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Thursday, October 28, 2004
Bush Has Some Advice For You
Filmed during an apparent sound check in a production studio in Austin sometime near the end of George Bush's term as governor of Texas. [via Linkfilter]
"The Helmet"
The Helmet - "For pets who love to travel in style." [via Madville]
Inmate Steals Car Outside Jail So He Can Get Home
WMC-TV: Police say inmate stole car just after jail release
Here's one way to get a ride home from jail: steal a car. But that can also result in a ride back to jail.
Authorities say that was the case for a man being released from the Tioga (ty-OH'-ah) County Jail near Binghamton, New York.
They say moments after being released, he stole a car from a parking lot at an electronics plant next door to the jail. He allegedly used the 1993 Ford Tempo to drive himself home to Bloomingburg -- about 100 miles away.
He's now back in the same jail, charged with grand larceny.
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
A Complete(?) History of Wales
A very detailed history of Wales [via My Dad]
The Mario Playing Lego Robot
Someone has created a robot made out of Lego and programmed it so that it completes the first level of Mario on the NES! No wonder Lego was voted the world's best toy. [via Boing Boing]
Why Is George W Bush's Site Only Available To US Visitors?
BBC: Bush website blocked outside US
Surfers outside the US have been unable to visit the official re-election site of President George W Bush.
The blocking of browsers sited outside the US began in the early hours of Monday morning.
Since then people outside the US trying to browse the site get a message saying they are not authorised to view it.
Mike Prettejohn, president of Netcraft, speculated that the blocking decision might have been taken to cut costs, and traffic, in the run-up to the election on 2 November.
He said the site may see no reason to distribute content to people who will not be voting next week.
Update: Boing Boing have a lot more information regarding this. If you really must visit his site these two links work - https://georgewbush.com/ & http://65.172.163.222/
Slightly Damaged PC
Person receives slightly damaged PC.
Bin Laden Esquire Interview
An interview with Osama bin Laden, printed in Esquire in 1999. [via Linkfilter]
E.T. Bone Home
Can you spot the difference? [via The Sun]
Man Pledges Love To 15-Year-Old By Mailing Her Father His Pinkie. Twice
ABCNews: Lovelorn Japanese gangster offers severed pinkie
An unemployed ex-gangster in Japan in love with a 15-year-old girl has chopped off his little finger and mailed it to her father twice in an unsuccessful bid to prove his commitment, police have said.
Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, 36, was arrested on Monday after the teenager's father told police the finger had been sent to him again, after marking it return to sender the first time, a police spokesman said.
When he first sent the finger, Yoshikawa allegedly enclosed a note: "Please let us go out in exchange for this finger. I will send it again and again until you accept my request".
The father, 43, opposed the relationship and was unpersuaded by the finger.
Gnews2RSS
Convert Google News searches into RSS feeds. [via Corporate Engagement]
EBay Virus 'Start Of Worrying Trend'
VNUNet: EBay virus 'start of worrying trend'
Security experts have intercepted a virus which claims to have been sent from eBay.com and uses a packer previously unseen in email virus distribution.
The use of the uncommon packer in the W32/Myfip virus could make it more difficult for antivirus software vendors to identify and protect against the malicious code within, signalling "the start of a worrying trend", MessageLabs warned today.
The email containing the virus purports to have been sent by the webmaster at eBay.com, and suggests that eBay is conducting market research among its customers. Computer users are told that they could win valuable prizes if they take part in the research.
Spooky Froogle Logo
Froogle have a spiffy new spooky Halloween logo.
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Peculiarosities
Newest Fast-Attack Subs Have No Periscopes
High School Student Youngest Person To Publish A Sunday Crossword In The NYTimes
Scientists Discover Disease That Makes Humans Glow
Couple Name Baby Speedy Gonzales
Firefighters Stumped By Blaze Next Door
Judge Throws Party, Sends Man To Prison For Life
Cat In Substation Blamed For City Outage
The 10 Most Dangerous Foods To Eat Whilst Driving
Radio 1's John Peel Passes Away
Very sad news. Read more here and here. Tributes can be found here. [via b0c]
Artist Makes Elephant Out Of Junk
A barmy Brit artist unwraps his latest work — an elephant sculpture made entirely from household junk.
Anthony Heywood’s lifesize Dumbo was created from TV sets, heaters, fans, radios and a toilet.
Also on display is a massive bottle made from flip-flops by Australian artist John Dahlsen. - The Sun
Christina Waguilera
Can you spot the difference? [via The Sun]
Mac Users Feel Wrath Of Malware
After having a relatviely easy ride regarding viruses (Related: What's the Plural of 'Virus'?) and malware a new script has been discovered that specifically attacks Mac users.
A malicious script that spies on Apple Mac users was discovered over the weekend. The malware, which has been dubbed ‘Opener’ by Mac user-groups, disables Mac OS X’s built-in firewall, steals personal information and can destroy data.
