Friday, December 30, 2005

Amazon: Ballpark Hot Dog Rotisserie and Bun Warmer

Amazon.com: Ballpark Hot Dog Rotisserie and Bun Warmer - Red: Kitchen Housewares

I think I may know who this is targetted at, probably the same people who have already have one of these :-P

B0006N1O88.01-A23NLORBGXOLEO._SCLZZZZZZZ_

  • Make baseball stadium style rotisserie grilled hotdogs
  • Stainless steel spikes warm up buns or baguettes
  • Non-stick, easy to clean cooking surface
  • Detachable oil tray for quick clean up
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Thursday, December 29, 2005

Nalgene: Grip-n-Gulp

NALGENE: Grip-n-Gulp

Nalgene_Kids_Bottle_Grip-n-Gulp

We’ve taken on Everest. Now we’re ready for toddlers!
Nalgene containers have stood up to some of the worlds most extreme conditions. Small potatoes compared to small children. The new Nalgene Grip'n Gulp™ is tough enough to survive being thrown form a moving minivan, spill proof enough to compel parents to blame the rug stains on the dog, and odor proof enough to allow leftover milk to go undetected under the couch for months. Most importantly, its a great way for little kids to reach new heights.
  • Side indents are easy for tiny hands to grasp
  • Rubberized lid and smooth plastic mouthpiece make drinking comfortable
  • Superior threading on cup and lid is engineered to prevent spills
  • Durable Polycarbonate resists odors, stains, and residue
  • Cup, lid, and removable sipper valve are all top rack dishwasher safe
  • Lid loop can be clipped to backpack, diaper bag, or stroller
  • Twelve-ounce cup is compatible with OTG, ATB, and wide-mouth closures

infoSync World: Palm Treo 700w confirmed for January launch


Palm Treo 700w confirmed for January launch - infoSync World

palm_treo_700w_p00

Introduced this September, Palm has confirmed that its much-anticipated Treo 700w communicator is scheduled to launch in January 2006. The device, which is the handheld maker's first to feature the Windows Mobile platform, will debut exclusively on the Verizon Wireless network with support for EV-DO connectivity in a form factor closely resembling the company's existing Treo 650 communicator.

Powered by an Intel processor, the as-of-yet unnamed Treo will be joining the 600 and 650 models, both currently carried by Verizon Wireless. Although Palm has still to provide further specifications concerning the device, the company will attempt to diversify the product from competing Windows Mobile 5.0 products through additional software.

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SPCR: Thermalright HR-01 CPU Heatsink

Thermalright HR-01 CPU Heatsink :: SilentPCReview.com

tower

Thermalright has delivered a very competitive heatsink in the HR-01. Performance is neck-and-neck with the Scythe Ninja, and that's saying something. Yes, there are nuances to the comparison between the two, but when it comes down to it, the two perform very similarly. That means that Thermalright is back at the top of the quiet high-performance heap — it seems they never fade for long.

We were pleased to report that installing the High-Riser was a breeze: It's easier to install than the Ninja, and a huge improvement over Thermalright's own XP-120. The High-Riser has one of the most elegant clips we've seen, similar to that used by Shuttle in some of their SFF systems.

Of course, there are always a few bones to pick, mostly related to compatibility. At the moment, the only processors supported out of the box are AMD. Intel's current processors are not yet supported at all, as there are no mounting options available for Socket 775. Older socket 478 processors require the purchase of a separate clip. Still, the lack of Intel support isn't as big a problem. Passive cooling is simply not an option for most of Intel's chips because they run so hot, and the performance (and silencing) markets are currently dominated by AMD anyway.

There are some other potential issues:

  1. Not all motherboards have the CPU socket oriented in the same direction, so there may be a few situations where the heatsink cannot be mounted in the correct orientation. This hurts compatibility.
  2. The height of the heatsink may prove to be an issue in a smaller case.
  3. The cantilever effect is strong, so shipping with the HS on is not recommended.
  4. There is currently no standard way to attach a fan to the High-Riser, but cable ties or solid-core wire will both work well.

All of these are relatively minor issues, however. What counts most is performance, and the High-Riser delivers. If you're looking to build a high-end quiet system, the only other serious contender among tower heatsinks is the Scythe Ninja.

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The Gadgeteer: Gomadic Charger Cables with Tip Exchange Technology

The Gadgeteer - Gomadic Charger Cables with Tip Exchange Technology

Right around the corner from my office is a closet which acts as the receptacle for all of the gadgets' boxes and accessories currently being used in our household - well, the ones that will fit, anyway. Inside this closet sits a large cardboard box which holds nothing but power cords, adapters, odd cables and vehicle chargers for PDAs, digital music players, mobile phones, and other devices that we may or may not still own and which we may or may not still be using. I have to clean the box out at least every two years, otherwise the cables will begin to spill over and chaos will rule.

You know what? It really strikes me as a complete waste of money that almost every time I change PDA's I have to also get new travel or vehicle cables to go along with the device. I mean, these cables are all essentially the same. Well, with the exception of their tips, of course.

That's why I was so interested when I was given the opportunity to review Gomadic's Charger Cables with Tip Exchange Technology. I was intrigued by the idea that the same power cable which charges my PPC-6700 could also charge my iPAQ 4700 as well as my iPod. I was especially impressed by the idea that the same cable could also power almost every current or future portable device. Suddenly, I can see an end to the need for the box in my closet. This is a good thing!

Gomadic sells what they call their Essential Power Kit, which includes both their Rapid Car Charger and Rapid Wall Charger as well as two tips for the same device. I was sent a kit that included two mini USB tips to use with my PPC-6700, and I was also sent tips which would fit my iPod and iPAQ 4700. Additional tips for many devices may be ordered at the same time as the initial order, or later on as the owner acquires new devices. All it takes is the swapping out of a simple plug-in tip...

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Attackers Exploit New Zero-Day Windows Bug


InformationWeek | Windows Security | Attackers Exploit New Zero-Day Windows Bug | December 28, 2005

A new unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Windows and an in-the-wild exploit appeared Wednesday as security firms raised their alarms to Critical. The bug is in Windows' rendering of Windows Metafile (WMF) images, a component that's been patched three times in the last two years, most recently in November by the bulletin MS05-053. The newest flaw, however, is different enough from November's that fully-patched Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 machines can be compromised. "This exploit is doing something a bit different," said Shane Coursen, a senior technical analyst with Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs. "It looks like it affects the same DLL as MS05-053, but it's not overflowing the buffer." According to Microsoft's MS05-053 bulletin, the November vulnerability was in an unchecked buffer. Microsoft would only acknowledge that it's looking into the problem, the usual response from the Redmond, Wash.-based developer to news of zero-day exploits of its software.

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Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Engadget: Microsoft/IDSA Design Competition highlights

Engadget:

Because visors are already too cool

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In case you hadn’t heard, Microsoft and the Industrial Designers of America (IDSA) recently held a competition in which the challenge was to “rethink the Windows-based PC experience and the role it plays in people’s lives.” Contestants were asked to “envision how form factor influences the digital lifestyle” in four categories: personal productivity, entertainment, communication & mobility, and living & lifestyle. There will be be two $50,000 prizes awarded (one judged by Bill G. himself) along with a $25,000 prize based on public voting, with the winners to be announced at CES 2006. The designs submitted range from the practical to the fanciful to the completely untenable, and serve as a glimpse into a possible future for consumer electronics as well as a cheap way for Microsoft to outsource their design department. The device pictured above, called the “Bookshelf,” is certain to be a favorite of Judge Gates’, as it incorporates heavy digital rights management from the get-go by storing content on rather large square cartridges that would be sold by digital service providers. We couldn’t say why consumers would buy a product that’s constantly expanding in size using proprietary media, but hey, that’s half the fun of these concepts. Read on to see some of the highlights from the contest and then

Nikon Coolpix P2 Digital Camera Review

Nikon Coolpix P2 Digital Camera Review:

As far as wireless concerned, Nikon did not skimp on features. The camera integrates an 802.11 b/g compliant radio. In the case of 802.11g you can connect at rates up to 54 Mbps (though actual throughput will always be lower). From a security standpoint, the user can select from None, WEP, and TKIP (WPA). WEP is the original security added to the 802.11 standard. The key is static and can be easily broken. TKIP takes things a step further by changing the key dynamically with each packet of data that is sent making eavesdropping and packet insertions very difficult.

The camera also supports multiple wireless profiles. The profiles allow the user to specify SSID, encryption type, and so on. So, you can have one profile for home, another for work, and third from neighborhood Starbucks. Unfortunately, these profiles must be created on a PC and transferred to the camera. This poses a bit of a challenge if you come across a Wi-Fi that you want to use and hadn't planned on using.

