Category: bookmarks

All you need is an A4 size copy paper.

A simple set of FAQs by NASA on 2012. This should hopefully put to rest the worries of those disturbed by the movie 2012.

Cassette to iPod, "I am your father"

The Apple App Store problems continue with approval delays & its confounding approval process.
'Apple has a very serious problem on its hands, one that can derail its grand plan. It needs to fix this as quickly as possible. Otherwise the company is going to blow the game in the bottom of the ninth — much like the Phillies in Game 4 of the 2009 World Series.'

Results from my Johari Window test

Comparison of different tariff plans across telecom service providers in India, particularly the 1p/min schemes.

A variety of items inside bottles that seemingly would not fit through the mouth

Research seems to indicate a couple more higher order traits over the Big 5, viz., stability and plasticity. And they seem to have to be dependent on serotonin and dopamine levels in the body.

'Sometimes, from certain places, the light from the sun can briefly appear green.'
via http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/15/the-green-flash-of-t.html

'The bottom line is that there has never been an expectation that IT would be solely responsible for a company's rise or fall. Adroit management, supported by the right IT tools, makes the difference. A company that smartly and innovatively leverages its IT in new and creative ways will move to the head of the pack. And, thanks to IT, you don't need a workforce of thousands to do so. And we need to measure these changes in more holistic ways.'

Modeling, collaboration, customer service, live event annotation & RPGs

Facebook comes out on top followed by MySpace & Bebo. Orkut's at no. 6. Odd to see that Yahoo 360 is still on the list.

A dozen things listed by Scoble ranging from picking the wrong technology to having priorities messed up.

'Alyson Shontell writes about her unsuccessful job interview with Google, which has gained a reputation for asking hard and bizarre questions that test a candidate's creativity, priorities, and critical thinking skills.'
Kind of like the stuff covered in the book "How would you move Mount Fuji" based on Microsoft's puzzle interview questions.
via http://www.neatorama.com/2009/11/13/googles-famously-difficult-job-interview-questions/

Verifying the wordpress.com blog for Google, Yahoo & Bing Webmaster tools through the dashboard itself. Earlier the process was a lot more complicated, but now support has been built into wordpress.
Just go to the Tools page in the blog dashboard & copy the meta tags as described from Google/Yahoo/Bing

Publications by Danah Boyd, a social researcher. Papers are mostly on social networks & trends among the youth.

A nice do it yourself lost screw finder using CD spindle case & similar stuff

Interesting way to represent the human organs using vegetables

Handy service that acts as a single point of checking

They have a big catalogue of Hindi, Bengali & other regional movies & songs available for free viewing online. Quite an interesting development. They also have their own youtube channel – http://www.youtube.com/user/rajshri

Interesting way to use the robots. They also have photos & videos along with other details.
'Three computer scientists at Colorado University programmed several Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners to act like Pac-Man and the ghosts which chase him. Jack Elston, Cory Dixon, and Maciej Stachura did so in order to demonstrate the unmanned aerial system that they are developing. Click on the link for more videos, pictures, and schematics for this project.' — http://www.neatorama.com/2009/11/09/roombas-playing-pac-man/

From fixing scratches on glossy devices to fixing loose lenses on spectacles

From fixing scratches on glossy devices to fixing loose lenses on spectacles

Black & White at that

Quite an analysis of the bunch of themes present in the movie

A longwinded approach though. May not be suitable when trying to do it for many applications.

'The Norton User Account Control tool will replace parts of the Windows Vista UAC system. It will utilize the UAC security feature from the Windows Vista architecture, while simultaneously improving user-friendliness significantly. The tool prompts recommendations based on an assessment on the user-action i.e. the signature information of the executable. The tool also has a "remember me" feature that allows users to suppress future prompts from the same action.'

A handy tool that lets you to turn off UAC or switch it to a quiet mode in Windows Vista

A set of test files with viruses/malware to test your antivirus product

Results from AV-Comparative.org for malware & residual removal by 16 anti virus software.
avast is rated as average-average like many others. eScan, Symantec & Microsoft seem to be the only ones rated good-good. A detailed report is available for download.
Caveat: It used a sample of 10 random malware for the test, so the results could be quite different for a larger set.

