The Rigged-Up Net

Robin Williams… regarding Golf:

Robin Williams …super comedian

What with CSS Reboot right around the corner and fresh designs in short supply given the Nov. 1st deadline is so near, I’ve decided to refresh your memory, with the sexiest designed websites you may have forgotten about. I refuse to discriminate here, either: I’m willing to be wowed by CSS and XHTML with some AJAX and whatnot thrown in, and I’m just as willing to be wowed by a great Flash-based interface. If it catches my eye, It’s golden.

The 35 sexiest designed websites you’ve forgotten

This is amazing…

Refill Water Bottle Trick

Two buddies from Long Island came up with the idea of offering (relatively) cheap access to private jets. And with the help of folks like Warren Buffett, Derek Jeter and J. Lo, they turned the Marquis Jet card into one very cool brand.

High Fliers

The story of the Linksys Wireless-G Router (model WRT54G) and how you can turn a $60 router into a $600 router is a little bit CSI and a little bit Freaks & Geeks.

The Open Source WRT54G Story

Telecommuters employed by a company outside their home state may be at risk of having to pay extra taxes unless Congress adopts a bill protecting them, experts said Tuesday.

Telecommuters: Beware the tax man

We are experiencing a breakneck growth in the interconnection of personal computers, terminals and telephones in the business environment. T1 technology is proving to be a cost-effective means of linking voice and data, both inter-office and intra-office, and serves as an alternative to high speed modems for data transport. There is significant discussion these days about “T1 Gateways” and “T1 trunks” as the cost from the various phone companies of these services goes down. Users are discovering that it costs less to have a T1 trunk than a series of leased telephone lines in a point-to-point topology. This increase in the use of T1 requires a fundamental understanding of the technology.

All You Wanted to Know About T1 But Were Afraid to Ask

A program that speeds pre-screened travelers through security will begin June 20, launching what airports hope will be a new era of checkpoint screening.

Starting in June, some fliers can skip long security lines

Actor Pat Morita, whose portrayal of the wise and dry-witted Mr. Miyagi in “The Karate Kid” earned him an Oscar nomination, has died. He was 73.

Pat Morita, ‘Karate Kid’s’ Mr. Miyagi, dies

We all know that printing at home is a waste of time and money (since the paper and ink costs a fortune, and it takes forever to print one photo)…

So here you can compare the prices of photo printing services:

http://printrates.com/

Have wine with lunch (if there is lunch) on one of America’s airlines these days and you might be surprised at what you end up sipping.

Airlines go to great lengths in choosing wine

Boy… oh boy…

Office Prank

Ta dah! To nobody’s surprise who has ever lived — or even visited — there, Manhattan is the most expensive place in the United States.

Priciest U.S. cities

Ever feel a slight pain or squeezing in your chest? Ever feel an ache in your arm or jaw that just didn’t seem right? Is it a heart attack? Or, is it simply indigestion?

Over 1.1 million of us will suffer a heart attack this year, but many won’t realize it until too late. Symptoms can be ambiguous, intermittent, even mild. (And who’s eager to take a potentially unnecessary trip to the E.R.?) But, the clock is ticking and indecision can be deadly. Irreversible heart damage begins at two hours and death rates double.

Now, with E.K.Guard, there’s no need to delay. Check your heart over the telephone, from any location, at any time 24/7.

E.K.Guard

They’re the 10 priciest hotels in the world — but what does £8,000 per night actually get you? Susan d’Arcy finds out

$plash the cash on the world’s most expensive beds

I found these pretty amusing:

Perils of URLs

I think my favorite is this one:

And there is an Italian Power company: http://www.powergenitalia.com

Glancing at the front page of the Wall Street Journal on Friday, you might initially roll your eyes (yet another Google story) and then hungrily set in to read the mid-page column on the Google boys’ new luxury Boeing 767-200 airplane.

Google founders’ heady purchase

a 15-year-old boy rubbed a swab along the inside of his cheek, popped it into a vial and sent it off to an online genealogy DNA-testing service. But unlike most people who contact the service, he was not interested in sketching the far reaches of his family tree. His mother had conceived using donor sperm and he wanted to track down his genetic father.

Anonymous sperm donor traced on internet

I discovered a way to download Google Video Files. Isn’t really easy, but isn’t hard…

Download Google Videos

Or you could just use this:

fM Google Video Downloader ver1.0 Final

Turn the pages of 10 Crescent Lane, a new high-end home catalog, and nothing about the furnishings or décor items whispers Home Depot.

