Monday, May 31, 2010
Boyhood Crush Confessions
Boyhood Crush Confessions: "We all go through it. That time in our young lives when suddenly members of the opposite sex aren’t so “icky”, and are actually kinda neat. We develop crushes on those we see around us, and like so many boys my age, many of my first crushes came from television. Inspired by a series of tweets between friends, I give you the confessions of my first infatuations. I’m willing to bet that if you were a boy growing up in the 70′s and 80′s, then at least one of these leading ladies made your heart go pitter-patter too."
Painting Sound with ARSS and Gimp
Painting Sound with ARSS and Gimp: "As I was working on a sound track project for a science-fiction film I’ve been working on, I remembered reading an article in Free Software Magazine, by Gianluca Pignalberi, in which he described filtering using Gimp and a command-line program then called “ARSE” (version 0.1). The program is now called “The Analysis & Resynthesis Sound Spectrograph” (“ARSS”, now version 0.2.3). Combined with an image editor of your choice (I also chose Gimp), it also turns out to be a very interesting way to make original sound effects — by painting the sound spectrum."
Investors scout space spin-offs
Investors scout space spin-offs: "Investors looking for promising opportunities in space spin-offs used ESA’s Investment Forum in Stuttgart, Germany, this month to meet 28 young entrepreneurial companies looking for financing to start their businesses."
Hassle-free Backup with Déjà Dup
Hassle-free Backup with Déjà Dup: "The Déjà Dup backup utility may not be the most powerful or flexible backup tool out there, but it does have its advantages. Its straightforward interface makes it dead-easy to configure backups, while the support for the Amazon S3 storage back-end is a boon for users looking for unlimited backup storage on the cheap. In addition to that, Déjà Dup supports incremental backups, and it can encrypt and compress data during the backup operation. Besides Amazon S3, Déjà Dup supports other types of remote storage, including FTP, Windows shares, WebDAV, and SSH. And you can use Déjà Dup to perform scheduled backups."
Perfect Cloud-based Photo Setup with digiKam and Piwigo
Perfect Cloud-based Photo Setup with digiKam and Piwigo: "Using digiKam's Kipi plugins, you can upload your photos to a variety of popular photo services, including Flickr, Picasaweb, and SmugMug. But what if you want to host your own photo album and still be able to populate it with photos directly from within digiKam? In this case, you might want to try Piwigo, a nifty photo application that has everything you need to host and share your photos on the Web. Piwigo is supremely easy to install and get to grips with, and you can use the vast collection of available extensions and themes to customize the application to fit your specific needs. The best part is, though, that digiKam comes with the Piwigo upload plugin, so you can push your photos directly from the desktop photo management application to the Web album. To enable the plugin, launch digiKam, choose Settings | Configure digiKam, switch to the Kipi Plugins section, and enable the Remote Piwigo Export plugin. Press OK, and restart digiKam."
4G wireless: It's fast, but outstripped by hype
4G wireless: It's fast, but outstripped by hype: "Cell phone companies are about to barrage consumers with advertising for the next advance in wireless network technology: '4G' access. The companies are promising faster speeds and the thrill of being the first on the block to use a new acronym."
5 things you didn't know about ... java.util.concurrent
5 things you didn't know about ... java.util.concurrent: "Writing multithreaded code that both performs well and protects applications against corruption is just plain hard — which is why we have java.util.concurrent. Ted Neward shows you how concurrent Collections classes like CopyOnWriteArrayList, BlockingQueue, and ConcurrentMap retrofit standard Collections classes for your concurrency programming needs."
Tacit knowledge: you don't know how much you know
Tacit knowledge: you don't know how much you know: "TAKE a long look at the Mona Lisa. How do you see her? As blobs of paint or as a woman with an enigmatic smile? Now explain how you came to see those blobs of paint as a smile. For your second mission, think back to learning to form sentences. Your parents never told you 'verb in the middle' (if you're English) or 'verb at the end' (if you're German) but still you picked it up. And, more remarkable, once you did, have you any idea how come this sentence breaks the rules but read it you still can?"
Three Chroma Key Solutions For The DIY Photographer
Three Chroma Key Solutions For The DIY Photographer: "There are several ways to get a decent chroma background for a photo for the DIYer and the results are just as good as any pro system I have encountered. We will cover 3 solutions I have used with great success and all cost less than $15. You can use a green sheet, you can paint a wall and you can make a pop out chroma key like a pop out reflector. I use green for my key but you can also use blue if you choose."
11 Brain-Twisting Paradoxes
11 Brain-Twisting Paradoxes: "Paradoxes have been around since the time of Ancient Greeks & the credit of popularizing them goes to recent logicians. Using logic you can usually find a fatal flaw in the paradox which shows why the seemingly impossible is either possible or the entire paradox is built on flawed thinking. Can you all work out the problems in each of the 11 paradoxes shown here? If you do, post your solutions or the fallacies in the comments."
Sunday, May 30, 2010
How 10 Iconic Movies Almost Ended
How 10 Iconic Movies Almost Ended: "It’s hard to imagine that some of our favorite movies could have turned out entirely differently. Sometimes the directors simply changed their minds, and sometimes the test audience hated the original ending so much there was really no choice but to change it so theater-goers wouldn’t leave the movie feeling ripped off. Here’s the way 10 movies could have turned out."
