The Technonaut

In a world where most gadgets, like the iPhone, are moving towards buttonless, minimalist designs, the Aaron Adding Machine collection is a breath of fresh air. Each apparatus is refreshingly furnished with an assortment of brass buttons, dials, knife-switches, cranks, and keys.

Sure, there may be more powerful calculators, and there are certainly cheaper calculators, but none with more style.

[Link]

This Picture of the Day is a bit of a mystery. The photo was taken by Susan Barstow in Bethel, Alaska. Do you have any idea what happened to create this interesting impression in the snow? Keep reading for the prevailing theory.

A rabbit went out for a stroll. He hopped into view from the left, only to be snatched from the ground by a passing owl. All that was left of the poor rabbit were his tracks.

[Link]

It’s been over 21 years since the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, and the shattered remains of Reactor 4 are finally being sealed off. For the past two decades, a hastily constructed concrete sarcophagus has been the only thing preventing the continued release of radioactivity, and it has been slowly crumbling to pieces. A 19 mile Zone of Alienation remains around the site to this day.

On September 17th, Ukrainian officials announced a contract with French company Novarka to build a safer encasement, in the form of a massive steel vault. The roughly 650×600 foot arch-shaped building will be constructed on rails next to the reactor, then slid over the wreckage. Construction is expected to last 5 years, and cost a tidy $1.4 billion. Once the New Safe Confinement is in place, operators can use remote controlled equipment to demolish the unstable components of the old containment structure.

[Link]

Every time I see one of these awesome Japanese sports cars it takes me back to high school, when all my friends and I would lament the recent passing of the Toyota Supra and Mazda RX-7, and would dream of the day when the Nissan Skyline and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution would come to the United States. We wondered why the Japanese got to enjoy their rediculously awesome low-displacement sports cars, while we in the United States were stuck with either run-of-the-mill Mustangs and Camaros, or bland, de-tuned import approximations.

Things have been improving for a number of years now, as evidenced by the Infinity G37 (the american Skyline), and now the most recent iteration of the sports-tuned Mitsubishi Lancer, the Evolution X.

Mitsubishi made the Evo X official on Monday, announcing it will have 295 HP and 300 lb-fts. of torque (from a 2.0 liter I4!), all-wheel drive, and offer a new 6-speed twin-clutch automated manual transmission. Expect the new Evo to go on sale stateside in the next few months, and come in around the $26,000 – $32,000 range, dependent on features.

The heyday of Japanese sports cars has finally graced our shores. Now, if only I could afford one.

[Link]

UPDATE: Microsoft has issued a press release confirming the Bungie/Microsoft split. 1UP has got some analysis.

This is a highly suspicious rumor, but one that is just too juicy to pass up. Apparently, Bungie, the Microsoft subsidiary behind the enormously popular Halo series, is splitting off from Microsoft. This would be strange indeed, considering the recent debut of Halo 3 was the biggest launch of any entertainment property, ever. When pressed on the issue, Microsoft’s PR firm has been suspiciously tight-lipped, only saying that “they have made no such announcement.” Thanks. As if we needed your help to know that.

Is this true, and if so what does it mean for the Halo franchise? Stay tuned for more info…

[Link 1, Link 2, Link 3]

I’ve decided to try out a new widget on The Technonaut, called BlogRush. You can see it in action on the sidebar right now. It brings in posts from other blogs around the web, and in return, puts your headlines on Other People’s Blogs. You down with OPB?

The neat thing is how BlogRush determines how often your posts should be displayed on other sites’ widgets. Every time you serve up the BlogRush widget you earn a syndication credit, which allows one of your posts to be displayed elsewhere. More importantly, you also earn syndication credits from the pageviews of everyone else that signs up for BlogRush through your referral link. This has caused BlogRush to spread pretty quickly, and it’s getting to the point where I’m starting to see it on a lot of blogs around the web.

I’ll be testing BlogRush out for the next few weeks. It should be interesting to see if it brings much new traffic to the site. And if your a blogger, it’s easy to install, so give it a try! Just don’t forget to use my referral link.

[BlogRush]

Amazon has a great price on TiVo’s newest HD DVR. The TiVo HD stores 20 hours of HD and 180 hours of SD content out of the box, but if your daring, you can crack her open and upgrade the hard drive.

You can pick up the TiVo HD for $253.48, with free shipping.

[Link via FW]

Editor’s Note: Akaemi will be bringing us her views on technology from the geek girl’s perspective. Her first contribution is a review of the Logitech Harmony series of universal remotes. Akaemi, like a lot of other people, started out wondering why someone would spend upwards of $100 on a remote control. She describes the journey that took her from Harmony skeptic to evangelist. You can normally find her on her blog, akaemi.com.

