Saturday, 30 June 2007
Friday, 29 June 2007
How To Crash Windows Vista In 10 Seconds Or Less
Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system is a mighty paradox. On the one hand, it's more robust and feature-rich than any of its predecessors. For the most part, it's also more secure and is immune to many pretty sophisticated takedown attempts. But it's got one nasty Achilles' Heel, which'll enable you to crash the OS in under 10 seconds. Here's the deal: One of the simplest command sequences you can think of will take Vista down completely. Hold down the Windows key and the letter "E" for 10 seconds or so. After opening up Windows Explorer windows ad infinitum, your system will stop responding.
F*ck It's cold!
A pair of marine biologists descend down a deep coral-reef drop-off in the central Pacific, using high-tech closed-circuit rebreathers and breathing a mixture containing mostly helium. As they pass a depth of 320 feet on the way down, they discover what it feels like to penetrate a thermocline from the balmy 85-degree equatorial sea-surface temperatures, to the 50-degree deep upwelled water below. The diver carrying the camera, who was wearng only a t-shirt and swimsuit under his rebreather gear, had no idea that every helium-affected word he was saying was being picked up by the camera's microphone.
Wii Remote And Google Earth
A demonstration using the Wii remote to control Google Earth. You can find more information about how to do this at www.wiili.org and wiihacks.blogspot.com. You can find this GlovePIE script at http://jcoulston.blogspot.com
Thursday, 28 June 2007
China Opens Longest Sea Bridge In The World
A 22-mile bridge that its builders claim is the world's longest sea-crossing structure was formally linked-up Tuesday just south of the business hub of Shanghai.
The bridge links Shanghai to the industrial city of Ningbo across Hangzhou Bay, cutting the distance between them from about 250 miles to just 50 miles.
Officials welded together a final section to complete the link at a ceremony attended by several hundred workers from the various companies building the bridge.
Costing 11.8 billion yuan (£0.77 billion), the structure will open to traffic next year following completion of the six-lane roadway that will permit vehicles to travel at speeds of up to 62 miles per hour.
The bridge, a mix of viaducts and cable-stayed spans to allow shipping to pass beneath, lies just south of the Yangtze River Delta, one of China's most economically vital regions which is undergoing a massive construction boom aimed at boosting transport links.
Just north of Shanghai, builders this month connected the final link in a 20.13-mile bridge across the Yangtze, said to be the longest cable-stayed structure of its kind.
The 20.2-mile Donghai Bridge had been the previous longest sea-crossing structure, linking Shanghai to the massive Yangshan deep water port.
Construction on the Hangzhou Bay Bridge began in 2003 with a percentage of its financing coming from private sources, a first for such a large Chinese infrastructure project.
The bridge links Shanghai to the industrial city of Ningbo across Hangzhou Bay, cutting the distance between them from about 250 miles to just 50 miles.
Officials welded together a final section to complete the link at a ceremony attended by several hundred workers from the various companies building the bridge.
Costing 11.8 billion yuan (£0.77 billion), the structure will open to traffic next year following completion of the six-lane roadway that will permit vehicles to travel at speeds of up to 62 miles per hour.
The bridge, a mix of viaducts and cable-stayed spans to allow shipping to pass beneath, lies just south of the Yangtze River Delta, one of China's most economically vital regions which is undergoing a massive construction boom aimed at boosting transport links.
Just north of Shanghai, builders this month connected the final link in a 20.13-mile bridge across the Yangtze, said to be the longest cable-stayed structure of its kind.
The 20.2-mile Donghai Bridge had been the previous longest sea-crossing structure, linking Shanghai to the massive Yangshan deep water port.
Construction on the Hangzhou Bay Bridge began in 2003 with a percentage of its financing coming from private sources, a first for such a large Chinese infrastructure project.
Giant Microwave Turns Plastic Back To Oil
A US company is taking plastics recycling to another level – turning them back into the oil they were made from, and gas.All that is needed, claims Global Resource Corporation (GRC), is a finely tuned microwave and – hey presto! – a mix of materials that were made from oil can be reduced back to oil and combustible gas (and a few leftovers).
Key to GRC’s process is a machine that uses 1200 different frequencies within the microwave range, which act on specific hydrocarbon materials. As the material is zapped at the appropriate wavelength, part of the hydrocarbons that make up the plastic and rubber in the material are broken down into diesel oil and combustible gas.
GRC's machine is called the Hawk-10. Its smaller incarnations look just like an industrial microwave with bits of machinery attached to it. Larger versions resemble a concrete mixer.
"Anything that has a hydrocarbon base will be affected by our process," says Jerry Meddick, director of business development at GRC, based in New Jersey. "We release those hydrocarbon molecules from the material and it then becomes gas and oil."
Whatever does not have a hydrocarbon base is left behind, minus any water it contained as this gets evaporated in the microwave.
Simplified recycling
"Take a piece of copper wiring," says Meddick. "It is encased in plastic – a kind of hydrocarbon material. We release all the hydrocarbons, which strips the casing off the wire." Not only does the process produce fuel in the form of oil and gas, it also makes it easier to extract the copper wire for recycling.
Similarly, running 9.1 kilograms of ground-up tyres through the Hawk-10 produces 4.54 litres of diesel oil, 1.42 cubic metres of combustible gas, 1 kg of steel and 3.40 kg of carbon black, Meddick says.
Watch a video of tyre powder being reduced by the Hawk-10.
Less landfill
Gershow Recycling, a scrap metal company based in New York, US, has just said it will be the first to buy a Hawk-10. Gershow collects metal products, shreds them and turns them into usable pure metals. Most of its scrap comes from old cars, but for every ton of steel that the company recovers, between 226 kg and 318 kg of "autofluff" is produced.
Autofluff is the stuff that is left over after a car has been shredded and the steel extracted. It contains plastics, rubber, wood, paper, fabrics, glass, sand, dirt, and various bits of metal. GRC says its Hawk-10 can extract enough oil and gas from the left-over fluff to run the Hawk-10 itself and a number of other machines used by Gershow.
Because it makes extracting reusable metal more efficient and evaporates water from autofluff, the Hawk-10 should also reduce the amount of end material that needs to be deposited in landfill sites.
BBC Web Downloads Set To Launch
The BBC's on demand TV service, the BBC iPlayer, will launch to the public on 27 July, the corporation has revealed.
UK users will be able to download popular shows over the net seven days after broadcast to watch on their PC.
Later this year, the service will also be available via links from YouTube and could also appear on other websites such as MSN, Bebo, and Facebook.
At launch the application will only work on Windows PCs but a version for the Mac could be available by autumn.
Over time other features will be added to the iPlayer including live streaming of programmes, the BBC Radio Player and "series stacking", which will allow users to download episodes from series retrospectively.
Director General Mark Thompson said: "Forty years ago, in July 1967, BBC Television launched colour TV.
"This July we are going to launch the iPlayer and in our view, the iPlayer is at least as big a redefinition of what TV can be, what radio can be, what broadcasting can be, as what colour television was 40 years ago."
Read more here.
UK users will be able to download popular shows over the net seven days after broadcast to watch on their PC.
Later this year, the service will also be available via links from YouTube and could also appear on other websites such as MSN, Bebo, and Facebook.
At launch the application will only work on Windows PCs but a version for the Mac could be available by autumn.
Over time other features will be added to the iPlayer including live streaming of programmes, the BBC Radio Player and "series stacking", which will allow users to download episodes from series retrospectively.
Director General Mark Thompson said: "Forty years ago, in July 1967, BBC Television launched colour TV.
"This July we are going to launch the iPlayer and in our view, the iPlayer is at least as big a redefinition of what TV can be, what radio can be, what broadcasting can be, as what colour television was 40 years ago."
Read more here.
Bye Bye TorrentSpy and ISOHunt
TorrentSpy decides to not block US visitors and chooses to filter pirated content from its search results instead, something which ISOHunt plans to do as well.
It's a sad day for those in the US who use TorrentSpy or ISOHunt, two of the world's largest public trackers sites, to find movies, music, and more to download for it seems the party's nearing an end.
TorrentSpy and ISOHunt plan to use a hash-based system called FileRights to automatically filter BitTorrent trackers that link to pirated content from its search results to help satisfy a suit brought against them by the MPAA for the illegal facilitation of copyrighted material.
FileRights will use file hashes provided by individual copyright owners of their content that will detect and remove any torrent trackers that link to unauthorized copies. Copyright owners sign up for an account with the system and then enter the hash values of their content into the system database. FileRights will then automatically remove any links to this content.
The site says it works as follows:
FileRights.com maintains a large database of copyrighted works managed by the content holders themselves. This database forms a master list of copyrighted materials that should be removed from BitTorrent sites. When a content holder uploads information about the works they have found on a bittorrent site FileRights then distributes this information to our website subscribers so that work can be removed (filtered) from their search results. The entire process is automated to minimize the effort required by both the content holder and website operator.
Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Travis Pwns Bitchy Spears! Hit Me Baby One More Time!
Travis a band from Europe does a nice acoustic cover of Britney Spears, "Hit Me Baby One More Time". They take a horrible song and make it sound pretty darn good.
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Putting HD Video On Your Phone
Apple will release one of the most highly touted cell phones in history this week. And by next year, those first iPhones will likely be woefully outdated.
Chipmaker Texas Instruments is in the middle of ramping up for the release of its third-generation OMAP processor, a platform for cell phones. Cell phones containing OMAP 3 will hit the market in 2008, according to Avner Goren, TI's worldwide director of cellular systems marketing.
And what will OMAP 3 phones have? High-definition video--720x1368-pixel resolution--at the high end, he said. The cameras on the phones will also be capable of shooting 12 megapixels of photos per second. That can be divided up into one 12-megapixel shot, or four 3-megapixel shots taken in burst mode.
Users will also be able to more easily zoom into relevant portions of documents or rotate files like spread sheets and Acrobat documents more easily. The phones, Goren said, will also provide better performance and be better at not interrupting a function--like watching videos or trolling the Web--when phone calls come in.
"People want responsiveness," Goren said in an interview last week. "When you rotate an Acrobat document, there are a lot of calculations going on."
TI has also been experimenting with a projector that can be inserted into a phone. The projector is capable of displaying high-definition movies onto a flat surface.
"There is more processing power than what can be shown on a cell phone screen," he said. "One of the limits is the physical dimensions of the phone."
Updating the OMAP platform is crucial for TI, which has suffered lower-than-expected revenues for the past several months. The company remains the largest provider of processors and communications chips into the cell phone market, but competition is a constant. Intel for a number of years tried to take on TI in cell phones. Intel won a few designs, but ultimately sold this division. Now, TI competes against Samsung and others.
OMAP 3 will be built around an ARM Cortex A8 processor made on the 65-nanometer process. (ARM designs the processor core and TI implements it in silicon.) It will also include integrated graphics and cores for handling other functions.
In addition, the company is making communications chips that combine different radios onto the same piece of silicon.
Despite prodding, Goren would neither confirm nor deny whether TI is supplying chips for the iPhone.
Different OMAP 3 chips will be targeted at different markets. The OMAP 3430 will sport HD video and a camera capable of 12 megapixels per second. The OMAP 3420 will sport 5 megapixels per second and VGA-quality video. For lower-end phones, the OMAP 3410 will have 3 megapixels and lower-resolution video.
For cheaper phones, TI will also update the LoCosto line of processors. LoCosto was announced in 2004, but it's only been adopted in about 50 different phones.
The cell phone market, which adds up to about a billion units a year, is being driven by two factors: new customers in countries like India, and replacement handsets in established markets. Only about 10 percent of the population in India has a cell phone, he said, but the number is growing fast.
"There are 6 million new subscribers (in India) in some month," Goren said.
In China, where there are already 500 million cell accounts, about 200,000 cell phone accounts are opened a day, according to Ted Dean, managing director at BDA, a consulting firm.
Meanwhile, in established markets, approximately 27 percent of phones get replaced annually, Goren said. (In Europe, cell phone penetration is 106 percent, meaning that there are now more cellular nodes than people).
Some cell phone applications have not taken off as fast with the public as carriers and handset makers have hoped, he noted. In Japan, videoconferencing was supposed to take off. Phone manufacturers even produced phones with an additional camera that faces the caller to facilitate video conferencing.
The networks, though, did not allocate enough bandwidth in most places for live video streaming, and the resulting service ended up being choppy.
"In videoconferencing, you need a constant allocation of bandwidth," Goren said.
TV viewing on cell phones has also taken off more slowly than expected.
Seesaw Mobile Phone
Why the Seesaw? For obvious reasons - the bulge located at the centre back gives it the seesaw look. It holds a flashlight and camera there as well, while providing a legible screen whenever the Seesaw cellphone is laid on a table. Other notable features include the extremely thin design, a high contrast OLED display, and a barebones numeric keypad. Too bad the Seesaw cellphone is but a mere concept. I don't think any cellphone manufacturers would be daring enough to take up this challenge and introduce it globally, but we can always hope, can't we?
Control-A-Kid Remote A Hoot
Now this is a truly hilarious gadget, but I'm sure it'd be a national bestseller overnight if it works as advertised. The Control-a-Kid remote comes with a whole slew of buttons, ranging from Stop Smoking, Sulking, Tattoos, Piercings, Screaming, and Tantrum to Chores and Command controls. It doesn't run on any kind of battery, but relies instead on positive thinking to get the message across. I'm sure Stephen Covey doesn't need this at his home, but ordinary parents will probably wish the Control-a-Kid remote was real.
CERN Plans LHC Switch-On For May Next Year
CERN's new particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, will start up in May 2008, the facility's director general announced on Friday last week.
