USBCELL: Batteries That Recharge Through USB

TrustedReviews - USBCELL: Batteries That Recharge Through USB

NOw that, I think, is a fantastic idea :)

plundr - Avast, ye scoundrel!

plundr: "Plundr is a location-based game of piracy and trading on the high seas. Start out as a bilge-spewing land-lubber in a leaky tub, search the ocean for unsuspecting ships to pillage, upgrade your ship, and amass a fortune in black market goods.
Plundr is designed to be played on laptop computers by players who are navigating through real-world space. The gameplay takes place on Islands where you can buy and sell goods, prey on Merchant Ships, and battle other nearby players. Each Island corresponds to a real-world location.
You will need the Loki location-sensing browser plugin to play this game.
Once you have installed Loki, click here to install the plundr channel. "

Print your postage online directly

Print your postage online directly: "The service is free (you just pay the normal postage price), easy to use and, because you can print your postage whenever you need it, you’ll never run out again."

My prediction? Adrian will buy one!

A great video promoting solar power

SquidSoap - Training Tomorrow's Great Hand Washers

SquidSoap - Training Tomorrow's Great Hand Washers:

Wouldn't it be great if someone could invent a simple, fun way to teach our children to wash their hands? The wait is over with SquidSoap.

Personalised google homepage adds tabs

Well it has: google

Sainsbury's in green package push

Sainsbury's in green package push:

Supermarket Sainsbury's is to sell more than 500 of its own-brand products in compostable packs instead of plastic as it seeks to cut packaging waste.

Amazon Unbox

Video downloads for sale from Amazon:

"There will be many downloads in your life. But only one first download from Amazon Unbox Video. So make it special. Light the candles. Pour a beverage and consider"

Amazon Unbox

Blogger in beta

I somehow managed to totally miss this:

Blogger Buzz: Blogger in beta: "Today we're launching a new version of Blogger in beta! You've been asking for ways to do more with your blog, and you can with this new release. With the beta you can:

Categorize your posts with labels
Control who can read your blog
Change the appearance and content of your blog with your mouse instead of HTML"

THEIR CIRCULAR LIFE

THEIR CIRCULAR LIFE

A way of seeing and hearing an entire day in an instant or you can focus on a particular moment. Quite interesting.

THEIR CIRCULAR LIFE

THEIR CIRCULAR LIFE

A way of seeing and hearing an entire day in an instant or you can focus on a particular moment. Quite interesting.

Stories from an ambulance

A blog by an Ambulance driver in East London. Now in book form. Random, interesting and funny.

Article about writing creating relationships with readers

from A List Apart

GeoTagging in Flickr

Looks like the US is better served than Europe at the moment but give them a chance!

Flickr New Geotagging

Pong. Gone wild.

h4sh.com

Looks cr@ppy. But just try it. Insanely addictive. Stoopid too.

http://www.ie7.com/

Here comes a problem. Microsoft are really going to love this:

http://www.ie7.com/ leads to a big sign saying: "Get Firefox"!

snakes in a cinema

now that's scary...

Live Rattlesnakes Released In 'Snakes On A Plane' Theater: "Two live diamondback rattlesnakes were released in an Arizona movie theater during a showing of the new film 'Snakes on a Plane,' according to Local 6 News."

IE7 v Firefox 2.0

bit-tech.net | Internet Explorer 7 v Firefox 2.0

A nation waits...

the politically incorrect alphabet

A is for, er...

Freyja has got have one on her wall, once we decide what "F" should be!

My Dream App

My Dream App:

Welcome to My Dream App. You're about to be involved in a revolution in the software industry: a no holds barred, totally transparent and ridiculously low barrier version of Macintosh shareware development. Ever wished you had the programming chops to create a killer app? For the first time, you're going to have a chance to make those dream apps come true.

The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation

The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation: "The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation"

Overground / Underground Wombling free

or rather ever wondered where the underground really goes?

