Man-made has always has little things it can be proud of when it comes to gadgets. Whether it’s Mr. Crapper’s convenient flushable toilet, or the flexible toothbrush, we’re always raving about the latest released gadgets to our friends, both geeks & non-geeks.

I myself am getting my new PC this coming Monday, valued at $3,500. It’s a pretty impressive rig, but not half as mean as the one I’m about to show you! Matthew Sheil, an amateur pilot living in Sydney, Australia, somehow persuaded his bank to give him a $230,000 ‘moving house’ loan, which he then proceeded to spend on this ultimate Voodoo-PC rig.

The whole setup is controlled by 13 quad-core Voodoo PCs. For the video the designer has used 42-inch Philips Ambilight LCD screens and for those aircraft controls Matt has got Saitek’s X52 joystick and toggle. The experience inside the simulator is even better than that inside the original cockpit. The simulator pilot will feel the finest detail of piloting a 747 inside the cockpit that even includes the G-Forces, thanks to the high-end hydraulic systems installed in the setup.

Sourced from BornRich.

A superbly animated non-superbowl advert, showing the all to unpleasant consequences of not strapping yourself on to the wiimote.

Gizmodo caught up with Super 78 aswell…

“I really love the Wii and I had been reading these stories about Wii controllers flying out of peoples hands. We had some down time at the office so I got together with one of the animators and I sketched out a storyboard of the spot. In the board the controller is this high energy maniac and the nun-chuck just wants to get away. So our most talented animator Michael Smith created this fun spot there is a lot of character…This was done by us, Super 78, using our own resources, no agency was involved, no money changed hands.”

Great sound effects too.

Thrilling, I know… Here is an hour long History Of Tetris! I must admit, I’ve not had the chance or the time to watch it all, but the first half looks interesting…

I must admit, I had no idea…

It seems like these photos have been around for years, but only now, have any of the big blogs got wind of this! Engadget are reporting on what they claim is ‘quite possibly the most badass iPod case ever’.

Of course, we’ve seen Gameboy Emulators for the iPod and such before, but never actually an entirely styled iPod mod. Check all of the spiffy photos at Flickr!
via Engadget.

Technically, I did write this article, but I wrote it for Profy.com… Here goes anyway. I found it an interesting one, so I do hope it’s relevant/enjoyable.

Read/Write Web just published a very interesting article, on the top domain names of 2006. It was interesting to see who made it into the list, and the incredible amounts they sold for. In actual selling value, in first place came Cameras.com, fetching $1.5million! Second place, came Blue.com, Bike.com & Wrestling.com, with just a third of that $1.5million, each of these domains still cashed in for a whopping $500,000!

But this makes me wonder… What makes a domain name worth it’s chips? Is it something easy to remember, that sticks in people’s minds? Is a single word, which people may randomly type in, in the hope of finding something relevant to the word? Is it something short, or is it something with a meaning?

In the test, the Domain Name Values Weekly site quizzed thirty experts, on the subject of the buying and selling domain names, and asked them to find out the Top 20 Domain Transactions of 2006. According to Read/Write Web, the main criteria “wasn’t most money paid, but best long-term value (4+ years)”. So here are the results.

1. Red.org (8) - $50,000 [Product Red’s Domain Name]

2. Football.us (4) - $18,510

3. Brown.com (5) - $300,000

4. NewYork.info (2) - $46,392

5. XS.net (2) - $13,000

6. Fun.mobi (0) - $100,000

7. CD.com (0) - $277,750

8. Blue.com (1) - $500,000

9. Stockquotes.mobi (0) - $27,000

10. Sex.net (0) - $454,500

11. Wifi.com (2) - $225,000

12. Cameras.com (1) - $1,500,000

13. SexEducation.com (1) - $120,000

14. Prize.com (0) - $70,000

15. Wrestling.com (1) - $500,000

16. CD.net (0) - $20,000

17. Flowers.mobi (2) - $200,000

18. 20.com (0) - $75,000

19. Scouts.com (1) - $107,000

20. Bike.com (0) - $500,000

If you’re wondering what the numbers in the brackets represent, it’s the number of first place votes that the panel of experts gave each individual domain name. Of course, some of the commenters at R/WW have pointed out that the list isn’t actually correct. Apparently, Voka.com sold for a humoungous $3million along with Wiki.com, who also sold for $3million. ‘Wii.com also has great potential. I heard that sold for something like $200k - $500k’.

