NETFLIX BREAKS THE 10 MILLION SUBSCRIBER MARK, KEEPS ON TRUCKIN'

by Darren Murph, posted Feb 12th 2009 at 10:39AM

We can't say the economic crisis has been too kind to every industry, but it's been a best friend to Netflix. As consumers divert their out-on-the-town dollars to sit-on-my-arse-and-watch-Netflix dollars, the by-mail and streaming movie rental company is just breaking records left and right. After closing a stellar 2008 with 9.4 million customers, the company has today announced that the 10 million mark has been crossed. For those struggling with basic math, that means that it has added 600,000 net subscribers since January 1st. So, where does Netflix go from here? Into everynook and cranny it can, of course, so don't be shocked to see Watch Instantly creep onto your next HDTV, set-top-box, Blu-ray player or portable microwave. Seriously, it could happen.

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Google Buys Finnish Paper Mill

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday February 12, @10:10AM

from the now-they-aren't-making-google-book dept.

raffnix writes"Today, Finland-based paper group Stora Enso has announced that Google is buying the buildings and most of the Summa Mill site, where production of paper was ceased last month in January 2008, for approximately 40 million euros ($51.7 million). Obviously the space is most likely going to serve as a data center, which has now also been confirmed by Reuters."

• fightclub

 

• tech
• google

 

Mind reading gets closer to real thanks to Canadian scientists

by Darren Murph, posted Feb 12th 2009 at 10:12AM

Hate to break it to you, but that clairvoyant you've been paying daily to read you fortune cookies while blindfolded actually isn't some sort of medium. Tough to swallow, we know. That said, researchers at Canada's largest children's rehabilitation hospital are getting closer to equipping entrepreneurial individuals with the tools they need to read minds. By measuring the intensity of near-infrared light absorbed in brain tissue, scientists were able to decode a person's preference for one of two drinks with 80 percent accuracy, all without a single minute of training on the human's behalf. This research gives promise to finding out true feelings of those who can't speak or move due to physical limitations, though there's no word on how close it is to becoming viable outside of a lab. As an aside, we hear Professor X is pretty perturbed.

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5MB Hard Disk in 1956

Its a hard disk in 1956....The Volume and Size of 5MB memory storage in 1956.In September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC, the first computer with a hard disk drive (HDD). The HDD weighed over a ton and stored 5MB of data.Let us start appreciating your 4 GB jump drive!

 

Could Carbon Dioxide Replace Antibiotics In Surgery?

ScienceDaily (Feb. 12, 2009) — The journal Medical Hypotheses has announced the winner of the 2008 David Horrobin Prize for medical theory.  Written by Mikael Persson and Jan van der Linden from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, the article “Intraoperative CO2 insufflation can decrease the risk of surgical site infection” was judged to best embody the spirit of the journal.

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Hackable Microcontroller-Powered Valentine's Card

Posted by kdawson on Monday February 09, @11:25PM

from the gotta-have-heart dept.

compumike writes"If you have a significant other to impress this Valentine's Day, consider putting your programming skills to use. This video tutorial shows how to build an LED Heart Valentine's card, powered by a microcontroller running C code, with a neat randomized 'twinkling' effect in an interrupt handler. Think about it: how many ladies can say that their Valentine's card runs at 14 MHz?"

History of the Internet

Gut Feelings May Actually Reflect Reliable Memories

ScienceDaily (Feb. 9, 2009) — You know the feeling. You make a decision you're certain is merely a "lucky guess."

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Natural, Alternative Insect Repellent As Effective As DEET, Study Shows

ScienceDaily (Feb. 9, 2009) — Isolongifolenone, a natural compound found in the Tauroniro tree (Humiria balsamifera) of South America, has been found to effectively deter biting of mosquitoes and to repel ticks, both of which are known spreaders of diseases such as malaria, West Nile virus, and Lyme disease.

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Spray on Solar Panels - Coming Soon to a Roof Near You?

by JOSH LOPOSER
Feb 8th 2009 @ 11:00AM

Filed under: GreenTech, Alternative Energy

Researchers at the Australian National University have teamed up with Spark Solar Australia and Finland-based Braggone Oy todevelop a cheaper, more efficient,spray-on solar panel. Unlike the roll-on solar project going on at Swansea in Wales, these "spary-on" panels wouldn't be applied to your house in liquid form. Instead, the spray-on aspect of these panels refers to a change in the manufacturing process.

Conventional solar panels are manufactured through a complex process involving vacuums, hydrogen in plasma form, silicon, and other expensive junk like that. This process is what makes solar photovoltaics so darn expensive. If ANU's research pans out, PV panels could be manufactured by simply spraying on a hydrogen film and then a anti-reflective film on a conveyor belt. Not only would these panels be much cheaper, but researchers are also hopeful that they can achieve greater energy gathering efficiency that conventional panels by experimenting with alternative materials. Heck, even if the efficiency isn't one bit better, we could all afford to by more panels. So, it's a win-win.

