Daily Link Roundup of Instant Boilers and Deblurrified Videos

This Mouse May Be Used As A Flotation Device - Yet another weird mouse. MacBook Air Released with Slew of Problems Mr. Burns Is Watching You 92 Year Old Musician Has Invented Instant Boiler - If this is true , wow. HydroPak Consumer Fuel Cell Is Just Around The Corner New PC Time, Build or Buy? - We always build, how about you? Deblurrify Your Web Videos with FixMyMovie MacBook Air Requires Custom Install Disc iStorez Takes Those Retail Newsletters Out of Your Inbox - Stay on top of sale items with an empty inbox. TVDuck Makes Watching Your Favorite TV Shows Easy Amazon acquires Audible for $300 million

Tech History Made on January 31, 1954

On this day in 1954 Edwin Howard Armstrong took his own life. Armstrong had many patents and was involved in one of the longest patent wars to date (involving the regenerative circuit). His greatest invention was frequency modulation radio, or FM radio. Armstrong patented it in 1933 as US patent 1941066 with the title of "Radio signalling system". FM produced a clearer static free sound compared to the already popular AM radio. Of course another fight ensued as big companies dig not want to lose the ground they made in AM radio. Then another patent war erupted, RCA claimed they invented FM radio and won in court. This insured that Armstong would not receive any royalties from FM radios sold. Armstrong was defeated and broke, he jumped to his death from the 13th floor of his apartment building on January 31, 1954. Armstrong's widow, Marion, renewed the battle with RCA and finally won patent rights. Nice to see that big business can be beat.

Daily Link Roundup of ecobuttons and Bit Torrents

Converting Sewage Into Drinking Water: Wave Of The Future? - Here comes Waterworld. Worst Phone Concept Ever: Turkey Leg Phone Software Can Recognize Face with One Photo GPS Tracking System Lets You Find Your Car Anywhere Pollen Detection Robots Feed And Watch Your Pets From Your PC - For the crazy cat lady in your life! Report: some recent iPods won't work with iTunes video rentals Calibrate Your Monitor with Screen Check Sony's New Subnotebooks Prove It Gets The MacBook Air ecobutton Provides An Energy Saving Alternative To Shutting Down Your PC RIAA Wants to Increase Filesharing Damages to $1.5 Million an Album, Just for Laughs Top 10 BitTorrent Tools and Tricks Panasonic Center’s Solar & Wind Powered Streetlights - These shouls be everywhere. Sprout: The Online WYSIWYG Editor for Flash How to Build a Jacuzzi for 20 People on Top of Mont Blanc Real-World Calvin Builds Snow Machine - The kid's only 10!

Tech History Made on January 30, 1925

On this day in 1925 Douglas Carl Engelbart was born in Oregon. Engelbart was a pioneer and ahead of his time. He studied electrical engineering, served in the Navy as a radar technician, worked for NACA (what became NASA), then went back to electrical engineering at UC Berkeley. In the mid 60's , Engelbart had his own research lab. It was here he developed the first screen selection device, or "mouse" (pictured above.) His lab also developed the first operating system and teleconferencing in the 1960's but all this was a little too early for its time.

He never received any royalties for his inventions or ideas. Engelbart went through a rough patch in the late 80's. His lab closed, his house burned down and he fought lymphoma. Today Logitech has honored Engelbart by giving him free office space. I guess this doesn't exactly fix all he's gone through but it's still a nice gesture.

Farewell, Netscape, but I Suppose It's Time

As you may know, AOL has pulled the plug on Netscape. Netscape may be dead, but out of the ashes of what was once an elemental instrument of the internet has come a new breed of browser called Firefox (which was, ironically, originally named Phoenix.) Although most everyone will agree that the death of Netscape was more than overdue, it is still a somber moment for those of us who can reflect to the hours of watching stars shoot around that little animated aqua "N".

Reflecting is exactly what P. J. Connolly does in his recent SD Times article, going way back to his remembrance of Netscape's official launch:

"At the risk of betraying my age, let’s just say that I’ve been around the track a few times, and I remember when the rumors surfaced in 1993 of a graphical Web browser that was being worked on at the University of Illinois’ main campus. As a Northwestern grad, I wasn’t sure that the farm boys could make it work, but I was happy to be proven wrong."

It's a good read for anyone out there wishing to pay their respects.

Link

Daliy Link Roundup of iPod Translators and Phantom Mice

Give a Presentation like Steve Jobs Army's iPod Translator Coming To Consumers Google Introduces Three "Experimental" Searches Stylophone Reborn - It just looks annoying. Always Look Busy With The Phantom Mouse NEC Fuel Cell Phone Looks Like a Bic Lighter - I would be afraid that the TSA would try to keep my phone the next time I flew. Save Ink, Paper, and Money with GreenPrint - We like this cuz were cheap. Why the Music Industry is Lying to You If Apple Sold Sheets Of Paper... - It's funny cuz it's true. Dear Google: 2000 Called, It Wants Its Ad Format Back - Not real sure if we agree with this view. Has Your Cell Phone Replaced Your Watch? - Our office is split on this one. Crunchies. Ingredients: Fail - More importantly, "Oh, right. One more thing. This is the last Uncov. Ever." Can this be true?!?! Apple I Need My Wireless Access - USB 3G modems won't fit in the MacBook Air. So funny.

