The Cyclotrope: Using a Bicycle Wheel to Create Animation [Video]

Clever! This video was made using 18 images attached to a bicycle wheel. When spun at a certain speed, the pictures start looking like hilarious animation. Sorta like a Zoetrope but with a bicycle wheel! Oh right...cyclotrope. [Cyclotrope via Neatorama] More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Op1G403VC9c/the-cyclotrope-using-a-bicycle-wheel-to-create-animation

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TaskAware Knows Its Place but Has a Funny Interface

My quest for a perfect taskmaster app to babysit my absent mind continues. I still haven't discovered one with perfect vigilance, something that will consistently, doggedly nag me at intervals of my choosing after I blow it off, regardless of how often I keep hitting Snooze. But a maniacal dedication to annoy me wasn't what initially drew my eye to TaskAware.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/72055.html

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NVIDIA sends GeForce GTX 550 Ti into the $150 graphics card wars

It wasn't that long ago that we were commending ATI on the stellar regularity of its product launches while NVIDIA was floundering, yet now the roles are reversed and we're seeing NVIDIA flesh out its second generation of Fermi products with the midrange GeForce GTX 550 Ti presented today. Its biggest attraction is a $150 price tag, but it makes a major concession in order to reach that pricing plateau -- there are only 192 CUDA cores inside it, equal to the previous-gen GTS 450, but less than the celebrated GTX 460. NVIDIA tries to ameliorate that shortage of parallel processing units by running the ones it has at an aggressive 1800MHz allied to a 900MHz graphics clock speed, and it also throws in a gigabyte of RAM running at an effective rate of 4GHz. That too is constrained somewhat, however, by a 192-bit interface, rather than the wider 256-bit affair on its bigger brother GTX 560 Ti. What all these specs boil down is some decent performance, but few recommendations from reviewers -- mostly due to the abundance of compelling alternatives at nearby price points. Hit up the links below for more.

Read - AnandTech
Read - Tech Report
Read - Guru3D
Read - PC Perspective
Read - techPowerUp!
Read - Hexus

NVIDIA sends GeForce GTX 550 Ti into the $150 graphics card wars originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 09:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/xsp2JK6w-h0/

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Cueboy Quest is an adorable 8-bit style physics game

cueboyquest
Yes, that's right, I said adorable. Because Cueboy Quest really is!

You play an 8-bit cowboy whose goal on each level is to get to the door (and thus to the next level), but the door is often locked. To get it to open, you must shoot at one or more targets, and those targets aren't always in your line of sight. For example, on one level the the target is a balloon which is stuck all the way at the other end of the screen. You must first nudge it free, and then watch it float up and try to shoot it before it floats clear off the screen. Your bullets are chunky pixels that have some weight - the have arcing trajectories, so you don't always hit exactly where you aim.

There's another level where you must jump on the balloon as it floats up, use it as a platform to get to the other end of the screen, and then turn to shoot it very quickly before it flies away. Each level is very short, and most of them are quite easy. And not only are the graphics 8-bit blocky, but they're large too. Simply beautiful!

Cueboy Quest is an adorable 8-bit style physics game originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/22/cueboy-quest-is-an-adorable-8-bit-style-physics-game/

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Download every Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model photo from 1996 to 2011

If you're into buxom bikini-clad babes, the same ingenious script kiddie behind the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2010 and 2011 Perl script downloaders has released a tool to download every photo from 1996 through to 2011, totalling some 7,604 images, or around 15,208 breasts.

This new downloader began its life as a way to circumvent the security measures that Sports Illustrated introduced to prevent the 2011 Perl script downloader from working. SI.com obfuscated the URLs of its photos, breaking the 'dumb' Perl script which just iterated through sequentially-numbered images. The new downloader is more intelligent -- though the developer doesn't say exactly how the new downloader does things -- which will make it harder for for Sports Illustrated to block.

You will need a Windows machine to run the new downloader (or you could virtualize Windows under Linux or Mac), and the .NET 4 Framework (which you probably already have installed).

