Italian Scientists Demonstrate Cold Fusion?

wow. the sweetest of all is that it converts nickel to copper. imagine converting platinum to gold and palladium to silver.

 

 

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Italian Scientists Demonstrate Cold Fusion?

via Slashdot: Hardware by CmdrTaco on 1/24/11

Haffner quotes physorg which says "Italian scientists Andrea Rossi and Sergio Focardi of the University of Bologna announced that they developed a cold fusion device capable of producing 12,400 W of heat power with an input of just 400 W....when the atomic nuclei of nickel and hydrogen are fused in their reactor, the reaction produces copper and a large amount of energy. The reactor uses less than 1 gram of hydrogen and starts with about 1,000 W of electricity, which is reduced to 400 W after a few minutes. Every minute, the reaction can convert 292 grams of 20C water into dry steam at about 101C. Since raising the temperature of water by 80C and converting it to steam requires about 12,400 W of power, the experiment provides a power gain of 12,400/400 = 31."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

 

 

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Laser popcorn cooking is awesome (but time consuming) [Video]

Popcorn as it was meant to be prepared. :D

 

 

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Laser popcorn cooking is awesome (but time consuming) [Video]

via SlashGear by Chris Davies on 1/14/11

You're desperate for popcorn, but you've only got a pair of Arctic Spyder III lasers to play with; can you still enjoy a movie theater style treat? According to WorldScott, the answer is yes, as long as you also have plenty of time on your hands or very little appetite. His video shows that with some patience – we're talking kernel by kernel here – you can create popcorn using just the strength of the two high-powered lasers.

Video after the cut

It takes a couple of minutes, and involves balancing the kernel on a swivelling platter and keeping a steady hand, but it's undoubtedly another important step in combining cooking and lasers. At $299.95 a piece, however, lasers probably aren't the cheapest way to make a movie time snack.

[via Twitter]

 

 

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Kinect combos Street Fighter IV, fires single-fisted boomsticks at the FPS c...

OMG, I want a kinect now :D

 

 

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Kinect combos Street Fighter IV, fires single-fisted boomsticks at the FPS crowd (video)

via Engadget by Sean Hollister on 1/20/11

Oh sure, we've seen the Kinect assist a hadouken or two, but that wasn't the same: here, the YouTube user who brought us Call of Duty via Wiimote, Nunchuk and Kinect is throwing fireballs and taking names in the real game. Demize2010 manipulated the FAAST emulator to recognize a variety of virtual martial arts gestures, including the infamous dragon uppercut and whirlwind kick -- giving him everything he needs for a flowchart victory with only his bare hands.

Meanwhile, one Bill Maxwell has taken the Kinect and made it recognize his fist, the better to control first-person shooter games with requiring an Wiimote intermediary. He's developed a "high-speed kinematic tracker" called MaxFPS that monitors his hand's position in real time, allowing him to move, turn, jump, and reload with quick swipes of his paw. How do you shoot? Why, by punching those baddies' lights out, of course. See it on video after the break.

Continue reading Kinect combos Street Fighter IV, fires single-fisted boomsticks at the FPS crowd (video)

Kinect combos Street Fighter IV, fires single-fisted boomsticks at the FPS crowd (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink GeekWord, Joystiq  |  Inside Kinect, demize2010 (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

 

 

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How the Berkeley Overmind Won the 2010 StarCraft AI Competition

WOW the team chose the Zerg and named their AI "overmind". Excellent.

 

 

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How the Berkeley Overmind Won the 2010 StarCraft AI Competition

via OSNews by donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) on 1/19/11

"StarCraft, one of the most popular games ever made, also serves as the perfect proving ground for artificial intelligence. Here's the inside story of how a Berkeley team won the world's first StarCraft AI competition with code that can beat even pro-level human players."

 

 

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Big breakfast means bigger belly

didn't the mythbusters get that? :P

 

 

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Big breakfast means bigger belly

via BBC News - Home on 1/17/11

It's a myth that eating a large breakfast means consuming fewer calories during the day, according to researchers in Germany.

 

 

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Flying telescope's first results

 

 

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Flying telescope's first results

via BBC News - Home on 1/17/11

A telescope in the back of a modified 747 jet has snapped images of the Orion Nebula at a colour of light no other observatory in the world can see.

 

 

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LG Optimus 2X 1080p video surfaces, captures a slow day at the docks

Another Android first for Greece, after the PSP phone.

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LG Optimus 2X 1080p video surfaces, captures a slow day at the docks

via Engadget by Christopher Trout on 1/17/11

Since we reported that the Tegra 2-based LG Optimus 2X was slated to hit Korea and Europe this month, we've been dying to check out its 1080p video recording capability. Lucky for us, someone in Greece has uploaded a video to YouTube that was apparently recorded on the smartphone, and the results, well, decide for yourself. While we're impressed by the video quality (digital zoom excepted) the subject matter leaves something to be desired: a shaky camera slowly pans a port full of docked fishing boats. Sure, we'd like to see some more action, but this sample still has us excited about getting our hands on our very own Optimus 2X. HD video after the jump.
Continue reading LG Optimus 2X 1080p video surfaces, captures a slow day at the docks

LG Optimus 2X 1080p video surfaces, captures a slow day at the docks originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Jan 2011 13:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink GSM Arena  |  Tech Blog  | Email this | Comments

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Scientist Aims to Bring a Woolly Mammoth to Life by 2016

Cool \m/ Velociraptors are the next to be brought back to life. After that.. the Jurassic Park becomes a reality :P

 

 

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Scientist Aims to Bring a Woolly Mammoth to Life by 2016

via SlashGear by Evan Selleck on 1/17/11

This wouldn't be the first time that a scientist, and a relatively huge team, have tried to bring back an extinct animal. Furthermore, it isn't the first time that a Woolly Mammoth has been the extinct animal of choice. But for one scientist, those previous attempts mean nothing, because within the next five years, Dr. Akira Iritani wholeheartedly believes that he can bring back the giant animal.

Dr. Iritani plans on travelling to a Russian-based Mammoth research facility this summer, where he will try to acquire a working tissue sample. Iritani says that as long as the sample is three square centimeters, he should be able to retrieve what he needs to create life from the sample. He will insert the cells into an egg of an African elephant, where the gestation period is said to be last up to 600 days.

Iritani will be using a method, while slightly altered to fit his precise needs, that was originally used by Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama of the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology 16 years previously. This method successfully cloned a mouse that had been frozen for 16 years. Obviously 5,000 years, which the Woolly Mammoth has been extinct, is drastically different than 16 years, but Iritani believes the "technical problems" have been overcome, and therefore it is finally possible to bring back a Woolly Mammoth.

Dr. Akira Iritani is a professor at Kyoto University. If he succeeds in his endeavor, Iritani plans on studying the Woolly Mammoth's genes and ecology to figure out why the species became extinct.

[via PCMag]

 

 

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Living Room Cabling

Hi!

This is the cabling schematic for my living room:

I created the schematic using Sweet Home 3D and gimp. They both are open source, licensed under the GPL.

Can also be found in my also open source wiki :P

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Quadrocopters learn to build things, when will humans learn to fear them? (v...

\m/

 

 

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Quadrocopters learn to build things, when will humans learn to fear them? (video)

via Engadget by Vlad Savov on 1/15/11

The GRASP Lab quadrocopters were impressive enough by themselves, all slashing and swooping through the air with unerring precision, but then their makers had to go and give them the intelligence to work in groups and today the inevitable has happened: they've learned how to construct things! Sure, the structures are rudimentary, but we can recognize the beginnings of human containment cells when we see them. Skip past the break for the bone-chilling, teamwork-infused video.

Continue reading Quadrocopters learn to build things, when will humans learn to fear them? (video)

Quadrocopters learn to build things, when will humans learn to fear them? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Jan 2011 18:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Hacked Gadgets  |  TheDmel (YouTube)  | Email this | Comments

 

 

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Samsung Withholding Froyo Updates to Increase Sales?

are they a little bit gay? i need a froyo update for my hero :P

 

 

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Samsung Withholding Froyo Updates to Increase Sales?

via OSNews by donotreply@osnews.com () on 1/14/11

A new wrinkle in the update and fragmentation story emerged today. AndroidSpin is quoting an unnamed T-Mobile employee as saying that the carrier is being told not to release the Android 2.2 update (Froyo) to customers that own the Samsung Vibrant. The reason: to increase sales of the new Vibrant 4G.