Tech History Made on January 29, 1886

On this day in 1886 the Motorwagen patent was applied for by Karl Benz. The Motorwagen or motor car had a rear mounted 954 cc single-cylinder four-stroke engine, capable of .9 hp. The car had 3 wheels, 2 in the back and one in the front used to steer. Benz designed and built additional models of the Motorwagen, number 2 with 1.5 hp and number 3 with 2 hp. Number three could reach a thrilling 10mph! Of course, Benz company went on to become part of Daimler-Benz and Mercedes Benz. Because of the Motorwagen, Karl Benz is acknowledged by most as the inventor of of the modern automobile.

Daily Link Roundup of Crazy Guns and Blu-Ray Wins

Not a lot going on today in the Blogosphere.

Today's Daily Links go out in memory of those great minds lost in the Challenger disaster on this day in 1986.

Would You Read a Book On Your Cell Phone? - You probably already do if you're in Japan. Snickers Charged Infused with Caffeine and Taurine Monitor Your Home From Afar With AlertMe ScrapeRite Plastic Razor Blades - Giving me another one of those "why didn't I think of that" moments. MacBook AirCraft Has Boatload of Features - But who the hell needs 5 firewire ports? I never use my 1. Maybe it's a Mac thing. Robovie Finds Lost Shoppers, Eats Their Souls Worst USB Gadget Yet: Mouse With Speaker, Mic Amazon Says International MP3 Downloads Coming in 2008 What happens to blog-posts after you click Publish "Brugo" Mug Cools Coffee One Sip at a Time Wakerupper: Free Wake-up Calls from the Web Researchers See Blu-ray Win by End of Year Windows 7: The Anti-Vista? Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell: A blueprint for eco-friendly cars of the future? - Over 100 of these hydrogen powered cars are being produced for consumer sale as part of the world’s biggest fuel cell test fleet. C# Code Format - This tool allows you to format your C#, VB, HTML, XML, T-SQL or MSH code for publishing on a web site or in a blog. Pistol ring and other unusual guns - A gallery of odd guns.

Tech History Made on January 28, 1958

On this day in 1958 the modern Lego brick was patented. In 1949 the first "Automatic Binding Bricks" were made. The blocks were like wooden blocks but made from cellulose acetate, or what we call plastic. Plastic was not so readily accepted in that time and many Legos were returned to the factory. Finally in 1958 the new brick and system we enjoy today was introduced with great acceptance. The blocks locked together but could be easily pulled apart. Although the design has varied a little over the years, if you had a brick from 1958 it would still work with a brick from today!

Lego got its name from the Danish phrase "leg godt" which means "play well" and boy do they live up to their name. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who did not have a set of Legos growing up (some of us had entire garbage cans full of them.) If you have some laying around still, pull them out and "play well" to celebrate Lego's 50th Anniversary. Or, you can click on the Lego logo (heh) to the right to view a time line of Lego accomplishments.

Windows Services in C#: Part 1: Programming a Windows Service in C#

Part of a project I recently completed involved developing a custom email queue Windows Service in C# on the .NET 2.0 Framework. The application itself was quite simple. Unfortunately it had been some time since I wrote a Windows Service, and I hadn't written one on the 2.0 Framework and couldn't really remember much about it from the 1.1 days.

To the internet I went. I found lots of helpful articles on how to write the service, but not so many on how to start it after install, how to debug it, or how to add it to the uninstaller. However with a little imaginative searching and guesswork I managed to overcome. It sure would have helped me to have all of these topics in one place, so I figured I'd do a collection of articles for anyone out there struggling with the same issues.

This article is the first in a five-part series covering the following topics:

1. Programming a Windows Service in C#
2. Adding an Installer for Your Windows Service
3. Getting Your Installer to Start Your Service
4. Some Options for Debugging Your Windows Services
5. Adding an Uninstaller for Your Windows Service

The examples in this series are written in C#, but this should help anyone out there wanting to do this on the .NET 2.0 Framework no matter if they're using C#, VB.Net, or any other language. This is particularly true with this subject since most of the work is actually done in the Visual Studio 2005 GUI and not in the code.

Let's get started!

Programming a Windows Service in C#

The obvious first step is to program our Windows Service. Our project is going to write a message to the Application Log when the service starts, stops and at every 5 minute interval while running. We'll do this with the help of the Timer object, so you might also learn a thing or two about the Timer object in the process. Plus, we will write a slick little helper function for writing to the Application Event Log.

1. Select New Project... under the File menu.
This will add a new project to your Solution. But, if you didn't know that already we're in trouble!




2. Select a Windows Service Project.
Under Visual C# > Windows, select Windows Service. At this point you should also give your project a name. For my examples my project will be called SuperService. Click Ok when you're done.



Since I'm not adding this project to a solution, a new solution of the same name will also be added for my project to reside in.

3. Delete Service1.cs and add your own.
It's rather unlikely that you want your service to be called "Service1", so let's delete Service1.cs and add our own Service. After deleting Service1.cs, right-click on your project in the Solution Explorer and select Add > New Item... From the menu.



In the resulting window, select Windows Service and give your service a name (mine is Logger.cs), as seen in the image below. Click Ok and your new service will be added to your project.

