Ten sexy nerd Halloween costumes that fail

The Halloween trend for women, it seems, has been to get sexier and more revealing every year. I'd be lying if I said I think that's a bad thing, but there's a problem. Some things should never, ever be made sexy--like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Optimus Prime, or Ghostbusters.

The problem is that not everyone agrees. So there is a Sexy Ghostbuster costume. And a sexy Iron Man getup. And a sexy Optimus Prime outfit.

Tesla opens its Model S electric car factory

On Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and California Senator Diane Feinstein stood before the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant, shuttered since April, and announced its new beginning as the base for Tesla Model S production. The press conference was capped by the unveiling of a large Tesla sign over the plant.

Tesla Vice President for Manufacturing Gilbert Passin conducted a tour through the parts of the factory that will host production lines for the Model S. Passin boasted that acquiring NUMMI was a huge cost savings for Tesla, as building a new plant would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Toyota sold the plant to Tesla for $42 million.

Raging Bull Blows Smoke Out Of Its Nose

In a spontaneous yet extremely dangerous demonstration of smoking hot hoon-ness, the driver of this Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder decided to use a somewhat empty road in Kuwait to show off his burnout skills. The dude looks to have some serious skill with the donut execution and the fact that he’s doing all of it in a Gallardo Spyder made the whole burnout session all the more impressive.

Can't wait for The Hobbit? Check out the bloody trailer for Orcs!

If you can't wait for The Hobbit, and you need an orc fix, you could probably do worse than Orcs!—a low-budget orcsploitation flick that pits well-meaning campers and park rangers against, you know, orcs—because the tag line is "They'll eat your face off."

There's nothing in this trailer that explains why, exactly, fell Tolkien-esque beasts are laying siege to modern-day victims—but, honestly, I'd be disappointed if they tried. Because if you're going to make a cheesy B movie like this, the last thing you should let get in the way is logic. All you need is "There are Orcs. They will eat your face off. Let's move on."

Peter Jackson officially announces the cast of The Hobbit (Yes!)

The Hobbit is moving out of New Zealand to Australia. Or to London. Or maybe it isn't after all. We don't know, and we're not sure that Peter Jackson knows either. But one thing Jackson does know—and now WE know—is who'll be starring in the long-delayed movie.

Mac App Store Provokes Developer Interest, Concern

Apple is on a mission to cram the iPad’s and iPhone’s successes into the Mac, beginning with a brand-new software store serving Mac apps. That may be both good and bad.

The Mac App Store will create a new channel for Mac users to find software easily, and it will make it easier for programmers to reach a large audience. But some developers worry about Apple’s future road map, and the potential the App Store has to turn the Mac platform into a more closed, controlled environment subject entirely to Apple’s whims.

“I wonder when Apple will stop shipping Safari,” said Mike Beltzner, director of the Firefox browser at the Mozilla foundation. “It’s obvious already from [Wednesday's] keynote that they’re looking to bypass the web.”

Why HP's Slate isn't anything like the iPad

Editor’s Note: This story is excerpted from Computerworld. For more Mac coverage, visitComputerworld’s Macintosh Knowledge Center.

HP released its Slate 500 tablet this week. Immediately, everyone started comparing it with Apple’s iPad. But the two devices have nothing significant in common. They are in entirely different device categories and can even be thought of as opposites.

Some of my fellow journalists, industry watchers, Wall Street types and others seem to have difficulty making this distinction and continue to confuse the public by comparing the two.

I believe there’s an important distinction—as important as the difference between, say, a PDA and a smartphone was back when PDAs existed.

Watch Army Exoskeletons Stomp, Haul Steel

Much of the fanfare at this week’s Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington D.C. touted the expected drones, robot guns, helicopters and armored vehicles. But then there were the guys walking around in 82 pounds’ worth of hydraulic-powered exoskeletons.

Real Men Use Android: Special Forces Favor Google Phone

The Army is 20 years and a half-billion dollars into a star-crossed effort to build custom communications and digital-mapping gadgets for its soldiers. Special Operations Command, on the other hand, is taking a simpler approach: They’re planning to use Android phones.

Last week, the SOCOM asked coders to create a suite of applications for keeping commandos linked up while they’re out on missions. The software should include chat functions, file transfers, video display and “multi-touch whiteboarding aka John Madden tool.”

Humongous 58-inch multi-touch iPhone desk actually works

They say it's not how big it is, but what you do with it that counts, but that could all change when this gigantic 58-inch working iPhone desk is completed.

The desk in the pictures is just a mockup, but the people from Table Connect say they will reveal the actual working version on Tuesday. To make the desk work, you need to connect a regular jailbroken iPhone, and then the giant multi-touch surface acts like a huge remote display.

Got a flesh wound? Why not print some new skin?

