Soccer Hero

YouTube - Kasabian Football Hero: "An experiment to create a giant (three stories high!) guitar game controlled with footballs. Football Hero is played by a team of insanely gifted young freestyle footballers. The game is programmed with the Kasabian track Underdog."

Object Orientated Programming- The Banking Application - Login

Object Orientated Programming- The Banking Application - Login: "In this article, we discuss the login portion of our banking application. The whole point of this application is to try to simulate an actual banking system, and at the same time to use all the knowledge that we’ve gained about Object Orientated Programming so far. I should also state that this is but one of many ways in which a banking application can be created. We will also be discussing some additional OOP concepts that we have not looked at yet."

phpFox, a Social Networking CMS with all the Bells and Whistles

Review: phpFox, a Social Networking CMS with all the Bells and Whistles: "I've worked with Vignette's StoryServer, Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress, Elgg and Dolphin, but after working with Benc Enterprises' phpFox for the last week, I am ready to drop all the others and dive into the world of social networking sites. This CMS has everything a developer needs to create a top of the line social networking site with all the features that users have come to expect from sites like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn."

DIY Meat Hand

not martha - Meat Hand: "Since August I've had a post it note over my desk that simply said 'meat hand'. I mulled over how to make it for a while. I realized that the old formed inside a plastic glove thing wouldn't work since the fingers would cook so much faster than the rest of the hand. It wasn't until I saw this hand gelatin mold that I had my plan"

Quick Halloween Costume Ideas for that Last Minute Costume

Quick Halloween Costume Ideas for that Last Minute Costume: "Looking for that last minute costume idea? You've come to the right place! Homemade costumes almost always win the contest because they are unique. Sometimes though it is too late for that and you need something quick, easy, yet still clever! Here are some ideas with things that you may already have around the house."

Brain Cake

Brain Cake: "Making a Brain cake is fun, cheap and great for Halloween parties or get-togethers. This is a basic instructable to show you how to make the details for this cake, the size and shape depends on your preferences. You can do similar designs for cupcakes or even flat cakes depending on what best fits your needs. This cake is made from two 8 inch pan cakes that were cut and assembled together to make a more realistic brain cake. The gore is also optional, although it does make the cake look more grusome and realistic."

Nintendo DSi LL Officially Revealed

Nintendo DSi LL Officially Revealed - eXophase.com: "Nintendo of Japan has lifted the lid on its supersized, eyesight-friendly DSi, first mentioned in a Nikkei report earlier this week. Dubbed DSi LL, the unit is slated for a release in the region on November 21. Sporting the same internal specifications as the original DSi, it sports two considerably larger 4.2 inch screens and will set those interested back 20,000 yen ($220). Aside from the obvious size difference with this unit, cosmetically the only other change is a slight variation in the placement of speaker holes. The included stylus is also jumbo-sized, which we suppose is fitting."

Open-Source Obama

Open-Source Obama - Computerworld Blogs: "The U.S. government has long used open-source software. Beowulf, the popular Linux-based clustering and super-computer program, for example, got its start at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Under President Obama, open-source software though is showing up in more and more places."

All Aboard! Clever Recycled Train Car Homes, Offices & Hotels

All Aboard! Clever Recycled Train Car Homes, Offices & Hotels | WebUrbanist: "Railroad cars are big, heavy, and cumbersome. They’re notoriously hard to move into new locations off of their tracks, and because of their odd shape most people wouldn’t think of using them for anything else anyway. But in the spirit of recycling, green construction and shipping container homes, some enterprising people are recycling old train cars into homes, offices and even hotels."

Implement access control with Agavi

Implement access control with Agavi: "Agavi is an open-source, flexible, and scalable framework for application development. One of its key features is a full-featured API for user authentication and role-based access control. Examine this API in detail, and see how to add sophisticated application-level privilege management and manipulation to a Web application."

Benchmarking Windows 7: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger? : New Means Better, Right?

Benchmarking Windows 7: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger? : New Means Better, Right? - Review Tom's Hardware: "Perhaps Microsoft’s end-of-life announcement for that venerable operating system had something to do with the rise in popularity of Windows Vista. Or maybe high-end users simply wanted to enjoy the newer features, such as its Aero visual enhancement, as well as Media Center, available to Home Premium and Ultimate buyers. However, a few of Vista’s nagging problems have persisted, including slow loading times, a ravenous appetite for RAM, and the need for even more RAM to minimize those slow loading times via SuperFetch."

Best Police Force in The World

This police force will kill you... for so much laughing.

Arduino controlled Silly String shooter

Arduino controlled Silly String shooter: "This is a fun device that's very simple to make."

Color design in It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Color design in It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: "Bill Melendez's 1966 television animated special It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown may not seem the obvious choice for a study in color theory. The Peanuts shorts from that era are usually considered beloved yet simple children's fare. In animation circles these specials are often footnoted as being produced quickly and on the cheap. While it is certainly true that The Great Pumpkin is not high art, it has endeared itself into the collective holiday psyche of Americans since the late 1960s. Such an emotional attachment stems from the familiarity of the characters, the breezy quality of the music, the innocence of the voice acting, and also - I believe - the use and direction of color."

10 Tips for Navigating the Waters of Life

10 Tips for Navigating the Waters of Life: "While some of us might fit the stereotype of Jeff Spicoli beach bums who don’t care about anything other than riding waves, there is an entirely spiritual and zen side to the sport of surfing that gives us a chance to really understand how to navigate the waters of life. In fact one of the most common things you’ll hear a surfer say when asked about how much time they spend in the water is “Of course I surf every day that I can, it keeps you from going nuts.” So, here it is, in no particular order:"

Plotting Geographical Data using Basemap

Plotting Geographical Data using Basemap: "This article by Sandro Tosi is dedicated to Basemap, a Matplotlib toolkit to draw geographical data.

