We usually write our own posts around these parts, but sometimes a product's description speaks for itself:

With this gauntlet strapped to your arm there is no question you are the man in charge!

That's right, suckers. $40 on my Visa says that I rule this place now. And by this place, I mean the world. [BudK via bbGadgets]

It's not often that a simple three-pane comic strip says something meaningful and true about your life, but I think it's safe to say that today's Dilbert strip essentially sums up what this here website and its readers are all about. We post about gadgets, sometimes cool, sometimes not, and you read about them either way. Not because you want to, but because you need to. We understand. We're all in this together, friends. Now just set up a webcam of your cubicle so we have something to distract us from our jobs with. Then, the cycle will be complete. [Dilbert]

Neuros, who built their reputation with weird, chunky (but wonderful) modular MP3 players, has long since moved exclusively to the home entertainment field. Their latest attempt at eroding the Apple TV's market share is the Link, a set-top streaming box that will pull video from a wide range of online TV sources — Hulu, NBC, ABC, etc. — as well as stream local audio and video content from any USB hard drive. As is always the case with Neuros set-tops, the Link's software is open source and ready for modification. This time, mercifully, that might not be the box's biggest draw.

With the Neuros.TV interface, the Link does something simple but spectacular. Instead of pushing you through a clumsy series of web portals, it gives you a simple, unified interface for browsing online video content. With out-of-the-box support for nearly any video codec (courtesy of mPlayer and VLC, mainly), a solid interface and an included wireless keyboard/controller, it's a capable machine. At $299 (or $249 without the keyboard), it'll be tough to take on the $229 Apple TV, which in addition to having an included local hard drive and access to iTunes, supports most of Neuros.TV's features though Boxee. Spec sheet below. [Neuros via Zatz]

Technical specifications

* 1080p H.264 video playback
* HDMI (max resolution 1920x1200, 1080p) output
* High-definition 6-channel Audio output
* Optical S/PDIF audio output
* Gigabit Ethernet
* 802.11 g/b WiFi, up to 54Mbps
* Lots of USB 2.0 High-speed Ports (6 external ones today)
* Housing: 300mm x 90mm x 326mm (11.8" x 3.5" x 12.8")
* Noise: under 27dB
* Controller: 2.4 GHz wireless keyboard trackball controller
* Software:
o Seamless integration with Neuros.TV, a free service that lets you organize and watch Internet TV on your TV
o Neuros distribution of Ubuntu 8.10
o Open-source video players (MPlayer, VLC, Xine). A comprehensive list of formats, containers and media can be found on the above websites.

At last you can avoid the hassle of taking your Lasonic Ghetto Blaster every single time you go to the park: Now the park will have boom boxes the size of a park bench, with more than 500 watts of high quality ghetto thump. You only need a cellphone with Bluetooth audio support, and the Boom Bench will be yours to annoy every single person 10 miles around you.

The Boom Bench features eight 60-watt co-axial speakers and two subwoofers that can be accessed through Bluetooth. The Boom Bench in a way is a super-sized Docking Station. Connect your player to the amplifier and take control. Now you can play your music with 95 dB high quality sound. A Bass Shaker in the seat transforms the deep sounds into vibrations that enhance the physical sensation of your tunes.

Great, so now only you can shake your bootie good to your favorite hip hop, but the bench itself will do it for you. My dog Jones would love it. For him to poop on (since it won't work with his iPhone). [Dezeen]

I see this dumbtastic egg-case-style Bajca emoticon keyboard and the only thing I wish is that somebody actually brings it to market, sends it to me to test, and then I get a hammer to smash all those stupid emoticons like it was a Whac-a-Mole game. Maybe it's just me and you will love its design—which admittedly is pretty but not very useful. That's until they tell you you can turn the emoticons into jewelry beads.

Then you realize this thing makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Next: the one-key LOL keyboard. [Crunchgear]

Dominoes, always a favorite elemental for Rube Goldberg-ian device chain reactions, are unsurprisingly the name of the game at last week's Domino Day in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. That is where Robin Paul Weijers (Mr. Domino!) and his helpers (including Dutch girls suspended on harnesses above the action like Tom Cruise stealing a NOC list) rigged up 4.5 million dominoes and then set them a-falling, artfully rendering Che Guevara, a Sarlacc pit, a Saturn V liftoff and subsequent Apollo re-entry, and oh so much more in tumbling plastic. The list of records broken is impressive.

1. Longest domino spiral (200 m)
2. Highest domino climb (12 m)
3. Smallest domino stone (7 mm)
4. Largest domino stone (4.8 m)
5. Longest domino wall (16 m)
6. Largest domino structure (25,000 stone)
7. Fastest topple of 30 metres of domino stone (4.21 sec, time by Churandy Martina: 3.81 sec)
8. Largest number of domino stone resting on a single domino (727 stones)
9. Largest rectangular level domino field (1 million stones)

[Neatorama]

We've mentioned ocean power stations a bit recently, and now here's one with a rather different approach: It can store power for when its needed. Searaser is in prototype form at the moment, and it works by bobbing up and down as waves pass by. An underwater pump uses this motion to push water into a reservoir 160 feet uphill. And there it sits until it's simply released to power a generator. Neat stuff, particularly when the inventors say a full-sized version can power about 470 homes all by itself. [The TImes via Dvice]

NASA and Vint Cerf (Google VP, co-creator of the internet, nerd legend) have been working on updating our antiquated radio communications system for space for nearly a decade now, and a recent successful test represents the first step towards the goal of creating a deep space internet. Using software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) the team at NASA was able to transmit dozens of space images to and from a science spacecraft located about 20 million miles from Earth.

Unlike TCP/IP, DTN does not assume an continuous end-to-end connection. Delays can occur in a host of situations (like when a spacecraft moves behind a planet or when a solar storm occurs) so the protocol has to be robust...and patient. With DTN, data packets are not discarded when a destination path cannot be found. Instead, each network node stores data until it can safely communicate with another node. It may take a little longer, but the data will eventually get there. The second round of testing will occur next summer when DTN software will be installed aboard the International Space Station. Over the course of the next few years, NASA hopes to have the technology aboard a wide variety of space missions. [NASA]