Once the wireless profiles were set up on the camera (by using the Wireless Setup Utility and connecting the camera via USB to the computer), things moved along quite nicely. To use the wireless, you must first move the dial to the blue wireless icon and then choose your profile. If it's a non-printing profile, you can choose from several modes. A useful Easy Transfer mode compares images on the camera to images that have already been transferred to the computer and only transfers the images that are new. I used the Shoot & Transfer mode which immediately transfers an image, after capture, to the computer, and displays it within the Nikon Picture Project software. (This would make a great party mode). Also, you can choose to transfer all images or only marked images with other transfer modes. The wireless was effective, but I was kind of disappointed that I can't use the wireless to "shoot & transfer" if I want to use other shooting modes. Once you change the mode dial, the wireless radio is disabled. I assume that Nikon did this to preserve battery power. For example, if you want to use "P" mode, you just have to settle to use a transfer mode after you're done shooting several images.

Seagate says to buy Maxtor for $1.9 bln in stock

Latest News and Financial Information | Reuters.com:

NEW YORK, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Seagate Technology (STX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Wednesday said it would buy rival computer disk-drive maker Maxtor Corp. (MXO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for $1.9 billion in stock.

Under terms of the deal, which is expected to be completed in the second half of 2006, Maxtor shareholders will receive 0.37 shares of Seagate common stock for each Maxtor share they own. Seagate shareholders will own about 84 percent and Maxtor shareholders will own about 16 percent of the new combined company.

The combination is expected to add 10 to 20 percent to Seagate's cash earnings per share after the first full year of joint operations, Seagate said in a release.

Seagate said its executive management team will continue to serve in their current roles and the combined company will retain the Seagate name.

The new iPod Zepto: Inconceivably Small.

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: The iPod Zepto: Inconceivably Small.:

Congratulations on purchasing your new iPod Zepto.

Capable of holding 12 million songs and only one-tenth the size of the head of a needle, the iPod Zepto is a revolution in sound. Once filled with music, the iPod Zepto will play for over 68 years without playing the same song twice.

Enclosed with your iPod Zepto are a USB 4.0 cable, an iTunes 12.1 starter disk, earphones, and a high-magnification lens. (An optional follicle-mounting strap is available.)

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

CRTC extends benefits of number portability to wireless consumers on a timely basis

CRTC extends benefits of number portability to wireless consumers on a timely basis:

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today issued a decision requiring all Canadian wireless telephone companies to implement wireless number portability (WNP) by March 14, 2007, in most of Canada. Today's decision follows a public notice issued on September 16, 2005, in which the Commission invited comments on several issues related to the implementation of WNP.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Spectec SDW-821 SDIO WLAN 802.11g

SDW-821
 General:
Network Standard Support IEEE 802.11b/g
Network Architectures Infrastructure, Ad-Hoc
Data Rates < 802.11g: 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 Mbps
< 802.11b: 1, 2, 5.5, 11 Mbps
Modulation Techniques BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM, CCK, OFDM, DSSS
Security 40~128 bit WEP, TKIP, WPA, AES
Receiver Sensitivity < 802.11g: 73~91 dBm
< 802.11b: 89~97 dBm
Power Consumption < Receive: 180 mA avg (54Mbps)
< Listen: 150 mA
< Sleep: 1.35 mA
Supply Voltage I/O: 3.0 - 3.6 VDC
Operating Temperature 0.C to +70.C; <95% humidity
Host Interface SDIO
OS Support Microsoft Windows CE.net 4.X~5.X
Package 38.3 x 24 x 2.1 mm
Certification FCC Part 15, CE
  *All specifications are subject to change without prior notice.

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Humor (Abby Rode)

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Humor (Abby Rode):

Claim: A 'Dear Abby' advice column was pulled because it included a letter taken from an episode of The Simpsons.

Status: True.

Origins: One attribute we here at snopes.com have in common with advice columnists is that we both receive a fair amount of rather bizarre mail — most of it sent in earnest, but some of it sent by pranksters trying to see if they can trick someone into publishing their bits of inventive fiction. We probably have a bit of an advantage over the advice columnists in that the false and the apocryphal are as much our stock in trade as the true and genuine — we deal with the kinds of things people believe to be true; whether or not folkloric tales are actually true is usually irrelevant. Columnists, on the other hand, generally prefer not to be doling out advice to readers seeking answers to phony, contrived problems.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Soundproofing Floors Phase 1: The Underside of the Floor (CMHC Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation)

Soundproofing Floors Phase 1: The Underside of the Floor (CMHC Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation):

Sound transmission between floors is acommon problem in multiple-unit dwellings. To find effective and economical ways of resolving this problem, CMHC initiated aresearch project on the sound isolation provided by floor/ceiling assemblies in wood construction.The first phase of this study, described here, investigated the acoustical performance of different materials incorporated in the underside of floor/ceiling assemblies. These included sound absorptive materials in the floor cavity, as well as ceiling finishes and installation methods. The results of these tests are presented in the following table, which contains diagrams of the assemblies tested and their detailed composition, Sound Transmission Class (STC) ratings and Impact Insulation Class (JIC) ratings. The higher the STC andJIC rating, the better.

eBay Guides - XM vs. Sirius Satellite Radio -- Which One Do You Buy

eBay Guides - XM vs. Sirius Satellite Radio -- Which One Do You Buy:

I've been an XM Radio subscriber for almost 2 years, I've got one in both of my cars. Recently, I had to rent a car for a couple weeks, and the car came with Sirius Radio...while they're both excellent products, I noticed a few differences and thought I'd share my thoughts with folks who were shopping for a satellite radio for a holiday present or an upgrade to their own car or home stereo system.

I'm sold on satellite radio. I have a 40 minute commute each way to work over a mountain range, and reception for AM/FM radio is mediocre. Regular radio stations have a very limited variety of choices -- I love sports programming and a variety of music programs, but on regular radio I just don't stations that fit what I'm interested in. So when I got a new car 2 years ago, I took it straight to the local car stereo shop and had them install a new radio with XM radio.

Brian Goldfarb's Blog : CSS Property Window Add-in For VS2005 Released!

Brian Goldfarb's Blog : CSS Property Window Add-in For VS2005 Released!:

This has been a small side project that the team has been working on for a LONG time to try and provide even richer support for CSS inside of Visual Studio 2005 and it is now finally avaialble as a VSIP plugin -- If you are doing any work with standards based design or working with CSS I highly encourage you to grab this download. Please note, since it is a VSIP plug-in it will only work with Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition and higher (or more simply put: it won't work with Visual Web Developer Express, just the Visual Studio Products)

Friday, December 09, 2005

Times Online: Cow-tipping myth hasn't got a leg to stand on

Times Online: Cow-tipping myth hasn't got a leg to stand on

Times Online: Cow-tipping myth hasn't got a leg to stand on

IT IS the kind of story you hear from a friend of a friend — how, after a long night in a rural hostelry and at a loss for entertainment in the countryside, they head out into a nearby field.

There, according to the second-hand accounts, they sneak up on an unsuspecting cow and turn the poor animal hoof over udder.

But now, much to the relief of dairy herds, the sport of cow-tipping has been debunked as an urban, or perhaps rural, myth by scientists at a Canadian university.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Google Transit

Google Transit

Google helps you find a bus route, only testing in Portland, Oregon right now.

Deflexion - Strategy boardgame that uses lasers

Laser strategy board game:

Reminds me of this game called
reflection.
reflections game

deflexion

This is a really original idea for a game IMO. It’s called Deflexion and is a board game unlike any other that I’ve seen.

Like all the best games the rules are very simple and quick to learn but will take an age to master. The aim of the game is to be the first player to shoot your opponents pharaoh with your grade II laser but as you can’t move or aim your laser you need to do a bit laser dancing and bouncing.

In the Deflexion game, each player has an assortment of djeds, pyramids and obelisks. These pieces either reflect the laser beam or block it (or both depending on which side is hit). If a piece blocks the beam it is classed as destroyed and removed from the board. Each player takes it in turn to move or rotate one of their pieces, after their move they can fire their laser to see what it now hits.

So the aim of the game is to position your pieces in such a way that when your laser is fired it is bounced (well reflected) around and ends up vaporizing you opponent’s pharaoh. Whilst you’re positioning your pieces your opponent will be doing the same so you need to think defence as well as offence. It’s also possible to vaporize your own pharaoh and pieces if you don’t watch what you’re doing.

You can find further info and instructions on the Deflexion site.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

TiVo Community - HDTV TiVo is on its way

Need more reasons to stay with TiVo - TiVo Community:

This is old news now, but it's hasn't made its rounds enough.