We can use Matplotlib to draw on geographical map projections using the Basemap external toolkit. Basemap provides an efficient way to draw Matplotlib plots over real world maps."

Open source advocate calls for Microsoft version of Linux

Open source advocate calls for Microsoft version of Linux ( - Software - Operating systems, non-Windows ): "A lot of open source advocates like to rage against the machine at Microsoft, but when a former Microsoft Research employee says that Windows 7 won't stop Linux from market domination, that's an opinion to note. Keith Curtis, author of the book After the Software Wars, says just that. But he goes further. He thinks Microsoft and its customers would be better off if the company ditched Windows and instead built its own version of the Linux operating system."

How to Defrag a Linux System

Q and A - How to Defrag a Linux System - Question - NYTimes.com: "Ubuntu Linux uses a different file system, or method of storing and organizing data, than other operating systems do. Most Ubuntu systems use the ext3 file system, which does not need regular defragmentation like a Windows system does."

Gomora Giant Animatronic Monster Costume

Gomora Giant Animatronic Monster Costume: "Tsuburaya Productions has released a video of their new Gomora animatronic monster suit being tested out in a parking lot. Gomora is one of the Dekaiju featured in the Japanese television series Ultraman."

Ghostbusters Proton Pack with Arduino and LASERS!

Ghostbusters Proton Pack with Arduino and LASERS!: "Last year, I was a Ghostbuster for Halloween. It was pretty cool, but I had some problems with the costume. I decided to do it again, but get it right this time. I picked up a khaki flight suit instead of blue coveralls, built a trap and some ecto goggles, and made some major refinements to proton pack. Here I will share with you how I went about the various improvements to my costume."

Boston Dynamics introduces bipedal robot PETMAN

Boston Dynamics introduces bipedal robot PETMAN: "Engineering and robotics design company Boston Dynamics has produced a new anthropomorphic human robot. The new bipedal robot will be used to test chemical protection clothing used by the U.S. Army."

'Wallace and Gromit' gadget cooks full breakfast automatically

'Wallace and Gromit' gadget cooks full breakfast automatically - Telegraph: "A contraption in the style of Wallace and Gromit has been built which cooks breakfast automatically, including an omelette, toast and freshly squeezed orange juice."

How to Fulfill Your Passion for Design Without Starving: Networking

How to Fulfill Your Passion for Design Without Starving: Networking » Curbly | DIY Design Community « Keywords: development, work, career: "The advice, do what you love, is actually completely crap advice. Sure, you should do what you love, but you can’t do it all the time. And you usually can’t get paid for it. And all of this is okay."

10 reasons Ubuntu 9.10 will be a game changer for business

10 reasons Ubuntu 9.10 will be a game changer for business | 10 Things | TechRepublic.com: "October 29, 2009. Mark your calendars, people, because that is the day the Linux landscape will shift, and the bar will be raised. Why do I say this? Ubuntu Karmic Koala is released that day and, even without reading between any lines, you can easily see where Canonical is taking its flagship operating system: Business and enterprise."

Model, UV, and Texture a Complete Manga Character in Blender

Model, UV, and Texture a Complete Manga Character in Blender – Day 2 - Cgtuts+: "Creating a 3d character that is equipped to be animated is one of the most challenging things you can do in CG, and to make matters worse, it has always been equally challenging to find any comprehensive tutorials on the entire workflow. Well not any more! In this 7 video long, intermediate to advanced level tutorial series, professional Blender artist, Karan Shah, will walk you through the complete creation process of a ready to animate video game character. From modeling, to UVs and texturing, to adding the final mesh topology for deformation, this series is a must see for any Blender character artist!"

How to Free Yourself From Limiting Beliefs

How to Free Yourself From Limiting Beliefs: "“From this instant on, vow to stop disappointing yourself. Separate yourself from the mob. Decide to be extraordinary and do what you need to do – now.” - Stoic philosopher Epictetus"

Is Windows 7 better than Vista on (Slightly) Older Hardware?

In The Real World - Fat Pop Do Wop's Blog at ZDNet.co.uk Community: "I have one solitary customer who wanted the latest version of Windows installed (I do have other customers but none want Windows 7) on his HP/Compaq Presario R3000 Intel Celeron laptop as soon as Windows 7 became available. As this machine is 4 or 5 years old, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to see whether Win 7 REALLY works well on hardware that's lacking some muscle. What follows is a short account of what took place."

With eye on Oracle and MySQL, Red Hat invests in EnterpriseDB

With eye on Oracle and MySQL, Red Hat invests in EnterpriseDB: "Red Hat Inc. has invested an unspecified amount in open-source database vendor EnterpriseDB Inc., a sign that the Linux vendor may be worried about the implications of Oracle Corp.'s takeover of MySQL through its pending acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc."

Working with Web server logs

Working with Web server logs: "How do you know who is doing what and where on your site? Chances are you have an Apache-style log for your site, and you just need to learn how to mine it for valuable information. Learn about the format of Web server logs and how to access them in code. Along the way, apply a recipe to identify spider traffic from Web crawlers."

DIY Lego Gekko

Brickshelf Gallery: "Here are instructions for how to make your own Gekko."

A Patch Of Gaming Pumpkins

A Patch Of Gaming Pumpkins: "I asked and many of you answered. We almost have enough gaming-themed pumpkins to cover a post a day between now and Halloween. Here's a gallery of ceemdee's pumpkins.

