Erik Johansson photography
Reply
Monthly Archives: July 2009
Ripping music from Spotify
Of course it wouldn’t take long before a program was developed to rip music from spotify. Easy instructions in the link.
Ripping music from Spotify using Spotify Ripper | Spotifyripping.com.
Organic food ‘no healthier’
Turns out if you spend much much more money on organic food for health benefits, you can save yourself the cash.
Organic food ‘no healthier’ blow | News.
‘Take Back the Beep’ Campaign
David Pogue is waging war on those carriers that make you listen to a stupid canned message from them after you listen to a personal voicemail message. Those 15 seconds of canned bullshit are there to make you rack up mobile expenses.
One way to avoid them is to press:
*-1-# in a row
This is because the secret skip the message code is different for each carrier and this should get them all.
How to bypass stupid voicemail instructions
There are loads of ways to complain in the US to your carrier – we should start this in Europe as well!
‘Take Back the Beep’ Campaign – Pogue’s Posts Blog – NYTimes.com.
Dutch courts go nuts again
The Pirate Bay has been told to block access to Dutch users in some magical fashion during a court session in which the subpoena’s were delivered via Twitter and Facebook and the defendants were not able to come to the courtroom to defend themselves. They sent a written response, but this was ignored due to their non presence.
Is this the beginning of the end of free speech on internet in the Netherlands? If it’s up to the SS like stichting Brein it is: and they’ll be the arbiters of what we are and aren’t allowed to see.
Dutch court rules that The Pirate Bay should be blocked | Security and the Net.
iPhone virus: Patch!
Who said Apples don’t get virusses? In a one character SMS message, an attacker can take over your phone entirely: turn on or off the camera, send the contacts list, dial out, etc etc etc.
Oddly enough the first people to patch it are the people Apple is intent on stopping from working on software for the iPhone: the jailbreakers!
Mp3Extractor: the show cutter
Mp3Extractor is a tool for copying several portions from an MP3 audio file into new (numbered and tagged) MP3 files easily.
Mp3Extractor: the show cutter.
Windows 7 activation already cracked
How to Buy a Mattress
1m virtual PCs on one server
MegaTux, the Dell Thunderbird with 4480 Intel processors will run 1 million copies of bots in a limited area botnet over Wine in order to create simulations of differnet botnets on a massive scale. Researchers can then stop the simulation at any point and have a look at the state of the different virtual PCs.
Researchers Try to Stalk Botnets Used by Hackers – NYTimes.com.
Google Voice Mobile Now on Cydia
Hours after Apple rejected GV on the appstore, you can now get it for free via Cydia. Fuck you, Apple!
GV Mobile Now on Cydia [ ModMyi Repo ].
A Cure for Traffic Jams
It turns out that those people who jump jams at the turn offs, change lane or pass on the wrong side are actually increasing the flow of traffic by widening the area through which traffic passes. In computer models, it turns out that the best traffic flow is reached when around 60% of the people conform to the rules.
A Cure for Traffic Jams: Rule-Breakers – ABC News.
Installing Homebrew Apps op the Pre
The aptly-named “WebOS Quick Install” from our very own Jason Robitaille. It’s a simple desktop Java-based app that you can download and install on a Mac, PC or Linux machine. First, install the webOS SDK (Update, version 1.1 has just been released and it uses the Recovery ROM – take a quick look at the notes on the linked post), then you just need to put your Pre into Developer Mode and then run the app on your desktop (Mac users note the small caveat in the readme file). You can drag and drop files downloaded from our Homebrew Apps forum into the app, click install, and you. are. done.
via Installing Homebrew Apps: Desktop Drag ‘n Drop, On-Device too! | PreCentral.net.
There’s a second way to install Pre apps in there as well called filecoaster…
Pocket Universe 1.7
Very simply put, this takes the compas, the time and the GPS to determine where on earth you are. It then uses the camera input and shows you the constellations you’re looking at, tells you what they are and you can click on suns and planets for a more detailed view.
Pocket Universe 1.7 • Register Hardware.
EADS Barracuda UAV flies
PICTURES: EADS flies Barracuda UAV demonstrator in Goose Bay.
US Senate axes F-35 alternate engine
And continuing on with the US military madness, the alternate Rolls Royce power source for the F-35 is to stop receiving funding from. This is a huge slap in the face to the UK.
