Ex-marine Brad Collum has written down eight ways to kill someone with an iPod Nano. They include some original ways, so check 'em out. Anyone willing to try these out?

1. Break it in half with your hands (very easy to do) and use the glass viewing screen's broken edge as a razor blade to slice the jugular when they are looking the other way.

2. Take off one sock (a dress or tube sock; pantyhose will work in a pinch), place the Nano in the sock, swing it around as fast as you can (being careful to not hit yourself), and whack the intended target right on the temple.

3. Take the reflective shiny part and catch the sun's ray and shine it in a vehicle driver's eyes, or if you are at a rock concert and the lead singer is prancing around on a center stage that protrudes into the audience like a phallus, you can use the same technique.

4. The cord on the earbud headphones can be used to strangle someone. A knee in the back can give extra leverage.

5. Dig a pit about 5 feet deep, then take about 15 3-foot-long stakes 2 inches in diameter and sharpen one end to a fine point, like a very sharp pencil. Jam the sticks at least a foot into the ground, with the sharp ends pointing up. Cover the hole with pine boughs, grass, and leaves. Treat the Nano like a slice of cheese pizza in a deep, hot oven and place it gently in the middle.

6. Carefully unstaple a tea bag and pour the contents on a plate. Break into the lithium-ion battery pack and saturate the tea with the battery's poison, then dry the tea in the sun (or with a hair dryer if you are in a hurry). Put tea back in tea bag and bend the staple back to its original position. Put the tea bag back where you got it.

7. Download to the Nano "We've Only Just Begun" by the Carpenters. Tell someone you will give him or her your Nano if they listen to that song a hundred times in a row.

8. Hide the Nano in a bowl of lutefisk, then take it to the annual Norsefest Lutefisk Eating Competition in Madison, Minnesota.

When  Master gamemaker Kojima called the PS3 as the future of gaming he was, of course, referring to its technical power. But the price for having all that muscle could result in production shortage, at least in the early stages says Analyst P.J. McNealy of American Technology Research.

“We've learned the Sony Playstation 3 is not just a game console. It’s a movie platform. It’s also a super-computer. This is now the most complex box that’s ever been built in this industry. It’s going to have a Cell processor, it’s going to have a Blu-ray drive. The number of pieces that are going into this box are even more astounding [than the over 1700 parts used in the Xbox 360]" McNealy says.

The complex manufacturing process required in putting the PS3 together could be a problem. Citing the Xbox 360's manufacturing-related shortage, McNealy thinks Sony will also be limited in term of production.

Sony is confident it will meet its PS3 shipment target of 1 million units per month (6 million units shipped by the end of March 2007) and says it will have two million units ready for its global launch in November. McNealy is not. “Sony, we don’t think, is going to be in assembly for another four to six weeks--end of July, early August." McNealy expects PS3 production to hit its stride sometime in 2007 when "the wild-card becomes, [whether or not] people still want to spend six-hundred bucks on the box."

In terms of the sheer scope of its ambition there are few games that we know of that can hold a candle to Ubisoft Montreal's long in development epic period piece, Assassin's Creed. What follows is a collection of every single solitary bit of information we've been able to dig up, rustle up, sniff out and extricate from every corner of the web and print, for your convenience.

Read the entire article after the jump!

Sniper doesn't let a great season like summer to stop him from doing something what he loves which is brewing NDS applications He just released NDS Managedbuilder v1.1.2, the latest update on his application which is an Eclipse CDT plugin for C/C++ development especially for the NDS target system. The new features in v1.1.2 include:

• SupportsEABI gcc compiler used by the devkitARM R19 but still supports the "old" ELF compiler
• Compatible with the NDS Managedbuilder 1.1.1
• Switches between the project types EABI and ELF by using a project converter (only works with CDT3.1.0+ not with CDT3.0.x)
• Added a binary parser "NDSBinaryParser" for the ROM files which shows the ROM name + code, code size, destination addresses and program counters

The author again made a how-to presentation on using the new features of NDS Managedbuilder v1.1.2 and you can view it here.

Download: [NDS Managedbuilder v1.1.2]

The Mac maybe handy - it could fit easily into your backpack, you can tag it along anywhere and all that. But sometimes you wish it has more screen resolution or that it has a bigger screen. Of course, there are just things that you can control and some that you can. So with that, let's focus on the things that you can control -- here are some free and simple ways to maximize your Mac's screen space.

The first thing you could do is lessen the size of your desktop icons. Many users love stuffing up their desktops with files, documents and other what-have-yous that gives the screen a small appearance.

To do this go to the Finder, choose “View” in the menu bar and select “Show View Options.” In the pop up, slide the icon size slider to 16 x 16. Next, set your “Label position” to “Right.” Finally, go to “View” and select the “Arrange By” option that you like.

Another thing you can do is take advantage of the Exposé feature of the Mac OS X. It allows a user to quickly see open windows by two different sets of criteria, or to hide all windows and show the desktop without the need to click through many windows to find a specific target.

Another tip is to hide the dock or if you can't work without it, position it to the right or left side of the screen. Using programs that support tabbed windows is also a good idea, and lastly you can use a free program called Quicksilver. If you aren't familiar with this one, it's a free utility that can be called from anywhere within the operating system to launch applications find files, search websites, scale images, and much more. With all these mentioned, it is almost an assured thing that screen space won't be an issue in your book anymore.

While cellphone companies cram as many features as possible in one tiny mobile phone, Vyas of the National Institute of Design gets rid of all the nifty features and came up with the Mini Mobile with just three buttons to receive and make calls. This no-frills phone doesn't have a display, so if you're an MMS or SMS nut, then you're not part of the target market. It's expected to be a hit for the elderly lot, as the more advanced handsets remain a mystery to seniors.

