Turn back time on Google Earth
Google Earth now has some really nice historical maps under the Layers pane, Featured Content > Rumsey Historical Maps. You may have to upgrade your version of the software before it will display though.
Month: November 2006
Traffic lights and road signs are dangerous
In Drachten they’ve gotten rid of almost all traffic lights and road signs, leading to the death toll going to 0 over the past 7 years (where they used to have 1 death per 3 years), no more traffic jams and much faster goings from a to b. They figure it’s because they take the Read more about Traffic lights and road signs are dangerous[…]
Improve your digital video experience
8 very good tips to improve your home videos and some informative comments as well.
Space elevator may kill
Travellers on the space elevator may be killed by the radiation in the van Allen belts around the earth between 1000 and 20000 km away from the earth. Because the elevator travels at 200 mph, passengers will be exposed for days to the radiation, whereas rocket travellers go much faster. I wonder how they solved Read more about Space elevator may kill[…]
Rerouting the brain
Pieces of wire stimulating different areas of the brain silmutaneously controlled through a circuitboard shows that the brain associates the two areas and can allow you to bypass damaged areas, which is especially hopeful for stroke or spinal-cord injury victims.
Google Earth US Nuke Tracker
The entire inventory of the US nuclear arsenal is spreat over 18 military facilities in the states and Europe and available for download into Google Earth.
Labouchere of Arabia
Defensetech is running an article about a lt. colonel in Iraq running around his province using lightly armoured small patrols, refusing to use much in the way of technology and booking remarkable success doing the job much more cheaply and effectively than other units in Iraq.
Electronic Wedge Brakes
These brakes stop your car in half the distance and will last longer. Be careful of the car behind you!
Very pretty pictures
This site has 20 extremely attractive pictures on it.
FLV Video Compression
For all the haters – Flash is the new internet video medium! Here is a nice guide with information on compressing to FLV and serving it.
VideoLan
VideoLAN VLC media player is a streaming media server and client solution that runs on loads of platforms and goes for free.
US Army Command and Conquer
The US Army has a cool new simulation system, which I guess will be integrated with RL maneuver, showing units up to squad level on a map, updated continuously and allowing commanders control of the units. There’s a link in here to the maneuver control system which is well worth following.
USB help me
This is a nice piece of software that starts up with the insertion of your USB drive giving your home address and a little message.
Ceelite LEC
Ceelite creates flat lightbulbs on sheets of bendable plastic. Want it in my house, but no pricing on the site.
Strange Maps
This site has a whole load of strange and unusual maps – from fantasy lands to Europe in the 15th century as well as how the states formed in the Australia.
Blue Eye Table Scanner
This huge scanner has a monitor built in to it, and scans the tabletop in less than a second. It also has animation and image editing functions in the software.
Brain eating virusses
Several virusses such as HIV and herpes are known to be able to cross over to the brain and then start eating it up. There are several more of these types of virusses, which when taken over the lifetime of the individual, will eat up enough brain matter to impair cognition. This takes on forms Read more about Brain eating virusses[…]
IE Can’t open pages
For some reason Internet Explorer has a problem opening websites containing the Google Maps API with a totally non-saying why error leading to a generic page. The linkielist contained this API, and it has now been removed, so IE users can get back to reading this.
If your supplier can’t win
Do something they should have done – and then for a supplier that will win! StyleTap has created a Palm OS emulator for Pocket PCs running windows Mobile. They will be releasing for Symbian soon. The emulator runs everything ever written for any Palm OS, regardless of version or chip architecture (something Palm can’t seem Read more about If your supplier can’t win[…]
On line gaming taxed
The US was looking into it, but Australia has decided – tax stuff done on-line. If there is a monetary benefit. I guess a whole load of tax boards are going to be looking at Australia to see if it can actually be done.
Secure your Quantum Computer
Researchers are allready looking into the security of quantum computers. Basically they throw up a castle of fake data and take the computer off the network for a loooooong time compared to normal computers. This is necessary due to the inherent fragility of the states of the qubits, but surprisingly doesn’t really contribute to slower Read more about Secure your Quantum Computer[…]
Huge Skateboarding ramp
This ramp is 360 ft long and 75 ft high, has some huge jumps on it and gets you up to speeds of around 85 kph. Only around two dozen people are good enough to ride it, apparently.
XGL Compiz Window manager for Linux
If you’ve seen the future of UIs with Vista, Mac and Linux (search this site for ‘cube’) you know that Compiz with the flying cubes wins hands down – looks very very cool. There is, however some confusion as to how to get it to run – it’s not trivial, but not so hard either. Read more about XGL Compiz Window manager for Linux[…]
Portable skin cancer treatment
Scottish scientists have developed a sticker / plaster which activates the anti-skin cancer cream using light allowing patients to have the treatment on the go instead of having to lie motionless for hours under cumbersome hospital equipment. Initial studies are very promising.
Spokeless wheels
I’ve seen these on motorcycles, but not yet on cars – looks cool, but what about overheating problems?