Hacking your alarm clock to respond to physical violence...

The snooze button is boring. How about hitting, throwing, smacking, and in general abusing your alarm clock?

Read all about it here (be sure to watch the video clips):
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/appnotes/alarmclock/alarmclock.htm

Oh, and I strongly recommend buying a cheap alarm clock

Want to get a bit more audio quality out of mp3's?

Try this setting for the equalizer.

These settings/pics are for iTunes, but I tried it in Windows Media Player and it did seem to give the mp3's a bit more life.

" Open the equalizer, and from the pop-up menu, select “Make Preset.” Call it “Perfect,” because it is, and set the following levels, from left to right (skip the Preamp section):

db +3, +6, +9, +7, +6, +5, +7, +9, +11, +8 db"

Read more about it here:
http://www.43folders.com/2007/08/27/perfect-itunes/

Read the how to here:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040902070807431

How good is Bioshock?

Good enough to be BANNED from Valve's offices (Bioshock was made by 2K Boston/2K Australia). Apparently it was so popular, it was interfering with productivity. Valve promised to give every employee a copy once their work on Orange Box was finished. Talk about a rousing endorsement from a competitor!

Full story here:
http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2007/08/28/work-at-valve-no-bioshock-for-you/

Reubens Tube controlled by wiimote?

It's amazing how many uses the wiimote has thanks to glovepie.

Take a ruebens tube, "A Ruben's tube is essentially a demonstration of standing waves in air". Think a propane filled tube will small holes drilles on top. By forcing sound waves though, you manipulate the areas of pressure...high pressure, high flames....low pressure, low flames.


Now control that with a wiimote....I think the blueman group song is very appropriate:

Full instructions here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/SFD3NQXF5VMX94O/

Brilliant mario level hack design!

This guy designed a level where the level plays you. By that I mean, you start the level and put the controller down (aka no buttons are pressed in the entire level).

Very impressive

Keji...

I will be at this exact spot for a week....

Kejimkujik National Park

Have you seen the iPhone bills???????

Can Beckham bend it like Beckham?

David Beckham buries his first goal for LA Galaxy, in his first start, on his first set piece.........does it get anymore fairytale than that? 6 man wall covering the near post, so he goes far post (freezing the keeper). As if he was a near post hero anyways =)

Philip Anschutz (owner of the Galaxy) probably kissed the first person he saw.

Insane wave pool - Japan...

OVERDRIFT!!!!!!!!!!!

If you hated fast and the furious, and thought fast and the furious tokyo drift annoucement was really a joke...then you'll love this :)




Thanks to jay for this one

What's your speed?

Cool internet speed test app.....I'm liking the analog gauges

New York, NY


San Francisco, CA


Brisbane, Australia


Click the picture to get your speed, and post it up. For reference I have comcast cable internet

Home made Wii balance board...

Looks fairly ghetto, but then again looks like it works pretty well!































Be sure to read the whole post here:
http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2007/08/14/revolutionary-balance-boarder/

Pirated games are no good...

See?

Guitar hero for the Wii...

Controller looks pretty cool, and has a slot for the Wiimote. That said, why does it cost so much? If the Wiimote is doing nothing why is it there? If it's doing something, then why are we paying as much as the 360 version?

$90 for the bundle

Hip hip violin...

Not bad....


http://view.break.com/347555 - Watch more free videos

Hangover rating...

1-star hangover


No pain. No real feeling of illness. You sleep in your own bed and when you wake up, there are no traffic cones in there with you.

You are still able to function relatively well on the energy stored up from all those vodka and Red Bulls. However, you can drink 10 bottles of water and still feel as parched as the Sahara.

Even vegetarians crave a cheeseburger and a basket of fries.


2-star hangover


No pain, but something is definitely amiss. You may look okay but you have the attention span and mental capacity of a stapler.

The coffee you chug to try and remain focused is only exacerbating your rumbling gut, which is craving a full English breakfast.


Although you have a nice demeanor at the office, you are costing your employer valuable money because all you really can handle is some light filing, followed by aimlessly surfing the Net and writing junk e-mail.




3-star hangover

Slight headache. Stomach feels like crap. You are definitely a space cadet and not so productive.


Anytime someone walks by your desk you gag because the perfume/aftershave reminds you of the random shots you did with your alcoholic friends after the bouncer kicked you out at 1:45 a.m.

Life would be better right now if you were in your bed with a dozen doughnuts and a two-liter bottle of Coke, watching daytime TV.

You've had four cups of coffee, a gallon of water, two burritos, and a two-liter bottle of Diet Coke, yet you haven't peed once.




4-star hangover

You have lost the will to live. Your head is throbbing and you can't speak too quickly or else you might spew.

Your boss has already lambasted you for being late and has given you a lecture for reeking of booze.

You wore nice clothes, but you smell of socks and can't hide the fact that you missed an oh-so crucial spot shaving.

Your teeth have their own individual sweaters. Your eyes look like one big vein and your hairstyle makes you look like a reject from a second-grade class, circa 1976.

You would give a week's pay for one of the following: home time, a doughnut and somewhere to be alone, or a time machine so that you can go back to last night and change the fact that you went out.

You scare small children in the street just by walking past them.



5-star hangover


You have a second heartbeat in your head, which is actually annoying the employee sitting next to you.

Vodka vapor is seeping out of every pore and making you dizzy.

You still have toothpaste crust in the corners of your mouth from brushing your teeth.

Your body has lost the ability to generate saliva, so your tongue is suffocating you.

You'd cry but that would take the last drop of moisture left in your body.

Death seems pretty good right now. Your boss doesn't even get mad at you and your co-workers think that your dog just died because you look so pathetic.

You should have called in sick because, let's face it, all you can manage to do is breathe... very gently.



6-star hangover


You arrive home and climb into bed.

Sleep comes instantly, as you were fighting it all the way home in the taxi.

You get about two hours of sleep until the noises inside your head wake you up.

You notice that your bed has been cleared for takeoff and is flying relentlessly around the room.

No matter what you do now, you're going to vomit.

You stumble out of bed and now find that your room is in a yacht, fully sailing. After walking along the skirting boards on alternating walls, knocking off all the pictures, you find the toilet.

If you are lucky, you remember to lift the lid before you spontaneously explode and wake the whole house up with your impersonation of walrus mating calls.

You sit there on the floor in your undies, cuddling the only friend in the world you have left (the toilet), randomly continuing to make the walrus noises, spitting and farting. Help usually comes at this stage, even if it is short-lived.

With your stomach totally empty, your spontaneous eruptions have died down to 15-minute intervals, but your body won't relent.

You are convinced that you are starting to turn yourself inside out and swear that you saw your tonsils shoot out of your mouth on the last occasion.

It is now dawn and you pass by your disgusted partner getting up for the day, as you try to climb into bed. She abuses you again for trying to get into bed with lumpy bits of dried vomit in your hair.

You reluctantly accept her advice and take a shower. Work is simply not an option.

The whole day is spent trying to avoid anything that might make you sick again, like moving.

You vow never to touch a drop of alcohol again, and who knows, for the next two or three hours you might even succeed.

Bush takes on the new threat....

ZOMBIES!!!!!!!

Infantile Reflex....

I just recently learned about these infantile reflexes....very strange. If you want to experiment with your newborn (who doesn't!) then try these out:

Moro reflex:
If a baby senses that is falling backwards, it will throw out its arms and wave them around

Walking/stepping:
Even though they can't support their weight, they will try to 'walk' if you hold them lightly on their feet

Rooting:
I had heard of this one before. If you put somehting (say a bottle) on their cheek they will turn towards it.

Tonic Neck:
If you lay a baby down, and turn their head to the side the arm on that side will straighten out, and the other arm will bend.

There are others, but not as interesting imho
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infantile_reflex

Also youtube had lots of these videos, but the embed links aren't working for some reason...
http://www.youtube.com/user/beta0net

I don't think they will be running this ad any longer!

Federal judge reverses violent video game ban in CA...

A federal judge on Monday struck down a California state law that prohibits the selling or renting of violent video games to minors.

The 2005 legislation, authored by then-Assemblyman Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, was challenged in courts by a pair of video game industry groups just 10 days after the bill was signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The law prohibited selling or renting a violent video game to anyone under 18 years of age. Violations were punishable by fines of up to $1,000. The proponents argued that stricter laws were needed because such games can influence minors to also act violently.

However, the Video Software Dealers Association and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) consistently argued that the ESA's rating system for games -- similar to the way movies are rated -- is sufficient. The ESA represents the nation's $24 billion video gaming industry. More specifically, the industry groups argued that the law's definition of a violent video game was vague and that the law violated the freedom of speech provision in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

In his 17-page decision, U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte in San Jose wrote that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that video games "are any more harmful than violent television, movies, internet sites or other speech-related exposures."

"The court, although sympathetic to what the legislature sought to do by the Act, finds that the evidence does not establish the required nexus between the legislative concerns about the well-being of minors and the restrictions on speech required by the Act," the judge wrote.

The California law is not the first law to restrict violent game sales to be tested in courts. Eight other laws outside California have been challenged in other parts of the nation and every one of them have also ended in the video game industry's favor.

"The Entertainment Software Association is pleased with today's permanent injunction ruling, as it cements nationwide judicial consensus that our self-regulatory efforts work," said Dan Hewitt, a spokesman for the industry group.

But political leaders in Sacramento on Monday vowed to appeal the ruling.

Yee, who is now a state Senator, said he was disheartened by the judge's decision.

"I'm extremely disappointed that the judge did not rule in favor of children," he said. "I have sent letters to the state attorney general and the governor that we need to vigorously appeal this decision."

Schwarzenegger, named as a defendant in the case, said he plans to appeal the case.

"I signed this important measure to ensure that parents are involved in determining which video games are appropriate for their children," Schwarzenegger said in a written statement. "Many of these games are made for adults and choosing games that are appropriate for kids should be a decision made by their parents."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/06/BAG55RDVS424.DTL

Ever wanted to switch somebody off...

One very good reason to get the iPhone...

Cool

BSOD Tat...

Have you ever loved the blue screen of death (bsod) so much that you wanted to get a tattoo of it? Yeahhh.........

http://crunchgear.com/2007/07/26/presenting-the-bsod-tattoo/

In case you haven't see the vids....bridge collapse...

As it happened:


Aftermath:


Utterly insane...

Very weird baseball play..

Two outs, two strikes. Batter swings and misses.

Third out right? Not if the catcher drops the ball.....

How about a strikeout homerun!?


Dropped Third Strike Home Run - Watch more free videos