There's a dual tuner HD box coming next year that will work with both cable and ATSC.

Or, if you have Comcast cable, there's a version of TiVo coming that will work on the 6412 dual tuner HD cable platform.

Both are dual tuner HD, and both are planned to be out next year. Dan's right - CES is typically where you'd hear more info/details.

Cheers, Pony

Is Your Child A Computer Hacker?

Is Your Child A Computer Hacker?:

As an enlightened, modern parent, I try to be as involved as possible in the lives of my six children. I encourage them to join team sports. I attend their teen parties with them to ensure no drinking or alcohol is on the premises. I keep a fatherly eye on the CDs they listen to and the shows they watch, the company they keep and the books they read. You could say I'm a model parent. My children have never failed to make me proud, and I can say without the slightest embellishment that I have the finest family in the USA.

Two years ago, my wife Carol and I decided that our children's education would not be complete without some grounding in modern computers. To this end, we bought our children a brand new Compaq to learn with. The kids had a lot of fun using the handful of application programs we'd bought, such as Adobe's Photoshop and Microsoft's Word, and my wife and I were pleased that our gift was received so well. Our son Peter was most entranced by the device, and became quite a pro at surfing the net. When Peter began to spend whole days on the machine, I became concerned, but Carol advised me to calm down, and that it was only a passing phase. I was content to bow to her experience as a mother, until our youngest daughter, Cindy, charged into the living room one night to blurt out: "Peter is a computer hacker!"

....

To this end, I have decided to publish the top ten signs that your son is a hacker. I advise any parents to read this list carefully and if their son matches the profile, they should take action. A smart parent will first try to reason with their son, before resorting to groundings, or even spanking. I pride myself that I have never had to spank a child, and I hope this guide will help other parents to put a halt to their son's misbehaviour before a spanking becomes necessary.

This link has been brought to you by the good people at www.darreninouye.com.

Electronic House § SoundMatters' SubStage 100 Subwoofer

Electronic House § SoundMatters' SubStage 100 Subwoofer:

SoundMatters' SubStage 100 Subwoofer

SoundMatters' new SubStage 100 subwoofer utilizes an industrial design that is highlighted by the sub's thin footprint, which is intended to complement today's flat-panel televisions. The sub's enclosure measures 8 inches x 16.7 inches x 4.05 inches, and it incorporates proprietary subwoofer technologies that aid the subwoofer in reproducing low frequencies to 35Hz. The sub's power comes from a 100-watt Class D amplifier, and the amp drives a 6-inch woofer and two 6-inch x 6-inch 'moving walls.' The subs can be daisy-chained to create higher energy output, and they can be placed along a wall or bass board for added boundary reenforcement.

Neopoleon.com: Comic: 720p vs. 1080i - The Great HD TV Debate EXPLAINED and SOLVED

Neopoleon.com: Comic: 720p vs. 1080i - The Great HD TV Debate EXPLAINED and SOLVED

This is just the intro, there are some really funny cartoon sketches that explain the general difference between the two.

And I love this line, ""are you pickin' up what I'm puttin' down

I bought an HD TV a few months ago, and it’s made my life very complicated. With my old piece of crap TV, I just plugged it in, turned it on, and watched 90210 reruns until I was sated. Now I have to screw with component cables, industry standards, and manuals that are so thick you’d think Tolstoy had written them (that is, in Korean which was then translated to English by an Eskimo with a Korean/English decoder wheel that he found in a box of cereal (and, yes, Tolstoy was fluent in Korean, and he did write technical manuals, and you’re wrong if you say I’m wrong, and, anyway, he’s dead now so it’s not like you can ask him)).

What I’ve learned is that I’m not ready for the 21st century. I miss rotary telephones, movies like ET, and Tab. I’m about as at home here in these modern times as Jesus Christ would be in Las Vegas (actually, Jesus might fit in pretty well in Vegas, but you know what I mean).

The biggest issue so far arrived along with my Xbox 360. In case you aren’t familiar with the 720p vs. 1080i issue, there are two main resolutions at which HD TV is currently meant to operate, and the 360 supports both of them. The point of contention is over which is better. Some people say 720p, and others say 1080i. 720p, they say, is better for motion, while 1080i is better for looking at photographs.

If the argument ended there, then my decision would be made. Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there. If you just do a little internettin’, you’ll find debates all over the place, mostly conducted by nine year olds who got hold of the password to mummy’s AOL account and regurgitated the arguments they’d read elsewhere.

The average discussion goes like this:

A/V Geek #1: OMG!>!>! i just got a hd tv for my burthday nd i need 2 no if 720p or 1080i!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???!!!!!

[A brief interruption, if you don’t mind. I just have to stop and say that the use of more than one exclamation point side-by-side, in any context (except comics), is a sign of mental insanity, a marketing degree from the University of Phoenix Online, or both.]

A/V Geek #2: d0od read the FAq u r so st0opid omg LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A/V Geek #1: pleawse tell me i need 2 no bcuz wich one???!!

A/V Geek #2: u r a dooshbag

A/V Geek #1: whuts a dooshbag!!!?

A/V Geek #2: its u idiot ur a dooshbag

A/V Geek #1: whuts wrong w/ dooshbags???!!?

A/V Geek #2: u r dooshbag u put doosh in it and its a bag

A/V Geek #1: whuts a doosh??!!!! can u put it in a box???????? or just bags!!!!????!!?!?!

There. That should have brought you up to speed on the finer points of the debate.

To summarize, if you don’t know the difference, you’re a “dooshbag.”

While I’m fairly technical and know what it means when someone’s a “dooshbag,” I realize that some of my readers aren’t as intellectually sharp as I am, so I’ve taken it upon myself to distill the meat of the debate and present it in comic form in layman’s terms.

I hope this helps you when it’s time to make the Big Decision.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Chav - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chav - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Chav is a slang term which has been in wide use throughout the United Kingdom since 2004. It refers to a subcultural stereotype of a person with fashions such as flashy 'bling' jewelry and counterfeit designer clothes, an uneducated, impoverished background, a tendency to congregate around places such as fast-food outlets or other shopping areas and a culture of antisocial behaviour.

In the past such people have been called yobs. Response to the term has ranged from amusement to criticism that it is a new manifestation of classism.

Tech Digest: shuffle takes Chav gadget award

Tech Digest: shuffle takes Chav gadget award:

Put on your Burberry scarf and switch on your iPod Shuffle. While the iPod nano may be the king of cool, Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny's panel of the UK’s top gadget experts* have voted its budget sibling the iPod shuffle this year’s ‘Must Chav Gadget.’

The shuffle is perfect for chavs. It's cheap. It’s by a cool brand, and you can let others know you have one as it is designed to be worn round your neck. As it is white it also accessorises well with those classy gold chains Chavs wear. The sad part is that the shuffle is the worst player in the Apple range – more like some dodgy back street knock-off than the excellent other iPods. The fact it has no screen so you can’t program it or choose a track – it chooses the music for you – also saves Chav brain cells for the much more important business of, ahem, ‘pimping their rides.

airport express mod using spider strainer

airport express mod - [ bounav.free.fr ]
Airport_express3

This idea is to put the Airport Express in the middle of the parabolic kitchenware. In other words to make a kind of a passive wifi antenna enhancer. Et voila!

Friday, December 02, 2005

WonderlandChristmas.com - The Wizards of Winter video

WonderlandChristmas.com - Videos
This video has been floating around for a few weeks, it's an amazing computer controlled christmas light display.

Wizards of Winter

Carson Williams - (2004 Display) Wizards of Winter - Jingle Bells - Carson has about 16,000 lights, 88 LightORama channels. The Mega tree has 48,500, and the triangle in the middle is made up of 22 mini-trees, with 300 lights each, or 6300 total. (You may have seen this video floating around on the Internet in November 2005. I can assure you that it's real, and computer control was used to create all of the effects you see here. It is not a fake.)

GetCanon! 1.6

GetCanon! 1.6
GetCanon160

GetCanon! is a image downloader for Canon digital cameras. It's small, quick and simple. It can download images, rotate them automatically and delete them from camera. If you hate the 'designer' interface of Canon utilities and hate Windows messing with image filenames, this is the right tool for you.

GetCanon! is freeware. It includes open-source program JpegTran from Independent JPEG Group's JPEG software.

Pounding A Nail: Old Shoe or Glass Bottle?

Pounding A Nail: Old Shoe or Glass Bottle?:

Pounding A Nail: Old Shoe or Glass Bottle?

'A client has asked me to build and install a custom shelving system. I'm at the point where I need to nail it, but I'm not sure what to use to pound the nails in. Should I use an old shoe or a glass bottle?