 

 

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Geek hacks Kinect to work with Wii controllers for Call of Duty action

not bad at all :D

 

 

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Geek hacks Kinect to work with Wii controllers for Call of Duty action

via SlashGear by Shane McGlaun on 1/13/11

We have seen all sorts of hacks for the Kinect since the motion tracking gesture controller launched for the Xbox 360. The thing is really cool and has turned out to be quite the hackable little device for people to take and use for all sorts of things. So far, most of those hacks haven't been anything that I am interested in.

A geek going by Demize2010 over on YouTube has posted up a video of him using the Kinect with the Wii nunchuck and remote for playing some Call of Duty. The movement of the player is controlled with the normal Wii motion controls with the Kinect picking up the gestures to control other things.

Now for the part that will really blow your geeky little mind, the version of Call of Duty the dude is playing is running on the PC. He hacked the Wii controllers to work for motion, aiming, and shooting and the Kinect to do things like lean and others. Talk about a geeky mashup of gaming goodness.

Via PC World

 

 

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Firefox Overtakes Internet Explorer in Europe

The king is dead. Long live the king :P

Firefox Overtakes Internet Explorer in Europe

via OSNews by donotreply@osnews.com () on 1/6/11

Is Motorola back on top to lead in mobility?

that's a damn nice phone :P

Is Motorola back on top to lead in mobility?

via SlashGear by Ben Bajarin on 1/6/11

Late mid-week shocker: young adults get their 'news' from the 'net.

Down with the TV. All the way down. :D

Late mid-week shocker: young adults get their 'news' from the 'net, not from television

via Engadget by Laura June on 1/6/11

Arm Holdings up on Microsoft deal

Go ARM! Saddle your horses and Conquer the world! Fight the evil i686 and AMD64 to the death :P

Arm Holdings up on Microsoft deal

via BBC News - Home on 1/6/11

Arm Holdings shares rise 8.2% after Microsoft says its new Windows operating system will be able to run on Arm chips.

Green ham and eggs

The last sentence I saw the words eco-friendly and GM had to do with cars :P

Go eco-friendly GM hybrid pigs. A nice pun also! Pigs in this sentence could also be the new hybrid truck by GM ;)

But, after reading the article I found out that this is indeed a pretty sweet modification :D

Green ham and eggs

via BBC News - Home on 1/4/11

Will eco-friendly GM pigs be coming to a plate near you soon?

First X-Ray Image of Lightning Captured

 

 

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First X-Ray Image of Lightning Captured

via SlashGear by Evan Selleck on 12/28/10

Scientists have reportedly known that lightning emits radiation within it for quite some time, but unfortunately for those scientists they have been unable to take any kind of x-ray photographs of the event. It simply moves too quickly, and up until recently, there simply hasn't been an x-ray camera that was able to take the necessary shots to capture lightning in mid-strike. That is, until now. A giant x-ray camera, which was created by a graduate student named Meagan Schaal, has been the first ever to capture a lightning strike with an x-ray camera.

The photograph was taken during a batch of recent thunderstorms at Camp Blanding, in Florida. The lightning bolt streaked down from the sky at almost one-sixth the speed of light, but the camera was able to capture it. Joseph Dwyer, who is a lightning researcher at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, said, "Something moving that fast would go from Earth to the moon in less than ten seconds." Obviously, finding a camera on the shelf wasn't going to cut it, so Dwyer turned to his students. One of his graduate students, Schaal, managed to create the x-ray camera. It weighs in at 1,500 pounds, and it is made of an x-ray detector that's housed in a box that resembles a refrigerator. It's lined with lead, to make sure that the x-ray detector is kept safe from stray radiation.

How many images does this new camera have to take to capture lightning in its natural state? 10 million per second. Unfortunately, storage of so many photos meant that the images couldn't be all that detailed. The camera can only take 30 pixels. Meaning, the results are images that are produced on a hexagonal grid. However, the researchers were able to learn that lightning carries the majority of its x-rays at the head of its strike, with barely any lingering radiation trailing away. Dwyer confirms that the lightning's strike holds all of its x-rays at the tip, rather than through the entirety of its length.

