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!

Link

(YouTube Link)

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

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

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

[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.

Link | Image: Dvice

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.

Link

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

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.

Link

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!

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

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]

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

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

(YouTube Link)

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

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.

Link

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–

Link

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!

Link

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.

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

Natalie Mead told Gulf News: “Passengers stranded in the hotel were getting excited for the first time in days when they heard about our wedding; some even helped me with my hair and make-up. It was also great to see everyone in the UK on our wedding day, even if it was via webcam.

“It has been an amazing day and we are just so grateful for everything that everyone has done for us. It is definitely a story to tell the grandchildren. There was no way we were going to let this volcano stop us [from] getting married.”

Caroline Black, a celebrant who conducted the online ceremony from London, said: “It was just like any other wedding except the bride and groom weren’t there.”

The airport donated flowers and a wedding cake for the celebration. Link -via Bits and Pieces

Windows errors are annoying, but if you have enough of them you can dance! From Today’s Big Thing. -via b3ta

(YouTube link)

Personally, I prefer this version from a few years back that uses sounds from both Windows 98 and XP.

Is it time for fresh wallpaper for your computer?  Ayesee’s imgur page has 188 fantastic, clever and cute backgrounds to choose from.  Clockwise from top left- classic spiral galaxy, HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, The mischievous pedobear is watching you, and Domo-kun stomp city.

Link -via Twisted Sifter.

Plenty of people talk about helping Africa, but never actually do anything about it. But not our very own Neatoramanaut Zavatone!

When he wasn’t busy correcting my tpyos and grammatical errors, Zavatone and his friends actually "bought" a school and donated laptops to school kids in Namibia:

In Namibia, up by Angola, next to the Okavongo river, is a high school full of 600 Namibian kids and 1/3 to 1/2 of them are orphans. I drove up to the Leevi-Hakusembe Secondary School (High School) in Rundu, Namibia at the request of the Ambassador and Minister of Foreign Affairs to speak and to donate some computers that I bought for them. It was an amazing and heartwarming opportunity, I wish I had more time to spend at the school. The trip is about a 3 day trip up and back from the capitol (Windhoek) and about 900 miles since you can’t drive at night.

He also took some amazing photos of the countryside along the way: Link

We’re proud of you, Zavatone! Keep up the good work!

What is this? It’s like a holographic Rube Goldberg machine! Just creative use of an iPod, a TV, 2 computer monitors and precision timing. They say there were no special effects used, which must mean there was no cheating in the making of the video, because the overall effect is special.

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Bopple.

Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss is a lot of fun, especially for someone like me who spent decades connecting audio-video equipment professionally. I’m sure you will enjoy it, too! Can you identify ten different types of connecting cables, both old and new? Good luck; I scored 80%. Link

Poor Scroll Lock.  Have a look at more like this at AcidCow.  Somebody help me out with On-Pause-Off… I don’t get it, is it a Mac thing?

Link

Some people eat at their computers. Some smoke while computing. And some don’t change the filter on their heating and air system as often as they should. Many of us never open up our computers to see what’s inside, but that’s the first thing your computer repair expert will do. If your PC is anything like these computers, the next thing he/she will do is take a picture. The Register has six pages of these dirty, filthy pictures. Link -via Digg

Still from Blade Runner; Warner Bros. 1982

A long time ago they were called robots.  That rather pedestrian term evolved into android, droid, cyborg, and artificial intelligence, among others.  Plenty of movies have featured them in one fashion or another, and Unreality’s Madison cobbled together the ten best, with Blade Runner’s Roy Batty coming in at number 5.

Roy Batty, quite simply, is a bad, bad dude.  As leader of the Nexus-6 replicants, Batty is a combat model used for military battles, and so his speed, strength, and combat skills are far beyond those of a human being.  He also has a genius level intellect, which he employs to torment Deckard.  He eventually shows empathy for Deckard, though, and Batty himself appears to be more human than the humans who sought out to have him destroyed.

Find out which cinematic circuit board made the top of the list.

Link (updated link has blasted malware worm away, all should be well).

