Kevin Kelly's True Films book, now a free ad-supported PDF
Kevin Kelly is giving away True Films, his must-have book of documentary recommendations as a free, ad-supported, PSD, using Adobe's new service that lets you embed Yahoo ads into Acrobat files.LinkThis is the third version of a guide I have been developing for the past 5 years. It takes the 200 best documentaries I have reviewed on my website True Films and puts them into one handy book. For an explanation of why I bother to order the content of a website into a book see the previous entry.
In True Films, I cover only true films: documentaries, factuals, non-fiction, reality-based series, and some instructional how-to. You can get a sense of what I like from the site. I love documentaries that 1) surprise me, and 2) inform me.
Each review is a rave review; that is, I only review films I love and believe others will enjoy. Merely good films are left unmentioned. I also include what no other film review source does: I provide 4 to 5 screen shots from each documentary to give you an idea of what the texture of the film is. And I only review documentaries that can be seen easily on DVD or tape at consumer prices (either as Netflix rentals, legal downloads, or online purchase). Documentaries available only in theaters, or as high-priced "educational films" are regrettably ignored. Earlier editions of this book have been available on Amazon, Lulu, and as a cheap download from my site. But with this new version 3.0 I am trying something new. I am offering this 200-page full-color guide (perfect as a companion if you have Netflix) as a FREE download. It's in PDF format, but with a twist. To help offset the significant bandwidth costs of these downloads (I hope my server can take the wave), I have appended advertisements to the PDF book. Here is how the ads work: If you choose to see the ads, they will appear in a gray sidebar on the right, adjacent to the pages of the book, just outside the frame of the page.
Source: Boing Boing | 4 Jan 2008 | 7:19 pm
Google Algorithm to Search Out Hospital Superbugs
Googling Yourself writes "Researchers in the UK plan to use Google's PageRank algorithm to find how super-bugs like MRSA spread in a hospital setting. Previous studies have discovered how particular objects, like doctors' neckties, can harbor infection, but little is known about the network routes by which bugs spread. Mathematician Simon Shepherd plans to build a matrix describing all interactions between people and objects in a hospital ward, based on observing normal daily activity."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 4 Jan 2008 | 7:16 pm
Skidoo airing on Turner Classic Movies
Joel Schlosberg says:
Otto Preminger's rarely seen, never-released-on-video psychedelic comedy Skidoo (previously on Boing Boing) will be airing on Turner Classic Movies on January 5 (late night January 4), as part of TCM Underground.I've been waiting for years to see this. Link
Source: Boing Boing | 4 Jan 2008 | 7:05 pm
Park visitors required to sit up straight on benches in Orlando
Here's my second post today about parks in Florida: a sign in an Orlando park erected to refresh visitors' memory of the City Code forbidding them to "lie or otherwise be in a horizontal position on a park bench."
Tacky Fabulous points out, "Somebody must have tried the 'I wasn't laying down - I was just positioned horizontally' excuse."
I know - you're saying to yourself, "But wait a second! Didn't Orlando hover near record high rates for murders in the year 2007? Shouldn't there be a sign, instead, that reads: "Please do not impale with bullets or otherwise inflict death blows on other beings?" The answer is yes, but people who commit homicides tend to start as people who recline on park benches. It's textbook.I also like the part prohibiting people from "remaining" in "bushes, shrubs, or foliage." Link
Source: Boing Boing | 4 Jan 2008 | 6:49 pm
HOWTO Make a trashcan meat-smoker for less than $50
Brian figured out how to hack together a damned fine trashcan meat-smoker for less than $50:Link
So there you have it, a working smoker made from easily available parts.Here's what I spent:
Trash Can w/ lid: $12.00
Electric Hot Plate: $13.00
Grating: $10.00
Wood Chip Box: $10.00 (actually, I already had this, but they are cheap if you need to buy one.)
Temperature Gauge: $9.00So for just over $50, you can build a smoker.
Source: Boing Boing | 4 Jan 2008 | 6:29 pm
Did Insects Kill the Dinosaurs?
