October 23rd, 2005
Divx
This is a pretty good guide on how to convert a DVD to Divx/Xvid using free tools…
October 23rd, 2005
Pomegranate Juice
Pomegranate juice, a deep red juice becoming popular as a health drink, works against prostate cancer cells in lab dishes and in mice, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.
October 22nd, 2005
New-car Smell
…that unmistakable new-car smell may soon be heading the way of the rumble seat: Recent research linking it to a toxic cocktail of harmful chemicals is spurring efforts by Japanese automakers to tone down the fumes.
October 21st, 2005
Boys on Campus
Where the Boys Are, released in 1960, is the quintessential college spring-break movie. Today, visitors to college campuses can’t help but ask: Where are the boys?
October 20th, 2005
Galleon
If you have a Series2 Tivo, and you need to play with Galleon. Winner of the “Most Creative Application” in the TiVo Developer Challenge, it does an impressive list of things to make your Tivo more useful, like:
- Play MP3 files using the builtin player or with your favorite Winamp skins.
- View your photo collection using many slideshow effects and background music.
- View interesting information about each MP3 file such as album covers, lyrics and web images of your favorite artists.
- Listen to online streaming radio stations including Shoutcast stations.
- Organize your media files in many flexible ways.
- Play your favorite playlists including iTunes playlists.
- View local weather forecasts and alerts.
- View internet webcams.
- Read your email.
- Read your favorite RSS feeds.
- Automatically download recordings from your TiVo using keywords.
- Automatically download your favorite podcasts.
- View local movie listings.
- Change the look-and-feel of Galleon by using your own skins.
- Copy video files from your PC to your TiVo using GoBack.
- View Internet Slideshows.
- View Videocasts.
Check it out: Galleon
October 20th, 2005
Gadgets
Simon Hunt is proud of his gadgets. From the open-sesame electric garage door to the satellite navigation gear in the car, he isn’t afraid to extol the virtues of technology.
October 19th, 2005
Intel numbering scheme
FINALLY!
The old new one, seemingly designed to confuse people so you couldn’t compare features, looks to have been somewhat improved but now it’s as clear as dirty water rather than mud. The scheme hasn’t been fully fleshed out, but we would expect it to change quite a bit before it comes out next January or so.
October 19th, 2005
Indian Kissing
An Israeli couple was fined 1,000 rupees after an Indian court found them guilty of obscenity for kissing during their marriage ceremony in a Hindu pilgrim town, newspapers reported Wednesday.
October 18th, 2005
RCM
This is pretty cool… I wonder if they’ll be successful…
What is Remote Control Mail?
RCM offers the privacy of a PO Box and combines it with the convenience of the Internet – Remote Control Mail (RCM) delivers your postal mail online!
When you get an RCM account you can choose from any of our RCM Addresses around the country. You can have the USPS forward your mail to your chosen address(es) and/or notify everyone who sends you mail that this is where you want to receive your mail in the future.
When we receive your mail we immediately scan the front of every envelope. You can log onto the Internet from anywhere in the world, any hour of the day, to see what mail you’ve received. Then, you can choose whether you’d like us to shred an item, group it together with other items and forward-ship it to you, or have us open the item and scan its contents to a PDF file.
October 18th, 2005
Hands Clean
Men are dirtier than women. So scientists confirmed by spying in public restrooms, watching as one-quarter of men left without washing their hands.
October 17th, 2005
EV-DO
If you’re considering EV-DO you should definitely check out this site… you can get 3Mbps+ with their add-on antenna… bad-ass!
October 17th, 2005
Smoking
Smokers who believe a few cigarettes a day don’t do any harm will need to think again.
October 16th, 2005
PokerBot
Maybe it’ll be worth playing now… hmm…
Play perfect holdem at all the popular online poker sites.
October 16th, 2005
MSFT vs GOOG
Google’s one-of-a-kind computer network gives it a chance to surpass Microsoft to become the most dominant company in tech, according to the author of a recently published book on the search giant.
October 15th, 2005
Girls and Depression
Sex is more likely to lead to depression in teenage girls than experimenting with drugs or alcohol, research has found
October 14th, 2005
Yay Nokia!
YAY! Nokia finally announced their replacement for the 6820… the 6830! Can’t wait to get one:
or perhaps the E70 is more to my liking… so many choices!
