Geek News and Musings

For months we’ve been waiting on Razer’s Blade notebook, a $2800, 17-inch beast that we weren’t sure whether to laud or mock. It’s just that it’s kind of a strange thing to see making a big debut when people are more cautious than ever of their money, and PC gaming (as ever) is being declared dead. But after our hands-on at CES, we were convinced that it was at the very least impressive and well-built, and apparently enough other people thought so that Razer sold out almost immediately.

Now, the actual number sold isn’t mentioned, but Razer isn’t a small company and they were going all-out with this thing at CES. But we’ve seen devices launch to sales of dozens, so a strong response to a launch like this is definitely good news.

The company shared the news on their Facebook page, and urges prospective buyers to sign up for a notification email list. Hopefully that $2800 won’t burn a hole in your pocket in the meantime.

Personally, I’m more excited about their plans to disconnect the touchscreen and LCD keys from the laptop, making a customizable piece of hardware you can use with your existing PC. I’m not really down with the small-screen gaming and I like my keyboards a little meatier, so the Blade isn’t for me — but I do have gear envy when I see all those future toys on the side.

These twice-baked Pizzas in a Jar seem calculated to enrage TSA operatives, who will doubtless claim that pizza magically becomes a “gel” once you put it in a jar. Nevertheless, that looks like a jar of scrumptiousness, right there.

Basically, all that you will be doing is layering your pizza ingredients into the jar. Here’s the thing, though: if you want more than one layer of pizza dough, you need to bake the layer that is not on top. See how the bottom layer is dough? I learned the hard way, that it comes out slightly soggy because it is not exposed to air.

You have two choices:

1. Only top off your ingredients with the dough, that way you can bake it all at once.

2. Add some dough to the bottom layer. Bake it at 375 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, or until it is beginning to crisp and brown. Then, add your other topping layers and top off with more dough. Bake again.

Pizza in a Jar

(via Neatorama)

Reader Ammar Githam took our evil weeks to heart and made this great looking, informative home screen. More »

The Earth’s moon seems like a nice place to visit, but there are a surprising number of people who seem to want to go there permanently. Manned spaceflight has seen better days, but is it really time to invest in a moon colony now? The land is pretty cheap up there, and no one’s making any more of it… but there’s a tiny problem of getting there. Here are just a few more links about manned trips to the moon.

• Newt Gingrich’s proposal to create a moon base by 2020 (excluding the 13,000 colonists part) was feasible in 2005 when George W. Bush had similar ideas, but now it could be a bit more difficult to accomplish in just 8 years. A new space race to the moon could see commercial space companies beating NASA to the lunar surface… (especially if vast amounts of unobtainium could be mined on the moon). [url]
• NASA isn’t exactly sure when manned test flights of its Orion will begin, but it should happen by 2021. Unmanned test flights are scheduled for 2014, but the new rocket to take cargo/passengers 3,700 miles away from Earth hasn’t been finalized yet. [url]
• What would space programs be like if the Apollo program never made it to the moon? Maybe there’d be a Russian/Soviet moon base or an international station on the moon — or maybe the lunar surface would be covered with robots by now. [url]
• To discover more links on space exploration, check out what’s floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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[Video Link] Mike Haeg made this “Marcel Duchamp Inspired Ice Fishing Tip Up / Auto Jigger.” He says, “this auto-jigger harnesses the power of the wind. A silver dinner bell rings when a fish bites. Perfect for catching panfish and Dadaists.” It debuted this week at Art Shanty Projects.

(Brrrr)

The Daily App Deals post is a round-up of the best app discounts of the day, as well as some notable mentions for ones that are on sale. More »

When Kraft introduced Oreos to China in 1996, it was only moderately successful. They revisited the cookie with a lot of market research and came up with a bunch of different chapes, fillings, colors and recipes, eventually choosing several, providing that they preserved the “Oreo experience” of twisting the cookie apart, licking the frosting and dunking it. They sold it with “emotional advertising” in which children showed their parents the “American way” of eating Oreos and the cookies became a success.

