The Top 9½ In a Hacker’s Bookshelf

"Every hacker should have a good solid dead tree library to draw ideas from and use as reference material. This list has a bit of everything - textbooks you will encounter at top tier computer science universities, books giving insight into the industry, and references you shouldn’t be caught without. It is a list of hackers’ classics."

[via dzone]

Must Buy, Borrow, or Steal Books for Web Designers

"Web design is no exception and this list represents the books I have found to be very useful. These are all books that I have actually read and most of which are sitting on my bookshelf right now. This list is a follow up to my article “Buy, Borrow, or Steal the Best Books to Get Ahead.”

[via blog design]

iPhone: The Next Step in Portable Porn

"Steve Jobs is publicly against it, wireless carriers don’t want to endorse it, but as long as the internet’s involved, portable devices will inevitably be loaded up with the hottest, sexiest, and tiniest porn available. It’s already big in Europe and Asia, but portable porn hasn’t quite surged forward in America. Will it? Is the iPhone the device to carry it through?"

[via mobile commandos]

7 Facebook Apps that are Crap

"Remember when Facebook was the more professional alternative to MySpace? Now that the gates have opened for people to create applications, Facebook profiles have become cluttered catastrophes of html. Here's 7 popular ones that take up valuable Scrabulous room."

[via omg list]

New Version of Google Talk released!

"Google Talk, Labs Edition is an experimental release of the Google Talk client. It has many of the same great features as the Google Talk Gadget, including instant messaging, emoticons, and group chat. Google Talk, Labs Edition also comes with new desktop notifications from Calendar, Orkut, and Gmail."

[via zdnet]

SocialSpark Preview and Invites

"IZEA, the company most famously behind the blogger money-making system PayPerPost, is starting to open up the doors to the general public on the new social network designed for bloggers with an interest in monetizing their site. We first heard of SocialSpark back in November of last year, when it was unveiled at the IZEA sponsored conference PostieCon."

[via mashable]

Google To Launch BigTable As Web Service

"Google may be releasing BigTable, its internal database system, as a web service to compete with Amazon SimpleDB, according to a source with knowledge of the launch. There are also rumors that press is being pre-briefed on the product, although we haven’t been contacted by Google."

[via tech crunch]

Dive Into Python

"Dive Into Python is a Python book for experienced programmers. You can buy a printed copy, read it online, or download it in a variety of formats. It is also available in multiple languages."

[via dive into python]

Bill And Ted's Completely Unnecessary Remake

"Another classic science fiction franchise is getting the "reboot" treatment, but its biggest star could be even harder to recast than William Shatner's Captain Kirk. A new Bill And Ted movie finally got the green light — probably from the same people at MGM who thought that War Games sequel was a good idea — and it could show up in the next couple of years."

[via io9]

Microsoft Surface Is Finally Here

"Microsoft announced that its Surface tabletop touchscreen computers will officially launch this month at five AT&T stores in New York City, San Francisco, Atlanta and San Antonio. As much of the geekosphere already knows, I've been a close follower of this technology since before it was announced last May, when my in-depth feature with hands-on video on Surface enthusiastically announced that the machine would be "ready for deployment by the end of 2007."

[via [popular mechanics]

Microsoft will extend life of Windows XP--again

"Microsoft has decided to extend the life of Windows XP, although only for a limited class of machines. Microsoft said on Thursday that it will continue to allow Windows XP Home edition to be sold for a class of computers it calls "ultra-low-cost PCs." It's a category that covers machines with slower processors, smaller screens, and in many cases flash memory for storage, rather than a traditional hard drive."

[via cnet news]

Weird Superheros Who Won't Ever Hit the Silver Screen

"With new superhero movies coming out seemingly every three days, it's tough to maintain an interest when so many of them feel like redundant cash-ins. Because of the sad state of superhero movies, we decided to examine the pros and cons of several neglected characters who could possibly spice up this flailing movie genre. So evil doers beware, as we present "7 Weird Superheros that Won't Ever Hit the Silver Screen"

[via omg list]

Johnny 5 is Alive - Short Circuit Being Remade!