'Mainly I've used an x-acto knife and three tiny screwdrivers to do most of the carving,' ceemdee said in an email. 'I used some wood carving tools to scrap out the bigger areas on a few of the pumpkins and a needle is used to trace the image. They were all carved in the last four weeks. It's actually only four pumpkins (one a week) with three carvings on each. :)'"

Den of Daydreams: 8 Fantastical Make-Believe Makeovers

Den of Daydreams: 8 Fantastical Make-Believe Makeovers | WebUrbanist: "While many of us go for a functionalist, pick’n'mix approach to home decor (”I need curtains: oh, that will do” etc.), let us be upstanding for the financially brave, creatively passionate and unashamedly geeky souls who transform their homes into miniature versions of their favorite corners of modern culture, as these 8 thoroughly unique examples illustrate."

Facebook Becomes Erstwhile Digg Destroyer With Live Share Counter

Facebook Becomes Erstwhile Digg Destroyer With Live Share Counter: "Facebook took a page from social sharing site Digg by launching a live counter for its content Share button to display how many times a piece of content has been shared on the Web. Content on Digg became glorified based on how much it was dug. But the sheer size of the Facebook network has made the social site the new go-to place for sharing content. Facebook also opened up the analytics associated with sharing habits on Facebook to further help Web site publishers measure the value of the Share content."

Is Cloud Bigger Than The Advent Of The Personal Computer?

Is Cloud Bigger Than The Advent Of The Personal Computer? - Plug Into The Cloud - InformationWeek: "Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, says 'the cloud' is a phenomenon that is bigger than the advent of the PC. I think he's almost got it right. Cloud is bigger than the PC Revolution, but it's big in part because it incorporates and extends the PC revolution to Internet server clusters. The cloud owes more to the PC than Eric acknowledges."

Wal-Mart preps to battle Best Buy's Geek Squad

Wal-Mart preps to battle Best Buy's Geek Squad | The Digital Home - CNET News: "The retail giant will partner with product-support firm N.E.W. Customer Service Companies, the report said. By the holiday-shopping season, all U.S. Wal-Mart stores plan to offer customers the opportunity to use N.E.W.'s service in their homes. Reuters said the service already kicked off this month in specified locations."

Quick and Effective Game Art Portfolio Presentation

Quick and Effective Game Art Portfolio Presentation – Day 1 - Cgtuts+: "When it comes to making sales, the package is just as important as the product. The same can be said in the world of CG, except package is your portfolio...and the product is you! In this two part tutorial series, professional 3d Environment Artist, Kaleb Aylsworth, will show you a quick and easy, but highly effective process for lighting, rendering, and eventually presenting your 3d game art for you portfolio."

Pilots Who Missed Airport Cite Computer Distraction

Pilots Who Missed Airport Cite Computer Distraction - NYTimes.com: "Any employee at a company that has gone through a merger knows how distracting it can be when the new owner imposes new rules. That distraction, not a nap, was what two Northwest Airlines pilots say caused them to fly far beyond the Minneapolis airport last week, federal investigators reported Monday."

Ask Henson

Ask Henson - Archives: "The Jim Henson Company Archives' database holds over 10,000 records. The actual number of items in the Archives is much greater as over 2,000 of those records refer to files containing multiple documents. Our space, which we share with the Photo Library, is about 1,000 square feet. We also store some material off-site, including about 300,000 animated cels from Jim Henson's Muppet Babies."

KFC 'colonel' dupes UN security

KFC 'colonel' dupes UN security: "Red-faced United Nations officials on Monday admitted to a major security lapse after a UN guard helped Kentucky Fried Chicken's 'Colonel Sanders' gain access to restricted areas."

Max For Live: Making Musicians Into Programmers

Max For Live: Making Musicians Into Programmers - O'Reilly Radar: "Ableton's Live is one of the top music creation and performance platforms out there. It is a complete music suite with instruments, sound management and a performance interface. It is used by DJs, bands, and hobbyists. At a cost of several hundred dollars Live is within reach of most tech-savvy musicians. It is one of the must-have tools for almost anyone who is making electronic music these days. One of the reasons it is so popular is that it has a relatively simple user interface that hides complexity from the user and lets them focus on sounding good. If you've ever seen a DJ using software that looked like a multi-color spreadsheet that was probably Ableton."

New company promises 100 core CPUs by next year

New company promises 100 core CPUs by next year: "The biggest thing in CPU technology right now seems to be how many cores someone can fit on a chip, then how fast those cores will run. Intel right now looks to be leading the pack with its quad-core Core i7, and rightfully so, that chip is awesome. A new company spun out of M.I.T., Tilera, promises to multiply that number by 25, with 100 cores per chip."

Ubuntu's new Linux tries getting cloud-friendly

Ubuntu's new Linux tries getting cloud-friendly | Deep Tech - CNET News: "Ubuntu backer Canonical plans to release its 'Karmic Koala' version on Thursday, and both the desktop and server versions of the open-source operating system take significant steps toward cloud computing. The concept of moving work away from the computer in front of you and into the network does have some merit, but cloud computing is today's fashionable buzzword, and Canonical Chief Executive Mark Shuttleworth is sensitive to its overuse."

Linux Incorporated

Linux Incorporated - Computerworld Blogs: "I've known for ages that Linux had migrated from enthusiasts to big business. It wasn't until this weekend's Florida Linux Show, where I spoke on desktop Linux, that I realized how fully Linux has become part of the IT mainstream."

