News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
President Bush has signed into law some improvements to the federal “do not call” list, the most important of which is that list entries are permanent and will no longer expire after 5 years.
Link: http://consumerist.com/…
The linked article has a super-slow motion video of a karate chop. Ouch!
Amidst cries of, “It’s about #$@#% time,” Microsoft has released documentation specifying the binary file formats used by MS Office.
Link: http://www.microsoft.com/…
(via Slashdot)
An Iowa man posted this Dilbert cartoon on a bulletin board at work and was fired for it. Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, decided to spoof the situation, starting with last Wednesday’s strip. So here we have a case of art reflecting real life that was affected by the art that’s mimicking it.
Link: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/…
(via Neatorama)
Stephen Hawking has said that he’s skeptical about time travel, because we haven’t seen a steady stream of visitors from the future. The linked comic shows the alternative.
Link: http://www.viruscomix.com/…
(via digg)
The high-definition format war is officially over. Toshiba has thrown in the towel on its HD-DVD format, and the remaining holdout studios have announced their decision to switch to Blu-ray.
For the early adopters, here’s how to convert HD-DVD discs to Blu-ray,
Link: http://www.toshiba.co.jp/…
(via Engadget)
Ever played that (extremely difficult) carnival game where you have to completely cover a red circle with five metal disks? As I recall, it was a great way to waste money. All is not lost, however, because there is an online version where you can refine your skills. After quite a bit of practice, I solved it, and am able to repeat it on a fairly consistent basis. Note that the white line around the gray circle counts as part of the circle.
Link: http://www.smart-kit.com/…
(via Neatorama)
This is one of the more bizarre examples of computer viruses that I’ve heard. The virus, actually a Trojan Horse, comes in digital photo frames that were manufactured in China. When the photo frame is connected to a computer, the Trojan Horse is downloaded from the frame to the computer. Nasty.
Link: http://www.sfgate.com/…
(via Engadget)
This is an interesting week for space events. On Wednesday night there will be a total Lunar eclipse. And the US military is planning to shoot down a defective spy satellite, possibly as early as Wednesday.
Update: The missile strike was successful.
When the US Internal Revenue Service first came out with e-filing, I was annoyed that you had to buy tax preparation software or pay for tax preparation in order to e-file. This is no longer the case. If your adjusted gross income is $54,000 or less, you can use a free e-filing service called Free File. The linked article has a list of services from which to choose—I’ve used the H&R Block TaxCut Free File for two years now, with no problems. Sure beats mailing in those returns. Note, however, that this only applies to federal taxes, and that you may get marketing emails from the service that you choose.
Link: http://www.irs.gov/…
Over the past few weeks, HD-DVD has been losing more and more ground in the high-definition format war with Blu-ray. Several major retailers have announced their decision to discontinue stocking HD-DVD titles, and there are rumors that Toshiba is thinking about conceding defeat. Looks like Blu-ray is going to emerge as the winner.
Ever set up a wireless network and then forgotten/lost the encryption key? Or worse, had to make changes to a wireless network that was set up and configured by someone else? WirelessKeyView is a Windows utility that will retrieve a stored encryption key from a computer.
Link: http://www.nirsoft.net/…
(via Lifehacker)
