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The 'Inside' soundtrack was created with a human skull
Inside, the mysterious puzzle platformer by Playdead, continues the dark and isolating tone of its predecessor, Limbo. Much of the game's atmosphere can be attributed to the soundtrack, which offers a beautiful, yet haunting frame for the narrative. To nail this sombre mood, composer and sound designer Martin Stig Andersen turned to the human body. He found an old skull (yes, a real skull) and played the game's score through it, like an old school filter. The results were "quite bad," but Anderson persisted -- with a little post-processing, the final tracks were born.
Google Art Project adds hundreds of 3D sculptures and animal skulls
The Google Art Project already archived thousands of murals, paintings and more for viewing on the web. Not all artifacts are flat, though, but the folks in Mountain View added nearly 300 3D scans so you can examine detailed animal skulls and ornate sculptures from the comfort of your sofa. Flip through new collections from six museums before rotating a skull with your mouse or touchpad to see features from every angle -- like the Helmeted hornbill above from the California Academy of Sciences. If you're not into animal bones, don't fret: There's art, too. Thanks to places like the Dallas Museum of Art and Museo d'Arte Orientale, you can ogle sculptures, masks and other ancient artifacts as well. And all without having to get in the car.
3D-printed mesh gives man with half a skull hope for recovery
People have been patching up their bodies with foreign parts for ages now, but 3D printing has only made that process easier, faster and more emblematic of hope. Case in point: a Chinese farmer named Hu fell three stories in a construction accident, and he has a shot at a normal life again thanks to a 3D-printed titanium mesh that doctors installed where the left side of his skull used to be. The accident left Hu with impaired vision and an inability to speak or write, so surgeons at Xijing Hospital in northwest China took him under the knife for three hours to return his skull cavity to its normal shape. It's too soon to tell if his normal brain function will return, though -- doctors hope his gray matter will slowly start to regenerate now that it has the space to grow. This isn't the first time 3D printed parts have complemented someone's cranium -- doctors in the Netherlands replaced most of a woman's skull with 3D printed plastic after it was discovered that the bone surrounding her brain was slowly growing thicker and threatening her cognitive future.
Jarre Aeroskull speaker dock packs dual 15-watt woofers, recently departed Apple Dock Connector
Just in time for Halloween, Jarre's new Aeroskull dock embodies 70 watts of total power in a human-like cranium, complete with a pair of speaker-packing shades. Jarre is showing off the colorful chrome tune machine in black, white, blue, green, orange, pink, purple and yellow finishes, with a matching IR bone remote to boot. With a tinted lens appearance, the permanently affixed sunglasses actually contain two 15-watt speakers, with a 40-watt subwoofer occupying the skull's rear. The lofty £349 (about $565) sticker price will net you some of the latest technologies, including Bluetooth audio support and a standard 3.5mm audio input, but Apple's new Lightning port is notably absent, with a good-as-dead Dock Connector mounted up top, instead. With 70 watts of power and Jarre's backing, this seemingly bizarre rig may actually offer decent performance. You'll need to wait until its October ship date to see for yourself, but if a skeletal sound system is on your list of must-haves, you can rest in peace knowing that you have but weeks to live (with your current spirited setup).
Dell employees arrested for poor decision making skills
Round Rock police responded to multiple 911 calls of a suspicious man carrying two metallic objects inside a building at Dell's HQ campus. The "biker," dressed in all black and wearing a skull mask, was yelling at people to "go to the lobby," according to police reports. The ensuing panic resulted in the arrest of two Dell employees charged with interfering with public duties and deadly misconduct. Now get this: the incident was the result of a marketing stunt gone horribly wrong with the purpose of internally promoting a new product for the Dell Streak tablet "which can interface with Harley-Davidson motorcycles." Because really, leather-clad motorcyclists are constantly complaining about the lack of peripherals for their choppers.
