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March 31, 2005
Is the earth going to explode?
Polar ice caps melt not because the air there is warmer than 0 deg Celsius, but because they are overheated from underneath. Volcanoes become active and erupt violently not because the Earth's interior "crystallizes", but because the planetary nucleus is a nuclear fission reactor that needs COOLING.
If you doubt whether a planet can explode - you need to see a witness report of a planetary explosion in our Solar system. Plato (428-348 BC) reported that the explosion of the planet Phaeton had been perceived by our ancestors on Earth to be as bright as lightning...* 10 of the last 14 years were the WARMEST ever recorded on Earth. The trend continues.
* Huge parts of Antarctic and Arctic ice have already melted. Key Antarctic glaciers (Hektoria, Green and Evans for example) increased their melting rate 8 times in 3 years (between 2000 and 2003, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L18401). When glaciers begin to slide to the ocean, the sea level rise will cause a global planetary flood.
* Volcanoes become active under Arctic Ocean and in Antarctica
* The Largest Volcanoes on Earth are losing their snow-caps
* Oceans are warmer than ever. Their increased evaporation produces large amount of clouds, rain and widespread flooding
* In heated oceans all currents are severely disrupted
* Mountain glaciers melt around the globe
* The weather around the globe becomes more violent every month
Posted by Ryan at 05:15 PM | Comments (0)
Google just got better... For Firefox users at least
Google has added a new feature to its search engine that allows Firefox users to obtain search results more quickly.Reza Behforooz, a software engineer at Google, announced Wednesday that the search engine now pre-loads the top search result into the cache of Mozilla browsers.
"Now Google's faster than ever on Firefox and Mozilla browsers," Behforooz said in a posting on the company's blog. "When you do a search on these browsers, we instruct them to download your top search result in advance, so if you click on it, you'll get to that page even more quickly."
The search engine's pre-loaded link feature is supported by Mozilla browsers including Firefox, but because Internet Explorer and other browsers do not provide such functionality, they will not be able to use the feature.
There are some potential issues, however. Google points out in an FAQ that "you may end up with cookies and Web pages in your Web browser's cache from Web sites that you did not click on".
A few Firefox users have expressed concern about this feature on the Mozillazine site. They say people risk unknowingly downloading illegal content, and could end up using more bandwidth when surfing.
"You'll run into trouble if the first match is a porno site and your company's proxy logs it--you get all cookies of the first match without seeing the page," one Firefox user said.
Another user, Alex Bishop, said that even if people unknowingly downloads illegal content using the link feature, the content is flagged in a different way from content they've chosen to download.
"An 'x-moz: prefetch' header is sent with the request, and the referrer header will match the Google search results page," Bishop said.
via News.com
Posted by Ryan at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)
March 30, 2005
RegexPlor
RegexPlor is a tool for interactively exploring regular expressions. It provides a graphic frontend for experimenting with such regular expressions in a intuitive way. You can edit an input text as well as a regular expression as well as colors for matched text, etc. and study various effects at every keystroke. This is a much more convenient way of hunting down the one expression you're after, without typing any code at all in the usual trial-and-error method.
Posted by Ryan at 07:59 PM | Comments (0)
Savant Web Server
Open source, Windows only web server that has tons of features...
Savant is a full-featured open source web server written for computers running Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, and Windows NT including Windows 2000. Savant is fast, secure, easy-to-use, and best of all, it's free!Full-Featured
Savant provides support for most modern web features and technologies, including:* HTTP/1.1 with keep-alive support
* CERN/NCSA Common Log Format logging, including browser and referrer entries
* Performance logs and error logs
* Configurable logging
* Server-side image maps
* CGI/1.1
* WinCGI
* ISAPI Application support
* User-based password protection
* Limit access by IP addresses
* Easy install/uninstall
* Graphical Configuration
* User-defined MIME Types
* Aliasing & file system mapping
* Simple directory listings
* Optional reverse DNS lookups
* Process control
* Perl for Win32 Included
* Monitoring Console
* Online help
* Realtime status display
* Complete source code for server and configuration utility available
* Web-based support system
* Support mailing lists
Posted by Ryan at 07:51 PM | Comments (1)
March 29, 2005
TIX Led Clock
$60 - Another great way to read time. See if you can figure it out... Hint: the clocks shown are displaying 12:34...
Posted by Ryan at 06:35 AM | Comments (0)
March 28, 2005
The answer to life, the universe, and everything = 42
Interesting revelation from Google's calculator...
Also, from Wikipedia...
* If all of the numbers on a die are added up (1+2+3+4+5+6), the answer is 21. If the numbers on two dice are added the result would be 42, so 42 = 2 dice, i.e. "Life's a crap shoot."* And we all know that 2 dice is a pair of dice, so 42 is paradise
* If we take 42 and separate the numbers, we get "Four" and "Two". How about Fortuitous?
* "42" is often used in a similar manner to a metasyntactic variable; 42 is often used in testing programs as a common initializer for integer variables.
* Google has a calculator function in its search engine, which knows the answer to life the universe and everything.
* MSN Search also calculates this query correctly in a similar fashion.
* Another possible explanation for the answer of 42 is that in the phrase "answer to life the universe and everything" there are exactly 42 characters including spaces. Also, the question and answer "What do you get if you multiply six by nine? Forty-two" contains 42 letters (excluding the hyphen and question mark).
* Additionally, 42 is 101010 in binary and the * as an ASCII character. In pattern-matching * is often used as a "wildcard" symbol that matches any string.
* 42 is also the code name of the Allied project to deceive the Nazi's about the impending landing of Allied Troops at Normandy, France, in World War II.
