Another aging rocker desperately tries to sell new records, claims “internet is like an atomic bomb”. Also doesn’t know how to rip a song from a CD…

Oh geese. When will these washed up rockers realize that 20-30 years later in 2010, no one gives a damn about them. Case in point: John Mellencamp. Say what you will about his glory days, because they are long gone. Recently, ‘ol Johnny boy here made a simple, yet very telling statement:

“I think the Internet is the most dangerous thing invented since the atomic bomb”

Riiiiight. But it gets even better. He busts out the completely flawed statement building off the previous saying:

“It’s destroyed the music business. It’s going to destroy the movie business.”

Sorry to break it to ya John, but the music industry destroyed the music industry. Dicking around with Napster back in the day instead of learning from the possibilities as well as taking a very hands off approach to anything digital early on is what set them up for failure. It is the music industries constant failures in giving consumers what they want that has led to their downfall. No amount of rigged “studdies”, press releases, or even blabbering washed up celebrities like you can change that.

With that said, sticking with the whole anti-digital rhetoric, Mellencamp dished out criticism on mp3 players/digital downloads, comparing remastered CDs and mp3 downloads as night and day differences. Specifically,

you could barely even recognize it as the same song. You could tell it was those guys singing, but the warmth and quality of what the artist intended for us to hear was so vastly different.

Yet again, a digital retard and backwards thinking has been is showing how ignorant he is. Here’s a hint John — it’s called FLAC. Google it.

Terror in the skies: Hackers turn old Army drone into aerial WiFi sniffer

Of all the mods/hacks I’ve seen, this is both the most ingenious and somewhat scary. A pair of bored yet crafty American (not Dutch!) fellows took a retired Army Drone and re-deployed it with a new, lesser violent mission — to sniff for WiFi networks. Controlling the drone only needs human intervention for takeoff and landing. Once up in the air, pre-plotted routes using Google Earth keep the plane on it’s dedicated route.

Inside the drone, the downward facing WiFi antenna located in the nose is good for ~1,000sq. ft. of coverage at 400 feet up. After said wireless signals are sniffed and an appropriate network found, the drone will then automatically circle the area and continue feeding network packets back to hacker HQ, from which the hacking pair can eventually break into the network. And to think, they could be on the other side of the world as the drone. Again, awesome in implementation, scary in regards to potential scenarios.

But let’s be real, we all want a remote WiFi sniffing drone. It’s that awesome…

Eurocom Panther 2.0 boasts Intel Core i7 980x, SLI/CrossFireX gig, and 5 minute battery life to boot!

Call me old fashioned; I much prefer an actual laptop to a tablet. Regardless if I’m “working” or just browsing the web, I want something a bit more hands off. For the old fogies like me, Eurocom has something off their sleeve that is pretty much the polar opposite of a tablet — the Eurocom Panther 2.0

This beast is really a desktop computer that can move from desk to desk more-so than an actual portable laptop. Starting at the top, you’ve got the full range of desktop Core i7 9xx processors — Yup, Core i7 980x included! — as well as space for up to 4 hard drives and an SLI or CrossFireX setup. It’s easy to gather that battery life will be abysmal no matter your processor choice, especially if that choice involves the hex-core 980x beast. More specs? Hop in.

RIAA and friends propose the newest, dumbest idea ever: Legally mandated FM radios in cellphones.

Just when you think the RIAA and friends couldn’t become any more idiotic, incompetent, downright retarded, they go and out do themselves. The latest mad grab for money (and attempt to prop up their dying business model) is to use the US government to mandate that all cellphones be legally required to contain FM radio transmitters. At first, the idea seems somewhat novel and perhaps even useful in a few rare circumstances. That is, until reality sets in. There are already plenty of radios and antennas running amuck inside of your standard cell/smartphone, eating batteries and fighting against each others’ wireless waves to boot. Jamming in another — yeah, no thanks. Not to mention, if it comes down to having to fit in an FM transmitter or 4G radio, guess which one I and pretty much ever other consumer is going to vote for. Sorry radio.

Review: IM+ Web

For many social junkies, having but a single, solitary account to communicate with is absurd, and possibly even insulting. How dare someone think that one account is good enough and everyone else should follow them in their choice of IM client/social networking service. With that said, there are tons of choices in communication services. So much so, it can be hard to keep track of them all. Thanks to multi-chat clients however, grouping all of those conversations, buddies, and accounts into one smorgishboard is a life saver as well as a time saver.

Mobile IM apps and web portals for IM clients are nothing new. Though the latter hasn’t been around quite as long as the stand alone mobile/desktop app nor has it been as fully featured or polished. Can IM+ shake things up a bit when it comes to online browser-based multi-chat? Continue on…

Vertrax: Skateboarding goes off-road?

For skateboarding enthusiasts, it’s all fun and games — until the smooth pavement ends that is. The very nature of the sport requires a well maintained, or at least decently smooth surface. When things get bumpy, rocky, sandy, etc., it becomes less fun and more “chore” as you have to carry your board. But the “Vertrax” (designed by Bryson Lovett) aims to change all of that.

Using a tank-like track and electric motor, the Vertrax aims to go where no skateboard has ever gone before — off-road. It seems pretty clever, though, the small dimensions of the board ultimately mean a relatively small motor and battery pack. Add on a 150-200lb. human and soft terrain and you’ve got an equation for failure.

Even still, I’ll remain optimistic that science can come through yet again. ‘Nother shot after the break…

Full blown custom ROMS one step closer on Droid X. Clockwork Recovery shows its face.

A couple of months back, we heard horror stories of Motorola’s locked bootloader and eForce chip shenanigans. Locking out an admittingly small, yet loyal group of Android users for no good reason was a strike against the regaining mobile champ. But alas, what manufacturers mess up, the Android community fixes and makes even better.

It seems the devs are full steam ahead on breaking the X and several other Moto Android devices. It’s win win for everyone the way I see it. Soon we’ll have custom ROMs that will offer copious amounts of user customization, faster speeds, better battery life, less bloatware, and most importantly, the removal of that god awful trash Motorola calls “BLUR”.

Anyone as excited as me? (And I don’t even have an X or D2…)