"In the spring issue of The Mathematical Intelligencer, Michael Kleber, a topologist at MIT, waxed enthusiastic about [the interchange's] 'non-trivial braiding': while it is possible to just lift I-95 up and away from I-695, the northbound lane of I-95 braids both over, and then under, the southbound lane, making it impossible to pull them apart without cutting one of the lanes."
Scott Adams has a great list of Dilbert advice for graduates:
The comments have loads of great suggestions as well like this principle for meetings:
Google Inc. has teamed up with EarthLink Inc. to craft a citywide Wi-Fi proposal for San Francisco
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The Mountain View, California, search engine company proposed building a network at no cost to the city and offering a free service supported by targeted, location-based advertising. EarthLink, also the network owner and operator in Philadelphia's controversial citywide Wi-Fi plan, submitted its own response at that time.
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EarthLink would provide a subscription-based service with throughput of about 1M bps (bits per second) while Google would offer a free service at about 300K bps
Why send a boring e-mail when you can have your message sung by pop stars:
By typing in a text of any kind you can get it sung for you by some of the world's greatest pop stars. A database of sung words has been built up and is supposed to be gradually growing through the users' own interaction. If you find a word missing in our sound vocabulary, just tell us, and we will extract the word from a song of your choice, and add it to our database.
John Ivers built the "Blue Flash" roller coaster in his backyard:
Listen to the interview on The Next Big Thing or get more information and pictures of the “Blue Flash“ here.
Thanks for the tip Marco
Microsoft Office Communicator Goes Mobile:
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Based on the user interface of the Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 desktop client, Communicator Mobile is a unified communications client that provides information workers with a premier mobile collaboration experience through native integration of mobile applications with enterprise-grade, real-time communications tools. The client goes beyond simple voice services, incorporating connected communication modes such as security-enhanced instant messaging (IM), presence awareness and integrated Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony.
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The TopGear Survival Guide does not explain how to survive rush hour but how to do, and survive, strange things with your car:
Play in style with your very own game chair:
This all started after a discussion revealed that the reason we don’t play driving games more is because it’s just not much fun to play with a PS2 controller. Wheel/pedal controllers are better, but you still feel pretty silly chasing pedals around the carpet while steering with a wheel attached to a TV dinner tray.
So we thought, “Why don’t we just build a little chassis? It can’t be that hard!”
Step by step instructions with plenty of pictures.
Don't know what to do with your old optical mouse, or do you want to see the world from the mouse's point of view? This site has the build instructions and source code you need:
One of the more obvious features of a mouse, however, is that it can detect movement. Combine this with the just-aquired imaging features, and we have a ghetto b&w handscanner.
Via hack a day
A great looking wooden digital clock
...until the numbers illuminate, the Wooden Clock looks exactly like a regular block of wood - albeit a smooth, sanded, slightly Swedish-looking one. And don't bother asking us how it works 'cos we haven't got a clue. All we know is that digital numbers look seriously cool glowing against a natural-looking wooden background.
Several VoIP providers are offering free incoming phone numbers and free calls to land lines:
They offer free calls to the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela.
I am a happy Skype user but it looks like an interesting offer.
Why show the finger when you can use a Vehicle Courteous Message Display:
The “Vehicle Courteous Message Display” (VCMD), a new US/Canada patented invention, is a device designed to help drivers communicate when the need arises. Mainly, it includes a small remote control and an electronic display panel. The small remote control may be placed in the desired location for easy access. Preprogrammed words, phrases, signs or combined messages are stored in a read/write memory section of the electronic display panel. It is easy to use. Messages may be displayed with the simple press of a button. The display panel may be mounted on/near the rearview window of an automobile.
The basic version comes pre-programmed with four words; of “THANKS”, “SORRY”, “PLEASE”, and “HELP”. The advanced version can be programmed to say whatever you want...
Dodge the blue blocks is a very simple Flash game for killing some time. Drag the red block and avoid the blue ones as long as you can.
This medley of ads for the 1985-1989 Isuzu Gemini shows some pretty impressive driving. No computer graphics but some manual aids
You can download the whole file here.
Thanks for the tip Paolo
The three-wheel scooter by Piaggio looks weird as it has two front wheels for increased stability;
The front axle has a special system which means it works in the same way as a normal two-wheel bike. Thus the two front wheels both incline when the scooter takes a corner and riders do not therefore need any specific training to use the machine.
