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Jeweled Heart Mouse – $19.95
Valentine’s Day is nearly here! What do you get the geekheart who has everything? The Jeweled Heart Mouse from the NeatoShop. This adorable wired computer mouse, shaped like a heart, is encrusted with acrylic rhinestones. Bling!
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more heartfelt Valentine’s Day gifts!
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If you’re worried about a dystopian future where the view from your window is obscured by zombies, rubble piles and the occasional group of bandits, then you’ll want to invest in Samsung’s new transparent Smart Window-a computer screen/window that can make the world outside look like anything you want, even the terrifying real world, if that’s how you get your kicks.
You can make it look like still photos, video footage, a computer desktop, even television, if you prefer to imagine a sitcom taking place outside your window over an otherwise bleak reality. It’s large, shiny, and eliminates the need to actually go outside, so what’s not to like?
–via Geekosystem
On the one hand, it appears amazing that we sacrifice expensive electronics for the amusement of our cats. On the other hand, I know how easy it is to accumulate obsolete computer equipment that may not function as originally intended, but will still amuse the cat. Which, in turn, amuses us! -via Tastefully Offensive
From the idle fertile minds behind Geeks Are Sexy comes a new site that focuses on the world of IT professionals and the funny stuff they encounter in their work. FailDesk has, of course, those clueless co-workers, resourceful workarounds, and clients that will surprise you.
I had a very nice lady call me completely in tears one day because she had spilled an entire can of soda on her keyboard and it had quit working properly (aside from being just nasty – lol). One of the tricks I had learned was to have the customer put the keyboard in the dishwasher, after which, they should let it dry for a day or two. I explained to her this was perfectly safe to do and she was elated that it could possibly be so simple. Several days pass and she calls me back in tears because it didn’t work and NOW her computer won’t even turn on! After a few minutes of interrogation I determined that I needed to overnight her a new replacement computer.
What tripped me off? It was at the moment when she stated that she was able to get her keyboard AND box (CPU) in the dishwasher but the monitor didn’t fit so she had to remove the top shelp of her dishwasher and run a separate load just for it!
You’re invited to send in your IT stories, pictures, and other funny stuff and share it with those who will understand. Link
Here’s an inspired idea for all of you DIYers with tons of useless RAM sitting around, a Christmas tree made of RAM chips that would make the ultimate geek gift. And really, what else are you going to do with all that 128mb RAM you have squirreled away in a box somewhere?
Link –image via Adam from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
From YouTube member bd594, the same geek who brought us “Bohemian Rhapsody” by The Gadget Orchestra a couple of years ago, we now have the classic “House of the Rising Sun” played by various vintage electronic gadgets. The instruments:
a. HP Scanjet 3P, Adaptec SCSI card and a computer powered by Ubuntu v9.10 OS as the Vocals. (hey, the scanner is old)
b. Atari 800XL with an EiCO Oscilloscope as the Organ
c. Texas instrument Ti-99/4A with a Tektronix Oscilloscope as the Guitar
d. Hard-drive powered by a PiC16F84A microcontroller as the bass drum and cymbal
-via Metafilter
I've found the secret to John Farrier's blogging prowess: it's all in where he writes his Neatorama blog posts.
Actually, no. John's still Master of the Blogosphere but the Steampunk workstation above, called the Steampunk Time Machine Antique Master Bathroom Computer Workstation, is designed by Bruce Rosenbaum and Walter Parker.
Hugh Hart of Wired's Underwire blog has more pics of steampunk neatness: Link
See also: 3D Steampunk Robot Magnets over at the NeatoShop
Founder and former CEO of Apple Steve Jobs has died after a seven-year battle with cancer. He was 56.
The hard-driving executive pioneered the concept of the personal computer and of navigating them by clicking onscreen images with a mouse. In more recent years, he introduced the iPod portable music player, the iPhone and the iPad tablet — all of which changed how we consume content in the digital age.
More than one pundit, praising Jobs’ ability to transform entire industries with his inventions, called him a modern-day Leonardo Da Vinci.
“Steve Jobs is one of the great innovators in the history of modern capitalism,” New York Times columnist Joe Nocera said in August. “His intuition has been phenomenal over the years.”
Jobs’ death, while dreaded by Apple’s legions of fans, was not unexpected. He had battled cancer for years, took a medical leave from Apple in January and stepped down as chief executive in August because he could “no longer meet (his) duties and expectations.”
CNN has the highlights of Jobs’ eventful life in the obituary. Link
(Image credit: Apple)
Gabor used a nonfunctional laptop to prop up a working laptop with broken hinges! Link
The metaphors we use for the world of computers are kind of weird, as illustrated in ths video. The first word is the only part that might be NSFW. -via Buzzfeed
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If you spend your days writing Trojan code or sending malware to thousands of hapless email address owners, you’d better steer clear of the Land of the Rising Sun. Otherwise it could cost you $6,200 in bail or three years in jail.
