Tech Stuff & Other Junk

This site contains random links, random thoughts about useless stuff and anything else I happen to find on the internet.

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Friday, March 31, 2006

Alienware's Aurora ALX with Quad SLI Graphics

Features include:
  • Equipped with an exclusive Liquid Chilled Quad NVIDIA SLI Graphics solution that goes beyond the capabilities of standard liquid cooling.
  • Powered by four NVIDIA® GeForce® GPUs to run games at ultra-high resolutions with silky smooth frame rates.
  • Maximizes image quality as well as shader and texture settings to ensure an unforgettable gaming experience.
  • Features NVIDIA PureVideo™ technology for exceptional picture quality while watching TV, DVDs, and video of any size.
  • Combines Quad SLI with AMD FX-60 processing for the ultimate in performance.
It's funny. The first computers took up entire floors of building. Over the years they managed to get smaller and smaller. Now it looks computers are starting to get back in the other direction. Soon you will need a separate room with its on air conditioning and power connections just to play Doom 20 or Half-Life 10.

GTA killer case clears hurdle


The jostling for position continues in the civil suit that pits the estates of killed cops Arnold Strickland and Leslie "Ace" Mealer of Fayette County, Alabama, against the makers and sellers of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. In a criminal case that made national headlines in 2003, carjacker Devin Moore, in police custody at the time, grabbed one of the arresting officer's guns and shot and killed that officer and two others. Moore later told investigators, "Life is like a video game; everybody has to die sometime." Read more...

These lawsuits against video games is getting completely out of hand anymore. How can anyone believe for one second that a video game, nothing but a bunch of code and pictures, can influence a person to the point where real live and game live become blurred. To me it is pretty clear that Devin Moore had issues long before playing the game. I would like to know how Moore managed to get a gun away from one of the officers. I don't think the game taught Moore how to do that. Any day that a cop is killed protecting and serving is a truly sad day. The law should be more concerned with criminals than a computer game company. Maybe games are becoming violent but game makers are only giving the masses what they want. Think about that for a minute.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Terror-Proofing Jets

Nearly five years after September 11, the airline industry is finally adopting new in-flight technologies to keep planes safe from terrorists. With $110 million in grant money from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Aviation Administration is currently in the process of certifying two antimissile systems designed for commercial airliners. The technology uses infrared sensors to detect and track incoming missiles, then fires a laser beam to jam a heat-seeking missile’s infrared guidance system. Tests on passenger-carrying flights could begin by the end of the year, says Homeland Security spokesman Brian Doyle. Meanwhile, defense contractors are developing advanced surveillance systems that monitor both inside and outside the airplane, with the capability to beam images by satellite to ground control, and autopilot software that can wrest control of a hijacked airplane. Here’s our rundown of anti-terror technologies set to fly within the next couple years. Read more...

A terror proof jet? It is certainly a novel idea. It sound like commerical jets will soon be compreable to military jets like the F-14 Tomcat. Just how maneuverable is a 747 anyways? Wasn't there anyone thinking about this six years ago before September 11th, 2001?

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Investigators find security lapses at U.S. ports of entry

WASHINGTON – Undercover investigators slipped a radioactive substance – enough, they say, to make two dirty bombs – across northern and southern U.S. borders last year in a test of security at American ports of entry. Radiation detection equipment at the unidentified sites went off, but the investigators were permitted to enter the United States after using counterfeit documents to deceive customs agents. Read more...

42 Really Is The Answer!

In their search for patterns, mathematicians have uncovered unlikely connections between prime numbers and quantum physics. Will the subatomic world help reveal the elusive nature of the primes? The important role played by the number 42 has recently persuaded even the deepest skeptics that the subatomic world might hold the key to one of the greatest unsolved problems in mathematics. It looks like Douglas Adams was right all along! We just need to figure out what the question is.

read more | digg story

Monday, March 27, 2006

Student spends spring break living at Wal-mart

Skyler Bartels kept looking over his shoulder. It's a habit he picked up living at the Windsor Heights Wal-Mart for three days. Really living there. Eating, sleeping, checking out the DVDs, never leaving. The plan was to spend his entire spring break there. Under the radar. Some kids go to Cancun. Skyler Bartels, a Drake University sophomore from Harvard, Neb., went to the garden and patio department. Read more...