For the time being Piaggio have presented two single cylinder versions of the prototype, a 250cc model and a 500cc model.
The javascript version of Lemmings brings back a lot of fond memories. Give it a try if you're too young to know what I'm talking about. The first levels are easy but it quickly gets more challenging.
Thanks for the tip Marco.
What does an engineer do after draining a bottle of Ballantine's? Build a PC inside it
Thanks for the tip Pier
Must have hacks for Firefox:
I frequently take pictures of white boards during meetings to document complex scenarios. The Digitizer3 Mobile Scanner looks like a great solution for smaller documents:
With any high-resolution camera phone and on any wireless network, Digitizer3 makes the mission-critical business tasks of reproducing and sending documents totally mobile, placing them in your pocket!
Thanks for the tip Marco
The article is old but it shows you, step by step, how to create ring tones for your cell phone from MP3 files using free tools like Audacity and Lame
I play music to relax but having a set of noise canceling headphones would be great:
Noise cancellation works by placing microphones close to the ear and then playing the recorded sound out of phase causing destructive interference. Commercial headphones have the mics and power supplies built into the headphones.
The Spy Safetyphone extends the normal Nokia Symbian based phones with 007 like features:
Supported phones so far: Nokia 6600, Nokia 7610, Nokia 3230
People are more more productive with bigger screens so the dual screen laptop should be great for road worriors:
The screens themselves are integrated with mini PCI Type III slots for wireless, a CompactFlash card slot, internal speaker and headphone jack, internal microphone, a wireless LAN (802.11b/g) antenna and run Windows XP Professional or Windows 2000 Professional.
Why mod your MP3 player when you can buy an alread modded Frisk MP3 Player:
iDoom now available on iPod nano
Check check, check out the vid ‘cause performance is rockin’ compared to the previous release we saw running on older gen iPods. Caution: this requires iPodLinux (podzilla) which is a fairly risk free install in our experience but could void your warranty.
Watching the FLIP, The weirdest research lab structure, move into position is impressive:
The lab starts off as a regular ship but when it reaches its destination it ‘flips’ so that most of the ship sinks leaving the end of the ship standing above the water. Once flipped walls become floors and ceilings and whilst some furniture rotates during the flipping process others are built twice so that one of them is always in the correct position
LaCie Brick: hard drive as Lego block
The LaCie Brick is available in red, white and blue, in capacities from 160GB to 500GB, and prices from $120 to $400. And, yes, they stack just like real Legos, making the idea of picking up several smaller drives rather than one big device very tempting.
Jugglers, magicians, acrobats and sideshow performers have something in common -- they make astounding or difficult tricks look very easy. Fire breathers, who often specialize in one of these forms of entertainment, amaze people because they seem to exhale a plume of fire as though it were as easy as taking a breath.
But fire breathing is the most dangerous of all the fire arts. People who breathe fire professionally have to go to great lengths to keep themselves and their audiences safe. And since the process involves fire and flammable, toxic fuel, fire breathing accidents can be deadly.
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Pass phrases are way better than complex codes for one reason; you do not have to write them down to remember them.
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A lock with a password. Much easier to remember. Because there are only 10 letters per ring, you are limited to a mere 1,000 dictionary words and names. I could not program my usual password, or my favorite names, but I did code in a memorable nonsense word, of which many abound.
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I have looked all over the place for one of these. Let me know if you find someone in Europe shipping it for a decent price.
Yes, this little thing really will fix your flat. Even huge pick-up and SUV tires. No need to jack up. Just press the nozzle -- whizzzz -- and it repairs and re-inflates your tire. You definitely should carry one in your car or truck. At $5 it is cheaper than getting your tire repaired at a shop.
But that's not the best thing it offers. This amazing can of stuff will also PREVENT flats and slow leaks. Fix-A-Flat inserts a complex liquid into your tire. Leaking air instantly polymerizes it to plug up any hole. This magic material is similar to the stuff which keeps bicycle tires intact -- see the amazing video in this review. Although I have not used the industrial version of this invention, farmers and the army use a similar compound to keep their gigantic tires going.
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Back in 2003 I said that the most common crash I saw in Internet Explorer was usually thanks to acrord32.exe. Now, thanks to Omar, Scott and the awesome FoxIt Reader, Acrobat is off my machine for good.
It worked on my first attemptThis site lets you search for a song, by tapping the rhythm of its words (lyrics).
