Article: Firefox 2.0 Scheduled For Release on Tuesday

PC Magazine reports: "The Mozilla Foundation will release the Firefox 2.0 browser on Tuesday, Mozilla Foundation officials confirmed Monday. ... The new release promises several new features, as well as a solution to a annoying memory leak that has troubled earlier versions, according to Mozilla."

I have been playing with the release candidate of this browser for a few weeks now. It has some nice new features, but their not revolutionary.

I have one major complaint about this version of Firefox, several of my favorite extensions stopped working. So be prepared to be disappointed here.

Personally, I believe that the ideas for most of the new features in the browser were borrowed from the more popular extensions. Below is a list of some of the new features:

• Phishing filter warns you when you're visiting a fake web site.
• A new search feature that displays suggestions as you type your search request.
• A session manager that restores the windows and tabs you had opened before a crash.
• A spelling checker that spell checks your input into web forms.
• Better RSS support.

To download the new Firefox 2.0 browser go here.

Free and Low Cost Office Suites (and other stuff)

In a previous article, I talked about how to create a low cost virtual office. Now I am going to show you where you can find free or low cost office suites for personal or business use.

There are several options available to you. Some of these suites require that they be install on your local computer, and others can be run from within your browser.

Personally I am a big fan of Microsoft Office, and I have a hard time using anything less. The one problem with Office is that its not free or low cost.

If you just have basic word processing needs, such as writing letters to your friends and family, or creating simple spreadsheets or presentations. Then Microsoft Office might be over kill for you, there several other choices available that might be a better fit for your needs.

Out of all the free, low cost, or online office suites available, OpenOffice.org is the best IMHO. Then after that I would start to look at everything else and see what fits your needs. Whatever you look at, make sure its has the features that you're going to use.

All these tools are pretty good for doing basic things like creating a document, managing numbers, etc. Although, for tasks that are more complicated, you're going to need a real office suite like OpenOffice.org or Microsoft Office.

Office Suites

Browser Based:

• ThinkFree: A Java-based browser office suite. Includes word processor, presentation and spreadsheet application.
• Google Docs & Spreadsheets: An AJAX-based browser office suite. Includes a word processor and spreadsheet application.
• ZOHO: An AJAX-based browser office suite. Includes a word processor, presentation spreadsheet application, and more.

Software Based:

• OpenOffice.org: One of the best office suites available. Includes a word processor, presentation and spreadsheet application.
• AbiWord: A free word processor application.
  

Drawing and Page Layout:

• Dia: An open source vector graphic program.
• GIMP: An open source bit-map drawing program.
• Scribus: An open source page layout program.
  

Instant Messaging Client

• Meebo: A browser based universal instant messaging client. Supports: AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Jabber and GTalk.
• Trillian: If you have multiple accounts across several IM services this is a great IM client. Supports: AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC.

Email/Calendar/Contact Manager

Browser Based:

• Gmail/Google Calendar: Provides: e-mail, calendaring, contacts and notes.
• Yahoo! Mail: Provides: e-mail, calendaring, contacts and notes.
• Contact Office: Provides: email, calendaring, address book, fax, SMS, phone calls, etc.

Software Based:

• Thunderbird: An e-mail client, with spam filtering.
  
• Sunbird: Calendaring with a task manager.
  

Other Useful Stuff...
Below are some extra resources that you may need in your day-to-day activities.

Software:

• GnuCash: Personal and small-business financial-accounting software.
• Free Templates: Free label templates for: Avery, CDs, address, mailing, shipping, etc.
• 1001 Free Fonts: Thousands of free fonts are available for download.

Reference:

• Answer.com: Need information about a word or subject, this site includes dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia (uses Wikipedia), and more.
• Currency Converter: Lookup current exchange rates for just about any currency.
• Martindale's Reference Desk: A great collection of links to different types of references available on the web.
• Martindale's On-Line Calculators: A great collection of links to different types of calculators available on the web.
  
• RefDesk: A great collection of reference resources that are available on the Web.
• Unit Converter: Convert just about any numerical data from one unit type to another.
  
• World Clock: A web-based world time clock.
  
• Yearly Calendar: A web-based yearly calendar.

GPS Crazyiness (Video)

"Gizmodo hooks up four GPS devices at the same time, ends up with a maelstrom of voices and a nightmarish conclusion. See the Garmin c550 StreetPilot,Cobra NavOne 4500, Mio C710 DigiWalker and Honda Civic Hybrid's GPS Navi in action."

Article: Scientists teleport two different objects

CNN.com reports: "Beaming people in 'Star Trek' fashion is still in the realms of science fiction, but physicists in Denmark have teleported information from light to matter bringing quantum communication and computing closer to reality."

Scientists in Denmark are playing with technology that is going to take us one baby step closer toward Star Trek like transporters. They figured out how to teleport billions of atoms from one location to another (about 18 inches) using technology they call 'entanglement.' The technology they developed uses light, quantum mechanics, and magnetism.

Sun's Project Blackbox (Portable Data Center)

Sun created a new concept called 'Project Blackbox', which is a portable data center using an ordinary 20' shipping container. This product is optimized to deliver energy savings, space savings, and provide performance efficiencies.

Inside the shipping contain is 8' 18" standard racks, cable trays, cooling and lights. All you have to do is add: water (for cooling), 200 kilowatts of power, and network bandwidth and you're ready to go.

Quote Of The Week

"Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug" -- John Lithgow

Are you messy enough? (Blog)

From UNEASYsilence: "Who said being messy didn't pay off? We are looking for the messiest, grimiest, just god awful pig sty of a setup out in computerland. We aren't talking about wires behind your desk that are not properly tie wrapped. We want to see Mountain Dew stains on the carpet, furniture made out of shipping boxes, moldy food, the worse the better."

And the winner is...

Also make sure to check out their Flickr site of submission.

Internet Explorer 7 is now available...

Microsoft just made Internet Explorer 7 available for download. This is the latest version of the IE browser, and its only for Windows XP SP2 . If you're running an earlier version of the Windows OS, you're out of luck.

This is the first major release of the IE browser since Windows XP was introduced back in 2001. It includes a radically different interface, with a lot of great new features and other improvements.

Some of the new improvements in the browser include: security protection, a redesigned user interface, and a development platform. Below is a high level list of the major new features:

• Phishing Filter (reports if a web site is not who it really is)
• RSS Reader (allows you to read RSS feeds in the browser)
• Tabbed browsing (open multiple web pages in a single window)
• Toolbar search box (quickly search from the toolbar)
• Advanced printing (optimized web page printing)
• Security Status Bar (displays different colors in the status bar to notify you how safe the web site might be)
• Privacy Cleaner (quickly deletes your browser cache, cookies, and other data that might contain personal information)
• And more...

Hands on the Wii

CNET News.com reports: "I'm sitting in a conference room here at CNET Networks' headquarters, playing a baseball game on a Nintendo Wii in which the players look like little more than rudimentary Lego people."

The Nintendo Wii has taken a radically different approach to creating their next generation game console. Instead of fancy HD graphics, they're going old school and designing games that are fun to play.

Changing the World with Your Screen Saver

Do you want to help cure cancer and other diseases? By installing special screen savers on your computer, you can donate your spare computing cycles to cure AIDS, cancer and solve other more complex problems.

The screen saver utilizes the unused processing power of your computer, as a part of a large distributed computing cluster. These clusters can be composed of thousands (or more) of computers working together for a common goal. The way these large clusters work is each computer downloads a small part of a larger problem, and computes the data and sends the results back to the master computer.

Below is a list of some of the projects that are available:

• boinc.berkeley.edu: Stands for 'Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing', here is a brief list of some of the current projects: Climateprediction.net, Seasonal Attribution Project, BBC Climate Change Experiment.
• folding.stanford.edu: Searches for treatments for Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and other related diseases.
• grid.org: Searches for treatments for cancers, and other diseases.
• SETI@home: Analyze radio telescope data in the search for extraterrestrial life.
• www.worldcommunitygrid.org: Searches for treatments for cancers, and other diseases.

To donate your spare computing cycles. All you have to do is download the software, set how much of your systems resources that you want to donate, then leave your computer alone.

Moller Prototype 'Flying Car' For Sale On eBay

Moller International of Davis, California, is selling their M400X Skycar on eBay. Here is a video.

