The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord

Peter Anspach says "Being an Evil Overlord seems to be a good career choice. It pays well, there are all sorts of perks and you can set your own hours. However every Evil Overlord I've read about in books or seen in movies invariably gets overthrown and destroyed in the end. I've noticed that no matter whether they are barbarian lords, deranged wizards, mad scientists or alien invaders, they always seem to make the same basic mistakes every single time." Now you can avoid common overlord pitfalls with tips like "My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.". Check out http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html

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How to read barcodes

Most barcodes in the US are 12-digit UPC barcodes, with ten digits at the bottom of the code and one small number to each side. Impress your friends by asking them to select a random item from the kitchen with a removable label and cut the numbers off of the UPC barcode; you can then proceed to read the numbers encoded in the lines. Find out how at http://wiki.ehow.com/Read-12-Digit-UPC-Barcodes

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Google Book Search

Google aim to digitise every book ever written so you can search for them and buy them. Their new site at http://books.google.com/ allows you to enter keywords and phrases to find the books you need. This service has caused some outcry from publishers who feel it may be used to violate copyright, but most authors are pretty happy that their books (in many cases very obscure) will now be easier to find. try entering "Taranaki" and you'll find a link to The Lonely Planet guide to New Zealand.

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Sony in hot water

Sony BMG got themselves in trouble recently when it was revealed that they have adding software to some of the music CDs they sell in order to prevent piracy. Windows can auto-execute software on an inserted CD-ROM, and with the CDs in question this leads to the installation of a piece of software called a "rootkit" - it's installed in such a way that even the operating system doesnt really know it's there, and it's very difficult to remove. The intent was to prevent the copying of CDs, but researchers who discovered the rootkit found the software was poorly written and would leave your PC open to hackers. It's also installed without your consent, reports information about you back to Sony, violates the rights of a 3rd-party software developer whose component is included, and doesnt have an uninstaller. The uproar from this discovery caused Sony to grudgingly offer an "uninstaller" from a website, and the uninstaller itself opens your browser to attacks from hackers as it's also very poorly written.
Boing Boing have been tracking the Sony case as it progresses, check out the history at http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/14/sony_anticustomer_te.html
Sony's approach has put people off the legitimate purchase of music, angered the artists and consumers, and done nothing to promote the reduction of piracy. Not only that, but if you read the 3,000 word EULA (end-user license agreement) that comes with these cds you'll see how crazy their policies are (check out http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004145.php for the full analysis of the EULA).

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Making coloured bubbles

Chemical burns, ruined clothes, 11 years, half a million dollars - it's not easy to improve the world's most popular toy. Yet the success of one inventor's quest to dye a simple soap bubble may change the way the world uses color. Check out the Popular Science website at http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/

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Buy 20 years of crop circle research on ebay

Colin Andrews has been a crop circle researcher for more than 20 years. He was stunned when he saw his first crop circle in 1983 and co-wrote the first book on the subject, Circular Evidence. He has acted as advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the British Royal Family, Lawrence Rockefeller, Research Institutes worldwide and many more. Colin has constructed the world's largest database on crop circles, and is convinced that it strongly suggests an intelligent hand is at work. His site is at http://www.memorologyllc.com/CropCircleInfo/CropCircleInfo.htm
Colin has now run out of money to continue his research, so if you have $250,000USD or so lying around you can buy his complete set of research, including 35,000 photos, 650 videos, 3000 books and more!
Check out http://www.eBay.com and search for "Colin Andrews Crop Circles Research"

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The E-Mail Time Capsule

Forbes has a free service that lets you send an email to yourself and have it arrive in 1, 3, 5, 10, or 20 years.

"Most time capsules involve cramming stuff into a metal box and burying it in a hole in the ground. It's a method that works --but it's so primitive. What if you could write an email to yourself, and be assured of receiving it twenty years in the future?

That's what we've done with this email time capsule. Simply fill out the fields below, decide how long you want the capsule to be sealed for, and hit send. We'll do our best to make sure the message gets delivered. "

http://forbes.codefix.net/capsule/

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KIWI STAR, CREW ENHANCE AMERICAN HORROR MOVIE

(See also http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0511/S00035.htm)

Although the independent horror/thriller "Serial Slayer," released
today, November 3, on DVD in New Zealand, was shot entirely in
California, the film boasts a healthy amount of participation from New
Zealand's own.