Low energy runs on the LHC were supposed to begin this year, but the project has been beset by niggles, technical hitches and other delays. The catastrophic failure of a magnetic component called an inner triplet, during a pressure test in March was the rather large bale of straw that finally broke the schedule's back.
But rather than miss its original switch-on date, the management has decided to skip the low power runs altogether.
Project leader Lyn Evans explains: "We'll be starting up for physics in May 2008 as always foreseen, and will commission the machine to full energy in one go. There is no big red button when you're starting up an accelerator, but we aim to be seeing high energy collisions by the summer."
Instead of the low energy runs, the new schedule calls for each of the LHC's sectors to be successively cooled and powered over the winter. Earlier this year the first sector was taken down to its operational temperature of 1.9K. CERN says cooling the sector took longer than expected, but that the team should be able to use their experience here to cool the other sectors more quickly.
This should mean the machine is ready for the accelerators to be switched on in the spring. Tests on powering up the cooled segment have already begun, and the cooling of the next segment will start soon.
The LHC is massive: at 27km in circumference, it is the world's largest super conducting installation. It is also massively complex.
When the accelerators are switched on, the team will have a chance to get used to driving the machine with relatively low energy and intensity beams. Only once they have the hang of things will the energy and intensity be increased.
The CERN council also voted to increase funding for the facility from 2008-2011. CERN Director General Robert Aymar described the decision as an important vote of confidence for particle physics in Europe.
He said: "[This increase in funding] allows us to consolidate the laboratory’s infrastructure, prepare for future upgrades of the LHC and to re-launch a programme of R&D for the long-term future."
Low energy runs on the LHC were supposed to begin this year, but the project has been beset by niggles, technical hitches and other delays. The catastrophic failure of a magnetic component called an inner triplet, during a pressure test in March was the rather large bale of straw that finally broke the schedule's back.
But rather than miss its original switch-on date, the management has decided to skip the low power runs altogether.
Project leader Lyn Evans explains: "We'll be starting up for physics in May 2008 as always foreseen, and will commission the machine to full energy in one go. There is no big red button when you're starting up an accelerator, but we aim to be seeing high energy collisions by the summer."
Instead of the low energy runs, the new schedule calls for each of the LHC's sectors to be successively cooled and powered over the winter. Earlier this year the first sector was taken down to its operational temperature of 1.9K. CERN says cooling the sector took longer than expected, but that the team should be able to use their experience here to cool the other sectors more quickly.
This should mean the machine is ready for the accelerators to be switched on in the spring. Tests on powering up the cooled segment have already begun, and the cooling of the next segment will start soon.
The LHC is massive: at 27km in circumference, it is the world's largest super conducting installation. It is also massively complex.
When the accelerators are switched on, the team will have a chance to get used to driving the machine with relatively low energy and intensity beams. Only once they have the hang of things will the energy and intensity be increased.
The CERN council also voted to increase funding for the facility from 2008-2011. CERN Director General Robert Aymar described the decision as an important vote of confidence for particle physics in Europe.
He said: "[This increase in funding] allows us to consolidate the laboratory’s infrastructure, prepare for future upgrades of the LHC and to re-launch a programme of R&D for the long-term future."
Boeing 747 Carries Weapon Not Passengers
While most of us equate the Boeing 747 as a mass people carrier, the military decided to turn it into an Airborne Laser, carrying a "megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser beam" that takes aim at both ground and airborne targets, turning them into a fine mist with a direct hit. Created specifically to combat the threat of airborne missiles, this technology is still undergoing heavy research at this moment. Ah well, looks like there are now more reasons to believe that the world is coming to an end pretty soon. We don't even need to wait for another meteorite to wipe us out, I guess us humans are pretty adept at doing that ourselves.
Criss Angel "The Go-Kart Vanish" Exposed
Criss Angel attempts to cause a moving object to vanish in front of a real live audience on top of a parking garage in Las Vegas. He speeds along the parking lot in a go-kart towards men with fire extinguishers. They discharge the CO2 creating a cloud of smoke into which Criss vanishes. Pretty impressive, however due to a mistake in a camera angle, and the wonderful technology of cable TV recording devices, slow motion reveals his secret.
First, watch the stunt for yourselves:
First, watch the stunt for yourselves:
Prison Break Hunk Dating Male Actor
Hollywood tongues are wagging at the fresh gossip that Prison Break hunk Wentworth Miller (pictured top) is having it off with actor Luke McFarlane, a previous love interest of T.R. Knight.After six months together, things are apparently going so well that the couple are considering moving in together.
But the low-key Wentworth Miller is still in the closet, and his mysterious behaviour is frustrating some people at Fox who claim that he has cut back on doing press in fear of being asked by reporters if he’s gay.
McFarlane reportedly joined Miller on a recent trip to Asia where the Prison Break actor was filming a commercial.
Professional Wrestler Chris Benoit, Family Found Dead In Georgia Home
Pro wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife and 7-year-old son were found slain Monday at their Fayetteville home, authorities said.Detective Bo Turner told television station WAGA that the case was being investigated as a murder-suicide, but said that could not be confirmed until the evidence was examined by a crime lab.
WAGA reported that investigators believe Benoit killed his wife and son over the weekend, and then himself sometime Monday.
A concerned neighbor called police. The bodies were found in three different rooms.
The lead investigator, Sheriff's Lt. Tommy Pope, told The Associated Press that the deaths were being investigated as homicide, and said the cause of death awaited autopsy results on Tuesday.
Pope said the three were found about 2:30 p.m., but he would release no other details about the deaths at the house in a subdivision near White Water Country Club.
Monday, 25 June 2007
Friday, 22 June 2007
Silicon Chips To Restore Sight To The Blind
THESE days using silicon chips to allow machines to see is commonplace. So why not use them to restore sight to the blind? That is the reasoning behind a study being carried out in the eye hospitals of Tübingen and Regensburg universities, in Germany. The project, which is being led by Eberhart Zrenner, involves implanting chips into the eyes of seven people who have lost their sight to a disease called retinitis pigmentosa.Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited disorder that accounts for 11% of cases of blindness and has no medical treatment. It gradually destroys the rods and cones that detect light in the retina of the eye. But it does not harm the optic nerve, which transmits electrical impulses from the retina to the brain. Feed some appropriate electrical signals to this nerve, Dr Zrenner reasoned, and the brain would be able to see again.
The chip that does this was designed by a firm called Retina Implant. Its researchers used photodiodes (the technology found in digital cameras) that generate an electrical signal when light strikes them. By putting 1,540 such sensors on a chip that can be implanted over the retina the company has created a device that can produce an image made up of 1,540 picture elements, or pixels—though it is a very coarse image, given that a healthy eye has 120m rods, which produce the bulk of the image, and 6m cones, which add colour to it.