Security experts say these traits are common among the thousands of viruses targeting Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system but are virtually unheard of amongst the Apple Macintosh community.
Most worryingly...this could be the start of a spate of malware that uses Mac OS X’s scripting features against its users. - ZDNet
[via GeekNewsCentral]
Michelin Reinvents The Wheel
This Michelin Concept vehicle is equipped with the tiremaker's active wheel technology, which packages the suspension system inside the wheels.
"Why not ... use the space within the tire to put as many components as possible, including all the suspension, and make it active, and put in an electric motor, and even eliminate the need for a mechanical transmission?" managing partner Edouard Michelin said.
[via Boing Boing]
A Nice Cup Of Tea To Aid Memory
Ananova: Tea aids memory
A cup of tea can improve the memory and help prevent Alzheimer's disease.
According to scientists black and green brews fight enzymes that destroy chemical messengers in the brain.
Green tea went a step further by battling a building block in proteins common in sufferers. Its effect lasted a week, black tea's a single day.
They said: "It's exciting as tea is popular and inexpensive without side effects."
Trust Brits to come up with another reason for solving things with a cup of tea.
Pictures That Make You Go Wow
A small collection of pictures that make you go wow. THey are mainly pictures of crashes. Whilst we're on the subject of crashes, here's a scary one.
New Display 'As Clear As A Glossy Magazine'
According to an article in the New Scientist can make an LCD display that mimics the look of a glossy magazine.
Conventional computer screens can only manage 1600 by 1200 pixels, and even high-definition TV displays create their images with an array of 1920 by 1080 pixels at best. Now, HP reckons it can make an A4-sized screen with 7000 by 5000 pixels – matching the quality of a glossy magazine. HP says it will be able to replicate this quality on screens all the way up to large electronic posters and billboards.
BitTorrent Leads P2P Resurrection
Slyck: BitTorrent Leads P2P Resurrection
When the RIAA began its lawsuit campaign on June 26, 2003, something very interesting happened. Based solely on the stats that Slyck gathers, it was observed that the RIAA did have some brief sucess against the P2P community. FastTrack numbers were down, and other networks appeared to stagnate. However after a few months, other networks began to excel where FastTrack left off.
Led by networks such as eDonkey2000 and BitTorrent, the P2P community managed to actually grow despite the RIAA's lawsuits. A new study into the P2P community conducted by researchers from UC Riverside and CAIDA (Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis) have yielded results that many have already known; P2P is alive, well and growing stronger.
P2P is here to stay!
Barb Jump
The aim of the game is to jump the skipping rope. Unfortunately, the 'rope' is made of barbed wire. You can afford to lose 3 limbs but lose one more and it's game over. [via Madville]
Ashlee Simpson Gets Her Own Lipsynching Site
It's great how people respond to events on the Net. No sooner had Ashlee Simpson finished her Milli Vanilli 'tribute' on SNL someone had created a site dedicated to the performance.
Lipsync.us contains links to articles and various videos of the performance. This Fark comment has a few funny links including the dancing animation on the right.
Update: The address of the Lipsync site was wrong, it has now been changed. (Thanks Steve)
The Ultimate Retreat
[via Pya]
Monday, October 25, 2004
XRay Camera Phone Sees through Clothes
Camera Phone Zone: XRay Camera Phone Sees through Clothes
A new mobile phone gadget has raised fears it will be a perverts' dream. The £100 add-on will turn camera phones into X-ray specs which can see through clothes.
It is said to be particularly effective on dark bikinis. Originally designed for taking pictures at night, it has quickly been exploited by voyeurs.
Made by Japanese company Yamada Denshi, it can be bought on the internet and fitted to high-end phones. Night-filters are the latest device used by Japan's obsessive voyeur community.
[via Gizmodo]
The SwiMP3 Bone Conducting Underwater MP3 Player
Engadget: The SwiMP3 bone conducting underwater MP3 player
Finis just announced the SwiMP3, a waterproof MP3 player which uses bone conduction to vibrate the sound directly into your head via your cheek bones (it actually attaches to your goggle straps, but we’ve also seen a prototype for googles with a bone conduction MP3 player built right in).
They don’t much storage capacity, but they say it has enough space for 30 songs, which sounds like it should clock in somewhere around 128MB.
"User Education Is Not the Answer to Security Problems"
Useability guru Jakob Nielsen on user security...
"Internet scams cannot be thwarted by placing the burden on users to defend themselves at all times. Beleaguered users need protection, and the technology must change to provide this."
He suggests that it's time to "rearchitect security" by...
1. Encrypting all information at all times
2. Digitally signing all information
3. Turning on all security settings by default since most people don't mess with defaults
4. Automating all updates
5. Polishing security features' usability to a level far beyond anything we've seen so far
Ultimately, security is something "users don't care about (until it's too late)". It all sounds common sense but it sounds like what you would expect in an ideal world. [via Google Blogoscoped]
Homer For President
BBC: Presidential poll win for Homer
Homer Simpson has topped a poll of the fictional character TV fans in the UK would like to see become US president.