The downloader will take a while, especially if you want to download every photo from 1996 through to 2011 -- 4 hours, by the developer's reckoning. Having said that, it only took us about 20 minutes to download the 1,400 photos from 2011, so it probably depends on your Internet connection.

Note: the downloader kind of 'locks up' while it's running -- you can still see it downloading, but you can't minimize it or close it. Also, it 'counts up' as it discovers valid photo URLs before it starts downloading, so don't be alarmed if it takes a while for pretty photos to start appearing. If, for some reason, you want to stop the downloader, you have to kill the process via Task Manager.

Download every Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model photo from 1996 to 2011 originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/14/download-every-sports-illustrated-swimsuit-model-photo-from-1996-to-2011/

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Nokia collects design patent for a tablet, evokes N8 aesthetics (update: there's another one!)

It's no secret that Nokia's been casting an interested eye over the tablet market and now we have a bit of extra evidence to show its intent, courtesy of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The federal bureau has just published a design patent granted to the Finnish company for a tablet device, which was applied for on May 28th, 2010. Sadly, that date tells us what we're looking at is most probably a shelved MeeGo machine that never made it to market rather than an upcoming world conqueror, but still, here it is for all of us to gawk at and admire. Judging by the 3.5mm headphone jack outline -- which, like the rest of the dotted lines on the sketch, isn't covered by the patent -- we're likely looking at a 9- or 10-inch slate, whose design reminds us most acutely of Nokia's N8 phone. See more pics in the gallery below before returning to your mind cave to fantasize about what might have been... or might still be.

Update: Electronista notes that Nokia's filed for and received the rights to a second tablet design patent, this one eschewing the N8 inspiration for a more generic shape. See it pictured after the break or at the second link below.

[Thanks, Pradeep]

Continue reading Nokia collects design patent for a tablet, evokes N8 aesthetics (update: there's another one!)

Nokia collects design patent for a tablet, evokes N8 aesthetics (update: there's another one!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceUSPTO (D634,317), (D634,318)  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/15/nokia-collects-design-patent-for-tablet-evokes-n8-aesthetics/

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Is the iMovie on the iPad 2 Really Faster Than on a MacBook Pro? [Benchmarks]

It's easy to assume a MacBook Pro would outgun an iPad in iMovie speed tests, due to its beefier processor and extra RAM. But AppAdvice found that both iPad models bested the MacBook Pro in multiple tests. What gives? More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/P3wuSXUgBr4/is-the-imovie-on-the-ipad-2-really-faster-than-on-a-macbook-pro

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Corel VideoStudio X4 giveaway

corelvideostudiox4giveaway
This morning, Corel released VideoStudio X4. We've already published a quick overview and hands-on of the application, and now is the moment you've all been waiting for: We're giving away ten full licenses of this new version, each worth $99.99!

To enter our random draw, you just have to leave a comment. Full terms and conditions are after the break.

Continue reading Corel VideoStudio X4 giveaway

Corel VideoStudio X4 giveaway originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/22/corel-videostudio-x4-giveaway/

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Berkeley Lab scientists create nanocrystal hydrogen storage matrix, could make for H2 batteries

Berkeley Lab scientists create nanocrystal hydrogen storage matrix, could make for H2 batteries
If you could run your celly on hydrogen you'd have power for days and days -- but, you'd also need to lug around a high-pressure tank to store the stuff. That's no fun, and that's why we're still using Li-ion batteries and the like. But, scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory look to have found a way to possibly ditch the tank, creating a gas-barrier polymer matrix out of polymethyl methacrylate, allowing the H2 gas in but keeping oxygen and everything else out. That matrix contains magnesium nanocrystals that react with the hydrogen to form MgH2, enabling safe, (relatively) low-pressure storage. The H2 can then be released again and the magnesium nanocrystals are freed to bond with another batch of H2 when refilled. It sounds a little like the Cella Energy hydrogen storage solution, but a bit more promising if we're honest. Now for the long, painful wait for this to come to production.

Berkeley Lab scientists create nanocrystal hydrogen storage matrix, could make for H2 batteries originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/14/berkeley-lab-scientists-create-nanocrystal-hydrogen-storage-matr/

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