December 2007
Open Source Living →
Welcome to Open Source Living, an archive of the Web’s best Open Source software, applications and references for a zero-cost / top quality digital experience.
Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep →
In what sounds like a dream for millions of tired coffee drinkers, Darpa-funded scientists might have found a drug that will eliminate sleepiness.
Radical Software →
Priests brawl at Jesus' birthplace →
At a Bethlehem church built over the manger where Jesus was alleged to have been born, two groups of “robed and bearded” Greek Orthodox priests and Armenian priests fought each other for over an hour “using fists, brooms and iron rods as weapons.” Seven people were injured in the brawl.
The brawl apparently began when Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders to clean the...
openvanilla - Google Code →
“Dijkstra denies all this and thinks we can make perfect solutions, ignoring the...”
– programming: _why: chaos is an essential component of writing code
“work by psychologist Carol Dweck that has found that if a child thinks that...”
– Mind Hacks: Beliefs about intelligence affect mental performance
Radical Software →
Fox helps itself to photo of blogger's dog →
Sweetney blogger Tracey Gaughran-Perez and her husband were surprised to see a photo of their dog, Truman, appear in Fox’s “Happy Holiday” ticker during a football game. According to Gaughran-Perez, someone from Fox yanked a photo (far left) of Truman in a Santa suit from her blog or Flickr stream, Photoshopped in a hat, and inserted the image (left) into their holiday promotion...
“The main reason why these corporations are hesitant to go online is because they...”
– Piracy, Morals and The Need for Change | TorrentFreak
A Useful Quote →
As found in the otherwise maddeningly frustrating first few pages of Barry N Malzberg’s BREAKFAST IN THE RUINS:
“Science fiction is a way of thinking about things.”
– Frederik Pohl
Which may seem like a small notion. But it’s possibly the best working definition of sf I’ve yet come across, insofar as it does the crucial business of inviting the body in front of you to consider sf as a tool with...
Trade court allows Antigua to violate US copyright →
Antigua has won the right to pirate $21 million worth of US copyrights in the World Trade Court, because the US violated the World Trade Organization agreement when it banned Antiguan Internet casinos. The US was an extremely aggressive promoter of the WTO around the world, leaning on countries to drop trade protections that gave their own industries advantages over US competitors — and now...
Trade court allows Antigua to violate US copyright →
Antigua has won the right to pirate $21 million worth of US copyrights in the World Trade Court, because the US violated the World Trade Organization agreement when it banned Antiguan Internet casinos. The US was an extremely aggressive promoter of the WTO around the world, leaning on countries to drop trade protections that gave their own industries advantages over US competitors — and now...
FBI Apparently Believes That Court Orders Are For... →
Wired’s invaluable Ryan Singel has been panning for gold in the muddy stream of FBI e-mails and other documents recently obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation under a Freedom of Information Act request, and has already hit a couple of intriguing nuggets, such as overeager agents’ willingness to bypass court-order requirements when seeking cell phone records. The documents...
Medical myths - Ten popular medical myths examined →
Philosophy of IP: The young do not see copyright... →
David Pogue ends his latest blog posting, saying “I do know, though, that the TV, movie and record companies’ problems have only just begun link here. Right now, the customers who can’t even *see* why file sharing might be wrong are still young. But 10, 20, 30 years from now, that crowd will be *everybody*. What will happen then?” His piece is an extended survey of various...
Cuban Truck-Raft →
It doesn’t say exactly what’s going on in this photograph but it accompanied an article in Foreign Policy on the continued exodus of immigrants fleeing Cuba to the US. The home-made vehicle appears to be a truck-powered raft. The barrels provide floatation and the engine drives the propeller. Cool hack if it works.
Amazon.com: Amazon DevPay, Amazon Web Services →
Insanity…
Lakota Natives Withdraw Treaties with U.S. →
Johnny says:
The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday. Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. The new country would issue its own passports and driving licenses, and living there would be tax-free —...
Google Talkabout: Merry Christmas, God Jul and... →
Language translation chatbots
Live longer, die suddenly - the double-edged sword... →
Everything comes with a price. Research in lab animals suggests that drugs designed to rejuvenate mitochondria (the “power generator” component of living cells) could fend off many of the diseases we associate with ageing and senescence, like Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease and so forth. The pay-off? It appears that when death finally does arrive, it does so with little or no warning, and...
Rock Band →
Homepage of ZABBIX :: An Enterprise-Class Open... →
Getting Millions Of People Listening To Your... →
Karl writes in to point out that on Fortune/CNN’s somewhat bizarre list of 101 Dumbest Moments in Business, number 59 is about Radiohead’s decision to offer a name-your-own-price offering for its downloaded music. As CNN notes, “Can’t wait for the follow-up album, ‘In Debt.” Ha ha. It then quotes the disputed Comscore numbers, suggesting that since only 38% of...
Why Should XM Have To Pay The Record Labels In... →
In a bit of unfortunate news, it appears that XM has given in and decided to settle its dispute with the record labels. The company has already settled with Universal Music, with the other major labels expected to quickly follow suit. The Reuters article incorrectly states that this was a patent infringement suit (fact checking, anyone?) but it’s actually a copyright issue, where the record...
Virtual Cable nav system superimposes route... →
Filed under: Displays, GPS, Transportation
We’ve seen quite a few next-gen nav device concepts, but none with as much potential as the Virtual Cable, from a New Jersey company called Making Virtual Solid. The system uses a laser, a set of lenses, and a moving mirror mounted in the dashboard to project a 3D route-guidance line above the road ahead, as though it’s actually out in front...
Summize - Discover reviews and blogs on millions... →
MINERVA - Phosphenes →
Half-Life 2 Game Residual Error Vol.1 download -... →
How Experts Fail wiki →
VBS.TV →
The partfoundry →
The iphone GPS module allows jail broken iphones to finally have GPS functionality. This module is in development and will be shipping in February. All software is open source and more applications are being written every day. This module gives you the ab
Online FLV Converter - Directly convert online flv... →
Your Encryption Key Is Protected By The... →
In an interesting case up in Vermont, a federal judge has ruled that someone accused of a crime cannot be forced to reveal his or her encryption key, as it would be a violation of the Constitution’s 5th Amendment, saying that an individual cannot be forced to self-incriminate. In an age where encryption is becoming increasingly popular, expect to see other cases of this nature. It seems...
218 - Korea’s Dark Half →
North and South Korea have been separated at the 38th parallel ever since the Korean War (1950-1953), which has never officially ended. In the ensuing ‘ceasefire’, North Korea developed into a communist dictatorship with a centrally planned economy, while South Korea became a capitalist democracy with a free market economy.
Economic hardship in the officially ‘self-reliant’ North has led to...
RSpec-1.0.8: Installation →