Normally, if part of your skin is badly damaged in an accident, you'll need skin grafts from other parts of your body to replace the damaged skin layers. Now a group of researchers at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine says that new skin can actually be printed, using technology that's very similar to a regular ink jet printer.

Shapeshifting floating hotel is the world's slowest cruise ship

This bizarre concept is sort of a cross between a floating hotel and super slow cruise ship. Called the Morphotel, it has been created by Italian architect Gianluca Santosuosso for the Indian Navy Docks of Greater Mumbai.

His vision calls for the Morphotel to go on an endless journey around the world, stopping occasionally in various ports to become a temporary extension of the city itself, as people and supplies come and go.

Texas Supreme Court cites Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1digg

394Share

In something that seems like gag from a Big Bang Theory spec script that never got made, it appears that the Texas Supreme Court has taken a page from the Vulcan Academy of Jurisprudence.
Techdirt and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association report that the Texas Supreme Court opinion Robinson v. Crown Cork and Seal refers to the dictum put forward by Mr. Spock in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

Lamborghini Opens First Two Stores In Mexico

In a country where bulls are often the subject of cultural spectacles, a different kind of bull is heading to Mexico, only this time, that bull is 100% pure Italian grade.

Lamborghini, those bulls from Sant’Agata, have opened two dealerships in the country, marking the first time the Italian supercar brand has made it’s way to Mexico. The first dealership that opened on October 26th was the “Lamborghini Mexico City” dealership, which is located at the heart of one of the country’s busiest districts on Insurgentes Sur.

The Process Of Building The Audi E-Tron Spyder

When the Audi E-Tron Spyder Concept was first introduced at the 2010 ParisMotor Show, a lot of people – us included – we’re enamored by the car’s simplistic yet completely sexy design. Nevermind that it was a concept vehicle because whatever category it was, the car was oozing with awesomeness.

7 new images from Captain America!

The folks at Live for Films have posted a batch of new images from Entertainment Weekly's feature on Joe Johnston's upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger ... including one of Cap's nemesis, Red Skull!

Aside from the obligatory shirtless shot of Chris Evans as a buffed-out Steve Rogers (aka Captain America), we have: Hayley Atwell giving off a definite Diana Prince vibe as Peggy Carter; Evans sporting the old-skool Cap shield of the World War II era, Jack Kirby vintage; some nasty-looking submarine hardware, and a shot of Hugo Weaving, recently seen in Johnston's The Wolfman, looking every inch the villain decked out as a pre-deformity Red Skull, Johann Schmidt!

DIY HD kit gives old laptop drives new life

Replacing hard drives in laptops isn't new, and neither is converting old drives into external backup drives. Yours Truly did both those things about a month ago, taking my MacBook's stock 80GB drive, replacing it with a 250GB drive, and then taking the old drive and adding it to a bus-powered 2.5-inch enclosure to make a portable 80GB HD I can take anywhere.

Other World Computing has new kits that combine both a new drive and an external enclosure, as well as all the tools you'll need to do the upgrade and build the external.

Nintendo: Apple can 'hurt us' more than Microsoft

Nintendo believes Apple is a bigger threat to its business than Microsoft, the company's president said in an interview last week.

"Do I think that in the near term [Apple] can hurt us more than Microsoft?" Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said to Forbes in an the interview. "Absolutely."

But that doesn't mean Nintendo thinks Apple can eventually beat it. Fils-Aime told Forbes that Apple is catering to a "casual" audience that craves "distraction," while Nintendo is providing a more well-rounded gaming experience that "consumes" audiences.

Apple iPad Now on Sale at Verizon, AT&T

Carrier rivals AT&T and Verizon began selling the Apple iPad today in hopes of tapping into some holiday generosity.

As widely reported a couple weeks ago, Verizon Wireless announced plans to start selling the Apple iPad Oct. 28 through a MiFi bundle that lets you connect up to five devices at once.

The bundle includes a Wi-Fi-only iPad and a cigarette box-sized MiFi 2200 3G Hotspot, which comes with multiple ports. Data plans start at $20 a month for 1GB, and do not require contracts.

Why Apple's 11-Inch MacBook Air Is TSA-Approved

Have you heard? Apple's new 11-inch MacBook Air is preapproved for airport security. That's right: Carry one of those bad boys through a TSA checkpoint, and you don't even have to take it out of your bag.
So what sets the MacBook Air apart from other noncheckpoint-friendly notebooks? It isn't that the TSA is full of certified Apple fanboys. The truth is that it all comes down to size.
Apple's MacBook Air and Airport Security
Though Apple doesn't consider the 11-inch MacBook Air a netbook, the computer's small profile puts it in the same category as netbook-designated devices -- at least, in the eyes of Homeland Security. We tech folks may look at things like specs and price tags when categorizing a computer, but the TSA is more concerned with how much space the system takes up.

