Geek culture

Heavy metal: Japan working on 13-foot robot

"Voltron" and "Transformers" were two of my favorite cartoons when I was growing up, and it saddened me that I never had giant robot friends to hang out with in real life. But there's hope yet.

Hajime Sakamoto, president of the Hajime Research Institute in Osaka, Japan, is working on building a 13-foot robot with a built-in cockpit for humans. Though the project is already under way, Sakamoto is looking for additional contractors and sponsors to complete the giant task.

The Hajime Research Institute is no stranger to building large robots. Sakamoto and his team previously built a 7-foot humanoid (see the video below), and they're already looking ahead to creating 26- and 59-foot robots.

… Read more

Conan slams Amazon's Kindle Fire

The Kindle Fire apparently does not impress Conan O'Brien.

CoCo went after Amazon's inexpensive tablet on his late-night show, with the help of perhaps the worst Jeff Bezos impression ever. The brief skit features the bizarro Bezos pitching some "simple solutions" for a few of the widely reported complaints about the Kindle Fire.

That oddly placed power switch? Duct tape, naturally. I won't spoil any more--watch the clip below for yourself and let us know in the comments if you think the televised lambasting is deserved.… Read more

8-bit ninjas unbox Samsung Galaxy Nexus

How many ninjas does it take to change a lightbulb? No one knows--when the light comes back on we still can't see them. How many ninjas does it take to unbox the Samsung Galaxy Nexus? Find out in a mind-bogglingly fun 8-bit game on YouTube.

Clash of the Nexus Ninjas begins as a YouTube video introducing the Galaxy Nexus, in the now-traditional ninja unboxing for the latest Nexus flagship Android phone. Then it explodes into 8-bit kicky-punch action as you fight over who's going to be first to try out Ice Cream Sandwich.

You take the role of the red Nexus Ninja, battling off hordes of black and white Nexus Ninjas. Power up with Nexus power and become a powerhouse of kicks and punches, laying out swathes of enemies with each supercharged blow.

Read more of "Samsung Galaxy Nexus unboxing in 8-bit Clash of the Nexus Ninjas" at Crave UK. … Read more

The 404 Yuletide Mini-sode: Where we recap the year in tech (podcast)

Welcome to another Yuletide episode from The 404 Podcast! We'll be publishing these podcasts, videos, and rerun episodes until we return on January 10 for a block of live shows from CES in Las Vegas!

This time we're running through all the big tech news from this year, including the launch of the iPad 2, Facebook Timeline, and the death of Steve Jobs.… Read more

'Friday' tops 2011 YouTube most-watched list

I have to confess that I'm not among the nearly 200 million viewers who have indulged in YouTube's most-watched video of 2011: Rebecca Black's "Friday" music video.

Hold on a sec, I'm going to go check it out... OK, I'm back. Someone, please get it out of my head. It hurts.

According to YouTube's list of the most-watched videos of 2011, the runner-up for most-watched vid of belongs to a four-legged creature. "Ultimate Dog Tease" features a talking pooch being teased by an owner listing a variety of tantalizing meats. That one racked up almost 75 million views.… Read more

Twitter-by-post breeds analog 'Fail Whales'

On the way to our digital world, a strange thing happened--analog became cool again. How else can you explain something like Twitter-by-post?

The idea is simple, the execution not so much. Freelance writer Giles Turnbull decided to take his tweets offline by responding to his Twitter feed using physical postcards. He laid out the mechanics of the experiment--done with the help of about 15 "volunteers" from among his Twitter followers--in The Morning News:… Read more

1960s 'Batman' in Lego form: Biff! Bam! Pow!

I'm a little conflicted about the 1960s "Batman" show.

On one hand, it was a campy show that has given us more than 40 years of lame headlines with Biff! Bam! Pow! any time there's a comic-book-related story.

On the other hand, there's Julie Newmar.

Same thing goes for Lego. I love building stuff with them (sometimes I let my kids help me, too), but I'm not so wild about their tendency to turn into caltrops when I'm walking around barefoot.

But if you mix Lego and Batman, it's like alchemy. The Lego Batman video game was a hit at our house, so I have a feeling this video will be, too. Thanks to 15-year-old French-Canadian animator and YouTuber "LGFB," we can enjoy the opening sequence to "Batman" as nature intended: in Lego form. … Read more

QR code tattoo generates random links

Deciding on a tattoo pretty much means you're stuck with an image for life. To combat staleness, Fred Bosch chose a tattoo that will never look the same twice.

Bosch had a QR code inked onto the inside of his forearm. Scanning it is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.

The code may pop up with a GIF of a couple of headbangers swinging their hair around, or a recent tweet, a phrase, a video, or a weather report. Bosch calls it the first-ever random tattoo.… Read more

Fashion site Nerd Boyfriend finds its Nerd Girlfriend

Trendsetting fashion site The Sartorialist be damned! Everyone knows the geeky guys featured on Nerd Boyfriend dress much, much classier.

And now it looks like the geeky girls will get their own chance to stumble strut down the virtual runway too.

Hubba hubba: Nerd Girlfriend has arrived!

Debut "cover girl" Gilda Radner is somewhat surprisingly not in Lisa Loopner garb, but then, that's one of the things we've always liked about Nerd Boyfriend: in addition to nailing the thick-rimmed stereotype in spot-on but unexpected ways, NBF is very good at offering up a nerdy revelation or two.

In part that's because the site doesn't limit "nerd" to the tech-, science-, or intellectually oriented. And we agree: a nerd is a nerd--and though we might not always be able to define the term with slide-rule precision, we know one when we see one.… Read more