Geek Court

Bumblebee Transforms Into An Xbox 360

Edg3 — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:25:17 +0000

Mark Bongo of Major League Mods has done it again. His latest creation is a 250 Gig Slim Xbox 360 contained in a remote-controlled Bumblebee Camaro. This is a fully functional Xbox 360 peeps. The cd tray is housed in the car’s front grill and the power button is accessed by pressing the gas cap.

The screen is an 8 inch LCD screen and the HDMI and USB ports are right below the rear bumper. Custom controllers are included.

Take a look at it in action:

[High five to Chris Brandrick]

Infinity Ward Swings Ban Hammer At 1,600 Modern Warfare 3 Cheaters

Edg3 — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:57:05 +0000

Courtesy of Motivationals.org

Infinity Ward has been busy banning Modern Warfare 3 cheaters. In fact, their ban hammer has hit 1,600 home runs so far. Yep, that’s 1,600 Modern Warfare 3 players banned for cheating, glitching, etc.

Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling said on Twitter:

“Any attempt to cheat, hack, or glitch in #MW3 will not be tolerated. 1600+ bans issued. Updates in works. Please cont. to report offenders.”

Looks like they mean business.

[High five to CVG]

Torchlight 2 Release Delayed

Edg3 — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 02:02:21 +0000

Runic has finally spoken on the fate of Torchlight 2. The good news is that it will be a polished product and that there will be a beta test before launch. The bad news? Torchlight 2 won’t see the light of day this year. Before you start complaining, remember that they’ve only had about a year and a half on the development side so that’s not too bad compared to most titles. Runic said that the beta would be a “small beta” implying a quick final test before release. So when is launch time? Geek Court’s guess would be the first quarter of 2012. Hopefully.

Here’s an excerpt from the official Runic update:

“We feel pretty safe in saying that if you enjoyed Torchlight at all, this sequel is superior in every respect. Right now our job is to ensure that the quality level is consistent all the way to the end.

Besides, you’re all playing Skyrim right now anyway, aren’t you? Or Battlefield 3? Or Uncharted 3? Or Saints Row 3? Or Arkham City? Or Skyward Sword? Or Minecraft? Or Modern Warfare 3? Or Dark Souls? Or Assassin’s Creed Revelations?

Those are awesome games. When Torchlight 2 goes live, we want it to be awesome too – all the way through

These guys really get it.

Seagate Rolls Out 4TB External Hard Drive

Edg3 — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:20:09 +0000

If you’re tired of burning your backups to DVD or running out of space on your external disk drive, this next bit should cheer you up. Seagate has recently rolled out a 4TB GoFlex external hard drive that’s compatible with both Mac and Windows systems. The GoFlex hard drive works with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 and includes its own encryption for your backups.

The drive’s backup software lets you set backup schedules, encryption options, and offers automatic continuous backup of your files.

4TB .. that’s a lot of movies and music. We like it.

A Lego Look At History

Edg3 — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 10:34:35 +0000

Legos are great toys for developing creativity. In fact, they’re also great as tools for history lessons. Don’t believe me? The folks over at Retronaut have a list of images of some prominent characters in history. Lego images actually. Let’s take a look at Retronaut’s History in Lego.

The following images were taken from Retronaut:

Makes you want to bring out your legos doesn’t it?

For the complete list, check out History in Lego by Retronaut.

Geek Gear: The USB Retro Desk Vacuum

Edg3 — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:06:37 +0000

If you use a computer regularly, chances are, your desktop gets dirty in no time flat. It’s also a safe bet that your office desktop suffers the same fate. While cleaning your desktop or your computer is easy enough, there’s no reason not to do it in style.

Meet the USB Retro Desk Vacuum. This little geek gadget plugs in your computer’s USB1 or USB2 port and is ready to clean. No batteries required.

Don’t deny it, you know you want one.

Teach Windows Explorer New Tricks With File Menu Tools

Edg3 — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:42:23 +0000

File Menu Tools is a free Windows application that adds more functionality to Windows Explorer. The program lets you customize Windows Explorer’s context menu, lets you configure the “Send To..” submenu, and adds more utilities for operations on files and folders.

Some of the added utilities include advanced rename, folder synchronization, split and join files, shred files, change the time a folder or file was created, extended delete, etc.

File Menu Tools runs on Windows

Search Your Firefox History Like A Champ With Recall Monkey

Edg3 — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 07:14:42 +0000

People who browse the Internet regularly go through a lot sites in one day. Sometimes, you remember a cool site you visited before and want to go back but can’t remember the name. The usual solution would be to go to your history and search for it there. If you can’t remember the name of what you’re looking for, you can either go through your history by using the time ranges (takes longer), or you can use Recall Monkey.

Recall Monkey is a Firefox Add-on that lets you search your Firefox history like you were using a search engine. Your search results are ranked based on how closely your query matches sites in your history. The add-on is still in its experimental stage so it may still have some bugs. No need to worry though since it was developed by Mozilla Labs.

Recall Monkey works with Firefox 4.0b7 – 8.0a1

Windows XP Support Ends On April 8 2014

Edg3 — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 05:56:58 +0000

It was bound to happen eventually. On April 8, 2014, all extended support for Windows XP will stop. This includes hotfixes and security patches. Some of you might be thinking well that’s years away. That’s less than 1000 days away. Not so far when you look at it like that.

Most people that opted to stay with XP are still waiting for the hardware and software compatibility issues in Windows 7 to be resolved before making the switch. Don’t worry folks. Who knows, Windows 8 might be out before then.

IBM Celebrates 100 Years

Edg3 — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 03:30:16 +0000

IBM recently celebrated it’s 100th year. Not kidding, 100 years. Aside from the personal computer, the company has been responsible for time recorders, cash registers, clocks, punch card machines, UPC barcodes, and a heck of a lot more. While we won’t get into the details of IBM’s history as that would deserve a whole blog of it’s own, we will take a look at some of the company’s products throughout the years.

Here’s how IBM’s logo evolved:

Here are some of the company’s earlier products:

[Images courtesy of Wikipedia]

(1958) The IBM 632 Electronic Typing Calculator

The IBM 632 had a small core memory that provided storage for 8 numeric 12 digit words.

The IBM 1130

The IBM 1130 with 65,536 bytes of core memory.

(1980) The IBM 5120

The IBM 5120 had two 8-inch 1.2 MB floppy drives, 32K memory, and a 9-inch monochrome monitor.

(1983) The IBM Personal Computer XT

The IBM XT shipped with 128 Kb memory, a 10 MB hard drive, and a microprocessor running at 4.77 MHz.

Makes you appreciate your computer doesn’t it?