Hang in there people!

I've had some technical difficulties during the last days. I should be able to partially post some stuff by next week.

In the mean time, thanks for dropping by and checking my blog. Also thanks for you ad clicks (not required but highly welcome). Also hope you've got your X-Mas shopping ready, if not check stuff on amazon on the right hand link of this blog. I like to read and some amazon referrals will keep my fix coming.

All the best to you all, take care.

Bonlebon.

Create Oustanding Presentations

Office Powerpoint 2010 "Five Rules" sample presentation from Long Zheng on Vimeo.

How To Add 20 Best Features Of Other Browsers to Firefox

How To Add 20 Best Features Of Other Browsers to Firefox | The Best Article Every day: "Firefox is a great browser and we all love it but you might have at some point however tried different browsers. I bet you had a feature or two that you really loved in them and wished one browser could have all you need.

Well as it stands today, with so many Firefox addons, almost anything is possible in Firefox. Here are some add-ons that add common features of various browsers that are not present in Firefox by default:"

JSON Data Interchange Format Gets Standards Blessing

JSON Data Interchange Format Gets Standards Blessing - PC World Business Center: "An up-and-coming lightweight data interchange format for Web applications, considered by a growing number of people to be an alternative to XML, has gotten a boost from the standards body Ecma."

How I Hacked a Popular Website Using SQL Injection

How I Hacked a Popular Website Using SQL Injection | Coding && Computer Tips Blog: "Few people really mind security matters before anything bad happens to them. Once they get to feel how it is to lose data or give away precious information due to security faults, they begin to get more concerned over protecting their data. When it comes to websites, SQL security is one of the most important thing that haunts them. Of course, the most important one, is the php/asp or whatever code it uses."

10 Critical Things You Have to Consider in Life

10 Critical Things You Have to Consider in Life: "I have read hundreds of books and articles on personal development. Through it all I've digested and considered thousands of ideas, so-called best practices, and the always popular lifehacks. While there is no way to distill all of these books, your life, your job, or happiness into a simple list of tips, I am going to pick a handful that I personally view as the most important."

WWII veteran had Hitler's art book on bookshelf

WWII veteran had Hitler's art book on bookshelf - Yahoo! News: "After fighting his way across Europe during World War II, John Pistone was among the U.S. soldiers who entered Adolf Hitler's home nestled in the Bavarian Alps as the war came to a close.

Making his way through the Berghof, Hitler's home near Berchtesgaden, Germany, Pistone noticed a table with shelves underneath. Exhilarated by the certainty of victory over the Nazis, Pistone took an album filled with photographs of paintings as a souvenir."

College Degrees More Expensive, Worth Less in Job Market

College Degrees More Expensive, Worth Less in Job Market - Yahoo! News: "Employers and career experts see a growing problem in American society - an abundance of college graduates, many burdened with tuition-loan debt, heading into the work world with a degree that doesn't mean much anymore."

Has the era of the electric car finally arrived?

Has the era of the electric car finally arrived? - The Globe and Mail: "The Copenhagen climate change conference is a negotiating session on a monster scale. It is also, on the sidelines, a global clean tech souk. Green-energy companies, products and concepts are on display everywhere, from hotel lobbies to cafés and everywhere in between. The lobby of my hotel is crammed with all-electric cars built by Renault, the French auto giant that has a partnership with Japan’s Nissan."

Joli's Photo Blog: Incredible waves ridden at the Eddie

Joli's Photo Blog: Incredible waves ridden at the Eddie: "Aloha from a memorable day on the North Shore. Amazing day of surfing at the Quiksilver Eddie Aikau. Greg Long snared a victory with four top rides in the last heat of the day. Huge waves at the Bay some incredible waves ridden. Long day at the beach. More surf on the way, it's turning into a pretty good winter season - Stay tuned"

Wireless Brain-to-Computer Connection Synthesizes Speech

Wireless Brain-to-Computer Connection Synthesizes Speech | Wired Science | Wired.com: "A system that turns brain waves into FM radio signals and decodes them as sound is the first totally wireless brain-computer interface.