The Review

5 years ago, as a single gal, my home entertainment system consisted of a tv, a digital cable box, and a dvd player. The cable guy was kind enough to program the cable remote to work the tv. And when I wanted to watch a movie, I had to break out the dvd remote. So I had 3 components and two remotes. And I knew how to work them. And life was simple.

Read the rest of the review, and check out the deals after the jump…

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Birthday

Editor’s Note: Josh, our newest contributor, will be guest blogging the latest news in geek entertainment here at The Technonaut. You may remember his 2007 Summer Blockbuster Guide we previously covered, and I’m excited to be able to provide more of his unique perspective on the latest movies and TV shows. We’ll be cross-posting some of his content, but I encourage you to visit his site, Lykaon’s Lair, to read the very latest on Cryptids, WoW, and a wide array of other topics.

First off, I’m about to talk about the premiere of the second season of Heroes. If you don’t want to know anything about it and can’t be bothered to watch it on Monday night, then you should stop reading now.

Introduction

Okay, now that that’s out of the way let’s start with what this episode of Heroes had in common with the first season premiere of Heroes…

They both involved train wrecks.

In season one, Claire Bennet walks through fire to save a man from a burning train wreck.

In season two, the premiere is the train wreck.

Seriously, I don’t know how something so good could be ripped apart so quickly. This episode feels like one of the lesser sci-fi channel tv shows that come along every other week.

Let’s go over each plotline and how completely screwed it up it really was, shall we?

The Bennets

First and worst, there are the Bennets — I’m sorry, the Butlers. They’ve relocated to California where they’ve taken to living as a sitcom family with bad jokes.

What happened to big bad mysterious HRG?! Now he works at a Kinkos and has become a cartoon of his former self.

And Claire? Now she’s an outcast and flirting with a really strange looking boy who can fly. Maybe they didn’t get the memo, but Nathan Petrelli can already fly and he’s Claire’s dad. So these two are probably related.

Seriously, though, I realize that there are a finite set of superpowers in the world, but must we duplicate them so soon? And why can he fly better than Nathan? And why hasn’t anyone gotten Flash-style super speed yet?

The Petrellis

The interesting thing about this storyline is that we learn that the heroes can have secondary mutations. This is a staple of the X-Men universe but there has been no indication of such a phenomenon in the Heroes universe until now.

That’s right, I speak of Nathan Petrelli’s secondary mutation of accelerated hair growth. I’m not sure the benefits of such a mutation, but it does allow one to grow a completely outlandish crazy-man beard that the Amish would give their left eye for — in the span of only four months.

Also, the brother that Nathan never cared about is missing for reasons unexplained and now he’s overly distraught about it. At least his mom is still an emotionless demon.

Turns out Peter is still alive too, which is implausible but cool. His hair has been cut and that’s an improvement in my book.

Mohinder “My father’s ri-search” Suresh

Other than his yawneriffic opening monologue, Mohinder’s storyline isn’t all that bad. He’s selling some more genetic Heroes science and the remnants of the company that we thought was Linderman’s is interested in hiring him.

And the dude recruiting him can turn stuff into gold. That’s actually kinda nifty.

It’s also refreshing that Mohinder is acting in a rational manner and has this deep dark plan involving the infiltration of the company.

The Honduras Twins

What I learned from this storyline is that Spanish is yellow and Japanese is white.

In season 1, Nikki ripped a dude in half. In season 2, some whiny Honduras chick makes peoples’ eyes bleed. Not as cool.

Hiro

I was concerned that the time travel would just convolute the plot. Thus far, it’s not doing that so for that I’m grateful.

Unfortunately, the whole story is a rehashed cliche that I’ve seen a dozen times. Man goes back in time, man messes up the timeline, man fixes the timeline. /yawn

At least the dude who plays Kensai is moderately entertaining.

Sulu and Ando

I’m not sure why Ando turned into a puppy dog gopher with the biggest hair in the world, but at least this plotline sets up a whodunit for the rest of the season.

Parkman

Finally, something worth watching. We learn the man took four bullets to the chest, recovered, and made NYC detective in only four months. A little bit unbelievable, but at least we get to see him use his powers in cool ways.

There is some weirdness in the implied living arrangements with Mohinder and Molly, but at least Grunberg has decent chemistry with Molly and is a likable fella. For my money, this was the best plotline of the episode and was woefully under-emphasized.

Conclusion

Kring and company better shape up or ship out. There are a couple of menacing plotlines that could be interesting this season, but if the show doesn’t get some better story-telling and some of the edge back, it’s doomed to be a failure.

At this rate, I’m going to have my Monday nights free soon.