Lockergnome Nexus

Is It OK For The Border Patrol To Search Laptops?

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 11:53 PM CDT

There seems to be some concern whether the US Border Patrol should be allowed to search laptops, whether there is suspicion of illegal activity or not. Two US Senators, as well as others are questioning the policies that the US Border Patrol has in place and whether they are necessary to protect the US or not. In the article it states:

"If you asked [U.S. residents] whether the government has a right to open their laptops, read their documents and e-mails, look at their photographs, and examine the Web sites they have visited, all without any suspicion of wrongdoing, I think those same Americans would say that the government has absolutely no right to do that," said Feingold, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights. "And if you asked him whether that actually happens, they would say, 'not in the United States of America.'"

Two witnesses at a hearing before the subcommittee Wednesday described widespread CBP searches of electronic devices at borders, with data copies and devices sometimes confiscated for weeks. One Muslim executive at a U.S. tech vendor has been subjected to border interrogations at least eight times since early 2007, said Farhana Khera, president and executive director of Muslim Advocates.

Other travelers have been asked why they are Muslim, were questioned about their views of U.S. presidential candidates and had laptops and cell phones searched or confiscated, Khera said. "Innocent Muslim, Arab and South Asian Americans from all walks of life have had their electronic devices searched by CBP agents, or have been interrogated by CBP agents ... all without any reasonable suspicion that the individuals were engaged in unlawful activity," she said.

I am not sure if I completely understand why the US Border Patrol is checking laptops, digital cameras and other electronic devices. We have this statement as well:

Searches of electronic devices at borders have caught several child pornographers and can be used to prevent terrorist attacks, he said.

How does one prevent a terrorist attack by catching a child pornographer? But what do you think? Should the US Border Patrol be allowed to view emails on a laptop in the name of national security? Comments welcome.

Source.

Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 Patch Available

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 10:34 PM CDT

Microsoft has posted a patch for those running Windows Vista with SP1 installed that fixes some reliability and performance issues that some users may experience. Microsoft explains the following situations in which the patch may be needed:

This update resolves issues that may affect some Windows Vista SP1-based computers. These issues have been reported by customers who use the Error Reporting service or Microsoft Customer Support Services. This update improves the performance, responsiveness, and reliability of Windows Vista in various scenarios. This update includes the following improvements on a Windows Vista SP1-based computer:

•

This update improves the stability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by addressing some crashes that may occur when you try to check e-mail by using a POP3 e-mail client such as Windows Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird. The crashes may occur on a Windows Vista SP1-based computer in the following scenario:

•

Incoming POP3 and outgoing SMTP traffic monitoring is enabled.

•

Both a third-party antivirus application and an antispyware application are installed, such as the following applications:

•	ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.
•	SpySweeper by Webroot Software, Inc.

•

This update improves the reliability of the Windows Vista SP1 based-computers by addressing some problems that occur when you delete user accounts by using the User Accounts item in Control Panel. When this problem occurs, the system may stop responding (hang).

•

This update improves the reliability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers that experience issues in which large applications cannot run after the computer is turned on for extended periods of time. For example, when you try to start Excel 2007 after the computer is turned on for extended periods of time, a user may receive an error message that resembles the following: EXCEL.EXE is not a valid Win32 application

•

This update improves the reliability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by reducing the number of crashes that may be caused by the Apple QuickTime thumbnail preview in Windows Live Photo Gallery.

•

This update improves the performance of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by reducing audio and video (AV) stuttering. Such AV stuttering may occur when the audio or video component is streaming high definition content from a Windows Vista SP1-based computer that has a NVIDIA network adapter nForce driver version 67.5.4.0 that is installed to a Windows Media Center Extender device.

Comments welcome. Source - download from here.

Report: Lithium AA Batteries Out Last And Cost Less

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 09:09 PM CDT

PopPhoto's Zach Honig went to Wal-Mart and bought $200 worth of different four or eight pack single use and rechargeable batteries so he could test them and calculate the cost per shot for each battery. The rechargeable battery test results were a bit surprising. Kodak's Value Charger "offers the lowest cost per shot for rechargeable AA batteries in our test," reports Honig. "Energizer's 15-Minute charger is our best buy, however, because of its high longevity and quick, 15-minute charge time." For single-use Batteries Honig found that Energizer e2 Lithium batteries [8 pack, 12 pack] where the best buy even though are "more expensive than any other on the market, but their longevity justifies the price." Lithium batteries are also considerably lighter than all other AA batteries sold. I'm kicking myself that I just bought a 36 pack of Duracell Coppertops for my flashes. While they're the best standard battery, according to the tests, they still don't compare to Engergizer's Lithiums. [PopPhoto AA Battery Test]