The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People
The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People: "Creativity is a nebulous, murky topic that fascinates me endlessly — how does it work? What habits to creative people do that makes them so successful at creativity?"
Fun Ways to Measure the Size of the BP Gulf Oil Spill
Fun Ways to Measure the Size of the BP Gulf Oil Spill: "It's estimated that at least 5 million gallons of oil (and now looking like probably much, much more) will have gushed into the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the explosion that occurred April 20 at the Deepwater Horizon station. Naturally, this epic amount of oil spillage piqued our curiosity, leading us to ask this question: Exactly how much is 5 million gallons of oil?"
Weapons of Fast Destruction
Weapons of Fast Destruction: "Today in New York City, a month-long conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) comes to an end after marathon deliberations among the treaty’s 189 member states. The NPT began 40 years ago with three broad aims: Prevent nations without nuclear weapons from acquiring them, push nuclear-armed states to abandon their arsenals, and promote access to peaceful nuclear energy for all signatories. All member states meet every five years to draft a consensus agreement on how to advance the NPT’s goals."
In the Koreas, Five Possible Ways to War
In the Koreas, Five Possible Ways to War: "Like a street gang showing off its power to run amok in a well-heeled neighborhood, the North Koreans launch a missile over Japan or set off a nuclear test or stage an attack — as strong evidence indicates they did in March, when a South Korean warship was torpedoed. Expressions of outrage follow. So do vows that this time, the North Koreans will pay a steep price."
An Inexpensive, Portable Ventilator
An Inexpensive, Portable Ventilator: "Four years ago, when Matthew Callaghan was a surgery intern at the University of California at San Francisco, the medical world was buzzing over the prospect of a global flu pandemic. One of the biggest potential problems was logistical: Because 95 percent of the ventilators in the U.S.—which keep critically ill patients breathing when their respiratory system is unable to function—are already in use, thousands of patients would die for lack of available life support. Ventilators cost hospitals from $3,000 up to $40,000 for state-of-the-art models, making it impractical for most hospitals and clinics to stockpile them for emergencies."
Webcam knows how to snub shoulder surfers
Webcam knows how to snub shoulder surfers: "IN CROWDED cafes and on public transport, it's easy for people to eyeball the info on your laptop or smartphone screen. Now Sony Ericsson is patenting an answer."
LOST meets Monkey Island
LOST meets Monkey Island: "If TV's LOST was a 1987 point-and-click computer game.
A personal project."
A personal project."
BP Says 'Top Kill' Failed to Stop Gulf Leak
BP Says 'Top Kill' Failed to Stop Gulf Leak: "In another serious setback in the effort to stem the flow of oil gushing from a well a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico, BP engineers said Saturday that the “top kill” technique had failed and, after consultation with government officials, they had decided to move on to another strategy."
Cosmic Voyage (1080p)
Cosmic Voyage (1080p): "This is my favorite part from the IMAX movie Cosmic Voyage. It puts big and small into perspective and takes you on a voyage through the universe! Narrated by Morgan Freeman."
Colorado psychic arrested for telling clients their money was possessed by evil spirits
Colorado psychic arrested for telling clients their money was possessed by evil spirits: "Nancy Marks, a psychic from Lafayette, Colorado, was arrested for fraud after telling clients their 'money [was] evil' and that she'd take their cursed cash so 'the money would suffer' instead. Marks made at least $290,000 using this scam."
Top 10 Mammals With Odd Defenses
Top 10 Mammals With Odd Defenses: "It is said that the basic two responses before danger are to run away, or to attack. However, this list proves that, when it comes to escaping death by predators, some mammals prefer to be a little bit more original. If you guys like this list, there may be a sequel on non-mammals!"
Best 'Who needs T**S T-Shirt' Modelling photo (NSFW)
Best 'Who needs T**S T-Shirt' Modelling photo (NSFW): "Confidence is everything in this life..."
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Is Digg Sexist?
Is Digg Sexist?: "On Tuesday, feminist blogger Irin North gave a scathing critique of the social news site Digg. She described its user community as 'incredibly sexist' and included numerous examples of immature, caddish behavior. For those who aren't aware, Digg is a mostly-democratic news site powered by its members, who submit and vote on articles that appear on the site. North's litany of complaints against it begins here:"
A Sitemap Makes Your Website More Google Friendly
A Sitemap Makes Your Website More Google Friendly: "A sitemap is like a table of contents page for a website, offering links to all pages on the site. These links are categorized and organized in hierarchical form, which makes finding them quite easy. When a visitor can't navigate her way to the page she is looking for, she can refer to the sitemap page to find it. Moreover, sitemaps help make your website more search engine friendly. By providing text- or XML-based links to key pages, the sitemap offers search engines a great way to index your website's contents."
Apple passes Microsoft
Apple passes Microsoft: "Apple has passed Microsoft as the world's most valuable tech company. This is quite a feat considering the shape the company was in just one decade ago. This change of fortune can be mostly attributed to one visionary man, Steve Jobs. Jobs saw an opportunity to move away from a PC company with increasingly limited growth to a true multimedia company offering gadgets he could have only dreamed of ten years earlier. It was this change of direction that turned his company around and made it the technological leader it is today."
The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People
The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People: "I’ve reflected on my own creative habits, but decided I’d look at the habits that others consider important to their creativity. I picked a handful of creatives, almost at random — there are so many that picking the best would be impossible, so I just picked some that I admire, who came to mind when I thought of the word “creative”."
