Recovering Scratched CDs

Check out some great tips on how to repair scratched CDs that wont play properly (the secret – toothpaste!) at http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/77

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Firefox Extensions

One of the great features of the free browser, Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/firefox/) is that you can download “extensions” for it from the web – these are user-submitted plugins that enhance or extend the functionality of the browser – everything from download managers to RSS feed integrators and more. If you’re a web developer, check out the css web log at http://css.weblogsinc.com/2006/02/14/firefox-extensions-i-couldnt-live-without/ for ten firefox extensions you shouldn’t be without. For a full list of extensions, check out https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/

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AlbumArt

AlbumArt (http://albumart.org/) lets you search for CD and DVD cover images – great for adding album covers to your music files in iTunes. Simply enter an album or artist and the page comes back with images of related album and movie covers.

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Campfire

Campfire is a self-contained, password-protected web-based chatroom that allows groups of up to 40 people to chat and easily share files together. No instant messaging software is required — all that's required is a web browser. Touted as a group tool for business messaging, you can sign up for a 30-day trial at http://www.campfirenow.com/ Pricing ranges from $12US/month to $49US/month depending on how many people/clients you want to chat with and how many rooms you want to create

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Let Them Sing It For You

Now you don’t have to be musically gifted to write a song! A new free service at http://www.sr.se/p1/src/sing/# lets you enter lyrics of your own devising which are then sung back using snippets and soundbites from other songs. You can also mail your compositions to a friend.

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Rumble Box

Rumble Box is a free, fast paced 3D action beat-em-up game with a unique premise: all of the characters are made of simple objects which stay around in the level even after the character is defeated. The objects pile up, changing the gameplay landscape and altering your combat tactics.
The game takes place inside a giant box, and the ultimate goal of the game is to pile up enough defeated enemies to get out of the box. Download it at http://phackett.com/rumblebox/

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Amazing Photos of China

Few people in the Western world know about the hidden beauty of China. Check out these photos from an ace photographer who has captured this land of enchantment like no other has. Visit http://www.impactlab.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7301

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Indonesian “Lost World” Photos

During a 15-day stay at a camp they had cut out of the jungle, a 12-person team including U.S., Australian, and Indonesian scientists found a trove of animals never before documented, from a new species of the honeyeater bird to more than 20 new species of frogs. You can watch a National geographic slideshow of these images at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0207_020607_lost_world.html

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World Beard and Moustache Championships

The annual World Beard and Moustache Championships will be held this year in October in Berlin. One of the top contenders is Jürgen Burkhardt, a 48-year-old photographer from Leinfelden, near Stuttgart, who sports a curled mustache/muttonchop combo about the size of a boomerang. Left unstyled, Burkhardt's mustache has a wingspan that stretches five feet (one and a half meters) from tip to tip. Find out more and check out some outlandish beards at http://www.worldbeardchampionships.com/

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The Birthday Paradox

If you gather people in a room, you might imagine that the chances that two of them sharing the same birthday would only reach about 100% if you had 365 people or more. It turns out that with only 60 people, the chances that two of them share the same birthday is 99%. Alan Bellows explains why at http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=402#more-402

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Ten Things To Know About Procrastination

There are many ways to avoid success in life, but the most sure-fire just might be procrastination. Procrastinators sabotage themselves. They put obstacles in their own path. They actually choose paths that hurt their performance. Hara Marano interviewed two of the world’s leading experts in procrastination and published the results at http://www.psychologytoday.com/rss/pto-20030823-000001.html A great read, if you can be bothered...

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Superbowl ads

Check out some of the amazing advertisements shown at this year’s Superbowl game - http://video.google.com/superbowl.html

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Buddha Boy of Nepal

A teenage boy walks out of his home at midnight to meditate and find peace. His followers, friends and people who’ve been watching him say that he’s been sitting there and meditating for more than 6 months without food and water. Ram Bahadur Bamjan's friends, relatives and managers say he has been meditating without drinking water for six months now and that he will carry on for another six years until he gains enlightenment. You can read more and check out video clips from a Nepalese documentary at http://nirlog.com/2006/01/17/buddha-boy-of-nepal/

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Project Sheriff

Soldiers in Iraq might soon get armoured vehicles equipped with pain rays, sonic weapons, or guns that automatically return fire. Inside Defense magazine (http://defense.iwpnewsstand.com/) reports that the US Government is spending 31.3 million US dollars on three “project Sheriff” defense vehicles. Find out more at http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002133.html

