This is the most boring Wii video I have ever seen. But it's worth watching at least 10 seconds of it to hear what must be Professor Egghead and the Scooby kids explain the sourcing on the CPU, graphics, bluetooth and WiFi chips. And they unintentionally deliver the dig at the PS3 and the XBox. "It's much easier to take apart than the Xbox and PS3."
Wow, the Wii is not only easier to play, but hackers of all ages can tear it down, too.–Brian Lam
Here's an an ingenious way to make a complete breakfast at home without having to inundate your kitchen with single-use appliances. This new product from Japanese company Chuo Sangyo lets you make coffee, eggs, and toast all in one breath. It only takes 10 minutes and one outlet. Amazing.
–Lisa Katayama
While we were perusing the Willcom R9 cellphone in hopes of finding the most simple handset in the world, into our inbox pops this design by a talented amateur that's about as straightforward as a phone can possibly be. What a concept: a 3.14-inch cellphone that just makes phone calls. Easy as Pi.
There's no email, no Web browsing, no garage door opener—nothing but the necessary voice in-and-out functions and four simple keys, each of which lets you enter three numbers. Rock the key to the left and you've entered one number, push it downward, there's another and rock that key to the right, and you've entered another. Simple. Just look at the pics of this tiny and useful thing:
A mattress company in Tel Aviv decided to fill up a concert hall with 144 beds complete with pillows and blankets, giving music lovers the most comfortable way possible to listen to a classical music concert.
But this could backfire. We were just at classical music concert not long ago where the audience was sitting in traditional straight-back seats, and this one guy was snoring so loudly they just about had to stop the show. And that was a really exciting concert with spectacular performances by world-class virtuosos.
What would happen if they played Mahler? This bed/classical concert idea could easily erupt into a snorefest, unless all those zzz's could be written into the music as some sort of audience-participation performance-art piece. – Charlie White
This week saw the green light being given to the construction of one of the world’s largest ground-based telescopes, the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). As you can see from the mock-up above, this baby is not going to fit on a tripod.
The ESO or - European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere – has agreed to fund a three year, £38m study into the feasibility and construction of the revolutionary, £538m telescope. More than 100 astronomers from all European countries have been involved throughout 2006, evaluating all aspects of its creation.
It will boast a massive, 42m wide primary mirror composed of 906 hexagonal segments, each 1.45m in size, while the secondary mirror is as large as 6m in diameter. Unique adaptive mirrors will be used to counter fuzzy stellar images from atmospheric turbulence.
It will not be ready for use until 2017 though so let’s hope the alien invasion holds off a little while longer. When it is up and running, it will allow for detailed studies of planets around other stars, the first objects in the Universe, super-massive black holes and the nature and distribution of dark matter and dark energy which dominate the Universe. -Martin Lynch
Hands up if you’ve ever been guilty of making the lightsaber sound with your mouth while wielding the sweeping brush, cucumber, or just about anything that could be swung? That’s every male then.
Now, you can increase your geek factor enormously by doing it with your Wii remote control. Thanks to a lovely piece of software for the Mac, called MacSaber, which creates lightsaber sounds for the sudden motion sensor, someone has gone and made WiiSaber. The author said:
“This application looks and works just like MacSaber, but the input device is the WiiMote instead of your Apple laptop. I plan on adding more features including more visual response and multi-controller capabilities soon, so check back again later.”
Just a week on from Nintendo's advice note about how to use the Wii remote control responsibly, I can present one current (reported) list of Wii disasters. It's not a pretty picture and if I was a TV I'd be setting up a union and calling for Wii danger money right about now.
According to the great Wii disaster watch site, Wii have a problem, where people report their misadventures, like yesterday’s shiner, 13 TVs have fallen foul of airborne Wii remotes. Twenty straps have broken and seven people have sustained a variety of injuries.
What truly amazes me is that no lamps have yet been destroyed by adults leaping around their rooms with abandon and waving their arms like people drowning. Hell, when I was a kid, I couldn’t seem to avoid the damn things.
Jump now for the full casualty list. – Martin Lynch
You may never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than Mos Eisley spaceport, but the virtual world of Craigslist runs a very close second. Example: A 27-year old San Jose man tries to buy a PlayStation 3 for $700 in the parking lot of a McDonalds.
The buyer wanted to see what was in the box, but the seller "balked" and asked "What, don't you trust me?" The non-retarded answer would have been "no", but the two swapped anyway. After the cash exchanged hands, the sellers ran off to their SUV and sped through a red light, and the buyer discovered he was holding a PS3 box with some magazines, floor tiles, and a PS2 controller.
Lessons learned: don't hold Craigslist deals at McDonalds, and always see the merchandise first. Especially when someone pulls the "what, you don't trust me?" – Jason Chen
Just a week on from Nintendo's advice note about how to use the Wii remote control responsibly, I can present one current (reported) list of Wii disasters. It's not a pretty picture and if I was a TV I'd be setting up a union and calling for Wii danger money right about now. 
You may never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than Mos Eisley spaceport, but the virtual world of Craigslist runs a very close second. Example: A 27-year old San Jose man tries to buy a PlayStation 3 for $700 in the parking lot of a McDonalds.
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