* Another possible explanation: 6x9=42 (in base13); 42 base13=54 (in base10); 54=A pack of cards which themselves are 42 in base 13 i.e. 4x13 + 2 jokers. Hence, as has often been said, "Life is like a deck of cards, you never know what you will be dealt, but must play the hand you have", or, put most simply: 42
(in reply to this, Douglas Adams said: "Look, I don't make jokes in base 13")
* On many cisco routers, the code 0x42 is used in the procedure to recover the configurations and passwords on the devices.
Wikipedia: The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything
Posted by Ryan at 09:21 PM | Comments (0)
The Unicode Chart
100MB, 6ft x 12ft poster of every Unicode character.
Posted by Ryan at 08:32 PM | Comments (0)
GhostTool 6.2 for AIM
A whole bunch of tools to have fun with people on AIM. The new version a botnet called GhostNet that lets you share your bots with other people without risking them being stolen. It can boot almost every version of AIM, including GAIM and Trillian.
Posted by Ryan at 07:32 PM | Comments (0)
How to query Google from your cellphone
This is an interesting article about how to recieve all kinds of information from Google through SMS. You can search for people, businesses, movie showtimes, product prices from Froogle, weather, and much more...
Posted by Ryan at 07:24 PM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2005
Adobe Photoshop CS2 coming soon...
Betanews has some insight on Adobe's soon-to-come announcement of Adobe Photoshop CS2. Read the article for all the info...
Posted by Ryan at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)
Tons of web design resources
This site has links to stock photography sites, clipart, fonts, logotypes, sounds, photoshop brushes, poser downloads, and other useful tools for designers...
Posted by Ryan at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)
CDBurnerXP Pro
Free CD/DVD burning software for Windows...
* Writes all kind of mediums apart from double-layer DVD (follows in next version). Burning video-DVDs is limited. * Burn audio-CDs with and without gaps between tracks * Burn on the fly / Burn-proof * Supports most IDE, USB, Firewire and SCSI drives * Rip Audio-CDs to harddrive, obtain track-information (ID3-tags) from Internet * Burn and create ISO-files * Customizeable with many settings * Data verification after burn, create bootable discs * (will be) available in multiple languages * 100% freeware - no adware or restrictions * bin/nrg->ISO converter, simple cover printing and much more! * Operating systems: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP systems.
Posted by Ryan at 02:27 PM | Comments (0)
March 26, 2005
Solar Analemmas
Strange as it may seem, only seven times has someone ever managed to successfully image the solar analemma as a multi-exposure on a single piece of film. For those not familiar with the term, an analemma is the figure "8" loop that results when one observes the position of the sun at the same time during the day over the course of a year. Due to the earth's tilt about its axis (23.45°) and its elliptical orbit about the sun, the location of the sun is not constant from day to day when observed at the same time on each day over the course of a full year. Furthermore, this loop will be inclined at different angles depending on one's geographical latitude.
Posted by Ryan at 07:13 PM | Comments (0)
PDFCreator
Open source project to create a PDF from any Windows application. You can use it just like a printer in Word, Works, Photoshop, or any other program...
Posted by Ryan at 06:49 PM | Comments (1)
March 25, 2005
Top ten things you won't learn in design school
This is an article by Michael McDonough, an architect, writer, and teacher in New York. It's some pretty useful information...
1. Talent is one-third of the success equation. Talent is important in any profession, but it is no guarantee of success. Hard work and luck are equally important. Hard work means self-discipline and sacrifice. Luck means, among other things, access to power, whether it is social contacts or money or timing. In fact, if you are not very talented, you can still succeed by emphasizing the other two. If you think I am wrong, just look around.
Posted by Ryan at 11:46 PM | Comments (0)
Using CSS in email
Wanna add some style to your email? Check out this article from A List Apart...
Most people who’ve attempted to recreate a sophisticated design in HTML email have run into a wall when using CSS, either in the form of inexplicable mangling by email clients or a pronouncement by an email administrator stating that CSS is “against the rules.” If you’re not content to roll over and use font tags in your HTML emails, read on.
Posted by Ryan at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)
Google OS by 2010?
Wishful thinking? Yes, but let's consider the possibilities. The last couple years have seen significant advances in hardware production and design. One of the more interesting (and potentially revolutionary) developments to take place this past year is the announcement of a new CPU, the STI (Sony, Toshiba, IBM) Cell processor.
Posted by Ryan at 11:39 PM | Comments (0)
Review of the SLEEPTRACKER watch
The SLEEPTRACKER watch tracks your sleeping, and you set an alarm for the latest time you want to wake up and how long before that you don't mind waking up. In that time period, the watch will monitor your sleep, and it wakes you up immediately when you go into a light sleep. This means that you wake up feeling completely rejuvenated, and supposedly won't feel tired at all. It makes it easy to get out of bed, and a great way to start your morning. Even though it may sound phony, it gets a great review from this site...
Posted by Ryan at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)
How to set up port forwarding on almost any router
PortForward.com gives instructions on how to setup port forwarding for P2P programs, and other web applications. Select from hundreds of routers, and see an easy walkthrough of how to start forwarding ports in no time.
Posted by Ryan at 05:59 PM | Comments (2)
Google Keyboard Shortcuts
New site from Google - Navigate search results without a mouse...
Posted by Ryan at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)
QueryStar - SearchX
This is just like Google's GoogleX, which was taken down last week. If you missed it, check out this website. It looks like a great all-around search engine too.
Posted by Ryan at 06:16 AM | Comments (0)
Import your existing mail to GMail
With this tool, you can load all your mBox email (Netscape, Mozilla, Thunderbird, most others...), MailDir (Qmail and a few others...), MMDF (Mutt), MH (NMH) and Babyl (Emacs RMAIL) to GMail. It doesn't yet support IMAP or the popular Outlook PST files, but PST-to-GMail can still be done with other tools on the site.