How would you answer the question?

a) It depends. If you are looking to pound a small (20lb) nail in something like drywall, you'll find it much easier to use the bottle, especially if the shoe is dirty. However, if you are trying to drive a heavy nail into some wood, go with the shoe: the bottle with shatter in your hand.

b) There is something fundamentally wrong with the way you are building; you need to use real tools. Yes, it may involve a trip to the toolbox (or even to the hardware store), but doing it the right way is going to save a lot of time, money, and aggravation through the lifecycle of your product. You need to stop building things for money until you understand the basics of construction.

Ten Essential Tools: Visual Studio Add-Ins Every Developer Should Download Now -- MSDN Magazine, December 2005

Ten Essential Tools: Visual Studio Add-Ins Every Developer Should Download Now -- MSDN Magazine, December 2005: "ast year I wrote an article called '.NET Tools: Ten Must-Have Tools Every Developer Should Download Now' that highlighted 10 freely available tools for the Microsoft .NET Framework. This year I am again creating a list of must-have tools, but this time I'm focusing on Visual Studio add-ins as opposed to standalone tools. Visual Studio provides a rich extensibility model that developers at Microsoft and in the community have taken advantage of to provide a host of quality add-ins. Some add-ins contribute significant how-did-I-live-without-this functionality, while others just help you automate that small redundant task you constantly find yourself performing. 10 Must-Have Add-Ins TestDriven.NET GhostDoc Paster CodeKeep PInvoke.NET VSWindowManager PowerToy WSContractFirst VSMouseBindings CopySourceAsHTML Cache Visualizer Close [x] In this article, I introduce you to some of the best Visual Studio add-ins available today that can be downloaded for free. I walk through using each of the add-ins, but because I am covering so many I only have room to introduce you to the basic functionality. Each of these add-ins works with Visual Studio .NET 2003 and most of them already have versions available for Visual Studio 2005. If a Visual Studio 2005 version is not available a"

Review: RIM BlackBerry 7130e (MobileBurn)

Review: RIM BlackBerry 7130e (MobileBurn)>br/> 7130e-v_Front

Today Verizon Wireless and Research In Motion (RIM) announced the first BlackBerry device with EV-DO 3G data capabilities. Apart from the EV-DO data on CDMA networks, though, the 7130e is much like the rest of the 7100 line, such as the 7105t on T-Mobile and 7100g on Cingular. About the only significant differences we can detect versus the GSM models is a slight increase in weight, and an additional 32MB of Flash RAM.

Like the other 7100 series devices, the 7130e has a relatively normal looking candybar form factor with the unique SureType keypad. SureType works similarly to how T9 functions, but it makes use of an additional column of keys on either side of the normal numeric keypad. This means that each number key represents only 2 letters instead of 3 letters, as is the case with T9 and traditional Triple-Tap.

As a BlackBerry device, you can expect the 7130e to have great email support. And it does. Not only can you link up to 10 different email accounts to the device, but you can even use its push email system for your AOL, MSN, Hotmail, and Yahoo mail accounts.

The BlackBerry 7130e is available today from the Verizon Wireless website and will be available in Verizon and Circuit City retail outlets as of the first of December.

Motorola RAZR V3c Review - Mobiledia

Motorola RAZR V3c Review - Mobiledia
closed

Contrary to repackaged phones like the Pink and Blue RAZRs, the RAZR V3c has upgraded features and functions along with its new gray finish such as a 1.3-megapixel camera, MP3 player, EV-DO broadband technology for video-on-demand, and Bluetooth wireless technology; all in a familiar chemically-etched keypad and razor-thin design.

Enhancing the RAZR V3 to embrace today's technology, the RAZR V3c offers more robust multimedia with the same revolutionary design in hopes it will do in 2005 what the original did a year ago.

Design

Offering a familiar ultra-thin design, the new RAZR V3c is encased in a uniquely refined steel gray finish. Due to its 14 mm thinness, rigidity was a manufacturing concern. However, by combining aircraft-grade aluminum with a chemically-etched keypad and blue electro-luminescence panel, Motorola managed to create the RAZR V3c to be sturdy enough to withstand everyday wear and tear, while maintaining its slim profile.

Review: Samsung SPH-A900 (MobileBurn)

Review: Samsung SPH-A900 (MobileBurn)
SPH_A900%20Open%20Right

Sprint has launched a new competitor for the Motorola RAZR on their Power Vision service, the ultra-thin Samsung SPH-A900.

Measuring up with almost the same dimensions as the Motorola RAZR, but including such niceties as a 1.3 megapixel camera, a 262,000 color QVGA display, and EV-DO connectivity, the SPH-A900 is an interesting proposition to say the least. The SPH-A900 includes most of the features people want in this price bracket of handset, such as Bluetooth and a color external display. Furthermore, the SPH-A900 supports PictBridge photo printing, allowing the user to send photos over Bluetooth directly to a compatible printer.

The Samsung SPH-A900 is available now from Sprint for $349.99USD, or $199.99USD after rebate with a service agreement.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

ThinkGeek :: Monty Python Killer Rabbit Plush

ThinkGeek :: Monty Python Killer Rabbit Plush: monty_python_rabbit

Oh it’s just a harmless little bunny, isn’t it? How could a cute thing like that bite anyone’s head off? Well, be warned – and be afraid. Straight from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail comes this furry harbinger of doom. Cute, furry, soft, and completely deadly. Look at those teeth – they weren’t made for vegetables. No, this rabbit has an appetite for only one thing: human flesh!

This is a plush life-sized version of that famed beast of destruction. It looks like a cute little bunny, but pull open its mouth to reveal its hideously deformed teeth. And if that’s not enough, squeeze its leg (if you dare!) to start its evil red eyes flashing. Unless you happen to have a Holy Hand Grenade in your arsenal, there is only one thing left for you to do: Run Away! Run Away!

Dimensions: Approx 11' long and 7' tall (ears down)

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

L33T Scrabble Tiles

L33T Tiles

L33T Tiles are a replacement tile set for Scrabble® and other word games, based on internet slang known as leetspeak. The letter distribution has been modified and extensively tested for optimal play using leet words in the add-on dictionary (see below).

Each set of L33T Tiles comes with 103 tiles, a satin pouch and a manual with additional rules for gameplay. The tiles are colored to emulate a classic terminal window, and the manual is printed on a genuine IBM punch card.

TAO 89830-PHI 1" KeyPix Digital Picture Keychain – Round - Retail at Newegg.com

TAO 89830-PHI 1" KeyPix Digital Picture Keychain – Round - Retail at Newegg.com
82-135-008-04

Stores up to 56 images (from PC, via USB port) for viewing up to 2 hours in slideshow mode, or longer in manual mode 1' CSTN LCD (96 x 64), 4096 colors USB 1.1 compatible Compatible with photos in JPEG format Includes 512KB of internal flash memory

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

BBspot - Top 11 Geek Pick-Up Lines: Part 5

BBspot - Top 11 Geek Pick-Up Lines: Part 5:

Geek Pick-Up Lines: Part 5

Geek Pick-Up Lines: Part 5

11. I entered the probability equation into my TI-89 Titanium Graphing calculator and it predicted you would go out with me, see! (hold up calculator)
10. What's a nice girl like you doing on an unsecured webcam like this?
9. Can I have a large coffee with sugar and your phone number, please?
8. Do you prefer the static or expanding universe theory more? Because, since I first saw you, I'm expanding.
7. That Princess Leia slave girl outfit would look great in a crumpled heap next to my bed.
6. You make me want to be an honest man, and register all my shareware.
5. Yes, that is a real light saber replica in my pocket, but I'm still happy to see you.
4. You're so beautiful, I'd take my Steve Austin action figure out of its original packaging for you.
3. Do you want to come back to my place, and we can prank call George Lucas?
2. I don't mean to disturb you, but Heisenberg's Uncertainly Principle said I already did that by observing you.
1. Did it hurt when you fell out of heaven, because F=ma and your acceleration after falling that far would be incredible.

AnandTech: $600 Notebook Roundup - Crowning the Affordability King

AnandTech: $600 Notebook Roundup - Crowning the Affordability King:

The first and most important point we want you to take away from this roundup is that for $600, you can actually get a pretty decent notebook. The build quality of all of the notebooks here was far from poor, and any of these notebooks have the performance and battery life to work just fine as entry level machines.

The next thing to keep in mind is that it is very easy to have a $600 notebook turn into a $1000 notebook with options and upgrades that manufacturers will push on you before you check out. If we could have anything on these notebooks it’d be: more memory and wireless support. Not a single notebook in this roundup offered us more than 256MB of RAM, and for Windows XP these days, you need 512MB to keep from swapping to that slow 2.5” hard drive. The Compaq offerings all gave us built in wireless, but generally for less than $50 you can add wireless support to both the Gateway and Dell solutions - and for a notebook, it’s definitely worth it.

