This little Metacafe video shows how to make a "Magic Fireball" -- a lighter-fluid-soaked rag-ball that's bound tight with thread -- that you can roll around in your hand without getting burned (because the hot part of the flame is on top and you hold it by the bottom). Unless, of course, you screw up and burn yourself horribly.
Update: Speaking of burning yourself horribly: the commenters in the Metacafe thread (and here) say it's a composited hoax and report burning themselves. Astonishingly, rolling a burning oily rag around in your hand isn't a good idea.
Link
(via Neatorama)
Source:
Boing Boing | 15 Jan 2008 | 10:54 am
As Canada's Industry Minister Jim Prentice prepares to import the US's failed DMCA copyright regime to Canada, Michael Geist has a counterproposal. Geist wants all of Canada's members of Parliament to take a pledge not to undermine fair dealing (the Canadian analog to the US's fair use):
The pledge is simple:
I will not introduce, support, or endorse any copyright bill that, either directly or indirectly, undermines or weakens the Copyright Act’s fair dealing provision.
Fair dealing, which the Supreme Court of Canada has described as a user right, covers uses such as research, private study, news reporting, and criticism. I have argued that the provision should be expanded. For the purposes of the pledge, I am only asking MPs to do no harm. Fair dealing is a critically important part of the copyright balance that plays a crucial role for education and free speech and it is widely accepted internationally (indeed the parallel provision in the U.S. is far broader). No Canadian MP or party should support or introduce legislation that would weaken it. If you are looking to send a follow-up to Industry Minister Jim Prentice or to your local MP, then consider asking them one straight forward question – will they take the copyright pledge?
Link
Source:
Boing Boing | 15 Jan 2008 | 10:52 am
Melanie Rieback, who worked on the
RFID Guardian, sez,
Roel Verdult, an MSc. student from the Raboud University of Nijmegen,
used an RFID tag emulator to perform a successful practical relay attack
on the single-use OV Chipkaart (the Dutch RFID public transportation card), that uses MIFARE Ultralights (no crypto).
There's a video of the relay attack available. The video speaks for itself.
Roel used a homemade tag emulator that was modeled after Kfir and
Wool's "ghost and leech", to perform a simple relay attack. However,
anyone can perform the same attack using the RFID Guardian, whose HW/SW
is freely available.
PDF Link
Source:
Boing Boing | 15 Jan 2008 | 9:32 am
meanonymous writes "HPCWire reports that a unique marketing model for 'manycore' processors is being proposed by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers. The current economic model has customers purchasing systems containing processors that meet the average or worst-case computation needs of their applications. The researchers contend that the increasing number of cores complicates the matching of performance needs and applications and makes the cost of buying idle computing power increasingly prohibitive. They speculate that the customer will typically require fewer cores than are physically on the chip, but may want to use more of them in certain instances. They suggest that chips be developed in a manner that allows users to pay only for the computing power they need rather than the peak computing power that is physically present. By incorporating small pieces of logic into the processor, the vendor can enable and disable individual cores, and they offer five models that allow dynamic adjustment of the chip's available processing power."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source:
Slashdot | 15 Jan 2008 | 9:01 am
Piegato shelving is a flat piece of laser-cut steel that you screw into the wall with two screws, then, working by hand, you simply bend out the die-cut sections corresponding to the sorts of shelving you desire.
Comes in white, black and gold and costs €129.
• it's only one piece!
• easily bend it by hand!
• just two screws needed!
• comes as a flat sheet
• high load capacity
• works as a magnetboard
Piegato is a sheet steel rack with a surprisingly high load capacity.
The laser cut and powder coated sheet steel is been delivered almost completely plain, which results in a simple and cost effective transportation.
The customer then bends out the required amount of shelves from the plain and mounts the hole rack with just two screws in a few minutes. Due to the enviromental friendly production, the freight size and the recyclability Piegato also holds a brilliant ecological balance.
Link
(
via Yanko Design)
Source:
Boing Boing | 15 Jan 2008 | 8:30 am
Have a peruse at the
54 pages (and counting) worth of entries in this "Design a Nanohazard Logo" competition. Then, add your own!
Link
(
via Beyond the Beyond)
Source:
Boing Boing | 15 Jan 2008 | 6:52 am
Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels: the derelict Top Nosh cafe in the Clerkenwell Road in London, right around the corner from my new office. As a (halting) Yiddish speaker, I love the way that Yiddishisms (like nosh) have worked their way into working class English dialect.
