Ripples Series
These furniture pieces emulate rippling mercury for some stunning effects.
Month: July 2008
Cuil
Cuil (supposedly pronounced ‘cool’) is another new search engine, built by some ex-Google employees. Supposedly it’s so far indexing 3 times as many sites as Google. I’m very charmed with its way of presenting found information in a magazine format and the simple layout that greets you when you find your way onto the site.
HAR2009 – in the tradition of What The Hack
Hacking At Random 2009 has just been announced and the first post is on the wiki!
RNLAF runs out of options
After trying to visit the factories of Rafale and Eurofighter, both companies have declared they will not be offering their products to the Dutch ministry of defence, leaving them with the Gripen, Advanced F-16 and JSF as options. Considering the leading role the Netherlands wants to take in international politics, yet again they will be Read more about RNLAF runs out of options[…]
Again – using child porn as an excuse
In the drive for total control over the internet, ISP’s have got together to outright block any “child porn” they may find. This of course sounds like a nice plan, but the problem is that it sets a precendence in that the ISPs have the power (and the responsibilty?) – both of which should be Read more about Again – using child porn as an excuse[…]
Golden Shellback
This is a coating you put on your gadget for around $50 – $75 which then waterproofs it and dustproofs it. There’s video of people working cellphones underwater in the link.
NebuAd – the US Phorm
US Congress has been having a go at NebuAd, a company that tracks all of your web surfing habits from within the ISP, for not telling consumers that they’re being tracked or having any form of opt-in. Just like in the UK, your privacy belongs to big business.
Rocket Racing League first race!
The RRL is having it’s first race ever on 1/2 august in Oshkosh. These guys aren’t flying planes – they’re flying rockets!
UK allows home searches for spurious reasons
Yes, without a warrant, UK council workers now have 1043 powers of entry to your house at any time to check if you have any weapons of mass destruction lying about, or illigally hypnotising people, or any of a whole list of zany reasons.
UK SAS Para Dogs
Britain is training dogs to wear camera’s on their heads and do high altitude, high opening para jumps, so that they can work as point ‘man’ and stream information on targets back to the troops coming behind.
Howto weigh giant black holes
Featured Article – A new way to weigh giant black holes
Donkey Punch I and II
Incredibly, they’ve gone and made a high budget version of… DONKEY PUNCH!!!! 😀 My favorite review of all time is on that movie, I’m sure you ALL remember it 😀 (Here it is again, should you wish to reperuse it at your leisure: http://www.somethingawful.com/d/horrors-of-porn/donkey-punch.php) YES! And the point of this message? THEY’VE REMADE AND RE-RELEASED Read more about Donkey Punch I and II[…]
Bit.Fall
Julius Popp of Spherical Robots has created a display / monitor by using falling water. The density of the water creates the pixels. The results are fairly amazing:
ICARE Motorbike design
Awesome!
Using TV style voting in physics class
Professors in the US are using TV voting machines (called ‘clickers’) to test students’ knowledge of the subject being taught during lectures. As they vote, bar graphs go up in real time allowing people to see how the voting is going. Students using the clicker system score 10% higher than without and it seems to Read more about Using TV style voting in physics class[…]
EU tells UK to deal with Phorm – or else | The Register
Now the EU is in the mix Phorm is a company that has been eavesdropping on the 3 largest UK ISPs (BT Internet, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse) without a legal reason to do so or anybody’s consent. I first got wind of it in April but the Register has been covering it very comprehensively.
Bell 609 tiltrotor
Bell is launching it’s civilian version of the V-22 Osprey, the 609. It has a 700 mile range and more speed than a helicopter, but can land on the top of buildings.
Kaspersky claims Intel chips hacked
Kris Kaspersky claims to have found an exploit which he plans to release into the wild with working proof of concept code at the upcoming Hack In The Box in Malaysia. He claims that every intel box ever made is vulnerable, OS independent, as long as it’s running TCP/IP or javascript.
EU to protect singers for 95 years
Because the record companies insist on following a dramatically failing business model, the EU now wants to encourage their incompetence. They want to raise the period that a rightsholder has rights to their performance (of any song, not necessarily one their own) from 50 years to 95 years, like in the US. One of the Read more about EU to protect singers for 95 years[…]
Zing Laser Engraver
OK, so you want to personalise a bit of metal, glass, wood, whatever by laser cutting it? Here you go! Windows sees it as a printer and lets you personalise to your hearts’ content. Not cheap though: around $8000,-
MIT researchers turn everyday windows into solar panels
The energy is stored at the edges of the windows themselves. The big difficulty in doing this has been getting the energy away from the centre of the window. Not only does this work on windows, but it’ll increase the efficiency of existing solar panels by 40 times.
Cocaine technology
Where cocaine smugglers used to use cigarette boats, very fast boats and small aircraft to move drugs into the US, now they’re using partial submersibles, which travel just below the surface of the water and are easily scuttled. If the crew is caught by the navy, they sink the ship and the navy is left Read more about Cocaine technology[…]
Howto avoid the smoking ban in Germany
Open a smoking club. The down sides: everybody must be a member of the Germany Smokers Club and only members can be allowed in during club meeting times.
Apple is Evil (duh)
I went Apple for a few months with a G4 Powerbook, but rapidly ran into the piles of proprietary junk Apple has all over the place. Apple is Evil and no matter how cool their kit looks, Apple is an uber-Borg on the make. The FSF agrees and here’s why you should not get an Read more about Apple is Evil (duh)[…]