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Magic wand bomb detector deemed fraudulent, inventor imprisoned

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 07:22 PM PST

iraqRemember back a few months when news broke about a little device that claimed to detect different sorts of bombs? The ones that the Iraqi government spent $85 million on over the last few years even though American military commanders and the FBI stated that they simply don’t work. Well, as we all assumed, the ADE-651 is a sham. It’s just a dirty racket. Good thing that the British government finally caught on, banned the device and threw the inventor in jail. (He’s out on bond as of writing)

It seems that the heart of the device is ID badge-sized cards that are supposed to be used for detecting different items. There are different cards for everything from TNT, plastique, to even money and elephants. However, as the Cambridge Computer Laboratory found out, these cards contain nothing more than a dumb RFID tag. Seriously, watch the BBC investigation video after the jump.

ADE-651-278x300The device is supposed to work on the same principle of finding water with a stick, dowsing. The scary thing is that this was never hid from the Iraqi government who purchased thousands of them at a cost of $40,000 per unit. The damn things aren’t even powered. It’s just a radio controlled car antenna on a hinge connected to a plastic grip with a wire leading to a RFID card reader. Who knows if the card reader even did anything.

Jim McCormick as quoted by the TimesOnline,

"We have been dealing with doubters for 10 years. One of the problems we have is that the machine does look a little primitive. We are working on a new model that has flashing lights."

The ADE-651 isn’t McCormick’s first unit. Randi.org states that he has sold $85 mil worth of the devices over the past 10 years. Interestingly enough, James Randi previously offered up a $1,000,000 purse to whoever proves that dowsing actually finds anything. McCormick never took the test.

An export ban on the ADE-651 and similar devices start next week in Britain. McCormick was arrested on suspicion of fraud by misrepresentation but later released on bail. Who knows what will happen to him and his company, ATSC. But even if the courts take him down, five more companies will likely spring up around the globe and take up his cause of scamming governments while putting people at risk.

Why buy an Acer LCD when you can get the same monitor under the Integral name?

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 09:38 AM PST

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Well, well. Harman International’s Lexicon brand isn’t the only company in the business of scamming buyers by simply re-badging competitor’s products. Integral, a Belarus brand for all we can figure out, apparently found it easier and cheaper to simply rebadge an Acer monitor and sell it under their name. After all, that practice isn’t that uncommon as we just found out. But generally, the rebadging is a bit more complex and thorough than Integral’s method. Check out what we mean below.
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[thanks for the tip, iSashaCH]

Laptop Mag’s cornucopia of system ratings is really quite thorough

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 09:00 AM PST

yo
What do you mean, show more emotion?

We all know by now that HP is the largest PC seller out there. Good for HP. But when you’re shopping for your next system, it helps to know how Brand A compares to Brand X. Our friends at Laptop Magazine have done just that, and put together a series showcasing the strengths and weaknesses of this brand versus that brand. Best part: regular users—like you!—are invited to give your thoughts, which will be compiled into a sort of go-to glossary. Good idea.

Being a Laptop Magazine production, the first round of ratings cover netbooks and notebooks. Let’s quickly look at Toshiba to get an idea of what’s going on. Also, I’ve never owned a Toshiba, um, anything, so it’ll be helpful for me, too. Yay.

• Only one out of the 14 machines reviewed by Laptop, one received a 5-Star rating (the Mini NB205)

• 43 percent of Toshibas received a 4-Star rating; 21 percent received a 3.5-Star rating; 29 percent received a 3-Star rating

• Picking a needle out of a stack of needles, it looks like Toshibas excel when it comes to multimedia playback, what with dedicated buttons and whatnot

• On the bad side, Toshibas apparently have rubbish trackpads and mouse buttons

And so on. There’s several of these ratings already online, including Apple notebooks, so if you’re either looking to kill a few minutes, or, gasp, actually learn a thing or two before whipping out your credit card, well, there you go. I use a lot of commas, yes. It’s how I talk in real life, too.

Video: Peter Ha vs an 11-year old professional gamer

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 06:52 AM PST

Watch and laugh as Peter Ha and Lev Grossman are pwnd by a 11-year old in Halo 3 and Madden. Tools. Just more proof that Peter Ha probably shouldn’t be writing about video games for a living. I’m kidding, Peter. Much love.

Does a frozen camera improve its ISO capabilities? 4Chan says so.

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 05:39 AM PST

Please, take this advice lightly. It came from the bowels of 4Chan, after all. But it seems that a user froze his Sony A350 DSLR and actually got better results when shooting at ISO 3200. The results he posted seem to validate his results, but once again, this is from 4Chan home of everything that is vile, rotten and antisocial on the Internet.

1264179234006I’m not advising anyone to try this. (unless you wanna) I mean, I certainly don’t have the cash to buy another camera if this trick really doesn’t work. (but maybe you do) And it’s not like it’s all that pleasant to hold a frozen camera. (you could wear gloves) So please, just because some dbag at CrunchGear posted an Internet rumor that *might* improve your pictures, don’t stick your camera in the freezer. (use you wife’s)

4Chan (NSFW of course) via The Phoblographer via Photo Rumors
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