Hacking is a noble pursuit — it’s what tinkerers do to create cool new machines and innovate. But the media is obsessed with using the word “hacker” interchangeably with “criminal.” That’s why IEEE Spectrum magazine has created this helpful chart (click to enlarge), in which they try to separate out the good hacks from the…
Over at the Paris Review, William Gibson has finally told the full story of how he invented the term cyberspace — partly by scribbling on notepads, and partly by watching kids playing videogames in early-1980s arcades. Here’s a really fascinating excerpt from a much longer interview with Gibson: INTERVIEWER Where did cyberspace come from? GIBSON…
If your favorite part of Tron: Legacy was the bar scene, then this insane pop song from Albanian star Aurela Gaçe is for you. Called Ca$h, the music vid is set in the Eurotrash Tron universe (watch and you’ll see what I mean), and the sound is pure Italo Disco retro. Get ready for Friday…
The first X-Men films introduced us to marquee mutants like Wolverine and Storm. For the 1960s prequel X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn has dug deep into X-Men lore and plucked out some of the comic’s most obscure mutants. You may be familiar with the returning characters (Magneto, Professor X, Mystique, and Beast), but…
We loved the first book of io9 columnist Jason Thompson’s graphic novel series King of RPGs, and now book two is finally out! Return to the crazed world of Theo, the greatest DM in the world, and the game-addicted Shesh, as they rampage through World of Warfare. We’ve got the first few pages of the…
When a neo-nerd hipster douchebag joins Scott’s old-school D&D game, it looks like heads are going to roll along with the dice. Help make this funny, original movie about geek culture a reality by donating! The film is called Zero Charisma, and it’s from an experienced group of filmmakers in Austin. They’re raising money for…
Sucker Punch is such a bad movie that it raises the bar for what counts as terrible. That’s because there’s a horrific genius in it. This film will crystallize for you all those half-formed thoughts about what’s wrong with Hollywood. The thing is, director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) has a feel for genre. He understands…
Only a few molecules separate you from having sensory whiskers and penis spines. That’s right – evolution has cheated you out of those whiskers that make your cat a super-sensor and the spines that, well, make your penis super-sensitive. A study published today in Nature reveals that human DNA still bears traces of genes that…
Though DVDs have been consumer-grade tech for years, it wasn’t until yesterday that scientists announced they were certain why they worked. Now we know that burning a DVD is really more like freezing it. DVD burning image by Filipe La Rotta It’s been well known for decades that if you train a laser onto a…
We’ve had brain-computer interfaces for years now, as well as mind-controlled prosthetic limbs. Now neuroscientists have taken it to the next level, with a system that would allow you to control a super-powered exoskeleton using only your thoughts. Image of exoskeleton from Raytheon (this type is not brain-controlled – yet). It’s a science fiction dream,…
Filled with the sound of morning birdsong, this video of a UFO over Turkey taken last week is as much a slice of Turkish city life as it is a record of possible alien incursion. I like the way you can hear what sounds like somebody chopping vegetables in the background – I think this…
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