My daily Diggss... by the guy who did 24 The Podcast
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Oxidised water allows you to "breathe" underwater.
The digg story about the "dry water" also has some other side-effects. Turns out that if you oxidise this liquid a normal animal (such as a mouse) or human can easily "breathe" the liquid into their lungs and fully function. Here is an experiment on a mouse using a similar solution.
Sega's at it again with yet another release for the "dead" Dreamcast. With Radiligy already announced for a Feb. 2006 release someone at Sega apparently decided that March 2006 needed a Dreamcast shooter release as well.
Jonathan Ive, the man behind Apple's iconic iPod and iMac, has become a CBE in the New Year Honours list. He is widely seen as one of the key figures in Apple's resurrection.
Apple "Leave Your Mark" Ad (used to teach about minimalism in ads)
This is one of the Apple ads back in the early 80's that was used in classes teaching Graphic Design/Marketing/Advertising, to illustrate how simplicity and minimalism is a lot more effective than your average ad...
Engineer Bryn Carlyon was issued a ticket by a traffic speed camera in Cardiff, UK. But he used multiple timed snaps by the camera, plus a little basic math, to prove that he could not have been traveling at the speed on his citation.
Interview with Kevin Rose - What should we ask him?
Gadgetell has arranged an interview with Kevin. Do you have anything you've been dying to ask him? If so, post it down in the comments and we'll get you some answers!
"A pair of "Saturday Night Live" performers turned unexpected hip-hop icons are discovering that Internet stardom may be more easily achieved by being as nerdy as possible." Info on the origin and making of the Narnia skit you kids love so dearly.
Ever need a particular icon for a button or link but just can't find it? There's a good chance you'll find it in Mark James' Silk icon pack. He's put together more than 700 16x16 icons for common and not-so-common actions, apps, and more, all of them free, all of them in PNG format, and he keeps adding more.
A pox on the RIAA! Why won't they let you see WKRP DVDs?
This is an old soapbox issue for me; but Ars Tech has brought it up once again. What would be the greatest ever DVD video collection ever; has been stopped RIAA fatback greedheads.
A German businessman whose camera was stolen was relieved to find the same model for sale on eBay. When it arrived after he bought it however, he discovered it was his OWN, stolen camera!
Wozniak Practical Joke: Making sparks with FireWire.
A teaser clip from the upcoming documentary "In Search of The Valley." Apple Co-Founder, Steve Wozniak, uses his teeth, a FireWire Cable, and some other object to make sparks shoot out of his teeth!
7 of the top 10 Podcasts on Podnova are by former TechTV stars
With Leo Laporte, Alex Albrecht, Kevin Rose, Amber MacArthur, Chris Pirillo, John C. Dvorak, Patrick Norton, David Prager, Robert Heron, Roger Chang, and more. These kind of ratings are crazy. How did TechTV ever go off the air?
Small tool which disables the default threats of a Windows XP installation. Besides disabling Windows and some of its components to communicate with Microsoft servers, xpy improves privacy settings and your system's security.
Maine Ocean Floor Has Mud-Trapped Gas (it's farting)
The Maine coast has dozens of methane gas fields on the ocean bottom where mud-trapped gas occasionally bubbles to the surface, according to a team of University of Maine scientists.
Instructions and pricing for building a cheap, fast and reliable 24/7 web and file server at the paltry sum of $200. No rebates involved! The server is intended to be used for central file storage, backups, FTP remote access to files and/or as a fully functional web/database host for lower traffic websites.
Alaska Airlines plane forced to make emergency landing, passenger snaps pic
What do you do when you're told that your plane has to make an emergency landing and the assisted breathing masks drop from above. Well if you're Jeremy Hermanns you bust out your Treo 650 and snap some pictures to forever document the turmoil.
Best Open Source Encoder (Xvid, Divx, H264, MPEG-2) - StaxRip
With StaxRip you can easily convert your DVD's, DVB or DV captures or almost any other source format. As a open source application StaxRip is completely free.
New exploit blows by fully patched Windows XP systems
A zero-day exploit affecting fully-patched Windows installations is afoot. Merely viewing a malicious WMF image in Internet Explorer will install various nasties to your PC. Time to upgrade to Firefox!