Well this google / underground map mashup will tell you: http://tubejp.co.uk/

Game over man

All of the games you remember, but slightly different:

http://eatpes.com/game_over.html

also check out Roof Sex (but as you might guess not safe for work - it's not as bad as you might think)

excel in-cell bar graphs

information aesthetics

These are cool and what a neat idea to use REPT...

the power of css

the best "power of css" site is probably css garden, but this guy has really harnessed css control for myspace, this myspace page really looks like no other I've ever seen:

www.myspace.com/shawnanigans

CensusScope -- Demographic Maps: An Aging Population

A site with interesting info graphics. Like this one which shows that all of the old people are huddling together in the middle of America for warmth (and in Florida)

CensusScope -- Demographic Maps: An Aging Population: "AN AGING POPULATION"

Noisy Children's Furniture

Children's Furniture with Music!

The toy chest would be very cool...

The Mechanical Turk

Nowadays computers are very very good at chess. But once upon a time this wasn't true. The first mechanised chess player was a thing called the "Mechanical Turk" that played chess against you by moving peices around with its hand etc. But it was actually a man inside not a machine.

Some things are really difficult for computers but easy for machines. And Amazon has decided to make a market in it.

http://www.mturk.com/

Small tasks and small rewards but you could do a few and make some money

Tony Wilson

Sometimes, it just seems that the original non-improved articles on wikipedia were better than the new ones:

Tony Wilson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Tony Wilson"

Sadly they've "improved" it now.

Tony Wilson

Sometimes, it just seems that the original non-improved articles on wikipedia were better than the new ones:

Tony Wilson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Tony Wilson"

Sadly they've "improved" it now.

This is amazing

this is from the first daily show after September 11th.

A very powerful and moving speech to camera.

I'd vote for Jon Stewart!

10 Ways to make yourself a YouTube Star

10 Ways to make yourself a YouTube Star: "What are the prime ingredients for YouTube success - what separates a viral hit from a barely-noticed miss? Poking around the top rated videos provides a few answers"

10 Ways to make yourself a YouTube Star

10 Ways to make yourself a YouTube Star: "What are the prime ingredients for YouTube success - what separates a viral hit from a barely-noticed miss? Poking around the top rated videos provides a few answers"

AQA the text question service

has some rather nice, but a bit weird artwork on their website. They claim that AQA means the end of the question mark and they provide this picture to prove just that:

Landmarks quiz

BBC NEWS | UK | Landmarks quiz

Quite a fun little quiz. They've taken famous locations and removed the famous landmarks and you have to guess where you are.

French Fries back on the menu

French fries are back on the menu in the US House of Representatives, three years after the name was ditched in favour of "freedom fries."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5240572.stm

Net neutrality

I'm going to write here the shortest primer of Net Nutrality ever:

Net Neutrality people think you should pay for an ammount of bandwidth and the more bandwith you buy the more you can use, but it doesn't matter what you use.

Anti-Net Nutrality people (generally telcos) think you should pay more to make a phone call over the internet or watch a movie than the rest of the stuff you do because they use more bandwidth everywhere in the network - and they want to be able to send you a bill at the end of the month rather than a flat rate that you pay now.

There has been a lot of mindless back and forth about this issue, but now after you have read this primer you are ready to appreciate the best e-mail ever written on the subject. It was sent to The Register and was written in Comic Sans font but read it and tell me the guy doesn't have the point pretty nailed down, taking as he does the view that you'll be buying from the telcos the right to get your video and telephone at a priority over the rest of the traffic.

Take it away Arah Leonard:

VoIP and Video over IP can go to hell.

Should the anti-neutrality side win, the World Wide Web will be slowed to a crawl and be much more likely to fall apart, even while the internet as a protocol survives. As the VoIP and IPTV flood the network with far more data than it was ever conceived of transporting these services will be boosted in priority while the actual World Wide Web gets downgraded into infamy.

And for what? Cheaper telephones and TV? Telephone services that don't use the internet already exist. They have their own lines. We don't need VoIP to run a telephone. It's only a new fad. Cable and satellite servies already exist. As do local channels on the regular airwaves. They also have their own data lines. We don't need IPTV to run a television. It's an even newer fad. But there's only one World Wide Web, and there is no other service that can provide for it. The internet is the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web is the internet. So if we destroy the World Wide Web just to create cheaper alternatives to telephone and television, what have we actually accomplished?

