APC has a great article up on the top 10 reasons to hate the new iPhone 3g.  As much as I kind of want to, I really don’t hate the new iPhone.  In fact, I’d love to have one.

My favorite reason cited: No Adobe Flash support. Ugh.

Undeniably, the iPhone has the best web browser of any phone on the market. But when you hit a web page with Adobe Flash in it, you’ll just get an empty space with a ‘missing plugin’ icon. Apple says Flash would run too slowly on the iPhone, but in reality, it’s probably more to do with Apple wanting to promote its competing web app development technology, Sproutcore.

Apple realises the ‘mobile web’ is at a tipping point… if it can get enough momentum behind developers coding sites specifically for the iPhone, it will help sales of the iPhone along in the long term. (That said, unlike Flash, Sproutcore is an open standard that theoretically works in any web browser that supports Javascript, so it could be widely supported by all handset makers if their phone web browsers got better.)

Who the hell uses Sproutcore?

Technorati Tags: iphone, hating, hate, 3g, apple, technology, gadgets

Nick’s got a linked table of contents, a metric tonne of information and the patience of a really patient person to have done this.  Thanks Nick!

Technorati Tags: diablo 3, everything we know, games, video, computer, geek, blizzard, gnarly

It’s a fairly simple idea which can I think have pretty far reaching effects.  It lets you chat in IM style directly over a television broadcast by laying two lines of text at the bottom of the image.  Simple, right?  But ground breaking at the same time.   In this demo video, there’s a chat going on over one of President Bush’s addresses.

You can see where this could lead.  Imagine many different chat channels, some populated by well know and respected commentators, some by you or me or anyone else.  You could be watching your favorite sports match and reading comments from fans, ESPN commentators or even the moms of some of the players involved.

Think of a standard CNN broadcast with a chat channel featuring some of the writers from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  Or the unfolding of a natural disaster with relief being coordinated real time on several chat channels.

This is I think a first step, but an important one in user generated television content.  Will there come a time when the comments are as important as the show being broadcasted?

The instructions are available here and they are fairly simple but do require you to telnet to your Neuros.  Did I mention that I love this little gadget?  As does everyone I’ve introduced it to so far.

Technorati Tags: Neuros, hacks, open source, technology, geeks,   television, chat, coolness

Here’s the full article:

At least one of Britain’s birds appears to be coping well as climate change alters the availability of a key food.

Researchers found that great tits are laying eggs earlier in the spring than they used to, keeping step with the earlier emergence of caterpillars.

Writing in the journal Science, they point out that the same birds in the Netherlands have not managed to adjust.

Understanding why some species in some places are affected more than others by climatic shifts is vital, they say.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) commented that other species are likely to fare much worse than great tits as temperatures rise.

Perfect timing

The research uses a long record of great tits in a breeding site at Wytham Woods near Oxford, where observations began in 1947.

The finding is surprising in that the birds are using the same old rules, but the rules still work
Professor Marcel Visser

“We think it’s the longest running population study of wild animals anywhere in the world where animals are marked (ringed),” said Ben Sheldon of Oxford University, who led the new research.

“The population contains about 400 breeding pairs, and they produce between them 2,000 or more offspring each year – so over the course of the study about 80,000 birds have been ringed and studied,” he told BBC News.

The current work used records going back only to 1961, when a standard methodology was adopted.

The great tits are laying eggs now about two weeks earlier in the year than they were 47 years ago.

The timing is crucial, because for the two-week period after they hatch, the chicks have to gobble down huge quantities of winter moth caterpillars which only emerge for a short period.

“Winter moth larvae can make up up to 90% of the biomass of insects on oak trees at that time,” said Professor Sheldon.

“Great tits have eight or nine babies in a brood, and each of them will eat about 70 caterpillars a day.

The chicks hatch and are fully grown within two weeks, so they need something that’s really abundant – that’s why they synchonise their breeding so hatching co-incides with the emergence of the caterpillars.”

The caterpillars’ appearance is triggered by ambient temperature – that has been shown in the laboratory – and it is believed that great tits also begin their breeding cycle in response to temperatures.

Their movement to an earlier breeding time does not involve an evolutionary change, the scientists believe – it is simply that individual birds are able to change their behaviour, in the same way that they have presumably adapted to warmer or cooler phases before the era of human-induced global warming.

Different strokes

In Wytham, the behaviour of the two species is changing in step; but other situations are very different.

Three years ago, Marcel Visser from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology in Heteren collated a number of these cases.

The North American wood warbler has not adapted its migration pattern to the earlier emergence of caterpillars in its breeding ground, and the Dutch honey buzzard is also failing to adapt to the earlier appearance of wasps, which it eats.