Posted by Ryan at 06:11 AM | Comments (0)
Use your old PC to make a Linux media player
Are you the kind of person who can't toss out old gear? I know I am--though I must admit that embracing the art of junk-collecting has come in handy from time to time. For instance, this article will show you how to resurrect a tired old PC by installing a modern operating system, and then revitalize the computer as an internet-enabled CD player, DVD burner, and MP3 jukebox.
Posted by Ryan at 06:07 AM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2005
Terri Schiavo status Firefox extension
Wanna know Terri's status? Get this extension for any realtime updates regarding Terri Schiavo.
Posted by Ryan at 08:42 PM | Comments (0)
Introduction to Subnetting
This is a very intesting article about what subnetting is, and how it works...
When two computers on the same network want to communicate to one another they do so at the MAC layer. The way in which the software knows whether or not the two computers are on the same network, or if the frames need to be forwarded somewhere else such as a default gateway is by using a subnet mask. So from a routing perspective each subnet represents an individual logical network. Every network card that uses TCP/IP must have a subnet mask. A subnet mask is a special bit pattern that identifies which bits represent the network, and which bits are used to uniquely identify the host. It defines the network portion of an IP address by blocking it off with all 1's.
Posted by Ryan at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)
Yahoo! NEXT
Here are all of the latest and greatest programs from Yahoo!...
Posted by Ryan at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)
Get your copy of Windows XP 64 Bit Edition now
360 day trial of the pre-release...
Posted by Ryan at 07:13 PM | Comments (0)
Transparent Screens photoset on Flickr
This guy doesn't use photoshop - Just some photography tricks, to make it seem as if his screen is transparent. You can look through this photoset for a while, and not get bored... Very interesting...
Posted by Ryan at 06:17 PM | Comments (0)
Yahoo! Creative Commons Search
Use this new tool by Yahoo to find content that you can use comercially or just content that you can modify without having to worry about copyright laws...
Posted by Ryan at 06:13 PM | Comments (0)
GLAT - Google Labs Aptitude Test
How capable are you of working at Google? Read over these questions to see if you've got what it takes to be a Google employee...
Posted by Ryan at 07:29 AM | Comments (0)
The Glow Brick
This glow in the dark nightlight is as simple as it gets: a light bulb set in a clear solid brick.Recharges from energy in natural light during the day - glows at night!
Only $45...
Posted by Ryan at 06:46 AM | Comments (0)
Google Code - Open Source Google Projects for Developers
Google's got a new service that has a bunch of cool Open Source programs that may be useful to any software/web developers. There are some API tools, and some libraries for c++ programs.
Posted by Ryan at 06:42 AM | Comments (0)
March 23, 2005
More Shell Replacements
Here are some other cool shells to replace the default explorer.exe in Windows...
Posted by Ryan at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)
MacVision
This is a shell replacement for Windows that will make it look like the MacOS8 Finder.
Not only does MacVision provide the functionality of a Mac, but it can even trick you into thinking you are really using a Mac! The Graphical User Interface (GUI) on Macs has always been know to be better looking, and overall easier to use. Now, with MacVision's interface emulation, you can experience the MacOS GUI in Windows. MacVision changes not only the way the frames/borders of your windows look, but also everything from push buttons and radio buttons to check boxes, progress bars to scrollbars, and even more support will be added in the future.
Posted by Ryan at 08:23 PM | Comments (0)
WatchThatPage
WatchThatPage is a free service that enables you to automatically collect new information from your favorite pages on the Internet. You select which pages to monitor, and WatchThatPage will find which pages have changed, and collect all the new content for you. The new information is presented to you in an email and/or a personal web page. You can specify when the changes will be collected, so they are fresh when you want to read them.
Posted by Ryan at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)
LogMeIn.com - Free Remote Access
This is a lot like GoToMyPC... They have a Pro version, Free version and a version for IT administrators. The Pro version allows you to transfer files, and synchronize folders. At $12.95 a month, it is a great deal, but if you want to go the free way, the Free version gives you almost everything you'd ever need. The IT Reach version allows IT admins to have a centralized way of accessing several computers, while the client has a quick, one click installer. It has end-to-end SSL encryption on all versions, and is a great alternative to GoToMyPC...
Posted by Ryan at 06:42 AM | Comments (0)
Awesome Firefox ad
Here's a quick animation for Firefox... It's done perfectly and looks amazing...
Posted by Ryan at 06:29 AM | Comments (0)
I'm back!
Sorry about the lack of updates. I've been out of town, with no internet since last Thursday. However, I've got a lot of catching up to do on all my RSS feeds and other stuff, so there should be a lot of good stuff during the next few days...
Posted by Ryan at 06:28 AM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2005
Ekton web image editor
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This is like Photoshop, but on the web. It has a ton of features and is very easy to use...
Ektron WebImageFX puts the power of digital imaging into the hands of your entire organization. With this amazing new image editing application, you can easily tailor any image to your exact specifications – and you can do it online. WebImageFX features more than 20 useful functions, including some of the most popular: blur, sharpen, change brightness, crop, rotate, change dimensions, add text, and more.
Posted by Ryan at 03:11 PM | Comments (0)
IE7 Details Leaked
Microsoft recently announced that IE 7.0 is coming out in a few months, but information about the browser has already been leaked onto the web. Read this article for all the info...
Posted by Ryan at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)
13 things that don't make sense
1 The placebo effectDON'T try this at home. Several times a day, for several days, you induce pain in someone. You control the pain with morphine until the final day of the experiment, when you replace the morphine with saline solution. Guess what? The saline takes the pain away.
This is the placebo effect: somehow, sometimes, a whole lot of nothing can be very powerful. Except it's not quite nothing. When Fabrizio Benedetti of the University of Turin in Italy carried out the above experiment, he added a final twist by adding naloxone, a drug that blocks the effects of morphine, to the saline. The shocking result? The pain-relieving power of saline solution disappeared.