DIY Dolly Creation Part 1
DIY Dolly Creation Part 1: "In the first half of this two part tutorial, we’re gonna talk about the dolly that we use and explain why. Tomorrow we’ll put it all together and show how good the end result can look. Enjoy!"
How to Never Find Your Passion
How to Never Find Your Passion: "There are a lot of excuses you can use, and a lot of obstacles that will come in your way. It all boils down to how determined you are to create the life of your dreams."
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Almost Free DIY Paper Diffuser
Almost Free DIY Paper Diffuser: "This quickie DIY 'Budget Flash Diffuser' is so easy to make you can whip one up on the spot as needed. It is also essentially free, if you can scrounge the hair band thingie on which the mount depends. (A ball bungee would work nicely, too.)"
Youtube Office Headquarters
Youtube Office Headquarters: "We have seen Google’s Mountain View Headquarters as well as Google’s office in Zurich. This time around let’s take a look at the office of Youtube, the popular video sharing website which was acquired for US$1.65billion in Google stock. Youtube’s office space is located in San Bruno California and even have a lovely large swimming pool. Definitely one of those offices you would love to work at.
Check out more of Youtube’s office with 10 more pics after the jump."
Check out more of Youtube’s office with 10 more pics after the jump."
5 Incredibly Simple, Yet Useful Web Sites
5 Incredibly Simple, Yet Useful Web Sites: "Sometimes (very often, in my case) you’d like a web site or service to cut through the crap and just keep it simple, right? Well, every now and then a service that’s really easy to use ends up in our mailbox, and it’s a shame not to share it. These sites have no extra annoyances that defer from their purpose; it really doesn’t get any simpler than this."
Ten Non-Photoshopped Images That Will Warp Your Mind
Ten Non-Photoshopped Images That Will Warp Your Mind: "Madoz's world ties directly into the work of surrealist artists like Dalí and Duchamp. He doesn't like digital photography because, as he says, he needs to manipulate reality directly, not through Photoshop. He first creates his strange objects. Then, he just photographs them using film, in the most simplistic and clean way possible. The result are windows into alternative dimensions that often carry a message and they are always beautiful."
New Ubuntu Website Goes Live
New Ubuntu Website Goes Live: "If you remember, when Canonical announced the new Ubuntu branding they also revealed a new design for the Ubuntu website (www.ubuntu.com). Today the new design finally went live."
LOST: The 8-Bit Game
LOST: The 8-Bit Game: "Not only are we still undergoing serious LOST withdrawal, but we’re also big classic gaming junkies — which is why Adam Campbell’s mockups for a LOST NES game were like a cool glass of DHARMA merlot on a hot summer’s day. We’re definitely getting a classic Zelda vibe here."
Impossible Lego Creation
Impossible Lego Creation: "Whoaa! I think I would feel uncomfortable as well, if I found myself in similar situation. This Lego guy found himself in a surrounding, his poor little brain isn’t capable to understand. But we are much more experienced with optical illusions, aren’t we? This is piece of cake for a regular Mighty Illusions fan. Who’s gonna explain this illusion first? If you’re memory servers you well, you’ll remember we already had some lego illusions in the past, as well as similar impossible structures made of various materials. Which impossible structure was your favorite? Browse through dozens of them in appropriate category."
Earnings and Yearnings: The Freelance Personality
Earnings and Yearnings: The Freelance Personality: "Should have started this article two weeks before I actually did. I couldn't let go of another project long enough to start calling sources for this one. I needed a good manager to keep me on track, but my boss—well, she's a nice lady, but she can be overindulgent, inefficient, and reclusive. The upside is that I can insult her in public like this without having to worry about losing my job. I'm a freelance writer, you see. My boss is me."
5 Reasons It's Still Not Cool to Admit You're a Gamer
5 Reasons It's Still Not Cool to Admit You're a Gamer: "Let's get this out of the way right now: The only reason I don't have more game consoles hooked to my TV is because I'm out of ports on the back for cables to plug into, and I don't want to have to get off the sofa to switch over. I've been playing video games since the Carter administration. So do not compare me to Roger 'I never play video games yet dismiss them as worthless' Ebert here. Just... don't. I would have taken my SNES as my date to senior prom if they had let me."
Namco: 'We must change the price of games'
Namco: 'We must change the price of games' : "The industry must work together to address falling software sales by changing the way games are priced and sold."
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
BP's Borrowing Costs Soar In Wake Of Oil Spill
BP's Borrowing Costs Soar In Wake Of Oil Spill: "There was once this great Dilbert strip, about how Dilbert had lost a fortune from his 401k following the company's stock collapse. And naturally, he was pretty distraught about this until Dogbert informed him, in that great Dogbert way, that he'd been impersonating Dilbert and managing his investments for some time, putting Dilbert's money into tobacco, sweatshops and diamond mines. Dilbert, surprised, asks how he's doing, and Dogbert replies: 'It's mixed. You have a 36% rate of return but your soul will burn for eternity.'"
Coolest Office Gadgets
Coolest Office Gadgets: "The office is where most active workers spend 1/3 of their time within a day. Whether working for a company or from home, most people do have a desk where they perform most, if not all of their daily work. Not many though, seem to give their office the value it deserves and treat themselves by recognising that space and giving it the importance it deserved. Normally people buy gadgets for home but how many do really by things for their working environment."
