A neat hack, useful if you don't like wires around your house or your car:
bluetooth stereo bridge
[chris] had made a sturdy mount in his car for his ipaq. he uses the ipaq for directions and playing mp3s. after nearly ripping apart his line-in cable every time he took the ipaq out of its cradle he decided to create a wireless solution. he chopped up a pair of hp fa303a bluetooth headphones to extract the receiver portion. the headphone’s band is prone to breaking so it might be possible to find a damaged pair for cheap. the receiver was placed into an old mouse. once the buttons were hooked up to the mouse buttons and a voltage regulator added the unit was ready to start streaming audio directly to the stereo.
Green tea debate brews on
Some benefits seem clear, others need more research
Wednesday, November 23, 2005 By Alice Lesch Kelly and Rosie Mestel, Los Angeles Times
Tea, to China's 18th century emperor Chien Lung, was more than a whistle-wetting pick-me-up: It was "that precious drink which drives away the five causes of sorrow."
[I don't agree with many of these tips]
Tea Tips
Here's how to get the most out of green tea: Don't use boiling water: It can make green tea taste bitter. Cool boiled water for one to three minutes before adding leaves. Allow tea to brew for several minutes. Loose tea needs more time than tea bags. Antioxidants degrade over time, so if you make iced green tea, drink it within 24 hours. Steer clear of green tea supplements. They may not provide the same benefits: A 2005 study found that mega-doses of green tea extract actually helped tumors grow. Check the label if you buy bottled green tea drinks. They may contain mainly sugar and not much green tea.
http://tinyurl.com/a5nfg
[A case of 'please pay us for what we should already be doing']
Ford lobbies Congress over energy The boss of Ford has urged the US Congress to provide tax credits to carmakers to encourage them to invest in more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Bill Ford said more action was needed to stimulate the development of hybrid vehicles and those powered by ethanol. Mr Ford called for greater help for US carmakers to modernize their plants and for research and development. In keeping with other US carmakers, Ford has been struggling to cope with falling sales and high labour costs.
http://tinyurl.com/dp85z
[UH-OH]
Vietnam confirms new case of H5N1 bird flu in humans
AGENCIES , HANOI AND HONG KONG
Wednesday, Nov 23, 2005,Page 1
A Vietnamese teenager has been confirmed as having the H5N1 bird flu virus, health officials in the northern port city of Haiphong said yesterday. Doctors from the health department in Haiphong said laboratory tests showed 15-year-old Vu Van Hoa, who is being treated at a local hospital, had contracted the strain.
C.D.C. Proposes New Rules in Effort to Prevent Disease Outbreak
Published: November 23, 2005
Federal officials yesterday proposed the first significant changes in quarantine rules in 25 years in an effort to broaden the definition of reportable illnesses, to centralize their reporting to the federal government and to require the airline and shipping industries to keep passenger manifests electronically for 60 days.
http://tinyurl.com/83anp
[Please take note. Some months ago I set forward in an email and possibly on my blog a framework for making money through TV shows created for bittorrent style distribution. No one took notice from among my friends and colleagues. Now would be a good time to take note..... course that won't happen, but I like to point these things out anyway.]
Tech firms focus on TV
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: November 23, 2005, 4:00 AM PST
Ever since Edward R. Murrow and Ed Sullivan were doing their thing in black and white, the living room television has been the centerpiece of home entertainment. Then, somewhere along the way, a lot of folks in the high-tech industry got it into their heads that families should gather around the PC to watch their favorite TV programs. Guess what? The tube still rules. So it's little surprise that the tech industry, led in a most unlikely way by computer networking giant Cisco Systems, is looking to the TV to finally, once and for all, get out of the home office and into the living room. On Nov. 18, Cisco announced the $7 billion acquisition of video set-top box maker Scientific-Atlanta. Microsoft has a deep home entertainment strategy built around the TV. And Apple Computer watchers speculate that Steve Jobs & Co. are preparing a new TV-centric product. What exactly that product is, or whether it even really exists, is still a mystery.
[Speaking of bittorrent....]
