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31 July 2006

News from the Net

NASA considers shutting down all research abord the space station

Bush's croneys try to figure out how to prevent any further investigations into their illegal actions

oooh! Tech that can create animated digital reproductions of the human body that area as accurate as photographs???

Schools are now starting to allow moms to decide what their kids get from the cafeteria

Blue Crab's assist nanite research

M$ Vista adds new 'feature' that keeps around your private files after you delete them... I don't think I need to go into the problems with that...

Not only has the US lost its tech jobs to places like India, now we are also loosing our scientists as well... Of course, those Indian Call Centers may not be around much longer...

IBM had a 50th Anniversary for the Hard Drive. That's right... 50 years ago, you could get a 5MB hard drive that was as small as two refrigerators and only weighed a ton

Would you rather type or tap your commands?

Cheyenne Mountain is shutting down... but, what about StarGate???

NASA's site was hacked

Japan develops the fastest computer in the world

During the Black Hat Briefings, the CTO of WhiteHat Security will be showing how to hack using JavaScript

Take a camera phone pic of the police and get arrested. Guess they are adamant that we don't show them breaking the law

Considering that we all think M$ has had the worst security, I think I will choose to not trust Amazon since they are hiring M$' old senior security strategist. If he can't make it work for M$ he probably can't make it work for Amazon, right?  Of course, Amazon also bought the rights to make a movie out of a book, moving into the grocery business and dropping stock prices... maybe Amazon's CEO has ADHD

Now this is something you might not have thought possible -- our generation is healthier than previous generations.  Even ignoring the impact of antibiotics, chronic ailments are happening later in life than they used to

Fans design the new Lego-provided piece

New record for largest object ever discovered

Wow... I couldn't have made this up... Watch this video when you have your speakers available

For those of you have seen/read 1984, this might be an interesting read... I especially like the comment about Peaches.

Scientists find that ganglion cells in the human brain transmits at 10Mbps

Zango expected for causing the recent MySpace problems

Would you trust free computers and software from Microsoft?

The government wants to be in charge of buffering and filtering your VoIP

The House of Representatives passed the law restricting access to social sites on public terminals... no more Amazon, MySpace, Slashdot or any other page that asks for a Login -- from schools, libraries, etc... Guess it is a good thing that no homeless teenager would try to use library computers to get a job, eh?



Silver
"Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all."

Dragon naturally speaking this ain't...
You would think that maybe microsoft would just buy a company that does recognition instead of trying to come up with it on their own. nah, that would be too easy.
Vista is doooooomed...


Posted by Silver on Mon Jul 31 01:24:00 PDT 2006
Malachi
Let me guess, every time you say "screw Microsoft", they change it to "support Microsoft"... oops, how did that happen, eh?

Posted by Malachi on Tue Aug 08 10:30:00 PDT 2006
Sylkwyrm
Do you think the replicators invaded the mountain and they had to lock it down to protect the planet? ;-)

Posted by Sylkwyrm on Mon Jul 31 09:37:00 PDT 2006
Malachi
Either that, or they don't want us fanatics grabbing the stargate and using it for ourselves ;)

Posted by Malachi on Tue Aug 08 10:30:00 PDT 2006

28 July 2006

World Series of Poker and a Monkey?

So what do you think? Will Mikey get to play?


Sylkwyrm
I wanna play with the Monkey!

Posted by Sylkwyrm on Sat Jul 29 04:25:00 PDT 2006
WILL POWER!
Probably not.  They are afraid alot of people will get embarassed.  Imagine if the monkey knocked out Phil Helmuth.  WTF is that guy going to say?  "Why would I even think that 332 rainbow flop could hit him?  No one calls preflop with 32 off!  I can't believe how much better I am than everyone else here!"  Yeah, that would go over well for the world of poker.  There is no way they let the monkey play.

It'd be neat.


Posted by WILL POWER! on Sun Jul 30 17:44:00 PDT 2006

Google

If you'd like any of these new features in your GoogleTalk, install the beta version over the top of your current one.