Now that you have the Windows service you want, you need to indicate that it is to be run. Open Program.cs in code view and find the line similar to the one below:

ServicesToRun = new ServiceBase[] { new Service1() };

Replace Service1 with whatever your new service is called.

4. Add your Timer to the Windows Service.
Drag and drop a Timer object from your Toolbox into the design view of your new service. It will probably be found under the Components category.



5. Set up your service and Timer's properties and events.
Click the timer you just added (probably displayed as timer1) and set its interval property to 300000 (that's 5 x 60 x 1000 for 5 minutes in milliseconds.)

Go into code view mode for your service.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.ServiceProcess;
using System.Text;

namespace SuperService
{
partial class Logger : ServiceBase
{
public Logger()
{
InitializeComponent();
}

protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
// TODO: Add code here to start your service.
}

protected override void OnStop()
{
// TODO: Add code here to perform any tear-down necessary to stop your service.
}
}
}

In there you'll see that two overrides for your service have already been added, OnStart and OnStop. Naturally, OnStart runs when when you first start your service and the OnStop runs when your service is stopped - Be it by a user, the system or by another program.

Each time your service is started all of the code in your OnStart event must be executed. When starting a Windows Service, Windows only gives a fairly small amount of time for the service to begin before it times out. If your application can take a while to run, you will want the smallest possible footprint for your OnStart event - Both to save the user from having to wait for the service to start and to ensure it doesn't time out.

One of the great things about using a Timer with a Windows Service is that its counter runs in a separate thread. So, in your OnStart event only assign your EventHandlers and start your Timer. Perform the actual functionality of your service from the Timer's tick event. This will allow for a quick startup of your service.

For our example, our project is just going to write an event to the Event Log when the service starts and stops and when the timer iterates. I wrote a basic helper function to simplify the actual writing to the Event Log. You can copy the code below and paste it into your class:

static void LogEvent(String Message, EventLogEntryType type)
{
String source = "Logger";
String log = "Application";
if (!EventLog.SourceExists(source))
{
 EventLog.CreateEventSource(source, log);
}

EventLog eLog = new EventLog();
eLog.Source = source;

eLog.WriteEntry(Message, type);
}

Logging to the Event Log is a bit out of the scope of this article, but I do want to point out one line:

String source = "Logger";

This string specifies what you want displayed for the Source column in the Event Log.

Now, let's update our service's OnStart and OnStop events to write to the Event Log:

protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
LogEvent("This SuperService has started!", EventLogEntryType.Information);
}

protected override void OnStop()
{
LogEvent("This SuperService has stopped.", EventLogEntryType.Information);
}

Now we'll have entries added to the Event Log when the service starts and stops, but what about our timer?

namespace SuperService
{
partial class Logger : ServiceBase
{
public Logger()
{
InitializeComponent();
}

void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
LogEvent("This Timer has been ticked!", EventLogEntryType.Information);
}

protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
timer1.Tick += new EventHandler(timer1_Tick);
timer1.Start();
LogEvent("This SuperService has started!", EventLogEntryType.Information);
}

protected override void OnStop()
{
LogEvent("This SuperService has stopped.", EventLogEntryType.Information);
}

protected override void OnPause()
{
base.OnPause();
timer1.Stop();
}

protected override void OnContinue()
{
base.OnContinue();
timer1.Start();
}

static void LogEvent(String Message, EventLogEntryType type)
{
String source = "Logger";
String log = "Application";
if (!EventLog.SourceExists(source))
{
    EventLog.CreateEventSource(source, log);
}

EventLog eLog = new EventLog();
eLog.Source = source;

eLog.WriteEntry(Message, type);
}
}
}

For this we add an event handler for the tick event of our Timer to the OnStart function of our Service. You might say to yourself, "But what if the service is started and stopped multiple times? Won't the event be excessively re-hooked?" In short, no. When you stop the service its thread closes, effectively killing off the hook. This is also why we don't need to stop the timer in the service's OnStop function. It will be killed when the service stops.

Additionally, we added a Timer1.Start() call to the OnStart function, to get our Timer rolling. We also added OnPause and OnContinue overrides, with Timer1.Stop() and Timer1.Start() calls, respectively.

That sums up our introduction to programming a Windows Service. In Part 2 we discuss
how to add an installer that will install our Windows Service. This gives us a chance to test out our code and simplifies the process of adding the service to other machines.

Continue to Part 2: Adding an Installer for Your Windows Service

Scroll Lock Hell

I had an interesting thing happen this morning. I went to work on an Excel spreadsheet, and every time I hit the arrow keys the page would scroll around as if I was dragging the scrollbars. After a while I noticed the little "SCRL" in the lower-right-hand corner of my spreadsheet that indicates the scroll lock is turned on. This was most unusual, seeing as to how my keyboard (a Logitech MX 5000) has no scroll lock that I'm aware of. However, somehow the scroll lock managed to get turned on. Since I have no scroll lock button, I couldn't turn it off. I never did figure out how it got turned on, but I did figure out how to turn it off using Window's built-in On Screen Keyboard. Here's what I did:

1. Went to Run under the Start Menu.
2. Typed "osk" (without the quotes.)
3. A little window with a keyboard appears. Click the "slk" button to turn the scroll lock on and off. When it has a red border (as shown in the image) it's on. Otherwise it's off.