Lightning exits woman's bottom

NEWS.com.au reports: "A WOMAN has suffered severe burning to her anus after being struck by lightning which hit her in the mouth and passed right through her body."

Put this article in the reality is stranger then fiction file...

MIT Sketch Board of the Future

Here is MIT's version of the sketch board of the future. Its pretty advanced, but at the same time its a technology that is in its infancy.

Jeep drives across water

Those wild and wacky Icelanders are at it again, now they're driving nitrous enhanced custom 4x4 across the water. It just proves Tim the Toolman Taylor's theory if you throw enough power at something, you can make it happen.

PCI Express 2.0 nears completion

CNET News.com reports: "A two-month clock has begun ticking for the release of PCI Express 2.0, an update designed to help the ubiquitous computer communication technology with virtualization, power management and high-end graphics cards."

Article: 'P2P TV' Streams Live U.S. TV Channels Over The Internet

PC Magazine reports: "Fans of the Oakland Athletics baseball team were in a quandary this week: due to Major League Baseball's scheduling preference for East Coast teams, games featuring the A's were shown during work hours, in the mornings and afternoons on the West Coast."

It seems that there is a popular trend in Asia (that will probably spill over into other regions) of illegally streaming TV channels from all around the world over the Internet.

I once read that BitTorrent traffic was consuming a large majority of the Internet bandwidth. I believe the traffic that these applications will generate will only make things worse as they get more popular...

Article: Why Microsoft's Zune scares Apple to the core

ComputerWorld reports: "Apple fans assume iPod will face Zune in the market, mano a mano, like other media players. But that's not the case. Zune will be supported and promoted and will leverage the collective power of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Soapbox (Microsoft's new "YouTube killer") and the Xbox 360."

I have made it clear in the past that I am no iPod fan. Its a great device, but I can't stand the cult following it has. All I am going to say is that its a glorified MP3 player, and get over it.

Microsoft's Zune has a few cool features that the current generation of iPods don't have. Such as a larger screen, and WiFi.

Personally one thing I like about the Zune's DRM is the subscription feature that allows you to download all the music you want. If I have to have DRM encoded files, I would prefer an 'all-I-can-eat' package. That way if I don't want the device anymore, I am not stuck with a lot of music I can't listen to at a later date. Then if there's some music I really want, I will buy the CD.

Best Star Trek Fan Films

Did you know that there are a several great Star Trek fan made movies and shows spinoffs. Some are based on the original Star Trek series, and others take different spins on the franchise.

Most of these shows have great special effects, sets, and sound. The hard part about watching them for me is to get over the acting, but I believe they're doing the best job that they can (I know I can't do better, so who am I to criticize).

Below is a list of some of the series that are available:

• Starship Exeter (based on TOS): A story of the U.S.S. Exeter, crew and commander by Captain John Garrovick.
• Starship Farragut (based on TOS): A story of the crew of the U.S.S. Farragut (NCC-1647), a Constitution class starship under the command of John T. Carter.
• Star Trek: Hidden Frontier (based on TNG): A story of the crew of the starship Excelsior and its home base Deep Space 12.
  
• Star Trek: Intrepid: Federation and Merchant Service efforts to colonize a sparse region of space far from the Federation core.
• Star Trek: New Voyages (based on TOS): Trying to complete the original series five-year mission of the Enterprise crew. Note: Walter Koenig (played Chekov [TOS]) and George Takei (played Sulu [TOS]) guest starred in episodes.
• U.S.S. Hathaway (based on TOS): Takes place during the same time period of events in Star Trek II and III.
• Star Wreck: A series of Finnish parody movies.
  

For more information, check out this Wikipedia article.

40 Years of Star Trek...

Star Trek is now 40 years old. I remember watching the Original Series in re-runs as a kid, and really enjoying it. In fact it inspired my love for Sci-Fi.

When I was younger I was a hard core Star Trek geek, but then as I got older I toned down my adoration for the series. I still enjoy it, but now I don't need to know all the trivia about it.

Confessions of a Star Trek Geek:
I have watched every single Star Trek movie ever created, and some even more then once (can you say 'The Wrath of Khan'). I also hated Star Trek V 'The Final Frontier', like the majority of fans of the series.

I have watched every single episode of the original series more then once, including the cartoon. I believe I have seen all the episodes of the Next Generation.

I have watch most (well at least three quarters) of the Deep Space 9 episodes, but I have not watched all the Voyager episodes (I think I have only seen half at the most). I also have missed the majority of episodes from the Enterprise series.

Auction at Christie's
Christie's is holding an auction from Oct. 5-7, in honor of the anniversary of Star Trek. This is the first official studio auction of memorabilia from all five Star Trek television series and ten movie spinoffs.

• Check out the Christie's main auction site, or the items up for bid.
• There's also a lot of great articles over at CNET.
  

Your 2-Cents
If you have any comments (such as your favorite Star Trek movie or TV series) that you would like to add to this article please post them. I would really enjoy reading them.

Article: Danish Scientists Teleport Light, Matter

PC Magazine reports: "Beaming people in Star Trek fashion is still in the realms of science fiction but physicists in Denmark have teleported information from light to matter bringing quantum communication and computing closer to reality."

I see these articles popup every few years, but I haven't seen any real fruit from the technology.

I want Star Trek like transporters and I want them now. :-)

Article: Star Trek XI: What We Know |

TwitchGuru reports: "If we face up to facts, we must admit that Star Trek has fallen by the wayside of late. The quality of recent movies has ranged from dubious to dire, and for the first time in nearly two decades, there are no new Star Trek TV episodes in production."

This is the latest information that I know about for Star Trek XI...

Internet Privacy is an Oxymoron

Sun Microsystems Inc. Chairman of the Board of Directors Scott McNealy once said, "You have no privacy, get over it." That statement is more true today, then when it was originally said. Everyday, we are losing more of our ability and rights to protect our privacy.

Did you know that there is no such thing as true anonymity or privacy on the Internet? All you can do is mask your identity, and make it difficult for someone to know who you are. Although, in most cases its still possible for someone to track and identify you with enough work.

There is a lot of information about you that is leaked by your own personal Internet activities (such as surfing a web site, posting on forums, etc.). Then your computer and its applications (such as your browser, IM client, etc.) are doing their own fair share to help leak more information.

Anything that contains your name, address, etc. Is known as 'personally-identifiable information' (PII), because it can personally identify you directly. This information is generally provided by you to some web site or service (such as Amazon, eBay, etc.) that you may use regularly.

Any of the information (PII or not) is used to profile how you surf the web, what you buy, and other types of demographic analysis. All most all of this tracking is perfectly legal, and you even grant companies permission to do this when you agree to use a web site through its 'terms of service' or 'privacy policy' that you don't read.

Information Leaked by your Applications
As I said earlier, when you visit a web site there is certain types of information about you that is revealed by your computers applications. A lot of this information (such as your browser cookies) are needed by web-based applications to be able to customize your experience.

Below is a brief list of some of the information a web site can know about you, just by visiting it with a regular browser and Internet connection:

• The type of browser you're using, a long with information about its features. For example: what version of: Java, JavaScript, Flash and other applications you have installed (see: BroswerSpy).
• This doesn't include the information in the HTTP header, which includes information about your browser and the web page you requested from a web site (see the following article for more information).
• There is information in the HTTP header called the 'referer', that also gives the web site your visiting, the last URL of the web site you're coming from. Here is an example, of some of the information a site can see about you.
• Browser cookies and web beacons (an invisible 1x1 graphic on a web page with a unique id embedded in to its name), which can be used identify your computer across different web sites. This technology is generally used by advertising and marketing companies to track and profile your browsing activity to better serve you ads.
• As more web sites become interactive, browser cookies are used to track your web site session information. If you turn off the cookie feature, you can prevent certain web sites from working properly for you.
• Web beacons have been used by spammers to track if you open up an email message, and to see if a email address is valid. Although, most modern email clients prevent images from being downloaded automatically which help prevent information about you from being leaked.
• Your browser keeps local copies of all the web pages you visited in its cache, along with a history of all the URLs you visited. Some browser's like Firefox keep track of the files you downloaded, and the keywords you typed into the search toolbar. Then there is the saved forms information (known as AutoComplete in IE), and saved password feature. This information is used to improve the broswer's user experience, but also can become a privacy issue in some cases.

