Forget what I said about the Vectrex, I was merely poking fun. It is a goofy looking but awesomely retro gaming console that’s easy to ridicule. If you just so happen to have one collecting dust in your attic because of an obsolete chip, In Choi writes on Programmable Logic DesignLine about emulating the chip with logic design.

Choi proves that there are practical ways to overcome chip obsolescence. Constructing a replacement chip dubbed a RLD (retro logic device), a swap for the broken chip gets the system up and running again. We’re glad he used the Vectrex to prove his point.

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A guitar boat sounds great on paper. It’s a chick magnet. It plays tunes. It can get you down the Yangtze river. Well, maybe not the owner of this boat, Australian singer Josh Pyke. He’d find it difficult once the locals catch up to him with their boats shaped like boats and capsize his ass, sending him down stream quicker than a hyena hopped up on poppers. It wouldn’t be a problem if Josh Pyke invested in a hyper-sub.

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We saw Matt Daughtrey’s terrifying Halloween project on Make and before you know it, it had us shaking in our boots. OK, that’s a blatant lie; on the other hand the LMDriver platform he uses is neat. It works with LEDs to display eyes that look around and blink. It’s a project that’s begging to be put into a pumpkin, it’s just not that scary. Privates eyes, they’re watching you. Now, that’s scary.

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Dubai is a cool city and all, but have you ever gotten the feeling that it’s just flaunting its endless wealth? That’s because it is. Dubai is rich, filthy rich and they aren’t afraid of letting the world know it by dropping billions of dollars on over-elaborate fountains and animated skyscrapers.

Now, Dubai is “WOWing” the world once again by having the UAE development company, Tameer Holding, develop the world’s largest LED screen to be embedded on an intended commercial tower in the Majan district of Dubailand. That’s 33 stories of advertising. It might seem a little excessive, but this is Dubai. It’s got money and it’s not afraid to flaunt it.

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Just a few days after going gold, Fallout 3 has leaked on to the Internet. While it may seem to be one of the worst console piracy cases of the year, so far it has yet to reach the controversial level that Spore has had and Bethesda has yet to make an official statement regarding the leak.

So far, only the Xbox 360 version has been leaked. Meaning, you’ll have to heavily mod your console after downloading the 6.52 GB file. While the game ships on the 28th of October, many pirates can’t wait that long. And why should they? We’ve all been waiting ten years for this game, it’s about time it got in to the hands of the public. I can’t wait to play it.

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Verizon is digging deep in to the pockets of its corporate users by charging an additional three cents per text message sent to its customers. This won’t affect you when you’re texting your friends, however it will affect standard-rate and premium programs of mobile terminated messages.

That includes text alerts, interactive voting notifications, SMS search responses and pretty much anything else that would’ve charged you anyway. Those Jamster commercials on late night television? Yup, those will cost them $0.03 every time they send you a message about Ne-Yo. Now, you’ll just have to add 3 cents on to your EZ Flirt bill, thanks to Verizon. Geez, can’t a guy get a lucky break?

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Microsoft has announced its New Xbox Experience will launch November 19, bringing a fresh look to the Xbox 360 Dashboard that integrates social features and customizable gamer avatars reminiscent of the Nintendo Wii’s Mii. In order to compete with the upcoming PlayStation Home, Microsoft is adding a slew of avatars, social networking features and more media to the Xbox 360.

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The ultimate gaming rig has now become your car. It doesn’t sport the powerhouse graphics offered by the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 nor the gimmicky bullshit that encompasses the Nintendo Wii, but it does have a cool name: the Carcade. Students at the Berlin University of the Arts designed this “augmented reality in-car videogame” which utilizes a laptop and webcam to turn the scenery you’re driving by into the level of the game.

It’s like the standard shooter except it’s all about avoidance rather than racking up points by demolishing enemies. That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun, considering that the faster the driver is going will directly affect the difficulty and speed of the game. Just hope the driver keeps his/her eyes on the road and off the game.

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We’ve been looking for some steampunk gear to match our new headphones and cane for a while now. Thanks to WETA’s steampunk raygun, the set is complete and I am now an official member of the Wild Wild West 2 movie crew. It’s called the “The Unnatural Selector - A Ray-Blunderbuss from Dr Grordbort’s,” and does little more than hang on your wall, looking pretty. Of course, you could always dismount it and run a muck wreaking havoc on unsuspecting foes.

Before you get in to any mischief, you’ll have to put a mortgage on your house because this thing goes from $4,500 to $7,900 dollars depending on what edition you settle with. Why so much? Despite all the detail put into this thing, it’ll also have your name engraved on it. Now, that’s cool.

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Three scientists have won the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Americans Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien and Japan’s Osamu Shimomura discovered and successfully developed a fluorescent protein found in jellyfish. Jellyfish will glow under blue and ultraviolet light because of this protein which the three scientists have become known for.

It might not sound like much, but this jellyfish protein has been widely used to study the spread of cancer, how brain cells develop and bacterial growth. Still don’t think it’s a big deal?

The academy compared the impact of the protein on science to the invention of the microscope, saying that for the past decade the protein has been ‘a guiding star for biochemists, biologists, medical scientists and other researchers’.

Yes, this is a big deal.

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