If there’s one thing you can’t overstate, it’s how much the Chinese people loooooved the Olympics. So it was kind of expected that Chinese fireworks makers would capitalize on the magic of the Opening Ceremonies by selling similar DIY pyrotechnics. This Chinese New Year, watch for the Bird’s Nest series of fireworks going off all over the country, including smiley faces and footprints, blossoming peony flowers and “silver and red waterfalls.” Gizmodo-readers in Beijing can grab their share of explodey things at over 200 locations across the city come Nov. 15th. [The Beijinger]
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In case you missed it in our huge photographic timeline of the Lego minifig, today is the deadline for the Giz Lego Minifig video contest. We have got a ton of entries, some of them really amazing ones (one of these actually came in the mail literally two minutes ago). So if you are just about to finish it, hurry up because it ends today before 12AM). If you have sent it already or you are a lazy person, you can sit down, relax, and enjoy all Gizmodo posts celebrating the most iconic figure ever:
Videos
• Exclusive Video: How Lego Builds the Minifigs.
• Minifigs can also time your chicken pies.
• Instead of doing a Lego minifig of yourself, buy a $60,000 natural-sized replica.
• The secret imperial Lego Stormtroopers clone-making factory.
• Lego employees use custom Lego minifigs as business cards, as that’s why we hate them.
Galleries and images
• Exclusive: The Lego Minifig Timeline.
• Why are minifigs yellow? Why there are no blonde minfigs? All you ever wanted to know about them is in our Lego Megaguide. And yes, that’s me “minifiged” in the image.
• Steve Jobs minifig commanding a real Mac Pro Lego clone.
• He can also deliver Lego MacWorld keynotes.
• If you ever wanted to see how 35,310 Lego Clone Troopers look like together, click here.
• Lego is not limited to Star Wars: check this custom Cylon minifig with LED eye.
• Iron Man got the LED too for his arc reactor.
• Of course, the Lego clonetroopers also got the LED treatment.
• The Anatomy of a Lego Minifig: How a minifig really looks inside.
• Baseball to break minifig legs.
• Imperial Stormtrooper minifigs participate in the Beijing Olympics.
• The Beijing Olympics in minifig scale.
• 80,000-brick Lego Ferrari requires giant Schumacher minifig.
• Somebody once loved me even when I was a minifig obsessed noodle, and I still love her more than all the Lego bricks and minifigs in the world.
• Army of Lego transvestites celebrate the minifig anniversary.
• Lego men minifigs also go to the beach and wear thongs, to the horror of other minifigs.
• Lego minifig skull can hide your secrets.
• Lego minfigs can also be armed and go to war thanks to custom weapons
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Things Virtual Reality China Will Not Prep You For (And What You Can Do Instead) [Second China]
Posted by Jo
The U.S. is injecting a good $1.25 million into a new “virtual training ground” for American diplomats who plan on working in China called “The Second China Project.” It’s a pretend city in Linden Lab’s Second Life that purportedly will help almost-expatriots get used to the environment in the world’s most populous nation. While some of the training activities sound useful (for instance, what to give as a gift, how to seat guests), as someone who’s lived in this country for years, I can tell you there are things that diplomats should get ready for that the virtual world doesn’t even seem to touch on.
• Bargaining. And remember, this is for almost everything, lest you continue the very prevalent racial stereotype that laowai (directly translated: old outsiders) are here primarily to get fleeced. If you’re planning on interacting with Chinese people at all, get used to that and the feeling that you got fleeced anyway, no matter how hard a bargain you drove. I recommend trying your hand at the return counter of failing retailers to get an accurate simulation of what you’ll be doing in China.
• Censorship. You’re not going to be able to surf the web the way you want to surf the web. Though there now is a Firefox plugin that’ll help you deal with that. You too can now feel the power of the Great Firewall and wonder things like “Okay, what did the BBC say to anger the CCP this time around?”
•The Air Quality. You’ve probably heard that story about former President Ronald Reagan, where after he recovered from that assassination attempt and was released from the hospital, he remarked that he wanted to go back to L.A., where he could “see the air [he's] breathing?” If he was talking about Beijing, it would be more like “feel the air I’m breathing tearing up my nose like I just snorted a factory’s worth of particulate matter.” No, it’s not as catchy. Yeah, it’s about as true. In fact, it’s so true that I’m going to tell you not to get used to the air quality here—it’s not worth the cancer. When you get to your destination in China, get any number of these air purifiers ASAP. (Flickr Credit: Kevin Dooley)
• The Sea of People. Remember how the Bird’s Nest stadium seated something like 90,000 people during the Olympics Opening Ceremony and you maybe thought something like “Haha, that’s more than the populations of some countries!”? China’s full of statistics like that that you’ll encounter first hand.
