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This is yet another cool way to waste time at the office. The instructions for building your very own Office Bow of Death have arrived - you can destroy those in cubicles across the office after building this contraption. The best part is that it is made of supplies you can find in just about any corporate environment.
Read More 
| Office Bow of Death
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iPod Earbuds Save Hearing Of London Bomb Victim
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Portable Audio / Video,
Tad Grglewiecz was on one of the buses hit by the bombings a few days ago, and his doctors say that his earbuds saved his hearing:
Doctors told him his hearing was saved by his iPod earphones. He was treated at the scene by a female doctor from the British Medical Association, whose headquarters were next to the bus blast. “I was bleeding heavily, so without her help it could have been very serious for me. Last night I went into theatre to have my wounds cleaned. There were bits of bus in me. It was a miracle I was not more badly injured considering how close I was to the explosion. The help I received from people was extraordinary.”
Read More | Independent Online
Too Much Unlockable Video Game Content Can Suck
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Mods/Hacks,
Unlockable video game content can be a wonderful thing. It can be a Pavlovian joy to have more stuff unlocked and to have your game play actions positively rewarded like a laboratory rat mouse working through the maze in a college psychology course. However there can be some darker B.F. Skinner type approach to unlockable game content that I must frown on. As time passes it seems like I have less and less time to play video games as I used to and it is really frustrating when a game developer will take most of the content in a game and only dish out a pittance at the beginning and then the game will demand hours after hours while dishing out a few new items and cars once and a while.
Click to continue reading Too Much Unlockable Video Game Content Can Suck
Latest Gear Live Videos
Okay, so we love Skype. The IM client/P2P VOIP client has been good to us. Today, they deliver yet another small token, as they present their first Free SkypeOut Day. In actuality, you only get 10 free SkypeOut minutes, so it is a bit misleading. To score your free ten, log in to Skype, and head to the My Account page. Do it quick, as you only have until the end of the day.
Read More | Skype
Now this is neat - Playfeed has a story on a Flickr plug-in for Xbox Media Center. Basically, it gives you just about every Flickr function available from the website within the confines of the XBMC application. To install the plug-in, you just download it and FTP it into the Xbox.
Read More | Playfeed
It’s thing like this that make me realize why I absolutely love having a modded Xbox. This Flickr plug-in for Xbox Media Center allows you to access all of your Flickr photos from the comfort of your living room. All you need to do is create a Flickr account, and dump your images there, and you will be able to pull them up on your Xbox over an Internet connection. Even better, you can view the images of other people as well using this interface. I love the presentation here as well, really well done.
Download | XBMC Flickr Plug-in
RSS is really an important topic to understand now. The majority of the Internet has yet to fully accept RSS, and this puts you at a distinct advantage to get your foot in the door early. Obviously, if you run a blog or content site, RSS is a no brainer. Nowadays, you can even use Google AdSense For Feeds or Feedster Media to monetize your feed. Now, if you sell items, you can use RSS to update your clients on new offerings (Woot does a great job of this), and even offer tracking information via RSS.
To launch your RSS feed to your readers create an article explaining why you are making an RSS feed available or if you have a blog, then blog about it. If you have a newsletter then add some information that will appear on each newsletter to tell your readers that they can get your newsletter via RSS. RSS will be a lot less maintenance for you than an email subscribers list.
Click to continue reading How To Promote Your RSS Feed
The Internet industry is booming and offers opportunities galore for internet businesses. Internet businesses are not just for computer whizzes anymore, not just for people with multiple college degrees or a rich background in business. Internet businesses are a viable economic solution to anyone owning a computer and willing to research their options. There are many benefits to owning an Internet business, and the list below contains only the very few to scratch the surface.
