The original generation Xbox 360 was plagued with the dreaded Red Ring of Death when it overheated. Now it seems that the newly released version comes with the warning message shown above. Hey, at least the tell you that they made a console with crappy ventilation.

The message should at least stop them from getting flooded with units being sent back for replacements. You modders and DIY enthusiasts may want to drill some extra ventilation holes in that new Xbox.

Sure, lights on your notebook are nothing new, but they don’t really do anything useful. This mod, on the other hand, puts a 3-color LED on an Asus Eee 901 that shows you when you have incoming messages. All it takes is an extra microprocessor and some custom scripts.

The RGB LED displays a different color depending on whether it’s email, an IM or a tweet. We can only hope that this opens up the eyes of product designers. It would be nice to see something like this on an HP, Acer or Dell.

You might remember, we told you about the LED message mouse last October. But since all of the other kids are slinging it around the net, we just wanted to brag and say we covered it back then. It’s a standard USB mouse, with some extra special features.

It can also display messages with the built in LED display. Up to 12 characters, and it also has a built in fan to keep your hands nice and cool if you have sweaty palms. I don’t wanna know why. I’m just saying.

How many times have you wanted to say F**k the rain by sending a special message through those storm clouds toward the man above? Well now ya can thanks to this umbrella by Art Lebedev and Anton Schnaider .

It also doubles as an effective way of communicating with your fellow human beings who displease you. Just point it toward them, give a little forward jab so they know it’s for them and then for a bit of theatrics give it a twirl and walk off. It’s available for $56. I’m wondering if enough of these pointed at the heavens would piss God off. Guess we’ll find out. Should be interesting. I just hope it doesn’t lead to something like Bush’s third term.

The Magic Message Mirror is for those who want to combine their love of Disney with home security. Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the safest one of all? You will be, of course. The portrait in the photo above is actually a home security device.

Just wire it into your existing home security system and it will appear to be an ordinary mirror until it’s triggered by someone walking in front of the beam. That’s when the scary apparition appear just like in the Snow White movie, yelling prerecorded phrases you’ve recorded. The mirror is actually a 30 inch LCD display with a CGI character known as “Basil of the Mirror”. I’m not sure it would scare a thief enough to leave and give up his life of crime. It would probably scare him for a few seconds until he realized what’s going on. Then they would likely steal the mirror, because it’s cool.

In a joint project, the University of Leicester and Doritos have been working together to create and broadcast the first commercial aimed squarely at aliens. You know, because they might be looking for a different kinda chip after all several millenia of the same old junk.

Maverick Professor and crazy as a bag of chips, Darren Wright says that “everything is going as planned” and that it’s sure to be “an historical moment for it is the first time that we will broadcast a message to the space, far beyond our Solar System.” The target seems to be alien consumers located about 42 light years from the Earth, in an area that’s virgin territory for Cool Ranch and the mystery flavor gimmick known as “The Quest”. I’m sure they’re itching to corner the market in that sector of space before everyone from Coke to Pringles starts sending their own spam.

Why buy a run of the mill T-shirt with a pre-printed message that someone else wrote, when you can display your own message? The T-sketch t-shirt allows you to do just that. It displays personalized messages in a cool way. Whatever you write or draw on the chest display will turn into an illuminated message or design. You know, stuff like, “Look at my new geek shirt”, or “Blog writers need love too.” Even pass coded messages between friends. When shopping, display “This store sucks!”

Anything that you draw on the wipe-clean panel activates a glowing light beneath so that it lights up. If you want, you can change the flashing sequence to suit your needs, from a gentle glow, to a pulsing strobe light.