« September 12, 2004 - September 18, 2004 | Main | September 26, 2004 - October 02, 2004 »
September 25, 2004
Overclockers Top 6GHz With A 3.6GHz-Rated P4
"The 6GHz barrier has been broken by two guys, a little LN2 (liquid nitrogen for those not as chemistry inclined), and an Intel Pentium 4 (Prescott) 3.60GHz. Check out some icing and some proof of speed. Better yet take a look at how fast it calculates pi. Also be sure to check out the original announcement."
[via /.]
Posted by Ryan at 11:34 PM | Comments (0)
New internet acronym: SPIT
SPIT: Spam over Internet Telephony...
Posted by Ryan at 11:22 PM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2004
Baby activism
Buy political shirts for babies here...
Posted by Ryan at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)
September 23, 2004
WAPbuddy
An awesome little program that you just install on your PHP-enabled web server and upload any files to it that you want. From there, you can use your WAP equipped phone to download those files.
'To that end, I just built a tiny little script called WAPbuddy. It's very simple -- upload the script to your server, upload whatever files you want to grab via cellphone into the downloads directory, and go...All that's required is your own web space that'll let you run PHP -- no high fallutin' databases or anything like that.'
Posted by Ryan at 10:48 PM | Comments (0)
Today's News
Eighteen years after Chernobyl, Norwegian sheep still glow in the dark
The proud producers of "Fear Factor": "If I can make one person puke, I've done my job"
Boy recovers from leukaemia; chokes on screws left in bag of KFC popcorn
Woman changing in gym locker room surprised when Peeping Tom's leg comes crashing through ceiling
Christina Aguilera calls Britney's wedding "trashy, pathetic and low rent"
A crunching sound is good when you are eating cereal. Not so good when a bear is biting your head
Posted by Ryan at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)
Today's Links
Link - Grappa
Draw a picture in a new way. Use the left mouse to draw and the right to clear
Game - Centrifuge
Game where you click on the wheeland try to hit the markers
Link - Gravity Lamp
New concept for a cool designed lamp
Game - ColorCode
Try to make a vertical, horizontal, or diagnol line of the same color
Link - Turbospoke
Instead of putting a old Coke can under your wheel, try one of these so that your cycle can sound like a real motorbike
Game - Electric Chair
Guide the bar accross the wire, don't let it touch or it will set off the electric chair
Game - Party People 24/7
Create your own party people, Sim type game
Game - Pipe Game
Try to link the pipes so that you dont flood the home
Game - Capture the chicken
Try to capture the chicken, kinda hard after a couple levels
Posted by Jon at 09:56 PM | Comments (0)
Hurricane Ivan... coming back
I dunno how Ivan managed to completely turn around... but here are some images...
Posted by Ryan at 09:54 PM | Comments (0)
Hurricane Ivan... coming back
I dunno how Ivan managed to completely turn around... but here are some images...
Posted by Ryan at 08:18 PM | Comments (0)
September 22, 2004
Bush's new ad: Windsurfing
"John Kerry -- Whichever way the wind blows"
Posted by Ryan at 08:42 PM | Comments (0)
ERUNT: Emergency Recovery Utility NT
A simple registry backup utility.
Posted by Ryan at 08:33 PM | Comments (0)
New video format cuts storage needs in half
22.09.2004 16:49:43
By Joab Jackson
GCN Staff
A researcher from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, working
with an international team of other researchers, has found that a new video
compression standard can cut file storage requirements by half compared to the
venerable MPEG standard used by most agencies.
The team compared MPEG-2 with the standard designed to replace it, AVC/H.264.
“You can cut the bit rate in half and keep the quality the same relative to
MPEG-2, according to our tests,” said Charles Fenimore, the NIST researcher who
studied the video compressor/decompressor algorithm, or codec for short. “It
provides a 50 percent gain in compression efficiency.”
Completed in May 2003, the new standard was developed by the International
Telecommunication Union and the Moving Picture Experts Group in response to the
increasingly wide range of digital video transmission technologies available. It
can be used in both mobile devices with very low bit rates and for delivering
video to next-generation high-definition television sets.
The group’s paper, “Subjective Quality Assessment of the Emerging AVC/H.264
Video Coding Standard,” reported that AVC/H.264 has the same quality as MPEG-2
in most cases, with approximately half the bit rate.
“The tests showed a noticeable superiority of AVC/H.264 compared to
state-of-the-art MPEG-2 video encoders in almost all test cases,” the report
summarized. The paper was presented at the International Broadcast Conference in
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, last week. In addition to Fenimore—the Motion Image
Quality project leader for NIST’s Digital Media Group—the MPEG working group
included researchers from the Italian nonprofit scientific research organization
Fondazione Ugo Bordoni of Rome, the Munich University of Technology of Germany
and NTT DoCoMo Inc. of Toyko. Each organization donated its researchers’ time
for the project.