One thing to note, is that while these tests were being run during thunderstorms, the scientists had to make sure that the bolts struck where the camera could capture them. For that to happen, the researchers had to shoot rockets into the thunderstorm's clouds, with wires trailing behind them, making sure that the lightning would streak down the wire and into the camera's field of view. With that being noted, Dwyer points out that this artificial creation of lightning probably had no affect on the results, and if they could reproduce a truly natural strike, he is confident the same conclusion would be revealed.

[via National Geographic]

 

 

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Spanish smoking ban takes effect

Will spain beat greece on the implementation of the prohibition of smoking? :P

Spanish smoking ban takes effect

via BBC News - Home on 1/1/11

facebook popularity

This surely won't come as a surprise, but facebook is currently the most popular site in the US.

I certainly think that this is not a good sign. Wikipedia should be the most popular site.

Russia's latest five-year plan calls for switch to Linux

hurray for the russians :D

Russia's latest five-year plan calls for switch to Linux

via Linux for Devices - RSS Feeds on 12/28/10

CIA's WTF to investigate impact of WikiLeaks

LOL CIA WTF FFS GTP (the last one is greeklish) :D

by the way, if the CIA would have assessed the impact earlier, after wikileaks' asked the US ambassador to examine the leaks before publishing the "leakage" (here and here), all these problems would not exist now.

CIA's WTF to investigate impact of WikiLeaks

via Engadget by Donald Melanson on 12/22/10

UN on the wikileaks

cidh.oas.org/relatoria/showarticle.asp?artID=829&lID=1

IMHO, this article condemns the US stance and considers it as a violation of the free speech :D

Ancient humans interbred with us

how did the homo sapiens sapiens prevail? It must have been either interbreeding or simple racism and marginalization :P

Also, as can be seen on the diagram that shows the human family tree, Neanderthal DNA traces can be found in all the human lineages that can be viewed in the diagram, except the African.

Ancient humans interbred with us

via BBC News - Home on 12/22/10

Cyberdyne HAL Exoskeleton to Be Shown Off at CES 2011

The coolest part is that the exoskeleton moves on its own, based on what you want it to do. Thus, it's a movement amplifier. :P Imagine having an involuntary muscle contraction. This thing will just amplify it ;)

Cyberdyne HAL Exoskeleton to Be Shown Off at CES 2011

via SlashGear by Evan Selleck on 12/22/10

Secret Soviet-era laser tank pops up in the Ivanovo Oblast

a laser tank. when others were jumping from pole to pole in the Olympic games of Barcelona, the Russians were building laser tanks :P

Secret Soviet-era laser tank pops up in the Ivanovo Oblast

via Engadget by Joseph L. Flatley on 12/22/10

Kinect admits itself to hospital, treated for gesture control of medical images

A truly awesome application of the kinect! A gloveless minority report style interface is closer in the mainstream than we imagine (and it is actually put to good use) :D

Kinect admits itself to hospital, treated for gesture control of medical images

via Engadget by Darren Murph on 12/21/10

Heart Spark pendant blinks with your heart

how nice, a perfect gift for the Valentine's day for your geeky sweetheart :D

Heart Spark pendant blinks with your heart, automatically gets you into B.E.D. (video)

via Engadget by Darren Murph on 12/20/10

FBI backdoors in OpenBSD claims covert coder

All conspiracy theorists of the world rejoice! :P

FBI backdoors in OpenBSD claims covert coder

via SlashGear by Chris Davies on 12/15/10

British government wants all porn filtered out of the web

The British government is forgetting one thing: that the internet is for porn

British government wants all porn filtered out of the web, all fun sucked out of life

via Engadget by Vlad Savov on 12/20/10

Some photos from my home

Hi!

You can find photos from my home here.

The woman who cannot experience fear

The woman 'who cannot feel fear'

via BBC News - Home on 12/17/10

A woman who is unable to feel fear may help scientists find treatments for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and create the brutal unstoppable army of really angry ladies :P

Seriously though, by removing a part of one's brain, he/she is unable to experience fear. By extending this pattern to other emotions, one can argue that the very soul of a human being is partitioned in a number of distinct "hardware" (would flesh and blood be more appropriate maybe?) components. Each component is dedicated to a certain function (e.g. risk management, graphics processing, audio processing, social processor, reasoning unit, anxiety control, arithmetic unit, e.t.c..).