The red admiral butterfly is arriving on the UK’s shores earlier from its winter grounds in north Africa; but the staple food of its larvae, the common nettle, continues to flower at the same time each year.

The Wytham site. Image: TA Wilkin
Wytham Woods are home to about 400 breeding pairs of great tits

Just across the North Sea in Holland, Professor Visser has also found that great tits are faring very differently from their British cousins; the breeding time is advancing each year, but the emergence of caterpillars is advancing three times faster.

“The UK finding is to some extent surprising in that the birds are using the same old rules, but the rules still work,” he told BBC News.

“In our study population, the same old rules don’t work any more; so it’s an interesting question as to which situation is the normal one and which is the exception.”

The RSPB and other conservation bodies have regularly warned that climate shifts could have a devastating impact on some species; and they believe the new research does not change that picture.

“It’s great to hear that the great tit is able to keep pace with the rapid rate of climate change, but then it’s probably in the best place to do that,” observed RSPB spokesman Grahame Madge.

“They’re abundant birds, they can live in gardens, woodland and open country, and they churn out large numbers of young in a short space of time, so they’re better able to learn changes in behaviour.”

The organisation believes – as do others – that climate change is one of the main cuplrits for the abrupt declines in some seabird populations around UK coasts in recent years.

The Oxford and Heteren groups are now planning to collaborate on a study to elucidate why some populations apparently adapt well to climate change, and others do not.

“Our study shows that sometimes individuals can be very flexible in their behaviour,” said Ben Sheldon.

“What we want to do is to try and understand why some species are flexible and others aren’t – it’s the ones that aren’t flexible that are going to be at risk.”

Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

Technorati Tags: tits, great, warm, weather, bbc, animals, nature, global warming

So why the heck is it called Chicken?  Why not a nice name, like nearby Eagle.  Eagle always did better in school, was on the track team and lets face it, Mom liked Eagle better than Chicken.  And why can’t Chicken count?  17?  37?

Back in the 1800′s when Alaska was much heavier as it was full of gold, lots of people went up there to deal with this mineral obesity.   While gold is nice to spend and shiny, its pretty tough on folks trying to eat it.  So the locals turned to the (now state) bird the Ptargna. . . the patarma. . .  the Ptarmigan.  This cute fella right here.

By closely watching the habits of this plucky little birds, the miners were able to track down fresh supplies of grain, fruit and other bits of nature’s bounty thereby assuring that they were the first of Alaska’s sandal wearing, whole food eating vegan hippie residents.  Nah, just kidding.  They ate the little suckers.

Eventually 1902 rolled around and they filled the spot to capacity (somewhere between 17 and 37 people?) and had to make it into a town.  They decided on the spot to name it after their favorite foodstuff.  Problem was, no one really knew how to spell  Ptarmigan.  Hell, I can’t spell Ptarmigan and every time you see the word Ptarmigan you can rest assured that it’s a cut/paste from Wikipedia.  Fearing ridicule from the rest of the world, they put between 34 and 74 pairs of eyes to searching for a good name for the place.

When that failed, I’m sure someone half-jokingly said “let’s just call the damned place Chicken and get back to rolling in our gold.”  And that is how Chicken, Alaska came to be a town.

You can visit it today.  In fact, if you’re driving from say. . .  Hell’s Kitchen in New York to Chicken, Alaska – a trip of 4,099 miles, you can use these directions as provided by Google maps.  They’ve got a cafe, a salmon bake and of course, a bar.

Despite my earlier mental picture of the place, the streets ain’t paved with gold.  Or Ptarmigan bones, but rather packed gravel.  And you’ll have to bring your own phones, electricity, internet and bathrooms as Chicken Alaska has none of these things.

Chicken has been thrust squarely into the modern age however, as they have their own website, hosted out side of the town, of course.   Just how squarely into the modern age have they thrusted?  Well, they seem to have landed somewhere between Lynx and the Animated Gif era.  Regardless, I’ve officially added Chicken, Alaska to my list of places I’d like to see before I die.

Technorati Tags: chicken, Alaska, tidbit, factoid, facts, strange, drumsticks

I’ve long tinkered with 3D art, landscapes and figures.  I don’t consider myself an artist but with programs such as Bryce 5.5 I was able to make this:

Not a masterwork by any means, but not bad for someone who’s just tinkering.  A while back I actually shelled out the money for Bryce 5.5 because it was alot of fun to work with. I had a smallish render farm (2 virtual servers at work, 3 laptops and two Lenovo desktops) for building my images.

Now you can enjoy both Bryce 5.5 and DAZ Studio for free!  Go ahead and grab ‘em for Windows.