For now, 26-year-old Erik Ramsey, left almost entirely paralyzed by a horrific car accident 10 years ago, can only express vowel sounds with the system. That’s less than can be accomplished with wired brain-computer interfaces. But it’s still a promising step."

Motorola Droid wins 'Time Gadget of the Year' honors

Motorola Droid wins 'Time Gadget of the Year' honors: "Time Magazine today named the Motorola Droid its Gadget of the Year, giving the smartphone a victory over the Apple iPhone as well as other innovations of 2009."

Google Gets Big Open Source Boost For Linux Chrome Beta

Google Gets Big Open Source Boost For Linux Chrome Beta - Software - IT Channel News by CRN: "When Google Inc. was looking to develop its Chrome browser for Linux, it had a little help from some friends. More than 50 open-source developers contributed to the development of the Chrome beta now available for download, according to Brian Rakowski, product manager at Google, on the company's official blog."

Bonding vs. Bondage: What We Learn from Our Parents

Bonding vs. Bondage: What We Learn from Our Parents | Psychology Today: "When we bond well with our parents, we're able to feel connected, comforted and secure about our place in the family. In such cases our home is truly our sanctuary--a place to which we can regularly return (or retreat) to get the reassurance and succor that we all need as children."

Working with the Ajax Control Toolkit

Working with the Ajax Control Toolkit: "Ajax, an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a combination of a number of technologies used for building rich and responsive user interfaces. Ajax has quickly become the technology of choice for building lightning fast and responsive user interfaces. The Ajax Control Toolkit is a community project from Microsoft that contains a number of controls to design and implement Ajax - enabled controls seamlessly. This article looks at ASP.NET Ajax Control Toolkit and how you can work with it."

15 Cool Hi-tech Spy Gadgets, Oh Wait...Creepy Gifts for Stalkers?

15 Cool Hi-tech Spy Gadgets, Oh Wait...Creepy Gifts for Stalkers? | Design + Ideas on WU: "Do you have someone for whom you need a present but would classify as naughty and not nice? Do they have a desire for gadgets to make them feel like James Bond? There are spy gadgets designed to go undetected, products that were once considered science fiction, but can be purchased without needing to be a part of an elite secret service or military branch. Some of these spy gadgets barely squeak by as legal. So if you have a spy or spyette on your shopping list, perhaps one of these 15 hi-tech spy gadgets would be perfect for them. Oh wait . . . as the list goes down, they get creepy enough to almost induce full blown paranoia. Maybe these spy gadgets would be the perfect creepy gifts for stalkers?"

What the Google Web will look like in 10 years

What the Google Web will look like in 10 years | Royal Pingdom: "With the release of Google Public DNS, it appears that Google is making good on their earlier call to action for making the Web faster. In conjunction with that announcement several months ago, they launched the “Speed” site at Google Code with the headline “Let’s make the Web faster.” After setting up their DNS servers, which replaces the DNS servers from my ISP, I can confirm that my web browsing is indeed much zippier than before. So much so that it’s sort of shocking that ISP’s don’t seem to do much DNS optimization on their own – then again, why would they?"

Apple tablet in the spring, for sure? Whatever...

Apple tablet in the spring, for sure? Whatever... | Education IT | ZDNet.com: "For a little while, I was excited about the prospect of an Apple tablet. No matter how big a fan I am of Ubuntu, I can’t deny that Apple has nailed a lot of usability and interface issues. From an educational perspective, if the price was right, it’s not much of a stretch to see these as great 1:1 devices, assuming there was content to go with them."

Mystery as spiral blue light display hovers above Norway

Mystery as spiral blue light display hovers above Norway | Mail Online: "What's blue and white, squiggly and suddenly appears in the sky?

If you know the answer, pop it on a postcard and send it to the people of Norway, where this mysterious light display baffled residents yesterday."

Does Tiger Woods prove Google CEO right?

Does Tiger Woods prove Google CEO right? | Technically Incorrect - CNET News: "While the more conventional media were still telling the story of how Woods' wife had supposedly saved him from a terrible fate, TMZ, RadarOnline, and others (the one conventional medium on TMZ's side was the more traditional Enquirer, but traditional media have always despised this under-rated institution) approached the matter with a cynic's eye, a skeptic's nose, and perhaps even a spy's technology."