This points to some potentially new services that aren't released yet.


News from the Net

System Adminitrators Day 2006

Load PHP Developer quits after 6 years with this message:

     Thank you all for the last 6 years or so. It has been fun (sometimes)
     and many times not so much fun. Unfortunately I have had enough and
     I don't want to be associated with this project anymore.

 

     I'm sure most people (the ones who matter) can understand why.
     If someone doesn't, I could not care less. Take care.

 

     Please do not reply to this email.

     --Jani

     p.s. Delete my CVS account. I have no use for it anymore.

Researchers think they have just disproved Black Holes

Winners have been announced for the Fake Leopard Screenshot contest

The Virtual Reality Medical Center are using VR games to treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

Nice! Google is offering a new product... An open-source project repository. Too bad they won't let EOTI use our T4T license.

Was an expert at the Senate hearings reading my blog? Well, they used my example anyway. When discussing violent video games, they pointed out that even PacMan was violent, 64% in fact

A Firefox extension, numberedlinks, is actually a Trojan

Soldiers may start carrying some of their own freeze-dried blood for giving themselves transfusions

Stel wireless internet from your neighbor and you may find that you can only access kittenwar

Not from the net, but.... The Street of Dreams 2006 starts tomorrow...

Wow, the USA relinquishes control of ICANN. For those of you who don't know what that means, the USA gave up control of the Internet, which they have had until now.



WILL POWER!
Yeah, PacMan made me kill that family.

Posted by WILL POWER! on Fri Jul 28 03:33:00 PDT 2006
Sylkwyrm

Kill them and eat them you mean. ;-)



Posted by Sylkwyrm on Sat Jul 29 03:50:00 PDT 2006
Sylkwyrm

"The problem lies in that the Universe cannot have both MECOs and black holes"

Who says? I thought that MECO's and Black holes were pretty much just a bunch of theorys. Theoretically couldn't they excist together with enough ifs and or buts?



Posted by Sylkwyrm on Sat Jul 29 03:53:00 PDT 2006
Malachi
I thought MECOs were those military guys on Star Trek: Voyager... or was that MACO? hmmm..

Posted by Malachi on Mon Jul 31 00:33:00 PDT 2006
Sylkwyrm
The US is giving up their Totalitarian rane over the internet?!? Sweet!

Posted by Sylkwyrm on Sat Jul 29 04:14:00 PDT 2006

27 July 2006

Google Maps + AskMen Top 99 Women + YouTube



Sylkwyrm
I can practically smell the internet interaction on this site! I love it!

Posted by Sylkwyrm on Thu Jul 27 10:26:00 PDT 2006

News from the Net

This is just going to ensure they feel justified... Kazaa paid $100m in damages to the recording industry

Supermarkets may soon get Ripeness Stickers

How about a Hybrid Scooter?

Looks like the rest of you may be forced to use IE7 whether you want to or not. As for me, I had to have the beta installed for work anyways

You've heard about walking on water - how about writing on water?

How about instead of just closing wounds with electricity, we use electricity to heal the wounds

Scientists have found a way to study deja-vu, although I think they are full of crap. They say that deja vu is when your memory is falsy triggered, but shortly after high-school I was keeping a very in-depth journal and have proof -- although I guess they could claim that was precognition...

This was from local TV news... I just watched a two-faced cat in Massachussets doing friendly nibbles on her caretaker's chin... I'm thinking, wow, that's odd -- and the news anchor says "very rare"... rare? As in, happens more than once???

PR for Anti-Spam Firm spams... idiot



Silver
fucking phenomenal... I get a new browser whether I want it or not. lovely...
lucky for me I use firefox, but I just know it's going to hose the explorer for browsing directories.
now we just need to add the 'windows explorer' functionality to firefox and I'll replace the GUI.
or find a way to kill IE completely and replace it with a different interface, yet still retain the Windows compatibility for my games.   