The Mini Mobile has no SIM card so it has to be networked to a main mobile phone, which according to Vyas prevents misuse in case of theft. If we are to believe that 80% of mobile users use only 20% of the features, then  this Mini Mobile might just catch on.

   

Wanna be mistaken for a mugger or an extraterrestrial while playing your PSP, answering a text message, or working on your PC? Well, if that floats your boat, then this piece of clothing genius from Joe Malia ought to do the trick. What happens when a proportion of the people using a new technology see it to be so enticing that they are willing to sacrifice every other aspect of their lives in order to engage with it? They wear this and they don't care what other people think!

For now there are scarves like these for PSP addicts, desktop users, and cell phone junkies. I tell you, if you'll use this, the privacy level will be so high plus you can't see those people gawking and laughing at you. Although I'm not so sure if this thing could kill you because of suffocation. These concepts actually originated from Joe's project, Design for the Computer Obsessive, which is a requirement for one of his subjects. I personally wanna try the desktop scarf, just to weird out my officemates (ha, ha)!

For now, these garments are still in the drawing board, but who knows? There might come a time when you're strolling by Target and you see one of these thingamajigs on sale. How about you? You wanna try 'em on or do you think it's just plain ridiculous? Tell us through your comments.

You know full well that every new client patch comes with all too important notes. While some of you likes to know the what's new in World of Warcraft as the  progresses, some would rather read what the developers have gladly laid out on the client patch notes. With the release of World of Warcraft Client Patch 1.11.0, we are bombarded with game enhancements, bug fixes, changes in PvP, and other modifications that may affect your gameplay. The new patch introduces Naxxramas, the new 40-man raid dungeon that will give even the most experienced players a challenge of epic proportion.

General updates:

• The cost to unlearn talents will now decay over time. This cost will be reduced by a rate of 5 gold per month to a minimum of 10 gold.
• Logging back in after a disconnect from the server has been greatly improved, and players should now rarely receive the message "A character with that name already exists."
• Temporary item buffs (e.g. poisons, sharpening stones and shaman weapon buffs) will persist through zoning or logging out.
• Fear: The calculations to determine if Fear effects should break due to receiving damage have been changed. The old calculation used the base damage of the ability. The new calculation uses the final amount of damage dealt, after all modifiers. In addition, the chance for a damage over time spell to break Fear is now significantly lower. Note that Fear continues to be roughly three times as likely to break on player targets as on non-player targets. In addition, Intimidating Shout now follows that player versus non-player distinction, while previously it did not.
• Periodic Healing: Spells which do periodic healing will now have their strength determined at the moment they are cast. Changing the amount of bonus healing you have during the duration of the periodic spell will have no impact on how much it heals for.
• Reflection: Effects which cause reflection will no longer reflect triggered effects separately from their base effects (e.g. Impact, Improved Shadow Bolt, Aftermath, etc.)
• Spell and Item Auras with Charges: These auras will now correctly remember their number of charges when you enter or leave an instance, change continents, or log out.
• All controlled units will now be titled based on the creature type. All beasts will be referred to as Pets, for example (no matter how they are controlled). Previously, there were several inconsistencies.
• Beneficial spells and abilities that target multiple units will no longer consume resources (i.e. mana, rage etc...) if they fail to affect anyone.
• Chain targeted spells and abilities (e.g. Multi-shot, Cleave, Chain Lightning) will no longer land if target cannot be seen by the caster due to stealth or invisibility.
• Character model transparency has been modified to fix an issue where PC's would appear to have a large hole in their model (be on the lookout!).

There's more from where they came from. Druids, hunters, mages, paladins, priests, rogues, warlocks, shaman and warriors -- everyone has gotten some love from WoW developers. Click on 'Read' for the full details.

Mythic Entertainment has just released some notes about class changes and bug fixes for the Dark Age of Camelot Test Version 1.84i.

Here's the changelog for DAOC:

• Full respec has been granted to all existing Valewalkers, Valkyries and Reavers.
• Binding at any location in the new battleground Cathal Valley will no longer be allowed (Pendragon only).
• Re-spawning will take place at portal keeps in the battleground for players who die.
• Cast timers are reduced by 20% for all single target bolts belonging to Runemaster, Shaman, Warlock, Eldritch and Wizard. This means that bolt spells with a cast time of 4.0 will be changed to 3.2 seconds, while those with 2.5 seconds of cast time will be changed to 2.0 seconds.

We'll keep you posted with the latest changes and bug fixes made to the game.

Sanya of Mythic Entertainment has provided a few tidbits for DAoC fans this week.

-Cast timers for single target bolts of the Wizard, Runemaster, Eldritch, Shaman and Warlock have been recuded from 2.5 to 2 seconds. 

-The Scepter of Intellect will still drop off the upgraded mobs in the Avalon Marsh, and the Forest Smuggler will drop it more often than theTracker - but it still won't happen often.

-Valkyries' Mend Spells have been changed to Regeneration Spells (for "stacking" reasons)

There's also a "heads-up" regarding a bug in which "Bracers of the Deep" have incorrect dex/acuity stats. Currently, the one tagged as Albion is too low, but this should be addressed shortly.

One issue that came up this week was that of payment methods. People without credit cards can often purchase "game cards" at their local gaming store, but Mythic Entertainment doesn't offer this service. The simple reason is that revenue from these cards has to be split with the store, and since it is illeagal (as well as discriminatory) to charge more than the normal monthly subscription fee, it causes a revenue loss for the game developers.

Mythic does offer a "Pay By Cash" option, which players can learn about here. There are also various "pre-loaded" cards (similar to calling cards) than can be purchased for various amounts.