Teachers' Math Skills Are Lacking

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 07:53 PM CDT

Some of us were lucky and some of us were not as fortunate. The lucky ones encountered a teacher in the early grades who made arithmetic interesting and fun. And that made a world of difference in the later years. A study released this week confirmed what many parents suspect: that the quality of the teaching of math was not adequate: "WASHINGTON, D.C. - For kids to do better in math, their teachers might have to go back to school. Elementary-school teachers are poorly prepared by education schools to teach math, finds a study being released Thursday by the National Council on Teacher Quality." link: Study: Teachers don't learn enough about math If the basic skills and attitude are not acquired in the early years, it becomes more and more difficult each year. The lack of fundamentals is difficult to overcome. Our school was fortunate. We had a teacher who knew the first hundred numbers of pi by memory. She taught the magic of the golden mean and how phi was everywhere. We learned how to win more often at cards. It was fun. It didn't seem like arithmetic. Most of us never forgot; and we know now how very fortunate we were. Catherine Forsythe

Blackberry Bold Release Delayed

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 05:44 PM CDT

According to the workplace roumor mill, the Blackberry Bold release has been delayed until mid-August. Aparently some issues arose with low battery life and overheating. RIM is working out those kinks. It says allot about them to fix a problem rather than sell a bad phone. I've always like the "Crackberries" and am deciding on wether to get the new iPhone or the Bold. Just a recap on the specs for you, they include 4.5 inches tall, 2.6 inches wide and half an inch thick with a weight of just 4.7 ounces and incorporates a new QWERTY keyboard which RIM likens to that of a modernised Curve keyboard. It is a quad-band handset GSM 850/900/1800/and 1900, and also has HSDPA/UMTS support, built in GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 with full A2DP support, and integrated WiFi. It is powered by a 312MHz processor and is run by a 624MHz Intel PXA270 processor for a smoother and faster experience. It also sports 128MB flash memory along with a 1GB on board memory, supplemented by a microSD/SDHC expansion port. Multimedia is taken care of firstly by an improved web browser which gives the user the option to view web pages in full desktop HTML style or simple mobile version, there is a trackball for ease of navigation. The camera is a 2 megapixel with video recording function and up to 5X zoom. The music player supports numerous formats such as WMV3, DivX4, AAC, WMA and MP3 files, and comes with a 3.5 headphone jack. So how about you? Blackberry Bold or iPhone?

Bill Gates On Windows Usability

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 05:26 PM CDT

Right up front, there are a couple of things to consider about this Bill Gates rant.

The email written by Bill Gates was done in 2003.
He is speaking about frustration with a select problem, so do not take this as him giving up on Windows altogether.

What got me thinking were these words being muttered from the man himself. Quote:

I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don't drive usability issues.

Wow, this speaks volumes as to the frustration Bill must have been dealing with when trying to work with Windows Movie Maker, an application that is supposed to be user friendly. Still, there is an alarming item that we all ought to be looking into is the concern over general Windows usability. This alone is something that to this day, I believe is going largely unaddressed with Windows. Not saying OS X or Linux is any better in this dept, but perhaps an indicator that the almighty dollar has lost this match and even Bill Gates himself is finding himself frustrated with shortcuts taken to rush deadlines.

Facebook Takes a Turn for the Worse

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 05:00 PM CDT

I have been hoping for months and months that Facebook did not make changes that go in the direction of MySpace. Thankfully, you still cannot change your background on Facebook -- however the staff is planning on implementing a new feature that allows friends to comment on others mini-feeds.

"We aim to help users share information and communicate more easily, which sometimes entails having a conversation around a piece of content or an action," a release from Facebook explained. "We already have comments for photos, videos, and posted items, but we realized there is much more content users want to comment on for example, status messages." The new feature will be marked with a comment bubble. Link: Facebook adds to the chatter...

I understand that Facebok wants to make it easier for me to stay in contact with my friends, however my friends can already comment in tons of places. If they cannot scroll down a little ways passed my 'mini-feed' to post on my wall, we have a huge problem. I don't want my Facebook account cluttered with comments; the wall exists for that reasons. I want my profile to be about me, not what my friends think about every single action that I do during my day. Hopefully they will allow us to disable this feature. Justin Capasso

Over One Million Creatures Created With Spore Creature Creator

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 04:14 PM CDT

The Internet has been invaded by walking pears, giant dragons, impossible-to-describe aliens and everything in between! Maxis, an Electronic Arts Inc. studio, today announced that fans have created and shared more than one million creatures using the Spore Creature Creator in the first week of availability. Anyone can download their own copy of the Spore Creature Creator or check out hundreds of thousands of amazing creations from around the world in the Sporepedia.

The Sporepedia is an extraordinarily vast online destination where people worldwide can search for and share Spore creations, comment on other player's designs, check out celebrity creature creations and much more.

"Maxis is excited, humbled and inspired by the explosion of creativity that we've seen with the Spore Creature Creator online," said Lucy Bradshaw, executive producer of Spore at Maxis. "I'm amazed at the creations I see getting uploaded to the Sporepedia, whether it's a realistic looking bird or animal, a 10-eyed alien, or something completely bizarre and unexpected like a creature that looks like a motorcycle, it's clear that people have an innate desire to be creative, and we're thrilled to help them express themselves."

The millionth creature was created by user "FlamingChidori" and was named, "Sapiusgeenus" - a two-legged green creature that the creator described as "one of my favorites so far." You can check "Sapiusgeenus" and a million other creatures at spore.com.

The Spore Creature Creator is a stand-alone product and creativity toy box where players create their own unique creatures, bring them to life with entertaining animations, and share them online with friends around the world. A free trial version of the Spore Creature Creator is available today at www.spore.com. The trial version features 25% of the creature-making parts from Spore and lets players shape, paint and play with their custom-created creatures. Creatures made in the Spore Creature Creator can also be imported into the full Spore game, allowing players to populate their own galaxies when the game ships worldwide later this year.

The Spore Creature Creator lets players create their own creatures, take them on a test drive, snap pictures, and make movies of them. Sharing pictures or videos with friends is as easy as the click of a button. Players can also share their creations with others by uploading to the Sporepedia.

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audit questions oversight of aid to pakistan...

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 03:08 PM CDT

The U.S. has given Pakistan nearly $6 billion to pursue terrorists since the Sept. 11 attacks, but with little to no proof that the money has been used for that purpose, an independent audit has found. The assessment by the Government Accountability Office, released Tuesday, angered members of Congress who say they are concerned that Pakistan -- the nation's closest ally in the war on terrorism -- is milking the U.S. government. This is very upsetting to them. If anyone is going to be milking the government, it should be their contributors - not some other country. So this is $6 billion that we know about. Add it to the looting that Halliburton and KBR are doing and you've paid quite a lot of healthcare (or even GAS) bills. Say, do you remember what happened on 9-10, the day before 9-11-01? The government came out and announced they had no idea where $3 trillion or so had gotten to. My gasoline and healthcare bills alone shudder at the thought. My figurative grandchildren (had I children) will be paying for this beyond the grave. I now return you to your regularly scheduled Americans Idle and apologize for the intrusion. Try not to think too hard - it causes worry lines.

500GB External Drives Are Now Super Affordable

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 03:03 PM CDT

What's your backup plan? Are you even backing up? With large external hard drive prices so low right now you really have no excuse for not backing up your critical data to an external drive. I just came across the Western Digital 500 GB My Book Essential 2.0 USB 2.0 External Hard Drive for less than $100! Have something against Western Digital? A 500GB external USB 2.0 drive from Iomega or LaCie can be found closer to $100.00. Even a Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 500 GB Hard Drive which comes with some really snazzy backup and sharing software can be had for less than $120. Don't be caught by surprise. You never know when your primary hard drive might fail. Get a backup drive and regularly backup your critical data, photos, music, and videos to it. For added protection get two and always rotate and keep one at your office or a friends' or family member's house in case of flood or fire. Pricing, rebates, free super saver shipping, and other promotions maybe subject to availability and restrictions.