For instance, did you know that the Shanghai subway transports more than the entire population of San Francisco every morning during rush hour? Crazy, right? That’s China! Luckily, Black Friday is coming up, and being in a Best Buy that morning will give you a feel for being one in a crowd of millions. (Flickr credit: Marc van der Chijs)
• Sad Cellular Options. While jailbroken iPhones are all the rage here in China, we probably won’t be seeing the iPhone 3G anytime soon, thanks to China Mobile’s desire for full control and the country’s lack of a real 3G network. In fact, compared to our East Asian neighbors, we have the most terrible choice of cellphones ever. China seems more willing to focus on churning out iPhone fakes and gimmicks (like this hilarious but useless spaceship cellphone) than developing its own useful, well-designed tech. Oh well, at least the PRC’s got an incredibly extensive network – I can use my mobile in subways and in the mountains without ever having to ask “Can you hear me now?”
• Dealing With Rabid Nationalists Raised On The Propaganda Machine. One of the most important things to learn (especially as a diplomat) will be how to smile, nod politely, and present actual facts without being insulting when you’re confronted with a Chinese person with a really, really distorted world view. Try to remember that they live in a world where information is one-sided and tightly controlled, the internet police is active on every student message board and the nationalism scapegoat is constantly used. To tell the truth, with all the telecom spying and appeals to voting like a “real American,” we’re perhaps not too far off from that world ourselves. [University of Florida via Dvice]
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We’ve long known about certain companies in China “borrowing inspiration” from more well known gadget makers, but it looks like architects aren’t safe from copycat syndrome either. Check out this spa building in Chongqing, the capital of Sichuan (where the earthquakes happened), which looks a little like it may have been designed by someone with just a little bit of Beijing Olympics mania. Hey, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? [Shanghaiist]
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As promised, you can finally use Netflix’s Watch Instantly streaming video service on a Mac. The juiciest, most ironic part? The magic happens with Microsoft’s Flash-wannabe Silverlight—which you probably grew to know and maybe hate during the Olympics—since it keeps the DRM voodoo intact. The only real catch is that it works exclusively on Intel-based Macs, leaving anyone on an aging PowerBook out in the cold. Full details below—it’s not live yet, but it should be soon.
NETFLIX BEGINS ROLL-OUT OF 2ND GENERATION
MEDIA PLAYER FOR INSTANT STREAMING
ON WINDOWS PCs AND INTEL MACSBased on Microsoft Silverlight, New Player Features Enhanced Dynamic Streaming, First-Time Use for Macs and Breakthrough Navigation for Fast-Forward and Rewind
LOS GATOS, Calif., October 27, 2008 – Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), the world’s largest online movie rental service, today announced it has begun the deployment of Microsoft Silverlight to enhance the instant watching component of the Netflix service and to allow subscribers for the first time to watch movies and TV episodes instantly on their Intel-based Apple Macintosh computers. The deployment, which will initially touch a small percentage of new Netflix subscribers, is the first step in an anticipated roll-out of the new platform to all Netflix subscribers by the end of the year.
Silverlight is designed for delivery of cross-platform, cross-browser media experiences inside a Web browser. It is expected that Netflix members who watch movies and TV episodes instantly on their computers will enjoy a faster, easier connection and a more robust viewing experience with Silverlight, due to the quality built directly into the player. Among the viewing enhancements with the new player is a breakthrough in timeline navigation that vastly improves the use of fast-forwarding and rewinding. The new Netflix player takes advantage of Play Ready DRM, which is built into Silverlight, for the playback of protected content on both Windows-based PCs and on Macs. That had not been possible with previous generation technologies.
“Silverlight with Play Ready offers a powerful and secure toolkit for delivery of dynamic streaming, which offers faster start-up, and higher quality video, adapted in real time to users’ connection speeds,” said Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt. “Members who enjoy watching movies and TV episodes from the growing library of choices that can be instantly streamed at Netflix will be thrilled with this next generation improvement of access and quality, on a broader range of platforms, including Intel Macs and Firefox.”
“Instantly streaming from Netflix directly addresses the needs and wants of today’s Web users by providing on-demand, high-quality online video,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft Corp. “By using Silverlight, Netflix can deliver to its subscribers a higher quality video experience on the Web, on more platforms.”
Silverlight was tried and proven this summer as NBCOlympics.com streamed thousands of hours of live and on-demand online video for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
For Macintosh users, the Silverlight player will work only on Intel-based Macs, which currently account for roughly three-fourths of Mac units operated by Netflix subscribers.
