spacecowb0y

Google's new calculator is a fun diversion, with several undocumented new features. Here's a few.

- How long can you play a 30GB iPod without repeating a song? Answer: 18.2 days
- How much hard drive space does one hour of 128kbps MP3s consume? Answer: 56.25 megabytes
- How many seconds in a decade? Answer: 315,569,260
- 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit in Celsius? Answer: 37 degrees
- How many feet in a smoot? Answer: 5.58 (via Ryan)
- What's the answer to life, the universe and everything? Answer: 42
- What's the answer to life, the universe and everything multiplied by the speed of light divided by three teaspoons? Answer: 8.51523871 × 10¹⁴ m^-2 s^-1
- What's the speed of a Delorean going back in time? Answer: 47,600,819,200 m³ kg/s⁴ (via Cam)

The first two comments in the source post are awesome.


Source: Waxy

The Canadian police announced that it will stop targeting people who download copyrighted material for personal use. Their priority will be to focus on organized crime and copyright theft that affects the health and safety of consumers instead of the cash flow of large corporations.

Around the same time that the CRIA successfully took Demonoid offline, the Canadian police made clear that Demonoid’s users don’t have to worry about getting caught, at least not in Canada.

According to the Canadian police it is impossible to track down everyone who downloads music or movies off the Internet. The police simply does not have the time nor the resources to go after filesharers.

“Piracy for personal use is no longer targeted,” Noël St-Hilaire, head of copyright theft investigations of the Canadian police, said in an interview with Le Devoir. “It is too easy to copy these days and we do not know how to stop it,” he added.

St-Hilaire explained that they rather focus on crimes that actually hurt consumers such as copyright violations related to medicine and electrical appliances.

Go Canada!


Source: TorrentFreak

The port forwarding tester is a free AJAX utility you can use to identify your external IP address and detect open ports on your connection. This tool is useful for finding out if your port forwarding is setup correctly or if your server applications are being blocked by a firewall. It is important to note that some ports, such as port 25, are often blocked at the ISP level in an attempt to prevent malicious activity.

For more a comprehensive list of TCP and UDP ports, check out this Wikipedia article.

That icon below the padlock one on the left side is a handy-dandy geolocator.


Source: YouGetSignal

I'm not sure what's more soul-crushing—that someone took the effort to write a web-based Pac-Man text adventure in the style of Zork or that I just spent fifteen minutes ensuring that it adhered to the maze layout perfectly. Regardless, your semi-daily reminder that someone has far too much time on their hands is at the official Pac-Txt site.

Source: Pac-Txt via Kotaku

More good stuff with the terms "is it legal to". Anyone else find anything good?


Source: Ask.com

So, you can’t tell a crappy website from a great one? How about asking yourself a few questions before blindly accepting the authority of a random website.

See the whole chart at the source. I had a laugh with the "Is there more advertising than content?" box. Oh and hey, Snap rears its ugly head again right below it.


Source: warpedvisions

You're using Firefox, yes? Adblock Plus as well? Good. Now what filters are you using? I just learned recently with the whole LJ Snap Shots fiasco that the old Filterset.G Updater I was using with the old Adblock is no good with ABP - in fact, it's downright incompatible:

Actually, it is recommended not to use Filterset.G with Adblock Plus. There are several reasons for this:

▪ Filterset.G has been intentionally made incompatible with the built-in subscriptions feature in Adblock Plus, updating Filterset.G requires a separate extension which basically duplicates existing functionality.
▪ Filterset.G is not optimized for use with Adblock Plus, it will slow down your browsing considerably more than any other filter list.
▪ Filterset.G makes heavy use of very complicated regular expressions with the consequence that finding the source of problems is difficult and fixing those problems is even more so. In fact, Filterset.G is fixing most problems with exception rules which creates a problem on its own (see next point).
▪ Filterset.G contains a considerable number of exception rules. This is a big problem because exception rules cannot be overridden. It happened on several occasions that exception rules from Filterset.G whitelisted actual ads making these ads unblockable — something users usually blamed Adblock Plus for.

While Filterset.G has had its uses in the past, nowadays other filter lists are certainly a better choice. If you already have Filterset.G Updater installed, you can uninstall the extension and remove the Filterset.G subscription in the Adblock Plus Preferences dialog. Feel free to choose any subscription from the list then.

