À quelques semaines de la sortie du sixième tome de Koma, Frédérik Peeters décompresse et lance Portrait as living dead, un blog thématique où il s’engage à croquer chaque jour, ou presque, le zombie d’une personnalité. Des défunts célèbres des XX et XXI siècles seront privilégiés. Marylin Monroe, Gandi, Saddam Hussein, Jean-Pierre Raffarin ou Ernest Hemingway sont d’ores et déjà en ligne.

C’est beau, c’est gore, c’est bien et l’exercice fait un peu penser aux monstres quotidiens dessinés par Stan. Le coauteur de Vortex sort d’ailleurs un artbook de ses monstres à la fin de l’année… Un destin qu’on souhaite aux zombies de Peeters, du moment qu’ils ne reviennent qu’en bouquin.

© Frédérik Peeters.

Surement un des ouvrages les plus attendus de cette fin d’année 2008 – du moins par l’ensemble de la wartredac – le Pinocchio de Winshluss se dévoile petit à petit. Les fans de la première heure du mag Ferraille Illustré en avaient déjà eu un avant goût au début des années 2000.

Faute de suite et fin de l’histoire, ils priaient matin, midi et soir en buvant de l’huile Meroll devant l’affiche sérigraphiée, foutrement magnifique, vendue par Les Requins Marteaux. Après tant d’attente, le site de l’éditeur annonce la parution, le 28 novembre prochain, de l’histoire complète de la petite marionnette de métal. Comme pour son superbe Smart Monkey chez Cornelius, l’auteur a décidé de pousser la narration à son paroxysme en travaillant un récit pour la plupart du temps muet… Les premières planches et la couverture sont à tomber. Le prix de vente aussi : 28 euros, de quoi offrir à Franky de bien belles vacances à Bama-Khou (comprendra qui pourra).

Pinocchio © Les Requins Marteaux, Peeters.

Le neuvième numéro de Lucha Libre sera le dernier pour Hervé Tanquerelle, qui en se dégageant du temps pour boucler ses nombreux projets, décide de quitter l’aventure où il signait les gags des Luchadoritos. Il sera remplacé par Romuald Reutimann, le dessinateur de Cité 14, déjà à l’action dans le n°8 du magazine où il met en scène un luchador gastronome. Un recueil 48 pages couleur cartonné des Luchadoritos est prévu pour 2009.

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Filed under: Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Fandom, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels

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The simple but strict rules for Road Runner cartoons.

1. Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going "beep, beep".
2. No outside force can harm the Coyote -- only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme products.
3. The Coyote could stop anytime -- IF he was not a fanatic. (Repeat: "A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim." -- George Santayana).
4. No dialogue ever, except "beep, beep".
5. Road Runner must stay on the road -- for no other reason than that he's a roadrunner.
6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters -- the southwest American desert.
7. All tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation.
8. Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote's greatest enemy.
9. The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.
10. The audience's sympathy must remain with the Coyote.

Charles Miller argues that John Hodgman's PC character in the Mac vs. PC commercials is like Wile E. Coyote...likable but inept. (via df)

Filed under: Desktops

Mozilla has released the second alpha of Firefox 3.1 a week after Google unveiled its shiny new browser, Chrome....

Robert Kieffer didn't like any UUID generators out there, so decided to create a lightweight randomUUID.js script. It creates RFC 4122-compliant ids:

The practice is probably a little different. The uniqueness depends on how random the numbers generated by Math.random() are. Generating truly random numbers is a notoriously tricky problem, solved in different (imperfect) ways across browser platforms and OSes.  It’s difficult to say for sure what the real-world uniqueness of these numbers ends up being, but I suspect it’s more than sufficient for most purposes.  Regardless, this is a weakness that all javascript UUID generators will be subject to, unless they rely on an externally-provided unique value.  For example, one could use AJAX to fetch UUIDs generated by a site like http://www.uuidgenerator.com/, but that has it’s own set of issues.