Nokia’s E60, E61, and E70 E-series mobile business phones
And the best news is that the new E70 is a Series-60 phone now! Oh yeah!
Unlike the series 40 based 6800 and 6820, the E70 makes use of the much more flexible Series 60 user interface
October 14th, 2005
Ipod Video
It looks like you won’t be able to FF or RWD on the new iPod while playing video:
You’ve got to love Apple. Crazy like a fox they are. Oh sure – some of their decisions regarding the new iPod might seem a little odd to the gadget-lovers among us. “No DivX???” is the phrase most often muttered when Engageteers start reading of the new iPod’s video functions. This is often followed by “No fast forward and rewind?!?”
October 14th, 2005
HP Laptop Batteries
Hewlett Packard is recalling about 135,000 battery packs for some HP and Compaq laptop computers because of reports they overheated and melted, the Palo Alto, Calif., company announced Friday.
October 14th, 2005
Linux and NTFS
Ok – NOW you can use NTFS under Linux… however, its a commercial product.
October 14th, 2005
Austin
Kiplinger.com named Austin as one of the coolest cities for young professionals.
October 13th, 2005
Stupid Car Tricks
This is good stuff… two different guys, two different cars, two different situations… one same thing – they get out of their car while in the middle of something…
and
October 13th, 2005
JHymn
It appears that if you make any purchases using iTunes 6.0, from that point on you must use 6.0 — and then JHymn won’t work for you either. JHymn will have to learn how to perform the iTunes 6.0 protocol before this problem is likely to be fixed — so hang on, it could be a bit of a wait.
October 13th, 2005
Real or Fake?
Talk about keeping it real: Tyra Banks underwent a televised sonogram on her new talk show to prove that her breasts aren’t fake.
October 12th, 2005
New Ipod
Ok, so the new iPod does video… which is great… but only H.264 and MPEG-4 encoded streams – Which sucks.
Transcoding video to the correct format is a real pain in the butt. You have to get the screen resolution correct, then convert it into the right format… which is a time-consuming task… and transcoding into H.264 takes FOREVER!
Which is why I prefer players that can re-size video to fit the screen on the fly, and those that will also play videos encoded in any codec.
For now, I’ll stick with playing videos on a PocketPC or a Palm using:
October 12th, 2005
RNA-i
This whole RNAi discovery is just fascinating… this could change EVERYTHING!
Research scientists are hoping that RNAi, already in human clinical trials, will treat a host of diseases, including AIDS, cancer, and Huntington’s.
October 11th, 2005
Teen Drivers and Cell Phones
Teen drivers could soon have to put down their cell phones when driving if states follow the recommendations of the National Transportation Safety Board. The government agency pushed for new regulations at a hearing on highway safety on Tuesday.
October 10th, 2005
Sonic T-Amp
So I read these reviews:
- Sonic Impact T-Amp – integrated amplifier
- Sonic Impact Amp
- Sonic Impact Class T Power Amplifier
- 6moons audio reviews: Sonic Impact T-Amp 2
And for $30, I decided I wanted to try it….
Turns out, it sounds pretty good… I’m not an audiophile or anything, but this thing was producing clean and loud power. The only distortion I could detect were clearly artifacts from the MP3 codec.
Two thumbs up. 🙂
If you’d like to buy one, you can get one here:
October 10th, 2005
Teenage Troubles
Teenage angst and clashes with authority may be caused by changes in youngsters’ brains during puberty, but luckily for harassed parents the problems pass.
October 9th, 2005
Unlocking common Cingular phones
Many people have asked how to unlock the Treo 650 branded by Cingular as well as many other popular phones. I do not in any way support or supply unlocking codes; but I was able to obtain the steps involved once you have these said codes. I will be compiling a list of reliable unlocking sources in the near future, if you can recommend any please submit them below.
October 9th, 2005
Lack of Sleep Affects Doctors Like Alcohol Does
Working long hours is considered a hallmark of a medical residency. But in recent years, concerns have risen about how shifts that can last days affect a doctor’s ability to function. The results of a new study quantify the negative effects and show that the performance of fatigued residents is comparable to how they would act after imbibing three or four cocktails.
October 8th, 2005
Planting trees may create deserts
Planting trees can create deserts, lower water tables and drain rivers, rather than filling them, claims a new report supported by the UK government.
October 7th, 2005
New Downtown Austin Condo
Most units in Spring will be priced around $250,000, with some units under $200,000, according to Lorenz.