February 2009
61 posts
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Safari 4 Beta: First Impressions
I’ve been using Safari’s new beta for three days now, first on a Windows XP machine (Don’t ask, it was under duress) and then on my own iMac under Leopard. Having read conflicting reports about its speed, stability and compatibility, I was a little hesitant about installing it, but I must admit I am very pleasantly surprised. So here is how it stacks up so far:
Installation: I...
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LastFM: "TechCrunch are full of shit" →
Richard Jones from the LastFM blog vehemently denying TechCrunch’s report about LastFM leaking data on listeners of the latest leaked U2 album to the RIAA.
I can understand his outrage, and of course that of LastFM users believing the erroneous report: If I’d been publicly outed listening to Bono, I’d be pretty pissed off myself.
[Thanks iPanic for the heads up]
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Canon Drops Two New Tilt-Shift Lenses →
Love that miniature effect in your photos? Got two and a half thousand euros lying around? Them Canon’s latest tilt-shift lenses might be for you. One regular, one fisheye. Both very, very pricey.
On the other had you could convincingly fake the tilt-shift effect using this photoshop tutorial, but the knowledge of your deception may make you feel all dirty inside.
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“Hang on to your Mass Effect 1 saves.”
– Bioware’s Jack Lamden on Mass Effect 2.
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An Interview with djh, XBMC Skinning Legend
Anyone familiar with XBMC, the Xbox Media Centre project, or its mac spinoff Plex is likely to be acquainted with a little skin called Aeon. Released years ago but never ultimately completed, Aeon set a new vision for what XBMC could achieve in terms of user experience.
As he prepares for the release of his latest skinning project, code-named Stark, Aeon’s creator Duncan Harris (better...
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“We need to figure out their resonance frequencies so we can blow them up with...”
– Mout Prion’s comment on Virus Killing
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Biometrics get a kick in the face →
An upcoming presentation at Black Hat will demonstrate how a group of researchers have managed to crack a range of face recognition solutions from Lenovo, Asus and Toshiba.
Among the techniques used to fool these advanced ‘high-security’ sensors? Holding up a printed photo of the right face. That’s right - the most slapstick spy movie scene has just become a legitimate hacking...
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Hulu pulls the plug on Boxee, but there are better... →
Boxee, the socially networked media platform, has just lost one of its key features: Hulu integration. Due to the wishes of Hulu’s content partners, Hulu’s CEO Jason Kilar has announced that they will be pulling the plug on Boxee’s access to their content.
Thankfully you can still get Hulu on your big-screen TV (And a better media experience to boot) by using the Hulu plugin on...
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Apple's Q2: It's All in the Headlines.
Oh what a difference a headline makes. Take the story of Munster’s analysis of Apple’s performance in its second fiscal quarter of this year.
First, the Fortune’s doom-and-gloom angle:
Report: Mac sales off 6% in January; iPod off 14%
And now, MacDailyNews’s upbeat take:
Recession-proof Apple looks solid in current quarter
Same exact story, same exact figures....
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Cheap Thrill: 3D Without Glasses
I recently started playing with 3D Stereo Pairs, and what started as a fun little exercise turned out to open up a whole world of beautiful photography. The concept is neither new nor hi-tech, but it’s an interesting one nevertheless.
In a nutshell: 3D Stereo Pairs are just that, two images, presented side by side, taken a few inches apart from each other. Although different ways of...
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Third Cat Abuse Video Found at Teens' Home
A third video of animal abuse has been found as investigations are carried out in the home of two teenagers seen abusing Dusty the Cat. According to KWSO Lawton, the Comanche County Sheriff’s investigation uncovered a video depicting the abuse of a white and black cat, who has now also been rescued.
One might ask why the second cat was left in the home after Dusty’s rescue, despite...
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"My iMac Didn't Come With a Monitor"
Me: “Yes ma’am, how may I help you?”
Customer: “I thought these things came with a monitor? You told me it had a monitor.”