Microsoft is losing upwards of $300 per console sold. "It costs Microsoft approximately $715 to make, the manufacturing costs are still too high, another reason why they�re producing relatively small quantities.'�
This collection is free and open for everyone to use. Our goal in digitizing these movies and putting them online is to provide easy access to a rich and fascinating core collection of archival films.
A recent survey shows that 78 percent of those who have ever listened to a podcast are male. According to the article, this seems to be pattern following the adoption of other new technologies. There's female geeks out there, they just don't advertise it.
Survey says generation lags behind seniors in usage -- a trend that may mean trouble for taxpayers.
December 27, 2005: 12:13 PM EST
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Unlike today's seniors, the next generation of retirees is old-fashioned about direct deposit of paychecks and other payouts -- according to a survey released Tuesday, the "kids" don't trust it.
The survey, sponsored by the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Banks, found that 72 percent of seniors use direct deposit. In contrast, only 59 percent of Americans ages 45-64 -- the bulk of the baby boomer generation -- said they use it.
The findings could mean significant costs and security implications for Americans.
"If the trend with pre-retirees continues, the sheer size of the 77 million baby boomer population -- coupled with impending postage increases -- will drive up the government's costs to issue paper checks exponentially... and taxpayers will bear the burden," Dick Gregg, commissioner of the Treasury's Financial Management Service, said in a statement.
According to the survey, there were three main reasons given by the people who don't use direct deposit: 21 percent said they like to go to a financial institution to deposit their check; 19 percent said they don't trust direct deposit; and 18 percent said they like receiving a paper check.
The study was conducted as part of the government's "Go Direct" campaign, aimed at encouraging Americans who receive Social Security and other government benefit checks to have their money deposited directly into their bank or credit union accounts.
The telephone survey of 1,400 adults was conducted in December by KRC Research and had a 2.6 percent margin of error.
Time Magazine's Television Critic James Poniewozik has put Battlestar Galactica at the top of his list of the Best TV Shows from 2005. His summary starts off 'Most of you probably think this entry has got to be a joke. The rest of you have actually watched the show.
Ever wondered if you resemble a celebrity? This free demo of a face recognition technology allows you to compare photos of yourself (Or others) to an archive of 2,400 world famous men and women.
What if there were a device that could bring you instant euphoria at the push of a button, with none of the chemical side effects of drugs? Such a device exists, but it's not something we're allowed to have. Should happiness be just a push-button away?
If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law against domestic spying and ignored the Constitution -- and then expect the American people to congratulate him for it -- I would have presumed the girders of our very Republic had crumbled.
What is Asterisk? Asterisk is an insanely powerful, yet easy to use, open source voip telephony toolkit (server software) that runs on virtually any platform. It allows anyone to manage VoIP services in their own home in more powerful ways than the most expensive PBX (public branch exchange).
Unless you are a complete idiot, you will have realised that in the movies, any time some innocent victim gets smashed over the head with a bottle or thrown through a window that the glass isn't exactly glass...
Dick Cheney insists americans don't mind being spied on...
Dick Cheney, a man clearly in touch with the people and not blinded by power and greed, insists that Americans don't mind being spied on by their own government
Today I visited a local Staples to print some color files. As an employee wrote up my order, he mentioned there would be a $2.49 fee per file for virus scanning. Incredulously, I asked if I am really expected to pay for my files to be scanned for viruses, to which he replied yes. I canceled my order and left....
Myth Busters Answer A Bunch of Tech Questions from Slashdot
Over at Slashdot a while back users where able to submit questions to be answered by Jamie and Adam from the Discovery Channel's awsome show "Myth Busters". Well, Jamie and Adam came through and here are the answers to the questions submitted.
Followup: Get QuickTime Pro Free (FIXED) NOW IT WORKS!!
Yesterday, we mentioned how to enable QuickTime Pro features via a software hack. Although the method was correct, the download link was to the new version of QuickTime Alternative (1.67), for this backdoor to work you need an older version of QuickTime Alternative (1.66) which is provided after the jump to UNeasy SIlence.... thanks dan!
