Blue-ray BD+ Cracked!

Slysoft, the makers of AnyDVD, CloneDVD, and many other disc-copying software apps, have just cracked the Blu-ray BD+ copy protection. This means, if Slysoft's predictions are correct, a commercially-purchasable suite to copy Blu-ray movies will be available by the end of the year. However, Blu-ray blanks—especially dual-layer ones—are still so costly right now ($40+ for a writable) that it's not financially feasible for people to be duping their own movies. You know, unless you really enjoy the blank disc look over the professionally done Blu-ray disc with the proper case and materials. [The Inqirer]

LED Message on Your Bike Spoke

If you are one of those people who gets off on riding their bike to work while everyone else sits in traffic, you will love this Lex LED attachment. Why? Because, if you have Windows XP, 2000, or Vista you can type in a personalized message in Englishusing the included software and then transfer the message to the Lex via USB. Imagine all of the fun you can have riding along the traffic with the words "suck it" flashing on your bike spokes.

The Pirate Bay Developing New Protocol to Replace BitTorrent

The Pirate Bay's pretty busy these days, reviving dead sites and whatnot, but their latest scheme is even bigger: They're working on an entirely new P2P protocol designed to replace BitTorrent, since BitTorrent Inc. is no longer making additions to the source code entirely open, which TPB believes grants them too much influence. The new extension, .p2p, will be backward-compatible with .torrent, and designed from the start to limit the effectiveness of spammers and anti-piracy organizations (no word on how, exactly). On the flip side of the coin, The Pirate Bay's clout isn't exactly insignificant anymore, and spearheading development of a new protocol it intends to rule the P2P roost is only going to grant it more sway if it takes off.

Google to Increase Inbox Limit

The Gmail Blog announced that in an effort to continue to gradually increase the storage space for their Gmail users, they have updated their counter algorithm. The new formula will speed up the rate at which they increase the capacity for email storage in Gmail.

1. 2912MB by October 11, 2007 midnight Google time
2. 4.2GB by the 23rd of this month
3. 6GB by January 4th next year
4. 42GB by the year of 2038
5. and 2.70266701 × 1072 TB* by 1/2/3456 7:00

Matchbox Twenty's New Album on USB

Matchbox Twenty's new album, Exile on Mainstream, is being sold on a USB bracelet. Available exclusively at Best Buy, the $35 item includes all 17 songs from the album (released Oct. 2), music video How Far We've Come, another video with band interviews, a digital booklet with album art and other band items to customize your computer.

Matchbox Twenty's management got the idea from a similar project that lets Willie Nelson concertgoers buy a USB bracelet that contains a downloaded version of that night's concert. (Some are available online at stores.allaccesstoday.com/willie.)

The band liked the idea, Thomas says. "Each time we've put out a record, we've been presented with new challenges of what we can do in the marketplace and how people are getting music and making it part of their lives."


I hope more record label companies follow this idea...

TV-links.co.uk Shutdown

"Marking the first closure of its kind against a UK-based piracy site, TV-Links.co.uk was raided and shut down by British authorities late last week. According to the United Kingdom (FACT), the raid also culminated with the arrests of the site’s 26-year-old webmaster and part of the site’s moderation staff. The raid was carried out through a coordinated effort involving investigators from FACT and the local police"

Read further at Dailytech

2008 Singapore F1 Night Race

Singapore to host a night race for the next Formula 1 season.

"Singapore has been confirmed as a Grand Prix venue for the 2008 calendar. A street circuit will be layed out for the event whilst Bernie Ecclestone was excited to announce that it will be the first night race in the history of the sport."

Shades of Grey

Thanks to www.soundclick.com, now I can stream my first composed song in my blog.

Guitar : Gibtone Electric.
Processor: Zoom 505II.
Amp : Philips PowerHouse 280W.
Software : CakeWalk Pro Audio 9.

The setup was like this...

Guitar -> Zoom 505II -> Philips PowerHouse -> Computer (for recording)



(the wallpaper on my destop is that of USS Prometheus)

Here is the song...

Dont Cry For Me Argentina

I uploaded this song on www.soundclick.com a long time ago. Just wanted to check out the streaming from soundclick.

Liteon LH20A1H DVD Writer Review

I bought LiteOn LH20A1H LightScribe enabled drive yesterday which cost me 2.2k. Now I can use the DVD-R DL that’s been lying around on my desk. The reason its still on my desk is because my old BenQ DW1620 writer does not support DVD-R DL.