"The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films have acquired the rights to remake the 1986 family classic Short Circuit. Even the original creators, S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock, who created the characters and wrote both of the original movies, are back on board again writing the script for the remake."

[via first showing]

10 Things IT Needs to Know About Ajax

"The introduction of any new Web technology will affect a network's infrastructure in ways that range from inconsequential to earth shattering. Ajax is one of the more disruptive new Web technologies traveling across networks today. To help you minimize future surprises on your network, we've outlined the 10 things you should take to heart about Ajax."

[via cio]

Mobile Projector First Look

"Mobile projectors have been shrinking in size for years now, with the smallest models on the market right now being not much larger than a CD case. While these projectors are travel friendly, the ultimate business travelers still want something smaller, perhaps even built into a notebook or cell phone. This year at CTIA, two companies made incredible advances in this technology, bringing projector technology into devices no bigger than a cell phone or iPod."

[via notebook review]

Five Best Instant Messengers

"From web-based chat to desktop clients to tools that combine IM, email, and social networking, your nominations spanned a wide range of instant messaging applications. Let's take a closer look at the five most voted-for apps, and face them off against each other in a final showdown to crown the ultimate favorite."

[via lifehacker]

Bigger and More Giant Robots in Transformers 2?!

Transformers 2 is gearing up for it’s mid-Summer production start and IESB has a juicy rumor on the Decepticon line-up is… and trust me it’s HUGE, epic even…. That’s right… The six constructicons that combine to transform into the huge robot known as Devastator. Obviously, some of the names will have to be changed for the sequel, since they have already used the names in the first film. Names aside, how cool is that?

[via slashfilm]

Tips for Importing Old Mail to Gmail

"When I switched to Gmail more than a year ago, I still had a significant amount of old email stored with my old address. Because I keep messages for a long time and like to frequently search them, I wanted to move my old email to Gmail so it would all be in one place and I could access it on any device, including my mobile phone."

[via gmail blog]

40Gbps Internet Connection Used For Drying The Laundry

"What would you do if you would have the fastest internet connection in the world? Well, here is what Sigbritt Löthberg (photo), the Swedish that actually has it, uses it for: drying her laundry. With the 40Gbps speed you can download a full DVD in just a second and browse the web like your computer’s folders."

[via device]

The 5 Most Ridiculous Lies You Were Taught In History Class

"High school was hard enough, what with all the video games and boobies to distract us from our homework. What makes it even harder is having to unlearn all of the stuff they taught us in elementary school that turned out to be utter bullshit."

[via cracked]

Opera Mini 4.1 beta

"Opera Mini 4.1 beta lets you have the full Web everywhere. This newest release includes several new features, including automatic completion of Web addresses, making it easier to get to the sites you need; tools for attaching files to Web-based email; uploading photos to your blog or other site; downloading attachments from email for storage on your phone; and saving and viewing pages offline."

[via opera mini]

Intel launches second generation Classmate PCs for current generation of kids

"The official launch of Intel's second generation Classmate PC. After watching it trickle out in Malaysia, there's not much left to say about the rugged, Internet-centric platform of portables Intel is now calling "netbooks." However, if you're in the 95% of the world's children said to be without PCs or Internet, you're surely stoked at the prospect of your government handing you a 7- to 9-inch laptop with 6-cell battery, 512MB of memory, 30GB disk loaded with XP or Linux riding a Celeron M processor -- not Intel's newest Atom (though that's coming in future Classmates according to Intel)."

[via engadget]

MySpace to announce new music service on Thursday

"A new music service jointly owned by News Corp.'s MySpace.com and three record labels will be announced Thursday, according to a source familiar with the deal. MySpace Music has been expected for weeks and will offer streaming music, downloads of unprotected MP3s, concert tickets, ringtones, and other merchandise, the source told CNET News.com. The source added that MySpace is hopeful the service will open in the next few months."

