Things To Make And Do

Kiwi WiFi hackers are building cheap, incredibly powerful WiFi antennae out of Chinese cookware, such as a $2 parabolic dumpling scoop, and USB WiFi dongles. They’ve got extensive build and testing notes — via BoingBoing.
A 1978 issue of Women’s Day magazine, describing how to build an elaborate Star Wars play set, with moving conveyor belt, out of laminate, cardboard, plywood and the like — via BoingBoing

In a rather delightful tale of revenge on a scam-artist: a Powerbook seller on eBay twigged that he was being ripped off by an overseas buyer, who had even set up a fake escrow service to handle his phony payment. Instead of blowing it off, the seller sent the crook on a wild goose chase that culminated with him taking delivery of a P-P-P-Powerbook made out of keyboard bits glued to an old binder, after paying £350 in customs fees and friends of the seller who’d staked out his mail-drop photographed the whole thing for posterity — via BoingBoing

You can’t resist the allure of a professional moulage kit, perfect for simulating your own brutal wounds and accident scenarios in the privacy of your own home. For $549, you get a convenient carrying case filled with such essentials as: one foreign body protrusion, one eyeball, one eviscerated intestine, two crushed feet, one plexiglass pack for simulated glass in wound, one roll of tape and lots more — via BoingBoing

Scrap materials, the end of an ordinary box, scraps of leather or canvas, are all you need to manufacture a pair of comfortable, serviceable play shoes. So says the introduction to this Sunset article from 1943 on how to make your own Caterpillars. Another pair of make-at-home shoes. Tyre sandals with nothing but a tire and some webbing — via BoingBoing

iTunes For Windows

Not a fan of iTunes for Windows. Aside from its annoying habit of renaming the files I’d painstakingly named, it doesn’t like being removed. I’ve had blue screen of death and an unstable PC in the aftermath of the two occasions I’ve tangled with the piece of crap

Using MovableType

Six Apart are wondering just what the hell people have been doing with MovableType in an effort to help streamline their licensing.

The definition of exactly what constitutes a weblog is actually more confusing since Six Apart clarified it.

Currently MT is used for two sections of the site in separate directories using two weblogs. Whether this counts as one or two weblogs under the new definition is anyone’s guess. There are currently three active users, with vague plans to add more.

If MT3 has features that are suitable, more sections of the site will be integrated into MovableType which will be another five weblogs, give or take, which moves the site beyond the base licence. Maybe. Depending on semantics. And features of course. It’s all a bit confusing at the moment.

Still, I’d like to know exactly what shiny things are planned to be integrated into the general release.

MT-Blacklist, which I can’t live without, is in Jay Allen’s capable hands. He started a wishlist for the new version today.

Most of the plugins used are neat little tools that format things the way I want. However, two of the things I’ve been holding off installing are sub-categories (installed David Rayner’s plugin, it crashed and burned in spectacular fashion) and threaded comments (luscious install of Alexei Kosut’s plugin on Phil Ringnalda‘s site).

It has been hinted that these two things could be in the new version, rather than as separate plugins, but I’ve been holding off to avoid the nightmare of porting major wackiness between versions or dealing with changes from a plugin version to an integrated version. So it would nice to have an idea of when the general release is due and what additional features are planned.

Anti-Spammers Infiltrate Private Online Spam Clubs

Spammers are now trying to find out which antispammers have infiltrated their ranks and are sharing sensitive info with fellow antispammers. Online spammer forums like the Pro Bulk Club, the Bulk Club and bulkmails.org have been gatecrashed by activists from organisations like Spamhaus. Steve Linford of Spamhaus said spammers know this already but they don’t know who amongst their number is working for the other side

Retired Congresscritter On Home-Taping

Retired Congressman Al Smith testified on the DMCRA, Rep Boucher’s bill to reform copyright. Smith’s been home-taping for 54 years, and he knows what’s what: When I buy a CD or a DVD, that content should be wholly mine to do with as I please as long as I am in no way selling its contents or profiting from it… Present law is predicated on the assumption that consumers will rip-off copyright holders. The vast majority are innocent of that assumption, but all are treated as guilty

Metal Velcro

British scientists have developed technology that can grow structures up to 2mm and 0.2mm in diameter on metal surfaces. Dubbed Surfi-Sculpt, it will act like ultra-strong Velcro to form much tougher joints between metals and lightweight composite materials

Yahoo Boosts Free E-Mail Storage To 100MB

Web portal Yahoo will begin offering virtually unlimited storage for its paid e-mail customers and will upgrade free users to 100MB. The upgrade is part of an overall enhancement for Yahoo Mail that will launch this summer. Besides additional storage, the service will get a face-lift and tie in more Yahoo-branded services, such as Photos and Messenger

Search Engines Delete Adware Company

Yahoo and Google disable links to controversial adware maker WhenU after the company is accused of engaging in unauthorised practices aimed at boosting its search rankings. The practices came to light following an investigation by antispyware crusader Ben Edelman, a Harvard student who found that the company used a technique known as cloaking to dupe search engines into favourably listing decoy Web pages that direct people to other destinations, once they click on the link. Ben has a couple of follow up articles on the situation; Which SEO Did WhenU Use? The Best Inference: Synergy6 and WhenU Copies 26+ Articles from 20+ News Sites