One of the coolest sites I’ve seen in a while, this BBC project puts a dimension onto current events that makes the news much more interesting. For example, here’s how big Burning Man would be if it were held in Bend.
Category: Interesting
Wave Goodbye To Google Wave
It was an interesting experiment, but Google’s killing Google Wave. Too bad folks went through the effort to write books on it, and obviously the author of said book is dissapointed.
Portland Man Does Quarter-Mile in 10.4 Seconds — In An Electric Car
What’s even better is it’s a hideously ugly (but pimped out) Datsun:
Story over on Wired, with more details straight from the guy who did it. To put it in perspective, that’s super-car territory.
Windows Phone Users Are Apparently Trying To Quit Smoking
Apparently I need to quit smoking. I happened to be browsing through Facebook, and because I’m a fan of Windows Phone (though my next phone will probably be an Android device), it suggested I become a fan of Nicorette:
Does that say something about Windows Phone users?
Reading Material
- Jailbreaking your phone is now legal, thanks to the EFF.
- This pretty much describes every university website I’ve ever seen.
- The three laws of robotics have made it into Last.fm’s robots.txt file.
- I’ve never understood most rap or hip hop music, but this Wikipedia article translates one song quite nicely.
- mediaelement.js is a great HTML5 video and audio player with fail-over support for Flash and Silverlight.
- Google recently became a much better dictionary search.
- While I wouldn’t consider them life-saving, here are 10 handy PHP snippets.
- Drawing vs. Photography marvelously combines sketches and photographs. You can find more on the illustrator’s site.
- Your Code Sucks — just like everybody’s.
- Intuit is pushing hard to keep the IRS from making taxes easy to file.
- Credit Karma promises a free credit score. I’ve seen a few good reviews on it, but haven’t used it personally.
- Wikileaks volunteer Jacob Appelbaum was detained when coming into the country.
- A bunch of useful JavaScript and jQuery plugins and techniques.
- Do-it-yourself home security system could save you a few bucks if you’re wanting to lock down your house. NextAlarm appears to have some other similar (and fairly inexpensive) options as well.
- F.B.I. challenges Wikipedia on use of F.B.I. seal. Wikipedia responds with a primer on law.
- Google now allows multiple account sign-in for some of their services.
- Contrary to popular belief, the customer is not always right.
Post Vacation Reading Material
Since getting back, I’ve been trying to catch up on all the email and news that has been sent my way (you’re always welcome to send more using the contact form on this site or e-mail utterlyboring at gmail dot com). Here are some of the headlines I found waiting for me when I got back (some newer, some older):
- An interesting look into how Xbox’s achievement system was designed and why it was done that way.
- Despite Apple’s antenna research, they’ve admitted they have a problem and are giving free cases to every iPhone4 user. Steve Jobs pointed out that other companies have similar issues with their phones to which RIM, Nokia, and HTC didn’t take to kindly to. If you’d rather jump from the iPhone to an Android device, this will help.
- Online retailer PlayOutdoors opened their first brick-and-morter store here in Bend.
- Those hilarious Old Spice commercials that are taking the web by storm have a great back story and many good parodies.
- Poor BP: They were deeply affected by the coffee spill parody.
- Common products from 2010 if they were designed in 1977.
- One mapping feature Bing maps that Google maps doesn’t: Napkin-sketch view.
- Several different ways to give your photos a vintage look.
- Science finally solves the greatest mystery mankind has ever faced: The chicken came first.
- Need to learn how to train yourself reverse code engineering, buffer overflows, shellcode development, web exploitation, and SQL injection so you can fix them in your code? Damn Vulnerable Linux makes it easy.
- If you’re an Apple product user, and need some friends to talk Mac with, Apple has created a Friend Bar.
- Because you never know when this will come in handy: Make a paper clone of yourself.
- Amazing photography of trees shot in infrared.
- Common optical illusions illusions.
- For future reference: Don’t argue with an ibex.
- Reddit illistrates why you should never trust “experts” when it comes to traffic estimates.
- The most objective and unbiased video game review I’ve ever read.
- I knew I was on to something: Not making your bed may keep you healthy.
- HideMyAss has a great list of free proxy servers.
- Great list of free security tools for your PC which hopefully won’t bug you like this.