WWIII Here we go? North Korean Troops 'Prepare For Combat'
WWIII Here we go? North Korean Troops 'Prepare For Combat': "North Korea's armed forces have reportedly been ordered to prepare for combat as tensions mount with the South over the deadly sinking of a warship."
How to Configure an Ubuntu Linux Computer for Less Than $200
How to Configure an Ubuntu Linux Computer for Less Than $200: "Does your family need an extra PC? Educator, Mac expert, and Linux enthusiast Phil Shapiro explains in this YouTube video how, for less than the price of some operating systems, you can configure a useful, virus-free computer with a 23-inch LCD monitor ($150 refurbished) and a Wi-Fi wireless adapter ($15). This project is easy to do and should take about an hour."
Boy fixes cracked iPhone screen for $21.95
Boy fixes cracked iPhone screen for $21.95: "It used to be that parents would encourage their kids to do arts and crafts projects. Now they're making them fix their cracked iPhone screens."
7 Ways to Protect Your Gmail Account From Getting Hacked
7 Ways to Protect Your Gmail Account From Getting Hacked: "Email is the most invaluable asset of anyone’s identity on the web. You use email everyday and have all the important information stored in your inbox. All your social networking accounts, website registrations, Paypal accounts etc are connected and controlled by your email and thus it makes sense to completely secure your Gmail account and prevent unauthorized access."
NASA ends effort to contact Phoenix Mars Lander
NASA ends effort to contact Phoenix Mars Lander: "NASA declared the three-legged spacecraft officially dead Monday after repeated failed attempts to regain contact."
Simple server-side 2G phone apps
Simple server-side 2G phone apps: "Mobile phones are transforming economies and societies all over the world, but often with phones that might be considered out-of-date by gadget geeks in more developed nations. The good news is that applications that work with these phones can be very simple to write, and they give your application a huge potential user base. In this article, learn how to write programs that respond to specialized requests for information from 2G phones."
The Gulf Deepwater Oil Spill - the Top Kill Attempt
The Gulf Deepwater Oil Spill - the Top Kill Attempt: "The next attempt to shut off the flow from the leaking BP well in the Gulf is still aimed to occur early Wednesday. The attempt will use the “top kill” method to try and kill the well. While I have described this in earlier posts, the Unified Command have put out a video animation of the process, and there was an earlier diagram. So I am going to use these, which are simplified explanations, with some additional comments and tie it in to more facts that came out of briefings today, to try and give a more detailed explanation."
10 Easy Steps to Debug Perl Program
10 Easy Steps to Debug Perl Program: "In this article, Let us review how to debug a perl program / script using Perl debugger, which is similar to the gdb tool for debugging C code."
Why Men Use Porn
Why Men Use Porn: "We're lonely little boys
playing with our toys;
trying very hard
to not make any noise.
- a male patient, addicted to pornography"
playing with our toys;
trying very hard
to not make any noise.
- a male patient, addicted to pornography"
Jack Bauer is gone! May God have mercy of our souls
It was really sad to see 24 end in such way. The ground breaking series leaves the hero for many and the devil for a few fighting for his own freedom. How ironic huh?
Lesson learned, if those you do good don't appreciate it, move on and look for other pastures, else you'll end up beaten up, hurt and alone.
This world punishes good doers, as the old saying goes.
Thanks for the good times Jack!
Bonlebon
Lesson learned, if those you do good don't appreciate it, move on and look for other pastures, else you'll end up beaten up, hurt and alone.
This world punishes good doers, as the old saying goes.
Thanks for the good times Jack!
Bonlebon
Monday, May 24, 2010
How to Deep Clean Your Carpets
Warrior: How to Deep Clean Your Carpets: "Rule one, of course, is to clean up a stain immediately. If the carpet absorbs too much of it, it will become more difficult to get out. But even if you are extra vigilant, over time these little stains start to add up and your carpets might begin to look dingy and worn out. No matter how much your scrub, blot or vacuum, you might never get out that last bit of stain or that stinky cat smell."
Cherokee Web Server
Cherokee Web Server: "Cherokee is a very fast, flexible and easy to configure Web Server. It supports the widespread technologies nowadays: FastCGI, SCGI, PHP, CGI, uWSGI, SSI, TLS and SSL encrypted connections, Virtual hosts, Authentication, on the fly encoding, Load Balancing, Apache compatible log files, Data Base Balancing, Reverse HTTP Proxy, Traffic Shaper, Video Streaming and much more."
'Lost' questions: What we still want to know
'Lost' questions: What we still want to know: "The consensus in the Life newsroom is that the Lost finale raised more questions than answers. In an impromptu huddle around my desk, here's what we rattled off as the top questions that still aren't answered"
Using Ajax with Web services
Using Ajax with Web services: "Web services are a great way to expose functionality in a language- and platform-independent manner. Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) is a technical means to access the contents of another resource without invoking a new request on the current Web page. Using the two together, Web developers can create powerful applications that leverage state-of-the-art technologies and provide an enhanced user experience."
Porn in HD, or Why When Porn Sucks the Media Sucks on it Harder.
Porn in HD, or Why When Porn Sucks the Media Sucks on it Harder.: "That HD is a bitch is not news. With the strong backing of the Japanese electronic giants, HD came roaring in the film and television industry about a half dozen years ago promising “almost as much resolution as film” but without the cost associated with shooting photo-chemical emulsion. But along with the convenience of a magnetic cassette form-factor, HD came with a host of production gremlins that started vexing people from the start."
BATMAN XXX: A PORN PARODY-official trailer
BATMAN XXX: A PORN PARODY-official trailer: "Holy porn parody, Batman! Featuring the top names in the adult entertainment world, and a production that spared no expenses in faithfully recreating the look and feel of the original, Axel Braun's long-anticipated 'BATMAN XXX: a Porn Parody' is a hilariously sexy spoof of the 60's Adam West/Burt Ward TV show.
Coming on DVD May 24, 2010."
Coming on DVD May 24, 2010."
Mega Man Fan Movie
Mega Man Fan Movie: "Written and Directed by Eddie Lebron. For more info on the director, visit: www.eddielebron.com and visit www.megamanfilm.com."
Behold my magic nuts!
Behold my magic nuts!: "This is one of my favorite illusions. Took me forever to make this. But was pretty happy with the results."
Review of Lost Series Finale, The End
Review of Lost Series Finale, The End: "The great puzzle of the last season of Lost has been: how can both the flash-sideways universe and the Island universe mean anything? If Sideways is the universe in which Oceanic 815 never crashed, who cares what happens on the Island? If the Island is where the characters' fates are sealed, how can there be any meaning to what happens in the Sideways?"
DIY Theme Park Ride Fail
DIY Theme Park Fail: "When the dude flies off the thing is so freaking funny and sublime too..."
Flap your wings and fly my dear fuhrer.
Flap your wings and fly my dear fuhrer.
Fixing a Compact Flash Memory Card Error
Fixing a Compact Flash Memory Card Error: "For all others, Oh No! Your favorite compact flash camera all of a sudden has started giving you CF memory card errors. You've tried several different memory cards, and it's still the same thing. Your camera is inoperative due to this error. Don't fret, you just might be able to fix this problem yourself."
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Data mining with WEKA, Part 2: Classification and clustering
Data mining with WEKA, Part 2: Classification and clustering: "Data mining is a collective term for dozens of techniques to glean information from data and turn it into meaningful trends and rules to improve your understanding of the data. In this second article of the 'Data mining with WEKA' series, we'll discuss two common data mining methods — classification and clustering — which can be used to do more powerful analysis on your data."
Google Unveils Google TV With Sony, Logitech, Intel as Partners
Google Unveils Google TV With Sony, Logitech, Intel as Partners : "Google took a step into the world of television Thursday with the introduction of Google TV, an Internet-enabled TV platform that will be available this fall in devices from Sony and Logitech."
Dubai - a city of hi-tech contrasts
Dubai - a city of hi-tech contrasts: "Web filtering occasionally rejects criticism of Dubai's leadership - for instance if a blog contains a cartoon deemed insulting to the Sheikh."
Icon Creator tutorial
Icon Creator tutorial: "There are many tasks in web development that are tedious and time consuming but absolutely essential to ensure that the product comes across as professional and looks finished. Icon creation is one of them. An application with a badly-designed icon will look amateurish to its potential users, no matter how fantastic the underlying functionality is."
Gulf of Mexico oil spill in the Loop Current
Gulf of Mexico oil spill in the Loop Current: "Scientists monitoring the US oil spill with ESA’s Envisat radar satellite say that it has entered the Loop Current, a powerful conveyor belt that flows clockwise around the Gulf of Mexico towards Florida."
10 Ways to Beat the Heat
10 Ways to Beat the Heat: "No, it's not your imagination—it definitely is getting hotter. The eight warmest years on record occurred over the past decade. But staying cool this summer doesn't necessarily mean you have to pay a fortune to keep the air-conditioning running day and night. Here are 10 tips—most costing less than $25—that will keep you comfortable and cut the typical $1,000 cooling bill by as much as half. What's needed to get the temperature to drop? Only a little time and a few changes in your routine."
10 Sites Where You Can Earn Some Extra Cash While You Are a Student
10 Sites Where You Can Earn Some Extra Cash While You Are a Student: "Now, there's a difference between making a living on the internet and making a few quick bucks. No, there is no get rich quick scheme but that doesn't mean you can't make ten dollars in ten minutes; you could if you know the right way to do it."
Invention Awards: A Fish-Friendly Tidal Turbine
Invention Awards: A Fish-Friendly Tidal Turbine: "W. Scott Anderson spent the past five decades creating complicated machines for manufacturing, including a lipstick labeler and a plastic-straw maker. So when two years ago the 77-year-old industrial engineer invented a fish-friendly underwater turbine that looks like a giant screw, it seemed a cruel twist of fate that every manufacturer he approached said it was too complex to produce economically. But that didn’t stop him."
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
10 Unexpected Places to Give Birth
10 Unexpected Places to Give Birth: "Well, I’m a week away from my due date, and it doesn’t look like our bundle of joy is going anywhere anytime soon. But that hasn’t stopped me from having horrifying visions of getting stuck on an elevator and going into labor or being otherwise unable to make it to the hospital 10 minutes away from our house. Maybe it was a bad idea to research these unexpected places to give birth…"
Build Your Own Lenses
Build Your Own Lenses: "Nikon, Canon, Leica, Pentax, Sigma, Tokina, and a host of other lens makers are all striving to bring you the sharpest lenses with all optical aberrations reduced to the minimum. That's too bad! Because with lenses, as with life, sometimes it's the imperfections that make things interesting."