Posted by Ryan at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)
MaxiVista - Dual monitor solution over an existing network
MaxiVista uses your network to add a second screen instead of another graphics card. As long as you've got a pretty fast connection, there isn't that much lack of quality, and you can use any PC with a working display as your second monitor. This is a great tool for video editors, or people who just like to multitask...
Posted by Ryan at 07:10 AM | Comments (0)
Clocky - Alarm clock for people that hate getting out of bed
Clocky is a clock for people who have trouble getting out of bed. When the snooze bar is pressed, Clocky rolls off the table and finds a hiding spot, a new one every day.
There's not much information about it yet, but soon there will be a Quicktime video of Clocky in action...
Posted by Ryan at 07:06 AM | Comments (0)
FlickrDesktop - Use a random Flickr image as your wallpaper
It occurred to me that there probably aren't that many people in the habit of casually browsing the API group, so I thought I might repost this here ;-)I got the idea for this from a comment the other day, so I thought it'd be a fun way to get into the API.
FlickrDesktop is a small app that will load a random picture from various areas, and set it as your desktop wallpaper. If the image is larger then your screen resolution, it will resize it down, otherwise it will simply be centered in the desktop.
Current features:
-- Timed change
-- Pull from several areas
-- Everyone's Photos
-- Your Photos
-- Contact's Photos
-- Group Pool
-- User Photostream
Posted by Ryan at 06:42 AM | Comments (0)
Minigal 2 - PHP image editor
This is a cool PHP script that lets you edit all your photos online.
Posted by Ryan at 06:41 AM | Comments (0)
The Portable Virtual Privacy Machine
This is a full virtual Linux machine with several privacy features, and it can fit on your thumbdrive. You can save all your sensitive information on here instead of the host computer so that it wll go everywhere with you. It will be auto-configured to run on any machine with a working internet connection, and even includes Firefox, Thunderbird (and PGP), persistent Home directory, and secure tunneling software...
Posted by Ryan at 06:39 AM | Comments (1)
Making rounded corners without images
Here's a cool way to combine CSS and Javascript to make a rounded corner without having to use any images at all.
Posted by Ryan at 06:23 AM | Comments (0)
One of Bill Gates' top priorities is "improved reading on the screen"
Mr. Gates wants to release more ClearType fonts to ship with it's OS in early 2006.
The new ClearType Font Collection incorporates improved ClearType and OpenType technologies, and a boatload of research, to improve the structure and the clarity of the letter forms. Basically, that means a story will be easier to read because the letters and words won't be as soft and mushy looking.
Posted by Ryan at 06:20 AM | Comments (0)
In-Depth review of Yahoo 360
Yahoo's new service, codenamed Mingle, was announced yesterday as Yahoo 360. It is "An easy way to keep connected to friends and family with blogs, photos, and more." Read this review to find out all about the service...
Posted by Ryan at 06:15 AM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2005
KDE 3.4 released today
- After more than a half year of development the KDE Project is happy to be able to announce a new major release of the award-winning K Desktop Environment. Among the many new features that have been incorporated, the improvements in accessibility are most remarkable.
Posted by at 10:00 PM | Comments (0)
Microsoft to release web-based RSS aggregator
Microsoft's MSN division has started testing a Web-based RSS aggregator, a move it's making to stay with rivals like Google, Yahoo, and Ask Jeeves.
Posted by at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)
Yahoo! trying a mixture of blogging and networking
Yahoo! will soon be releasing a service that integrates blogging and social networking, called Yahoo! 360. It will be available March 26.
Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) is preparing to introduce a new service that blends several of its Web site's popular features with two of the Internet's fastest growing activities — blogging and social networking.
Posted by at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)
New Google AdSense format
Turns out that Google is changing the way that Google AdSense is displayed.
Starting today, you're going to see a new AdSense ad format (we're keeping the "old" ones too) for content ads on websites, called AdSense Ad Links. These smaller-than-usual formats use a bit of shorthand to link to several categories of ads, rather than display the ads themselves.
Posted by at 09:36 PM | Comments (0)
MoonEdit
This is a really cool text editor that allows multiple users to edit a file at once, and can show all the users' cursors on the screen. There's no latency between the remote editors, and it also stores a history of changes. Looks like a great program...
Posted by Ryan at 06:49 AM | Comments (0)
Googlex
This just in - from Google labs. An awesome new way to search Google, modelled after OSX, and using some great javascript. It has a lot of their new features, such as Scholar, Video, and Maps, and its pretty fun to play around with.
"Roses are red. Violets are blue. OS X rocks. Homage to you."
Posted by Ryan at 06:46 AM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2005
AmazType
Here's another great flash design -- AmazType shows a search query on Amazon.com in an extremely spectacular way.
Posted by Ryan at 10:05 PM | Comments (0)
Flickr postcard browser
This flash application lets you type in a keyword and it finds all Flickr images with that tag and also displays them in a pretty cool way.
Posted by Ryan at 07:33 AM | Comments (0)
A few quick actionscript tips
If you do any Flash development, this is essential information. These are quick tips to make your javascript more efficient and even recommended suffixes to clean up your code.
Posted by Ryan at 07:31 AM | Comments (0)
The Fade Anything Technique
In the past few weeks, Jason Fried of 37signals' has reminded us that the “Yellow Fade Technique” (YFT), which they've implemented in such things as Basecamp and Ta-da Lists, is a friendly way to “highlight changes without getting in someone's way”. I very much agree.
Posted by Ryan at 07:07 AM | Comments (0)
Lots of .HTACCESS tricks
The .htaccess file is a very powerful configuration tool for users of the Apache web server. Here are some quick tips and tricks about how an .HTACCESS file can be placed in the various directories of your web server to provide specific handling of various Apache web server options for that directory.