Linux is the future, even after Windows 7 release

Guest Post: Linux is the future, even after Windows 7 release: "It goes almost without saying that the release of Windows 7 is important for Microsoft to stem the tide of customer dissatisfaction with Vista, which has been extremely damaging to the Microsoft brand, and has caused it to lose users to both the Macintosh and Linux. Vista has been a boon for Apple because most of its growth has come from dissatisfied Windows users. (To be precise, this is a phenomenon mostly limited to the United States and other wealthy Western nations which can afford profit margins that would make a loan shark jealous.)"

Guide to Comma Use

The DumbLittleMan Guide to Comma Use: "If all the punctuation marks got together for a party, the party wouldn't come alive until the comma arrived. The comma is such a versatile little animal. Often abused, under-used and over-used, the comma can be a readers best friend, but a writer's worst enemy."

Scary Shifty Servo Eyeballs

todbot blog » Blog Archive » Scary Shifty Servo Eyeballs: "If you want a slightly different look for your Halloween pumpkin or skull, you can pretty quickly whip something up with a few servos and an Arduino."

Creator of World Wide Web Holds Court

Creator of World Wide Web Holds Court - InternetNews.com: "Tim Berners-Lee explains what he thinks are the biggest threats to keeping the Web open and why he's still a bit leery of cloud computing."

Iceland looks to serve the world

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Click | Iceland looks to serve the world: "Since the financial crisis, Iceland has been forced to retreat back from high octane bubble living to nature."

Causes and Resolutions for Access 2007 database corruption

Causes and Resolutions for Access 2007 database corruption - access repair | access database repair: "MS Access 2007, a significant release by Microsoft, allows you to create and maintain databases with more ease in comparison to its older versions. While the later version is built with powerful features like rich text, split forms, image control, etc., the security features lack to save your database files from being corrupted or damaged."

Richard Pryor: Gun Shop

YouTube - Richard Pryor: Gun Shop: "The Richard Pryor Show - Gun Shop Sketch, 1977. Featuring voice overs by Tim Reid & Robin Williams."

Spring 3.0 framework for Java to bow

Spring 3.0 framework for Java to bow: "Spring 3.0, a major upgrade to the popular open-source Java development framework, is being introduced Monday by SpringSource, featuring full REST support for rich Web applications as well as an expression language."

Can a computer cover a ball game?

Can a computer cover a ball game? - thestar.com: "Sure, the game story doesn't make a whole lot of sense anymore, given that fans are bombarded 24/7 with score updates and highlight packages. And why bother using the magic of your imagination when cable TV will compress last night's game into six minutes of action? Well, if the vaguely romantic notion of the primacy of the printed word doesn't touch your heart, how about keeping unemployed sports reporters from pestering you at the cash machine?"

How To Capture Unix Top Command Output to a File in Readable Format

How To Capture Unix Top Command Output to a File in Readable Format: "If you try to redirect the top command output to a text file as shown below, you’ll notice that the output file contains lot of junk characters."

War and Pieces: 9 Preserved Bombed-Out WWII Buildings

War and Pieces: 9 Preserved Bombed-Out WWII Buildings | WebUrbanist: "World War II caused death and destruction on a scale unknown in human history. While the human cost of the war is of course paramount, the loss of property and with it, the cultural heritage of nations must also be considered. These 9 examples of preserved, bombed-out buildings stand, in stark contrast to their successors, as testaments to a war that forever changed the world we live in.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Japan"

Star Wars mashups galore

Thoughts on the Whitehouse.gov switch to Drupal

Thoughts on the Whitehouse.gov switch to Drupal - O'Reilly Radar: "Yesterday, the new media team at the White House announced via the Associated Press that whitehouse.gov is now running on Drupal, the open source content management system. That Drupal implementation is in turn running on a Red Hat Linux system with Apache, MySQL and the rest of the LAMP stack. Apache Solr is the new White House search engine."

How much would you pay for a 6 ft tall Mario?

How much would you pay for a 6 ft tall Mario? | The Brothers Brick | LEGO Blog: "Dirk VH, a part-time LEGO sculptor, has built the world’s biggest LEGO Mario and is auctioning it off for charity on Ebay. The 40,000 bricks that make up this model weighs a whopping 110 pounds! How many mushrooms did you pick up Mario?"

Save energy - just look away now

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Click | Save energy - just look away now: "short of pulling the plug and switching off our creature comforts, reducing the amount of energy we use seems to be the goal of the big players."

Do it Yourself? 14 Silly (and Scary) Vehicle Modifications

Do it Yourself? 14 Silly (and Scary) Vehicle Modifications | WebUrbanist: "We’ve all seen the car driving down the street with a garbage bag duct taped over a broken window. As dangerous (and hilarious) as that may be, it is by no means the limit of amateur automotive engineering ingenuity. These pictures, from the always-hilarious thereifixedit.com, show just how creative people can be when it comes to making changes to their vehicles. From the hilariously haphazard to the creatively upcycled, these insane vehicle mods are perfect examples of do-it-yourself gone wild."

How to Give Yourself to Whatever the Moment Brings, and Forget Stress

How to Give Yourself to Whatever the Moment Brings, and Forget Stress: "The prevailing way of living in our Western societies is to plan out our lives, both for the long term and on a day-to-day basis.

We have planners and digital calendars that map out our lives, sometimes to the minute. We feel we’re in control, with plans like this."

50 Cheap and Easy Halloween Costumes for Adults & Children

50 Cheap and Easy Halloween Costumes for Adults & Children: "With Christmas expenses looming, this may not be the best time to invest time and money in Halloween costumes. Still, no one wants to be left out of the fun, so we've come up with 50 easy and creative costumes for adults, children, couples and groups that won't cost you an arm and a leg, unless you're a real zombie, that is."