[via cnet news]

Yahoo Unveils OneSearch 2.0

"After signing up twenty nine partnerships with carriers across the globe, covering more than 600 million consumers, Yahoo has now enhanced their mobile search capabilities by adding some smart features such as voice input and search assist. Voice input will allow you to search by speaking into your cell phone instead of typing. Search assist will be able to predict what you are typing. The best part is, Yahoo provides answers in its search results, not links!"

[via truemors]

Awesome Light Graffiti Pictures

"Long Exposure pictures can get pretty awesome if you have the right ideas. One of the coolest ideas is to make sweet light graffiti with this camera option.During all summer I've played with it, and made some nice pictures (some other day I'll post it), but not as nice as some of these pictures right here! 98% of it was found on Flickr!"

[via abduzeedo]

25 Wonderful Places To Visit In Your Lifetime

"Have you ever dreamt of visiting any of your favorite places? Most often, you will hear these words from your friends, family members or any others. Every one of us desire to visit our favorite places in the lifetime. It is the dream of every human being."

[the travelers zone]

Sprint's Samsung Instinct First Hands On and iPhone Sizemodo

"Sprint's Instinct is so special the carrier is holding its own super special event. Unfortunately, it hasn't quite finished baking, so the full feature set wasn't entirely ready to go—we had to visit different "stations" to check out each feature individually to keep us from diving too deep. The iPhone-challenging visual voicemail, for instance, ain't quite live."

[via gizmodo]

Secret 'dino bugs' revealed

"It is like a magic trick - at first there is nothing and then it appears: a tiny insect unseen by any eye for 100 million years. We are with Paul Tafforeau who is scrolling through images on his computer. His pictures have been produced by a colossal X-ray machine that can illuminate the insides of small lumps of clouded amber (fossil tree resin)."

[via bbc]

English Gone Wrong

"One of my favorite things about traveling is seeing how English is used, or misused. Apparently I'm not alone. Most of these seem to be from Asian countries, however there are a few from other parts of the world that are just as hilarious. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did."

[via divine caroline]

42 Must-Bookmark Resources for Web Designers - Inspiration, Design, Color, Fonts and More

"Whether you are just starting out or a seasoned veteran these tools, tutorials, lists and other resources are great sites for any web designer. Organized into helpful categories (design inspiration, CSS resources, web design guides, color tools, free fonts and more) this collection not only has useful resources but also categorized links to other lists with 100s more."

[via re encoded]

WarGames 2 Movie Trailer

"WarGames: The Dead Code stars Matt Lanter as a computer geek named Will Farmer who engages a government super-computer named R.I.P.L.E.Y. and enters in a game of online terrorist-attack simulation (yes, instead of global thermonuclear war from the original movie). But apparently the game is actually part of a sophisticated piece of government spyware designed to find potential terrorists."

[via slashfilm]

Flickr now helps you find friends (a life is up to you)

"Flickr has a helpful new way to let you find people you know who have Flickr accounts. It's called find friends, and it will tap into your Yahoo Mail, Gmail, or Windows Live Hotmail to cross check those e-mails with Flickr users. When it finds matches it serves them up in a list--all of which require you to opt them in one at a time as one of Flickr's somewhat ambiguous friends classifications."

[via webware]

Google First Out of the Gate with GMail April Fools Prank

"Big fun from Google on April Fools Day. Imagine my surprise when I went to read my mail just around midnight, only to find that Google had just released a new feature for GMail called GMail Custom Time."

[via mason world]

Wibrain UMPC Is The Better Version Of Macbook Air

"Wibrain released a new portable computer that has full functioning of a regular PC, but fits the palm of your hand. The Ultra-Mobile PC is a response to the Macbook Air that divided people into those who liked it and those who didn’t and, as the name says, it really is ultra mobile."

