So you want to piss off your friends or shut up the loud yapper next to you on the subway? Well, get your Radio Shack catalog out of the bathroom and your soldering iron warmed up and ready to go. The wonderfully hacky Ladyada has put together a detailed process for creating the Wave Bubble and published it under a Creative Commons license. What is the Wave Bubble you ask? It’s a self-tuning, wide bandwidth portable RF jammer (cell, WIFI, Bluetooth, etc) that fits snugly in your pocket (though I’d recommend you not keep it in there too long). Using an internal lithium-ion battery, you can jam dual band frequencies (like mobile phones) for up to 2 hours within a 20 foot radius, then recharge via a mini-USB connector. If you’re actually skilled enough to take on such a highly technical project, you should still be aware that this technically is against FCC regulations (therefor don’t even think of selling pre-made jammers). Did I mention that you shouldn’t even think of building this?

Read more: Wave Bubble RF jammer

Sorry everyone for the ups and downs we’ve been having the past few days. Seems our nearly 3 year old dedicated server is finally showing signs of weakness. Over the coming week we’ll be upgrading to a new more powerful machine for your nerding out pleasure so for now, please bear with us and thanks for your patience.

Trademarks are not verbs, not nouns, should never be used in possessive form, never abbreviated and always capitalized. The more you know…

Trademarks help protect corporate and product identity, and Photoshop is one of Adobe’s most valuable trademarks. By following the below guidelines, you can help Adobe protect the Photoshop brand name.

The Photoshop trademark must never be used as a common verb or as a noun. The Photoshop trademark should always be capitalized and should never be used in possessive form, or as a slang term. It should be used as an adjective to describe the product, and should never be used in abbreviated form. The following examples illustrate these rules:

Trademarks are not verbs.
CORRECT: The image was enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® software.
INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.

Trademarks are not nouns.
CORRECT: The image pokes fun at the Senator.
INCORRECT: The photoshop pokes fun at the Senator.

Always capitalize and use trademarks in their correct form.
CORRECT: The image was enhanced with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements software.
INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.
INCORRECT: The image was Photoshopped.
INCORRECT: The image was Adobe® Photoshopped.

Trademarks must never be used as slang terms.
CORRECT: Those who use Adobe® Photoshop® software to manipulate images as a hobby see their work as an art form.
INCORRECT: A photoshopper sees his hobby as an art form.
INCORRECT: My hobby is photoshopping.

Trademarks must never be used in possessive form.
CORRECT: The new features in Adobe® Photoshop® software are impressive.
INCORRECT: Photoshop’s features are impressive.

Trademarks are proper adjectives and should be followed by the generic terms they describe.
CORRECT: The image was manipulated using Adobe® Photoshop® software.
INCORRECT: The image was manipulated using Photoshop.

Trademarks must never be abbreviated.
CORRECT: Take a look at the new features in Adobe® Photoshop® software.
INCORRECT: Take a look at the new features in PS.

The trademark owner should be identified whenever possible.

Read more: Adobe teaches us proper usage of their copyrights

Described as one of the culminating films in Versais’ carrer, “Operation X-70″ is a fairly dark story, with minimal animation (a departure) and English voice acting featuring none other than Leonard Cohen. The story revolves around an accidental invasion of a dreamy and peaceful country named ‘Nebelux’, whereby a powerful nation developing a new combat gas, X-70, drops bombs full of the substance, which causes victims to become paralyzed and lethargic. “Operations X-70″ was the winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival in 1972, as well as several other festivals during the same year.

Watch “Operation X-70″ by Raoul Servais after the jump..

Read more of “Operation X-70 by Raoul Versais“

It is a pleasure to see how two different artists are able to encompass a very unique style. Seeing the works of Saul Bass compared to the works of Raoul Servais is a joy and I couldn’t honestly pick a favorite. I can only imagine a project where both of these animation visionaries worked together. 1968′s “Sirene” opens with credits reminiscent to the works of Bass (or shall I say, Bass’ work was reminiscent of Servais, I don’t know), with cranes standing like prehistoric dinosaurs over a decrepit port where ships are rusting and bomb shells escape the bleakness of their environment. Speaking of, “Sirene” is actually seen as an early commentary on the manipulation and abuse of the environment throughout the modernized world.

Watch “Sirene” by Raoul Servais after the jump..

Read more of “Sirene by Raoul Servais“

Born in 1928, Raoul Versais was the undisputed maestro of European animation during the mid-20th century. Focusing on social commentary and striking colors, Versais’ animation work won prizes at most major Euopean international film festivals and contributed to Versais founding the first department of animation on the European continent. Even though Versais focused more on traditional painting and drawing methods, his 13 animated films will continue to be the work he is most notable for.

This first of a long line of posts featuring Raoul Versais’ work features the 1965 short “Chromophobia”, which follows an army of identical, angular characters, entering a struggles against anything bearing color.

Watch “Chromophobia” by Raoul Versais after the jump..

Read more of “Chromophobia by Raoul Versais“

As I said news services LOVE this type of stuff towards the end of the year. What the hell, we love them too. PELE hates his nickname, 200 million dead blogs (dlogs?), people actually suffer from Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs (the fear of the term 666)!? What is the world coming to, I tell ya.

Read more: 100 things we know now that we didn’t last year (Thanks Jurie)

I’ve gotten a few emails asking when we’re going to start posting music videos again, so I thought I’d go ahead and make an early announcement. Over the past week or so we’ve been soft launching the newest blog in our network, Tropics & Meridians. Bonus point if you catch the band reference in the title.

From now on, all of our indie music video posts will be carried on by those scurvy dogs over at Tropics & Meridians, so give them a visit or keep an eye on the footer for the latest posts from around our network.

See/Hear more: Tropics & Meridians

Many readers just recently spent the…..haulidays….(forgive me) giving and receiving gifts from the heart (apologies to those who didn’t). Though many of the gifts you received are being re-gifted or sold on eBay, some of you might have actually gotten something you want to keep, so, brag away dear nerds and let us know what was sitting under your Christmas tree. If you didn’t celebrate any sort of consumer-manipulative holiday recently, what did you score on those busy, discount shopping days?

I’ll start with a few after the jump..

Read more of “Bragathon 2006 begins! What was your haul?“

As is common at the end of every year, newspapers are starting their yearly lists of stuff. From the top 50 things we know now to the 10 under reported stories of the year, lists are always handy to fill up space and draw in readers. Today, the Tampa Tribune listed the top 50 things we know now that we didn’t this time last year and man it’s fun. I for one am glad to know that life expectancy in the U.S. is now up to 77.9 years old and that scientists at the University of Manchester have managed to induce teeth growth in normal chickens by activating a gene that has lain dormant for 80 million years. It’s only a matter of time before we have a new feathered predator on our hands here folks.

Read more: 50 things we know now that we didn’t this time last year