The Netflix instant watching catalog of more than 12,000 choices continues to grow with significant new titles from CBS, the Disney Channel and Starz Play, which the company announced recently. In addition to watching instantly on the PC and Mac via Silverlight, Netflix members can enjoy the same movies and TV episodes on their television with a Netflix ready device such as the Netflix Player by Roku, which was introduced in May, the LG Electronics BD300 Blu-ray disc player and the Samsung BD-P2550 and BD-P2500 Blu-ray disc players, which are on sale now at retailers nationwide, and, soon, the Microsoft Xbox 360.
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As promised, you can finally use Netflix’s Watch Instantly streaming video service on a Mac. The juiciest, most ironic part? The magic happens with Microsoft’s Flash-wannabe Silverlight—which you probably grew to know and maybe hate during the Olympics—since it keeps the DRM voodoo intact. The only real catch is that it works exclusively on Intel-based Macs, leaving anyone on an aging PowerBook out in the cold. Full details below—it’s not live yet, but it should be soon.
NETFLIX BEGINS ROLL-OUT OF 2ND GENERATION
MEDIA PLAYER FOR INSTANT STREAMING
ON WINDOWS PCs AND INTEL MACSBased on Microsoft Silverlight, New Player Features Enhanced Dynamic Streaming, First-Time Use for Macs and Breakthrough Navigation for Fast-Forward and Rewind
LOS GATOS, Calif., October 27, 2008 – Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), the world’s largest online movie rental service, today announced it has begun the deployment of Microsoft Silverlight to enhance the instant watching component of the Netflix service and to allow subscribers for the first time to watch movies and TV episodes instantly on their Intel-based Apple Macintosh computers. The deployment, which will initially touch a small percentage of new Netflix subscribers, is the first step in an anticipated roll-out of the new platform to all Netflix subscribers by the end of the year.
Silverlight is designed for delivery of cross-platform, cross-browser media experiences inside a Web browser. It is expected that Netflix members who watch movies and TV episodes instantly on their computers will enjoy a faster, easier connection and a more robust viewing experience with Silverlight, due to the quality built directly into the player. Among the viewing enhancements with the new player is a breakthrough in timeline navigation that vastly improves the use of fast-forwarding and rewinding. The new Netflix player takes advantage of Play Ready DRM, which is built into Silverlight, for the playback of protected content on both Windows-based PCs and on Macs. That had not been possible with previous generation technologies.
“Silverlight with Play Ready offers a powerful and secure toolkit for delivery of dynamic streaming, which offers faster start-up, and higher quality video, adapted in real time to users’ connection speeds,” said Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt. “Members who enjoy watching movies and TV episodes from the growing library of choices that can be instantly streamed at Netflix will be thrilled with this next generation improvement of access and quality, on a broader range of platforms, including Intel Macs and Firefox.”
“Instantly streaming from Netflix directly addresses the needs and wants of today’s Web users by providing on-demand, high-quality online video,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft Corp. “By using Silverlight, Netflix can deliver to its subscribers a higher quality video experience on the Web, on more platforms.”
Silverlight was tried and proven this summer as NBCOlympics.com streamed thousands of hours of live and on-demand online video for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
For Macintosh users, the Silverlight player will work only on Intel-based Macs, which currently account for roughly three-fourths of Mac units operated by Netflix subscribers.
The Netflix instant watching catalog of more than 12,000 choices continues to grow with significant new titles from CBS, the Disney Channel and Starz Play, which the company announced recently. In addition to watching instantly on the PC and Mac via Silverlight, Netflix members can enjoy the same movies and TV episodes on their television with a Netflix ready device such as the Netflix Player by Roku, which was introduced in May, the LG Electronics BD300 Blu-ray disc player and the Samsung BD-P2550 and BD-P2500 Blu-ray disc players, which are on sale now at retailers nationwide, and, soon, the Microsoft Xbox 360.
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The 2008 Paralympics wrapped up over the summer, but we’re only just today learning about some of the awesome stories to come out of this amazing tech-assisted sporting event. We’ve covered these bionic athletes before, with some help from the Big Picture, but today’s story out of Germany shows just how much goes into helping these young men and women compete. A previous sporting injury left Wojtek Czyz without a left leg and the ability to long jump. The ESA, using materials developed for space, helped him get to the Olympics and vault into the record books.
The work on Czyz’s leg started four years ago, when the ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme broker MST Aerospace met with the athlete and his trainer for a pre-screening. What they developed over the following few years focused on the “L-bracket,” or connection angle, between the knee joint and foot prosthesis.
