Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Boing Boing: Google Street View

Here's a Boing Boing roundup of some of the many responses to last week's posts about Google's newly launched "street view" zoom feature.
Boing Boing: Google Street View: a cavalcade of reactions, gag pix, paranoid rants

Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, 2006

Statistics on incidents of victimisation for a selected range of offences that came to the attention of police and were recorded by them in the period 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2006.
Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, 2006

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Australian Demographic Statistics

The preliminary estimated resident population (ERP) of Australia at 31 December 2006, based on the 2006 Census of Population and Housing, was 20,852,000 persons. This was an increase of 293,100 persons since 31 December 2005, and 73,200 persons since 30 September 2006.
Australian Demographic Statistics, Dec 2006

London unveils Logo of 2012 Olympics

The logo for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics has been unveiled in a star-studded ceremony in London. The jagged emblem, based on the date 2012, comes in a series of shades of pink, blue, green and orange and will evolve in the run-up to the Games.
London 2012 Olympic Games Logo

Monday, June 04, 2007

Business Indicators, Australia

Underlying strength in sales, wages and profit growth in the March 2007 quarter.
5676.0 - Business Indicators, Australia, March 2007

15 years of Native Title

On 3 June Australia commemorates the 15th anniversary of the High Court's landmark Mabo decision - the catalyst for native title in Australia.
Tribunal President Graeme Neate said the anniversary was an opportunity to reflect on what has been achieved since then, and to look forward: ‘There have been 101 registered determinations of native title, 67 that native title exists and 34 that native title does not exist. Most of these determinations have been made by agreement, but much work remains to be done.’
15 years of Native Title

Doctored Magazine Covers

The June/July issue of Men's Fitness enhanced Andy Roddick's bicep muscles -- so much so that Roddick said he stopped in his tracks when he saw the cover while walking through the airport. Eight other celebrity magazine covers are featured, including those of Julia Roberts, Kate Winslet, Brad and Angelina, and OJ Simpson.
Doctored Magazine Covers

I-SPY Online Snooping

A good read for awareness. Be careful out there.
A Master Class in Online Snooping

Australian National Library to Digitise Newspapers

The National Library of Australia, in collaboration with each Australian state and territory library, has embarked on a plan to digitise out of copyright newspapers.
National Library to digitise newspapers for the nation

Google Street View Gallery

Here are some oddities found on Google Maps’ new Street View feature, via StreetViewr.com (most of these are from San Francisco, as it has the highest resolution panorama photos).
Google Street View Gallery

25 Best Movies You've Never Seen

Forget The Godfather. What we've got here are the overlooked greats, the hidden gems. From Jake Gyllenhaal in a bubble to a murderous Kate Winslet to a pair of violent, avenging Irish "angels" … these are the box-office left-behinds.
25 Best Movies You've Never Seen

Behind the Scenes of Google Rankings

The New York Times has a mighty interesting inside look at Google’s top search algo engineers, most prominently 39-year old Amit Singhal, and their methodologies. Some highlights:

Users expect more: Amit says search moved from “Give me what I typed” to “Give me what I want.” Users expect more and more these days and take good results for granted... if something they’re looking for is not in the top 3 results, something feels broken.

Read on...Behind the Scenes of Google Rankings

Saturday, June 02, 2007

10 Beach Photography Tips

Here in Australia we love to hit the beach.
We’re one big island and most of our population is scattered along the coast line so the beach is a natural place for us to go both on day trips and longer holidays.
Beaches present digital camera owners with a number of wonderful opportunities as they are places of natural beauty, color and interesting light. However they also present a variety of challenges including camera damage, privacy issues and making large open spaces interesting.
10 Beach Photography Tips

Science Podcasts - The Lab

Get caught up in the podcasting frenzy, but in a sciencey way! You can now have the latest ABC Science Online and Radio National science shows to download at your leisure or to have magically delivered when you subscribe via RSS feed.
Science Podcasts - The Lab

