10 Strangest DIY gadgets – the coolest of which is the Functional Hard Drive Clock.
Making Silkscreened images made easy… ish. Includes more explanatory links.
Engineers hack management for good rather than evil. A guy at Amazon invented and deployed “other customers bought…” in violation of management direction.
Want to organise the order of your programs on the Windows XP taskbar? Then try the fantastic free Taskbar shuffle and shuffle to your hearts content. I always like to have Outlook the left most program, followed by Firefox. How about you? What order do you like your programs in? Or is just me?
Some Americans hate IVR systems. Oh, that’s Interactive voice response.
Some kid has hooked up what he calls MIDAS: Multifunction In-Dorm Automation System, which seems to be something to turn on a laser light show at the press of a button. It’s also got CCTV monitoring, touchscreens, web-control and a smoke machine.
You know what? I don’t think anyone would want any of these features in a home automation system, perhaps save the CCTV.
Some guy reprogrammed Electronic Road Signs that were annoying him. Signs were removed.
On a related note, Wikipedia has an article on Street Sign Theft. Is everything encyclopedic?
Rob Gonsalves, who is Australian by birth, does some pretty Escher-esque paintings that are reproduced by inkjet.
Pretend to be a Java developer by watching three webcasts, and get a free copy of Visual Studio.Net (US and Canada only). (via Jekke).
Channel 9 launches commercial downloadable TV in Australia (the ABC’s broadband casting of their shows has been going for a while, though theirs don’t download), starting with a freebie episode of McLeod’s Daughters. It’s WMP files (so playable on Windows computermachines only) and normal price will be A$1.95 for a show that will play for up to 7 days. (via TV Idents blog).
I wonder how prominent AU shows are on BitTorrent, anyway?
Meanwhile there’s speculation that Hollywood may embrace Torrents, with Warner Brothers planning to use it to distribute some of their content, at US$1.00 per episode for TV shows. It’s unclear if users outside the US will be able to join in — so those who, for example, Torrented the final West Wing earlier this week may have to stay on the wrong side of the law. Making this content available internationally must be considered at some point — many overseas viewers are sick of waiting to see their favourite shows months or even years after they broadcast in their home territories.
Google maps has reached Australia.
Love them draggable maps. Seems reasonably accurate. There’s some interesting errors, for instance there are Melbourne Tennis Centre access roads shown (which is right) overlapping old rail lines (removed years ago).
For every day use not as detailed as Melway/Ausway (no public transport routes or house numbers marked, for instance, many points of interest missing, such as sports venues) but if you zoom right down, it does intriguingly include property borders. Hey, I can see my house from here.
Alas, the satellite maps for most of Melbourne are still pretty fuzzy.
Curmudgeon Gamer shows a History of Console Prices, trying to show that in inflation adjusted terms, PS3 isn’t going to be so expensive.
But the price comparison between it and the XBox360, wow. And the XBox ain’t cheap either. I can buy a PC for that kind of money.
SkeyMedia asks “Is it Time to Abandon 800×600 for our web page designs?”
Yes it is. But not to persue 1024×768, but flexible widths. For the love of God people! Fixed widths screens went out with button-up shoes!