News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
Taxpayers are eligible this year for a one-time refund of excise taxes paid on phone bills. The standard refund amount varies from $30 to $60 -or- you can dig up old phone bills and calculate the actual amount paid. The refund is not automatic—you have to claim it by filling in a line on form 1040 or 1040a, or by filing form 1040EZ-T.
Link: http://www.snopes.com/…
(via digg)
Anti-missile flares on military planes create really cool smoke “angels”. Also, here’s a video of the flares being set off.
Link: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/…
(via Nothing To Do With Arbroath)
In 1983, a Boeing 767 ran out of fuel at 40,000 feet. The pilots managed to glide it to a safe landing.
Link: http://www.teamdan.com/…
(via digg)
Link #2: http://en.wikipedia.org/…
The high-definition DVD format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD is still in progress, but manufacturers are coming up with some useful solutions. The South Korean firm LG has announced a player that will accept both types of discs, while Warner Bros. has simply decided to release its movies in both formats on one disc—one side is Blu-ray and the other is HD-DVD. Yet perhaps both formats will be a moot point, as we may see flash cards replace optical discs completely.
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…
Apple has officially announced the (horrendously overpriced but revolutionary) iPhone. From the article, the iPhone “allows users to listen to music, make phone calls, send text messages and e-mail, surf the Web, and take and upload photos, all using a wide touch screen and a single button.”
Link: http://news.com.com/…
For those trying to live a green life, here’s a small septic tank which breaks down animal waste in a sanitary and environmentally-friendly way.
Link: http://www.gardeners.com/…
(via Neatorama)
The 2006 Darwin Awards are out. Taking the top prize were two college students who suffocated inside a large, helium-filled balloon (repeat after me, “helium is not oxygen”). Runner-ups were (1) an electrician who used copper wire to fly a kite, which subsequently touched a power line, and (2) a man who used a sledgehammer to take apart a rocket-propelled grenade.
SanDisk is rolling out a 32GB notebook hard drive that uses flash memory instead of spinning platters. Chad’s News has covered this previously, but (as expected) the prices are coming down. On the same general topic, hard drive manufacturers are banding together to develop hybrid hard drives that combine a flash memory buffer with traditional spinning platters.
Link: http://arstechnica.com/…
There’s a fairly serious security flaw in the Adobe Reader plugin for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. It’s exploited via the URL to the PDF file, rather than the file itself. So even if the file is on a trusted site, clicking on a PDF link from an untrusted site or email could trigger the exploit. Internet Explorer version 7.0 does not have this problem, but 6.0 and previous versions are vulnerable. Non-IE users need to be very careful when opening PDF files, or consider disabling the PDF plugin.
Link: http://www.businessweek.com/…
(via Kim Komando)
UPDATE: Version 8 of the Adobe Reader does not have this problem.
Inveneo is taking donations of old USB flash drives, which they give to organizations/individuals that need them. Along this same line is Freecycle, which facilitates the transfer of unused stuff from those who have it to those who need it. I’ve used Freecycle to furnish my expanded household.
Link: http://www.inveneo.org/…
(via Engadget)
