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Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Firefox Crop Circle: the browser for Aliens?


The OSU Linux Users Group embarked on a project to create a firefox crop circle, and they were pretty successful at it. It looks great from the sky. =)

and even greater in google maps



The project's main site: http://lug.oregonstate.edu/events/firefox/crop-circle

from the site:

"Planned in under two weeks and completed in under 24 hours, the crop circle had a final diameter of 220 feet. We constructed the circle in an oat field near Amity, Oregon, where it was completely invisible from the road but unmistakable from the sky. Our team consisted of 12 people, mainly OSU students, and we carefully stomped down oats from 3:30pm Friday afternoon until 2:30am, putting on the finishing touches between 7:30am and 11:00am Saturday"

Without these folks this could not have happened:

  • Terry & Monty Woods (Crop owners)
  • John Imlah (Farmer/adjoining land)
  • Gretchen Brunner (adjoining Land owners )
  • Ron & Mary Lou Polvi (chief cooks)
  • Alex Polvi (Google/OSLUG)
  • Beth Gordon (OSLUG)
  • Jason Siefken (OSLUG)
  • John Carey (Mozilla-film maker)
  • Eric Searcy (OSLUG)
  • Emily Nashif (OSLUG)
  • Ken Yoneda (Mozilla translator)
  • Stuart McKim (OSLUG)
  • Michael Marineau (OSLUG)
  • Matt Shichtman (Mozilla-film maker)
  • Scott Nichols (OSLUG)
  • David "Crash" Mandrell (pilot)
  • Asa Dotzler (Mozilla)
  • Chris Dibona (Google)

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Google releases google chrome beta today!


Google Chrome is the new open source browser by the all too famous seach engine Google™.
With the browser wars on going between Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari; Google Chrome joins the fray in hopes of gaining most of the online market. It boasts that current browsers try too keep up with new web innovations by upgrading, so why not build one from scratch and design a browser that is based on the current needs of web applications and users

Some key features of Google Chrome that I've noticed:

Multiple Tab bars, placed above the address bar (not below it)

'Incognito' Window, a great option that allows you to browse without logging anything in your computer.

Blacklisting of Phishing and malware sites, warnings would appear if you attempt to go to a potentially harmful site.

The home page. It shows you a mini screenshot of your favorite websites, and allows you easily access any one of them.



We don't know how Chrome would fare against the other browsers, but it makes things more interesting, as well as making it a drive for other browsers to continue improvements.
Try it now! http://www.google.com/chrome





It also released a comic book explaining Google Chrome

Friday, August 29, 2008

Video: NVISION '08 Mythbusters show the difference between CPU and GPU

ON


At NVISION 2008, Jamie and Adam demostrated the difference between a CPU ang sa GPU in rendering images. They used robots to demostrate the speed of creating images by shooting paintballs in an X,Y axis simulating pixels. The result? a Mona Lisa in 80 milliseconds!

This is a video of the demonstration as posted by dralter on youtube:
*there are also several other videos of the demonstration on youtube









I love the mythbusters :3

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Ok lol, does anybody else find this product disturbing?




It's been a while since i've posted pics i've found and this one is weirdly disturbing.
Maybe it's just me lol.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Critical Iphone security risk, and how to prevent it.



In the iPhone 2.0.2 firmware, there was a major security flaw that allowed access to private data even with security passcode turned on.

In just two steps anyone can have access to a lot of private data on the phone.

After you slide to unluck the phone, you will be on the enter passcode screen

1. click on 'emergency call'
2. double tap on the home button

Click here and then double tap the home button to access favorites without entering a passcode!

and you'll have full access to your cellphones private information in Mail, SMS, Contacts and safari browser.



from gizmodo:
"Done. You are now in your favorites. This seems like a feature, because you may want to have emergency number in your favorites for quick dial. The security problem here is double. The first: anyone picking up your phone can make a call to anyone in your favorites. On top of that, this also opens access to your full Address Book, the dial keypad, and your voice mail.

If that wasn't bad enough, the second one is even worse: if you tap on the blue arrows next to the names, it will give you full access to the private information in a favorite entry. And it goes downhill from there:

• If you click in a mail address, it will give you full access to the Mail application. All your mail will be exposed.
• If there's a URL in your contact (or in a mail message) you can click on it and have full access to Safari.
• If you click on send text message in a contact, it will give you full access to all your SMS."



Here is an article on Gizmodo as well as a video demo.

They have also provided a solution by changing the function of your home button so that when you double tap it, it will perform a different task.


1. In the iPhone home, go to Settings.
2. Click on General.

3. Click on Home Button.

4. Click on either "Home" or "iPod".


This is what you should see
Change the function of the home button to prevent this risk!


It has been reported that apple will fix this security flaw in their next firmware update, but there has been no announecment to when that will be. For now just use this simple solution, i hope it helps!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I am home alone?



I am legend / Home alone Mix trailer (I am home alone? =p)




This is a funny video that mixes the two movies together to create a witty trailer. It features the sound from 'I am legend' with the voice of Will Smith combined with scenes from 'Home Alone'. You'll realize that the two movies have a freaky commoness between them.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Prove your logic: proveyourlogic.com review







Proveyourlogic.com is a Flash based website that is fun as well as challenging. It contains 25 levels that contain logical questions that you have to answer in order to continue.

the 25 levels contain different questions pertaining to math and logical reasoning. It would help encourage 'thinking outside the box' as you try to answer some of the questions, I.Q. definitely plays a big role here.

The website has been around since 2007 and thousands of players around the world already finished it (you can put your name on the list once you finish it as well)

I personally played it (after a friend introduced me to the site) and finished it within an hour. It's definitely a great find, with games from DS and PSP like brain age, this is a good way to excercise your brain and do some critical thinking. And if you happen to get stumped on a question, just think it over again and read the questions carefully. I don't recommend cheating to answer the questions but if you have to you could always google it.

Too bad the list doesnt indicate if you finished the game by yourself or if you had some 'help'. But deep down inside you know the answer to that. =p



Prove your logic for free!
www.proveyourlogic.com/


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