The good thing about said lists is that it's a one-time deal: click "Subscribe" on any subscription in that table, confirm, and you're good to go - the filters update themselves automatically without needing an extra add-on like Filterset.G was. That said, I highly recommend Jamie Plucinski's filters (also found at the bottom of the list on the ABP page), since I actually know the guy and can report additional filters to be integrated into his. So far it's been able to catch pretty much every ad/script I've come across, but of course, your mileage may vary.

Thus concludes this public service announcement. Have a nice, ad-free day.

Popular web-based chat application Meebo has integrated voice and video chat applications directly into the Meebo's IM window. Just fire up a chat in Meebo, then click the rocket ship icon on the message toolbar. Your window will expand to offer different integrated voice and video chat options, like previously mentioned TokBox. If your buddy isn't also chatting in Meebo, she'll get a link to open a Meebo chat and start the voice or video conferencing. We're not talking the high resolution of Skype, but for a web-based, integrated video chat solution for any IM contacts, it's pretty impressive.

Source: meeblog via Lifehacker

1. Upload a bitmap.
2. Configure options.
3. Vectorize.
4. ????
5. Profit!


Source: VectorMagic

The Pirate Bay is currently working on an OiNK replacement in an attempt to bring the hundreds of thousands of music albums back online that disappeared during the raid. The replacement will be released within a week and on the BOiNK.cd domain.

BOiNK will be a little different from OiNK. For instance, the tracker will be public and it will start out with a lot less torrents than OiNK had when it was raided. The success of BOiNK will mainly depend on the former OiNK community, who will be asked to upload their old OiNK torrents.

The most important thing about BOiNK is perhaps the message it sends out to the IFPI and the BPI: It shows that that if you stop one tracker, others will pop up days after. It is a hydra. Call it a slap in the face if you want.

BOiNK will probably be ready in a few days. People from the Pirate Bay, Mininova, TorrentFreak and even the recently arrested (and released) OiNK admin are currently at The Oil of the 21st Century conference where they are - among other things - discussing filesharing, culture and copyright related issues.

Source: TorrentFreak

The updates to this post are getting numerous thanks to the kind contribution of other disgruntled LJ users, so I'm moving them to the end of the post. Keep spreading the word; they may be able to stop me if they wanted, but they can't stop us all!

So Six Apart just introduced Snap.com's Snap Shots into LJ, and my god are we all the worse for it. It's bad enough people use it on Blogger, but now it's somehow permeated LJ-land like a nasty fart in an elevator.

In case you didn't know, Snap Shots is a little app that bloggers use to put little preview windows on the external links and media in their posts, and personally, it's the most annoying fucktard thing you can install on your site. Sure, Adblock Plus can prevent the preview windows from showing up, but the icons are still there and my browser still tries to load something when you mouseover them, which, by the way, I NEVER CONDONED IT TO DO. So this stupid program I have absolutely no use for is making my computer do things I'm not asking it to do. Big mistake. So let's get rid of it. Special thanks to everyone in the xkcd thread for all the input.

Two simple steps:

1. Toggle off Graphic previews in your Viewing Options. This disables Snap Shots for your own LJ.

2. Add .snap.com/$script, i.ixnp.com, and shots.snap.com/snap_shots to your Adblock Plus filters. This will disable Snap Shots for the rest of LJ (and the rest of the Internet, hopefully):



Deep breath, sigh of relief. Spread the word, contain the plague.

---

Update: Opera users, have no fear! See this article to learn how to create your own filters, and just add the two terms as *.snap.com* and *.inxp.com*. ice_dragon00 has also pointed out that you can find Opera's content filters via its menus so you don't have to hunt and mess with the urlfilter.ini file. Working instructions with pictures are here. akamaru also has instructions on how to disable scripting on LiveJournal as well.

Update 2: Special request from IE users! This seems to be the best (if only) plugin for IE7 out there that can accept URLs to block, so if I'm reading the docs correctly you should enter in the terms like so:

*.snap.com/$script*
*.ixnp.com*

Working instructions with handy-dandy pictures are here, with updated instructions if those didn't work here.

Update 3: Safari users, no, I haven't forgotten about you - try the freeware adblocking plugins here and just enter in the terms above as normal.

Update 4: For people on public computers (like students at school or people at a library), do they allow the use of USB drives? If so, Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition with Adblock Plus installed may save your butt.

