Citizen has unveiled a miniature PDA concept considerably smaller than existing PDAs. The 60 x 90 x 9.3mm 16-colour grayscale PDA is just a bit bigger then a credit card. It runs ITRON4 as an OS, and battery life is rated at 30 hours
The telecommunications watchdog is investigating abuse of a huge national database containing personal information on every Australian with a phone connection. They are concerned that companies may be misusing information stored in the database, which is meant to supply data for emergency services, law enforcement and directory services
Consumers and small businesses self-installing ADSL internet services could be interfering with their security systems. The Australian Communications Authority warned that self-installed ADSL could disable to back to base calling functions of some security services, which automatically dial the security company in the event of an alarm
Warren Ellis offers a tidy summation on a lengthy Scientific American physics article, Information in the Holographic Universe:
The universe is actually a two-dimensional plane packed with information, and the three-dimensions universe we perceive is nothing but an expression of that information. Matter and energy and life are, in fact, holograms. It leaves something very very interesting open for the future. If the universe is a vast two-dimensional plane of information — then it can be hacked.
The latest compilation project from Illegal Art is titled Sonny Bono is Dead:
This project is a protest against the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which passed through Congress in 1998 and was upheld by the US Supreme Court earlier this year. This act diminished the public’s ability to access older works while granting more control to corporations anxious to preserve a few copyrights from the 1920’s. Copyright law continues to expand and defeat its original purpose of promoting advances in the arts and sciences. These excesses damage the evolution of our culture and only serve corporate interests.
We encourage artists to liberally sample from works that would have fallen into the Public Domain by the year 2004 had the Sonny Bono Act failed. Artists are also encouraged to create new works by sampling Sonny Bono’s output (or other artists who embraced the notion of copyright lasting forever). The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2004.
Cinema Secrets, the makers of a Michael Myers Halloween mask, won a lawsuit against Don Post Studios, who had designed the mask used in the 1978 movie, by proving they took the idea from the movie.
Nosferatu, an unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and one cinemas classic films, was almost lost due to copyright law. Florence Stoker, widow of Bram Stoker, sued the producers of Nosferatu for infringement and won. As part of the 1925 decision, all copies of Nosferatu were to be destroyed. Most were.
Over the next few years, any copies that became public were also destroyed. This may have meant the end of the film, except that a few isolated copies managed to survive Florence Stoker’s death in 1937.
Helen Carr picked the wrong person when she spammed an FBI computer crime agent. Her scam targeted AOL users with messages saying their credit cards were refused during the last billing cycle, and linked to a false billing centre page which demanded private information
One of the oddest phenomena in the natural world — the sudden mass death of lemmings — has been resolved, according to a trio of European biologists. Unexplained population crashes of this rodent of the high northern latitudes have bred the myth that, whenever they become too numerous for the available food, the creatures band together and fling themselves off cliffs in a crazed suicidal rush. However researchers now say the truth is even more complex. Lemming populations, they say, surge spectacularly and fall just as quickly, thanks to the combined feasting of four predators: the stoat, arctic fox, snowy owl and a seabird called the long-tailed skua
Etrema, an innovative technology firm based in Iowa, sells chrome discs for US$1,500 a pair. Called Whispering Windows, they can turn any wall, window, drab conference table or even your head into a speaker
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel threatened to sue the makers of the Simpsons over a spoof news ticker. The show’s creator Matt Groening said Fox News raised the unlikely prospect of suing a show broadcast by its sister channel, Fox Entertainment, because it wanted to stop the Simpsons parodying its famously anti-Democratic party agenda
Tom Coates has been discussing technical tricks for coping with message-board trolls on his Everything in Moderation blog, and, surpisingly, an avowed Slashdot troll has shown up to explain why he undertakes extreme technical measures to disrupt Slashdot’s message boards
The British Library is a government-owned library that legally has to hold a copy of every book, pamphlet, map, journal, newspaper and piece of sheet music published in the UK. That law has changed and now the Library will be able to collect non-paper resources, such as web sites, electronic journals, CD-ROMs and microfilms. Obviously, the library won’t be archiving everything in these categories, but will be keeping resources of national, historical or academic interest
The TokyoFlash watch site is full of bizarre, amusing and beautiful Japanese watches.
Trip the Light Fantastic by Pimp is an LED display with a unique method of displaying the time. And the all the little coloured lights are pretty to look at.