Friday, June 01, 2007

Internet Activity, Australia

The Internet Activity Survey (IAS) collects details on aspects of Internet access services provided by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Australia.
This publication contains results from all ISPs operating in Australia with over 10,000 active subscribers as at 31 March 2007. Growth from September 2006 to March 2007 may be due to the movement of subscribers from smaller ISPs.
Internet Activity, Australia

Top 15 Google Street View Sightings

Google’s Street View feature for Google Maps, which enables users to see certain parts of several big US cities through panoramic images, has caused a new trend: StreetSpotting.
Top 15 Google Street View Sightings

The First Digital Image

The first film photo registered by a computer and recreated in pixels—30,976 to be exact. In 1957, Russell Kirsch, a scientist at what is now the National Institute of Standards and Technology, used a drum scanner connected to the SEAC (Standards Electronic Automatic Computer) to scan an image of his three-month-old son Walden.
The First Digital Image (The World Almanac)

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Travel Advice for Indonesia

We advise you to reconsider your need to travel to Indonesia, including Bali, at this time due to the very high threat of terrorist attack. We receive regular reports indicating that terrorists are planning attacks against Western interests against a range of targets, including places frequented by foreigners. If you are in Indonesia, including Bali, and are concerned for your safety you should consider departing.
Travel Advice for Indonesia

31 Of The Worst Predictions

1. “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” — Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Read on...
31 Of The Worst Predictions

BitLocker Drive Encryption

Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption is certainly one of the most talked-about features in Windows Vista. However, most people haven’t yet had much opportunity to test BitLocker to find out firsthand
Keys to Protecting Data with BitLocker Drive Encryption

Australian Economic Indicators

A monthly compendium of economic statistics, presenting comprehensive tables, graphs, commentaries, feature articles and technical notes. Primarily a reference document, the publication provides a broad basis for analysis and research on the Australian economy and includes statistics that can be applied to both macro-economic and sectoral analyses. The publication contains statistics under the following headings: national accounts, international accounts, consumption and investment, production, prices, labour force and demography, incomes and labour costs, financial markets, state comparisons and international comparisons.
Australian Economic Indicators, June 2007

The Science of Disgust

The ewww factor. A new study explains why we think some things are icky - and marketers are starting to take heed.
The Science of Disgust

High Stress: Air Traffic Control

High Stress Job !
Air Traffic Control Video

Microsoft Surface Confirmed: Touch-Sensitive

Dubbed "Surface" and five years in the making, Project Milan is set to establish a paradigm of what Microsoft calls "surface computers" which use touch as the sole method of input.
Microsoft Surface Confirmed: Touch-Sensitive

Real-Time Information from ResourceShelf

ResourceShelf is updated daily by an editorial team headed by Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy. Here is a snapshot of some Real Time Information and Webcams such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Eiffel Tower etc.
ResourceShelf » Real-Time Information

Google Maps is spying on my Cat

From Boing Boing...

The new Google Maps zoom feature zooms all the way into my living room window. See cat on cat perch.
I'm all for mapping, but this feature literally gives me the shakes. I feel like I need to close all my curtains now. I'm going to look into whether it's possible for a person to have pictures of their home removed from Google Maps. Meanwhile, I'm happy to show bb readers the photo in the interest of illustrating creepy privacy violations. Heck, the whole world can see him anyway.
Google Maps is spying on my Cat

Spectacular Mammatus Clouds

These photos were taken by Jorn Olsen, he lives on Heartwell Park in Hastings, Nebraska. His website is: http://www.jornolsen.com which you may be interested in looking at. Three of these photos were featured on the front and back cover of the Journal of Meteorology and circulated in 26 countries.
Spectacular Mammatus Clouds over Hastings, Nebraska

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

You’re Fired!