At least some government organizations have already evaluated the standard, such
as the interagency Motion Imagery Standards Board
(http://www.ismc.nga.mil/misb/), a working group to promote visual imagery
system interoperability among the Defense Department, the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and other agencies. The group advises agencies to
look at the AVC/H.264-based equipment as products start to enter the market.
Greater compression efficiency translates into more video that can be squeezed
onto storage platforms, especially when it is used with new optical disk storage
technologies such as Blu-Ray, a higher-density optical disk format, developed by
an industry-led coalition, to replace DVDs.
“If you cut the bit rate in half and triple the capacity of the disk you have
six times the storage,” Fenimore said, adding that NIST does not endorse any
specific standards.
An abstract of the report is available
here. The full report can be downloaded
here
Posted by Ryan at 07:06 PM | Comments (0)
Gravity Lamp - a new lighting concept
The Gravity Lamp is an interactive lamp that reacts to your presence. When you aren't in the room, it lays down and goes to sleep. When you enter the room, it wakes up, stands up, and gives you light.
Posted by Ryan at 06:52 PM | Comments (0)
Today's News
State taxes, check. Federal taxes, check. Global taxes, wait a minute
If you are 63 years old, do not attempt to bench-press 260 pounds without a spotter
Film crew shoots bank robbery scene without informing the police. Jailarity ensues
Posted by Ryan at 06:02 PM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2004
A9... Amazon's new search engine
A9.com is a new search engine which could possibly be better than Google. You can search the web (it has a backend to Google's API, therefore returning results you would get from Google), you can search inside a book (powered by Amazon.com), you can search Google Images, Movies (IMDB), Reference (definitions, encyclopedic entries and other topics by Gurunet), and much more. It has a very heavy javascript GUI, which kinda reminds me of Gmail. You can also use your Amazon account to login and get customized preferences and search results. When logged in, it will store all of your previous searches into a "search history" for you to go back and look at later. Basically, it's Google plus a whole bunch of other stuff... Worth a try
Posted by Ryan at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
Google is building a custom Mozilla browser?
New evidence has surfaced that Google is developing its own Mozilla-based browser. The first suspicion is the recent registration of gbrowser.com and also an annotation in the Mozilla bug-tracker such as "this is a duplicate of a private bug about working with Google. So closing this one."
Posted by Ryan at 04:53 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2004
Google Logos...
For more, visit logoogle.com
Posted by Ryan at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)
HEADLINES from the Year 2040...
1. Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest country in the world, California.
2. IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75%.
3. Baby conceived naturally....Scientists stumped.
4. Authentic year 2000 "chad" sells at Sotheby's for $4.6 million.
5. Iraq still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least ten more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.
6. Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking.
7. George Z. Bush says he will run for President in 2042.
8. Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesday only.
9. Results of 35 year study: diet and exercise are the key to weight loss.
10. Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative.
11. Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals violates their civil rights.
12. Upcoming NFL draft likely to focus on use of mutants.
13. Average height of NBA players now nine feet, seven inches.
14. Microsoft announces it has perfected its newest version of Windows so it crashes BEFORE installation is completed.
15. New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters, and rolled up newspapers must be registered by January 2041.
16. Congress authorizes direct deposit of illegal political contributions to campaign accounts.
17. Capital Hill intern indicted for refusing to have sex with Congressman.
Posted by Ryan at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)
Today's Links
Game - Balloon Hunter
Fun game where you shoot balloons with arrows
Movie - How to dump your girlfriend
A funny video of a guy on a bike
Game - Walk the Rope
Really Addictive game, try to keep the guy on the rope by moving your mouse right or left
Link - Gmail is too creepy
A website devoted to insulting Gmail
Flash - First Presidential Election
Really funny political video, is not democratic or republican, just funny
Posted by Jon at 09:24 PM | Comments (0)
GetFTPPassword 0.5
This little program helps you retrieve the password for a ftp site stored in your FTP client.
You use your favorite ftp client to connect to GetFTPPassword by modifying the host address of the site to 127.0.0.1 , port 1234 and connect, upon connection the username and password is displayed in the program. Simple & effective
Posted by Jon at 09:06 PM | Comments (0)
FileZilla
FileZilla is a small but powerful FTP client with many features. it includes a site manager to store all your connection details and logins as well as an Explorer style interface that shows the local and remote folders and can be customized independently.
The program offers support for firewalls and proxy connections as well as SSL and Kerberos GSS security. Additional features include keep alive, auto ascii/binary transfer and more. A nice program for beginners and advanced user alike.
