Weird Web News
What's the worse this that you can think of happening while you're sat at your PC? Perhaps you check your online banking and realise you've forgotten to pay your rent, or you notice that you seem to have acquired a virus or trojan due to some embarrassing web surfing habits. Perhaps the worse thing to happen might be that you start hearing some of these worrying noises coming from your hard drive.
Now, that'd be a killer, especially considering the lack of backups most people have of their collections of internet artistic materials.
Never mind though, gadget blog Gizmondo have been running a competition to find out who can make the best musical track made from these noises of impending PC doom. Some of the entries are excellent and the winner is strangely brilliant. Very ambient.
These sort of things are why I love the internet. The odd the bizarre nad the brilliant.
Found via BoingBoing
...More14:15:12 - Rutty - No comments
What would you do if someone you cared for died but didn't want to be buried? What if the deceased believed that they would come back? Would you leave them upstairs in a chair for over 2 years watching TV?
This is what one caregiver did in Ohio according to CNN News.
The mummified body of a woman who didn't want to be buried was found in a chair in front of her television set 2 1/2 years after her death, authorities said.
Johannas Pope had told her live-in caregiver that she didn't want to be buried and planned on returning after she died, Hamilton County Coroner O'Dell Owens said Monday.
Pope died in August 2003 at age 61. Her body was found last week in the upstairs of her home on a quiet street.
There's an interesting video on the CNN page too. The caregiver visited her every day to get rid of the flies and maggots and to turn on the TV every now and again. Nice.
Found via Boing Boing.
...More19:27:09 - Rutty - No comments
I'm not usually that interested in Christmas-related stuff but one site has caught my eye. Tampon Crafts is one of those "WTF" sites that comes up quite frequently on this wonderful internet of ours - it's a site dedicated to the art of decorating with Tampons.
Your period comes every month, but Xmas comes only once a year. So bring that menstrual joy to this holiday season with these tampon tree decorations. From a string of tampon lights to a star at the top of the tree, feminine hygiene has never been so festive!
Indeed. Your Christmas tree will look just fantastic with a star on the top made from Lillet's Heavy Flow tampons!
Found via Boing Boing
...More08:51:29 - Rutty - No comments
Death is certain, life is not. So the saying goes and death will most certainly be very certain should an asteroid called "Apophis" visit our beautiful planet in 31 years time.
NASA has decided that this 390 metre-wide boulder has an "outside chance" of causing a large dent in the side of planet earth, causing enough released energy to rival that of 100,000 Hirishima bombs. That'll smart a bit.
Scientists have already determined that it'll swing on by some time in 2029 but it'll miss us then. Unfortunately the Earth will affect it's future progress and increase the chances of a fiery death for us all.
Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer from Queen's University Belfast, said: "When it does pass close to us on April 13 2029, the Earth will deflect it and change its orbit. There's a small possibility that if it passes through a particular point in space, the so-called keyhole, ... the Earth's gravity will change things so that when it comes back around again in 2036, it will collide with us." The chance of Apophis passing through the keyhole, a 600-metre patch of space, is 1 in 5,500 based on current information.
Luckily these clever sods at NASA and the like are trying to think of ways to deflect it away from it's appointment with Doom. Let's hope that they can figure it out. A 1 in 5,500 chance of dying by rogue asteroid when I'm in my 60s might seem good odds but I'd rather not take that chance, thanks.
...More15:34:10 - Rutty - No comments
An American backpacker has taken some photos of some human-shaped figure lurking around Silver Star Mountain in Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Take a look for yourself at the hulking beast and see if you can determine whether this is Bigfoot or just some student dressed up in a big fur coat on stilts or something.
It's a bit inconclusive - all these sort of images are - but interesting that there are areas of the United States still considered remote enough to hide such a large furry animal from human eyes for so long.
Found via Boing Boing
...More07:45:12 - Rutty - No comments
A bunch of concerned researchers in Singapore have been developing technology that will allow absent parents to "hug" their kids over the internet. They've designed a "wireless vibration jacket" that can simulate activity from from a person connected from anywhere in the world, potentially to ex-"rock" stars in Vietnam no doubt.
Initially they've decided to test this technology on chickens first. It's no entirely clear why they've chosen chickens for this, but perhaps there are also aiming for the rural American market where people might be more familiar with their fowl.
"The end objective eventually is to allow people to transmit touch over the internet. At this stage, they are really using chickens as a first stage test."
It looks like there could be potential for all sorts of alternative uses for this. I can think of plenty of items that could be sold via Ann Summers or similar. Alternatively you could have some sort of cap that could give you a remote Indian head massage or a pair of pants that your friends could use to punch you in the nuts if you're an idiot. Or, whatever.
