Archive for March, 2007

Dollar Bill Origami

Saturday, March 31st, 2007

MoneyHere’s some really neat origami figures made from dollar bills. My favorite one is the cat.

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

Introducing the Airbus A380

Friday, March 30th, 2007

AirplanePopular Mechanics got a sneak peek at the new Airbus A380—the largest passenger aircraft in the world. It’s so heavy that some airports will have to reinforce their runways and taxiways to handle the weight. There’s a short video that shows the inside of the plane, which is roomy enough to have a walk-up bar.

Link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/…
(via Slashdot)

Gifted Children and Heavy Metal Music

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

MusicThe linked article discusses how heavy metal music can help comfort gifted children. For me, metal disrupts the overactive mental activity in my head and, as weird as it may sound, has a calming effect.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/…
(via slashdot)

Shia Islam vs. Sunni Islam

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

IslamWe’ve all heard about the Shias and the Sunnis in Iraq, but a lot of Americans don’t really know what that means. The linked article gives a quick breakdown of the main differences between Sunni Islam and Shia Islam, the two primary Muslim denominations. It all comes down to the succession of power from Muhammad.

Link: http://www.neatorama.com/…

Flash Flood

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

WeatherThis video shows a flash flood coming down a creek bed in Australia. Wow.

Link: http://arbroath.blogspot.com/…

The Ultimate Rootkit

Monday, March 26th, 2007

Computer SecurityIt has long been known that, when it comes to rootkits, you cannot trust anything reported by software. So state of the art rootkit detection uses custom-built hardware to get an image of RAM. (Back in “the day,” there were peripherals that took an image of RAM in order to crack software copy protection. The hardware-based rootkit solutions work in a similar manner.) But a security researcher has developed a proof-of-concept rootkit that modifies the image of RAM obtained by these hardware detectors, such that the image is different from what actually resides in physical memory. This is the ultimate in rootkit stealthiness, and I find it to be mind boggling.

Link: http://blogs.zdnet.com/…
(via Slashdot)

China Going To The Moon

Sunday, March 25th, 2007

SpaceChina has announced they will launch a moon probe later this year. In addition, they plan to send a manned mission to the moon within the next 15 years. I’m glad the rest of the world is taking an interest in space.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…

It’s a Star Wars Post Office

Saturday, March 24th, 2007

MailThe US Postal Service has begun a 30th anniversary Star Wars tie-in by converting some of its drop boxes to look like R2-D2. Apparently there is more to come, including specially-themed stamps. The list of cities receiving the drop boxes is here, and a map of the ones “discovered” is here. My home town of Denver has one, but it’s not yet listed on the map.

Link: http://www.theforce.net/…

Link #2: http://www.theforce.net/…

UPDATE: The Denver mailbox is located at 299 Fillmore St.

Obama Spoof of 1984 Mac Commercial

Friday, March 23rd, 2007

VoteSomebody took the famous 1984 Super Bowl Macintosh commercial and modified it to be anti-Hillary Clinton and pro-Barack Obama. Politics aside (Chad’s News has no position, official or unofficial, on any election), they did a very good job.

Link: http://macdailynews.com/…
(via digg)

Direct Link to Video: http://www.youtube.com/…

Alien PT Cruiser

Thursday, March 22nd, 2007

CarThis modified PT Cruiser is one of the neatest cars I’ve seen. I want one!

Link: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/…
(via Neatorama)

Just Who Is Leeroy Jenkins?

Wednesday, March 21st, 2007

GamingA man named Ben Schulz has become famous due to the actions of his online World of Warcraft character, Leeroy Jenkins. During a WoW campaign, he single-handedly killed his entire party by charging the enemy (NSFW language) without any preparation. The video of the event became a viral hit, with Leeroy’s fame going far enough to include him in a Jeopardy question.

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

Flash Is Not Forever

Tuesday, March 20th, 2007

USBWith the popularity of flash memory, it’s easy to forget that flash cells have a limited number of writes before they start failing—typically between 100,000 and 1 million. While this is probably more than enough for the casual user, it’s a good idea to remember that old flash memory may not be reliable.

Link: http://www.komando.com/…