58-year old Wen Hsu has lived in the same apartment building in Jilin city, China, for the last 35-years. Recently, all of Wen’s neighbors were bought out of the building by a construction company wanting to build a mall in its location. Except Wen says they weren’t offering a fair price, so he’s staying. And when winter came and he was worried about the pipes in building freezing, he did what anybody else who doesn’t give a damn about the environment would, he turned the hot water on, hosed it out the window, and left it running for the entirety of winter. Up yours, Mother Nature!
He said: “The water running into the pipe is from underground where it is above freezing and that is stopping the water pipes in my house from freezing.
“If that had happened I really would have had to move out. They want me to move but what they were offering was not enough for me to get another place so I’m refusing to leave.”
Honestly, I’m surprised some assassin from the construction company didn’t climb that ice waterfall and snuff Wen out in his sleep. I’ve seen movies before, those big construction companies don’t dick around. One minute you’re refusing to sell your apartment, the next you’re DRINKING THROUGH A STRAW THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. “You mean eating?” Dammit, can I get a do-over?
Hit the jump for a closeup.
In heartbreaking news, Disney is shutting down video game developer/publisher LucasArts after its acquisition of it and LucasFilm last year. The company was known for some of the best graphic adventure games the world has even seen, including: Maniac Mansion, Loom, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, the entire series of Indiana Jones point-and-click adventures, and every Monkey Island, to name a few of my favorites. The company has also made virtually every Star Wars game to date, but has decided to cancel development of both Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313 to focus on a business model that revolves primarily around licensing the rights for other companies to make Star Wars games instead of creating them in-house. Oh, I’ve got one — it’s called, ‘Fly This X-Wing Straight Up Mickey’s Ass’. It’s rated T for Teen because it’s really just a mix tape of me cussing. I may even release some DLC.
Thanks to Pyrblaze, Lisa, Skamodongo, Doombah and Mr. Q., two of which sound like rejected Super Mario enemies. Hopefully this thing turns out for the best.
Title pic via DeviantARTist NessD
Nowadays, anyone with a laptop, a dream and a vague grasp on tonality can lay down their own DIY demo. But for those with more serious musical aspirations, Korg’s MicroStation might be worth a look. The shrunken-down sequencer arrives as a $ 399 My First Synth of sorts, combining dual arpeggiators, 480 effects and 61 “natural touch” keys in a compact form factor that should play nice with novice musicians. The keyboard also features an SD slot for saving and transporting your future Top 40 (college radio) hits, a USB port for easy connection to your home or studio computer and comes packaged with editing software: MicroStation Editor and MicroStation Plug-in Editor. If any or all of that rings your bell, you can snag it now at the source below.
Continue reading Korg MicroStation shrinks down the synth for first-timers
Filed under: Peripherals
Source: Korg
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This is the taco-firing cannon built by Torchy’s Tacos in Austin, Texas. It uses compressed carbon dioxide to shoot bandana-wrapped tacos up to 200-feet and into the hands of a lucky bystander. Or, if I was there, into the hands of a man who just punched and kicked everyone else in the crowd screaming, “THOSE ARE MY TACOS, TOUCH ONE AND DIE.” I take my tacos very seriously. Burritos? Meh — I might stab you for one depending on where it’s from. “Taco Bell?” YOU’RE A DEAD MAN. “Del Taco?” DEAD WITH A SIDE OF EXTRA DEAD. Still, the whole eating thing — that’s a lot of work. That’s why I just came up with what might very well be my best idea ever. “Fire tacos straight up your ass and save yourself all the chewing?” *wink* When I bend over pull the trigger as fast as you can.
Hit the jump for one more shot and a video of a crowd scrambling for shot tacos.
Europe is a key market for Apple. Last quarter it remained the second-highest revenue generating region after the U.S. Yet it’s an increasingly challenging market, yielding the lowest growth of any region for Cupertino in its Q3. And for smartphones at least, it’s also a market firmly in thrall to Google’s Android OS (not that Apple would put it that way). In its Q4 earnings today, Apple reported total revenues of $ 8,023 billion in Europe for Q4, down three percent on the previous quarter. Total revenues in the region were up eight percent year-on-year, but sales of Macs were down three percent.
The iPhone 5 launched in the U.S. during Apple’s Q4 — but Apple does not break out iPhone (or iPad) sales by region. Cook also noted that: ”We launched iPhone 5 in the US during the quarter, and while we launched in some international countries in the bulk of the world we did not launch in and so I would have expect to have seen more significant growth in the US vs the rest of the world.”
In contrast to tough times in Europe, Cook lauded a “really phenomenal” quarter in China during the Q4 earnings call, with full year revenue $ 22.8bn — up over $ 10bn year-on-year. He said Greater China “now represents about 15 percent of Apple for the fiscal year”.
