Because An Indian Version of Sweet Child of Mine Totally RoXX0rs

I’ve always thought that the promo spots for Channel [V] totally sucked in comparison to the MTV spots, until I saw this little clip on YouTube. Totally awesome. Haven’t seen it here yet though.

Nerdgasm Alert: This is what they mean by Pure Black Plasma TV

(Pic from Gizmodo, link below)

Despite the rather lukewarm reception to the CES 2008 show, one piece of interesting news came up about the new Pioneer Plasma screens in the latest TWiT podcast, where the blacks were so black, that you couldn’t spot it in a room with the lights off. A great statement to make, except that in an audio podcast talking about TV’s, it’s kinda hard to feel the full impact of such a device.

Voila! Gizmodo took a picture of the new Pioneer Kuro Extreme Contrast (“Kuro” means “black” in Japanese”), and there you have it–Robert Heron’s wet dream come alive. And that’s not all–the Plasma TV is just 9mm thin. That’s fucking crazy, man. Imagine a 50-inch screen, with this sorta contrast, and less than 1cm thick. Crap. I want one.

Pioneer execs shuffle us into a dark room, reveal the most critically acclaimed TV made, and then unveil a TV that can kick its ass on contrast. Yes, Pioneer’s current Kuro—the “best flat-panel ever”—was shedding light like a sumbitch next to Pioneer’s concept Kuro, whose black literally emits no light. So here it is, a strange Battlemodo pitting the super-hot 8th-gen Pioneer plasma against its own future self.

And in case there are any girls out there who can’t understand what this whole nerdgasmic rant is all about, here’s a little video explaining why this plasma screen is so brilliant (or rather, just the complete opposite).

Because Carmen Electra Became Hot Without Make-Up

Gotta admit that when I first saw this story on Digg I didn’t really hit it. I mean, Carmen Electra is so overdone and over made up, I never expected anything too mind-blowing with the title “I Never Knew Carmen Electra Was This Pretty.” Then, Diggnation happened, I saw the picture, and I was blown away (full pic here). And yes, I know there’s a pussy on her back, but this is such a totally SFW and innocent picture that no puns come to mind at the mo. Yes, it is possible to see a Carmen Electra photo without having dirty thoughts.

Bionic Eyesight: Coming Soon in a Future Near You

I haven’t seen the latest re-incarnation of the Bionic Woman yet, but hell, from the way things are going in our science labs, the Bionic Woman may be soon be considered out of date, thanks to the good engineering folks at the University of Washington. Word is that they’ve developed a rabbit-tested contact lens that has embedded electronic circuits and lights, enabling us to browse the web in the future through our contact lenses.

This, however, fails desperately in comparison to good-ol’ beer goggles. Here’s an excerpt:

Movie characters from the Terminator to the Bionic Woman use bionic eyes to zoom in on far-off scenes, have useful facts pop into their field of view, or create virtual crosshairs. Off the screen, virtual displays have been proposed for more practical purposes – visual aids to help vision-impaired people, holographic driving control panels and even as a way to surf the Web on the go.

The device to make this happen may be familiar. Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

“Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside,” said Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering. “This is a very small step toward that goal, but I think it’s extremely promising.”

The results were presented today at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ international conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems by Harvey Ho, a former graduate student of Parviz’s now working at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Calif. Other co-authors are Ehsan Saeedi and Samuel Kim in the UW’s electrical engineering department and Tueng Shen in the UW Medical Center’s ophthalmology department.

The MacBook Air: What’s Your Take?

(Pic from Joyoftech)

So now that the MacBook Air’s out, what’s the reaction after the reality-field has died down? I won’t go into a long rant about it, but I think it’s safe to say that,at USD1799, the MacBook Air is clearly a supplemental laptop for those who can afford the cool factor–given its specs, it’s clearly not going to be your primary computer, so it’s really a really cool-looking luxury item for the rich. The only question here is not whether you want it, or need it, but whether you can afford it.

Here’s a rundown of stories where you can find more opinions on the MacBook Air: Arstechnica, and MacBreak Weekly Podcast both give it a rather “meh” conclusion, while Gizmodo gives a decent rundown on where the MacBook Air lies against its competition.

Plaything for the rich or innovation that will change the way we work? There’s more than enough voices out there to make your own conclusions, but one thing’s for sure: not everyone’s drinking the kool-aid.

PS: I can’t afford it.