Posted by Ryan at 07:06 AM | Comments (0)
iSpeakIt
This is for Mac users only, but nonetheless a great tool. iSpeakIt will turn any text into spoken word for later listening on your iPod. Great tool for the non-readers.
Posted by Ryan at 07:02 AM | Comments (0)
Free software for creating visuals of your music
macronaut was a proof of concept of some ideas i wanted to try out to create audio-reactive visuals which are aesthetically interesting, as well as responding well to the audio inputstream used. possibly the biggest difference to more common approaches, the underlying engine does attempt a beat detection - even if very basic - instead of visualizing the raw audio data, like iTunes does for example. this extra layer acts as "server" of sorts, providing event data and statistics of a sound fragment to the currently active visual module, which is then free to interpret this data in any possible way. those generated "beat" events are the primary source of change for the visuals. the audio data itself is (so far) only used as additional, secondary input for creating the visuals. as all of the implemented visuals are making use of 3d so far, i also focussed on "filmic" elements like camera changes and cuts as event receivers.
Posted by Ryan at 07:00 AM | Comments (0)
The Bloggies 2005 winners
The results are in, and BoingBoing has finished near the top again, as well as some other great blogs. Check out this website to see the full list of winners...
Posted by Ryan at 06:57 AM | Comments (0)
How to manually get a BSOD
I dunno why you'd want to make your computer get a Blue Screen Of Death, but if it just seems like the "cool" way to crash it, then here's how to do that:
1. Start the registry editor. (Regedt32.exe) Remember to back up the registry before moving on.2. Locate the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesi8042prtParameters3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following Registry value:
Value Name: CrashOnCtrlScroll
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 14. Quit and restart your computer.
Once your computer has restarted, just hold down the CTRL left of the spacebar and press scroll lock twice. If you want to change the kind of memory dump that is created, follow these instrucions:
1. Right click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Advanced tab, and then click the Startup and Recovery button.
3. Click Write Debugging Information, and then click to select either Complete Memory Dump, Kernel Memory Dump, or Small Memory Dump.
Posted by Ryan at 06:52 AM | Comments (0)
Run Linux inside Windows from a USB Flash drive
Thanks to the magic of Qemu, we can now offer a version of DSL which can easily run inside a Windows or Linux host environment. This means that you can take out your USB drive and boot into DSL without having to shut down and reboot the host computer.
Posted by Ryan at 06:50 AM | Comments (0)
TechEncyclopedia: More than 20,000 IT terms
Need a quick reference to TCP/IP, the OSI model, or just want to get a random tech term? Check out this website for tons of words to add to your vocabulary
Posted by Ryan at 06:48 AM | Comments (0)
Sunlight in a tube
Scientists are working on a new way to pipe light into buildings instead of using artificial light and consuming energy.
Their new system. called hybrid solar lighting, would reduce this energy usage with fixtures that supplement or completely replace electric light with sunlight, at times when it’s available. The system is called hybrid solar lighting.In the system, a rooftop collector concentrates and sends sunlight through optical fibers, tubes made of special, high-purity material that transmit light by reflecting it down their inner walls.
Posted by Ryan at 06:45 AM | Comments (0)
Seven words you can't use in email
Here's a great way to get your email blocked by almost all spam filters... Even though you may need to use these words to convey a point, they'll most likely get your email thrown into the Junk folder... Here are the words:
1. enlarge
2. win
3. long distance
4. free
5. big bucks
6. click here
7. spam
Posted by Ryan at 06:42 AM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2005
The definitive BIOS optimization guide
Here are all of the features that are available in all common BIOSes. This guide tells you what each setting does, and how to tweak it for maximum efficiency...
Posted by Ryan at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2005
How to embed True Type fonts into your web page
Ever wanted to create a website with a weird font in it, but didn't want to make a whole bunch of images? This article tells you how to convert a font into a .pfr and then embed it in your CSS so everyone can see that font on your site.
You may have an interesting or weird font type that you want on your web page, but in order for other people to be able to see this font you will need to embed it on your web page. Why? Because when a visitor views a web site, the only fonts that will display are those installed on the visitors system!
Posted by Ryan at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)
March 11, 2005
Using AJAX to create a login system
This is a great way to validate users. The coding will validate a password instantly, without having to click submit. It requires no page refresh, but still keeps the password secure. Try out the demo with a correct combination and also try an incorrect combination to see what happens...
Posted by Ryan at 07:47 PM | Comments (0)
BurnCDCC
BurnCDCC is a quick way to burn an ISO without having to go through all of the steps Nero uses.
Posted by Ryan at 05:08 PM | Comments (0)
How to get rid of popups in Firefox
For a while, Firefox has been great about blocking popups, but one technique is becoming more popular to launch popups in Firefox. If a certain actionscript is embedded into a flash document, popups will launch without interference from Firefox's popup blocker. Here's how to disable that with about:config...
Type "about:config" into the location bar
Right click anywhere in this page and click New > Integer
Name this integer privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins
Give it a value of 2
If you followed everything correctly, you'll no longer have popups from Flash.
Posted by Ryan at 02:02 PM | Comments (0)
Some great hacking tools and tutorials
This is from The Tech Domain... Tons of information on hacking and vulnerabilities...
Posted by Ryan at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)
March 10, 2005
A whole bunch of cool favelets
Just drag these to the toolbar on your browser and you can do all kinds of cool stuff. A few examples are an HTML validator, screen resizer (for web developers to test other resolutions), Babelfish page translations, stylesheet chooser, and much more...
Posted by Ryan at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)
WinPlosion
WinPlosion is similar to the F8 key (I think) on OSX... Once you press one of the hotkeys it will resize all your windows to fit on the screen and then you can select which one to bring to the front. It's a great way to switch tasks and a great alternative to Alt-Tab. Unfortunately it's shareware, but it has a free trial and is only $10 if you decide to buy it.