Tests warned of cement troubles before BP blowout

 Tests performed before the deadly blowout of BP's oil well in the Gulf of Mexico should have raised doubts about the cement used to seal the well, but the company and its cementing contractor used it anyway, investigators with the president's oil spill commission said Thursday.

It's the first finding from the commission looking into the causes of the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers and led to the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. And it appears to conflict with statements made by Halliburton Co., which has said its tests showed the cement mix was stable. The company instead has said BP's well design and operations were responsible for the disaster.

Oakely's 3D Tron glasses are for true fans only

If you're planning to go see the upcoming Tron Legacy in theaters, you're gonna need 3D glasses to get the full experience. And sure, you could just use the crappy ones that they give everyone, but is that what a true fan would do? I don't think so.
Oakely's new limited edition Tron 3D glasses will show everybody that you're super into a movie you haven't even seen yet. For a mere $150, you too can own some sweet blue wraparound glasses that you can only wear while watching 3D movies. Sure, that's a lot, but how else are you going to prove your ultimate fandom?
Oakley via Technabob

China boasts world's fastest supercomputer

China is set to trump the US to take the number one spot for the fastest supercomputer ever made in a survey of the world's zippiest machines, it was reported Thursday.

Tianhe-1, meaning Milky Way, has a sustained computing speed of 2,507 trillion calculations per second, making it the fastest computer in China on a list published Thursday.

But it is also 1.4 times faster that the world's current fastest ranked supercomputer in the US, housed at a national laboratory in Tennessee, according to the New York Times.

Concept car brings smartphone app model to auto industry

Just as popular the Mini Cooper is essentially the VW Bug of our era, if you're curious as to what the next super-compact car might look like, the Null concept electric vehicle would be an impressive upgrade for the future.
Designed by Jeongche Yoon, the car is unique in that its design was inspired by the popularity of smartphones. The car's rear "docking area" is meant to serve as a kind of port for "applications" (read: car accessories) from various vendors who might create anything from a portable bar stand or a bicycle mount to go with the car. The immense detail and modeling that went into this design is only matched by the amazing video that shows the Null in action, which you can check out below.
Via Jeongche Yoon

StarCraft Ghost costume gets my vote for best costume ever

If you want to assure yourself of the best Halloween candy haul ever, just turn up at my door dressed like this. I promise, I will give you absolutely everything I have on hand.
Created by a fan for BlizzCon 2010, all it took was some football pads, a slightly modifiedNerf gun, and some golf gloves, to create this tribute to the never released game that was the talk of the show. Actually, that's kind of unfair as I'm sure a lot of work went into this.
Of course, having it modeled by a smokin' hot babe wearing some weird contact lenses doesn't hurt.
I promise, I'll do anything. Just put away the gun. LINK
Unreality, via Technabob

China's world's fastest supercomputer needs a casemod — badly

China is catching up to the world kiddies. First, they want to build their own space station and now they are claiming to have the world's fastest supercomputer? It's nice to know that the land of knock-offs isn't simply building the next iPhone rip-off and actually making strides in computing.
Designed by the National University of Defense Technology in China, the Tianhe-A1 the is new king of supercomputers — capable of crunching 2.507 petaflops of data. Tianhe-A1 is made up of 7,168 Nvidia GPUs (and you thought your two GPUs in your MacBook Pro was overkill) and 14,336 Intel Xeon CPUs costing a total of $88 million.
It's quite bland looking if we say so ourselves. Why can't the world's fastest supercomputers look super rad like this cyber punk PC? We know the Tianhe-A1 weighs 155 tons, but we're just saying, if you're going to be the world's best or fastest whatever, at least look the part.
Nvidia, via Mashable

Northrop Arms Its Robot Pack Mule With Big Gun

Jon Anderson has seen a lot of gawkers pause at his Northrop Grumman booth in the Association of the U.S. Army’s Washington conference. Not that he’s odd-looking or off-putting: He’s a gregarious guy. The stares he’s getting are about the .50-caliber M2 machine gun he’s got mounted on a treaded robot — something Northrop isn’t even selling right now.

“Quite frankly,” explains Anderson, a Northrop advanced-systems employee with short white hair and a whiter smile, “a weapon on a robot brings people into the booth.”

If Batman's Batpod was electric, it'd look like this

The Batpod in Christopher Nolan's geek-tastic Dark Knight was one slick looking piece of moto-bike. Too bad, none of Batman's vehicles are electric. This all terrain electric bike has the fat tires to fit right into Batman's fat-wheel-vehicle obsession.
With a powerful 600 watt brushless electric motor, the Hanebrink All-Terrain Electric Bike can travel up to 100 miles on a single charge. Its 8-inch thick tires allow it to be used on all different types of terrains such as snow and sand. Does crushing over scum like Scarecrow count as a type of terrain? The electric bike sells for $5,500 — a bargain according to Hanebrink. They say traditional mountain bikes start at $3,000.
The Hanebrink bike can travel at a top speed of 20 miles per hour and looks really nice in black. That kid with the sky-blue bike? Yeah, not nearly as nice. Batman better go green in his next movie because come on, the dude destroys like half of Gotham and doesn't even need to pay for any damages. LINK
Fortune Hanebrink, via Toxel

Boba Fett's bill for capturing Han Solo

LINK

Cameron will try to keep 3D afloat with Avatar sequels

Was there ever any doubt that James Cameron was going to milk last year's smash hitAvatar with sequels? We had an inkling of a feeling that he would do it. Cameron jointly announced with 20th Century Fox that he would be bringing fans back to Pandora with two new Avatar films.

Transparent super armor created from Alzheimer's protein

One of the causes of Alzheimer's disease is thought to be a buildup of plaque in the brain, caused by some nasty little proteins called beta-amyloids. Scientists in Israel have managed to take those proteins and put them to work, creating an organic material that's printable, transparent, and twice as strong as Kevlar.
Not only is this new super-material stronger than both Kevlar and steel, as far as is known it's the hardest organic material in existence, ever. It also happens to be completely transparent, printable, easy to manipulate and just as easy (i.e. cheap) to manufacture.

Using technology to cheat at baseball: a history

It's autumn in America, and that can mean only one thing: the World Series! But you know what they say about baseball: "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't trying." And although the game has remained largely unchanged over the years, it hasn't been immune to the technology that has evolved around it… which can sometimes used for nefarious purposes.
Every angle of a modern stadium might be covered by HD cameras that are uplinked to satellites and all the fans have smartphones, but on the field of play, technology is pretty much prohibited. For example, MLB rules don't disallow the stealing of signals, if done "naturally." A runner on second base can spot the signals, but he can't use any type of electronics to read or convey them.

With Kinect, Microsoft Aims for a Game Changer

Tim Nichols measures fun.

A slim, 32-year-old psychologist, he spends his days behind a one-way mirror at Microsoft's (NasdaqGS: MSFT - News) video games research center here, watching people play the company's Xbox systems. He looks for smiles, listens for ecstatic squawks and logs triumphant gyrations. When a game is good, it elicits all the above and gets a "fun score" high enough for Microsoft to consider selling it.

And, of late, the fun quotient has skyrocketed.

China plans to have its own space station in orbit by 2020

As America's space ambitions wane on a national level — NASA is currently being retooled to pursue next generation technology and not manned missions — China is looking to expand its presence in orbit. The country wants to have both crew and lab modules in space by 2020.
While both America and Russia have a long history with manned space stations thanks to Skylab and Mir, respectively, many nations currently have a stake in the International Space Station including America, Russia, Japan, the European Space Agency and Italy, and Canada and Brazil. Both the ESA and Japan have even contributed physical modules.

Buy the original Darth Vader costume and rule with an iron fist

Do you have trouble gaining respect at work? Do you just not have the intimidation factor necessary to have people do what you say? Well, here's a possible solution: an original Darth Vader costume used in The Empire Strikes Back. Yeah, that'll get their attention.
The costume is going up for auction at Christie's in London and is expected to fetch between $250,000 and $365,000. Sure, that's a whole lot of money for a costume, but come on. Halloween is this weekend, and I'm pretty sure you'd put any other costume to shame with this thing. Worth it!
Via Daily News

Would you pay a monthly fee to view your 2D photos in 3D?

We told you that glasses-free 3D tech is going to be the new trend. Nikon seems to have gotten the memo. Its latest digital photo frame can convert 2D photos into 3D ones through its online storage service — but would you pay a monthly subscription just for that feature?

Indonesia struggles as tsunami, volcano tolls rise

MENTAWAI ISLANDS, Indonesia – Helicopters with emergencysupplies finally landed Wednesday on remote Indonesian islands slammed by a tsunami that killed more than 300 people, while elsewhere in the archipelago the toll from a volcanic eruption rose to 30, including the mountain's spiritual caretaker.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cut short a state visit to Vietnam to deal with the dual disasters that struck Indonesia in one 24-hour period, straining the country's ability to respond.

The first aerial surveys of the region hit by the 10-foot (three-meter) tsunami revealed huge swaths of land underwater and the crumbled rubble of homes torn apart by the wave. One house lay tilted, resting on the edge of its red roof, with tires and slabs of concrete piled up on the surrounding sand.

Two days after an undersea earthquake spawned the killer wave, the casualty count was still rising as rescuers landed for the first time on the Mentawai island chain, which was closest to the epicenter and the worst hit. Bad weather had kept them away previously.