Seagate ships single-platter, 1.8-inch, 60GB hard drive
http://tinyurl.com/y4f3o5
ScanBuy - barcode software on your camera phone creates the Physical World Hyperlink
http://tinyurl.com/y5b9k6
The One-Shot Sniping System�from Military (115 articles)�January 7, 2007 The snipe is a wading bird renowned for being the hardest of all birds to hunt due to being difficult to locate, impossible to approach without flushing, or to hit once in the air due to its erratic flight. In the days of market hunting, those who brought snipes to market were regarded as the best of the best and earned the term snipers. The verb snipe originated in the 1770s among soldiers in British India applying similar skills in wartime with a human quarry. A sniper occasionally takes the one, well-aimed shot that, if done properly, will save lives and turn the course of battle. One of the many skills of a modern days sniper is mathematics � to measure or estimate the range, cross winds, and calculate the allowances needed for one shot to hit its target after travelling up to 2000 yards (the longest confirmed sniper kill of the Gulf War was made by a Barrett Model 82A1 sniper rifle at a range of 1,800 meters). Even the temperature effects how a bullet travels over that distance. Just a 10mph wind could produce a miss exceeding three meters at 1200 meters range. With all this in mind, DARPA, the same folk who brought you the Grand Challenge, has developed a new Advanced Sighting System (One-Shot) program with a view to enabling Snipers to accurately hit targets with the first round, under crosswind conditions, at the maximum effective range of the weapon (RE). The system will measure downrange crosswind and range to target and compensate the bullet trajectory to offset crosswind and range related bullet deviations resulting in substantially increased success of kill. The system will operate over a range of visibilities, atmospheric turbulence and scintillation, and environmental operating conditions and exploit novel technologies. You can also couple the increased accuracy likely to result from the proposed system with the new long-range .50-caliber M-107 sniper rifle due to complete fielding in 2008 to conclude that snipers will remain one of the most effective battlefield assets well into the future. The destructive power of 50 caliber rounds is difficult to overstate according to this knowledgeable article, "One shot, one kill." John L. Plaster, author of The Ultimate Sniper�a military and police training manual� offers the following description of 50 caliber performance: "Here's a bullet that even at 11�2 miles crashes into a target with more energy than Dirty Harry's famous .44 Magnum at point-blank."
http://tinyurl.com/yxfqph
Finger Frenzy
http://tinyurl.com/yxqos5
Letterpop - make beautiful newsletters online�Posted Jan 6th 2007 1:39PM by Jason Clarke�Filed under: Design, Fun, Internet, Kids, Photo, Text, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, E-mail, Productivity, Web services, Commercial�LetterPop! is a funky little web application that allows you to use drag and drop techniques to put together very sharp email newsletters. You pick from a set of templates, and you can drag and drop photos and write text, and basically publish a newsletter in short order. You'll need to sign up for the service, which is currently in beta mode, and therefore free for a year. Once you've signed up you are permitted to upload your own photos for use in your newsletters.�
The set of templates is somewhat limited right now, and heavily towards holiday themes. This makes sense, since this is the type of web service that will appeal to families for holiday family updates. There are also a number of generic templates, and luckily all of the templates are very well designed and attractive to look at. Personally I'd rather have a smaller selection with better templates to choose from rather than a huge selection of so-so templates.�
Once you've created your newsletter, you have the choice of sending it as an email directly to your list of contacts, or publishing it to a dedicated address that you can then send to your contacts. The system keeps a profile page showing your history of newsletters, as well as allowing you to save your progress when working on a newsletter so you can come back and continue where you left off.
If I have a knock against LetterPop!, it's simply that it took forever for my signup to be processed. I suppose I should cut them some slack given that they're in a beta phase, but I was certainly surprised at how long it took. The page after you sign up for a beta account warns you that it could take up to 15 minutes, or you may have to contact support directly. They weren't kidding.
