For all you commenters, this post is intended for you. We at Gizmodo want to go over a few things. Off topic comments, a new comment specific email address, and reasons we ban are on the agenda. So if your a frequent commenter or just starting out, let us have a few words with you. Oh and, if you haven't already checked out Lifehacker's amazing commenting user's guide, you definitely should.

Comment Email Address - For All Your Commenting Needs
We're not sure why we never had it before, but Gizmodo now has a specific email address just for comment related concerns. Emails about account approval, account problems, banning questions, thread problems and even requests for banning will all be handled through this email. So here it is, COMMENTS@GIZMODO.COM , shouldn't be too hard to remember.

Off Topic Comments
Over the past few weeks, we at Giz have been becoming unhappy with the direction some comment threads are turning. Even some commenters have let us know that they are concerned with what's going on. Long story short, some of the comment threads are getting way too off topic. Gizmodo is not high school social shit site, and we expect the commenters to be mature enough to contribute ON TOPIC conversation. Sure, we all enjoy reading some light off topic banter, but we've noticed complete mongo-tard discussions that have NO PLACE on a gadget site. So next time your thinking of writing a comment with the word PENIS or HORNY in it, please spare us..

Why We Ban
If you didn't already know, we have an all-mighty banhammer that we can use to silence commenters. Why would we use such a weapon? Well, some commenters feel the need to speak with obscene, racists, troller, mean, spammer, stupid, or completely off topic words. These types of commenters are NOT WELCOMED, and must be banned. So if you see your account has been banned, please check your stupid ass comments before you send an email to COMMENTS@GIZMODO.COM asking why you can't comment. I'm sure you'll see why.

So I hope our little talk wasn't too harsh. We value all you commenters and enjoy the additional insight you add to Gizmodo. If you guys have any ideas or features you would like to see happen in the Giz comment world, please feel free to let us know. And don't forget COMMENTS@GIZMODO.COM is where your gonna send all that comment related junk.

Developers, developers, developers! Our iPhone Application Contest is still going on and we're just waiting for your juicy submission. Did you mkae something that will revolutionize the (fill in your industry) industry? Send it on in! See here for details. There's are even fantastic prizes waiting for you.

newVideoPlayer("/diyheli.flv", 506, 414,""); A DIYer from the Guangdong Province in eastern China has finally perfected his sub-$3000 home-built helicopter, taking it for a demonstration flight in what appears to his back yard. A tinkerer since he dropped out of school in his teens, Chen Zhaorong has been working on this project for nearly 10 years, but only began flight attempts a few months ago. The first attempts were neither successful nor fatal, (a remarkable combo) but this time around he not only got liftoff, but seemed to be in complete control.

And in control he was, piloting the buzzing death machine to a totally unnecessary height of over five stories. His apparent skill is especially fortunate considering the close proximity of buildings, power lines and men on motorcycles, each of which poses its own interesting "will it blend" question. The answer to all of them? Yes. This video was secretly released by a friend of the builder, as he had been banned from flight by local officials after a near disaster mere weeks ago.

DIY helicopters are nothing new, but like that Chinese farmer's poop-inducing flight on an even less together-looking craft, Zhaorong's effort deserves special mention for its economy and shear nerviness. [QQ]

Filed under: Laptops

The non-stop barrage of Eee-branded gear from ASUS continues on today, with the first appearance of the Eee PC 903, 904 (above), and 905. It's not clear exactly what the differences between the three models are, but as we've heard, they're all basically the Eee PC 901's Atom-based guts shoved into the Eee PC 1000's case -- which means you're getting a larger keyboard, but the 8.9-inch display will have a pretty significant bezel around it. As before, final specs and pricing aren't available, but since these are destined to replace the 900 and 901, we'd expect pricing to remain in the $600 range.

[Thanks, Sascha]

Read - Eee 903
Read - Eee 904 and 905

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We're not the only ones who've noticed the resemblance between the BlackBerry Bold's new UI and Sony icons and the PS3's XMB. So if you want a taste of that on your BlackBerry Curve or 8800 without upgrading, you can just grab this pretty solid PS3 skin by CS Designs. It's $7, but that's cheaper than the Bold will be. [Crackberry]

Nikon Rumors offers this photo and more as official pics of the D700, with no text explanation. Look real to you? Either way, the rumors are true of a midrange cam with a D3 sensor are worth getting excited over. [Nikon Rumors]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Among the many ducks that Sprint (and Verizon?) will need to get in a row in order to launch their own version of HTC's Touch Pro, FCC certification ranks pretty freakin' high on the list. No worries, though -- it's all good, because that just happened. An HTC device with model number "RAPH800" has now popped up in the filing system, featuring CDMA with EV-DO on the 850 and 1900MHz bands. Of course, certification is certainly no indication of when a product's actually going to launch, but if (heaven forbid) the glossy QWERTY WinMo slider gets delayed, at least we can call out anyone trying to slide the "we're waiting on FCC clearance" excuse past us.

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If you're craving HTC's Diamond or Touch Pro (aka Raphael) it looks you're going be satisfied no matter what carrier you're on. Phone Arena says the CDMA flavors of both will hit Sprint AND Verizon, so there's no need to bounce to another carrier to get your hands on one. No word on the dates. In a side note, Moto's Blaze is due on Big Red by Sept. 22, if you're interested in a meh touchscreen phone. [Phone Arena, Thanks Matthew]

It's been a while since we've heard about Sprint's Airave femtocell—basically a little box connects to your router and sends your calls over the internet so you have cell service even where you don't—but it looks like it's finally set to launch nation-wide, maybe as early as July 15. (It's been (in Denver and Indianapolis since Sept.) The Sammy-made station is apparently set to go for $99 at retail, which ain't so shabby. We're guessing the $30 per family (or $15 per user) monthly fee will either stick or actually go down (undercutting is one of their major strategies of late). [Sprint Users, Thanks Art!]

Filed under: digital cameras hacks

Hack-A-Day friend [Nathan] showed us some of his results creating his own High Dynamic Range images. Three normal Low Dynamic Range photos. One is under exposed, one is normal and the third is over exposed to capture the information needed. Then all three are used to create a single HDR image. Technically, the HDR image contains too much information to properly display, but even this limited version looks damn impressive.

You'll need a tripod, a camera that allows you to adjust your exposure value and a decent CPU to do the processing. (This pic took a couple of minutes to render on a quad core cpu) You can check out the full HDR photo here and one of the original frames here. For the software side, you can use pfstools on the command line or QtpfsGUI for the graphics side - both are free and open source. [Nathan] suggests a camera with bracket mode and a remote shutter release for best results. If you're all about theory, you can grab a white paper on the process here.

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