Music
‘cool’ Archives
Sunday’s “Simpsons” episode goes HD and has updated title sequence
"The Simpsons" is finally going HD—and, in what some fans might consider an even bigger development, getting a new opening title sequence as well. Both events will take place Sunday, Fox said during a promo for "The Simpsons" that aired as part of Wednesday night's "American Idol." The network actually made a low-key announcement of the news [...]
Unix time will reach “1234567890″ on February 13th at 5:31pm EST
Get out your party hats! It's tomorrow, on Friday the 13th, as well. I sense the end of the world! Unix time, or POSIX time, is a system for describing points in time, defined as the number of seconds elapsed since midnight Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) of January 1, 1970, not counting leap seconds. It is widely used not only on Unix-like [...]
Why HTTP?
The world doesn’t need another arbitrary binary protocol. Just use HTTP. Your life will be simpler. Originally this came up when scaling a gaggle of MySQL machines. I would have killed for a reliable proxy. It’s with this in mind that I’ve come up with my list of things that HTTP has that an arbitrary protocol will have to rebuild. Anytime [...]
A map of undersea cables… from 1901
Not bad for an era that was just getting used to the idea of a horseless carriage (more...)
Joker ski-mask is awesome
Why so serious? The Joker ski-mask is a hell of a thing -- full of all the scary mojo of the iconic character and the implicit creepiness of going about with your face in this state. Menacing and geeky all at once, kinda like a flail made of giant polyhedral dice. The Dark Knight Joker Combination Ski Mask & Winter Beanie
Dynastree Maps Your Last Name
Web site Dynastree's surname map lays out how people with your last name are distributed across the US (along with Canada and Germany). The search tool is a breeze to use. Just enter your last name, hit Search, and Dynastree returns a very simple "heatmap" displaying the distribution of your last name across the United States. The map defaults [...]
All your passports are belong to us
Think of it this way: Chris Paget just did you a service by hacking your passport and stealing your identity. Using a $250 Motorola RFID reader and antenna connected to his laptop, Chris recently drove around San Francisco reading RFID tags from passports, driver licenses, and other identity documents. In just 20 minutes, he found and cloned the [...]
5 cent tilt sensor
This is a 5 cent tilt sensor. We know it cost more than 5 cents, but it is in fact a tilt sensor that utilizes a 5 cent coin. We’ve all done quick hacks to make quick sensors for various projects. We’ve seen tons of them, from stealing springs out of pens and shoving a resistor through them for flexible contact switches, to tin foil touch [...]
Cemeteries surrounded by parking lots
Tullahassee Creek Indian Cemetery – Sand Springs, Oklahoma Situated right between an ATM and a postal drop box, this Indian cemetery comprises about 1/4 acre of isolated turf in a parking lot outside Tulsa. It was founded in 1883 and took less than a century to become the inadvertent centerpiece of a strip mall. Read more about [...]
With Cheney gone, Google Maps gains sky view of VP’s home
Google Maps has a clear satellite view of the US vice president's home available online in a development that curiously coincides with the departure of secret-prone Dick Cheney. The abode in Washington, DC, that has served for 25 years as official residence for US vice presidents had been digitally blurred at Google Earth during George W. [...]
Amazon User Reviews of “Playmobil TSA Checkpoint”
These user reviews for a Playmobil Security Check Point ($55!) are pretty hilarious. (more...)
Mario etched eeepc
Last night I laser-etched the top of my Eee PC with the complete level maps of Super Mario Land ( on the Game Boy). Everything from the familiar layouts of 1-1 to the climactic battle with Tatanga in the clouds at the end of 4-3 is represented in the etching. This was made possible with the laser cutter at NYC Resistor in Brooklyn, where you [...]
Two monitors = 44 percent increase in productivity
Nothing in cube-farm corporate America seems quite so decadent as having two monitors on your desk. Who is this important person who needs to work on two screens at the same time? Must be some kind of bigshot, eh? Not so, posits the New York Times, which cites research that -- on certain text-editing tasks -- users were 44 percent faster using [...]
Apple forces Wired to take down netbook OSx86 video
Wired Gadget Lab has taken down a video made by in which he gives a brief overview and demonstration of how to install OSX on an MSI Wind netbook. This apparently didn’t sit well with Apple, who contacted Wired and complained; Wired agreed and removed the video. Frankly, we’re disappointed with Wired’s response. While they were technically [...]
The Best Job in the World
Help wanted: Spend six months working for Tourism Queensland as "caretaker" and resident blogger on an island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Compensation is $105,000 and housing in a three-bedroom villa with a pool. "They'll also have to talk to media from time to time about what they're doing so they can't be too shy and they'll have to love [...]
The Princess Bride DVD ambigram
The latest cover of the Princess Bride DVD has an amazing ambigram. A suitably awesome cover for one of the finest movies ever made. (more...)
Learn where someone was born from their Social Security number
In the United States, a Social Security number (SSN) is a nine-digit number issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and temporary (working) residents under section 205(c)(2) of the Social Security Act, codified as 42 U.S.C. § 405(c)(2). The number is issued to an individual by the Social Security Administration, an independent agency of the [...]