This story is very interesting and very sad on so many levels. I have to admit it would be a great learning experience. I wonder if he could pull it off at a regular Wal-mart instead of a super Wal-mart.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Revolutionary jet engine tested in Australia


A new jet engine designed to fly at seven times the speed of sound appears to have been successfully tested. It is hoped the British-designed Hyshot III will pave the way for ultra fast, intercontinental air travel. If more tests are successful it could reduce flight times between London and Sydney to two hours. Read more...

Thursday, March 23, 2006

PayPal plans payment over cell phones via SMS

Paypal is reportedly testing a new offering that allows consumers to make purchases and money transfers using simple text messaging through mobile phones. The service, known as PayPal Mobile, will be launched in the next couple of weeks in the United States, Canada and Britain. Paypal is hoping this new service will provide a bridge between the worlds of e-commerce and brick and mortar stores. My first question would be how safe will this be? Is SMS a secure means of communications? SMS messages are sent in clear text. Will you login by simply sending a text message with you username and password? I hope everyone understands that a text message is saved on your phone when you send it. Have you ever misplaced your cell phone? Imagine this, you can't find your cell phone and the next thing you know you are broke. Scary, isn't it.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

IRS plans to allow preparers to sell data

Critics said the proposed regulation could lead to a loss of privacy for clients. The IRS is quietly moving to loosen the once-inviolable privacy of federal income-tax returns. If it succeeds, accountants and other tax-return preparers will be able to sell information from individual returns - or even entire returns - to marketers and data brokers. Read more...


Critics say that this proposed regulation could lead to a loss of privacy. Really? Boy, this critics are awful smart. You mean to tell me that if a business sells your completed tax return to a marketing company your privacy may be at stake. I say lets lose the middle man and sell our personal info directly to marketing companies. That way we, instead of someone else, would at least get something for it.

Monday, March 20, 2006

A rare 1972 documentary on ARPAnet

A 1972 documentary on ARPAnet, the early internet. A very interesting look at the beginnings of what is now a huge part of most of our lives. Talk about stepping into the wayback machine. Just look at those fashion trend setters. Do all of today's super nerds and geeks look like this?

Support DMCA reform - help pass HR 1201

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been wreaking havoc on consumers' fair use rights for the past seven years. Now Congress is considering the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (DMCRA, HR 1201), a bill that would reform part of the DMCA and formally protect the "Betamax defense" relied on by so many innovators. HR 1201 would give citizens the right to circumvent copy-protection measures as long as what they're doing is otherwise legal. For example, it would make sure that when you buy a CD, whether it is copy-protected or not, you can record it onto your computer and move the songs to an MP3 player.

Everyone needs to read this HR bill. Is seems that the goverment is starting to open its eyes to what the RIAA and the MPAA is doing. If you don't remember the DMCA was first drafted by the RIAA and there are alot of elected officials in the back pocket of these two groups. Go to the EFF website and send your support for this bill to your representives.

GMail hit with account deletion controversy

Google Mail has come under attack over the last couple of weeks, with users complaining of problems ranging from service downtime to the deletion of their account and all the information stored there.

read more | digg story

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Kiss Your iPod Goodbye with the lastest version of Winamp

If you have been using the ml_ipod plugin, watch out. If you upgrade to the newest version of Winamp (5.2) with the ipod plugin installed, kiss your playlists and everything else goodbye...it will screw up your ipod bad. It's affecting a lot of ipod owners and Winamp has not bothered to post any notices about this issue.

read more | digg story

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Think you’re safe if you tear up credit card applications before throwing them away?

Do you own a shredder? Do you tears credit card apps and the like up before throwing them away or do you just pitch them without even opening them? If you answered yes to the second question you are about to get a really big surprise. You will probably be surprised even if you answered yes to the first question. A man has tested the "get a credit card by reconstructing a torn or shredded app" theory. I bet you could never guess what happened when he return the taped up app.

Want to find out?

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

A new law would make it illegal for anyone to talk about government surveillance programs including the press


By KATHERINE SHRADER

The Associated Press
Friday, March 10, 2006; 6:01 PM

WASHINGTON -- Reporters who write about government surveillance could be prosecuted under proposed legislation that would solidify the administration's eavesdropping authority, according to some legal analysts who are concerned about dramatic changes in U.S. law.
But an aide to the bill's chief author, Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, said that is not the intention of the legislation. Read more...

Ten Obscure Factoids Concerning Albert Einstein


For what it's worth......





1. He Liked His Feet Naked


"When I was young, I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in the sock," he once said. "So I stopped wearing socks." Einstein was also a fanatical slob, refusing to "dress properly" for anyone. Either people knew him or they didn't, he reasoned - so it didn't matter either way.

2. He Hated Scrabble

Aside from his favourite past-time sailing ("the sport which demands the least energy"), Einstein shunned any recreational activity that required mental agility. As he told the New York Times, "When I get through with work I don't want anything that requires the working of the mind."

3. He Was A Rotten Speller

Although he lived for many years in the United States and was fully bilingual, Einstein claimed never to be able to write in English because of "the treacherous spelling". He never lost his distinctive German accent either, summed up by his catch-phrase "I vill a little t'ink".

4. He Loathed Science Fiction

Lest it distort pure science and give people the false illusion of scientific understanding, he recommended complete abstinence from any type of science fiction. "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough." He also thought people who claimed to have seen flying saucers should keep it to themselves.

5. He Smoked Like A Chimney

A life member of the Montreal Pipe Smokers Club, Einstein was quoted as saying: "Pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment of human affairs." He once fell into the water during a boating expedition but managed heroically to hold on to his pipe.

6. He Wasn't Much Of A Musician

Einstein would relax in his kitchen with his trusty violin, stubbornly trying to improvise something of a tune. When that didn't work, he'd have a crack at Mozart.

7. Alcohol Was Not His Preferred Drug

At a press conference upon his arrival to New York in 1930, he said jokingly of Prohibition: "I don't drink, so it's all the same to me." In fact, Einstein had been an outspoken critic of "passing laws which cannot be enforced".

8. He Equated Monogamy With Monotony

"All marriages are dangerous," he once told an interviewer. "Marriage is the unsuccessful attempt to make something lasting out of an incident." He was notoriously unfaithful as a husband, prone to falling in love with somebody else directly after the exchanging of vows.
9. His Memory Was Shot

Believing that birthdays were for children, his attitude is summed up in a letter he wrote to his girlfriend Mileva Maric: "My dear little sweetheart ... first, my belated cordial congratulations on your birthday yesterday, which I forgot once again."

10. His Cat Suffered Depression

Fond of animals, Einstein kept a housecat which tended to get depressed whenever it rained. Ernst Straus recalls him saying to the melancholy cat: "I know what's wrong, dear fellow, but I don't know how to turn it off."

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Judge to order Google to give up some data

A federal judge said Tuesday he intends to order Google Inc. to turn over some of its Internet records to the U.S. Department of Justice, but expressed reservations about requiring the company to share information about the sometimes sensitive requests handled by its popular search engine. Read more...

Even though Google is fighting to protect the rights of everyone who uses their search engine it looks like they are going to lose the good fight in the end. At least they stood up to the DOJ. Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL bowed to the DOJ without a single whimper. I hope Google continues the fight. I am pretty sure they have the lawyers and resources to do so. They would still probably lose in the end, so is it worth it? I think it is. It is reassuring to see a company stand against the government when it come to protecting privacy.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Driving in Russia

This clip is from a traffic cam in a tunnel in Russia. You have to ask yourself, what is the deal with drivers in that country?

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Was Nessie merely a circus elephant?


NESSIE, the Loch Ness monster, is in fact an elephant, according to a Scottish palaeontologist who claims to have solved the riddle surrounding the unexplained sightings of a monster in a lake near Glasgow in Scotland. Read more...

Well it is about time someone stepped up an solved this mystery. A swimming elephant. Who would have thunk it. Now tell me this Mr. palaeontologist, who put the elephant up to this little stunt, huh???