Downtown Portland Hilton Hotel & Executive Tower Parking Sucks

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 03:03 PM CDT

I recently headed through downtown Portland to a SMART board meeting, and I made the mistake of parking at the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower instead of at the Fox Tower, the location of my meeting. I thought I saw on the Hilton Portland Hotel sign that they charge $8 for evenings. After the SMART meeting, I handed over my ticket and paid with my credit card, while talking on the phone. When I returned home, I pulled out the parking receipt and it said $21, for 3 hours! I called to confirm their parking rates are $6 to $8 an hour! A deal for Manhattan, but Portland? It would have been easier (and nearly cheaper) to not pay for a spot on the street and take a parking ticket. What an amazing ripoff. Buyer beware, as Hilton Portland & Executive Tower doesn't seem to care much about customers.

how psychologists have abetted the CIA

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 02:59 PM CDT

The CIA's Torture Teachers, psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen [see Eban and Mayer for a reminder of their work], are in the news again. In a front page New York Times article on the interrogation of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, it is mentioned that the subject of the story, Deuce Martinez is now employed by the dynamic torture firm. It's a crime against humanity. All the good that psychology can do for us is wasted on nonsense like this. It goes much deeper.

tv making us crazy?

Identity Theft Response Units Needed

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 02:51 PM CDT

The nightmare scenario is a data breach that involves sensitive, confidential data. This could be a government agency, an educational institution, private business... the list is extensive. None of these people are prepared to respond to a security breach. It is not something that an agency or a business trains to do. As such, well meaning people are forced to learn as they go forward in handling a breach of what could involve hundreds of thousands - perhaps millions - of personal information files. What needs to be put in place are response teams from national or state agencies. When a data breach happens, a central agency is notified and a team is dispatched. This team would not only be police officials but it would include technologists, forensic experts, public relations specialists, media co-ordinators, credit / finance experts and so forth. It would be a complete identity response team to manage the damage and its impact. A data breach can cost millions. There is the credit monitoring for the people whose data have been compromised. There may be litigation. Some of the people may suffer financial lose. And the impact of the public perception of poor security management may have long term consequences. The response to a data breach has to be multi-faceted. The advantage of the hackers and thieves is that few (if any) of their victims are prepared for a rapid response. National, well trained identity theft units could mitigate that advantage significantly. Catherine Forsythe

Skype Review

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 02:42 PM CDT

www.skype.com is where you can find this GREAT app. Skype is kinda like chat, except you talk. I think it is a REALLY good app because instead of chatting in a chat room, you can talk to them directly without going anywhere or hosting guests at your house. Here are some special features of Skype: You can also video chat, but its not too good, it lags a lot. You can host conference calls and talk to multiple people, not too sure if there is a maximum capacity. Here are some photos: http://twurl.nl/lhj3v6 This is a photo of the contacts feature in Skype. Also: http://twurl.nl/vbfqq3. This is how it looks like when you call someone via skype. When you call someone via skype, if the other person has skype, its free. If not, you'll have to pay. I THINK its 6 cents a minute. E-Mail me @ kevinyankees27@gmail.com Skype Rating: 8.5/10 (Video chat lags, RAM hogger, if you have bad internet and host a call, good things will NOT happen)

Kaspersky Anti-virus review

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 02:21 PM CDT

No, I don't have windows, but My mom does. Her anti-virus (Norton), expired today so I went to go get what most people told me to get: Kaspersky. And you know, I really like Kaspersky It has a nice User Interface, and it runs MUCH faster than Norton, at least when it runs scans. In Norton, it uses 77% of my mom's CPU, and Kaspersky uses only a small 11%. Thats a DRAMATIC difference between the two. Also, Kaspersky updates every hour. So you don't have to see if it updates, like Norton 360. Norton 360 DOES update automatically.... but you have to then install them manually. So really the only time you have to open Kaspersky is either to do a full system scan, or if a virus or malware enters your computer. Kaspersky Rating: 10/10 (GREAT UI, and a GREAT virus protection)

Is What You Say Private?

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 02:12 PM CDT

An accepted part of city living is that one's image is captured numerous times during the day. Whether it is private surveillance cameras of small establishments or a centralized security network, for the most part, people are resigned to forfeit some privacy for the sake of security. The expectation of privacy is significantly lower. However, as surveillance technology becomes increasingly more sophisticated, citizens are not only watched for how they behave. They may be monitored for what they say. The United Kingdom has been labeled the 'surveillance society'. Technology has advanced to sound detection: "CCTV cameras which use artificial intelligence software are being developed to "hear" sounds like windows smashing, researchers have revealed." link: CCTV cameras 'taught to listen' The next step is to monitor what is being said. Citizens have lowered their expectation of privacy when they are in a public venue. Image capture is multiplying. However, to have surveillance extended to personal conversations is another huge concession of civil liberties. And when the audio capacities of the technology is limited by clarity or range, software is being developed to interpret the conversation through lip reading algorithms. The trend is for increased surveillance. Even in harsh economic times, it is a growth industry. As surveillance for the sake of security advances, one basic question remains to be proven from the empirical data. That basic question is 'does the surveillance work?'. Catherine Forsythe

