The technology had its roots in the work of engineer J. Presper Eckert, who developed line delay systems to improve radar during World War II. Instead of storing data in individual bits, it was compressed down to sound waves and sent through a medium that slowed them down (initially mercury, then other substances, and finally wire). At the other end, they were re-electrified, processed, and then sent back through the tube. Because of slowing that occurred in the tube's substance, hundreds of pulses of data could be sent in a single tube—hence the name "delay line"—bouncing back and forth until they were needed.

This post on Make offers a helpful analogy:

If you had a hard time remembering things for very long, and happened to live in a cave, you could just shout out what you didn't want to forget, and a few seconds later you would hear an echo to remind you. Of course, the problem with this is that an echo doesn't stick around for long, so you would have to shout again every time that you heard the echo, so that you could remember again in a few seconds. Assuming you could keep this up, you would never forget your idea.

Until computers like the 305 RAMAC introduced random access memory, machines like the UNIVAC I, shown above, used serial-access systems like delay line memory. What this meant is that a certain piece of data couldn't be called up at any time; you had to wait until it was ready. In this case, it was ready when it had bounced to the "read" end of the tube. It only took a matter of milliseconds, but it was a fundamentally different system of computing, and it wasn't until the development of RAM some years later that our modern sense of computer memory started to take shape. [Wikipedia, Make]

Memory [Forever] is our week-long consideration of what it really means when our memories, encoded in bits, flow in a million directions, and might truly live forever.

The i4 is the latest in a long line of chargers from the company, though this latest and greatest model lets you charge four gadgets (up from the three with the i3, and two with the i2, before that). It also has a shiny finish, which, when charging a Sixaxis controller, gives it the fleeting appearance of a PS3. Bonus!

Of course, the i4 will charge just about anything you throw at it, including "iPhone, iPod, Blackberry, Nintendo DS, PSP, PS3 controller, GPS systems, digital cameras, and Bluetooth products," all with the help of interchangeable tips that can be popped in and out of slots on the base. The i4 has three such slots and one USB port, adding up to one gadget-charging grand slam. To peruse the full tip catalog, consult this page on Idapt's site.

The i4 also sports LED lights to indicate when things are charged up and ready to go, as well as an switch to shut down the whole charging operation, if you feel a sudden pang of guilt about ravaging our planet's precious fossil fuels.

The Idapt i4 will be available in May, in shiny black or shiny white, for $59.99. [Idapt via [Wired]

• StreamTransport Grabs Hulu Videos for Offline Viewing (Windows)
  It may not stick around that long once the powers that be find out, so if downloading and watching Hulu videos offline could help you out, grab StreamTransport. The tricky little app provides full-quality captures of streaming shows and movies.
• ExtensionFM Is a Very Cool Browser-Based Music Library, and We've Got Invites (Chrome)
  Chrome extension ExtensionFM automatically collects MP3s from sites you visit and adds them to a browser-based library within the extension, allowing you to find all sorts of cool, new music without cluttering up your local library until you buy them.
• NetBalancer Prioritizes Network Traffic by Application (Windows)
  Ever wish you could guarantee your BitTorrent download didn't choke your streaming YouTube video-or vice versa-but don't feel like setting up Quality of Service rules on your super-router ? NetBalancer shapes bandwidth allocations for different apps on your PC.
• Gnome Gmail Tightly Integrates Gmail into Linux Desktops (GNOME-based Linux)
  There are work-arounds to set Gmail as a default mail app in Linux, but they don't cover right-click file sending and complex mail links. Gnome Gmail does a much better job of integrating Gmail.
• Remote Potato Streams Windows 7 Media Center Video to Your Browser, Adds Remote Control (Windows 7)
  Remote Potato is a free application that integrates with Windows 7 Media Center, allowing you to watch and schedule recorded video from the comfort of your browser, no matter where you are.
• MusicBee is a Powerful, Easy-to-Use Music Manager (Windows)
  Despite the many great media players out there, MusicBee earns itself a spot high on the list with super tagging, managing, browsing, ripping, syncing, and converting powers, all on top of an intuitive interface familiar to any iTunes user.
• WeatherBar Integrates Weather Forecasts with the Windows 7 Superbar (Windows 7)
  Like to keep the eye on the weather but never been too keen on sidebar gadgets or system tray apps? WeatherBar is a simple app that puts the weather in your Windows 7 taskbar, offering quick access to the forecast.
• TestDrive Virtualizes Brand-New Ubuntu Builds for Easy Testing (Ubuntu)
  Want to try out the latest build of the next Ubuntu release with almost no hassle at all? TestDrive is a one-shot tool that downloads, virtualizes, and keeps daily Ubuntu builds up to date.
• Etacts Adds Contact Info, Social Networking, and Handy Statistics to Your Gmail Sidebar (Chrome/Firefox)
  If you ever thought previously mentioned Xobni looked cool, but you prefer Gmail to Outlook, free Gmail plug-in Etacts adds many of the same features. You get social information, conversation history, and advanced sending preferences right in your Gmail sidebars.
• LastHistory Graphically Visualizes your Last.fm History Through Time (Mac)
  Just when you thought you couldn't possibly need more statistics on your music listening habits, free Mac app LastHistory comes along and graphically analyzes your Last.fm logs, over time, while also integrating with other Mac apps like iPhoto and iCal.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec hits theaters in late April, and as far as I can tell it combines everything that is best in life: Dinosaurs, lusty adventuresome ladies, mummies, and French people dressed in period costumes worthy of Dr. Grordbort. Luc Besson is the director of scifi classics Subway and 5th Element, and recently penned the kickass near-future Paris flick District 13.