Link
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Boing Boing | 15 Jan 2008 | 6:50 am
hhavensteincw writes "IBM is molding its Jazz technology, which helps software development teams collaborate, in the image of its popular Eclipse open source community. IBM said that today's move to open access to its Jazz.net portal to anyone to peruse its code, access bug lists, etc. puts it on the path to completely open-source the Jazz technology."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source:
Slashdot | 15 Jan 2008 | 5:37 am
It's hard to beat the experience of staring down a herd of Longhorn cattle contained only by dinky metal gates. But in the basement of the Cobo Conference Center here, serious press conferences are tempered by an array of exhibits both surprising and engaging.
Source:
PopularMechanics.com - Automotive: New Cars, Trucks & Motorcycles | 15 Jan 2008 | 5:00 am
dptalia writes "Later this year, at ShopRite supermarkets in the eastern US, Microsoft will be rolling out computerized shopping carts. These carts will allow people with a ShopRite card to enter their shopping list on the ShopRite site from home, and then pull up the list on their grocery cart when they swipe their card. The new carts will also display advertisements depending on where in the supermarket the cart is, using RFID technology to help locate it."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Slashdot | 15 Jan 2008 | 4:01 am
Reservoir Hill writes "A New York Times blog notes that attorneys general of 49 states are announcing a partnership with MySpace to fight sexual predators on social networks by letting parents submit the e-mail addresses of their children, so the company can prevent anyone from using that address to set up a profile. MySpace will also set up a 'closed' section for users under age 18 so only their established online friends can visit their pages. MySpace also promises to hire a contractor to identify and delete pornographic images on the site. 'This set of principles is a landmark and milestone because it involves an acknowledgment of the importance of age and identity authentication,' said Connecticut attorney General Richard Blumenthal." Blumenthal also actually said "If we can put a man on the moon..."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source:
Slashdot | 15 Jan 2008 | 2:25 am
Browse this week's Wired News gadget reviews for Gateway's new laptop, a Wi-Fi SD card, a toaster oven that can roast a chicken and more of the latest tech.
Source:
Wired: Top Stories | 15 Jan 2008 | 2:00 am
Browse this week's Wired News gadget reviews for Gateway's new laptop, a Wi-Fi SD card, a toaster oven that can roast a chicken and more of the latest tech.
Source:
Wired: Gadgets | 15 Jan 2008 | 2:00 am
The "free encyclopedia that anyone can edit" goes online. Doing research becomes easier but community editing means the information may be less credible.
Source:
Wired: Top Stories | 15 Jan 2008 | 2:00 am
SirLurksAlot writes "An article up on Ars Technica reports on a study of telecommuting from the point of view of those who show up at the office every day. The study discovered that telecommuting can have adverse effects on the office-bound. Researcher Timothy Golden 'found that in-office employees took less satisfaction in their jobs and felt less of a relationship and obligation to their company as the number of telecommuting coworkers grew. In-office employees in his study became disappointed at having fewer and weaker relationships. They also got frustrated at a perceived increase in workload and difficulties that telecommuting can present to finishing projects and building strong working relationships.'" The article notes that telecommuting is "not an exact science." Some good insights in the discussion forum too.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source:
Slashdot | 15 Jan 2008 | 1:05 am
Tesla_Downunder is a site for Australian Tesla coil builders. The photos are astounding.
Link (Thanks, Luke!)
Source:
Boing Boing | 15 Jan 2008 | 12:52 am
Illo is a gorgeous new magazine about contemporary illustrators. The interviews are lively and supplemented with lots and lots of color illustrations.
The first issue (thumbnails) features Mitch O'Connell, Mark Schultz, Nathan Jurevicius, and Brian Taylor. The second issue (thumbnails) will feature Michael Cho, James Gurney, Zina Saunders, and Nancy Stahl. Link
Source:
Boing Boing | 15 Jan 2008 | 12:44 am
Is this the design of the new MacBook Air?
Source:
Wired: Gadgets | 15 Jan 2008 | 12:10 am
Is this the design of the new MacBook Air?
Source:
Wired: Top Stories | 15 Jan 2008 | 12:10 am
The 2008 Macworld Stevenote is less than 24-hours away. We'll be live-blogging every word that escapes from Steve Jobs' mouth, so bookmark this page now. Festivities begin at 9 a.m. Pacific on Tuesday.
Source:
Wired: Gadgets | 14 Jan 2008 | 11:45 pm
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