Each was satisfied with the tonal quality and sound of each cable offering.

Granted, the test was not conducted by a professional audio engineer and the small test group were “self-professed” audiophiles. However, you would think that there would be SOME obvious difference. Even the common person should be able to distinguish between the pricey engineered cables and the makeshift trash pretending to be cables.

Personally, I have tried cheap dollar store cables or those shoe string sets that come with a basic player and I can tell a difference from using a quality cable, however I also am not about to spend more than my Bluray player is worth on cables. I do buy good quality cables, but I base that on resistance ratings, connectors and wire gauge.

This only removes any doubt I have that my home theater system would sound better if I followed the advice of the commission sales monkey who was trying to pimp the Monster cables when I bought my receiver.

For those of you out there who take pride in their Home Theatre systems, do you trust in high end brands like Monster?

[Source | Via]

New Year’s End: A BioShock Short Film

Regardless of if you’re a BioShock fan or not…this is a pretty incredibly well done short film set in the world of the games.

http://youtu.be/X1PlM_g6S2I



Nicktoons in Paris [Video]

The Black Nerd presents a Jay-Z/Kanye spoof featuring a bunch of our favourite Nicktoons from the 90s and not to mention Alisa Reyes – original cast member of Nickelodeon’s All That!

Tis rather amusing if you grew up in the 90s (and had access to Nickelodeon…which I did not. I was a Cartoon Network kid. But I remember many of these characters anyway – it was the 90s.)

iPad 4G: What’s in a name?

Apple has reportedly agreed to refund buyers of the new iPad in Australia who are disappointed to find it does not offer 4G speeds. The company may face similar problems in Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The 4G feature on the new model only works on specific wireless frequencies, namely 700MHz and 2100MHz. Those aren’t used for 4G (LTE) services in all countries, such as Australia which uses 1800MHz. Buyers there have found the 4G version of the iPad automatically switches to a 3G connection — faster than the cheaper version of the new iPad, but considerably slower than 4G.

What makes things more confusing is that in all countries the more expensive model is dubbed the “WiFi + 4G.” However, at launch time it appears Apple didn’t make the compatibility issue entirely clear on its website for Australian visitors, instead simply including a note inside the packaging itself.

That’s prompted a threat of a lawsuit from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. It now says Apple has agreed to include the statement ” This product supports very fast cellular networks. It is not compatible with current Australian 4G LTE networks and WiMAX Networks” on all marketing materials in the country and ask resellers to display a notice to that effect.

It doesn’t yet appear Apple is willing to agree to initial demands that it should change the name of the device when selling it in other countries. That could involve some major administrative headaches.

There are similar problems in Europe, where the 4G feature is also of limited use. Swedish consumer officials have questioned whether the marketing is legal, while theUK’s advertising regulator is investigating complaints.

Meanwhile Apple has tried to clear up confusion over battery life in the new iPad. There’s been some concern that two identical devices starting from a “100 percent” charge and carrying out the same activities don’t have the same battery life.

Apple has now explained that the new device, as with all previous iOS gadgets, goes through a charge and discharge cycle when it is plugged in and almost full. Once the battery is genuinely full, it discharges a little then recharges again, continuing this process until it is unplugged, a measure designed to keep an “optimum charge.”

The confusion comes about because the battery display reads 100 percent at all stages of this top-end cycle. Apple insists that no matter what stage is reached at the point the device is unplugged, users will still get the full 10 hours’ life (for average use) mentioned in marketing materials.

Part of the confusions may also lie in the fact that a thicker battery in the new iPad, designed to support the extra screen and graphics demands, takes a little longer to fully charge than in previous iPads.

Why You Should Date a Geek Guy [Video]

The Gay Comic Geek gives you a run down of the pros and cons of dating a geek guy. While it is in the context of the gay geek, there’s plenty there that’s relevant to geek men in general. Or do you disagree? I think he might be generalising the qualities of geek boys just a little too much here. What do you think?

http://youtu.be/Q4vvTBUn_Lg

Dated a geek guy before? Tell us about it!

Cute R2D2 Skirt

Find a guy with C3P0 pants to take you out for a stroll?

[59.99USD on Etsy]

GoChaseRabbits have a few other cute geeky skirts in addition to the R2D2 one so check out their store!