Then there is all your other Internet applications such as your e-mail client, instant message client, VoIP client, etc. Each of these programs have their own type of logging or privacy issues, that you might be or might not be aware of.

For example, your instant message client may keep logs of all your conversations. Your e-mail client, keeps all the messages that you received and sent. Your VoIP client keeps a log of all the calls that you make.

Even if you clean all this information off your local computer, your application's service provider has logs and/or copies of it in their servers and databases. Its not uncommon for them to use this information to profile usage habits of their users. All this information is also available to local and federal law enforcement generally with the use of a search warrant.

Generally, no matter what network enabled application your using, the following information is always going to be left about you on some server somewhere.

• Once someone knows your computer's IP address, its possible to isolate the ISP, and therefore the city, state/province, and country your computer's from (see: IP Address Locator).
• Local and federal law enforcement with the use of a search warrant can force the ISP to release your identity, based on your computer's IP address.
• When you visit a web site, information is stored in the web server logs of the time you visited the site, your IP address, which pages you viewed, and sometimes what you searched for on that site (see: Omniture).
• Think about this, all your favorite search engines keep all the information that you searched. If you have a personal account on a site like Google, Yahoo, etc., they can directly tie this information back to you.
• For example: "On August 4, 2006, AOL released three months of search history for 650,000 users to the public. Although the searchers were only identified by a numeric ID, the New York Times discovered the identity of several searchers." (excerpt from the Wikipedia)
• Anytime you visit a web site using it's domain name your computer needs to lookup the IP address of the remote server through some DNS server request. This information is then logged on that computer.
• When you're at work, and you search the Internet your companies web proxies and firewall can track all types of Internet activity. Plus in the U.S.A. any information on your computer, or in your e-mail is property of the company.

Digital Forensics
With all the data stored on computers these days, a new area of computer criminal science has been created called 'digital forensics'. These are law enforcement personnel specially trained to find and retrieve specific information off a computer.

The tools that these people use are good at extracting the data they want. Generally the programs we use everyday are really good at leaving digital bread crumbs all over your computer's hard drive about everything that you do. These digital forensics tools are designed to leverage this information

On a side note, about digital forensics tools. Did you know that by using a pattern analysis program you can predict if something was written by a man or a women with almost 70% accuracy.

The way this technology works is by analyzing the words used in a message and assigns different values to them to determine if the text was written by a man or women. More information can also be determined by your writing style beside gender, such as your nationality based on the words that you use.

To see this tool in action, check out Gender Guesser or Gender Genie. With technology like this, it means that any of those anonymous posting or e-mail you might have created are becoming a lot less anonymous.

Note: This technology was created by Dr. Neal Krawetz of Hacker Factor Solutions.

Inside Google's Manhattan Office

eWeek takes you inside Google's Manhattan Office. It seems like a cool place to work...

Article: Core 2 Extreme Quad E6700 Performance

ExtremeTech reports "Earlier this week, Intel announced the Core 2 Extreme Quad processor (code-named Kentsfield), a single-socket processor built with two Core 2 CPU dies. The two dies are connecting via a 1066MHz (effective) front-side-bus (FSB). Intel claims that the 1066MHz FSB will have more than enough bandwidth to feed both cores, even in heavy operation."

These are first bench marks that I seen about the new Core 2 Extreme Quad processor.

Article: Firefox Zero-Day Code Execution Hoax?

eWeek reports: "A public claim by hackers that Mozilla's Firefox browser is vulnerable to multiple code execution vulnerabilities may be an overblown hoax."

Article: Hackers claim zero-day flaw in Firefox

CNET News.com reports: "The open-source Firefox Web browser is critically flawed in the way it handles JavaScript, ... An attacker could commandeer a computer running the browser simply by crafting a Web page that contains some malicious JavaScript code, Mischa Spiegelmock and Andrew Wbeelsoi said in a presentation at the ToorCon hacker conference here. The flaw affects Firefox on Windows, Apple Computer's Mac OS X and Linux, they said."

It just goes to show that no browser is completely safe from programming flaws, even our beloved Firefox...

Article: Silicon vs. CIGS: With solar energy, the issue is material

CNET News.com reports: "The booming solar industry is in the midst of an argument over which material will become dominant in the future for harvesting sunlight and turning it into electricity. Solar panels made from crystalline silicon currently account for more than 90 percent of the solar infrastructure today. ... Panels that harvest energy with CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) cost far less to make and install, say backers."

Crystalline or CIGS, personally I don't care which one wins as long as it's efficient, reliable and low-cost. Right now it seems like CIGS is the winner in theory, but we will have to see what happens. The market place will ultimately decide which one is better.

This article is a good read... Although it might only wet your appetite, and leave you wanting to know more about CIGS. For more information on CIGS check out this site.

Article: Sharp Develops Triple-View LCD

PC Magazine reports: "Japan's Sharp Corp. said on Wednesday it has developed the world's first liquid crystal display (LCD) panel that allows the viewing of three different images on one screen at the same time."

This is a very uniquie display, three people can watch three different TV programs at the same time.

Video: Alan Wake footage on Intel's new Quad Core CPU

See Intel's Core 2 Quad processor (a quad core CPU) in action, its a pretty impressive graphics demo.

Video: How to Talk Like a Pirate

A classroom educational film on the language of Pirate.

Note: The video is a little long (6+ minutes), but its funny. Its also not too work place friendly, so be careful where you watch it (i.e.: no nudity or language, but some in appropriate comments).

Intel Previews Potential Replacement for Flash

eWeek reports: "Intel literally has, in hand, the first prototype of a new type of nonvolatile memory chip that its executives think could someday supplant flash memory and thus change the face of the industries such as cellular phones, music players and possibly even PCs."

Basically the PCM technology can be used as a type of non-volatile NAND (storage) or NOR (code execution) Flash memory replacement. Hopefully this will open up new applications for USB Flash drives, and other technologies...

Allen Brain Atlas (Now online)

Excerpt from the site: "The Allen Brain Atlas (ABA) is an interactive, genome-wide image database of gene expression in the mouse brain. A combination of RNA in situ hybridization data, detailed Reference Atlases and informatics analysis tools are integrated to provide a searchable digital atlas of gene expression. Together, these resources present a comprehensive online platform for exploration of the brain at the cellular and molecular level."

Wired reports: "Scientists have mapped every gene in the mouse brain as part of Paul Allen's Brain Atlas project launched in 2001. While brain maps until now have been similar to a traditional encyclopedia, the Allen Brain Atlas is more like Google Earth."

Intel pledges 80 cores in five years (article)

CNET News.com reports: "Intel has built a prototype of a processor with 80 cores that can perform a trillion floating-point operations per second."

Think about this, if they're able to release desktop computers that can perform 1 TeraFLOP (Trillion Floating-Point Operations Per Second), what will the super computers be able to do?

Intel's Otellini: Terabyte per second (video)

CNET News.com has a video from Intel's Developers Forum where Intel's Otellini announced the Core 2 Quad (quad-core processor) that will be released in Q4 of 2006.

White & Nerdy (Weird Al Music Video)

Protecting Yourself in the Information Age (Free eBook) [beta]

In life you learn how to protect yourself and valuables. Although, when you first start using the Internet no one teaches you how to protect your computer and personal data. Find out how to defend yourself against viruses, spyware, Identity Theft, and more. This book is written for people of all different computer skill levels (from novice to professional).

I am hoping people will give this book to their friends, family, and associates.

Please let me know if this book helps you...

Download my new free eBook:

• Protecting Yourself in the Information Age (PDF)
  
• Notes:
• This is a pre-released beta version of the eBook, I am seeking comments, corrections, reviews, and any other suggestions. (Use the Send Comments link)
  
• If you have a product that you would like me to consider for inclusion in future versions of this eBook please contact me. (Use the Send Comments link)

Dance Dance Extreme (now with Fire)

I recently just learned about 'Dance Dance Immolation' (DDI) an art installation at Burning Man 2006 (so I am a little behind the times). DDI is basically DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) with fireproof suits and flamethrowers. If you make a mistake you get flamed, literally. For more information check out this site.

---

Warning: Do not try this anywhere.

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Miniature Linux Devices (article)

LinuxDevices reports: "A small company has begun building its line of tiny, gumstick-sized single-board computers (SBCs) into miniscule packaged PCs that displace around 68 cc of volume and come with Linux pre-installed. Suggested apps for the teeny 'Netstix' Linux PCs include webservers, printer servers, IP-telephony servers, security appliances."