This hardware component paradigm is very familiar to us (by "us", I mean people familiar with the general principles of simple machine design; btw, most of us are familiar with these concepts [by the latter "us", I mean everyone]). But I digress.

So, one could choose to believe that since people have been thusly built, someone must have designed them. But I digress.

Finally, a rather intriguing (and, IMHO very awesome) argument would be that essentially we are a conglomeration (a swarm, if you will) of organisms that chose to cooperate in order to survive through the hardships of the world that surrounded them and after millions of years have evolved to the specialized organs that constitute our bodies. This isn't anything new or radical, as it can be deduced intuitively by the fact that life began from a single cell organism.

The point is that, since even the most tightly woven to the human "soul" emotions are being controlled by different parts of the brain, the personality and thoughts of each human must conversely be defined by the signals exchanged between the "organisms" in the human's brain. Ergo, a single soul might not exist. What it does exist is a collection of hardware components that accept certain input (e.g. images) and produce certain output (e.g. fear).

Self-Powered House Generates Income for You

My next house :D :P

Self-Powered House Generates Income for You

via SlashGear by Chris Burns on 12/16/10

Midday sunshine 'benefits health'

The sunshine! Let's go out and play and climb trees and stuff! In the sunshine! Weeeeeee :D

This reminds me of the iconic hair song:
Leeeeeeeeeeet the sunshine, leeeeeeeeeeet the sunshine in. The suuuuuuunshine in...

Gay hippie happiness :D

Midday sunshine 'benefits health'

via BBC News - Home on 12/16/10

New health advice on vitamin D recommends short spells in the sun - without sunscreen and in the middle of the day.

Visualized: Facebook's global reach

Visualized: Facebook's global reach

via Engadget by Vlad Savov on 12/14/10
The graph is cool :P

Engineer builds working reproduction of Greek Antikythera Mechanism from Lego

http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/HB7f6nV5mi0/

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Oriental Hornet is Actually Solar Powered

Oriental Hornet is Actually Solar Powered

via SlashGear by Evan Selleck on 12/8/10

Google unveils Chrome OS notebook

Too bad that I don't live in the US :(

Google unveils Chrome OS notebook

via BBC News - Home on 12/7/10

Bluetooth-enabled meds to enter European bloodstreams

Nice :D

Bluetooth-enabled meds to enter European bloodstreams

via Engadget by Joseph L. Flatley on 11/10/10

UFOs mentioned in WikiLeaks cables confirms Julian Assange

UFOs mentioned in WikiLeaks cables confirms Julian Assange

via SlashGear by Chris Davies on 12/3/10

WikiLeaks: Chinese Politburo responsible for Google hacking

\m/

WikiLeaks: Chinese Politburo responsible for Google hacking

via Engadget by Vlad Savov on 11/29/10

Harvard scientists reverse aging in mice, laugh maniacally at human possibil...

Harvard scientists reverse aging in mice, laugh maniacally at human possibilities

via Engadget by Vlad Savov on 11/29/10

NASA find new lifeform: arsenic microbe widens likelihood of extraterrestria...

NASA find new lifeform: arsenic microbe widens likelihood of extraterrestrial life

Mercury 'turns birds homosexual'

This shows that homosexuality in animals that function without advanced operating systems might be a disease.

Will mercury have the same effects on the hominidae family? Imagine the possibilities on overpopulation!

The population will be controlled by planes and helicopters that will spray cities with a mercuric chloride (HgCl2) solution. This will kill many many people and turn many to gay :P objective achieved ;)

Mercury 'turns birds homosexual'

via BBC News - Home on 12/1/10

PlayStation Phone espied in Greece, said to have Gingerbread and 4-inch screen (video)

http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/01/playstation-phone-espied-in-greece-said-to-have-gingerbread-and/

For real? :p

intresting read

Assange's papers on conspiracies

Android Phone Solves Rubik's Cube In 12.5 Seconds

Android Phone Solves Rubik's Cube In 12.5 Seconds

via Slashdot: Hardware by timothy on 11/11/10

Airless Metal Mesh Tires Awarded R&D 100 Award

Airless Metal Mesh Tires Awarded R&D 100 Award

via SlashGear by Chris Burns on 11/26/10

GNU/Linux and Enlightenment Running On a Fridge

The fridge I will buy :D

GNU/Linux and Enlightenment Running On a Fridge

via Slashdot: Linux by timothy on 11/24/10

Do You Really Need a Discrete Sound Card?