Hollywood, BitTorrent creator strike deal
Hollywood studios announced an agreement with Bram Cohen, the creator of the popular BitTorrent file-swapping technology, that will keep him from helping users find pirated copies of movies online. Cohen had launched a service on his Web site last May that searched the Internet for file downloads that use his BitTorrent technology. While many of these are legal files, such as open-source software packages, inevitably the search engine also found feature films. In an event held at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, Cohen and executives from the Motion Picture Association of America said they were united in thwarting piracy.
http://tinyurl.com/8vry2
Survey finds toys dangerous to kids
Makers accused of disregarding safety
WASHINGTON -- Though decades of effort have made toys safer, children still choke on balloons, get strangled by yo-yo water balls and suffer hearing damage from loud playthings, a watchdog group warned Tuesday in its annual toy safety survey.
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group's 20th survey noted that the Consumer Product Safety Commission reported the deaths of 16 children in toy-related incidents last year, along with another 210,000 emergency room visits. Choking on small parts, balls and balloons remains a leading cause of death and injury in kids younger than 15.
Breast-Feeding May Lower Mom's Risk of Diabetes
By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Nov. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Breast-feeding your baby can cut your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, new research shows. "We found that breast-feeding is really good for mothers. Each year she breast-feeds cuts the risk of type 2 diabetes by 15 percent," said study author, Dr. Alison Stuebe, a clinical fellow in maternal fetal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and an instructor at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
http://tinyurl.com/afvwd
Israel's technology to modernize farm system of Nepal
KATHMANDU, Nov. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Israel's experience, technology and cooperation are very important for the modernization and commercialization of Nepal's traditional farming system, the president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) said here Wednesday. "Israeli technology is very important for developing and expanding farming of fruits and medical plants, developing solar energy and developing human resources as per need of the agriculture and industry sector of Nepal," said Chandi Raj Dhakal, president of FNCCI, the largest non-governmental federal organization of Nepal. Efforts are needed to make through economic diplomacy in order to increase trade between the two countries and attract Israeli investment and tourists to Nepal, Dhakal said at a meeting of FNCCI office-bearers and Israeli Ambassador to Nepal Dan Stav. "Israel has been supporting the development endeavors of Nepal including in the industry and trade sector," Stav said at the meeting. In the last Nepali fiscal year (July 16, 2004 - July 15, 2005), goods worth of 5.14 million Nepali rupees (73,428 US dollars) was exported from Nepal to Israel, while Nepal imported Israeli goods worth of 65.4 million Nepali rupees (920,000 US dollars), Stav noted. Nepal exports leather and leather goods, paper and woolen goods, cloth and handicrafts to Israel while it imports beverage, medicine, rubber, iron and steel, airplane and machinery spare-parts, electricity and security-related goods from Israel, Stav added.
http://tinyurl.com/bh5bp
[At less than $200 bucks, it hits the right price range for people who already own an ipod.]
Video Without Boundaries, Inc. Expands Portable Media Range
CoPilot Introduction Set to Make Portable Video More Affordable with sub $200 Price Tag.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL - (November 22, 2005) — Video Without Boundaries, Inc. (OTCBB: VDWB ), a leading provider of interactive, media-convergent home entertainment devices, today announced it deploying a new portable media player/recorder device named CoPilot. The new flash-based MPEG-4 portable will retail for under $200 and features AV input recording allowing for easy connection to DVD Player, VCRs, cable and satellite set-top boxes for simple recording of TV and Movies.
Top 10 things to do for mom's PC over Thanksgiving
She's always been there for you, and this Thanksgiving weekend it is time to give a little love back. Since we are not the sentimental type here at Download Squad (flowers and puppies just don't do it for us), we thought we'd offer up 10 tips to make mom's computing experience more enjoyable. So, take a break from the annual long weekend of awkward conversations, bad football games, and watching TV reruns in anticipation of the big feast. It's time to fix mom's PC!
[abbreviated by me]
1) a full backup of her computer files
2) Clean up her photographs by putting them in the My Pictures folder on her computer. Then download Picasa from Google and show her how to use it. Picasa, along with its online companion Hello, are your friends. 3) it's time to buy her a nice LCD screen and some nice speakers.
