Saturday, June 30, 2012

This Is The Oldest Vinyl Album In The History Of The World

Sometime in 1890, Emile Berliner recorded the first album in the history of the world. Then, that record by the father of the gramophone was destroyed. Today, Patrick Feaster, a sound historian at Indiana University, recreated the album using just a printed photograph of the album. His technique defies belief.
This Is The Oldest Vinyl Album In The History Of The World

Friday, June 29, 2012

Data after a death?

Open question: when a friend dies, what should her loved ones do with the data on her hard-drives?
Data after a death?

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Causes of death: 1900 and 2010

An editorial in the 200th anniversary issue of the New England Journal of Medicine looks at mortality and health through the centuries, and includes this chart of causes of death from the turn of the last century, which makes for quite a comparison. We're doing great on kidneys, but hearts not so much.
Causes of death: 1900 and 2010

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

How to Banish Duplicate Photos with VisiPic

You meant well, you intended to be a good file custodian, but somewhere along the way things got out of hand and you’ve got duplicate photos galore. Don’t be afraid to delete them and lose important photos, read on as we show you how to clean safely.
How to Banish Duplicate Photos with VisiPic

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Facebook Switched Your Email to One You've Probably Never Used

Whether you’ve noticed or not, you have a new primary email address listed as your Facebook contact and most likely, it’s an address you’ve never used.
Facebook Switched Your Email to One You've Probably Never Used

Facebook’s Six Sneakiest Settings (And How To Fix Them)

Facebook’s sneaky change to email settings reminds us that the social networking giant rarely has the interests of its users front and centre. Here are seven sneaky Facebook settings you might have forgotten about.
Facebook’s Six Sneakiest Settings (And How To Fix Them)

Do You Live Near A High Containment Biohazard Laboratory?

The Federation of American Scientists has a very interesting map for all the hypochondriacs and people living in permanent fear of a deadly virus epidemic. Or a zombie outbreak. These are all the (known) Biosafety Level 3 and 4 facilities in the world — high containment laboratories that work with “dangerous and emerging pathogens.” Zoom in the image to see if there’s any near you.
Do You Live Near A High Containment Biohazard Laboratory?

Monday, June 25, 2012

How to Find Your Computer’s Private & Public IP Addresses

An IP address (or Internet Protocol address) identifies each networked computer and device on a network. When computers communicate with each other on the Internet or a local network, they send information to each other’s IP addresses. Your computer likely has public and private IP addresses. You’ll need the IP address if you’re hosting server software – the client computers will need your computer’s IP address to connect to it.
How to Find Your Computer’s Private & Public IP Addresses

Live Capture is a versatile screen capturing program

Taking full screen screenshots has always been an easy process in the Windows operating system. Just hit the print key and the current screen is saved to the Clipboard, from where you can be paste into an image editor to edit and finally save it. Screenshot software for Windows usually optimizes the process in two ways: most programs allow you to save screenshots automatically once you tap on the print screen, and also offer to capture only part of the screen, or even elements that are not visible. The latter may include a window, a scrolling web page, a rectangular block, or even a freehand option.
Live Capture is a versatile screen capturing program

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Growing Plants that have been Exposed to Lunar Soil [Video]

Lunar soil was brought back to Earth during the days of NASA’s Apollo program and scientists eagerly started conducting experiments with it. This short video discusses some of the research and results when plants from Earth were exposed to soil from the Moon.
Growing Plants that have been Exposed to Lunar Soil [Video]

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Microsoft Surface: Everything You Need to Know

Microsoft made waves in the tech world on Monday night with the announcement of Surface, its new Windows tablet. Everything about Surface—from the shroud of mystery around the Los Angeles launch event to the presentation’s focus on hardware and design—is out of character for Microsoft.
Microsoft Surface: Everything You Need to Know

Australian Demographic Statistics, Dec 2011

Australia's annual population growth rate was 1.4% for the year ending 31 December 2011, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Over the same period, Australia's population increased by 302,600 people to 22.5 million (22,485,300) people. Net overseas migration accounted for 55% of the growth for the year ending December 2011, with the remaining 45% due to natural increase (births minus deaths).
Australian Demographic Statistics, Dec 2011

Switzerland is one gigantic booby-trap

Geoff Manaugh at BLDGBLOG has been exploring the bizarre world of Swiss self-destructing infrastructure, documented in La Place de la Concorde Suisse, John McPhee's "rich, journalistic study of the Swiss Army's role in Swiss society." It turns out that the Swiss Army specifies that bridges, hillsides, and tunnels need to be designed so that they can be remotely destroyed in the event of societal collapse, pan-European war, or invasion. Meanwhile, underground parking garages (and some tunnels) are designed to be sealed off as airtight nuclear bunkers.
Switzerland is one gigantic booby-trap