Net neutrality - the great debacle | The Register

Stephen Johnson's blog

As in the writer of Emergence and Everything bad is good for you.

Museum brings creationism to life

Museum brings creationism to life - Science - MSNBC.com: "PETERSBURG, Ky. - Like most natural history museums, this one has exhibits showing dinosaurs roaming the earth. Except here, the giant reptiles share the forest with Adam and Eve."

This article could be accurately summed up as, "Idiots continue to be idiots and are now actively recruiting".

A big change coming? Didn't think pictures could do this...

Microsoft Live Labs: Photosynth: "'What if your photo collection was an entry point into the world, like a wormhole that you could jump through and explore… '

- Blaise Ag�era y Arcas, Live Labs

Watch the video to learn how this new technology will change the way you think of photographs forever. "

What's on the radio right now?

YES.com

How to DJ your first set without knowing how

aurgasm: How to DJ your first set without knowing how :: your favorite music you've never heard: "I was asked to DJ a one-hour set, though I had no previous DJ experience. I didn't know how to beatmatch, transition smoothly, use Ableton or Traktor, and neither do you. You just have to be comfortable with being a laptop DJ. "

The Top 50 Movie Endings of All Time

A list of the Top 50 Movie Endings of All Time. I think my favourite is no. 8.

Superman II gets a re-edit

Apparently, Richard Donner is going to re-edit Superman II. Does that mean we have to buy that DVD as well? ;)

Ten Thousand Statistically Grammar-Average Fake Band Names

Ten Thousand Statistically Grammar-Average Fake Band Names: "When working on the paper 'The Quest for Ground Truth in Musical Artist Similarity' (paper PDF link) we built MusicSeer to collect human evaluation of artist similarity. We expected a lot of responses but needed a way to ferret out 'bad' results-- robots, users just clicking randomly, and people that didn't know the bands presented. One idea was to pepper the list with 'red herrings' in the form of fake bandnames-- and if someone chose one, we'd ignore their responses later on. "

Chris Cornell records Bond theme

US rock star to record Bond theme: "Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell is to write and record the theme tune to the new James Bond film, Casino Royale. "

Do you remember the internet in 1996?

I do it looked a bit like this:

In 1996, the Internet Archive began archiving the web for a service called the Wayback Machine. They've now archived 55 billion web pages. That's enough web pages that if you were to print them all out using your roommate's printer while he was at class and tape them end-to-end, you could reach the moon and back 28 trillion times.

http://www.msu.edu/~karjalae/internet96.htm

Take everything in your house and turn it into dominos

Amazon rainforest 'could become a desert'

Amazon rainforest 'could become a desert': "The vast Amazon rainforest is on the brink of being turned into desert, with catastrophic consequences for the world's climate, alarming research suggests. And the process, which would be irreversible, could begin as early as next year. "

Joe's Goals

You know how you always want to go to the gym more (apparently) and eat less (allegedly). Why not use this neat little app to keep a tab on how well you're achieving your aims? http://www.joesgoals.com/

Luckily you get to choose your own goals and vices.

Getting Real: building web app book

Getting Real details the business, design, programming, and marketing principles of 37signals. The book is packed with keep-it-simple insights, contrarian points of view, and unconventional approaches to software design. This is not a technical book or a design tutorial, it's a book of ideas.

Getting Real: the book from 37 Signals

Polar bears in Berlin chill out

Polar bears in Berlin chill out

Sparklines

A sparkline is a small line graph designed to be used in-line within text to illustrate a time series; the concept was developed by data presentation guru Edward Tufte.

Here's a page with an example and a way to create them in photoshop: here

Worst song lyrics evah

We can do better can't we?

Here's a list which started this:

32 worst lyrics of all time

And here's some suggestions I have gleaned:

It's like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife
--Alanis Morissette

I wish that I could fly
Into the sky
So very high
Just like a dragonfly
I'd fly above the trees
Over the seas in all degrees
To anywhere I please
Oh I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah yeah yeah
--Lenny Kravitz?

