Artificial diamonds come of age
The New Diamond Age (Wired)
Diamond, it turns out, is a geek’s best friend. Not only is it the hardest substance known, it also has the highest thermal conductivity - tremendous heat can pass through it without causing damage. Today’s speedy microprocessors run hot - at upwards of 200 degrees Fahrenheit. In fact, they can’t go [...]
Another “Fair and balanced” trademark
Alright, Fox has trademarked “Fair and Balanced” despite the fact that the term has been used to describe Swedish tight-rope walkers for millenia. I’d like to serve notice to Fox News that I’ve trademarked the phrase “‘Fair and Balanced’ is trademarked” and any use of the term “‘Fair and balanced’ is trademarked”(TM) will be met [...]
Fox News vs. Al Franken
Fox News is suing funny guy and pundit Al Franken for using the phrase “fair and balanced” in the title of his new book “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Righ“:
Fox News registered “Fair & Balanced” as a trademark in 1995, the suit says.
Franken’s [...]
Ex-Intel engineer guilty of aiding terrorists
Portland Man Strikes Plea Deal on Terror Charges
A software engineer pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge of aiding the Taliban (search), agreeing to testify against other suspects in exchange for the dropping of other terrorism charges.
Maher “Mike” Hawash (search), one of the so-called “Portland Seven,” will serve at least seven years in federal prison under the [...]
Howl - ooowwwww!
We Mac users have Rendezvous and it’s made us the envy of the Windows/Linux world (no really, honest). Well no more. Swampwolf Technologies has created Howl, an SDK that provides Windows/Linux implementation of Zeroconf. The icing on the cake is that they’re releasing it royalty-free and open-sourced. Sweet.
Pineapple 0.4 progress report
It’s been a long, long time since the last Pineapple release.Since then RSS has become hyper-ubiquitous, NetNewsWire has cornered the Mac aggregator market (and rightly so, it’s pretty good) and I’ve spent most of my time making my living hooking up PHP-driven sites to MySQL databases.
So it is with great joy that I announce that [...]
Sunscreen vs. skin cancer: cancer winning
Sunscreen ‘increases cancer risk’
Wearing sunscreen makes people stay in the sun too long - and could release cancer-causing substances into the body, according to specialists.
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And a British biochemist has suggested that the cocktail of chemicals involved in sunscreens could be converted into “free radical” molecules, which could cause cell damage and lead to cancer.
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He [Dr [...]
Windows XP in 5 hours or fewer
Mark Pilgrim managed to re-install XP to the point of uber-customized usability in less than 200 steps in How to install Windows XP in 5 hours or less:
the fact remains that my Windows XP laptop can no longer (a) print, (b) sleep, or (c) change network settings without crashing. This is not multiple choice; [...]
Ass muffins?
They strike me as a wee bit expensive. Ass Muffins.
LCBO Celebrates Ontario’s beers
The summer 2003 edition of the LCBO’s Food & Drink magazine has an excellent article on the history of Ontario’s microbrewery renaissance (which started when Jim Brickman opened the Brick Brewery in Waterloo in the early 80’s). Definitely an interesting read if you’re a beer connoisseur in Ontario.
Incidentally, if a wine lover is called an [...]