It seems that Verizon is put its big-assed foot down and decided to prevent 4chan users from accessing their communal filth.
Verizon should remember that among the vast 4chan user group are the guys that tracked down the Heene residence with enough time to pizza prank the family in front of the cameras, and they have an army of basement dwelling nerds to rally behind their cause.
In the past, efforts to clamp down on 4chan have gotten ugly and there is no reason to suspect that this will end any differently. So, Verizon can go ahead and pencil in that embarrassing back-down for sometime later this week.
From 4Chan via the Geekologist:
Over the past 72 hours, we’ve been receiving reports from Verizon Wireless customers having difficulty accessing the image boards.
After investigating, we found that Verizon is dropping traffic to/from boards.4chan.org, only on port 80 (HTTP). No other subdomain/IP/port is affected, which leads us to believe this block is intentional.
After an hour and a half on the phone, we’ve received confirmation from Verizon’s Network Repair Bureau (NRB) that we are “explicitly blocked.”
If you’ve been affected by the block, please call Verizon NRB at (866) 298-5373 to file a complaint.
An average Darth Vader helmet will set you back a few hundred dollars, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this one fell only slightly short of a thousand.
From the manufacturer:
The biggest problem to overcome in translating 2D art into a three dimensional object is the issue of perspective. Drawing a three dimensional object on a flat two dimensional surface is one of an artists’ greatest skills. Adding width, height, depth, light and shadows which trick the eye into believing it is seeing a real object requires enormous talent. But often perspectives are cheated by the artist to create an effect not achievable in the real world. In Ralph’s Vader art, the helmet dome and the right side of Vader’s mask have had their perspective cheated to deliver a more looming, menacing look. Jay needed to address these issues while remaining faithful to the overall design.
Beginning work at the end of February 2008, Jay quickly established a routine of modeling sections and sending renderings to the eFX team for review and comments. Incorporating the comments of three sets of critical eyes here at eFX, as well as his own astute observations, Jay would remodel the parts send more renderings and we would discuss the choices made until everyone was satisfied this interpretation was faithfully following the original art. These images show the painstaking process of how jay’s renderings were constantly overlaid and checked against the original artworks and how exhaustive the comments and discussions were to sculpt this piece as close as possible to the original art.
The helmet itself is constructed from fiberglass, lined with leather and uses machined metal for some of the details.
The $900 price-tag might sound excessive, but for the 250 people that picked one up it must have been reasonable – as it has already sold out. [Fashionably Geek]
There is probably an evil joke here about Apple fanboys and tissues, but I will restrain myself from thinking of it and stick to the facts. There is now an Instructable that teaches people to turn their old Apple G4 Cube into a tissue box – which they can put to an appropriate use the next time Steve Jobs gives a keynote. [Craziest Gadgets]
I have been doing the rechargeable battery thing for years now, and still find myself having to buy evil disposables because they take so long to charge and I always forget to put them in the charger. They also take up space and look pretty damned ugly.
The InCharge battery station looks good, sorts your batteries for you and is sensibly sized. It also dispenses the battery of your choice at the touch of a button. It is a finalist in the Greener Gadgets Design Competition, but it is just a concept – which makes the chances of it ever climbing out of the ether pretty slim. [Coolest Gadgets]
It is a tote bag and it looks like a big Mario head. Yes, it will label you a super nerd, but if you are actually considering buying Mario luggage then you are probably comfortable with that label already.