Too hot to handle, too cold to hold.
They call the Ghostbusters and they're in control.
Had them throwing a party for a bunch of children.
When all the while, the slime was under the building.
So they packed up, regrouped, got a grip, camera quick.
Grabbed their proton packs on their backs and they split.
Found out about Vigo, the master of evil.
Try to battle my boys, that's not legal.

--Bobby Brown

We stayed in by the telly although the room was smelly?
--Squeeze

You said to trust you, you'd never hurt me
Now, I'm disgusted, since then adjusted
Certainly, you fooled me, ridiculed me
Left me hangin', now shit's boomerangin'
--Puff Daddy

Diviner than the dolphin, that there is none
'cause dolphins just-a like to have a lot of fun
No one tells 'em how their life is run
And no one points at them with a gun
They have a lot of love for every living creature
The smile of a dolphin is a built in feature
They be movin' in schools but everyone's the teacher
Someday mister dolphin, I know I'm go'n to meetcha
--Red Hot Chillie Peppers

I don't like cities, but I like New York.
Other places make me feel like a dork.
--Madonna

I'm afraid of the dark,
especially when I'm in a park,
I don't want to see a ghost,
it's the sight that I fear most.
--Des'ree

and my personal fav:

I'm as serious as cancer
When I tell you rhythm is a dancer
--Snap

and one from the charts right now:

Shakira, Shakira,
I never really knew that she could dance like this,
She makes a man want to speak Spanish
--Fugees feat. Shakira

Anything else?

Swipe-card plan to ration consumers' carbon use

Swipe-card plan to ration consumers' carbon use

A radical plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions by rationing the carbon use of individuals is being drawn up by government officials. The scheme could force consumers to carry a swipe card that records their personal carbon allocation, with points knocked off each time they buy petrol or tickets for a flight.

Click OK?

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1818631,00.html
Quite! Back to that TAB order in CRM :)

Microsoft shuts down Windows 98

Microsoft shuts down Windows 98

Microsoft is urging an estimated 70 million users of Windows 98 to upgrade as it ends support for the software.

Why Bose Sucks

Why Bose Sucks

Bose, like Bang & Olufsen and Nakamichi, sell lifestyle and designer products whose prices are very heavily saturated by image and appeal. They are by no means, no means at all performance products. They have no cost-effectiveness, no bang-for-the-buck value, and draw no respect from any true audio enthusiasts

The IT Screen Goddesses Calendar 2006-2007

Um... It's work safe, and very embarrassing.

The IT Screen Goddesses Calendar 2006-2007 is emerging soonÂ… stay tuned to this spot. The calendar features beautiful photos of real women working in the IT industry, in poses inspired by movie goddesses old and recent.

http://www.itgoddess.info/

Dice Wars

This would appear to be somewhat like Risk, but without all that unnecessary testosterone-fuelled army behaviour.

Dice Wars

Didn't have long to play it, so it might be cr@p :)

Interior design - for books

India, Ink. � Making Castoff: "Last week I attended a reunion of people who used to work at a certain nonprofit literary organization. Some are in publishing now, many are writers, and all are bookish people who buy and read books—past page 18—regularly. Yet I was asked several times, while catching up with folks, what it is that a book interior designer does. “So, like, you pick the fonts?”"

The Intergalactic Mashup King

The Intergalactic Mashup King:

In Werner Herzog’s films, the main characters tend to be ambitious explorers who find themselves crashing in spectacular failure. Aguirre, the Wrath of God follows a 16th-century conquistador who sets out to find El Dorado, only to end up on a raft, demented and alone, adrift on a stagnant river. In the documentary Grizzly Man, Timothy Treadwell becomes so adept at cohabiting with wild grizzly bears that he comes to believe he’s one of them – until he gets eaten.

Huggable Urns

Huggable Urns: "Huggable UrnsTM offers the most unique way to keep your loved one
close to your heart!"

John Powers

John Powers, artist

Some rather nice geometric art type stuff

evidence that typing is becoming a performance medium

Wired News: Real DJs Code Live:

A new brand of music maestro is turning programming into performance, eschewing turntables for a compiler and a mind for syntax structure. "Livecoding" practitioners improvise using Perl or homemade programming architectures to build compositions from the ground up, replacing instruments and samples with raw code authoring before a live audience.