Anyways I was disappointed not to find LightScribe labeling software bundled with the drive, just Nero 7 Essentials. I tried to find LightScribe configs in Nero 7 Ultra Edition but failed to do so. I found the 'burn label' option under Extras but it was grayed out. Also, I tried NeroCover Designer, and could find the LightScribe option under File -> Preferences as the last Tab but no drives were listed.

My search took me to www.lightscribe.com where I downloaded LightScribe system software version 1.10.16.1, which was around 9MB. After installing this update, I fired up the LightScribe control panel which was sitting conveniently on my system tray. The drive was detected under system information. Now that the LS system software was in place, I thought I will give Nero another go, but again NeroCover Designer was not able to list the drive.

I needed a labeling tool to use the hardware and software combo. Browsing through a few forums, I found that Nero8, Surething 4 and Roxio had support for LightScribe. Since I had none of them, my search again pointed me to www.lightscribe.com. There I found LightScribe Template labeler (30MB). After downloading and installing, I found some good basic templates.

Now that I had the hardware, driver and the necessary software installed, I needed to figure out what I wanted to burn. I had some data which I wanted to back up, but finally decided to burn Fawlty Towers (all 12 Episodes) since I would also need to LS the disc. The total size was 2.2 Gig, too much free space wasted, but again I did not have anything else to burn. Anyways my first CD also did not have data burned up to its brim.

Searching for images on google got me a few good pictures for Fawlty Towers. Customizing the templates in LS Template labeler was fairly easy. Just select the images and customize your text. Now, everything was in place, the disc was burned, driver in place, template ready. I flipped the disc, inserted it and hit the print button. It took around 23 minutes to complete the print. Here is the picture.

I know it’s not a good quality picture but hey, I am using my Nokia 6630 to capture it. Here is the drives configuration.

Cache Size: 2 MB

DVD+R Write Speed: 20x
DVD+RW Rewrite Speed: 8X
DVD-R Write Speed: 20x
DVD-RW Rewrite Speed: 6x
DVD Read Speed: 16x
DVD-RAM Write Speed: 12x
DVD Access Time: 160 ms
CD Write Speed: 48x
CD Rewrite Speed: 24x
CD Read Speed: 48x
CD Access Time: 160 ms
Color: Beige, Black
Length: 6.6"
Width: 5.7"
Height: 1.62"
Weight: 1.9 lbs.
Load Type: Tray
Interface Type: E-IDE / ATAPI
Enclosure Type: Internal
Compatible Writable Media:
CD-R
CD-RW
DVD+R
DVD-RAM
DVD-RW
DVD+RW
DVD-R
DVD+R DL
DVD-R DL

Writing Modes:
Disc-at-Once
Fixed and Variable Packet Writing
Raw writing
Session-at-Once
Track-at-Once
Over-Burn

Supported Formats:
CD-DA
CD-Extra
CD-i/FMV
CD-Plus
CD-R
CD-ROM
CD-ROM XA
CD-RW
DVD Dual layer
DVD single layer
DVD+R
DVD-RW
Karaoke CD
multi-session
Photo CD
DVD+RW
video-cd
Multi Border

Van Halen - Jump (off the key)

What happens when you play back a prerecorded synthesizer track at 48K instead of the intended 44.1K? The whole track plays back a little bit faster and at a slightly higher pitch, that's what. A dissonant musical mess ensues, trapping the guitarist and bassist in an on-stage musical hell with nowhere to go.



A complete mess in front of thousands of customers. Eddie Van Halen launch into his famous solo on "Jump," trying in vain to somehow transpose to this otherworldly key that is nowhere to be found. Eddie tries to transpose on the fly and match the wildly messed up keyboards but the great thing is the difference in pitch is non-musical - about 1.5 semitones sharp. So there’s no frets he can choose to fix the problem!

Megadeth touring India

Its not officially confirmed but Megadeth might be playing in Bangalore sometime in November.

"So, here is the scoop on the Pac Rim; we have been approached and are furiously negotiating, routing, budgeting, and trying to book our Asian tour from Nov.21st – Dec. 2nd to Surabaya, Indonesia; Downtown East, Singapore; Taipei, Taiwan; Bangalore, India, Bangkok, Thailand, Beijing and Shanghai, China. We are also doing Japan as you know (a favorite of the Drovers), and are trying to close South Korea this trip too. This will be officially announced and confirmed here." - Dave Mustaine

More-Efficient Phone Displays

Innovative displays that let more light reach the viewer could double the battery life of handheld devices.