Me: “Yes ma’am, it’s one big monitor with a keyboard and mouse.”
Customer: “Well this one doesn’t have one.”
Me: Um…it’s the big black square on the front.”
Customer: “There is NO big black square on here.”
Me: “What do you mean? The whole machine is just a monitor; it’s the big black square above the CD Slot and speakers.”
Customer: “There is NO big black square. There are no speakers. You told me it came with a monitor.”
Me: “Ma’am…the whole computer is just a monitor with speakers and a CD Drive built in. Spin it around; it’s the big black square on the front.” (I can hear her turning the machine around and around, and she starts getting angry with me.)
Customer: “Listen, there is no big black square, there are no speakers, and there is no slot for a CD.”
Me: “Ma’am…do you have the computer face down on your desk?” (I can hear a big clunk as the flips the computer upright on the desk.)
Customer: “Um…I have to go now.” *click*
(From the excellent notalwaysright.com)
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“It didn’t have to be this way. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but you’ve...”
– A Valentine’s Day Card to the Media Companies
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The Death of TV Storytelling
Last Friday’s TV ratings confirmed something I had been fearing for a long time: TV storytelling is dying an ugly, lonely death.
Over the last few years we have seen a veritable rebirth of television, with great series like 24, The West Wing, Lost and many others bringing a level of quality and depth to television that was previously deemed the sole province of the Big Screen. It’s...
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Abused on YouTube, Dusty the Cat is Now Safe.
Today the internet underground can claim a small but meaningful humane victory. Shortly after two teenagers posted a horrific video of themselves abusing a helpless cat, the internet community reacted by tracking them down and contacting the authorities.
The teens’ identity was swiftly uncovered by members of the internet board 4chan, better known as the birthplace of Anonymous, a loose...
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One prisoner, 5 days, live on the net.
It’s 10.24pm. I’m staring at at a mostly black video window waiting to see a guy in a cell being ‘attacked by a bear.’ Nothing is happening. I’m slightly disappointed.
I’m watching ‘The Cell Experience,’ a French website tamely attempting emulate the plot of the movie Untraceable, where a rogue website promises a live broadcast of unspeakable...
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Cancer Miracles →
A baseball-sized liver tumor vanishes for no apparent reason. Dismissed by doctors as a fluke, the mystery could offer crucial clues to fighting cancer.
Spontaneous tumor regressions are among the rarest and most mysterious events in medicine. But the phenomenon may, in fact, be an everyday one, taking place beyond doctors’ eyes. A recent study suggests that as many as 1 in 3 breast tumors...
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Tumblr Tag Cloud Service Takes a Dive
Tumblr Tag Cloud, the excellent script for displaying tag clouds to tumblr blogs, seems to be having some issues. Tag clouds are disappearing from blog pages, due to an ‘account suspended’ notification from the service’s hosting provider, Hostmonster.
I’m sure I am not the only blogger hoping for a quick resolution to this issue. I have contacted the author, but in the...
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Turn-by-turn GPS for iPhones looks promising →
The upcoming xGPS project looks set to rival the functionality of dedicated GPS units, with Google Terrain Maps compatibility and english spoken instructions.
The catch? Currently xGPS will only run on jailbroken iPhones.
[Via ars]
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Arginine Supplements Could Help Fight Obesity →
According to Texas AgriLife researchers, dietary supplements of the amino acid arginine could help shift the body’s absorption of nutrients towards building muscle, while reducing overall fat mass.
In laboratory experiments, rats being given arginine supplements for 12 weeks had reduced body fat gains of up to 65 percent, with no adverse effects.
The finding, which suggests arginine may...
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“It’s kind of one more entrant into an already very busy space with lots of...”
– RIM’s co-chief executive Jim Balsillie on the iPhone, February 2007.
One year later, RIM has just announced it’s decreasing its profit forecast.
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Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That... →
“Some strong language” should be an unnecessary warning with a title like that, but there you go. This video pretty much sums up the Sony Experience, in a way only The Onion can do.