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

30,000 people are patrolling the web in China

By some estimates, there are more than 30,000 people patrolling the Web in China for phases like "free speech". Now that is what I call a filter system. I wonder if these people get bored at work sometimes? It's not like they would want to surf the web to kill time.

Read more...

Mac OS X hacked in 30 minutes? Not so fast.

Claims of Mac OS X being hacked in less than 30 minutes are not quite what they seem, according to Dave Schroeder, Senior Systems Engineer at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Schroeder says the ZDNet article failed to mention some of the key reasons why the hacker was able to gain access to the computer

read more | digg story

The time-warp family who walk on all fours

An extraordinary family who walk on all fours are being hailed as the breakthrough discovery which could shed light on the moment Man first stood upright. Scientists believe that the five brothers and sisters found in Turkey could hold unique insights into human evolution. The Kurdish siblings, aged between 18 and 34 and from the rural south, 'bear crawl' on their feet and palms. Study of the five has shown the astonishing behaviour is not a hoax and they are largely unable to walk otherwise. Read more...

This is definitely and interesting read. You don't come across actual humans that can only walk on all fours every day. I don't agree with one scientist who said that this family provides an extraordinary window on our past. I think extraordinary is a to strong of a word to use. I think that if you look long enough and hard enough you will always find something weird or strange on this planet. Or any other planet for that matter.

Monday, March 06, 2006

NASA's budget blunders

From CNN

If there's anything more powerful than one good idea it's two bad ones. In the long and often glittery history of American space exploration, far and away the two worst ideas have been the International Space Station (ISS) and the snakebit fleet of space shuttles. For more than a generation, these two ill-considered programs have been money pits for NASA, gobbling funds and returning nowhere near enough in return. Yesterday, they took another big bite out of the space agency, when officials announced $3 billion worth of NASA budget cuts over the next five years, all of them needed to help keep the manned programs going and all of them coming out of the hides of some of the scientists' best and most promising unmanned ones.


Read more...

Russian astronaut will hit ball into orbit

A cosmonaut is to tee off in space and send a ball on a four-year orbit of the earth. It will travel 12.5million miles after Russian Pavel Vinogradov whacks it from the International Space Station. Plans are in the works to have the cosmonaut blast a special golf ball into space from the International Space Station with a 6-iron made by Element 21 Golf Co. Some critics, however, argue that not only would such a stunt be in questionable taste given the cutbacks that NASA has made to legitimate space research, but could also be dangerous if the ball were to strike the space station.


Company hopes to launch golf ball on record-smashing space trip

Digg Story

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Moon landing, real or hoax?

Who Mourns For Apollo? Or Was It Really Only a Paper Moon? is a great article about the two side of the moon landings. The side that says mand landed on the moon and the other side that says that it was impossible. It does a great job of disproving all of the conspiracy theorists. Read it, think about it, and then you will understand that man was really on the moon.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Soft drinks found to have high levels of cancer chemical

Traces of a carcinogenic chemical have been found in soft drinks at eight times the level permitted in drinking water, it was revealed last night. There is a legal limit of one part per billion of benzene in British drinking water. The latest tests revealed levels of up to eight parts per billion in some soft drinks.

read more | digg story

Man looking for love falls victim to an online dating scam

This story is so sad that it is down right funny. It is one of those Nigeria scams. A women convinced this guy to send her thousands of dollars for a plane ticket. He has a great quote, "She was supposed to be here now, four days ago now, and still has never shown up." Check it out at least for the picture of the sucker.

read more | digg story

It's Official: "File sharing is not theft. It has never been theft."

The BBC has clarified one of its scaremongering 'filsharing = paedophilia' industry shill pieces with a complete 180 reversal and the declaration that filesharing is not theft. The snowflakes are settling in Hell right now.

As a man who hacked his first home internet connection back in 1994 (my then boss used his daughter's name as a password) and downloaded his first Star Trek off Peer to Peer back in 2000 (for research purposes only of course - I never inhaled) I hope I know my way around the block.

Read more...