I am really fascinated by the potential applications for these tiny computers, but personally I still need to find a really good application for them before I would buy one. As a file server, they would not have a enough storage. Although, You could turn it into a really cool portable web server that you could put on your network?

Here are the technical specification for the device:

• 200MHz Intel XScale PXA255
• 64MB of RAM
• 16MB of flash memory
• 10/100 Ethernet port (WiFi is available)
• Type II CompactFlash (for use with a microdrive)

Gonzales: ISPs must keep records on users (article)

CNET News.com reports: "Gonzales asked senators to adopt 'data retention' legislation that would likely force Internet providers to keep customer logs for at least a year or two. Those logs, often routinely discarded after a few months, are intended to be used by police investigating crimes."

Taking passwords to the grave (article)

CNET News.com reports: "William Talcott, a prominent San Francisco poet with dual Irish citizenship, had fans all over the world. But when he died in June of bone marrow cancer, his daughter couldn't notify most of his contacts because his e-mail account--and the online address book he used--was locked up."

This is just one of those things I guess most of us don't think about until its too late. People are storing more and more information electronically, and we are securing it with a password. As we get older, this is just one more thing that we are going to have to start planning for.

PodZinger: A Real Podcast Search Engine

I am a big fan of Google, and Microsoft Live. These are the two services that I use the most, but if I need to search through the contents of a podcast then I will use a service called PodZinger, this is the best search engine that I found for it.

PodZinger uses Speech-to-Text technology, to make audio and video searchable. Most search engines rely on the metadata provided by the shows creator, but it doesn't allow you search the audio of the podcast itself.

Another very cool feature of the site, if you want to listen to the search results all you have to do is click the link and it will take you to that point in the podcast. You can also listen to the whole podcast if you want.

WorldCat: Searchable Book Catalogs from 18,000+ Libraries Worldwide

If you're a book reader you're going to love this article. WorldCat.org has a searchable book/media catalog that spans over 1 billion items, from 18,000+ libraries worldwide (part of the OCLC cooperative).

From the home page you can search the catalog, by title, subject, person, etc. I did a search for Douglas Adams on of my favor authors, and I found his Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books, DVD, audio, and more.

The main problem with any online library catalog (including WorldCat) is that the material you're looking for might not be available. All you're going to be able to see is the catalog entry for the item.

Intel, UCSB Develop Hybrid Laser (article)

ExtremeTech reports: "Researchers at Intel Corp. and UC Santa Barbara said they have successfully integrated a light-emitting laser component with the silicon necessary to guide it, a step forward toward optical data conduits within PCs."

The real question is, will optical based computers one day replace the silicon based ones we use today? They have been toying with this technology for a little while, I remember it first being discussed in the 1980s. I am really surprised I have not seen a lot more advancements in this field.

Can an Electric Car beat a Ferrari and Porsche (video)

Can a Wrightspeed X1 electric car beat Ferrari 360 Spider and a Porsche Carrera GT, and costs half as much? Watch the video to find out...

Pump Up Your Home Network (article)

PC Magazine: "Anyone reading this probably lives in a digital household. But are you getting the most out of your network? Sure, you're sharing an Internet connection and maybe swapping files. If you're one of the technorati, maybe you're even streaming music. But how would you like to double the speed of your network? Stream TV from your TiVo or cable box to any TV in the house - or even to a laptop while you're on the road? Check on your home while you're away? Control your home's lights, curtains, and temperature with a remote? If you're ready to take your LAN to the next level, read on."

If you're the type of person who likes cool gadgets for the home, or looking for some DYI electronic projects for your house. Check out this article, it might give you some ideas of some things that you might want to try. Some of the topics covered are, different types of wired and wireless networking, home security, streaming TV, and home automation.

When Beetles Attack (video)

Here is a funny animation video of a beetle harassing some flies and a spider. You might notice some Star Wars influences.

Enjoy...

Brown Engineers Build a Better Battery – With Plastic (article)

According to Brown University: "It's thin, light, flexible - and plastic. Brown University engineers Hyun-Kon Song and Tayhas Palmore have created a prototype polymer-based battery that packs more power than a standard alkaline battery and more storage capacity than a double-layered capacitor. Their work, published in Advanced Materials, will be of interest to the energy, defense and aerospace industries, which are looking at more efficient ways to deliver electricity."

IHMO: One of the key technologies that will drive future development, are better batteries. There are some many things that we can't do because we don't have really good battery technologies to leverage (that are also mass producible, and economical to build). Hopefully this and other recent advancements (such as: capcitors or maybe even fuel cells) we have seen in batteries might start seeing some cool next generation technology that are able to leverage it.

Once in a Blue Moon

Here is a complete waste of time, but it's interesting. Go to Google, and type "once in a blue moon" and you will get the results below.


The reason for this is that a Blue Moon is also mathematically defined as 1.16699016 × 10^-8 hertz, since a blue moon occurs every 2.71542689 years. (according to the Wikipedia)

Stability control technology could reduce auto deaths (article)

CNN.com reports: "A new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety indicates that crash deaths on American roads could be reduced by one third if all vehicles were equipped with the Electronic Stability Control."

Electronic Stability Control (ESC) systems have been around since 1995, and were first used on Mercedes-Benz and BMWs. These systems are pretty amazing, because for the most part they're glorified anti-lock brakes with intelligence. Basically if the car detects the tire is slipping it compensates for it by applying the brakes. If you want to know more how they work, read the following Wikipedia article. The amount of lives this technology can save seems amazing, I hope the statistics are correct.

Now all we need to do is get the government to make the Collision Avoidance Systems (CAS) mandatory (Toyota is already releasing this technology in their new Lexus in Japan). Like ESC, the CAS takes advantage of the anti-lock brakes to slow the car down if it gets too close to another vehicle. Back in the early 80's I saw an early proof of concept for this technology on a show called 'That's Incredible'.

Microsoft unwraps Zune for holiday season (article)

CNET News.com: "Microsoft took the wraps off its Zune media player on Thursday, though what's underneath is largely what enthusiasts had come to expect. ... The device, which the company anticipates will be ready in time for the holidays, will come in three colors and be capable, via its built-in Wi-Fi, of sharing full-length songs with other nearby Zune devices, the software giant said. As had been revealed through regulatory filings, it includes a 30GB hard drive as well as a 3-inch screen. The Zune will come in black, brown and white, but the company has declined to reveal any pricing information."

Personally I am not a big media player fan, I have my Dell 51v the worlds most powerful PDA (IMHO) and that is all I need. I can play music, video, pictures, then use it for other useful things. If I want to I can add GPS, hard drives, cameras, etc. Lets see a media player do that...

Happy Birthday Hard Drive (50th Anniversary)

The Past
The IBM RAMAC 305 (the world's first hard drive) was officially announced today (September 13, 1956). In 1952, in San Jose IBM opened a research lab managed by Rey Johnson, and one of its first assignments was to create a magnetic storage system that could hold 5MB of data.

Johnson's group coated platters with magnetic material and stacked them on top of each other. Data was fetched by a head that traveled up and down the stack of rotating platters.

Note: There is no sound in this video.



The Present
For comparison reasons, here is a more modern hard drive in action. In all ways the current generation of hard drives are far superior to the first generation (they're smaller, better, cheaper, faster, and have a greater capacity).



The Future
Hopefully in the not too distant future all these drives will be replaced by ones that use flash RAM (or something better). Its already in the process of happening, some first generation solid state drives are already shipping, but they're expensive (roughly about $30 a gigabyte).

For example, earlier this year Samsung started selling a 32GB NAND flash hard drive. The drive is about half the weight of a conventional hard drive, has reduced power consumption (uses about 5% of the power of a mechanical drive), and has no moving parts. It can read data three times faster and write data 1.5 times faster than mechanical drives.

Security: Update QuickTime Now!

The QuickTime media player has multiple security flaws that is putting your Windows computer (and if you have a Mac) at risk for malicious attack according to Apple. Hackers can create maliciously crafted movie and image files that could be used to execute harmful code on vulnerable machines by utilizing a buffer overflow error.

QuickTime 7.1.3 has been released as a high-priority update. This update fixes all the recent known vulnerabilities. If you have not already updated your computer, I would highly recommend that you download it and update it now.

Bonus Tip: If you select the 'QuickTime 7.1.3 for Windows 2000/XP' option on the download page, you can get Quicktime without iTunes.

Old Glory Robot Insurance (Humor, Video)

Do you fear robots? Old Glory is now offering robot insurance for $4 a month to protect you and your family. No health check, or age consideration. "For when the metal ones decide to come for you, and they will..." ;-)

Flying-car firm releases simulator, takes deposits

CNET News.com reports: "Terrafugia, a "roadable aircraft" developer that emerged out of MIT, has devised a flight simulator for its aircraft (which can be downloaded here). ... Potential buyers can also now plunk down $7,400, or 5 percent of the anticipated $148,000 purchase price, for a deposit on a Transition. The planes will come out in late 2009."

For those of you who have been waiting years to see a real production flying car (or a 'roadable aircraft' as Terrafugia wants it called) your waiting is almost over (well in maybe 2-3+ years). Hopefully Terrafugia will be able to deliver what they're promising, unfortunately I am not holding my breathe, I have heard these promises before and have been let down.

For example: Moller International SkyCar, was suppose to be the first vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicle ever. It was also suppose to cruises at a smooth 350 mph, has a range of 900 miles, gets around 28 miles to the gallon. Anyone seen a SkyCar lately? IMHO: The Moller International SkyCar looks better the Terrafugia Transition.

Bird That Uses Cars as a Nut Cracker

An amazing video of a bird (or birds) in Japan (I think) that are useing cars to crack open nuts for food.

Before the Simpsons, there was the Simpsons

The Simpsons is one of the longest running cartoon series (the series premiered January 14, 1990). I remember first watching it on an obscure Fox comedy called 'The Tracy Ullman show' (1987-1989). The Simpsons were short cartoons that were featured in every episode before and after the ad breaks.

Simpson Crazy is now offering the ability to view these early episodes. One thing that you might notice when you watch these episodes is the crude animation and character voices. It sometimes will throw you off when you first watch them.

Enjoy...

Darth Vader Calls The Emperor (Humor, Video)

Darth Vader Calls The Emperor after the death star blows up. (Note: This is a very funny video, but its not for children. Also if you get offended easily don't watch it.)

Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager (Episode 3)

If you have not yet already watched "Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager" episodes 1 & 2, you may want to watch them to get the background story. I have included links to these videos below:

• Episode 1
• Episode 2

Episode 3
The continuing story of Chad Vader. Chad is Darth Vader's less-talented, less-charismatic younger brother, who is the day shift manager at a local a grocery store. In this episode Chad Vader returns after being demoted to night manager and tries to enact a plan to regain the day shift.

Microsoft Research Builds 'BrowserShield' (article)

eWeek reports: "Researchers at the Redmond, Wash., company have completed work on a prototype framework called BrowserShield that promises to allow IE to intercept and remove, on the fly, malicious code hidden on Web pages, instead showing users safe equivalents of those pages."

IMHO: I have to say that this is an innovative idea that will probably get copied by the other browser's in their on going war to add new features and gain more market share. I have heard it said that 'imitation is the greatest complement', but I know a great deal of people who will argue that point. Now I have to wait for my chance to try this out, and see how well it works.

Google Image Labeler

Have fun and help Google improve it's image search results relevance, so that other Google visitors can get accurate search results. When you press the Begin button on the page, you'll be randomly paired with a partner who's online and using this feature.

Then over a 90-second period, you and your partner will be shown the same set of images and asked to create as many labels as possible to describe each image that's displayed. When the labels match, you earn points and move on to the next image until the time expires. After the time expires, the images you've seen will be displayed with link to the web sites where they can be found.

Original Star Trek Getting a CGI Makeover! (article)

There are rumors that CBS may have secret plans to bring back the original Star Trek TV episodes with new state-of-the art CGI visual effects, and is HDTV enhanced. Personally I think it would be interesting idea, but I will wait until I see it before I draw any conclusions.

I wonder if Star Trek purist will boycott the changes to the updated show? Look what happened when George Lucas added enhanced CGI effects to the original Star Wars movies, a lot of fans were not happy.

Scam Alert: Jury Duty Scam

Snopes reports: "Identity thieves trick the unwary into revealing their personal details by telling them they've failed to report for jury duty and warrants for their arrest are being issued."

It has gotten to the point where we now can't trust information from any of the sources of communication that we have come to rely on (i.e.: e-mail, regular mail, and phone calls) to run our everyday lives. Every form of communication that we trust has now been corrupted.

To protect yourself, you now have to double-check the validity of each message that you receive to make sure its real before you should give out any of your information.

Also make sure to check out the following article for more information on how to protect yourself.

Google: These books are free (article)

CNET News report: "Google Book Search now offers PDF files of scanned books that can be downloaded and printed for free ... Readers can find the books by choosing the "Full view books" option on the Google Book Search home page before they activate their search. Once they have chosen a book from the results page, a download button is clearly visible on the top-right corner of the page."

Google Expands into Businesses Software Market (article)

PC Magazine reports: "Google Inc. is making its most concerted move beyond search and advertising into the business software market, starting with a set of Web programs for e-mail, scheduling and communications, ... The online search leader said it has created a software platform to run basic business activities —based on programs it already offers separately."

This will be in interesting product if Google starts to integrate all of its current services together (like Writely, Google Spreadsheet, Blogger, etc.) and provides a uniform interface and logon. This could provide a very powerful online office suite.

Google has been working to unify its applications experience, but still has a lot of work in front of it. They only recently announced a unified logon for its Blogger site which they have had for several years now.

A Silent PC (article)

PC Magazine reports: "High-performance personal computers are thermal nightmares. As GPUs and CPUs have become more powerful, their heat output has skyrocketed. AMD's top-of-the-line Athlon 64 X2 4800+ is rated at 105W, while Intel's Pentium D 840 runs even higher, at 130W ... The typical way to dissipate all that heat? Throw extra cooling at the system—in other words, add more fans. Pretty soon, you've got more fans in your system than a B-36 bomber had propellers—and your system is as loud, too. You can't control the heat output (without moving to lower-performing components), but you can control the noise. Read on to find out how."

With Personal computers running hoter, its getting harder to keep them cool, and keep them quiet at the same time. The original PC only had fan for the power supply, now a PCs can have fans for the case, CPU, power supply, and video card. Thats a lot of fans and that can create a lot of noise. This article offers some great advice on how to reduce it.

VeriChip Sells First Baby Protection System, in Talks with Military (article)

PC Magazine reports: "VeriChip, the company that makes human-implantable RFID chips, is looking to span its equipment from newborns to the military's enlisted. ... The company announced Aug. 24 that it has made the first sale of its infant protection, wander prevention and staff duress system to the Brampton Civic Hospital in Brampton, Ontario. Separately, the company confirmed a day earlier that it is in talks with the military to test its implantable chips in two branches of the military."

I just have one question, would you 'chip' yourself or your children?

Welcome to the Internet, Now Go Home.

Have you ever stopped to think about what its like for a person to come on the Internet for the first time? Not even knowing what "http://" means. These people are in for an eye opening experience the first time they get hit by a virus. Even people who have been using the Internet for a long time are not safe, they're getting scammed and their machines infected.

With all the spam, malware (i.e.: viruses, worms, spyware, etc.), scams, pornography and other threats that we encounter everyday, it can almost be overwhelming. For example, it now takes about 5-10 minutes after plugging a new unprotected computer into the Internet for it to become infected. That's like getting carjacked in about 5-10 minutes after buying a new car because you forgot to lock your doors.

The good news is that newer Windows systems running SP2 are more secure then they use to be. The firewall are enabled by default so their not getting infected the first time they're plugged into the Internet. Although, if you don't fortify your defenses right away, you will quickly get infected.

Knowledge is Power
To help protect you, I have listed some of the most common (and some uncommon) threats and scams that everyone on the Internet faces. Then I explain what you need to do to protect yourself.

• E-mail scams:
  
• Don't trust e-mail, because addresses can be spoofed (faked) and it's not a very secure form of communication.
• Avoiding downloading any e-mail attachments, they can contain malware.
  
• Never trust any unsolicited e-mails for products and/or services (AKA spam), they're almost always fake.
• Beware of authentic looking e-mails from a company that you might do business (such as a financial institution, PayPal, eBay, etc...) asking you to change your password, or revealing any type of private information (such as your credit card or web site account information) for one reason or another. This is known as 'Phishing' scam, these messages will include links to a legitimate looking web site that they will be use to capture your private information .
• Here is an article about some other types of phishing scams.
• If someone from a foreign country like Nigeria (and many others) contacts you wanting to give you a lot of money, its a scam. This is often known as 'The Nigerian letter scam', many people have lost their money and lives to these fraudsters.
  
• Online scams:
  
• Reshipping scams: Have you seen those 'Work at home, handle shipments, make big bucks!' e-mails? This is where an offshore 'company' tries to recruit people inside the U.S. to accept money and goods, who then ship it outside the country. Scammers use stolen credit cards to make online purchases, then have the products shipped to the person who is helping them. After the person receives the package, they then forward these items to the thieves, who resells them. They even use their victims personal bank accounts to launder money through. When the authorities finally catch up with all the illegal activity, the victim is considered an accomplish to the crime for participating in illegal activities, and generally will be the one who takes the fall.
  
• Online auction scams: Scammers claim to be selling valuable goods at outrageous discounted prices. The victims generally receive nothing or shoddy knockoffs that aren't worth the asking price.
  
• Online job posting sites: Fraudsters are posing as legitimate companies, looking for help. They do this in order to gain access to personal information on their employment applications.
  
• Be careful which sites that you trust to download executables, especially screen savers. This is a great way to get viruses, spyware, or other types of malware installed on your computer.
• Don't install Internet Explorer ActiveX components, or Firefox extensions from web sites that you don't trust. These plug-ins can contain malicious code that will infect your computer or destroy your data.
  
• Never trust public computers:
  
• Below is a list of things you should never do from the public computers that are available in libraries, airports, etc. You never know when any of these computers might have a keyboard logger installed or other types of malware on them that can grab your private information:
• Never log into a secure websites that require you to authenticate yourself with a username and password (such as your bank, work, etc.).
  
• Never enter private information (such as your social security number, bank account number, credit card number, etc.) from these computers.
  

Below is a list of suggestions of how to protect yourself online, and advice to make sure that your computer's defenses are strong:

• Protecting your computer.
  
• Make sure your computer's firewall is enabled. This will protect your computer from network based attacks. For more information on this subject checkout this article.
  
• Make sure your operating system, applications (including your browser) are patched and/or updated. It is also recommended that if these programs have any automatic notification or update options that you enable it. For more information on this subject checkout this article.
  
• Install and run the latest version of an anti-virus and anti-spyware application on your computer, and make sure it has the latest signatures. I would also recommend scheduling daily or weekly scans of your computer, and make sure that you get daily updates of the signature files for these programs.
• Protecting yourself:
• You will need some type of e-mail service that has spam filtering, and anti-virus attachments scanning. Most ISPs offer e-mail accounts as part of your Internet service package, but may not offer spam filtering and virus scanning. Although, there are several free e-mail services like Gmail and Yahoo Mail that offer these features.
• Don't submit your private information (such as: your social security number, credit card number, etc.) to a web site unless you feel that you can trust the merchant. Also make sure that the web site is using an encrypted SSL connection (look for HTTPS:// in the web site's URL, and the lock on your browser's window).
  
• Also just because a web site asks for personal or private information, don't give it up unless you're comfortable sending this information over the Internet or giving it to that company.
• If you're worried about your privacy, and how a web site is going to use your personal information make sure to read its privacy policy. Personally I believe the larger the company, the more I trust what's said in the privacy policy because they know they will get sued if they break it.
  
• Create strong passwords for all the web sites that you use a lot. Avoid writing these passwords down, if you can to store them somewhere find a good password manager that you can trust.
  
• When making purchases online, use a credit card they offer the best fraud protections. Debit cards and electronic checks don't offer you the same level of fraud protection.
• Check your credit card statements and credit report online regularly for any unusual activity. If you find some, make sure to report it to your credit card company and credit reporting agency.
  
• Backup your computers data regularly. This is going to be your best defense against losing data.
  
• Bonus tip: buy a cross-cut paper shredder to destroy personal documents and regular mail that you don't want. This can help protect you against identity thief.

Other resources:

• Microsoft Security at Home: If you're looking for a site that has easy-to-understand security tips and explanations, this site is one of the better ones that I know about. If you're fairly knowledgeable about computer security you will not find a lot of useful information here that you don't already know.
• The Different Types of Internet Threats (Part 5): This article contains some more useful information on some of following topics, such as: Staying Up To Date, Testing Your Defenses, and Disinfecting Your Computer.
  

Check out the Wheelsurfer

Have you ever wanted to drive a wheel? Then check out the Wheelsurfer. Its a gigantic wheel that you can drive, and impress your friends for about five minutes (before they start laughing).

This vehicle proves that you can buy anything you want on the Internet.

Tiny ion pump sets new standard in cooling hot computer microchips (article)

The University of Washington reports: "researchers have succeeded in building a cooling device tiny enough to fit on a computer chip that could work reliably and efficiently with the smallest microelectronic components. ... The device, which uses an electrical charge to create a cooling air jet right at the surface of the chip, could be critical to advancing computer technology because future chips will be smaller, more tightly packed and are likely to run hotter than today's chips. As a result, tomorrow's computers will need cooling systems far more efficient than the fans and heat sinks that are used today."

As computer chips become more and more powerful, cooling them has become a very HOT topic these days (yes, the pun was intended). Over the years I have seen a lot of COOL technologies to remove heat from these chips, such as:

• Air Cooling: A fan used in conjunction with a heatsink, is the most popular form of cooling computer chips today. The fans move air through the case to cool the components, the problem with this technology is that its loud. Also as components get hotter and hotter, this technology will lose its ability to adequately cool them.
  
• Liquid Cooling: Works really well, and is quiet, the problem is that it's expensive to buy and cumbersome to install. It uses different types of fluids flowing through pipes attached to heatsinks to remove the heat from the chip.
• IMHO: I think in the not too distant future the higher-end PCs will have liquid cooling as a standard option.
  
• Peltier Coolers Works really well, and is quiet, but is very expensive. Basically it's a small thermoelectric refrigerator that sits on top of the chip to cool it. Peltier coolers have other problems, like they're power hogs, can generate condensation, and they produce a lot of heat themselves.
  

A modern day Trojan Horse Story

An Australian TV show called Chaser's War on Everything, wanted to find out if anyone had learned anything from the story of the Trojan Horse. They managed to get a huge wooden horse (with people inside) into many different places, such as:

• Television studio parking lots
  
• Sydney Opera House parking lot
• and more.
  

Stephen Colbert's Sound Advice: Internet Security

Stephen gives solid tips on how to protect your identity while surfing the internets.

Solid-Oxide Fuel Cells Undergo Successful Test (article)

Technoride reports: "The most attractive feature of SOFC (Solid Oxide Fuel Cells) systems are their fuel flexibility. Because they can run on a variety of fuels, or electrolytes, SOFCs eliminate the need to provide hydrogen as a source of fuel. But being able to run on multiple widely available petrochemical fuels also frees American automakers from dependency on any one fuel in case of a shortage. Franklin Fuel Cells believes its improved SOFC technology is key in enabling smooth transition off of fossil fuels, the company has said."

It's an interesting concept engine, I wonder if we will ever see it in production. Although I am still waiting for the time when I can to run my car on water.

This Global Warming Fix Stinks (article)

Wired News reports: "Scientists agree that the planet is getting warmer because excess carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere acts like a pane of glass, trapping heat from solar radiation. Using less electricity and driving less are often recommended by climatologists to reduce carbon emissions. ... Paul Crutzen, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany, has a very different idea: He recommends injecting massive amounts of sulfur into the upper atmosphere so less sun will penetrate it."

The news and the weather have made us all to aware that the climate on our planet could be changing because of man made pollution and/or natural circumstances. Although the idea of injecting massive amounts of sulfur into the upper atmosphere, seems like a dangerous idea to me.

I am no expert in the field, but as the old adage goes, what goes up must come down. What type of effect will all that sulfur have on us and the environment.

Quotes of the Week

• "A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes that he has got the biggest piece." - Paul Gauguin
• "If you love life, don't waste time, because time is what life is made of" - Ben Franklin
• "Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage." - Niccolo Machiavelli

Infineon Gets Order for US Passport Security Chip (article)

eWeek reports: "German chip maker Infineon said on Monday it had won a contract from the U.S. government to supply security chips for an electronic passport system."

Blue Oyster Spiral Fractal Zoom

No matter how deep you go, there's always more. This movie took quite a few days to calculate.

My Cubicle (The Music Video)

I am not sure of the name of the original song, but this is a very funny parirdy of it. I know some people whom the words of this song reflects their view of work, it's not mine but I have had days like this.

Federal judge orders halt to NSA spy program

CNET News.com reports: "The warrantless Internet and telephone surveillance program authorized by the Bush administration violates the U.S. Constitution and must cease immediately, a federal judge ruled Thursday."

Nintendo hopes Wii spells wiinner

USAToday reports: "Nintendo's soon-to-be-released Wii video game console is getting raves from reviewers and others who have gotten an early peek. ... The Wii (pronounced wee) sports an innovative controller: To hit a tennis ball, you swing it like a racket; to drive an SUV over treacherous terrain, you twist it like a steering wheel; to shoot a duck, you point it like a pistol."

Nintendo of America's new president and chief operating officer, Reginald Fils-Aime speaks with USAToday reporter Byron Acohido. About why he believes Nintendo, can retake top status in the billion dollar a year game industry.

Where to find the world's hottest startups

Business 2.0 reports: "As Web 2.0 success stories like Flickr and Del.icio.us prove, this kind of technology is dirt-cheap to implement and borrows data freely available from other websites. ... A lot of these global entrepreneurs are simply copying the biggest ideas in America's Web 2.0 canon. For every Digg.com, the popular U.S. site that lets readers nominate and vote on the most important news stories, there's a Yigg.de (the German version of the same)."

Here is an interesting article about Web 2.0 applications from around the world. Some of them are pretty interesting, and others are just duplicates of existing applications offered by other companies.

If you don't know what Web 2.0, Wikipedia defines it as: "a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes."

Easy Podcasting with GCast

Have you wanted to create a podcast but thought it was too technical, or lacked the hardware and software to do it. There is a free service called GCast that lets you record your podcast just by calling a toll-free telephone number. They will even automatically generate an RSS feed to it.

GCast also offers other podcast services and tools, such as:

• Free podcast hosting
• Free Podcast-safe music downloads (from GarageBand.com)
  
• Browser-based mixing tools
• An embeddable podcast player (can be placed into any HTML page)
• E-mail alerts
  

A New Way to Make Ultrasensitive Explosives Detectors (article)

The future of explosives detection lies in the form of nanoparticle research. Hewitt-Packard and University of California at Irving researchers have found a new way to make nanoparticle arrays that could lead to the development of extremely precise chemical sensors able to detect liquid explosives. This technique will make it easier and less expensive to produce the nanoparticles and thus more practical to incorporate this technology into security procedure. While a few more years are needed before this breakthrough will result in new scanning devices, it is reflective of a growing field of research in this volatile time period.

Have You Checked Out Live.com Recently

In November of last year Microsoft released their Live.com site, with a few basic services. Since then they really expanded their offering with several new web applications and services (for example: domain name and web site hosting). The site also offers really nice downloadable applications as well (see the list below).

I really like the consistent interface across most of the applications, and how some of them are integrated together. I hope to continue to see more of this in the future as they release new services.

If you're curious about the difference between Live.com and MSN.com. From my understanding, Live.com will host all the web applications and services, and MSN will continue to be the content, news and information provider.

Below is a brief summary of all the Live.com applications and services:

• Live.com: Create a customized home page, and add content you want to see (such as your message in your inbox, RSS feeds, and more).
• Windows Live Search: Search the Web, news articles, images, local business (maps) and more.
• Windows Live Expo: Place an ad, find something you want to buy, or post information for an event.
• Windows Live Mail: Has a new drop and drag interface, spam blocker, virus scanning, and 2GB of storage.
• Microsoft Office Live: Get a web site, 50 e-mail accounts, web traffic reports, and more
• Windows Live Gallery: Get add-ins and gadgets for your toolbar, Messenger Live, Live.com home page, and more.
• Windows Live Favorites: Get instant access to your Web favorites anywhere.
• Windows Live Custom Domains: Free web based e-mail for your Internet domain.
• Windows Live Spaces: Add photos, network, find new friends, create a blog. Has a lot more features then Blogger.
• Windows Live Shopping: Find clothes, computers, electronics, furniture and more.
• Windows Live Product Search: Search and compare products from several merchants across the Web.
• Windows Live Academic: Search articles from thousands of academic and research journals.
• Windows Live Local: Find businesses, get driving directions, and view satellite photos of where you're going to go.
• Windows Live Safety Center: Check your computer for viruses, tune-up your PC, and get rid of junk.

Downloadable Applications

The software listed below are applications that you download and install on your local computer.

• Windows Live Writer: This program was just released today, its WYSIWYG blog authoring tool that allows you to compose blog entries for Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress (and many others).
• Windows Live Messenger: Microsoft's next generation instant messaging client. Now includes VoIP and video conferencing.
• Windows Live Toolbar: Search the web, protect yourself against fraud, find files on your local computer.
• Windows Live OneCare: Microsoft's new anti-malware (virus, spyware, and more.), firewall, tune-up, and more.

Coming Soon to Live.com

Below is a list of applications that Microsoft is getting ready to release.

• Windows Live Book Search: Microsoft's online books searching service
• Windows Live QnA: Ask any question and get an answer.
• Windows Live Mail Desktop: Check and manage your online mail, including AOL, and GMail.
• Windows Live Search - Mobile: Search for a business, see maps and driving directions all from your mobile device

For the latest information, on new or updated applications and services check out the Windows Live Ideas page. This is where they post all the latest updates to the site.

New Segways Steer Like a Bike (article)

PC Magazine reports: "The maker of the Segway scooter on Monday unveiled the second generation of its self-balancing electric one-person vehicle. ... The redesigned scooter allows the rider to steer by leaning to the right or left, rather than by turning the handlebars. It also features a wireless electric key and alarm system."

This is the next generation Segway scooter, it look similar to the original one but is now easier to use. The people who own these devices generally love them, but personally I would have to find a really good application for one of these before I would own one. They're about US$5,000 to $6,000 depending on how you have it configured.

Science reveals secrets of invisibility

CNN.com reports: "Invisibility has long been a fantastical ability exclusively enjoyed by teenage wizards, super heroes and the ultra-advanced civilisations of science fiction. ... But more pragmatic-minded scientists and engineers now believe that invisibility-enabling technology may be within reach of lesser mortals as well."

Arthur C. Clarke was quoted as saying, 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.' If they get this technology to work the way its suppose too, it will almost seem like magic. I don't consider bending light waves around an object to just be an everyday event (at least not yet).

The military and law enforcement applications for this technology are incredible. Although, there will be only one privacy issue, there will be no privacy left. Think about this, someone or something can be planted where you are and you won't know its there unless you happen to bump into it or find it.

How to Reduce Telemarketing Calls

For years telemarketers have been bothering us at all times of the day on our phones trying to sell us their wares. Then a few years ago the FCC finally came to our rescue by creating the 'National Do Not Call List'. It's suppose to help reduce the telemarketing calls that we receive.

If you're getting bother by telemarketers, and want to reduce these calls Junkbusters offers the following suggestions to help reduce this type of annoyance:

1. Register your phone number(s) in the National Do-Not-Call Registry.
2. When a telemarketer calls, always say "Put this number on your don't-call-list." (If your Federal Do-Not-Call registration has entered into effect, you may be able to proceed directly to enforcement action against them.)
3. Use Junkbuster's Anti-telemarketing script, which probes whether the call was made by a telemarketing bureau. It also helps you probe whether the call was illegal under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and whether you can collect $500-$1500. You can print out copies keep by your phones at home. Like all Junkbusters products and services, it's free.
4. You can tell the Direct Marketing Association that you don't want calls from any of their member companies, though if you use the Federal registry this is unlikely to be of extra help.
5. Read Junkbuster's extensive guide on how telemarketers work and how to stop them calling you.
6. Your state may have a "Do Not Call" list where you can register your phone number. You can check your state in our guide, but most states coordinate with the National registry, so state registries have a similar effect to the National one.
7. Recording "out-of-service tones" (also known as SIT tones) at the beginning of your answering machine message will fool some telemarketers' computers into not calling your number again. Download the tones here. There are also lots of anti-telemarketing devices you can buy.
• Side note: For the people out there who would like to know the frequencies of these tone, they are: 985.2Hz, 1370.6Hz, and 1776.7Hz
  
8. If you want source documents describing your legal rights, start with Junkbuster's collection of the laws, rules and regulations governing telemarketing.
9. Junkbusters also maintains an extensive list of links to other sites concerning telemarketing.

Gore isn't quite as green as he's led the world to believe (article)

USATODAY.com reports: "Graciously, Gore tells consumers how to change their lives to curb their carbon-gobbling ways: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use a clothesline, drive a hybrid, use renewable energy, dramatically cut back on consumption. Better still, responsible global citizens can follow Gore's example, because, as he readily points out in his speeches, he lives a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." But if Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed."

There is an old saying that goes "Don't talk the talk if you can't walk the walk." I have to admit I am not personally living a 'carbon-neutral lifestyle', but at the same time I try not to waste energy or other resources. The problem with energy saving technologies is that they have only recently started becoming available at a reasonable price.

Personally I believe that the government should mandate guidelines that appliance and other manufactures must meet for their products. They should attack the biggest energy wasters first, then start with other products. Some people are against government mandates like this, but think of how many things would not have happened if the government didn't mandate it (i.e.: clean water, environmental policies, etc.).

Psst, Your Car is Watching You (article)

Time reports: "Few Americans realize that their cars can tattle on them. But among those in the know--civil libertarians, law enforcement agents and consumer advocates--a debate is surging over the black boxes technically called event-data recorders (EDRs). While some welcome them as a safety measure, others fear them as an Orwellian intrusion. Nearly one-third of vehicles on the road today--and 64% of this year's models--contain the little-noticed chips and sensors. Unlike flight recorders on airplanes, these microcomputers don't capture voices, but they can retain up to 20 seconds of data on speed, braking and acceleration in the lead-up to a crash. For virtually all Ford and General Motors cars, and for a few models from other automakers, accident investigators can buy a modem-like device to plug laptops into EDRs and download the information."

I read about this technology a few years back, but it now seems that it's going main stream. The technology was designed as a blackbox type of device for monitoring what happens in a crash just before the airbags were deployed. These devices have been used as evidence in several cases involving crashes to prove innocence and guilt.

Why "Nice Guys" are often such LOSERS (article)

I don't remember where I found this, but I though it would help whom consider themselves a "nice guy". It's not technology related, but the article has some worthwhile advice that is straight forward.

Here is an except from the article: "What's wrong with Nice Guys? The biggest problem is that most Nice Guys (tm) are hideously insecure. They are so anxious to be liked and loved that they do things for other people to gain acceptance and attention, rather than for the simply pleasure of giving. You never know if a Nice Guy really likes you for who you are, or if he has glommed onto you out of desperation because you actually paid some kind of attention to him."

Google warns on 'unsafe' websites (article)

BBC News reports: "Google has started warning users if they are about to visit a webpage that could harm their computer. ... The warning will pop up if users click on a link to a page known to host spyware or other malicious programs."

In May 2006 a research report showed that on average 4-6% of the search results returned in search engines contained sites that had harmful content on them. Below is a list of the most dangerous seach keywords that can contain spyware:

• Free screensavers
• Bearshare
• Screensavers
• Winmx
• Limewire
• Download Yahoo messenger
• Lime wire
• Free ringtones

Bottled Water: Is it Really Better? (article)

WebMD reports: "Once upon a time, most of us could walk across a parking lot or push a stroller down the street without a bottle of water in our hands. It doesn’t seem that way anymore." ... "most municipal systems and most bottled water sources are fairly equal in terms of contaminants and other health and safety issues."

Baiters Teach Scammers a Lesson (article)

Wired News: "They pilfer nearly $200 million from Americans annually and drive some of their victims to suicide, but Nigeria's notorious e-mail scam artists may finally have met their match -- and the results can be hilarious. ... British online vigilante "Shiver Metimbers" is leading tens of thousands of "scambaiters" in a crusade to shut down advance-fee fraudsters, grifters who spam unwitting victims with elaborate, e-mailed sob stories promising a share of nonexistent fortunes in return for upfront payments."

This article is a good read...

Best Free Online Storage Sites (1GB and More)

There are literally hundreds of storage sites out on the Internet that offer capacities that range from a few megabytes to a few gigabytes. I have visited a lot of them, and created a list of the best sites.

Only sites that offered 1GB or more of storage were listed, anything less was too small. If you need more storage (and fewer restrictions) many of these sites offer premium plans for a fee.

The sites are placed into two categories based on the type of storage they offer:

Temporary Hosting Sites
Are you looking for a place to temporarily hold a large file so that you can email it, or to host content (such as media) for your web site or blog. Then check out the list of sites below, they allow you to quickly upload just about any file where it can be access by people whom you make its link available to. The file you upload will generally automatically be deleted after a specific amount of time has passed.
Note: The amount of storage, and how long the file can be stored will vary, check the site's storage policy for specific details.

• SendOver - 2GB Storage
• MegaShares - 1.5GB Storage
• Badongo - 1GB Storage
• BIGfileupload - 1GB Storage
• TrasferBigFiles - 1GB Storage
• YouSendIt - 1GB Storage

Online File Storage
Are you looking for a site that specializes in online file storage, and won't automatically delete your files if you have not used them in a while. These sites are great for holding backups of your files, or acting as a transfer point for moving data from one computer to another computer (such as from home to work and back).
Note: Most of these sites have some type of transfer limits (i.e.: how much you can upload or download) which vary from site to site.

• Streamload MediaMax - 25GB Storage
• Inbox.com - 5GB Storage
• Mozy - 2GB Storage
• Box.net - 1GB Storage
• eSnips - 1GB Storage
• Openomy - 1GB Storage
• Orbitfiles - 1GB Storage

Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager (Episode 2)

The continuing story of Chad Vader. Chad is Darth Vader's less-talented, less-charismatic younger brother, who is the day shift manager at a local a grocery store.

Get Your Car Stolen, And Not Get Paid By Your Insurance Company

Is your car equipped with a transponder anti-theft system? This is where the ignition key is embedded with a tiny computer chip that transmits a unique radio signal to the vehicle's on-board computer. Without this radio signal, your car won't start.

If your car is equipped with a transponder anti-theft system, and your car get stolen your insurance company may not pay your claim if this system was not damaged. Your insurance might assume that this is some type of fraud, because this system is suppose to prevent this type of theft.

Read the article it has a lot of good information in it. Also check out the following post.

Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager (Episode 1)

Chad Vader is Darth Vader's less-talented, less-charismatic younger brother and is the day shift manager at a local a grocery store.

BABYLON 5 Returns!!

Ain't It Cool News reports: "During last weekend's San Diego Comic Con...at a panel that (evidently) didn't enjoy the "in your face" notoriety of, say, TRANSFORMERS or SPIDERMAN 3... producer/writer/director J. Michael Straczynski (JMS, or "Joe") made an announcement regarding the future of this little concept he has called BABYLON 5. ... The thrust of the news is this: straight-to-video BABYLON 5 adventures...involving B5 characters in an anthology format...should arrive late next year. Written and directed by JMS."

I would love to see the B5 series return, it is probably one of the best sci-fi series of all-times. So far 'Ain't It Cool News' is the best source of information that is available about new series.

Popularity Dialer

Have you ever been in a situation where you wished your cell phone would ring? Maybe you wanted to look extra important or popular on that hot date. Or maybe you just needed an excuse to escape from an unpleasant meeting.

With 'The Popularity Dialer', you can plan ahead. Via a web interface, you can choose to have your phone called at a particular time (or several times). At the elected time, your phone will be dialed and you will hear a prerecorded message that's one half of a conversation. Thus, you will be prompted to have a fake conversation and will easily fool those around you.

Microsoft's TouchLight makes 3D hands-on (video)

Cnet reports: "TouchLight technology, slated to be released by the end of the year, lets users move and manipulate three-dimensional images with their hands. CNET News.com's Neha Tiwari talks with David Harnett, Microsoft's senior director of IP ventures, about how the technology works and what practical uses it will have."

In the movie "Minority Report" (2002), do you remember the scene where Tom Cruise who played Chief John Anderton would manipulate data on the computer screen by moving his hands around in mid-air. This technology from the movie is here today, its pretty impressive and it should only get better. Watch the video to see more.