Chad’s News

I usually ignore Robert X. Cringely’s rants, but this time he’s hit upon an interesting problem. Earthlink is dropping a huge percentage of its users’ emails, with no warning and no recourse. They only admit the issue when contacted about it—so there are many users with no idea they’re losing emails. And even though they admit to it, Earthlink is not fixing the problem. I find this mind-boggling and outrageous.

Link: http://www.pbs.org/…
(via Slashdot)

Fresh on the heels of The Million Dollar Homepage, Alex Tew has come up with a new idea: Pixelotto. The pixels cost twice as much ($2 apiece), but he’s going to give away the extra $1 million to a random user who clicks one of the advertisements. Nice idea. The prize fund is already up to $135,000.

Link: http://pixelotto.com/
(via Nothing To Do With Arbroath)

FaxZero is a free service that allows one to fax PDF and Word documents via the internet. The number and size of free faxes is limited, and they put an advertisement on the cover sheet, but it’s still a pretty good deal for people like me who don’t have easy access to a fax machine.

Link: http://faxzero.com/
(via Lifehacker)

A recent digg entry shows that some people have put quite a bit of thought into the Christian prophecy of rapture. First there’s the (derogatory) Post-Rapture Post, which will deliver letters after the rapture, enabling one to send a message to non-believing friends/family explaining what’s happened. The service is guaranteed to be rapture-proof, because it’s run by Atheists. On a less-sarcastic note, Rapture Letters provides a similar email service. It’s run by Christians and works via a software dead-man switch. When the rapture occurs, the dead-man switch will not be reset, and the emails will be sent. Both services assume that critical infrastructure will be in place to enable the transmission of messages.

The most thought-provoking service is Jesus Pets. Suppose you’re instantly removed from the Earth via rapture. What will happen to your pets? Think about it. Jesus Pets states: “We are assembling a community of heathen pet-lovers to care for pets that are ‘left-behind.’ We are coordinating with feed mills and kennels in preparation for your post-apocalyptic pet care needs.”

(via digg)

This blind teenager can sense his surroundings via echolocation, much like the comic-book character Daredevil. He’s good enough to win at foosball, and can even play video games.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/…
(via Neatorama)

Apparently it is quite easy (and legal) for law enforcement to use your cell phone as an eavesdropping tool. With the right software downloaded to the phone, it becomes a microphone and transmits all nearby conversations to a third party. This can be done without the owner’s knowledge, and the eavesdropping occurs even when the phone is turned off. There is, however, some question as to the exact methods used by the FBI in this specific case. They may have installed traditional hardware bugs in the suspects’ phones, but some experts believe they used the software method.

For the paranoid, there is this link, explaining how to detect/circumvent software bugs on your phone. More information on how a cell phone can become a bug is at this link (scroll down to the article entitled “Cell Phones Become Instant Bugs!”).

Link: http://news.com.com/…
(via Ars Technica)

The 2006 hurricane season is officially over, with only 5 hurricanes—none of which hit the United States. Much better than the previous 2 years.

Link: http://www.physorg.com/…

US Marines have found that Silly String is useful for detecting the near-invisible trip wires used to set off explosive traps in Iraq. Now that’s improvisation!

Link: http://www.time.com/…
(via digg)

As weird as it may sound, there exists a drill bit that creates a square hole with slightly rounded corners. I tried to find a product page, but the company (Watts Brothers Tool Works) does not appear to have a web site. The bit is an example of a Reuleaux triangle (highly-technical explanation here). The linked article has a very nice animated gif that shows how it works, and the picture for this post shows a cross-section of the actual drill bit.

Link: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/…
(via digg)

A US District Court judge has ruled that the US Treasury must change its currency such that blind people can distinguish between bills of different denominations. Apparently the US is one of the few countries where this is a problem. An appeal has already been authorized.

Link: http://www.acsblog.org/…
(via Slashdot)

Link #2: http://today.reuters.com/…

Second Life, a popular MMORPG, allows one to exchange virtual money (Linden dollars) for real money at a varying rate. Now a player claims to be the first person to reach an online net worth that could be cashed in for $1 million. Anshe Chung managed to do this via virtual real-estate transactions over a 2½-year period. This raises some interesting tax questions, which Chad’s News has covered previously.

Link: http://money.cnn.com/blogs/…
(via Neatorama)

Press Release: http://www.anshechung.com/…

The linked video is a short clip from the very first Chris Rock Show back in 1997. Towards the end, Chris almost perfectly predicts O.J. Simpson’s book, “If I Did It.” Simpson’s book and television special were both cancelled, after receiving international attention. But that didn’t keep advance copies of the book from being listed on eBay (and subsequently de-listed).

Link: http://www.youtube.com/…
(via digg)