In its Q3 earnings, Cupertino blamed the tough macro-economic situation in Europe for softening demand for its products and leading to “essentially flat” sales — indeed, it blamed the region for a rare miss against Wall Street expectations in Q3, along with speculation about forthcoming products (ie the iPhone 5). France, Greece and Italy were singled out as being “particularly poor” during the quarter, while Germany saw “only single digital positive growth” in Q3. The U.K. bucked the trend, delivering “solid” 13 percent growth.
Google’s Android OS is making life increasingly difficult for Apple in Europe. In its most recent report from September, market research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech (KWC), which tracks 12-week smartphone buying patterns, reported that Android had increased its share in Europe by a fifth (20.2 percent) in the past year — to gain more than two-thirds of the smartphone market. Android OEMs such as Samsung have driven sales by building phones with larger screen sizes than the iPhone, such as the Galaxy Note and the Galaxy SIII. KWC noted that 29 percent of the Android devices sold in the 12 weeks prior to its report had a screen size of more than 4.5 inches.
During its fiscal Q4 Apple launched an iPhone with a larger screen — 4 inches vs 3.5 inches — and announced a smaller version of its iPad tablet as it seeks to squeeze demand for Android phablets.
In additional European Apple news, the company appears to have quietly raised the price of App Store apps in select European countries. TheNextWeb is reporting it has shifted the base price of apps from €0.79 to €0.89 in countries including Belgium, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment on the price rise and will update this story with any response.
[Image: C.G.P. Grey]
Enough’s been said already about the iPhone 5′s purple flaring issue. It’s actually very common for modern-day optics systems, but long-time users aren’t really used to it.
So the folks at FotoDiox have brought a fix to the table: the CamHoodie case for iPhone 5.
The case greatly reduces the amount of purple lens flare both in stills and capturing video. It’s relatively simple in design, made of high-grade rubber and plastic.
Essentially, it’s a lens hood for the iPhone 5 camera lens, and it “provide[s] a little cocoon of protection from stray light rays entering the lens elements from the edges of the frame,” according to the product page.
That’s not to say it resolves the purple haze entirely, but it clearly makes a difference (just check out the videos below).
The CamHoodie is available for pre-order now for $ 24.95, with expected delivery date of October 30. Just in time for Halloween pics.
Take a look at the difference below:
Just in case you aren’t caught up, Apple support responded to many purple flare complaints that this was normal and to angle the camera differently. Apple even gave an official response.
Hooray for the ecosystem!
Enough’s been said already about the iPhone 5′s purple flaring issue. It’s actually very common for modern-day optics systems, but long-time users aren’t really used to it.
So the folks at FotoDiox have brought a fix to the table: the CamHoodie case for iPhone 5.
The case greatly reduces the amount of purple lens flare both in stills and capturing video. It’s relatively simple in design, made of high-grade rubber and plastic.
Essentially, it’s a lens hood for the iPhone 5 camera lens, and it “provide[s] a little cocoon of protection from stray light rays entering the lens elements from the edges of the frame,” according to the product page.
That’s not to say it resolves the purple haze entirely, but it clearly makes a difference (just check out the videos below).
The CamHoodie is available for pre-order now for $ 24.95, with expected delivery date of October 30. Just in time for Halloween pics.
Take a look at the difference below:
Just in case you aren’t caught up, Apple support responded to many purple flare complaints that this was normal and to angle the camera differently. Apple even gave an official response.
Hooray for the ecosystem!
This is Terry the sheep. Terry was born with his head on upside down. Obviously, he’s the black sheep of his flock. I’m not sure if the elves working in God’s workshop were drinking on the job that day or what, but that is NOT how you assemble a sheep. If Santa brought that to my house on Christmas I’d probably make a real effort to be better next year.
A sheep at a farm of one of my friends. He was born with his head the wrong way round.
He lives happily and has been checked by a Vet to ensure he is in no pain. He can eat, sleep and do everything other sheeps can.
Hoho, he’s like a modern day Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer! Well, if Rudolph was born with his head on upside down and could scratch his crotch with his antlers. Similar though. “They’re nothing alike.” Like apples and oranges, really.
Hit the jump for more pics and a BONUS VIDEO. WEE-WOO, WEE-WOO!
Shai Agassi has guided Better Place’s vision of swap-and-go battery stations for electric cars since it was founded five years ago, but now he’s stepped down as the firm’s CEO. Evan Thornley, who helmed the organization’s Australian efforts, has taken up the mantle of global chief executive officer, while Agassi will continue his role as a board member. As the Wall Street Journal notes, the changing of the guard comes at a time when the company has been spending cash faster than it’s generating revenue thanks to the construction of battery swap stations. Idan Ofer, Chairman of the Better Place Board of Directors sees this as “a natural point in the company’s evolution to realign for its second chapter and for the challenges and opportunities ahead.” Something tells us they wouldn’t mind if future chapters are filled with more swappable batteries than Superchargers.
Continue reading Better Place founder Shai Agassi steps down from CEO post
Filed under: Transportation
Better Place founder Shai Agassi steps down from CEO post originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Oct 2012 23:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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