As the real presidential race between George Bush and John Kerry hots up, The Simpsons' loveable oaf beat other characters from US TV shows.
Josiah Bartlet - the president in political drama The West Wing, played by Martin Sheen - came second in the Radio Times survey of 2,000 readers.
Frasier, Sergeant Bilko and CSI agent Gil Grissom completed the top five.
Jack Bauer from terrorism drama 24 was sixth, followed by The Cosby Show's Dr Cliff Huxtable and Phoebe from Friends.
BT Ponders Music Downloads For Payphones
The Register: BT ponders music downloads for payphones
UK telco BT could soon be selling digital music through its 70,000 payphones if talks with a major online music provider prove fruitful.
According to a BBC report, the telco wants to allow owners of portable music players to hook up their devices to modified payphones, then pay for and download songs.
Given the rise in iPod-related crime, with muggers increasingly targeting owners of white earphones, we're not entirely sure owners of expensive gadgets will be happy standing around showing their prized possession to all and sundry as they wait for the latest number one single to download.
Man Is Anatomically Reversed
Times of India: His heart beats on wrong side
This man's heart beats on the right side. But they say it is wrong. Yes, 50-year-old, Dr Govardhan Dhall, an ENT specialist in Karnal Civil Hospital, Haryana, is a mirror image of himself - anatomically that is.
He was born with a condition called Dextrocardia with Situs Inversus. This means that all his organs are inverted - on the wrong side!
His heart, his liver, kidneys, bladder, stomach, pancreas, lungs and spleen are all on the wrong side and inverted. His intestine is folded the opposite way.
I remember seeing this on an episode of ER. A quick search on Google revealed a link to a blog called The Emergency Room. The blog is "A running commentary on life in an urban Emergency Room" and just last month the author saw a case of Dextrocardia with Situs Inversus.
Scammers Target Amazon Customers
The Guardian: Con Artists Target Amazon Website
Fraudsters are tricking bargain hunters who use the online shop Amazon into handing over money for non-existent goods.
Shoppers are lured away from the secure area of the site, best known as a bookstore but also a virtual meeting place for buyers and sellers, and persuaded to wire money for items which they do not receive.
The scam is similar to one operated by con artists who target users of the eBay site. One scam on the "Marketplace" area of Amazon's site - a cyberspace trading area - involves an organisation calling itself Bargain Ltd.
Bargain Ltd is a legitimate company, although they are not involved in the scam. The scammers have adopted the name Bargain Ltd who own the Poundland chain. Judging by the date on the warning on their site (21st September 2004), this is not something new.
London's Manhole Covers Go Missing
The Guardian: Manhole covers vanish in the night
London has joined the select band of world cities cursed by the mysterious phenomenon of manhole cover theft.
The target has been Newham, east London, where in recent weeks nearly 200 grates and covers have been stolen. The thieves made off with 93 covers in one week.
A spate of manhole cover thefts was reported earlier this year in Aberdeen and Gloucester. But the international hotspots for the crime are India and China, where missing manholes have caused eight deaths.
The motive for the thefts is financial. But for many the losses are more cultural than monetary because London's manholes are feted as symbols of the industrial revolution and distinctive art.
3-Wheeler Motorbike
I'm not sure what the benefits of a 3-wheeler bike like this is but it does look pretty cool and can go as fast as a standard 2-wheeler bike. Read more.
Man Writes With Both Hands In Two Languages
Ananova: Man writes with both hands in two languages
An Indian man has become famous for his ability to write with both hands simultaneously in two separate languages
Amanullah can write different sentences in English and Tamil with both hands simultaneously.
The engineer from the southern city of Coimbatore is now mastering his writing skills in five other language combinations including Urdu and Arabic.
Obviously he'll have to start using his feet or find some extra hands.
Pub Serves 1st Sunday Pint In 300 Years
The Sun: 1st tipple for 300 years
A village pub opened yesterday for the first Sunday in 300 years — after a ban was lifted on locals drinking during the Sabbath.
Legend says the order was made after the lady of the manor saw boozy farm workers urinate in the street outside The Cat Inn, in Enville, Staffs.
It was reputed to be the only pub in England not to open on Sundays and even features in a Trivial Pursuit question.
Behind The Scenes At Google
A video of Jeff Dean from Google giving a talk on Google at the University of Washington
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Search Your Desktop Remotely Using Google Desktop
Instructions on how to search your desktop using Google Desktop. [via Kottke]
The 47 Society
"The 47 Society is an international interest-group that follows the occurence and recurrence of the quintessential random number: 47. Many suspect that the coincidental nature of 47 carries some mystical, metaphysical and/or scientific significance." [via B.A.s Weblog]
