In 1993, AT&T ran a number of commercials in which Tom Selleck (or someone who sounds remarkably like him) predicted the kinds of crazy things we’d later just take for granted in our everyday lives, like in-car GPS to help us navigate our way, pay road tolls without cash, TV movies on demand and so on. (thanks Will!)

If you hadn’t seen these before but thought they seemed a little familiar, it may be because Universal Studios parodied them in their Terminator 2 3D attraction pre-show video.

Today the little Russian film camera with a big cult following, the Lomo LC-A, or Lomo Kompakt Automat, celebrates its 25th birthday!

Originally designed as a cheap, durable camera for the Russian market, it quickly gained popularity in the communist East. By the 1990s, however, its popularity had waned because of cheaper and smaller cameras coming in from Asia and production ceased.

Fortunately, at about the same time, a bunch of students from Vienna discovered the LC-A while in Prague and started bringing a load of them back. As popularity for the camera increased in the west The Lomographic Society was born and production started again at the original Lomo Optics factory in St. Petersburg.

In 2005 the Lomo Optics factory closed (for good this time) and the life of the original LC-A ended. The Lomographic Society re-launched the LC-A as the new Chinese-built LC-A+ (which included a few extra features like a multiple exposure switch, more ASA settings and a cable-release button) and later introduced the LC-A+ RL which re-introduced the original Russian-built Minitar lens instead of a Chinese one and the cult following continued… albeit at a higher price!

To celebrate the anniversary, Lomography.com have 25% off all Lomo LC-A+ cameras and 10% off everything else on the 17th June only.

The “10 Golden Rules of Lomography”:

1. Take your LOMO everywhere you go.
2. Use it anytime – day or night.
3. Lomography is not an interference in your life, but a part of it.
4. Shoot from the hip.
5. Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible.
6. Don’t think.
7. Be fast.
8. You don’t have to know beforehand what you’ve captured on film.
9. You don’t have to know afterwards, either.
10. Don’t worry about the rules.

For thousands of great Lomo photos, check out the Lomo Flickr group pool or the lomography.com member gallery.

Back to the Future fans should check out this fantastic remote controlled DeLorean car built entirely out of LEGO by Legohaulic. Makes me want to have a play with LEGO Technics and Power Functions again — I’m sure the components are way more advanced than when I was a kid!

Here’s a video of it in action and a gallery of photos.

Ever wondered what your SNES looks like under an x-ray? Yeah, me neither. This guy did, though, and has managed to scan the insides of a whole range of consoles from the Atari 2600 (mostly empty) to the Wii (with accessories, no less) and the Playstation 3 (pictured above).

Reintji’s X-Ray Funnies (via Destructoid)

As incredible as it sounds, the Nintendo Game Boy is 20 years old today!

The now iconic hand-held video game console was launched in Japan on 21st April 1989 as the spiritual successor to Nintendo’s Game & Watch line. The console, which went on to sell nearly 119 million units worldwide, was released to the US a few months later in August and to the UK and Europe the following year.

Bundled with it was, of course, a copy of Tetris but it was neither that, nor Super Mario Bros nor any of the big-selling titles that left a lasting impression with me — possibly because it’s one of the few video games I’ve actually completed that honour goes to Final Fantasy Legend.

Final Fantasy Legend was a western port of the Japanese RPG Makai Tōshi Sa·Ga and, despite being made by Square, wasn’t a Final Fantasy game at all, merely re-badged to cash in on the popularity of the Final Fantasy series in the US. It was apparently enhanced and re-released for mobile phones in Japan in 2007 and the series also celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Too bad I traded mine in for a copy of Chase HQ… I don’t think I’m ever going to let my 13-year-old self live that down!

Still, at least I kept my copy of Solar Striker and if I ever lose that I’ll always have its theme tune permanently etched into my brain.

Update: Be sure to check out the Game Boy timeline over at Gizmodo.

I always love looking at optimistic views of the future from the past… and here’s a good one. The Usborne Book of the Future: A Trip in Time to the Year 2000 and Beyond, which was originally published in 1979. Chapters include “Robots: Science and medicine”, “Future Cities: Homes and living” and “Star Travel: Transport and travel”. (via Boing Boing)

It reminds me of the old EPCOT attractions from Walt Disney World like Horizons and Spaceship Earth that were also built around that time.

If you like this it’s also worth checking out the Paleofuture blog for all kinds of fantastic retro visions of the future.

“It’s such a sadness when you think you’ve seen a film in on your fucking telephone.” (via Boing Boing)

It seems sitting on the Disney board gets you all kinds of perks. Distant Creations report that an audio-animatronic (1970s, in-garage) Steve Jobs has been added to EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth attraction as part of its recent face-lift.

Spaceship Earth is scheduled to re-open in February with a new theme (more about technology and less about communication), narrated by Judi Dench. (via The Disney Blog)

I had a Halloween post all ready but never got around to posting it. I guess it’s a bit late now so I’ll have to save it for next year. C’est la vie.

This, however, I do have to share. Friends of a friend of a friend (yeah, we’re that close) created (and dressed up as) a Big Daddy and Little Sister from the Bioshock. Amusingly, the costumes are better than the ones at the games own launch event! (Thanks to See-ming for the tip!)

More Bioshock Halloween costumes on Cult of Rapture.

Update: Forgot to link the “making-of” set.

Update 2: Another video of a dad and his kids playing Big Daddy and Little Sisters. “no little sisters were harvested in the making of this video or when walking rapture looking for treats” (via Wonderland).

Ever the fan of bringing old cameras back into production (and charging a nice premium for them), Lomo are resuscitating the Diana camera back. The medium format camera has been out of production for nearly 35 years but will be made available again this month as the Diana+, joining the LC-A+ on their production line.

The starter kit, which includes Diana+ Camera (with lens cap and shutter lock), Diana Vignettes photo and story book and Instruction manual is available direct from Lomo for £27.55 (or $50, if you’re on the other side of the pond). (via Boing Boing)