Steampunk mouse, now with 100 percent more skull
If Lord Byron had been hip to this newfangled computer thing way back in his day, this might just have been the sort of peripheral he'd have been sporting. Made from a real sheep's skull -- and real brass, though that's somehow less interesting -- this mouse has everything a megalomaniacal world conqueror needs to feel at home: fine ornamental detailing, the soothing texture of real bone, and the enticing mental image of crushing skulls every time you click. There's not much wiggle room here, you'll either love it or loathe it, but don't fret about the sheep, it died of natural causes. More pics after the break. [Via Technabob]
Crapgadget: Tacky USB knicknacks edition
When the fine folks of the USB Implementers Forum put together the specs for USB 2.0 some nine odd years ago, they certainly never dreamed that this technology would be the standard connectivity option for the tacky knickknacks of the 21st century. We know you won't be lining your mantelpiece with any of these things (the space being reserved for your Franklin Mint collector plates depicting the cast of Gone With The Wind) but maybe your cube could use some gussying up? We have 2GB thumb drives for you that almost-not-really pass themselves off as cat's ears, a USB hub that comes with "chocolate" balls of dubious provenance, a hub that might look at home next to your skull bong, and lastly, a USB powered fan with a fetching Spider-Man motif. Do any of these sound good to you? We didn't think so. But feel free to hop on past the break for a good laugh.Read - USB Chocolate 3-Port Hub Read - USB Memory Cat Ears Read - Wacky Skull and Potato Polyresin USB HubsRead - USB Spider-Man Fan
Skull belt buckle / LED "display" / MP3 player wants to fight your battles for you
So, we're not going to say this is the greatest thing we've ever seen, because we've seen some pretty awesome things in our years and years of living on the edge, but it's pretty, uh... heavy metal. Regardless, the so-called "Punk Skull" belt buckle is one multi-talented reminder of Death: he holds up your pants, but can also play MP3s (1GB player included) or display fascinatingly terrifying LED light patterns (LED module included) -- though sadly, not both at once. If that's not enough uses for you, the manufacturer suggests that the buckle is solid enough for you to use "as a handheld weapon," which is great, because we suspect that suddenly, a lot of people are going to start wanting to fight you. Available now for wholesale, we're pretty sure they'll be making their way to high-end retailers near you soon, and that they'll be horrifically affordable. A few more shots of the carnage after the break. [Via Random Good Stuff]
Solid Alliance's 2GB USB Skull Ring helps RPG players look tough
We'll be straight with you: there's no single expression of bad-assery more potent in the polyhedral kingdom of nerdistan than the USB Skull Ring. Brought to you by Solid Alliance, the 2GB USB drive feels right at home transferring files to your PC or at the end of a fist, deftly buried into the gut of a Moradin dwarf. Your choice for $145, no seriously. One more hair-free shot after the break.
Scitec's Swarovski skullphones: Look what the cat dragged in
Somehow, we don't think that this was what Swarovski had in mind when they began whoring their luxury name onto consumer electronics a few years ago. The Scitec SEB-100 canal-type earbuds with fancy, "hand-pasted" crystals will cost ¥10,000 (about 100 US beans) when they hit Japan later this month. The perfect gift for the glam-rock pansy struggling with middle age on your Malibu, beachside block.
Third Eye pinhole camera exposes the dead, mocks the living
Here you have latest pinhole camera by artist, Wayne Martin Belger -- a good boy raised on a steady diet of crucifixion imagery and the scorched-earth wrath of divinity. This work entitled Third Eye, a study of "the beauty of decay," uses precious metals like titanium and silver to expose the memory of time onto film, sheering the 150 year old skull of a 13 year old girl. Sample image posted after the break for those who dare.[Via Make: and Art Diabolique]
Terminator head DVD player returns from the future to stop itself from playing a DVD of 'The Terminator'
Color us stumped and incredibly excited. We've discovered this totally useless yet endlessly amazing DVD player / Terminator head out in the wilds of the internet, but finding any information deeper than people exclaiming "this is awesome" is, in a word, difficult. Look, we're not saying that we want to find the company that makes these, order 100 of them, rip out their guts and replace them with those electronic rat brains, swap the eyes for stereoscopic cameras, tack on Darth Vader-esque voice boxes, and then mount them to the unkillable bodies of an army of robotic warriors we've been building, but... uh, well... okay you got us.