The Matrix Binary is the perfect gift for the geek in your life. Or a great way of combating that annoying co-worker who asks you the time every five minutes, with one of these babies asking them to see for themselves just once would be worth it.
The part of me that is attracted to glowing blue lights wants a Fishbone LED.
The Pagan Prattle found an auction for a vampire-killing kit complete with a wooden stake and ten silver bullets that recently sold for US$12,000. The kit, a walnut box that also contained a crucifix, a pistol, a rosary and vessels for garlic powder and various serums, was bought by an anonymous phone bidder.
Proving that there’s an online store for everyone:
Some brains are just naturally better, juicier, and formerly smarter than others, and we’ve got them at Brains4Zombies.com. We sell only the highest quality fresh brains, delivered straight to your door. We do the dirty deed so you can spend more time… well… doing whatever the hell it is you zombies do when you’re not ripping open people’s heads.
Next time you’re stuck at some boring gathering, rather than gnawing your arm off to escape, taste a stab at some paper plate origami.Next time you’re stuck at some boring gathering, rather than gnawing your arm off to escape, taste a stab at some paper plate origami. And if you really want to get into the plate folding groove, there’s a couple of books; The Geometry of Wholemovement for the adults and The Hands-On Marvelous Ball Book for the sprogs.
Everyone is going hi-tech these days, so why not take advantage and book a visit from the Stool Fairy.
While not actually selling anything, an enterprising Russian has assembled a massive list of screen shots from video games featuring toilets — from Alien vs Predator to X-Com 3.
I was making ice cream recently which only needs the egg yolks and wondering what the hell I could do with a bunch of leftover egg whites, when it hit me — meringues!
The stuff you need:
4 egg whites
Pinch of salt
1 cup of castor sugar
Food colouring
What to do with your gathered ingredients:
- Pre-heat oven to 120°C and place baking paper on two oven trays
- Beat egg whites with salt until stiff
- Add sugar gradually and continue beating until thick
- Add food colouring and stir through well. If you want to make meringues of different colours, move part of the mixture to a smaller bowl and add colour to the different batches
- Bake at 120°C for 1 1/2 hours, until dry
Makes around 30 to 40 medium sized meringues
Microsoft — desperate to capture a slice of the popular and ad-generating search business — approached Google within the last two months to discuss options, including the possibility of a takeover. Nothing much came out of that overture, but Microsoft may consider it again in the future. Dan Gillmor suspects Google stopped this talk for the obvious reason: a Google that was part of Microsoft would forfeit the search and advertising company’s most vital asset — the relatively high level of trust it’s earned with the Internet community
A super-fast computing processor that uses light, not electrons, to perform calculations has gone on sale for the first time. The device is called Enlight and can perform 8000 billion arithmetic operations per second, about 1000 times faster than a standard processor. Lenslet, the Israeli company that developed the processor, say its light speed calculations deliver the power of a supercomputer in a single device
A federal judge in Houston has thrown out the 20-year-old arms smuggling conviction of a former CIA agent, outlining in scathing terms how federal officials knowingly used a false affidavit at his trial and concealed the act through years of appeals
Bruce Hubbard, an Auckland peace activist, sent an email to the US Embassy objecting to the war on Iraq and got charged with misuse of a telephone for his troubles
Epson has introduced the Stylus Photo R800, geared toward the high-end photographer and advanced amateur photographer. With an estimated price of US$399, it supports resolutions of up to 5760 x 1440 dpi. It’s a six-colour photo dye ink system with all the colours in individual ink cartridges and can print a 5 x 7 colour photo in 45 seconds. It includes both Photo Black and Matte Black ink cartridges for printing on any media without changing the black ink cartridge.
Featuring an eight-channel print heat system that includes blue and red inks, the system also includes a ‘Gloss Optimiser’ which provides a clear coating (but no ink) for uniform glossy prints.
Built-in CD/DVD printing capabilities for printing directly onto inkjet printable CDs or DVDs using the printer’s straight-through paper path are a nifty addition.
FrogPad hopes to single-handedly revolutionize the two-handed keyboard with its one-handed fully functional keyboard.
With only 20 keys, the US$189 USB FrogPad keyboard is only a fraction the size of a normal Qwerty keyboard and emulates all of its functions. I want one.
The Australian National Office for the Information Economy said it wouldn’t endorse use of Microsoft’s controversial document security technology, Information Rights Management in Commonwealth agencies
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