Archive for November, 2008

The Simple Man’s Pie Chart [Picture]

Sunday, November 30th, 2008

Pie ChartHere’s a pie chart that even the children can understand.

Link: http://www.austinthirdgen.org/…
(via digg)

A Strike Against the iPhone

Saturday, November 29th, 2008

PhoneChad’s News has previously discussed the iPhone’s inability to display web pages that use Adobe Flash. Even though Apple’s products are overpriced, I usually recommend them because of superior user interfaces and stability—but this is one decision with which I disagree. Especially since one-third of all web pages use Flash. And Apple’s competitors are taking up the slack. According to the first linked article, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Google’s Android will both support Flash. The second linked article is an opinion piece on why Apple will never allow Flash on the iPhone. Of note is this: “Allowing Flash … would just be too dangerous for Apple, a company that enjoys exerting total dominance over its hardware and the software that runs on it.”

Link #1: http://www.mobilecrunch.com/…
(via Lifehacker)

Link #2: http://blog.wired.com/…
(via digg)

USB 3.0 Specification Is Now Official

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

USBAt 4.8Gbps, it’s 10 times faster than USB 2.0. Expect to see it for sale in the second half of 2009. The official name is “Super-Speed USB 3.0”.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/…

Lobotomies

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

DoctorThe sad history of lobotomies in the US.

Link: http://health.howstuffworks.com/…
(via digg)

Free Dr. Pepper For Everyone

Monday, November 24th, 2008

Dr. PepperRegister before 6:00pm EST today to get a coupon for a free Dr. Pepper. Click here for information on why they’re doing this.

Link: http://www.drpepper.com/…

How Would -You- Deal With the End of the World?

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008

MinusThis is one of the neatest cartoons I’ve seen. It affects me deeply on one level and makes me laugh on another.

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

Black Friday is Coming!

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008

TipsFriday, November 28th is the biggest shopping day of the year. Now you can plan ahead and find the best deals, at BlackFriday.info. The last time I did a Black Friday sale, I arrived at about 6:00am only to find over a hundred people waiting in line already. By the time I got inside the store, they’d run out of the hard drives I’d intended to purchase.

Link: http://www.blackfriday.info/
(via Lifehacker)

A Safe Place To Hide a Spare Car Key

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

TipsHere’s a neat tip—store a spare car key underneath your license plate, using one of the license plate screws to secure it. Sounds better than those magnetic holders.

Link: http://consumerist.com/…

Spam Has a 0.000008% Success Rate

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

EmailEver wondered about the success rate of spam? Researchers hijacked a botnet and used it to distribute millions of spam email messages. The response rate was 1 per 12,500,000 emails sent. (By the way, what they did was illegal, even though it was in the name of research.)

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

“A Hard Day’s Night” Chord is Unraveled

Monday, November 17th, 2008

MusicFor years, musicians have been trying to duplicate the initial guitar chord of the Beatles’ song, “A Hard Day’s Night” (listen here). Turns out that it’s not possible to do this using only guitars, because the chord includes a note from a piano. I found it funny that the mathematical operation mentioned in the article—a Fourier transform—is something every engineering student learns about in his/her first year or two of college.

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

Microsoft Targets Pirated Copies of Windows

Sunday, November 16th, 2008

MicrosoftMicrosoft has implemented a benign form of nagware for pirated versions of Windows. What I find ridiculous, however, is that the people using illegal copies are upset about this. They should just be glad Microsoft isn’t wiping their hard drives instead.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

Firefox 3

Saturday, November 15th, 2008

FirefoxI like to wait several months before upgrading to a new version of Firefox, and this time was no exception. But with the impending demise of Firefox 2.x support as well as the looming release of version 3.1, I took the plunge and installed version 3.0.4. It wasn’t too bad, although I had to axe a couple incompatible extensions and manually upgrade seven others (check out my list of extensions). For Chad’s new readers, who’ve probably updated ages ago, here are some Firefox 3 tweaks and tips from Lifehacker: