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)

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

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

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.

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!

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.

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/

Photosynth - Turning pictures to 3d galleries

This particular site caught my interest as it's a really innovative idea. Imagine taking tons of pictures of a single place, and putting them together like a big 3d jigsaw puzzle, and you get photosynth. It's a new project from microsoft that you install on your browser so that you can upload all the pictures of a particular place and the software compares and matches the pictures to create a seemingly 3d view of the whole area.

An area must appear in at least 3 overlapping photos for it to be processes (else you'd get a blank space) what's cool with this is that you can create a virtual representation of an object or your house in a 3-d panoramic view. For now, all pictures are available for public viewing so you can't make a private album.

Microsoft aims to pretty much make a good digital representation of the whole real world with photosynth. Pretty farfetched, but definitely possible if you ask me. I believe there is a world of potential with this kind of software, one of the early benefactors of this project is virtual tourism, where people from all over the world can view a place in 3D.



Here is a video explaining photosynth:


And a demo:

from: http://photosynth.net

Photosynth installs two programs on your computer: a Web browser plug-in for viewing synths, and an application (called "Photosynth") for creating them.

Minimum System Requirements

Important: Photosynth makes heavy use of your graphics hardware. If you have an older graphics system, Photosynth may not run. Also, Photosynth requires that your graphics acceleration be set to full.

Operating System: Only Windows XP (SP2 or SP3) and Windows Vista are supported at this time. Running Windows on a Mac? Photosynth runs under Boot Camp only. Parallels and other VM software cannot run the viewer.

Web Browser: Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2, and Firefox 3

Memory: 256 MB of memory is a bare minimum; 1GB is recommended.

Graphics: Minimum 32MB of graphics memory required, 64MB or more is recommended. Photosynth runs on some DirectX6 capable cards and all DirectX7 cards.

Galleries are available for viewing on the photosynth website, but requires a microsoft passport to login (free)

If J.K. Rowling opened a barber shop...

It would be named...

DotA Allstars 6.53 available in different languages

DotA Allstars v6.53

Made available in different languages such as Russian, Korean and Chinese as well as the default English version.

No changelog available as of this posting.
I'll be providing a mirror for the english version only.

Download:
Get it from getdota.com
Savefile (mirror) *english only!

DotA allstars 6.52e released & DotA 6.52c bug

Within hours of releasing 6.52d, icefrog has released 6.52e.

6.52e Changelog:
=================
* Fixed some critical bugs introduced in the 1.22 patch

6.52d Changelog:
================
* Fixed a major exploit that has been discovered very recently


Dota 6.52c exploit:
from : gamingnewslink & dota-allstars blog
The reported exploit was a syllabear bug that allowed users to duplicate items,

here are the instructions and a demo video:

After Syllabear has level 4 Spirit Bear, use this trick.

1. Make your Spirit Bear health under 1000 and you can start to deny it, but don't deny it yet.

2. Place the items you want to duplicate in the Spirit Bear, the video place 2 desolator on the bear. (still not sure, maybe you must have 2 of it?)

3. Start denying your bear while take and drop the item on the Syllabear.

4. After the Spirit Bear died, revive him and voila! Your item is duplicated.




DOWNLOAD:
http://www.getdota.com/

Mirror:
download from savefile.com

C&C Red Alert 3 : Soviet conscript unit profile

News from the official RA3 website: http://www.ea.com/redalert

The unit profile for the soviet conscript has been released! The conscript has been the basic soviet infantry unit since RA2 and now it's back with a new twist..

Not your usual shot of vodka...


Designation: Anti-Infantry
Training Headquarters: Kremlin Premier Recruitment Center
Field-Trained at: Soviet Barracks
Creed: "Our motherland will protect our bones!"

Accessories:
» 7.62 mm ADK-45 assault rifle (used)
» Greatcoat with service branch insignia (used)
» 20 quart synthetic XL satchel (new)
» Cloth sashes for protecting the feet (new)
» Fashionable fur hat (used)


EA said that it'd be releasing 2-3 more units per week until the release date. I'll try to keep this updated for now =).

Read more about the conscript here

Online Blog list: Blogs listed by Personality

by Myers-Briggs Typology to be exact.

I find online personality tests a bit fun, you get to know yourself better and usually learn stuff about yourself that you might have not noticed before. No one knows you better than yourself, so you'd pretty much be able to judge instantly how you are defined, and on these test, what you do defines who you are.

outsidemybrainagain.blogspot.com Lists blogs according to their respective personality based on the Myers-briggs personality test.



here is a link to the quick test: link
The test is pretty famous as it has multiple online versions.


mypersonality.info Also has tests and gives you a nice personal record in which to show your results to others, a more showy test compared to the others.


Here is a sample of my results: http://hypkitsune.mypersonality.info



My test results have deviations from one another, but my main personality is introverted. (which i think is true ^_^ )

DotA Allstars 6.51 AI+ (AI Plus) 1.52

Originally from: DotA Allstars 6.51 AI+ 1.52, Port of RGB's AI+ for 6.48b (Revision 2)




So far, there have been some AI maps appearing, but from all that I've played, DotA AI+ by RGB have the most challenging AI.

This is a great AI map that I'd reccomend for both new and experienced players.

Downloads:

Download from savefile.com


or get it from the original:
DotA Allstars forum(Needs login)

This AI was posted by BuffMePlz on the D.A. forums, along with the ff. message:

This is a port of RGB's AI+ v1.52 (originally written for DotA Allstars 6.48b).

It behaves the same as the original AI, and has only been updated to account for new item recipes. As such, some new content does not work fully with the AI yet.

THERE IS NO AI FOR LIFESTEALER AND INVOKER. THEY WILL GET BASIC ITEMS AND WILL NEITHER USE NOR LEARN THEIR SKILLS.

Known bugs with AI:
-Sand King doesn't use Epicenter
-Luna doesn't level up Lucent Beam, so Eclipse is very weak
-Lanaya crashes the game

Some commands have yet to be implemented properly:
-ah
-afk
-kickafk

Additionally, I have added a Fun Tavern in the lower right corner for kicks. Currently includes four legacy heroes (possibly more in the future): Old Invoker, Old Lifestealer, Old Silencer, and Gambler.

To access the fun tavern, type -fun within the first 15 seconds of the game.

Zinio - Free Magazines online viewing for your iPhone & iTouch!

Zinio Labs is a digital publishing company that offers digital magazine subscriptions on desktop PCs (for a fee) but when you stumble upon it on using the safari browser on you iPhone, you'd find out that you can view all their magazine content online for free! As of this writing, there are 20 magazines available for viewing which are all popular titles including:

• PC Magazine
• Playboy
• Penthouse
• Men's Health Magazine
• Popular Photography
• Popular Mechanics
• Car and Driver
• Elle
• Macworld (for obvious reasons)
• Reader's Digest

Again these titles are FREE for viewing on your iPhone. We don't really know for how long so for now enjoy browsing these magazines to your heart's content. (before they take it down)

Personally, The great thing about this whole thing is that it's free. But here are the good and bad points of this site.


Good:

-The whole magazine is available for viewing, page-by-page
-No login or access required whatsoever
-Has a table of contents, where you can skip to the article of your choice
-Good resolution for pages, optimized for the iPhone

Bad:

-Can't skip to the page of your choice
-Slow loading, since each time you click a page it loads all over again
-The free stuff can only be accessed thru your iPhone, on the PC you need to subscribe


Final notes:

Free magazines overshadow the fact that you have to wait a while to view it page-by-page, but it's still a great find and a good way to pass some time on a coffee shop. Having the coply of the real magazines are of course better, but that's why we pay for them.

Access it through your iPhone with this link:
http://imgs.zino.com/iphone
http://www.zino.com/iphone

Starcraft 2 update: 3rd zerg unit - Baneling

BANELING

• Type: Sapper
• Core Genus: Zergling
• Primary Attack: Volatile Burst

(image taken from site)

Concept art:

While in the screenshot above you can see that the baneling looks more like a scarab beetle, here in the concept art we can see that it looks more like a spider with claws for feet and a huge sac filled with a lot of acid.
Funny thing though, is that the baneling doesn't make use of its feet. It moves by curling up into a ball and rolling around (lol,imagine Sonic the hedgehog).



It's decribed as a unit the gets close to an enemy and then "triggers a reaction within its volatile chemical payload that causes it to explode with devastating force and shower the immediate surroundings with searing acid."

Of course by saying that it 'explodes' they mean suicide so its very much like an infested terran or a land unit version of Starcraft's scourge(air unit).

Also Notable is that this unit is identified as a morph of the zergling, meaning that it theoretically can be produced in an alarming rate since it's a from the basic tier 1 zerg unit. Its attack can do damage to both units and buildings in an AoE, a couple of them could potentially wipe out a batch of marines in an instant (burrow FTW?).






Here in this video we can see that the baneling in its idle animation, looks menacingly throbbing, and seems likely to explode at anytime like a giant water baloon (filled with deadly acid, that is).


Read about it more on the official website.

Interesting pic from my e-mail

Someone sent this to my e-mail. It's a photo of rules posted in some resort.

These are the rules:


hope you enjoyed reading =p

Rickroll in manila!

With a near three month long Hiatus from blogging, I thought there were only a handful of things that caught my attention nowadays, but leaqve it to the internet to rekindle my inspiration from blogging once more, this was just too good to pass up. =)

Yes, this has probably nothing to do with computers but it definitely has a lot to do with the internet XD


As I was browsing along, this particular site caught my undivided attention.

http://www.ticketnet.com.ph/2006/detail.php?eid=835&res=Y



since I think the website will remove the page once the even is over, I took the liberty of taking a nice screenshot =)




Rickroll in manila. He's never gonna give us up, he'll never let us down.
Reserve tickets now XD

Category: Entertainment!

Venue: Araneta Coliseum

Event Date/Time:
August 1, 2008 | Friday at 8:00pm

Seat and Price (in Pesos):

Seat Location Price Patron VIP(101,103) (Reserved Seating) 5250 Patron (Reserved Seating) 4200 Lower Box (Reserved Seating) 3150 Upper Box A (Reserved Seating) 2100 Upper Box B (Free Seating) 1050 General Admission (Free Seating) 525

the most powerful gun for doom (funny)

Probably the greatest gun ever made.

Techie Pun time

Q. How do you know when you've been on the computer too much?

A. When you get this pun.