There are two types of employee. One has a good idea of what they do, who they are and what position they play in the company. They are savvy. They know the score. They are under no delusions, and will no doubt leave for another job long before they are ever considered as cannon-fodder.
And then there’s the other kind. Read on...
You’re Fired! 20 signs that a pink-slip is coming

Google Maps Street View from outside US

Google is making excessive use of their GeoIP database these days to test new features in a limited area of their choice. Now they decided to only let users from the US use the street view option in Google Maps. If you live in another country, you'd actually have to wait until Google releases the feature worldwide or use a proxy from inside the states.
There's another way to avoid Google's IP filter though:
Google Maps Street View from outside US

Exploring the Windows Vista Firewall

Modern computing environments wildly diverge from ancient times. Everything is connected to the Internet and portable devices are now the standard. Your employer has likely given you a laptop, not because they care about you, but because they care about getting more out of you — they fully expect you to work anytime you’ve got five spare minutes and a Wi-Fi connection. Laptops might cost more than desktops, but that investment is surely repaid in productivity. You see, it’s the portability that makes them so alluring—to you and your adversaries. Read on...
Exploring the Windows Vista Firewall

World Wind Central - Saturn

This World Wind Central addon includes Saturn, Patrick Murris's PlanetaryRings plugin, moons, feature names, and some physical properties of the rings.
Add-on:Saturn - World Wind Central

Convert an Image to a Text File

Convert an image and process to a text file of the original image. Convert picture to text. Ascii Art. ascii photo, ascii image, ascii convertion, asciiart, ascii picture, convert image text, image to text, image to ascii etc
Photo2Text

Women In Art

This YouTube clip morphs many traditional female portraits over 3 minutes.
Women In Art

Top 25 Web 2.0 Search Engines

Online search is now a multi-billion dollar industry, with Google alone grossing over $3.5 billion in profits last year. It's no wonder why so many newcomers are hopping on the search bandwagon, hoping to become the next Google. And those new search engines that may stand the best chance to become the next Google all share one common element — the use of Web 2.0 technology that they hope will increase search result relevance.

Here are 25 such engines. Some offer functionality that's slowly making its way into traditional search engines. Others further the attempt to traverse the invisible Web and index other previously unsearchable research sources.

Top 25 Web 2.0 Search Engines

Top 100 Scariest Movie Scenes

Some films aren't scary by design, but happen to have creepy and shocking moments that deserve special recognition. So enjoy this list and have fun discovering a bunch of new movies to see!
Top 100 Scariest Movie Scenes of All Time

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

26 Reasons What You Think is Right is Wrong

A cognitive bias is something that our minds commonly do to distort our own view of reality. Here are the 26 most studied and widely accepted cognitive biases.
26 Reasons What You Think is Right is Wrong

Handbook for Life: 52 Tips for Happiness and Productivity

A Handbook for Life. Now, is there any handbook that can be a guide to every single person? Of course not. This is just a list of tips that will help many people in life — some of them common-sense tips that are often forgetten about. Consider this guide a reminder.
Handbook for Life: 52 Tips for Happiness and Productivity

Monday, May 28, 2007

100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know

The editors of the American Heritage® dictionaries have compiled a list of 100 words they recommend every high school graduate should know.

"The words we suggest," says senior editor Steven Kleinedler, "are not meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language."

The following is the entire list of 100 words:
100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know

37 Sources Of Inspiration

Did you ever feel lost in space, trying to gather your thoughts, get motivated to write for your blog, design a website, come up with logo ideas, find a perfect object for your photo shoot, simply be inspired to live your life to its fullest? Here is your one in a lifetime chance to swim in the ocean of inspiration filled from 37 sources.
37 Sources Of Inspiration

7 Ways to Send HUGE Files

Gmail users can now send up to 20MB of attachments to each other. Here are 7 services that let you send files of more than 500MB.
7 Ways to Send HUGE Files

Self-assessed Health in Australia

This article presents a brief overview of how Australians assess their own health status. Factors examined in relation to self-assessed health include age, sex, socioeconomic status, health conditions, weight, exercise, alcohol consumption and smoking.
Self-assessed Health in Australia: A Snapshot, 2004-05

Sleep Adjustment Tips - Gain Time!