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotHardware/~3/hgMXi3StKjA/Do-You-Really-Need-a-Discrete-Sound-Card

Discrete is always better.

CHIP-8 emulation comes to Half-Life 2, you can finally retire your Telmac 18

The intel core i13 will only be released in the world of warcraft :P

CHIP-8 emulation comes to Half-Life 2, you can finally retire your Telmac 1800 (video)

via Engadget by Joseph L. Flatley on 11/15/10

FAA gives SpaceX the first-ever commercial license for spacecraft reentry

FAA gives SpaceX the first-ever commercial license for spacecraft reentry

via Engadget by Paul Miller on 11/22/10

Laser-Guided Slingshot is Do It Yourself Project

An improvement of the slingshot would be to leave the bolts free to rotate, add a servo mechanism in order to synchronize the laser with the movement of the bolts and fasten the bands tightly on the bolts in order to rotate the bolts according to their angle. \m/

Laser-Guided Slingshot is Do It Yourself Project for the Family

via SlashGear by Evan Selleck on 11/22/10

USB Is the Devil's Connection

USB Is the Devil's Connection

via Slashdot: Hardware by CmdrTaco on 11/16/10

Doom-themed live wallpaper for Android

\m/

Doom-themed live wallpaper for Android turns your phone into a playground of carnage

via Engadget by Chris Ziegler on 11/20/10

Premature ovarian failure

diluted saw this story on the BBC News website and thought you
should see it:
"I had my menopause at 28"
A new study hopes to offer help to young women undergoing the menopause
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/health-11784759

Why should we invest more in space and marine exploration

Hi!

How y'all doing? I'm fine too, thank thee :)

In this post, I will argue on the need to invest more money in the exploration and colonization of the solar system (and beyond) and the depths of the sea.

Throughout history, human kind has been defined by expansion. With expansion I mean habitat expansion. This expansion is required or encouraged by:

• Overcrowding
• Lack of resources
• Quests for glory (not the legendary Sierra game) and wealth
• Scientific (or just plain simple) curiosity and search for adventure
• Possibly other reasons that I cannot think of right now :P

Except from expanding their territories, humans also explore to escape from unbearable situations in their previous locations. In this case, the territory is not expanded; it is displaced. Thus, it can also shrink.

Let's now see if the reasons for expansion are valid for our time:

• Overcrowding
• It's high time to find an escape from this discomfort except committing suicide (BioTek - Die Sect), killing each other and not giving birth to anything.
• Lack of resources
• We need more resources.
• Quest for Glory - Wealth
• Human nature
• Adventure - curiosity
• Human nature

As for the gradual destruction of our territory, it is an undeniable fact. (we've marked it not just by pissing on it)

Having discovered the whole world (as our satellites have proven), we must now turn to more difficult endeavors, in order to survive as a species (in the long run) and in order to avoid future financial crises and wars.

The last two can actually be connected ([1] [2] [3]) in the fashion that financial crisis causes war, which can be viewed as the solution for the crisis due to the development for war, during the war and after the war.

So, we should go forth and explore the far reaches of space and depths of sea. It is essential for our survival.

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Alternative To the 200-Line Linux Kernel Patch

Alternative To the 200-Line Linux Kernel Patch

via Slashdot: Linux by timothy on 11/18/10

Rat attack!

kill all the mobs :P

Rat attack!

via BBC News - Home on 11/19/10

Ireland bail-out talks in Dublin

4 down (Hungary, Latvia, Greece and Ireland), 23 to go :P (the UK received a bail-out in 1976, but that's history)

Ireland bail-out talks in Dublin

via BBC News - Home on 11/17/10

Geeky Lego Minifig Alarm Clock is awesome

Geeky Lego Minifig Alarm Clock is awesome

via SlashGear by Shane McGlaun on 11/17/10

Cool toilet signs

Hi!