[via do device]

7 Ways to Create your Digg Clone

"You’ve seen Digg, and you’ve seen the hundreds - if not thousands - of similar sites sprouting up lately. Perhaps you’ve had an idea for a Digg-like site, but you just didn’t know where to start? Luckily, today there are several options available for creating your own Digg clone which require little to no programming knowledge. These"

[via mashable]

FriendFeed, The Centralized Me, and Data Portability

"It’s definitely FriendFeed month in Silicon Valley. The company, founded by ex-Googlers, let you aggregate information and activity streams from all of the various services that you use on the internet - Flickr photos, YouTube videos, blog posts, delicious bookmarks, Twitter messages, and other stuff (33 services total to date). Your friends subscribe to your stuff, and see a stream of data on their home page coming from everyone they follow."

[via techcrunch]

Women’s attractiveness judged by software

"According to Haaretz, an Israeli team of computer scientists has developed a software that ranks facial attractiveness of women. Instead of identifying basic facial characteristics, this software has been designed to make aesthetic judgments — after training. The lead researcher said this program ‘constitutes a substantial advance in the development of artificial intelligence.’ It is interesting to note that the researchers focused on women only."

[via zdnet]

Top 10 Creationist Discoveries of All Time

"This has been a huge year for intelligent design research. We took a look back at some of the most important breakthroughs. Until recently, Wired has been too hard on the proponents of creationism. To rectify that, our science desk has hired a full staff of religious zealots"

[via wired]

Indiana Jones Will Be (Mostly) CGI-Free

"Will Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull feature Indy ducking CGI boulders and reacting to greenscreen aliens? Not according to production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas, who also worked on Superman Returns and X2: X-Men United. We just talked to Dyas, who says he built all of the movie's sets, with little or no greenscreen. More details, and a gallery of Dyas' designs from Superman and X2, after the jump."

[via io9]

Super Pii Pii Brothers

"As any good geek should know by now Japan has some of the wackiest and most unusual products anywhere. So when we were visiting Tokyo recently and saw lines of Japanese schoolgirls waiting to play an amazing new game for the Wii called Super Pii Pii Brothers we were only a little surprised."

[via thinkgeek]

Military Report: Secretly 'Recruit or Hire Bloggers'

"A study, written for U.S. Special Operations Command, suggested "clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers." Since the start of the Iraq war, there's been a raucous debate in military circles over how to handle blogs -- and the servicemembers who want to keep them. One faction sees blogs as security risks, and a collective waste of troops' time."

[via wired]

Samsung's 3G Instinct takes on the iPhone

"Announced Tuesday here at CTIA, the Instinct (set for release in mid-June) looks like a virtual clone of the iPhone, but it delivers many of the features missing from Apple's red-hot handset, including 3G access for speedy browsing and downloads, a replaceable battery, expandable memory, and haptic feedback for the touchscreen - that is, a slight vibration each time you tap the screen. This key feature is sorely missing on the iPhone."

[via yahoo tech]

Intel reveals June launch date for first Atom processor

"We've already heard about some of Intel's future Atom plans, and heard just how little it'll apparently cost the company to produce 'em, but now thanks to a PDF kindly let loose by the chipmaker, we finally have some official word as to when we can actually expect to see 'em."

[via engadet]

35 cool and inspirational business card designs

"For the 6th issue of the Sunday Design Resource we’ll be showcasing some of the best business card designs. It’s a really good place to start if you are looking to redesign your business card or design one from scratch all together."

[via leaf life]

How to Order a Beer in Fifty Languages

"Among the mildest and most variable of these alcoholic beverages is that fine elixir known as beer. A true beer connoisseur would never pass up an opportunity to try the local brew, no matter where on Earth where they found themselves, and so it behooves the serious beerologist to know how to order a beer in as many languages as possible. That's why we've taken it upon ourselves to provide you with a handy guide on how to order a beer in 50 different languages. Where the pronunciation isn't obvious, or in which the term is normally written in non-Roman characters, we've rendered it phonetically. Cheers!"

[via etiquette system]

Design Vector Based Badges

Creating your own badges has never been easier. These badges are vector based, which means that you can scale them to whatever size you need without loosing any quality.

