1978 articles on Culture

  • Review: The Razer Tiamat 7.1 Pushes the Gaming Audio Bar
    The breadth of performance specs on the Razer Tiamat 7.1 would make some high claims indeed. The headset is positioned by the manufacturer as the first true 7.1 surround sound headset. The circumaural Razer Tiamat 7.1 deploys ten individual drivers in its headphone unit that are configured to create what is meant to be a multi-positional sound experience. There are two sub-woofer drivers, two front drivers, two center drivers, two side surround and two back surround drivers. The outer cover of the ear cups is see-through so you can peer at the drivers in plain view. There are removable ear cup covers that clip on with magnetic connectors, restoring the coolness factor for those who don't want their drivers hanging out for all to see. Accommodating the extra drivers pushes the size of the headphones' housing to largish proportions -- something that makes me look like a silhouette of Princess Leia. But the Razer Tiamat 7.1 carries this ear-side bulkiness with a touch of panache.
    04.28.12
  • Just Can't Get Enough Munchkin
    Inspired by my son's magnificent Munchkin drawing in our recent game of Draw Something, and then embracing my own opportunity to re-create the iconic image, I have started a Flickr group to showcase all of our efforts to draw John Kovalic's Munchkin cover art, be it in Draw Something or any other context.
    04.28.12
  • Designing Sailbots to Mop Up Oil Spills
    It¿s the second anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Of the many terrible lessons learned from the event, perhaps the most tragic is the shocking inadequacy of current cleanup technology. Given how often we spill oil this is an urgent problem. Enter Protei: an open source, shapeshifting, oil-spill-cleaning sailboat drone. Developed by a globally connected network of designers, engineers, tinkerers, and makers who are hell-bent on finding a better way to clean up the ocean, Protei kicked off just after the Deepwater Horizon accident.
    04.27.12
  • Avengers Origins: Assemble! on My iPad!
    With the Avengers movie arriving next week, we need to remember that this movie isn't for all age groups. It's rated PG-13, and this means that a certain group of Avengers fans will have to wait a little longer for the big screen experience (or, more likely, the DVD experience). But all is not lost, as heroes like to say, and the latest in the Marvel Reads app series is now out -- Avengers Origins: Assemble! And it's narrated by Stan Lee himself!
    04.27.12
  • The Mechanical Bride Digs Into Technosexual Desire, Sci-Fi Fembots (NSFW)
    Building upon the technocultural cred of McLuhan and Duchamp, Allison de Fren's documentary The Mechanical Bride is a moving, weirdly human exploration of artificial companionship. It's also an academic dissection of the male gaze, and its pop-cult sexbots, from Japan and Germany to the United States and United Kingdom.
    04.27.12
  • Kids Dress Up and Make Voices to Play Kinect Star Wars
    The reception of a videogame is often as much about expectation as it is about the game itself. Many promises are made a broken between game conception and game launch. As Matt Blum's post eloquently set out, Kinect Star Wars had a whole range of competing hopes.
    04.27.12
  • Teen Boat: Angst, Thrills, Barnacles
    Remember Turbo Teen? It was a really goofy cartoon from the '80s that involved a teenager who got mixed up in a secret government experiment, which ... okay, the point is that he was a teenager who could turn into a car. Seriously ¿ you can find clips of it on YouTube. Anyway, I'm sure Dave Roman and John Green knew about it, because their new graphic novel Teen Boat! draws from a similar ridiculous premise.
    04.27.12
  • Study Finds Bad Guys Wear Black in Hockey, Too
    The cultural archetype that bad guys wear black holds true for hockey, too. A detailed analysis of stats from 25 seasons of the National Hockey League found players wearing black are penalized more frequently than those in lighter colors.
    04.26.12
  • GeekDad's Exclusive Lego Batman 2 Villain Reveals
    You won't see these baddies anywhere else, pretty much in the universe! That's right, in the next few weeks, GeekDad will be featuring exclusive villain pics from the upcoming blockbuster, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes.
    04.26.12
  • Interview with Bruce Brown, Author of the Howard Lovecraft Graphic Novel Series
    I recently had a blast reading through the first book in the series, Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Mountain. In fact, this is probably the only version of Lovecraft that would not completely warp my seven year-old's mind. We both really enjoyed the artwork and the story so much that we had to pick up the second book, Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom. I believe that fans of Lovecraft will get the connections made in the stories, probably by the titles alone.
    04.26.12
  • The Avengers - Hollywood Press Conference Videos, Plus a Giveaway!
    Two weeks ago, I had the great privilege of seeing The Avengers at its world premiere in Hollywood, and of attending the film's press conferences the following day. As I'm forbidden from publishing my review of the movie until Monday (sneak preview: It's great!), I can at least share with you the video I took of the press conferences and host a cool giveaway!
    04.26.12
  • Cygnett Scares Up 3 New iPhone Cases
    Nathan Jurevicius is an Australian illustrator and animator primarily known here in the States for his highly stylized Scarygirl graphic novel/video game. Recently digital accessory manufacturer Cygnett brought the world of Scarygirl to the iPhone 4S via a series of stunningly designed limited edition cases from their ICON design series.
    04.25.12
  • Zombies, Ghosts Invade Nintendo 3DS
    Halloween seems to have come early this year, at least to Nintendo's current-gen handheld the 3DS. It started back in March with the release of Zombie Slayer Diox, a rhythm-based side-scrolling beat 'em up that landed exclusively in the eShop.
    04.25.12
  • Why Do I Love Angry Birds Analysis?
    Physicist Rhett Allain has produced one detailed analysis after another of the game Angry Birds Space, but he argues it's a healthy obsession akin to kids monkeying about a playground.
    04.24.12
  • Leathernext: Marines Want Better Networks, Sensors — And Terminator Vision
    The Marines of the future are all about communication. The Leathernecks want data networks that can keep them connected from the decks of their ships to the beaches they storm. They want online search tools that rely on natural language instead of keywords (like the rest of us). And they want software that can sift through the oceans of data their wartime sensors and cameras collect -- including tools that can scan through faces in a crowd, like the Terminator, and alert Marines to danger.
    04.24.12


 

 

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