Click to continue reading Experience the Benefits of an Internet Business
The U.S. military needed a performance nutrition bar for the toughest customer in the world - the American soldier. Since they surmised that Power Bars were for sissies, they created the HOOAH! bar. The HOOAH! bar’s mission: to “improve the physical and mental performance of soldiers during sustained operations and under all climatic conditions.” I know a few people in the Army, and they actually do say that these things work. Who am I to argue with military personnel? The bars have already hit 7-11 and Amazon
Read More | HOOAH! Bar Product Page
Hello from Boston, MA! Even though MacWorld Expo doesn’t start until tomorrow, I’ve already begun writing — and after a day like yesterday, who wouldn’t?! Enjoy the many adventures it took to get to Boston, because I’m sure it’s a lot more funny if you’re not the one who has to be there.
As it Happened: 09 July 2005 : 8:30am
- I was almost late to my flight. a) Erik, my roommate, was going to drive me at 6:15am for a 8:30am flight since a co-worker was coming in early to cover his shift. b) The co-worker didn’t show up until nearly 7am, at which point I realized that I had I lost my tickets and itinerary, and my hotel reservations. I found them in my fuzzy slipper under the bed.
- When I did get there, I was psyched to volunteer for a later flight (woo! free tickets! ...or so i thought). If only it were that easy. The ones who got there and volunteered first were the lucky ones.
- They’d already taken all the volunteers they wanted. Which left me disaffected…. but then….
- That’s when i saw that it was some sort of child-ferrying extravaganza - there are literally more children than adults on this flight. Jesus.
- The FAA requires that all placards and signs be intact and apparently my school bus of the Sky has a rip on one of the wing labels. We’re sitting on the runway while someone goes and gets a spare.
- I forgot to charge my PowerBook. Dammit. I only 1/3 of a charge on it.
- WTF is taking so long about putting on this damn sticker? Is our wing falling off? Christ, just peel and stick, people!
- The pilot ACTUALLY JUST SAID “Now that we have a shiny new sticker on the wing, so we’re definitely good to go.”
- During the time between “good to go” and actually beginning the taxi, I was able to listen to the following songs on my iPod: Feel Good Inc - Gorillaz The Orthodox Pleasure - Information Society Megalomaniac - KMFDM (I should note here that “Megalomaniac” is a 7.5 minute long song) Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana Strength - Information Society
- Between starting the taxi and becoming airborne, I additionally enjoyed: Shake The Disease - Depeche Mode (another 7-8min song) Private Life - Oingo Boingo Tainted Love - Marilyn Manson (it’s another cover from my boy, Manson…) Move Your Body - Eiffel 65
- The flight thereafter was somewhat uneventful, the high points were drinking a sprite, reading about AlaskaAir’s new in-flight media units you can rent (total article about these coming), and taking a picture of Mt Rainier at 10,000’ into our ascent to cruising altitude.
- I finished an entire crossword puzzle in the Alaska Inflight Magazine (hard questions, too!) in less than two hours.
- I will never again travel without an iPod. Ever. I don’t know how I lived without one of these! Dammmmmn!
- I wrote all this on the back of my travel itinerary prior to putting it in my PowerBook, because I’m a retard and didn’t bring any paper. DUR.
- I’m almost out of batteries (although 2 hours on 1/3 of a charge is DAMN IMPRESSIVE), so I’m going to listen to Information Society and read “Red Mars” by Kim Stanley Robinson, which Ian kindly lent me for the trip.
In Flight Funnies: 09 July 2005 11am
- I totally listened to “Narcotic Influence” by Empirion (off the “Hackers” soundtrack) during the pre-flight safety presentation (and then got witty and changed it to Duran Duran’s “Safety Dance”). Definitely made it more amusing.
- I spent the first hour of the flight wearing my iPod headphones in the wrong ears (right on left, left on right) all the while wondering why I couldn’t hear it very well and why my headphones were suddenly making my ears uncomfy.
- The pilot seems to fancy himself a comedian, since he’s had some brilliant one-liners over the PA, such as “We’ve reached our laid back cruisin’ altitude of 35,000’.” “We’ve just passed over Spokane on our way out of WA… but it’s more like we left it in the dust” and, I swear to god, “Now that we’ve breezed over Idaho, we can begin our MAGICAL JOURNEY across the FASCINATING mid-western United States!”
Over and out!
