A Knife for Firefighters

I've always liked special purpose gadgets. Here is an article reviewing a knife specially made for firefighers. In addition to being designed to be used while wearing heavy gloves, it has a spike for smashing windows and a hook cutter for cutting clothing.

PCMCIA Wi-fi phone

A blog post about a cool looking gizmo. It is a wi-fi phone that charges inside the PCMCIA slot on your laptop. In the photo it looks like it would fit completely inside the card slot.

Make VOIP Calls from your Browser

Still on the VIP front, lifehacker has an article about a new Flash app from Gizmo that lets you make phone calls from your browser for free. Note that I haven't actually tried this out.

Fun with Gravity

Here is an amusing little Flash app that lets you play around with gravity. Basically you move the dots around and see what happens.

via reddit

Google Maps Google Books

An interesting blog post from Google about a new feature from Google Books. They have generated maps from various books showing locations mentioned in the book.

A few examples:

• Around the World in 80 Days
• The Travels of Marco Polo
• War and Peace
  

Economics and the 18 year old Criminal

Slate has an interesting article about an economist trying to find out if harsh prison sentences have a deterent effect on crime. He looks at whether people commit fewer crimes when they turn 18 and the sentences increase dramatically. The short answer is they don't.

Walking on Doodles

A strange flash game. It is basically a side view platform game where you have to move you character from one side of the board to the other. The interesting thing is that, using the mouse, you draw in the surface that your character walks on. Note that you don't have to do all the drawing in one go - you can draw, walk along the line, then draw some more.

The Uses of Security Theatre

Bruce Schneier usually disparages what he calls 'security theatre' but in this article he discusses a situation where the appearance of security is actually useful. I'm not sure I buy it myself but I do see his point.

A Low Tech Game

Here is a game for those times you have some time to kill and not much in the way of gaming materials. All you need is a nickel, three pennies and a table to play on.

Word Clouds

I'm not entirely sure what this actually is but snapshirts.com will build what they call a word cloud from your blog or website. They will then sell this to you on a T-shirt.

Online Comic: Agnes Quill

An interesting comic about a girl who lives in a slightly magical city with a bit of a Victorian feel. Agnes can see ghosts and makes her living by doing jobs for them in the real world. There are a couple of full length stories and a few shorter ones.

Death at Sea

The Guardian has an article about people mysteriously vanishing from cruise ships at sea. Some of them at least seem to have been murdered but the police and the cruise companies don't seem overly interested.

via rebecca's pocket

Password Cracking

Bruce Schneier has an article on choosing passwords and the techniques used to break them.

One method he recommends is using computer generated passwords, ones that will presumably be hard to crack, and storing them in a encrypted file for when you need them. That way you only have to remember the password for the encrypted file.

The Evolution of Spammers

An interesting article about how spammers, and other internet baddies, have evolved over time. The increasing professionalism and sophistication is a bit worrying.

Secret Underground Tunnel Expedition

An interesting blog post about an expedition to sneak into the old hydro tunnels under Niagara Falls. With photos including one of the tunnel in its 1906 construction and one of the equipment required for the expedition.

Game: Driving on Gears

If you have some free time try this Flash game. You basically have to drive a little dune buggy across terrain made of moving gears.

via Brass Goggles

A Comet over Catalonia

The Astronomy Picture of the Day has a beautiful photo of Comet McNaught in the sky over Spain.

Scotland wants you: To Wash your Hands

Apparently the Scottish Government paid GBP 2.3 million to develop this website to teach people how and when they should wash their hands. While I do like the domain name (washyourhandsofthem.com) and I can't fault the message, it does seem a bit expensive to me. On the plus side I suppose this means that no other government will have to make an English language site about hand washing - unless of course there is something special about Scottish hands.

via Reddit

DIY Steam Powered Spinning Candle

Make has a great how-to video that shows how to make a very simple steam engine that will cause a floating tea light to spin.

The mechanism is the same as that used in put-put boats.

via Brass Goggles

Postal Rates

Slate has an article about how payments work for international mail. Interestingly a country (developed ones at least) can get in trouble if they aren't quick enough handling the mail.

Cool Clocks

Some very interesting looking clocks. They are a bit expensive and the website is a bit annoying but they are worth a look if you like that sort of thing.

Deciphering barking

Yahoo has an article on a security system that interprets the barking of guard dogs. The goal is to let human guards know if the barking is worth investigating.

The New Blogger

To celebrate the new year I have upgraded to the new Google version on Blogger. Hopefully this won't make any difference.

Year at a glance

The folks at DIY Planner have a potentially useful PDF file that contains a one page calendar for all of 2007 that fits on a single page.