[spotted on /Film]

Last week I posted a link to a study of the 20 cell phones that emitted the most radiation. In the comments, readers were quick to debunk the notion of cellular radiation altogether, explaining that the radiation was nonionizing and thus definitionally unharmful.

GQ's report traces the cellphone radiation story back to Allan Frey, a researcher who worked for GE in 1960, whose research proved that waves from the nonionizing part of the electromagnetic spectrum could, in fact, be damaging. After 15 years of studies, the Pentagon abruptly gave him an ultimatum: conceal his findings or risk losing his contract.

From there the story is a familiar one. Megacorporations throwing their weight around to selectively promote their own studies and discredit those of others. The government doing something in between passively allowing and actively enabling it to happen. It smacks of conspiracy, but then again, it doesn't really at all.

Louis Slesin, the founder of Microwave News, explains, "[t]he committees setting the EM safety levels at the [Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers] historically have been dominated by representatives from the military, companies like Raytheon and GE, the telecom companies, and now the cell-phone industry. It is basically a Trojan horse for the private sector to dictate public policy."

Even if Slesin is not the most unbiased commenter, having even the vaguest sense of what goes on behind the scenes in our nation's biggest industries—GQ reminds its reader, in passing, of Big Tobacco, asbestos, and Agent Orange—it's hard to say outright that he's bonkers. It's harder still when you get some perspective on what the rest of the world thinks.

The article references myriad international studies in which cell phone use was variously connected with "brain damage, early-onset Alz­heimer's, senility, DNA damage, and even sperm die-offs," as well as being found to increase the likelihood of tumors up to 40% in adults.

This account, even acknowledging that the findings are preliminary, is particularly disturbing:

In a study by researchers associated with the venerable Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, which hands out the Nobel Prize for medicine, the massive expansion of digital PCS in Sweden during 1997 was found to have coincided with a marked but subtle decline in the overall health of the population. Might it be, the Karolinska researchers asked, that Swedes fell victim to the march of the first big microwave PCS systems? The number of Swedish workers on sick leave, after declining for years, began to rise abruptly in late 1997, according to the study, doubling during the next five years. Sales of antidepressant drugs doubles during the same period. The number of deaths from Alzheimer's disease rose sharply in 1999 and had nearly doubled by 2001. The authors of the study-Olle Johansson, a neuroscientist, and Örjan Hallberg, a former environmental manager for Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications company-"found that for all individual counties in Sweden there was a similar precise time" when health worsened. It occured, they said, almost simultaneously with the rollout of the new digital service. Correlation does not mean causation, but epidemiologists I spoke with say the data are strongly suggestive and need to be followed up.

Of course, it's not only cell phone waves that we should be worried about:

In the summer of 2006, a super-Wi-Fi system known as WiMAX was tested in rural Sweden. Bombarded with signals, the residents of the village of Götene-who had no knowledge that the transmitter had come online-were overcome by headaches, difficulty breathing, and blurred vision, according to a Swedish news report. Two residents reported to the hospital with heart arrhythmias...This happened only hours after the system was turned on, and as soon as it was powered down, the symptoms disappeared.