YouTube earning despite world economic woes-founder

YouTube earning despite world economic woes-founder | Reuters: "Revenues at Google Inc's (GOOG.O) online video site YouTube are continuing to rise despite the poor global economy, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley said on Tuesday"

Transformer Furniture: Trio Sofa Lets You Work And Play

Transformer Furniture: Trio Sofa Lets You Work And Play : TreeHugger: "Like those lift-up writing tables in University lecture halls, the Trio has an assortment of flip-up and over work surfaces that let you use your sofa as a desk and a dining table. Make it a three-seater, just a bit longer, and no doubt you could sleep there as well."

Faux Fireplace anywhere!

Faux Fireplace anywhere!: "You can have a fireplace anywhere! For 99% cheaper then a real one!"

The Most Terrifying Mountain Bike Trail On Earth

The Most Terrifying Mountain Bike Trail On Earth | Environmental Graffiti: "Dawn was breaking. The wheels of the bike crunched over the shale-covered surface of the path as the wind swirled beyond the overhanging ledge. Conditions were far from ideal: damp, misty and with more than the hangover of a storm in the air, they left little margin for error – an error that equated to a sheer 600 foot drop down to the waiting rocks and waves of the Atlantic. The riders had ventured out not knowing fully what to expect, but it was too late to turn back now."

Victoria's Secret: Michael Bay's AWESOME Victoria's Secret Ad

Victoria's Secret: Michael Bay's AWESOME Victoria's Secret Ad - Geek To Me: "Go figure, I saw this commercial during the Victoria's Secret runway show telecast last week, but had no idea that Michael Bay (Transformers, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor) had directed it"

Globalize your Web Applications: PHP's Locale Package

Globalize your Web Applications: PHP's Locale Package: "Having survived the Great Y2K threat, we are now observing an economy that has become far more globalized than it was in the previous century. The extent of the Internet's contribution is open to debate, but there is no question that the associated information explosion supported the acceleration of market internationalization that we now take for granted. For many of us, the realization of the extent of countries' interdependence was driven home by the recent global economic meltdown. So what does all this have to do with us Web developers? It's a resounding wake up call that we have to think of other nationalities when we develop our websites and applications. In most cases, developing a web app in English alienates much of the world's population and greatly reduces potential profits! With that in mind, this article is the kickoff for a series that discusses the ramifications of globalization on our websites and applications. Today's article will deal with locales and their implementation in the PHP language."

Why the World Will End in 2012

Why the World Will End in 2012 | Psychology Today: "But why is the vision of apocalypse so compelling? Why does it work as a hook for the human spirit over and over again? Why would susceptibility to such a strange fascination become so basic to us that it may well be seated in our genes, seated in our biology? Why would evolution keep catastrophe belief alive in generation after generation and in cultures scattered all over the planet?"

GWT Now With SpeedTracer

GWT Now With SpeedTracer - O'Reilly Radar: "Google is releasing v2 of GWT (pronounced 'Gwit') tonight at a Campfire One in Mountain View. The open-source Google Web Toolkit enables developers to code Ajax web apps in Java. This latest release is focused on speed (just like the latest iPhone) and improved dev-designer collaboration."

Second-order procrastination: Another inconvenient truth related to climate change

Second-order procrastination: Another inconvenient truth related to climate change | Psychology Today: "You control climate change . . . if you get around to it. The problem is, the immediate costs of behavioral change are high, the effects of individual effort uncertain or at least negligible, and you can't be sure others are also working for change. This is the perfect storm for both first- and second-order procrastination."

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: December '09

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: December '09 : November Review And December Updates - Review Tom's Hardware: "Detailed graphics card specifications and reviews are great—that is, if you have the time to do the research. But at the end of the day, what a gamer needs is the best graphics card within a certain budget.

So, if you don’t have the time to research the benchmarks, or if you don’t feel confident enough in your ability to pick the right card, then fear not. We at Tom’s Hardware have come to your aid with a simple list of the best gaming cards offered for the money."