Keanu Reeves is immortal

YouTube - Keanu Reeves is immortal: "It has recently been discovered that Keanu Reeves has been alive a lot longer than thought. Once again fact is stranger than fiction."

DIY Digital timer for any electrical appliance

Digital timer for any electrical appliance: "In late 2006 Jaycar were selling a microcontroller based flexi-timer kit for $90 (now discontinued). In the advertising blurb they stated 'As easy to use as a microwave timer!'. Well I always figured that if the interface for a microwave timer is touted as being the yardstick for a quality timer, why not simply use a microwave timer"

Agan Harahap ‘Super Hero’ Photography

Agan Harahap ‘Super Hero’ Photography « Format Magazine Urban Art Fashion: "Born in 1980 photographer and illustrator Agan Harahap from Jakarta, Indonesia, currently works for music magazine TRAX. His latest photography project called ‘Super Hero’ consists of memorable political and wartime scenes from the mid-20th century featuring beloved superheros like Spiderman or Batman in some interesting and funny positions – true juxtaposition in effect. It’s fun to see Superman standing in the Neuschwanstein Castle."

Toshiba Actually Launches a Fuel Cell Gadget Charger

Toshiba Actually Launches a Fuel Cell Gadget Charger: "I have to admit, when we saw some prototype fuel cell electronics chargers earlier this year, I laughed them off as dream tech that would never be sold on the market. But here’s Toshiba, making me look like a fool with its Dynario fuel-cell for portable gadgets. It’s pretty simple: Grab a fuel cell filled with a mix of methanol and ambient oxygen, and inject it into palm-sized charger, which houses a lithium ion battery. The reaction between the oxygen and methanol creates electricity, in turn powering the battery with enough charge to replenish two cell phones. The Dynario will hook up to anything with a USB jack."

Quickly delete every nth row in Excel

Quickly delete every nth row in Excel : TechGuides : Microsoft Office Suite : ZDNet Asia: "Most likely, you sometimes delete an empty row from a worksheet. And if you have to delete several rows, you might use a filter to automate the task. First, you determine which column best represents the entire row."

Amazon expands Kindle to the PC

Amazon expands Kindle to the PC - V3.co.uk - formerly vnunet.com: "The company said that its new Kindle Books application will allow Windows PC users to purchase, download and read e-book titles from Amazon's Kindle Store service."

Glow in the Dark Light Bulb Night Light (Glo-Bulb)

Glow in the Dark Light Bulb Night Light (Glo-Bulb): "I'm not sure why but I have this fixation on things that light up and projects involving light bulbs (see my oil lamp and record lamp)"

Five Ways Windows 7 Could Become another Vista

Five Ways Windows 7 Could Become another Vista - Business Center - PC World: "Windows 7 is finally here. The sun can shine and the birds can chirp. Ding dong, Windows Vista is dead! Perhaps that is a bit premature. Windows 7 hasn't been officially released for 24 hours yet, so its understandable if the jury is still deliberating. There are certainly those who think Windows 7 is nothing more than Windows Vista with an extra bell or whistle thrown in for eye candy.

To be honest, I like Windows 7 and believe it will be a phenomenal success for Microsoft. Earlier I wrote a post detailing 5 reasons to upgrade to Windows 7. But, just to play devil's advocate, let's take a look at 5 ways Windows 7 could become another Vista."

Good Things on the Way

Good Things on the Way - ZDNet.co.uk: "There are going to be a lot of good things coming our way over the next few weeks:"

Windows 7's latest fan: Linus Torvalds

Windows 7's latest fan: Linus Torvalds | Tech Broiler | ZDNet.com: "I was determined to not write about Windows 7 today, because any analysis I wrote would get buried in all the other news. I was going to wait to deliver my “last word” sometime next week. But then a co-worker emailed me the photo above, clearly of Linus Torvalds at Yodobashi, a Japanese software/computer/electronics store in Tokyo in front of a huge display of Windows 7 boxes, giving it the international sign of recognition: Thumbs Up. I HAD to post that."

Meet the Object/XML mapping support in Spring

Meet the Object/XML mapping support in Spring: "Within the Java™ Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) community, Spring is becoming a widely accepted framework. One new feature in the latest release of Spring is its Object/XML (O/X) mapping support. The API enables developers to convert Java objects into XML and vice versa. In this article, learn to use the Object/XML mapping in Spring and explore its advantages."

Nikto

Nikto | CIRT.net: "Nikto is an Open Source (GPL) web server scanner which performs comprehensive tests against web servers for multiple items, including over 3500 potentially dangerous files/CGIs, versions on over 900 servers, and version specific problems on over 250 servers. Scan items and plugins are frequently updated and can be automatically updated (if desired)."

Halloween Food - Meat Head

Halloween Food - Meat Head 2 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!: "This photo of my meat head was taken by lechatnoirfan and featured on the Augusta Chronicle website. It was one of the last items I put together for the party and I only spent about 15 minutes on it (and it shows). I'm definitely making it a priority item next year and spending a bit more time on it."

Panoramic Camera – Prototype

Panoramic Camera – Prototype | Carlitos' Contraptions: "I have finally completed my second project sponsored by RobotShop. I apologize for the immense delay, I really missed my promise of rolling out a new project every two weeks. Let’s just say that I had a lot going on lately and I could barely keep up with my obligations, let alone blogging or building new projects."