[via tutorial9]

Facebook girl beaten and shot dead by her father for talking online

" A woman was beaten up and shot dead by her father for talking online with a man she met on the website Facebook. The case was reported on a Saudi Arabian news site as an example of the "strife" the social networking site is causing in the Islamic nation. It said the man shot his daugther after discovering she had been chatting online to a young man she had met on Facebook."

[via daily mail]

4 Ways to Carry your PC on iPod or USB Thumbdrive

"Do you want to take your favorite programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more wherever you go and use them on pretty much any computer ? If so here are four free tools that can help you with that. These are portable software packs that can be installed on any USB device."

[via make use of]

One step forward: a review of GNOME 2.22

"The latest release of the GNOME desktop environment includes a number of significant architectural enhancements and new applications that offer increased power and usability. Released after six months of intensive development, GNOME 2.22 will be included in Ubuntu 8.04 and Fedora 9, which are scheduled for release in April."

[via ars technica]

The Evidence for a 3G iPhone... June 2008

"There's been so much talk about the possibility of the "3G" iPhone, it can be hard to keep up with all the rumors. First of all, "3G" technology promises broadband-like speeds over wireless cellular networks. At present, the iPhone only offers 2.5G (EDGE) speeds, which means your web pages and email download at relatively slower speeds."

[via mac rumors]

Evolution of the social network

"Recent reports of social networking's demise may be slightly premature. Sure, some users are completely fed up with receiving friends invites, being "bitten", "poked" and indeed having sheep thrown at them."

[via bbc click]

CIA enlists Google's help for spy work

"Google has been recruited by US intelligence agencies to help them better process and share information they gather about suspects. Agencies such as the National Security Agency have bought servers on which Google-supplied search technology is used to process information gathered by networks of spies around the world."

[via times online]

The 10 Craziest Scientific Experiments Ever Conducted

"Science is all fine and good and has provided us with countless modern wonders, from laser beams to space flight to ultra absorbent, soft-as-a-cloud toilet paper. But lest we forget, the road to Charmin Ultra isn't just paved with red, raw asses. Over the years more than a few scientists have strayed from the path of useful research into crazy as a shithouse rat research."

[via cracked]

Top 10 Harmless Geek Pranks

"On the eve of April Fools' Day, when you've got local network access to your coworkers' and family systems, cubicles just crying out to be filled with packing peanuts, and webapps that can do all sorts of things automatically, there's no better time to baffle, confuse, perplex, and just plain mess with your loved ones and associates."

[via lifehacker]

Dodo: Web-based time machine!

"Dodo is incredibly simple to use: Just upload an input picture, choose between different settings that might affect the aging process (i.e. amounts of alcohol and tobacco consumed), set a year and hit generate. Obviously results will vary, but under strenuous laboratory analysis we have found a margin of error of only +-11%"

[via aviary]

Top 5 April Fools' Day Pranks You Can Build in the Office

"Certain holidays seem to have been created for DIY-ers, and April Fools' Day is certainly among them. No store-bought hand buzzer can stand up to a well-built, well-executed homemade prank, so we asked the chief geek from the gonzo builders at instuctables.com to pick his favorites."

[via popular mechanics]

Google Docs getting offline access

"Google Docs' word processor is finally getting offline access. Using the free Google Gears extension, users will soon be able to read and edit their files even when they have no Internet connection. The Gears-enabled version of Google Docs will roll out to users over the next few weeks, starting Monday. If you don't have access to the feature, just keep trying, Google Docs product manager Ken Norton told me. You'll know you have the feature when you see a little "offline" menu item in the upper right of your document window in Google Docs."

[via webware]

Superman’s Future

"You’ve probably heard by now that a federal judge decided last week that Time Warner is no longer the sole proprietor of Superman. The court has ruled that the heirs of Jerome Siegel (of Siegel and Shuster) are entitled to a share of the US copyright to the character. The quick backstory goes like this: Siegel and Shuster sold the rights to Superman 70 years ago to Detective Comics for only $130. DC Comics has since given the creators each a $20,000-per-year annuity (later increased to $30,000)."

