Author: Gary Cutlack
Speak Swedish? Speak English? Want to help The Pirate Bay live-blog its imminent copyright trial via Twitter?
Then step right up! The Pirate Bay, the mega piracy portal which always goes to great lengths to point out it doesn’t actually host the files it catalogues, is going to court very soon – charged with, well, you can probably guess. Letting the world watch Quantum of Solace without having to go to the cinema or HMV.
A live audio feed of the Bay’s trial will be made available online, but the problem is it’s all being conducted in Sweden. In Swedish. And with the best will in the world, Swedish could never be described as the language of the internet. We’d imagine it’s only the third most popular language even in Sweden…
Google saving the world with PowerMeter – an online guide to how much electricity your fridge is using
Google has announced an odd little scheme it’s calling PowerMeter – which, it reckons, could eventually save us all 15% on our electricity bills.
How does it do this? Well, it probably can’t at the moment – the PowerMeter requires you to have a utility company and modern ‘smart’ electricity meter that gives out streaming power usage data. The main gadget for use at the moment is the AWESOME POWER of the MIND, which, by having a plug-in that constantly…
Video Game BAFTA nominations announced – Call of Duty, GTA IV and Rock Band lead predictable line up
The Video Game BAFTAs are nothing to do with the proper BAFTA awards that happened over the weekend. It’s different. It is, more importantly, a separate event, so you don’t get the oddly-shaped, bearded, podgy video game makers of the world mingling with the beautiful people of the film universe.
The gaming BAFTA winners will be announced this March and the Academy has just released its full, vast list of all the nominations. They’re all here, right from “Best Game” to the odd world of “Best Audio”.
You and I, the common folk, are allowed to vote in only ONE category – the GAME-sponsored “GAME Award of 2008”. Nine games are in this category – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, Guitar Hero…
The Zoom Bicycles Jet Stealth 80cc Bicycle Engine Kit, for weak-limbed environmentalists
If you’ve ever been caught out on your bike, riding into the wind, up a slight hill, almost in tears at how hard it is and WISHING with all your might that someone would invent a little engine to help you out at times like this, you’re in luck – here’s a little engine to help you out at times like that.
The Zoom Bicycles DIY engine enhancement kits come with anything from a 49cc to an 80cc engine to pop onto your bike yourself and eliminate all that tiresome pedalling, but the catch is the weight – the motor adds around 19lbs (8.6 kilos to you Euro-people) to the weight of your bike…
Woman filing for divorce after husband caught "having it off with another man in a dungeon" in Second Life
The husband in question is John Best, 34, who, if you ever believe what the News of the World says, was using his laptop in bed – while his wife was asleep – to indulge in a bit of M2M action in Second Life.
He had a great excuse for doing it. He said “it wasn’t real life” which, to be fair, is 100% correct. Here’s the NotW’s superb visual representation of the story…
“I couldn’t sleep a wink the rest of the night wondering whether this meant he was betraying me or not – that he’d rather have gay sex on Second Life than…
D-Link opens up home Big Brother options with its DCS-910 and DCS-2121 wireless network cameras
D-Link has invented a niche it’s calling the “home security market” – and has released a couple of webcams to help you discover who it is that’s eating all the biscuits.
The DCS-2121 Megapixel Wireless Network Camera is the hottest of the pair, coming fully loaded up with wi-fi connectivity…
UK set to overtake Japan as the CENTRE of the gaming UNIVERSE this year
Poor old Japan is about to fall behind the UK in the global video game charts, with us lot finally spending more of our remaining cash on gaming than the Japanese – making the UK second only to the USA in how much cash we blow on various Halos and Mario Karts.
Figures released by UK sales-counter Chart-Track show that for the first five weeks of 2009 sales of games were up 37% in the UK, as kids spent their Christmas money on novelty Wii games like never before…
Kindle was such a… success… Amazon is pushing ahead with Kindle 2
It was, as everything always is, leaked on the internet a couple of weeks ago, now Amazon’s finally detailed the specs of Kindle 2 – ideal if you’re just starting to get in on the hot new book-reading scene.
Kindle 2 will feature a 25% longer battery life, according to Amazon, will turn the pages 20% quicker if you’re an amazingly impatient person for whom TIME is MONEY and you can’t waste TIME waiting for PAGES to BLOODY TURN, will be thinner and…
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to star on US version of Dancing with the Stars
Now, to us lot, The Woz is a true star. He started up Apple with Steve Jobs in the 1970s, designed and built the original Apple and Apple II computers, before officially leaving the company in 1987 – but remaining a popular commenter on Apple issues to this very day.
But is he really famous enough to become a reality star? Apparently so, with the bearded Wozniak signed up to appear on the US treatment of Dancing with the Stars, the latest in abysmal TV shows to feature famous people literally DANCING FOR OUR AMUSEMENT…
Literally *INSANE* Sky claims that watching HD broadcasts helps combat depression
Genius. Simple genius. Sky has teamed up with psychologist Donna Dawson to claim that watching broadcasts in HD via Sky+HD can help alleviate the symptoms of depression.
Of course, as men who have just spent an obscene amount of money on an HDTV and Sky+HD subscription, there is indeed something calming and enjoyable about sitting there, basking in the HD glow, smug in the fact that your picture has more pixels in it than the picture your neighbours are lumbered with.
But the completely ludicrous PDF guide to Sky+HD claims that “programmes with vivid, bright and sharply defined colours create a visual sensation for our eyes, which help to lift our spirits and energise…