If you haven't checked out DIYPlanner.com you may want to have a look. They have all sorts of forms and other potentially useful things you can print. They are probably most known for the Hipster PDA.

Build a better playfort

Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools has an article on just the thing you need to make the perfect playfort. They are basically little reusable plastic rivets that you can use to assemble pieces of cardboard.

FBI can use cell phones as bugs

According to this article on Cnet, a recent Mafia case in the US has revealed that the FBI can use normal cell phones as eavesdropping devices. Unfortunately the article doesn't have much technical detail.

via slashdot

Contents of a Presidential motorcade

Slate has an article about what vehicles and personnel are included in a US Presidential motorcade.

No need to be sleepy

The New Scientist has an article on new drugs that allow people to stay awake for days at a time without any later repercussions. At the moment you need to convince your doctor that you are narcoleptic in order to get a prescription.

via slashdot

DVD: Inside Man

An excellent movie about a bank robbery that turns into a hostage situation. Denzel Washington plays the NYPD hostage negotiator tasked with resolving the confrontation. Things become complicated when various powerful figures, including a mysterious fixer played by Jodie Foster, become involved in the case.

The movie is worth watching just for the scheme and tactics of the robbers but the performances, the writing and the settings were excellent.

Plus the film is set on the street I used to work on.

Lego pirate video

Here we have a very cool Lego pirate video. It was done with computer graphics rather than stop motion but is still worth watching.

A pop-up urinal

This blog post is about some new urinals in Victoria, BC that rise up out the ground in the evening and then hide away again in the day. There are some photos.

I was in Victoria this summer but didn't notice any vanishing urinals.

via slashdot

A Wing Chun video

In Wing Chun Kung Fu we do an exercise called chi sau. I have tried to explain this exercise to people several times without success and it can't easily be demonstrated by one person. In future I can point people to this video on youtube.

This still probably isn't the best video as both people have quite high skill levels but I think my readers will get the general idea. The person on the right in the video is Augustine Fong. He is my teacher's teacher.

Print your own graph paper

pdfpad.com will let you print your own calendars as well as various types of graph paper. They basically let you download a PDF file. They also have sudoko puzzles.

New Lego gadget

Here we have an ice cube tray that makes ice cubes shaped like Lego blocks. I don't know if you can build things with the ice cubes or not though.

Risk perception

Bruce Schneier links to a Los Angelos Times article on the perception of risk. Among other things the article compares the risks from terrorism, which are very low but very worrying, to the risks of global warming, which are high but not upsetting.

Schneier's post about the article includes the amusing quote:

Many people believe that their children are at risk of being given poisoned candy by strangers at Halloween, even though there has been no documented case of this ever happening.

via slashdot

Sidewalk art

A great picture of some sidewalk art.

Surviving an air crash

The BBC has an article about surviving air crashes. Interestingly, a common problem is that panicked passengers often have trouble releasing their seatbelts as they try to push on them, as in a car, rather than pulling on the handle.

A view of the earth

Continuing the space theme, we have another picture from Astronomy Picture of the Day. This one shows the earth as seen from Saturn.

The world at night

Astronomy picture of the day has a composite photo of the earth at night. It is interesting to compare areas that are brightly lit with those that are dark. Notice North Korea - the black area to the east of Japan above brightly lit South Korea.

Would it have worked?

The Register has an article about how hard it would have been to mix an explosive out of liquids carried on a plane. I liked the part about taking several hours to combine the chemicals drop by drop.

Of course I still can't take a bottle of water on a plane.

via slashdot

A talking postcard

I'm not really sure what to do with this site but it is a great timewaster. It basically lets you drag and drop words that are then spoken in a British gangster style voice.

Official seal

Courtesy of the Official Seal Generator, this blog now has a seal. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it.

Camels

Snopes has an article on an amazing picture from National Geographic that shows a group of camels in the desert. Note that what you first think are the camels are really their shadows.

What the terrorists want

Computer security guru Bruce Sneier has an article about the reaction, or over reaction, to recent terrorist attacks.

We are fitter than our grandparents

The New York Times has an article comparing the health of present day Americans and their grandparents. In addition to living longer, people today are larger, fitter and much less likely to be chronically ill.

via slashdot

Robot kayaks

Robot Gossip has an article (with a picture) about a new robotic kayak developed by MIT as a testbed for aquatic robots.

Fan death

According to this article on Wikipedia, people in Korea believe that it is dangerous to sleep in a room with a running electric fan. There are regular reports in the Korean media of people dying from fan death.