I hope this helps someone else out there having the same issue. If so, leave us a comment and let us know!

This Weekend's Tech Deals

Sale		List
$11.99		$49.99	Creative TravelSound 250 Portable Speakers- Works with many MP3 players.
$19.99		$199.98	Memorex 2 X 1GB TravelDrive USB 2.0 Flash Drive Kit - 90% off the retail price.
$19.99		$29.99	The Sharper Image Mini Digital Camera - Can store 246 photos.
$97.24		$149.99	SanDisk Sansa Connect WiFi MP3 Player - Use for Internet Radio.
$24.99		$99.99	Jabra BT160 Bluetooth Wireless Designer Headset - Stands out in bold stripes.
$49.99		$119.99	Gear Head Triple Format 20x DVD+/-R External Drive - Very portbale.
$829.99		$1109.99	HP Pavilion DV6662SE(GS800UA) NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 - Great deal.
$153.99		$349.99	Brother DCP-7020 Multi-Function Laser Digital Copier/Printer - 2 in 1.
$165.95		$199.99	Beltronics Vector 955 Radar/Laser/Safety Detector - Bad boys, bad boys, what ya gonna do.
$12.95		$68.00	Kingston 2GB Secure Digital Card SD- Free shipping doesn't eat up your savings.

Mirror: 101 CSS Techniques of All Time - Part 1

This awesome article's site went down when it hit the front page of Digg. Here's the original link. Be sure and check it out if it's back up, and Digg it.

CSS has fundamentally changed web design, it has provided designers with a set of properties that can be tweaked to make various techniques to make your pages just look right.

Today we are presenting a round-up of 101 CSS techniques designers use all the time. Definitely worth taking a very close look at! This is just the first series , the second part will be coming soon, stay tuned and Enjoy!

Update:

You can check Part2 here.

CSS Sprites

CSS sprites save HTTP requests by using CSS positioning to selectively display composite background images. To maximize accessibility and usability, CSS sprites are best used for icons or decorative effects.

• CSS Sprites: Image Slicing’s Kiss of Death- Say goodbye to old-school slicing and dicing when creating image maps, buttons, and navigation menus. Instead, say hello to a deceptively simple yet powerful sprite-based CSS solution.
• CSS Sprites: What They Are, Why They’re Cool, and How To Use Them - CSS-Tricks
• CSS Sprites: How Yahoo.com and AOL.com Improve Web Performance- Learn how AOL and Yahoo! use CSS sprites to improve performance for their busy home pages

---

CSS Rounded Corners

Rounded corners is one of the most popular and frequently requested CSS techniques. There lots of ways to create rounded corners with CSS, but they always require lots of complex HTML and CSS. Here are easy ways to achieve this effect.

• Even More Rounded Corners With CSS- Single-image, PNG-based, fluid rounded corner dialogs with support for borders, alpha transparency throughout, gradients, patterns and whatever else you could want.
  Demo :
  
  

  ---

• Rounded corners in CSS- Simple bordered div which contained four divs that each had a background-image and that were positioned in each of the corners.
• Liquid rounded corners- For liquid design and transparent scrolling - tutorial and stylesheet
• Mountaintop Corners- easier way for creating decent rounded corners.
  

---

Image Replacements Technique

Thierry Image Placement: Image Placement vs. Image Replacement (FIR)

This technique is mostly for headlines by using CSS to replace normal HTML text, with a background image in order to achieve a particular look.Several different image replacement methods have been proposed, each with their pros and cons.

when you need image replacement you can check the Gilder/Levin Method as described by Dave Shea or, if the replaced text is linked and CSS support for IE/Mac is required, the Gilder Levin Ryznar Jacoubsen IR method.

---

Sliding Doors

Sliding Doors of CSS introduced a new technique for creating visually stunning interface elements with simple, text-based, semantic markup.Beautifully crafted, truly flexible interface components which expand and contract with the size of the text can be created if we use two separate background images.

---

Sliding Doors" Box– Rounded Corners for All- The goal of this technique was to create rounded-corner boxes with visual flare and the absolute minimal amount of semantically correct markup. While making sure they could resize while keeping their backgrounds intact.

---

Image Text Wrap Technique

How many times do you have an image floated left in a block of content, but want to keep that content from wrapping around your image?

This technique allows you to wrap around image text flow control to emulate magazine style page layouts.

• BIG BAER advanced CSS technique - the sandbag div.
• CSS Image Text Wrap
• Fancy text wrapping around an image

---

Equal Height Technique

One of the somewhat frustrating properties of CSS is the fact that elements only stretch vertically as far as they need to. So how can we make all columns appear to be the same height? Several techniques was introduced to solve this issue.

• Faux Columns- The simple secret is to use a vertically tiled background image to create the illusion of colored columns.
• Equal Height Columns - revisited- A method to make all columns appear to be the same height but without the need for faux column style background images.

• Equal height boxes with CSS- The trick is to use the CSS properties display:table, display:table-row and display:table-cell to make containers (in this case div elements) behave like table cells. The basic XHTML structure looks like this:

  Here is the CSS used to make this structure behave like a table:

       .equal {            display:table;    }    .row {            display:table-row;    }    .row div {            display:table-cell;    }    

---

Turning A List Into A Navigation bar

Why use a list? Because a navigation bar, or menu, is a list of links. The most semantic way of marking up a list of links is to use a list element. Using a list also has the benefit of providing structure even if CSS is disabled.

