Siemens is developing a system called Park Mate for cars that not only finds you a parking spot, but will also automatically parks your car too. Supposedly this won’t be available until 2008, but it sounds pretty cool…
Siemens Park Mate
Digital Photography “Megapixel Race” Over?
CNET News reports on the upcoming PMA convention, typically where many new products are unveiled each year. CNET’s article makes some predictions on this year’s trends, including a Canon director’s assertion that “the megapixel race is pretty much over.” This statement is based on the idea that the seven- and eight-megapixel range is capable of making high-quality 13"x19" prints, more than enough for most consumers and “prosumers.”
Whisky Bottle Case Mod
Boing Boing reports that “A Finnish casemodder built a functional PC inside a 1.5l Ballantine’s whisky bottle.” As Gizmodo points out, it would have been more impressive if he hadn’t cut into the bottle… 😉
Google Video and YouTube Greasemonkey Scripts
Josh Kinberg of sandbox films was kind enough to share his programming expertise in creating Greasemonkey scripts that allows you to save local files of both YouTube and Google video files. Check out his blog post here for the scripts and more information on how they work.
Both of these scripts will allow you to save the videos as Flash .flv files (you may need to supply the extension). If you don’t have a means to play such files (I didn’t), then you can download an FLV player from download.com.
For those of you unfamiliar with Greasemonkey, it is a Mozilla Firefox extension that allows users to write scripts to change how you interact with specific web sites, usually adding or supplementing the page content or changing its design or function. If there’s enough interest, I’d be happy to make a more detailed post with some of the scripts I use regularly.
Enjoy!
Tainted Love
In 1997 Spike Jonze did a commercial for Levi’s Jeans that was set to the classic’80s Soft Cell song Tainted Love. Check out the embedded YouTube video below or visit the YouTube page. Twisted but fun… 🙂
Super Bowl XL Commercials
Google Video and AOL have made all of the Super Bowl XL commercials available for viewing.
I think Budweiser was the real winner this year with a bunch of funny commercials, although there were some other standouts as well…
del.icio.us links for 02-04-2006
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movie-, TV-, and music-themed fonts for download
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Britain, which has taken the lead in developing EMP (ElectroMagnetic Pulse) devices, is testing a new EMP warhead with the United States.
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some interesting new features to allow sharing of favorites as well as a bunch of RSS feed options
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nice categorized list
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explains and details the manufacturing process of a wide variety of products, from daily household items to complicated electronic equipment and heavy machinery
del.icio.us links for 02-03-2006
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“An FBI-led watchdog agency has opened an investigation into multiple complaints accusing NASA Inspector General Robert W. Cobb of failing to investigate safety violations and retaliating against whistle-blowers.”
[via Slashdot] -
“Symantec plans a one-stop software service tying together anti-virus, anti-spam, firewall and a host of other PC optimization technologies, executives have told PC Magazine.” I’m a fan of Norton products, but this could end up as way too bloated…
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“Ampulex compressa is a wasp that has evolved to tackle roaches, insert a stinger into their brains and disable their escape reflexes. This lets the wasp use the roach’s antennae to steer the roach to its lair, where it can lay its egg in it.” Ewww…
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I’ve posted about Pandora before, but this review goes into a little more detail about how it works. For those of you that aren’t familiar with it, Pandora is a music recommendation site/station that plays songs based on your tastes in artists you specif
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“Researchers at Marineland in Ontario, Canada have observed a four-year-old killer whale setting a trap for seagulls by spitting fish onto the water’s surface as bait.” Pretty cunning…
Squirrels Gone Wild
Most people are fond of their pets. What happens when that fondness goes a little too far? Meet Sugar Bush Squirrel. “Being an International Superstar and The World’s Most Photographed Squirrel, Sugar Bush loves to dress up, and has over 1,000 outfits with matching hats and accessories.” You can follow Sugar Bush Squirrel’s adventures on the bridge of the “Squirrelship” Enterprise, her hunt for terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, or her reenactment of the Asian Tsunami. Want to try your hand at squirrel photography but don’t have a squirrel? No problem! Just purchase the Bring-To-Life Squirrel Kit and you will be on your way to squirrel photography fame and fortune.
del.icio.us links for 02-02-2006
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“Variety broke news today that Genndy Tartakovsky of ‘Clone Wars’ and ‘Samurai Jack’ fame has been tapped to direct a sequel to classic Henson puppet animated film ‘The Dark Crystal.’” Cool…
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given by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine
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[via Hot Links]
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Last night I received an automatic update notification for this. I like that it’s an incremental update rather than a completely new download and install. Very painless, although some extensions need a new version number update and aren’t “broken.”
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I don’t think anyone should be surprised that this happened, although if you believe her story it sounds as if she didn’t do anything particularly provocative. Still, I’m not sure that I believe that she wouldn’t have been disruptive…
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“The wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young said she was ejected during [W]’s State of the Union address for wearing a T-shirt that said, ‘Support the Troops Defending Our Freedom.’” Sheehan I can (grudgingly) understand, but this is a bit much…
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Pretty cool stuff, although it looks like the new version is IE only for now. I’ll be keeping an eye out for the Firefox version…
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“On Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said neither woman should have been removed from the chamber. ‘We made a mistake,’ he told CNN.”
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gunpowder, apparently…
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Not unexpected, but definitely the end of an era. Good thing this didn’t happen before 1985! Sorry, couldn’t help the vague “Back To The Future” reference… 🙂
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Definitely read the back story for this particularly good photo of a “one-fingered salute”…
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“We created a fun Super Bowl commercial featuring none other than George W. Bush, and you guessed it, it got rejected by ABC.” No way! 😉
[via Screenhead] -
Check out this great video (direct link to QuickTime video) in which Keith Olbermann goes off on Bill O’Reilly. As readers of MetaFilter point out, it’s not the most mature of responses, but it is definitely most satisfying… 🙂
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funny commentary…
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“It’s a clip of Starzilla Jones from The View getting smashed in the face with a football whilst filming a segment” with Jason Sehorn. IE only, as AOL refuses to play nice with browsers… 🙁
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A behind-the-scenes chat with Johannes Schlueter, “pilot” of the Bush Robot. Hilarious… 🙂
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fun side-scroller
[via MetaFilter]