I'm sure there are plenty of objections to be raised here, and I'm sure that they will be raised in the comments. And it's true, the verdict is still out, in many ways, on the science itself. But if nothing else, it's revealing just to see how aggressively other countries are pursuing that verdict, how closely they're looking at the issue. I'm glad, at least, that somebody is. [GQ]

The Dark Forest add-on pack for Dante's Inferno, released at the beginning of this month, is a an uncommon piece of single-player-oriented downloadable content. As aggressive as publishers have been to issue DLC for big console games lately, they seem more interested in selling multiplayer content — new maps, mostly. That makes Dark Forest feel just a little more experimental, in line with new Assassin's Creed II and Heavy Rain content that offer a little something extra for those of us who prefer solo gaming. But what kind of add-on does a single-player game need?

Dark Forest offers a brief combat-heavy level set in a... dark forest. The events in this level occur just before Dante discovers the death of his beloved Beatrice and descends to hell, therefore before 95% of the main game. Those who purchase Dark Forest also get an alternate "disco" costume for Dante.

Loved
Maximum Inferno: The Dante you play in Dark Forest has every one of his upgradable abilities unlocked. For someone like me who finished the game without unlocking all of Dante's impressive powers, this is a nice way to see every move the game enables. The Dark Forest team raised the difficulty of its combat challenges to match, making the battles in the forest feel super-heroic.

Hated
Obligatory Puzzle Stuff: Since Zelda, and even before then, many games have presented a good balance of combat and puzzles. But sometimes combat can feel unending; sometimes puzzles can feel gratuitous. The Dark Forest combat is good, but the puzzles are too much. And there are only about two of them. Mazes and block-pushing are the sort of thing that already feels random in a game like Dante's Inferno. They feel even more unnecessary in a brief forest episode, separated from a multi-hour journey through hell. The inclusion of puzzles like this, puzzles that seem included out of a fidelity to formula highlight one aspect of video games over another, reminding the player that game design involves occasionally-annoying obstacles being thrown at a player to slow their advance at the cost of a sense of enjoyed immersion in a fictional world.

No Good Point: Setting an expansion level within the narrative of the game to which it appends itself implies that the level will add to the main game's narrative. While it is clear where in the Dante's Inferno timeline it should be placed, this DLC adds nothing to our knowledge of the game's characters. Because it is set outside of hell it also fails to add to our appreciation of Dante's Inferno's best attribute, its incredible rendition of the Underworld. To put it another way, when I play as Dante, I'd rather be in Hell.

Dante's Inferno: Dark Forest provides the same joy an unlock-all-powers cheat code might have elicited in an era of less expensive methods for players to tweak their video games. If you can stand that price, it is fun to control Dante at his most mighty. If not, you're not missing an important chapter to this adventure.

Dante's Inferno: Dark Forest was developed and published by EA for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on March 3. Retails for $4.99 USD. (It is also free with the PS3's Divine Edition of the game, which is how I accessed it.) A Divine Edition copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through Dark Forest in a little under an hour. This DLC is accessed from the game's main menu and does not require completion of the game's campaign. It offers a pair of Achievements/Trophies. [Note: The screenshot atop this review is from the main game, not the DLC.]

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

All you need for this project are 2 2x2's, various bolts, some scrap metal, and a stand from an old utility light—the last item may not be something you just have lying around, but any type of tripod stand will likely do, as long as you can connect it to the central pivot point. The project does benefit from welding chops, but if you aren't that experienced you could get by with using screws. You'll probably also need a bucket and some heavy things to put in it to act as a counter-weight, but all that takes is probably a little rifling through some closets or the garage.

Also useful, if you have one, is the addition of the portable DVD player on the operator's end—by plugging it into your camera, you can see what you're shooting much easier. All in all, it's a good weekend's worth of work, but you can't go wrong on the price if it's something you need—hit the link for the full instructions.

It's well worth checking out the whole feature over at SFSignal, both for the gorgeous cover art and for people's insights into what makes for a good cover. But here are a few of the covers that people picked which jumped out at us. [SFSignal]

Shrapnel 3, cover by Stephan Martiniere. Writes gaming artistic director and concept designer Sparth, "Perfect sense of composition, perfect balance."

The Dream Of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer (design by Ervin Serrano, Jacket illustration from Isifa/Alamy/Getty) As Orbit Books/Yen Press Creative Director Lauren Panepinto points out, that took a lot of time to put together. And it tells you so much about the book, including the time period and how awesome it is. She points to some other examples of elaborate/brilliant design in the SFSignal mind meld.

Finch by Jeff VanderMeer. Cover art by John Coulthart. Artist John Picacio singles this one out for its brilliant composition, and explains eloquently why the best book covers are about "becoming":

Becoming doesn't spoon-feed and isn't slave to the latest game of "follow the leader". It isn't the path of least resistance. It favors an audience that is active, rather than passive, dynamic of imagination, rather than static with nostalgia. It favors an image that evokes, rather than an image that crams the frame with every literal detail.

A Memory Of Wind, illustration for Rachel Swirsky's story at Tor.com, illustration by Sam Weber. Another one chosen by Picacio.

Picacio's own illustration for Frederik Pohl's Gateway, as chosen by Dave Seeley, who writes, "I loved John Picacio's Gateway, with his hallmark -surprising and clever- montage of figure and stuff (space in this case)."

River Of Gods by Ian McDonald, illustration by Stephan Martiniere. Chosen by self-confessed Martiniere groupie Dave Seeley, an architect turned book illustrator.

Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick: (design by Lucy Ruth Cummins, photo by James Porto). Again, chosen by Panepinto. "I love how the image is so subtly colored towards the top. A really subtle touch. And the pearl paper is so nice. Such a spare design, it really was a breath of fresh air when I saw it."

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow: (design by Suzanne Dean, illustration by Natasha Michaels). Another Panepinto selection. Such a cool-looking image, it speaks for itself.

All you need for this is some paper and a pair of scissors—useful if you find yourself in a bind with nothing else around (of course, even if you're at home and have all the binding tools in the world, this is still a clever trick). The cutting involved is not difficult, either—it is akin to making heart-shaped valentines by folding a piece of paper in half (it is, however, very difficult to explain—luckily, both Instructables and craft weblog Bloomize have some very nice visual instructions with which you can follow along). If you have the craft arsenal, you could arm yourself with some pretty colored cardstock and make a very clean-looking booklet—no staples, tape or glue to ruin it. Hit the link for the full instructions, and let us know your crafty glue-less tips in the comments!

This is the experience of someone suffering from a Capgras delusion, a rare medical disorder in which a person becomes convinced that a loved one has been replaced by someone pretending to be that loved one. The unsettling condition is the topic of this week's episode of Radiolab, entitled "Do I Know You?", and the producers invited Dr. Carol Berman and Dr. V.S. Ramachandran on the program to talk about it.

No one knows exactly what causes Capgras delusions. The doctors cite one example in which the delusions started after a coma and another in which they came in the midst of general dementia. But they can also start out of the blue, which is a terrifying prospect.

Dr. Berman, a psychologist, hypothesizes that Capgras delusions are an individual's way of dissociating a loved one from some perceived flaw—some sort of psychotic denial. This woman is being cruel, and I know my mother to be kind, so this must be an imposter.

Dr. Ramachandran, luxuriously rolling his "r's," suggests that the delusions are caused by faulty circuity in the brain. We identify our loved ones, he says, by their familiar faces but also by the familiar emotions they evoke. If our brain no longer registers those emotions, we deem them an imposter. This woman looks like my mother, but she doesn't make me feel the way my mother makes me feel, so this must be an imposter.

Often times, the individuals subject to the delusions are perfectly normal otherwise. And the conditions that trigger the episodes are oddly narrow. If a person subject to Capgras delusions talks to the loved one on the phone, he recognizes her instantly and converses as normal. It's only in seeing her that the break occurs.

Over the course of the week we've looked at many ways in which memory—human and otherwise—is fallible. But hearing about Capgras delusions and the individuals who suffer from them serves to remind that some memories are more essential than others. [RadioLab]

Image credit tabrandt

Memory [Forever] is our week-long consideration of what it really means when our memories, encoded in bits, flow in a million directions, and might truly live forever.

Forbes lists V as the fifth largest moneyspinner on television in 2009, but notes that that's mostly due to positive pre-premiere buzz, as opposed to the show itself:

Unfortunately for those enthusiastic buyers who collectively shelled out $5.6 million per hour-long telecast, the remake of a popular 1980s miniseries shed more than a third of its audience over the course of its limited run, from an impressive 14.3 million viewers on premiere night to only 9.1 million. Ordinarily that would lead to a pricing correction for subsequent in-season (or scatter market) purchases, says [Ad-spend tracking company Kantar Media Senior Vice President of Research, Jon] Swallen, "but since V was a limited-run series, it was insulated from potential pricing adjustment."

What it does mean is that the show will be much less successful on its second run, starting at the end of this month, according to Swallen:

Now the show has a track record... buyers and advertisers have a more realistic fix of how it should perform.

V returns to ABC on March 30th.

TV's Biggest Moneymakers [Forbes]

If you're not already downloading Kotaku Talk Radio, find it in iTunes or in the Zune marketplace and give it a listen. Hey, it's the weekend, and you could listen to us while you do the yard work. Or you could listen to us while you are at your favorite house of worship this weekend. No? How about while you are out on a date?