Create Stunning Stars In Your Eyes With a DIY Ring Light

Create Stunning Stars In Your Eyes With a DIY Ring Light | DIYPhotography.net: "Until today there was only one way I knew of to put starts in my eyes - to get a hefty blow to the jaw from the guy you just shot candid.

Until today, that is. Until I saw Laya Gerlock's amazing Stars Ring Light. Fortunately for us DIYers, when Laya heard what we need to get through to see stars, he agreed to share the making of this beautiful modifier."

Five of The Coolest Pumpkin Stencils

Five of The Coolest Pumpkin Stencils | Socyberty: "Looking for something a little different this Halloween? Want something more interesting than the normal boring face? These are some of the coolest, free, pumpkin stencils available on the internets!"

How to Cope with Stress

How to Cope with Stress | Socyberty: "Stress can be quite an irritating thing that many of us wish we didn’t have to deal with at all. So many things can cause stress; and then stress can cause problems of it’s own! It’s a vicious thing, and a cycle can occur if you’re not careful. Aside from knowing and understand yourself, there are ways to help deal with stress. Keep in mind though, if you feel your stress if really having an impact on your life, you should seek your doctor and consider therapy, or maybe even medication."

Using GreyBox in your HTML Applications: The Unobtrusive JavaScript Solution

Using GreyBox in your HTML Applications: The Unobtrusive JavaScript Solution: "Technically, Unobtrusive JavaScript pertains to the separating of content from behavioral elements such as scripts, but I would suggest that the practice of leaving external libraries 'as-is' as much as is realistic be a part of the unobtrusive philosophy. The solution that we will be reviewing here could have just as easily been written in VBScript since HTAs are a Microsoft technology. However, I chose to use JavaScript instead so that the technique could be extended to any web application or web page that makes use of JavaScript libraries and require some customizing of their behavior."

Managing Logs in Apache

Managing Logs in Apache: "Most distributions of Linux ship with a pretty well configured copy of the Apache web server. As far as the logging goes, the two log files that most Apache setups generate are access.log and error.log. You can also choose to add more logging for things like URL rewriting, or gzip compression. As these logs grow in size and number, they become harder to manage. Let's look at how to make logging more easily manageable in Apache."

Thrift or Treat: Cheap Halloween costumes that are awesome, too

Thrift or Treat: Cheap Halloween costumes that are awesome, too: "That's scary news for some retailers. But at low-cost thrift stores such as the non-profit Goodwill, where overall sales for the year through August were already up 6.9 percent over the same period in 2008, the outlook couldn't be much better."

All-New Trailer for Universal's The Wolfman!

Awesome All-New Trailer for Universal's The Wolfman!- ShockTillYouDrop.com: "Click on the player below for yet another awesome preview of this remake of the 1941 classic (or watch it in hi-res here. The trailer adopts a more modern touch with the music this time, however, the new footage looks great. (Look for a cameo by Rick Baker.)

It's mostly driven by Anthony Hopkins, who I suspect is going to chew up the scenery. Benicio Del Toro plays the titular hirsute beast; Emily Blunt is the woman who loves him and Hugo Weaving is the one who wants to put him down."

5 Reasons Why I Won't Buy A Nook

5 Reasons Why I Won't Buy A Nook - Opinions by ExtremeTech: "The official announcement was to be at 4 p.m., but I could not wait. So I called my local B&N store earlier in the afternoon and asked if any Nooks would be in stock. The woman tried to diplomatically state that she couldn't comment directly about the Nook, but said that apparently some boxes had come in and that I might want to check back later after the official announcement.

I was all ready to haul ass to my local B&N to buy a Nook. But I decided to hold off."

IBM Teams With Ubuntu For Windows 7 Alternative

IBM Teams With Ubuntu For Windows 7 Alternative - Software - IT Channel News by CRN: "IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Ubuntu Linux developer Canonical on Tuesday jointly unveiled an open standards-based desktop architecture they said cuts 50 percent off the cost of deploying desktop PCs and provides an alternative to migrating to Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT)'s Windows 7 operating system."

How Long Can You Survive Without Water?

How Long Can You Survive Without Water?: "When faced with a survival situation, clean drinkable water is often the most important consideration. People have survived without food for weeks or even months, but go without water for even just one day and the survivor will be in desperate straights indeed."

How to Shoot an Anvil 200 Feet in the Air

YouTube - How to Shoot an Anvil 200 Feet in the Air: "Gay Wilkinson enjoys blowing anvils more than 100 feet in the air. So much so that is a world champion at the activity. See how he does it, along with Riverfront Times writer Keegan Hamilton, in this video. Read Hamilton's story about anvil shooting and other Mountain Man competitions, here: http://bit.ly/anvilshooting"

Nickelodeon Acquires Global Rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Nickelodeon Acquires Global Rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Reuters: "Furthering its mission to provide premium content to its audiences, Nickelodeon--part of MTV Networks, a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B)--has acquired the global rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from The Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: KDE). The acquisition provides Nickelodeon, the world's number-one entertainment brand for kids, global intellectual property rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the hit television, film and video game property that has delighted kids around the world for the last 25 years. The aggregate purchase price for the transactions is approximately $60 million."

'Thank you, Steve Ballmer'

'Thank you, Steve Ballmer' - Shane Schicks' Computerworld - IT World Canada: "When I asked readers to offer up their best questions for Steve Ballmer during his Canadian visit, I got one very unexpected response.
I'm going to reproduce it here in full, because it struck me as atypical and that it came from the heart. The author asked me to keep it anonymous, so all I'll say is that it came from a Canadian IT guy and that I'm very grateful for the contribution."