They started to ask other provocative questions.

Why does an Oreo have to be black and white? Davis sent us an Oreo with green tea filling. Another had a bright orange center divided between mango and orange flavor.

And why should an Oreo be round? They developed Oreos shaped like straws. In China, you can buy a long rectangular Oreo wafer, the length of your index finger.

Impossible to twist apart, but Davis points out that it makes it easier to dunk in milk.

Rethinking The Oreo For Chinese Consumers

(via Kottke)

You might remember the scene in The Hurt Locker where some soldiers are ambushed by a sniper and must do a little return sniping. That process of spotting, adjusting the sights, and altering the bullet’s ballistic trajectory bit by bit and degree by degree may soon no longer be necessary: Sandia Labs has developed a bullet with a built-in processor that guides its own flight via tiny adjustable fins.

The idea is that the bullet would go exactly where it was meant to go, and not deviate from the target because of wind, gravity, or other factors. They say that at the range of a kilometer, a normal bullet might be off by almost 10 yards, while this guided bullet would get within 8 inches.

It’s a similar principle to that used in guided missiles, but the small mass and relatively short path of a bullet necessitate a different approach. They moved the center of gravity forward, put an optical sensor in the nose, and added fins to prevent the bullet from spinning — normally a stabilizing motion, but in this case it would make flight path adjustment difficult. And because the fins stabilize the bullet only after its initial wobbles, a gun firing these would actually be more accurate at longer ranges.

Inside the bullet is a tiny 8-bit processor that can adjust the position of the fins up to 30 times per second, keeping a lased target in front of it. Check out this night shot of one of the bullets, with an LED attached to the back, firing down a range:

Fascinating, and at the same time slightly disturbing. More accurate bullets means higher lethality — but a researcher speaking to the BBC said that improved ground munitions would be extremely useful to troops, allowing them them not just to hit the bad guys better, but to avoid civilians. If you can be sure your bullet will go exactly where you’re aiming it, you can take the shot and not worry about a pocket of turbulent air nudging your bullet into the house next door.

There are still engineering challenges, and Sandia is looking to partner with another company to continue development. So these won’t be coming to an ammo shop near you any time soon.

It’s strange to think that every bullet fired might one day be intelligent, in a way. In the meantime, these four-inch bullets would likely be very expensive and require special hardware to fire, so they’ll be a specialty item for some time.

More information can be found at Sandia Labs’ press release.

Design This Home, the latest game title from iOS game development studio App Minis, is debuting as a new way to add gaming elements to designing your dream house, keeping your residents happy, and completing tasks. As App Minis founder Alex Ahlund explains, “Think The Sims with a greater emphasis on home decor and design.”

Design This Home, which is currently available for download in the App Store, allows you choose from a number of architectural styles of homes including modern, traditional, country, Southwestern, European, Asian, and Victorian. You then have nine different rooms to decorate and can customize every element of your home such as arranging furniture, putting up cabinets, painting the walls, renovating the floors and more. As you complete more tasks, you increase your home’s value and collect more income from your residents.

At launch, the game includes 500 items of customization. Ahlund says the studio places a heavy focus on visual design in crafting the graphic rich and animated 2D iOS title.

You may remember Ahlund from his former company, mobile app directory AppVee, which was sold to Appolicious in 2010. A former video game designer, Ahlund decided to go back to his roots to launch an iOS game development studio. The studio’s current offering of games have 7 million downloads in total. The startup itself is composed of former employees from Electronic Arts, Atari, PlayFirst, Floodgate and Google.

Tax time is upon us, and while your W-2s and 1099s are on their way to your inbox as you read this, it’s time to start thinking about the tool you’d like to use to file your returns. Earlier in the week, we asked you which tool you preferred to prepare and file your taxes, and then we took at look at the five best tax preparation tools based on your nominations. Now we’re back to highlight the overall winner. More »

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