Badges, I need some stinking badges�Posted Jan 5th 2007 12:00PM by Ryan Carter�Filed under: Design, Developer, Internet, Text, Utilities, Blogging, Freeware, Social Software�Get badged, by going to badged.net, where you can simply build a custom badge widget for your site or blog. The list of available badges you can include in your custom widget is pretty good:
- Digg This Story
- Sphere It
- Add to Technorati Favorites
- View Blog Reactions (via Technorati)
- Add to del.icio.us
- Add to Furl
- Add to Netscape
- Add to Yahoo! Myweb
- Add to Google Bookmarks
- Add to Newsvine
- Add to Blinklist
- Add to Reddit
- Add to Blogmarks
- Add to Magnolia
- Add to Windows Live
- Add to Tailrank
- Add to Favorites (Internet Explorer)
- Email This
You type in your site URL and name, check the boxes, and get the code at the bottom of the page. It could not be any easier to do and you can insert the whole thing at the bottom of your posts, your site, whatever. Sweet, slick, and fan-tas-tic.
Undercabinet Charger Station | |
Here's where to park up to 6 electronic devices for charging, out of sight and out of your way. Wooden cabinet hangs from beneath a kitchen cabinet to hold your cell phone, PDA and MP3 player for recharging all at once, in one convenient location. Plug them all into the UL-listed, six-outlet, 6' double extension cord concealed inside. Leatherette-lined shelf pulls out to allow you to plug and unplug your device cords. Includes matching cord cover (three 12" lengths; cut to size; paintable to match decor) to hide the extension cord as it exits the cabinet back, plus matching brackets to attach cover to wall. 10"x13"x4-1/2" tall. Please specify wood veneer: natural, white or cherry. |
|
To Be Motivated and Successful, First Forget How You Feel
HOWTO Hack Target's sale pricing�
Here's an unconfirmed but sexy potential hack on Target's pricing:
Target's full prices end in 9. So the first price tag will be $14.99 or $27.99, something like that.
Then, every time Target discounts the product, the final digit of the price drops.
The lowest the last digit will drop is 4.
If you see something you want at Target and the price ends in 4, buy it. The price won't go any lower.
Capsule hotels in London's airports�
Yotel has opened capsule hotels in London's Gatwick and Heathrow airports; they're modelled on the famous coffin hotels of Tokyo, but bigger and more luxurious, aimed at business-travellers in for a meeting who don't want to haul ass all the way into London for their hotel. The cabins can be booked in 4h increments.
* Techno wall with universal port for your i-pod or MP3 player
* Workstation
* Flat screen LCD TV with surround sound speaker system
* Free internet access - wired and wi-fi
* On demand' blockbuster and classic movies
* Over 80 music stations
* Comfort cooling
* Double beds for one or two
* Hand sprung mattress
* Luxury bedding
* Interactive mood lighting
* Luxury bathroom fittings including rain shower
* Bespoke toiletries
* Eat in 'Grazing' menu with cabin service
* Great coffee
* Automated check in / out
* On line booking
* Internal window
* Plenty of storage space�
Strips of plastic play audio when you run your teeth over them�
A British company called Grand Illusions sells "talking tapes" -- strips of plastic with patterns of ridges on them that turn into audio when you scrape them over your teeth or attach them to an amplifier (such as a balloon) and run your fingernail on them.
A long thin plastic strip, about 60cm long. It doesn't look like much, but it talks! Along the length of the strip is a pattern of fine ridges or lines. Run your thumb nail along the ridges, and the tape speaks. However the sound needs to be magnified, so that you can hear it. One method is to hold one end of the strip between your teeth. Then, when you run your nail along the strip you hear it talk, but no-one else does. Or you can stick one end of the strip to an inflated balloon or a paper cup using sticky tape. The balloon or cup acts as an amplifier, and you can then demonstrate it to anyone nearby. Never heard a balloon talk? You have now!
What do the tapes say? One says 'Happy Birthday' others say 'Congratulations' or 'Have a Nice Day'. We have 5 different messages, and we supply 4 tapes of each message, making a pack of 20 Talking Tapes.
