Recent Posts

• PRISM, Just Another Cog in the Total Data Awareness Machine?

  In Internet, Op-Ed, Security

  

  When The Guardian lifted the lid on a previously secret program being run by the National Security Agency (NSA) called PRISM, the Internet erupted with righteous indignation – what was surprising was that so many people were surprised. It was, after all, proof-positive of practices that many had long suspected to be in place. Two years ago, members of WikiLeaks asserted that intelligence agencies had hooks into Google and Microsoft. Then Laura Poitras released a [...]

   

• Brolly Texting Umbrella Helps You Pay Less Attention When Walking in the Rain

  In Gadgets, Misc., Outdoors

  

  Don’t you just hate it when you’re trying to update your FB status and it starts to rain? I mean c’mon, does it get any worse? Now you have to hold a stupid umbrella, and your phone with the same set of hands! It’s like worse than being terminally ill! But now there’s a solution to your problem that will have you bumping into fellow walkers in the rain even more frequently, and it’s called [...]

   

• Open Elevator Doors Using the Force [Video]

  In Geeky, Videos, Wired Madness

  

  If you have time to kill because you are not gainfully employed then you might want to try pulling this tasteful little Jedi elevator trick. Yes, it would be annoying to those inside the elevator with you – but how many people are going to raise the issue with someone capable of opening an elevator door with the power of his or her mind? Personally, I think the Jester Lads picked the low hanging fruit [...]

   

• Kim Dotcom Releases CCTV Footage Mashup

  In Geeky, Wired Madness

  

  Kim Dotcom lit up his Twitter feed with repeated promises of new CCTV footage from the raid on his mansion in New Zealand. It is possible that there was a frame or two in what amounted to the most creative rickroll I have seen in a long, long time. While some might be tempted to ask “Oh why, oh why?” I say, “bravo.” Bravo for the original electronic music that is, I will grant you, [...]

   

• Swatch Gets Diving Watches Right [SCUBA Libre]

  In Clothing

  

  Swatch’s SCUBA Libre line is a selection of affordable, colorful dive watches. What’s this you say? A “dive” watch that is only rated to 200 meters? The thing of it is that the vast majority of so called diving watches never get taken underwater. They look fantastic, cost as much as a good used – or in some cases, new – car and are rated for depths at which they will never be used. Do [...]

   

• US Navy Agrees to Stop Shouting

  In Wired Madness

  

  We at UberReview would like to congratulate the United States Navy for decided to embrace the lowercase in its communications – for the first time since 1850. Henceforth all communications will sent and received using standard capitalization, which I am assuming is sentence case. The changes come thanks to a new message-routing system that is able to handle both upper and lower case characters, and which is cheaper and easier to operate. Way to step [...]

   

• New Kinect Gets By With a Little Less Space

  In Gaming

  

  Perhaps the biggest issue with Kinect v1 is the space that you needed to use it properly – 6-8 ft. for single-player to be exact. That is simply too big for many parts of the world. How much space does the Kinect 2 need? The next-gen Kinect allows you get a little closer 4 ft. 7 in for single-player and 6 ft. for two-player – while it would be nice to make that a little [...]

   

• Office Weapons Will Teach You Everything You Need to Know to Kill Your Boss with Paperclips

  In Books, Gadgets

  

  We’ve all been there.  You hate your job, you’re bored, and most of all- you very passionately want to harm your boss or co-worker.  I know, me too.  You can’t very well smuggle weaponry into the office, and all those items are both expensive and dangerous to yourself and others.   So only if there were an instruction manual to help you turn everyday office supplies into WMDs (weapons of minimal destruction). May I present Office [...]

   

• Blue Microphones Spark Digital USB Mic Sounds Incredible, Won’t Break the Bank (Too Badly)

  In Gadgets, Reviews

  

  I recently had the opportunity to review Blue Microphones Spark Digital USB microphone… then the seasonal allergies hit and forced me to postpone this review until such a time as my whiny nasal voice was up to the task of handling a proper recording – after all, how else can one properly review a microphone. So, without further ado, here is our hands-on review of an extremely high-quality, yet reasonably priced microphone from Blue Microphones. [...]

   

• HG One Grinder Is the Most Expensive Hand-powered Coffee Grinder That You Will See This Week

  In Gadgets, Housewares

  

  Barring the occasional appearance of an antique hand-powered coffee grinder that previously served someone of note, or a bedazzled monstrosity designed to separate stupid rich people from their money, the HG One Grinder is the most expensive hand-powered coffee grinder that you or I are ever likely to see – it also looks to be the best. Normally, the thought of an $895 manual coffee grinder would have me spitting my coffee all over my [...]

   

• Stout Bottle Opener Will Outlast You

  In Design

  

  There is something to be said for something that is designed to last forever. Take the Stout Bottle Opener for example, a bottle opener on its own is a fairly unimpressive piece of hardware, but build it out of a solid quarter-pound piece of heat-treated, tumble-finished, bead-blasted stainless steel and you have yourself an extremely durable work of art. The Stout Bottle Opener has a magnet built into the opener mechanism to stop bottle caps [...]

   

• Have You Tried Turning it Off and On Again T-shirt

  In Clothing, Geeky

  

  You don’t have to be a fan of the IT Crowd to love this T-shirt – I’m not and I do. In my position as unofficial tech support provider to most of my friends, acquaintances and loved ones, I have dispensed this sage piece of repair advice quite a few times. I don’t think that I am exaggerating when I say that it works nine times out of ten. Incidentally, blunt force trauma works in [...]