By Kate Greene on Technology Review

The popularity of Apple's iPhone illustrates that large, good-quality screens matter on mobile devices. But the larger the display, the more battery power it uses. Now, a startup called Unipixel, based in Woodlands, TX, claims to have a design for a handheld display that is 60 percent more efficient than traditional displays. The net result, says Tod Cox, vice president of engineering at Unipixel, is that the displays can double the battery life of a cell phone. The company is partnering with a major display manufacturer, says Cox, and expects to have a prototype ready by the end of the year.

Unipixel's design uses many of the components found in existing displays, such as low-power light-emitting diodes (LEDs), but it puts them together in a novel way that provides a high-contrast picture that consumes less power and costs less to manufacture. "Other folks have tried to invent new technologies to bring to market, and they've required new materials and new processes, and that's been problematic," says Cox. "What we're trying to do is learn from the past and use what's available today."

Pigs on the Wings.

A group of MIT alums demonstrated the aircraft's automated folding wing, one of the biggest challenges to the design, and it worked perfectly, opening and closing over 500 times without incident.

Founded in 2006 and called Terrafugia, their startup, based in Woburn, MA, recently produced the first automated folding wing for a light sport aircraft. (A light sport aircraft is a type of airplane deemed by the Federal Aviation Administration to be easier to fly and hence more accessible than regular private planes.) The wing, however, is just the first step toward an aero-auto hybrid that the company plans to call the Transition.

"Going into this, we knew our two biggest design challenges to make it practical would be the wings and the power train," says Anna Mracek Dietrich, an engineer at Terrafugia and the company's chief operating officer. "By validating the durability of the wing's construction and engineering, we've checked one major design challenge off of the list, and now our focus is on the second."

Previous prototypes of road-drivable aircraft have featured manually folding or detachable wings. But to allow for a seamless and quick transformation from plane to car and back, the Terrafugia team has devised a system that allows the pilot to enfold or extend the wings by pushing a button in the cockpit. Dietrich says that at Oshkosh, the researchers opened and closed the wings more than 500 times--the equivalent of three to five years of typical use--and that they're more than pleased with the wings' durability.

Orange County's UFO.

Watch the video here...

Linn Murphy has a pretty awesome hobby: he freaks people out by flying a fake UFO over public gatherings, causing a ruckus. The flying disc, which has a 36-inch span and lights that flash and make it look like it's spinning, looks like a gigantic spacecraft high in the air from a height of 400 feet.

The UFO inventor, Steve Zingali, is no mad scientist or evil genius. The former Mission Viejo resident is a balding semi-retired grandfather who stumbled upon the idea by accident in 2003. On the Internet.

Zingali, 58, was searching for help with his radio-controlled plane. Instead he found hand-drawn plans by a poster named Stringfly for something called a saucer.

“I was told – by engineers – it wouldn't fly,” says Zingali, a former facilities specialist. “There was no airfoil, no lift, no dihedral.”

He built one anyway. It flew, but couldn't handle the wind. So he tweaked a few things and doubled its span from 18 to 36 inches. A phenomenon was born. Soon, Orange County motorists were chasing strange lights in the sky. Orange County's Mutual UFO Network was taking calls about erratic, flying objects. And the Web site UFOinfo.com was posting reports of “glowing orbs” in south Orange County.

iPhone Apps as Dashboard Widgets.

Leander Kahney at Cult of Mac says he heard that the iPhone is getting the HTML + JavaScript-based Dashboard widgets that OS X has had since 10.4. The programs would sync over from iTunes. Timing? Imminent. I'd guess this is one of the surprises that'll happen on the Leopard launch. Leander's source is well placed, but obviously won't reveal who. He's also clear that because he heard the fact third person, with no backup sources, he's only 70% confident of the outcome being true.

Water Powered Cell Phones

Running out of juice on the cell phone? Just fill it up with water.

Samsung has announced a micro fuel cell and hydrogen generator that will be capable of powering small electronics such as cellphones for 10 hours on nothing but good old water.

The fuel will be in the form of hydrogen cartridges that must be changed every four days or so if you use the phone for four hours a day. Later, Samsung plans to evolve the design so all you'll need to do is put some water in your cellphone and you're good to go.

"When the handset is turned on, metal and water in the phone react to produce hydrogen gas," explained Oh Yong-soo, vice president of Samsung Electro-Mechanics' research center. "The gas is then supplied to the fuel cell where it reacts with oxygen in the air to generate power." Other fuel cells need methanol to produce hydrogen, while Samsung's needs only water.

