Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The New Dracula-Energy Sucking Standby Mode

clipped from wbztv.com
A force as insidious as Dracula is quietly
sucking a nickel of every dollar's worth of the electricity that
seeps from your home's outlets
nsert the little fangs of your cell phone charger in the outlet
and leave it there, phone attached: That's vampire electronics.
Allow your computer to hide in the cloak of darkness known as
``standby mode'' rather than shutting it off: That's vampire
electronics
The latest estimates show 5 percent of electricity used in the
United States goes to standby power,
The percentage could rise to 20 percent by 2010, according to
the U.S. Department of Energy.
The International Energy Agency has estimated standby energy use
by vampire electronics at 200 to 400 terawatt-hours a year. The
entire country of Italy consumes about 300 terawatt-hours of
electricity each year, according to the agency
``About 40 percent of the electricity being used to power your
home electronics is consumed while they are in that standby mode,
small changes add up to big energy savings

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Wireless Power

A new sys­tem for trans­mit­ting pow­er could get rid of the tan­gle of ca­bles that keep alive our cell phones, lap­tops and oth­er de­vices, re­search­ers re­port.

Phys­i­cists at the Mas­sa­chu­setts In­sti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy in Cam­bridge, Mass. found that pow­er could be trans­mit­ted with­out wires us­ing spe­cial “res­o­nant” an­ten­nas. The re­search­ers used the sys­tem to pow­er a 60-watt light bulb more than two me­ters (a­bout two yards) from a wire­less trans­mit­ter at 40 per­cent ef­fi­cien­cy.

The MIT con­cept, called “WiTricity” for wire­less elec­tricity, in­volves us­ing so-called cou­pled res­onators. These are ob­jects that, if struck or dis­turbed, tend to nat­u­rally os­cil­late at a def­i­nite rhythm. If two of them tend to have match­ing rhythms, they ac­tu­ally en­hance each oth­ers’ os­cilla­t­ions. 
Wow, This would be so useful.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Flock 1.0 Beta Released: Surprisingly Very Good

clipped from www.techcrunch.com

I’ve been hard on Flock in the past, believing it to be nothing more than Firefox with a couple of fancy plugins. In some respects that was true (it’s based on Firefox code) but the new Flock offers something completely unique that for me at least makes it surprisingly very good.

The big change to Flock is the introduction of sidebar social networking integration. Flock now comes standard with support for Facebook, Flickr (more so than previously), Twitter and YouTube.

flock1.jpg
Media Bar

The media bar is not new to Flock, but where as the service was previously focused on Flickr, Facebook support is now integrated, providing drag and drop uploads. Another feature Facebook addicts will love.

Flock launched 2 years ago tomorrow so they’ve been around long enough to get their product right. It’s been a difficult two years for the startup as they’ve had to battle against a marketplace that wasn’t that receptive to new browsers. The new Flock isn’t for everyone, but it will win new fans.

How to enable spell check in Firefox text forms

clipped from www.simplehelp.net

How to enable spell check in Firefox text forms

This brief tutorial will show you how to enable spell check in web page forms (text input fields) in Firefox.

enable spell check in firefox forms


  1. Start by entering about:config in the Firefox address bar (without the http://)

  2. In the Filter: field, enter layout.spellcheck to bring up the layout.spellcheckDefault preference.

    enable spellcheck in firefox forms

  3. Double-click that entry and change the integer value from 1 to 2 and click OK.

  4. enable spell-check in firefox forms

  5. Open a new browser window or tab (or refresh an existing one) and test it out.

  6. enable spellcheck in firefox forms

Firefox

Friday, October 26, 2007

Top 9 things that will happen when we run out of oil

10. Embattled Senator Larry Craig (R. Idaho) begins writing what will soon become the N.Y. Times best-selling book, Taking a 'Wide Stance' on Alternative Energy.

9. Bush is overheard saying, "Hmm...maybe this solar energy thing ain't such a bad idea."

8. NASCAR races are shortened to 3 ½ laps. Drivers must hop to the finish in a ‘sack race'...Jeff Gordon still wins.

7. The U.S military pulls out of Iraq, saying, "Screw democracy."

6. Ford Launches new "Flintstones" option with detachable floorboards.

5. Decrepit oil drilling and pumping rigs around the world are purchased for 3 cents on the dollar by Disney Corp. for its new adventure ride.

4. Willie Nelson inks a deal with Exxon to promote a new line of hemp-powered "high-brid" vehicles.

3. Pasty, old, white politicians remind everyone that, "Skateboarding is not a crime -- it's an energy-efficient form of transportation...dudes."

2. Jiffy Lubes across the U.S. convert into coffee shops overnight.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Saddam's Execution - Behind The Scenes

clipped from www.metacafe.com
What really happened during the last 24 hours of Saddam Hussein's life. A behind the scenes look from the people who were there.

POLITICALLY CORRECT female

clipped from phunkyou.com
POLITICALLY CORRECT female
clipped from phunkyou.com

How to speak to a Woman and remain…”POLITICALLY CORRECT”

She is not a BABE or a CHICK - She is a BREASTED AMERICAN.
She is not a BLEACHED BLONDE - She is PEROXIDE DEPENDENT.
She is not a BAD COOK - She is MICROWAVE COMPATIBLE.
She is not HALF NAKED - She is WARDROBE IMPAIRED.
She does not wear TOO MUCH JEWELRY - She is METALLICALLY OVERBURDENED.
She is not CONCEITED - She is INTIMATELY AWARE OF HER BEST QUALITIES.
She does not want to be MARRIED - She wants to lock you in DOMESTIC
INCARCERATION.

She does not GAIN WEIGHT - She is a METABOLIC UNDERACHIEVER.
She is not a SCREAMER or MOANER - She is VOCALLY APPRECIATIVE.
She is not EASY - She is HORIZONTALLY ACCESSIBLE.
She does not TEASE or FLIRT - She engages in ARTIFICIAL STIMULATION.
She is not DUMB - She is a DETOUR OFF THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY.

She does not HAVE A MUSTACHE - She is IN TOUCH WITH HER MASCULINE SIDE.

She does not GO SHOPPING - She is MALL FLUENT.
She is not a BLEACHED BLONDE - She is PEROXIDE DEPENDENT.