Hard to Find 800 Numbers

Some companies that you do business with don't publish their 800 numbers publicly or they make them hard to find by burying them deep in the bowels of their web site. Well stop pulling your hair out trying to find these numbers, and check out a site called 'Hard to Find 800 Numbers'.

Ipod My Baby

I recently came across a site called 'Ipod My Baby', were parents dress their children up as their favorite MP3 player. This is taking people's obsession with technology too far. The pictures are adorable and disturbing at the same time.

Would you dress your own child in one of these getups?

Simon Sez Santa

I like to post something fun for Christmas each year, and here is my submission for this year. Check out 'Simon Sez Santa'. Give Santa instructions like (jump, sit down, etc.), and watch what will happens.

Computers Then and Now...

Anyone who has used a computer for a little while can tell you how much these devices have changed over the last several years. If you have been using computers for a long time, and you sit back and think about the first computer you touch verses today's modern personal computer there is an amazing quantum leap forward in several orders of magnitude in processing power.

The first computer I ever used was an Apple ][+, with 48K of RAM (with a maximum memory size of 64K), a color monitor (basically a TV without a tuner), and two floppy drives. This machine had a 1Mhz 6502 CPU (8-bit), and cost about US$1000 at the time.

The first home computer that I could afford (it cost about US$100) was the Timex Sinclair 1000, I think it also had a 1Mhz 6502 CPU, 16KB RAM (with the expansion pack), and tape drive for storage (which never work). To be honest, I don't even think my 16KB RAM expansion pack worked. But I was still happy to have my own home computer.

Then in the early 80's IBM changed the personal computer market by introducing the IBM PC (specs: Intel 8086 4.7Mhz 16-bit CPU, 640KB RAM [max.], 2 floppy drives, keyboard, CGA graphics video). This was an okay machine for its time, but because IBM created it this gave it a market advantage over the competition.

A little while after the IBM PC was released, the clone makers started producing copies of it because IBM used off the shelf technologies. Soon the clone makers surpassed IBM in innovation of the technology that they created.

Then in 1984, Apple release the Macintosh (specs: Motorola 68000 8Mhz 16/32-bit CPU, 128KB RAM, keyboard, mouse, built-in monochrome monitor) and the world changed again. For the first time consumers were introduced to a functional Graphics User Interface (GUI).

Now let's fast forward to the modern day, today's computers are much different from the days of yore. For example, recently I found a site that allows you to run Apple ][ software from inside your browser (this site has been taken down). It’s really amazing to think that the state of the art home computer 20+ years ago can now be emulated in a browser (although, at the same time technically its not that amazing).

Let’s consider today's hardware; we will start out with the basics and work deeper into the computer:

• Computer cases: As far as the PC industry goes, the biggest advance in cases was made when the tower case was invented. Otherwise, they're relatively the same style as about 15+ years ago. If you want avant-garde case designs, buy a Mac. Note: There has been some innovations in computer form factor designs recently, but none of them have really gone mainstream.
• Power supplies: These devices have steadily increased in power output over the years. I think the original IBM PC power supply provided under 100W of power. Modern PC power supplies can now output 1000W of power.
• Motherboards: The basic look of a motherboard has not changed radically in base appearance, but looks can fool you. Modern motherboards are light years ahead of their predecessors; they're faster and more advanced.
• CPUs: have radically evolved over the last few decades. The modern CPU now has the ability to process 64-bits of data at time (along with the ability to address terabytes of RAM), and as have the ability to run multiple cores on the same chip. These chips also have multi-megabyte level 2 caches of fast RAM. Although, since these devices now run so fast (almost 4Ghz), they also run much hotter then they ever did. So we have had to resort to air, and in some cases liquid cooling to keep them running as fast as we do.
• Video Cards: Like CPUs have evolved radically over time, and are continuing to advance at a breakneck pace. Video cards can process more graphics information then previous generations, and create semi photo-realistic 3D virtual environments in real-time. These cards now have their own dedicated GPU (Graphic Processing Units), memory (up to 512MB of fast RAM), cooling and power requirements. These cards also have the ability to drive multiple monitors at high resolutions.
• Hard Drives: When the IBM XT came out there was an 20MB hard drive option for it (about 20,000,000 bytes, 1 byte = 1 character of information). Over the years, these devices have gotten smaller, cheaper, faster, and higher capacity. Modern hard drives are now approaching a 1 terabyte of storage capacity (about 1,000,000,000,000 bytes/characters of storage).
• Hard Drive Interfaces: This is the technology that connects the computer to the hard drive. There have been many significant advances over the last few decades in this technology sector. The original IBM PC-XTs used an MFM technology to talk to the hard drive. So after that there was SCSI (and its variants), ATA (and its variants), and now there is SATA (Serial-ATA). External hard drives can be connected to the computer through its USB and Firewire ports.
  