Upscale catalog starts new chapter for Home Depot

The folks over on the Manufacturers’ Blog (Coolstuffbeingmade.com) have videos of interesting manufacturing

Coolstuffbeingmade.com

There are signs that the overheated market might finally be cooling. The Commerce Department, for example, said sales of new homes in September fell shy of expectations, median prices declined 5.7%, and the number of new homes for sale shot up to a record 493,000. Freddie Mac also said October mortgage applications seem to be “tapering off.”

Overheated housing market is cooling

Bart sent this to me, its actually quite amazing… worth watching:

He uses a looping program to perform live, layering everything with his mouth – beats, basslines, scratching, singing, keyboard parts…he’s like Rhazel, but more diverse and can sing too. And his music is actually really good, rather than just relying on a gimmick:

http://www.transbuddha.com/mediaHolder.php?id=832

The follow’s name is Kid Beyond and his website is at http://www.kidbeyond.com/

A drink somewhere between coffee and beer could soon be on the menu. Nestec, part of the Nestlé empire in Switzerland, has filed patents in every major market round the world on a “fermented coffee beverage” that pours and foams like beer, but smells of strong coffee and packs a concentrated caffeine kick.

Invention: Coffee beer

It was only a matter of time… 🙂

AutoPilot automatically transfers, converts and stores your TiVo shows. You can select shows or series to be transfered automatically, and you can even schedule the program to work in the night while your computer is idle. It also keeps track of what you already downloaded, making it east to transfer a whole series without duplicates.

AutoPilot Converts TiVo to Palm Format

If you own an iPod, it’s likely you are more apt to spread consumer-generated media as well as be more technologically savvy than your non-iPod brethren, a survey released on Monday said. Intelliseek, a Internet research firm, said it expects the trend to continue with the recent release of the video iPod.

Study: iPod Owners Have Tech Savvy

The superrich are increasingly buying widebody planes, remodeled to their own preferences for luxurious living aloft

Penthouses at 30,000 Feet

Check out the pics: Slide Show

Dell Inc. is taking a page from auto maker Toyota Motor Co.’s playbook and recasting its XPS Media Center PC line with a series of new models and services.

Dell Punches Up XPS Media Center PCs

Ever wonder what all those BIOS settings mean?

The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide

The Mobil Travel Guide selected one San Antonio hotel and one local restaurant to be recognized in the publication’s 2006 Mobil Four- and Five Awards program.

Watermark, Le Reve earn ‘Four-Star’ rating in Mobil Travel Guide

Check this out!! $47 and 30,000 calories! Ya, that’s with FOUR zeros!

I wasn’t joking about the sandwich I made

Bill Cosby, who created a stir in the black community when he criticized young people for the way they speak, challenged parents in this crime-plagued, largely minority city to set goals for their children.

Cosby: Parents must set goals for kids

Carve a Pumpkin!

How to Carve a Pumpkin

Last year, the 37-year-old agricultural sales director from Post Falls, Idaho, noticed a throbbing sensation in this thumbs whenever he typed. He switched to tapping with his index finger, then his middle digit and finally his pinky. But his thumbs pained him to the point where he can’t even press the buttons on his TV remote control.

Blackberry Users Learning Painful Lesson

If you ever hire a bartender, make sure they can do a few tricks:

One very talented bar girl

A surfer received a bad gash Wednesday when a 14-foot shark bit her leg in the waters off northern California and pulled her underwater, authorities said.

Surfer Bitten by Shark in Northern Calif

You know, every so often Tom Greene does something pretty funny:

(Yes, its clean – work safe)

SLUT MOBILE

It is healthier to walk along a busy road and breathe in exhaust fumes than to sit in the comfort of an airconditioned car, a U.S. researcher said on Wednesday.

Air inside car said to be more harmful than outside

You gotta hear this…

Mario Bros. played by London Symphony Orchestra

I recently discovered that a few important machines at a certain educational institute’s datacenter allows all students, faculty, and staff to authenticate against them via ssh. Everyone’s shells appear to be set to /bin/false (or some derivative) on said machines, so the only thing you’ll see after you authenticate is the login banner and your connection will close. I thought to myself, “Fine, no shell for me. I wonder if port forwarding works?”

SSH Security and You