Leonard da Vinci's Resume
Leonard da Vinci's Resume: "Before he was famous, before he painted the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, before he invented the helicopter, before he drew the most famous image of man, before he was all of these things, Leonardo da Vinci was an artificer, an armorer, a maker of things that go 'boom'."
"Premakes" The Empire Strikes Back (1950)
"Premakes" The Empire Strikes Back (1950): "Let's turn back the clock, shall we? Back to a distant time in an alternate universe far, far away... The 50s! It was a simpler age of 3-D movies, and robots named Robby, Gort, and Tobor. A hidden gem of this period in cinema is a little film called 'The Empire Strikes Back', the second chapter in a planned three-part epic science fiction trilogy. While the preceding and succeeding episodes were never actually produced due to budgetary constraints, 'Empire' shines as an example of 1950s 3-D space opera. The re-release of this trailer coincides with the 60th anniversary of this amazing film."
Stilzkin Bridge Launcher Made with Legos
Stilzkin Bridge Launcher Made with Legos: "The Stilzkin EXT3 Bridge Launcher is used to deploy bridges to cross rivers, small chasms or similar obstructions. Placing the bridge takes less than a minute. Once the span has been put in place, the launcher detaches itself from the bridge, and moves aside to allow traffic to pass. Once all of the vehicles have moved over, it crosses the bridge itself and reattaches to the bridge on the other side. It then retracts the span ready to move off again."
Series you MUST watch: Death Note (ANIME)
I might be one of the last few people that learned about Death Note. However, once I've got the DVDs, I've been playing the episodes non stop (I'm actually half way through the series).
The awesomely timed animation, the impressive dialogs (even when they are dubbed in english) and the jaw dropping storyline will get you hooked. Well, only if you like anime, rich screenplays with some depth in them and the Japanese culture towards death.
Check it out and take it home, you won't regret it.
Bonlebon
The awesomely timed animation, the impressive dialogs (even when they are dubbed in english) and the jaw dropping storyline will get you hooked. Well, only if you like anime, rich screenplays with some depth in them and the Japanese culture towards death.
Check it out and take it home, you won't regret it.
Bonlebon
For Looney Tunes, a Big Left Turn at Albuquerque
For Looney Tunes, a Big Left Turn at Albuquerque : "Worried that the low profile of the Looney Tunes cast of characters among children is the start of th-th-th-that’s all folks for the historic cartoon franchise, Warner Brothers is embarking on a five-alarm rescue effort."
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Dear Ubuntu: I Have Some Concerns
Dear Ubuntu: I Have Some Concerns: "'Dear Ubuntu, for the last couple years life has been good. Every time I've shown you to a friend or family member, they've compared you to what they're familiar with--Windows XP or Vista, mostly--and by comparison you've looked brilliant. Yeah, your ugly brown color scheme was a bit off-putting at first, but once people saw how secure, simple, and reliable you were, the response was almost universally positive. But recently, things have changed ...'"
Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: May 2010
Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: May 2010: "April saw the introduction of AMD's Phenom II X6. Does this new architecture offer up enough performance to make the recommended list? We're bummed that there likely won't be a Zosma launch, but that makes it easier to pick our favorite gaming CPUs today."
Distributed data processing with Hadoop, Part 1: Getting started
Distributed data processing with Hadoop, Part 1: Getting started: "This article—the first in a series on Hadoop—explores the Hadoop framework, including its fundamental elements, such as the Hadoop file system (HDFS), and node types that are commonly used. Learn how to install and configure a single-node Hadoop cluster, and delve into the MapReduce application. Finally, discover ways to monitor and manage Hadoop using its core Web interfaces."
The dark side of conscientiousness: Life satisfaction in the face of unemployment
The dark side of conscientiousness: Life satisfaction in the face of unemployment: "A soon-to-be-published longitudinal study of 9,570 individuals revealed that conscientiousness has a dark side following unemployment. This is one of the first instances of research documenting that conscientiousness is not always good for well-being."
The five best things coming in Fedora 13 Linux
The five best things coming in Fedora 13 Linux: "When Fedora 13, Goddard, is released on May 25, it's not going to be your usual Fedora Linux release. In the past, Fedora has been seen as a great Linux distribution for Linux experts. Paul W. Frields, the Fedora Project leader, told me though that this release is more new-user-friendly and that is no longer just for experienced Linux users. Based on my early look at this Red Hat community Linux distribution, I agree."
Sony's Removal of PS3 Linux Support Hurts Air Force
Sony's Removal of PS3 Linux Support Hurts Air Force: "The Air Force, for example, purchased over 2000 PlayStation 3 consoles to create a powerful cluster for research computations. Through a firmware update, Sony has removed OtherOS support. This doesn't immediately affect institutions as the research clusters do not connect to the PlayStation Network so the update can be ignored."
Empire Building and the Art of Small Steps
Empire Building and the Art of Small Steps: "For a long time, I focused on starting big projects. And for a long time, I had a hard time finishing any of them. Sometimes I got overwhelmed, other times I just looked at the faraway goal and thought: what comes next? How do I know which step is the right one?"
Monday, May 17, 2010
How to do Augmented Reality in Processing
How to do Augmented Reality in Processing: "'Augmented Reality' (AR) describes a class of cloud-backed, sensor-based user interfaces. Google Goggles, for example, uses your phone's camera and location sensors to call the google search service. The results are then superimposed over the original image to augment the picture with additional metadata."