• RAM: The IBM PC used to DIPP chips, these were individual memory chips that looked like bugs with metal legs. Every time you put these chips into the computer, you ran the risk of bending the legs. Today, we have SIMM style high-speed DDR2 memory, with storage capacities in the multi-gigabytes. This was undreamed of in the early days.
• Audio: Back in the early days if we heard a few high pitch beeps we were happy. Now computer audio cards support: 7.1 channel surround sound and incredibly realistic audio fidelity. Modern audio cards like video cards are always trying to push themselves to the next level.
• Optical Disks: All the early PCs supported tape or floppy drives for storage, optical drives (such CD and DVD drives) were not even an option until several years later. In fact in the early 90's the early sound cards and CD-ROM drives started the multimedia revolution. Currently there are double-layer read/writable DVD optical drive can hold over 8.5GB of data. Next generation DVD drives (such as Blu-Ray or HD-DVD) will hold 30GB-50GB.
• Expansion Cards: When the IBM PC was available, all you had were 8-Bit ISA slots, later it was expanded to 16-bit. The next PC bus technology to take hold was PCI, which supported a 32-bit data path. The next generation of PCI, is the PCI-X standard which supports a 64-bit data path.
• Ports: When the IBM PC came on the market, all it had was keyboard and cassette ports. Serial and parallel ports were optional, and required an expansion card. Now, all those ports are obsolete, and have been replaced by USB 2.0 and IEEE-1394 (AKA Firewire) ports. The USB 2.0 ports can support data transfer rates of up to 480Mbps.
• Wireless Ports: These ports have been available for sometime (i.e.: Infrared, and RF), but have not really taken off with the exception of maybe Bluetooth (and it's success is limited).
• Monitors: Early monitors were little more then glorified television screens. Which eventually evolved into large CRTs. Now a single computer can have two or more large LCD screens. This was just unimaginable at the time.
• Media Cards: Now that the floppy has gone the way of the dodo, we have media cards and USB drive that come in all shapes and capacities. These media cards allow you to move data quickly from your electronics (such as cameras, MP3 players, etc.) to your computer. The biggest problem with this type of storage is that there are so many standards.
• Networking: Networking personal computers it the early days was very complex. The nightmare was getting the network cards to work properly. Today, its becoming more common for home computers to support Gigabit Ethernet, and brand new homes are now network ready. Let us not forget our friend Wi-Fi (which now support transfer rates at 100Mbps+). Without this technology we would all be at the mercy of some Ethernet jack somewhere.
• Modems: I want to give an honorable mention to our friend the analog Modem. Long before DSL and Cable digital modems existed there was this analog device. The first modem I ever used was a 300Bps on the Apple ][, the last one I ever used was a 56Kbs.
  
