Working the shaft is exactly what you're going to be doing with The Shaft joystick as you enjoy Virtual Console games like Street Fighter 2 or Raiden 2—two arcade games that we're not even sure are on VC yet. In either case, you get a peanut-shaped controller in either albino, flesh or coal miner for a price of $39.95, about £20. Yes, one shaft is just £20. You can even get two shafts for a special shaft-introductory price of $69, around £33. -Jason Chen [Wii Shaft]
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According to a new study published in the US journal Sexuality Research and Social Policy, a third of women who look to the internet for romance sleep with their prospective partners on a first date.
Amazingly, three quarters of those women do NOT use a condom, says the survey. 568 women were asked in total.
Editor of Women’s Health magazine told news.com.au that the results were troubling. She reckons that folk feel more comfortable after having had lengthy conversations online, often through social networking, and so the higher rates of first-date sex aren’t all that surprising.
Romance hungry geeks are more likely to “put out” on the first night of meeting someone as opposed to women in general, who Felicity Percival of Women’s Health says are sticking to the “12 date rule.” The “12 vodka shots” rule is a popular male alternative. -Tamlin Magee
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Finally, a game mod worth our time. Forget Counter-Strike, Gary's Mod, and all those other big-name knockoffs; we're picking up a copy of Accordion Hero II. That's right - now there's a sequel to the cult classic that includes hits from traditional polka to M.C. Hammer beats.
The game's "produced" by Schadenfreude Interactive, and before you say anything, yes, we know it's a fake company. Their logo, however, is golden, and the site is worth a visit to check out their other high-profile titles like Cthulhu Karts and Hannibal Crossing. All they're missing is Gears of Fore, an FPS starring a polo shirt-wearing old white guy who pulls guns out of his golf bag to shoot aliens. -Josh Ziegler
[Spiele via Make]
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The latest addition to the chic geek's wardrobe has got to be this web 2.0 T-shirt. The classy bit of kit contains a list of 79 social networking sites, all followed by tick boxes. Tick the ones you belong to and wear. By adorning your scrawny chest with this garment outdoors, you are able to reveal to aesthetically pleasing members of the opposite sex, how much of disturbed social recluse you really are.
We were surprised to learn that 79 social networking sites even existed; our hearts lie with Facebook and our minds know that there are a few others that generally make our heart rates slow out of complete boredom. If you belong to web 2.0's army of heathen social sites, there are three empty boxes to fill in with whatever you please. -Haroon Malik
[Product Page via Tech Digest]
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Dear Samsung, It'd be nice if you brought speakers like this to the Western market. Fresh from the 2007 Korea Electronics Show, the speakers are part of Samsung's "Chic and Smart Style" line in the Korean market. Aving's photos indicate they only pack 1 watt of power apiece, but the design is undeniably beautiful. I love these so much, I want to take them behind the school and get them pregnant. -Adrian Covert
[Aving]
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The Nigerian government finally agreed to run Mandriva's Linux build on its portion of an order of 17,000 Intel Classmate PCs. The 2GB Wi-Fi laptops were initially scheduled to have Mandriva Linux, but then Microsoft apparently got into a bidding war, offering up a low-priced Windows version. On Halloween, things turned fugly.
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We might not be all that close to sending a manned mission to Mars, but that isn't stopping people from preparing for the journey. The Mars Analogue Research Station (MARS) Programme sets up simulations of the Martian atmosphere here on Earth, allowing people to "test out protocols and procedures that will be required for human operations on Mars, and to test equipment that may be carried and used by human mission to the Red Planet."
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There’s a bit of a green theme going on here this morning [Tesco Mobile Recycling] – I can’t explain it.
Still, for those of you concerned about just how much juice all your gadgets and home entertainment kit is costing you, check out the dinky little Wattson. This wireless device will tell you how much electricity you are using in your home, displaying the results in watts or, more usefully, money.
A little transceiver is clipped to the wire running between your meter and the fuse box, and the range for the display box is up to 30m. Plonk it in any room and watch just how much your electricity is costing around the house and have some fun by switching off different devices to see how much the total changes.
o View how much electricity you are currently using - see if leaving that mobile phone charger turned on actually costs you unnecessary money!
o Shows electricity usage in two ways, numerical and colours. Cool blue shows small amount of electricity being used, Red for WARNING drastic increase in electricity consumption! Numerical displays in Watts or Pounds per year
o View your energy consumption over time with the included software (PC&MAC compatible)
o Connect to The Wattson community and hub and compare your usage - Wattson stores data for up to 4 weeks
Apart from being useful, it’s also cool looking. It costs £150 here. Watch it glow in the dark after the jump.-Martin Lynch
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It seems two-thirds of UK phone users are clueless about how to recycle their old phones while 1 in 5 just dump their old ones in the bin – even if they still work.
These are some of the disturbing, but hardly surprising, stats from some new research conducted by Tesco Mobile. According to the survey, 11 million people in the UK will be getting new phones from the fat, beardy guy in the red outfit, while 2 million will just get tossed in the bin. Tesco is hoping to encourage more recycling by offering free airtime [up to £70-worth], Clubcard shopping points or a charitable donation to anyone who recycles their phone through its new phone recycling scheme. You don't have to be a Tesco Mobile customer.
Andy Dewhurst, chief executive officer of Tesco Mobile comments: “These results are very worrying. We’ve decided to take positive steps in response to these findings and have recently launched an online mobile recycling service – www.tescomobilerecyle.com - and re-launched our recycling envelopes in stores with the aim of recycling 1 million mobile phones in the next year alone, helping to reduce the number of handsets that go on the scrap heap and making it even easier for our customers to recycle easily.”
Right now, only 18% of people recycle their phones.-Martin Lynch
[Tesco Mobile Recycle]
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There are a lot of vinyl record players out there that convert your giant audio floppy discs into MP3s, but few that pull off the retro look so well.
Speaking as someone who once inherited an old portable record player with detachable speakers and a handle that looked eerily similar to this, I like the idea, even if it is slightly overcooked. Hell, I still wish I had that old player now with its wood veneer finish, clip-on speakers, crackly sound and somewhat ‘wavy’ record-spinning action.
This is the Crosley Keepsake USB Turntable which will let you convert your records into MP3s, once you hook it up to your PC and use the bundled software. Even better, if all you want to do is to listen to them you can do that too as the Crosley comes with a 3-speed setting for even the oldest vinyl. Anyone for a 78rpm boogie?
Yours for around £77 here.-Martin Lynch
[Red Ferret]
music MP3 records USB
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When is a tree not a tree? When it’s a PC, of course. A Dublin design student scooped the Dyson Ireland Student Design Award last week with her ‘tree PC’, or as it is officially known: "Cultivate - the Sustainable Living Computer".
The tree-like shape allows for each component in the 'branches' to be upgraded easily as it gets older. The trunk houses the motherboard while other components like the memory, processor, hard drive, power supply, speakers etc. are contained in one of the 10 branches. The components can be plucked from the trunk and returned to the manufacturer for upgrading or recycling. But can you easily upgrade it yourself?
The Tree PC also sports some aluminium leaves that act as external heatsinks and, when your work or gaming is done, you can turn on the in-built ambient lights and relax with your techie tree sculpture.-Martin Lynch
[ENN]
PC gadget design
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