Technorati Tags: free 3d art software, daz, bryce, computers, artists, technology

Here’s the press release.

For the first time in FileFront history, the Ziff Davis site is offering a full copy of a released game: SAGA, the world’s first collectible MMO RTS. Players have until May 11th to secure one of 50,000 Retail Keys available at http://www.filefront.com. SAGA can normally be purchased for $19.95 from the official SAGA website and at many hobby stores across America.

SAGA uses an innovative collectible revenue model first implemented by the THQ studio Genetic Anomalies in 1997 and now seen in over 120 online collectible games, such as the upcoming EA collectible RTS BattleForge.

SAGA has no subscription fees. Players pay as little or as much as they decide, by purchasing ‘booster packs’ of random troops and spells, which are traded and customized to create the strategic army of choice for each player.

SAGA can be played for free; however, the unregistered free version disables many of the features that players find most attractive in a collectible game. Using the Retail Key from http://www.filefront.com unlocks trading, guilds, espionage and PvP combat.

Technorati Tags: RTS, MMO, CCG er, video game, press release, saga

Those aren’t your childhood memories?  Well I’ll bet you have the ATF to thank for that!  The Bureau of Alchohol, Tobacco Firearms and now, Explosives (ATFE) has launched their kids page!  Enjoy pictures of old time ATF agents and  the POISON that was popular long before guys were growing their hair out and smearing makeup on themselves.

Technorati Tags: atf, kids, firearms, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, wholesome family fun

Also the server edition is good until 2013.  And by good, I mean supported.  I’ve been using the beta now since it’s initial release and it’s a lot of fun.  Every release just gets better.

Technorati Tags: linux, ubuntu, hardy heron, geek, gives you wings

Enter Elementeo – a collectible card game featuring magic, combat and 121 cards based on the elements. Chemistry folks, chemistry. This game was created by an 8th grader with an eye for games and entrepreneurship.

He expects to sell the game for $25 a pop and is currently taking pre-orders for the late April release.   Sheesh.  I’m way out of 8th grade and all I’ve got is this blog!

Technorati Tags: games, card game, elementeo, science, chemistry, geeks, business, young dude with chutzpah

What is it? It’s a self replicating 3D printer. Yeah, that doesn’t sound as high and mighty as an autobalancing transportation device that Presidents and mall security have been falling off of but it’s much, much more important.

RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid Prototyper. It’s got two purposes in it’s existence. The first is to be able to manufacture inexpensive, solid parts made out of various types of plastic. Think about that for a second – most 3D printers available today are very expensive to purchase, maintain and operate. A cheap 3D printer however opens up all kinds of doors. Put a few of these in the poorer parts of the world and you can manufacture parts to fix, build or keep up lots and lots of things, improving the quality of life for everyone and reducing their reliance on third parties.

It’s second purpose is to be able to replicate itself. Give a community one RepRap and soon they can have dozens. Self replication is a wonderful concept – one that we should all be paying attention to. Combine these two aspects and you’ve got yourself a real breakthrough.

Look at the implications. You’ve got a machine that can produce itself endlessly given an adequate supply of raw materials. And each machine that is made can then produce other objects, from drinking glasses, tools, small construction materials to sex toys. It’s mind bogglingly simple and elegant and a real way to make a difference where such parts may be scarce. It’s also completely open source, from the software used to design 3D objects to the electronics used in building a RepRap.

They haven’t announced complete replication yet but they hope to this year. Here’s what the Darwin 1.0 RepRap can build of itself as of now.

While it’s not completely self replicating like a cornucopia machine (a machine that can create anything from the atomic level, including ice cream, weapons, robots and itself) it’s a good start, created by people not looking to profit off of it. It’s certainly got some limitations as well, such as it’s reliance on plastics as a building material, it’s need of basic electronics and it’s inability to create a working prototype from scratch – i.e. some assembly required.

Those limitations will be overcome eventually and for now it’s good to see a working, self replicating machine out in the wild. In fact, you can check this Google map to see just where all the reported RepRaps are, or get the plans to build your own Darwin 1.0 model and join the community.

In the SF world, Cornucopia machines (known also as molecular assemblers) are construction devices you feed raw materials into and get stuff out of. Often, they’ll break down anything you put into it to the molecular or atomic level, and then build on demand what you ask of it. They often come with their own store of hard to find things like radioactive materials or rare elements. They can spit out anything from coffee to a working spaceship with all the appropriate electronics and moving parts. It sounds very futuristic but may not be all that far off, particularly as we get more practice at manipulating really small things.