• Turning a list into a navigation bar- The markup is very simple. It’s an unordered list, with each link in a separate list item.
  

  ---

  
  

  ---

• Uberlink CSS List Menus
  

  ---

• CSSMenus - Horizontal and Vertical 4 Level Deep List Menu
• Listamatic
• 7 Advanced CSS Menu- A fresh round-up of 7 Advanced CSS Menus techniques, that might be useful for you in your next design project.

---

Making Headlines With CSS

Headers in Web pages–marked up with h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, or h6 elements–help the reader determine the purpose of sections in content. If your header is visually stimulating, the odds are better that the section will capture your reader’s eye.

---

• Heading Style Gallery- Want something a little more stylish for your content headings (h1,h2,…) than a different font or color? Try one of the heading styles listed here to spruce up your content.
• Typography for Headlines- Improve the typography in your headlines by being more creative, give them more ‘pop’, that sort of thing.
• Making Headlines With CSS- With a dash of design, we can utilize CSS to stylize those Web page headers to catch the reader’s eye and encourage them to read on.

---

CSS Shadows Techniques

A technique to build flexible CSS drop shadows that can be applied to arbitrary block elements that can expand as the content of the block changes shape.

• CSS Drop Shadows-Build flexible CSS drop shadows that can be applied to arbitrary block elements that can expand as the content of the block changes shape.

  

  ---

• Fun with Drop Shadows- Most of the existing techniques use negative margins, while this one is a really simple version wich uses relative positioning.
• Drop Shadows By Phil Baines- This set of tests are based on an article found on A List Apart’s technique, but with less CSS coding.
• CSS Drop Shadows II: Fuzzy Shadows- Picking up where Part I left off, in Part II designer Sergio Villarreal takes his standards-compliant drop-shadow to the next level by producing warm and fuzzy shadows.

  

  ---

• An improved CSS shadow technique- A very robust and easy-to-use technique for applying snazzy looking shadows using only Web technology and a few little image elements prepared beforehand.

---

CSS Transparency

One of the trickiest things to control, in a CSS-driven design, is the transparency of the interaction between foreground and background content.Below is a list of the best examples of the differing transparency approaches possible with CSS.

• Partial Opacity- Placing text over an image can sometimes make it difficult to read, but with Stu Nicholls’s methods the background for the text is made ‘opaque’ using various methods of opacity (including css3) and the black text is then quite readable.

  

  ---

• Cross-Browser Variable Opacity with PNG- How to overcome flaky browser support for PNG so you can take advantage of this graphic format’s lossless compression, alpha transparency, and variable opacity.
• Two Techniques for CSS Transparency

---

Various Link Techniques

• Showing Hyperlink Cues with CSS- The CSS Guy shows us how to get the little icons next to hyperlinks that signify if that link will take you offsite, open a popup, or link to a file (as opposed to another html page). Here’s how to do it in a way that’s supported in IE7, Firefox, and Safari.
• The ways to style visited Links- CSS offers various possibilities to make links more usable and preserve text readability at the same time. We need to differentiate visited and unvisited links, but we must keep text scannable and readable.
• Link Thumbnail- Shows users that are about to leave your site exactly where they’re going. When that curious mouse pointer hovers over a link pointing to somewhere outside of your site, the script displays a small image of the destination page.
• Iconize Textlinks with CSS- If you’re looking for more icons to implement, Alex provides a nice start.

Daily Link Roundup of Micro-Printing and Digital Clouds

New Robotics Challenge Aims To Develop Friendly Highly Autonomous Robots Fine Print: New Technique Allows Fast Printing Of Microscopic Electronics Create Business Cards for Free with Deyey Troika’s Digital Cloud - An amazing kinetic sculpture OTTO Hears All Google May Knee Cap Domain Tasting Art of data-center cabling Walking chair sculpture isn't a chair, but it walks Camera In A Pill Offers Cheaper, Easier Window On Your Insides DIY Roll-Up Keyboard Australian girl switched blood type after transplant

Tech History Made on January 25, 2004

4 years ago today the Opportunity rover searched for water on the Mars surface. The Spirit rover had been on Mars for 3 weeks before the Opportunity, but had quit working the week before. The Opportunity traveled for 6 months before landing on Mars in what was speculated to be a large crater. Scientists believe that the dusty soil on Mars contains grey haematite, which is found on Earth in the presence of water. Water was not discovered on this mission but our quest continues to find life on other planets.


The only camera on Mars (other than the one attached to Opportunity) is held by the Spirit rover, which is busy exploring other portions of the red planet. So, there's no real photo opportunities for Opportunity. That's why the above picture was created to give you an idea of what the Opportunity looks like as it chills on the surface of Mars. A digital model of Opportunity was imposed on a real image of the inside of the Endurance Crater on Mars. The photo was actually taken by Opportunity, itself.

Daily Link Roundup of Radiation Detectors, Solar NES, and a Big Digg Fix

As a new feature of the Daily Link Roundup, we're going to start highlighting the best and most important articles of the day in bold. That way, if you only have a second or two to check today's links you'll know where to start!