Strangely these deaths only seem to occur in Korea and most people outside Korea consider the idea to be somewhat ridiculous. This makes me wonder if there are any similar things that we in the West believe that are laughed at elsewhere.

Fake Identities

This site offers a "False Identity Generator". It is mainly intended for use on website registration pages. It returns a valued, though not necessarily existing address, as well as an appropriate zip code and phone number. It also provides a birthdate and mother's maiden name.

An interesting web comic

Gunnerkrigg Court is a web comic with excellent art and interesting stories. Don't let the vaguely Harry Potter-esque setting put you off.

Bionic limb breakthrough

The BBC has an article about a new technique that allows metal rods to be anchored to bone and then protrude through the skin. Until now they haven't been able to get the skin to grow properly around the rod.

via slashdot

Flip clips

I haven't used this service but it looks like it might be an interesting present to get for someone. Basically they convert a video into a flip book.

Water displays

This article describes, and has a picture of, a machine that uses water as a display. Waves are generated by a series of devices around the edge of the water and the interference patterns form the desired image.

Who's watching?

This article in the New Scientist reports on research that shows that people are not only more honest when being watched - they are more honest when there is just a picture of someone watching them.

Money making opportunity

This article in the Telegraph describes how thieves in the UK stole some satellite phones from the British Foreign Office and ran up a bill of over 600,000 pounds.

I don't know how much it costs to set up one of these pay per minute phone numbers but if you did have one that paid $10 per minute you could make a bit of money by calling the number from any unattended phone you encounter. This would be very handy if you visit a lot of different offices.

Where are the planets today?

This site lets you see the positions of the various planets in the solar system at any given time.

Orbital self-portrait

Astronomy Picture of the Day has a photo of an astronaut during a spacewalk reflected in the helmet of his colleague.

How statisticians won the war

This article in the Guardian describes how statisticians used the serial numbers of captured / destroyed German tanks managed to estimate the number of tanks that the Germans had.

I am assuming that today serial numbers are a bit more random.

The bookman

A very cool looking bookcase. Unfortunately it doesn't seem very practical, nor very efficient in terms of wall space. It looks like it would be fairly easy to make if you wanted to.

Bastille day parade

This picture from the National Geographic Photo of the Day is of the Bastille day parade in Paris on July 14 1988. It fits in with this blog's title because I was there that day (though you can't see me in the picture).

A twice a year sunset

Every year on May 28 and July 12 when the sun sets it lines up exactly with the streets on Manhattan. Astronomy picture of the day has a picture from a few years ago.

This is also referred to as a Manhattan Solstice.

Don't hide on the dance floor

According to the BBC, British police are taking advantage of the blacklights in dance clubs to find burglars who have been sprayed with marker dye. They have been using special dye that is coded differently for each potential crime scene so that the burglars can be tied to specific crimes.

Robot climbs Pikes Peak

An autonomous vehicle, which had previously competed in the DARPA grand challenge, has successfully driven to the top of Pikes Peak. This was the day after the 90th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb which this year was won in a time of 10 minutes and 4.6 seconds. The robot made the 12.42 mile trip in 47 minutes and 10.3 seconds.

Tuk-tuks in the UK

According to the BBC, the British seaside town of Brighton has started using tuk-tuks on its streets. Tuk-tuks, named for the sound they make, are very common in parts of Asia but are not usually found in Europe.

via Jen

Canada in the EU

An interesting, not entirely serious, article in the Guardian about Canada joining the European Union.

via reddit

World subway maps in scale

An interesting comparision of the size of various subway systems around the world.

via RobotWisdom

Auto-antonyms

A list of words that are their own antonyms. That is they mean the opposite of themselves. An example being custom which can mean usual or normal but can also mean special or unique.

via rebecca's pocket and Robot Wisdom

New Somme photos

The Times has the story of a set of recently discovered photographic plates with pictures of the Battle of the Somme. The plates were found in an attic that had been a German photographer's wartime workshop. Unfortunately they only show one of the photos.

An asteroid hits the moom

Nasa has an article with a video of an asteroid hitting the moon. It's not the greatest video but is still kind of cool.

Buffalo grocer gives away millions

The Buffalo News has the story about a grocer who anonymously gave away millions of dollars while living quietly in a small apartment above his store. He died recently so the charities have gone public with his name.

The numbers aren't as large as those in Warren Buffet's recent announcement but the idea is the same.

The end for Top of the Pops

The Guardian reports that after 42 years the British music show Top of the Pops is being cancelled. I never really watched the show myself but I did like the idea of it having been around forever.