US Senate axes F-35 alternate engine -23/07/2009-Washington DC-Flightglobal.com.
rain Surgery Using Sound Waves
A new ultrasound device, used in conjunction with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), allows neurosurgeons to precisely burn out small pieces of malfunctioning brain tissue without cutting the skin or opening the skull. A preliminary study from Switzerland involving nine patients with chronic pain shows that the technology can be used safely in humans. The researchers now aim to test it in patients with other disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease.
via Technology Review: Brain Surgery Using Sound Waves.
visualcomplexity.com
Visual complexity shows a whole plethora of projects where different data (usually large amounts of it) has been mapped in such a way that it looks aesthetically very pleasing.
Big Book of Everything
F-22 chopped by US Senate
The US has just gone and done something I really can’t see the point of besides politics: they’ve gone and chopped their air dominance fighter after a production run of under 200 aircraft.
Instead they want to lay their eggs in the F-35 JSF basket – which performs poorly against the current Australian F-18s and will be chewed up by mostly anything the Soviets have as well as the Eurofighter, Gripen and Rafale. Does the US really want their air cover to be provided by the next generation F-16: a poor man’s jack of all trades but master of none? Yes, right now there aren’t many threats against the F-15C and F-18E/F but the Su-30s will spread through the world, and they do eat these aircraft for breakfast. Without a counter like the F-22 you can’t own the air space. Without air space, your military options are severely limited.
Obama: More F-22s an inexcusable waste – The DEW Line.
One Giant Leap to Nowhere
This is a great little piece on why the NASA budget was cut after the man on the moon mission Apollo 11, and why we should be exploring space.
Op-Ed Contributor – One Giant Leap to Nowhere – NYTimes.com.
I’m a great believer in space exploration and agree totally that it’s fairly unbelievable that we haven’t made any steps to manned space exploration beyond the moon since the 1960s. So much of science fiction writer’s fantasies have come true – look at the mobile phone, the way we travel and prepare food – but the actual space travel? No, not funded by our governments.
Improve Your Posture with Duct Tape
Stand up as straight as you can, with your back vertical and your arms at your sides, relaxed. Then, have a friend take a strip of duct tape and run a three inch strip down your back. The top of it should be on the center of one of your shoulder blades and end three inches below it. Then, that person should put a second strip, starting at the center of your other shoulder blade and going straight down for three inches. Take a third strip and apply it horizontally, connecting the tops of the strips, then a fourth strip connecting the bottoms of the vertical strips. You should have a rectangle on your back, nearly square in shape.
Here’s the thing. As you go through your day, every time you attempt to slouch, that tape will tug at your skin, resisting a poor change in posture. It’s not painful (unless you have excessive hair back there), but it is enough of a physical reminder to cause you to naturally keep a good posture.
Improve Your Posture with Duct Tape – Body hacks – Lifehacker.
Wet Shaving
Who knew there was such a cult around wet shaving? I’ve been wet shaving all my life, but have to admit to using Wilkinson’s Sword or Gilette plastic blades. I’ve got a straight razor, but don’t know how to use it.
Well, there’s more. Much more. Double bladed razors are a kind of in-between thing: they offer a closer shave than a standard safety razor, are a lot cheaper to use (because new blades are very cheap) and are safer than a straight.
Badger & Blade has a lot of reviews of the tools you’ll need. It’s not just the razor, it’s also the blade. And the oil. And the lather. And the brush…
I’ve got my Merkur C-11 and Bluebird Hi-stainless-Platinum blades on order. We’ll see how much I cut my face up!
UK Child vetting systems
This story is about how little the UK trusts adults to be around children. Allready, the UK has a system in place where you have to register and be vetted in order to be in contact with children (for example to drive them to sports events). Now they want a much larger system of vetting for people who visit schools. Vetting costs GBP 64,- and will include rumors and hearsay about your behavior.
The implication is that adults are somehow out to get children, and children simply can’t be in contact with them without the adult having sinister ulterior motives. The UK needs to get it’s shit together.
Would you leave your child alone with a cabinet minister? • The Register.
Cure for radiation sickness found?
The process that led up to the medical innovation dates back to 2003, when Professor Gudkov came up with the idea of using protein produced in bacteria found in the intestine to protect cells from radiation.
via Cure for radiation sickness found? – Israel News, Ynetnews.