• BIOS: One of the few leftovers from the original PC is your computer BIOS. The BIOS (which stands for Basic Input/Output System) is loaded right after you turn your computer on. The information in the BIOS is used to get your computer to load the operating system from the hard drive (or whatever device has your OS). The amazing thing about this technology is how little it has advanced from the early days. The latest innovation in this technology is EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface).
• OS: When the IBM PC first came out, the only real choice of an operating system you had was IBM-DOS (based on MS-DOS). Which was a 16-Bit text based OS that could support 640K, and allow only one program to run at a time. Today, Windows supports 32 or 64-bit applications (depending on which OS you're using), using a graphical user interface, and runs multiple applications and CPUs at the same time. Windows can now also address gigabytes of RAM.
• Keyboards and Mice: These devices like the BIOS have not advanced significantly over the years. There have been some innovations like wireless and optical variants for mice. They have also added some new buttons, wheels, and more ergonomic form factors to these devices.
  
• Media Centers: Inspired by the Tivo DVR (Digital Video Recorder), these computers are targeted to be center of your living room entertainment experience. They will play your music, movies and video, record your TV shows, and more.
  
• Printers: These devices have gone through many evolutionary advances over the years. The original printers were just glorified typewriters, then came dot-matrix, inkjet, then laser printers. The dot-matrix printer was a major evolutionary advancement over the original text printers, because they allowed you to mix graphics with your text. Then inkjet and laser printers, allowed you to do this faster and better. Color has been a fairly recent innovation for these devices. The latest advancements with these devices have been in the multi-function device market, which combines a printer, scanner, and fax functionality into one device.
  
• Cost: Besides advancements in technology, one of the major considerations for buying any of these devices has been the cost of it. I remember when the PCs first dropped under $1000, then a few years later there was the sub-$500 PC market. There was a huge surge in demand for buying these devices. Its now possible to buy a sub-$200 PC from Wal-Mart.
  
• Apple vs. Microsoft: Until fairly recently the Macintosh was always considerably more expensive then the WinTel (Windows/Intel) PC equivalent. Apple has some great technology and software, but it has always had problems competing with Microsoft as far as market share and the amount of available software for the two different platforms.
  

Why Do They Want My Phone Number?

Have you noticed that a lot more businesses are asking you to give up your phone number when you make a purchase. I never really thought about what type of privacy rights I am giving up by doing this until I read this article.

It's kind of scary the information that we are giving businesses about ourselves without realizing what we are doing. Here is an except from the article: "...Hoofnagle said there might be another drawback to providing a phone number at checkout: It could open a person up to telemarketing -- even if they are on the federal "do not call" registry. According to Hoofnagle, giving a phone number while making a purchase may establish a business relationship, and companies can call individuals on the "do not call" list with whom they have prior business relationships. ..."

Ajax Site and Applications Examples

Are you a web developer or just curious about Ajax, what it is, and why it matters? Well you might want to read this article first. Then if you're like me, you will want to see some real examples of this technology in action.

Below is a list of sites that link to other sites that use Ajax technology.

• Example 1 (Fiftyfoureleven.com) Contains code snippets and proof of concepts - the links on this page should help get you started on building your own functions with XMLHttpRequest.
• Example 2 (Emily Chang - eHub) A constantly updated list of web applications, services, resources, blogs or sites with a focus on next generation web (web 2.0), social software, blogging, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, location mapping, open source, folksonomy, design and digital media sharing.
• Example 3 (AJAX Matters) See how others have used AJAX in their web sites.
• Example 4 (Web 2.0 Explorer) Article: The Web-based Office will have its day.
  

Google Music Search

With all the amazing things that you can search on Google, you can now add music to that list. You don't have to do anything special to access this feature. All you have to do is enter your favorite album, group, or artist; then if Google recognize it the request will appear in the search results.

For example, you can try searching for the Beatles, or Sting. The Google search results will generally show some information about that artist, like cover art, reviews, and links to stores where you can purchase the CD or download the music.

Most of the music information is from the U.S. right now, but in the future Google plans on including artist from different countries. Google also plans on expanding how you can download and purchase the music.

Das Blinken Christmas Lights

By now you have probably seen video of the person who synchronized his christmas lights to a musical score. I know personally I have been sent links to this video several times, and I have seen several different copyies of it posted all over the Net.

When you watch the video, you might think it was done with time lapse photography or was digitally edited. Although according to Snopes, the video is real. The background of the this video is pretty interesting and worth the read if you enjoy finding out this type of information.