Nanotubes Help Advance Brain Tumor Research The "Work From Home" Generation Cell Phone Sensors Detect Radiation To Thwart Nuclear Terrorism Last.fm Offers Limited Full-Track Streaming and Moves Towards Subscriptions - The key word here being limited. Solar Powered NES and Gameboy Emulator: Everything Included Sega Dream DX Is Just Like A Real Dog, Only Not Really Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Officially Unveiled - The first commercial passenger spaceship. Lindo Works Like A Desk Attached To Your Hips Digg Changes Algorithm: No More Group Voting Up Stories - Hopefully it actually works this time. Is Comcast really blocking P2P? EFF + SF Weekly conclude: yeah. - My conclusion: duh. Get SMS Alerts for Your Favorite RSS Feeds with Pingie Playyoo: YouTube For Mobile Games Goes Beta Wall Cleats - Another Tool For The War On Cables BedJump.com - Hotel Bed Jumping - Not exactly tech, but neat pics of people jumping on hotel beds. Laser-cut book is a scale model of artist's house Find Popular Google Reader Shared Items with ReadBurner Use Apropos to Learn New Terminal Commands

Tech History Made on January 24, 1984

On this day in 1984 the first Mac was introduced to the world. Newsweek awed readers with the drawing shown below which depicted the inner workings of the Macintosh 128K. For $2500 you got 128 KB of RAM, a 3.5" floppy drive, 2 serial ports, a 9-inch black and white monitor, and the Mac OS 1.0. The Macintosh was the first to have tools for desktop publishing and in 3 months 50,000 were sold. This is not as many units as the iPod but was enough to push Apple into the big-time.

Grinn Blog Turns 100!

I just realized that the Daily Link Roundup from January 21st was our 100th post! Yay for us! And yay for you! Yay for blogs! I think I'll have a celebratory beer.

Daily Link Roundup

Leave Nokia 7900 Alone! RFID Laundry Tags Give Your Socks Some Brains Concept We Want to Buy: Tiny, Simple USB Camera Saverclip Reveals Your Energy Usage Roost launches home buying search engine Speaker Kit Uses iPod Box As An Enclosure Robot Dog Reads To The Blind "Readius" Fold-Up e-Paper Reader is Now a Phone, Too Medusa: Crazy, Dreadlocked Leather Wig Hat Thing From Oakley

Tech History Made on January 23, 1960

On this day in 1960, man set a new record by traveling 35,810 feet under the sea; about 7 miles. Navy Lt. Donald Walsh and Jacques Piccard took a four hour and 48 minute trip to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. Piccard's father, a Swiss scientist, designed the deep-diving research vessel, the Trieste. The Trieste had tanks that could be filled with water to help it dive and also carried 9 tons of iron shot. The iron shot was released once the dive was completed so that the vessel could easily return to the surface. An outer plexiglass window cracked but no harm befell the occupants. They enjoyed a twenty minute stay at the bottom looking at see creatures and eating candy bars.

Tech History Made on January 22, 1984

On this day, Superbowl '84 introduced the Macintosh personal computer with the famous 1984 commercial. We talked about this commercial back on December 15th. This was one of 2 times the commercial was aired, but the only airing to a national audience.

"On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984."

Grow Your Own 2-D Hardlinks

The other day I ran into this Instructable that shows you how to encode data into a 2-dimensional bar code for printing on pretty much anything from business cards to T-shirts. It also includes software you can load on your cellphone that will decode that bar code from a pic you snap of it.

The author suggests printing the bar codes in the QR Code format, which is a good choice for such applications. QR Code is a type of bar code originally developed for tracking parts during car manufacturing but has become popular, especially in Japan, for a practice known as hardlinking. Hardlinking is when you direct a user to a website from something in the real "hard" world. For example, let's say the new Hello Kitty movie poster has a 2D bar code on it under the text "Scan me to see the trailer!" Fans with bar code reading software on their cellphones take a picture of the bar code and process it with their software. The software then sends them directly to a URL embedded in the bar code which downloads and plays the trailer on their cellphone.

Since QR Code can hold up to 4,296 alphanumeric characters (that's more than twice the size of this post!) you don't even need to redirect the user to a website to give them the message you want. I'm thinking of having QR Codes added to my business cards with a message like, "Congratulations on your cleverness! Take this card into our office and tell us what it says and you'll get 20% off your next purchase." Some restaurants could even embed their entire menu into a single bar code. Instead of asking the hostess for a menu while you wait, you could just download it to your phone. Or, a QR Code could be displayed at a sports game that contains a player's detailed stats.

The possibilities are endless, so go check out this instructable and leave us a comment on to how you used (or would use) this innovative technology.