Self replicating machines have another interesting place in our future as well. Exploration of the Universe. Launch a self replicating probe with some basic intelligence at a nearby star system. That probe arrives, completes a survey, sends its information back to us and then builds two copies of itself. The original probe remains and updates our information while the two copies find two nearby star systems and head off to do their thing. What you have here is exponential expansion. One probe becomes two, become four, become 8, become 16 . . . until you start hitting really big numbers, really fast. As your numbers increase, your time to see every star system in the Galaxy decreases. In a relatively short amount of time we could have eyes and ears just about everywhere.

Seem pretty far fetched? Well some serious people with real science degrees are talking a lot about this. NASA type folks, in fact. This isn’t just the realm of Science Fiction authors. I’ll leave the implications of shadow projects to you conspiracy minded folks.

Of course, there are cons to such things as well. Would the probes introduce glitches to their self replication, causing evolution? Think rise of the machines.

Thinking even further, would it be possible to upload our conscious selves – who we are – in the form of data to a probe, and have it start colonizing? Stopping at each star system, replicating with our data, until it found a suitable planet to sustain life and then simply replicating us? Hundreds of copies of ourselves on distant worlds.

Then the ideas start getting funky. All this from a little 3D printer that can make it’s own parts.

Technorati Tags: sf, printer, reprap, self replication, change the world, geek, technology, mechanics, plastics, third world, second world, wealth without money

ABC is running a story about a woman who’s lived in the same apartment for 15 years being sued by a neighboring apartment for smoking. They neighbors moved in about 5 years ago. They allege that her smoke is escaping her apartment and floating about in the building’s common areas, causing, according to the court documents:

“willfully, intentionally, recklessly and/or negligently endangering the health of plaintiffs and their 4-year-old son. … As evidenced by her refusal to address the grave danger posed to the health of a small child, despite repeated requests and warnings, defendant’s conduct is actuated by evil and/or reprehensible motives. “

Big surprise here, but the couple who are suing are . . . lawyers! Jonathon Selbin, who works for Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein and his wife are taking matters to court while stating:

“We are both lawyers, and both litigators, for whom the usual barriers to litigation are minimal.”

They allege revenge on the part of Ms. Huff via her dog:

“Such motives are also evidenced by the fact that after plaintiffs complained about the smoke, defendant encouraged her dog to urinate on plaintiffs’ property and in front of their doorway.”

I’m not a fan of smoking at all, I think it’s a vile habit and that the companies who manufacture tobacco products are essentially profiting off of addiction to a harmful substance. But that doesn’t mean people should lose their rights.

You have a right to smoke, just like I do. You may not have the right to smoke in a bar anymore, or in someone’s building, but in your own home? Even if that home is an apartment? The people bringing the suit to bear (and Ms. Huff. And her dog) live in New York City, where just looking around you’re sure to see lots of sources of pollution. Can someone be sued for idling their car below their windows for a few minutes every day if they’re dropping someone off? Would they even consider it?

I guess it’s not new that lawyers can be sharks, nor is it new that they’ll use their familiarity with the law to bully folks into a course of action that they want them to take. Ms. Huff has since acquiesced and is meeting a new list of demands in a settlement handed down to her from the lawyer plaintiffs. Is this too much?

Personally I consider it something of an abuse of the law. You move into an apartment and you should reasonably expect to be living near and literaly on top of other people. And other people sometimes do things you don’t like. It doesn’t mean you should sue them though. If you’re a big fancy lawyer, why not just buy a house in the suburbs where your life won’t be disrupted by ‘evil’ people and their dogs.

Photo courtesy of Pingnews, Flickr and CC.

Technorati Tags: law, sharks, lawyers, smoking, huff, dog, abc, give me a break

Technorati Tags: bioshock, game guide, pennies on the dollar, video games, relief, xbox, pc, geeks

From Shamus:

The game was complete last year, which means they were willing to miss a Christmas release in order to release the game with a more fully developed copy-prevention system. This brings their priorities into sharp relief.

Please go read Shamus’ post, and consider the following.They didn’t delay the game to improve it, or iron out bugs, or make a better experience for the end user. They delayed it, and missed holiday profits, so they could enable a new DRM scheme. Blech.

You can visit the Atari forums where this announcement was made. In fact, I highly encourage you to do so. If you’re like me and just don’t like DRM on principle, don’t like being treated like a criminal for purchasing a product and don’t like the hassle this will surely unleash on consumers just trying to enjoy a game, I suggest you voice your opinion. Do it thoughtfully, do it rationally and don’t resort to petty attacks but certainly make your voice heard. So far there are only TWO responses to Atari’s announcement.

Here’s the original post quoted verbatim from the Atari forum.

