Now Hiring: Only Nude Female Coders Need Apply

Today’s daily helping of WTF: Nude-House.com, a company that sells website software (apparently the kind that enhances images with text and such, or something) is hiring. But, there’s a bit of a catch: they only want nudist female web-coders to work in their UK office. From the site’s Jobs page:

“We need a number of nude web coders to work on preliminary web pages for customers using the toolkit of facilities we provide them. The work is totally dependant [sic] on the customers having a need but you never meet the customers and they will not not know you are nude. We will pay you ยฃ1,500 each month for 5 full days per week. You should be a practising nudist.”

There are plenty of reassurances that working in the Nude House office will be pleasurable and fun (they even keep the temperature at comfortable levels for total nudity, because that’s the problem with not wearing clothes at work, amirite?), and a carefully-worded disclaimer that the customers need not know the sales staff are nude or that Nude House is encouraging sexual behavior. No word on whether or not they prohibit such, however.

If, perchance, you’d like to work in an office full of other naked geek ladies, you can apply here.

The company also operates “traditional” offices (read: fully clothed, normal workplaces), which are also hiring.

[source: 1, 2]



$50 Lightbulb Unveiled

Even people who like the concept of light energy bulbs have a few common complaints: they are too slow to light up, they are a pain in the butt to throw away when broken, and they don’t provide a natural light. LED lights could answer all those problems — but at a cost.

It’s the week of Lightfair International, a trade fair that from a geek perspective probably isn’t quite as much fun as CES or the like. But the big theme this week appears to be LED bulbs which, as the name suggests, are simply a bunch of light-emitting diodes inside a single bulb.

The technology means that, just as with a computer screen, the full brightness comes on immediately (or at least quick enough to be unnoticeable.) There’s no mercury, which means that it’s much safer to dispose of the bulbs. And the color tone of the light is much closer to an old-style lightbulb than the more familiar compact fluorescent bulbs.

There are downsides though: the LED bulbs need a special circuit because the diodes run on direct rather than alternating current, and the diodes need to be kept cool while running.

That’s reflected in the costs: the star attraction this week is SYLVANIA’s ULTRA A19, a prototype which will be the first LED bulb capable of producing the same light as a traditional 100 watt bulb. The 100 watt mark is significant as traditional incandescent 100 watt bulbs must be withdrawn from sale in January under US environmental legislation.

Meanwhile Phillips has unveiled a forthcoming range that goes up to 75 watt equivalent. 60 watt equivalents are already on sale for around $40.

In the long-run, the bulbs should be good value: the manufacturers of the A19 say it uses just 14 watts (ie a potential 86% cut in electricity consumption) and will last 25 times as long as a traditional bulb. Still, that may be a hard sell to a sceptical public wary of handing over a picture of Ulysses Grant in return for a single bulb.

Made of WIN and AWESOME: Remote-Controlled Superhero [Video]

Just imagine, one evening, as you’re walking around your neighborhood, you see this thing zipping past you in the sky:

Now for only $295, you too can make your neighborhood’s kids think that superheroes actually exist!

Specifications: The full scale RcSuperhero is 75 inches tall, weighs approximately 3 pounds, and has an “arm span” or wingspan of 45 inches.

Flight characteristics: Great! This is due to the low weight to surface area and that it has a high wing like a Piper cub with a low center of gravity. In addition, he has plenty of vertical tail surfaces due to the double side bodies; which adds to the stability. Also, the RcSuperhero has oversized control surfaces and likes to fly upright. He takes off by being thrown or by standing upright in a stand and lands on his belly skids.

Thrust: The RcSuperhero has about 6 pounds of thrust; this allows for vertical take off.

[RcSuperhero]