Cultured Perl: Practical Twitter with Perl

Cultured Perl: Practical Twitter with Perl: "Learn how to access the features of the Twitter API using the CPAN Net::Twitter module. You'll also see some solid business uses for Twitter, including automated posting and analyzing Twitter search results."

Animate a Logo Forming from Particles in Maya

Animate a Logo Forming from Particles in Maya - Cgtuts+: "Particles are one of the most powerful and versatile tools that you can use to make your CG art more interesting, and many would agree that no one does particles better than Autodesk Maya. In this tutorial Abed Ibrahim will walk you through the process of creating an animated logo using particles in Maya, and then reverse the rendered animation in any video editing software of your choice."

Process XML in the browser using jQuery

Process XML in the browser using jQuery: "The popular jQuery JavaScript library is best known for its use working with HTML, but you can also use it to process XML, if you're careful and aware of the pitfalls. This article shows how to use jQuery to process the Atom Web feed format. Web feed XML is perhaps the most pervasive XML format around, and the main fulfillment of the promise of XML on the Web. But most such formats use XML namespaces, which cause issues with many popular JavaScript libraries, including jQuery."

Canon EOS 5D MkII Getting 60fps HD Recording

Canon EOS 5D MkII Getting 60fps HD Recording - Digital Camera News - TrustedReviews: "Planet5D reports the sumptuous shooter is about to receive a tasty new firmware boost which will not only bring 1080p 24fps video recording (Canon has already confirmed that), but also 720p recording at a whopping 60fps."

Patent suggests future Canon DSLRs could feature touchscreens

Patent suggests future Canon DSLRs could feature touchscreens: "Canon to put touchscreens on DSLRs? - Is a touchscreen DSLR planned for the Future? Well if a patent filed by Canon is anything to go by it well could be."

With an eye to the future, try RAW photos today

With an eye to the future, try RAW photos today - CNET Asia: "My initial regret was from the realization that raw photos, although taking up about three times the storage space as a JPEG and requiring manual processing, offer higher quality and more flexibility. But what I've come to understand since then is a second advantage of RAW: Because processing software improves over time, RAW photos in effect can get better with age."

Change Your Studio Appearance With Instant Flooring

S@H - Change Your Studio Appearance With Instant Flooring | DIYPhotography.net: "One of the comments I got when I started the Studio @ Home series was about flooring. I mean not *all* of our pictures are seamless white. Some pictures are taken with the floor and background as part of the picture."

New technology allows typing with brain waves.

New technology allows typing with brain waves.: "Scientists from the Mayo Clinic have developed a process using brain waves to type characters on a computer screen, which researchers say is a step toward helping people better control prosthetic limbs."

Unlocking the Mysteries of The Artistic Mind

Unlocking the Mysteries of The Artistic Mind | Psychology Today: "It might seem bizarre that science is using art to learn about the mind—looking for hard facts in the most ethereal of places. But great artists turn out to be the world's first neuroscientists."

Photoshop Fail: 15 Hilariously Botched Images

Photoshop Fail: 15 Hilariously Botched Images | Design + Ideas on WU: "Forget silly things like human anatomy and the laws of physics. When it comes to Photoshop, reality needn’t apply – just clone, rotate, skew, blur and hope nobody notices. From missing limbs to outrageously overzealous retouching, an incredible number of Photoshop screw-ups have graced magazine covers, product packaging and store displays."

20 Key Questions on Motivation and Habits, Answered

20 Key Questions on Motivation and Habits, Answered: "Today I’ve answered 20 questions from your fellow readers, who submitted them via the Zen Habits Twitter stream. I don’t claim to be perfect, but have learned a lot about habits and motivation in the last four or five years of habit changes (see My Story for more). I share some of what I’ve learned with the caveat, of course, that what works for me might not work for you. I hope it helps nevertheless."

20 Steel Shipping Container Cities, Dorms, Apartments

20 Steel Shipping Container Cities, Dorms, Apartments | Design + Ideas on WU: "Shipping container architecture is one of the biggest (relatively) new things in building these days. With the low cost, environmentally friendliness, and availability of the materials, it’s no wonder that more and more architects are getting turned on to the possibilities of shipping containers. They’re perfect for more than just building houses; they are also the ideal material for low-cost communal and emergency housing. For dorms, urban apartments, jails and emergency shelters, shipping containers provide an ideal jumping-off point. We’ve already seen some of the most incredible single-family shipping container homes out there; now here’s a look at some of the best group housing solutions using steel shipping containers."

