Laser Harp [♬] [DIY]

•January 4, 2019 • Leave a Comment

Take a great string instrument, add lasers, win. One step closer to Futurama’s holophonor:

These aren’t just any old microcontroller-generated sounds. Rather than simply generating a tone or controlling a synthesizer, the PIC32 uses the Karplus-Strong algorithm to model the vibration of a plucked string. The result is very realistic, with all the harmonics you’d expect to hear from a plucked string. [Alex] does a decent job putting the harp through its paces in the video above. [hackaday.com/laser-harp…]

Or screw the harp all together and become a one man entertainment machine:

Yeeeaaaah, fuck ancient instruments 。゚(˵¯̴͒ᗨ¯̴͒˵)゚。 If that isn’t extra, I don’t know what is.

No Doubt — “Oi To The World!” [♬]

•December 25, 2018 • Leave a Comment

M e r r y   C h r i s t m a s   F a m ! ! !

Haji was a punk just like any other boy
And he never had no trouble ’til he started up his oi band
Safe in the garage or singing in the tub
‘Til Haji went too far and he plugged in at the pub

‘Twas a cold Christmas Eve when Trevor and the skins
Popped in for a pint and to nick a bag of crisps
Trevor liked the music but not the Unity
He unwound Haji’s turban and he knocked him to his knees

If God came down on Christmas Day
I know exactly what He’d say
He’d say oi to the punks and oi to the skins
But oi to the world and everybody wins

Haji was a bloody mess, he ran out through the crowd
He said We’ll meet again we are bloody but not unbowed
Trevor called his bluff and told him where to meet
Christmas day on the roof down at 20 Oxford Street

If God came down on Christmas Day
I know exactly what He’d say
He’d say oi to the punks and oi to the skins
And oi to the world and everybody wins

On the roof with the nun chucks Trevor broke a lot of bones
But Haji had a sword like that guy in Indiana Jones

Police sirens wailing, a bloody dying man
Haji was alone and abandoned by his band
Trevor was there fading and still so full of hate
When the skins left him there and went down the fire escape (oi oi)

And Haji saw the north star shining more then ever
So he made a tourniquet from his turban saving Trevor
They repelled down the roof with the rest of the turban
And went back to the pub where they bought each other bourbon

If God came down on Christmas Day
I know exactly what He’d say
He’d say oi to the punks and oi to the skins
Oi to the world and everybody wins
If God came down on Christmas Day
I know exactly what He’d say
He’d say oi to the punks and oi to the skins
And oi to the world and everybody wins (oi oi)

Jewelry-Stealing Prank in China Has Employees Leaping Over Counters

•December 24, 2018 • Leave a Comment

Watch these poor jewelry shop clerks come close to a heart attack as they leap over counters chasing down customers who are running off with jewelry, except they aren’t:

Jewelry store “customers” try on expensive merch, then sprint towards the exit door. As the store employee chases after them, the prankster then casually stops in front of a mirror near the front door, as if that had always been their intention. Although not so nice, it’s hard not to chuckle at how well the frantic employee transitions into an about face and casually walks away.

The jewelry-stealing prank is believed to have been inspired by an Indonesian influencer’s shoplifting prank, Harvinth Skin, which went viral in Asia last month. Chinese pranksters upped the stakes by essentially pulling off the same prank at jewelry stores:

Lost & Found [stop-motion animation]

•December 22, 2018 • Leave a Comment

*Cough-right-in-the-feels-Cough* An endearing animated short about the selflessness of true love that tugs at the heartstrings. A knitted toy dinosaur must completely unravel itself to save the love of its life:

Lost & Found is an endearing stop motion film that chronicles a dramatic turning point in the sweet relationship between two crocheted animal toys. A foxy fox and smitten dinosaur have enjoyed many special memories in their adopted home of a Japanese restaurant’s lost and found bin. But when the fox topples into a fountain, the dinosaur must give his all to save her. The short film imagines the inner lives of its stuffed animal protagonists and uses the fragile nature of crochet as the crux of the storyline. Lost & Found has been widely lauded at film festivals since its debut this year. You can see behind the scenes of the film below:

“Bohemian Rhapsody” on Boomwhackers [♬]

•December 21, 2018 • Leave a Comment

HarvardTHUD performs a charming cover of Queen’s Magnum Opus on their colorful plastic noisemakers:

I didn’t know what boomwhackers were before watching this. Impressive coordination, but I still can’t wrap my head around what the crap a boomwhacker is for, as in, humanity has reached a point where we have things called instruments! I’m serious. And…I wanna wear a fancy hat.

