One of our main complaints about playing bass on Guitar Hero or Rock Band is that the guitars aren't bass guitars. The Ant Commandos, a company that specializes in making cheaper versions of video game accessories, has just released a wireless PS2/PS3 bass guitar. It doesn't solve the problem of not being able to double-strum with two fingers, which the Mad Catz version does, but it is long necked like a real bass. The Widow Maker is available now for $69. [Ant Commandos]

The Product: Western Digital Scorpio Black—A 2.5" SATA laptop drive that runs at 7200RPM in sizes up to 320GB. It's the best combination of speed and size of any notebook drive on the market today. And it's got a really cool name.

The Price: $250 as tested (320GB, 16MB cache and freefall sensor)

The Verdict...

I swapped out my stock Seagate 5400RPM 120GB drive from my MacBook Pro. Running some benchmarks, here's the before and after between the Seagate and the WD Scorpio Black.

What we see here is that the Scorpio is much faster for sequential reading and writing (dealing with big files and stuff organized physically close on your hard drive) but actually slightly slower for some random reading and writing (dealing with smaller chunks of data floating more freely on your hard drive).

But isn't the WD model supposed to be faster? Sure. But it's also over twice the size of my old Seagate. Such a test supports the classic ideology that an OS should be stored on a smaller drive quarantined from your other data to keep running quickly. Laptops rarely have that luxury.

That said, I haven't noticed anything running slower since the upgrade, but have noticed a few things running faster (that I don't think can be contributed to hard drive placebo effects). My 500+ site RSS reader loads quicker. And within Final Cut Pro, scrubbing the timeline is completely effortless.

Potential downsides: The drive makes an almost inaudible whir and seems to vibrate ever so slightly more than the old Seagate. This could have to do with the drive or the fact that my hands are less precise than the army of deft children's fingers piecing together Macbook Pros. As for battery life, WD claims it sucks no more power than their 5400 drives, but I can't test the theory with my aging lithium ions.

Final Verdict: Overall, for $250 (or less), it seems like a no-brainer upgrade to store more media...given how much this fancy machine cost me in the first place.

[Western Digital]

No, those 2's up there aren't projected onto steam or vapor, they're actually made up of vapor. It's a tricky practice due to the whole "atoms constantly moving around in a floating cloud" thing, but they managed to figure out how to do it.

In their technique, the researchers first stored an image (for example, the number “2”) in a light pulse. When that light pulse hits a gas of atoms, it is strongly absorbed, and excites the atoms. But when a second light beam is aimed at the gas, it drives the atoms to a unique quantum state, and causes the first pulse to pass through the vapor. This phenomenon is called electromagnetically induced transparency.

As previous experiments have shown, when the second light beam is shut off while the first pulse is inside the vapor, the first pulse can be completely stopped (and be temporarily stored inside the vapor). Then, by starting up the second beam again, the first pulse can be recovered.

OK, so we're only talking about the image retaining its shape for a few microseconds, but still, it's pretty sweet. Hopefully they'll perfect this tech and put it into the next version of the Happy Vappy. I'm ready and willing to test it out. [PhysOrg]

Last week, I asked you to create visions of Bill Gates in retirement. You responded. As per usual, the easiest joke had the most entries (this time, it was Bill Gates working at the Apple Store/at the Genius Bar), many of which were left on the cutting room floor. However, there are a pretty serious number of flat-out insane and hilarious entries that are sure to tarnish the name and legacy of poor Billy G. Sorry, Bill. After the jump, check out the top three winners and then view the rest of the winners in our Gallery of Champions.

Winner — Loosest Interpretation of "Retirement"
Winner — Most Confusing and Perhaps Offensive
Winner — Movie We'd Most Like to See
And now, for the rest of the winners. Thanks to everyone who entered, and sorry again, Bill!

In case you missed Jes

In case you missed Jes

Orange, a cellphone provider in the UK, has just developed a couple prototypes of this Dance Charge cellphone charger. You wrap this thing around your arm while you're dancing and your kinetic energy will translate into electricity to power your phone. It's like those flashlights that you have to shake before use, but much, much nerdier. Combine this with the fictional breast charger and you'll be able to power the entire DJ booth with just your flailing limbs. How they got that one chubby doctor from Grey's Anatomy to pose for promo pics is anyone's guess. [Reg Hardware via Tech Digest]

This officially-licensed Grow Your Own Mario 1up Mushroom comes with a pot. Think Geek says that you can fill the pot with soil to make your friends believe is a real 1up mushroom. Unfortunately, neither the mushroom nor the pot are edible, smokable, or capable of inducing any kind of hallucinogenic experience, so your friends would just probably take a deep breath, roll their eyes, and then smack you. But you can still secretly lick it after that for just $9.99. [Think Geek]

Crunchgear went on a trip to Dyson's headquarters in Malmesbury, England and caught this video of an incredibly soporific employee narrating the entire history of their upright vacs. If you can listen to five minutes of this guy, you'll get a very cool journey through the adventure of cleaning up crap from your carpets. Super neat for fans of Dyson to see how they refined yours from the first few models. [Crunchgear]

A real Iron Man would be too powerful for this world. That's why origami artist Brian Chan used a bit of restraint while constructing his own super suit and utilized only one piece of paper for the fabrication. Our own Jason Chen calls it "beef jerky man." Takes one to know one, Jason! Here's a shot of just the tiny mask:

If the little Iron Man of art couldn't crush us in his itty bitty fingers, we'd go Cute Overload on his ass and scratch behind those teenie weenie wittle Iron Man cheeks. [Brian Chan via Geekologie]