...More11:46:35 - Rutty - No comments
Love dies. You can't get away from it. Once the first year or so of a new relationship has passed the chemicals in your brain no longer give you that feeling of euphoria that you had the first time you clapped eyes on your partner, so says new research by some Italian geeks.
The University of Pavia found a brain chemical was likely to be responsible for the first flush of love.
Researchers said raised levels of a protein was linked to feelings of euphoria and dependence experienced at the start of a relationship.
This means that your brain is making you feel happy when you meet your beau. There are increased levels of nerve growth factor (NGF) proteins that make your heart go boom buddy boom buddy boom buddy boom buddy boom boom boom, as Peter Sellers would no doubt say. You'd better hope that once these things wear off that you actually have a decent relationship at the end of it all, otherwise it's dump-city for you.
...More07:33:51 - Rutty - No comments
I sometimes worry where my taxes are being spent. I don't mind it going on education or the NHS but I often think that it could be spent more wisely in certain research areas. Let's face it, tens of thousands of pounds were spent on finding out why bread always seems to fall butter-side down.
Thankfully someone has deemed it necessary to find out why some blokes end up waking up next to a fat pig the next day. That gorgeous sexpot you were snogging last night suddenly turns into Bella Emburg the next morning and you have no idea why.
Worry no longer, for now there is a mathematical equation that can figure out how much a "beer goggle effect" can be applied to any given potential fox.
Scientists believe they have worked out a formula to calculate how "beer goggles" affect a drinker's vision.
The drink-fuelled phenomenon is said to transform supposedly "ugly" people into beauties - until the morning after.
Researchers at Manchester University say while beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder, the amount of alcohol consumed is not the only factor.
Additional factors include the level of light in the pub or club, the drinker's own eyesight and the room's smokiness.
The distance between two people is also a factor.
Nice. It's probably worth printing a copy of that article out and taking it with you. You can never be too careful.
...More17:42:38 - Rutty - No comments
Rather than blaming the recent French riots on lawless anarchists or disaffected immigrants, a French MP has come forward and cited seven Rappers as being key to the events leading up to France's big bonfire event.
A French MP has publicly accused rappers of fuelling the country's recent riots with their songs.
It comes a day after 200 politicians backed his petition calling for legal action against seven rap musicians and bands it alleges have incited racism.
MP Francois Grosdidier told France-Info radio it was no surprise youths "saw red" after listening to violent lyrics.
Naturally, the riots couldn't have possibly been started due to France's attitude to it's immigrants, or even because the country is full of imbeciles with too much time on their hands and boxes full of matches. One scapegoat coming up s'il vous plait.
It's astonishing that these people in charge are so detached from reality. Fine, some people are influenced by music culture into adopting a certain lifestyle or buying appalling clothes and jewellery but if you have three weeks of rioting all over your country then you've got more deep-rooted problems than some Rapper swearing and causing offence to delicate middle-classes.
Perhaps these MPs should be looking closer to home. Try examining your internal politics. Try finding out why people living in your country are so unhappy that they're driven into lawlessness.
...More20:38:15 - Rutty - No comments
This has to be one of the most ironic technical news stories ever.
There's been plenty of news coverage about the suicidal attempt by Sony to take over your PC by way of a rootkit. Well, they've capitulated and are recalling the infected CDs from circulation but things are just going from bad to worse for the Japanese firm.
It turns out that the company that wrote this abortion of a program that protected their CDs seems to have committed a bit of copyright theft themselves, by incorporating some code from a LGPL project without then releasing their own code under the LGPL conditions.
Even more ironically, this LGPL code was actually co-written by anti-DRM stalwart "DVD Jon" Johansen, the guy that was sued by all and sundry for writing software that circumvented DRM software. He prevailed there and now appears to have the moral high ground against Sony here too.
Sebastian Porst discovered code from the LAME project, mpglib and VideoLAN in the XCP copy restriction which has caused Sony so much grief. Jon Johansen is a contributor to the VideoLAN project...
"I just want to mention that the function that can be found at virtual offset 0x10089E00 in ECDPlayerControl.ocx is the function DoShuffle from a GPL-ed file called drms.c written by Jon Lech Johansen and Sam Hocevar (Google for it)," notes Sebastian.
The thieves! So, Sony have employed a firm that have allegedly stolen code from someone that writes anti-DRM code in order to attempt to enforce DRM? This whole saga is turning into a right mess.
How those Sony executives must be crying into their saki!
...More09:51:33 - Rutty - No comments
Tesco have an ingenious new advertising strategy, as reported by The Register. They appear to be attempting to shop more at Tesco by wanting you to enjoy carnal knowledge with your own mother.
