TAR Tom's blog

In case mobiles covered in Swarovski crystal wasn't enough, ComputerChoppers are offering to plate your McBook Pro in 24 carat gold, for around £700.

As you can see from looking on their site, they do a really good job - completely taking apart the machine, painting and re-etching the keyboard, the works.

For an extra fee you can get the Apple logo encrusted with diamonds.

I want to see someone replace the aluminium with titanium so we don't have to put up with the constant dings and scratches. My TiBook was a great laptop :-(

This redefines awesome. In case the musical Tesla coils weren't enough - perhaps hankering after your own, personal coil for those dark winter nights? - the geniuses at RM Cybernetics have released do-it-yourself instructions for making your own personal Tesla coil.

Just catching up with Fred's MMOExplorer blog, and was reading with interest his post about 2 free MMORPGs that have slipped under the radar.

Sword of the New World is free to download and play up till level 20, which is enough to give you a good feel for the game. It's based in a sort of Spanish colony in the Americas, and you have to battle various monsters as well as corruption within your own ranks.

You may have heard about Microsoft buying a share of Facebook. The rumoured purchase of a 5% stake in Facebook for between $300 and $500 million values the social networking site at a staggering $10 billion.

Say that again in your best Dr. Evil voice - "ten billion dollars"

Following on from the recent Billionaires Toyshop ideas, what else would $10 billion buy you?

How about:

• 469 tonnes of gold
• 127 million online subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal - enough for everyone in Japan

Anyone still think these numbers are normal?

The Register have a great article up about the sort of toys billionaires could (and should, dammit!) be buying.

Covering the usual dull stuff light yachts and planes, they then move on to the really cool stuff - submarines and space craft.

As reported on Drobe, Professor Steve Furber, the brains behind the BBC Micro and ARM architecture, has been awarded the Faraday medal, the most prestigious achievement award from the Institute of Engineering and Technology.
Since 1922, the Faraday award has been handed out once a year for notable accomplishments in engineering.

The BBC Micro was the defining computer that kick-started computing in the UK, as part of a campaign by the BBC to raise computing literacy.

Given how quick it actually is to hop on the Eurostar and head on over.

From the 21st to 23rd September is the Festival du Jeu Vidéo in Paris. The guys from NCSoft will have a booth there, showing off both Guild Wars and Tabula Rasa.

On Friday 21st they'll also be giving a presentation and Q&A in the MMO village, about the upcoming new fantasy MMO from NCSoft - Aion.

Saturday 22nd will feature the final of the Guild Wars French Championship, with a showdown between Be Team [be] and The Last Requiem [RiP].

Those Wii jokes are just never going to die :-)

Market share reports show Nintendo's Wii is giving Sony and Microsoft a solid kicking - the sales figures are insane. It's still pretty difficult to find any Wiis actually on the shelve in the UK - most people I know have been ordering on-line and waiting for the delivery.

Good news then, as we approach the Christmas season (yeah, I know) - Reggie Fils-Aime, head honcho of Nintendo in the US, has responded to criticisms of Wii supply.

For this of you late to the party, no, that's not a typo, and no, I don't mean Richard Garriott. I've already seen several people confused about this in forums, and it's a bit tragic.

A quick recap: Robert and Richard are brothers, Richard is Lord British, between them they founded Origin Systems and developed the genre-defining Ultima and Wing Commander series, as well as other, lesser games.

Robert is the CEO of NCSoft, and Richard heads up Destination Games, who are developing Tabula Rasa for publisher NCSoft.

Everyone clear? Good ;-)

With the Hall of Monuments in Eye of the North providing an area to show off your mini-pets, ArenaNet have a timely announcement.

Games magazines coming out across Europe in the next few months will come with a special key code, which you can enter in-game to get a special limited mini-pet.

The magazines are:

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