Features:
Ability to resume Uploads/Downloads (if the server supports it)
Custom Commands
Site Manager with folders
Keep Alive system
Timeout detection
Firewall support
SOCKS4/5 and HTTP1.1 Proxy support
SSL secured connections
SFTP support
Upload/Download Queue
Drag&Drop
Multi-language support
GSS authentication and encryption using Kerberos
Posted by Jon at 09:03 PM | Comments (0)
Surfs up
Video of a surfer riding a huge wave
Posted by Ryan at 08:58 PM | Comments (0)
Messenger Plus! Extension
Messenger Plus! Extension is a program that adds functionalities to the MSN Messenger chat program. Some of the added features are logging, personalized Away Messages, transparency effects, and a feature to minimize all MSN Messenger windows to the system tray.
Latest Changes:
* New feature added: floating contacts
* The encryption password problem has finally been fixed
* Messenger Plus! is now entirely compatible with Windows Messenger 4.7.3000 (released with Windows XP SP2)
* The Event Viewer window now displays a tooltip with all the information pertinent to the selected event, including the date
* The bug in the "Hide Advertisement Banner" feature introduced by MSN Messenger 6 has finally been solved, no more ads will show on top of your contact list
* You can now chose to auto-accept only file transfers and not web cams or other kind of requests
* The command list and contact list helpers have been greatly improved
* The size of the Messenger Plus! notification windows shouldn't be altered by the display of MSN Alerts notifications anymore
* The setup works fine when it is renamed msgplus.exe
* The enhanced Plus! icon in the contact list window is displayed a little more faster so that more people can notice it
* The "Rename Contact" popup window has been redesigned
* Word filters of a length of 1 character are now accepted
* Some MSN Messenger related Plus! options were changed when they were edited in Windows Messenger: not anymore
* Commands in contact's names/emails can't be executed by the (!N) and (!M) tags anymore
* The (!IP) tag now does what is should have have done: it returns the one, real, internet IP of your computer
* The menu of the Plus! icon displayed in the chat windows toolbar now appears more quickly on older computers
* The Plugin API has been improved in many ways
* The Auto-Accept feature now works properly in Windows 98 and Windows ME
* The menus of your instant message windows are properly updated when plugins are added or removed dynamically
* A new option has been added in the preferences panel to allow sending periodic statistics to the msgplus.net server
* Added "MenuInclude" registry setting for quick text
* Custom Emoticons that use one character for their shortcut can now be mixed with Messenger Plus! features (commands, word filters, ...)
* Added "ShowNotMinimised" registry setting
* The "MultiFormatColorPanel" and "HandleNotificationRClick" registry settings have been declared obsolete and are not supported anymore
* No more problem when using Custom Names and talking to a contact who uses Web Messenger
* The parameters of some commands are now trimmed automatically (spaces at the beginning are removed)
* The Afrikaans, Indonesian, Bosnian, Galego, and Valencian translations have been removed from the main distribution package
* A couple of other minor fixes
Posted by Jon at 08:57 PM | Comments (0)
This dude probably has no friends...
Posted by Ryan at 08:51 PM | Comments (0)
Senator Kerry, What Are Your Plans for Iraq If Elected?
Posted by Ryan at 08:48 PM | Comments (0)
20 Reasons to Vote FOR John Kerry
20. Israel's security fence really is
both a "legitimate act of self defense" and a "barrier to peace," and
at the same time.
19. In fact, no matter what you believe about any issue,
Kerry's on your side
50% of the time. Unfortunately, if there are three sides to an issue, he's only
with you 33%.
18. Anyone who had the foresight to bring
his own Super 8 movie camera to Vietnam
to shoot campaign commercials for when he got back home is okay by you.
17. Kerry should be President because, as he said, he was
born in the "west wing" of a hospital.
This has nothing to do with all the other people ever born in the west
wings of all the hospitals in the world, however.
16. You believe that Saddam was a threat with nuclear weapons. After all,
John Kerry himself said,
"If you don't believe ... Saddam Hussein is a threat with nuclear weapons, then
you shouldn't vote for me." Of course, that would make the liberation of Iraq
the right thing to do then, wouldn't it? Maybe you'd better skip this one.
15. He and John Edwards have "better
hair." Aren't you glad
Don King
isn't running?
14. The company you work for doesn't pay enough taxes. If they did, they
wouldn't have money in the budget to waste on you.
13.
Europe wants him
to be our President, which automatically means that you should, too... if you
want to be popular when you visit your
family in France,
that is.
12. Kerry was in Vietnam for a few months 35 years ago, and he still remembers
how to
curse like a sailor!
11.
Kim Jong Il prefers him,
Iranian mullahs and other
unnamed foreign leaders would certainly prefer
him, and the
CPUSA (US Communist Party) prefers him.
You don't want them mad at you, do you?