Here is the only rendition I need; one man bearing his souly soul:

The Chemical Brothers — “Free Yourself” [music video]

•November 28, 2018 • Leave a Comment

Electronic music and robots go well together, don’t they just.

Love me a robot uprising. Not sure why but, “Free Yourself” reminded me of “Base 6” which I played the shit out of back in 2002 and is, in my opinion, the cooler track:

Forklift Accident Causes an Entire Warehouse to Collapse like Dominoes

•November 20, 2018 • Leave a Comment

(¬_¬)

((@_@;))

R.I.P. Stan Lee 1922 ~ 2018

•November 13, 2018 • Leave a Comment

Stan Lee, the legendary writer, editor and publisher of Marvel Comics whose marvelous but flawed creations made him a real-life superhero to comic-book lovers everywhere, has died. He was 95.

Found these neat panels in one of my 50-cent purchases from back in the day.

Marvel Comics; X-Men Minus 1 Flashback (1997)

I love storytelling in general, and comics are an art-form unto itself with a unique way of enriching the reading experience. If you frequent le blog you would have surely seen the hyperlink tags “Comics” and “I COMICS.” My love for them comes with its own origin story, and although I feel my content of choice has graduated from the typical costumed Marvel heroes to more self-contained, creator owned creations, there is no denying the history of comics and why they flourished and endured, and for that, my hats off to Stan “the man” Lee.

Slow Pulp — “Steel Birds” [♬]

•November 9, 2018 • Leave a Comment

Ferry Collides with Crane on Dock, Sparking Huge Fire

•November 2, 2018 • Leave a Comment

A passenger ferry caught in bad weather collided with a huge loading crane at the port of Barcelona, Spain, today, causing it to collapse and spark an explosion:

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/world/ferry-collides-with-crane-on-dock-sparking-huge-fire/ar-BBPbxU1

Grandi Navi Veloci, the Italian company that owns the ferry, said in a statement that strong winds and sea currents prevented the ship from docking, eventually pushing it against the port’s crane. Nobody was injured in the accident.

On Tuesday, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship had to make an emergency stop in Spain after experiencing technical issues and allegedly taking on water. The same day, bad weather caused a cruise ship to collide with another vessel in the port of La Spezia, Italy.

プレイステーション クラシック Full Games List

•October 30, 2018 • Leave a Comment

It could be worse…

It could be a heck of a lot better too! Rainbow Six…GTFOOH!

For the Japanese version, these titles — Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, Grand Theft Auto, Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, Rayman, Syphon Filter, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six and Twisted Metal — will be replaced with these:

Arc the Lad / Arc the Lad 2 / Armored Core / G Darius / Gradius Gaiden / Parasite Eve / SaGa Frontier / XI [sai] (Devil Dice)

Basically the titles chosen for blatant social engineering purposes have been replaced.

Definitely gifting this to my little bro hehe, gonna hide it in the compost and play hot-and-cold for it. As far as I am concerned, the western version of Playstation Classic is awful and not for young minds. I bought a SNES Classic for my little bro this Christmas instead — way more kid/fun friendly, because those are the level of decisions big brothers should make. Heck, I want to play some of these gems myself:

⬆ T H I S   I S   B E T T E R 

‘SpotMini’ Robot Dances to Bruno Mars

•October 17, 2018 • Leave a Comment

Machines, before they rule, shit like this is how they will win us over.

Funny. Really smooth execution. Also were all going to die.

SpotMini is a nimble four-legged robot that handles objects, climbs stairs, and will operate in offices, homes and outdoors. It weighs 25 kg (30 kg if you include the arm). SpotMini is all-electric and can go for about 90 minutes on a charge, depending on what it is doing. SpotMini is the quietest robot we have built.

Our mission is to build the most advanced robots on Earth, with remarkable mobility, agility, dexterity and speed.” ~ Boston Dynamics (aka Skynet!)