Rise and Shine: No matter what time you to go to bed - you're alarm should go off each morning at the same time, 7 days per week. Gain an hour a day, that's over 10 days per year. Read on for other ideas...
Sleep Adjustment

Amazing Houses

Photos of interesting and odd houses...
Amazing things: Houses from around the World

Ikea Job Application

A funny cartoon...Ikea Job Application

7 Ways to Build the Exercise Habit

This is a post from the author of StrongLifts.com. If you enjoy this post, check out his site.
7 Ways to Build the Exercise Habit

Sunday, May 27, 2007

iPhone Hype

A study from Strategy Analytics has found that 90 percent of handset owners rate Apple’s iPhone as being superior to existing mobile phones. This despite the rather pertinent facts that the iPhone has not yet gone on sale and none of those questioned would have used an iPhone.
Study Finds 90% of Handset Owners Believe iPhone Hype

Venus Near the Moon

The two brightest objects in the night sky appeared to go right past each other last week. On the night of May 19, Earth's Moon and the planet Venus were visible in the same part of the sky - Venus Near the Moon

Friday, May 25, 2007

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Playing Card Superstitions

Likely because of their association with gambling and fortune telling, playing cards have long been regarded as objects of moral and spiritual danger, if not of outright evil.
Playing Card Superstitions

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

The 100 Best Products of 2007

From the PC World editors - ranking the best PCs, HDTVs, components, sites, and services. Plus: the products they're looking forward to next year, and which technologies are rising and falling.
The 100 Best Products of 2007

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Interesting Notes

Passive-aggressive Notes from roommates, neighbors, coworkers and strangers.....

10 Simple Ways to save Messing up Your Life

10 Simple Ways to save yourself from messing up your Life

General Social Survey: Australia, 2006

Among the many, often inter-related, aspects of life that are important to human wellbeing are good health, good family relationships and engagements with wider social networks, good educational opportunities and outcomes, suitable employment, a decent income and freedom from financial stress, a decent and affordable place to live, feeling safe and secure, and having access to suitable transport. There is increasing recognition that many social phenomena are inter-related and social policy is becoming less sectoral as a consequence. In 2006, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) conducted the second General Social Survey (GSS), a multi-dimensional social survey that ranges across all of these aspects of life to enable analysis of the interrelationships in social circumstances and outcomes, including the exploration of multiple advantage and disadvantage.
General Social Survey:Australia, 2006

Overclock Your Reading Speed

Speed reading is an excellent skill that can be used in your workplace, your home life, as well as your personal hobbies.
Overclock Your Reading Speed

Monday, May 21, 2007

Disney Underground - The Tunnels Exposed

Are there really tunnels under Disney? Are there really hidden Mickeys? Did you see Walt's frozen head? I guess these questions really only come from outside of Florida, and prompted this post about "The Tunnels"

Keyboard Shortcuts

A list of common keyboard shortcuts that are used in modern desktop environments: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, KDE and GNOME. These are shortcuts used to interact with the desktop environment, and shortcuts commonly used in desktop applications.
Table of Keyboard Shortcuts - Wikipedia

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Eyesight Myths

It’s important to separate fact from fiction, especially when the topic is eyesight. And old wives’ tales abound about the eyes. Many of these have no basis in fact and, for that matter, can be dangerous if you followed the advice put forth.
But knowing how to take good care of your eyes is the first step to protecting your sight for a lifetime. So here’s the lowdown on some eyesight myths:
15 Useless or Even Dangerous Eyesight Myths at Ririan Project

Best Dilbert Ever!