Ponca City, We Love You writes "Asteroid impacts, massive volcanic flows, and now biting, disease-carrying insects have been put forward as an important contributor to the demise of the dinosaurs. In the Late Cretaceous the world was covered with warm-temperate to tropical areas that swarmed with blood-sucking insects. A theory explored by researchers at Oregon State suggests these bugs carried leishmania, malaria, intestinal parasites, arboviruses and other pathogens. Repeated epidemics may have slowly-but-surely worn down dinosaur populations while ticks, mites, lice and biting flies tormented and weakened them. 'After many millions of years of evolution, mammals, birds and reptiles have evolved some resistance to these diseases,' says Researcher George Poinar. 'But back in the Cretaceous, these diseases were new and invasive, and vertebrates had little or no natural or acquired immunity to them.' The confluence of new insect-spread diseases, loss of traditional food sources, and competition for plants by insect pests could all have provided a lingering, debilitating condition that dinosaurs were ultimately unable to overcome."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 4 Jan 2008 | 6:25 pm
Vintage mapping photos
Andy Switky of IDEO shares these great vintage photos of a situationist prank waypoint mapping project. Andy writes:
I spoke at a conference in Wuxi about a month ago and hung out with great folks from the London College of Communication. We got to talking about GPS for some reason, and one of them remembered a couple pictures he picked up at the Ordnance Survey, the UK mapping equivalent of the USGS. The pictures are from the early 1950s and presumably show "waypoints".Link to image 1, Link to image 2 (Thanks, Lyn Jeffery!)
Source: Boing Boing | 4 Jan 2008 | 6:21 pm
Man builds bowling alley in garage - video
TechEBlog says: "Tim converted his garage into a full-functional one-lane bowling alley (Brunswick A-2 pinsetter), complete with black lights for the 'cosmic' effect." Link
Source: Boing Boing | 4 Jan 2008 | 6:20 pm
Architectually accurate gingerbread replica of home
Jeff's family got the plans for their 1950s ranch house and faithfully recreated it in gingerbread.Link (Thanks, Jeff!)
Using elevations from a recent renovation, my wife constructed the sides and the girls set out to decorate. I, being the professional photographer in a previous life, was tasked with documenting the finished model. As we are a multicultural family, matzot was used for the hipped roof and garage doors.
Source: Boing Boing | 4 Jan 2008 | 6:18 pm
Scientists to make cows fart like kangaroos
Cow farts contain methane, a greenhouse gas. Kangaroo farts do not. So scientists in Australia are going to transfer intestinal bacteria of kangaroos into cattle and see what happens.According to the government of Queensland, almost 14% of all greenhouse gas emissions from Australia come from cow farts, so this seemingly silly idea could actually make a big difference.Link (Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!)
Source: Boing Boing | 4 Jan 2008 | 6:17 pm
Scientist Suggests We Explore 'Universe is a VR Simulation' Theory
holy_calamity writes "A New Zealand physicist has written a paper saying that physicists should seriously explore the possibility the universe is a giant virtual reality simulation. He says that the existence of quantum phenomena could be due to the underlying digital nature of the simulation and also claims his VR hypothesis can explain relativity, the big bang and more. It should be possible to perform experiments to prove the hypothesis too. He reasons that if reality was to do something that information processing cannot, then it cannot be virtual."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 4 Jan 2008 | 5:44 pm
Reverse Engineer Finds Kindle's Hidden Features
bensafrickingenius writes "CNET's Crave site has an interesting article on Amazon's Kindle eBook reader, and the extensive reverse-engineering that fans of the device have accomplished. The site specifically points out the work of Igor Skochinsky at the Reversing Everything website. His work on the Kindle's Root Shell has revealed some fascinating goodies: 'Among the ones uncovered and described on his blog are a basic photo viewer, a minesweeper game, and most interesting, location technology that uses the Kindle's CDMA networking to pinpoint its position. There also are some basic location-based services that call up a Google Maps view to show where you are and nearby gas stations and restaurants.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 4 Jan 2008 | 5:01 pm
Intel Bails Out on One Laptop Per Child Program
The chipmaker withdraws after being asked to end support for all non-OLPC platforms. This doesn't square with Intel's plans to build a cheap laptop of its own.Source: Wired: Top Stories | 4 Jan 2008 | 4:20 pm
Researchers Say Wi-Fi Virus Outbreak Possible
alphadogg writes with a link to a NetworkWorld article about a troubling security scenario. Indiana University IT researchers are now saying that a WiFi attack intended to piggyback across unsecured access points could do serious damage in a city like Chicago or New York. By essentially brute-forcing the passwords on insecure routers, a worm-like firmware agent could be introduced to an estimated 20,000 networks in New York City alone. "Although the researchers did not develop any attack code that would be used to carry out this infection, they believe it would be possible to write code that guessed default passwords by first entering the default administrative passwords that shipped with the router, and then by trying a list of one million commonly used passwords, one after the other. They believe that 36% of passwords can be guessed using this technique."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 4 Jan 2008 | 4:11 pm