'It looks like a lion has jumped up on the hood of an open vehicle! Look closely, though -it's an illusion, as the front of the car and the passenger area are separated by a sheet of glass. Invisible lion cages are the mane attraction Werribee Open Range Zoo, in Melbourne, Australia. VERY strong glass is used in place of other enclosure types more familiar in zoos – the result is stunning shots of the lions and a unique visitor experience.'
via http://www.neatorama.com/2009/11/07/invisible-lion-cages/

Almost always, the best gig I could get is shorthand for the easiest gig I could get.

Recreating some of the masterpieces using coffee to paint. They have a kind of sepia look to them, but a very innovative concept.

A series that examines the roles and teachings of Business Gurus, with text, audio and an explanation of common management terms.
Includes Peter Drucker, Bill Gates, Michael Porter among others

If only we were cats…
'In several cases, pet animals (most often cats) have successfully been "enrolled" in suspected diploma mills in order to investigate or demonstrate the fraudulent nature of the degrees issued by those institutions. Several such cases have received extensive media attention, and at least one cat's degree helped lead to a successful fraud prosecution against the institution that issued the degree.'

'We'll be honest, while others were predicting how poorly implemented the new Managed Copy system for Blu-ray would be — mostly because the studios can charge for copies — we were dreaming of new ways we'd like to enjoy our favorite movies. With DVD's CSS, everything was very restricted; simple tasks like transferring a movie to your PMP or storing 'em all on a Media Center PC was way, way more complicated than it should be — not to mention a violation of the DMCA. Obviously we wanted to know more, so we went straight to the source and asked the AACS-LA exactly how it'll work, as well as how it'll handle things like rent, rip and return. Surprisingly, we were actually happy after the call and contrary to what you might believe, Managed Copy was actually designed with the consumer in mind.'

Quite a collection of family portraits of American presidents starting from Obama & going back to Theodore Roosevelt.

'The Web is certainly a transformative technology, just as TV and radio and newspapers once were. There’s a temptation, as a result, to confuse the medium with the message, to assume that, because the Internet is being used to produce a certain political effect, it was somehow destined to do so. This account is, in the end, too easy on us (or at least on them). To borrow that old favorite of the right: computers don’t spread rumors; people do.'

Individual perception of increased choice can occur while the overall choice pool is getting smaller

'More access to information doesn't bring people together, often it isolates us.'

'The past decade in business belongs to Jobs. What makes that simple statement even more remarkable is that barely a year ago it seemed likely that any review of his accomplishments would be valedictory. But by deeds and accounts, Jobs is back.
…
It's often noted that he's a showman, a born salesman, a magician who creates a famed reality-distortion field, a tyrannical perfectionist. It's totally accurate, of course, and the descriptions contribute to his legend.'

The record label EMI has sued a little known online music site called BlueBeat.com for selling Beatles songs without permission, an EMI source told Wired.com

'In a bad mood? Don't worry – according to research, it's good for you. An Australian psychology expert who has been studying emotions has found being grumpy makes us think more clearly.'

Including classics like the Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Iron Maiden

A simple visual guide on the usage of an apostrophe

Instructions to make your own Jacob's Ladder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob%27s_ladder_%28toy%29

'Between October 2007 and August 2009, a new digital all-sky mosaic image was assembled from more than 3000 individual CCD frames. Using an SBIG STL-11000 camera, 70 fields (each covering 40° × 27°) were imaged from dark-sky locations in South Africa, Texas and Michigan. In order to increase the dynamic range beyond the 16 bits of the camera's analog-to-digital converter (of which approx. 12 bits provide data above the noise level), three different exposure times (240 s, 15 s and 0.5 s) were used. Five frames were taken for each exposure time and filter setting. The fields were photometrically calibrated using standard catalog stars and sky background data from the Pioneer 10 and 11 space probes.'
via http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/all-sky_milky_way_panorama_20.html