The Linkielist

Linking ideas with the world

ID Cards and central databases

Posted on March 8, 2007 by Robin

There we go. Australia implements a compulsory ID Card Scheme, whilst promising that the data wouldn’t be stored in a central database or be easily accessible and as soon as it’s implemented… WHACK! The police are allowed to search the central database without a warrant!

Who’d have thought you couldn’t trust the politicians?

Brain Game Controller

Posted on March 8, 2007 by Robin

This Emotiv Systems controller claims to read facial expressions and brain patterns. With some training it can allow you to visualise the actions you want to take and externalise them on the computer. It’s a prototype, but release is planned for 2008, as well as an API for game designers.

Toxic Wife Syndrome

Posted on March 8, 2007 by Robin

The new generation of gold diggers see it as their responsibility to be high maintenance and do nothing.

The danger signals of a wife going toxic are all too plain:

— She gives up work to care for the children and then sends them to boarding schools as soon as they outgrow their nannies.

— She demands wall-to-wall help with a maid hired to work up to 14 hours a day six days a week.

— Cooking and housework are strictly out of bounds.

— They have to live in a country mansion, forcing the husband to commute daily to London.

The best Goatse Story Ever

Posted on March 7, 2007 by Robin

Don’t you know what a Goatse is?

Basically, it’s a picture disguised for a while as something innocuous, and when enough people are looking at it, or when they least expect it, you change the picture to a horrible, disgusting one of a huge distended arsehole. It’s one of the most shocking things IMHO you can find on internet ever.

This story will give you the run down on the best goatse I’ve seen so far. Warning it’s not safe for work 🙂

Predict your traffic jams

Posted on March 5, 2007 by Robin

This site takes historical data about traffic jams from the past three years and uses it to predict the amount of traffic jams in the Netherlands on a graphical map for the date and hourly time period you select. NB it’s slightly confusing: you go to ‘verkeersweergave’ -> ‘Intensiteiten’ -> ‘Topdrukte’ and on the page itself you click the ‘Kaart’ link.

Soviet Britain

Posted on March 5, 2007 by Robin

Didn’t we win the cold war for our Freedoms? Didn’t we win WWII for our Freedoms? Then why is the UK implementing a measure that sees all children aged 11 and less to be compulsorily fingerprinted from 2010? Are they all guilty of crimes they haven’t committed? When will people understand the dangers of centralised databases? I’m shocked.

Nuclear duster

Posted on March 5, 2007 by Robin

Ron Simandl has been busy developing a duster for invisible particles. He’s come up with a treatment that can turn any rag into a superduster, allowing you to use it to clean your car with as well as Beryllium. Swiffer, move aside!

The Ultimate War Sim

Posted on March 2, 2007 by Robin

This is a great take on what should be in the coming RTS games to make it more realistic. Very funny and actually, I’d love this kind of game!

Vista Key Hacked

Posted on March 2, 2007 by Robin

Yup they’ve got a keygen. It’s early days, so it takes a few hours, but they’ll optimise it. You’ll see 🙂

Pictures from the sky

Posted on February 28, 2007 by Robin

This is an incredible collection of pictures taken at altitude

Well worth browsing for desktops 🙂

Toyger

Posted on February 26, 2007 by Robin

Judy Sugden is creating a new designer cat species – the toyger; a house cat that looks like a tiger. There are difficulties and she’s not there yet, but she’s getting there. She hopes for a proper looking toyger around 2010/2012 after which they’ll probably fetch $4000,- a piece.

UK MOD Whitepaper on Nuclear Deterrent

Posted on February 22, 2007 by Robin

The UK MOD and Foreign Affairs has published it’s stance on Nuclear deterrent. Interestingly it shows that allthough the UK is the NPT signatory with the smallest arsenal, it’s ordanance is still considerable at 160 warheads and delivery systems. It has decreased in size by 50% since the Cold War and decreased effectiveness by 75%. The UK is the only NPT signatory to have reduced itself to a single delivery system (namely the submarine), forgoing land based silo’s, ship based launchers and air launched weapons.
The paper explores why the UK needs a nuclear deterrent, presents rebuttals to commonly voiced objections and the history of the UK nuclear deterrent rationale.
The option reccommended is to stick with submarines, but as the current Vanguard class is reaching the end of it’s service life in 2020 and is looking unscaleable, the proposed solution is to replace the class with an entirely new class of conventionally powered submarine.
The UK wants one submarine continuously on patrol. In a fleet of submarines, at least one is always in the shipyard for a period of three / four years for refit and repairs. This means the UK requires a fleet of three or four submarines to be able to maintain a continuous patrol of one.
Astoundingly, this tiny fleet will be the entirety of the UK nuclear deterrent.
(warning: PDF link)

Buying second hand aircraft

Posted on February 22, 2007 by Robin

If you’re looking to buy a business jet, ex military jet aircraft, propellor driven aircraft, aerobatic planes, world war one / two replica’s, etc. there’s a good chance you can buy it on internet.

Globalplanesearch is a meta search engine for adverts

Aircraftdealer has a large listing

as does Aviatorsale

UK MOD Disposals

Posted on February 21, 2007 by Robin

Want to buy military surpluss? Why not directly from the UK Ministry of Defence?

HUD for your car

Posted on February 20, 2007 by Robin

The simple but effective way to do it! Put a take-along projector under your windscreen, attach it to GPS and it can show you how fast you’re going without you having to look down. Nice! It also connects to your handsfree kit, so you can bluetooth your pda / tomtom / phone to it as well.

System to declutter your desk

Posted on February 20, 2007 by Robin

Oh so simple, but oh so effective – how to get rid of all the computer related gunk on your desk? Strap it to the bottom, of course!

Build your own ECG

Posted on February 20, 2007 by Robin

This tutorial shows you how to easily build a heart rate meter attatched to your PC. Beware you don’t blow yourself up, please.

Pentagon FY 2008 Budget

Posted on February 14, 2007 by Robin

The Pentagon has released it’s budget (yet again, stunningly huge!) on internet.

This link goes to the full summary of tables – for those who are interested in all the numbers for all the different elements that go into an armed forces.

There are some interesting thins in there, such as Iraq Freedom Fund, Defense for $50,000m and the $1,700,000m for the Iraq Security Forces Fund (with a similar amount going to Afghanistan). They are expecting to spend $165,343,662m on operations and maintenance and $101,678,734m on procurement. Huge numbers.

The rest of the gunk and pr stuff can be found here.