Apple MacBook vs. HP Envy

Apple MacBook vs. HP Envy (part 2) | Nanotech - The Circuits Blog - CNET News: "The assertion that the HP Envy 13 has surpassed, in some important respects, the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro in technology shouldn't be that surprising considering the financial and technological resources that HP has."

Create a Realistic Subway Station Scene using Cinema 4D and After Effects

Create a Realistic Subway Station Scene using Cinema 4D and After Effects - Cgtuts+: "This 2 part tutorial takes us underground to examine how to build a 3D model of a subway train and make it zip past a real subway platform. First, we'll use Cinema 4D to craft a subway car using a few basic primitive shapes, while adding detail with Sweep, Extrude, and Loft NURBS elements. Then, we'll texture and light our car to create a realistic look, and allow our CG car to blend in with our real subway environment. Finally, the MoGraph module will help us clone our car and make a long train to animate into our scene, and then we'll do some quick adjustments in After Effects to put the finishing touches on our subway station composite."

Gotcha! Desert Prowler Unveiled

Ares Homepage: "The photo confirms that the previous artists' impressions were largely accurate. The jet has long, slender outer wings, spanning as much as 80 feet, mated to a stouter, deeper centerbody with a pointed nose. One important detail: the overwing fairings are not B-2-like inlets, but cover some kind of equipment - satcoms on one side, perhaps, and a sensor on the other."

72 Magnificent Maya Tutorials!

72 Magnificent Maya Tutorials! - Cgtuts+: "Can you believe it's already round two for all you Maya fanatics out there! And this time the hard-hitting heavyweight list of Maya scene files, MEL Scripts, and pretty much anything else you can think of, is sure to put you down for the count!"

Sin City Skinny Dip: 10 Luxurious Las Vegas Hotel Pools

Sin City Skinny Dip: 10 Luxurious Las Vegas Hotel Pools | Design + Ideas on WU: "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas? No longer! Sin City’s magnificent makeover has been a boon for vacationers seeking the best beyond just the bets. Las Vegas’ host of hotels have helped make the gambling mecca a true desert oasis and the party starts in the pool."

Six Ways to Find Quiet During a Busy Day

Six Ways to Find Quiet During a Busy Day: "Do your days feel like a manic dash from start to end? Does it seem like, however hard you work, there’s always more to do? For many of us, that’s just how life seems to go. When we do take a break from the busyness, we start surfing the internet, watching television, listening to audio books or flicking through a magazine. We’re afraid that if we slow down, we’ll crash."

Robo Theater - Movie Mover

YouTube - Robo Theater - Movie Mover: "To entertain my neighborhood this Halloween, I added a projection platform to my radio control electric wheelchair project. The result is a home theater that goes 5 MPH. The projector has its own deep cycle battery to feed its 300W hunger. Separate systems power the audio and motor drives."

Android Theme for Ubuntu Linux

Android Theme for Ubuntu Linux | Ubuntu Themes | Android Themes | GNOME GTK Themes: "Do you love Android devices and cellphones, and you want the same look on your Ubuntu desktop? You can have your Ubuntu Linux desktop look like Android OS, with matching icons, background and wallpapers."

New Linux kernel boosts graphics support, enhances KVM

New Linux kernel boosts graphics support, enhances KVM: "Linus Torvalds announced the release of a stable Linux 2.6.32 kernel. Major additions include kernel-based mode setting (KMS) and 3D graphics support on select Radeon cards, plus new kernel shared memory (KSM) technology for KVM virtualization, power-saving and performance improvements, and a faster 'Devtmpfs' boot technology."

Mini Weapons of Mass Desctruction

Mini Weapons of Mass Desctruction by John Austin: "This humorous MacGyver inspired tactical guide illustrates the full potential of everyday items and their lethal potential to be transformed into a menacing arsenal. Learn to build Shoelace Darts, Clothespin Catapult, Penny Bombs, Airsoft Pen Poppers, Ping Pong Zookas and thirty more inexpensive Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction."