Update 10/18/09 by Alex – delinked. The malware is in Unreality Mag’s ad server. There’s a rogue ad rotating amongst regular ads. Pls keep this delinked and do not remove/repost. Thanks!

Talk about computer viruses! Sculptor Forrest McCluer took salvaged 30 old PCs from the landfill and turned them into sculptures of viruses (the biological kind). This one above is inspired by the T4 Bacteriophage:

The “T9 Track Virus” is another version of the T4 Bacteriophage. It consists of PC power supply cables, CD-ROMs, sections of 9-track magnetic tapes, and parts of floppy drives. When the piece is on display, McCluer scatters a pile of unraveled 9-track tapes under it to represent the bacteria cells destroyed by the T9 Bacteriophage Virus.

Link | More at Forrest McCluer’s Website

Also at the Neatorama Shop: T4 Bacteriophage Plush Toy by Giant Microbes

September 2, 1969: First time two computers communicated with each other.

Oct 29, 1969: Message sent from computer to computer in different locations.

1971: The first email was sent.

Jan 1, 1983: ARPANET adopted the standard TCP/IP protocol.

March 1989: Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web.

April 22, 1993: Mosaic became the first web browser.

Which date should we designate as the birthday of the internet? Link -via Buzzfeed

(image credit: Flickr user lemonfridge)

Say what you will, but Goodwill can be a treasure trove of weird and wonderful stuff. Jonathan Ryan went to one a few days ago and found this gem: a pop-up book titled "Inside the Personal Computer" published in 1984.

The book describes – in delightful pop-up glory – everything from read/write heads to the inner workings of a CRT.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by JonathanRyan.

Update 5/2/09 by Alex: Here’s a YouTube clip of the book in action.

Please note no effects or sampling was used. What you see is what you hear (does that even make sense?)
Atari 800XL was used for the lead piano/organ sound
Texas Instruments TI-99/4a as lead guitar
8 Inch Floppy Disk as Bass
3.5 inch Harddrive as the gong
HP ScanJet 3C was used for all vocals. Please note I had to record the HP scanner 4 seperate times for each voice. I tried to buy 4 HP scanners but for some reason sellers on E-Bay expect you to pay $80-$100, I got mine for $30.

I wonder if it takes requests? -via Arbroath

Who says being a geek isn’t sexy? Flickr user SA Steve has a large collection
of neat vintage computing ads from old magazines and other photos. Check it out: Link [Flickr Photoset]

Recompute is an unusual case for your computer. It’s green and sustainable … and made out of corrugated cardboards!

Recompute and other neat "green" technologies are competing in the Greener Gadgets Design Competition, hosted by Core77 (you can vote for your favorite green gadgets):

Rather than making a large tower constructed from numerous materials (ABS plastic, aluminum, steel, etc.), hundreds of manufacturing processes, and dozens of individual components, the Recompute case is made of corrugated cardboard (recyclable and renewable). There are four low-impact manufacturing processes to assemble Recompute: Die cutting, gluing (with non-toxic white glue), printing and electronic assembly. Recompute uses only three major electronic components: A motherboard with processor & memory, power supply, and a hard drive.

Link – via designzen

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by zeo.

Dark Roasted Blend, one of my favorite blogs which sucks at least 30 minutes of my free time whenever I visit, has a really neat post about real and imaginary supercomputers. This one above is the Z1 computer, built by German engineer Konrad Zuse, who built the world’s first programmable computer.

Link

Previously on Neatorama: The Wonderful World of Early Computing

Marko learnt to read and write at the age of 2 and started working on computers immediately. The news of his extraordinary achievement turned him into a local celebrity and he has even had an audience with the Macedonian Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, who presented him with an IT lab with 15 computers to practise on.

His parents, who are IT experts and run a computer school for children, are considering sending Marko abroad to a specialised institute of learning for gifted children, as none exists in Macedonia.

Marko passed Microsoft’s tests for IT professionals. He says he wants to create a new operational system for computers …when he grows up. Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: Bojan Pancevski)