GeekSugar

IBM Debuts "Virtual Mirror" Kiosks For Hair and Makeup Help

GeekSugar — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 06:00:54 -0800

Next week, IBM will be introducing their first ever "Virtual Mirror" kiosk at the National Retail Federation in NYC. What it does is take a digital photo (of the shopper) and scan in various makeup and hair coloring products that they may be interested in purchasing. Without having to actually try the makeup on you are guaranteed true colors and an accurate replica of your face. The EZ Face virtual mirror is already being used by Super-Pharm, one of the biggest drugstores in Israel, and will hit large US retailers sometime this year.

With virtual dressing rooms at a number of H&M stores and an Adidas shop in Paris utilizing virtual shopping mirrors, it's no surprise that this kind of technology is catching on. What do you think? Would you ever trust something like this to give you a precise makeup portrayal?

Try On Ray-Bans Virtually With the New Online Mirror

GeekSugar — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 07:05:45 -0700

The trendy and hip sunglasses company Ray-Ban is attempting to make the sunglasses shopping experience a bit easier with their new Ray-Ban Virtual Mirror download. Using 3D technology, this cool tool is similar to the IBM Virtual Mirror since it allows you to try on the goods without needing to be in the store. Now there's no guarantee how accurate this new service is, but at least it will let you know if those black Audrey Hepburn glasses are going to look chic or just cover half your face.

Vintage Geek: Typewriter Keyboard For Your Computer

GeekSugar — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 09:00:50 -0700

My parents' neighbor is this glamorous book editor that has a collection of vintage typewriters on display next to her front door. I don't know if it's her Chanel scarves or mysterious glasses, but she's always embodied that mod and worldly artist persona for me and the typewriters (which I am dying for to her to sell at a garage sale some day) are just as marvelous. That being said: I want a typewriter keyboard for my computer!

Steampunkworkshop created this vintage-geek-meets-modern-geek retro keyboard using the usual techie tools and some imagination. For a gallery of photos and more from the creators, read more

"My goal with this project was to build a retro keyboard that was fully functional and of a sufficient quality that it could be used everyday by a touch typist. In order to achieve this I chose a high quality (though widely available) keyboard as my starting point. This is an IBM Model M "Clicky" keyboard. They were made starting in the mid 1980's and a version is still manufactured today. This particular keyboard was made in 1989 and shipped with and IBM PowerStation 530, a UNIX box the size of a kegerator."

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For tips and a video on how to make your own, visit Steampunkworkshop.

Happy Manual Typewriter Day!

GeekSugar — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:30:36 -0700

Exactly two hundred years ago today (can you believe it?), the first manual typewriter was invented by Italian entrepreneur Pellegrini Turri. It's fascinating how far the typewriter has evolved over the years - from the manual typewriter to electrical typewriter, and eventually word processors to now personal computers! Who were the ones delivering the goods? Popular typewriter manufactures included E. Remington and Sons, IBM, Imperial typewriters, Oliver Typewriter Company.

I swear it feels like this past year has been dedicated to the old school typewriter. Who can forget the important role the vintage typewriter had in the Oscar nominated movie Atonement? Or what about the geeky-fabulous and fully restored Royal typewriters I couldn't help but get excited about?! And last but not least, if you just can't part with your typewriter, but need to send e-mails like the rest of us, there's always the 22 Pop! Wishing everyone a happy manual typewriter day!

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Vintage Geek: Doogie Howser, Blogger

GeekSugar — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:02:45 -0800

At the risk of dating myself, I'm just going to put it out there that I was a huge Doogie Howser, MD fan. In fact, I couldn't have been more ecstatic a few years ago when Neil Patrick Harris made a triumphant comeback with Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, which of course led to his awesome role as Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother. I watch NPH on HIMYM - a slick, chic geek with his iPhone - and then I remember that this is not the first time he's showcased his onscreen geekiness.

As Doogie Howser, MD, the boy genius-turned-doctor, NPH sat at his ancient IBM PC and tapped out his thoughts daily. That's right, everybody: Doogie was a blogger! Or at least, a blogger in its first form. If Doogie Howser were on TV today, he would have found Blogger and set up shop (with fitsugar on his RSS Reader, of course). So here's to you, Doogie, our beloved old school geek!