Each diode stimulates the nerve cells that have their endings in the retina—unlike the photoreceptors, these cells are unharmed by retinitis pigmentosa—and the nerve cells in question then relay their individual signals to the brain via the optic nerve. Electrical power is supplied using a cable connected to a small battery slung around the patient's neck, though Retina Implant eventually hopes to supply power wirelessly, using electrical induction. That would not require anything to penetrate the skin.
The seven volunteers spent a month with the implants and reported being able to distinguish between dark walls and a light window, and a dark table and white plates. The image was coarse compared with normal vision because of the small number of pixels, and the patients did not see fully in colour, although they reported being able to distinguish white, grey and yellow tones. Nevertheless, enough sight was restored to make a difference to each of the volunteers' lives.
The researchers now want to repeat the experiment and keep the implants in place for at least a year. (Their original research licence was limited to four weeks.) They hope this will be long enough for their patients' brains to learn how to interpret the images more accurately than they now can. Newer versions of the devices will also have more pixels, so that the image-quality should be better. Walter Wrobel, the boss of Retina Implant, reckons the cost for each one at about €25,000 ($35,000). That is less than the bill for training a guide dog—and the implants will not require feeding.
Thursday, 21 June 2007
Debris - A 176KB Demo
An amazing demo which won 1st place at Breakpoint 2007 in the PC category. The original file comes in at 176KB (kilo bytes). Check it out here.
Dalek Cage
You’re looking at a one-person Faraday cage, called the Dalek Cage, that allows a person to get close and personal to, oh, like tens of thousands of volts.
http://www.neatorama.com/2007/06/20/dalek-cage/
Monday, 18 June 2007
Das Justizzentrum Leoben
You don’t have to run a publicly-traded private corrections company to live the good life. You can just head over to Austria and go on a crime spree. Das Justizzentrum Leoben (Justice Center Leoben) in Styria, Austria is about as glamorous as a prison can be.
See more @ http://www.hohensinn-architektur.at/jz_leoben.html
See more @ http://www.hohensinn-architektur.at/jz_leoben.html
Sunday, 17 June 2007
Toyota's I-Foot And I-Unit Prototypes
This is pretty old stuffs but it is still very interesting!
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/robots/toyoto-ifoot-and-iunit-026866.php
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/robots/toyoto-ifoot-and-iunit-026866.php
Dreams Become Reality...
The “Go Fast Jet Pack” has been the vision of Troy Widgery since his childhood memories of James Bond in “Thunderball.” Through his pursuit of speed starting at the age of four racing quarter-midget cars, through his many years as a world-class competitive skydiver, to his current interest in the most extreme of sports, B.A.S.E. jumping; Troy has always had a vision of building a spectacular flying machine – similar to that which James Bond flew on the big screen.In June 2003 Troy invited two friends, John Hewatt and Dave Butler, to brainstorm on what most people would see as an unobtainable project for the average person – to build a jet pack from scratch. Troy and John formed the company “Jet P.I. LLC” to manage the research, development, construction and future flights of what was going to be the “Go Fast Jet Pack.”
The goal of “Jet PI” was to build a lighter, faster, more economical and longer-flying jet pack than the original built by Bell Aerosystems in the 1960’s, and the successors, which have been based on that model. With incredible passion, determination and an extreme amount of work, combined with modern technologies, materials and engineering, Jet PI is developing the world's most advanced personal flying machines.
http://jetpackinternational.com
Chinese Woman That Earned My Respect
She was borned without a pair of arms. Her mother wanted to dump her into the sea, but her father disagreed. He told her mother they can raise her like keeping a pet dog and that's how she survived till this day. She did everything with pair of legs; like planting the fields, wrapping dumplings, making noodles, and she can do almost everything like any other humans, even writing a letter! She's really amazing!
Saturday, 16 June 2007
22 Confessions Of A Former Dell Sales Manager
A former Dell kiosk manager writes us to share helpful tips about doing business with Dell. He has no particular problems with Dell, he just wanted to share some helpful tips for consumers looking to get the best deal. He includes info on getting the best deal from the website, different kinds of promotions the Dell offers, insider details on how the kiosk sales reps are compensated, what coupons and deals they have to offer you to close the deal, the email format for Dell in case you're thinking of launching an EECB, where to take your Dell credit card complaints, which extended warranties to avoid, how to get a domestic tech support rep... and more. It's very comprehensive. Enjoy!I am a former Spherion rep that later became a Dell Branded Rep (manager) of a Dell kiosk in the Philadelphia, PA region. To work at one is to work at all, and I worked at four different kiosks in the region. I worked from July 2005 until October 2006, but keep regular contact with some of the guys I trained and brought up. Other than the usual complaints, I have no problem with the company.
Things most people know already:
1. Small business is better than home and home office - Small business typically runs a few dollars more than the home office, but you stand a better chance of getting domestic tech support rather than non-native English speakers. As an added perk, small business promotions are occasionally better than home.
2. Play with the web site - There are many different pricing packages for the same product throughout the various sections, typically three or more per segment. If you're buying a Dell soon, configure a unit from a link off the main page, from the product listing on the drop down and from the "As Advertised-Newspaper" drop down. Configure the same system each way at the home, small business and the Direct (kiosk) site (http://www.dell.com/directstore). It is very likely you will end up with nine different prices.
3. Extended warranty for laptops - Do it for as long as you feasibly see using your laptop, and include accidental. Two years is typically the lifecycle from "new product" to "no longer produced/no more refurbs" though YMMV. Once your model is off the refurb site, drop it. Voila! New laptop. The standard warranty will not cover any screen defects.
UPDATE: Current Dell rep says: If a system is no longer shipping a used/refurbished is always sent, though the refurb should be equal or better as far as hardware is concerned. As of this writing if a system is exchanged, via either Complete Care warranty or concession, and the system is still a currently shipping model a new system is to be sent.
4. Extended warranty for desktops - There is nothing in a low end desktop (non XPS) that is worth the price of the warranty should you have to replace it. Only pick it up if you have absolutely no clue what you're doing once the case is open.
5. Tech support phone - If you do go with the home/home office/direct route, tech support is outsourced (duh!). The tech support instant messenger typically provides a calmer, more understandable conversation due to the fact that accents are taken out of the equation. Think back to high school Spanish. It was always easier to translate the foreign language you were reading than if you heard it. Same concept applies here.
6. Tech support web site - If you're having a common problem, hit the product forums (however crippled they may be now). It is very likely your question/problem has been resolved before, and usually a domestic tech rep posted a solution there.
7. Warranty Repairs - On all but the two lowest warranties (90 day and 1 year limited), warranty repairs will be done in the home. The repair techs are only required to replace the broken part. They are not required to do anything else. If they replace your hard drive, they are not required to reinstall your OS or drivers. Most will do it if you're nice, but don't expect it. If you're clueless, there are tutorials all over http://support.dell.com that tell you how to do it yourself.
