News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
Google has spent months working with Microsoft and modifying its latest version of Gmail to work with Internet Explorer 6. Apparently the Gmail code was too “modern” for the older browser to handle well. Does anyone else think this is hilarious?
Link: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/…
(via Lifehacker)
With the stock market chaos, and with the surge of bankruptcies/government takeovers in the financial industries, you may be wondering if it’s time to drain all your accounts and store the cash inside a mattress. The linked article helps reduce the confusion by explaining exactly what is and what is not insured by the FDIC.
Link: http://consumerist.com/…
The linked article has 28 photos of the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. One of the more interesting pictures shows a skyscraper with its windows blown out.
Link: http://www.boston.com/…
(via digg)
The new Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been making the news over concerns it will spawn a black hole and destroy the world. Some enterprising individuals have even created websites to let us know whether or not Earth has been destroyed. But this is all tangential stuff. For those interested, the linked video contains a concise and clear explanation of how the LHC works.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/…
(via digg)
Windows Vista users may want to hold off before updating to iTunes version 8. For some users, it’s crashing their systems whenever they plug in an iPod. See the linked article for details.
Link: http://www.computerworld.com/…
(via Kim Komando)
Update: If you are experiencing this problem, here’s how to fix it.
Ten days ago Google released a new browser named Chrome. Despite the fact that the browser market is saturated, Chrome has already gained a market share of about 0.80%. One of Chrome’s best features is its ability to take advantage of multiple processors/cores, thus boosting its performance on multi-processor systems.
Thanks to Josh for this topic.
Link: http://www.google.com/…
We’re all familiar with CAPTCHAs, those weird pictures with distorted numbers and letters that you have to copy when submitting an online form. They’re designed to ensure that a human, rather than a computer, is the one doing the submitting. So what’s honest spammer to do? Simple, just hire cheap labor.
Link: http://blogs.zdnet.com/…
(via Slashdot)
Back when I was in college and first learned about blue boxes, the phone company was in the process of changing out their switching systems—and the new equipment wasn’t vulnerable to the 2600 Hz tone. But I managed to get my share of free calls via other means, especially in the chaotic years immediately following the breakup of AT&T. The linked article is about the man who started it all, John Draper (also known as Captain Crunch).
This is interesting. Apparently cows have a tendency to align themselves with magnetic North, either facing it or facing 180° away from it. The study shows the power of Google Earth.
Link #1: http://www.newscientist.com/…
Link #2: http://www.latimes.com/…
Update: Researchers have determined that the cows are definitely aligning with the magnetic field (versus pointing North or South).
An iPhone commercial has been banned in England because it falsely claims that “all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone”. The problem is that the iPhone can’t handle pages with Flash or Java, which make up a non-trivial percentage of the ‘net.
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…
The linked article just reinforces the fact that there is no privacy on the internet. Should you want to transfer sensitive information over an internet connection, make sure it’s encrypted. (Although if you live in the UK, that may not be sufficient. Even here in the USA, with the 5th amendment, the government is trying to force a criminal defendant to disclose his encryption passphrase.)
Link: http://blog.wired.com/…
(via Slashdot)
Ever wondered how a dog uses its tongue to drink? The reality is certainly different from what I expected—the dog curls his tongue down instead of up.