Every episode of KTR features your live calls and special guests from the industry, including, in just the last few weeks, top creators behind God of War III, Dante's Inferno and BioShock 2.

Give it a shot if you haven't already and please let us know if it makes you a better driver.

New shows stream live online — and are showcased on this site — every Wednesday at 11am Mountain Time. That's 1pm Eastern, 10am Pacific.

Subscribe via RSS [Chat About It]
Subscribe to podcast on iTunes [iTunes]
Download to your Zune [Zune]

Even more useful than it's waterproof nature is the use of the car battery, meaning you won't need to be anywhere near a power source to use this—perfect for the beach, tailgating, or pretty much anywhere outdoors. You can get most of the materials pretty easily online, and the sawing of holes and screwing on of water-tight bezels should be a piece of cake to any seasoned DIYer. You may want to be at least a little comfortable working with electronics for this project, though, as you'll need to wire up the speakers and the battery yourself. It shouldn't be too difficult of a job—the instructions are quite detailed, and have accompanying pictures every step of the way. The only question now is where one puts the beer when the cooler is full of electronics. Hit the link for the full how-to.

Chyr, who has degrees in economics and physics, learned the art of balloon-twisting at Le Vorris & Vox Circus. His most recent project is Balluminescence, a collection of huge balloon sculptures modeled on creatures that generated their own light through bioluminescence.

The project's pièce de résistance was a giant jellyfish, constructed from over a 1000 balloons. A friend recorded this time lapse video of Chyr and his cohorts installing the creature in Chicago's Millenium Park last Fall:

The Millenium Park event, entitled Balluminescence - Lights, Balloons, Jellyfish!, was commissioned by Science Chicago and taught kids about jellyfish biology, as well as how to make some balloon animals of their own. Undoubtedly, some kids had trouble with the tricky process, and were told, "there, there, say 'please,' and I'm sure the nice man will make you a zooplankton." [Willy Chyr via It's Nice That]

Every day, the Earth is bombarded with trace amounts of radiation from space. It poses no threat to humans—at least, no direct threat. But the radiation has been known to cause glitches in circuitry, including the kind found in airplane navigation systems. And now, Toyota is looking into the possibility that the same radiation might be causing their cars to speed out of control.

Apparently, an anonymous tipster contacted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to let them know that Toyota might be using software that's unusually susceptible to ambient radiation. A body of published scientific work lends some credence to this theory, so federal regulators are now talking about devising a test to check Toyota's radiation immunity—which might involve booting up a particle accelerator and bombarding the hell out of some floor models.

Toyota maintains that radiation has nothing to do with the sudden-acceleration phenomenon. Thus far, the official and most widely accepted story is that something's wrong with the car's hardware or software—wiring, circuitry, something like that. A number of columnists, though, have been openly questioning whether careless drivers might not be to blame. The Wall Street Journal's Holman Jenkins Jr., in particular, has been hitting this note for a while on the op-ed page. But if the radiation theory turns out to be valid, Jenkins might have to turn his erudite wrath on the very sky itself.

Are cosmic rays really causing Toyota's woes? [Free Press]

Over at Make, the DIY-centric magazine, they've put together a video tutorial on how to build your own vortex cannons. The first cannon is essentially a super size version of the DIY Airzooka we shared with you years ago—bigger is better! The second model they create however is powered not by an elastic membrane stretched across the back of the tube but by the kick of a big speaker. Check out the video below to see the construction of the vortex cannon and the cannons in action:

It's a really hard thing to capture on video but having built my own smoke-ring-shooting vortex cannon several years ago I can attest to how fun playing with one is. On a still day you can easily shoot a nice tight smoke ring 30-40 feet before it breaks apart and the actual vortex will extend well beyond the visibility range. Using a small hand held cannon I was able to easily ruffle the leaves on the tops of trees.

Have your own experience with vortex cannons or other showy home science experiments? Let's hear about it in the comments.

When asked by GameTrailers TV host Geoff Keighley, Tretton wouldn't confirm that Sony will have the PlayStation 3 shooter on hand and ready to show at this year's E3, but he did say that Sony will "absolutely bring the heat." Surprises? Yes. Big guns? Totally. Rockstar Games' Agent for PS3? Ask Rockstar. And Killzone 3?

"I don't know when you'll see announcements about it, but I can promise you a Killzone 3," Jack says.

GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley [GameTrailers]

For nearly a decade, police have regularly visited Martin's home in Brooklyn, where she lives with her husband, Walter. She never has any information on the criminals in question, but police continue to be dispatched to her address nonetheless.