20,000v vs. Beer Bottle

YouTube - FastMHz.com - 20,000v vs. Beer Bottle: "Another incredible example of 20kv @ 60ma melting glass, and flowing along a thin stream of molten glass from bottom to top of the bottle."

CSI Twitter- Crime Scene Investigation

Langwitches Blog » CSI Twitter- Crime Scene Investigation: "What is one to do, when you find such a specimen on school grounds? Students across grade levels took a mini fieldtrip to the pond on campus to examine the skeleton. The BIG question for everyone, including teachers was: WHAT kind of animal was it? What an opportunity and teachable moment for students and teachers to collaborate in the investigation process and find out."

The Church of Tiger Woods Disbands

"The events of the past few days have revealed Tiger to be a serial adulterer, a blatant liar, and a selfish coward. While I am sure I will always respect his ability as a golfer, that was only a very small part of why this much misunderstood web site was created and why it became such a big part of my life."

Top 10 Worst Portrayals of Technology in Film

GideonTech.com Case Modification - Top 10 Worst Portrayals of Technology in Film: "Aside from the daily duties here at GideonTech.com, we also like to unwind in front of the tube and catch a movie or two. With the explosion of technology in every day scenarios, it's common to find references to computers, iPods and other gadgets and geek toys in film."

Your Brain at Work

YouTube - Your Brain at Work: "In his new book 'Your Brain at Work,' coach David Rock depicts the story of two people over one day at the office, and what's happening in their brains that makes it so hard to focus and be productive. Not only does he explain why things go wrong, but how you can train your brain to improve thinking and performance at work. Based on interviews with 30 neuroscientists, he's developed strategies to help you work smart all day."

This has to be the WFT headline of 2009 - Some Houston toy drives check kids' immigration status

Some Houston toy drives check kids' immigration status | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "They don't claim to know who's been naughty or nice, but some Houston charities are asking whether children are in the country legally before giving them toys." FUCK THE SALVATION ARMY.

This guy has no life - Man 'beats' World of Warcraft

Destructoid - Man 'beats' World of Warcraft: "A Taiwanese man has been named the first ever person to successfully 'complete' World of Warcraft, collecting the game's staggering 986 Achievements to effectively do everything there is to do in the hugely successful MMO. This is literally the most amazing news of the day."

Happy Places

Happy Places: Third Places | Psychology Today: "As I have noted in previous blog entries, people have long sought happy places - settings where everyone is content and happy. Most who search for these do not believe them to be physical places but rather social places."

Trick of the Eye: Delightfully Deceptive Works of Art

Trick of the Eye: Delightfully Deceptive Works of Art | Design + Ideas on WU: "Hyper-realistic paintings and drawings can make us pause and wonder whether they’re real, but there’s another, even more deceptive, form of super-realistic art that’s been in use since ancient times. Trompe l’oeil means “trick of the eye” in French, and this type of painting definitely lives up to its name. With examples that date as far back as ancient Greece and Pompeii, this deceptively realistic art form features pictures that seem to jump out at the viewer, drawing them into a mysterious, often whimsical world."

Developers get beta SDK for Atom

Developers get beta SDK for Atom : News : Software - ZDNet Asia: "Intel on Wednesday launched a test version of its software developer kit (SDK) for the Atom Developer Program, part of the company's plan to sell Atom software on behalf of developers via a network of application stores."

Microsoft Leaves Users Waiting for Fixes for Windows Black Screen of Death

Microsoft Leaves Users Waiting for Fixes for Windows Black Screen of Death: "News Analysis: Users who want the best Windows experience will need some help from Microsoft. But if the Black Screen of Death case is any indication, Microsoft isn't so quick to take responsibility. As usual, users find they are left to their own devices to solve problems with software and hardware they paid good money for."

Close-up of SCC chip image

Close-up of SCC chip image - Intel's 48-core processor debut (photos) - CNET News: "Intel debuted and demonstrated its Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC) processor Wednesday. The processor has 48 cores--24 dual-core 'tiles'--connected with a high-speed mesh network. Intel wants the experimental chip, at least 100 of which it'll distribute to researchers in 2010, to lead to new attempts to tackle multicore system and software design. Ultimately, Intel believes its aggressive multicore approach will be the way computers get enough power for tasks such as vision and speech comparable to what humans have."

