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Stockfish Not the most obviously named program, but it's a chess engine! It's free, with plenty of options to control the AI strength, including play style and opening book variety (and you can, thankfully, take back moves). Even on the medium settings the AI is comfortably beating me. Some people ...

Have already seen rumours about the iPhone 5 that should be out this year... near field cardless payment technology and possible full HD movie capability were mooted. Still early days yet though.

Babel:
Beautifully shot and acted, very human and non-judgemental. Weak butterfly-effect plot though.

Will be trying to watch Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs next.

Mr. Park's a pretty famous director, not sure if we'll ever get to see the film as things stand at present though!

It does highlight the 4th generation's rather nice 720p video recording capabilities. Nice publicity for Apple.

Fubiz published their best of 2010. So... much... awesome...

Those cells in the facade look like something Gaudi might have done (needs more tiles!), but maybe not with the same overall form. They'll also shade the building as well, which is wise for LA.

Link's not working for me, will hunt it down on Dezeen later.

I immediately thought "Venturi house" when I saw that. Not quite the same, but it was the giant gable effect that prompted it, I think. The shape's a nice response to the environment (seasonal winds), not sure about the architects statement mentioning the louvred areas to allow sound to pe...

I'll hazard a guess there aren't many copies of that book in print?

I thought that restaurant was just a German KFC, but it looks like rotisserie chicken, so a little posher maybe. The legs on the service station thingy are genius! Better than the McDonald's rebranding.

The Starbucks logo wasn't supposed to be too different, I think - not really a rebranding, just getting rid of the coffee bit to allow it to be used in their pending expansion towards world domination. I'd never even realised it was a twin-tailed siren... The Picasso icon is the reason why copyright...

I hope they use protection - some of those places might be a bit dangerous!

I'd like to think they have something similar to the UK urban exploration forums. Not least because some of it may technically be trespassing and they'd need to know their legal rights.

I'm now wondering if electrifying it would be more humane...

Cheers Mike, will check them out and see what gems I find. Was slightly surprised to see that apparently the Touch is a popular gaming platform as well, don't think I'll be putting any on though (unless I have a particularly long train journey coming up).

Some of the shots are very Mary Celeste (especially the ones with furniture etc. still there), like everyone just walked out and let nature do its thing. Apparently that was the case with the police station, they moved temporarily and never went back. I went and read the whole of the article that ac...

Squirrel Falls Victim to High-Tech Bird Feeder (Gizmodo article, YouTube video embedded). That is one heck of a determined squirrel, and an... interesting product.

Detroit in ruins, a Guardian slideshow (links to an article as well). Dramatic illustration of the urban decline that's affecting some of the old manufacturing cities across America.