Video of DIGG turning 26,000 Christmas Lights on and off
Followup on the 16,000+ DIGG'ers who had fun time on December 2nd turning 26,000 christmas lights on & off ... from midnight to 8:00AM! No annoyed neighbors show up on camera, but you will see a sunrise in the time-lapse video from the 3 ChristmasCams. Lots of other video's too.
The site states "What can I use it for? Meeting notes, Reports, technical specs Sign-up sheets, proposals and much more...". They even guarantee multiple levels of security and encryption etc. But what prevents these web site operators themselves fom accessing and/or stealing this info for competitive or personal gains?
Scientific research has proven that the change of planetary positioning would very likely stop global warming, extend daytime hours and create a homogeneous climate.
TIME.com: Persons of the Year -- Dec. 26, 2005 -- Page 1
These are not the people you expect to come to the rescue. Rock stars are designed to be shiny, shallow creatures, furloughed from reality for all time. Billionaires are even more removed, nestled atop fantastic wealth where they never again have to place their own calls or defrost dinner or fly commercial. So Bono spends several thousand dollars at a restaurant for a nice Pinot Noir, and Bill Gates, the great predator of the Internet age, has a trampoline room in his $100 million house. It makes you think that if these guys can decide to make it their mission to...
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A frightening bit of legislation was introduced to the US House Judiciary Committee on Friday. This act would close that pesky analog hole that poses such a dire threat to the survival of the music and movie industries.
White house confirms illegal wiretaps.....Bush says they will continue
After The New York Times reported, and CNN confirmed, a claim that Bush gave the National Security Agency license to eavesdrop on Americans communicating with people overseas, the president said that his actions were permissible, but that leaking the revelation to the media was illegal.
Free File Host list has been updated today, lots of information available like max filesize, registration, bandwidth limits, space limits, file restrictions.. Big list, maybe 70 entries. Great if you need a free host.
Taipei Times reports on research analyst predictions that Apple will be introducing "light-weight [notebooks] with a stylish design aimed at luring female users." The new models are expected come in at the following specs: 12-inch notebooks at 1.5kg (3.3lbs) 14-inch notebooks below 2kg (4.4lbs).
Woz serves up Apple Computer history in his own unique way. Steve explains the early Apple development, and why he wants to be an engineer for life, but never a CEO.
On Tuesday, the most serious �hack� demonstration to date took place in Leon County. Supervisor of elections Ion Sancho has announced that he will never again use Diebold in an election.
The official movie website of The Da Vinci Code has hidden images, numbers and words in the site's flash introducion. On the first view, many would not have noticed anything but try using the pause, reverse and forward buttons. See if you can spot more than the seven spotted so far.
"This in-depth, multi-part course takes you through evolutionary theory and mechanisms, from definitions to details, natural selection to genetic drift, mutations to punctuated equilibrium. Evolution 101 provides the nuts-and-bolts on the patterns and mechanisms of evolution."
Dean Kamen, famed inventor of the Segway vehicle, drank his own urine to the delight of a South Carolina audience. He was participating in a presentation of his latest gadget- a pee-purifying device that his company DEKA Research has developed.
This is insane. Now not only are they going after lyrics websites, but guitar tablature ones as well. When will the higher-ups realize that this has nothing to do with music piracy and that the internet was designed as a form of information freedom?
What Google REALLY gave up to get AOL - did they jump the shark?
From the article: Google...agreed to give favored placement to content from AOL throughout its site, something it has never done before......negotiators agreed to promote AOL's services across Google, a change for the company that made famous the sparse white Web page.
After polling consumers on their purchase plans this holiday shopping season, Morgan Stanley remains bullish on Apple and believes the company's growth-driven portfolio franchise will continue to accelerate in 2006.
Just switched to OS X? Here�s a list of stuff you might want
A discussion on useful OS X applications for users that have just switched over from Windows. Includes office suites, networking, blogging, graphics, programming and other, with emphasis on free, open source and shareware apps over comercial products.
"The thought of Apple slapping "Intel Inside" emblems on a Powerbook strikes me as so antithetical to the Steve Jobsian sense of aesthetics that it's laughable. The same would have to go for the Intel plugs in print and TV ads."