Friday, November 25, 2005

Download Squad: How To: Fix iTunes

Download Squad: How To: Fix iTunes:

It took quite a while for me to come around, but iTunes eventually changed the way that I listen to music (and download podcasts) on my PC. I was a long, long, long time WinAmp user, and until iTunes released a version that minimized to my system tray, and I could find a way to control iTunes with keyboard shortcuts, I wasn’t interested. Well, the first problem was dealt with a while ago, and for my second problem I found iTunesKeys, a program dedicated to solving iTunes’ woefully missing keyboard shortcut access. But, after using iTunes for awhile, I realized that while Apple has given us an incredibly elegant and fun to use media player, its developers suffer from some serious delusions that iTunes users will never make mistakes, or decide to delete songs. I can’t quite fathom why you would have an application show a [!] symbol when it finds a missing file, yet offer no way to actually remove the reference to that missing file.

Enter idleTunes. idleTunes was made for people who love iTunes, but wish that it would just:

  • Find and insert album artwork into tracks
  • Copy iTunes playlists to any MP3 player
  • Export iTunes playlists as M3U, PLS, or B4S
  • Remove "dead" tracks from your library
  • Create playlists for all of the albums in your library
  • Create playlists for all of the artists in your library
  • Delete user playlists
By far the coolest feature of idleTunes is the way that it makes iTunes compatible with non-iPod portable music players, including intelligently renaming files when copying a playlist onto a screenless flash player to ensure the play order stays intact. Brilliant! And did I mention it’s free?

Finally, no post about how to fix iTunes would be complete without some directions on how to clean up your library and get consistent ID3 tags. For that, I'll direct you to Connected Internet, who has a great primer on how to use MusicBrainz Tagger to rationalize your music collection. It takes some time, but MusicBrainz makes it as quick and painless as it can be, and the results are definitely worth it.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Om Malik : » Sprint’s PPC6700 Stands Out

Om Malik : » Sprint’s PPC6700 Stands Out:

You may have heard the argument: When talk turns to converged consumer electronics devices, many tech industry observers point to the clock radio as one of the few success stories. Everything else, no matter the maker, tends to sacrifice usability in the name of feature-lust. So what to make of Sprint’s new HTC-designed, UTStarcom-produced, PPC6700? In addition to posing as a dual-band CDMA phone (800/1900MHz), Sprint’s new business-focused smartphone also packs both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios, operates on Sprint’s nascent EV-DO network, includes a (surprisingly good) 1.3 mega-pixel camera, the Windows Mobile 5.0 OS, an integrated QWERTY keyboard, and a removable storage slot. As it turns out, the 6700 may be the best-designed and implemented PDA phone to date. I spent the last four days testing the 6700 encountering no major problems; in fact, the 6700 may be one of the first devices to offer a viable alternative to towing around a laptop on short trips. Not only was I able to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi at home and the office (its internal antenna was able to pick up a Starbuck’s signal 29 floors below and a block away), at times I was able to get download speeds in excess of 400 Kbps using Sprint’s EV-DO network here in San Francisco. (Here’s a list of cities in which Sprint curren

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Amazon.com: Quotes & Trivia: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - The Complete First Season (1990)

Amazon.com: Quotes & Trivia: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - The Complete First Season (1990)

I wish I knew how to do the carlton dance

The running gag of the 'Carlton Dance' throughout the show was actually a parody of the dance Courteney Cox did on the Bruce Springsteen music video 'Dancing in the Dark' in 1984.

Mark's Sysinternals Blog: Running Windows with No Services

Mark's Sysinternals Blog: Running Windows with No Services:

A Windows service provides functionality to the operating system and user accounts regardless of whether anyone is logged into a system. Windows XP comes with around four dozen services enabled by default, including ones that many people consider superfluous like Remote Registry, Alerter, and SSDP Discovery (Universal Plug and Play). A question many Windows administrators commonly have is therefore, which services can I safely disable? What if I told you that for at least basic functionality like Web surfing and application execution, Windows doesn’t need any services? In fact, you can also do those things without system processes like Winlogon.exe, the interactive logon manager, and Lsass, the local security authority subsystem.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Wireless RF Remote Control Extender Review

Wireless RF Remote Control Extender Review:

The Remote Control Extender uses a truly unique method to convert remotes into RF. Instead of actually converting the IR signals through an external box or device that would have to strap to the front of the remote, this system embeds a tiny RF transmitter into the battery compartment which 'listens' to the remote control's internal RF commands. All remote controls send out low level RF commands when they are used. The Remote Control Extender picks these up at close range, interprets them, and transmits them to the base station for rebroadcast as IR commands. Since the transmitter is stored in the battery compartment it was essential to shrink it down small enough to allow for a reduced size 1.5V AAA battery to work with it. To accommodate some larger remotes that use AA batteries, an additional sheath was developed that slides over the rechargeable battery and transmitter, allowing it to work in the larger battery compartments.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Target : Retro Black Chair with Step Stool

Target : Retro Black Chair with Step Stool:


• Steps glide in and out
• Grip-treads for safety
• Comfortable padded vinyl seat
• Classic chrome finish
• 22Wx35Hx16D'

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Japan Today - News - BitTorrent file-sharer jailed in Hong Kong - Japan's Leading International News Network

Japan Today - News - BitTorrent file-sharer jailed in Hong Kong - Japan's Leading International News Network

Ouch! of all the movie to be sharing.

HONG KONG — A Hong Kong court sentenced a user of the BitTorrent file-sharing software who shared movies with other Internet users to three months in jail Monday for copyright infringement.

The Tuen Mun Magistrates' Court meted out the ruling to Chan Nai-ming, 38, who was convicted on charges of copyright infringement on Oct 24 for using BitTorrent to share three movies with dozens of users on the Internet. Copies of the Hollywood films 'Daredevil,' 'Red Planet' and 'Miss Congeniality' were found on his home computer during a customs raid in January.

The Impulsive Buy » Stooples: Office Tools for Hopeless Fools

The Impulsive Buy » Stooples: Office Tools for Hopeless Fools

amazon.com

amazon.ca

Office supply catalogs to a quasi-product review blog editor are like stolen Victoria’s Secret catalogs to creepy lonely men and Russian mail order bride catalogs to creepy old lonely men. We love looking through them, letting our imaginations run wild, and occasionally getting pages of a catalog stuck together.

Monday, October 31, 2005

Speed Driver™ Geared Screwdriver

Speed Driver™ Geared Screwdriver
Speed Driver

As a result, in low torque applications, screws go in and out 4 times faster and with less stress to your arm and wrist. The patented switching mechanism also allows on the fly switching between the 4:1 speed mode and the 1:1 standard mode. The Speed Driver™ has a ratcheting feature with three working positions; forward, reverse and locked. The cushioned handle is made from a chemical resistant material and has been designed to comfortably fit in your hand. The handle also has a convenient storage fixture with a screw cap to keep up to 8 extra bits ready for use. The Speed Driver™ has a standard 1/4' (6.35mm) magnetized hex opening to hold all standard driver bits in accordance with ANSI and DIN standards.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Will Mark Cuban (Finally) Revolutionize Hollywood? - His plan to break the video window. By Edward Jay Epstein

Will Mark Cuban (Finally) Revolutionize Hollywood? - His plan to break the video window. By Edward Jay Epstein:

To be sure, Hollywood has a long history of resisting new forms of delivery. When television first came on the scene in the 1940s, the studios attempted to kill this infant medium by refusing to let the networks show films from their libraries or use their facilities to produce programs. When the VCR was introduced, the studios attempted to strangle it with eight years of litigation. Even when Sony and Warner Bros. launched the DVD, the other major studios did not join them for a year or so. By now, the top studio executives recognize that the electronic delivery of digital movies is inevitable—it is only a question of who will defy Wal-Mart and when.

tennis game

optus_tennis_site_edited

Count like a computer using your hands

Count like a computer using your hands

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Archimedes death ray

2.009 Product Engineering Processes: Archimedes
1_deathRayFresco

Ancient Greek and Roman historians recorded that during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, Archimedes (a notably smart person) constructed a burning glass to set the Roman warships, anchored within bow and arrow range, afire. The story has been much debated and oft dismissed as myth.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

samy is my hero.

samy is my hero.

I began to examine the site some more, seeing how they restrict things, what they restrict, taking some breaks to look at profiles of really hot girls, trying to add them as friends and getting rejected, and getting back to making my profile cool so that they would add me as a friend later. Chicks dig cool profiles. After a little bit of messing around, I found that I could put in a longer headline than what they allowed. Hell, I could even get around their other restrictions and get HTML in there in order to add cool "effects" to my page that other people can't add. Yeah, that will get me chicks. Girls want guys who have computer hacking skills.