Since the micro-fuel cell can generate up to three watts of electricity, it could be used in mobile devices, the company said. The new fuel cell could power a handset for 10 hours, twice as long as rechargeable batteries.

Don't expect anything like this anytime soon, though, because the first water-powered phones will not hit the market until 2010.

X-Wing vs TIE

What really happened to the rocket powered X-Wing?

Take a look...



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This entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2007 at 3:28 pm and is filed under Tags: funny, rockets, video, x-wing.

Allen Telescope Arrray Innaguration

ALLEN TELESCOPE ARRAY

Today 11 Ocotber 2007, in the remote northeast corner of California, technology innovator and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen will hit the big red button.

No, he won't be throwing heavy-duty machinery into an emergency shutdown, nor will he be sending ICBMs screaming from their silos (traditional functions for ruddy buttons). Instead, he'll be christening a new telescope that, in its significance, could eventually outpace the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria.

The famous technologist will be inaugurating the initial 42 antennas of his namesake, the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) – the first major radio telescope designed from the pedestal up to efficiently (which is to say, rapidly) chew its way through long lists of stars in a search for alien signals. Within two decades, it will increase the number of stellar systems examined for artificial emissions by a thousand-fold. The ATA will shift SETI into third gear.

This telescope is truly a geek's barn-burner. In the last two decades, high-performance radio amplifiers have gotten smaller and, more importantly, much cheaper. This has changed the recipe for building radio telescopes, and the ATA is taking advantage of the new formula.

Kite's eye view to INDIA

Nicolas Chorier takes on India with a SLR mounted on a kite.

Surrounded by a gathering crowd of pilgrims and onlookers on the banks of Sangam, Chorier first readies the kite, then attaches it to a kite string – which is more like a thick chord -- and sets it aloft. Once it is airborne, high up above the mela grounds, he hangs a box-like frame -- which holds a regular SLR camera -- from the taut kite-string. Then he uses a pulley contraption to wheel the camera up the string till it is about halfway between the kite and the ground. Chorier uses a remote viewfinder to get the aerial view from the camera and manipulates the camera’s movements and the lens through remote control.

The results are spectacular: from Ladakh to Kochi, India reveals itself from an entirely new -- and completely unexpected – perspective. There are kite’s eye view photos of the Kumbh, shots of the Taj Mahal, the Jama Masjid in Delhi, the Victory Tower in Chittor, the Lake Palace in Udaipur, the ghats along the Ganga in Varanasi, the martial Kalaripayattu dance by the seashore and the Chinese fishing nets in Kochi.

The slide show is worth a watch.

Donkey Kong LIVE!

My neighbor had this and it was the first hand held game that I played!!!

Donkey Kong History

Repair XP and you cannot update to latest patches.

Microsoft Corp. Friday confirmed that Windows XP users who repair the operating system cannot update their PCs with the latest patches because of a file included with the stealth update pushed out to machines this summer.

"When an XP repair CD is used, it replaces all system files (including Windows Update) on your machine with older versions of those files and restores the registry," said Nate Clinton, program manager for Windows Update (WU), in a post to the Microsoft company blog dedicated to the update service. "However, the latest version of Windows Update includes 'wups2.dll' that was not originally present in Windows XP. Therefore, after the repair install of the OS, wups2.dll remains on the system, but its registry entries are missing. This mismatch causes updates to fail installation."

The Windows Secrets newsletter reported the patch installation failures after tests on Windows XP machines that had been restored by an in-place reinstall. The root of the problem, said the publication, is that seven DLLs from the latest revision to WU -- not just one -- failed to register themselves with XP. Microsoft could not provide an explanation for the discrepancy between the claims.

The file cited by Clinton, wups2.dll, is one of the seven fingered by Windows Secrets and part of the so-called stealth update that Microsoft sent to most noncorporate Windows XP and Vista users beginning in July and running through this month. The update was delivered and installed without prior notification, even when the PC's owner had told the operating system not to download or install updates without notification and permission.

Drink BEER for better memory.

Drink Beer for better memory.




"There are human epidemiological data of others indicating that mild [to] moderate drinking may paradoxically improve cognition in people compared to abstention," says Maggie Kalev, a research fellow in molecular medicine and pathology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and a co-author of an article in The Journal of Neuroscience describing results of a study she and other researchers performed on rats. "This is similar to a glass of wine protecting against heart disease, however the mechanism is different."