[via Clean Technica]

How Color Impacts Your Thinking

Submitted by Will on Saturday, 7 February 2009

No Comment

The NY Times posted the results of some interesting research into how color impacts cognition. The bottom line is, if you want to boost your attention to detail, surround yourself with red, and if you want to boost creativity, then blue is your color.

Red groups did better on tests of recall and attention to detail, like remembering words or checking spelling and punctuation. Blue groups did better on tests requiring imagination, like inventing creative uses for a brick or creating toys from shapes.

Link: Color Study Looks at Effects of Red and Blue - NYTimes.com

So, I suppose that creating blue rooms at work for the creatives and red for the accountants would be a good idea.

When Dr. Zhu’s subjects were asked what red or blue made them think of, most said that red represented caution, danger or mistakes, and that blue symbolized peace and openness. Subjects were quicker to unscramble anagrams of “avoidance related” words like “danger” when the anagrams were on red backgrounds, and quicker with anagrams of positive, “approach related” words like “adventure” when they were on blue backgrounds.

Who wants to make a dumb choice?

This is untrue but funny.

'Millionaire' Contestant Makes Worst Use Of Lifelines Ever



NEW YORK - Idaho resident Kathy Evans brought humiliation to her friends and family Tuesday when she set a new standard for stupidity with her appearance on the popular TV show, 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.'

It seems that Evans, a 32-year-old wife and mother of two, got stuck on the first question, and proceeded to make what fans of the show are dubbing 'the absolute worst use of lifelines ever.'
After being introduced to the show's host Meredith Vieira, Evans assured her that she was ready to play, whereupon she was posed with an extremely easy $100 question. The question was: 'Which of the following is the largest?'

A) A Peanut
B) An Elephant
C) The Moon
D) Hey, who you calling large?

Immediately Mrs. Evans was struck with an all consuming panic as she realized that this was a question to which she did not readily know the answer.
'Hmm, oh boy, that's a toughie,' said Evans, as Vieira did her level best to hide her disbelief and disgust. 'I mean, I'm sure I've heard of some of these things before, but I have no idea how large they would be.'
Evans made the decision to use the first of her three lifelines, the 50/50. Answers A and D were removed, leaving her to decide which was bigger, an elephant or the moon. However, faced with an incredibly easy question, Evans still remained unsure.
'Oh! It removed the two I was leaning towards!' exclaimed Evans. 'Darn. I think I better phone a friend.'
Using the second of her two lifelines on the first question, Mrs. Evans asked to be connected with her friend Betsy, who is an office assistant.
'Hi Betsy! How are you? This is Kathy! I'm on TV!' said Evans, wasting the first seven seconds of her call. 'Ok, I got an important question. Which of the following is the largest? B, an elephant, or C, the moon. 15 seconds hun.'
Betsy quickly replied that the answer was C, the moon. Evans proceeded to argue with her friend for the remaining ten seconds.
'Come on Betsy, are you sure?' said Evans. 'How sure are you? Duh, that can't be it.'
To everyone's astonishment, the moronic Evans declined to take her friend's advice and pick 'The Moon.'
'I just don't know if I can trust Betsy. She's not all that bright. So I think I'd like to ask the audience,' said Evans.
Asked to vote on the correct answer, the audience returned 98% in favor of answer C, 'The Moon.' Having used up all her lifelines, Evans then made the dumbest choice of her life.
'Wow, seems like everybody is against what I'm thinking,' said the too-stupid-to-live Evans. 'But you know, sometimes you just got to go with your gut. So, let's see. For which is larger, an elephant or the moon, I'm going to have to go with B, an elephant. Final answer.'
Evans sat before the dumbfounded audience, the only one waiting with bated breath, and was told that she was wrong, and that the answer was in fact, C, 'The Moon.'

Caution...they walk among us!

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This one is actually better! (No comments needed!)







Caution... They Walk Among Us!

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Some guy bought a new fridge for his house. To get rid of his old fridge, he put it in his front yard and hung a sign on it saying: 'Free to good home. You want it, you take it.' For three days the fridge sat there without even one person looking twice at it. He eventually decided that people were too un-trusting of this deal.

It looked too good to be true, so he changed the sign to read: 'Fridge for sale $50.'

The next day someone stole it!

***They walk amongst us!***

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*One day I was walking down the beach with some friends when someone shouted....'Look at that dead bird!' Someone looked up at the sky and said...'where?'