Why Not to Drop $1000 on Adobe CS3: Freeware Alternatives

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 02:09 PM CDT

I very well know that Adobe CS3 offers some compelling programs. However, I have a solution to the major problem with the software: the price. The following are free alternatives to CS3 programs that will save you some major dough. Photoshop is Adobe's stab at a photo editing program. For this common task, I have two programs to offer. The first program is The Gimp. The Gimp is slightly complex, but offers all the features that Photoshop does. A recompilation of The Gimp, called Gimpshop, is designed to be like Photoshop. Secondly, the infamous program Paint.NET. Paint.NET is a more basic image editor, but is still much more advanced than Windows Paint. Paint.NET is only available for Windows, while The Gimp is open source and therefore is available to most platforms. Flash is a web 2.0 standard, however Adobe's Flash program is expensive and complicated. I have found two alternatives to use instead of Flash. I have not extensively tested Synfig so I cannot comment on the UI or performance. The other option is called Powerbullet Presenter. Powerbullet is a well built program that makes Flash presentations. The UI is a little bit cluttered, but its performance really packs a punch. Synfig is available for Windows and OS X and Powerbullet is a Windows-only app. Ah, Dreamweaver, the benchmark of all WYSIWYG editors. My suggested alternative is called Komposer. Komposer is the successor to NVU and is very similar. Komposer has a visual design and a code view, very similar to Dreamweaver. The only true difference between the two is that integrating Flash in Komposer can be a little bit tricky. Komposer is available for all major platforms. Next up is Adobe Acrobat. I have a very simple solution to create PDFs rather then spending your hard earned cash. I suggest downloading PrimoPDF which is a printer driver that creates PDFs from any application that supports printing. All you need to do is select PrimoPDF in the Print dialogue box. PrimoPDf is available only for Windows. Adobe Illustrator is great for creating works of art. Inkscape can be easily substituted for Illustrator saving you money. Inkscape is available for all major platforms. Every now and again, everybody needs to build a publication. Of course you could use MS Publisher or Adobe InDesign, but why would you use those when you could use Scribus for free? Scribus has a simple, but powerful UI that reminds me of Komposer and the Open Office suite. Scribus is available for all major platforms. Video editing is something that nowadays lots of people do. Windows Movie Maker is not great, iMovie is OK, but Adobe Premiere is professional quality. Jahshaka is a great alternative to Premiere and offers many of the same features. Jahshaka is available on all major platforms. Audio editing is something required for podcasting and music recordings. Adobe Soundbooth allows this to be done professionally, but the open source program Audacity can do the same thing for a lot less. Audacity is available to all major platforms. Finally, we have an Adobe product that is not part of CS3, but still has a free alternative. That product is Adobe Captivate. Adobe Captivate allows you to create screencasts to share with the web, colleagues, or friends. A free program that allows this to be done is CamStudio. I hope that this list of freeware alternatives to expensive software helps everybody find an easy, cheap way to do what they need. Note: These programs were found by use of Google, osalt.com, and CNet.

overtime?

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 02:02 PM CDT

I'm a salaried (not hourly) employee, therefore no overtime. I hear rumblings of after-hours requirements. Most people say that it's either part of the job requirements or there's some sort of comp-time arrangement on the back-end. How does it work for you? There's a very interesting article at Lifehacker on this topic, mostly around checking emails on your Crackberry at home. While we're on the topic, what kind of communication do you have in place for notification? My department has cell phones but we dare not publicize the numbers, lest we get 3am phone calls asking to help hook up their son's Playstation. I'm not exaggerating that much. We have a company directory with everyone's name, work extension, home address, and vital statistics. When I started, I refused to fill in any personal information. A few months later a higher-up told me he had some computer trouble at home on a Sunday and tried to look me up in the directory but couldn't find me. YES! An ounce of prevention....

cross-platform inbreeding?

