Saturday, December 31, 2011

8 Amazing Emerging Technologies From 2011

Wi-Fi jammed? It won't be a problem if you're networking through your room lights. You heard right — scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications in Germany worked out a way to transmit data via normal LED light bulbs. Best of all, you can still use them for lighting, since the lights blink on and off too fast for the naked eye to see.
8 Amazing Emerging Technologies From 2011

Friday, December 30, 2011

Lifehacker’s Most Popular Australian Stories Of 2011

Each year, Lifehacker lists the most popular Australian stories from the previous 12 months, and there’s always a surprise or two in there. What tickled your collective fancy this year?
Lifehacker’s Most Popular Australian Stories Of 2011

[How To] Buy a Digital Camera – Beginner’s Guide

DSLR, Point-and-Shoot, Megapixels, Optical Zoom, Digital Zoom, they all might sound gibberish for many of you. In this tutorial, you'll see the different options you have ijavascript:void(0)n buying a digital camera and how not to get confused when your local dealer starts throwing numbers and features at you.
[How To] Buy a Digital Camera – Beginner’s Guide

Infographic: What Happens Online in 60 Seconds?

On the world wide web, things can move at a lightning-fast pace. In just a minute, you can probably read through and compose quite a few tweets and look at dozens of Facebook photos. That said, the Big Picture has put together a pair of infographics that show just how much happens online every 60 seconds.
Infographic: What Happens Online in 60 Seconds?

The 101 Most Useful Websites on the Internet

As we approach the dawn of a new year, here are Digital Inspiration's picks for the 101 most useful websites of the year 2011.
The 101 Most Useful Websites on the Internet

The Web's Most Buzzworthy Questions of 2011

Whether it opens the doors of knowledge or turns us into lazy researchers, the web can instantly gratify most inquiries. So when we wondered which questions weighed heaviest on the minds of Internet users this year, we naturally turned to the same Q&A sites that they did.
The Web's Most Buzzworthy Questions of 2011

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

The 9 Oddest Job Interview Questions Asked at Tech Companies in 2011

When sitting down for a job interview at a top U.S. tech company, you’d typically expect the interviewer to hammer you with questions testing your abilities, past history and knowledge of the company. You wouldn’t think it was the time or the place to start exploring solutions to world hunger, but that’s exactly what happened to one candidate looking to be a software developer at Amazon.
The 9 Oddest Job Interview Questions Asked at Tech Companies in 2011

How To Use Photoshop To Alter Reality As We Know It

Photoshop is an amazing tool that can take any photo and change it into anything you can imagine. While it can take years of practice to alter reality like a pro, there are a few simple tricks you can employ to reshape the world captured in your photos. Here are five of our favorite techniques and how to use them effectively.
How To Use Photoshop To Alter Reality As We Know I

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

StumbleUpon's Most Popular Searches and Links of 2011

StumbleUpon, the site that lets you discover the web through its “Stumble!” button, released its Best of StumbleUpon 2011 package, including the below infographic and its most popular links of the year.
StumbleUpon's Most Popular Searches and Links of 2011

Monday, December 26, 2011

What Does ‘Made In Australia’ Really Mean?

Whether or not you make a conscious effort to shop for Australian-made or owned products, when you do decide to go local, you’d expect that “Made in Australia” means exactly what it says. Unfortunately, you’d be surprised what’s actually implied by these three words and how the supermarkets aren’t being as upfront as they could about the origins of the products ...
What Does ‘Made In Australia’ Really Mean?

Saturday, December 24, 2011

The best of Wacky Web Week — 2011

When it came to the most popular Wacky Web Week for 2011, it was no contest. The most viewed video showed our churlish baristas dishing out their pointed opinions on how coffee should be consumed. And we thought this was just a Seattle phenomenon! So for 2011′s best of Wacky Web Week, we start you off with “Purchasing the morning brew turns ugly.” We follow with other popular videos and finish off with our own favorite of 2011 — just because we never get tired of watching it. Enjoy!
The best of Wacky Web Week — 2011

Four Ways To Wrap An Oddly-Shaped Gift

Not all gifts are conveniently rectangular. Sometimes the presents you buy your friends and family come in an odd shape, making them harder to wrap. Fortunately, this is a problem people have been dealing with for a long time, so a a variety of good solutions exist. We picked four of the best to help you wrap your oddly shaped gift this holiday.
Four Ways To Wrap An Oddly-Shaped Gift

YouTube - what we watched in 2011

YouTube has released its regular annual listing of what we watched in 2011.
YouTube - what we watched in 2011

Vertical Chess Set

The Vertical Chess Set by Hammacher Schlemmer is a wall-mounted chess set with a vertical chessboard. The playing pieces rest on acrylic shelves. The vertical design keeps the game out of the way, presumably allowing a chess game to go own indefinitely.
Vertical Chess Set

The Top Tech Stories of 2011

2011 was a fantastic year for tech startups with Initial Public Offering’s (IPOs) happening left, right and center, social networks bringing down dictatorships across Africa and the general web experience for users getting better than ever before. On the down side we lost some of the greatest businessmen and innovators of modern times and Google put many legitimate websites out of business due to their Panda updates.
The Top Tech Stories of 2011

How to Create a Bootable Offline Version of Windows Defender

We’ve shown you many methods of removing viruses over the years, but now Microsoft has released a stand-alone version of Windows Defender, their own anti-malware application. Here’s how to make a bootable USB to scan for viruses.
We should point out that you can also scan your PC with a BitDefender boot disk, a Kapersky boot disk, an Avira boot disk, or even an Ubuntu Live CD, but this is one more tool to add into your toolkit.
Note: Windows Defender Offline is still in beta, proceed at your own risk.
How to Create a Bootable Offline Version of Windows Defender

Track Santa’s Route Across the World on Christmas Eve

The US government just love spying on people, but let’s face it, without them we wouldn’t have all those brilliant cold war thrillers to watch over the holidays. Nobody is safe from the US government’s prying eyes either as even Santa Claus is tracked each and every year by the Pentagon’s North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD). From this secret lair, buried deep within Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado they’ll be tracking his movements as he races across the world tomorrow night, bringing presents for every good girl and boy.
Track Santa’s Route Across the World on Christmas Eve

Science year in review: 2011

It was a year that began with natural disasters and ended with a bevy of discoveries, including Earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars and signs that the Higgs boson may actually exist.
Science year in review: 2011

Friday, December 23, 2011

How Computers Work

The Computer...How It Works. Wormholed from the archives of BBG.
How Computers Work

Strange metal sphere that fell from the sky

This 13-pound, 3.6 foot metal ball fell from the sky in the Republic of Namibia in southern Africa last month. Nobody has claimed ownership.
Strange metal sphere that fell from the sky