“In collaboration with the German company ISATEC, we developed a new L-bracket using materials originating from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), an instrument that will be mounted on the International Space Station to study extraterrestrial anti-matter, matter and missing matter,” said Dr. Werner Dupont, MST Aerospace Managing Director.
For real space and physics geeks, you can geek out a little more with this ESA-supplied bit on the AMS. It turns out the materials used in this track and field-come-space flight device are going to do a lot more than just break earthbound records:
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a particle physics experiment that is to be mounted on the International Space Station designed to search for various types of unusual matter by measuring cosmic rays. It is an international collaboration involving 500 scientists from 56 institutions and 16 countries. Final assembly was done at CERN and thermal/vacuum testing was performed by ESA before its shipment to the Kennedy Space Center. AMS is planned to be delivered to the ISS by the Space Shuttle in 2010.
As for Czyz, he beat the previous record by an astounding 27 cm. [ESA]
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The 2008 Paralympics wrapped up over the summer, but we’re only just today learning about some of the awesome stories to come out of this amazing tech-assisted sporting event. We’ve covered these bionic athletes before, with some help from the Big Picture, but today’s story out of Germany shows just how much goes into helping these young men and women compete. A previous sporting injury left Wojtek Czyz without a left leg and the ability to long jump. The ESA, using materials developed for space, helped him get to the Olympics and vault into the record books.
The work on Czyz’s leg started four years ago, when the ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme broker MST Aerospace met with the athlete and his trainer for a pre-screening. What they developed over the following few years focused on the “L-bracket,” or connection angle, between the knee joint and foot prosthesis.
“In collaboration with the German company ISATEC, we developed a new L-bracket using materials originating from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), an instrument that will be mounted on the International Space Station to study extraterrestrial anti-matter, matter and missing matter,” said Dr. Werner Dupont, MST Aerospace Managing Director.
For real space and physics geeks, you can geek out a little more with this ESA-supplied bit on the AMS. It turns out the materials used in this track and field-come-space flight device are going to do a lot more than just break earthbound records:
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a particle physics experiment that is to be mounted on the International Space Station designed to search for various types of unusual matter by measuring cosmic rays. It is an international collaboration involving 500 scientists from 56 institutions and 16 countries. Final assembly was done at CERN and thermal/vacuum testing was performed by ESA before its shipment to the Kennedy Space Center. AMS is planned to be delivered to the ISS by the Space Shuttle in 2010.
As for Czyz, he beat the previous record by an astounding 27 cm. [ESA]
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Having seen—and tested—the earlier evolutions of satellite radio receiver, from dashboard model to in-home unit to hip-connected recorder/player, I’ve felt like I’m judging contestants in the Special Olympics: The radio service is fine, but the gadgets aren’t really expected to measure up to other contenders in the same field. XM’s latest, the XMp3, is impressive in that it records five channels at once and records your most popular stations automatically. But it needs this functionality to make up for the fact that it depends on spotty satellite reception for content.
If that’s not enough acknowledgment of frailty, it has an microSD slot for you to add your own memory—and your own tunes. And although Best Buy says it’s a Pioneer-branded player, these things are all developed by XM, and then licensed to CE companies when they need a branding boost. So it’s not like the brand is any guarantee of actual Pioneer DNA.
If that’s not bringing you down enough, it costs $280 before the 8GB memory card and XM monthly fees. Sorry, XM, but the revenues isn’t charging a lot of money, but getting people to pay it. Good luck with that. [PopSci; Best Buy]
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Having seen—and tested—the earlier evolutions of satellite radio receiver, from dashboard model to in-home unit to hip-connected recorder/player, I’ve felt like I’m judging contestants in the Special Olympics: The radio service is fine, but the gadgets aren’t really expected to measure up to other contenders in the same field. XM’s latest, the XMp3, is impressive in that it records five channels at once and records your most popular stations automatically. But it needs this functionality to make up for the fact that it depends on spotty satellite reception for content.
If that’s not enough acknowledgment of frailty, it has an microSD slot for you to add your own memory—and your own tunes. And although Best Buy says it’s a Pioneer-branded player, these things are all developed by XM, and then licensed to CE companies when they need a branding boost. So it’s not like the brand is any guarantee of actual Pioneer DNA.
If that’s not bringing you down enough, it costs $280 before the 8GB memory card and XM monthly fees. Sorry, XM, but the revenues isn’t charging a lot of money, but getting people to pay it. Good luck with that. [PopSci; Best Buy]
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