Australia’s communications regulator has set up a broadband over powerline information portal as it considers what rules must govern the delivery of telecommunications services using electrical power wiring
The VersaLaser is a desktop computer peripheral that takes your drawings and spits out products made of wood, plastic, fabric, paper, glass, leather, stone, ceramic, rubber
. It’s a nicely designed package, available in a range of colours, including purple, but the US$10,000 price tag means it will be languishing on the wishlist for quite some time to come
Greenpeace accused Tony Blair of a betrayal
after leaked documents [PDF] revealed the Prime Minister was boasting about global warming commitments in keynote speeches while his government was simultaneously trying to ditch them at European meetings — via MemoryBlog
Sony missed out on potential sales from MP3 players and other gadgets because it was overly proprietary about music and entertainment content
The identity of Australians could be subjected to unprecedented scrutiny under the biggest security protection plan since the failed Australia Card
David Duchovny and Chris Carter are planning on making a sequel to their X-Files movie. They say that they would like the movie to be released summer 2006
British researchers have found chemicals produced by the human body that repel mosquitoes, which could lead to a natural, odourless bug spray
A bus driver in Asia faced with the problem of a python coiled around the undercarriage of his vehicle may, on the face of it, have little in common with a Bristol nightclub owner trying to deter customers from snorting cocaine in the lavatories. But for both, the solution lay inside the distinctive yellow and blue can of WD-40. Avon and Somerset Police are encouraging pub landlords and club managers to use the famously versatile spray to coat toilet lids to prevent customers using them to snort cocaine from. When the drug comes into contact with a light coating of WD-40, it congeals, making it impossible to sniff
The lotus plant, otherwise known as the water lily, has been a source of inspiration for centuries. But this time, people are mostly interested in the bumps on the surface of its leaves. Researchers at Ohio State University have created computer models of materials that, arrayed with tiny bumps, will repel water or allow microscopic machines to operate with far less friction. In a few years, the development could lead to far cheaper wide-screen televisions, chips that can analyze blood samples or windshields that clean themselves
It sounds like the perfect excuse to quaff more beer. New research with mice shows the beverage protects against the effects of some cancer-causing chemicals. But there’s a catch: it was non-alcoholic beer. Nonetheless, if the scientists can pinpoint the protective compounds involved, brewers may be able to produce beer particularly rich in them. While drinking too much alcohol increases the risk of cancer, for now it remains a mystery whether moderate tippling of alcoholic beer has any anti-cancer benefits
Brendan Themes is a punk-folk musician whose stuff is like Billy Bragg’s best music crossed with a little Beck and some Leo Kottke. His CD is available for free under a Creative Commons license from the Internet Archive — via boingboing
Have a look at this terrifying restyling of the original CSS Zen Garden markup. It’s 100% standards-compliant, but in the vein of a Geocities site circa 1997. The goggles do nothing!
Comment spam is in many ways even more annoying than regular email spam, since you generally have to do more than just hit the delete button to get rid of it. Its defining characteristic is that spammers abuse websites where the public can add content (blogs, wikis, forums, and even top referrer lists) to increase their own ranking in search engines. It seems, however, that the days of content spam are numbered: today Google announced that, in partnership with MSN Search, Yahoo! and major blogware companies, that they have implemented a way to block content spam. There is a MovableType plugin available to take advantage of the change
The German national library, Deutsche Bibliothek, has received a copyright exemption that allows it to crack the DRM on the media in its collection, after it became obvious that copy protections would not only annoy teenage school boys, but also prohibit the library from fulling its legal mandate to collect, process and bibliographic index important German and German-language based works
. This is fantastic news — and it should be a lesson to libraries, schools, institutions that serve the disabled, archivists, and others that they needt o fight for their own exemptions. We need to riddle the ban on circumventing DRM with so many little holes that it simply deflates upon itself — via BoingBoing
The bastards at Hewlett-Packard have region coded inkjet printers to only accept region appropriate ink cartridges. Like a $56 Bic pen, restricting use to a single country and then saying you are not trying to make money on it. They aren’t the only one’s, Apple are also dumbing down standards for the local US market making the computers useless outside of the country — via BoingBoing
Researchers at Cornell University have devised a process to make plastic from citrus fruits and carbon dioxide. They developed a catalyst to cause a reaction between oil from orange peels and carbon dioxide that produces a new polymer with characteristics similar to polystyrene — via boingboing
After just announcing that they have added the Australian dollar to their accepted currencies, PayPal has launched its Australian web site which is designed to cater exclusively for Australian users
Toshiba has developed software, called Ubiquitous Viewer, to remotely operate a PC using a mobile phone. The software is installed on the mobile phone and on a client computer running Windows. The software recreates the desktop of a PC or notebook PC on the mobile phone’s screen. The user can use the PC via the mobile phone to complete tasks such as reading e-mail messages and editing documents
Thirteen metres beneath the streets of Rome, archaeologists have discovered what people are calling a new Pompeii that has been buried for nearly two millennia. Using video cameras, a team of researchers has unveiled a mosaic, in almost perfect condition, showing a team of naked men at the time of Emperor Nero, trampling the grape harvest
Ah, geek love in sensible trousers.
It probably says more about the weirdness of Teen Beat magazine than anything, but someone has dug up a 1983 photo spread the magazine did on then up and coming Bill Gates.
I’m left wondering what they were thinking with the poses. Is this some strange 80s teen equivalent of the naked girl draped over a car?
Note the Mac behind him in the first shot.
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