By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
Forget the Swiss Human Jet flying across the English Channel. That’s child’s play compared to the Wing Suit! This is the kind of stuff that makes Superman look like a learner driver.
To do what you are about to see, you need to have a stomach made of iron, a strong heart, a good parachute, and a highly understanding insurance company. You also have to be completely and utterly insane.
By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
For some reason, I have managed to avoid jury duty up to now. Maybe it’s the fact that I have moved around so much in my life and lived in so many countries. But if I ever decide to settle back in the United Kingdom permanently, I’ll be sure to get my online information in order right away. That’s because jury consultants are apparently now checking out potential jurors using the internet.
One of the main things they are looking for is if you have spoken out on any important issues. So if I ended up being considered for a jury for example, they might look at my articles on this website to see if I have expressed any opinions on any particular subjects (let’s hope any RIAA lawyers aren’t checking up on me!). Or they may Google my name to see if I have written any letters to a newspaper editor on any important subjects. They may also check my Facebook account to see if I am friends or relations with anyone else in the jury pool.
There’s so much information about us online that a jury consultant’s job is so much easier these days than it used to be. Everything is available by search engine or social network. People write blogs or maintain websites. They write letters to newspapers and they operate online businesses. They socialise via Twitter or Friendfeed. Whether people realise it or not, they are leaving so many footprints behind for a future lawyer or jury consultant to pick up and question them with later.
So the next time you are being questioned for a jury and you are asked a question, think twice before lying – the lawyer may be a subscriber to your Twitter feed!
Let’s admit it, traditional chairs are usually ugly and boring, but it’s certainly not the case with this one.
Designed by Brodie Neill and made out of a combination of carbon fibre and chrome, the @ Chair will show to your fellow geek friends that you really are “in” when it comes to the latest trend in Web 2.0 furniture. I’m not exactly sure how comfortable this thing is, but it certainly looks fantastic.
Star Wars fans rejoice, Mark Ecko has just unveiled his new collection of Star Wars-branded t-shirts and hoodies. While some of them may look totally ridiculous, such as the Storm Trooper hoodie, there are a few items on the list on which I wouldn’t mind putting my hands onto. Unfortunately, at $98 per hoodie and $38 per t-shirts, the collection is a bit pricey, but you can get $10 off + free shipping on orders of $100 or more by using the “STARWARSFAN8” coupon code during the checkout process.
[Via Giz]
As kids, most of us were afraid of finding ghosts under our bed during the night at one point or another, but thanks to modern technology, light was always available right at our fingertips. In the following Canne-nominated commercial, Sylvania wants us to see that even the scariest ghost can look utterly ridiculous under the light of their light bulbs. Enjoy!
by Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
Living in the U.S., I feel like I often miss out on jewels of television shows because whereas it’s common to run popular American shows in other countries, we rarely get the same consideration. Or if we do, then they’re “Americanized” versions, which sometimes works (see: The Office) and sometimes doesn’t (see: Coupling). And don’t even get me started on BBC America, which my cable line-up doesn’t even offer (and has a repertoire of about five different shows anyway–but I give them kudos for including Torchwood).
Of course, the show that I’m bringing to your attention today hails not from the UK, but from Canada. So for our Canadian readers who saw this headline and scoffed, I can only say that I’m jealous that you probably discovered this gem four years ago. ReGenesis is about lab in Toronto where a group of scientists investigate things like bio-terrorism, environmental issues, and mysterious diseases. It’s science bordering on science fiction, and it’s fantastic. It seems like most of the science procedurals we see lately are crime-based (CSI, Bones) or heavy science fiction (Fringe).
I included the main character, Dr. David Sandstrom, as an honorable mention in my list of sexy geeks. I don’t see the character as quite as misanthropic, but I’ve heard comparisons to House. And Peter Outerbridge is one of those actors who always makes me think, where have I seen him before?, because of his roles on a lot of different shows. In fact, you may recognize him from the pilot of Fringe. His part there was so small, though, that I wonder if he’s going to be showing up again. And speaking of faces you might recognize, Ellen Page (the rising star of Juno) plays Sandstrom’s daughter Lilith in the first season.
Of course, now you non-Canadians might be thinking–fantastic, now I know of a potentially great show I can’t watch! Which brings me to the reason I’m writing about this in the first place. Some random flipping through upcoming dates on my TIVO the other night revealed that ReGenesis plays sporadically on CBS, usually at 2:07am. This may not be true for where you live, but if you have TIVO (or a TV Guide), it’s at least worth checking out.
And even better? If you don’t mind your television Internet-style, the first two seasons are available on Hulu.com, so you can watch it from the beginning. There are four seasons altogether, and I’m hoping that Hulu will put the rest up eventually, because I haven’t seen all of the episodes myself. According to Wikipedia, there’s a planned North American DVD release in the near future. Not so imminent as to be listed on Amazon yet, but if you happen to be in a Region 2 country (or have a region-free DVD player), you can already get Season 1.
I know that there’s a lot of exciting new television right now, but at the very least this might be a good one to file away for entertainment during mid-season repeats!
So, you’ve always wanted to backup your computer’s content, but never took the time to do so. Whether it’s because you don’t have the time, or simply don’t know how to do it, Clickfree is likely the perfect solution for you. The backup system doesn’t require any software install or hardware to configure. Just plug it in and it’s ready to go. Truly that simple.
The Clickfree storage solution comes in either 120 (HD701) or 160GB (HD801) versions and can be attached to your computer via USB (1.0 and 2.0). The first time you plug it in, it will do a full backup of your content, which can take a while. But once that has finished, the system will only do incremental backups, only saving files that have recently been changed or added to your computer.
Once your backup has been done, unplug the device, and voilà! Your files have all been saved to the drive. Need to refresh the backup? Plug the Clickfree unit back in, and it will automatically update itself.
Hat tip to Nelson Dumais (French) for the great find.
Here’s a pretty fun way to start the day: An ad promoting Linspire, one of the many Linux distributions to grace the world. Yeah, I know, this one is pretty old, but fun nonetheless… and good luck getting the tune out of your head! Lyrics after the jump.
By Jimmy Rogers
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
If you love podcasts as much as I do, you’re probably already familiar with Ask A Ninja. The Ninja’s helpful tips on how to survive everything from college life to meeting women always work really well for me. Or rather they would if those tips didn’t result in one or more deaths, at a minimum.
Now The Ninja has put out a secret Ninja Handbook filled with instructions on how to make your life as Ninja-like as possible. While the transfer from video podcast to physical book might seem a bit of a leap, they’ve provided an intermediary step for you. The Ask A Ninja team has created an audiobook complete with professional voice actors and, of course, The Ninja himself. Better yet, the producers have so much confidence in their masterwork that they’ve put up slightly under an hour of the book up on their website.
I’ve listened to the two samples and it is absolutely fantastic. There are lots of rediculous quotes, stern warnings of impending peril, and concise bullet points for easy learning. I suggest you give the samples a try and if you like it, go ahead and order yourself a copy.
For a while now, I have been playing with Jaiku, which is Google’s equivalent of Twitter. You can use it to update your status, chat to other Jaiku users and microblog on the web. It is still in closed beta, and until recently. invites were strictly limited. But a few weeks back, Jaiku allowed existing users to give away unlimited invites, so a colleague gave one to me and I started playing with the service to see if it was a Twitter killer or not.