UPDATE: Current Dell rep says: Also with desktop machines at home service is the only option. Notebooks on the other hand may have a return to depot or an at home service contract.
8. OS Backup Disk - For over a year now, Dell has required you to purchase your Backup/Reinstall Disk. Order this with your machine. Once your Dell is delivered, it is a pain to get the disk at all, much less at a sensible price. If you do not have this disk and your hard drive dies, at home warranty repair will not be able to get your PC running once the drive is swapped without selling you a new copy of your OS.
UPDATE: Current Dell rep says: Dell no longer requires the purchase of the backup disk. They are included with every computer that ships with a Windows OS. On the subject of hard drives, if your drive fails within the first year of purchase you should be sent an imaged drive that will contain everything except for your royalty applications (Office etc). If for some reason you lose the media, you can request the OS, Resource/Drivers disk, and the applications disk at no cost to you. (Even if you are no longer under warranty Dell will send you an OS disk) Note that the Resource/Drivers and Applications disk is only available for currently shipping systems. Should you need to reinstall you'll need to download the drivers from support.dell.com from another computer and copy them over. Last, within the first year of purchase, if you need to reinstall the OS and you can't access the recovery image, or if it was deleted for some reason, you can request an System Recovery CD that does pretty much the same thing. (Not available on notebooks due to the Media Direct partition.)
9. DPA/Dell Preferred - This is the Dell credit card, like a Sears, Macy's or Radio Shack credit card. Typically a high rate, low limit card. The lowest APR is still around 18-20%, and that comes with a $5,000 limit. The $4,000, $3,000 and $2,000 limits have rates in the mid to high 20s. The lowest limt, $1,500, has an APR of 29.99%. NEVER USE THIS UNLESS THERE IS A KILLER NO INTEREST PROMOTION.
- Interesting Note: In the Back-To-School season of 2005, DFS (Dell Financial Service) was issuing cards to 18 year olds with a $7,000 limit and a 29.99% interest rate.
Stuff you may not know:
1. Promotion cycle dates - Thursday is the first day of new promotions. If you go to the web site at 11:45 p.m. on Wednesday night and again on 1 a.m. on Thursday morning, the promotions are different. The catalog promotions run from the start of the month to the end. Additionally, on holiday weekends (Memorial Day, 4th of July, etc.) there may be special sales/coupons for the three-day weekend.
2. Promotion styles - Typically, one week will be cash off while the next will be percentage off. If you liked cash off but the current promotion is percentage off, check the "As Advertised-Newspaper" section. These typically have a remnant of the prior week's promotion as well as better versions of the current week's promotions. Cash off helps for cheap systems, percentage off helps with high-end.
3. Dell Customer Care can price match within 24 hours from the time of order. Combining #1 and #2 from this section, if you are unsure of the value of the week's promotion but need to order something, order it Wednesday night. Check the promotions for the new week on Thursday. If its better, call and price match. If its not, sit back and feel smug for no reason.
4. Dell corporate email - As of December 2006, everybody (save Michael Dell) working for Dell U.S. has the same form of email address: firstname_lastname@dell.com. Michael Dell's does not follow this pattern and is changed immediately whenever the current one is discovered by lower-level employees or the public.
5. Dell's internal fiscal calendar is different from other corporations. As their fiscal year ends in January or February (I honestly don't remember), the best deals will typically be found in late January and all of February. Also, buying during the last week of any quarter typically means free or deeply-discounted 2nd day or overnight shipping, and the quickest order turnaround. There are no steep discounts for the holidays, though they will run a few weeks of consecutive percentage off promotions during the back to school season in August.
6. The DFS servers are notoriously flimsy. If you apply for DPA (why would you?) and it is unable to complete, it means the server is overloaded but your credit rating has already been pinged. Reapplying will not fix the issue but it will repeatedly ping your credit. The system is unable to verify cell phone numbers and will automatically reject based on the use of one.
Fun facts about the Kiosks:
1. Why should I shop at a kiosk? I can order from home. - A very valid point, but the majority of kiosk customers are morons who think computers are magic boxes that let you see pictures of cats in funny poses while someone steals your AOL password. There's a few reasons why an educated person aka Consumerist reader should hit the kiosk up:
- Discounts - There are several ways the Dell Direct kiosks can attempt to match or beat an online deal.
i. Closing tools - Dollar off coupons that depend on how much you spend. Spend $600=$25 off; $1200=$50 off; $1,600=$75 off; $2,000=$100 off.
ii. Refuse to Lose - 10% coupons meant to allow a sales rep to seal a large deal. These can only be used when the computer price alone is $1,600 or more. It can not be used on accessories, TVs or multiple computers whose aggregate value is above $1,600. This must be requested from the Manager on Duty (MOD) through an email request, and will generally be credited before the computer is shipped.
iii. DPA coupon - Dell will already give you 2% off your order if, at the payment screen you click the link that offers 2% off when you pay with DPA. The kiosks have a 3% DPA closing tool that can be used also, giving a discount of slightly over 5%. This works for all DPA purchases including TV's, monitors and cameras.
iv. The closing tools are nothing but individual-use coupons entered at the shopping cart. They are invalid on the home and small business site. Reps are supposed to use them as a last-ditch effort, but as long as you're not buying a sub-$600 system, they should offer them without your having to ask. - Printer cartridges - No you can't buy them there...officially. They are non-inventoried items that many kiosks have a heady supply of due to inexplicably random deliveries from corporate. If you're in a pinch and need one that day, go (don't call), get a feel for the employees, and if you think they're cool with it, offer cash.
2. There are two levels of kiosk employees. There are those hired by Spherion, creatively known as "Spherion reps," and then there are Dell Branded Reps, or DBRs. DBRs are effectively the management of the individual kiosk, and are the only ones able to work uncompensated overtime. Deal with them if possible, because they are very likely to be there the next time if you have a question. They've also been there much longer than any other kiosk staff, so they likely have a much better skill set for finding bargains.
3. If you have a problem with DPA, the kiosk has a specific email contact for Dell Financial. Problems can be resolved much much faster.
4. The Dell Direct kiosk website is configured differently than the others. There are "bundles" (linked from the main page under the "start shopping" graphics) and there are "non-bundles". Bundles, so called because...you guessed it...accessories and service are already bundled in, have a higher profit margin. They are also the most customizable system on the website. Non-bundles carry lower profit margins but may be limited. The salesman will always start from a bundle. Let them finish, then make them search the non-bundles for an equal system with a better price.
5. Kiosk reps are judged on the following:
- Unit price: The average sale price of each reps transactions. $1,200 was the goal as of March, 2007 but $1,600 was preferred.
- Bundle percentage: Dell varies on what percentage of all sales it wants to be from the "bundle" page depending on the month and who you're talking to. It is typically between 40% and 60%.
- Service: Each PC/Notebook sale is expected to have a 3 year warranty attached. Typically, the number is between $160 and $200.
