Burning Safari

Here's a short animation about some robots landing in the Safari and getting into some trouble with an ape. or baboon?

Worth Checking out!

Visit the website burningsafari.com for a much better quality version of the animation.

Yet Another iPhone Parody

Last one. Maybe. :)

I couldn't resists, this one is from Conan.

Bypass the Recycling Bin

Here's a quick and simple Windows tip.
Bypass the recycling bin when you delete files by pressing SHIFT+DEL instead of just DEL. I personally use this almost exclusively.

enjoy!

iPhone Parady

The iPhone was released today, so of course there are going to be tons of videos parodying the thing. So, I'll post some.

Stephen Colbert on the iPhone

World's First Space Hotel? Satellite Launched Today

Russia launched a satellite today to test a future space hotel. This project is backed by a Las Vegas
hotel tycoon who aims to have this dream vacation spot up and running by 2015.

Pownce: Yet Another Social Network?

Not really sure why or how anyone thinks it's a good idea to start up yet another social network, but they are constantly popping up. and well, people are constantly swarming to new ones as the others become old. So maybe it's not that bad of an idea. :)

Kevin Rose is actually on the team behind bringing us pownce, so I'll probably at least give it a try and see what it has to offer that the others do not. Kevin Rose is [most recently] of Digg fame.

Pownce is in it's invite only stage right now until they get everything up and running, you can give them your e-mail address to be put on their waiting list if you would like.

pownce.com

Bill Approved to make caller ID spoofing Illegal

The US Congress has passes a bill that makes caller ID spoofing illegal.

Link to Bill


I made a post in March (here) regarding Spoofcard, a service that specializes in caller ID spoofing.

Pet Shop Boys to Perform Live in Second Life

Second Life, an internet-based virtual world, is hosting a free festival through their site on Saturday June 30. The Pet Shop Boys are one of the several bands that are schedule to play at the festival.

Link to Story

Infectious Deseases Trading Cards

The CDC is handing out Disease Trading Cards at their visitor center. Some of the diseases featured in the first set include anthrax, HIV, SARS, ulcers, Ecoli and more.

"They might not replace baseball trading cards as a hobby, but the Centers for Disease Control says sick trading cards are amazingly popular. It’s CDC’s way of getting middle school kids interested in science and health."


Link to story
Link to images of cards

Google Hacks and Searching Tips

I just wanted to post some searching tips for everyone.

Phonebook
type in "phonebook: " then name comma zip code.
example: phonebook: smith, 31601

Movies
type in "movies: " then zip code.
example: movie: 31601

Dictionary
type in "define: " then word
example: define: 1337 5p34k

Numbers
If you type in a number, Google knows what to do with it. the following you can type into Google search and get results: UPS, Fedex, and USPS tracking numbers, VIN numbers, UPC codes, telephone area codes, and more.
example: 229

Site Search
type in "site:" then the site followed by your search
example: site:newscientisttech.com video game addiction mental illness
you can also narrow your search to certain domain names
example: site:.edu valdosta
remember to not put a space after "site:"

Explicit Phrase
use quotation marks when you search
example: "i lost my hammer"

Exclude Words
use a "-" before the word
example: valdosta -georgia -ga

Similar Words
use a "~" before the word
[insert example here]

Document Type
type "filetype:" then file extension followed by your search
example: filetype:pdf user manual

Or
use "or" to get results that include one or another term
example: sugar or pcp

not really sure why that random half attempt at a Mitch reference is there.. .
moving on

Calculator
instead of opening up the windows calculator, just let google do it
example: 4(35*5)
or, try this: the answer to life, the universe, and everything

i'm somwehat skeptical of how quickly google spits out that answer, we all know that it would take MUCH longer for google to actually make that calculation. :)

Media Search
type in the following to search for media
-inurl: (htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(.file type here) “search here”

example: -inurl: (htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(wma|mp3) “the cure”

A Firefox specific tip
if you type a search into the address bar, it's [somewhat] same as doing a Google I'm Feeling Lucky search. for example, instead of typing in www.myspace.com or even myspace.com just type in myspace and be taken to the website. :)
also, just typing in "wiki" is alot easier than having to type in "en.wikipedia.org"

enjoy!

Red vs Blue to Come to an End

Red vs Blue is one of the most popular machinimas on the net, and will be showing it's final episode one Wednesday. I haven't watched the series in quite a little while, but was a regular watcher when the series first started back in 2003. The series is hilarious!
rvb.roosterteeth.com

"The comedy series, featuring two squads of hapless Halo heroes locked in an endless civil war prolonged mostly by their own ineptitude, took the emerging machinima medium -- movies made with real-time video-game footage -- mainstream."

