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.