[T]he bill that criminalizes the creation or distribution of computer virus was finally enacted last Friday by Japan’s parliament. The law also includes provisions regarding punishment that will be meted out to people who have been caught sending pornographic images to random people.
These laws are meant to crack down on the dirty web of cybercrime; however, some parts of the law border on infringing the privacy of communications as it allows data to be obtained or subpoenaed by authorities from servers for investigation when necessary.
Japan is the first country to enact and implement such a law. Hopefully, we’ll be able to gauge the effectivity of passing the law a few months down the line.
If you have a handful of thousand-dollar bills and a penchant for all things clockwork, this might just be the best day of your life. Richard “Datamancer” Nagy is taking pre-orders for the Victorian Laptop for the first time. I’m not super interested in steampunk, but I do think Nagy’s handiwork is rather beautiful. There are lots of pictures on the website, with styles ranging from hardcore industrial to streamlined deco. Link
via Dvice | Image: Richard Nagy
Bill Hammock, the Engineer Guy, tears a hard drive apart to show us what’s inside and what the parts do. -Thanks, Bill!
Andrew Carol’s works a day job as an engineer for Apple, but in his spare time uses his skills to recreate ancient computers out of Legos. See link for video.
Recently, Carol has completed his biggest challenge yet: a working Lego replica of the famous Antikythera Mechanism, created by ancient Greeks in 100 B.C. as a way of predicting astronomical events like eclipses.
It’s always good to remember that things could always be worse. That’s why these really neat post apocalypse wallpapers for Mac and PC give us pause for that that we really do have it better now then when we will be telling the children about “the before time.” Link
Have you ever wanted to play X Box games just by thinking about moving the character on the screen? Well, now we are one step closer to making that dream a reality with an experiment conducted at Washington University in St. Louis. Patients were able to send signals from their brain directly to a computer to control a cursor on the screen. This will lead to incredible advances in medicine, computing and most importantly…. instantly Tweeting from your brain.
A temporary surgical implant enabled patients to “talk” to a computer. Just by thinking the words aloud in their head they were able to control a cursor on a computer screen. The brain-computer interface (BCI) technology could one day be used to help people who are unable to talk or have other physical disabilities due to brain injury. The technology could one day be used to read a person’s mind.
A grocery store in Hamilton, New Zealand opened its doors automatically without any store employees present on Friday morning. The store’s computer system opened the doors at 8AM, and shoppers came in as normal. Some bought groceries and used the self-checkout, while others just left without paying.
Supermarket owner Glenn Miller was initially furious over the incident, fearing that thousands of dollars of groceries might have walked out the door. But after reviewing the shop’s security footage during the weekend his mood had mellowed.
“I can certainly see the funny side of it … but I’d rather not have the publicity, to be honest. It makes me look a bit of a dickhead.”
The security footage showed shoppers were not aware that there were no staff in the supermarket, Mr Miller said.
“They weren’t in for a free-for-all. They were doing their normal shopping and then got to the checkout. Half of them paid and the other half thought, `this is a good deal’ and walked out.”
Customers’ choices were recorded on closed-circuit TV, but Miller says he will not prosecute those who left without paying. Link to story. Link to video. -via Arbroath
Graphic designer Matt Chase got a peek into the life of a Storm Trooper by taking screenshots of his desktop. This one is just email. See the other windows at the post. Link -Thanks, Nicholas!
The world’s first computer virus, Creeper, was unleashed on an unsuspecting world in 1971, only a couple of years after the first computers were linked in a network. Most of us have only heard about it, since few had computers at the time. But that was only the beginning. Read about the major virus attacks over the years, like the 2000 I Love You virus.
At the dawn of the XXIst century, I LOVE YOU worm infected tens of millions of computers. As a fairly simple worm, I LOVE YOU presented itself as an incoming email with “I love you” in its subject line and infected the machine of users who opened the attachment. It then mailed itself to all of the contacts found on the infected user’s system.
Intriguing feature: While the author’s motivation clearly wasn’t about money, the damages were: When the dust settled, I LOVE YOU had cost companies around the world between $5 and $10 billion. Much of that cost can be attributed to the time spent “cleaning” infected machines.
More of the history of viruses is posted at Help Net Security. Link -via the Presurfer
Ever wonder why PC users can issue the three-finger salute to reboot the computer?