Why I chose Common Lisp over Python, Ruby, and Clojure

Why I chose Common Lisp over Python, Ruby, and Clojure - Postabon's posterous: "I just wanted to talk about a few of the high level technical decisions that I’ve made – in the hopes that it could help other people starting new projects out (and that I can get some feedback and learn something myself). This post is going to be pretty tightly focused on the language I chose. I have a few other posts in mind on topics such as the database (BerkelyDB) and overall architecture that I’m planning to write up in the next week or two.."

The YAS Hotel and the World’s Largest LED Project is Complete

The YAS Hotel and the World’s Largest LED Project is Complete » CONTEMPORIST: "The YAS Hotel in Abu Dhabi was recently completed, and its curvilinear grid-shell which is covered with over 5,300 diamond-shaped steel panels, containing nearly 5000 LED fixtures is being announced as the world’s largest LED project controlled through RDM (Remote Device Management)."

50 Geektastic USB Gadgets & Funky Flash Drives

50 Geektastic USB Gadgets & Funky Flash Drives | Design + Ideas on WU: "What would we do without USB flash drives and gadgets? Some USB drives are so cool you might drool, while some are just bizarre. Whatever you might be inclined to like, you can probably find a USB-powered gadget or flash drive to meet that desire. If you are shopping for your special geek, don’t forget we all love the portability of our music, books, pictures and data. Here are 50 geektastic USB gadgets and funky USB flash drives."

From Vomit Collectors to Worm Pickers: 13 Bizarre Jobs

From Vomit Collectors to Worm Pickers: 13 Bizarre Jobs | Design + Ideas on WU: "Wouldn’t it be great to be able to hand out business cards that proclaim you a ‘professional sleeper’, or fortune cookie writer? Of course, for every curiously awesome job, there’s a foul, wretched one – like vomit collector at an amusement park or waste-burning toilet attendant on a ship. To get any of these 13 weird gigs, you either have to be really lucky – or really desperate."

How to Use Patch and Diff Commands to Create and Apply Patches

How to Use Patch and Diff Commands to Create and Apply Patches | Coding && Computer Tips Blog: "The world of Unix is a place where everything is done the right way, till there is an even “righter” way to do it. For everything that gets coded, there is always something left to be edited. Almost every project in the Linux (or other unix related OS) community is based on patches. There are even quite a lot of patches for the linux kernel itself.

A patch is essentially a remedy of some kind to the original source code (or just data). Imagine, for instance, that you just discovered a critical security bug in openssh (well, you won’t be the first or the last to do that). After you fix that, you would want to inform the others (hopefully) about this bug and provide your solution. While you could still just provide the authors with your version of openssh sources, wouldn’t it be better if you just provided them with a patch, that when applied, it will automatically do the necessary changes to the needed files ?"

What Does Alcohol Do to Your Brain?

What Does Alcohol Do to Your Brain? | Psychology Today: "In the United States and most European nations, the majority of people have used alcohol by young adulthood (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2007). This blog entry will review what is known about how much alcohol use may affect brain functioning long after the intoxication effects have warn off."

4 Ways to Kill a Process – kill, killall, pkill, xkill

4 Ways to Kill a Process – kill, killall, pkill, xkill: "Kill command is use to send signal to a process or to kill a process. We typically use kill -SIGNAL PID, where you know the PID of the process.

There are other ways to effectively kill a process — killing a process by name, killing a process by specifying part of the name, killing a process by pointing out the process with cursor etc.,"

How to Say No to Great Opportunities

How to Say No to Great Opportunities: "With our world being increasingly interconnected, fast-paced, & busy, we’re all presented with more demands and opportunities than ever before. Through the internet, we’re so much more aware of other options, lifestyle choices and opportunities available to us, and the more “plugged in” to the internet you are, the more you probably fit the profile of generation Y who are famous for “wanting it all.”"

