This is something I have been meaning to post for a while…
Hampshire College’s GNU+Linux Users Group has gathered together an extensive list of useful and/or interesting applications including detailed reviews, version and license information, and download links. Some of these applications are fairly well known ; many are cross-platform and all are open source.
Hampshire is no stranger to the free software movement: alum Benjamin Mako Hill is a leading advocate GNU/Linux and among other distinctions, serves as an adviser to One Laptop per Child project and the Wikimedia Foundation.
Watch this short video to find out.
It’s quite amazing how with only 20 cars driving around a circle, all supposed to be doing 30kph, a wave of backup slowly flows around the ring of cars. Quite quickly the spacing between cars starts to change. As some cars speed up, they create gaps. Is the cars behind them speed up, other drivers speed up too. Soon, a bunch of faster-moving cars catch up to slower moving cars. Only when all the cars before the driver ahead of the slow pack move up does the driver leading the slow pack speed up. Still confused? Just watch the video. Its only 30 seconds long, and shows what happens really clearly.
Still not an excuse for being late to work though. . . . .
http://www.maniacworld.com/shockwave-traffic-jam-test.html
Take a look at this very cool image of the Earth at night (thumbnail above)
http://incredimazing.com/page/Earth_at_Night-686
The different colors are different sources of light - red is wildfire, purple/yellow is city light, green is natural gas flares, and blue is fishing fleet lights.
The image cites NASA’s Visible Earth 2001 as the source of the map, and the Defense Meteorological Satelite Program as the source for the light data.
I know…a person who ships and buys so much stuff that he has accounts at the shippers 
ShipGooder is a nice little utility that people who ship alot ought to like very much. You type in the package start and destination points, and it tells you which shipper will be the least expensive. Nice little thing when you really dont have a preference. Although, i have a preference towards DHL…
Anyways, link: ShipGooder
“Kodak says its KAC-05020 Image Sensor is a 1.4 micron, 5-megapixel device that allows capture of high quality images in small cameras, with resolution that equals what is available from current devices using larger, 1.75 micron pixel CMOS designs.
Kodak said unlike other small-pixel sensors which can produce poor images, especially under low light conditions, the 1.4 micron pixel used in the KAC-05020 Image Sensor changes this convention, providing image quality that can equal or surpass what is available from current 1.75 micron-based devices. . .”
“At 5 million pixels, the KAC-05020 offers high resolution in the popular 1/4″ optical format, and enables imagery up to ISO
3200 and support for full 720p video at 30 fps. The sensor is also
supported by the Texas Instruments’ Omap and Omap-DM packages,
supporting digital image stabilization, rapid auto-focus, red-eye
reduction, and facial recognition that promises digital camera-like
performance in a camera phone, Kodak claims.”
Read more about it here
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/24665
“After
years of twiddling their thumbs over the issue, ICANN has voted 13-0 to
begin the bureaucratic process of putting an end to “domain tasting,”
the slimy practice whereby speculators buy up millions of URLs but
avoid paying any fees because they renounce the names within a 5-day
grace period.
How do they propose to accomplish this? Simple: Ditch the grace period.”
So, I guess the next time I got to register a domain, I should really uze spel cheek, shouldn’t I?
On a more serious note, I REALLY hope that this helps to kill some of those really crappy websites that are just pages and pages of ads and dead links. They just annoy me, but I can at least be thankful that I’ve yet to have trouble with domain name availibility.
Read More (and quoted from) here :
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/24521
BBSpot.com’s
11 Ways Geeks Would Prepare for an Apocalyptic Asteroid Impact
11. Start a “preparing for armageddon” blog.
10. Calculate force at which asteroid will hit Earth and compare it to power of Vorlon planet killers.
9. Wait patiently for Ford Prefect.
8. Go crazy with the credit card at the Apple store.
7. Start post-apocalyptic movie marathon and take notes.
6. Encase yourself in carbonite for preservation.
5. Point out that we should’ve listened to Hawking and gotten off the planet.
4. Blame it on Microsoft.
3. Buy one of those crank-powered laptops.
2. Find location of impact on Google Maps.
1. Start cranking out more SETI units in hopes of finding an alien civilization that can save Earth.
From
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2008/01/top-11-apocalyptic-asteroid-impact.html