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Why Sitting Too Much Is Dangerous

Sitting is one of the worst positions for the body to maintain. After just 20 minutes hunched over in a chair, blood pools in the legs and immense pressure builds on the spine. Now, imagine the effects of sedentary workdays long term.
Why Sitting Too Much Is Dangerous

10 Best Yo-Yo Tricks on YouTube

Not a lot about the yo-yo itself has changed over the decades, but its tricks have become a thousand times more complicated. Ever heard of Buddha’s Revenge? The Brain Buster? What about the Mach 5, the Spaghetti, the Zipper, the World Tour, the 3-Leaf Clover or the Double Gerbil?
10 Best Yo-Yo Tricks on YouTube

Monday, June 18, 2012

Australian Government Agencies Asking Google To Remove Even More Content

Someone in a Canberra office has been busy with their browser. Between July and December last year, Australian government agencies asked Google to remove 646 items online.
Australian Government Agencies Asking Google To Remove Even More Content

Turn the Internet connection on or off

Sometimes you may want to turn off your Internet connection in an instant, for instance if you have noticed that malware is running on a system to avoid it leaking information or data. A switch to turn off the Internet can be useful in other situations as well, like during software installations to block applications from phoning home, or cutting off all network traffic to have those resources available for other more important tasks on the system. Lastly, you could also use it to avoid distractions during work by turning of the connection.
Turn the Internet connection on or off

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Rare photo of honeybee leaving its stinger behind

Kathy Keatley Garvey has won the Association for Communication Excellence gold medal for her rare photo of a honeybee leaving behind its stinger in an unfortunate (but now immortalized) human. Ms Garvey comes from a line of California dairy farmers who have kept bees since the mid 19th century.
Rare photo of honeybee leaving its stinger behind

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Carat Tells You Which Apps Drain Your Battery

Battery power on an iPhone or Android phone is always a bit of a crapshoot. However, Carat is an app that shows you which apps suck up power so you can shut them down and improve battery life.
Carat Tells You Which Apps Drain Your Battery

Montage of car dashboard camera incidents

Miss Cellania of Neatorama says: "Many Russian drivers use a constantly-recording dashboard camera for legal defense in case of trouble, which leads to some awesome clips for the internet audience."
Montage of car dashboard camera incidents

The Black Stump on Facebook

You can follow the Black Stump on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BlackStump.com.au
The Black Stump on Facebook

How to burn a Video_TS folder with ImgBurn

ImgBurn is my burning software of choice. This has a number of reasons, from the fact that it supports every writing operation that I ever need access to – and dozen others – to the fact that it is available free of charge and not bloated.
How to burn a Video_TS folder with ImgBurn

Friday, June 15, 2012

Family Friendly sites listed on Blackstump Australia Issue 10/2012

The latest issue of new Family Friendly sites listed on The Black Stump.
Family Friendly sites listed on Blackstump Australia Issue 10/2012

Movies.io Is A Visual Movie Search Tool

If you don’t need the full power of IMDB, Movies.io is a great way to look up basic information about any film. It provides a short synopsis, basic statistics, and it has a great interface that includes posters and trailers. It’ll also autocomplete as you type if you’re not sure of the movie’s name.
Movies.io Is A Visual Movie Search Tool

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

120 Hilarious Seconds of Models Falling on Runways [VIDEO]

We all know Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down. Runway models sure do, though. Comedy engine Worldwide Interweb rounded up the most epic tumbles in the above video and used Joe Crocker’s “You Are So Beautiful” to set the mood.
120 Hilarious Seconds of Models Falling on Runways [VIDEO]

Follow Your World Notifies You When Satellite Images Update

Satellite images update infrequently enough to make manually checking for new photos of interesting locations impractical; automate the process with notifications from Follow Your World.
Follow Your World Notifies You When Satellite Images Update

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Draw A Perfect Circle Without Any Extra Tools

If your circles always end up looking like a deformed eggplant and you don’t have a compass nearby, here’s a simple trick to drawing a perfect circle with just a pencil and your finger.
Draw A Perfect Circle Without Any Extra Tools

Monday, June 11, 2012

Windows 8: Enable the hidden Administrator Account

Windows 8 just like its predecessor Windows 7 ships with an administrator account that is disabled by default. While it is not suggested to enable and use the administrators on a day to day basis, it can be used for a variety of purposes. One of the reasons is to use it as a fallback account in case you can’t log in to a regular user account, or for tasks that require administrative privileges.
Windows 8: Enable the hidden Administrator Account

