Chad's News

The US treasury is redesigning the $100 bill again, this time with a nifty effect that will be difficult to counterfeit.

Thanks to Josh for this topic.

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/…

Here is probably the best example I’ve seen of taking photos with and without the flash.

Link: http://img297.imageshack.us/…
(via digg)

According to this study, food in McDonalds packaging tastes better than the same food without the packaging.

Link: http://www.newscientist.com/…

Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

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

For some time now I have been wondering why we can’t just directly create the stuff that we currently rely on nature to provide: oil, food, etc. These items are basically made from four very plentiful elements—carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen—and I see no reason why we can’t just combine the elements in the right manner to create what we need. A company named LS9 has made a step in the right direction. They have developed bacteria that take corn-based sugars and convert them to oil. (They hope to eventually use switchgrass instead of corn.) One neat thing is that gasoline created from this oil is free of contaminants, such as sulfur, that exist in natural oil.

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

I can think of quite a few reasons why a person with malicious intent might want to hack the readers for the new, RFID-enabled passports.

Link: http://it.slashdot.org/…

Astute Chad’s News readers are already aware that Skype’s VoIP services were down for about two days. Turns out that the indirect cause of the outage was a massive number of near-simultaneous reboots caused by Windows Update.

Link: http://heartbeat.skype.com/…
(via Lifehacker)

Whenever I install Windows updates, a message keeps popping up every 10 minutes or so asking me if I want to restart. The linked article tells how to make it go away.

Link: http://lifehacker.com/…

UPDATE: There is now a free program that will make the change for you.

I’ve noticed a good number of these showing up in my spam folder. Unless it says the e-card is from someone I know, I just delete it.

Link: http://www.computerworld.com/…
(via Kim Komando)

Turns out that Aquafina bottled water is just tap water (with some processing to make it purer and better tasting).

Link: http://consumerist.com/consumer/…

A recent study has revealed that office printers release a significant amount of toner particulates into the air. Some printers were as bad as cigarettes in the amount of particles released. Printer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard, of course, was very quick to send out a press release denying the claims.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

Here at the Chad’s News Command Center, we’ve heard quite a few stories about online lovers finally taking the plunge and meeting in person for the first time—usually to dismal results. And while the man in the linked article is an extreme case, it pays to be careful with any romantic prospect that you meet on the internet. I’ve heard of mothers sending pictures of their college-age daughters and claiming them to be their own pictures. And don’t believe anyone who says they’re a minor—most likely it will be some sort of law enforcement official working a sting operation to catch child molesters.

Link: http://www.smh.com.au/…
(via Kim Komando)