Opinionated news exctraction for all by that geeky accountant type guy...

Wednesday, June 29

MUJI

Apple has nothing on these guys

[ And enviromentaly friendly as well ]

Bike Tree

Dont like the clutter of having bikes on the foot path. Why not hang them from a tree

[ seems like it came from an 80's sci-fi movie ]

Treehugger: Hydrogen Wars: Episode II

Turns out that to refine oil u need hydrogen. The more hydrogen you use the cleaner (less sulpher etc) the petrol is. Which means that theres a hydrogen shortage....

[ Tip: Buy! Buy! Buy! ]

Pipe Pure Sunlight into your home

Is there anything fibreoptic cant do? Now they are using it to pipe sunlight into buildings... This is to get the obviouse benefits of the sun. eg less eyestrain and helps reduce the effects of Seasonal Affect Disorder, in addition to making color rendition of objects more natural (by definition)

[ Windows 2005 found to be cheaper and more redily available. But prone of crashing... ]

Sunday, June 12

Hard drives for 'terabyte lives'

This week Seagate announced a slew of hard drives which it says are for people who want a "terabyte lifestyle".

Among them is the first 2.5-inch 160Gb hard drive which uses what is called perpendicular recording to fit much more data for every square inch.

It also said it was producing a specially "ruggedised" drive for cars.

Its 20Gb and 40Gb hard drives for cars have been designed to withstand temperatures from minus 30 to plus 80 degrees centigrade, as well as vibrations.

[ Goal: 1 terabyte by the end of 2006 ]

yugop.com

[ Super awsome flash animation play things ]

Friday, June 10


Got wood over the same game... GTA San Andreas: PC

Its out now (supposedly). So go and buy it along with a new graphics card... The recomended is the latest GeForce with 128mb, hopefully it will still run on my old gF2 (64mb). But considering I cant afford the game or a new graphics card I'm gona have to wait probably untill this time next year to purchase it. In the mean time, I'm going down stairs to play it on the PS2....

Wednesday, June 8

Whack Your Boss

[ Like in the Sopranos... ]

Monday, June 6

The supercomputer for your wallet

A 6 mb linux distro, that will harnes the power of many machines (primarly for testing security). But Could be used for other less evil purposes. It only uses the CPU and leaves everything untouched (HDD etc) loads through PXE

[ What cant linux do? ]

Using Usenet for the Unmentionable

This new file format and the rise of commercial high-bandwidth Usenet services -- such as NewsGroups and Usenet.com -- are fueling the revival of Usenet. Pirates now are discovering, to their surprise, that the old newsgroup system, patched with modern technology, outperforms most other P2P networks.

"The download speed butchers any other system you use to download data," said Gilgamesh, a U.K.-based downloader currently moving part of his operation to newsgroups. "A lot of new servers can shift data as fast as you're prepared to accept it."

Part of the performance boost comes from the way Usenet acts like a bulletin board system.

"With standard peer-to-peer, you're a slave to the peer who's making the file available," said Gilgamesh. "Sometimes you have to wait for them to be online. On a newsgroup, once the file is there, it's there all the time -- at least until it scrolls off the server."

And best of all, for pirates like Gilgamesh, Usenet kills the inherent socialism of P2P. While BitTorrent and eMule demand that you share data to download it, Usenet imposes no such restriction.

"You don't have to share anything," said Gilgamesh. "Everyone downloads. Everyone is a leecher."

[ Read more: Wired ]

Leach on

Sunday, June 5

InstantSOUP



InstantSOUP is an introductory path into Physical Computing through a series of examples.
Each example is a detailed, step-by-step recipe to follow. When you complete the recipe you have a
working prototype ready to serve. InstantSOUP is InstantSATISFACTION.
InstantSOUP examples go from very simple to more advanced, each introducing a new physical
computing element and building on the previous ones learned.
After completing the basic set of InstantSOUP examples you will be able to create delicious
prototypes on your own.
This setup is a good path into physical computing for a number of reasons. The Wiring
board is especially planned for a designer audience; existing knowledge of Flash is a great asset;
and SOUP examples are designed precisely to give you an easy path in. This setup is also a
powerful one and can be used later to create sophisticated physical computing projects.