Link

Daily Link Roundup

Powerstick Portable USB Charger Simple Pen Locates Wireless Access Points Up To 30 Meters Away Samsung Silencio Cylinder Vacuum - Is This How Master Chief Cleans House? Belkin Clamp-On Surge Protector Etch-A-Sketch Wired Displays on TV Talking About AT&T's Internet Filtering on AT&T's The Hugh Thompson Show - Boing Boing Gadgets. CellPhone Mimics Cigarette Box - And holds your smokes. The Future of Dining: Cutlery Pens - Pen lids shaped like knives, forks and spoons. Online Gamer Kills Rival.... In Real Life New Software Turns an iPhone Into a Guitar New LED Cell Phone Concept Has No Screen Birth of the cup-holder, 1950 Feds plan digital spying on pigs, llamas, terrorcritters. - Spying meaning having them registered in a database. Big whoop. Drumline Meets Revenge of the Nerds - UC Berkeley's marching band doing formations from several classic video games. Gadget Love: Lightsaber Laser Pointer How To: Fix Up Your Photos on Any Platform - Including Unshake: You show it the blurriest parts of your photos, and it gets to work making them crisper. Artists Imagine Biblical Events From Google Earth Macworld 2008: SF Gate's Violet Blue Gets Dissed by Steve Jobs

Daily Link Roundup

FPSBrain – I Guess It’s Like Viagra For Gamers Fishtank Friday: Fish Overpass Paper airplane to be launched from International Space Station Mobile Phone Blocking Bag Will Cell Phone Companies Kill Hyperconnectivity? Extend the Life of Your iTunes Movie Rentals [NAIAS 2008] University Of Michigan Continuum - About As Green As A Car Can Get BitTorrent Clients Are A Security Risk, RIAA Probably Ecstatic Bad Form: 61% Use Same Password for Everything MixxMaker: The Mix Tape Goes Online Yahoo Asks Employees To Turn In Computers Fujitsu's P1620 Subnotebook Is Everything The Air Isn't

Tech History Made on January 21, 1901

On this day in 1901 Elisha Gray died knowing he almost went down in history as the inventor of the telephone.

February 14, 1876: Both Gray and Alexander Graham Bell file patents. The only difference is that Gray's is a caveat, sort of a notice of intent to file a patent. After Gray hears of Bell's complete patent he gives up his caveat allowing Bell to move forward. Gray also invented the teleautograph. It does exactly what the name implies, transmitting handwriting via a telegraph system. The Teleautograph Corp. is now part of a little company we today call Xerox. He also invented the telephote which could transmits pictures on a closed circuit television system. Until researching tech for today we had never heard of Elisha Gray. Perhaps if things had gone a little differently back in 1876 the Beastie Boys song would go, "Like Ma Gray, I've got the ill communication."

Tech History Made on January 18, 1813

On this day in 1813 Joseph Glidden was born. Glidden patented barb wire in 1874 against much grumblings that he had not invented it. He won the battle and history marks him as the inventor. Glidden made the barb wire by milling metal in a coffee mill and then placing the barbs on a wire. Then he would secure the whole thing by wrapping another wire around it. When he passed away Glidden was a one of the richest men in America. Simple ideas really can take you places.

Daily Link Roundup

[NAIAS 2008] Camaro Bumblebee - As seen in Transformers P2P movie site Jaman signs deal with TIVO AT&T's Retarded Plan to Filter the Internet Yahoo Implements OpenID; Massive Win For The Project CES: Demo: WowWee Wrex The Dawg Triggit: Weird but handy blogging tool Garmin Forerunner 405 GPS Watch Flickr to host Library of Congress photos [NAIAS 2008] Saturn Flextreme Plug-in Concept - With built-in Segway storage. Top 10 Telephone Tricks Jobs: Kindle Will Fail. Why? People Don't Read! How Do You Deal with Gadget Lust? How to Boost Your Productivity with Jott Disposable Microscope Cards Siemens Touch Sensitive Stovetops Better Gmail 2 Firefox Extension for New Gmail - New release of "Better Gmail" FF Extention. Sun acquires MySQL; Adds to its software stack - Holy poo that's some big news. Exploration Of Lake Hidden Beneath Antarctica's Ice Sheet Begins - Getting into the lake is a huge technological challenge. Ancient "Lost City" Discovered in Peru, Official Claims Gmail Adds New Shortcut, Archive from Inbox Every Time

Tech History Made on January 17, 1706

On this day in 1706 Benjamin Franklin was born. An inventor and politician, Franklin brought many great things to our nation. Among his inventions are the odometer, the lightning rod, the long arm (used to reach books on high shelves), the glass harmonica, lightning bells, the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses, the flexible urinary catheter and the idea of "pay it forward". Franklin never patented his inventions on the notion that all inventors should build from each other's work. In a sense that also makes him one of the founding fathers of Open Source!

Not only was he an inventor but he was one of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of independence. Imagine if politicians today were so well rounded?

This Weekend's Tech Deals

Sale		List
$189.99		$1071.41	Garmin StreetPilot c340 Mobile GPS Receiver - If you miss a turn it redirects you accordingly.
$39.99		$199.99	Sandisk Sansa e250 2GB MP3 Player - Reconditioned.
$129.99		$179.95	Fuji Finepix Z10fd 7 Megapixel Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom - Hot pink only, sorry fellas.
$15.99		$39.99	Omron HJ-112 Digital Premium Pedometer - How many steps do you take in a day?
$59.99		$167.90	Altec Lansing FX4021 2.1 Powered Audio Speaker System - Comes with a wireless remote.
$29.99		$79.95	JBL Reference 410 Headphone - Free Shipping!
$19.99		$89.99	RoadTrip FM Transmitter and iPod Car Charger - Charges while transmitting to your FM radio.
$319.99		$799.98	Toshiba HD-XA1 HD-DVD Player - Choose a side: HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray.
$39.99		$79.99	Charging Station - Charge all your devices in one place with all the cords hidden.
$59.99		$159.99	Sony Under-Cabinet 4-band CD Kitchen Clock Radio - Gain back some counter space.