Let's see here...what would make my profile rock. Well, the most popular profiles on myspace pretty much consist of people with the IQ and English delivery skills of Kanye West so I don't want to mimic those, but popularity begets popularity. I need some more friends. I need people to love me. I delved into the bug and found that I could basically control the web browsing of anyone who hit my profile. In fact, I was able to develop something that caused anyone who viewed my profile to add my name to their profile's list of heroes. It's villainous. I was ecstatic.

link from the buttonman

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Apple announces video iPod

Apple announces video iPod:

The speculation can thankfully come to an end. For now. Steve Jobs pulled out the usual stops at the California Theatre in San Jose today to announce the birth of a video-capable iPod. The device looks remarkably similar to existing iPods, with one small difference: the screen is now wider. The device still sits upright in your hand, albeit it it is somewhat wider. But don't let its girth fool you, because it's quite thin on the depth side. More on that in a second.

The device sports a 2.5' TFT display at 320x240 and 260,000 colors, with support for H.264 video. It also has TV-out in the forum of mini-jack to 3 RCA composite cables.

There will be two models, 30GB and 60GB, priced at $299 and $399 respectively. The Steve says that the 30GB model can hold 75 hours of video. The 30GB model is 31% thinner than the existing 20GB model, while the 60GB is 12% thinner.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

TheStar.com - 2-year wait for transferable phone numbers

TheStar.com - 2-year wait for transferable phone numbers:
Canada's wireless industry association says it will be two years before mobile phone users are able to keep their phone number when switching service providers, a timeline some industry critics say is unacceptably long.

The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association said yesterday that the country's major wireless carriers — Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless and Telus Mobility — plan to jointly introduce so-called wireless number portability on a national basis in September 2007, following a short service trial.

"This is a reasonable and frankly aggressive schedule," said Peter Barnes, president and chief executive officer of the Ottawa-based wireless association, which is basing the timeline on recommendations from a commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers report.

But John Lawford, a research analyst at the Ottawa-based Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Ottawa, which has accused the wireless industry of settling into a comfortable oligopoly, said there's no reason it should take two years to bring number portability to wireless consumers.

"I was expecting six months," said Lawford. "What's the problem? We only have three companies, so this shouldn't be so difficult."

Number portability means businesses that switch service providers don't have to go through the disruption and cost of changing business cards, their letterhead and advertising. It also means individuals don't have to go through the inconvenience of notifying friends and family of their new phone number.

Without it, wireless customers often feel captive to their mobile phone providers. Virgin Mobile Canada said a recent survey it conducted showed that as many as 30 per cent of consumers would switch service providers if the option were available to keep their phone number.

Barnes defended the two-year delay by pointing to a number of regulatory and technical hurdles that need to be worked out, including changes to billing systems and business processes.

He said the system being considered is highly complex. Known as an "intermodal" system, it will also allow consumers to keep their phone number when switching from a landline local phone service to a wireless service — and vice versa.

"When this is launched, Canada is going to be one of three countries in the world to have full intermodal (number portability)," said Barnes.

Andrew Black, president of Virgin Mobile Canada, which resells pre-paid mobile phone services over Bell Mobility's network, said the move is a clear-cut delay tactic for a long overdue service.

"There's no excuse to take this into 2007," said Black, who says he was shut out of the industry's decision-making process.

"Canadians are losing out, and it's not fair. They (the carriers) want to spend the next two years locking customers into long-term contracts so they won't be able to switch."

Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of the Virgin Group of companies, said in a release that the big carriers are "dragging their heels." He plans to run an open letter in major newspapers tomorrow urging consumers to protest the delay.

The Canadian industry has resisted number portability, arguing there is low consumer demand and warning of higher handset prices and service fees.

But when Industry Canada urged the federal telephone regulator in February to "move expeditiously" on the issue, the major wireless carriers immediately announced plans to voluntarily introduce the service, resulting in the hiring of PricewaterhouseCoopers to prepare a detailed project plan.

"The fact that the U.S. has done it means the technical problems are resolved and the method of doing it is known," said Ian Angus, president of telecom consultancy Angus TeleManagement Group.

The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security

The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security:

The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security

There's lots of innovation going on in security - we're inundated with a steady stream of new stuff and it all sounds like it works just great. Every couple of months I'm invited to a new computer security conference, or I'm asked to write a foreword for a new computer security book. And, thanks to the fact that it's a topic of public concern and a 'safe issue' for politicians, we can expect a flood of computer security-related legislation from lawmakers. So: computer security is definitely still a 'hot topic.' But why are we spending all this time and money and still having problems?

Let me introduce you to the six dumbest ideas in computer security. What are they? They're the anti-good ideas. They're the braindamage that makes your $100,000 ASIC-based turbo-stateful packet-mulching firewall transparent to hackers. Where do anti-good ideas come from? They come from misguided attempts to do the impossible - which is another way of saying 'trying to ignore reality.' Frequently those misguided attempts are sincere efforts by well-meaning people or companies who just don't fully understand the situation, but other times it's just a bunch of savvy entrepreneurs with a well-marketed piece of junk they're selling to make a fast buck. In either case, these dumb ideas are the fundamental reason(s) why all that money you spend on information security is going to be wasted, unless you somehow manage to avoid them.

For your convenience, I've listed the dumb ideas in descending order from the most-frequently-seen. If you can avoid falling into the the trap of the first three, you're among the few true computer security elite

eBay to nab Skype for $2.6 billion | CNET News.com

eBay to nab Skype for $2.6 billion | CNET News.com:

update eBay plans to buy Net telephone provider Skype in a move aimed at boosting its sales volumes and supplying seamless voice communications to its consumers.

Company executives said Monday that eBay plans to pay $1.3 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in stock to the global communications company. It has agreed to hand over up to an extra $1.5 billion, for a total payout of more than $4 billion, if Skype meets certain financial targets by 2008, according to a presentation to investors on Monday morning.

The move, expected to be complete by the end of the fourth quarter, marks the biggest acquisition in eBay's 10-year history. In another big-time merger, eBay acquired online payments company PayPal in 2002 for about $1.5 billion. It more recently picked up Shopping.com for $620 million in cash.

iPod Nano dissected

iPod Nano dissected

nano30

It became sale simultaneously with the announcement September 8th, the " iPod nano ".

If as for feature on that hardware, the so far actualizing the 4GB which is the territory of the HDD with flash memory, the on that, the super thin-shaped body and low price of unexpected extent has been actualized. Apple Store price of 4GB edition is 27,800 Yen.

Flash memory of the same NAND type is used, if the CF card of the 4GB, thinks of that it is sold for usually 5 ten thousand Yen or more, you can call exceptional price.

In order to actualize this price, is done either measure such as large quantity purchase with says, some reason is is not different even in the hardware surface.

With being the case that it is said, 1 unit it came to the point of with purchasing with the Ginza apple store.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Nokia Says No Deal with Apple on New Music Phone

National, World and Business News | Reuters.com:

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday it had no agreement with Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) for the iTunes music service to be included on its upcoming N91 multimedia phone.

But Nokia said that because of the design of the new N-series phones, software developers could readily produce programs to allow the gadgets to use services like iTunes.

'There is no commercial agreement between Nokia and Apple to integrate iTunes into the N-series devices,' said Kari Tuutti, spokesman for Nokia's multimedia division.

'But since this is based on a computer platform, anybody -- including Apple if they so wish -- can very easily develop this kind of application and offer it to consumers, via the Internet for example.'

Vonage: Wi-Fi

Vonage: Wi-Fi:

Vonage and UTStarcom have partnered to offer Wi-Fi handsets to Vonage customers! We are currently completing a Beta trial of the new Wi-Fi phone and expect to launch service to all customers before the end of the year. Click here to receive e-mail updates and launch information about the Vonage Wi-Fi phone.

The Wi-Fi phone will be an additional handset option to be used with your current Vonage service. It’s an inexpensive wireless phone to use at Wi-Fi hotspots. The new Vonage Wi-Fi phone makes it easy to take your phone service from home to office and points in between. Because the new handset is portable, Vonage not only reduces your home phone costs, but your cell phone costs as well. The phone will cost less than $100.

The Vonage Wi-Fi phone will include 3-Way Calling, Call Waiting and Call Transfer. You will be able to program up to 4 different network settings on your phone, making it easier to logon to different wireless networks.

The Vonage Wi-Fi phone will only be available to Vonage customers, so sign up now for Vonage and be ready for the Wi-Fi phone launch.