[ at least it looks nice ]

Shapelock

A plastic that can be moulded with just heating it in hot water. Good for making plastic stuffs.

[ good for prototypes ]

Funny Photo # 7385416

[ Its at an airport... ]

Bike Building Galley

[ Not Safe to build or ride... ]

LCD based name plate

[ Photo session ]

Robots work in swarms and hives

iRobot and Frontline Robotics are teaching robots how to work together.

The goal of iRobot's swarm project is to coordinate the actions of groups of hundreds of individual robots. A Swarm Operating System (SwarmOS) is under development to control as many as 10,000 robots or SwarmBots.

[ When robots attack ] that movie with the robot spiders anyone...

Build Your Own Kitchen PC

[ yummu y Technology ]

Americans discover "hovering" lawnmower

Another reason why Americans are jackassses

[ Note: flymo has been making these things for 30+ years... ]

DIY: Kinesis Keyboard

[ Gehtto ]

Laptops Outsell Desktops

[ What about mobile phones... ]

Mobile Social Network

Talk to people in your imediate vacinity you would not normaly talk to

[ Proximity Based Instant Messaging ]

Control Lights

[ Maybe a little out of control.... ]

USB drives have intimate sex with each other

THE PRINCIPLE IS great. It makes good sense for USB peripherals to communicate directly with each other with no need for a PC to be involved in the question – acting as an arbitrator.

So an extension to the original specs for USB 2.0 has been developed called 'On-The-Go' (OTG). The standard – which dates back to December 2001 – allows for compatible devices to decided whether they are the lead partner in any connexion – ie the host – or whether they are just the peripheral.

[ Techno porn ]

Saturday, June 4

CD Lamp

Stick a lamp down a spindle of old CD's. Instant mod/lamp/lamp mod.

[ Fire hazzar? ]

SessionSaver

[ Save ur firefox sessions when from your computer crashing ]

DIY: Office Irrigation System

Considering the problems I face on a daily basis with my normal outdoor sprinkler system. I'm not sure how safe this would be...

[ but still a good way to automate things ]

3 Reasons Live 5 Could Revolutionize Remixes and Mash-ups

Here's the idea: a remix/mash-up artist collects a bunch of MP3s. (Hopefully Creative Commons for legal reasons, but I digress.) An app instantly locates all those files. She types the first few letters to find a file, drops the file into a program, and it instantly beat-matches the song. Only one app really fits that description: Ableton Live 5

[ Three Reasons ]

The Complete CSS tutorial

[ The Complete CSS tutorial ]

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People With Email

[ Part One ]

Email can be the source of aggravation in the receivers. By following these rules, you can make them mad enough to choke you:

* Ramble when you write – Put as many subjects into your email as possible. Try to make one email handle a month’s worth of information. On the other hand, your email doesn’t have to have a subject at all. Others will just love to hear you go on and on about anything! Length is important as well. The longer the better! Think of it as a filibuster.
* Use an inappropriate subject line – Your subject line should have nothing to do with your topic. It’s even more fun to come close to the topic with your subject line. That way your recipient will wonder for hours what they are missing in the email. This is always fun.
* Use all caps – Harder to read, caps, especially in a long email, will drum up business for LensCrafters. They will also add to that nice spider web of wrinkles around your recipient's eyes as they try to read them. It will give them that nice leathery look.
* use no caps – or punctuation orgrammarorcorrectspacing everyone has fun trying to figure out what you wrote
* CC everyone you can imagine, especially their superior – This is especially good when your recipient has slipped up and made a mistake. If the mistake is small, do this before you have all the information so it looks a lot bigger than it really is. This is also effective when dealing with confidential or sensitive information.
* Use a lot of sarcasm and off-beat humor in your email – It is hard to tell the difference between humor/sarcasm and sincerity without the facial expressions, body language, and tone. So yuk it up. This works especially well with people with whom you have little personal contact or who are extremely sensitive.
* Use email to deliver bad news – It gets you out of that uncomfortable face-to-face situation when you have to give someone bad news. Who wants to hear all that crying anyway?
* Send a flame message quickly – When letting someone have it, send your flame fast. Get it there while the feelings are still hot. You might not want to send it tomorrow.
* Have a long signature line – The longer the better. Ten to fifteen lines would be right in this case. Use it to publicize your uncle’s life insurance agency or to tell every one about your grandmother’s real estate company. Think of it as a billboard. You might even be able to sell advertising space in your email signature if you send enough.
* Send many attachments – This helps make your email so big it will take a long time to download it. Photos are good, as are links to web sites that you’ve visited where your computer acted strangely afterward. As a bonus, you just might sneak in a virus you didn’t know you picked up. On a related topic…
* Don’t tell the recipient why you’re sending the attachments – This is even sweeter when the attachments have strange names that give no clue as to what they are. Big fun!
* Send “action or else” messages – State that if you don’t hear from them by a particular date, you’ll take some specific action (preferably one that they would not want taken). Then, send the email late.
* Use plenty of acronyms and buzzwords – LOL, BRB, LMAO, ROFL will keep your recipient amused.
* Send repeated corrections – Send an email and then, hours later, send a correction. Change some of the email — better yet, change a lot of it — or add an attachment (see above). Do this repeatedly, at least 4 – 5 times.
* Use the “Urgent” flag often – Hey, it’s urgent to you, isn’t it?
* Request receipts on every email – It says you care. It also says, “I’m getting proof that you got this, you lying bastard.”
* Forward messages but don’t say why you did – The fun is in the guessing, right?
* Don’t consider the recipient – Your boss will love that informal way you have of saying things.
* Write your email to one person and send it to someone else – This works great when you are talking about the person you sent it to. You write to Tim about what a bastard John is. Then, send it to John.

[ Part Two ]

Sending email to aggravate someone is easy. There are so many tactics at one’s disposal. Initiative is even on the side of the sender. But, if there is a person who has gotten your thong in a knot and they seem to be begging for a good pimp-slapping, there are some things that you can do when you're on the receiving end of the email. The amount is not as copious as for the sender, but they can be just as effective.

* Ignore their email – So many people assume that since email gets there faster, you’ll read it faster. Make that someone feel more special by letting their email “breathe” for awhile in your inbox. Remember, you want to be at your best when you read it. Being your best takes time. This is especially effective if the sender has marked it “Urgent”. Remember, your urgent and their urgent are different. Yours is more important. You can stay ahead of them by reading the email, but not letting them know that you have. You can do that if you…
* Configure your email client to not send receipts automatically – Obnoxious senders will request a read receipt to make sure you got their email and put you on the spot. How dare them use your tactic! Short-circuit their attempts by not sending one to them.
* Use the “Reply to all” button — Use this if the email is sent to a lot of people and the subject is sensitive or confidential. If the sender is doing some damage control on a mistake, capitalize on this now while everyone can know it.
* Ignore the topic when you reply — When you finally get around to replying to the person’s email, ignore the topic of the original email. Even better, just send the reply but don’t write anything. Later, send an email back why the person hasn’t replied to you. For more fun, mention the deadline they “missed”.
* Forward their email to someone else — This works best with sensitive and confidential material. Someone admits to spending quality time with that special someone? I’ll bet their spouse would enjoy reading about that. Go ahead, hit that forward button! A real knee-slapper!
* Misspell their name – No other word, in any language, is more important than one’s own name. Use it and misspell it often.
* All of ysterday’s suggestions about spelling, caps, punctuation, etc, still count – Use them to your heart’s content!

Short but sweet. By using these techniques, you can make anyone hate just thinking of you!

[ open loops - blog about writting ]

DIY: How to communicate via email

[ Puntuation Substitution ]

Virtual Games, Real Taxes

Awsome, more work. As an auditor it maybe ur job to check wheter these virtual properties actually exist. Better yet. You set up a business that makes money in this way and claim all ur gadget expenses as legitamte business expenses.

[ Good and Bad ]

DIY: Catapult

Here is a collection of what plans we've been able to collect from around the web. These are compiled from several sources by many people. Some are suitable for physics projects, and some are for more serious hobbyists. You'll have to figure out which ones are right for you.

Most of the rest of us got started with books and encyclopediae. We feel that the research and design of these machines is half the fun. (The other half being building and firing them!), so some of these links are included for information purposes. These resources can help you design and build your own catapults and trebuchets.

Take a look at these links, do some research, and have fun! (Oh, and if you create any plans of your own, be sure to send them to us so we can post them here with the others!)

[ FIRE! ]

Arthur Ganson's

Self-described as a cross between a mechanical engineer and a choreographer, Ganson creates contraptions composed of a range of materials from delicate wire to welded steel and concrete. Most are viewer-activated or driven by electric motors. All are driven by a wry sense of humor or a probing philosophical concept.

[ Weird robots/machines/contraptions ]

http://www.arthurganson.com/ <- his home on the internet

Fan Case

A Case made entirely of fans

DIY: Marshmallows

[ yum ]

Juke box from 1900 to 1930's

[ free? ]

DIY: MMORPG

phpMMORPG is a Web interface that can be used to create an MMORPG with a back-end which permits users of the interface to create their own games. It features real-time chat, a map editor, a template system, a quest box, PVP, PVE, a loot system, and other functions. Except for the use of "marquee", it uses 100% XHTML 1.0.

[ Its massive init ]

DIY Bike Frame

Bicycle frame building has a reputation as being an arcane art; something that's practiced by wizened old Jedi masters, or else carried out by huge, complicated robots in Taiwan, attended by a small army of engineers, technicians, and metallurgists. This isn't so. Frame building is a craft like any other, with simple, consistent rules that mere mortals can master fairly easily, given sufficient attention to detail and care.

[ For some reason I think this is a mod I wont be attempting or considering ]

being ur modding here

A site dedicated to modding, gives some good guides for starting out on.

[ limor ]

CRT Mod

For years we have seen people who mod their cases. From a basic window in the side to a custom paint job, multiple windows, laser cut fan grills, and watercooling - cases have been modded in every way possible. If you’ve run out of things to do to your case, or you just want something different, this mod is for you. Imagine going to a LAN with a modded case AND monitor. Consider that case mod contest won!

[ Warning! ]

Google Maps: Wallpaper

[ Wallpaper/poster mod for google maps ]

Blog from your Pocket

[ Pocket PC that is ]

Flickr eniverse

[ Flickrverse ]

Slax - Pocket OS

Another OS in your pocket. This one looks pretty good though, and more importantly all the good programs etc have been put together for you...

[ or if this was the future u could just download ur own OS from home... ]

TIE Fighter Desk/Case Mod

[ very impressive ]

PSP: Portable Sex Player

Our Japanese correspondent warned us that this news was on the way after hearing reports of interest on this side of the business, but it's absolutely official now: Japanese adult video producers will be releasing UMD Video erotica for play on PlayStation Portable. The first company to get the PSP all hot and bothered has already announced five titles for Japan, with more to come.

Important Relese Dates:
# July 8: The Nurse of a Big Breast - Mitsu Amai (3800 yen, uncensored)
# July 8: Goku Hong - Riko Tachibana (3800 yen)
# July 8: High Grade Class First Soap Lady - Anna Kaneshiro (2800 yen)
# July 22: Loli Nanpa 5 (3800 yen, uncensored)
# July 22: Erotic Terrorist Beautiful Body - NOA (2800 yen, uncensored)

[

Clothing for chickens

Austrian Edgar Honetschlaeger said he decided to work with the Japanese on the project because he hoped to make the chicken label clothing essential. He said "It's something that you don't really need but everyone wants to have anyway".

[ Batterd or crumbed? ]

Microsoft office: via XML

Microsoft has confirmed that it will move to XML-based file formats as the default option for its most popular Office applications in the next release of the Office suite, and that it has no intention of adopting the OpenDocument format recently adopted as a standard by Oasis.

The company will begin using Microsoft Office Open XML Formats for its Word, Excel, and PowerPoint applications, with the codename Office 12, which is due for release in the second half of 2006

[ I bet its based on the XBRL they've got going ]

Dr.Phil Fantasies

This site is dedicated to people who realy really like dr phil.

[ If you think Dr. Phil is a cock click here ]

Friday, June 3

How Lightsabers Work

Chances are that you have seen a lightsaber at one time or another, whether on the evening news or down at the local cantina. Therefore you know that a lightsaber is an amazing and versatile device that is able to cut through nearly anything in a matter of milliseconds.

Have you ever wondered how these remarkable weapons work? Where does the energy come from, and how are they able to contain that energy in a rod-like column of glowing power?

[ Make my own light saber, I must ]

Insolvency blues

Bottom feeders, ambulance chasers, corporate undertakers; the nicknames for insolvency firms fly thick and fast - and the complaints come even faster. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (Asic) says 12% of its work is investigating complaints against liquidators and auditors. Asic monitors 1.4 million companies, 4000 licensed financial service operators, market conduct and director duties, but spends 12% of its time on auditors and only 757 registered liquidators, of which only about 500 are practising.

As Nicholas Way, Adele Ferguson and Beth Quinlivan report in this week's Cover Story, that figure could easily rise. They note: "Liquidators are under fire. A Federal Court judge, creditors, shareholders, unions, employees and politicians are queuing up to take shots at the insolvency industry, casting a huge shadow over how it operates and the professionalism of some of its members. The criticisms range from excessively high fees, overservicing, protracted settlements, lack of transparency, and conflicts of interest ... even the promotion of phoenix schemes that allow companies to be reborn soon after they fail."

The extraordinary strength of the Australian economy over the past decade has made life tougher for insolvency firms, and some may have become more aggressive with their fees to survive. The insolvency industry might argue that "the market sets the fees", but that assumes the market knows exactly what the fees are. A general complaint is that liquidators are not giving enough information to creditors on fees, and there are accusations that some insolvency firms deliberately run up fees to consume the assets of a failed company to the point where there is nothing left for creditors.

A committee headed by the Liberal senator Grant Chapman has recommended establishing a system where directors can call in administrators at an earlier date, and even opening up the insolvency industry to other professionals. The reforms are sorely needed, but after six inquiries into the insolvency industry in the past two decades there is little confidence the Government will fix things quickly.

[ bottom feeders ]

www.stupidlylongurlthatyoucannotrememberasweregistereditwhilepissed.com

[ www.stupidlylongurlthatyoucannotrememberasweregistereditwhilepissed.com ]

Pioneer A09/109 firmware update to v1.50

[ Pioneer A09/109 firmware update to v1.50 ]

[ http://wwwbsc.pioneer.co.jp/product-e/ibs/device_e/dev00001r_e.html#firmware1 ]

Werner Erhard

Werner Erhard's est [Erhard Seminar Training and Latin for "it is"] was one of the more successful entrants in the human potential movement. est is an example of what psychologists call a large group awareness training program.

The first est seminar was held in October, 1971, at the Jack Tar Hotel in San Francisco with nearly 1,000 in attendance. Erhard and est were known for training people to get "It", a concept taken from author, teacher and expert communicator Alan Watts. At the time Erhard arrived in the Bay Area, Watts was teaching his version of Zen to small groups on his houseboat in Sausalito. Erhard, like Watts, would teach people to "Get It." Watts, however, did most of his teaching through books. His seminars were small. Erhard would not teach through books, but in large hotel ballrooms to hundreds at a time.

[ est ]

Six turn up for Corby protest

ONLY a handful of people turned up today for a rally to protest the Schapelle Corby verdict.
The media contingent covering the event trebled the crowd of six people who attended the rally outside state parliament in Brisbane.

[ its week 13... ] and there seemed to be a sale on Myers. (everyone had a red bag)

Thursday, June 2

The Bionic Eye

Steve Austin had that enviable telescopic squint. Star Trek chief engineer Geordi La Forge saw darkness as daylight with his 24th-century ocular implants. And now it looks like a generation of very real people who have lost their sight are next in line for such seemingly sci-fi vision. “I’m hesitant to use the word ’superpower’.

[ Dont get your hopes up. Its from a science magazine ]

Old School: Master Mind Reunion

A businessman and a University of Leicester student who were brought together 30 years ago as the mysterious figures for the box on the revolutionary new game Mastermind, have been reunited for the first time since that historic day.

Distinguished-looking Bill Woodward was then the owner of a chain of hairdressing salons and young Hong Kong born Cecilia Fung was studying for a computer science degree at the University of Leicester.

Little did they know that the photo session at Leicester studio would produce a result which was destined to cut across all international barriers and become one of the world’s most famous and enduring images.

[ So old, the word 'school' was taught to be spelt "school" not "skool" as is now the curriculum ]

Star Wars Episode III: Film Review

NEWS FLASH: Episode III had no special effects.

They're not "special effects" anymore when they're found in EVERY SCENE. Lucas has done the seemingly impossible: he has made something that was once so unique that people called it "special" by name, and turned it into something so ordinary that nobody raises an eyebrow during a scene where a guy is having a sword fight on the back of a giant beast. By the way, I have to admit that the creature design was very creative in this episode; modeled after frilled lizards and ticks, Lucas tapped the well of innovation dry on this one. Congratulations Lucas, we don't care about "special" effects anymore.

Speaking of, that reminds me of the character "General Grievous" a bad guy so sinister, his very name stands for PAIN AND SUFFERING. Nice job assholes. Tired of thinking up awesome names like "Lord Dooku" and "Nute Gunray" for your bad guys? Why not just call all your characters "Evil" and "Bad" next time? All Grievous needed was a monocle, and a large black moustache that he could twirl as he cackled "I'll get you, if it's the last thing I do!"

Madox reviews: Star Wars: Episode: 3: a steaming pile of sith

Poo Machine

The poo machine is making its rounds again...

[ Posted before, but still funny ]

Media trial or kangaroo court?

Laws: Hello? Hello?

Bakir: Yes John.

Laws: Yeah. Who's that?

Bakir: Sorry, you've called me.

Laws: I've called you? Well who have I called?

Bakir: Who have you called? Well if you don't know who you've called maybe try me another time. Thank you.

Laws: [laughs]

Bakir: All the best [hangs up].

Laws: And to you. What a weird person...If it was who I think it was, I think it might have been that Ron Bakir. The fellow who's promoting Schapelle... Apparently he smuggled a reporter from another radio station into her jail cell. But how the hell do you smuggle a grown man into a gaol cell? Huh? Maybe Ron Bakir put him in Schapelle's boogie board bag.

[ Mediawatch ]

Man admits serial bondage crimes | Top stories | Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au (03-06-2005)

A BRISBANE university student convicted of killing a female friend during a botched sex game yesterday pleaded guilty to a similar attack on another woman.

He was also to be sentenced for the manslaughter of Brisbane receptionist Linda Roberts, 27, in August 2001 - who allegedly died in a bondage session gone wrong.

[ lurkur becomes someones bitch ]

Howe And Howe

Custom made off road vehicles

[ Full scale remote control tank please ]

Wednesday, June 1

Zombie Porn

Thats right. A Zombie is having sex with a girl on her 18th birthday. What a surprise it must be to realise she is infact the zombie queen. To be forever...

[ Why? Why? Why? ]

Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison

For todays cultural excursion in cyberspace we turn to the surreal and calmingly atmospheric creations of Robert and Shana Parkeharrison. A dreamlike world revolving around the life of one man in his suit.

[ Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison ]

Another Aust drug smuggler jailed

"An Australian man of Vietnamese origin has been jailed for 20 years in Vietnam for drug smuggling, a court official says.

A court in Vietnam's central Phu Yen province delivered the sentence against Tony Tran, 43, after he was found guilty of sending 200 grams of heroin by post to Australia, the official said."

Where's the media circus? The protests? The death threats? The hour long "You Decide" special with Mike Munro? Oh wait, he's got dark skin and no boobs. Never mind then.

Patients forced to make way for Kylie

ELDERLY patients needing heart surgery at Cabrini Hospital in Melbourne were kicked out of their beds to make an entire wing available for Kylie Minogue.
The pop princess, who is being treated for breast cancer, was allocated eight of the hospital's 18 cardio rooms in a move that angered Cabrini doctors and patients.

Minogue's management yesterday said she had not asked for patients to be moved, had not dictated her treatment, and had only directly hired one guard.

Those visiting heart patients on the same floor as Minogue were forced to walk through intensive care and put through rigorous security before they could see their sick loved ones.

Some visitors were stopped from seeing patients altogether by security guards who, when asked, said they were not employed by the hospital.

Medical staff were angered by the hospital's treatment of patients.

"It's unusual that a patient with non-cardio problems that doesn't require monitoring is placed in those beds," a doctor at Cabrini said.

"The intensive care unit was treated as a thoroughfare. It was very distressing and very inappropriate."

It is understood Minogue, a cancer patient, was placed in the cardio ward because it was the most secluded.

Patients reported a security guard was on duty at the end of Minogue's corridor.

The star's parents and boyfriend Olivier Martinez are believed to have stayed at the hospital with her.

Cabrini spokeswoman Jackie Meiers said none of the hospital's patients were compromised as a result of Minogue's stay and "it was business as usual".

But the doctor said the night before Minogue arrived, patients awaiting surgery were moved out of their rooms so the star could have a wing.

[ Why not get treated in Britan. Of wait they have mad cow deseise... ]

New Nokia Phone

[ New style, for the new world order ]

Change XP Home to XP Pro

yes indeed, you can’t change an installed Windows but only your Installation CD (or even a recovery CD in case the manufacturer had not left out important parts)

Here’s the detailed breakdown you asked for.

1. Copy the root directory and the i386 directory of the WindowsXP CD
to your harddisk
2. Extract the Bootsector of your WindowsXP CD
3. Change 2 Bytes in i386\Setupreg.hiv :
a) Open Regedit
b) Highlight HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
c) Menu: File -> Load Structure -> i386\Setupreg.hiv
d) Assign an arbitrary name to the imported structure e.g. “Homekey”
e) Goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Homekey\ControlSet001\Services\setupdd
f) edit the binary key “default” and change “01” to “00” and “02” to
“00”
g) Highlight “Homekey” and select menu: File -> unload structure
4. Burn your new XP Pro CD
5. Install WindowsXP as usual. Your XP Home Key will work.

Note: You cannot apply SP2 to such a WindowsXP Pro, so step 1.b)
might be to integrate SP2 in your Installation CD

[ Gizmodo ]

DVD media you can safely lick

For all of you out there currently sucking on or licking a DVD disk you've burned yourself, STOP. The media you just removed from your face was not safe for consumption, going by the appearance at Computex of Germproof DVD blanks from Prodisc. You obviously need their media if you're conscious about catching something after you run your tongue along the polycarbonate sandwich.

Being serious now, Prodisc add silver ions to their media to ensure that bacteria that might have fancied living on the freshly burned copies of TV shows you illegally downloaded using BitTorrent clients, contributing to terrorism, can't survive. So when the MPAA send the boys round to catch you in the act, you can munch on your illegality, safe in the knowledge there's no germs around to make you wish you hadn't swallowed a load of plastic and aluminium.

[ mmm DVD Pie ]

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