Pretty cool toilet signs (not-sexist-at-all):

;P

Oh geeky tree, oh geeky tree, how square are thy branches

:D

Oh geeky tree, oh geeky tree, how square are thy branches

via SlashGear by Shane McGlaun on 11/12/10

voting = lost cause?

Hi!

Should we vote? Who we should vote for?

As you probably already now, I'm not so much into politics.

I do support freedom coupled with kindness and all these traits that are required in order for people to live harmonically in groups without starting killing and eating each other (because of the freedom they enjoy along the inherent predatory instincts), but I also know that human nature prohibits us to be good with each other at all times (due to personal ambition, jealousy or whatever) and I believe that almost any political system would be acceptable by anyone, if everyone was fair, had noble motives, lacked vanity and envy and was kind at heart.

Since this is implausible, I sort of think that the world must make the leap towards direct (pure) democracy, where everyone (who is willing to participate) will have a right to vote for every decision of the world-country-city-village-group (this is more than feasible today using the freakin' net).

So, a first step in order to convert the political system here in Greece could be to actively deny to vote for anyone. Someone could argue here that a good protest vote would be to vote something other than the mainstream; I accept and respect that.

When a feeble (due to lack of voter support) government takes power, we'll start protesting and demand a brutal capitalistic flavor of direct democracy.

Our will be done afterwards.

Ta ta,
--
elias a.k.a. diluted

1011121314

Hi!

Happy 10/11/12 13:14 everybody :D

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Only 40,000 Windows Phone 7 devices sold at US launch?

ms wi pho 7 is goin' down. kin style :P

Only 40,000 Windows Phone 7 devices sold at US launch?

via SlashGear by Chris Davies on 11/10/10

MakerLegoBot is made of Lego, makes things out of Lego, is so meta it hurts ...

nice :)

MakerLegoBot is made of Lego, makes things out of Lego, is so meta it hurts (video)

'Mystery missile' launches in US

The revenge of the black hat \m/ bomb indiscriminately wherever the wind blows. it will be fun destroying the world. just think of the tranquility afterwards. and the toxicity (of all our major cities). at least life as we know it won't be easily sustainable. what a freakin' relief.

'Mystery missile' launches in US

via BBC News - Home on 11/9/10

Pentagon officials are at a loss to explain a reported missile launch off the coast of California on Monday, but say it is not a threat.

Hell’s Foundry DashLink Lets you Dock your iPod Touch on your Harley

vroom vroom vroom brabrabrabra :P (this is from southpark, for those who are ignorant, hee hee) ;P

Hell’s Foundry DashLink Lets you Dock your iPod Touch on your Harley

Blog on the facebook

For facebook/blogger integration use this video howto. (it is a little bit outdated, but I think you'll figure it out)

Ants enslave the strong not weak

diluted saw this story on the BBC News website and thought you
should see it.
** Ants enslave the strong not weak **
Slavemaker ants target strongly defended colonies when seeking new servants, researchers find.

Nuclear Bunker Houses World's Toughest Server Farm

\m/

Nuclear Bunker Houses World's Toughest Server Farm

via Slashdot: Hardware by samzenpus on 11/3/10

Lanxon writes "Deep inside the Swiss Alps, a former nuclear bunker is now the ultimate hiding place for the world's most sensitive secrets — the Swiss Fort Knox. In a lengthy feature, Wired gains access to the server farm designed to survive a full-scale military attack. From the article: 'As we punch our codes at the checkpoint, the yellow door opens into what looks like a city of server towers, their green LEDs flickering as a technician in a white jumpsuit runs diagnostic checks. [Later], we are in a dimly lit tunnel next to what looks like a metal oven door carved into the side of the rock. "These are expansion rooms in case you have an atomic explosion outside," Christoph Oschwald, a retired Swiss paratrooper turned contractor, says. The thinking behind the rooms, he explains, is that if there were a nuclear explosion, the rush of high-pressure air would fill them through vents in the opposite side. Then, the vents would snap shut, trapping the air before it had a chance of damaging the fortress. "There is a lot of protection you can't see," he says. We stroll past an intricate network of insulated pipelines that carry water up from the underground glacial lake to the cooling system.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Recommended Article By diluted: Why newspapers make you stupid

Memorable quote from this article: Thomas Jefferson said: "The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." ;)

Why newspapers make you stupid

Twitterizing the blog

Hi!