10. He owns American-made SUVs... no, no, wait,
his FAMILY does.
Sorry.
9. He was in Vietnam for a few months 35 years ago -- did you know that? He was
in Cambodia, too. The memory of his
secret mission on Christmas Day 1968
was seared -- seared -- in him. Or maybe it was
some other time, or some other place,
or some other guy. But
he has a hat to prove it...
whatever it is.
8. John Kerry said that he believes we "need to build multilateral support for
whatever course of action we ultimately would take."
America should never act on its own,
like other countries do.
7. He was the only Vietnam veteran to be honored by
both America and the North Vietnamese
for his activities during the Vietnam War.
6. The best way to deal with terrorism is to
wait until they hit us again.
"Any attack will be met with a swift and certain response," Kerry said when he
accepted the Democrat nomination.
5. After years of marrying rich women, shouldn't he finally have his
own house?
4. Although he would raise your taxes, his speech explaining why would cure your
insomnia.
3. You've probably already forgotten that he was in Vietnam for a few months 35
years ago.
2. As well as revealing at various times that he's
Irish (but really Czech), Catholic
(but really
Jewish),
and Liberal (but really
Conservative),
he will also be the
second "black" President.
1. Ketchup packets with the presidential seal! How cool is that?
Posted by Ryan at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)
Switchproxy for Firefox
There are many great advantages to using Firefox. One of them is the ability for "extensions," a plug-in type interface which will allow you to add on all kinds of software to the browser. One of my favorite extensions is called SwitchProxy. It allows you to add proxy servers to its database, and it will switch between them while you surf, leaving no marks of where you just were.
Download Firefox
Download SwitchProxy
Anonymous Proxy List
Posted by Ryan at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)
Today's News
Very small gang initiates new members by killing them
Man calls during his own funeral, appearently didn't know he was dead till he read his own obituary
Study finds pregnant women have strange cravings. In other news, water found to be wet
Water parks are infested with deadly bacteria
Posted by Ryan at 05:45 PM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2004
Reverse mouse cursor
Game where your cursor goes the opposite way and you have to avoid obstacles
Click here
Posted by Ryan at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)
Car crash caught on live on a news broadcast about carcrashes...
Posted by Ryan at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)
Amazon's A9.com Search Engine Goes Live
"Today was the official launch day of Amazon's A9.com search engine, which has been in public beta for some time now. It uses results from Google, and adds some personalized features, like bookmarks and search history. Its Java-heavy inteface reminds me of Gmail, which is nice. It doesn't seem like it was designed to supplant Google, but rather to flesh out some things that a certain demographic of people might like.
[via /.]Posted by Ryan at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)
Lost Nuclear Bomb Found Off Georgia Coast?
Both CNN and ABC News report that a hydrogen thermonuclear bomb lost off the Georgia coast in 1958 may have been found. The 'Mark 15, Mod 0' nuclear bomb was jettisoned into the Atlantic Ocean off Savannah after a B-47 bomber and an F-86 fighter collided in mid-air. 'The 7,600-pound, 12-foot-long thermonuclear bomb contained 400 pounds of high explosives as well as uranium' and it was found off Tybee Island by retired Air Force Lt. Colonel Derek Duke,, who said that radiation levels were from seven to 10 times higher than normal. If it is the bomb that Duke has found, the question now is what, if anything, should be done with it?
[via /.]Posted by Ryan at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)
Sasser Netsky virus coder lands job with security firm
A German teenager accused of creating the Sasser worm that infected millions of computers around the world is being taught to become a security software programmer, the company that hired him said on Friday. Eighteen-year-old Sven Jaschan has been taken on by the Securepoint computer firm based in Lueneburg, northern Germany and is being trained to make firewalls, which stop suspect files from entering computer systems. "He has a certain know-how in this field," a company spokesman said.
Jaschan has been charged with computer sabotage, data manipulation and disruption of public systems for allegedly hatching the Sasser worm. The Sasser worm struck on May 1, and in less than a week affected thousands of companies, forcing some businesses to shut temporarily in order to debug their systems. Securepoint director Lutz Hausmann said the teenager had told him during a job interview that he only became really aware of the consequences of his actions after it was too late. "He deserves a chance," Hausmann said. German authorities believe Jaschan may also be behind another destructive worm named NetSky, which surfaced in February.
Click here to read the original article at SMH.com.au
Here is a link to the folks at SecurePoint in case you are curious...
Tee hee... yes he does have 'a certain know-how in this field' but I don't know if that really is sufficient for landing a job with a security firm.... It strikes me as saying something like a rapist has ' a certain know-how ' that would qualify them for a job as a gynecologist... I don't think I would recommend my girlfriend go there for an examination though....
Posted by Ryan at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)