Mint: A Fresh Look at Your Site

Mint: A Fresh Look at Your Site

The web is listening to what you have to say. Admiring your design. Talking about your product. Mint helps you identify where the most interest is being generated and over what.

Mint provides a fresh look at your site. It is concise, flexible and timely. And to sweeten the deal, this delicious little bundle of PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript joy is referrer-spam-proof.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

+ The Jimi™ Wallet + (compact plastic wallet)

+ The Jimi™ Wallet +

jimi_home

EDITTED: I thought this was really cool until a friend told me about this video clip where they hold one up. I sketched out the actual size, 4 1/2" x 2 5/8 x 9/16". That's way taller than a credit card, the width and the depth is okay but the height is just too much.

A slim and I think plastic wallet that holds 5 credit cards plus cash. It flips open and is setup to hold 4 cards on one side and has a moneyclip to hold cash and a single card on the other side. They are selling it in assorted colours:
  • Aqua
  • Clear
  • Magenta
  • Safety [orange]
  • Sea Glass [seafoam ;-D ]
  • Smoke
for U$14.95 + U$3.05 USPS shipping. I might just have to pick one up to check it out. I'm torn between smoke and my seafoam namesake.

Compact, splash-proof, and colorful, Jimi™ is the wallet re-born. Jimi™ is a real pocket wallet - as in one that fits in your pocket. Is it a travel wallet? A take-out-at-night wallet? Cycling wallet? Snowboard wallet? Eco wallet? Sure. All of the above, but it's also been called the anti-wallet, so go figure. What we know is that with Jimi™ you carry less crap, are more successful at work and have more fulfilling relationships. Actually we have no evidence for the second two; it's just a feeling.

So if you've ever said my wallet sucks or are simply curious, hit the demo button. Jimi™ could be just what you're looking for.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

New Battery Power Pack for Usb Devices - RETAIL

New Battery Power Pack for Usb Devices - RETAIL:

With all the cool USB gadgets and gizmos (from reading lights to cooling fans) coming out these days, there just doesn't seem to be enough ports to keep them all running. And who wants to lug around a laptop to make that USB reading light work anyway? Wouldn't it be great to make that USB gadget truly portable? This cool battery pack comes to your rescue. Most items that use a USB port for power, but are not computer dependent (like fans and lights) will benefit from this cool device! This USB battery pack features one (1) USB connector and has a protective circuit for keeping output voltage at 5V to protect the devices connected! The On/Off power switch can save battery life! So, for a quick, easy solution for powering that USB gadget, take a look at this USB battery pack!!!

Friday, September 02, 2005

ComponentArt Web.UI 3.0

Crazy web components

Ananova - Hamster-powered phone charger

Ananova - Hamster-powered phone charger:

2547661

A 16-year-old boy invented a hamster-powered mobile phone charger as part of his GCSE science project.

Peter Ash, 16 with his hamster powered mobile phone cat his home in Lawford, Somerset /Empics

Peter Ash, of Lawford, Somerset, attached a generator to his hamster's exercise wheel and connected it to his phone charger.

Elvis does the legwork while Peter charges his phone in an economically and environmentally friendly way.

He came up with the idea after his sister Sarah complained that Elvis was keeping her awake at night by playing for hours on his exercise wheel.

'I thought the wheel could be made to do something useful so I connected a system of gears and a turbine,' he said.

'Every two minutes Elvis spends on his wheel gives me about thirty minutes talk time on my phone.'

The teenage inventor was given a C for his project and has been awarded a D overall for the course.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

HDBlog.net » Blog Archive » DVD 720p/1080i Out Over Analog?

HDBlog.net » Blog Archive » DVD 720p/1080i Out Over Analog?:

Philips has another DVD player that upconverts the signal to 720p or 1080i. We’ve seen this before, and it’s a technology that’s starting to become pervasive. Reading the press release, though, one little line grabbed my attention.

Philips is promising high definition standard picture and sound quality with the launch of its most advanced DVD/SACD player to date – the DVP9000S. By utilising sophisticated video processing technology, the DVP9000S will let you enjoy DVDs in 720p or 1080i high definition via HDMI or YPbPr connection, while incorporating sophisticated internal circuitry and DSD upsampling to guarantee excellent audio performance.

Did that just say “720p or 1080i high definition via HDMI or YPbPr connection“? Unfortunately, I’ve only got a second-hand source for this press release, as I couldn’t find it on the Philips website. But still, if this is true, it is a truly liberating thing for those many people out there with older HDTVs. Previously, all upconverting DVD players that I know of only allowed upconverted 720p and 1080i signals to go out on the DVI or HDMI output. Only 480i or 480p signals were allowed on the analog connection.

HDBlog.net

HDBlog.net:

I mentioned Philips’ DVD player that can output high-res video on its component outs the other day. I was surprised that a mainstream company like Philips wasn’t constrained to just put out HD on the HDMI/DVI output. Most players do just that, and Sound & Vision has a review of three of them: the Toshiba SD-5980, Samsung DVD-HD950, and the Panasonic DVD-S77. Looks like they thought the Panasonic had the best picture quality.

As with the other players, the Panasonic’s HDMI and progressive-scan outputs yielded identical-looking images from my front projector. Yet both produced better-looking video than the Toshiba or the Samsung players. The DVD-S77’s video prowess came through vividly in the Monsters, Inc. DVD. Sulley’s fuzzy hair had the kind of lifelike detail (both horizontally and vertically) that’s supposed to be the hallmark of progressive-scan reproduction, but is all too rare.

Top 10 Web fads - CNET.com

Top 10 Web fads - CNET.com:

Internet phenomena. Memes. Grist for the e-mail forwarding mill. Whatever you call them, Web fads are entertaining, unintended consequences of life on the World Wide Web. Once the masses could put anything online easily, they turned up weird fetishes, hilarious parody, jaw-dropping narcissism, and moments of brilliance. And over the past 10 years, some of these ideas broke through to the mainstream. Whether it was dancing hamsters, a kid enjoying his day as a Jedi Knight, or the sudden ability to publish your thoughts online with just a few simple clicks, the following 10 Web fads still make us laugh, make us wonder, or make us feel guilty enough to update our blogs.

Mike Davidson -- sIFR 2.0: Rich Accessible Typography for the Masses

Mike Davidson -- sIFR 2.0: Rich Accessible Typography for the Masses:

Over the last several months, a small group of web developers and designers have been hard at work perfecting a method to insert rich typography into web pages without sacrificing accessibility, search engine friendliness, or markup semantics. The method, dubbed sIFR (or Scalable Inman Flash Replacement), is the result of many hundreds of hours of designing, scripting, testing, and debugging by Mike Davidson (umm, that's me) and Mark Wubben. Through this extensive work, we, along with a invaluable stable of beta testers, supporters, and educators like Stephanie Sullivan and Danilo Celic of Community MX, have completely rebuilt a DOM replacement method originally conceived by Shaun Inman into a typography solution for the masses. It is this technology which provides the nice looking custom type headlines you see on sites like this one, Nike, ABCNews, Aston Martin, and others. We've released sIFR to the world as open source, under the CC-GNU LGPL license, so anyone can use it free of charge.

Built-in Wireless LAN Support Nikon brings the advantages of built-in wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) support to compact digital cameras for the first time.

Built-in Wireless LAN Support Nikon brings the advantages of built-in wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) support to compact digital cameras for the first time.:

TOKYO - Nikon Corporation is pleased to announce an exciting new technology that realizes new picture-taking potential. Providing versatility beyond any previous compact camera, the new COOLPIX P1 and COOLPIX P2 can boast all the advantages of built-in Wi-Fi LAN support (IEEE802.11b/g).

With the advantages of built-in Wi-Fi LAN support (IEEE802.11b/g), the new COOLPIX P1 and COOLPIX P2 realize new picture-taking potential by doing away with the need for wires and cables. In addition to USB connectivity that makes it easy to hook the cameras up to a computer or other peripherals, wireless transfer allows the photographer to send pictures from a memory card or his or her camera's internal memory (32MB for the COOLPIX P1; 16MB for the COOLPIX P2) direct to a selected computer on command. Wireless shooting automatically transfers each picture to a selected computer as soon as it is shot. Pictures can then be viewed with Nikon's powerful yet fun-to-use and easy PictureProject software. And wireless printing delivers the convenience of cable-free direct printing to PictBridge-compatible printers. All these functions are easy to implement, too. Just set them up with the Wizard utility to enjoy easy wireless capabilities that add outstanding flexibility to the digital photography experience.

Making much of digital camera's connectivity to the network, Nikon released compact digital cameras with easy and quick data transfer functions and developed image transfer technologies in collaboration with FotoNation Inc. and Microsoft. Then, in 2003, Nikon introduced the Wireless Transmitter WT-1, which, attached to the digital SLR D2H, enables wireless image transfer. This was followed in 2004 with the Wireless Transmitter WT-2, which was designed for D2X and realized enhanced security and compatibility with new protocol PTP/IP. With these products, Nikon has been leading wireless image transfer technology, earning the plaudits of the press and of other industries. And now, in order to introduce the wireless transfer function to even more customers, Nikon has released compact digital cameras with built-in Wireless LAN support, offering a new level of excitement in digital photography.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Windows Vista Beta 1 vs. Mac OS X "Tiger" (Part 1)

Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Windows Vista Beta 1 vs. Mac OS X "Tiger" (Part 1):

After years and years of waiting, we finally have a reasonably stable Windows Vista beta build to work with. Windows Vista Beta 1 (see my review) doesn't feature many end user features per se, but it does include a nearly complete next-generation Windows shell, instant desktop search, a preliminary version of the new Aero user interface, and other useful functionality. For Windows enthusiasts, Windows Vista Beta 1 is a much-needed demonstration that Microsoft can still churn out valuable Windows releases, after years of doubt. For Mac OS X users, however, Windows Vista Beta 1 engenders a sense of déjà vu. Isn't a lot of this stuff already in Mac OS X 10.4 'Tiger' (see my review)?

Slashdot | Plugin Lets Users Turn IE into Firefox

Slashdot | Plugin Lets Users Turn IE into Firefox:

An anonymous reader writes 'There is a new plugin available for IE that can make Internet Explorer resemble Firefox by adding tabbed browsing capabilities and an integrated search box. Moreover, the plugin improves IE's privacy and security by integrating a firewall designed to block out Internet exploits, phishing sites, spammers, spyware and worms, with a special HTTP filter that removes private data, and an anti-spyware tool that can identify and remove all pests in less then 10 seconds'

Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can't Index | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can't Index | The Onion - America's Finest News Source:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—Executives at Google, the rapidly growing online-search company that promises to 'organize the world's information,' announced Monday the latest step in their expansion effort: a far-reaching plan to destroy all the information it is unable to index.

Monday, August 29, 2005

BBspot - Geek Overcomes Social Anxiety By Turning Life into RPG

BBspot - Geek Overcomes Social Anxiety By Turning Life into RPG:

After being bribed with an old P233 Gateway system, the 26-year-old Systems Programmer was convinced to leave his apartment in order to demonstrate his RPG-As-Real-Life system.

'Okay,' Davis explained, 'the goal here is to gain experience so you can level up - just like an RPG. For example, I haven't had a date since about the time that Skies of Arcadia: Legends came out. So my objective is to talk to girls without being paralyzed by overwhelming social anxiety.'

He continued, 'Every time I talk to a girl, I reward myself with some experience points. The longer the conversation, the more experience I get. Instead of playing as a character in a game, I am the character and my social life is the game. In the end, I am able to transform an unknown, frightening reality into a comfortable, exciting fantasy. Remember - reality: bad, fantasy: good.'

'Right now my focus is on one of my stats that I call CER - my Chick Exposure Rate. See, as my CER increases, my probability of performing a critical hit (getting a date) dramatically increases. It's just a matter of simple statisti-' Davis then broke off, his eyes following an attractive University of Florida co-ed on rollerblades.

Friday, August 26, 2005

GadgetryBlog: Egg-Shaped ErgoChair

GadgetryBlog: Egg-Shaped ErgoChair

ergochair

The ErgoChair ($159) is a wierd new ergonomic chair designed by a group of physicians, health practitioners and engineers in Switzerland to promote correct posture, to help strengthen the muscles in the abdominal area and the spine, and to take stress off the back and neck. The exceptionally uncomfortable-looking chair claims to relieve chronic lower back pain, weak abdominal muscles, and neck problems that often lead to headaches. I think it does this by encouraging you not to sit down!

Suunto G6 - The New Golf wristop computer | Travel Gadgets | Travelizmo

Suunto G6 - The New Golf wristop computer | Travel Gadgets | Travelizmo

suunto-G6-golf-watch

The Suunto G6, 'New Golf Watch', gives you, the golfer, the ability to measure your swing, improve swing consistency and keep score all in one watch! After swinging you can check the tempo, rhythm, backswing, length and speed of your shot. This way you can keep track of your best shots and improve muscle memory to repeat only the good ones! The watch includes three acceleration sensors (took more than two years to develop) which accurately measure 200 times a second the movement of your wrist. The integrated scorekeeper removes the need for score and handicap paperwork and Suunto's Golf Manager PC software (Suunto G6 PRO only) helps identify the areas that need improvement at the end of the round. Pick up this self-improving golf companion at the end of this year.

Mio A701 communicator boasts Windows Mobile 5.0, GPS - infoSync World

Mio A701 communicator boasts Windows Mobile 5.0, GPS - infoSync World:

Chalking up the second communicator with embedded GPS functionality, Mio Technology has unveiled its Windows Mobile based Mio A701, merging phone and handheld functionality with positioning services. Powered by Windows Mobile 5.0, the Mio A701 is second only to the HP iPAQ hw6500 series, introduced this summer, in its level of integration.

Based on an Intel PXA270 processor running at 520 MHz, the device will feature a 2.7-inch touch screen with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. A total of 192 MB of memory is available, of which 128 MB is in the shape of non-volatile Flash ROM, whereas the remaining 64 MB is of the RAM variety in which applications will run.

the::unwired - IDF: Intel introduces the 1GHz+ chip for PDA

the::unwired - IDF: Intel introduces the 1.25GHz Bulverde follower called Monahans:

At IDF, Intel today previewed the Monahans CPU, a gigahertz-class successor to the currently widely used Pocket PC CPU Bulverde.

The 90nm part is due to be formally launched in Q4 2005, Sean Maloney, VP and General Manager of Intel's Mobility Group, said today at Intel Developer Forum.

Describing the chip as 'another step ahead in performance', Maloney showcased a pre-production Monahans running at 1.25GHz which was used to decode and play back HD video on a PDA screen. 8O

For the Monahans launch, it may not debut at 1GHz 'only' - Maloney admitted:

FedexFurniture.Com

FedexFurniture.Com:

lshaped_800

My name is Jose. 4 months ago, my friends Tom and Rob moved to Seattle. Tom, not having a job or a place to stay, eventually managed to get himself an apartment, but still had no furniture. Utilizing FedEx boxes, he built a simple desk for his PC. Several months later, I moved to Arizona for a new job, and had a similar problem, no furniture. Using FedEx boxes and packaging materials, I constructed a desk, bed, couch, dining table and chairs out of the boxes. I'm currently stuck with double rent (both my new and old apartments), and can not afford real furniture. After seeing pictures my friend Divide convinced me to build this site.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

CodeIt.Once - Refactoring Add-In for VS 2003 and VS 2005

CodeIt.Once - Refactoring Add-In for VS 2003 and VS 2005:

CodeIt.Once functionally complete Beta for both Visual Studio 2003 and Visual Studio 2005 is currently available for download through our Beta Experience program. If you want download a copy for evaluation or to participate in Beta testing, fill out a simple form (name and email address) and we will contact you with download instructions.

Paul's Blog | You know you're living in 2005

Paul's Blog | You know you're living in 2005 When:
You know you're living in 2005 When:

  1.  You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

  2.  You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

  3.  You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

 4.  You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

  5.  Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

  6.  You go home after a long day at work and you still answer the phone in a businesslike manner.

  7.  You make phone calls from home and you accidentally dial "9" to get an outside line.

  8.  You've sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three different companies.

  10.  You learn about your redundancy on the 11 o'clock news.

 11.  Your boss doesn't have the ability to do your job.

  12. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.

  13. Every commercial on television has a website at the bottom of the screen.

  14. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

  15. You get up in the morning and go online before getting your coffee.

  16. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. :)

  17. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

  18. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

  19. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

  20. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.

Fossil: Atari Asteroids Watch

Fossil: Atari Asteroids Watch

One of my friends sent me this link and we were talking. It would have made much more sense for them to make Tempest or Space Invaders or even Pong since you just need rotation and then a fire button. I'm glad they actually made it a nice looking watch.

LI2537

Atari: Asteroids LI2537
Price $125.00

Retro game for your wrist! New from Atari, this mens watch has a black leather band and a silver, retro, brushed case. Dial animates and plays the game Asteroids on a black background. Two hand movement. Packaged in a retro plastic box with vintage Atari artwork on it. Limited 1-year warranty. Limited edition of 5,000 pieces worldwide (only 2,000 availabe in the U.S.).