Blogs are traditionally used to express opinions and thoughts in lengthy documents enriched with pictures and other multimedia elements.

I really respect and admire this practice; that's why I started this blog a couple of years ago. Though, due to my lack of commitment to this noble cause and because of the more than occasional boredom fits, I'm not usually able to compose the up-to-my-perceived-blog-standard documents, rich analyses of the contemporary events (e.g. the upcoming municipal elections) and, most importantly, geeky articles commenting on technological advancements, scientific breakthrough or generic blabber.

So, I have decided to use the blog as a conveyor of short messages, media and links.

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

24 hour film "The Clock"

This is a very interesting idea actually. The effort to collect all the pieces and edit all of them into such an amalgamation seems huge to my untrained eyes :P

Barcelona photos

Hi!

Remember that in a previous post I said that I will upload some photos from Barcelona? Well, I "uploaded" them, so here they are :P

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Apache bandwidth limiting

Hi!

How do you do people?

I am fine! Today I discovered that the web server at my home can consume a lot of my precious bandwidth (probably someone is trying to download some videos I have there :P).

So, since I don't want to prohibit anyone from downloading things from my site, I found this site, which describes the bandwidth limiting module of the apache web server.

This module seems to work, but it remains to see if it is capable to increase the perceived bandwidth. (Let me confide.. perceived bandwidth=the bandwidth that keeps me [and my network's users] satisfied, the bandwidth that gives me all I need)

So, with dust in throat I crave only knowledge :P

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

apografi.gov.gr

This post is related with the devastating failure of the EU member state of Greece to produce a decent web service.

My mother is a civil servant (a teacher in the public high school to be exact).
The government has required all the civil servants to participate in a census of some kind (in order to find out who is getting paid by it, I suppose).
This can only be done through the web service at the site http://apografi.gov.gr.

But people are not able to access the web service whenever they want until the deadline (contrary to the popular belief that this is a fundamental requirement for every web service). They must do it on a certain range of days, which is defined by their taxpayer identification number (ΑΦΜ, a popular number in Greece, unique for every citizen) [e.g. the 25th of July is reserved for those whose ΑΦΜ ends in 5].

OK, this is shortcoming #1.

Shortcoming #2 is much more important, since #1 can be interpreted by the fact that the government wanted to avoid heavy loads on the day that the deadline expires.
The failure #2:
Let's assume now that Tes is a civil servant with an ΑΦΜ that ends in 2 and she must enter the web service between the 1st and the 15th of July (the numbers, dates and names are random, any resemblance to an actual person is purely coincidental :P). So, being a diligent and hard working lady, she decides to go to the site in the 4th of July (the date is, again, random). She tries to do her chore, but to no avail, as the server doesn't function well (the lists of the prefectures won't load, her address won't be automatically located, the lists of possible public sector assignments won't load). She tries the next days and still isn't able to access the service.

That's all.
Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Barcelona

Hola from Barcelona, Spain! :P

How y'all doing?

I'm vacating in Barcelona for about a week now and it is really cool. The best feature of the city is the proximity of the beach (Barceloneta) to the center of the city.

Photos will follow when I'll get back to Greece.

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Zeitgeist Addendum

Hi!

Today I watched zeitgeist addendum for a second time in order to refresh some parts about the monetary system, the IMF and the US of A and correlate that with the EU and the the destruction, demise and total 3rdWorldation of Greece.

I don't agree with every argument in the movie; which by the way is a conglomeration of pretty much reasonable assumptions and obvious observations mingled with a hint of conspiracy theories.

As a matter of fact, I always get really frustrated hearing all the stuff that these Venus Project people are saying; do they forget that humans are animals? That we are genetically designed to compete each other in order to determine the the alpha male, as most of the primates do? (and, as a matter of fact, all the members of the hominidae [orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and humans]) (sorry girls, but -equality apart- have you ever seen a female gorilla or female chimpanzee or another female hominidae be the leader in their respective society?)

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted