The Mac version still lags its Windows sibling, but it’s getting more mature. My favorite new feature that arrived: tab-to-search.

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Leica has been teasing fans by making what looks like the Leica M9 appear for mere seconds (0:54 and 0:58) in the announcement of a Leica webcast on September 9 2009 (Apple launches new iPods on the same day). The Leica M9 won’t be the only product announced, it seems… Stay tuned!

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The SEC is all up in Apple’s business again, this time over suspicions that some illegal trading may have gone down using insider information in regards to threee “three particular Apple-related developments.” HuffPo’s Dan Dorfman points at someone getting an “illegal lead” on iPod sales, true knowledge of Steve Jobs‘ health, and when Apple was gonna release info about those two things. Hmm. [HuffPo]

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Hookay. So we knew that texting while driving is stupid. But what about using your cellphone to take photos of yourself while driving. Drunk. Speeding. Fishtailing. Running red lights. Crashing against a police car. And with no driver’s license.

Yes. That definitely goes beyond the general area of stupidity straight into the I’m a Bloody Moron, Please Shoot Me Dimension. It had to be a dumb Spaniard, of course, for this Euro-African country—alongside Italy and France—produces the biggest driving—and regular—dumbasses in the planet (I know because I was born there).

The 18-year-old driver—identified as J.C.R—was caught by the Spanish police while racing through the streets of the Northwest city of Vigo. The police noticed the speeding car at 2:50am. According to them, the guy was fishtailing, and running red lights while taking photos of himself using a cellphone.

When the police tried to stop him, the moron accelerated and tried to escape, only to be intercepted in another street. Then he tried to escape running and, when he realized he couldn’t make it, he returned to his car, and crashed against one of the police vehicles that was chasing him.

Adding to this list of idiotic things, when the police tested his alcohol levels, he was off of the scale. In Spanish law, that means that you will get your driver’s license automatically revoked. But then again—as the police discovered later—this guy doesn’t even have a driver’s license, so it’s not that he’s going to care about that. Not that he will need one in jail, anyway. [Yahoo! Noticias (in Spanish)—Thanks Maril?ɬ?]

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Just follow these simple steps.

It’s actually not as scary as it looks. The chart’s a compilation of all of the useful—and interactive—charts for PC troubleshooting and repair by Morris Rosenthal, found here.

But, uh, sometimes, we prefer the one-step solution: Buy a new damn computer. [Morris Rosenthal via BeeBeeGee]

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Looking to live fast and quite possibly die young? Got $2500 burning a hole in your pocket? Do I have a potentially badass obituary for you!

This homemade jetpack is being sold by some dude in Canada via a classified ad. How reputable!

Jet Pack — Jumps You 10′ in the Air

Handcrafted by myself Using Car and Airplane parts. I spent 15 years as a mechanic. Can Use for 2 High Jumps 10 feet in the air with a safe landing before overheating, takes about an hour to cool down after that.

weighs 53lbs, approx Camping backback in size , dull grey in color.

serious buyers only can test out on my property and of course watch me first for safety reasons and training.

OK, let’s break this down. Pros: it’s a jetpack, it’s very somewhat affordable, it looks cool. Cons: it might explode on your back, it only allows for 2 jumps per hour, may toss you into the side of a building.

I’ll be honest, I would have thought I’d be a solid “no” on this. But part of me (the dumber part) is tempted. [Used Victoria via Geekologie]

Update: Now the guy raised his price to $2500!

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Time Bananas and awkward statements aside, Jason Chen’s a pretty cool guy to work for. I’m sure that unlike Vicki Walker’s boss, he wouldn’t fire me for going nuts with bold or colorful fonts in emails. RIGHT?

According to her employer, ProCare Health, Vicki Walker was terminated from her position as a financial controller because she “caused disharmony in the workplace by using block capitals, bold typeface and red text in her emails.”

What Vicki told the New Zealand Herald though, is that it wasn’t a series of emails, but rather one single email which was used in the evidence against her:

The email, which advises her team how to fill out staff claim forms, specifies a time and date highlighted in bold red, and a sentence written in capitals and highlighted in bold blue. It reads: “To ensure your staff claim is processed and paid, please do follow the below checklist.”

To me it sounds like Vicki is either a crazy control freak of a cat lady who insists on spelling things out as if she works with a bunch of children or maybe she learned from experience that her coworkers are in fact childlike and require colorful instructions to guide them. Either way, her email style hurt someone’s feelings and they ran crying to the boss.

Has anyone had any similar experience with typography resulting in a termination or scolding at work? Or do you spend all day idly wishing that you could in fact terminate that coworker who insists on sending emails littered with bold capital letters? [New Zealand Herald]

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Astronomers are rejoicing that they’ve found the best place on earth for astronomical observation. The only problem? It also happens to be the “very worst place on the surface of the planet for humans.” Whoops. Send in the Robots.

Dubbed Ridge A, this magical spot in Antarctica provides such a clear view of the heavens that a “modestly-sized telescope there would be as powerful as the largest telescopes anywhere else on earth.” Scientists will be using the knowledge gained from the first Antarctic robotic viewing station, the PLATeau Observatory, to set up another ‘bot operated observatory station in this dry and cold place:

The simple observatory is, in the words of University of Arizona astronomer Craig Kulesa, a steel shipping container that scientists “cut in half and insulated the crap out of.”

Well, not everything has to be high tech, right? Hacked together or not, the robot-manned observatories are significant not only of the data they provide, but also because of the savings in comparison to a space mission for the same photos:

Getting a kilogram of anything into orbit costs thousands of dollars. The cost of getting a kilogram to Ridge A is about $10.

This means that the National Science Foundation is getting a heck of a lot of research done without the benefits of a NASA-sized budget. Not to mention that robots are far cooler than rockets anyway. [Wired]

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We know Leica’s target demographic is decidedly less consumer and more devoted professional photography, but even still, September 9th isn’t exactly the most apt timing to maximize press coverage on a next generation camera lineup when your competition of the day will be Apple’s annual iPod event and the release of Beatles Rock Band. Still, the urge to make announcements on 9-9-2009 at 9:00AM ET has gotta be too hard to pass up, and possibly not topped until 10:00AM on October 10th of next year. Video teaser after the break; no idea what we’re expecting to see from Leica (M8 successor, perhaps?), but we can all but guarantee it won’t be priced for mass consumption.

[Via Pocket-Lint]

Continue reading Leica to announce new cameras on September 9th, absolute best day to stand out in the headlines

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Leica to announce new cameras on September 9th, absolute best day to stand out in the headlines originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ibase has a cuter motherboard that’s only 7.5×5.2″ big (190×132mm. It accepts an Atom CPU and 2GB of RAM). It has enough connections for most applications. You could can build cool robots or your own setop box… Just look at the specs (from Windowsfordevices):

• Processor — Intel Atom Z510 clocked at 1.1GHz
• Memory — Up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM via single SODIMM slot
• Storage — CompactFlash
• Networking — 1x gigabit Ethernet
• Other I/O:
• 2 x COM (1 front, one rear)
• 6 x USB 2.0 (4 front, 2 rear)
• DVI-D video output
• 12VDC power input
• Expansion — CompactFlash Type II
• Operating temperature — 0 to 45 deg. C (32 to 113 deg. F)
• Dimensions — 7.48 x 5.19 x 1.18 inches (190 x 132 x 30mm)

Permalink: Ibase shows PC computer with 7.5×5.2 inches motherboard from Ubergizmo | Hot: Wii, PS3 and Natal Motion Sensing

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