5) Update the anti-virus software on her machine, as well as the spyware detection software.
8) Introduce your mom to the world of VoIP by setting up Skype. 9) Run a system check utility on her machine to clean out the cobwebs that slow down system performance. Systweak does a good job in cleaning up PCs. 10) Get her a real email account.
[This might be useful]
Find lost product keys with ProduKey
Lost your key for Office, Windows, or SQL Server? ProduKey is a free utility for finding those keys, especially when you've lost your CD with the sticker on the back. In fact, ProduKey will show you the names of those apps, the Product ID number, and the key (which is what you'd need to reinstall). Being the obsessive-compulsive freak that I am, usually I'll photocopy said numbers and keep them in one handy file, but you might not be so dedicated. ProduKey isn't perfect, but what is? One new feature is the command /remoteall, which will show you the product keys for all the machines on your network. Now that might come in pretty handy...
FROM SLASHDOT (was really on top of things for a change):
XBOX360 Unstable [HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA]
Quantum Computing around the corner with new breakthroughs in quantum measurement..... [will also create star-trek-level-tech anti heisenburg uncertainty principle device.]
Star-Trek Spoof Movie is the top Finnish (as in, from Finland) Movie, and it was distributed completely by bittorent.
Hypnosis may not be as hokey as once thought.
The Next Bare Naked Ladies album will be sold n a reusable 128mb flash drive.
Home Hydrogen Refueling Technology Advances with the Honda Experimental Home Energy Station III
(link to this article)
November 23, 2005 Further advancing its vision of a gasoline- and emissions-free transportation future, Honda R&D and technology partner Plug Power has unveiled the Home Energy Station III, which provides heat and electricity for the home as well as fuel for a hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle. This third generation unit is more compact and efficient than previous Home Energy Station models and follows Honda’s strategy to develop intermediate as well as longer-term alternatives to traditional energy sources like gasoline. Using natural gas as its base energy source, the Home Energy Station III is designed to work in a home-based refueling environment and is able to supply a sufficient amount of hydrogen to power a fuel cell vehicle, such as the Honda FCX, for daily operation while providing electricity for an average-sized household.
http://tinyurl.com/9skjp
FROM BOINGBOING (also busy day there today)
Study: How Internet copyright law is abused
The law that allows copyright holders to take infringing materials off the Internet presents an attractive nuisance, inviting widespread abuse by those who want to censor political speech or shut down their competitors.
Tech business niches begging to be filled
This article, entitled "Companies I’d like to Profile (but don't exist)" contains ideas for 10 startups of varying viability that would make its author, a tech/business reporter happy.
Aussie Senator: air security is meaningless
Amanda Vanstone is an Australian Senator who gave a stupendous speech to the Adelaide Rotarians about how meaningless airline security procedures are, arguing that they're in place to "make people feel better as opposed to actually achieve an outcome." I fly about 300,000 miles a year, and I couldn't agree more. Senator Vanstone is the first high-placed public official to say what we all know -- the crap we face at airports does squat to make us safer.
Electric fish jam rivals
When an electric knifefish encounters a rival, both boost their electric field in an effort to jam the other's signal.
Nature: Up to one-third of US in compliance with Kyoto accords
Regions' GDP equivalent to globe's second largest economy
Even though the United States does not participate in the Kyoto protocol, about one-quarter of the population lives in states, counties or cities that have adopted climate change policies similar to those of the global initiative, according to a Brief Communication published in the November 17 issue of Nature.
Including regions classified as 'probable' and 'possible' adopters, which have pledged to reduce emissions, more than one-third of the U.S. population lives in such areas, say co-authors Brendan Fisher and Robert Costanza of the University of Vermont.
Together, these regions contribute up to half of the US gross domestic product, equivalent of 16.9% of global GDP, a slightly larger share than Japan, the world's second largest economy.
Although the numbers look promising, Fisher and Costanza caution that "compliance will be a challenge even for current adopters, who have on average increased their carbon dioxide emissions by 14% since 1990." There are no mechanisms to enforce such initiatives, they add.
However, the local nature of these initiatives could make it possible to develop adaptable, site-specific plans for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
The United States produces 24% of worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions.
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