•  
• /* randomUUID.js - Version 1.0
• *
• * Copyright 2008, Robert Kieffer
• *
• * This software is made available under the terms of the Open Software License
• * v3.0 (available here: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/osl-3.0.php )
• *
• * The latest version of this file can be found at:
• * http://www.broofa.com/Tools/randomUUID.js
• *
• * For more information, or to comment on this, please go to:
• * http://www.broofa.com/blog/?p=151
• */
•  
• /**
• * Create and return a "version 4" RFC-4122 UUID string.
• */
• function randomUUID() {
•   var s = [], itoh = '0123456789ABCDEF';
•  
•   // Make array of random hex digits. The UUID only has 32 digits in it, but we
•   // allocate an extra items to make room for the '-'s we'll be inserting.
•   for (var i = 0; i <36; i++) s[i] = Math.floor(Math.random()*0x10);
•  
•   // Conform to RFC-4122, section 4.4
•   s[14] = 4;  // Set 4 high bits of time_high field to version
•   s[19] = (s[19] & 0x3) | 0x8;  // Specify 2 high bits of clock sequence
•  
•   // Convert to hex chars
•   for (var i = 0; i <36; i++) s[i] = itoh[s[i]];
•  
•   // Insert '-'s
•   s[8] = s[13] = s[18] = s[23] = '-';
•  
•   return s.join('');
• }
•  
• 

Google’s latest patent titled “Water-Based Data Center” describes various implementations for deriving power from water while at the same time using water as a method for cooling. One method proposed is a ship-based data center platform capable of being deployed quickly to offer greater flexibility than traditional land based data centers. These Water-Based Data Centers would be powered by natural energy derived from wave motion via tide-powered generators and cooled by “sea-water” cooling units. In addition to being powered by the sea these floating data centers would rely on sea-powered pumps and “seawater-to-freshwater heat exchangers" for cooling.

The patent goes on to describe several “implementations” each with its own unique source of water power and method of water based cooling. Another implementation is land-based, powered by wave, tidal and/or current motion from adjacent to bodies of water. According to the patent, the “wave-powered electrical generator system may likewise comprise” one or more so-called “Pelamis machines.” In addition to the Pelamis machines, the patent also mentions wind machines “mounted or tethered to an ocean floor”.

[By Brian Ussery | Origin: Google Patent for Water-Based Data Center | Comments]

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Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Puzzle

Continue reading Groovin' Blocks falls onto WiiWare

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As battery technology continues to lag behind the rest of the industry, manufacturers of portable audio devices are desperate for new ways to decrease the power consumption of their increasingly processor-intensive devices.

Tokyo-based OKI hopes its upcoming ML2650 audio chip, which combines a Class D amplifier, a 64MB memory buffer for processing sound in batches and a 16-bit digital-to-analog converter, will solve some of the problem. Its approach of integrating all of these elements into a single chip will reduce the amount of work the device's processor must do, according to OKI, by allowing it to sleep intermittently as the chip processes audio. If the processor does less work, the device consumes less power.

"OKI developed the ML2650, which includes a D-class headphone amplifier to connect with the external CPU, a 64KB SRAM, and a 16 bit stereo DA converter, all on a single chip that will help to reduce load from the CPU," explained OKI's president of Silicon Solutions division Hiroshi Enomoto. "This... will enable mobile device/phone manufacturers to easily extend the music playback time."

According to OKI, the ML265010 mW will only crank out 10 mW of power at 32 ohms of resistance --  considerably quieter than the iPod, but with the right sort of headphones, reasonably loud volumes can be reached with that output level.

As with other Class D amplifiers, the other effect of the OKI ML2650 is to reduce the size of the playback device. "In addition, with the ultra small package size at 2.54 mm x 2.70 mm, it will contribute in smaller devices as it significantly reduces the packaging space," said Enomoto. In addition, lower power consumption gives manufacturers the option of reducing battery size, contributing further to the shrinking of devices.

OKI plans to start shipping to manufacturers next month, so we expect it to start showing up in smaller, longer-lasting portable audio players next year.

See also:

• Class D Amplifiers Are Shrinking and Greening Your Electronics
• Kuller Aux Out 400: Best Sub-$1,000 Speaker System?
• Review: Kuller Aux Out 400 — Packs More Punch Than Barrel Full of Fraziers
• Hand Crafted Wooden iPod Speaker Dock with Switching Amplifier
• Stop the Music: Audiophile Embraces $200 Speakers

(via Far East Gizmos)