Link to Story on Wired

roosterteeth.com is the home of the following:
Red vs Blue (based on Halo)
The Strangerhood (based on The Sims)
PANIC (based on F.E.A.R.)
1-800-MAGIC (based on Shadowrun)
and, their original web comic

New Track from Interpol

Interpol has released a 2nd track from their upcoming album, "Our Love to Admire"

The Track is "Pioneer To The Falls".

The first track released was "The Heinrich Maneuver," and can be found on their myspace page www.myspace.com/interpol

Link to Story

Amazing! I absolutely love these guys.

Battery Conversion Hacks Over at Hackszine.com

I've just recently started keeping an eye on the hacker website, Hackszine.com. There's a lot of good stuff on the site. This story was right on their front page.

This article just reminds us that A, AA, AAA, C and D batteries are all the same (1.5 volts), they are just different sizes. One thing I didn't know is that 9 volt batteries are also the same, they are made up of six 1.5 volt batteries (AAAAs) encased in a small box.
Link to the Story
and
Quick hack: The $1 C-to-D adapter -Link
9 volt to AAA conversion - Link

enjoy!

Nintendo Zipping Past Sony in Market Value

"Nintendo Co. Ltd. zipped past Sony Corp. in market value on Monday and became one of Japan's top 10 issues for the first time, as it elbows the PlayStation maker out of its decade-long dominance of the game industry."

The PS3 is ridiculously priced. Two console generations seems to be about the rotation period. The NES and SNES for Nintendo. Then the PSX and PS2 for Sony. Someone elses turn? I wonder what the rotation period for OSes is? 15, 20 years? When will we see Windows dethrowned? From what I hear about Vista, maybe the time could be soon.. . or something.. .

tangents!


Nintendo outstrips Sony in market value

Wii Cursors for your PC

Wii style cursors for your PC. They Look Awesome! :) Good Stuff

"This cursor set includes 18 hand-crafted (aren't I punny?) Wii-based cursors for your computer mouse. Three of them are animated. Several variants are included. I personally prefer using the tilted cursors. These were created due to boredom over the span of a few days. They are FREE, but no selling and claiming as your own. If you like these, spread the word!"

www.deviantart.com/deviation/49355744/

Society of the Ancients

Check it out. www.societyoftheancients.com. The Society of the Ancients is an ARG (alternate reality game) and/or a viral marketing campaign. If you are familiar with www.ilovebees.com, you know what this is. yeah, i'm a dork. :)
here's a video of some promoing:

You ARE the Mix Mastah!

You ARE the Mix Mastah! Follow that link. Receive 1-2 minutes of entertainment. That's all.

Google Supports Hybrid Car Developement

Google plans to help finance plug-in hybrid car developement. They plan to give money to people and businesses that have what appear to be practical plans to get these cars to the market faster. So far they have given away $1 million and project another $10 million.
link

VW Phaeton Commertial

I thought it was pretty cool. so, you must check it out. or not.

DRM Free Music Sales Increase

Just some numbers from EMI who has just recently starting selling their catalogue DRM free. They are seeing an increase in their music sales.
link

AT&T $10 DSL

AT&T is required to offer $10 DSL to people that do not already have their DSL service. This deal sprung up when Bellsouth and AT&T merged. The only problem is, AT&T will do their best not to let you know about this service and will give you the runaround if you try to sign up for it as described in this article: AT&T Gives Cunsumers the Runaround Over Secret $10 DSL. The service requires a one year contract and comes with a free modem. The Speeds aren't really that great at 768kb/s down and 128kb/s up, but i suppose good for a bugdet.

Blaqk Audio - AFI side-project

I just came across this because I saw that Assemblage 23 is doing a remix of one of their songs. Black Audio is a side-project consisting of AFI members Davey Havok and Jade Pudget. The sound is very synthesizer driven; they describe the project as "2 boys in love with synthesizers and software." I'll probably keep an eye on this. There are only two songs up on their myspace page, "Stiff Kittens" isn't too bad, but I'm not too sure if I'm feeling "Bitter For Sweet."
www.myspace.com/blaqkaudio

Microsoft Surface Parody

Have you seen the product that Microsoft has been showing off as of recently? It's called the Microsft Surface or something like that. Here's a pretty funny parody for it.