It's Here! The First Mass Producible Quantum Computer Chip
Researchers at the University of Michigan have produced what is believed to be the first scalable quantum computer chip, which could mean big gains in the worldwide race to develop a quantum computer.
One of the most interesting news stories of the year is right here. It's Digg itself. Here is my in-depth interview with lead Diggers Kevin Rose & Jay Adelson. I love digging Digg. It's just fun.
A remake from the first Zelda. It can be played with an NES emulator, and it includes a improved overworld, 18 new dungeons, new set of monsters, and two new quests
Blockbuster stores in several states are quietly resuming late fees for customers who keep movies too long, rejecting the video-rental chain's national advertising of "No Late Fees".
Israeli Mathematician Finds Faults in Google's Math
An Israeli mathematician, Hillel Tal-Ezer, of the Academic College of Tel Aviv in Yaffo has written a paper on the faults of google's mathematical algorithms for page ranking. Sorry about the way I did this, but Digg does not allow www2 links.
An ambitious Japanese-led project to dig deeper into the Earth's surface than ever before will be a breakthrough in detecting earthquakes including Tokyo's dreaded "Big One," officials said Thursday...
Real time MGS PS3 video unbelievable - looks like its from 2015 not 2005
"the polygon amount in Snake's mustache is the same as an enemy soldier in MGS3" Very impressive, this makes the previous digg of New Unreal Tournament 2007 screenshots look pathetic.
In fact the physics, lighting and model quality is similar quality to what previous diggs said would only be possible in the next 10 years or so.
Time Warner�s HBO is interested in making a deal with Apple to offer programing for the video iPod, the cable network�s chief executive said on Thursday.
Star Trek captains William Shatner, Patrick Stewart and Scott Bakula are set to join forces in a new movie. The trio will reportedly star in the unnamed film that will be set in the 'mirror universe,' which was featured in both the Next Generation and Enterprise TV series.
The LCARS Standards Development Board at http://www.lcarsdeveloper.com features near-exact replications of the LCARS interface seen on Star Trek (particularly Voyager). As you'll see on the site, there's more to LCARS than just random colors and numbers, everything actually means something! You can even learn how to pilot the USS Voyager!
Windows 95 Still On Some Homeland Security Computers
A recent extended downtime of Homeland Security computers only added to a list of issues the department is having with their network. Also included are system reverted back to Windows 95 after a failed Windows 2000 upgrade and databases only being linked to certain computers, meaning data must be entered repeatedly on different machines.
"BMW�s announcement of the new technology is somewhat of a technological bombshell as it adds yet another form of hybrid automobile � a turbosteamer."
Forbes Magazine Interviews Digg Chief Executive Jay Adelson
"...Every large content organization has already contacted the company, says Digg.com Chief Executive Jay Adelson, after those media companies noticed significant amounts of traffic coming from his site. Some of the companies are interested in placing a "Digg this story" button..."
Bound for Glory: America in Color is the first major exhibition of the little known color images taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information. Click on "Online Exhibition" to see the pictures.
It's one of those hot nights, dry and windless. The kind that makes people do sweaty, secret things... Nancy wants to avenge Hartigan's death by going after the Roarks... I can't wait for this movie to hit torrents... I mean... theaters...
Amazon.com owns Alexa (a small piece of the vast Amazon.com empire). As part of their many services, they keep a small backup of the internet, about 100 terabytes or so. You can rent that database and index it now, if you want.
Anyone interested in wireless security and exploiting vulnerabilities will need a good set of base tools with which to work. Fortunately, there are an abundance of free tools available on the Internet. Brought to you by Dan Hoffman, CISSP, CWNA and regular columnist for the new online magazine, The Ethical Hacker Network.
It's one of those hot nights, dry and windless. The kind that makes people do sweaty, secret things... Nancy wants to avenge Hartigan's death by going after the Roarks... I can't wait for this movie to hit torrents... I mean... theaters...
A large object has been found beyond Pluto travelling in an orbit tilted by 47 degrees to most other bodies in the solar system. Astronomers are at a loss to explain why the object's orbit is so off-kilter while being almost circular.
It will be built mostly underground near the White Sands missile range, and 25 miles south of a town called Truth or Consequences. Sounds like something out of a novel.
