Technology

A Qantas engineer has found a way to help small aircraft avoid stalling [BugMeNot] at low speeds: pumping sound through the wings. He found that music also works, having tested Spiderbait and Radiohead. Spiderbait apparently works better

San Francisco is about to embark on a Free (or low cost) WiFi campaign with the mayor holding the reins, of course, in hopes of offering more low-income residents easier access to the Internet. Since San Francisco, unlike Philadelphia, is only 127km², will this work here and can this be accomplished in a year as promised or is this just another political plot to get the Mayor re-elected?

Xirrus’ XS-3900 Wireless LAN Array consists of 16 Integrated Access Points and a wireless switch all in one device. According to their web site, Xirrus can achieve 800+ Mbps of bandwidth and handle 1000+ users

Telstra announced a trial of the technology back in January, saying it would allow DSL to be connected to people who were up to 20km from a central exchange. DSL Extenders work by splitting an existing copper phone line into eight separate ADSL lines using a tiny, ruggedised remote DSLAM. The drawback is that it will not be able to handle ADSL2

Fluidlens is a new type of camera lens made of liquid that is no bigger than a contact lens, but can still achieve up to ten times optical zoom by changing its shape similar to the human eye

The Australian Bureau of Statistics is building a single service delivery channel for access to every piece of statistical data held in public databases nationally. Direct marketers need not salivate because the National Data Network will only hold de-identified information. The network, brainchild of former Australian of the Year and child health researcher Fiona Stanley, is under construction

They say bad things happen in 3’s:

1. My adapter for my ye old clamshell iBook carked it last night. I was not impressed to find that just buying the one they currently sell with newer iBooks would work. Luckily, www.batterymall.com.au seems to have what can help me get a bit more life outta my iBook, and for 50 bucks as opposed to $129 for new adapter. I should get it this week-ish.
2. I had a minor car accident this morning with a minibus/van with some teenagers going to school in it. No no it wasn’t a P-plater hooning around in it, I think it was a teacher driving. Luckily no one was hurt, and damage to my car is very minimal. Teacher now knows to look before attempting a u-turn from off the road.
3. My cat went in for his dental this morning, which the vet told me he would one day be needing. He also has dandruff on account he won’t eat anything other than dried cat food, so vet suggested an aloe vera bath. I’ve bathed my cat twice before and I think the scars down my back are finally healed, so I figure, yeah go on you guys do it. Jasper was suppose to be ready by 6:30pm this evening, but he’s still drowsy from the anasthetic, so they’ll be keeping him overnight and bathing him tomorrow. So it’s a kitty free night for me :.(

Unrelated: Warning: iPods may damage your hearing [BugMeNot]. Yeah, who’d have thunk that listening to your portable music player or radio in mobile of choice too loud for too long would cause hearing probs? Thanks SMH, you’re the best!

Rejected Limited Edition iPods

Erik Fitzpatrick did a nice job turning an old Smith-Corona manual typewriter into a functional keyboard, and composed a nice writeup about it, with pictures

Spammer Scott Levine was convicted of massive data theft from Acxiom Corporation. Prosecutors say his company, the now-defunct Snipermail.com, stole 1.6 billion customer records from Acxiom and sold the data. He faces a maximum of 640 years in prison under the law, though he will likely be sentenced to far less

Paul Sheehan has a good write up on the blind eye turned to loony fundies [BugMeNot] in both Australia and abroad, and how that apathy helped create the murderers of Stephen Vincent: To call him a casualty of a war or the victim of terrorists would be a mistake. He was murdered by perverts. “Pervert” does not remotely confer the same aura and power of “terrorist”. This murder was committed in the name of religion but, at its deepest level, was another manifestation of envy, impotence and sexual repression

A speeding case has been thrown out in Australia after the Roads and Traffic Authority admitted that it could not prove the integrity of speed-camera photos. The case revolved around the integrity of a mathematical MD5 algorithm published on each picture and used as a security measure to prove pictures have not been doctored after they have been taken

Google has announced that they will provide RSS and Atom feeds in their news section. Previously the only way to get RSS/Atom feeds from Google news was through third party scrapers. Now, you can get feeds for any of Google’s news areas as well as feeds for a news search. The news search is basically the same concept as Google news alerts, only in RSS

AOL and Microsoft are hitting spammers where it hurts most: They are confiscating their assets and giving them away

Political group GetUp! has become the target of an investigation to force the internet operation, which is bombarding Coalition senators with e-mail, to prove it is not a front for the Labor Party. The online operation, which has the support of union boss Bill Shorten, dotcom millionaire Evan Thornley and former Liberal leader John Hewson to raise $1.5 million, flooded Liberal and Nationals senators with e-mail this week. It’s funny that the pollies get the hump when they get spammed but turn a blind eye to little Johnny Coward paying his son to run a phone spam campaign during the last election. Seems it’s a different matter when it’s their inboxes that are flooded with crap