WinPLOSION allows you to immediately view and select from all the windows running on your computer, just those of the active application, or to minimise all windows and display a clear desktop.The power of today’s computers mean that we often have a lot of windows open at the same time; a word processor, a graphics package, a browser window or two, an email client, maybe a development environment, plus windows explorer and a couple of directory windows. Of course our screens haven’t got any bigger and the task bar becomes progressively more useless the more windows that are open – so finding the window we want becomes a time consuming, frustrating task. No Longer.
Posted by Ryan at 09:59 PM | Comments (1)
RegExLib.com Regular Expression Library
This site has tons of free regular expressions. Some of them are extremely advanced, and very useful for various functions on web applications (filtering emails, doing advanced searches, HTML markup, etc...) They even have an RSS feed so you can get new regular expressions whenever they come out.
Posted by Ryan at 09:48 PM | Comments (0)
Map it! Firefox extension
Map it! is a cool extension that allows you to generate driving directions with Google maps only by using publicly listed phone numbers. Just type in your phone number for the start point and then enter an ending point and it will bring you to a page with driving directions.
Posted by Ryan at 09:22 PM | Comments (1)
March 09, 2005
Use Bart's PE Builder to make an Anti-Spyware rescue disk
Sometimes a Windows install can get corrupted or compromised in such a way that it’s hard to correct without removing the hard drive and using another computer and Operating System to fix it. Bart’s PE Builder is a free tool that allows you to create a bootable Windows CD or DVD from an existing install CD of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. This Windows boot CD runs a cut down version of XP, with network, gui and FAT/NTFS/CDFS file system support. Since you can run Windows applications from this boot CD it’s a useful tool for fixing various problems on Windows 2000/2003/XP/9x system that can not easily be fixed while booted from the copy of Windows on the hard drive.
Posted by Ryan at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)
How safe is your P2P program?
This site gives a comparison of the 5 most popular P2P apps and what adware they install on your system...
Posted by Ryan at 09:02 PM | Comments (0)
Drag and Drop Javascript
This is a cool javascript that allows you to drag and drop certain elements of a page to anywhere else on the page...
Posted by Ryan at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)
HashTab
HashTab is a Windows shell extension which adds a tab called "File Hashes" to the Windows Explorer file properties.The tab contains the MD5, SHA1 and CRC-32 file hashes. These are common hashes that are used to verify the integrity and authenticity of files. Many download sites list the MD5 hash along with the download link.
The HashTab makes it very simple for Windows users to check these hashes on any file on the system without using external tools.
Posted by Ryan at 05:13 PM | Comments (0)
March 08, 2005
Try out Netscape 8 Beta
Looks like a pretty nice browser. I'm still stuck on Firefox, but Netscape 8 ofers tabbed browsing, advanced security features, several browser toolbars, a form filler, and RSS integration...
Posted by Ryan at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)
MT-Keystrokes: Cool new way of eliminating comment spam
MT-Keystrokes counts keystrokes entered in the textarea part of the MovableType comment form. It calculates this number to make sure it's roughtly the same size as the comment that is posted. Since most comment spammers are probably pasting their comment, they'll end up with either two keystrokes (ctrl+v) or none if they paste by right-clicking.
Posted by Ryan at 09:16 PM | Comments (0)
Firetweaker - Optimize Firefox
Firetweaker gives you all kinds of advanced features to tweak Firefox. As far as I know, you can do most of these tweaks from the about:config menu, but this just adds a nice GUI to that functionality...
Posted by Ryan at 09:10 PM | Comments (0)
Tiger vs. Longhorn
Here's a great article by Patrick Norton, a former host on The Screensavers... Apple's Tiger OS vs. Microsoft Longhorn...
Posted by Ryan at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)
The XBOX2 Specs have been released
Here's a quick look at some of the hardware:
# CPU - Xenon's CPU has three 3.0 GHz PowerPC cores. Each core is capable of two instructions per cycle and has an L1 cache with 32 KB for data and 32 KB for instructions. The three cores share 1 MB of L2 cache. Alpha 2 developer kits currently have two cores instead of three.# GPU - Xenon's GPU is a generation beyond the ATI X800. Its clock speed is 500 MHz and it supports Shader 3.0. Developers are currently working with an alpha 2 GPU. Beta GPU units are expected by May and the final GPU is slated for a summer release. The final GPU will be more powerful than anything on the market today; in game terms, it would handle a game like Half-Life 2 with ease.
# System Memory - Xenon will have 256 MB of system RAM. Keep in mind that this number should not be equated to typical PC RAM. The Xbox has 64 MB of system RAM and is a very capable machine.
# Optical Drive - As many have speculated, Xenon will not use Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. Games will come on dual-layer DVD-9 discs. While the media is the same as that of the current Xbox, the usable space on each disc is up to 7 GB. The drive is slated to run at 12X.
# Memory Units - Xenon will use 64 MB to 1,024 MB memory cards. 8 MB is reserved for system use, leaving a 56 MB to 1,016 MB for user data.
# Hard Drive - As many have speculated, Xenon's hard drive is optional. 2 GB of the drive will be used as game cache. The final drive size is still being determined.
# Camera - Xenon will have a USB 2.0 camera. It's capable of 1.2 megapixel still shots and VGA video. Photos can be used in-game and for gamer profiles. The camera can also be used for video chat. It's unknown if the Xenon camera will allow for EyeToy-like gameplay. Developers are currently using a simulated camera driver.
# Sound Chip - Xenon does not have an audio chip in the traditional sense. Decompression is handled by hardware, while the rest of the chores are handled by software. DirectSound3D has been dropped in favor of X3DAudio. The former was deemed too inflexible.
Posted by Ryan at 09:00 PM | Comments (0)
Gmail Plugins
Huge list of all kinds of tools to make your Gmail experience more enjoyable...