Well if you like the first choreographed light show, here is a second video that I just came across. This video is like the first video you have seen, but with different music.

Google's Transit Trip Planner

Google recently debuted a service called 'Google Transit' that maps out the quickest route for users of the public transit system. Currently the service is limited to Portland, Oregon, but may eventually be launched on a larger scale according to the web site.

When you use the trip planner you will be asked to enter your preferred itinerary, such as your departure location and arrival destination, plus the date and time you want to travel. The service will then search all available public-transportation schedules to produce a trip planner.

The trip planner provides estimated:

• Walking time to the nearest form of transportation for the desired route.
• Which transit line to catch, and estimated traveling time.
• Estimated cost for using public transportation.

To see an example

If Hackers Ruled...

Worth1000.com asks 'Remember when computer hackers were the big scare?' So they started a Photoshop contest, and challenged people to create images to show what the world would look like if the hackers ruled.

SNARF from Microsoft Research (the Social Network and Relationship Finder)

SNARF is Microsoft's new 'social network and relationship finder'. SNARF is based around the idea that messages might have different levels of importance based on whom they’re from. For example a message from your manager will have a difference level of importance then from someone whom you don't know. Microsoft calls this 'email triage', which handling the flow of messages when time is short and mail is long.

The SNARF UI is designed to provide a quick overview of all your unread mail, while organizing by the level of its importance. The UI shows a series of different panes with unread mail in them; each pane shows a list of authors of messages. Clicking on the name will show all messages involving that person.

System Requirements
SNARF requires Microsoft Outlook (2003, 2002) as a MAPI source. It has been tested with Exchange and MAPI servers, Hotmail, POP, IMAP, and the OL Connector for Lotus Notes.

Cheaper Veggie Diesel May Change the Way We Drive (Article)

Did you know that "55 billion gallons [208 billion liters] of petroleum diesel consumed in the U.S. last year." That's a lot of fuel. Everyone knows that petroleum drives the U.S. economy more then any one single product.

This fact was made evident by Katrina, and fuel shortages that were created soon afterwards. Several news sources are reporting that we have already hit the 'peak oil' production, and its all down hill from here.

Truth is that no matter how you look at it, we need to start cutting back on our consumption, soon rather then later before its too late. If we don't start converting from a petroleum based economy, as they say there will be 'hell to pay'.

I am a big fan of Biodiesel fuels, for a lot of reasons. Its made from renewable resources, it runs cleaner then regular petroleum fuels, and it can run in diesel engines with little or no modifications.

The following article from National Geographic talks about how they're finding cheaper ways to produce Biodiesel fuels, and the advantages of it.

Shoppers Robbed for Xbox 360

When the XBox was released on Monday, they were soon being auctioned off on eBay for few thousand dollars. Now I am running across stories, where people are getting robbed for their Xbox 360s. This was not an isolated incident, there are stories from all over the country. For example:

• Minot, North Dakota - A 17-boy was assaulted and robbed of his Xbox.
• Tallahassee, FL - A man was robbed at gunpoint of his Xbox.
• Stafford, VA - Electronics Boutique was robbed of two Xbox 360.

Google-Mart (Dark Fiber and Google) (Article)

A few weeks ago I briefly mention that Google is buying up 'dark fiber'. Well Robert X. Cringely sheds some light what Google may be up to: "The probable answer lies in one of Google's underground parking garages in Mountain View. There, in a secret area off-limits even to regular GoogleFolk, is a shipping container. But it isn't just any shipping container. This shipping container is a prototype data center. Google hired a pair of very bright industrial designers to figure out how to cram the greatest number of CPUs, the most storage, memory and power support into a 20- or 40-foot box. We're talking about 5000 Opteron processors and 3.5 petabytes of disk storage that can be dropped-off overnight by a tractor-trailer rig. The idea is to plant one of these puppies anywhere Google owns access to fiber, basically turning the entire Internet into a giant processing and storage grid."

