Forwards from Phil: Feb. 5, 2008
February 5th, 2008 by PhilIt’s a stormy day here in the tri-state region. I only hope I can make it through this post without the power flickering out. It’s getting pretty severe out there, after all. Also, as further proof that Ohio sucks more than Kentucky, it started raining as soon as I crossed into Ohio on my way to work - and I don’t mean a little rain, I mean it went from dry to buckets of rain. Furthermore, every other driver on the road drives like a douchebag, and my horn has decided to not work again, leaving me to feebly flash my lights at offending jackasses who like to cut people off or merge with 0 room between bumpers when it’s f*cking raining.
You know who you are.
That said, here’s what you missed while I was trying to get to work.
- Intel unveiled a new high-end platform today; its name, “Skulltrail”. It features two processor slots for a maximum of 8 cores (2 x Core 2 Quads), a max of 16 GB of RAM, integrated 8-channel Dolby Home Theatre audio, and support for both Nvidia and ATI multiple-GPU configurations. Its price: too damn much. If you had to ask, you don’t need the Skulltrail. Ars Technica sez:
Skulltrail may make sense if you’re a trust-fund baby or a professional working in an area where time is so valuable that it actually makes sense to invest in a workstation this expensive. For everyone else, it’s overkill, and extremely expensive overkill at that. If you want bragging rights, just buy a QX9770. Your friends will still be jealous, your wallet will thank you, and your wife won’t beat the snot out of you with the phone book when you get home.
- Recently, a man found a sealed Apple //c on eBay - sealed as in, hasn’t seen the light of day since it left the factory so many years ago. So, like any good Apple fanboy, he posted photos of the unboxing on the Internet. It’s actually kind of a fascinating find, and (for those of us who’ve bought a Mac in recent memory) an interesting contrast with how Apple packaged things then vs. now.
- PingMag does an article on decotora. Decotora, for those who haven’t heard of it, is sort of like those lame-ass rice rockets you get in America, only instead of tricking out, I dunno, a f*cking Acura - these people take semis or box trucks and just go nuts. Lights (especially neon… lots and lots of neon), murals, ground effects, living rooms in the back, you name it, it’s been done. It’s actually pretty cool, and - of course - it’s straight outta Japan.
- Dutch architects are looking to the future and readying the entire country to float. Holland has problems with flooding anyway, being as large parts of it are below sea level, and climate change is only making it worse. So, they’re making houses with floating foundations, infrastructure like plumbing and electricity that can work underwater, and more.
- Speaking of the apocalypse, here’s io9.com’s seven reasons why Australia is the most apocalyptic country. I think they could’ve stopped at “Mad Max is from Australia” and that’s plenty, but I digress.
- Wired covers history’s greatest gadgets. Among them: a 1st-century B.C. ‘computer,’ Baghdad batteries, pot stills, and Leyden jars.
- Final Destination is back in Smash. Is anyone surprised? I’m sure that if Sakurai and company hadn’t seen fit to put FD back into the game, no doubt someone would’ve made it with the stage builder inside of a week.
- Gamasutra has a retrospective on Dragon Quest - the popularity of the series, why it never took off in America, and more.
- Spencer at Siliconera has an interview with Hudson Soft, covering currently reviving TurboGrafx franchises (such as Dungeon Explorer, which is coming back to the DS and PSP any day now) as well as the possibility of reviving other franchises - such as Bonk, Air Zonk, Neutopia, or possibly finally bringing Far East of Eden to America.
- Here’s a teaser trailer for Faith and a .45. As long as it doesn’t turn into another Kane & Lynch, I’ll be happy. For now, though, I’m taking any news on Faith and a .45 with a grain of salt… but seriously, thrown exploding gas cans ftw.
February 5th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
That truck looks like a super gay Optimus Prime. It’s his little known cousin Sodomus Prime! They don’t speak of him since they found pics of he and Starscream doing things with an Energon Cube that would make the Allspark cringe. Also…a Dojo post on Final Destination? Really? I saw that and I was like, come on Sakurai, you couldn’t have just shown me the 3rd alternate color of Ness’s uniform? That would have interested me MORE.
February 5th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Looks more like Blingimus Prime. Also, Ness’s third color scheme is, as always, “small fat bumblebee.”