It just to show, that even after the .com bubble burst, there’s still room for snazzy names in Web 2.0. That said, most Web 2.0 websites pick a simple word ‘Tech’ for example, and add on a few random letters, ‘zi’. Which is exactly what I did, and Techzi was born. The bubble may have burst, but domains aren’t going to stop trading hands any time soon. Written by David Wilkinson for Profy.com.

The Nintendo Wii is taken for a spin and made portable… Now you can play your Wii on your DS! If your TV gets broken by a flying remote or something… Hmph.

At least you could do it, if the guys showed you how. No matter, someone is bound to post a video on YouTube, which will inevitably get Dugg by 2000 people who’ll never end up carrying out the hack. Weird. Sourced from Technabob.

Dell have done a rather nice little package here, hiring professional airbrush artist Mike Lavalee, and commissioning him to create two unique masterpieces. The two Dell XPS M1710 laptop’s will bear WoW’s two new race’s the Blood Elves and the Drainei, handbrushed by none other than the Lavalee artist him self.

The money raised through the auctions, will go to benefit World Harvest, a humanitarian relief agency.

The WoW Burning Crusade Expansion pack launches on the 16th January. Stay tuned! It’ll be interesting to see if one of these lappies sells for more than my house is worth.

Due to the nature of the auction, expect it to soar way into the high thousands, into the high hundred thousands if Dell get lucky. Afterall, what sells better than anything WoW related now a days? We’re all obsessed.

I’m not in the habit of writing negative reviews, but if Sony absolutely had to launch a Gold coloured PSP, couldn’t they at least make it look decent? Instead, we have the same old shell, made tacky by the cheap gold finish. Pity really…

This will be a turn-around for the record books. But it’s all fixed I tell you! All of it! But really… How can this be?

Sony’s SIXAXIS controller, which caused quite a stir in the gaming world, not because of it’s “sheer ingenious”, but because it actually sucked, has gone and landed itself an Emmy for Technology and Engineering. Sure… It takes alot to stick a label on a PS2 controller and declare it next-gen, but what were they thinking?

I dunno, but it’s obvious from the press coverage that Sony pulled some pretty big strings to land themselves this one. Perhaps the Press Release actually meant ‘Wii Mote’, not ‘SIXAXIS’, and ‘Nintendo’, not ‘Sony’. It’s a mistake easy enough to make… Apart from the fact one technology clearly sucks, whilst the other does not.

As a Wii-user, and having tried the SIXAXIS, I can tell you which one is more deserving of an Emmy, no doubt about it. It took my mate Chris over 16 hours to drag me off Wii Sports. This whole thing is whacked up. Will CES go the same way as E3? We hope not… But Engadget are sharing our view on this one.

In a leaked memo from Mercury News, it has been revealed that Dean Takahashi can confirm the existence of an HDMI Xbox 360, with a whopping 120GB HDD included! Since the accidental leaking of the memo, it has been removed, as has the post on Team Xbox with a link to the article. How long will it be before Gizmodo are forced to remove it? How long before I have to remove it? According to Gizmodo, “Dean also talks about the use of the Xbox 360 as an IPTV set-top-box. The leak says Microsoft’s IPTV services will have instant channel change, multiple picture-in-picture, broadcast shows, video on demand, and DVR functionality—gotta use those 120GB for more than just trailers.”

So now we’re looking at IPTV capale, fully equipped 120GB, HD-DVD wielding HDMI beasts? Wow… Microsoft did screw early adopters like myself. This kind of sucks… And stinks.

It just goes to show that CES is full of surprises. Despite the fact it’s not even begun! This year some rather mad things could come up. In the other nights conference call with Gadgetell, we had a little joke over a Sony Car. Interesting to see if anything that different will in deed come up. Rumours are flying thick and fast. The photo you see above could very well have been a quickly snapped photoshop job though, for all we know. If The Xbox 360 v2 does indeed hit the shelves, I’ll be expecting Microsoft to, at the very least, offer me a $200 off coupon.