A recent poster campaign found in stores recently proudly insists that you "Enter your Mum, Now!". I'm assuming that this requires you to take her down an isle somewhere and roger her up against the Pot Noodle stand or something, right there in store. No doubt they are taking their lead from similar campaigns that have been trailed by Walmart in Alabama.
It's rumoured that other supermarkets aren't too kean on having inter-family sexual relations in-store, though Marks and Spencer are considering having holes drilled into their toilet stalls to encourage the "Glory Hole" enthusiasts.
...More12:43:56 - Rutty - No comments
Your boss hates you. He wants you to be working, earning money for the company, rather than wasting company resources playing computer games or watching that episode of Lost that you just downloaded over the firm's fat pipe. He also thinks that porn will warp your fragile little mind, and so he doesn't want you to be looking at the naked ladies.
In order to achieve the nude-free work zone your company may opt to use the kill-joy services provided by PixAlert - a boss-loving anti-illicit image software monitoring firm.
PixAlert provides products and services to help companies protect employees and others from exposure to illicit image material and prevent potential civil or criminal proceedings caused by illegal images being resident on corporate IT resources.
It's possibly a fair point that you shouldn't be reaching for the tissues while sat at your desk. I'm obviously far too concientious a worker to be viewing wide-open oyster shots on my work PC, but I'd rather not be sacked for displaying some of the classic art images that might also raise an alarm from this program.
The Register has reported this and has a handy tool for determining if your company already has this installed without telling you.
...More06:29:17 - Rutty - No comments
A software house responsible for a program that allows remote monitoring of PCs is threatening legal action against companies that attempt to detect their innocuous key-logger. The Register reports that RetroCoder are getting a bit arsey with some firms that are attempting to examine the code for suspiciously monicered SpyMon, a tool that allows parents to check on what their kids are doing or could also be used for other more nefarious activities.
RetroCoder have specified in their EULA that security firms are not allowed to examine their program or add it into their detection lists.
This software package is a copyrighted product. As such the owner of the copyright expressly forbids any use, disassembly, examinination and/or modification by anyone who works for or has any relationship or link to an AntiSpy or AntiVirus software house or related company.
If you do produce a program that will affect this softwares ability to perform its function then you may have to prove in criminal court that you have not infringed this warning.
Infingement of a copyright licence is a criminal offence.
Naturally, people don't want to have keyloggers or other spy devices on their PCs. If you were cheating on your wife you really wouldn't want her to be able to remotely read that saucy email you're currently typing to the sexy bint from purchasing that you've been boning for the last three months. It's entirely correct that anti-spyware on anti-virus programs would want to check for key-loggers installed on your PC, whether they were installed "legally" or not.
RetroCoder are attempting to scare these security companies into not detecting their precious program by "enforcing" a copyright notice. OK then, let's not detect that secret program installed on my machine.
Next up: BackOrifice say "Please don't detect this program or I'm telling my mum"
...More11:24:01 - Rutty - No comments
You cannot trust the government. You cannot trust multinationals. Everyone is after you, even space aliens and that bloke of the telly. What do you do?
You need to get yourself a tin foil hat and protect your thoughts from those that want to get inside your head. But do they work?
Luckily for you there have been some studies into the effectiveness of aluminium foil headwear and it's ability to attenuate intrusive electromagnetic waves. The Empirical Studies have tested three types of foil head adornment: the Classical, the Fez, and the Centurion.
There's bad news though, as found in the conclusions:
The helmets amplify frequency bands that coincide with those allocated to the US government between 1.2 Ghz and 1.4 Ghz. According to the FCC, These bands are supposedly reserved for ''radio location'' (ie, GPS), and other communications with satellites . The 2.6 Ghz band coincides with mobile phone technology. Though not affiliated by government, these bands are at the hands of multinational corporations.
It requires no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the current helmet craze is likely to have been propagated by the Government, possibly with the involvement of the FCC. We hope this report will encourage the paranoid community to develop improved helmet designs to avoid falling prey to these shortcomings.
So, that's it then. If the government or invaders from outer space use these frequencies then your tin foil hat, no matter how jauntily assembled, will actually have improved access to your thoughts. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean to say that they're not out to get you.
...More14:33:49 - Rutty - No comments
Those Japanese always come up with the best inventions. The latest thing to hit the news is a lovely microwaveable furry bra that's designed to keep those young ladies' lumpy bits nice and toasty this winter.
It uses an eco-friendsly gel that can easily be nuked in the mircrowave or heated using a hot water bottle. Nice. Well, at least it'll give us somewhere more interesting to warm our hands up then.
...More20:24:44 - Rutty - No comments