Resisting your e-mail is futile. When Jamie Matthews gets an e-mail, he just has to be notified. Receiving a glowing cube from Linden Labs at a job fair, Matthews just couldn’t resist turning it into something a little more worthwhile.

A simple python script runs on his computer, periodically screen-scraping his Gmail inbox looking for new mail. It then outputs a message to the serial port, indicating the mailbox status. On the other end of the serial connection is a Boarduino, which receives the message and toggles power to the cube.

There’s a highly detailed how-to guide on the main link below, check it out if you’re interested in having a cube light up after every 5 seconds of spam for Viagra you receive.

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Sprint and Samsung today announced that its joint-venture wireless infrastructure, better known as WiMAX, is ready for service. This comes after years of scrutiny against Sprint for basically fucking everything up along the way. Still, mistakes aside, WiMAX looks to bring a new generation of high-bandwidth web surfing to our laptops.

Have you missed out on WiMAX news in the past? Not sure what it is? This little bit from Wikipedia explains it wisely:

WiMAX, the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular type access. It is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard, which is also called WirelessMAN. The name “WiMAX” was created by the WiMAX Forum, which was formed in June 2001 to promote conformance and interoperability of the standard. The forum describes WiMAX as “a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL” (and also to HSPA).

With speeds up to 70 Mbps and Siemens announcing the SE680 WiMAX Modem, 2008 and 2009 are gearing up to be the year for broadband access across multiple devices. It’s only a matter of time before someone starts sniffing out WiMAX networks and breaking their encryption.

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Coming in October, Disney plans to release “Sleeping Beauty” on Blu-Ray disc with some remarkably exclusive features thanks to the rise of BD-Live, the internet-based feature which offers a variety of Web-enabled features. From the article:

…viewers will be able to pop “Sleeping Beauty” into their Blu-ray Disc player and get a customized version of the famed Sleeping Beauty castle that serves as a backdrop for the menu. The sky behind the castle will reflect the weather in their hometown, whether it’s a blizzard in Cleveland or a balmy day in San Diego.

It’s more or less an Xbox-live with some Sony snaz thrown in exclusively for Blu-Ray discs and Blu-Ray players. Ironically the only Blu-Ray player on the market supporting such a feature is Sony’s PS3. So, if you shelled out loads of cash for a top-notch Blu-Ray player and held off on a top-notch gaming system with no-notch games, you’ll be missing out, for now.

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Why spend a ton of money on eBay for someone else’s crap when you can blow $10 and be done with it? That’s probably the concept behind SomethingStore.com, a new website that will send you something for ten bucks.

So far, customers have gotten items like a gourmet coffee maker, a wall clock, kitchen knives, a pair of designer jeans and lots of other wacky items. Nearly 7000 orders have been placed so far and I for one am intrigued. I’ll order an item today and we’ll see how it turns out. Shipping is included, so if you have a little extra cash sitting around, it might be worth checking out.

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While it’s not the work of untooning master Pixeloo (the artist behind the untooned versions of Jessica Rabbit, Homer Simpson, and Super Mario), this untooning attempt, which was an entry to a Worth1000 “Reality Cartoon” Photoshop contest, comes pretty damn close to the master himself.

If the producers over at Family Guy were to one-day let Peter Griffin star as a live-action character, we can only assume he would look something eerily similar to this untooned version of everybody’s favorite father from Quahog. Hit the jump for a larger shot of the untooned Peter. (more…)

The fine people over at MakeUseOf.com have compiled a list of essential guitar tools that will suit any master of the axe well. The roundup includes guitar tab sites, tab editors and organizers and scale programs. All of these tools are great ways to help you improve your playing and learn new techniques. Guitar programs such as Guitar Rig, GarageBand and Logic Express can all add new sounds to your playing and are usually available in demo form from the manufacturer’s website.

Remember, make sure the guitar you’re playing on is of reasonable size.

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Perhaps you popped a hard one last week browsing the Internet. Maybe it was because you’re into leather, maybe you saw Tera Patrick blowing Peter North or perhaps you were one of the many geeks who saw a Photoshopped picture of Jessica Rabbit turned into a human.

Now, thanks to the wonder of video capture, you can see how the man behind the transformation put her together. It’s only the first hour of work crammed into a ten minute video but it’s well worth the watch. Turns out her face was reconstructed from part Angelina Jolie, part Allison Hannigan and Andrew’s mustache. Oh my…

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I just ordered a Domino’s Pizza actually and while the whole Pizza Tracker idea is cool and all, I don’t really like the eyesore of the cheesy (pun intended) graphics flooding my screen real estate. I like to keep things simple, like my pizza. No BaconMozzzerellaTacoLovers Pie for me! Just a plain or one-topping pie in an ordinary box will do the trick.

Seems someone else felt the same way and decided to use the programing language of the gods, Python, to convert Domino’s Pizza Tracker for Terminal use. All you need to do is download the Python script and run it. Fill out the necessary information and voila, you’re tracking slices Linux/OS X/UNIX-style. About as exciting as a bento box with album art on the packaging to some. Awesome for pizza aficionados like myself.

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Beards are the “in” fashion statement for the elite members of Silicon Valley. Steve Jobs has his scruffy and sparse facial hair, Steve Wozniak’s face features a fuller version and Fortune Magazine’s choice for Best Beard, Stewart Butterfield from Flickr, features a closely cropped, clean beard.

After holding their own internal competition, Fortune.com is asking one question: “Who has the best beard in Silicon Valley?” And frankly, we here at Gearfuse became pretty curious too.

The competition over at Fortune.com is now down to four contenders. Steve Jobs of Apple fame, Jimmy Wales from Wikipedia, Edwin Catmull of Pixar, or Larry Ellison from Oracle? If it were up to me, Catmull would so win for his beard just because it makes him look like a lumberjack crossed with a mine worker. Steve Jobs wins for beard innovation and a decent amount of scruff.

Who do you think has the best beard of the bunch?

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When Trent Reznor let people pay what they wanted for the Ghosts I-IV albums, fans listened. In the first week alone, $1.6 million was generated in revenue - astonishing for an artist releasing their own music independently. Now Trent just doesn’t give a fuck and has released the latest Nine Inch Nails album 100-percent free.

That’s right. You wont pay shit for this album and you can get it in MP3, AAC, FLAC and WAVE formats too. It’s called The Slip and it’s a real hard album. This isn’t the instrumental stuff we heard on Ghosts, so suffice to say, many fans will be pleased. I hear not having to deal with DRM is always nice, too.

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