Posted by Silver on Thu Jul 27 02:02:00 PDT 2006
Sylkwyrm
Anyone else here suspect that M$ is black mailing online stores with the threat of a new browser that will halt sales?

Posted by Sylkwyrm on Thu Jul 27 10:24:00 PDT 2006

26 July 2006

Terahertz Ghost Busting?

Well, some of you have seen the Ghost Hunters episode where they videotaped the psychic with the FLIR camera. You probably also know about Kirlian photography. You've probably also heard me talk about how much I wanted to try an FLIR camera for videotaping ESP tests, Magick, and Hauntings... I'm just really really curious if the FLIR can really provide scientific proof. Well, I'm starting to wonder if the terahertz camera might be another possible option...  Who wants to help me make one?

News from the Net

Congress makes fetish sites illegal. Ok, that might not be their intended purpose, but how many fetishes can you name that use innocent words?

French homes get 2.5Gb/s internet + phone + TV for $85/mo.

Info on the Lakes of Titan

NASA simulates colliding black holes

OpenDarwin shuts down. Hope you weren't looking for an open-source Mac OSX

Once again, the Federal Judges vote for companies instead of people

The Monopoly board game gets debit cards and does away with paper money

Everyone knows how bad it is to drive at the end of the month when the cops are trying to fill their quotas (ie: stupid tickets or even ticketed for things you didn't do) -- but did you know that air marshals are doing the same thing?

Oooh. Big corporate CEO takes on the MPAA after he received one of their blackmail letters

This is very odd.... A proposed change to the Electoral College that... well... very odd...

Someone cut you off? Want to track their license plate down and visit them at home? Well, now you can

It appears that DNA has more code than just genes...

New Google service... Live traffic maps via Cell Phones



WILL POWER!
If the Electoral College change is as simple as it says than it's a good thing.  It seems the point is to avoid ammending the Constitution but to have the person who wins the election actually win it.

How can NASA simulate black holes colliding?  It's all just speculation anyways.


Posted by WILL POWER! on Wed Jul 26 05:06:00 PDT 2006
Sylkwyrm

I figured it out! all it takes to reform the MPAA is...

A ton of money. Why didn't we think of this before!?!  Maybe we can even use this "money thing" to get congress to reverse the ani-fetish bill. :-P



Posted by Sylkwyrm on Wed Jul 26 09:57:00 PDT 2006

25 July 2006

Homebrew RPGs?

Check this out... :)


WILL POWER!
I don't speak that language...What is it?

Posted by WILL POWER! on Tue Jul 25 08:54:00 PDT 2006
Malachi
heh. French.



Posted by Malachi on Tue Jul 25 09:19:00 PDT 2006
WILL POWER!
I can tell what the language is.  If it looks lame and sounds lame it must be French.  What is the site, I mean?

Posted by WILL POWER! on Tue Jul 25 15:49:00 PDT 2006
Malachi
Homebrew RPGs (see title?).... ie: a whole bunch of RPGs that people made.

Personally, I like French. Of course, I like Esperanto too, so what do I know?


Posted by Malachi on Tue Jul 25 22:09:00 PDT 2006
Sarah
If the French can do it, so can wee (lol, little french humor there)

Posted by Sarah on Wed Jul 26 05:57:00 PDT 2006

News from the Net

Kazaa and Skype put their heads together for a new venture

Now that's an idea I like... Using ambient heat to power my AC

Grocery stores are starting to realize that not only does self-checkout reduce their cost (less employees), but also reduces the amount of time you stand waiting in line looking at impulse items

I know I have mentioned similar items in the past, but here's a toy hydrogen-powered car with a solar refueling station.  Now that's giving kids the right toys :)

Fusion Conspiracy? You decide.

Scientists have found intact fosselized bone marrow from 10-million year old frogs and salamanders


24 July 2006

News from the Net

GoTuit launches -- similar to YouTube but you can create playlist from SNIPPETS

For those Wine lovers, and thanks to Brett, we now also have wine.woot.com

Now this is going to be one to really get the attention of Christians... apparently, our evolution (larger brain, improved vision) was caused by our fear of snakes.... Story of Adam and Eve anyone?

Well, since you are reading this, I assume you use MySpace ;) You probably noticed it was down yesterday... That was evidentally due to power surges

Well, it's official... AMD bought ATI. Makes you wonder why their stock went down over 6% so far today, huh?

A new contest is going to award $5000 for Open Source CMS (Content Management System)

New drug for Alzheimer's shows promise

OMG! OMG! OMG! Combined with OLED, this really makes me want a small lab.... 3D flexible computer chips

A tool to make Visual Novels was just released, for free

Astronomers' find star going supernova



WILL POWER!
*Scoff!*  Any good Christian knows that out larger brain and improved vision were placed directly there by God upon our creation at the beginning of the world 5000 years ago.  A good Christian would also know that dinosaurs are a myth and that God placed the fossils underground and we can never know His reasons for that.

And black people are evil.

Amen.


Posted by WILL POWER! on Mon Jul 24 02:10:00 PDT 2006
WILL POWER!
The above blog response is all sarcasm and in no way reflects the opinion of the poster.


Posted by WILL POWER! on Mon Jul 24 02:12:00 PDT 2006
Sylkwyrm
OK, why is "Tom" telling us about a power outage when he is no longer with the company? Anyone else smell an canspiricy?

Posted by Sylkwyrm on Mon Jul 24 09:53:00 PDT 2006
Sylkwyrm

"A new contest is going to award $5000 for Open Source CMS "

*scoff!*

Try multiplying that by 10 and then maybe Mal will start recruiting people for the project.  ;-)



Posted by Sylkwyrm on Mon Jul 24 09:55:00 PDT 2006
Malachi
heh. we really need an office

Posted by Malachi on Mon Jul 24 11:24:00 PDT 2006

23 July 2006

News from the Net

Researchers have found that the very first neurons are in place just 31 days after fertilization

Feds arrest private eye just before he was to speak at a conference on how he was able to obtain 500 pages worth of personal data on a test subject in just 4.5 hours of searching public and private databases.  Guess the feds don't want you to know how easy it is.

Robotic Firefighter Snake - do I need to say more?

Woot! The original voice for Optimus Prime was recast for him!



Sylkwyrm
I'd like to know what, if anything, tje feds are charging the private eye for.

Posted by Sylkwyrm on Sun Jul 23 05:01:00 PDT 2006
Malachi
Conspiracy to reveal stupidity?

Posted by Malachi on Sun Jul 23 05:17:00 PDT 2006

22 July 2006

Poker Anyone?

PartyPoker chimes in with what is going on due to the recent arrests.


Sylkwyrm

So, is PartyGaming related to the mob?



Posted by Sylkwyrm on Sat Jul 22 01:29:00 PDT 2006
Malachi
I dunno - maybe we need to start our own poker/roulette site.

Posted by Malachi on Sat Jul 22 02:25:00 PDT 2006
WILL POWER!
So these are gambling sites based outdside of the US that are accessable in the US.  How can the US even think of regulating that?  I don't fucking get it.

Posted by WILL POWER! on Sat Jul 22 02:28:00 PDT 2006

News from the Net

Cost of private ride into space has dropped to $15 million. Woot! Only $14999999.99 left to go before most of us can afford it ;)

NBC reconsiders a series after YouTube viewers watch it

Well, after we speculated about AMD and ATI merging a month ago or so, the merger deal has been struck

HotCoffee scandal settled with no penalties or fines

Neanderthal Man being decoded

A Japanese professor has created an android of himself to teach his classes

A Software developer contracted to the CIA got fired for blogging his critizism of torture

Some of you may think I am overreacting when it comes to the RIAA... but let's take an example of their behavior:In UMG vs. Lindor, the defendant is a home house-aid who's never even used a computer. She's never operated a computer, she's never even turned on a computer. The only connection she has ever had to a computer is that she has on occasion dusted near the parts that she believes are a computer. And yet she is being pursued as an online distributor in peer-to-peer file sharing.