Hi everyone,

My name is Keehwan Her and I am the Atari producer for Mysteries of Westgate (MoW) among other D&D products. Most of you know that the release of Mysteries of Westgate has been delayed because of ongoing development of a new security system. Near the end of MoW’s development last year, we realized that the traditional protection of the .exe file would not work with it so we scrambled to find a reliable commercial method that would do the job. At the time, there was no solution that met our requirements. That is why, since the end of 2007, Atari has been working hard to develop a new security system that can be used not just for MoW but for all Atari products that need protection for data files without using the traditional route of wrapping the .exe file. Unfortunately, developing this system has taken longer than we anticipated and MoW’s release has suffered as a result, because it is the first product that will use this new system.

Atari has been working closely with Obsidian and Ossian to try to integrate the new system with NWN2 and MoW specifically. Although we wanted the security modifications to go out with Update 1.12, it simply was not ready in time so we unfortunately had no choice but to push it into Update 1.13.

I realize that many of you are anxious to get your hands on Mysteries of Westgate, and I know from firsthand experience that it is a fantastic adventure. MoW has been ready to ship for a while now and we are close to finalizing the new security system that will ensure that it has its proper day in the sun. In the meantime, we are working hard to keep cool information about the game coming.

It seems like some game publishers get it but many don’t.  Intrusive, easy to break DRM systems only serve to piss of legitimate consumers.  That’s the ONLY thing they do.  Do these companies really think that DRM schemes in which they spend lots of money and are often cracked before they’re even released are helping anything?  It doesn’t stop piracy – all it serves to do is add crippling effects to software and cause Jane and Joe public to jump through hoops to get their legally purchased game to run.

Technorati Tags: drm, criminalizing the consumer, atari, never winter nights, twenty sided, gaming, rpg, video games

It’s part social website, part calendar, part usenet brought back to the front of things. In my fooling about with it I’ve found that it’s pretty neat. It takes all of the above mentioned things and ties it together well in a way that’s not overwhelming. It is still in beta – invitation only so expect some kinks.

There are two things I’ll need from you for me to send out an invite and I only have 8 invites.

First, you’ll have to email me though our contact page and ask nicely. Be sure to include your email so I can send you the invite.

Second, I’d ask that you join my twine, called simply ‘geek’ and contribute at least one thing to it (i.e. picture, video, story, link, etc.)

So far it’s interesting enough to keep me poking around. I participate in about 3 betas for new sites a month and the majority of them are just the same thing rehashed. This looks fun.

Technorati Tags: twine, web, semantic, geeks, sharing, the next big thing

A bit about the site:

First, no we didn’t send the mail.

There are only about handful of registered owners of a donotreply.com email address. What normally happens is some spammer slugs it in, or more likely an IT person decides they don’t want to deal with bounced emails one of their programs send out, so what they do is set it to something cute at @donotreply.com as the return address.

They think this solves the problem. No more bounced emails!

But in reality what they have just done is sent all bounced emails to me. And not just bounced emails, but if someone gets an email with the donotreply.com address and replies to it? Well hell, I get those too. Sometimes it is a quick note, sometimes it is a personal attack against another staff member… who knows!

So enjoy the stupidity of others. I used to call, email, blah blah blah to try and contact the company to get it to stop. It never did. The only thing that ever works (and sometimes that doesn’t even do it – yeah I am looking at you Intel), is posting bits and pieces here.

I’ve always wondered about that.

Technorati Tags: do not reply, email, technology, corporate stupidity, really don’t reply, geek, domain, internet

That’s Atari’s Pong.  The first game console I ever came in contact with when I was just a wee tot.  For a complete list, start here.

Technorati Tags: console, video game, gaming, retro

The easy one first. Here’s the East’s biggest comic con. New York is playing host to the 2008 ComicCon, at which 4 of the five available ArsGeek folks will be at! There will also be a ton of other people there you’d probably be more anxious to meet, like Niel Gaiman, Frank Miller, Orson Scott Card, just about everyone involved with Hellboy II and a ton more. With just about daily updates and their own blog, if you’re going to have a few days free in mid-April, do yourself a favor and head on over. It’s going to be a blast!

Next we have a person favorite of mine as it addresses a major pet peeve. It’s the International Center for Bathroom Etiquette. Be sure to flush! Not only does the ICBE talk about the merits of flushing but cover such in depth topics as urinal etiquette, at home, at work, which way to properly hang the toilet paper and so much more. They’re even running a design-a-banner contest as you read and feature their own bathroom etiquette bear.