***They walk among us!!***

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While looking at a house, my brother asked the estate agent which direction was north because, he explained, he didn't want the sun waking him up every morning. She asked, 'Does the sun rise in the north?' When my brother explained that the sun rises in the east, and has for sometime, she shook her head and said, 'Oh, I don't keep up with that stuff'

***They Walk Among Us!!***

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My colleague and I were eating our lunch in our cafeteria, when we overheard one of the administrative assistants talking about the sunburn she got on her weekend drive to the beach. She drove down in a convertible, but 'didn't think she'd get sunburned because the car was moving'.

***They Walk Among Us!!!!***

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My sister has a lifesaving tool in her car it's designed to cut through a seat belt if she gets trapped She keeps it in the trunk.

***They Walk Among Us!!!!!***

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I was hanging out with a friend when we saw a woman with a nose ring attached to an earring by a chain. My friend said, 'Wouldn't the chain rip out every time she turned her head?' I had to explain that a person's nose and ear remain the same distance apart no matter which way the head is turned...

***They Walk Among Us!!!!!!! ***

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I couldn't find my luggage at the airport baggage area. So I went to the lost luggage office and told the woman there that my bags never showed up. She smiled and told me not to worry because she was a trained professional and I was in good hands. 'Now,' she asked me, 'Has your plane arrived yet?'...
(I work with professionals like this.)

***They Walk Among Us!!!!!!!!***

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While working at a pizza parlour I observed a man ordering a small pizza to go. He appeared to be alone and the cook asked him if he would like it cut into 4 pieces or 6. He thought about it for some time before responding. 'Just cut it into 4 pieces; I don't think I'm hungry enough to eat 6 pieces.

***Yep, They Walk Among Us, too.!!!!!!!!

Sadly, not only do they walk among us, they also reproduce and vote !!!!

RIAA Lied To Congress About New Filesharing Suits

Posted by timothy on Friday February 06, @04:10AM

from the honestly-they're-all-at-the-cleaners dept.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes"On December 23, 2008, the RIAA's Mitch Bainwol sent a letter to the Judiciary and Commerce Committees of both the House and Senate, falsely representing to them that the RIAA 'discontinued initiating new lawsuits in August.' A copy of the letter is online (PDF). In fact, as many of you already know, the RIAA brought hundreds of new lawsuits since August. See, e.g., these 40 or so cases which just represent some of the cases brought in December."Maybe they're just taking a broad view of the world "initiate."

Italian Red Lights Rigged With Short Yellow Light

Posted by timothy on Thursday February 05, @09:42PM

from the decent-pellet-gun-might-help dept.

suraj.sun writes with an excerpt from Ars Technica which brings to mind the importance of auditable code for hardware used in law enforcement:"It's no secret that red light cameras are often used to generate more ticket revenue for the cities that implement them, but a scam has been uncovered in Italy that has led to one arrest and 108 investigations over traffic systems being rigged to stop sooner for the sole purpose of ticketing more motorists."

Sustainable Dave Stops Taking Out Trash for One Year

by EUGENE SANDHU
Feb 5th 2009 @ 2:00PM

Filed under: News

For an entire year, Dave Chameidesput nothing on the curb for garbage pick up. Not even a box of recycling.

Instead, he put all of his trash in the basement. Sounds like a nasty basement? Probably not. The year long experiment in garbage conservation generated only 30 pounds of trash, 153 glass bottles, 64 plastic bottles and a 50-pound box of paper for recycling. Dave's personal garbage dump fit an organized 10 square feet of basement space.

If Dave can do it, there's no reason a lot of us can't take up the challenge and confuse city garbage pick-up folks. Some tips from Dave. No plastic bags, drink tap water, and think about the packaging of stuff you buy. Oh, and probably most importantly, get some worms working for you. Dave used a worm composting bin that ate up leftover foods and "a couple of pounds of paper a month".

Dave tracked his year through his blog 365daysoftrash and now runsSustainable Dave, a site on sustainability and not throwing stuff out. My city has a good organic bin program so I think I'll stay away from having a worm army in my house. But if Dave could reduce his waste in one year to what the average American puts out in six days, I'm sure there are a bunch of ways I can reduce my curb side pile.

Related Link

LaserPup trains for battle with Laser Cats

by Paul Miller, posted Feb 5th 2009 at 2:10PM

We don't really know where to begin. LaserPup involves shooting a laser at a dog over the internet, nothing more, nothing less, but somehow it transcends traditionally pointless moddery and becomes something so much greater. Maybe it's because you shoot a dog with a laser over the internet. LaserPup is a ceiling-mounted laser and webcam whose beam can can be directed around the floor with an iPhone-friendly browser-based interface. There's switch for turning on and off the lights, and when the laser is activated or deactivated it makes a sound to alert the dog that it's time to get shot at by lasers. In the future, there was a nuclear war... video is after the break.