IBM programmer David Bradley explains the origin of the computer command Control-Alt-Delete, in this interview (complete with a zinger to Bill Gates) as featured on CubicleBot: Link [embedded YouTube]
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Reddit member guantes ordered a signed copy of Ken Jennings’ book and requested he draw a picture of his Jeopardy battle with the computer named Watson. The result was so cool that the autographed title page had to be shared with everyone. Link
Those who spend most of their time programming in a certain language may find that it’s hard to shift gears to write a paper in English (or some other language non-geeks understand) for a class. “When you write your essays in programming languages, you really can’t have any typos.” See the rest of eight programming languages at Something of That Ilk. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy
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A computer from the mid-20th century would fill an entire room -a big room, at that! IBM introduced the 305 RAMAC system in 1956, the first computer to use a hard drive. What you see here is that hard drive, which weighed a ton and held a whopping 5 megabytes of memory storage. It was named the 350 Disk Storage Unit. At the time, you could lease the entire computer setup for a mere $3,200 a month! Link -via Bits and Pieces
Do you remember the Hamster Dance from 1997? It’s back again. Katie the hamster is dancing on the computer! -via Arbroath
Located in a Japanese mall called Canal City, this fountain is programmed immaculately to “paint” the air with falling water.
Canal City (Wiki) via Bits and Pieces
All you and I have to do to tell a fiction from a non-fiction is to read a piece of text – but how can a computer tell the difference? It’s tricky, but doable:
Joseph Stevanak and Lincoln Carr at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden have come up with a way to do it. They say that the key is to look at the networks that form when you examine how often words appear close together in each type of text.
The type of network they examined creates a graph in which each word in the text forms a vertex. A line connects two vertices if these words appear next to each other in the text. It is possible to explore longer range links by connecting vertices when they appear two or three or four words apart and so on.
Stevanak and Carr say that just two properties of this kind of network can help distinguish fiction from nonfiction stories. The first is the power law that describes the number of links to each vertex in the network. The second is the cluster coefficient which describes how well the vertices are connected to the rest of the network.
Measuring these two quantities alone can identify the type of story with remarkable accuracy. "Our analysis yielded a 73.8±5.15% accuracy for the correct classification of novels and 69.1 ± 1.22% for news stories," say Stevenak and Carr.
From the hard hitting newspaper, Weekly World News (motto: The World’s Only Reliable News!)
Spam, viruses, and piracy aren’t the only dangers on the web. James Mowery of Techi wrote an article about all the bad things that can happen online, but I’m particularly concerned over the ability of hackers turning my home computer into a … – wait, what’s that smell? Oh shi–
Dell computers have discovered what your prototypical high school student already knows: math is hard, and sometimes it can melt your brain.
After the math department at the University of Texas noticed some of its Dell computers failing, Dell examined the machines. The company came up with an unusual reason for the computers’ demise: the school had overtaxed the machines by making them perform difficult math calculations.
And I’m sure you can predict what would happen next if you continue to ship faulty computers to your customers. Five words: Dell, you’re getting a lawsuit!
See also: Dude, You’re Getting A Tequila! | Alphabet of Computing
Last year Google began offering free WiFi in 47 American airports. Other airports have added this feature to accommodate the needs of business travelers. Here’s a reminder that connecting to WiFi may open your laptop to strangers:
I was recently at New York’s JFK airport in the JetBlue terminal, where they have prominent signs offering free wi-fi, courtesy of the airline. But when I went to connect, I noticed that several options were available including one labeled “default” and another labeled “JetBlue free hotspot.” It turns out that the former was the actual free hotspot and the latter was the honeypot.
What tipped me off was that the “JetBlue free hotspot” was labeled in my Mac OS X “Airport” (i.e. wi-fi) menu as a “Computer-to-Computer network…” If you connect to this network on an imperfectly protected Windows laptop, this hacker will have access to your data from his own computer.
More at the link. The same principle would of course apply at non-airport facilities such as dining establishments.
Link. Photo: Device Magazine.
Remember the old Public Service Announcement "This is Your Brain on Drugs?" Well, forget drugs – there’s a new and more insidious danger for your brain: computers.
This is your brain on computers.
Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information.
These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement — a dopamine squirt — that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored.
The resulting distractions can have deadly consequences, as when cellphone-wielding drivers and train engineers cause wrecks. And for millions of people like Mr. Campbell, these urges can inflict nicks and cuts on creativity and deep thought, interrupting work and family life.
While many people say multitasking makes them more productive, research shows otherwise. Heavy multitaskers actually have more trouble focusing and shutting out irrelevant information, scientists say, and they experience more stress.
And scientists are discovering that even after the multitasking ends, fractured thinking and lack of focus persist. In other words, this is also your brain off computers.
Matt Richtel of The New York Times explains: Link