Martian Caves

Check it out, some crazy black spots on the surface of mars have been discovered. Quite possibly, if martians do exist (heh), these are entrances into deep underground caves! or something.. .

link

Recording Police, a Felony?!

This story is rediculous. This guy records a police officer during a traffic stop and is charged with a felony wiretapping charge with a penalty of up to 7 years in jail. He had a $2,500 bail for this. What I find wrong about this is the wiretapping laws are to protect against privacy, [I feel] police officers should have no expectation of provicay while they are on duty and doing their jobs. well, that's one of many things that is wrong with this.
link

RIP Mr Wizard

Don Herbert dies at 89.

link

Fined for using alternative fuel types?

More talk and cases of injustices in our legal system? not kidding. Bob Teixeira of North Carolina decided to mod his diesel car so it runs on vegetable oil. Sounds like an awesome and great idea! Break our dependence on foreign oil, and work towards alternative forms of fuel. Our government appearantly doesn't think it's such a cool thing. Bob Teiceira has been fined $1,000 for not paying fuel taxing! Not only that, he has been told to expect another $1,000 fine from the federal goverment, and he would have to post a $2,500 bond if he ever wants to use vegetable oil legally.

link

30 Days of Night Trailer

The trailer for 30 Days of Night

Click here for High Res Trailer (must have DivX Web Player)

Stage6

Stage6 is another video sharing site, but it's running on divx technology so the video quality is alot better than that you will find at youtube and such. Stage6 is still in it's beta stages, so there are still bugs to be worked out and content to be added. The only thing I'm not too happy about is having to install their player, but i got over that. I've found some cool stuff on the site so far.
stage6.divx.com/

The Pirate Bay Video Sharing Site

The Pirate Bay, one of the largest sites for the sharing of torrents, has announced that it will be opening up it's own video streaming site. It's speculated to be much like youtube except, well, people will be able to post whatever they want because the MPAA and RIAA have yet to be able to touch The Pirate Bay. The site will be at www.thevideobay.org when it is up.

Pixar's latest, Wall-E

A teaster for Pixar's upcoming film, WALL-E.

here is a link to higher quality trailers link

I hate posting youtube videos because they never do justice to the videos, but I don't really think most people want to take the time to follow links. I suggest watching the higher quality videos, I personally hate watching the crapped version of videos on youtube.

The Smart Car coming to the US January 2008

That's all, it's coming.

www.smartusa.com/

Safari Reaches One Million Downloads

As you may or may not know, Apple just released it's web browser, Safari, onto the Windows platform. It's now reporting that it has already reached one million downloads. This is awesome news, simple for the fact that it cuts into some of Microsoft's market share.
On a simular note, Firefox just recently reached 25% market share. More and more people are seeing the light that is firefox. :)
Safari link
Firefox stats link

Wonder Where Your Disk Space Went?

WinDirStat is a handy windows app that helps you find where all of your disc space went. It's actually really cool. It gives a graphic visual of what is taking up all of the space on your HDD, and it tells you exactly what directories take up the most space. I know i have ran into the problem of having no clue why I'm runnig out of disc space, so I'm sure most everyone else has too. It's a free download, so give it a try.

windirstat.info/

that's not a screenshot of my hdd, it's the example from the website. Mine's much.. . bluer. :)

Children Books.. . err.. . well, somwhat

something aweful does photoshop fridays, on the 25th they did children's books. there are some pretty funny entries in it, go over and check it out.
link

Tank Girl Returns

i'm a fan of the old tank girl series and excited to see that there is going to be a new series coming out this month. the original series was written by alan martin with art by jamie hewlett (of more recent gorillaz fame). this time around we have story still by martin, but the art is being done by ashley wood, which, being a huge fan of wood's, i am extremely excited about! should be awesome!
link to story

FW Students protest TAKS

this story really isn't that great, but i just want to point out how halarious the pic is. here's a link to the story. the story pretty much says that the kids at this high school didn't pass whatever the TAKS test is, thus they cannot get their deplomas or walk. so, they are protesting. here is the pic for the article, take not of what the signs say.

LET ARE KIDS WALK
:) anyways.. . i thought it was funny.

Google Maps Streets View

google maps has just opened up streets view for use with google maps. it's pretty impressive. i don't really know about everyone else, but i'm somewhat become weary of the direction these google products are going. don't get me wrong, i'm a fan of google, but i do see privacy issues arising in the near future.
here's a video showing of the product:

Dr. Death Released from Jail

just a quick note on the release of dr kevorkian.
link

458nm

Check out this awesome animated short done by Polynoid. good stuff!
link here!