Microsoft screws over one of their biggest advocates

What's this? Biometric spoofing? No friggin way



Sylkwyrm
Is it wrong to have sex with an android version of yourself?

Posted by Sylkwyrm on Sat Jul 22 01:32:00 PDT 2006
WILL POWER!
Um, yes?

*shiver*


Posted by WILL POWER! on Sat Jul 22 02:23:00 PDT 2006

21 July 2006

News from my Email

Some of you may remember the CEO of the poker site getting busted by the feds for online gambling... Well, seems we are seeing repercussions...

PokerChamps | Important notice

Dear Customer,

As part of a recent upgrade, PokerChamps has performed a system change that begins the process of moving to a new platform. We have also incorporated geo-location software which enables us to implement a long standing and consistent Group Company policy of not permitting access to individuals in specific target countries. This applies to individuals from the United States, China and Japan.

You have been identified as residing in one of those countries. However if you believe we are mistaken as to your country of residence, please contact us on support@pokerchamps.com

Unfortunately this means you are no longer able to use your pokerchamps account or open a new pokerchamps account. Pokerchamps is sorry for the inconvenience this may cause, and will endeavour to make the process of account closure and funds withdrawal as painless as possible.

If you have any questions, please contact our support team on support@pokerchamps.com



Kind regards,
The PokerChamps Team



WILL POWER!
Now that is some fucking bullshit.  With extra bullshit sauce on it.  And a side of bullshit.

So fucking disgusting that the government can't just leave us the fuck alone, especially when no one gets hurt by it.

For the record, I haven't been kicked of Bugsy's Club yet.  It's a pretty good site.

Posted by WILL POWER! on Fri Jul 21 11:50:00 PDT 2006

Punky

Well, good news and bad news...

We had taken Punky into the vet originally because he got his eye hurt in a cat fight and we got some antibiotics for it...  While giving said prescribed meds to him, he started becoming antisocial and not eating/drinking.  The vet ran some tests on him, and said that all the tests looked fine (other than he was a little underweight).  He had given us something to help with his appetite, and he is eating some.

However, the vet said that Punky's white blood cell count was elevated, and that signified cancer.  I'm not quite sure how he made that leap, since I thought the body produces extra white blood cells whenever it fights off ANY infection -- but... he said that he thinks Punky only has a couple weeks to live.  The REALLY bad part about that comment is that is what he told us the day before Shady died.

So, try to bear with us if we are a bit antisocial for the next few weeks. Probably going to be trying to spend what time we can with him.


Sarah
I am so sorry.  Unfortunately, he's correct. An elevated white blood cell count is the sign of Leukemia.  Totally understandable if you guys are antisocial, because I'm sure you'll want to be with him. 

Posted by Sarah on Fri Jul 21 05:14:00 PDT 2006
Malachi
See that's weird too.. for Leukemia, they suggest increasing the cat's immune system... but our vet is suggesting that we give him steroids, thus lowering his immune system.

Posted by Malachi on Fri Jul 21 05:18:00 PDT 2006
WILL POWER!
Sorry to hear it.

On a selfish note, hope it doesn't keep you from the wedding.

Posted by WILL POWER! on Fri Jul 21 11:44:00 PDT 2006

OMFG! This is what I want for my birthday :)


News from the Net

President Bush blocked the Justice Department's investigation into the NSA wiretapping scandal... Gee, I wonder why.  This is shortly after a federal judge denied the government's request that the case be dismissed... If the courts don't agree with you, take away everyone's clearance I guess.

Google announces double profits

Now here's a toy even Dino would want me to have... it's a home security system.... with a talking mirror with a floating head... or talking pirate skull.... or talking perched toucan... Maybe this quote will help explain - it is referring to the snooty british butler option: When nothing is happening, the mirror looks like any other ... until some event occurs, like a visitor trips the driveway sensor. At which point a fairy-talish character called Basil appears to announce the breach.