Let me introduce you to Henry Earl, if you haven’t already become acquainted with him or at least is internet presence. Henry likes to drink, Henry often has run-ins with the law. Henry has spent and average of 235 days out of the year in jail. He’s become something of an internet celebrity for his enormous rap sheet, and massive tally of 975 offenses. The What’s Up with Henry Earl site is a clearing house of Henry information, including a once daily updating total of time spent incarcerated, offenses and current status of Henry. There’s even a way to donate to Henry (to pay down his jail expenses, not to buy him more alcohol).

And now one of my personal, all time favorite sites. This site embodies everything about the internet that I’ve come to love and expect. Design flairs from the late 90s, interesting people, step by step instructions to create hats to stop Aliens from reading your mind and thus abducting you. Even testimonials of folks who wear these hats to bed every night and – what do you know – have not been abducted! Stop Alien Abduction is a grand site dedicated to modern tinfoil hats so that YOU won’t have to live with Alien Abduction ever again. Using nothing more than 3M Velostat, good old elbow grease and an assumed knowledge of alien physiology, psionic powers and the horrors of a society where anyone can read anyone’s thoughts.

As the site helpfully suggests in all caps with little punctuation:

ALIENS FROM ABDUCTING HUMANS.

IT’S BEEN USED SUCCESSFULLY BY ABDUCTEES FOR NINE YEARS.

THIS WEBSITE TELLS YOU HOW TO MAKE A THOUGHT SCREEN HELMET, THE MATERIALS AND TOOLS YOU NEED TO MAKE ONE, AND WHERE YOU CAN OBTAIN THE MATERIALS

IF YOU ARE ABDUCTED BY ALIENS THE HELMET WILL WORK FOR YOU

There are even new instructions for 2008 on the use and storage of your tin…er velostat hat. Here’s some more helpful advice about thwarting a highly advanced life form that’s perfected interstellar travel with advances in science and culture that would probably appear like magic to us:

Aliens have taken ten helmets from abductees and several Velostat lined baseball caps. If you are not wearing a hat they will go through your entire house looking for them. They will not, however, go into a locked cabinet. Before you make a helmet have some kind of cabinet or trunk that you can lock. That way they won’t take it.

That locked cabinet will be sure to stop them! Why? Because “They will not, however, go into a locked cabinet.” Thank god for small favors, eh?

This site is full of gems that have kept me returning day after day to read in wide-eyed approbation. I love this site!

Got any internet jewels of your own? Drop me a line or leave a comment as I’m compiling a list of this amazing internet.

Technorati Tags: technology, geek, internet, web, 1999, aliens, lgm, abduction, urinals, toilets, comic con, new york, Henry Earl

Go to Google Maps.

Enter these coordinates:

48.825183,2.1985795

Click “Satellite” so you can see the terrain.

Zoom all the way in.

Now explain the reasoning behind this to me.

Alienware’s flagship system, the Area-51 7500, has received a full overhaul and has re-launched as the Area-51® desktop. Alienware, the leading manufacturer of high-performance desktop, notebook and entertainment systems, stands for excellence and advancement in the PC gaming and home computer markets, and the Area-51 continues to leads the market in desktop innovation. Now featuring the NVIDIA® nForce® 790i Ultra SLI®-based motherboard as well as an NVIDIA GeForce® 9800 GX2 dual GPU single graphics card, the Area-51 supports the most robust gaming platform in the industry

“The Area-51 is every gamer’s dream system,” said Brian Joyce, Senior Vice President at Alienware, “With support for PCI-Express 2.0, DDR3 memory, a completely open and higher BIOS overclocking than its predecessor and now the industry’s most advanced graphics solution, the Area-51 sets the pace for desktop performance. Everyone else is just trying to keep up.”

The nForce 790i Ultra SLI is the motherboard that gamers and enthusiasts have been waiting for. It is the only nForce platform to support DDR3 memory up to 2GHz for record-breaking memory speeds. Compatible with 1600MHz FSB Intel® CPUs, it also provides the Area-51 with the impressive next-generation Intel 45 nanometer CPU capabilities. Best of all, the nForce 790i Ultra SLI allows for NVIDIA 2-way, 3-way and Quad SLI technology for unmatched visual computing.

One of the most exciting editions to the revamped Alienware Area-51 is the inclusion of the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics card. Housing dual GeForce 9800 GPUs, the 9800 GX2 delivers SLI power on a single card. Up to 50 percent faster than the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra, the GeForce 9800 GX2 is the fastest consumer graphics solution on the planet. Teamed with the nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard, the 9800 GX2 delivers the most lifelike high definition PC gaming, the highest possible frame rates, and ultra-smooth Blu-ray Disc® playback.