I ran some of these password recovery tools and was in awe as to how many were there to see ! Wide range of password recovery tools and there all good.
An extremely useful and detailed summarization of evidence both discrediting and validating Nintendo On. Can't convince people it's fake? Can't convince them it's real? Then this article is for you and it just may change your mind.
Image previews with DOM JavaScript (and PHP if wanted)
If your browser supports the W3C DOM, you can see small camera icons next to each of the links in the following list. Activate these either via mouse or keyboard to see a preview of the linked image:
This guy is rapidly becoming a hero of mine. In this open letter published in the LA Times, he pretty much calls Hillary's bluff over the current outrage over the Hot Coffee mod/patch/glitch/joke in GTA: SA. He is the guy that wrote "Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter."
Apple has raised the payout that Indie labels get from songs sold in iTMS. The payout now to 70 cents includes publishing costs. The payout is now up to par with the major labels payout.
Spread Firefox is reporting that Mozilla Firefox has been downloaded 75,000,000 times. The 75 millionth download came at 11:17:10am UTC/GMT today. The download count does not include upgrades obtained using Firefox's in-built software update system.
NASA officials are analyzing video of a portion of Tuesday's shuttle launch "frame-by-frame" after one of several cameras aboard the craft captured what appeared to be pieces of debris separating from Discovery.
Quote: "Over the last 2 weeks, I have been working on a port of FreeBSD for the XBox. During this effort, Ed Schouten has given me assistance by reviewing patches and giving advice."
Pretty much every time a faster CPU is released, we always hear from a group of users who are marveled by the rate at which CPUs get faster, but loathe the sluggish rate that storage evolves. We've been stuck with hard disks for decades now, and although the thought of eventually migrating to solid state storage has always been there...
For those of you not in the know, there are now two programs out there that do free P2P VoIP - Skype has been around for quite awhile now, where Gizmo Project (which may get a new name soon) is a relative newcomer.
Backbase has created an application for developing websites that look just like Flash but are really implementations of AJAX. Definitely check out the "Demos" section for shopping cart, portal, etc. with NO post backs necessary.
Virginia Heffernan of the New York Times has written an article on podcasting and mentions 'Diggnation' and 'This Week in Tech' as the top tech podcasts in this mornings Arts section.
Skip registration and use "teste" as the u/n and p/w to the site.
Hackers have gotten their hands on the Xbox 360, and leaked pics of the internals. They claim they will soon post a fully tutorial to disassemble the Xbox 360.
Mac OS X 10.5 to contain 'Red Box' for running Windows applications?
Could Apple's decision to move to Intel processors be motivated by something more than IBM's inability to meet the company's processor demands? Now that Apple has chosen to go x86, is the rumored Red Box project back on? "Though the marketing terms later changed, back when Apple took over NeXT... (or the other way around...
We have reason to believe Sony will soon be announcing a (firmware?) update for the PSP in the near future. But this one could actually feature something you'll want -- H.264 playback support from the Memory Stick Duo. More details inside.
Diggnation Episode #003 Released (official digg podcast)
This episode covers the following digg stories: Welcome to Digg 2.0, Optimus Keyboard (OLED), Dual View LCD Display, QuickTime 7 for Windows, Odeo goes public, Human-brained monkeys, Proof that the Ionic Breeze is Junk, and It's official: more cellphone lines.
This free anonymous proxy list from Steagnos can be used with "SwitchProxy," a Firefox plugin, which will allow you to browse the web anonymously. This list of IPs is updated almost daily and SwitchProxy will download it automatically. (See Comments for SwitchProxy Link)
For years, astrophysicists have been boggled by the fact that the grand sum of all the known "normal" matter in the universe -- that which makes up the stars, the Earth and even our own bodies -- only amounts to half of what should exist based on computer simulations.
With access to more than three million documents in over 30 languages, Google is a researcher's dream. But like any invaluable tool, knowing the insider tricks of the trade is a must to save time and needless effort.
The most able threat to Linux has been released into the wild today. I'm not yet sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it's definitely going to make for an interesting year!
While Apple has had wild successes, the companies and partners have also had horrible failures as well. Hopefully, by looking back at the past, Apple can avoid similar failures in the future.