Dilbert Comic Strip

Improving Your Landscape Photography

There’s something about getting out in nature with the challenge of capturing some of the amazing beauty that you see. The quietness and stillness of waiting for the perfect moment for the shot, scoping out an area for the best vantage point and then seeing the way that the light changed a scene over a few hours.
Here are a few the lessons learned for Improving Your Landscape Photography

The Bathroom Diaries

The Bathroom Diaries scours the globe to rate the worlds’ toilets. Few would visit a country without some advanced information, yet our tender bits are exposed to uncharted territories with no help or assistance. At our most vulnerable, we are blind. Well, no more.

Dubai Puts a New Spin on Skyscrapers

Dubai Puts a New Spin on Skyscrapers - In skyscraper-crazy Dubai, tall isn't enough. In a design to be unveiled today in the oil-rich emirate, David Fisher, an Italian-Israeli architect, has dreamed up a 68-story combination hotel, apartment and office tower where the floors would rotate 360 degrees. Each floor would rotate independently, creating a constantly changing architectural form.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Fun with clouds!

Clouds can be funny - The color of a cloud tells much about what is going on inside the cloud. Clouds form when relatively warm air containing water vapor is lighter than its surrounding air and this causes it to rise. As it rises it cools and the vapor condenses out of the air as micro-droplets. These tiny particles of water are relatively densely packed, and sunlight cannot penetrate far into the cloud before it is reflected out, giving a cloud its characteristic white color.
Fun with Clouds!

Friday, May 18, 2007

Da Vinci's Guide to Healthy Living

Leonardo Da Vinci, considered to be one of the greatest creative minds of all time, lived a good life. His talents led him to be supported and befriended by many of the most powerful men of his time. He wasn't just one of history's greatest artists, he was also one of history's greatest engineers and he was much admired, not just for his huge intellect, but also for his handsomeness, his physical strength, and his singing voice. He also had a heart, his love for animals the reason for his vegetarianism. He died at 67 years of age, which in 15th century Italy probably equates to 90 now.

Da Vinci's Guide to Healthy Living

50 Ways To Increase Your Productivity - lifehack.org

Here are 50 Ways To Increase Your Productivity and add hours to your day!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Top Ten Myths of Divorce

Discussion of the most common misinformation about divorce - the
Top Ten Myths

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

LILEKS (James) :: The Bleat - Disneyworld

It’s Disneyworld. The happiest, smiling-est, hottest, sweatiest, standing-in-lineiest place on earth. This year’s motto: “The Year of A Million Dreams”.

Where Do You Fit?

Where Do You Fit?
Do you cringe when your cell phone rings? Do you suffer from withdrawal when you can't check your Blackberry? Do you rush to post your vacation video to your Web site? The questions below allow you to place yourself in one of the categories in the Pew Internet Project's Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users.

9 Little Known Ways To Sleep

Can’t sleep? Try these snooze tips you may not have heard before.
9 Little Known Ways To Sleep

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Friday, April 20, 2007

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Thursday, April 05, 2007

MS07-017 Security fix and Realtek Soundcard

With the release of MS07-017, there have been reports of Windows XP SP2 systems with Realtek audio cards experiencing the following symptoms:

When you start a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2, the Realtek HD Audio Control Panel may not start.
Additionally, you may receive the following error message:
Rthdcpl.exe - Illegal System DLL Relocation

The system DLL user32.dll was relocated in memory. The application will not run properly. The relocation occurred because the DLL C:\Windows\System32\Hhctrl.ocx occupied an address range reserved for Windows system DLLs. The vendor supplying the DLL should be contacted for a new DLL.

This problem occurs when the Realtek HD Audio Control Panel (Rthdcpl.exe) by Realtek Semiconductor Corporation is installed.

If you have experienced this issue, the fix is to apply http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935448 after application of both MS07-017 and MS07-008. This Hotfix is currently not available via WSUS/SUS and will require a manual install.

Ugh!

Monday, April 02, 2007

10 Things I Wish I Had Never Believed

10 Things I Wish I Had Never Believed

Top 20 Historical Myths

Here are 20 of the most common historical myths, which have misled and misinformed people for years, decades, or centuries.



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