First and foremost, there's New Plymouth's Melanie Lynskey, famous for
her role as Pauline Parker in Peter Jackson's "Heavenly Creatures." As
the star of "Serial Slayer," this was Lynskey's second collaboration
with American writer/director Mark Tapio Kines: Kines is credited with
bringing the actress back in front of the cameras after her initial
post-"Heavenly" relocation to Hollywood. After starring in Kines's
debut feature "Foreign Correspondents," Lynskey went on to appear in a
wide variety of studio films, including "Ever After," "Coyote Ugly,"
"Abandon" and "Shattered Glass." (She also found time to star in the NZ
production "Snakeskin.") She's now a regular on the hit TV series "Two
and a Half Men."

No fewer than four other Kiwis filled out the small "Serial Slayer"
crew. Second assistant director Lucas Young, originally from Taranaki,
had long ago befriended Kines on the Internet (where Kines also
"discovered" Lynskey back in 1996). He met Kines in Hollywood in 2001,
bringing along his business partner Daniel Crothers and Daniel's
brother Bevan. One year later, all three were in Los Angeles, helping
Kines make his film. Daniel held the title of boom operator while
Bevan, one of TVNZ's finest cameramen (having worked on "New Zealand
Idol," "Shortland Street" and "Intreprid Journeys," among many other
shows), became the film's director of photography. The quartet of Kiwis
was rounded out by Bevan's TVNZ colleague Kelvin Wells, who ran sound.
The four eager young filmmakers funded their own journey to Los Angeles
in June of 2002, solely for the experience of working on a feature. A
grateful Kines put them up in corporate lodging known for housing
countless show biz aspirants (Nirvana stayed there while recording
"Nevermind") and within two hectic weeks, "Serial Slayer" - under its
original title, "Claustrophobia" - was shot.

Bevan Crothers continues to jet around the world as an in-demand
cameraman. Aside from developing their own film projects, Lucas Young
and Daniel Crothers run a web design firm in Auckland, Digitalus
Limited. Young also worked in WETA's effects department during
post-production of "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King."

The film was completed in 2003 and quickly sold to powerful American
distributor Lions Gate. Australia-based Imagine Entertainment picked up
the film for Oz/NZ distribution in early 2005. It is now available for
sale or rental at many New Zealand video retailers, as well as online
rental house DVD Unlimited.

For more information, please contact Mark Tapio Kines at
mark [at] cassavafilms -dot- com or Lucas Young at lucas [at] digitalus (dot) co (dot) nz for local
verification.

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Riya

Riya is a photo-searching service that is able to recognise faces and read text in images. The company was started after it's owners realised that they had 1000's of digital photos on their computer all labeled DSC0009.jpg, that their friends just never remembered to send them the photos they wanted from them, and that searching for images on the web just doesn't work very well.

"We are a group of determined face recognition and text recognition researchers and engineers who believe it is time for a new type of photo search that uses technology to look inside and automatically tag photos. We hope this will revolutionize how people "see" the world. "

The system is still in "alpha" (a very early testing stage) and currently only works with Internet Explorer 6 upwards (although Firefox support is coming). Check out http://riya.com/

Frappr

Frappr was created by Brian, Kun and James at Rising Concepts, who wanted to see where all their high school and college friends went after they graduated. Frappr is an online tool that lets you map out the zip code where you live, work, vacation, or anything else! You can then share your unique URL with friends and find out where the rest of them live and work in relation to everyone else. Check out http://www.frappr.com/

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Oak Island

Oak Island, the home of the Money Pit, covers an area of just 140 acres. Located off the eastern coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, it has long been the site of much speculation for treasure hunters worldwide. Many theories are in existence as to what may actually lie in The Pit, ranging from a pirate’s bounty to the final resting place of the Holy Grail. One thing is certain, whatever is hidden, it was not intended to be discovered without a struggle. For over 200 years, treasure hunters have been trying to unearth its secret. The Oak Island site at http://www.oakislandtreasure.co.uk/index.html is dedicated to those who have lost their lives in the search for the elusive treasure of the Money Pit and aims to provide a comprehensive resource to those captivated by this mysterious place.

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Gada.be

gada.be is a new type of search engine. It's great for mobile devices, where clicking links and scrolling through pages can be a real hassle. For starters, you can enter your search query as part of the URL, for example, http://mt-taranaki.gada.be/ will search for "mt taranaki". Results are collated from a variety of web resources including MSN, Blogs, Yahoo and Google. You can "subscribe" to your search results, so you'll be notified when they change. Gada.be is new but growing rapidly, and worth keeping an eye on.
As always you can check out these links and more at http://www.digitalus.co.nz/onthenet/

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Make your own search engine!

Ever wanted your own personalised version of Google? You could call it Boogle, or "My First Search Engine". The Google Search Engine Creation tool at http://googlefor.com/mygoogle.asp let's you create a Google-style logo then provides a link to your customised Google site you can send to friends - check out http://googlefor.com/mygoogle.asp

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John Cleese

With John Cleese touring the country I thought I'd point you to his official (and wacky) website at http://www.thejohncleese.com/

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Cool animations

Here are a couple of wacky but cool Flash animations - http://www.vectorpark.com/park.html and http://www.biteycastle.com/littleFoot.html

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Cool videos

Check out a couple of brilliant, award-winning commercials at http://www.bestadsontv.com/ad_details.php?id=140 and http://www.bravia-advert.com/ as well as the new, mind-blowing King Kong trailer at http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/king_kong/hd/ (you'll need a copy of Quicktime 7 to view these videos properly, it's freely downloadable at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/)

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Codec Information Appliance

Movie files can be a real hassle to play if you dont have the right "codec" - a codec is a software component that tells your video player how to handle a certain file type. There are dozens of popular video formats and if you dont have the right codec installed for a particular file type, you'll have problems watching the video.
The Codec Information Appliance is a tool that will analyse a selected video file and tell you what codec is required to play it, and whether you have it installed - check out http://www.headbands.com/gspot/ for the free download

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Blogthings

Blogthings are quizzes or "toys" you can add to your blog (if you have one) or just play with if you dont. For example, the Superhero name generator will take your details and create a superhero persona for you. Check out some of the quizzes and generators at http://www.blogthings.com/quizzes/

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Peak Design

Congratulations to Hawera Young Enterprise Scheme team Peak Design for winning the MCK Hotels Award for Service Excellence. If you need a website get hold of the guys at www.peakdesign.co.nz

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New Digitalus Site live

Yes, we've finally finished our new-look site and put it live. It always seems to be the case that your own site is the one that gets neglected when you spend your time building sites for others. Check out our "new look" at http://www.digitalus.co.nz

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The Guinness Evolution commercial

Best Ads On TV is hosting a fantastic commercial for Guinness beer at http://www.bestadsontv.com/ad_details.php?id=634 You need QuickTime Player but it's well worth watching and very clever.

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The Man Who Would Murder Death

42-year-old English biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey has made his name by claiming that some people alive right now could live for 1,000 years or longer. Maybe much longer. Growing old is not, in his view, an inevitable consequence of the human condition; rather, it is the result of accumulated damage at the cellular and molecular levels that medical advances will soon be able to prevent — or even reverse — allowing people to go on living pretty much indefinitely. We'll still have to worry about angry bears and falling pianos, but aging, the biggest killer of all, will cease to be a threat. Death, as we know it, will die. Find out more at http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i10/10a01401.htm

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The Dalek Builder's Guild

Did you know that if you buy a Dick Smith R3511 Vader Voice Kit and replace VR1 (a 10 K ohm linear pot, 'B' designation) with a 1 Meg ohm linear pot... you have a Dalek (from the tv series Dr Who) voice modulator! I should know, I built one yesterday... although maybe I shouldnt admit that... If you're interested in building your own Dalek find out more at http://www.dalekcity.co.uk/vader.htm

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Mr Angry & Mrs Calm

Aude Oliva (MIT) and Philippe Schyns (University of Glasgow) have created an amazing perceptual illusion involving two faces, one of which seems to have an angry expression and the other, a calm one. But if you move further back from the image, the faces in the image swap expressions! Check it out at http://www.ianrowland.com/MiscPages/Mrangryandmrscalm.html (or visit the On The Net blog site at http://www.digitalus.co.nz/onthenet/ for a clickable link)

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