Got a LAN party? Well, don’t call yourself a geek if you have to pickup the phone to call Domino’s Pizza … you need this: Pizza Party, a Unix command line program for ordering pizza by Cory Arcangel.
Tags: command line, pizza, Unix
TRON Vader [Pic]
He’s Darth and Chad’s tech-savvy brother.
[reddit]
(Seriously, though–there’s no credit for this image to be found. Anyone know where it’s from?)
This blue TRON Vader and the matching red version were both made by dracorubio, who has tons of other great stuff. Thanks!
Sony Slashes Prices on PS3
Sony is cutting prices on the PS3 and will finally be at or below the price of the Xbox 360. It’s also releasing a bargain-basement priced PSP in Europe, albeit with limited features.
The price cuts mean the 160GB PS3 now drops from $299 to $249, while $299 will now buy you the 320GB model, previously $349. With the new prices in place, three hundred bucks will get you 250GB of Xbox or 320GB of PS3, which looks to be the first time that there’s been such a favorable price comparison for Sony.
It’s notable that many message board posters are suggesting a $199 price point would have made more of an impact, though it’s hard to see how the economics of that would have worked short of copying Microsoft’s 4GB “Arcade” edition.
Amazon is already listing a $299 bundle that includes the 320GB PS3, Infamous 2 and 30 days on PlayStation Plus.
Meanwhile Sony is releasing a new edition of the PSP that’s currently scheduled to be Europe-only. It’s priced at 99.99 Euros, which is around US$140 to $150. While it does have a UMD drive, there’s no Wi-Fi connection, which not only means having to hook it up to a PC to download games, but it rules out online play.
And in other Sony news, the PlayStation Vita, which will be a high-end replacement for the PSP, has been confirmed as having 512MB of RAM. That’s despite rumors memory could be an area for cost-cutting.
Why Does Marty Hang Out With Doc Brown Anyway?
Ever wonder why Marty McFly was friends with Doc Brown in Back to the Future? It’s a question that crossed the minds of _flossy folks Brett Savage and Jason English, which they posed to readers of mentalfloss. None other than Back to the Future co-creator Bob Gale caught wind of the post and replied in kind with the full story:
Okay, from the horse’s mouth (yes, I’m the horse — er, co-writer, co-creator): We never explained it in the movie. But the history of the characters that Bob Zemeckis and I created is this…
For years, Marty was told that Doc Brown was dangerous, a crackpot, a lunatic. So, being a red-blooded American teenage boy, age 13 or 14, he decided to find out just why this guy was so dangerous. Marty snuck into Doc’s lab, and was fascinated by all the cool stuff that was there. when Doc found him there, he was delighted to find that Marty thought he was cool and accepted him for what he was. Both of them were the black sheep in their respective environments. Doc gave Marty a part-time job to help with experiments, tend to the lab, tend to the dog, etc.
And that’s the origin of their relationship.
— Bob Gale
And now you know the rest of the story.
Cast Your Vote in the Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest
The sixth annual Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest is on! The event is sponsored by the Union of Concerned Scientists, whch seeks to “raise awareness about the consequences of political interference in science in an accessible way—and this issue is certainly fertile ground for satire.”
Entries to the contest (shown below) are available as a 2012 calendar, which you can preorder here. Several bonus cartoons are included. Check out the cartoons below, decide which is your favorite, and head over to the UCSUSA page to cast your vote. The winning panel will grace the cover of the calendar; additionally, 50 lucky voters will be chosen at random to receive a free copy.
[ucsusa]
Buy a Coffee, Get a Free App From Starbucks
If you’re in Starbucks sometime soon, you can get a free app with your coffee and cupcake. Just as they’ve been offering a free music tracks, now the “Pick of the Week” program gives you free app download. Just pick up a free card at the counter and enter the code at iTunes. Did we mention that it’s free?
This week, your gift is Shazam Encore, a premium version of the music-identifying app that normally sells for $5.99.
Incidentally, that’s about the price you’ll pay for your morning dose of hot caffeine, so it really is like getting something free.
[tuaw]
DRAMA: Users Reporting Facebook Blocks of G+ Invite Links
Ruh-roh, Reorge. Though Mark Zuckerberg didn’t waste a second trying out Google+ in the early weeks of beta, it seems his capacity for amicable competition doesn’t extend to letting Facebook users invite their friends to try out G+. YouTuber rss1357 posted this video of his attempts to post an invite link to Google’s social media site, which shows his posts containing the invite links (but not others) being blocked from his friends’ feeds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Cj0jjDtafak
Google VP Vic Gundotra asked G-Plussers if they were having similar link posting issues, noting that the “company was ‘getting reports’ from other users.” Facebook’s having none of that, though. They insist that their people “could not duplicate the same problem as depicted in the video” and suggest instead that the invite posts are being pulled down by their spam-prevention display filtering technology, which blocks users from sharing the same content multiple times. (It’s not working on those shoes salesmen, Fb.)
That said, another theory posits that the effect is a smear tactic from the Google front–users are reporting mixed results on Gundotra’s post, but CNET insists that the problem isn’t being replicated at their end, either.
What say you, Geeks–spam-blocking coincidence or subterfuge? And if so, from which side?
WANT: Android Mini Collectible Series 02
No geek should be without these cool Android Mini Collectible. The Series 02 Android collectibles – designed by artists such as Andrew Bell, Doktor A, Gary Ham, Jeff Yaksick, and ScottTolleson – come in a blind box, so you’ll get a neat surprise with every box. Which of the 16 designs will you get? Or will you get the mystery design?
[$13.95 @ NeatoShop | See also: More Android collectibles]
Tags: android