Yahoo! takes a stand against DRM

A federal judge has banned Jack Thompson from LA Videogame Case

Google starts ranking pages higher that are optimized for blind users (using W3C's guidelines)

The Gates Foundation donated $287million to HIV research, on the condition that they open-source the research

Card Locks thwarted by Shopping Club Card


20 July 2006

Google Expands Local Job Market

Oregon - Portland (4 types of openings)

Oregon - The Dalles (2 types of openings)

News from the Net

Ok, who's going to buy this for me? I really like this quote: a humanoid household service robot ;)

Tutankamun's a time traveler? Well, no, but made you pause huh?

MySpace yet again installs adware

Major advances in insulin production

Based on the recent surge of exploding lithium ion batteries, anyone want to venture a guess at how long until a car using 6831 laptop-type will explode?

More ancient reptiles look like planes, this time a fighter jet

Do you have any idea how often doctors leave their tools inside patients? Often enough that they are now modifying the tools to have RFID tags to help remind them to remove them

ooooh! quantum gates made using laser tweezers

Japan plans on forecasting weather 30-years in advance


Inspirational Posters

Thanks to Morax for this link



Sarah
These totally rock! I am currently gathering information on LARP making.....I guess ppl have written their doctorates about it...who knew?

Posted by Sarah on Thu Jul 20 00:35:00 PDT 2006
Sylkwyrm
Must make LARP! why are there not more hours in a day!?!

Posted by Sylkwyrm on Fri Jul 21 12:23:00 PDT 2006
Malachi
Not surprising... my capstone for my BA was a Daggerfall style personality test and 2 AIs playing mastermind.

Posted by Malachi on Thu Jul 20 00:37:00 PDT 2006

19 July 2006

News from the Net

HP offers alternative to RFID

WalSpace? MyMart? Walmart tries to emulate MySpace

Scientists regrow nerve fibers after spinal injury

Boy Scouts and Girl Guides (as well as 9 other youth organizations) will be hunting you down to turn you in

W3C is under scrutiny for being corporate lackeys

The Wall Street Journal is finally realizing why we quit using Netflix some 2-3 years ago

Symantec reports that the new version of Windows (Vista) is insecure

Yesterday, we were trying to figure out why the Sysinternals website was so damned slow... I guess we know now.... M$ acquired them. Guess I won't be using their software anymore.

UK government steals PCs from suspects and bans them from the internet, even if not convicted

The FBI arrested the CEO of BentonSports (onling gambling site).  Next thing we know, the Christian Right is going to throw people in jail for owning a deck of cards too.



WILL POWER!
I can just see a bunch of old people in a room: "Well call them hubsters, like hipsters!   They'll think it's so cool!  Here come's the next buzz word!"

Posted by WILL POWER! on Wed Jul 19 02:40:00 PDT 2006

18 July 2006

News from the Net

M$ to work with Xen?

Malware search engine

Paint-on antennas... you know, since we can now paint biology, circuitry, displays, etc... I think I might need to upgrade my printer ;)

I want to participate! UK Scientists are using VR to test telepathy

Who would like an linux-based humanoid robot?

The Dept of Homeland Security and Justice Dept have designed an xml-based datasharing model

Lithium-ion batteries sure are getting a bad rep right now. Just after Dell blamed them for blowing up their laptop, the the National Safety Transportation Board blames them for blowing up a UPS plane

M$ releases the source to their device emulator

Open Source VoIP calls double in quality

Just after the US announces that they are going to be putting RFID tags into passports, we have virii that transfer via RFID



Silver
aw, malachi gets to run his phone system open source as well, next step the power company!
Viva La Source Open!


Posted by Silver on Tue Jul 18 00:03:00 PDT 2006
Malachi
Well, I was planning on either Tribox or writing my own... but we'll see...

Posted by Malachi on Tue Jul 18 00:05:00 PDT 2006