- Top Secret America is a great Washington Post investigation that describes the huge national security buildup in the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
- If you’re like me and enjoy Top Gear, this fan site is a good place to get your fix.
- I think I’ve seen these before, but what if Steve Jobs was part of the Calvin and Hobbes strip?
- 100 Greatest Movie Insults of All Time (naughty language warning).
- Because some people have too much time on their hands: Mr. Steam Potato Punk Head and a ton of My Little Pony modifications.
Reading Material
- A proper review of Twilight.
- Can’t say I didn’t see this coming: Microsoft pulls the plug on Kin after failing miserably to sell more than a few hundred.
- Apple officially responds to the iPhone4 antenna issues. If you need help translating it, this will help.
- Woot takes the Associated Press to task for stealing their content, AP doesn’t think it’s funny.
- Simple copy/paste of the script tags for the Javascript libraries that Google hosts.
- Locate your stolen laptop with Prey.
- Need some good, (mostly) clean jokes? Here ya go.
- Fox News advocates shutting down public libraries.
- Converting PSD to HTML.
- Lose your Windows, Office, or other software keys? Find them with this.
- That fancy netbook you bought doesn’t have an optical drive? You can reinstall Windows XP from a USB key.
- What do experts use in the way of technology to get their jobs done? Check out their setups.
- Great diary on one man’s quest to get well for $1 a day, and he’s gone a couple months now (and has some great guides for saving mega bucks with coupons).
- I think I may have posted this before, but can’t remember: Enable open web technologies in Internet Explorer with Google Chrome Frame.
Everything You Need To Know About The Fragmented Mobile Developer Ecosystem.
- Speaking of mobile development, the Symbian Guru has given up on Symbian.
- Still speaking of mobile development, multitasking the Android way.
- MenuetOS is a really powerful and usable OS considering it will fit on a single floppy.
Woot To Be Bought By Amazon
My favorite deal-of-the-day site Woot is getting bought up by Amazon, but will remain an independent subsidiary, like Zappos and Audible. Hilarious words from the CEO are here, and they produced a video for the occassion (that you need to be a Woot fan to really appreciate):
Reading Material
- Retro and new on one package: One side is vinyl, one side is a CD.
- How to cheat on video encoder comparisons.
- Fabrice Bellard is one smart dude.
- Worst Chart I’ve Seen All Day (or: Why you should never trust scary charts you see on Fox News, or any other cable news show for that matter).
- Even if you change the file’s extension, it doesn’t change the contents.
- Credit Card Number Generator for if you need to test submission forms on your site with credit card numbers that are in valid format.
- Like s**tmydadsays, s**t my girlfriend says (inspired by this Reddit thread).
- Building a distance finder with the Google Maps API.
- Why are tabs on the top in Firefox 4? Because it makes sense (but I’m sure there will an extension written to make it go back the other way).
- How to use photos to sell more online.
- 50 Time-Savers for Web Geeks (primarily geared towards developers, but there is some useful stuff here for everybody).
- One site from the above I’ve already found handy: Placehold.it is great when you just need a dummy image placeholder.
- Cheezburger Network is going after the Whitman campaign.
- The Patriot Act is a moronic law, and I’m glad this librarian fought it.
- A blog that has sucked up too much of my time today: A “Best Of” collection from the Young Me/Now Me site.
- iPhone vs. HTC Evo and HTV Evo vs iPhone (NSFW Language).
- Hulu is launching Hulu Plus. If they could just get it to work with my WDTV Live Plus HD box without using an external PlayOn server (though there’s a deal for WDTV users), I’d probably cut my cable (as Netflix works a helluva lot better on it than on my stand-alone media center).
- London’s twitter traffic mapped as a countoured landscape.
- Any geek should appreciate this .Net vs. Java movie trailer for Java4Ever.
- Something you don’t see everyday (for good reason): a public service announcement featuring a nearly-naked dancing man wearing a horse mask cooking wild mushrooms.
Use Scotch Tape To Fix Your iPhone Reception
So I reported last week that the iPhone 4 has signal problems if you hold it “wrong” — like with your left hand, for example. This was actually predicted as a potential problem before the release of the phone. It’s fixable by either buying a bumper case, holding it differently (that’s straight from Steve Jobs) or with a bit of scotch tape:
Note that if you own a Nokia, you can hold it however you want.