Prompted by an investigation by the NY Daily News, the New York Police Department traced the problem to a test of their computer system in 2002 in which the Martins' residence in Brooklyn was used as a test address (they couldn't say why). NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne promised that the address had been eradicated from the database and that the law-abiding Martins would be left alone.

But just when you thought the case was closed, the NY Daily News offers a compelling twist. The home's previous owner, who sold it to the Martins in 1997 (five years before the alleged test), moved for the very same reason. Back then, too, cops were continually visiting the home, reportedly in response to several bogus reports from a "still-unknown tormentor." Sometimes a house is just destined to be a hide-out. [NY Daily News]

Around three years ago, lifecasting was all the rage. We idolized iJustine, Justin.tv and the countless other people brave enough to film every action, every day. The trouble with their form of lifecasting is that it's done via a camcorder strapped to a hat, filming all your actions plus everyone else's. You could almost say the SenseCam is the lifecasting device for shy people who are merely interested in jogging their memory at a later date; people who want to tell a story without having to hear themselves.

So, What The Heck Is It?

Measuring the size of a square pack of cards, it hangs from a lanyard around the neck and films everything within your eyesight in 640 x 480 resolution photos, compressing them as JPEGs on the device's internal 1GB SD card. It can store over 30,000 images—which works out to around 100 hours' worth of lifecasting, based on approximately 300 photos taken each hour (which is the average number automatically shot), plus the time each photo was shot at.

Its 0.3MP VGA image sensor may not be as good as your cameraphone or even laptop webcam (though it does shoot in a wide-angle fish-eye style effect which I loved), but those devices require you to click a button every time you want a photo taken. The SenseCam takes photos passively, based on changes to the light, temperature or movement—or you can set it to take photos on a timer instead.

It contains several different sensors—light-intensity and light-color sensors, a passive infrared detector for measuring changes in body heat, a temperature sensor and an accelerometer for detecting movement. It's certainly interesting moving between rooms with different lighting conditions, and seeing how many more photos the SenseCam takes.

Every Step You Take, It'll Be Watching You

When connected to a computer it pops up as an external hard drive, with individual folders dedicated to each batch of 100 photos, or roughly 20 minutes' worth of memories. I used the SenseCam over two days, and by the end I had thousands of photos to sort through. Opening all the folders and previewing them on my Mac, I just ran through them quickly, so they turned into something akin to a flipbook. It was shocking seeing how often I open my Twitter tab when working, and how many times each hour I chew on my nails.

Cooking dinner provided the best results. The SenseCam detected the change in temperature and likely the light as well, so took as many as eight shots a minute. Chopping sundried tomatoes turned the shots into a movie when I ran through them quickly on the laptop later—and stirring pasta with a wooden spoon saw my hand move very slightly in each shot.

Sadly—and this is more of a reflection on my life than the SenseCam—none of the photos are really worth showing anyone. In fact, what you see below in the gallery are the only photos I deemed interesting enough. No-one, especially not me, wants to see hours' worth of photos of my laptop screen as I work, flipping tabs and checking email. An alarming amount of photos showed my BlackBerry in front of the camera, as I replied to emails when I was away from my laptop. A good number featured my cat in them.

Here Comes The Fun

But the potential here is huge. Whereas strapping a camcorder to a hat is deemed as intrusive, having a small box the size of a deck of cards strung from my neck on a lanyard is far from it. Filming makes both you, and the people around you, very aware of every action. Affectations are created that way; egos are born. Having a camera that you don't have to control means it's forgotten, so a truer representation of your life can be broadcast—should you choose to put the photos on Twitter, Facebook or Flickr.

As there's no plans for Microsoft to send the SenseCam down the production line (excluding the fact that they've licensed the technology to Vicon, who'll sell it to the medical industry), it's not too important hypothesizing on why you could ever want or need one.

I do wish however that I was wearing it several nights ago when my friend won tickets to the London premiere of Remember Me, and we were stood 5m away from Robert Pattinson (he of Twilight fame). The one shaky photo I managed on my BlackBerry, which while it has a better image sensor than the SenseCam's, was ruined thanks to my nerves and emotions running wild. The SenseCam, while triggered by changes in bodyheat or temperature, doesn't have stage fright when confronted with celebrities-you-really-shouldn't-fancy-but-actually-do.