The Day Einstein Died - Photo Gallery - LIFE
The Day Einstein Died - Photo Gallery - LIFE: "Albert Einstein, the genius physicist whose theories changed our ideas of how the universe works, died 55 years ago, on April 18, 1955, of heart failure. He was 76. His funeral and cremation were intensely private affairs, and only one photographer managed to capture the events of that extraordinary day: LIFE magazine's Ralph Morse. Armed with his camera and a case of scotch -- to open doors and loosen tongues -- Morse compiled a quietly intense record of an icon's passing. But aside from one now-famous image (above), the pictures Morse took that day were never published. At the request of Einstein's son, who asked that the family's privacy be respected while they mourned, LIFE decided not to run the full story, and for 55 years Morse's photographs lay unseen and forgotten. Pictured: Ralph Morse's photograph of Einstein's office in Princeton, taken hours after Einstein's death and captured exactly as the Nobel Prize-winner had left it."
Half of languages may vanish by 2100
Half of languages may vanish by 2100: "'We are seeing an unprecedented rate of language extinction or language death,' Professor K. David Harrison, the director of the Living Tongues Institute of Philadelphia-based Swarthmore College has recently said in a report by Aljazeera."
Hail Storm Oklahoma City
Hail Storm Oklahoma City: "This was the most insane hail storm or storm in general I have ever seen! it was may 16th 2010. Sorry about all of the oh my Gods. I was speechless."
Making a copyright system that works
Making a copyright system that works: "Free software exists in a kind of “special trade zone” within the existing copyright system, defined by free copyleft licenses like the GNU General Public License (GPL). Free culture has created similar zones with tools like the Creative Commons’ licenses. We usually consider that to be sufficient. Yet we are often frustrated by the desire to interface with the rest of our culture, and sooner or later we’ll all have to face the big bugbear that is reforming the copyright system. Aside from a few vested interests in the entertainment industry, nearly everyone hates the system we’ve got — it’s clearly overreaching and ill-adapted to the electronic world of the internet. But what sort of system would we like? That’s much more contentious. Here’s a synthesis of a few prominent ideas of what real copyright reform might look like."
Can't Program, won't Program? Then Mash the Web with Mozilla's Ubiquity
Can't Program, won't Program? Then Mash the Web with Mozilla's Ubiquity: "Mozilla itself describes Ubiquity as a unique pseudo-natural-language input method and with numerous iterations Ubiquity is trying to move to the point where entirely natural language can be used to interact with the internet—obviating the need for specialist programming skills. Ubiquity “hides” the relative complexities of Javascript and HTML-based API."
Implementing One-way Encryption in PHP
Implementing One-way Encryption in PHP: "This article is a follow up to my previous article on PHP encryption techniques. To demonstrate one-way encryption in PHP, this article describes how to start building a secure online diary application. The one-way encryption will allow the diary to log a user in and generally encrypt the contents of the file that it loads."
Introducing Spring Roo - Extreme Productivity in 10 Minutes
Introducing Spring Roo - Extreme Productivity in 10 Minutes: "Ben Alex, the Roo’s founder, explains what Roo is, how to get started, and creates a project from scratch demonstrating some of Roo’s features: code assist, visual error reporting, JPA-based persistence, bean validation support, automated JUnit integration tests, entity finders, scripting support, messaging support, round-trip support, Eclipse and Spring Tool Suite integration and others."
32 Free Software Solutions For Photographers
32 Free Software Solutions For Photographers: "This list is only the beginning, with your help it can expand to include more stuff to make photographers lives easier."
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Man dressed as Snoopy in 'worst attempted jail-break ever'
Man dressed as Snoopy in 'worst attempted jail-break ever': "A man who tried to break into prison to free an inmate while dressed as the cartoon character Snoopy is being held under the Mental Health Act."
Flying a kite to Venus 10 times faster than a rocket
Flying a kite to Venus 10 times faster than a rocket: "Japan will launch the world's first spacecraft on Tuesday that draws its energy from a huge solar-powered sail."
Warner Brothers Announces 20 Picture Deal With IMAX
Warner Brothers Announces 20 Picture Deal With IMAX: "Got another cool topic to go into our buzz blender from this week. We already talked about the Iron Man 2 buzz but this is regarding an announcement from Warner Brothers and a 20 picture deal they have made with IMAX. The deal will be through 2013, the next three and half years and span twenty films. The agreement very much strategically aligns Warner Bros.’ tent-pole theatrical business with the increasing global popularity of The IMAX Experience in both 2D and 3D, giving the studio with an added advantage in the theatrical distribution platform. Meaning they are going to make tons of money."
Don’t take the Mickey, you muppet
Don’t take the Mickey, you muppet: "Everyone seems to loathe Disneyland and yet everyone visits it - once. It's the ultimate triumph of hope over experience: perhaps just this one time the food will be good and nobody else will be there? (On a bank holiday weekend in May?) The social scientist Alan Bryman invented the concept of 'Disneyisation' to explain how the principles of Disney theme parks are dominating more of the world. The parks 'provide predictable tourist entertainment, exert considerable control over their guests (including control through the use of non-human technologies), and are highly efficient in their processing of guests'. Eek. I packed my bag and headed for the Eurostar."
Epic 'nervous' over Unreal Engine 4
Epic 'nervous' over Unreal Engine 4: "'Looking at the next generation, it's really murky compared to last time,' he told Edge. 'I'm sure you've heard just as many rumours about when it's going to happen and they all get overturned every year."
