How to Win Frugal Consumers and Influence Them to Buy

How to Win Frugal Consumers and Influence Them to Buy - BusinessWeek: "Consumer shopping habits are changing. But the right sign, well placed, can bring sales even in a recession, says retail guru Paco Underhill"

Cute, Creepy, & Geeky Urban Vinyl Collectibles

Cute, Creepy, & Geeky Urban Vinyl Collectibles | WebUrbanist: "Current collectors and new comers awed by the artistry and detail of vinyl figures are always on the lookout for new and interesting additions to their collection. Urban Vinyl collections are home to diverse figures from movies to comic books and even original creations straight from the artist’s mind. Here are some of the internet’s newest and hottest additions to any vinyl collection."

Java EE 6 Platform Draft Published featuring the Web Profile

InfoQ: Java EE 6 Platform Draft Published featuring the Web Profile: "The public draft of the Java EE 6 Platform specification has been published and will remain open for public review and feedback until the 23rd of Feb, 2009. Maybe the most notable part of this delayed draft is the Web Profile, which is first profile in the history of the Java EE platform."

IE8's JavaScript performance lags well behind Safari, Chrome

AppleInsider | IE8's JavaScript performance lags well behind Safari, Chrome: "A release candidate of Microsoft's next-generation Internet Explorer browser made available this week has twice finished last in a five-browser benchmark competition."

Ex-Fannie Mae programmer says not guilty of virus

Ex-Fannie Mae programmer says not guilty of virus | Technology | Reuters: "A 35-year-old computer programer pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges that he planted a computer virus designed to destroy all the data on 4,000 Fannie Mae computer servers the day he was fired from the company."

Why are there no cool apps for Blackberry?

Why are there no cool apps for Blackberry? | Technology | Los Angeles Times: "We BlackBerry owners who have iPhone envy know that there's never a worse time to be sitting next to an iPhone user than in a waiting room."

Trick Out Your PC With Multiple Monitors

Trick Out Your PC With Multiple Monitors -- Monitors -- InformationWeek: "A video card, the right utilities, and an extra display or two can dramatically enhance the way you work, use multimedia apps, play games, or simply surf the Internet. Here's how to tweak your rig."

Graphics Chip Shipments Plummet In 4Q -- PC Graphic Chips

Graphics Chip Shipments Plummet In 4Q -- PC Graphic Chips -- InformationWeek: "A major contributor to the drop in the GPU market was the nearly 40% fall in shipments for desktop PCs, analysts with Jon Peddie Research said."

Microsoft Patent Turns Smartphone Into A PC

Microsoft Patent Turns Smartphone Into A PC - Mobile Blog - InformationWeek: "Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has applied for a patent that will allow you to dock your smartphone, giving it PC-like powers to print, network, connect to an external display and more."

New tech would link home computer to work

New tech would link home computer to work | CharlotteObserver.com: "Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Citrix recently announced a partnership with Intel to create a new type of virtualization product. The idea behind virtualization is that an employee can tap into a secure “virtual” version of a workplace desktop from any computer that has this technology. So, if you use a home computer, software and files are not actually saved on your personal hard drive; instead they are saved within the company's virtual work desktop."

You too can be a genius (if you can spare 10,000 hours)

You too can be a genius (if you can spare 10,000 hours) | Mail Online: "It takes someone 10,000 hours of practice to reach the top in their chosen discipline, they say.

Studies suggest that top sportsmen, musicians and chess players have all put in this amount of graft."

Working for the Man

Steven Poole: Working for the Man: "Videogames are often discussed under the concept of “play”, but this is not always how gamers themselves talk about their experience: they use instead vocabularies of desperate competition or violence. Take the very common expression of satisfaction after completing a game: “I beat the game.”"

How Google crawls the deep web

Geeking with Greg: How Google crawls the deep web: "A googol of Googlers published a paper at VLDB 2008, 'Google's Deep-Web Crawl' (PDF), that describes how Google pokes and prods at web forms to see if it can find things to submit in the form that yield interesting data from the underlying database"

Amazing New Water-Powered Jet Pack Video

Amazing New Water-Powered Jet Pack Video: "A new design for jet packs uses a system of conduits to push water from an engine below the surface of a lake through thrust nozzles on the pack. I want one!"
Amazing New Water-Powered Jet Pack - Watch more free videos

Using the HTML embed Tag to Display a PDF on Your Web Page

PDF Developer Junkie: Using the HTML embed Tag to Display a PDF on Your Web Page: "Most web developers create links to PDF files so that Adobe Acrobat or the Adobe Reader takes over the entire browser window. Few people leverage the fact that you can display a PDF file in a web page just like any other graphic by using the embed tag in your HTML file. You can also use PDF Open Parameters in the src property to make the document look better on that page but those don’t work the same way in all browsers."

anti-theft lunch bags

anti-theft lunch bags: "Tired of having your lunches stolen by sticky-fingered coworkers? Well, fret no more . . .
Anti-Theft Lunch Bags are regular sandwich bags that have green splotches printed on both sides, making your freshly prepared sandwich look spoiled."

Remote Scripting with IFRAME

Remote Scripting with IFRAME: "As web sites become more and more like traditional applications, the call-response-reload model used in HTTP transactions becomes increasingly cumbersome. Instead of delivering a single dynamic page, the DHTML or JavaScript developer must create a series of separate pages. The flow of the application is interrupted by page reloads whenever the client communicates with the server. Remote scripting provides a solution to this problem, easing development of complex JavaScript applications, and providing a better experience for the end user."

12 More Classes We Wish Our Colleges Had Offered

mental_floss Blog » 12 More Classes We Wish Our Colleges Had Offered: "If you’re planning to enter our $50,000 Tuition Giveaway, you’ve got one more day! The deadline is January 31 at 11:59pm. If you win one of the five $10k scholarships, perhaps you can put it toward one of these 12 interesting classes. And here’s the original 12 Classes We Wish Our Colleges Had Offered post, in case you missed it the first time around."

10 lightweight apps to make older PCs fly

10 lightweight apps to make older PCs fly | News | TechRadar UK: "Your desktop PC might have been slim and speedy five years ago, but keeping up with application upgrades and filling your hard drive with feature-bloated commercial tools can soon make your machine sluggish."

Star Trek Opera

YouTube - Star Trek Opera: "Robot Chicken Rules!!!"

Is Your ISP Throttling Bandwidth? Google Will Know - Lab Notes by ExtremeTech

Is Your ISP Throttling Bandwidth? Google Will Know - Lab Notes by ExtremeTech: "Is your ISP throttling your Internet connection or is it just time to get a new computer? How much bandwidth are you actually using? Are you getting the Internet speeds promised by your provider?"

How to Build a Login System for a Simple Website

How to Build a Login System for a Simple Website - NETTUTS: "In today's video tutorial, we'll be building a login system with PHP and MYSQL. Many, many features will be covered; including MySqli, Prepared Statements, jQuery, Classes, Sessions, Cookies, etc. I bit off more than I could chew for today's screencast. So, I'll be creating a Part 2 in the next couple of weeks in order to improve our system even further."

Managing Tasks with Avant Window Navigator

Managing Tasks with Avant Window Navigator - Linux Magazine Online: "Avant Window Navigator (AWN) isn't just a pretty launch bar: add a couple of applets and you can use AWN to read RSS feeds, monitor system resources, and even manage tasks and to-dos. The latter is possible thanks to two applets: Remember The Milk (RTM) and To-Do List"

Creating USB Startup Disks From Various Linux Distributions With UNetbootin

Creating USB Startup Disks From Various Linux Distributions With UNetbootin | HowtoForge - Linux Howtos and Tutorials: "This guide shows how you can create USB startup disks (on your USB flash drive) from various Linux distributions with UNetbootin. This is useful if you want to install a Linux distribution on a computer that has no CD/DVD drive."

Hackers Crack Into Texas Road Sign, Warn of Zombies Ahead

FOXNews.com - Hackers Crack Into Texas Road Sign, Warn of Zombies Ahead - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News: "Transportation officials in Texas are scrambling to prevent hackers from changing messages on digital road signs after one sign in Austin was altered to read, 'Zombies Ahead.'"

Hip hop culture meets The Renaissance.

Kehinde Wiley - BOOOOOOOM! - CREATE * INSPIRE * COMMUNITY * ART * DESIGN * MUSIC * FILM * PHOTO * PROJECTS: "Crazy, illogical but inspirational."

Top 50 Best Movie Deaths

Top 50 Best Movie Deaths Movie Feature at TheShiznit.co.uk: "Movie deaths are an integral part of the filmmaker's arsenal. Can you imagine how dull flicks would be without the occasional fatality, assassination or cheeky moider? They offer a chance for imagination and inventiveness and have given the creators of the Saw series an outlet that has probably stopped them going on a killing spree in real life. But the most important thing to know about movie deaths is that they are so much cooler than your Nan's. Spoilers ahead"

How to Sell More Software by Adding 12 Characters to Your Homepage

How to Sell More Software by Adding 12 Characters to Your Homepage (Ian Landsman’s Weblog v2.0): "Yes, this is the secret to how to sell more software. I’m the first one to break the sacred oath of profitable software companies and reveal the secret of how just 12 characters can make you significantly more money. Are you ready to hear it? Are you sure....."

