Seriously guys, you just can't make this stuff up. A 23 year old Canadian college student was killed when a crashing helicopter struck and dragged him as he was walking to his mailbox. Apparently eyewitnesses noticed that the youth was completely unaware of his impending doom and a friend told reporters that he often listened to music through earbuds underneath the hood of his sweatshirt. Naturally, reaction was swift. If he had not been listening to music perhaps he could have nimbly sidestepped the helicopter and gone about his business as if nothing had happened. After all, this sort of crap happens everyday right?

While I completely agree that listening to music too loudly can inhibit your ability to recognize and react to a potentially dangerous situation around you, I can't help but find it completely baffling that this story sparked a debate about the dangers of headphone use while completely glossing over the fact that this dude was hit by a HELICOPTER. In fact, no concrete evidence was given that he was even wearing headphones at the time. At any rate, this fiasco has really struck a chord with me. From this day forward I will not wear headphones while traveling on foot just in case a meteor, satellite, or charging rhino should be barreling towards me. [Globe and Mail via Headphone Info]

The last place I would expect to hear even a glimmer of doubt about the performance potential of gaming PCs would be Alienware. Yet Alienware's Marc Diana spills that 32-bit machines just aren't cutting it at the pure performance level anymore, saying that faster chips with more cores aren't the solution: 64-bit systems are the real fire. He castigates the rest of the industry for not stepping up, noting that Alienware doesn't actually offer 64-bit systems because driver support sucks, at best.

For one, it'd let Alienware do things like offer more than 4GB of RAM (32-bit systems only support up to 4GB). Speaking of RAM, something else I wouldn't expect out of Alienware's performance-at-all-costs mouth is that high performance DDR3 RAM actually isn't worth the premium pricepoint: "It is the highest-performing memory now on the market. But I'm not so sure it's quite there yet. The cost is very high... Six months from now it will start making a lot more sense (economically) than it does right now." And that's why PC gaming sales have been dropping precipitously vs. console sales over the last few years. It just costs too much to stay ahead. [CNet]

Clever. Monospaced. Bold. Yellow. Those four words can describe this My Document laptop case as well as any others, which is good because our pocket dictionary just fell into the toilet. The design is from 25togo Design Studios, and as hard as we try (which is not that hard) we can't find a price tag or a way to purchase one. You can always email them and see if they'll sell you one manually, but they're in the country which has a country code of 886 (Taiwan), so be prepared to pay a little extra for shipping. [25togo via Like Cool via Slashgear]

Did you know that May is national BBQ month? If you haven't celebrated yet, I suggest you make up for lost time by firing up that grill morning, noon and night. That's right, you can even cook in the dark thanks to this LED BBQ tool light. It isn't the first BBQ light out there, but it is the only one that can attach magnetically to your spatula so you can catch all of the action close up. It even has a bendable neck for added versatility. If you think about it, this sort of device could come in handy in all sorts of situations outside of the grill. Not bad for only $14.95. [Solutions via EB$29.99 via Techie Diva via DVICE]

Microsoft has officially announced that Windows XP is coming to the OLPC XO with trial runs beginning as early as June. This comes after months of discussion and speculation of when the move would happen. The operating system has been specially modified to run on the computer and support its ebook reading mode, writing pad and camera. And according to the press release, the plan is to have both Windows and Linux running on the machines, to let users decide what's best.

The XP operating system will come preloaded on an additional 2GB flash chip, offering 3GB of storage space total (1.5 usable after OS install). Widespread distribution of the machines is expected to happen in August of September. Check out the video demo below. [Microsoft]

Singapore Airlines is installing iPod docks and 15.4-inch widescreen LCDs in their all-Business Class Airbus A340-500 flights between NY/LA and Singapore, ensuring that we're going to be flying with them if we ever have to travel to that part of the world. Each business customer can dock their iPhone or iPod and watch their own movies on the included noise-canceling headphones—which will be interrupting when the captain wants tell you to look off to your left so you can see a drunken Superman mooning your plane. Flights from Newark with this will start May 15 (today), and August for the LA ones. Maybe now business passengers won't engage in business time whilst in the air.

Remember that rumored mockup of the Palm Skywriter we showed you last week? Yeah, this spyshot (courtesy of aliased citizen Shadowmite) of the finished Treo 800w shows the prototype was pretty spot on with the button layout of this WinMo phone. While unconfirmed, the 800w is expected to run WinMo 6.1 on a 400 MHz processor with 128 MB of RAM and have 256 MB of flash memory. It's also rumored to introduce a few firsts for the Palm brand — namely EVDO Rev.A, GPS, and Wi-Fi.

Shadowmite also says it has a micro USB connection, which brings Palm out from the proprietary connector rock. It may be incremental, but it's good to see Palm playing a bit of catchup with the smartphone heavyweights. [Shadowmite via Palm Infocenter]

Hey you! Want to work for Gizmodo? We're still looking for an editor in Australia, Asia (Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, India, etc.) or somewhere in the general region to work for us. We're still going through applications from our first call for submissions, so even if we turn you down expect an email back telling you so.

Blogging/Journalism experience is preferred, but not entirely required. You just need to possess a passion for both gadgets and writing, and have more than a cursory knowledge of both. That means your English needs to be GOOD. And if not good, then t the very least as lousy as ours.

Send emails to jchen@gizmodo.com with the subject "Asia/Australia Editor" with either three sample posts done in Gizmodo style (seriously, follow the template we have laid out), or a link to your current blog. Take your time with these so they best represent your writing ability. Also attach your resume and some information about yourself. It's a full-time gig, and you will be posting during normal hours (Asia/Australia's normal hours). Yes, you will be paid. It's a real job, even if we're in our underwear most of the time.

Jes

The news that TiVo has brought back lifetime subscriptions got me thinking about how many people subscribe to TiVo versus going with a cable DVR or a PC-based method. In my opinion, it doesn't really matter as long as I don't have to sit through LOST with a commercial break popping up every 5 minutes. So, the question is, what do you use to record your favorite TV shows?

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