14 Simple Tips for Super Fast Web Browsing

14 Simple Tips for Super Fast Web Browsing: "As someone who does most of his work on the web, I’ve developed some habits to allow me to work quickly, without distraction, so that I can get my work done easily."

Why Google and Bing's Twitter Announcement is Big News

Why Google and Bing's Twitter Announcement is Big News - O'Reilly Radar: "Lurking innocently on Google's blog this afternoon, like many of their big announcements, was the bombshell that they have reached an agreement with Twitter to make all tweets searchable. This followed an earlier announcement at the Web 2.0 conference by Microsoft that Bing has also arranged to make tweets searchable."

Researchers Find Internet Use Boosts Brain Activity

Researchers Find Internet Use Boosts Brain Activity | AHN: "eb surfing among older adults with little Internet experience has been shown to give their brain function a significant boost, according to a new study."

The Simple Cloud API

The Simple Cloud API: "The Simple Cloud API provides a common API to a variety of cloud services. A collaborative effort by Zend, GoGrid, IBM®, Microsoft®, Nirvanix and Rackspace, the API allows you to write portable code that can interoperate with multiple cloud vendors. Best of all, the API allows you to use services specific to a particular vendor as necessary."

Fedora 12 polishes Linux for netbooks

Fedora 12 polishes Linux for netbooks • Channel Register: "The Fedora Project has released the first beta of Fedora 12, the next major revision of the Fedora Linux line, and though it's still a work in progress, there are already some standout features, including a much improved power management system and support for the Moblin project, Intel's effort to make Linux work better on netbooks and mobile devices."

Top NASA scientist busted for leaking satellite intel

Top NASA scientist busted for leaking satellite intel • The Register: "A former NASA scientist who helped discover evidence of water on the moon has been arrested on charges he tried to sell Israel classified information about US military satellite systems."

Fake security software is found in millions of computers

Fake security software is found in millions of computers: "Millions of North American computers are apparently loaded with fake security software. People have bought and installed scam security software that leaves the computer more vulnerable according to a recent Symantec report on cybercrime."

Web application security: Testing for vulnerabilities

Web application security: Testing for vulnerabilities: "The increasing reliance on data-driven Web sites has caused an incline in the number of attacks launched against them. As a developer, understanding how a site can be attacked is paramount to making it secure. Discover some of the more common attacks, and learn about the tools you can use to spot them."

Auto-Photoshop: Faux Photos That Will Blow Your Mind

Auto-Photoshop: Faux Photos That Will Blow Your Mind | WebUrbanist: "What if you could create a fairly convincing image montage in mere minutes, using an online tool that automatically does all the work for you? It sounds insane, but five students from Tsinghua University in China and the National University of Singapore have created a program that does just that."

Methods of Motion Detection

Methods of Motion Detection: "In this section I am going to show you four different ways of detecting motion for use as a prop trigger. Two of them are hacks of existing motion sensors, one (X10) is a wireless solution, and the last is an electronics solution based on the parallax motion sensor and a microcontroller or prop controller such as a prop1. All have advantages and disadvantages depending on the prop, the on time required for the trigger, and the amount of time before the prop can be triggered again."

DIY Star Trek Command Badge

Star Trek Command Badge: "For halloween I want to be the red guy on the away mission, lol. It's sad cause I don't think a lot of people will get that joke. Anyways as part of the costume I need a starfleet badge. As I am a student my budget for this is zero. So i had to improvise."

Coding Simplicity: How to Avoid Feature Creep in Your Life

Coding Simplicity: How to Avoid Feature Creep in Your Life: "There’s a concept in programming called “feature creep” — when a software developer continually adds one feature after another because “wouldn’t it be nice” and “why not” and “isn’t it cool” and “some users asked for it”."

PHP bees and audio honey: Accessible agent-based audio alerts and feedback

PHP bees and audio honey: Accessible agent-based audio alerts and feedback: "This article describes a system that uses open source tools to collect, edit, and funnel information to a central database, where it is arranged appropriately for presentation, not on the screen, but announced via the audio system for the benefit of users such as those with visual impairments. The system uses a number of PHP agents that operate independently to generate, edit, arrange, and announce information."

Using Apache Pivot to build an iTunes search client

Using Apache Pivot to build an iTunes search client: "Apache Pivot is an open source platform for building rich internet applications (RIAs) in a Java™ environment. It combines the enhanced productivity and usability features of a modern RIA toolkit with the robustness of the industry-standard Java platform. Apache Pivot applications take advantage of WTKX, an XML-based language for user interface design, which makes the application's output easy to visualize. In this tutorial, you will follow the implementation of a simple but practical Pivot application that allows a user to execute searches against the contents of the iTunes Store."

10 Ways to Reduce Stress Without Spending a Dime

10 Ways to Reduce Stress Without Spending a Dime: "Did you know that a recent Stanford University study conducted by cellular biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton concluded that “over 95% of all illnesses occur because of stress in the body’s autonomic nervous system”?

Did you also know that stress can seriously accelerate the rate at which you age because of the incredible strain it puts on your body?"

Heat Gun Homebrew SMT Rework Tutorial

Openschemes.com - Articles » Heat Gun Homebrew SMT Rework Tutorial: "Since it’s a Friday and we’re all taking it easy for a change, we’ll take this time to talk a little bit about using an off-the-shelf heatgun to work with SMT devices. I know this is a topic that’s been covered before on the web, but usually the instructions given are something like: “Just use a heat gun, dude”. A little light on the details, to say the least."

10 Ways To Improve Yourself While Broke

10 Ways To Improve Yourself While Broke: "I'm going to start off by being very honest, I'm currently broke. I was expecting to get a scholarship that I didn't get, went on a trip that I probably shouldn't have gone on, and bought a certain someone special a present I couldn't afford. That's $4k in the hole, and no regrets, but a bit of a mess to clean up after.