The Incredible Guide to NEW Ubuntu (Karmic Koala)

The Incredible Guide to NEW Ubuntu (Karmic Koala) [PDF]: "The guide is aimed, not only familiarizing you, but on making your Linux experience easier in general. Learn how to define command aliases, making the Command Line Shell easy to use!"

Man loses job after searching too hard for aliens

Man loses job after searching too hard for aliens | Technically Incorrect - CNET News: "I can understand why people are so keen to find alien life. It isn't so much a scientific fascination with what might be out there. It's more a pained hope that what is out there might be more enjoyable than what is down here."

Quickie: Use a Welding Glass As A 14 Stops ND Filter

Quickie: Use a Welding Glass As A 14 Stops ND Filter | DIYPhotography.net: "Kevin used welding glass sheet placed in front of the lens as a 10 stops ND filter. It is optically superior? No. Will it do the trick? Yes."

Politics: Ugly, retarded people but never leaders

Platon: Photographs of World Leaders : The New Yorker: "An interactive portfolio of portraits by Platon of world leaders, with commentary by the photographer."

Coding under extreme conditions - USB heating gloves

Gadget of the week - USB heating gloves (£14) - Features, Gadgets & Tech - The Independent: "Brrrrrr. Chilly mornings and icy evenings play havoc with the frozen fingers of the average computer user. But help is at hand, as it were, with these mittens-meet-fingerless-gloves which plug in to your USB slot."

Pop Up Office

Pop Up on Vimeo: "The cube trap just got more interesting."

Pop Up from abw on Vimeo.

What can you buy the gadget geek who has everything?

What can you buy the gadget geek who has everything? - USATODAY.com: "A Help for the hard die geek."

10 perfect Christmas presents for...Guitar Hero & Rock Band players

10 perfect Christmas presents for...Guitar Hero & Rock Band players - Pocket-lint: "We've already put together a perfect Christmas gift guide for console gamers but, while that was in the planning, we realised that we could have made an entire list of its own of awesome accessories for rhythm game rockers. So here it is."

Combine social media APIs and XML-based data formats

Combine social media APIs and XML-based data formats: "Explore the concepts, design, and implementation details pertaining to interacting with social media sites using various APIs and XML-based data formats such as Really Simple Syndication (RSS), Atom, Facebook Markup Language (FBML), OpenSocial Markup Language (OSML), SOAP, and plain old XML (POX)."

Next-generation banking with Web 2.0

Next-generation banking with Web 2.0: "Web 2.0 brings innovative design ideas and methodologies to the financial industry and improves considerably the development of business applications in this competitive market environment. This article explains how Web 2.0 influences the design of financial applications. Examine trends in Internet banking and how Web 2.0 practices influence those trends."

Ping Tutorial: 15 Effective Ping Command Examples

Ping Tutorial: 15 Effective Ping Command Examples: "If you are thinking ping is such a simple command and why do I need 15 examples, you should read the rest of the article."

8-bit Christmas

RUSH COIL 8-bit Christmas - Available in December 2009: "8-BIT CHRISTMAS, a full-length Christmas album inspired by the Golden Age of video game music."

Create Incredible Looking Hair Effects with Particles in Blender – Part 2

Create Incredible Looking Hair Effects with Particles in Blender – Day 2 - Cgtuts+: "In this multi-part, video tutorial about Blender's Hair Particles System, we will learn some very useful options to use when trying to create cool or convincing hair effects. We will also add colour to the hair, light the scene, add a few compositing nodes, and finally set the particle system as a softbody so we can animate it."

How The Average American Is Handling The Recession

SU - How The Average American Is Handling The Recession

Five Years of Ubuntu

Five Years of Ubuntu: "Recently Ubuntu celebrated it's five-year anniversary. Ubuntu 9.10 'Karmic Koala' marks five years since the initial release, 4.10 'Warty Warthog'. This article by Christer Edwards outlines some of the things Ubuntu has brought to the Linux world, and what a major impact it has had in such a short amount of time. He has been using Ubuntu nearly that entire time, having joined the fun with the 5.04 release."

Tiger Woods car crash CGI reconstruction

YouTube: "Those Chinese are way ahead of CNN and Faux News"