- E&A: This is the percentage of the sale that was spent on accessories. Each transaction should have between 5% and 10%, or one printer and cable per PC or one bag, lock and travel mouse per Notebook.
- DPA: Dell Preferred Account purchases. The expected percentage of DPA sales has climbed in the past years. It currently hovers between 40% and 60%, and they want a 1 to 1 customer to submitted application ratio.
6. Secret shoppers - The kiosks are secret shopped constantly, and they're playing of a 20-question scorecard. Don't be surprised if the salesman asks really base/borderline-insulting questions if you act interested. They think you're a secret shopper.
7. Communication - Complaints made about Dell to the kiosk reps go unheard. There is no place for the rep to turn around and report the complaint to. Communication between reps and even district management is limited, and reps are discouraged from calling the regional management. Store, district and regional management are all run from email and cell phones. It is not uncommon for the kiosks to receive three answers from three departments, with the end result being all three statements retracted without a solution in place.
http://consumerist.com/consumer/insiders/22-confessions-of-a-former-dell-sales-manager-268831.php
Also, read this: Dell Demands Takedown Of Our "22 Confessions Of A Former Dell Sales Manager"
Friday, 15 June 2007
Ever Wonder How Small Is Planet Earth?
You may have seen pictures comparing earth with other planets, but this video brings it further.
Chinese Internet Addict Kills Mother Over Money
BEIJING (Reuters) - A teenage boy in southern China, "heavily addicted" to the Internet, killed his mother and severely injured his father with a kitchen knife after he was refused money to go to a cybercafe, state media said on Thursday.Wang, from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, stabbed his mother to death at home during a heated argument, the Beijing Youth Daily said.
"After his father got home, Wang hacked at him causing serious injury. Seeing what he had done, Wang went to his room and sat on his bed," the paper said.
Wang's father ran bleeding to his brother's house, who then alerted the police, it said.
Wang had resolved to kill his parents a month earlier, and had once prepared to kill his father with an iron bar. He had also recently bought sleeping pills, the paper said.
Wang, who was "less than 16" but had left school a year before, would spend his spare time in Internet cafes when not working for his father who made a living selling barbecue food in their neighborhood.
He had dreamed of being an outstanding politician or economist and believed his parents were stifling his development, the paper said.
China has seen an alarming rise in the number of Internet addicts in recent years, who it says may be responsible for up to 80 percent of juvenile crime.
In recent months, China has banned the opening of new cybercafes in 2007 and issued orders limiting the time Internet users can spend playing online games.
Thursday, 14 June 2007
Plastic That Heals Itself
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have made a polymer material that can heal itself repeatedly when it cracks. It's a significant advance toward self-healing medical implants and self-repairing materials for use in airplanes and spacecraft. It could also be used for cooling microprocessors and electronic circuits, and it could pave the way toward plastic coatings that regenerate themselves.The first self-healing material was reported by the UIUC researchers six years ago, and other research groups have created different versions of such materials since then, including polymers that mend themselves repeatedly when subject to heat or pressure. But this is the first time anyone has made a material that can repair itself multiple times without any external intervention, says Nancy Sottos, materials-science and engineering professor at UIUC and one of the researchers who led the work.
"It's essentially like giving life to a plastic," says Chris Bielawski, a chemistry professor at the University of Texas at Austin. The ultimate goal would be to create materials that mend themselves, he says, and "this is an amazing proof of concept."
Sottos and her colleagues have designed the new material, reported in this week's Nature Materials, to mimic human skin. If the skin's outer protective layer is cut, the inner layer, which is infused with a dense network of tiny blood vessels, rushes nutrients to the cut to help with healing. The self-healing material consists of an epoxy polymer layer deposited on a substrate that contains a three-dimensional network of microchannels. The epoxy coating contains tiny catalyst particles, while the channels in the substrate are filled with a liquid healing agent.
To test the material, the researchers bend it and crack the polymer coating. The crack spreads down through the coating and reaches the underlying microchannel. This prompts the healing agent to "whip through the channels and into the crack," Sottos says. There, it comes into contact with the catalyst and, in about 10 hours, becomes a polymer and fills in the crack. The system does not need any external pressure to push the healing agent into the crack. Instead, the liquid moves through the narrow channels just as water moves up a straw.
The researchers are able to crack and reheal the surface as many as seven times before the catalyst wears out and stops working. The next generation of the self-healing material should be able to heal itself many more times, according to the researchers. Sottos and her colleagues are designing it so that it will have a two-part system that injects both a healing agent and a catalyst into the crack.
The researchers could also increase the rehealing capacity of the material by hooking up the microchannel network to a little reservoir, Sottos says. If the material runs out of healing agent or catalyst, the reservoir could pump in more.
The material's microchannel design could be a solution to the increasing problem of heat buildup in microelectronics chips. Typically, microelectronic circuit chips sit on substrates that are designed to conduct heat away from the circuit. These heat regulators have their limits. Instead, Sottos says, "you could put a cooling fluid through a [microchannel] network like a little mini-heat exchanger."
Sottos says that researchers could use the same design with other resin and catalyst combinations that can form different polymers. This opens the door for many other applications. While practical self-healing materials might be years away, it's easy to imagine their applications in prosthetics and medical implants made from biocompatible self-healing materials. The cost of the materials might keep them limited, at least initially, to certain high-value, high-performance applications such as use in air- and spacecraft, says Ian Bond, aerospace engineering professor at the University of Bristol, in the United Kingdom.
In the future, different chemistries could lead to cheaper self-healing materials, according to Bielawski. "You could use cheap epoxies ... that you can buy at Home Depot ... as a healing agent," he says.
Wednesday, 13 June 2007
How To Escape A Fart
When the Japanese arent playing human tetris or sending people falling down speeding treadmill, they are solving the world's most pressing problem like how to escape a fart.
Phone Salesman Amazes Crowd
A great story from the show Britains Got Talent. The audience has little expectation for this cell phone salesman until he brings them to their feet with an incredible performance of an extremely difficult song.
North Korea Unabashedly Blows Up The Moon / Bush Response To North Korea's Moon Attack..
North Korea Unabashedly Blows Up The Moon
NORTH KOREA – The world thought that North Korea didn’t have the nuclear firepower to hit Japan let alone the moon. They were wrong.
At approximately 11:20 P.M. EST North Korea changed the world forever. Using an advanced space missile that the world has yet to even wrap their mind around, the North Koreans showed of their firepower to the world by hitting the moon.
The launch point of the missile remains unknown although an anonymous source says the government thinks it is Nampo, North Korea.
Preliminary estimates put the explosive power of the nuclear bomb at 10,000 that of the one dropped on Hiroshima.
“This has been the most powerful bomb exploded to date,” stated nuclear weapons expert Noah Cain, “and capable of destroying the entire state of Rhode Island.”
As of 11:30 PM EST the Bush Administration was not available for comment on the explosion, although Jeckma Uji, an aide to the President says the government is still waiting for a response from North Korea.