“We’re excited about the introduction of the next-generation Alienware Area-51, which incorporates the upper echelon of PC components to deliver the ultimate visual computing experience,” said Ujesh Desai, general manager of the consumer GPU business group at NVIDIA. “The sheer genius of the GeForce 9800 GX2, which sets new performance records for consumer PC graphics, paired with the extremely overclockable nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard, delivers an unbelievable and unbeatable platform for enthusiasts and gamers alike.”

“Alienware users expect top-tier graphics,” said Joyce. “By blending the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 and nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard technology with Alienware’s unique and superior architecture, we can continue to deliver the best each and every time.”

For more information on the Alienware Area-51 desktop, please visit: www.alienware.com

Area-51 Desktop

• Features the NVIDIA® nForce® 790i Ultra SLI®-based motherboard
• NVIDIA GeForce® 9800 GX2 dual GPU single graphics card
• Only nForce platform to support DDR3 memory up to 2GHz for record breaking memory speeds
• Compatible with 1600MHz FSB Intel® CPUs
• Allows for NVIDIA 2-way, 3-way and Quad SLI technology for unmatched gaming speeds

Technorati Tags: alienware, high speed systems, gaming rig, technology, geek, video games, wow

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Technorati Tags: wii, wiitastic, more wiis, I have to

Here’s what they are offering:  Featuring a remarkable wireless controller experience, the Nintendo Wii console invites players into game worlds and activities like never before. Whether they’re young or old, expert gamers or beginners, Wii players will express themselves with intuitive motion control using the Wii Remote: a flick of the wrist to swing a baseball bat or tennis racket, a backswing and follow-through to send a golf ball flying over a pristine fairway.

The sleek Wii console, no larger than a stack of several DVD cases, includes Wii Sports, a sensor bar, an AV cable, a Wii stand, a Wii Remote, and a Nunchuk controller for even more exciting game-control possibilities. CUSTOMER PURCHASE LIMIT: 1

Technorati Tags: wii, wee, woah, wii bundle, priced to sell, yarg, gaming, console, nintendo, technology

Instant pants, for kids who need clean pants in a pinch. They are “100% cotton pants that are not only hip and stylish but they have been smashed into a disc no bigger than the palm of your hand. they can fit anywhere!”

If you’re a parent, know any parents or perhaps know any kids under the age of 2, you know that accidents happen and there are always spare pants shoved into bags, glove boxes, under hats, in pockets and whatnot. This seems like a pretty darned good solution. The only catch? They’re $20 each! I guess that’s not a ton of money in the long run, and you’re paying for the ability to shove one into your pocket but to me that’s still a tad pricey.

Technorati Tags: dirty kids, instant pants, gadgets, new ideas, cool stuff

Promethei Planum, an area seasonally covered with layer of ice more than 3500 m thick layer of ice in the martian south polar region, was the subject of the High Resolution Stereo Camera’s focus on 22 September 2005 as Mars Express was in orbit above the Red Planet.

Check out this link for a ~2MB jpg, or if you’re a real detail enthusiast, you can head here and grab the 104MB .TIF image.

Promethei Planum lies at approximately 76° south and 105° east.

An approximately 100 km-large and 800 m-deep impact crater is visible in the northern part of the image. The crater’s interior is partly covered in ice.

In the centre of the image are structures that may have been created by basaltic lava flow from a volcano. This area is covered in ice. The dark dunes towards the bottom of the image are most likely made up of dust originating from this lava flow or volcanic ash.

A broad sheet of ice, which is an extension of the south polar ice cap is located south of the lava flow, to the left in the (nadir) image. The steep flanks clearly show white, clean ice. The thickness of the ice is between 900 and 1100 m.

Technorati Tags: mars, images, pictures, ice, ice, baby, Promethei Planum, ESA, space, science, technology

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Did I really just type that?  Wow.  Anyhoo, here’s my current favorite from the redesigns, which just happens to be first on the list too.

Technorati Tags: wired, D&D, gary gygax, role playing games, geeks, freaks, nerds, rpgers, etc

He’s been taught by private tutors since the second grade because he would constantly correct his teachers.  What to do with a once-martian boy who vividly remembers piloting his own spacecraft to visit Earth and hang out with Lemurians?

Sure, some kids have overactive imaginations (sharpens Occams’ razor) but what if you’re a literal boy genius with a vivid imagination?  You can skip on over to Pravda for the story, or read it here after the jump (into hyperspace).

A boy named Boris Kipriyanovich, or Boriska, lives in the town of Zhirinovsk of Russia’s Volgograd region. He was born on January 11, 1996. Since he was four he used to visit a well-known anomalous zone, commonly referred to as Medvedetskaya Gryada – a mountain near the town. It seems that the boy needed to visit the zone regularly to fulfill his needs in energy.