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 01:58 PM CDT

Windows only: Free, open-source application KDE Window-Sizer resizes and moves windows when you click anywhere inside the window while holding the Alt key. To move a window, then, hold Alt and left-click and drag anywhere in the window to move it—this behavior mimics the move behavior available in the KDE Linux desktop environment. Likewise, to resize a window from anywhere, just hold Alt and then right-click and drag anywhere in the window. Additionally, the application will snap any window to the edge of your monitor by Alt-right-clicking or Alt-resizing the window, which really helps maximize screen real estate. It may sound confusing at first, but give it a try and you'll quickly appreciate the new functionality, Is it April Fools Day and no one told me? Why does the group that makes a very popular linux desktop put out Windows-only software? The secret is in the link.

American Airlines - Passengers Get To Test Broadband

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 12:25 PM CDT

American Airlines will begin testing broadband service on a flight from New York to Los Angeles. The new service is a joint effort of American Airlines and Aircell and will expand to other flights in the next few weeks for further testing. According to the report:

Passengers will be able to download videos, use email, instant messaging and access corporate networks using their laptops or handheld devices. Aircell's Gogo service will be free today. Once the initial test phase is complete, it will cost $12.95 for passengers to use the service on flights longer than three hours and $9.95 for shorter flights. Voice-based functions will not be enabled. The system will control the flow of data so users downloading movies or large files will not interfere with other passengers accessing email.

This is an opportune time for the airlines increase revenues to try and off set the rising cost of fuel. Some other suggestions, beside charging for your luggage, should be:

Charging to use the in flight restrooms. Toilet paper should also be extra.
On coast to coast flights, have the pilot announce that the plane is low on fuel, and see if anyone would like to chip in a few bucks.
Charge extra for smooth landings that do not scare the crap out of everyone on board. I once landed in San Francisco, and Captain Kangaroo, bounced us in to the terminal.

Comments welcome. Source.

ooVoo

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 12:18 PM CDT

ooVoo is the next evolution in online communication — a remarkably easy way to have a face-to-face video chat with friends.
ooVoo

new yawk is not tasteless

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 11:12 AM CDT

I saw a commercial the other night. This in itself isn't too odd. The odd bit is that I stopped for a second to think about what I heard. This was my fatal mistake. Pizza Hut claims to have tested out their pasta-to-go on New Yorkers, who loved it. I (obviously) don't get out much but I've been to a few Italian restaurants in New York. I think New York should file a class-action suit against Pizza Hut for defamation of character. No, I haven't tasted their pasta. But I've tasted their (alleged) pizza and that's enough.

Dubai Does It Again!

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 10:13 AM CDT

For those who don't know, Dubai is a country where allot of new technology is built, including a huge man made island shaped like a palm tree, a building shaped like a sail which created its own rain cloud inside the lobby during an air conditioning test, and many others. Dubai's latest project? An 80 story building with rotating floors. Like a giant Rubik's Cube, each floor rotates individually, which means the building itself changes shape! Want to read more? Here's my source. Be sure to check out the video.

something nice on the news?

Posted: 25 Jun 2008 10:04 AM CDT

Last night my wife was watching the local news (I always do something else when she watches local news because local news has no content whatsoever. She called me in for a story about a zone of no car alarms. There was some sort of local shopping center where, for the last year, no one could use their automatic car locks, alarms, or other wireless devices. No one could figure out why this was. The local angle was that they called in some radio amateurs (hams, licensed amateur radio operators) to troubleshoot the reason for the dead zone. The newslady made a big deal out of their fancy gadgets* and skills as they attempted to figure out the cause of the problem. I was guessing door openers. I was wrong. Turned out to be the anti-theft sensors between the two front doors. The store wouldn't admit it but within a week, all of the devices that wouldn't work for a year suddenly started working again. It was nice to see amateurs on tv. It's not odd to see them performing a public service on their own time with their own equipment, though. You keep hearing about all of the emergency services being put into place by Homeland Security ----> (Heil!!!) but the only time-tested means of communication during a power failure will be radio. When the hurricanes hit Florida, some counties' only means of communication was volunteer amateur radio operators. When the cell phones went down on 9-11, radio didn't. Good folks, those hams. * for anyone interested, the fancy gadgets were two homemade yagis for direction-finding. Picture a foot long stick with a few hangers through it, like a mini tv antenna. It was pretty funny.

High tech - Cell phone - Pda - Laptop

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Lockergnome Nexus

Lockergnome Nexus

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