Don't you want your own internet

27B Stroke 6: "The Senate Commerce Committee deadlocked 11 to 11 on an amendment inserting some very basic net neutrality provisions into a moving telecommunications bill. The provisions didn't prohibit an ISP from handling VOIP faster than emails, but would have made it illegal to handle its own VOIP packets faster than a competitor's."

Do you want me to send you an internet:

The Senate Commerce Committee deadlocked 11 to 11 on an amendment inserting some very basic net neutrality provisions into a moving telecommunications bill. The provisions didn't prohibit an ISP from handling VOIP faster than emails, but would have made it illegal to handle its own VOIP packets faster than a competitor's.

One of the senators explained that as he hadn't received an e-mail he'd been sent on Friday it was probably all the people using youtube's fault so they should be stopped. When he starts talking about tubes the whole thing gets a bit out of hand.

Shelley The Republican

Shelley The Republican � Google : The America-hating empire is taking over: "Friends,
I don’t have the great insight and knowledge Tristan has when it comes to that tech stuff, but I will attempt to write an article why I think it’s utterly wrong to use Google’s services."

A Search Engine That's Becoming an Inventor

A Search Engine That's Becoming an Inventor - New York Times:

When Google was a graduate-school project being run from a Silicon Valley garage, its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, built their own computers out of cheap parts meant for personal computers. They wanted to save money, and they felt that they could design a network of computers that would search the Web more efficiently than those available from traditional manufacturers.

Praying for people in not really working shocker!

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: No Prayer Prescription -- [ PSYCHOLOGY ] -- Send good vibrations, but keep it to yourself:

Seeking to assess the effect of third-party prayer on patient outcomes, investigators found no evidence for divine intervention. They did, however, detect a possible proof for the power of negative thinking.

Viral e-mail for fun and profit

eefoof.com - Make It. Post It. Profit.:

When you upload a piece of media for submission to eefoof, your first hit immediatly starts generating income. Each month, we measure the amount of individual page views for each item you submit, and then calculate the percentage of hits it accounted for its media type. We then use this number to figure out your share of the sites ad revenue. Once your account exceeds $25, we will send you a Paypal transfer to the email specified at account creation.

Nominet signs up to ICANN

Nominet signs up to ICANN:

"In a hugely significant move, .uk registry Nominet has signed up to internet overseeing organisation ICANN and put to bed an historic battle between the US not-for-profit company and managers of county-specific internet domains."

Not sure why exactly, but apparently it's very significant.

Dell laptop explodes

Dell laptop explodes at Japanese conference

(or is it a viral created by the sneaky types at Toshiba...)

Yes, it's a museum, but it's also like a big living room.

Yes, it's a museum, but it's also like a big living room. All those works of art are yours...

Tate Modern's website lets you make your own virtual collection of artwork:

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/yourcollection/

An interrupted article about constant interruptions at work

Leave me alone . . .

The average worker spends two hours a day answering phonecalls, emails and pointless questions about who ate the last Hobnob. We asked Tim Dowling to write about it - then kept interrupting him

Town chaos as cash thrown in air

Town chaos as cash thrown in air: "People in Aberystwyth had an unexpected windfall when a man showered what is thought to be thousands of pounds into the air at a pedestrian crossing. "

USB teddy bear holds data, scares children

A new breed of USB device

Does the World Cup have a lingua franca?

Does the World Cup have a lingua franca? By Daniel�Engber:

Frustrated Polish players complained on Wednesday that a blown call might cost them a chance to advance in the World Cup. On the same day, a Swiss referee made a questionable call that went against the team from Ukraine. What language do soccer players use when they bicker with the refs?

Music Videos From the 80s

Music Videos From the 80's

Some of them don't work but the ones that do are, er, memorable :)

Microsoft loses Excel patent appeal

Excel patent appeal - cough up $65m please, Mr Gates

Quick! Invent something that Microsoft can steal...