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Laptop Spontaneously Ignites On Mattress

GeekSugar — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 07:12:41 -0800

Whenever I use my MacBook on my lap, it always feels as though it is burning my legs since it gets so incredibly hot. So maybe an iPod can burn through a man's pants, but did you know that a laptop caught on fire while on a bed? According to Engadget, a man's IBM ThinkPad R50e burned right through his mattress shortly after he went to bed. Luckily he hadn't fallen asleep yet and was able to put the fire out. And get this, the laptop's screen may have went up in flames, but he's still able to use the laptop by connecting it to an external screen. . . Scary but true!

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Happy Birthday, Mr. David Packard of HP

GeekSugar — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 03:30:13 -0700

The late David Packard, founder with William Hewlett of the Hewlett Packard Company, was born on September 7, 1912.

Though we may focus on HP's printers, computers and celebrity driven "The Computer Is Personal Again" ad campaign, HP's first product was a resistance-capacitance audio oscillator based on a design developed by Hewlett when he was in graduate school.

Wired Magazine acknowledges HP as the producer of the world's first personal computer, in 1968, the Hewlett-Packard 9100A. HP called it a desktop calculator because, as David's brother Bill Hewlett said: "If we had called it a computer, it would have been rejected by our customers' computer gurus because it didn't look like an IBM. We therefore decided to call it a calculator, and all such nonsense disappeared." That my friends, was your history lesson for the day.

Photo courtesy of HP.

Moment of Geek: The Real Computer Monster

GeekSugar — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:00:44 -0700

Every couple of days we run across items so geeky we can't even begin to explain them. We politely refer to them as "Moments of Geek," as in a short fact, tidbit, video or picture that's not worthy of a whole feature story, but is worthy of a moment of your time.

Today's example comes to you courtesy of Muppet creator Jim Henson, who created the "computer monster" sketch in the early 1960s. The skit was allegedly developed for IBM and was such a hit that Henson redid it later. Word is the computer-eating-monster is a predecessor of the infamous Cookie Monster, who you might remember is more blue than green.

Maker Faire: Vintage Geek Computer Collection

GeekSugar — Wed, 23 May 2007 07:00:10 -0700

The bright and shiny exhibits at this year's Maker Faire were fine and dandy, but one of the sights I was most excited to see was the exhibit of vintage, "oh so clunky, I can't believe people thought that was innovative" computers.

Hidden in a dark corner of the San Mateo Fairgrounds, was a selection of marvelously vintage geek computers (and an Atari) that have gained cult geek status for being the first/best/most hilarious/exciting of their kind.

The lineup included an old school IBM, Commodore "Super Pet," which was made in the early 80's and can actually be connected to a cassette player, early Apple computer and Atari 800, which was released in 1979 and designed to look like an old computer.

To check out more vintage geek computers from Maker Faire, read more

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Interested in Vintage Computers? Check out the overwhelming selection at Vintage-computer.com.

The 10 Worst PCs of All Time

GeekSugar — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 07:03:35 -0700

Are you the proud owner of one of the 10 Worst PCs of All Time? PC World has put together a list of systems that were "overpriced and underpowered," had parts that failed two days after the warranty expired and well, caused you to enter PC Hell. (Their words, not mine!) I've always been a Mac girl myself, but it's always fun to reminisce about clunky hunks of junk. Here's more:

Number one, we focused strictly on desktops. (We'll leave the flaming/exploding laptops for another occasion.) Two, these machines had to have shipped to consumers--no vaporware or concept computers allowed. Tres, we decided to ignore systems we've kicked around elsewhere (like the IBM PCjr, the Gateway 10th Anniversary PC, and the FreePC, all part of our 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time story), and home in on a different batch of turkeys.

The No. 1 winner were the Packard Bell PCs made between 1986 and 1996. "Part of the problem was Packard Bell's strategy of selling nearly identical systems under different names, depending on where they were sold," says PC World. "So the Packard Bell Legend 406CD hawked at Circuit City was more or less the same as the Axcel 467 on the shelves at Staples or the Force 480CD sold at CompUSA, making apples-to-apples (or in this case, lemons-to-lemons) comparisons impossible."

Check out the complete list of the 10 Worst PCs of All Time.