Preserved Mammoth Could Provide Global Warming Clues
Scientists say the almost perfectly preserved carcass could help resolve the mystery as to why the mammoth became extinct -- and why we might.Source: Wired: Top Stories | 4 Jan 2008 | 4:00 pm
EFF Busts Bogus Online Testing Patent
Panaqqa writes "It's taken some time, but the EFF's Patent Busting Project is making progress. In the latest news, the USPTO has now officially rejected one of the 10 awful patents targeted, making the world safe again for administering tests over the Internet. This joins the reexamination of a patent on automated remote access of a computer over a network and the revocation of a patent on recording live performances to CD as notable successes for the EFF."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 4 Jan 2008 | 3:32 pm
New Year's Eve Glitches Underscore Limitations of Texting, Mobiles
The world didn't end and most calls and messages got through, but the high volume of texting and cellphone calls resulted in a lot of bounce-backs. In a real crisis, this could mean real trouble.Source: Wired: Gadgets | 4 Jan 2008 | 3:30 pm
New Year's Eve Glitches Underscore Limitations of Texting, Mobiles
The world didn't end and most calls and messages got through, but the high volume of texting and cellphone calls resulted in a lot of bounce-backs. In a real crisis, this could mean real trouble.Source: Wired: Top Stories | 4 Jan 2008 | 3:30 pm
Science to Government: Evolution Is a Fact, So Teach It
A new report by scientific advisers to the U.S. government emphasizes the importance of teaching evolution in schools, while taking a swipe at the "unscientific" theory of intelligent design.Source: Wired: Top Stories | 4 Jan 2008 | 3:20 pm
A New Attempt to Make S.F. a Truly Wireless Town
Google and Earthlink tried, and failed, disappearing in a sea of bureaucratic red tape. Now a startup hopes to persuade San Franciscans to voluntarily put radio repeaters on their rooftops. Good luck with that.Source: Wired: Gadgets | 4 Jan 2008 | 3:10 pm
A New Attempt to Make S.F. a Truly Wireless Town
Google and Earthlink tried, and failed, disappearing in a sea of bureaucratic red tape. Now a startup hopes to persuade San Franciscans to voluntarily put radio repeaters on their rooftops. Good luck with that.Source: Wired: Top Stories | 4 Jan 2008 | 3:10 pm
Firefox Spoofing Bug Puts Passwords At Risk
hairyfeet writes "Aviv Raff, an Israeli researcher known for his work in hunting browser bugs, has revealed a Firefox spoofing vulnerability which could allow identity thieves to dupe users into giving up their password. According to Mr. Raff Firefox fails to sanitize single quotes and spaces in the 'Realm' value of an authentication header. Raff was quoted as saying 'This makes it possible for an attacker to create a specially crafted Realm value which will look as if the authentication dialog came from a trusted site.' This vulnerability was shown to be in the latest Firefox, version 2.0.0.11 and until Mozilla fixes this vulnerability Mr. Raff recommends in his blog 'not to provide username and password to Web sites which show this dialog.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 4 Jan 2008 | 2:52 pm
Microsoft Patents Frustration-Detection System
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Microsoft has patented a frustration-detection help system that would monitor your computer use and biometrics to figure out when you were frustrated. It could then offer to pair you up with someone else doing exactly the same thing who might be able to help you out. Interestingly, they don't appear to use speech recognition to detect abnormal levels of swear words, but that could be due to their past difficulties with speech recognition. 'Physical responses aren't the only things that could trigger this event--taking an abnormally long time to complete a task would do so also--but the biometric aspect is certainly the most unusual. Is this patent a harbinger of a dystopian future where computer users' biorhythms will be monitored to increase efficiency? Unlikely. The idea, which was birthed at Microsoft Research, is simply a more advanced version of user focus group testing that Microsoft (and most other software companies) have been doing for years now.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 4 Jan 2008 | 2:12 pm
Microsoft Money Pushes Time-Lapse Space Camera Closer to Action
Bill Gates and a former Microsoft employee have thrown their monetary support behind an ambitious project to build a movie camera for space that will allow scientists to monitor fast-changing events like supernovae explosions.Source: Wired: Top Stories | 4 Jan 2008 | 5:10 am
Way to Kick a Coke Habit? Mix Tranquilizers, Hormone Blockers
A pharmaceutical company launches a human trial testing whether people can fight a cocaine addiction by taking tranquilizers along with hormone blockers.Source: Wired: Top Stories | 4 Jan 2008 | 5:00 am
Intel Breaks Up With 'One Laptop Per Child'
Just half a year after throwing its support behind Nicholas Negroponte's nonprofit, One Laptop Per Child, Intel says it's dropping out of the project. This latest in a series of blows to OLPC suggests the organization is having difficulties accomplishing its goals.Source: Wired: Top Stories | 4 Jan 2008 | 5:00 am
Plaxo's New Address Book Importer Provokes Facebook's Wrath
When prominent blogger Robert Scoble tried to collect contact data about his friends stored in Facebook, the social networking site reprimanded him. But Plaxo, the creators of the new address book importer Scoble was beta testing, have no plans to discontinue development of the tool. Let the data portability standoff begin.Source: Wired Software | 3 Jan 2008 | 8:45 pm