Posted by Ryan at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)
Teen convicted of piracy
A student at the University of Arizona has just become the first person in thr country to be convicted of a crime under state laws for illegally downloading music and movies from the Internet.
Under an agreement with prosecutors, Dhaliwal was sentenced last month to a three-month deferred jail sentence, three years of probation, 200 hours of community service and a $5,400 fine. The judge in the case also ordered him to take a copyright class at the University of Arizona, which he attends, and to avoid file-sharing computer programs."Generally copyright is exclusively a federal matter," said Jason Schultz, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a technology civil liberties group. "Up until this point, you just haven't seen states involved at all."
Posted by Ryan at 08:38 PM | Comments (0)
Open Clip Art Library
If you need some free clipart, this site has some very high quality stuff...
Posted by Ryan at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)
STC fontBrowser
This is a neat little flash interface that lets you see all the fonts installed on your system, and also preview them.
Posted by Ryan at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)
Create an ebook for your iPod
All you have to do is upload your text file to this site and it will convert it to a format readable by the "notes" feature on iPods, allowing you to read your documents whenever you want...
Posted by Ryan at 04:51 PM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2005
Open Source Realtime Video Editing And Effects Software: Jahshaka
Out of all the big time software editing programs, none are open source. Jahsaka is a free video editing and post-filming software.
Posted by at 09:07 PM | Comments (0)
The Top Ten Things You Need to Know About Sony’s PSP
10 things you need to know about the Sony PSP
Posted by at 08:29 PM | Comments (0)
8 Ways to Increase Your Adsense Revenue
8 ways to boost your google adsense earnings
Posted by at 08:27 PM | Comments (0)
Google Desktop Plugins
Google offers a whole bunch of plugins for you to be able to index all kinds of files with their desktop search, such as PDFs, faxes, scanned documents, trillian chats, mIRC chats, and a whole lot more...
Posted by Ryan at 06:19 PM | Comments (0)
March 06, 2005
Firefox extension to remember loaded tabs
SessionSaver 0.2:
Remembers loaded tabs and their history items when Firefox is manually closed, then restores the tabs and history items when next started. The saved session can also be manually restored or updated at any later time via the items in the File menu.
Posted by Ryan at 11:32 PM | Comments (0)
Google helping college students take care of their brains
Google is handing out promotions on campuses, telling students how to take care of their big brain. Like by sleeping a lot, eating well, or ... sharing your brain with the rest of the world by working at the Google Labs. The leaflet reads:“Share Your Big Brain With the World Big brains are at their best when they are able to share their gift with everyone. So apply for a position with Google Labs. You and your killer brain will work on some of the most challenging and rewarding projects on earth. And spend 20% of your time working on projects of your own – in a culture that encourages you to use both sides of that big grape. Email your resume to bigbrain@google.com or check out google.com/labjobs”
Posted by Ryan at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)
The Shiny Balls Mirror
Shiny Balls Mirror is a large physical object made of 900 hollow metal tubes with polished chrome balls placed in them. The whole piece has the form of a large hexagon. This system is being developed to be a large display. Each hollow tube and shiny ball are one pixel in the display. This pixel has the ability to change its brightness by moving the chrome ball in (darker) or out (brighter) of the tube. A few interesting points about this display are the fact that it uses an hexagonal grid for the pixels rather than rectangular, also interesting is the fact that this display serves as a mirror in the way it reflects the viewer as a whole, but also it reflects the viewer 900 times on the shiny balls, making the positive content of the display (the bright pixels) the viewers themselves.
Posted by Ryan at 12:12 PM | Comments (0)
Google Local just got better
The developers for Google Local have now added a few extra features such as store hours, restaurant menus, prices, and wifi availability. Another section shows restaurant reviews, and the revamp even includes Google Maps to help you find your way around.
Posted by Ryan at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)
Racetrack Fish Bowl
The Racetrack Fish Bowl is the perfect solution if your fish suffers from claustrophobia, or if you're simply looking for a tabletop conversation piece for your home or office. The Racetrack Fish Bowl is designed to give goldfish, which are said to have a memory of 7 seconds, the sensation of long distance swimming. Instead of swimming side to side in a regular bowl, goldfish can crisscross for miles through this unusual infinity-shaped bowl. Except perhaps for an occasional lapse of deja vu, every lap will seem like a new experience for your finned-friends.
Posted by Ryan at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)
20 stupid client quotes
Here are some actual conversations between companies and their clients. It's amazing how stupid some people are...
#5: My office was located on the same floor as the helpdesk for a newly created telco. The helpdesk actually received the following request.. (this call was received on a Friday morning) Client: I have a project that is due on Monday morning that is very important, but I need to do alot of research. Most of the material is located on the Internet and I don't have Internet at home. Call Center: What would you like us to do? Client: Can you copy "the Internet" to a CD for me so that I can browse through it over the weekend? (The client was very serious... )
Posted by Ryan at 01:14 AM | Comments (0)
Those who perform last finish first
Interesting study that proves that people who perform near the end of a competition typically will score higher by the judges of that competition. This is known as the serial position effect, and is helpful to know if you have to be judged on anything soon...
Posted by Ryan at 12:11 AM | Comments (0)
March 05, 2005
Fliker Image Search
Fliker is an image search engine and an inspirational tool. As you type and refine your search, you see results as quickly as your connection allows. Fliker is the fastest way of searching for images, all you have to do is concentrate on the images that flash in front of you. Because Fliker displays all the images in the same place you don't have to scan across rows of pictures or scroll down a web page. Fliker is also an inspirational tool, it dynamically reacts to your search terms as you type, so you receive exciting and unxpected results as you spell your searches out. For example searching for 'cartoon' would receive results for 'car', 'carts', maps ('carto') and everything inbetween.