John Canterbury, a resident of Los Angeles, California, was reported saying, “I was looking at the moon through my telescope when suddenly a huge fiery cloud appeared. I ran inside to pray thinking the world was going to end.”
Experts are saying that the amount of debris and radiation that will reach earth as a result of the explosion will be minimal. However, long term effect of the explosion are yet unknown. Many scientists are saying that the bomb, regardless of its size was unable to change the moons orbit.
An anonymous scientists, however, is expressing his concerns stating, “it [the bomb] could have altered the moon’s orbit by a fraction of an inch which over the course of a couple centuries might cause the moon to crash into Earth.”
It is unknown whether North Korea has a second missile with similar capabilities and how the world will respond if it does.
Bush Response To North Korea's Moon Attack..
Washington DC - At 12:30AM EST President George W. Bush responded to North Korea’s missile on the moon. The speech was made from an underground bunker in an undisclosed location so as to increase the President’s protection. The missile, which exploded on the moon, was visible to North America and parts Western Europe.
Within the speech President Bush explicitly stated, “Remain calm, these missiles pose no threat to Americans for they can not penetrate our missile defense system.”
However, an anonymous high ranking official in the military questioned President Bush’s declaration stating, “In the past 6 months our Missile Defense System has failed 3 out of 6 tests. Most of these failures were caused by a breakdown of the Superior Hydrocarbon Integrated Targeting system which is supposed to guided the missile.”
The President’s message did not come a moment too soon as fearful Americans emptied supermarkets to stock their bomb shelters and basements and supplies. Many stores across the nation ended up being looted as the panicked people tried to stock up.
“I grabbed all the canned vegetables I could and ran out of the store hoping everyone would leave me alone,” stated John Tracy, a resident of San Francisco.
Stacy Hammerback was one of the 100 people known to be trampled in the chaos.
After President Bush made his speech much of the panic subsided in all cities to a degree that could be handled by police.
During the second part of his speech President Bush threatened North Korean President Jong as he continued to state, “Kim Jong we currently have missiles twice as powerful as yours and we will not hesitate to use them if we feel threatened.”
“A cold war between North Korea and America is likely to occur as a result of the explosion,” stated leading political analysis Laksmono Rosado. The cold war would not be unlike the one between the Soviet Union and America in the post World War 2 times.
Shealin Merrick, a military strategist was quoted stating, “The only response [to North Korea] is military action to completely destroy all currently existing missiles in opposing countries.
At the moment the world has stabilized yet it is still unknown how the world will react to North Korea though some form of war is predicted.
http://www.yahoobreakingnews.com/
NORTH KOREA – The world thought that North Korea didn’t have the nuclear firepower to hit Japan let alone the moon. They were wrong.At approximately 11:20 P.M. EST North Korea changed the world forever. Using an advanced space missile that the world has yet to even wrap their mind around, the North Koreans showed of their firepower to the world by hitting the moon.
The launch point of the missile remains unknown although an anonymous source says the government thinks it is Nampo, North Korea.
Preliminary estimates put the explosive power of the nuclear bomb at 10,000 that of the one dropped on Hiroshima.
“This has been the most powerful bomb exploded to date,” stated nuclear weapons expert Noah Cain, “and capable of destroying the entire state of Rhode Island.”
As of 11:30 PM EST the Bush Administration was not available for comment on the explosion, although Jeckma Uji, an aide to the President says the government is still waiting for a response from North Korea.
John Canterbury, a resident of Los Angeles, California, was reported saying, “I was looking at the moon through my telescope when suddenly a huge fiery cloud appeared. I ran inside to pray thinking the world was going to end.”
Experts are saying that the amount of debris and radiation that will reach earth as a result of the explosion will be minimal. However, long term effect of the explosion are yet unknown. Many scientists are saying that the bomb, regardless of its size was unable to change the moons orbit.
An anonymous scientists, however, is expressing his concerns stating, “it [the bomb] could have altered the moon’s orbit by a fraction of an inch which over the course of a couple centuries might cause the moon to crash into Earth.”
It is unknown whether North Korea has a second missile with similar capabilities and how the world will respond if it does.
Bush Response To North Korea's Moon Attack..
Washington DC - At 12:30AM EST President George W. Bush responded to North Korea’s missile on the moon. The speech was made from an underground bunker in an undisclosed location so as to increase the President’s protection. The missile, which exploded on the moon, was visible to North America and parts Western Europe.Within the speech President Bush explicitly stated, “Remain calm, these missiles pose no threat to Americans for they can not penetrate our missile defense system.”
However, an anonymous high ranking official in the military questioned President Bush’s declaration stating, “In the past 6 months our Missile Defense System has failed 3 out of 6 tests. Most of these failures were caused by a breakdown of the Superior Hydrocarbon Integrated Targeting system which is supposed to guided the missile.”
The President’s message did not come a moment too soon as fearful Americans emptied supermarkets to stock their bomb shelters and basements and supplies. Many stores across the nation ended up being looted as the panicked people tried to stock up.
“I grabbed all the canned vegetables I could and ran out of the store hoping everyone would leave me alone,” stated John Tracy, a resident of San Francisco.
Stacy Hammerback was one of the 100 people known to be trampled in the chaos.
After President Bush made his speech much of the panic subsided in all cities to a degree that could be handled by police.
During the second part of his speech President Bush threatened North Korean President Jong as he continued to state, “Kim Jong we currently have missiles twice as powerful as yours and we will not hesitate to use them if we feel threatened.”
“A cold war between North Korea and America is likely to occur as a result of the explosion,” stated leading political analysis Laksmono Rosado. The cold war would not be unlike the one between the Soviet Union and America in the post World War 2 times.
Shealin Merrick, a military strategist was quoted stating, “The only response [to North Korea] is military action to completely destroy all currently existing missiles in opposing countries.
At the moment the world has stabilized yet it is still unknown how the world will react to North Korea though some form of war is predicted.
http://www.yahoobreakingnews.com/
Tuesday, 12 June 2007
China's Famous Leader Mao Zedong Back To Life
A middle-aged woman has bemused her countrymen by bringing China's famous leader Mao Zedong back to life.
Dressed in a grey, button-up waistcoast Chen Yan is the spitting image of the deceased Communist leader, who ruled China with an iron grip for decades.
Chen, 51, from Mianyang, in China's southwestern province Sichuan, has been dressing up as Mao since she was discovered on a local TV show in 2005 impersonating another actor who had played Mao in movies.
"I was impersonating (the actor) when the beautician saw some similarities between me and Mao," Chen said, as make-up artists fussed over her in a Mianyang hair salon.
The beautician realised Chen's prominent cheekbones and imperious demeanour could be turned into a money making scheme and invited her for a make-over, she said.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=458369&in_page_id=1811
Russian ATM Runs Un-Activated Windows
This is an ATM in Russia displaying an error message saying that Windows needs to be activated within seven days. Just another reason why banks probably shouldn't get all their software off BitTorrent.
