How many times have I seen the same chain email about who knows what… it always ends in something along the lines of “I don’t know if this is true, but I figure I don’t have anything to lose, so pass it along and let’s see what happens.” Computers were supposed to improve productivity, sometimes I think they’ve fueled other things though…. breakthechain.org is a good site to refer people to that forward messages to you that may be hoaxes or chains… some of them are real, some are hoaxes, some are absurd but why do we keep emailing them back and forth? Try to get some of your time back by sending folks to breakthechain.org
Category: General Web/Tech
-
Offline wikipedia revisited – fast offline wikipedia reader
I’ve mentioned offline wikipedia access before mainly because for all it’s flaws, wikipedia is probably the single largest, most comprehensive and best information resource out there. There may be other encyclopedias that are more accurate, but require subscription access… anyway for all the warts it’s a great resource. To many people though it comes as a great shock that we’re not plugged into the internet all the time.. (so many people say “why offline, that’s what makes wikipedia so good is that it’s current and if it’s not current it’s worthless.” When I was growing up we had an encyclopedia set from 1965, I grow up through the 70’s and 80’s and it was still VERY useful and there was very good information, now it may not have been “up to date” in many areas, but it was still informative and was right on a GREAT many things. I think if I manage to download wikipedia once a year I’ll get by on the “currency” of the information. Anyway… the main point is that many times internet access is 1)not reliable 2)not practical 3)not there….. For instance I do have wireless for the laptop, but don’t always hook up to wireless networks there are places here and there “bubbles” of access around town, but many of the places I go there just isn’t wireless internet available. Now I guess if I wanted to pay verizon another $60 a month that would increase I would have MORE pervasive access, but frankly…..
-
High powered laser from a dvd burner
I really don’t know if I want to do this or not… but I found several sites talking about how to salvage the laser from a dvd burner and use it as a VERY high powered handheld laser. (i.e. “light that candle” kind of power….) Don’t get me wrong, I would like to be able to start the campfire from 10 paces just like anybody else would… in fact that would be VERY cool…. but the whole “instant blindness” thing kind of slows my eagerness down a bit. (Plus maybe the “is that skin burning?” thought that comes along there too…) You see I’ve got a 6 year old in the house (and another due in February… well – he won’t be six but… ) I know how much my 6 year old likes to get his hands my combo flashlight/laserpointer that I carry with me all the time and in fact when it was first given to me at Christmas (my brothers got identical ones), he was very quick to scarf one up that was within reach and start playing with it. Now we’ve had talks about being careful, not pointint it at someone else’s eyes, not looking into it, etc… but he’s not at an age where that really clicks… so if I build one of these I’ll need to lock it away in a gun cabinet…. And really ANYBODY that makes one of these OUGHT to treat it with the same respect as a loaded weapon. (No you’re not going to kill anyone, but blinded for life would not be fun….) Treat them responsibly. Links below the fold.
-
Help me Obi-Wan… – 3d images in the air…
Display technology has come a long way, but the 3d holographic display that is so recognizable in hollywood special effects in movies like Star Wars have just not been anything within the realm of possibility. I recall seeing one display that used fog to shine the light on, but that was two dimensional (although you might could do 3d…) Using lasers though Japanese researchers have created brilliant dots of light in the air that can be the components for an image. The technology is certainly early in development, but it reads as though they are cooking air into plasma with the lasers and the molecules give off light in the process. There’s a lot of popping and crackling and I suspect you could have severe discomfort if you accidentally tripped over the device…. Looks neat though.
-
Yet another domain tools site.
For a while dnsstuff.com has been my favorite dns tools web site, but there are others. Recently I was pointed to domaintools.com.
-
Wikipedia download revisited
A while ago I wrote about various ways to have an offline copy of the wikipedia. Yes, I know there are credibility issues with wikipedia, but taken with a few grains of salt and objective thinking it is one of the single most useful references online. (I don’t count search engines here – they link to other stuff – i.e. no – you can’t download google. ) So, why would anyone be interested in having it copied offline? Isn’t the great benefit that it’s constantly updated and “fresh”? Well…. if you assume that 24/7 highspeed internet access is a fixed constant… i.e. we’ll ALWAYS have an internet connection anytime anywhere, then… there would be no good reason… but..
-
Public Record Search Engine
I ran across a good public record search engine (pretrieve.com) a few weeks back. They’ve done a good job of integrating many searches/databases into one interface.
-
Is bestbuy really the bestbuy?
There’s an interesting writeup about bestbuy that essentially says they have 2 web sites, one is the public facing website, the other is an internal web site. No big surprise there I suppose, internet/intranet… the catch is
-
Emailing large files….
There are lot’s of ways to get a file from one place to another, emailing is the first that many think of. (For larger files I’ll usually just upload to a directory on the website and then email a link…) The problem with email is multiple…. 1)viruses exploit email as a delivery vehicle and so attachments are looked at with rightful suspicion…. and 2) the size of emails is usually capped SOMEWHERE along the way, my isp, your isp, etc…. Usually that cap is around 5-10MB There are other ways to get a big file from point a to point b – (don’t underestimate the bandwidth of the postal service and dvd-r’s….) One online alternative though is yousendit.com – you upload a file, tell who you want it sent to and it appears that they send a link via email so the recipient can download.
-
WiFi Locator
There are all sorts of these things out there on the market – I saw an ad for the Hawking HWL1 802.11b/g WiFi Locator… and it looked interesting (directional)… I’ve seen mixed reviews, but some might find it good/useful. I know, I know…. “why buy a wifi locator when you could pull out a laptop/pda”…. part of it is probably because you DON’T want to drag out a laptop, part of it is looking for a device that will give just a quick scan of what networks are available and what kind of encryption if any.