How to Talk to Strangers

How to Talk to Strangers - wikiHow: "Walking up to people you don't know and striking up conversation is the social equivalent of skydiving. It's fun, interesting, and risky. And it will change your life. You’ll meet new people every day, you’ll give yourself control over your social and love life, and you’ll experience firsthand the joy of living dangerously. But how do you go from sitting in front of a computer to habitually starting conversations with strangers on a daily basis? Read on, aspiring social skydiver, read on..."

Toilets: 14 Reasons to Love the Best Seat in the House

Toilets: 14 Reasons to Love the Best Seat in the House | WebUrbanist: "When asked to list essential, life-enhancing furniture around the home, there are not many people who would include their toilet. However, remove it from their home and they’d be aware of it in a very short time. The humblest seat in the house is also the most vital. For that reason, let us celebrate the ingenuity, creativity and widespread influence of modern toilets - because to build the ideal home, you really should start at the bottom."

10 Reasons Eating Raw is Healthier For You and the Planet

10 Reasons Eating Raw is Healthier For You and the Planet | Zen Habits: "At the beginning of the new year I decided to go Raw for 30 days. I’ve always been interested in eating a raw diet, but never had the guts to completely jump in and do it. I would eat raw for breakfast and lunch most days but would break down at dinner time and eat cooked food. I was eating about 60-80% raw, I just needed the extra push to move to eating 100% raw vegan food. I got that push after seeing these amazing before and after eating raw photos."

Data Structures and Algorithms with Object-Oriented Design Patterns in Python

Data Structures and Algorithms with Object-Oriented Design Patterns in Python"This book is about the fundamentals of data structures and algorithms--the basic elements from which large and complex software artifacts are built. To develop a solid understanding of a data structure requires three things: First, you must learn how the information is arranged in the memory of the computer. Second, you must become familiar with the algorithms for manipulating the information contained in the data structure. And third, you must understand the performance characteristics of the data structure so that when called upon to select a suitable data structure for a particular application, you are able to make an appropriate decision. "

How to: Arduino and Nintendo Nunchuck for pan and tilt camera interface

How to: Arduino and Nintendo Nunchuck for pan and tilt camera interface - DIY Drones: "this post is an 'how to' for an Arduino pan and tilt camera moved by a Nintendo Wii Nunchuck."

How to study for the GMAT under one month

How to study for the GMAT under one month: "Ideally, you should give yourself about 2-3 months to study for the GMAT on your own. This will give you enough time to have good structure for your studies without feeling too rushed. For ideas on how you can create a good GMAT study plan, please visit my blog at: http://beatthegmat.blogspot.com"

Teaching and learning electricity

Teaching and learning electricity - misconceptions, analogies, teaching order and language: "There are essentially two approaches to teaching electricity.

The bottom-up approach is to let students set up circuits to see what works and then to explain what's going on."

Bike Repair Video Tutorials

Bicycle Tutor - Bike Repair Video Tutorials: "All you need to know how to repair your bike."

Six Thinking Hats (Technique)

Six Thinking Hats (Technique): "Early in the 1980s Dr. de Bono invented the Six Thinking Hats method. The method is a framework for thinking and can incorporate lateral thinking. Valuable judgmental thinking has its place in the system but is not allowed to dominate as in normal thinking. Dr. de Bono organized a network of authorized trainers to introduce the Six Thinking Hats. Advanced Practical Thinking (APTT), of Des Moines, Iowa USA, licenses the training in all parts of the world except Canada (and now, Europe). APTT organizes the trainers and supplies the only training materials written and authorized by Dr. de Bono."

Apache Basics, Visited

Apache Basics, Visited: "The Apache Web server is a highly specialized software application used to serve billions of Web pages daily. The Apache Web server is the single most used Web server on the Internet today."

7 Ways to Grow the Action Habit

7 Ways to Grow the Action Habit: "People at the top of every profession share one quality — they get things done. This ability supercedes intelligence, talent, and connections in determining the size of your salary and the speed of your advancement."

Losing 100 Pounds or More: Diet Tips for Weight Loss from Successful Losers

Losing 100 Pounds or More: Diet Tips for Weight Loss from Successful Losers: "If you've got 100 pounds or more to lose, chances are you've already been on numerous diets and exercise programs, without long-term success. So, the standard advice -- eat less, exercise more, and don't give up -- just isn't enough."

How To Be Truly Happy

How To Be Truly Happy: "To be happy, you don’t have to win the lottery or meet your soul mate. You simply have to make a few small changes to the way you approach your day."

7 Diet Tips That Really Work

7 Diet Tips That Really Work: "Whether you're looking to lose a few pounds - or have 30, 40 or more pounds to shed - a few creative weight loss tips can make it easier. To help you stick with your diet and meet your weight loss goals, WebMD asked several nutrition and fitness experts to share their secrets of success. The 7 diet tips that follow can help you get on the fast track to safe weight loss, no matter what kind of diet you're on."

Top 5 Super Bowl betting moments

Remember when: Top 5 Super Bowl betting moments - 01-28-2009: "send to a friend print version rss feeds AddThis Social Bookmark Button

If nothing else, the National Football League has taught a generation of Budweiser drinkers about Roman numerals and betting lines. Here’s a look at five interesting Super Bowls from each decade and how the numbers played out."

Drawing Kirby

Viewing: Drawing Kirby - MickM.com: "Ever wondered how Kirby was made? And although he was made using a 3d-program, this tutorial will teach you a very easy way to draw Kirby in Photoshop. By using some of the basic tools, I will tell you all the ins and outs about creating this spherific ball of joy!"

Slow motion bullet shot effect - part 1

Slow motion bullet shot effect - part 1 - photoshop tutorial - photoshoptalent.com: "Hi! In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to make a nice bullet shot effect. I decided to use a technologic object such as a remote control to show a lot of tiny parts flying off after the impact: the circuitboard, the buttons, a few chips..."

DIY Lighting Hacks for Digital Photographers

DIY Lighting Hacks for Digital Photographers: "Walk into most professional photographer’s studios and you’ll be confronted with truckloads of lighting equipment. To the average hobby photographer it’s enough to make your mind boggle - and for your stomach to turn as you think about the cost of it all."

Pawn brokers - a business that booms in recession | Money-Magnets: The Blog

Pawn brokers - a business that booms in recession | Money-Magnets: The Blog: "Pawnbrokers all over the world are seeing their business increase by as much as 20%. Some areas are getting 10 to 20 new clients a day and the clientele have changed to upper class people who are selling boats, cars, jewelry to make ends meet."

Sun Ray Effect

Sun Ray Effect | Gimp-tutorials.net - Gimp , tutorials , brushes , downloads, forum.: "Although this is a very simple straight forward effect i though it would be good for people getting familiar with gimp to try something not too hard. I call this effect 'sun Ray' its pretty common with so called web 2.0 websites these days."

DIY Photoshop Brushes

DIY Photoshop Brushes: "One of the most popular searches involving Photoshop on the web is, perhaps not unsurprisingly, for free Photoshop brushes. Photoshop brushes can be used for a range of editing and creative tasks and while it’s fun to find and download great looking brushes it’s also possible to create them yourself and to do this very easily."

Top-Notch Tutorials for Three Great Software Freebies

WebWorkerDaily » Archive Top-Notch Tutorials for Three Great Software Freebies «: "I’m a big fan of open source software as well as freeware, but one of the problems these applications often have is lack of documentation and tutorials. It can be frustrating enough to try to wing it with a new, free software application that many people will just throw their hands in the air and give up. That’s a shame."

SHAPE TWEENING FOR CONTROL-FREAKS

Flash Kit, A Flash Developer Resource for Macromedia Flash 8 and MX Tutorials SWF FLA images clipart Sounds WAVS Animations Help and Support: "Flash supports two types of tweening to make animating less tedious, motion tweening and shape tweening. As opposed to drawing each frame as with a flipbook, one only needs to draw a keyframe with the starting location/shape and another keyframe later in the timeline with the ending location/shape. (Flash gives less paper cuts than a flipbook, too!)"

Should Silent Camera Phones Be Illegal?

ABC News: Should Silent Camera Phones Be Illegal?: "The congressman has introduced the Camera Phone Predator Alert Act, which would require cell phones with built-in digital cameras to make a sound when a picture is taken."

Cheap, super-efficient LED lights on the horizon

Cheap, super-efficient LED lights on the horizon - tech - 29 January 2009 - New Scientist: "Incandescent tungsten-filament light bulbs face a global switch-off as governments push for energy efficient fluorescent lamps to become the standard. But the light could soon go out on those lamps too, now that UK materials scientists have discovered a cheaper way to produce LED bulbs, which are three times as efficient as fluorescent lamps."

5 Problems of Recommender Systems

5 Problems of Recommender Systems - ReadWriteWeb: "This week an event called Recked was held in Amsterdam, aimed at engineers interested in these systems. The event was hosted by Wakoopa and Strands (we've embedded the presentations below). In those presentations, there were some hints at the problems that these companies have to overcome to build an effective recommender system."

The Watchman Cometh

The Watchman Cometh - [ Radar / Film ] - Nylon Guys Magazine: "Even in high school, Zack Snyder—the director behind the brawny graphic-novel adaptation, 300—was quite the Renaissance man. Back then he played sports, nerded out to comic books, shot film shorts with his Super 8 camera, and literally hung out at, yes, Renaissance fairs. That quad-fecta of hobbies has converged handily with his latest movie, Watchmen, a doomsday thriller based on the seminal superhero miniseries by writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons. And it’d be no sweat off Snyder’s back, were this intricate work not deemed unfilmable, as directors Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky, and Paul Greengrass, who have all tried, may attest. NYLON Guys spoke with the indefatigably enthusiastic Snyder—currently scripting his dark action pic Sucker Punch and prepping his animated owl film Guardians of Ga’hoole—about this Herculean feat."

Tips for Life: 10 Sure-Fire Ways to Be a Complete Failure At Everything

Dumb Little Man - Tips for Life: 10 Sure-Fire Ways to Be a Complete Failure At Everything: "Whatever that word means to you, it’s probably something you’ve been chasing for a while. By now, you’ve read about scrambling to the top of your career ladder, how to get the partner of your dreams, how to achieve your goals. You’ve mastered Getting Things Done, and learned every Zen Habit in the handbook."

Get the XML out of your database

Get the XML out of your database: "'How do I get my XML document out of the database?' This is the second most common question I get. It's usually followed up with 'My DBA is afraid to use any feature added since 7.3 (or 8 or 8i, etc) so I am not allowed to use WebDAV, the internal HTTP server or Java in the database.' This is usually followed by me laughing hysterically and crying at the same time. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt."

The evolution of video game business models

The evolution of video game business models | Negative Approach - CNET News: "The enterprise software market has been going through a product-to-service transformation for a number of years. One clear representation of this is the boom in open source and software as a service, both of which are built on a different value curve in relation to typical enterprise licensing."

All the Business Card Inspiration You Will Ever Need

All the Business Card Inspiration You Will Ever Need | The Design Cubicle: "Below is a list of 30 business card inspirational websites, galleries and resources that will fulfill your every business card desire and provide inspiration for your next business card design project."

Sun Is Overdone

Sun Is Overdone: "Mr. Market is certainly pouring sunshine on Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: JAVA) today. The stock price has ballooned by more than 20% since Sun reported $3.2 billion of second-quarter sales and a GAAP net loss of $0.28 per share. For those keeping score at home, that's down from $3.6 billion in sales and a profit of $0.31 per share a year ago. And while the overnight pop should be welcome for current investors, let me remind you that Sun was trading higher than this sub-$5 level less than a month ago; it's lost 70% of its value over the past year."

Asterisk Gateway Interface Scripting with PHP

Asterisk Gateway Interface Scripting with PHP: "In this article by Nir Simionovich, we will develop our first ever AGI script using PHP scripting language. This article deals with the most basic elements of AGI scripting and the information contained within. So, take time to familiarize yourself with this article, especially if you intend to use a language different from PHP."

Nintendo Super Mario Bros Cupcakes

Nintendo Super Mario Bros Cupcakes on Flickr - Photo Sharing!: "Red velvet cupcakes topped with blue vanilla buttercream and handmade fondant Blooper, Mario, and Goomba decorations from Nintendo's Super Mario Bros video game."

what if software still shipped on 3.5-inch disks?

3.5 inch poster set on the Behance Network: "This poster set is about our old friends, 3.5 inch floppy disks.Higher density drives are built to read, write and even format lower density media without problems, provided the correct media are used for the density selected. This Posters shows, how many floppies are enough for current software."

Bell Canada customer billed $207,000 after hacker breach

Bell Canada customer billed $207,000 after hacker breach: "Some Greater Toronto Area businesses are crying foul after receiving sky-high phone bills that charged them upward of $200,000 because hackers broke into their voicemail system and hijacked it to make long-distance calls."

Understanding Cloud Computing

InformIT: Understanding Cloud Computing > Cloud Computing: What It IsAnd What It Isn't: "Cloud computing represents a major change in how we store digital information and run computer applications. Instead of running programs and storing data on an individual desktop computer, everything is hosted in the 'cloud' — an assemblage of computers and servers accessed via the Internet. In this article, Cloud Computing author Michael Miller describes what cloud computing is (and what it isn't) and how it will impact the way you use computers in the future."

Answer to Italian Job cliffhanger found

Answer to Italian Job cliffhanger found | Metro.co.uk: "It's a scene which should have spawned a sequel – The Italian Job's famous cliffhanger.

Just how would Charlie Croker and his gang manage to rescue the gold bullion at the back of their coach as it teetered on the edge of a cliff?

'Hang on a minute lads, I've got a great idea,' Croker said – but we never found out what it was."

What Else Is On Super Bowl Sunday?

mental_floss Blog » What Else Is On Super Bowl Sunday?: "As the Super Bowl approaches, your Sunday night plans are probably firming up. And, if you’re like millions of other casual sports fans, these plans probably involve sitting in front of a TV. Although the overwhelming majority of the nation’s television audience will be tuned to NBC for the Steelers-Cardinals tilt, the other networks have to come up with some sort of programming to fill the four or so hours of the game. Some channels take an aggressive stance to try to appeal to the football-oblivious parts of the audience, while others pretty much concede the ratings war to NBC for a night. Let’s take a look at how various networks are trying to lure viewers away from the magnificence of Kurt Warner’s graying crewcut."

What the Web knows about you

What the Web knows about you: "How much private information is available about you in cyberspace? Social Security numbers are just the beginning."

The End of Passwords?

The End of Passwords?: "In this article we will cover how passwords are quickly becoming obsolete; many environments have already implemented newer stronger technologies that help keep the enterprise information assets secure. In this article we will explore reasons to start using new stronger authentication technologies and will cover some of the alternatives."

How - Convert a PC into a music server

How - Convert a PC into a music server - CNET.com Digital Home - CNET.com: "Follow these easy steps to learn what it takes to complete this project."

Heartland hacker identified

Heartland hacker identified | MX Logic: "The cybercriminal responsible for the Heartland Payment Systems breach has been identified by the Secret Service with the hacker's location 'pinpointed' outside of North America.

According to the trade publication Storefront Backtalk, the investigation has been turned over to the U.S. Department of Justice.
On Friday, a spokesman for the company said the malware attack came from a 'sophisticated bug,' SCMagazineus.com reports."

Windows? More Like a Brick Wall

Windows? More Like a Brick Wall - Network World: "My Lenovo laptop started acting odd recently. Never mind the sordid details. Let me put a positive spin on it and say that some programs actually worked, and a few tasks didn't crash the PC. What was the cause? If it was malware, no scanner could detect it. The Registry? Three different Registry repair programs found and repaired all sorts of inconsistencies without positive effect. Would System Restore help? I ran it so many times Vista deleted all the restore points--presumably just to make me stop."

Digg hires new sales chief from Yahoo

Digg hires new sales chief from Yahoo | Digital Media - CNET News: "Social media site Digg.com announced Tuesday that it has hired one of Yahoo's top salesmen to be its new head of sales."

Building a 21st century user interface, Part 1: Your app's competition... isn't who you think

Building a 21st century user interface, Part 1: Your app's competition... isn't who you think: "Building a 21st century user interface, Part 1: Your app's competition... isn't who you think"

Multi-pointer Remote Desktop: Ending the Mouse/Keyboard Wars

Multi-pointer Remote Desktop: Ending the Mouse/Keyboard Wars - Linux Magazine Online: "Developer Chris Ball has patched the Vino Virtual Network Computing (VNC) server to display multiple simultaneous mouse and keyboard events. The result could be an end to the battle over mouse and keyboard control among local and remote users in a VNC environment."

Speed up your Web pages

Speed up your Web pages: "Twenty (plus) tips that make all the difference"

Embed Lua for scriptable apps

Embed Lua for scriptable apps: "Incorporate application scripting using a small language built for the job"

Free Obama Poster Labels to Personalize

Worldlabel.com » Free Obama Poster Labels to Personalize: "You can download a free label template in Openoffice.org Opendocument format or in Word .doc from the links below the image above. We used the word, “Hope,” but you can change that word to “Change,” “Progress,” or any other word you like. After you download the image, just place your curser next to the lettering and type over with your own message. You can also increase the size of the Text Box and increase Font size. For label size for printing, use: 3.5″ x 5″, 4 labels per sheet: WL-OL5100, same size as Avery 5168."

Five Applications for Netbook Bliss

Five Applications for Netbook Bliss - Linux Magazine Online: "Want to beef up the software bundle that comes with your Linux-based Netbook? Here are five nifty applications and tools that are worth a closer look."

Five Reasons to Make Friends with Puppy Linux

Five Reasons to Make Friends with Puppy Linux - Linux Magazine Online: "By now, you might have noticed that I'm a big fan of Puppy Linux. I wrote about this tiny Linux distro in Linux (Pro) Magazine, and extol its virtues at any given opportunity. It is the distro I'm running on my workhorse ASUS Eee PC 701 4G netbook, and it helps me to stay productive not only in airports, cafés, and hotel rooms but also at home. But if you are still undecided whether you should give Puppy Linux a try, here are five reasons why this little gem deserves a closer look."

Everything You Need to Get Started With CodeIgniter

Everything You Need to Get Started With CodeIgniter - NETTUTS: "CodeIgniter is a web application framework for PHP. It enables developers to build web applications faster, and it offers many helpful code libraries and helpers which speed up tedious tasks in PHP. CodeIgniter is based on a modular design; meaning that you can implement specific libraries at your discretion - which adds to the speed of the framework. This tutorial will attempt to show you the basics of setting up the framework, including how to build a basic hello world application that uses the MVC approach."

Imagi Confirms Temporary Production Halt on Astro Boy

Imagi Confirms Temporary Production Halt on Astro Boy - Anime News Network: "IMAGI, the animation company that produced 2007's TMNT film, has confirmed that it has temporarily halted production on its computer-animated film adaptation of the Astro Boy manga. However, President Erin Corbett of IMAGI Studios U.S. told ANN that her company plans to resume production next week. IMAGI primarily does its development and pre-production work at IMAGI Studios in Los Angeles, while much of the computer animation production takes place as its headquarters in Hong Kong."

Windows Internet Explorer 8 RC1 Preview

Windows Internet Explorer 8 RC1 Preview - Reviews by ExtremeTech: "Times are tough for Microsoft, with job cuts, the European Union breathing down its neck again, and Firefox slowly but steadily encroaching on Internet Explorer. More than ever, Microsoft needs IE8 to succeed if it wants to maintain its dominant position. Fortunately, the beta looked good. And while this first release candidate is little changed from the beta, the few adjustments made definitely improve the product. The most significant differences come from InPrivate browsing, the Compatibility view, and improved performance."

Building the Ultimate Virtual Lab for Free, for Fun, and for Profit

InformIT: Building the Ultimate Virtual Lab for Free, for Fun, and for Profit, Part 1 > Why Virtual, and Why ESXi?: "What can save you countless hours and dollars, and is even good for the environment? A free virtual lab that consolidates the hardware and power requirements of numerous systems into a single machine! In this two-part series, Seth Fogie gives you all the info you need to set up and build your own virtual lab — for free, with much fun, and potentially for profit."

Playing around with Google's AJAX APIs

Google Code Blog: Playing around with Google's AJAX APIs: "For me, documentation isn't always enough to learn about APIs; I need examples that I can play with. That's why I started a fun project recently--a tool for teaching developers how to use Google's JavaScript APIs: the AJAX API Playground. I have been working on this in my 20% time and today I am proud to announce that we are launching the AJAX API Playground as the official way that Google will show JavaScript samples!"

Rox Java NIO Tutorial

Rox Java NIO Tutorial: "This tutorial is intended to collect together my own experiences using the Java NIO libraries and the dozens of hints, tips, suggestions and caveats that litter the Internet. When I wrote Rox all of the useful information existed as just that: hints, tips, suggestions and caveats on a handful of forums. This tutorial actually only covers using NIO for asynchronous networking (non-blocking sockets), and not the NIO libraries in all their glory. When I use the term NIO in this tutorial I'm taking liberties and only talking about the non-blocking IO part of the API."

Parallel Kingdom - GPS MMORPG for your cell phone

Parallel Kingdom - GPS MMORPG for your cell phone: "Parallel Kingdom
brings new meaning to Role Playing Games by using GPS to place the virtual world on top of the real world."

Import XML Document

JavaScript - Import XML Document: "I think importing XML documents will become more and more important in the future. You can manage the XML document as a kind of database, while the HTML document contains all information about the displaying of the data."

5 Tips for Building Your Photography Portfolio

5 Tips for Building Your Photography Portfolio: "Recently I walked into a friend’s house and saw, framed prominently on her wall, an image I took back when I was building my portfolio. Though the family is absolutely lovely. . .the image. . . yeah, not so much, and I was horrified to say the very least. I kept thinking, “Oh PLEASE NEVER, NEVER EVER tell anyone I took that photo!”"

Linux keeps dying

Linux keeps dying: "Harris goes on to claim “Windows 7 is the final nail in the desktop Linux market’s coffin. Unless Microsoft gets stupid on pricing, it is game over for Linux netbook market share.” Wait … is Linux losing the desktop market, or the netbook market?"

Color Correction in Photoshop with the Curves Adjustment Tool

Quick Tip: Color Correction in Photoshop with the Curves Adjustment Tool - PSDTUTS: "One of my favorite tools that I use on regular basis is the Curves Adjustment tool, which not only helps me in creating desired contrast, but at the same time it allows me to color correct my images. I use this tool instead of widely used Color Balance Adjustment tool. This tutorial will teach you how to use this tool to color correct photos efficiently."

How to Design a Rockin’ 80’s Party Poster

How to Design a Rockin’ 80’s Party Poster - PSDTUTS: "In this tutorial, I'll show you how to design a poster for an 80's anthem party. Throughout this tutorial, we'll create some textures for background, manipulate a photo to give it a stylish look, and make some color variations. Let's jump into this super rad tutorial."

Warm Up Your Cold Calls and Get More Work

Warm Up Your Cold Calls and Get More Work | The Design Cubicle: "While we don’t always like to openly admit it, cold calling is one of the most effective ways of getting your name and services out to people who have never heard of you — but they don’t have to be so cold."

I-Shovel - The world's Smartest Snow Shovel

I-Shovel - The world's Smartest Snow Shovel: "I-Shovel is the world's first and only Autonomous Robotic Snow Shovel. With its patent pending technology, I-Shovel keeps your drive way snow free and ready, so while your neighbors are shoveling their drive ways, you can be on your way."

How To Make Digital Photos Look Like Lomo Photography

How To Make Digital Photos Look Like Lomo Photography: "The following tip on getting digital images to look like Lomo Images was submitted by DPS reader - Frank Lazaro. You can see his photography at his Flickr page and see some of his Lomo shots here NB: most of the shots in this post can be enlarged by clicking them. update: once you’ve read this tutorial and had an experiment with the technique head to our Forum to share some of your results."

How to stream your iTunes library across the web for free

How to stream your iTunes library across the web for free - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW): "Mac OS X users and faithful readers of TUAW know that there is great power found in the command-line, but one of the greatest advantages of OS X's UNIX heritage is the secure shell (SSH) client and server. From the Apple Matters article on SSH tunnels for the common man: 'SSH is a network protocol that provides secure communication between two computers.' Its power comes from the ability to create an encrypted tunnel through which a client can send many types of internet traffic."

What is the Coolest Gadget You Have Ever Found on the Sidewalk?

What is the Coolest Gadget You Have Ever Found on the Sidewalk? - Locker Room: "I found this photo online. It's a photo of an old stereo system lying on the sidewalk. This inspired the question 'what is the most interesting gadget you have ever found on the sidewalk if any or the most interesting item you have ever found ?'

If you have ever lived in an urban environment, chances are you see some pretty interesting stuff just sitting there waiting to be hauled off to its landfill doom."

Hot jobs in a cool market: Tech-related professions in high demand in Indiana

The News and Tribune - Hot jobs in a cool market: Tech-related professions in high demand in Indiana: "The most in-demand professions in the state are computer-related, according to the third installment of Hoosier Hot 50 Jobs, a report released in December by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development."

22 Most Used Free Fonts By Professional Designers

22 Most Used Free Fonts By Professional Designers | instantShift: "As we already know that the fonts are one of the most important parts of every web Project and choosing them is quit a difficult job for a web designer if his understanding of Typography is low. Our Last post 21 Most Used Free Fonts By Professional Designers helps you to get familiar with most used fonts which is not freely available."

From Windows to Unix: a mental journey

» From Windows to Unix: a mental journey | Paul Murphy | ZDNet.com: "With IT, however, the job changes daily and you need leadership: the process of focusing more brains on goals; not management: the process of organizing hands to execute well understood processes. Thus the very basis of applying data processing methods, whether with zOS or Windows, is antithetical to the IT job - and therefore to Unix as a tool for doing the IT job. Basically, most corporate data processing is organized and equipped to pound square pegs into round holes - and thus the amazing thing about them isn’t that they constrain organizational change while costing too far too much and doing far too little, it’s that they work at all."

PC games deserving revival: Ghostmaster

PC Game Examiner: PC games deserving revival: Ghostmaster: "Ghostmaster looks and plays similarly to 'The Sims' -- except your job is to command a hoary host of undead to manipulate and scare the crap out of everyone. If you're the sort of gamer that enjoys torturing your Sims in The Sims, you should find Ghostmaster even more thrilling (you sicko)."

XUI | javascript micro-framework

XUI | javascript micro-framework: "We hear your words. Why another JavaScript framework?! When development of PhoneGap was under way we noticed slow load times for modern JavaScript frameworks (such as Prototype, MooTools, YUI, Ext and (yes) even jQuery. A big reason why these libraries are so big is because is mostly they contain a great deal of cross browser compatability code. The mobile space has less browser implementations (so far) and different needs. Thus XUI."

Avoiding The Uncanny Valley of User Interface

Coding Horror: Avoiding The Uncanny Valley of User Interface: "McCloud's book Understanding Comics was the first place I ran into a concept which is a sort of corollary to the Uncanny Valley. Call it Lake Empathy: If a character is very simple, more iconic than realistic, it's much easier for people to pour themselves into it -- to view it not as a third party, but instead as a personal avatar."

Unix sysadmins and their good/bad bosses

Unix sysadmins and their good/bad bosses | ITworld: "I've spent a lot of years of working under a variety of bosses, some good, some awful, some ok and some incredible. As a Unix systems administrator with more than 25 years of experience, I don't need to be told how to do my job, but I still depend on my boss in so many ways that my relationship with my boss is a large factor in how I rate my job. I'm not particular about many aspects of my job. I can work for a large company or a small one, an IT firm or one that uses IT to accomplish some non-IT function."

Five forgotten Apple products

Five forgotten Apple products | Macworld: "With any company that’s been around for more than 30 years—and with as many interesting, creative, and varied ideas Apple has had—there are bound to be a few Apple products that have slipped through history’s cracks. Along with its incredible successes, Apple has made its rightful share of clunkers and obscure products that quickly sunk to the bottom of the deep and vast ocean of public memory."

Simpler Java deployment?

Simpler Java deployment? | JavaWorld's Daily Brew: "“The service went down because another service running on the same application server went down.” “You can’t use the improved version of your programming language because you’re running on the same application server as some old applications.” “We can’t help you deploy your application on the applica"

MIT Breakthrough for Renewable Energy!

GreenEnergyTV - MIT Breakthrough for Renewable Energy!: "Is this the end to pollution? MIT chemists Daniel Nocera and Matthew Kanan discover a new catalyst that speeds up the splitting of water into oxygen and hydrogen."

Chesley Sullenberger, hero pilot of US Airways Flight 1549, gets warm welcome in Danville

Chesley Sullenberger, hero pilot of US Airways Flight 1549, gets warm welcome in Danville: "Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, the valiant pilot who saved the lives of all 155 passengers and crew when he crash-landed in New York's icy waters, made his first public statement and appearance in Danville, Calif., Saturday."

First South American Civilisation Wiped Out by Earthquake

First South American Civilisation Wiped Out by Earthquake: "About 3,800 years ago, residents of Supe Valley in Peru’s coastal desert, 120 miles north of Lima, had just created a flourishing society complete with tall pyramids (thousands of years before the Maya). They were fishing and growing cotton and vegetables, when disaster struck and the forces of nature wiped them out. Just like that. Earthquakes coupled with heavy rains destroyed their farmland and fishing grounds, and despite efforts to rebuild it 200 years later, the civilization never regained its splendour and importance."

Lego Batman and Robin Mosaic

Lego Batman and Robin Mosaic on Flickr - Photo Sharing!: "A Lego Batman and Robin Mosaic made for my son's 5th birthday."

Periodic Table Shower Curtain

Jason Bradbury - Periodic Table Shower Curtain: "Ever been lathering up and felt the need to better understand the relationship between Rare Earth Metals and Inert Elements? Me too."

The LOLrioKart

LOLrioKart | equals zero: "The plan is to motorize a found shopping cart in an overly dramatic fashion. For now, the rear axle will be solid, for wheel-skidding fun, and it will have a feature not found on too many quick-build go-karts - mechanical front braking. I decided to take the extra step of integrating mechanical braking into the front wheels since they could be used to perform tricks that require weight shifting under power - something which a simple rear axle sprocket brake cannot provide."

Hacker wins court review decision

BBC NEWS | UK | Hacker wins court review decision: "British hacker Gary McKinnon has won permission from the High Court to apply for a judicial review against his extradition to the United States."

Fighting Fat-Wallet Syndrome

Fighting Fat-Wallet Syndrome: "I don't know about your wallet, but mine contains a driver's license, three credit cards, two bank ATM cards, frequent-flier cards for three airlines and frequent-guest cards for three hotel chains, memberships cards to two airline clubs, a library card, a AAA card, a Costco membership, and a bunch of other ID-type cards."

Could Biodiesel Power Future Rockets?

ABC News: Could Biodiesel Power Future Rockets?: "Could future trips to space be powered by vegetable oil? In a test firing earlier this month, the California-based engineering firm Flometrics announced that commercially available biodiesel produced almost the same amount of thrust as conventional rocket fuel."

Suse Studio: Linux customization for the masses | The Open Road

Suse Studio: Linux customization for the masses | The Open Road - CNET News: "One of the great promises of software is its infinite malleability: software can be whatever you want, so long as you have the skills necessary (and legal rights) to modify it."

Top 10 Linux Games (FPS)

Top 10 Linux Games (FPS) « The Unter Hund Blog - Technology Reviews, How-To’s, Downloads, and Information: "Being an avid Linux user I hear lots of people complain that there are no good games for our operating system, so I have put together a top 10 list of the best FPS games in the spirit of proving them wrong. Most of these wonderful games are even free, so without further delay…"

Paul's Pontifications: The next challenge for Linux

Paul's Pontifications: The next challenge for Linux: "I was in the local branch of 'Currys' (UK electrical and electronic goods chain) recently and had a look at the line-up of computers. They had some little netbooks, and taped next to each one was a little note saying something to the effect of 'This runs Linux, so it won't run Windows software'. It was a local version of a wider story about Linux"

Russia to Develop Linux-based Alternative to Windows?

Russia to Develop Linux-based Alternative to Windows? - PC World: "Details are scarce, unless Russian is your language of choice, but CNews is reporting that Russia plans to develop its own national operating system. The move is designed to reduce Russia's need to rely on foreign software and licensing agreements. And the alleged 'open code' solution, likely a Linux/GNU derivative, will give Russia a greater degree of customization, as well as increased control over how the potentially free OS is used and accessed."

A beginner's guide to genetic engineering

A beginner's guide to genetic engineering -- part of Ifgene Students Help Desk: "The following guide assumes no previous knowledge of the subject."

Symbian S60 Phones at Risk, Malware Steals Money

Techtree.com India > News > Consumer Electronics > Symbian S60 Phones at Risk, Malware Steals Money: "The current version of the malware targets users belonging to an Indonesian mobile operator. What the program does is to send an automated text message authorizing the transfer of credits from one account to another. Of course, the 'another' account belongs to the fraudsters. The program transfers amounts to the tune of $0.45 to $0.90 per text message. The earlier versions of this program traced its origins back to Russia. After a lull of some years, fraudsters in Indonesia seem to have fancied their chances by developing this new 'customized for Indonesia' version of the software."

Bush May have Cheated Small Businesses Out of a Trillion Dollars in Contracts

Lloyd Chapman: Bush May have Cheated Small Businesses Out of a Trillion Dollars in Contracts: "There is no way to know exactly how many billions of dollars George W. Bush cheated American small businesses out of during his eight years in office. Officials in the Bush Administration went to extreme lengths to make it difficult, if not impossible to tell how many billions of dollars in government small business contracts were actually diverted to corporate giants around the world."

Use Vista's BitLocker with a USB Key

Hackszine.com: Use Vista's BitLocker with a USB Key: "Vista's BitLocker drive encryption is available in the Ultimate and Enterprise editions. To use it, you'll need a computer with a supported Trusted Platform Module (TPM), but even if you have one, it may not be enabled properly in your computer (in which case, you'll be waiting on your PC or motherboard vendor to update the BIOS)."

Alternative Energy - DC Bicycle Pedal Power Generator

Alternative Energy - DC Bicycle Pedal Power Generator: "Transform those calories into watts."

Gmail notifier project (for dummies)

gmail notifier project (for dummies) | Build it up to break it down again: "'ve been really interested in doing J4mie's Physical Gmail Notifier ever since it came out in February. I only recently dropped into the project and got to learn a lot about python, plists, and arduino auto-reset functionality. I'm going to share what I've learned because I think there are lots of other people out there struggling to make it work. This page doesn't really offer much that J4mie didn't already say - it just says it in a different way."

Lessons In Electric Circuits

Lessons In Electric Circuits: "A free series of textbooks on the subjects of electricity and electronics"

9,000 USB sticks abandoned in laundrettes

9,000 USB sticks abandoned in laundrettes: "'We conducted this survey to show people how easy it is to lose data, even in their local laundrette, and that none of us are infallible,' explained Michael Callahan, a senior Credant Technologies VP. 'If the data is sensitive or valuable then people should protect this information with encryption so no-one can access the data at any point - as it could easily end up in the wrong hands.'"

10 Awesome Ways to Integrate Twitter With Your Website

10 Awesome Ways to Integrate Twitter With Your Website - NETTUTS: "Web developers with social media savvy are in hot demand. Imagine what it would be like to promise your clients a web presence that is fully integrated with their Twitter strategy and makes it easier for their content to go viral on Twitter. Would be nice, no? Well -- why imagine? The tools for web developers to add a touch of Twitter to any site are out there and easy to use. Trust us -- your clients will love you for it!"

The Best Webcomics You're Not Reading

The Best Webcomics You're Not Reading - O'Reilly Broadcast: "At the Arisia Science Fiction Convention last weekend, I moderated a panel with SF Writer Lawrence Watt-Evans and comics fan Israel Peskowitz. We spent 45 minutes reeling off a list of the webcomics that we love, past and present. In no particular order (ok, in alphabetical order...), here's the list we came up with, along with the status of the comic when known. Remember, even when a comic is no longer active, it may have a huge archive worth perusing."

Laser Sponge

Kellbot! · Laser Sponge: "A friend of mine asked me to test out laser cutting on some compressed sponges, which she wants to use for a business card. It came out really well!"

C dominated 2008's open-source project nursery

C dominated 2008's open-source project nursery • The Register: "C overwhelmingly proved the most popular programming language for thousands of new open-source projects in 2008, according to license tracker Black Duck Software.

The company, which monitors 180,000 projects on nearly 4,000 sites, said almost half - 47 per cent - of new projects last year used C. Black Duck said 17,000 new open-source projects were created in total. Next in popularity after C came Java, with 28 per cent."

Bubbled Brayer Backgrounds

Bubbled Brayer Backgrounds - daisy yellow blog - art journaling . creativity . doodling . art with children: "You don't have to pop it to have fun with the bubble wrap."

Pedal Power in Paris

5 Blogs Before Lunch: Pedal Power in Paris: "A new trend is afoot in Paris. Pay-for-Pedal bicycles seem all the rage, available at a self-serve rental station near you. They're environmentally friendly, cheap to rent, and subsidized by advertising."

Securing PHP Web Applications: Cross-Site Scripting

InformIT: Securing PHP Web Applications: Cross-Site Scripting > What Is XSS?: "In this chapter, we cover a special type of injection attack called cross-site scripting, or XSS. This is a special type of code injection attack (remember those from Chapter 5, “Input Validation”?) that doesn’t affect your system as much as it affects your users. Our example guestbook is exactly the type of site that is vulnerable to these attacks."

Wherever You Go, There They Are: The Perils of Cross-Site Tracking

InformIT: Wherever You Go, There They Are: The Perils of Cross-Site Tracking > Prevalence on the Web: "In the early days of the Web, your web browser visited the server(s)of only a single company. Times have changed. Websites are intentionally instrumented to share information about your visit with third parties, including information aggregators, advertisers, media content suppliers, and free service providers. Greg Conti examines this practice and offers ways to block, or at least minimize, it."

Dugg Down: Digg to Reduce Staff, Aim for Profitability

Digg to Reduce Staff, Aim for Profitability: "News aggregation and social networking site Digg announces a staff reduction in the face of flattening traffic in an effort to achieve profitability in 2009"

DIY Marquee LED Array Display

NerdKits - DIY Marquee LED Array Display: "Have you ever wanted to have one of those big scrolling LED displays, to keep you up to date on e-mails, news, weather, or stock quotes? In this video, we'll show you how to build an array of 120 LEDs, how to control them all from one microcontroller, and how to talk to it from your computer."

YouTube Expands Video Click-To-Buy Ad Program

NewsFactor Network | YouTube Expands Video Click-To-Buy Ad Program: "YouTube is expanding its click-to-buy advertising program to Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. Among the YouTube click-to-buy partners are Amazon and Apple, Inc.'s iTunes Store. YouTube said its click-to-buy program boosted sales of Monty Python DVDs 23,000 percent on Amazon. YouTube's goal is to create additional revenue."

Pirating the 2009 Oscars

Pirating the 2009 Oscars - Waxy.org: "I've been tracking the distribution of Oscar-nominated films every year, culminating with the release of six years of piracy data last year. I've updated those spreadsheets with this year's 26 nominees, for a total of 211 films from the last seven years.

You can view or download all the data below, including a second sheet with some interesting aggregate stats. As always, I'll keep it updated until the Oscar broadcast."

How to Pick a Language

How to Pick a Language: "How do you pick a programming language, to learn or to use for a project?

This article probably overlaps a lot with what others have already said on this topic. But I try to add a categorization of programming languages that reflects the way they are discussed on blogs and discussion sites. I think these categories are often implicit in discussions on the programming sub-reddit, Hacker News, or Lambda the Ultimate, but never made explicit for the benefit of younger developers."

Hot skils: MySQL 5.1

Hot skils: MySQL 5.1 | 22 Jan 2009 | ComputerWeekly.com: "Gartner's November 2008 report 'The Growing Maturity of Open-Source Database Management Systems' found 'a 50% increase from 2007 to 2008 in the usage of open source DBMSs in production' -although Gartner cautioned that the study only included organizations that currently used some form of open-source product."

Online in a downturn

Online in a downturn – the top 20 trends -: "After almost a decade of strong growth, the online sector faces its first major recesson. The experts are bracing for a tough year, but some products and services will still thrive. We outline the top 20 trends that every business owner needs to come to grips with."

Obama Action Figure

DiD US Presidential Election 2008　バラク・オバマ: "Don't mess with the O."

Open source and Java feel first Sun cuts

Open source and Java feel first Sun cuts • The Register: "Sun Microsystems axed 1,300 employees on Thursday, the first wave in a series of planned redundancies intended to cut head count by almost a fifth."

Gaze at the stars in Hoshizora Navi, feel like an insignificant speck

Gaze at the stars in Hoshizora Navi, feel like an insignificant speck - DS Fanboy: "From this March, DS owners in Japan will be able to navigate the night skies, thanks to astronomy magazine publisher Astroarts. Hoshizora Navi (Starry Sky Navigator) was first revealed in March 2008, but now an official site has opened, rich with details."

Creative solutions in tough times

Creative solutions in tough times - International Herald Tribune: "They cost more than the people who need them can afford. They belch out noxious fumes. They often cause fires, and it isn't safe to leave kids alone with them in case they accidentally burn themselves, or drink poisonous fluid."

How to Use Twitter for Information Mining

SANS Internet Storm Center; Cooperative Network Security Community - Internet Security - isc: "Twitter is fun. It's also a powerful research tool. People increasingly use Twitter to share advice, opinions, news, moods, concerns, facts, rumors, and everything else imaginable. Much of that data is public and available for mining."

Functional JavaScript: Harnessing the power of the Function Object

Functional JavaScript: Harnessing the power of the Function Object: "The JavaScript language can operate equally well within many of the major programming paradigms. The first programming model most students learn is Procedural Programming; so called because procedures (functions) are used to group similar functionality. JavaScript also supports most of the features of the Object-Oriented (OO) model, such as encapsulation, modularity, polymorphism and inheritance."

Even Ubuntu’s founder likes Windows 7

Even Ubuntu’s founder likes Windows 7: "Oh Windows 7, is there anyone who doesn’t like you, other than John Biggs? In an interview, Mark Shuttleworth, the founder and head MF in charge of popular Linux distro Ubuntu, had many nice things to say about the newest OS on the block. He says it’ll bring a new kind of competition to the table."

Why do freeways come to a stop?

1,000,000 Snowmen Strong

The Dark Art of Interrogation

The Dark Art of Interrogation - The Atlantic (October 2003): "On what may or may not have been a Saturday, on what may have been March 1, in a house in this city that may have been this squat two-story white one belonging to Ahmad Abdul Qadoos, with big gray-headed crows barking in the front yard, the notorious terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was roughly awakened by a raiding party of Pakistani and American commandos. Anticipating a gunfight, they entered loud and fast. Instead they found him asleep. He was pulled from his bed, hooded, bound, hustled from the house, placed in a vehicle, and driven quickly away."

14 “OTHER” Ways to Use RSS Feeds

14 “OTHER” Ways to Use RSS Feeds | MakeUseOf.com: "Undeniably RSS is one of the best things that has happened to the web after email. Not only has it made browsing a lot more productive, convenient, fun … you name it, but it has also introduced a number of new ways to interact with content that we could never have imagined before. While you’re most probably already familiar with the idea of RSS feeds and Feedreader (No? See this video) , there are several other ways you can make use of feeds."

Running a Drupal website on Amazon EC2

Running a Drupal website on Amazon EC2 | Sunset Lake Software: "As I described in my previous post, this website is currently running on Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). The underlying architecture of the site is based on the Drupal content management system, something that I've also described previously. I was not completely happy with the performance of my previous host (Media Temple), and Amazon EC2 promises to give you the ability to host a virtual machine running whatever you want within Amazon's data centers. You get access to the bandwidth and processing power of a huge online business, but you only pay for what you use."

Automating Data Visualization with Ruby and Graphviz

Automating Data Visualization with Ruby and Graphviz - OmniNerd: "I often have the need to visualize data from the enterprise resource planning system we use at work. For those not familiar, an ERP is a collection of servers and software that essentially create a common environment for people to monitor and plan a business. One of the downsides I’ve ran into with our ERP system is that the data within is huge, complex, and not easy to visualize."

The Inauguration of President Barack Obama

The Inauguration of President Barack Obama - The Big Picture - Boston.com: "Yesterday was a historic day. On January 20th, 2009, Barack H. Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America - the first African-American ever to hold the office of U.S. Commander-in-Chief. The event was witnessed by well over one million attendees in chilly Washington D.C., and by many millions more through coverage on television and the Internet. Collected here are photographs of the event, the participants, and some of the witnesses around the world."

Twitter API Gets Limited; Will It Hurt App Growth?

Twitter API Gets Limited; Will It Hurt App Growth?: "“Starting later this week we’ll be limiting those on the whitelist to 20,000 requests per hour. Yes, you read that right: twenty THOUSAND requests per hour. According to our logs, this accounts for all but the very largest consumers of our API. This is essentially a preventative measure to ensure that no one API client, even a whitelisted account or IP, can consume an inordinate amount of our resoures.”"

50 Extremely Useful PHP Tools

50 Extremely Useful PHP Tools | Developer's Toolbox | Smashing Magazine: "PHP is one of the most widely used open-source server-side scripting languages that exist today. With over 20 million indexed domains using PHP, including major websites like Facebook, Digg and WordPress, there are good reasons why many Web developers prefer it to other server-side scripting languages, such as Python and Ruby."

Sun releases open fork of Sun Java System Web Server

Sun releases open fork of Sun Java System Web Server - News - heise open source UK: "Sun Microsystems has released the open source fork of its Sun Java System Web Server 7.0 (SJSWS) as Open Web Server 1.0. Open Web Server is a BSD licensed fork of Sun's proprietary web server, previously known as Sun ONE Web Server, or iPlanet Web Server, and originally developed by Netscape as Netscape Enterprise Server. Sun plans to continue development of SJSWS and say it may integrate features and bug fixes into the Open Web Server project, as well as adding enhancements from the open source version."

Scripting with Guile

Scripting with Guile: "Scheme is a programming language, but Guile—an interpreter and library for Scheme—transforms it into an embedded scripting language, making it ideal for bringing dynamic new life to your static applications. Take a quick tour of Guile, and discover its powerful features for building extensible applications."

Woman blames Dell for missing online classes

WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports -27 News Troubleshooter: Woman blames Dell for missing online classes: "Abbie Schubert paid more than $1,100 for a Dell laptop hoping to enroll in online classes at Madison Area Technical College, or MATC.

But something stopped her: she bought an operating system for her computer she never heard of, Ubuntu.

That's an operating system for your computer similar to Windows that contains Linux. It's highly regarded among some people and extremely popular with certain circles of computer users because it's free."

40 Mind-blowing Digital Space Paintings

40 Mind-blowing Digital Space Paintings - PSDTUTS: "Some of the world's most stunning visions of space are made possible with Photoshop. The ability to combine vibrant colors, photo manipulations and ethereal effects makes the software ideal for this kind of work. Here are 40 incredible visions of space from four extremely talented Photoshop artists."

Automate packing multiple images into one and CSS generation

My experiments with .Net : Automate packing multiple images into one and CSS generation: "CSS sprites is a technique used to minimize the number of external image downloads required for a web page to load completely. If you aren't already aware of the technique, refer to this excellent article by Dave Shea."

Steve Souders: "High Performance Web Sites: 14 Rules for Faster Pages" on Yahoo! Video

Steve Souders: "High Performance Web Sites: 14 Rules for Faster Pages" on Yahoo! Video: "Steve Souders is Yahoo's chief guru in the art and science of web performance and the author of the YSlow plugin for Firebug; he is the author of High Performance Web Sites, a forthcoming title from O'Reilly (bonus points if you can guess which animal O'Reilly's editors chose for the cover of this one...). For the past three years, Steve has led a team investigating the root causes of poor page performance and applying the lessons learned to Yahoo!'s high-traffic, media-rich properties."

Steve Souders: "High Performance Web Sites: 14 Rules for Faster Pages" @ Yahoo! Video

Top 50 movie special effects shots

Top 50 movie special effects shots - Den of Geek: "This is not a list of 'iconic' SFX shots, such as the opening shot in Star Wars or the final shot in Back To The Future, etc. There are many fantastic SFX shots in cinema history that are artistically 'awesome' without qualifying here. For the purposes of this list, a shot has to be either a) exceptionally convincing, b) ground-breaking or c) an exemplary execution of an oft-used technique. Only one shot is allowed per film."

Easy DIY Home Automation (using servo switches)

Easy DIY Home Automation (using servo switches): "This Instructable is all about one of life's simple actions, flipping a light switch on and off.

At oomlout we do it many times a day, so many in fact it came to a point where we asked ourselves 'Can't we get an Arduino to do this?'. Of course we can, what follows is how we went about doing it."

The First-Timer’s Guide to Participating at Burning Man

The First-Timer’s Guide to Participating at Burning Man: "As my fellow burner Merv Swankerton always says, trying to explain Burning Man to someone who has never been, is like trying to explain color to a blind person."

32 Ways to Make Someone Happy Today

32 Ways to Make Someone Happy Today | Zen Habits: "Just thought I’d give all of you a nice list of things to think about. This isn’t an in-depth post, but more of a thought for the day — is there someone you’d like to make happy today?"

Lists of keyboard modifiers in the Flash CS4 motion model

Lists of keyboard modifiers in the Flash CS4 motion model - lets you do more stuff - Flashthusiast: "That’s right - do you want to do more “stuff” with your tweens? Often you have to know what keyboard modifiers to use, because functionality is not revealed in any other way. These modifiers are all documented, but I thought I would put them down in a handy list you could reference or print out (or whatever you want to do)."

7 Useful Google Talk Bots That You Must Add as Friends

7 Useful Google Talk Bots That You Must Add as Friends | The Best Article Every day: "You can do lot of interesting stuff with Google Talk like get alert notifications, save bookmarks to delicious, manage web calendars, set reminders, write blogs, and so much more.

Such features can be easily integrated into Google Talk through ‘bots’ which, in simple English, are like virtual friends who are online 24×7 and will always respond with a smile to your questions or requests."

Rules of Database App Aging

Rules of Database App Aging - Push cx: "I mentioned I’ve learned some rules of how database apps change over time, now that I’ve done a few dozen."

Learning Should Be Fun

School of Everything | Learning Should Be Fun: "When you learn a new thing, or get a surprise, there is a shot of a chemical messenger in your brain called dopamine. Dopamine is famous among neuroscientists for its involvement in the reward and motivation systems of the brain."

How Barack Obama Works

HowStuffWorks "How Barack Obama Works": "Throughout­ the first half deca­de of the 21st century, the Republican Party controlled Congress and the White House. The voting public perceived that Congress was making little progress in addressing issues, however [source: Murray]. When the 2006 Congressional elections rolled around, the Democrats won both the House and Senate back. To the Democrats, it was a clear mandate: 'The American people have spoken clearly and decisively in favor of Democrats leading this country in a new direction,' said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid [source: Los Angeles Times]."

Ridiculous Rocket & Jet-Powered Vehicles

Ridiculous Rocket & Jet-Powered Vehicles | WebUrbanist: "Why would a portable toilet need a jet engine and wheels? Jet and rocket engines are appearing in the most unexpected of places for reasons most people simply can’t comprehend. As examine these ridiculous, bizarre and in some cases incredibly dangerous DIY creations, you’ll be tempted to question the purpose of these objects and shake your head at the waste of fossil fuels. Perhaps more important is the amazing fact that all of the people who have taken these jet-powered contraptions on test drives lived to tell the tale."

Ten Simple Ways to Make Your Boss Think You’re Brilliant (And Indispensible)

Ten Simple Ways to Make Your Boss Think You’re Brilliant (And Indispensible) | Dumb Little Man: "Sure, it's a means to an end and everyone has to go above and beyond when needed. However, wouldn't it be nice to have a little help along the way? Here are ten simple, no-effort ways that will make your boss think you’re both indispensable and brilliant"

The History of Python: Python's Design Philosophy

The History of Python: Python's Design Philosophy: "First of all, Python was originally conceived as a one-person “skunkworks” project – there was no official budget, and I wanted results quickly, in part so that I could convince management to support the project (in which I was fairly successful). This led to a number of timesaving rules"

Digg website crashes

TG Daily - Digg website crashes: "At approximately 3:55pm CST today, Digg's website became inaccessible from the outside for 10 minutes. Digg's main pages were affected, as were its services. Those websites (like TG Daily) which link to Digg for article digg counts and upcoming articles on Digg (panel along the right side of TG Daily), had their web page load times significantly impeded during this"

Twitter surpasses Digg's market share | Digital Media - CNET News

Hitwise: Twitter surpasses Digg's market share | Digital Media - CNET News: "Could the odd confluence of a US Airways jet crash-landing in the Hudson River and Barack Obama's presidential inauguration finally push Twitter over the top and into the broad mainstream consciousness?"

Concurrent Programming on Windows: Synchronization and Time

InformIT: Concurrent Programming on Windows: Synchronization and Time > Managing Program State: "Joe Mayo takes a look at state and synchronization at a fairly high level. He reviews the three general approaches to managing state in a concurrent system and looks at the relationship between state, control flow, and the impact on coordination among concurrent threads."

Cadillac One, Obama's Tough Ride [IMG]

"If you want an 'indestructible' car, buy American."

20 Awesome Robot Tattoos

Botropolis » Blog Archive » 20 Awesome Robot Tattoos: "Robots have invaded our bodies. No, I’m not talking some frakkin skinjob like on Battlestar Galactica. I’m talking about robot tattoos. You really have to love robots a whole lot to permanently put one on your body. That kind of devotion might just pay off one day too. Those who carry the mark of the bot may be spared on that future day of reckoning when the rest of us are all just charred corpses."

SAP pays Sun to keep older versions of Java up to date

heise online - SAP pays Sun to keep older versions of Java up to date: "SAP is paying Sun Microsystems to keep the older version 1.4.2 of Java up to date. The two companies have made an agreement covering several years, under which, users of the NetWeaver middleware platform can take advantage of Sun's Java Standard Edition for Business."

Real Virtual Skater

Real Virtual Skater: "Converting a real skateboard into a game controller.
Taking a real skateboard and using it to control and 'ride' the game 'Tony Hawk Pro Skater' (THPS)"

Satellites help locate water in Niger

ESA Portal - Satellites help locate water in Niger: "Like most sub-Saharan African countries, Niger faces problems meeting its water needs. As part of ESA’s TIGER initiative, satellite data are being used to identify surface and underground water resources in the drought-prone country."

Six ways to speed up Yum on Fedora

Six ways to speed up Yum on Fedora: "I’ve been using Fedora (Core and all) on and off for a few years now and its parsimonious attitudes to codecs notwithstanding, the thing that always reduces me to a whimpering, pleading wreck is watching Yum installing a piece of software. I can forgive its tendency to handhold and even to confabulate, but Yum moves with all the speed of a treacle flow at the North Pole. Apt-get has already done its stuff and gone home for tea but Yum is still setting the table and polishing the silver. Once you’ve used Yum for a while you will know why it puts the V in verbose. Is there anyway to get this package manager off the sofa and into the gym for some serious exercise?"

Making eye candy for GRUB

Making eye candy for GRUB: "One of the cool things about custom distributions of GNU/Linux is that they usually have better “eye-candy”. However, it’s not really that hard to provide your own. If you are setting up a multiple boot system, the GRUB boot menu will be an important startup step; remarkably enough, it is possible to include some graphics even as early as the boot menu."

What Should I Do with My Life, Now?

What Should I Do with My Life, Now?: "Six years ago, the tech economy had crashed, the economy was stalled, and 9-11 had radically altered the nation's mood. The New Year came around, always a time of introspection and goal-setting. At that very moment, my article [1], and my book [2] by the same name, 'What Should I Do With My Life?,' were simultaneously published, triggering an enormous response: the vast majority were inspired to challenge their thinking, while at the same time there was a healthy push-back to the article's thesis."

MP3 Grenade!

MP3 Grenade! » NYC Resistor » Electronics, Hacking, Classes, and Workspace.: "One cold day in november members of NYC Resistor received a nondescript box… There were no markings on the box that could identify any specific member at NYC Resistor to which it had been sent. They opened it to find what appeared to be 4 hand grenades."

If You Commit a Felony, Don’t Google It or You’ll Go to Jaill

Geeks meme » If You Commit a Felony, Don’t Google It or You’ll Go to Jail [Google]: "Francisco-based investment banker with a history of DUIs. On Jan. 11, 2005, he killed 55-year-old Gurdeep Kaur in a hit-and-run with his Jaguar. Google got him convicted.

Harbert claimed he thought he'd hit a deer, which meant he wouldn't have needed to stop and help the person he mowed down, and police had originally said they were looking for a burgundy Jag, while his was black, so he had no idea what he'd done."

Bruce Lee and The Chinese Popeye(Dragon Lives Again,1976)

YouTube - Bruce Lee and The Chinese Popeye(Dragon Lives Again,1976): "Popeye helping his buddy,Bruce Lee!!!"

Quick Tricks With 7-Up

Quick Tricks With 7-Up : TipNut.com: "Here’s a tip page from a vintage cookbook using 7-Up in a variety of ways you may not have thought of."

BSG:Worst Commercial Placement Ever

YouTube - Worst Commercial Placement Ever: "I was watching Battlestar Galactica when this came on and the upload was unavoidable."

Teacher fired for using duct tape on student

Teacher fired for using duct tape on student -- chicagotribune.com: "The school board voted 5-2 Wednesday night to cancel the contract of Pamela Dahnke, an eighth-grade health and nutrition teacher at Battle Ground Middle School. Placing duct tape over the student's mouth 'cannot be tolerated,' Supt. Scott Hanback said in a letter to the board."

28 AJAX Scripts for Designers

28 AJAX Scripts for Designers | Outlaw Design Blog - A Graphic Design Blog: "Some simple Ajax scripts can go a long way in your design. These simple elements can help improve your user experience, make the site more sensible, or just give it some added flare. Here are a few of our favorite Tool Tips, Lightboxes, Galleries, and Tabs."

How to make Windows XP last for the next seven years

How to make Windows XP last for the next seven years: "Windows Vista may be shiny and brand new, but as plenty of PC users will tell you, sometimes newer isn't better. Many PCs simply don't have the horsepower to run the new operating system, and even those that have the juice may get bogged down by processor-and RAM-hungry Vista."

Philips Cinema 21:9 TV stretches the meaning of widescreen

DVICE: Philips Cinema 21:9 TV stretches the meaning of widescreen: "You may have noticed that when you watch a blockbuster movie on DVD — like, say, The Dark Knight — you still see black bars on the top and bottom of your widescreen TV. That's because a lot of films are shot in aspect ratios that are more 'cinematic' than your typical HDTV show. If movies like this are pretty much all you watch, you'll like Philips' latest announcement: a TV with an ultra-wide shape."

7 Reasons Why I Stopped Using Ubuntu

7 Reasons Why I Stopped Using Ubuntu : UNFQ.COM: "I have been using Ubuntu Linux as my main operating system for the past three years. I switched to it because I liked that it was more secure, it ran great, and I could do everything I needed to do quicker and easier than under Windows XP. A bonus was that Ubuntu Linux was free.

That began to change a few months ago and a couple of weeks ago, I finally made the switch over to Windows Vista. I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised with Windows Vista and how well it performs and handles. I think Vista has gotten a bad rap(maybe deservedly so). I’ve been testing Windows 7 and it improves upon Vista and looks to be the OS of the future."

Building desktop Linux applications with JavaScript

Building desktop Linux applications with JavaScript: Page 1: "During his keynote presentation at OSCON last year, Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth described application extensibility as an important enabler of innovation and user empowerment. Citing the Firefox web browser and its rich ecosystem of add-ons as an example, Shuttleworth suggested that the Linux community could deliver a lot of extra value by making scriptable automation and plugin capabilities available pervasively across the entire desktop stack."

Learn How to Create a Fiery Demon Montage

Learn How to Create a Fiery Demon Montage - PSDTUTS: "In this tutorial, we'll be creating a photo montage of a demon destroying a city using only stock photos and of course Photoshop. What are we waiting for? Lets get started!"

Your Crappy Eyesight Wastes HDTV's Potential

Your Crappy Eyesight Wastes HDTV's Potential | Maximum PC: "Having trouble seeing what all the fuss is about after buying a new HDTV? Better get your eyes checked, says Vision Express. According to a study by the UK optometry chain, as many as one-third of adults and children are in need of glasses, contact lenses, or a stronger prescription in order to take advantage of the higher resolutions offered by high definition displays."

What Is Agile Testing, Anyway?

InformIT: What Is Agile Testing, Anyway? > Agile Values: "Like a lot of terminology, “agile development” and “agile testing” mean different things to different people. In this chapter, the authors explain their view of agile, which reflects the Agile Manifesto and general principles and values shared by different agile methods. They want to share a common language with you, the reader, so they’ll go over some of our vocabulary. They compare and contrast agile development and testing with the more traditional phased approach. The “whole team” approach promoted by agile development is central to their attitude toward quality and testing, so they also talk about that here."

The beauty of poo glass

Kitengela Glass Studios - Homepage: "Kitengela Glass is located opposite the Nairobi National Park, at the end of a rough road. Despite this, the constant stream of visitors from all over the world never stops. The magical ambience of the place is peppered with sculptures, animals and secret mosaic pathways which lead to niches of busy artisans all transforming recycled glass and scraps of other materials into beautiful artworks, jewellery and home ware."

Some Linux Apps

Commonality - Some Linux Apps I Discovered Recently: "Recently, however, I’ve been spending a lot more time on Linux as it’s been very helpful for my work: I put all kinds of test servers and tools there that I use during my java/.NET work. Because of this, I’ve been looking to improve my list of useful Linux applications, and I’ve found a few that I’ve liked well enough."

MySQL Replication: Audit, Test, & Verify

Webcast - MySQL Replication: Audit, Test, & Verify: "MySQL replication is fairly easy to set up, but in the real world many obstacles can get in the way of keeping it up and running smoothly. One problem that seems to bog down a lot of DBAs is the slaves getting out of sync with the master. If you're lucky you would be alerted with an error in your slave log file, and can then track down that problem. But sometimes it drifts out of sync silently. Both are situations you want to avoid. In this live online event, we'll talk about why this happens, both in terms of things that happen in the application and in MySQL's implementation of statement-based replication. We'll then discuss a method to eliminate the problem by testing and verifying your current setup."

U-Fizz, add fizz to any drink

U-Fizz - Science Gifts - Edmund Scientific: "Use this fun device to test the capabilities of CO2. Using the U-Fizz tube plus vinegar and baking soda you provide, you can try to make anything fizz."

Cant stand modern animation

Cant stand modern animation: "The 67-year-old Oscar-winning master animator known for his hand-drawn movies said in a newspaper interview on Sunday he hasn't seen any of the major digitally animated films in the last two decades.

'I can't stand modern movies. The images are too weird and eccentric for me,' Miyazaki told Hong Kong's Sunday Morning Post in an interview to promote his latest movie, 'Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.'"

Our world may be a giant hologram

Our world may be a giant hologram - space - 15 January 2009 - New Scientist: "For the past seven years, this German set-up has been looking for gravitational waves - ripples in space-time thrown off by super-dense astronomical objects such as neutron stars and black holes. GEO600 has not detected any gravitational waves so far, but it might inadvertently have made the most important discovery in physics for half a century."

How to sell Linux to institutions - Listening with your Ears and Not your Mouth

Dihydrogen Monoxide: How to sell Linux to institutions - Listening with your Ears and Not your Mouth: "A common mistake I've seen in the last 10 years of Linux coming up in the world is one thing, a total lack of business acumen. It is obvious that Linux will move into the office space sooner or later after it addresses common project practices that institutions need done. Unfortunately the only thing going for it currently is the 'Wow it's free' factor. Behind that there are a thousand voices all pulling that OS in a million directions. It's great because it drives the technology into spaces that otherwise it would have never gone. But it causes a real problem getting a coherent message to anybody about what Linux actually does."

Panoramic photos in Ubuntu

myBitBox » Panoramic photos in Ubuntu: "I keep seeing these commercials for Windows Vista and their new panoramic photo maker. Knowing how the Linux hacker scene is, anything that someone makes there is almost guaranteed to be a Linux project to make something close. Well guess what, there is a really easy way to make panoramic photos from multiple still shots in Ubuntu! Further, not only am I going to tell you how to do this, I will show you with some shots of my own."