IE 7.0 Alpha Revealed?

Flexbeta.net reports: "According to a screenshot making its rounds on some forums, Microsoft's answer to Mozilla's Firefox, Internet Explorer 7, might be in its alpha stage."

BSOD upgrades to RSOD in Longhorn

Get ready to add a new term to your computer vocabulary. Joi Ito's blog reports: "Microsoft Longhorn has upgraded from the 'Blue Screen of Death' to the 'Red Screen of Death'."

Buzz Grows for Microsoft's Mobile 'Magneto' (Article)

Microsoft is getting ready to announce 'Windows Mobile 2005', it specifications sounds really cool (read the article for more information). The GUI is suppose to be totally resigned. The press is calling it a 'BlackBerry Killer'.

Design your own keyboard...

This device allows you literally allows you to move or change the keys on the keyboard to any configuration you want.

The Pepsi-G Stove

This is a neat project for making a mini stove from a Pepsi can.

Court Nixes 'Broadcast Flag' (Article)

Wired News reports: "In a blow to the entertainment industry, a federal appeals court on Friday found that federal regulators overstepped their authority by requiring consumer-electronics manufacturers to help restrict digital home recording."

The digital 'broadcast-flag', is a technology mandated by the FCC designed to prevent digital equipment from recording certian shows and movies when the flag is enabled. The content providers had to choice to enable or disable the flag to allow the recording of the show.

How Lightsabers Work

Have you always wanted to know how lightsabers work? Howstuffworks has the most to update article on the technology, and includes many practical uses for the technology :-).

Star Wars Episode III Spoiler with Pictures

A nearly complete Star Wars Episode III spoiler with pictures.

Is Email Worst For You Then Marijuana?

From the May 5, 2005 edition the Wired newsletter: "Remember Reefer Madness, the 1936 anti-pot propaganda flick that warned of marijuana's ability to wreck lives? It might be time for The Evils of E-Mail: A new study claims that addiction to electronic messages is twice as harmful to the intellect as smoking dope. "This is a very real and widespread phenomenon," said Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at a British university who measured a 10-point drop in the IQs of people who juggled e-mail throughout the workday. "We have found that this obsession with looking at messages, if unchecked, will damage a worker's performance by reducing their mental sharpness." Getting high shaves a mere four points off a dope fiend's IQ (although nobody's recommending doing bong hits in the company kitchenette)."

Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator

Automatically generate a complaint-letter about a: person, company, organization. This is a great fun for the first time you use it, after that it starts to get real boring.

South Park Character Generator

This is an awesome flash application, it allows you build existing and new South Park characters.

What is Grafedia?

Grafedia seems to be a new Internet trend, I wonder what is going to happen to it. If you don't know what Grafedia, here is an except from the site: "Grafedia is hyperlinked text, written by hand onto physical surfaces and linking to rich media content - images, video, sound files, and so forth. It can be written anywhere - on walls, in the streets, or on sidewalks. Grafedia can also be written in letters or postcards, on the body as tattoos, or anywhere you feel like putting it. Viewers 'click' on these grafedia hyperlinks with their cell phones by sending a message addressed to the word '@grafedia.net' to get the content behind the link."

Microsoft Adds a New Wrinkle to 'Genuine Advantage' Initiative (Article)

Microsoft Watch reports: "Microsoft is offering Windows Professional users a new incentive to turn in those selling allegedly counterfeit product: A free replacement copy (with a few strings attached)."

The catch is that you have to identify where you got the disks and provide the receipt. Read the article for more information.

Ethanol Grows as Gas Alternative

Wired News: "Workers are clearing Iowa fields, hoping that if they build it, cars will come. The "it" is a processing plant that turns corn into ethanol, a fuel that is increasingly replacing gasoline today and may help to power the fuel-cell vehicles of tomorrow."

Could ethanol replace our dependence on petroleum? Only time will tell...

Revelation! 666 is not the number of the beast (it's a devilish 616)

The Independent reports: "A newly discovered fragment of the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament indicates that, as far as the Antichrist goes, theologians, scholars, heavy metal groups, and television evangelists have got the wrong number. Instead of 666, it's actually the far less ominous 616."

This is a funny article, the last paragraph is the most hysterical. It also has humorous implications for people who have tattooed this number onto their skin.

Seeking the real Antonia Bayle

CNet reports: "Sony Online Entertainment has announced a real-life quest for a woman who looks like eye-catching 'Everquest II' heroine Antonia Bayle, Queen of Qeynos."

This is kind of strange virtual meets reality situation. They develop a computer character, then try to find a woman that matches what she looks like.

Windows x64 Lacks Major Anti-Virus Coverage

eWeek reports: "Customers testing the newly released Windows XP Professional x64 Edition have been getting startling error messages that anti-virus protection from at least two vendors—Symantec and McAfee—is not yet available."

You might want to follow the general I.T. rule of thumb with any new Windows OS. You generally have to wait a few months before load it, so Microsoft can address the most dangerous bugs.

CineCopia - Online DVD's Trading Service

CineCopia is an interesting idea, its an online DVD trading service. It works by allowing you and others to contribute and make DVDs part of a national searchable database. Members can search the database and request movies that they want to view by clicking on the title on the CineCopia web site. Cinecopia then will generate an e-mail requesting the owner to send the DVD to the requester. Then they will provide a pre-paid envelope to the owner to ship the DVD to the requester.

This is not a free service it costs about .99 cents per request, but it could prove to be cheaper (or more expensive) then the alternatives. The nice thing is that there are no monthly service fees.

Although, I see some possible problems with the whole online DVD trading concept:
- The condition of the DVDs that you receive. DVDs are not the most durable medium, so as they're shipped around they're going to get scratched. Eventually they will become un-playable.
- The quality and quantity of the movie titles made available. If people are going to be making these movies available, then they're probably not going to be the best selections. They're probably going to be duds of their collection. Although, I could be wrong, this is just what I assume about human nature.

For more information about the service check the FAQ page. To see the title in their database, check out this page.

amaztype (seeing is understanding)

It is an interesting web site, that uses images from amazon products to create letters. It is more interesting then my description.

Star Wars Episode III Website (w/Trailers)

This is a cool Star Wars site, it has a music video called 'A Hero Falls', it also has some great picture and movie trailers for Episode III.