There's a future here with the SenseCam, if Microsoft can find the right partner to license the technology to for personal use. They could even launch it successfully themselves. I wouldn't use it everyday, and certainly have no need for reviewing 100 hours of my life through the form of 30,000 photos, but it'd be great fun to wear while at a party—especially for those of us who often suffer from memory loss the next morning. Adding a 3G chip and GPS, so each photo could be sent to an online profile and tagged with your whereabouts would be future features I'd like to see...but then, who would be interested enough in viewing someone else's life from their perspective?

Innovative device with huge potential

Easy to use, easy to transfer to computers

Fish-eye effect is fun

It'll probably never see the light of day in Best Buy or on Amazon

Photos could be higher-res, admittedly

Sony's PlayStation Blog crew is making the cross-continent trip next week to spend a little time in New York and Boston showing of the wonders of Sony motion control, and everybody is invited, within limits of course.

On Tuesday, March 23, the crew will be at New York City's Tribeca Grand Hotel from 4pm to 7pm, where they'll be letting two shifts of 75 people apiece take turns waving their wands about in front of PlayStation 3 kiosks. Considering you can sneeze in NYC and hit 75 people with the spray, you might want to show up a little early.

After New York, the party moves to Boston, where the PlayStation Blog is hosting another event Thursday Night at the Colonnade Hotel, directly across the street from PAX East. The first 150 people who show up to the 5pm to 8 pm event will score free food, swag, and a chance to swing that thing and make it sing. Or something.

More details can be found over at the PLayStation Blog. Just make sure you save enough energy for Friday night.

Yes, yes; Judge Dredd is about to get his second chance at big screen stardom (And much-deserved it is, too, considering the mess that was made of his first try) but, as good as John Wagner's political and social satire with added pyrotechnics is, it's really only a taster of what 2000AD has to offer cinema. Here are some other movies that Tharg The Mighty's "Galaxy's Greatest Comic" could give to the world:

Robo-Hunter
Man versus machine... literally. The original comic was essentially "Clint Eastwood as wise-cracking hard-ass private dick in a world populated by robots of every variety from killer to comedic, accompanied by two robotic sidekicks - one of whom is his talking cigar" and, aside from changing the words "Clint Eastwood" to, say, "Will Smith," there's very little about that that doesn't sound like a summer blockbuster waiting to happen.

Rogue Trooper
Blue-skinned genetically engineered soldiers fighting a future war... Wait, why didn't this comic strip claim that Avatar was ripping it off? 2000AD's archetypal future war series pitched a macho pacifism as one lone clone (Well, aside from his talking, sentient equipment, given the personalities of his fallen comrades) tried to find out who was behind the intergalactic war while staying alive in a universe where everyone wanted him dead. Give it a good special effects budget, and step back to watch the box office dollars roll in.

Devlin Waugh
The Vatican's top supernatural exorcist is a vampire. He also has a body like Pumping Iron-era Schwarzenegger, a face (and personality) like Terry Thomas, and a tendency to find himself in the middle of all manner of supernatural trouble at any given moment. This Judge Dredd spin-off has the potential to be the crossover between Saw and St. Trinians that cinema has always waited for.

Strontium Dog
Which part of "Johnny Alpha is a mutant who travels through time and space tracking down the most evil men in existence (including, at one point, Hitler) armed with sci-fi weaponary and accompanied by a giant trash-talking Viking" doesn't make you wish that this were playing at your local theater right now? Because, let me tell you: That part of you needs to be surgically removed as soon as possible.

ABC Warriors
Heavy Metal Carnage to rival Michael Bay's secret Transformer fantasies could be the key to ABC Warriors' cinematic success. Another future war story, the Warriors were created for battles no human could withstand (Their name comes from their ability to survive Atomic, Bacterial and Chemical warfare) on Mars, but the series outlasted its original "bigotry, even anti-robot bigotry, is wrong" morality to see the Warriors strike out on their own and discover their true identities beyond their original programming. Dollhouse meets Transformers, perhaps...?

Flesh
Start with giant dinosaurs and then add in time travel, robot policing and social satire about our diets and need for ghoulish entertainment, and you have Flesh, one of 2000AD's first ever strips. Set in a prehistoric past where dinosaurs are farmed for their meat by time-traveling cowboys who employ android lawmen and allow tourist trips to earn some extra income, it's Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" crossed with Food, Inc. and Jurassic Park. Someone give Steven Spielberg a call.

The Ballad of Halo Jones
Arguably Alan Moore's first classic (and with great art by Ian Gibson), Halo was created as a "girl's comic" alternative to the boys-own atmosphere of the rest of 2000AD, and chronicled one woman's journey outside of the passive, pressimistic hedonism of mainstream culture to war and beyond. Although unfinished, due to a disagreement over rights, there's more than enough material in for someone - preferably a director with a strong eye for visuals - to make an impressive, if off-kilter, classic movie.