Monday, 11 June 2007
Saturday, 9 June 2007
Friday, 8 June 2007
Is This The World's Most Polluted River?
It was once a gently flowing river, where fishermen cast their nets, sea birds came to feed and natural beauty left visitors spellbound.
Villagers collected water for their simple homes and rice paddies thrived on its irrigation channels.
Today, the Citarum is a river in crisis, choked by the domestic waste of nine million people and thick with the cast-off from hundreds of factories.
So dense is the carpet of refuse that the tiny wooden fishing craft which float through it are the only clue to the presence of water.
Their occupants no longer try to fish. It is more profitable to forage for rubbish they can salvage and trade - plastic bottles, broken chair legs, rubber gloves - risking disease for one or two pounds a week if they are lucky.
On what was United Nations World Environment Day, the Citarum, near the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, displayed the shocking abuse that mankind has subjected it to.
More than 500 factories, many of them producing textiles which require chemical treatment, line the banks of the 200-mile river, the largest waterway in West Java, spewing waste into the water.
On top of the chemicals go all the other kinds of human detritus from the factories and the people who work there.
There is no such luxury as a rubbish collection service here. Nor are there any modern toilet facilities. Everything goes into the river.
The filthy water is sucked into the rice paddies, while families risk their health by collecting it for drinking, cooking and washing.
Twenty years ago, this was a place of beauty, and the river still served its people well.
As one local man, Arifin, recalled: "Our wives did their washing there and our children swam."
Its demise began with rapid industrialisation during the late 1980s. The mighty Citarum soon became a garbage bin for the factories.
And the doomsday effect will spread. It is one of two major rivers that feed Lake Saguling, where the French have built the largest power generator in West Java.
Experts predict that as the river chokes, its volume will decrease and the generator will not function properly.
The area will be plunged into darkness.
But at least the factories will be stilled and their waste will stop flowing.
And perhaps the river will begin to breathe again.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=460077&in_page_id=1811
Just Add Water - Students Invent Alcohol Powder
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch students have developed powdered alcohol which they say can be sold legally to minors.
The latest innovation in inebriation, called Booz2Go, is available in 20-gramme packets that cost 1-1.5 euros ($1.35-$2).
Top it up with water and you have a bubbly, lime-colored and -flavored drink with just 3 percent alcohol content.
"We are aiming for the youth market. They are really more into it because you can compare it with Bacardi-mixed drinks," 20-year-old Harm van Elderen told Reuters.
Van Elderen and four classmates at Helicon Vocational Institute, about an hour's drive from Amsterdam, came up with the idea as part of their final-year project.
"Because the alcohol is not in liquid form, we can sell it to people below 16," said project member Martyn van Nierop.
The legal age for drinking alcohol and smoking is 16 in the Netherlands.
In Germany, alcopops -- sweet drinks containing alcohol and in powder form -- caused quite a stir when launched on to the market. Alcohol powder, classified as a flavoring, was sold in the United States three years ago.
The students said companies interested in making the product commercially could avoid taxes because the alcohol was in powder form. A number of companies are interested, they said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSPAR64994620070606?feedType=RSS
The latest innovation in inebriation, called Booz2Go, is available in 20-gramme packets that cost 1-1.5 euros ($1.35-$2).
Top it up with water and you have a bubbly, lime-colored and -flavored drink with just 3 percent alcohol content.
"We are aiming for the youth market. They are really more into it because you can compare it with Bacardi-mixed drinks," 20-year-old Harm van Elderen told Reuters.
Van Elderen and four classmates at Helicon Vocational Institute, about an hour's drive from Amsterdam, came up with the idea as part of their final-year project.
"Because the alcohol is not in liquid form, we can sell it to people below 16," said project member Martyn van Nierop.
The legal age for drinking alcohol and smoking is 16 in the Netherlands.
In Germany, alcopops -- sweet drinks containing alcohol and in powder form -- caused quite a stir when launched on to the market. Alcohol powder, classified as a flavoring, was sold in the United States three years ago.
The students said companies interested in making the product commercially could avoid taxes because the alcohol was in powder form. A number of companies are interested, they said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSPAR64994620070606?feedType=RSS
Thursday, 7 June 2007
Wednesday, 6 June 2007
Eating live frogs, rats "cures tummy upsets"
BEIJING (Reuters) - A man in southeast China says 40 years of swallowing tree frogs and rats live has helped him avoid intestinal complaints and made him strong.Jiang Musheng, a 66-year-old resident of Jiangxi province, suffered from frequent abdominal pains and coughing from the age of 26, until an old man called Yang Dingcai suggested tree frogs as a remedy, the Beijing News said on Tuesday.
"At first, Jiang Musheng did not dare to eat a live, wriggling frog, but after seeing Yang Dingcai swallow one, he ate ... two without a thought," the paper said.
"After a month of eating live frogs, his stomach pains and coughing were completely gone."
Over the years Jiang had added live mice, baby rats and green frogs to his diet, and had once eaten 20 mice in a single day, the paper said.
Tuesday, 5 June 2007
Windows 'Longhorn' Resurrected & Available For Download
It lives! Windows Longhorn has been resurrected and is available for download. Microsoft unveiled Longhorn back in early 2002, as the operating system designed to succeed Windows XP. However, the 2002 Windows Longhorn and the January 31, 2007 Windows Vista are not one and the same operating system. I am sure that there are still some of you that recall August 27, 2004, a day when Microsoft announced a scale back and a reset of Longhorn in order to make the then planned 2006 deadline. If Microsoft had not changed course back in 2004, Windows Vista as we know it would have never booted on our desktops. Sure enough, it seems that a group of developers failed to see eye to eye with the Redmond Company on the divergent trajectory from Longhorn. As a result, they took it upon themselves to resurrect Windows Longhorn according to Microsoft's original vision of the operating system.
http://www.techamok.com/?pid=2733
http://www.techamok.com/?pid=2733
Apple's IPhone
NEW YORK (AP) -- Apple Inc.'s highly anticipated iPhone will be available June 29 in the U.S., according to TV commercials broadcast Sunday and posted on the company's Web site.
The combination cell phone, media player and wireless Web-surfing device will retail for $499 and $599, depending on configuration. It will be offered exclusively in the U.S. by AT&T Inc.'s wireless division, formerly known as Cingular.
The iPhone, which sports no keypad but instead a touch-sensitive screen, was unveiled with great fanfare in early January by Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
He said it would appear in stores in June but gave no specific date.
Sunday night's ads showed off several of the gadget's features and ended with the pronouncement that the phone will be available "Only on the new AT&T" and "Coming June 29."
Tom Neumayr, an Apple spokesman, confirmed the June 29 sale date. An AT&T spokesperson did not immediately return a phone call.
Monday, 4 June 2007
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