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Video: Bird + Jet Engine →
If you were ever curious about just what happens when a bird hits a turbojet engine, wonder no more. Just hope never to have an actual window seat to the event.
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The Top Disposable E-Mail Services And Tools →
Temporary e-mail addresses are pretty much a necessity these days. It’s hard to find one web service that doesn’t take registration as an excuse to pretty much sell your email address to whomever they want, or otherwise spam your inbox into oblivion.
No more. Follow the link in the title for a handy list of the top disposable email services to help you keep that inbox viagra-free.
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“Psystar may well have a legitimate interest in establishing misuse [of...”
– Judge William Alsup
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The Internet as a Sixth Sense →
There have been a number of interesting agumented reality concepts hitting the headlines in the last few years, but this once from MIT has some real potential.
What I like about this concept is its novel use of projection to display data about anything, on anything - something now possible with the advent of relatively cheap, pocket-size LED projectors.
Very interesting set of videos after the...
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Killzone scores a 7, world ends. →
I wrote a couple of days ago about the anger and outrage incurred by IGN for daring to issue a mere 9.4 rating to Killzone 2, the PS3’s latest shooter.
I knew I was in for some fun then when I came across a headline about the same game scoring only a 7 from EDGE. I was not to be disappointed. Follow the link in the title for some rabid fanboy hilarity.
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Replace FrontRow with Plex →
If you happen to own a Mac and a big TV, and you haven’t used Plex, you simply haven’t lived. A spinoff of the original XBMC project, Plex is a highly optimized media centre (and now Media Server) application for Intel macs running Leopard.
It can index all of your media in any format, from sources such as IMDB, integrate with your iTunes and iPhoto libraries, and much more. And best...
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Bubble Bobble Remake Heads To WiiWare →
As an old school gamer, this kills me. Bubble Bobble, one of my old time favorite puzzle platformers, is being remade for this generation’s clown of a console: the Wii. And so far it’s only been announced for the Japanese market.
Here’s hoping that a successful release will prompt the publishers to release this absolute classic gem onto other, more deserving platforms.
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ID re-opens QuakeLive beta! →
ID Software wants you to test their free QuakeLive, their free, browser-based version of the timeless FPS.
Currently Windows-only, and registration won’t guarantee you a spot - but it’s certainly worth a shot if you don’t mind your productivity taking a colossal dive.
A quick Google search will help you see who has a few invites to spare.
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Apple: 2 weeks, 4 lawsuits →
Within the last two weeks a total of four nearly identical lawsuits have accused Apple and AT&T of ”continuing to disseminate false and misleading advertising” over the iPhone 3G’s data speeds. Yet these accusations stem from willful ignorance of a simple reality: 3G speeds are dependent on network coverage, and network coverage is always variable.
By attempting to sue,...
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I2P anonymous network hits 0.7 milestone →
I2P, the anonymous peer-to-peer network that’s been quietly lurking in development for over five years, has finally hit its 0.7 milestone, adding a roster of stability and performance improvements.
Then project’s future came into doubt just over a year ago when its founder and key developer, jrandom, mysteriously disappeared. With his identity and whereabouts unknown, the small but...
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Forget BitTorrent: a three step guide to Usenet...
BitTorrent: bane of the media industries, press darling extraordinaire, and the single most successful file sharing protocol in existence. But is it really the best way to get what you want?
I stopped using BitTorrent for my downloading needs years ago, frustrated with the persistent throttling, unreliability of content, and the culture surrounding some private trackers. When I started exploring...
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Chinese Man Killed By Exploding Cell Phone
→
A 20-something shop assistant from Guangzhou, China was killed when his cellphone’s newly-installed battery exploded, tearing his carotid artery.
This is the ninth such incident in China since 2002. Motorola and Nokia, two of the world’s biggest cell phone makers, have in the past distanced themselves from distributors of problem batteries in China, suggesting they were counterfeit.
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