Not tech news, but tech humor. Find gadget parodies, musings on video games, a humorous look at the Internet and popular websites. And more jokes from the Cracked.com geeks.
Every once in a while the universe gets its wires so crossed that something we tend to think of as the far-fetched brainchild of some science fiction writer actually happened in the real world well before we ever saw it on a movie or TV screen.
Fortunately for the people who go their entire lives without ever discovering the difference between a 'practical joke' and 'randomly harming other people just because,' an entire industry has emerged to help them.
When it comes to depicting computer hacking onscreen, it's no surprise that the implausible scenarios Hollywood's tech-challenged screenwriters manage to pull out of their asses don't even come close to resembling the real thing. Except it turns out that, every once in a while, they inadvertently get it right on the money.
None of nature's obstacles can keep man from going where he wants to go. For evidence, you only need to look at where we've chosen to build our highways, oblivious to all obstacles, elements and mortal danger.
Various rules of thumb for regular car maintenance have been passed down through the generations -- precious wisdom handed to us by our ancestors in order to stave off, for a spell, the ruinous, virgin-eating car repair monster. But many of these rules are, at best, wildly outdated and, at worst, a total waste of money.
When it comes to the reality of space, you can't just make up some tech jargon and reconfigure the deflector shields. It involves a lot more effort to think through panic, fire and toxic fumes.
We're not saying that these companies intend to screw you over. All we're saying is that their legal teams have gone to great lengths to reserve the right to ... and to make sure you can't do a damned thing about it.
We're sitting on some pretty revolutionary ways to greatly increase the speed at which we physically move from A to B. What's infuriating is that those breakthroughs are ridiculously simple.
What's more interesting than how some world-changing inventions were created? The fact that they were created for a completely different, and often stupid, purpose.
Some people are, let's just say, a little more casual around nuclear material than the rest of us. And by people we mean governments, corporations and just random, everyday dumbasses.