Update 5: Camino users, look here for ad blocking instructions (thanks to therck who found this), and enter the terms as follows (I think):

host script 2 snap.com
host script 2 ixnp.com

dafydd points out that the terms above should be tab-separated, and also work for the full SeaMonkey/Mozilla Application Suite on the Mac.

Update 6: If you'd rather not mess with ad blocking software and would prefer a blindingly simple browser-agnostic solution, the_mcp and filefish offer HOSTS file manipulation instead for both Windows and Mac at this thread.

Update 7: OmniWeb users on the Mac can join in on the blocking fun with instructions from wmilliken here.

Update 8: Astute user zwol has found a glaring mistake in one of the terms I listed - update your filters to use .snap.com/$script instead of just plain .snap.com/$cript. Not much of a biggie since it was working with the previous one, but it's better to be precise all the same.

Update 9: Seems that Snap is escalating the battle and trying to get around the blocks we're using. zoniduck has discovered that the term shots.snap.com/snap_shots is able to circumvent the above filters; just add it to your current filters and it should do the trick...for now.

WorldCat is the world's largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information.

What am I searching?

WorldCat.org lets you search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world. WorldCat grows every day thanks to the efforts of librarians and other information professionals.

What will I find?

You can search for popular books, music CDs and videos—all of the physical items you're used to getting from libraries. You can also discover many new kinds of digital content, such as downloadable audiobooks. You may also find article citations with links to their full text; authoritative research materials, such as documents and photos of local or historic significance; and digital versions of rare items that aren't available to the public. Because WorldCat libraries serve diverse communities in dozens of countries, resources are available in many languages.

Can I check something out?

It depends on whether you have an active membership with a library that owns the item, and whether that library's Web site permits remote checkout of an item. WorldCat.org lets you find an item of interest and then locate a library near you that owns it. Usually you will link directly to the item record on the library's Web site. The actions available to you on that page will vary from one library to another. You may be able to join a waiting list, reserve the item, check it out or even have it shipped or delivered.

Can I get into electronic databases?

Some WorldCat libraries make their specialized reference databases available on their Web sites, but only to library members. Your search on WorldCat.org may produce direct links to articles and other resources in these databases. To access these resources, though, you may first be required to log in with a valid library membership.

Source: WorldCat

Whether you are vacationing in California, Australia, South Africa, France or Italy, wine tasting is one of the most rewarding excursions available. If you long to walk through the vineyards and admire the grapevines and picturesque backdrop, wine glass in hand, you must first learn to appreciate the subtle beauty of wine.

1. Look at the wine, especially around the edges. Tilting the glass a bit can make it easier to see the way the color changes from the center to the edges. Holding the glass in front of a white background, such as a napkin, tablecloth, or sheet of paper, is another good way to make out the wine's true color. Look for the color of the wine and the clarity. White wines become darker as they age while time causes red wines to lose their color turning more brownish, often with a small amount of harmless, dark red sediment in the bottom of the bottle or glass. This is also a good time to catch a preliminary sniff of the wine so you can compare its fragrance after swirling. This will also allow you to check for any off odors that might indicate spoiled (corked) wine.

2. Swirl the wine in your glass. This is to mix oxygen in with the wine, which will soften the tannins of a young wine. It also spreads the liquid over the surface of the glass so that more of the wine can evaporate.

3. While you're swirling, note the wine's viscosity - how slowly it runs back down the side of the glass. More viscous wines are said to have "legs," and are likely to be more alcoholic.

Seven more steps at the source; however, send me a link to an article on How to Taste and Appreciate Scotch, then we'll talk.


Source: wikiHow

Online video leader YouTube rolled out long-awaited technology to automatically remove copyrighted clips, hoping to placate movie and television studios fed up with the website's persistent piracy problems.

The filtering tools are designed so the owners of copyrighted video can block their material from appearing on YouTube, which has become a pop culture phenomenon in its 2-year existence.

They also give the owners of copyrighted video the option to sell ads around their material if they want the clips remain available on YouTube.

To find and remove copyrighted music, YouTube already uses separate filtering tools developed by Los Gatos-based Audible Magic Corp.

YouTube's previous lack of copyright protections for video content prompted Viacom Inc to sue it for $US1 billion ($A1.11 billion) for showing thousands of clips the New York-based company owned.

As YouTube's traffic soared, movie and TV studios became increasingly frustrated with the rampant piracy fuelling its popularity, though YouTube said it has followed copyright laws by removing protected video upon request.