Tyranny Rex
If ever there was a movie role Lady Gaga was born to play, it's this pop culture iconoclast (and part-lizard lady) who starts out as a genetic thief creating clones of celebrities from stolen DNA before mixing careers as cause célèbre artistic sensation and freelance adventurer... Oh, and then her reality has to get shutdown and rebooted, leaving her as a nun who happens to have unparalleled skill with heavy weaponry. Imagine The Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy as written by Bret Easton Ellis, William Gibson and the cast of Project Runway, and you can see why this movie needs to be the science fiction alternative to Sex And The City 2.

Nikolai Dante
Take everything awesome about the very idea of "swashbuckling" - Grand romance, dashing swordfights with bravado and grinning heroes, and corrupt familial dynasties that need bringing down - and place them in a distant future filled with a resurgent Russian empire and genetically-modified humans with special superpowers, and you have the world of Nikolai Dante. If Hollywood can't make a success of a science fictional version of old Errol Flynn movies with added sex and a bigger budget, it's possibly time they just packed up en masse and went home.

Zenith
Okay, I admit it - I included this one just to see the lawyers in the audience get pale, considering the legal status of this series is murky, at best; the series that made Grant Morrison's name may begin like a British Watchmen, but with a parallel-earth spanning war between superheroes, celebrity culture meltdown and Lovecraftian demons all coming into play before the story is done, there's a lot more to this series than another tired take on "real life" superheroes. Also, considering the amount of superheroes-turned-popstars in the storyline, imagine the potential for a killer soundtrack.

There are a number of ways to do this in Photoshop, but MakeUseOf opts to use the very handy Render > Clouds tool (Under Filter), which creates a cloud-like pattern using your currently chosen foreground and background colors (which, as long as we're talking about Earth, will likely be white and blue, respectively). They might not be the most realistic clouds of all time, but you may be able to tweak the Levels a little bit to make it look as good as possible. Hit the link for more detailed instructions if you're not already a Photoshop guru—and if you are, let us know your cloud-creating tips in the comments!

Yesterday's final teaser for the six-issue Guardians series saw an even bigger surprise than Barack Obama's appearance:

Talking to Comic Book Resources, Kirkman revealed that this week's series of images don't reveal anything other than the title of the book:

Look, these teasers - this week has been all about just trying to have fun, doing some cool stuff, getting a little bit of notice and getting the name of the book out there. Sure, I'm poking fun at Marvel a bit, but it's really all in good fun... The fans seem to be enjoying it. I've seen mostly positive responses. I've seen some people saying that it's sour grapes on my part, but sour grapes for what? I don't really understand that - I decided to do creator-owned books and I couldn't be happier. I'm not upset at Marvel. I just didn't want to work there anymore, so I stopped.

The real members of the team, which spins out of Kirkman's Invincible, will be revealed next week, according to the writer.

Kirkman Defends The Guardians Of The Globe [Comic Book Resources]

iPhone stands are nothing new, but in some ill-conceived attempt to differentiate themselves they always try to add some gimmick. There's the "some-assembly-required" ilk. The expensive "some-assembly-required" ilk. The MacGuyver-inspired. The over-the-top. The really over-the-top. And one that's just an iPhone bean-bag chair.

The market is crowded, sure, but it's crowded with a lot of duds. The MoviePeg keeps it stupid simple: available in six colors and made of a recyclable material, the stand holds your iPhone at any angle, in portrait or landscape. It doesn't have any LED lights or any foldable parts. It just holds your iPhone up without getting in the way.

John Gruber, who wouldn't hesitate to tell you if he thought it sucked, said "it has a great feel to it." The MoviePeg is currently available, shipping from the U.K., for £4.99. [MoviePeg via Daring Fireball]

The news comes by way of Valve's Chet Faliszek, speaking to Geoff Keighley at GDC, as shown in the most recent episode of GameTrailers TV. As reported previously, The Passing DLC for Left 4 Dead 2 would be followed by downloadable content for the first game, and now we know how that's going to work.

While the original survivor's death will be readily apparent in the Left 4 Dead 2 DLC, the Left 4 Dead 1 downloadable content will have players working through the events leading up to the death, which will require someone on your four-player team make the ultimate sacrifice.

The comic released between the two sets of DLC will feature an idealized version of the events, while player choice figures into how it all plays out in the game proper.

Are you noble enough to die for your teammates?

Check out the latest episode of GameTrailers TV for more on The Passing.