Archive for September, 2006

A Novel Way To Replace Broken Stuff

Saturday, September 16th, 2006

Recycle

Rather than throwing away broken stuff, consider sending it back to the manufacturer and asking for a replacement. The worst they can do is say, “No,” and the success rate is surprisingly high.

http://www.lifehacker.com/…

Reverse Graffiti

Saturday, September 16th, 2006

Art

Is it graffiti when you don’t use any paint but merely clean select portions of a dirty surface?

http://www.npr.org/…
(via Neatorama)

The Programs That Slow Down Windows Initialization

Friday, September 15th, 2006

Tips

ThePCSpy ran some performance tests to determine how much various programs slowed down the Windows boot process.

http://www.thepcspy.com/…
(via Lifehacker)

How It Should Have Ended

Friday, September 15th, 2006

Movies

If you haven’t seen it before, the “How It Should Have Ended” web site has short, animated videos of how various movies should have ended. There are quite a few that I don’t particularly like (e.g., ‘Saving Private Ryan‘), but the ‘Lord of the Rings‘ and ‘Star Wars‘ clips are hysterical (and ‘Superman‘ isn’t too bad either).

http://www.howitshouldhaveended.com/…

How To REALLY Recycle

Thursday, September 14th, 2006

Recycle

This Florida county is going to turn its 28-year old landfill into energy and construction materials. They will vaporize the trash using plasma arcs, producing gas (to run turbines) and a rock-like material that can be used in construction projects. They expect to fully consume the landfill in about 18 years. We need more of this kind of stuff!

http://www.usatoday.com/…

Say Hello To Phase-change Random Access Memory

Thursday, September 14th, 2006

Memory

Samsung has developed a potential replacement for flash memory, Phase-change Random Access Memory (PRAM). It’s 30 times faster than flash, lasts 10 times longer, and is less expensive to manufacture. Expect to see it in 2008.

http://www.samsung.com/…

BMW Announces Dual Gasoline/Hydrogen Vehicle

Wednesday, September 13th, 2006

Cars

From the linked article: “BMW officially announced the Hydrogen 7 today. The car is touted as the first hydrogen-drive luxury performance automobile for everyday use.” It runs on hydrogen or gasoline.

http://www.autobloggreen.com/…

Football Shutout Means Free Furniture

Wednesday, September 13th, 2006

ShopperA furniture store in Plano, Illinois held a promotion over the Labor Day weekend: If the Chicago Bears shut out the Green Bay Packers on their opening day football game, then any furniture purchased during the holiday weekend would be free. The final score was 26-0, and there were a lot of happy people after the game.

Link: http://msnbc.msn.com/…

Neat Pavement Drawings

Sunday, September 10th, 2006

ArtThis artist creates anamorphic illusions—drawings that appear to be three-dimensional from a certain point of view. He makes them on public sidewalks. This one is my favorite, while I think this one looks the most realistic.

http://users.skynet.be/…

Making Your Caps Lock Key Useful

Sunday, September 10th, 2006

Tips

I never use the Caps Lock key, and every so often I’d hit it accidentally. So I physically removed it from keyboard—end of problem. But the linked article has a Windows registry script that converts the Caps Lock key to a Ctrl key. Additionally, Sysinternals has a freeware utility that essentially does the same thing.

http://winadmin.forret.com/…
(via digg)

New Supersonic Jet In The Works

Saturday, September 9th, 2006

Airplane

New technology for supersonic jets makes them much quieter, and we may actually see them in use over the continental United States. Maybe in another few decades they’ll be in common use (we can only hope).

http://www.wired.com/…
(via Engadget)

Nature Adapting To Urban Life

Saturday, September 9th, 2006

Crow

This video shows how crows have adapted to modern cities. The crow in question drops a nut on a pedestrian crosswalk, waits for a car to run over the nut and crack it open, then waits at the edge of the crosswalk for the light to change, and safely walks out to eat the nut.

http://www.youtube.com/…