Chad's News

Korea’s Imaginary Wall

Chad Cloman — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:09:17 +0000

From the article: “North Korea’s New Year’s wish of seeing the destruction of a massive concrete wall dividing the Korean peninsula never seems to come true — mostly because there is no such barrier.”

Link: http://www.reuters.com/…

Man Sues Neighbor For Using an iPhone

Chad Cloman — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:48:28 +0000

A man who claims he is sensitive to electromagnetic radiation is suing his neighbor for using her iPhone at home.

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

What Does Your Email Address Say About You?

Chad Cloman — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:50:40 +0000

Back in the day, companies would advertise their AOL keywords in print and television. But AOL has been in decline for years now, and having an “aol.com” email address is a sign of being behind the times. In the linked article, the writer discusses how she feels about using her AOL email in a professional capacity, and I have to agree with her. I’ve had the cloman.com domain since 1999 and simply forward its messages to whatever mail client I’m currently using—in this case, gmail. This gives me a certain amount of portability, as well as some tech world street cred.

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

Apple Announces The iPad

Chad Cloman — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:45:56 +0000

Last week Apple introduced its latest invention, the iPad. Despite the fanfare, I don’t believe the iPad will dramatically change the state of the art. I expect the chief reason for buying an iPad will be its advanced eBook reading capabilities.

The iPad has been described as a large iPhone. It can run all existing iPhone apps without modification. It runs the Safari web browser but has no support for Flash, which disables quite a few websites. It does not have a built-in camera, nor does it allow you to make phone calls (even VoIP is prohibited for now).

Link #1: http://arstechnica.com/…

Link #2: http://www.engadget.com/…

The Lowdown On Obscure US Banknotes

Chad Cloman — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 09:48:00 +0000

Despite the many attempts to cash million-dollar bills and the availability of fakes, the largest banknote ever printed by the US government was a mere $100,000. The linked article has this and other interesting facts about obscure and large-denomination bills.

Link: http://www.mentalfloss.com/…

Chrome 4.0 Released — With Extension Support

Chad Cloman — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 09:30:30 +0000

Last week, Google released version 4.0 of its super-fast Chrome browser. A much-desired enhancement is the ability to support extensions. Say hello to AdBlock!

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

Food Fight!

Chad Cloman — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 04:48:14 +0000

The time-lapse video in the linked article shows starfish and monster worms feeding on the body of a dead seal that sank to the ocean floor. Very neat!

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…
(via naacal)

Switching One Poison For Another

Chad Cloman — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:38:25 +0000

From the article: “An AP investigation has found that, barred from using lead in children’s jewelry, some Chinese manufacturers have substituted cadmium — which is more dangerous.”

Link: http://consumerist.com/…

GodMode For Windows Power Users

Chad Cloman — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:45:48 +0000

Here at the Chad’s News network command center, we’ll give up Windows XP when they pry it from our cold, dead fingers. But for those power users who’ve taken the plunge to Windows 7, we introduce “GodMode” to make your life easier. And for those who really want to explore the intricacies of Windows system administration, there’s even more.

Link: http://news.cnet.com/…
(via Slashdot)

The Y2010 Bug

Chad Cloman — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:14:56 +0000

Nearly everyone is familiar with the Y2K problem, and technically-minded Chad’s News readers know of the looming Y2038 issue, but the Y2010 bug (also Y2K+10 or Y2.01K) seems to have caught everyone unaware.

Starting on January 1^st, 2010, some computer systems thought the year was 2016. The Bank of Queensland’s EFTPOS system (in Australia) had this problem, and customers were unable to use their credit cards because the cards had “expired.” Many Germans had a similar problem.

Most computer scientists will figure this one out at first glance (although that didn’t happen here at Chad’s News). Just looking at the last two digits of the years, 10 and 16, should make the problem obvious. The bug was caused by the use of a fairly obscure numbering system known as binary coded decimal (BCD), where each digit of a base-10 decimal number is represented in base-16 (hexadecimal). So a hexadecimal 10, which is normally a decimal 16, is considered to be a decimal 10 instead. The code that failed did not understand this fact and treated the hex 10 as a decimal 16—thus the change from 2010 to 2016.

Link: https://www.networkworld.com/…
(via Slashdot)

When a Megabyte Isn’t a Megabyte

2009 Darwin Awards

Chad Cloman — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:33:03 +0000

The 2009 Darwin Awards are out, and the winners are two bank robbers killed by crushing debt. Here at Chad’s News, we think one of the runner-ups (dying to go) was more deserving, but the judges were obviously swayed by the rare phenomenon of having two people remove themselves from the gene pool with a single action.

Link: http://www.darwinawards.com/
(via Neatorama)

Firefox 3.6 Released

Chad Cloman — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 07:10:01 +0000

Firefox 3.6 has been officially released. Get it here. Not much in the way of new features, but it now has Personas (light-weight themes), plug-in protection, and changes that only web developers will truly appreciate. See the linked article for more details.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…