Heart of Gears

I don't know about you guys, but I think this is really impressive.


Click here to watch the video.

Ubuntu 8.10

The day has arrived, Ubuntu 8.10 has been officially released.

Intrepid Ibex is available for download at ubuntu.com.

Lightning Strike Kills 52 Cows

I can't help but spread this story...

Lightning struck only once - but 52 cows are dead at an Uruguayan ranch. The newspaper El Pais reports that the cows had pressed against a wire fence during a storm when the lightning bolt struck in the northern state of San Jose.

The newspaper said Friday that veterinarians at the scene confirmed the cause of the deaths, which happened Wednesday. The veterinarians told the newspaper that cows often crowd around fences to seek protection during storms.

Meteorologist Fernando Torena told the newspaper he wasn't surprised that a single lightning bolt killed so many cows. But he called it "very bad luck.

Original Article

Sticky Tape Emits X-rays

Now, Before you develop a fear of scotch tape, you should know that this does not occur in a normal situation.

Believe it or not, that roll of sticky tape on your desk emits X-rays. Don't worry, you're not getting irradiated when you use it, unless you work in a vacuum.

It has been known for a long time that sticky tape emits visible light when peeled in a dark room (try it!). But researchers at UCLA have also discovered that peeling sticky tape in a vacuum sends out pulses of X-rays along with visible light, though the actual mechanism that causes the X-rays to form is not yet understood.

I never knew that tape emits visible light... that just might be cooler than x-rays.

Original Article

Grooveshark

A few minutes ago I stumbled upon a site called Grooveshark. It has a very nice flash interface which allows you to easily search and listen to high quality music. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys music, which is practically everyone.

Keyboard "eavesdropping"

I think you'll find these videos quite self explanatory.


Compromising Electromagnetic Emanations of Keyboards Experiment 1/2.


Compromising Electromagnetic Emanations of Keyboards Experiment 2/2.

Micro Projector

3M has thought up a new kind of projector. It's a tiny hand held one. For more information you can check out http://www.3mmpro.com/. They are cool, but I (personally) wouldn't run out and buy one with a price tag of $359.

Revamp

Last night the site was under construction for a few minutes as I copied the new back end to the server. I reorganized the master page template system and rewrote some php libraries in order to elegantly use the new authentication system. I had written all three of these systems independently and it was about time to clean them up and properly merge them. Most of these changes are invisible to the average user, but provides me with some great benefits.

KazooKeylele

Strangely impressive...


Click here to watch the video.

OpenOffice 3.0 is here

As it turns out, OpenOffice 3.0 Final is available for download. The official announcement is expected to be this Monday, but they decided to roll it out to the mirrors two days early. It is a wonderful product, and I hope you guys all give it a try.

I almost forgot, you can download it here.

Facebook for the pirate community

A pirate! No, I'm not talking about people who steal stuff. I'm talking about the pirates at sea.

On Facebook, If you scroll down to the bottom where it says your language (most likely English) you can click it and select English (Pirate) - BETA. After accepting the translate application everything will be "pirate". Better yet, you can help Facebook by giving your translation for words or phrases and vote for the best one. The translation with the most votes automatically gets implemented in the system. If you've got Facebook, try it out.