Weird Tech: Wooden supercar faster than a Porsche

This week heralded the arrival of the world’s first wooden supercar. And with a staggering top speed of 240mph, it makes the Porsche and Lamborghini look decidedly pedestrian.

Made from a combination of maple, plywood and MDF, the Splinter weighs in at just 1,134kg – that’s some 240kg less than the super lightweight Porsche – and houses a 4.6 litre V8 petrol engine. No word on price yet, but expect to see the very cool Splinter out and about soon.

Over at Microsoft, the company found itself into a spot of bother recently after refusing to credit a hacker who found a flaw in Microsoft Office 2003. Microsoft made the controversial decision based upon the hacker’s chosen name, Chujwamwdupe (those of you who speak Polish will see why).

Highly irritated, the hacker consequently published the attack code online. For many this won’t pose a problem, as the bug had recently been patched - but it’ll be some time before all Microsoft’s customers install the update.

Bullet-proof DVD saves man

Meanwhile, a US man caught up in a brawl involving a gun had a near-miss when a ricocheting bullet reportedly hit a DVD in his jacket pocket. The bullet grazed the head of another man and shattered a window before ploughing into the fire chief’s abdomen, where the DVD took the fatal hit.

Painful gadgets

World’s worst idea for an alarm clock? We’d say one that doesn’t stop its incessant beeping until you solve a maths problem is a fairly serious contender. But if that sounds like your kind of thing for first thing in the morning, the Turing Alarm Clock is free and open source so be our guests.

While we’re on the subject, world’s worst idea for a mobile phone? A touchscreen tattoo / Bluetooth chip combo worn inside your arm perhaps? We can’t see many takers.

And finally…

A 68-year old man has sold what’s thought to be physically the biggest music collection in the world – on eBay. With a record minimum reserve price of (only) $3 million, the six million plus collection of songs was snapped up by an Irish buyer for the princely sum of $3,002,150.

That’s apparently one of the highest ever recorded by Ebay Inc, according to The Inquirer. It’s beaten only by the sale of a Gulfstream II jet, which went for a cool $4.9 million.