Stick on a skully spring skin
Tis the season to feature skulls in springtime! Well, we guess these two new skins from GHskinz are appealing to a few different types of gamer, unless someone out there digs skulls and blood while waltzing through a field of flowers and butterflies.In any case, the designs are very crisp and clear, and when you know you suck at coming up with a decent mod, you'll probably want to pick up something a bit more professional. Stick with a skin, and make it a good'un. Hit the break to check out what we like to call DS Happy. Nothing gonna get us down today!
World of WarCrafts: The secret of the ooze
Every Thursday, Shelbi Roach of The Bronze Kettle guides you in creating WoW-inspired crafts using real world mats with World of WarCrafts.Being a mom of two boys, this is definitely a good recipe to have in my bag of tricks. Slime is ultimate fun, and the ingredients are super cheap. The secret to this ooze is clear glue and a small amount of Borax solution. Here is what you will need: 1/2 cup of clear Elmer's glue 1 cup of water Borax Solution (1/4 cup of water + 1/4 teaspoon of Borax) Food Coloring Skull Optional supplies: Broken Weapon Coins Click on the images below to view a gallery of step-by-step instructions. %Gallery-22373% DISCLAIMER: Common sense here; don't eat the slime. Definitely don't eat the Borax.
Fanstuff: Custom Halo Skull
Continuing our procession of custom Halo 3 work (though this time with no late night mess-ups on our part) we have a piece of real world custom Halo art coming to us directly from the crew over at Destructoid. Poster free touch used a variety of materials and tools to produce a highly impressive version of the Grunt Birthday Party Skull from Halo's 2 and 3. Starting the process with a Halloween prop and creating a plaster mold from there, free touch then skillfully sanded, painted, molded, and carved to eventually produce the sculpture that you see here. Molded after the so called "Viva Pinata" skull, free touch's real world skull also has a large candle shape embedded into the forehead and an input plug at the base. As of right now it's a one of a kind piece, though free touch does note that he has kept the mold, likely in case he has the urge to complete the set. We hope he does.[Thanks EternalDarkWing!]%Gallery-19531%
They're magically delicious!
Very early in patch 2.4's progressive development on the PTR, the ability to send raid icons over chat was implemented. The syntax is pretty simple, you place the name of the icon in those funny looking brackets, like so: {circle}, {star}, etc.Personally, I'm not too terribly excited, it's not something you'll be typing on the fly, probably. I can't really see a Mage or Warlock(or anybody) taking the extra time to type that out properly when something goes wrong(ie death), as simple as it seems to do so. However, this could be a good tool for raid leaders, not so much the raiders. A raid leader could include these in a tanking/crowd control assignment macro. "/ra Matthew, tank {skull}. Christian, sheep {square}." That sort of thing.Regardless of how often this will actually be used, it's a nice little feature, and I'm sure post-2.4 mods and addons will make good use of them, even if the players themselves don't.