World Cup map

World Cup map:

Welcome to BBC Sport's interactive World Cup map, which brings together a broad range of our best content in one place.

I'm Feeling Spendy

I'm Feeling Spendy

Count up loose change found down back of sofa(F1?)
Enter amount in I'm Feeling Spendy box.
Ta-daa! Random item at Amazon for you to purchase.

(Have I posted this before? I am getting on a bit...)

daytrotter.com - a cool music website

http://daytrotter.com/

A cool music website which focuses on mainly indie bands, but also has session remixes and so on which seem to be good. Bands come in and record stuff and remix somebody elses stuff while they're there or something like that...

Most bizarre World Cup tie-in ever?

Virgin Mobile stuffs England fans with free kebabs

The company has apparently set up a "kebab emporium" in said field of dreams and all users have to do is text "kebab" to 26666 to "receive a mobile voucher entitling them to a free meal upon redemption of the voucher".

Animal testing discussed

From the Guardian: 'You won't find chimps having this debate'

After the demonstrations and court battles, isn't it time to talk calmly about animal testing? We ask two leading philosophers to debate the rights and wrongs

Discussion chaired by Julian Baggini

World Cup web meltdown

World Cup web meltdown

Although we won't be able to watch it anyway as the vans are after us:

Watching online could end up in court

Bah. Come on Paraguay!!

Laptops go large!

Try to control your lower jaws as you feast your eyes on this!

BBC closes out deal for showing UK TV over P2P

BBC closes out deal for showing UK TV over P2P:

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has renegotiated its terms with PACT, a UK trade organisation that represents the commercial interests of independent feature film, TV, and animation companies.

UK music fans can copy own tracks

UK music fans can copy own tracks:

UK music fans no longer face the threat of prosecution for copying their own CDs on to PCs or MP3 players, as long as the songs are only for personal use.

Google offers spreadsheet beta | The Register

Google offers spreadsheet beta The Register

No surprises there then...

A bad law to try and stop you from making a copy of anything

A bad law to try and stop you from making a copy of anything:

This will be a busy week in the House -- Congress goes into summer recess Friday, but not before considering the Section 115 Reform Act of 2006 (SIRA). Never heard of SIRA? That’s the way Big Copyright and their lackey’s want it, and it's bad news for you.

Punters decide they don't like Mondays

Online lottery company faces ruin

Shame. I thought it was a good idea, although:

"Mr Holley and two fellow directors have also received payouts worth more than the £520,000 donated to the 20 charities linked to Monday."

Not all that charitable of them!

Brothers spurn veg for 424 years

Brothers spurn veg for 424 years:

Children: next time parents order you to eat your broccoli so that you will have a long and healthy life, don't believe them.

I bet they eat potatoes though.

World Cup by broadband endangers networks

World Cup by broadband

Can't see Scott letting than one through :(

To the pub..................!!

Manilow to drive out 'hooligans'

Manilow to drive out 'hooligans':

A council in the Australian city of Sydney is taking radical measures against car-revving youths - the calming tones of singer Barry Manilow.

apparently: "Daggy music is one way to make the hoons leave an area, because they can't stand the music," ?!?!

Manilow to drive out 'hooligans'

Manilow to drive out 'hooligans':

A council in the Australian city of Sydney is taking radical measures against car-revving youths - the calming tones of singer Barry Manilow.

apparently: "Daggy music is one way to make the hoons leave an area, because they can't stand the music," ?!?!

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft debuts security package

Microsoft debuts security package:

Users worried about staying safe online will soon be able to get software to protect their home PC direct from Microsoft.

Largest cities through history...

An interesting article about when cities became big and when. It has a list!

What does the internet do to a couple?

Lots of interesting questions about couples who spend a lot of time online "together". "A couple watching TV, curled up on a sofa together, may have felt 'together', a couple surfing on two wifi laptops are visiting different sites, having different experiences. They seem more apart than together. The internet age feels less communal than the TV age did."

What's in a name?

A quick study shows that stocks of simply named companies do better than those of more complexly named companies. Even companies with pronounceable ticker symbols did better than those with unpronounceable symbols. From: kottke.org