I'm proactively trying to get myself out of the hole before I start dental school next year (see update). Once I start, I'll be about $70K-$90K in the hole per year, so it won't really matter, but it matters now. My goal is to get my credit card paid off, save up a small emergency fund, and establish a few passive streams of income before school starts and I'm a slave with no spare time."

Mozilla blocks Microsoft's sneaky Firefox plug-in

Mozilla blocks Microsoft's sneaky Firefox plug-in - Network World: "Mozilla late Friday blocked the Microsoft-made software that had put Firefox users at risk from attack.

The two-part Microsoft component -- an add-on dubbed '.NET Framework Assistant' and a plug-in named 'Windows Presentation Foundation' -- have been blocked by Mozilla as a precautionary measure, said Mike Shaver, the company's head of engineering."

10 things to do after installing Linux

10 things to do after installing Linux | News | TechRadar UK: "You've finally decided to try Linux. The installation went without a hitch (they usually do these days) and you've got a shiny new desktop sitting in front of you. What do you do next?"

The Reverse Geocache Puzzle

The Reverse Geocache Puzzle | Arduiniana: "Early this summer, the friend who first introduced me to Arduino amazed us with the news that he was moving to France to get married. Once I recovered from the surprise, it occurred to me that putting together some sort of Arduino-based wedding present might be a uniquely fitting thanks for his years of friendship and for helping get me started in this delightful enterprise. And so after weighing several ideas — I didn’t fancy adding some ugly techno-junk to the pretty collection of tea cozies and china sets — I finally settled on building the device I describe here: a puzzle box that won’t open until it is taken to a certain location."

File Manipulation Examples Using Tac, Rev, Paste, and Join Unix Commands

File Manipulation Examples Using Tac, Rev, Paste, and Join Unix Commands: "In this article, let us review how to use Unix tac command, rev command, paste command, and join command with practical examples."

No Linux Finger Pointing, Please

No Linux Finger Pointing, Please - Open Source Blog - InformationWeek: "Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols's (in?)famous 'Five Ways The Linux Desktop Shoots Itself In The Foot' has generated as much heat as it has light. I feel I can boil all five of his points down to one simple exhortation. Dear Linux community: Stop blaming other people for your own failings."

The Internet is about to die. Literally die!

The Internet is about to die. Literally die! - Ars Technica: "One research group continues to claim that the 'sky is falling' on the Internet thanks to high data growth rates and that network neutrality means the whole Internet could just 'go away.' Ars sifts through the hyperbole looking for a kernel of truth."

Samsung OLED is Virtually Indestructible

Samsung OLED is Virtually Indestructible - Tom's Hardware: "Samsung's OLED technology, however, appears to hold up much better under pressure. We're not just talking about tense situations here, but literal pressure of a hammer pounding it directly. Check it out below:"

Understanding the Geoprocessor Programming Model part 1

Understanding the Geoprocessor Programming Model part 1: "A ques­tion often asked when peo­ple ven­ture into the won­der­ful world of Python Geoprocessing with ESRI is how one can read the pro­gram­ming model they make avail­able on their web­site. As it may not be eas­ily inter­preted when one begins pro­gram­ming, I will do my best to unpack it and explain how one can use it more effec­tively. All images pre­sented here are extracts from the actual model pre­sented by ESRI on their website."

'Ho White and the Seven Dwarves' beer advert angers Disney

'Ho White and the Seven Dwarves' beer advert angers Disney - Telegraph: "A beer advertisment featuring a ranchy version of Snow White has reportedly raised the ire of Disney."

Fly on the Wall: Wacky Dead Insect Photography Scenes

Fly on the Wall: Wacky Dead Insect Photography Scenes | WebUrbanist: "Artistic inspiration can strike anywhere. For Swedish photographer Magnus Muhr, inspiration came from dead insects. As bizarre as it sounds, the photographer poses tiny dead flies onto paper, draws arms, legs and backgrounds behind them, and then photographs them in their new environments. The result is a hilarious series of photographs."

Zombie Food Guide

Zombie Food Guide - a set on Flickr: "since I received so many requests for instructions/guide on making these suckers I thought I'd create some photo steps."

8 Generator & Creator Applications

Doing Graffiti Online: 8 Generator & Creator Applications | WebUrbanist: "Graffiti art is a big part of the urban voice. It has become its own art form and developed its own subculture. But there are big risks involved in urban graffiti, and not all of us are willing to take those risks. If you love the look of graffiti art and lettering but don’t want to deface property or risk legal troubles, an online graffiti creator can safely satisfy your artistic impulse. Or if you’re looking for a product that’s uniquely yours, you can use a tutorial to create your own graffiti in Photoshop."

The End of Cheap Oil, by Colin J. Campbell, Jean Laherrere

The End of Cheap Oil, by Colin J. Campbell, Jean Laherrere: "In 1973 and 1979 a pair of sudden price increases rudely awakened the industrial world to its dependence on cheap crude oil. Prices first tripled in response to an Arab embargo and then nearly doubled again when Iran dethroned its Shah, sending the major economies sputtering into recession. Many analysts warned that these crises proved that the world would soon run out of oil. Yet they were wrong."

Should Broadband Access Be a Right?

Only Connect - Should Broadband Access Be a Right? - O'Reilly Radar: "This week gave us two reasons to reconsider the state of broadband connectivity in the US. First, Finland has announced that it will guarantee broadband access as a right for all its citizens"