Let's say you have a song stuck in your head, and you don't know the name of it. Never fear! Load up our search screen, and try tapping the rhythm of the song on your space bar while humming the tune. Tap the space bar for each syllable that you sing. It's that simple!
You can watch a video of how to tap the song Jingle Bells.
After you tap the rhythm, we'll show you a list of matching songs. If we can't identify your song, you can teach our system by entering the song name.
Microsoft® Codename Max is not
like any other product. That's because it's not a product—it's your opportunity to try an exciting new user experience from Microsoft. Max is built on the next-generation WinFX Runtime Components technology that will drive the development of Windows Vista® applications. Today Max lets you make lists of your photos and turn them into beautiful slide shows to share with your family and friends. Tomorrow...who knows?
Burning visible images onto CD-Rs with data (beta)
By carefully choosing the right 1s and 0s to burn to a CD, it is possible to burn
visible images on normal CD-Rs. These images rely on the fact that the 1s
and 0s created by pits in the CDs surface reflect light differently.
Carry the Wikipedia with you everywhere
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you can obtain the entire Wikipedia in a mobile format that you can put on a storage card. It's big (about 400 MB without images and over 1 GB with) but it's the whole enchilada. You can buy the currently available image or roll your own. You can find complete instructions on how to do that and then keep your image up to date on this web site. Platforms supported- Windows, Pocket PC, Palm, EPOC, Windows Mobile and Symbian smartphones.
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Bow Man: A Flash Timewaster
Got 10 minutes to kill before that next meeting? Check out Bow Man, a Flash-based game that offers an addictive combination of simplicity and challenge.
The arterial spray is an excellent touch.
Play now
Top 10 MP3 Players
Choosing an MP3 player can be daunting. We've rounded up the top Flash, built-in memory and hard-drive-based players.
Teddyfone - Another Cellphone For Kids Under 10
...this new Teddyfone is definitely something that struck my attention, mainly because of the age that its being marketed for.
If you happen to check out the Teddyfone website you will see the image of a girl, apparently no older than 4, with her Teddyfone. What you also see is the mention of Child Safety. Now the Child Safety thing is a plus and the fact that the fone comes with a free subscription to KidsOK.net tracking service is good, but what I still can't figure out is... where are these kids under 10 that they have the need for a cell phone?
I guess maybe I'm speaking more on the lines of a parent then a consumer. But what is the message that this sends out? Trust me, I am in now way an advocate of perfect parenting (recalls the time that her son rolled off the bed because pillows weren't properly placed.)
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Portable USB Keychains - The Future?
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One idea involves running a virtual machine directly off of the keychain, which brings up some really neat possibilities. I can totally grok the idea of bringing your entire "OS" and applications with you - similar to the way that Portable CE works, but imagine that for a full Windows installation. Since I don't want to deal with breaking any EULA's, I won't post instructions, but it's pretty straightforward to use a Virtual Machine, such as QEMU, load it up with Windows XP and run XP-Lite on it to get your OS image down to around 500mb. Other VM's, such as Virtual PC or VMWare Player are a bit more complicated to run from a keychain, since they have device drivers that need to be installed, etc.
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One one hand, I really like the concept of portable VM's. With them, you can pretty much use any application you want in the VM and not have to worry about machine configuration (it'll always be the same), and you can handle "non-portable" applications easily (i.e., its like it's own real machine). On the other hand, I'd rather have the ability to have 'richer' experiences from the USB drive - imagine having a small portable MP4 enabled video player (no codec hell) stored on your iPod Video. Plug it into any PC and you could watch your videos on it through the mass storage interface.
This cool hack prints a text message on your bicycle wheel:
bicycle wheel pov
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here is a slick hack involving a bicycle wheel and a persistence of vision toy.one thing that’s really cool about this one is there is a second led row that blinks out bitmaps backwards on one side of the wheel. this lets you print out text messages and have them be readable from both sides. it appears to work really well
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You can fax something interesting to 1-510-545-0990 (your boss will never notice... maybe) and it should appear here within a couple of minutes. (The number is in Northern California, USA. Long distance charges may apply.) Keep it clean & legal.
Opera Mini has been available for a while in a limited beta in the Scandinavian countries. It's great news that is finally available for the rest of the world
Opera is the best browser on small devices bar none and Opera Mini is now available for cell phones. Opera Mini is free and can be downloaded for a large number of cell phones from the Opera Mini web site.