Studios' exasperation with YouTube escalated as other popular websites introduced filtering technology in recent months to prevent copyrighted material from being uploaded.

YouTube's critics have argued that the site turned a blind eye to flagrant piracy so it could show more appealing material to build its audience, and pump up its value. Google prized San Bruno-based YouTube so much it paid $US1.76 billion ($A1.96 billion) to buy the site 11 months ago.

YouTube has been working with Google engineers ever since to develop the tools needed to flag copyrighted video, said David King, a YouTube product manager.

YouTube now needs the cooperation of copyright owners for its filtering system to work, because the technology requires copyright holders to provide copies of the video they want to protect so YouTube can compare those digital files to material being uploaded to its website.

This means that movie and TV studios will have to provide decades of copyright material if they don't want it to appear on YouTube, or spend even more time scanning the site for violations.

The system found 18 copyright violations over a limited 10-day trial of the filtering tools involving one of the test participants, King said.

Source: The Age

We started working on this project a couple of months ago, and now, it is finally done. Lately we've been working on this project none stop, acknowledging if we release it after the real Portal - we fail, and our test will be terminated ( ;). So yes, the last piece of code of this game was programed just a couple of minutes ago. Don't worry - those minutes were on bugs!

Portal: The Flash Version includes over 40 challenging, portals thinking levels, which features almost every feature the real game does, in 2d - energy balls, cubes, turrets and even the famous crusher from the trailer. The game also includes a console to mess around with after finishing the game, or just being frustrated by thinking with portals (Commands are posted in our forums)

portal.wecreatestuff.com

Controls:
Left mouse button - launch a portal.
A W D - movement
Q - launch a blue portal.
E - launch a yellow portal.
R - Close both portals.
F - pick up an object.
~ - open up console (enable through the options)
O - quick quality adjust.
Esc/P - pause game.

As an aside, do yourself a favor and PICK UP THE ORANGE BOX YESTERDAY. Though this gives you an idea of how the puzzles work, the real thing is a million times better. Do it. Do it.


Source: Armor Games via Newgrounds

Uh...uh...more terrifying pictures at the source.


Source: YoPress

Create an address bar/tab icon for your web site instantly with Favicon.cc, a web-based paint application and image converter that creates favicons. Draw your icon and preview the results in actual size while you work. Publish the finished image for personal use or license it for reuse under Creative Commons. Favicon.cc's interface is sleek, fast, and extremely fun.

Source: favicon.ico Generator via Lifehacker

Tablecloth is lightweight, easy to use, unobtrusive way to add style and behaviour to your html table elements. By simply adding 2 lines of code to your html page you will have styled and active tables that your visitors will love :)

Tables are often misused by non-standards savvy developers and have become a subject of arguments between table layout coders and standardistas. Tables in html do have great significance in their primary role and that's - displaying tabular data. Tablecloth is meant for proper usage of tables only. Used on table-based layouts it will cause more headache then the layout itself. Befor using tablecloth make sure that you don't use tables for anything else but tabular data.

Source: Tablecloth

Little appreciated outside the world of academia, there are literally thousands of .edu sites bursting with incredibly useful and interesting information and resources. Most of these sites won't pop up to the surface of the average search engine quest, and so they wait, neglected and underused...until now. Keep reading for a quick tour through the mysterious underground world of .edu.

Humanities
Learn about languages you've never heard of at the UCLA Language Materials Project. Listen to native language speakers from all over the world read the same paragraph at George Mason University's Speech Accent Archive. Get full access to over 300 scholarly journals at Johns Hopkins Project Muse. The University of Texas at Austin has an interesting Flash-based walk-through of Dante's Inferno.

History
Ancient history buffs will appreciate UCLA's Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. Heed the call of the wild at Sonoma State's Jack London Online Collection. From the College of New Jersey comes the intriguing Images of American Political History, a collection of over 500 public domain images ranging from 1750 up to present day. One of the most interesting historical sites I've ever come across is Talking History from the University of Albany; it's a collection of "audio documentaries, speeches, debates, oral histories, conference sessions, commentaries, archival audio sources, and other aural history resources." Historical Voices, a collaborative effort of several universities, is a similar project: "The purpose of Historical Voices is to create a significant, fully searchable online database of spoken word collections spanning the 20th century - the first large-scale repository of its kind."

See the rest of the gems at the source.


Source: Lifehacker