The Naaru's new fashion statement
World of Raids and MMO Champion both have lists of new gear on sale, come patch 2.3, in exchange for Badges of Justice from the heroic instances, and now Karazhan and Zul'Aman raid instances as well. That's exciting, of course, but let's stop and look at these pics of the new gear for a moment, shall we?Now, naturally, this gear is designed to fit with the general trollish theme of the patch, which lots of people are understandably excited about. The armor looks pretty good as armor goes, and it definitely brings some new visual design elements to the game that haven't been represented in any previous armor sets. But, let's stop and consider for a moment just where this armor is coming from. It looks like trollish Zul'Aman armor, but do we find it in Zul'Aman? No, it's up for sale by the only known Naaru retailer, G'eras. Does its method of acquisition have anything to do with Zul'Aman whatsoever? Well... it might if your guild has finished raiding Karazhan and gathers the heroic badges in Zul'Aman soon, then yes; but if you still focus mostly on Karazhan or heroic instances, then you might very well acquire some of these armor pieces without ever visiting those Amani trolls even once.What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is the appropriation of the Amani clothing design brand by the Shat'ari Naaru in Shattrath, copied illegally by G'eras, and put on sale with no proprietary settlement with trolls they are mimicking. Who knew that the Naaru could be capable of copyright infringement? If the trolls were down with that whole "I'll see you in court!" thing, their lawyers would be all over this right now.Seriously, why is a being of pure holy light selling trollish armor with skulls and tusks and voodoo dolls on it? -- or does nobody care?
Old raids for new raiders
Rog on MMOROG has an interesting discussion of World of Warcraft's old raid content. Some of the original Azeroth raid content has excellent encounters and interesting story-lines, but adding another ten levels to the game hasn't made them any more accessible to more casual players. "But Elizabeth," I hear you say, "I'm level 70 now! Surely Ragnaros, in his puny level 60 dungeon, holds no real challenge!" But that, dear readers, is where you go wrong, because raid bosses do not have set levels -- all of them have a skull displayed where their level should be, which means that their level is 3 levels above the highest level player in the instance, and that no matter how many levels are added to the game, they'll always be tough fights. While this adds some sense of realism to the world (from a lore point of view, Nefarian, son of Deathwing, should never be soloable, duoable, or even 5-man-able -- though his smaller sister Onyxia is getting there), it also means that more casual players will never be able to check out some of the game's coolest content. Any above-your-level boss requires some decent +hit gear for you to be able to touch them, and if you're geared out well enough to tumble with level 73 monsters, why not just do existing raid content?From my perspective, the old Azeroth raid content was great fun and should be as accessible to players as possible. It's not like a level 70, even wearing only quest rewards and green drops, is going to be getting any gear upgrades from Molten Core or Blackwing Lair, so why not let them have the chance to experience the content for fun?
Re-authorizing your computer for Ringtones
You authorized your computer to your iTunes account long, long ago. So why don't your iTunes Ringtones sync to your iPhone? Turns out that you're going to have to reauthorize your computer to allow it to use ringtones. Yes, not only do you have to sign a new terms of service to buy that ringtone but you also have to add a separate authorization.Ah, there's nothing quite like the smell of RIAA in the morning.
Tell us about 'yer lucky charms!
So we've all had time to get used to the "lucky charms" icons for parties and (more commonly) raid targets. At first, I'll admit that they were a real source of confusion to me, but before very long I was extremely used to them. Since then, my guild uses them almost every chance we get, right down to harassing each other with them. Of course, now that I'm used to seeing and using them when running raids, I can't help but wonder how we ever got along without them in the first place. Those little icons have just made things so much more simple from a targeting aspect. (Of course, you should be targeting off your main assist, or other assigned assist if you're not the tank or MA, but the raid icons do help all that along...) This post on the World of Warcraft LJ today asking about what kind of raiding symbols are commonly used made me stop and wonder if there is really a somewhat "standard" icon used by many guilds and raiding groups for first target. However, as there are only a handful of answers there, I thought I'd bounce this question off everyone here and try to get a broader sampling -- just for curiosity's sake. So, tell us -- what are the "kill this first" icons for your guild or raiding group? Does your guild/group have pet names (like "thong") for some of the raid target icons? How about whether or not your raiding group uses them for other than marking kill/CC/tank targets, such as the one player who says that skull is used for people in trouble? My guild favors Skull for main assist, X for off-tank or second kill target, depending. From there, it's blue square for the Main Tank's target, purple diamond is sap target, thong and moon are CC targets. How about you?