Boriska’s parents, nice, educated and hospitable people, are worried about their son’s fascinating talents. They do not know how others will perceive Boriska when he grows up. The say that they would be happy to consult an expert to know how to raise their wunderkind.

Being a doctor, his mother could not help but notice that the baby boy could hold his head already in 15 days after his birth. He uttered the first word ‘baba’ when he was four months old and started to pronounce simple words soon afterwards. At one year and a half he had no difficulties in reading newspaper headlines. At age of two years he started drawing and leaned how to paint six months later. When he turned two, he started going to a local kindergarten. Tutors immediately noticed the unusual boy, his uncommon quickwittedness, language skills and unique memory.

However, his parents witnessed that Boriska acquired knowledge not only from the outer world, but through mysterious channels as well. They saw him reading unknown information from somewhere.

“No one has ever taught him,” Boriska’s mother said. “Sometimes he would sit in a lotus position and start telling us detailed facts about Mars, planetary systems and other civilizations, which really puzzled us,” the woman said.

How may a little boy know such things? Space became the permanent theme of his stories when the boy turned two years old. Once he said that he used to live on Mars himself. He says that the planet is inhabited now too, although it lost its atmosphere after a mammoth catastrophe. The Martians live in underground cities, Boriska says.

The boy also says that, he used to fly to Earth for research purposes when he was a Martian. Moreover, he piloted a spaceship himself. It took place in the time of the Lemurian civilization. He speaks about the fall of Lemuria as if it occurred yesterday. He says that Lemurians died because they ceased to develop themselves spiritually and broke the unity of their planet.

When his mother brought him a book entitled “Whom We Are Originated From” by Ernest Muldashev, he got very excited about it. He spent a long time looking through the sketches of Lemurians, pictures of Tibetan pagodas, and then he told his parents of Lemurians and their culture for several hours non-stop. As he was talking, his mother noticed that Lemurians lived 70,000 years ago and they were nine meters tall… “How can you remember all this?” the woman asked her son. “Yes, I remember and nobody has told me that, I saw it,” Boriska replied.

In Muldashev’s second book “In Search of the City of Gods” he looked through pictures for a long time and recollected a lot about pyramids and shrines. Then he claimed that people would not find ancient knowledge under the Great Pyramid of Cheops. The knowledge will be found under another pyramid, which has not been discovered yet. “The human life will change when the Sphinx is opened, it has an opening mechanism somewhere behind the ear, I do not remember exactly,” he said.

Boriska is one of so-called indigo children. They start to appear on Earth as a token of the forthcoming grand transformation of the planet.

The boy says that the displacement of Earth’s poles will cause two catastrophes: in 2009 and 2013. Only a few people will survive, he said.

“No, I have no fear of death, for we live eternally. There was a catastrophe on Mars where I lived. People like us still live there. There was a nuclear war between them. Everything burnt down. Only some of them survived. They built shelters and created new weapons. All materials changed. Martians mostly breathe carbon dioxide. If they flew to our planet now, they would have to spend all the time standing next to pipes and breathing in fumes,” Boriska said.

“If you are from Mars, do you need carbon dioxide?”

“If I am in this body, I breathe oxygen. But you know, it causes aging.”

Specialists asked the boy why man-made spacecraft often crash as they approach Mars. “Martians transmit special signals to destroy stations containing harmful radiation,” Boriska replied.

The boy has deep knowledge of space and its dimensions. He is also aware of the structure of interplanetary UFOs. He talks about that like an expert, draws UFOs on slates and explains the way they work. Here is one of his stories: “It has six layers. The upper layer of solid metal accounts for 25 percent, the second layer of rubber – 30 percent, the third layer of metal – 30 percent, and the last layer with magnetic properties – 4 percent. If we give energy to the magnetic layer, spaceships will be able to fly across the Universe.”

Boriska has a lot of difficulties with school. After an interview he was taken to the second grade, but soon they tried to get rid of him. He constantly interrupts teachers and says that they are wrong… now the boy has classes with a private tutor.

Translated by Julia Bulygina
Pravda.ru

Technorati Tags: ufo, mars, sphinx, boy genius, strange, imagination, aliens

Searching within this included search box yields results from Amazon.com itself directly.  So a search for the term Stardust got me this:

What Google doesn’t seem to realize are the implications of endless searches within searches, which if used maliciously could theoretically lead to the implosion of the web as we know it and a possible Singularity state, where the internet through billions of iterative searches becomes self aware and all absorbing.

Careful Google, please!

Technorati Tags: search, technology, web, internet, google, singularity, search box, worlds within worlds.

Finally I can download The Final Countdown directly to my Ubuntu box.  You know, legally.

Technorati Tags: mp3, technology, music, amazon.com, download, linux, gutsy