The Procrastinator's Guide to PC Maintenance
The Procrastinator's Guide to PC Maintenance: "You want to keep your PC running smoothly, your apps updated, and your data safe--but you're lazy. Here's how to keep your PC healthy while expending the minimum amount of effort possible."
Who should play the Riddler in Batman 3.
Who should play the Riddler in Batman 3.: "There is really no doubt that the Riddler will be the main villain in the next Batman movie but the question is who should play this iconic role. There are many roles that are fan favories of who should play this character here are some of those candidates."
The Different Face of the Third World War
The Different Face of the Third World War: "The world is at war. Unrelenting, genocidal war. Another war that is a racket, but with a different face and a different racket. A war that kills millions, as is usually the case. There are two sides to this war, but it is not the East against the West. It’s not even the South against the North. It is not a geographical war. It’s a class war. It is the Poor against the Rich on all five continents. And right now the Rich are winning."
10 of the Strangest TV Characters Ever
10 of the Strangest TV Characters Ever: "Think of TV and your mind may instantly remember your favourite show or even character(s). Now if you are one of those who has thought of a specific character or a group of your favourite TV characters then ask yourself, are any of them strange in any way?"
23 Book Covers That Will Make You Say: WTF?!
23 Book Covers That Will Make You Say: WTF?: "Design of a book cover is usually intended to attract readers’ attention. Book covers in this collection show some examples where designers went over the top in that direction. Or maybe it was not designers foult after all. You would have to admit that you cannot make a good cover for a book titled: “Three ways to snog an ALIEN”. Maybe the writer are to blame,too."
The 5 Most Famous Musicians Who Are Thieving Bastards
The 5 Most Famous Musicians Who Are Thieving Bastards: "Every artist 'steals' a little, whether they realize it or not. For instance, we talk about how some musician was 'influenced' by music they grew up with, even if sometimes that influence consists of outright stealing and/or barely remixing a classic. That's just the way it works."
15 Firsts In Video Game History
15 Firsts In Video Game History: "We are so far away, now, from the original computer games, it doesn’t seem outrageous to claim that in a few years we might achieve complete virtual reality and, indeed, become a race unsure of what is real and what is unreal, as portrayed in films such as The Matrix. Most people have only experienced fully functioning 3D games with decent graphics, but games had beginnings routed in the very basics of electronics and computing."
10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job
10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job: "Just for fun I recently asked Erin, “Now that the kids are in summer school, don’t you think it’s about time you went out and got yourself a job? I hate seeing you wallow in unemployment for so long.”"
Giant Plumes of Oil Found Under Gulf of Mexico
Giant Plumes of Oil Found Under Gulf of Mexico: "Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given."
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
How much we will be tweeting by 2011 (chart)
How much we will be tweeting by 2011 (chart) : "So how many tweets will Twitter be handling by the end of the year? Based on Twitter’s growth rate until now, let’s try to predict what the rest of the year will look like (and make a pretty chart while we’re at it)."
Letting Go of Attachment, from A to Zen
Letting Go of Attachment, from A to Zen: "When you stop trying to grasp, own, and control the world around you, you give it the freedom to fulfill you without the power to destroy you. That’s why letting go is so important: letting go is letting happiness in."
Expert advice on washing and replacing pillows
Expert advice on washing and replacing pillows: "When was the last time you bought a new pillow? Can you recall when you last washed the pillows you (and your family) spend a third of your time sleeping on? If you're like many people, you probably don't give it much thought."
Linux Mint 9 is Expected to Release Very Soon
Linux Mint 9 is Expected to Release Very Soon: "Looking at the remaining bugs and considering the amount of testing needed I would say we’re about 1 week away from releasing Linux Mint 9. I know most operating systems and distributions stick to release dates and announce them well in advance but I see no reason not to release something once it’s ready …"
LOST Tribute: Fantastic To Freaky LOST-themed Fan Art [PICS]
LOST Tribute: Fantastic To Freaky LOST-themed Fan Art [PICS]: "Namaste! The LOST TV series has inspired people from around the globe to create some of the best fan made art ever! For six years, Lost fans have included amazingly talented artists with Lost-themed vision, incredible creativity, and an insatiable appetite for the island’s mysteries. Lost fans are now somewhere in-between a frenzy to having fun. Here is a huge collection of Lost fan art. Like LOST itself, some of the fan art is fantastic, while some is simply freaky and WTF?!?"
Wind's latest problem: it . . . makes power too cheap
Wind's latest problem: it . . . makes power too cheap: "Bloomberg has a somewhat confusing article about the newest complaint about wind power, but the gist of it is that wind power is an issue for the industry because it brings their revenues down:"
Hot Air Buffoons
Hot Air Buffoons: "Over the weekend one favorite topic of Pinoy sports fans was Floyd Mayweather Jr., who made “Sugar” Shane Mosley look like cotton candy, despite the latter’s sterling credentials and own solid accomplishments. To be fair, Mayweather—whom online wags once christened “Kentucky Floyd Chicken” after he refused to face Manny Pacquiao unless Pacquiao takes a random blood test—was both skillful and intelligent in the ring. After he left the scene with his 41-0-0 record intact, he improved his stock further. 25 KOs and all the rest unanimous decisions (except for that one split decision against Oscar de la Hoya) have made him one for the books as well."