[via slashfilm]

Nokia WiMAX N810 appears in the wild

"The WiMAX version of Nokia's N810 internet tablet has already popped up on Nokia's European site, lending creedence to all those whispers about a CTIA debut tomorrow, and now we've got units showing up in the wild, which is probably a good sign."

[via engadget]

Yahoo targets women with new 'Shine' site

"Yahoo on Monday will launch a new Web site aimed at women. The site, called "Shine," will feature original blogs and content from major publishing partners including Conde Nast, Hearst, and Time. The site is Yahoo's latest foray into vertical sites, which include the popular Yahoo News and Yahoo Finance, as well as Sports and Entertainment, and the much less popular Yahoo Tech and Yahoo Green. This site is Yahoo's first targeting a specific audience and not just a topic."

[via cnet news]

Adobe brings AIR to Linux, joins Linux Foundation

"Adobe Systems on Monday is expected to release an alpha version of AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) and announce that it is joining the Linux Foundation. AIR is Adobe's Web browser plug-in for running and creating Web applications that run both online and offline. AIR 1.0, released late last month, runs on Windows and Mac OS. Adobe had said it will port AIR to Linux and then mobile devices."

[via cnet news]

A Better Way to Play Battlestar Galactica

"Using some fancy welding and software skills, a sci-fi lover builds a flight simulator to transport himself into his favorite TV show; just in time for the new season."

[via popsci]

Doomsday fears spark lawsuit over collider

"The builders of the world's biggest particle collider are being sued in federal court over fears that the experiment might create globe-gobbling black holes or never-before-seen strains of matter that would destroy the planet."

[via msnbc]

Newton's Alchemy

"Historian of science Bill Newman says that Isaac Newton's alchemical notebooks are like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. But as you'll see as you peruse the 300-year-old manuscript at left, this puzzle is no child's play—more like an enigma wrapped in a mystery riddled with a number of misleading clues."

[via nova]

Star Wars comes to Holyhead as Darth Vader strikes back in Jedi's back garden

"Jedi Master Jonba Hehol - known to family and friends as Barney Jones, 36, of Holyhead - was giving a TV interview in his back garden for a documentary when a man, dressed in a black bin-bag and wearing Darth Vader's trademark shiny black helmet, leapt over his garden fence. Wielding a metal crutch - his lightsaber presumably being in for repairs - the Sith Lord proceeded to lay about his opponent, whose Jedi powers proved inadequate for the task of defending himself."

[via telegraph]

Where did viruses come from?

"Tracing the origins of viruses is difficult because they don't leave fossils and because of the tricks they use to make copies of themselves within the cells they've invaded. Some viruses even have the ability to stitch their own genes into those of the cells they infect, which means studying their ancestry requires untangling it from the history of their hosts and other organisms."

[via scientific american]

Atom processor to cost Intel just $6 to $8?

"Tom's Hardware has discovered that the release may actually do more for Intel than we geeks. After consulting a source it believes to be quite credible, it found that the CPU -- which will likely sell for upwards of $30 at the low-end -- will cost Intel just "$6 to $8, including production, packaging and shipping.""

[via engadget]

Run Old-School DOS Games with DOSBox

"Dig out those floppies and try out DOSBox, a free, open-source DOS emulator for all platforms. The app supports at least 3,000 games, and likely many more, as it can recreate most graphics and sound setups, and lets you set your own processor speed to prevent the warp-speed effect games often suffer on modern systems. DOSBox is a free download for Window, Mac, Linux, and other"

[via lifehacker]

Users turn Twitter into an MMO sporting event

"Twitter Color Wars, an online event/club/social network/mind control experiment created by Welebrity Ze Frank. It's a wonderfully over-complicated way to take advantage of the hordes of people using Twitter to recreate a virtual color war using the service's following and direct messaging features."

[via webware]