Well, it’s Friday, end of the workweek (most of us) and time for another roundup as well as a random video (Fifth Gear). Continue reading to see more.

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Disney once again shows why animatronics are still “in”, with this Wall-E robot. This was spotted in the streets of LA, but it will hopefully make its way to Disney amusement parks around the world. Video after the break.

This Wall-E robot is supposed to roam around Disneyland/Disney World entertaining patrons, but got spotted on the streets of LA panhandling and glad-handing for cash.

[via Gizmodo - Slashfilm]

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Similar to Citroen’s Transformers-inspired commercial, this Chevrolet Aveo turns into a giant robot and starts dancing away. Continue reading to watch.

We all remember the Citroen C4 transformer spot a few years back. In the original The Citroen transforms into a robot, does a little dance and transforms back into a car. This ad is Chevy’s answer to that commercial.

[via DropKickMonkey]

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SEGA’s Golden Axe: Beast Rider for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 essentially “delivers action-RPG thrills as a small band of Riders embark on an epic adventure to recruit allies, expose the enemy and prevent the annihilation of their breed.” Continue reading to see how a remade Golden Axe looked on the PS2. Click here for first picture in gallery.

Like in the arcade original, you’ll be able to kick gnomes for colored power-ups. The game has a reward system based on your efficacy and skill, allowing you to unlock additional weapons (up to 10, including the Golden Axe) and outfits.

[via Joystiq - IGN]

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“Rotopault” by Brad Litwin is a kinetic sculpture that “launches a ball as it rotates, then catches the ball as it swings back around, without ever missing.” Video after the break. Click here for first picture in gallery.

Incredibly simple, but for some reason incredibly hypnotic, I think because the sounds it makes as it goes through the motions are precisely rhythmic.

[via Gizmodo - Brad Litwin]

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Online social networks are the hot platform in the Web 2.0 world. They indeed make the Web a two-way experience, one that fosters sharing, collaboration and relationships. They’re everywhere, and even chron.com has one.

However, they also can be incredibly irritating. As is often the case with cyberspace, the social experience online mirrors that in real life. A roomful of chatty people can be charming or grating, depending on your mood and the vibe at the party.

PC World has a list of the Top 10 Social Networking Annoyances, and it’s right on the money. Most items are specific to certain networks — LinkedIn is too locked down, Ning and Second Life have too much porn, for example. Here are some of my favorites:

Do I Know You? — Facebook started out as a way for college students to put faces to names: “Hi, I think we took Poly Sci together last semester, and you’re friends with my friend Brittany. Would you be my Facebook friend?” Now that Facebook is a global phenomenon, exchanges can go more like this: “I don’t know you, and we have no friends in common. I live in Colorado, you live somewhere far away. And yet you’d like to be my friend and show me your baby pictures. And you want to see mine. Hmmm, let me think about that … request denied.” Not only is it okay to ignore friend requests from people you don’t know, your privacy may depend on it.

Thanks for the Add! Here’s Some Spam — Slightly more annoying than random friend requests from total strangers is the increasing presence at social networking sites of good old-fashioned spam — you know, the kind where somebody is actually trying to sell you something. On Facebook, MySpace, and many other sites, you can expect to receive all kinds of unsolicited commercial and noncommercial requests, promos, and e-mail messages in your inbox. All manner of enterprises, from fledgling rock bands to escort services to professional headhunters, are trying to use these newfangled social network things to drum up business, and that means spam.

Zombies, Pirates, and Other Pointless Facebook Applications — Facebook applications allow my friends to share their movie tastes, opinions, news picks, and other items with me, but accepting these tidbits requires me to install each corresponding app in my own profile (at which point it has access to my personal information). One app informs me that a friend has just urinated on me, poked me, or vampire-bit me. An alarming number of my female friends want me to know them by their stripper names. Why my friends devote so much time to these curious little apps I haven’t figured out, but I know that cumulatively they’ve begun to demand way too much of my time.

To make matters worse, Facebook applications promote themselves, too, trying to get in touch, and even peppering me with spam. If you’re encountering the same thing, you can fight back. To make silly apps go away, open the application invitation and click on the Block [application name] link in the bottom-right part of the window. Or, you can banish all applications from your Facebook experience by installing the Facebook custom app hider Greasemonkey script.

I have to confess that, early on, I was guilty of assaulting Facebook friends with the Zombie application — I’m a big fan of zombie movies — but I’ve since learned the error of my ways, and I leave folks alone. I have very few of these silly apps on my Facebook page, and I ignore or even block most requests to add them. I like my social networking lean and clean, which is probably why I’m such a fan of Twitter (though it has its own annoyances).

Are you a social network user? What are your pet peeves about your online hang-outs?

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This may make a lot of geeks sad, but apparently the new Indiana Jones movie is “dreadful”, according to this review. Bad news for Indy fans, if true.

But it also means you have one less excuse to not participate in our Friday open-comment thread! Why waste time watching a decrepit Harrison Ford wheeze through cheesy stunts when you can be offering your random opinions about personal tech?

Don’t spend $15 on a small popcorn and a Diet Pepsi! Instead, leave a comment here and I’ll approve it.

Really, I’m doing you a favor here. You can either have you memories of a movie icon ruined by the ravages of age and a bad script, of your can interact with your fellow geeks in TechBlog. Clearly, the choice is obvious.

Update: Yes, the new Indiana Jones movie doesn’t open until May 22, which is even more reason to stick around here!

Here’s the trailer:

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• Women still trail in tech jobs — Only 10 percent of computing majors are women.

• Twitter Traffic Explosion: Who’s behind it all? — The average user is more apt to be male; Twitter is a weekday thing.

• The Top 10 Social Networking Annoyances — Friends you don’t know, silly Facebook apps, spam, too many networks to keep up with.

• Microsoft Joins Effort for Laptops for Children — Microsoft finally signs on to the One Laptop Per Child project; Windows XP installed on some machines.

• Taking your laptop into the US? Be sure to hide all your data first — Customs agents have the right to inspect your drive, even keep your notebook.

• Yahoo! Responds to Carl Icahn’s Intention to Nominate Candidates for Election to Yahoo!’s Board — Read Yahoo’s response to Icahn. And BoomTown Decodes Carl Icahn’s Letter to Yahoo!

• Whose Fault Is Traffic Shaping, App Blocking? — Om Malik blames the FCC.

• Google Translate adds 10 new languages

• Music Industry Gurus’ Five Point Plan to Save their Business — I like No. 3: “Free doesn’t mean no money.”

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Well I just wanted 2 get yall’s comments on if i should get a laptop and if so which kind so yeah, plz comment, respond, wutevah

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Speeding up world wide web

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