Posted by Ryan at 11:31 PM | Comments (0)
Mirror of the LookingGlass Live CD
By the time I found out about the LookingGlass Live CD, it was way past being Slashdotted, and the mirrors of the iso were dead and the torrent isn't working in Azureus. I found this mirror, so if you still want to try out LookingGlass, use this...
Posted by Ryan at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2005
MyBlogLog.com
MyBlogLog gives you a simple javascript to add to the html of your page, and it will track all outgoing links, keeping a detailed log of your site's most popular links.
Posted by Ryan at 08:51 PM | Comments (0)
DNKA
DNKA allows you to search Google Desktop on other computers on your network.
Key Features* Simple to search data on remote desktop.
* Allow/Deny access for external hosts to the search server. By default (as installed) access is only granted to the local machine.
* Allow to change port number for web server.
* Users support.
* Share the files.
* Log access to the search server.
* Web interface for search server options.
* Password protected access to search server options.
* Launch automatically when a GDS start up.Possible use:
* Install it on your PC's at work and home and your laptop and search/view/download on any from the others.
* Install it on a workgroup file server and use it to index/search/view the contents.
* Use it for a distributing files, like a P2P search service.
Posted by Ryan at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)
Tracking Eye Movement in Google
This study shows where people focus the most on a Google search...
Posted by Ryan at 07:27 PM | Comments (0)
March 02, 2005
LG3D: Project Looking Glass 3D Live CD
Sun has released a demo of Project Looking Glass for everyone to try out. Its still in extreme beta, but its really fun to play with and see what Project Looking Glass will be like...
Posted by Ryan at 08:36 PM | Comments (0)
The Clockball rolling timepiece
Simply set the time on your ClockBall, then place it within the supplied black square frame to create a desk clock that is truly intriguing. Initially the ball slowly moves forward at around one centimeter an hour. Once it reaches the end of the frame it automatically starts to roll back the other way, while still keeping perfect time.While all this rolling is going on you can always tell what time it is thanks to the yellow marker line on the ball. It's a total mind flip when it all still works while the ball is rolling backwards!
Posted by Ryan at 07:23 PM | Comments (0)
WebMail extension for Thunderbird
The Web-Mail extension creates a platform which other extensions use to integrate web based email accounts into Mozilla Thunderbird. POP is the only protocol supported, this means Thunderbird can only download emails. To send emails use your ISP’s SMTP server, Thunderbird will set the “Return-Path” and “From” email headers using the web account email address, too the recipient the email will appear to have come from the web base account.
Posted by Ryan at 07:03 PM | Comments (0)
RightClick
Add your own programs, URLs, and more to the right click context menu on your desktop
Posted by Ryan at 07:02 PM | Comments (0)
Peerflix
Basically the same as NetFlix, but you trade DVDs with your peers instead of rent them from Netflix. There's no montly membership - it's pay as you go, and you can have unlimited DVDs out at a time (the more you lend out, the more you get).
Posted by Ryan at 07:00 PM | Comments (0)
The Turnpike Prank
Do the toll booths really know how much money you put in? Apparently not. This guy first tested the theory with 97 cents, and nothing happened. Eventually, he was using IOU's and even a few oranges, and still nothing happened. See the results and other things he used to pay the toll at the site.
Posted by Ryan at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)
Clamwin - Open Source Antivirus
Clamwin is an awesome, free virus scanner. It's open source so virus definitions come pretty regularly. It doesn't offer realtime scanning like Norton or AVG, but it will automatically delete email viruses with its Outlook plugin.
Posted by Ryan at 07:34 AM | Comments (0)
March 01, 2005
Explore2fs
If you've got a Linux partition that you need to read from Windows, this software will do it. It can read and write to any ex2fs filesystem, and is compatible with all Windows operating systems.
Posted by Ryan at 09:02 PM | Comments (0)
Glyphsaw puzzle
This software is able to put together a jigsaw puzzle. All you have to do is hold the pieces up to a webcam, and it will decide where they all need to go to fit together...
Posted by Ryan at 08:56 PM | Comments (0)
Google Personalized
Now you can get personalized search results from Google. Just set a few preferences and begin searching to get better targeted results.
Google Personalized web search delivers custom search results that are based on a profile you create describing your interests. For example, people with an interest in the outdoors will see different relevant sites for a search on "bass" than people who are interested in music. Google Personalized web search is currently available in test mode on Google Labs, where you can create and save your profile and see results tuned to your preferences. Your results can be instantly rearranged by dragging a slider at the top of the page to go from no personalization to full personalization or anywhere in between.
Posted by Ryan at 08:36 PM | Comments (0)
Google Suggest in Firefox
This handy Firefox extension puts Google suggest functionality right in the Google search bar in Firefox.
Posted by Ryan at 08:32 PM | Comments (0)
Boy dies under 'giant snowball'
A 10-year-old boy has been crushed to death by a giant snowball.Peter Strang had been playing with a friend when the snowball, reported to weigh a quarter of a ton, rolled down a hill and engulfed him.
Posted by at 07:06 PM | Comments (0)
Stripe Snoop
Stripe Snoop is a suite of research tools that captures, modifies, validates, generates, analyzes, and shares data from magstripe cards. The data is captured through different hardware interfaces (or stdin), the contents decoded into the correct character set, and then a CDDB-like database attempts to figure out what the contents mean.Originally a proof of concept for an interfacing project, and then a spin off from a research project, Stripe Snoop has matured in the definitive software for accessing and understanding magstripes.
Posted by Ryan at 05:30 PM | Comments (0)
Buddy Gopher
For all you AIM users that are obsessive about checking people's away messages, Buddy Gopher is for you. It allows you to make a buddy list with your favorite buddies, and then view all of their away messages from one page. It will archive old away messages for up to 72 hours...
Posted by Ryan at 05:08 PM | Comments (1)