Daniel Tammet (born on 31 January 1979) is a British writer and autistic savant. Savantism is a rare condition in which people with 'developmental delays' of the brain (notably autism spectrum), and/or brain injury, demonstrate profound and prodigious capacities and/or abilities far in excess of those considered normal.
Friday, July 13, 2012
This is how to win in style
John Carpenter used his lifeline not because he needed help. He used it just to call his dad to tell him he is going for the kill. What a guy!
Useless Box Kit - The Return
Just a follow-up on that previous post about that useless box kit. Here a better vid:
Aren't they lovely? :D
Aren't they lovely? :D
This Gadget Costs $39, Does Nothing, Nothing At All
It’s called the Useless Box because it doesn’t actually provide a useful function, but despite the claims by its inventor, we see it as the perfect prank for anybody having trouble keeping their hands to themselves.
Everybody knows someone who, upon entering an unfamiliar environment, has an incessant need to touch everything in sight – regardless of its how remarkable – or indeed unremarkable, said objects might be. It’s at times like this that the Useless Box comes in extremely handy, and as the demonstration video shows, its prank value is through the roof.
It’s a small, rather mysterious looking box with a single switch, which immediately catches the eye. The temptation would, quite naturally, to flick it and see what happens. Instead of combusting, setting off fireworks, or triggering a 100+ decibel alarm, a small metal contraption pops from the middle of device, and rather arrogantly flicks the switch back.
As displayed in the video clip, it quickly becomes tedious, but the obvious reaction is to keep flicking the switch. The demonstrator even feigns to move his finger before flicking at one stage, as if it would make any difference, and I have to say, the first time I saw the video, I did laugh for a considerable amount of time.
As well as being ideal mechanism to irritate, it can also be a measure of stupidity. You could keep a mental count of how many times a person flicks the switch, and gauge their mental capacity from that. I have spoken to Mensa, and they can confirm this is indeed an accurate test!
Jokes aside, it’s a whole lot of fun for something billed as useless, and for $39.99, you can own your very own Useless Box. For such a cheap price, I’m certainly considering the purchase, as I know plenty of people I could prank with such a quirky bundle of geek.
Would you buy one? Please let us know by dropping a comment via the usual mediums below!
Source: Redmondpie
Apple Backs Down on Environmental Standard
It’s probably the fastest policy reversal in Apple’s history. After a week of being pilloried for withdrawing from the EPEAT registry — a set of environmental standards for tech products — the Cupertino giant has changed course.
The announcement came in a letter from Bob Mansfield, Apple veteran and the soon-to-retire senior VP of engineering. “We’ve recently heard from many loyal Apple customers who were disappointed to learn that we had removed our products from the EPEAT rating system,” he wrote. “I recognize that this was a mistake. Starting today, all eligible Apple products are back on EPEAT.”
EPEAT requires that companies make products that can be disassembled and repaired by consumers, so that the computer recycling process (which often ends up taking place in the poorer parts of China) isn’t likely to let toxic substances such as batteries leach into the environment.
Apple had signed up for the standard years ago, and withdrew without explanation last week — likely because the design of new products such as the iPad and Macbook with Retina Display makes them much harder to disassemble.
The first sign of trouble over the withdrawal came when the city of San Francisco — Apple’s northern neighbor — announced it would no longer buy Apple products, since it was required to buy EPEAT-certified tech.
The company tried to spin the withdrawal by claiming its own internal environmental standards were stronger than EPEAT’s. Mansfield repeats that claim in his letter: “our engineering teams have worked incredibly hard over the years to make our products even more environmentally friendly, and much of our progress has come in areas not yet measured by EPEAT,” he writes.
Which may well be true, but it didn’t change the large number of government and corporate customers who have hitched themselves to the EPEAT wagon.
One thing that wasn’t clear from Mansfield’s letter: whether Apple’s design would change as a result of this decision. Will iPads suddenly become easy to disassemble and remove the battery from? Here’s the closest Mansfield got to addressing that question:
“Our relationship with EPEAT has become stronger as a result of this experience, and we look forward to working with EPEAT as their rating system and the underlying IEEE 1680.1 standard evolve. Our team at Apple is dedicated to designing products that everyone can be proud to own and use.”
Is this the right move by Apple? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Mashable
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)