Saturday, June 09, 2012

The 30 Most Popular Passwords Stolen From LinkedIn [INFOGRAPHIC]

Think your password is unique and clever? A new inforgraphic from security firm Rapid7 has revealed the top passwords stolen from this week’s LinkedIn security breach. There are hundreds of duplicates and patterns associated with the compromised log-in information.
The 30 Most Popular Passwords Stolen From LinkedIn [INFOGRAPHIC]

A World Map of the Most Visited Websites

This world map represents the most popular websites by country. No big surprises here as Google reigns supreme in most parts of the world followed by Facebook. Yahoo is still the most visited website in Japan and Congo while Baidu is the Google of China in every sense.
A World Map of the Most Visited Websites

Friday, June 08, 2012

LinkedIn Hacked, Are You Affected?

LinkedIn yesterday confirmed that there was a breach of security, and that member passwords were dumped by the attackers. The password hashes have been posted on the Internet in a 250 Megabyte text file, and it is generally assumed that people have started to break the hashes to reveal the underlying passwords. All in all, about 6.5 million LinkedIn user accounts are affected by this.
LinkedIn Hacked, Are You Affected?

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Apps to Lock and Hide Files on iPhone

To protect your files from the peeking eyes of others. Many of us have sensible information on our smartphones, and we wouldn’t want to that information to be at anyone’s disposal, so these apps help us keep those folders private.
Apps to Lock and Hide Files on iPhone

Australian 4G Frequencies Explained

1800MHz? 2100MHz? 700MHz? What frequencies are Australian 4G networks on right now, and what does the future hold? Here’s what you need to know.
Australian 4G Frequencies Explained

Solar Impuse: How to Watch Online

Aviation history is being made right this very second, and your Internet browser can give you a front-row seat. The Solar Impulse, an aircraft powered entirely by solar power, began an epic transatlantic crossing attempt late last month. On Tuesday morning, Solar Impulse and one of her pilots, former balloonist Bertrand Piccard, was completing the second leg of the journey: an airborne hop from Spain to the Moroccan capital of Rabat.
Solar Impuse: How to Watch Online

The Beginner's Guide to Twitter

Do you have a parent, friend or colleague ready to ditch his or her digital training wheels and head into Twitter’s open wilderness? These pointers should get them started. And even Twitter experts might benefit from a quick refresher on the platform’s valuable tools.
The Beginner's Guide to Twitter

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

China Bans Tiananmen Searches on Anniversary of Protests

Chinese web users trying to discuss the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising on its 23rd anniversary Monday are incurring the wrath of China’s web censors.
China Bans Tiananmen Searches on Anniversary of Protests

Sunday, June 03, 2012

Radical Skateboarding Tricks Dazzle in Super Slow-Motion [VIDEO]

You’ll have a newfound respect for skateboarders’ skills after watching these two minutes of tricks in super slow-motion. Adam Shomsky shot 13 uncommon flips and twists at 1,000 frames per second with a Redlake N3 high-speed camera and turned it into this rad mix.
Radical Skateboarding Tricks Dazzle in Super Slow-Motion [VIDEO]

HTG Explains: Why You Only Have to Wipe a Disk Once to Erase It

You’ve probably heard that you need to overwrite a drive multiple times to make the data unrecoverable. Many disk-wiping utilities offer multiple-pass wipes. This is an urban legend – you only need to wipe a drive once. Wiping refers to overwriting a drive with all 0’s, all 1’s, or random data. It’s important to wipe a drive once before disposing of it to make your data unrecoverable, but additional wipes offer a false sense of security.
HTG Explains: Why You Only Have to Wipe a Disk Once to Erase It

Saturday, June 02, 2012

This Is How You Should Secure Your iPhone

Your iPhone features a simple passcode functionality that secures the device by requiring a four-digit PIN (by default) to unlock your phone. But a four-digit PIN isn’t the most secure. To address this, Apple allows you to enter a longer, more secure alphanumeric password, but compared to the considerably easier-to-tap numeric keyboard, the alphanumeric keyboard is a pain to type into every time you unlock. Fortunately, Apple built in a simple compromise.
This Is How You Should Secure Your iPhone

Income inequality can be seen from space

How? It's surprisingly simple. Turns out, demand for trees in neighborhoods behaves a lot like a luxury item, as opposed to a basic necessity.
Income inequality can be seen from space

HitmanPro Alert Mitigates Trojan-based Browser Attacks

HitmanPro Alert is a new free security program by the makers of HitmanPro that attempts to mitigate browser-based attacks by known and new trojans. According to the makers of the products, it is able to “instantly detect over 99% of all known and new banking trojans”.
HitmanPro Alert Mitigates Trojan-based Browser Attacks