News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
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 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/…
Today Microsoft released an emergency out-of-cycle patch for Internet Explorer. The vulnerability exists in IE6 and above, but so far it’s only been seen in the wild for IE6.
Link: http://arstechnica.com/…
I did not realize that the Pidgin instant messaging client stores your saved passwords in plain text. The linked article discusses that and more.
Link: http://lifehacker.com/…
Ever wondered how auto manufacturers ensure that car door remotes can’t be used to unlock multiple vehicles? The method they use makes it possible but highly unlikely. Also turns out that you shouldn’t repeatedly press the unlock button unless you’re near the car. The linked article explains all.
Link: http://www.mentalfloss.com/…
(via Neatorama)
The linked article explains the differences between the various USB standards and naming conventions, and also gives some general tips about USB. After reading it, you can amaze your friends with your new knowledge!
Forget about collecting all those paper copies; instead, consider purchasing the full run of National Geographic magazine from 1888. Yes, that’s 120 years. The set comes on an external hard drive with the full text and high-resolution digitized pictures (including advertisements) of every issue. It also includes the maps.
Link: http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/…
(via Engadget)
For the iPhone users out there, are you tired of AT&T’s poor coverage? “Mark the Spot” is an iPhone app that, when you have a service failure, registers a complaint with AT&T and tells them the exact location of the failure.
Link: http://lifehacker.com/…
Here’s a nice power outlet that includes two USB charging plugs in addition to the standard three-prong electrical outlets. It costs $9.95, fits in any existing wall outlet, and doesn’t drain any “vampire” power. The downside is that it’s only available for pre-order (but should be shipping fairly soon).
Link: http://store.fastmac.com/…
(via Engadget)
There are advantages to using cloud computing services such as Google Docs, but there are also some definite disadvantages. Chief among these are the potential loss of access to your data, and getting what you pay for.
Link: http://it.slashdot.org/…
A Taiwanese man is the first person to finish World of Warcraft. According to the article, he “killed 390,895 creatures, accumulated 7,255,538,878 points of damage, completed 5,906 quests (that’s 14.62 quests per day, apparently), raided 405 dungeons and hugged 11 players.” Some people have way too much free time.
Link: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/…
(via Neatorama)
Given the unbelievably large number of Coca-Cola cans sold every day, one artist has a simple proposal to save significant amounts of energy and materials: don’t paint the cans.
Link: http://gizmodo.com/…
(via digg)