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YouTube

YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/) is a video sharing service similar to Google Video (http://video.google.com) - you can upload and watch movies online. For example, check out this video of “the coolest toy ever”, a fully functional model fighter jet. “Built out of kevlar and carbon fibre, this miniature fighter jet can reach speeds upwards of 280 mph. The models use small jet turbines, functionally identical to those used in actual full-sized jets to achieve remarkable speeds and flying precision.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqcDJGlfAGE)

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30 Boxes

30 Boxes is a new online calendar system that lets you create events in the same way you would with any other calendaring application, but allows you to share those events with others. You can share events with selected users or “buddies” or with the pubic at large. This is a great way to organise events and share scheduling via the web. You can even export code snippets to allow you to place a mini-calendar on another web page. It’s free and in a beta testing phase at the moment. Check it out at http://30boxes.com

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Whale's Revenge

Join the petition to end whaling by visiting http://www.whalesrevenge.com/

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The Cabestan Watch

If you have a spare quarter of a million dollars check out the Cabestan watch. The Cabestan has a transversal tourbillon and the indications for hours, minutes, seconds and power reserve appear on the four cylinders of the watch. The watch has an original mechanical movement with manual winding, a fusee and a tourbillon and six ball bearings. The movement is visible from above and the side. The winding stem is a removable “winch” that stores in the buckle of the watch’s bracelet. There will be 135 of these watches made, 15 in yellow gold, 55 in rose gold, 50 in white gold and 15 in platinum and it will sell for around $220,000. Check out http://www.europastar.com/europastar/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001844317 or visit http://www.digitalus.co.nz/onthenet/ for an online link to the article.

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Crabfu Steam Toys

Check out http://www.crabfu.com/steamtoys/ to see steam-operated toys operated by remote control!

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404 fun

The famous “404” error occurs when you try to browse to a web page that doesn’t exist. Normally, the 404 error message is pretty boring: “The requested URL was not found on this server. “ http://homokaasu.org/gematriculator/404.html has a much more entertaining 404 page! You can find more amusing error pages at http://www.plinko.net/404/

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Stop Badware

We've all seen it happen: you or someone you know has downloaded something from the internet that seemed harmless enough at the time. Next thing you know, the computer has slowed to a crawl. Pop-up advertising starts to appear out of nowhere. Private information gets sent to some company you've never heard of. And the worst part? Trying to uninstall the software might only make the problem worse. Join the fight to stop “Badware” at http://www.stopbadware.org/

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Define your IT geek

If you work near computers you may have run into some eccentric character types – people obsessed with IT, or programmers with odd quirks. Hacknot, at http://www.hacknot.info/hacknot/action/showEntry?eid=81 has defined their “A to Z of Programmer Predilections “. For example, check out “Arrogant Arthur”: “The three hardest words in any techie's vocabulary are "I don't know". Arthur never has to struggle with them, for he knows everything. Any technology you might name - he's an expert. Any problem you might have - he's solved it before. No matter what challenge he's assigned - he's sure it will be easy. Whenever Arthur appears to have made a mistake, closer investigation will reveal that the fault in fact lies with someone or something else.”

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Clockblock

Clockblock is an engaging animated flash clock that tells the time in video clips using children’s blocks – check out http://www.lares.dti.ne.jp/~yugo/storage/monocrafts_ver3/29/bclock.html

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Dorodango

Dorodango is a new craze sweeping the schoolyards of Japan - kids are losing themselves making hikaru dorodango, or balls of mud that shine. Behind this boom is Professor Fumio Kayo of the Kyoto University of Education. Kayo is a psychologist who researches children's play, and he first came across these glistening dorodango at a nursery school in Kyoto two years ago. He was so impressed he devised a method of making dorodango that could be followed even by children. Once Kayo teaches children how to make these mud balls, they become absorbed in forming a sphere, and they put all their energy into polishing the ball until it sparkles. The dorodango soon becomes the child's greatest treasure. Kayo sees in this phenomenon the essence of children's play, and he has written academic papers on the subject. The mud balls could also offer fresh insights into how play aids children's growth. Find out how to create dorodango at http://www.kyokyo-u.ac.jp/youkyou/4/english4.htm

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