IN2TV (Vintage TV on the Internet for Free)

About thirty old series (such as: Babylon 5, Beetlejuice, Lois & Clark, La Femme Nikita, etc.) that you may have grown up watching on the boob tube will soon be available through the 'AOL Video on Demand' service. This new service will be called 'In2TV', and will be launched sometime in early 2006 by AOL and Warner Bros.

The series will be grouped into channels by genre, including comedy, drama, animation, sci-fi and horror, action-adventure and "vintage TV." In2TV plans to offer more than 100 TV series and at least 300 episodes per month in the first year.

Right now the only system requirement that I can find is that it will require a broadband connection. I am not sure what computing platforms will be supported, or types of DRM that will be used. All the shows will be supported by commercials that you can't fast-forward through, but there are suppose to be fewer then what's on regular TV.

Don't grip about about the fact that there commercials, this is a FREE service and they have to make money to pay the bills. IMHO I think this is a great idea, I am glad to see AOL finally starting to do some stuff right.

All Your 'Google Base' Belong to Us

Google Base is now available to the public. This service from Google allows you to post or find information on a variety of subjects, from parties, to events, to selling cars, and lots more.

The biggest problem with this site is that you can't classify it, like you can other sites (such as Amazon, eBay, TV Guide, etc.). It seems to incorporate a lot of features of a lot different sites into one big mishmash of a site.

Before this site was available people were speculating it was going to compete directly with eBay. Although, the more you dig into it the more you find that its not specifically true. Maybe one day it will, right now its not.

IMHO is more like a big electronic bulletin board that people can post or sell anything that they want. If you want to post, it does require that you to have a Google account.

Unsecured Wi-Fi would be outlawed by N.Y. county (Article)

CNET News.com: "According to a new proposal being considered by a suburb of New York City, any business or home office with an open wireless connection but no separate server to fend off Internet attacks would be violating the law."

IMHO this is a bad law, because you're punishing people for not having the technical savy to lockdown their own networks. You should not use a law to force people to secure their wireless networks, you should use education. This is like creating a law to send people to jail for not locking their doors.

I am not sure, but how does this law address 'HotSpots'. For example, coffee shops that offer free unsecurce WIFI to their customers. They would be now breaking that law if it passed, because these businesses generally don't enable encryption.

Enabling WEP/WAP encryption is not very difficult on a SOHO broadband wireless router with built-in WAP (Wireless Access Point). Although, most people have a 'plug it in go' mentality, and thats how these broadband routers are designed.

The Jet vs. the Bird

This is an interesting video of a jet crashing because a bird gets sucked into it's engine. These jets cost several million dollars each and can protect themselves against fast flying missiles and planes, but yet a bird can take one out.

To see the bird you need to watch the beginning of the video very carefully, then a few seconds later all heck breaks loose. The amazing thing to me about this video is that they were able to recover it, because you actually see the plane crash into the ground from the pilot's prospective.

Official Google Blogs

Below is a list of the official Google blogs that are available for you to read at anytime you want:

• Adwords API
  
• Blogger
  
• Google Adsense
  
• Google Adwords
  
• Google Desktop
  
• Google Reader
  
• Google Sitemaps
  
• Google Video
  
• Official Google Blog
  

Archimedes Death Ray: Idea Feasibility Testing

From the MIT site: "Ancient Greek and Roman historians recorded that during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, Archimedes (a notably smart person) constructed a burning glass to set the Roman warships, anchored within bow and arrow range, afire."

Archimedes Death Ray is one of those stories that has been hotly debated over the years, with many attempts to recreate it. I first saw MythBuster trying to recreate this story with limited results. Now, MIT is taking their turn trying to recreate it.

IMHO, in the end the results of both experiments proved that in order for this device to work that there would have to be a lot of ideal conditions. For example, the ship would have to stay perfectly still long enough while the death ray focused the sun's energy on it.

Personally, I would think it would be a much better use of this device to try to focus the sun's light to temporarily blind the crews of the ships or the archers.

Watch the video here.