Thailand offers to replace Afghan statues

The Thai government has offered to rebuild the ancient Bamiyan Buddha statues that were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

Robo-roach

According to this article in the New Scientist, scientists have developed a robotic cockroach that can convince real roaches to follow it out of hiding into the light.

Google map pics: Diego Garcia

Some interesting pictures on Google Maps of the US base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. If you zoom in you can see the B-52s parked on the runway.

Email management

Lifehacker has an article on how to manage and keep on top of your email using only three folders.

Living a carbon neutral life

An interesting blog post about the various options for offsetting the carbon you use in your life. There seems to be a lot of variation in the price of a ton.

The deepest hole

It turns out that the Soviets drilled a hole over 12 kilometers deep.

Liquid armour

According to this article, scientists have developed a substance that acts like a liquid under low-energy conditions, but when agitated or hit, stiffens and behaves like a solid. They plan to use this in body armour.

Life at the top

Have you ever wondered how practical those super stretched limos made from SUVs are? Well this picture may have an answer for you.

via RobotWisdom

How to get the perfect shave

Apparently the old ways are the best ways.

Travelling light

An article on SF Gate about travelling with just one carry on bag. There are several other articles in the series about travelling light.

via 43Folders

Organised shoplifting

An article with some amazing numbers for the losses to stores from organised shoplifting gangs.

via robotwisdom

Baseball playing robot

According to this article in the New York Times, engineers at Arizona State University have built a robot that can intercept ground balls on a baseball field. It doesn't actually catch them at the moment it just manoevers into the path of the ball and stops it with a rubber bumper.

In case the NYT article goes away there is a summary, also with photo, on Robot Gossip.

Digger hits bridge

Some amazing photos of what happens why you drive a truck carrying a digger (aka an excavation hoe) under a highway bridge at full speed with the digger arm partly raised.

Beerhunter

Beerhunter.ca is a website that overlays a database with the locations of Ontario liquor and beer stores onto Google maps.

Why are there so many startups in the US?

An article by Paul Graham explaining what you would need to start your own Silicon Valley and why it would be difficult to do in various countries.

Online function grapher

This is one for the math geeks. This page lets you enter a function and then displays a graph for you. The whole thing is written in javascript and it will let you graph multiple functions at the same time.

Kung Fu Monks

This article from the Asia Times is about the modern day Shaolin monks. They used to support themselves by farming but now rely on tourism (ie martial arts displays).

Learning languages

From a site about learning languages, here is a list of various languages with ratings on their difficulty and other factors.

Robots

This article describes, and has a picture of, a gecko like robot that can climb walls.

Followup: This article on the New Scientist has another picture and a link to a video of the robot climbing.

This article talks about how a robot has performed surgery on its own. I was rather surprised by this one and am surprised that I haven't seen more on this.

via Robot Gossip

Instant translators

Skype has a new service. You call a number and they will connect you to a translator in the language of your choice. Cost is USD 2.99 per minute billed to your Skype Out account.

Ebert's 102 film canon

Film critic Roger Ebert has a list of 102 films that you need to have seen in order to be able to have a proper discussion about films. Sadly I've only seen 27 of them.

Sleep medicine

This article describes a new drug that reduces the need for sleep. It seems to work, at least in the short term, and will let you go two days without sleep.

via Rebecca's pocket

Make your own roadsign here.

The Sultan's elephant

I'm not really sure what this is about but these pictures on Flickr are pretty wild. There seems to be a giant mechanical elephant and at least one huge puppet wandering around London.

Followup: Here is a page on the BBC about the event including this FAQ. The project's homepage is here.

Using playing cards for encryption

If you read Cryptonomicon you will remember a scene where two characters comunicate with messages that they encrypt using decks of playing cards. In this article cryptography expert Bruce Schneier explains how to do this with your own cards.

How to get better gas mileage

This article has a list of tested tips on how you can go farther on a tank of gas. They seem to have a lot more to do with the driver than with the car.

Is it a bed or a desk?

This desk turns into a bed. Perfect for any remaining .com companies.

No time or numbers

This article in the Independent describes a South American tribe whose language has no numbers or past and future tenses. A professor tries to teach them to count but the concept seems alien to them.

via reddit

A mouse for typing

Here is an interesting gadget, basically it is a mouse that has the keys from the right hand side of the keyboard on it. The theory is that you'll save all the time you lose moving your hand from the keyboard to the mouse and back again.

I can see this as being useful for programmers but I think they should have had an entire keyboard on the left rather than just half.

How to get up when your alarm goes off

This article describes a method of training yourself to get up when your alarm goes off in the morning. Basically you practice. I haven't tried it out but it certainly sounds like it might work.