Daily Link Roundup

The Danger of Free - A critical look at the ad-supported internet. FDA Gives Cloned Beef And Dairy The OK Replace Bulky Document Binders with Chicago Screws - Faucet Buddy checks water temperature - As it comes out of your faucet. Bag of rice with new baby's photo Dreamhost Overbills Customers $7.5 Million; Uses Homer Simpson To Deliver Apology Budclicks Add Personality to Your iPod Buds Macworld: iTunes Movie Rentals And Apple TV is Now a Standalone Box iGoogle Theme Directory - Lots of new themes added, and soon you'll be able to add your own! Pluggd Lets You Search Inside Podcasts and Web Video - And pave the way for context-sensative ad placement during video playback.

Tech History Made on January 16, 1906

On this day in 1906 Christian Hülsmeyer received a patent for making machines respond only to a certain transmitter... or what we today call a remote control. He arrived at this invention from his initial work for radar detection for ships. A friend had been killed in a shipping accident that could have been prevented had the boats known of each other's presence.

After demonstrating his radar to the German Navy and shipping merchants no one was interested in his machine. One major problem was that if many ships close to each other were using the machine, the signals would get confused. This lead to his specification of each machine only responded to its own signal.

In his patent Hülsmeyer even ventured to give uses as a remote control, "for actuating mechanism placed at a distance, for instance closing circuits and releasing clockworks [and] for the purpose of turning on and off all kinds of lights". Despite the vast possibilities for his device it didn't catch on. The Center for the Study of Science and Technology made this speculation, " how history might have been different if radar had been around decades earlier, in time for the Titanic, and in time for World War I." Hülsmeyer's patent was filed and approved six years before the sinking of the Titanic, and eight years before World War I even began.

Daily Link Roundup

FCC Asks Comcast for Answers on P2P Issue Edible 'Antifreeze' Prevents Unwanted Ice Crystals In Ice Cream A Telescopic Lens For Your Moto Phone - Added to my list of rediculous inventions to own when I'm rich. Record Long Voice Messages as MP3s at Drop.io Laser-cut steel "flat" shelving you bend to suit Photos of Australian Tesla coil enthusiasts Jake von Slatt's Victorian RV -- video tour Track Your Eating Habits with Tweetwhatyoueat Solojones Transforms Old T-Shirts into Undies - For about $30 a pop. China's Ice and Snow World 2007 MySpace, Attorneys General Target Online Predators Tiinker is Like a Personal Digg for Feeds A Neuroscientific Look at Speaking in Tongues (New York Times) - Study shows the religious practice doesn't utilize the speech or language centers of the brain.

Tech History Made on January 15, 2001

For 7 years now we have enjoyed or hated the existence of Wikipedia. The site developed by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales is essentially an encyclopedia written by everyone. If you see something amiss you can edit the posting yourself. Unfortunately, this does not always ensure accurate data, as personal opinion often creeps into posts. I'll admit that we use Wikipedia (or it's bitch cousin Answers.com) to research most of our posts here but double check the facts when available. We are sure many a grad student has been befuddled by the F they received for fully relying on this service. All in all it is a great way to find the answers to our day-to-day questions we would like to ask, but were always too afraid would make us look dumb or uncool. Examples include "What the hell is a Scener?" or, "Who is John McCarthy and why does everyone keep referring to him as The Colonel?" This and making "wiki" a household term makes Wikipedia's birth an all-important piece of tech history.

50 Google Calendar Tips

The folks over at VirtualHosting.com sent us their list of 50 tips, tweaks and hacks for making the most of Google Calendar. These include Basic Tips, Scripts, Extensions & Add-Ons, Hacks & Tricks, and Calendar Syncs. It's worth at least a glance to anyone who uses Google Calendar, but where's our Jott to Google Calendar on the list, guys?

Which tip is our favorite? Probably the Display Current Timeline Greasemonkey script:

This simple Greasemonkey script creates a floating red line that displays just where you are during each day so you can keep up to the minute on what appointments are coming up.

Thanks for the tip. Link

Daily Link Roundup

Today's Daily Link Roundup is dedicated to Wei Wenhua, and the inalienable rights he exercised by blogging.

CES: USB Massage Mouse - Yes, that's massage, not message. CES: I-mu I-Jerry 3D Tetris in Flash - One dimention more difficult than regular tetris. Lend Me Your Ears, And The World Will Sound Very Different - Understanding our understanding of our acoustic environment. Silence Your Xbox 360 with a New Fan Hands-On With One Of Those USB Fingerprint Reader Thingies City made of shiny disposable plastic objects from $0.99 stores Chinese Blogger Beaten To Death By Government Officials Cell Phone Reception Bars Are Meaningless Car Hacking with Gale Banks - Visit the workshop of this multiple land speed record-holder. Roly-Poly Pot Tips Over When Plants Need Water

Tech History Made on January 14, 1890

On this day in 1890 the inventor of the Drunkometer was born. Rolla Neil Harger was 30 years old when prohibition began and 44 when it was lifted. Since the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol was outlawed in the U.S. there was a need to measure the amount of alcohol in someone's system. The Drunkometer worked by a person blowing into a balloon. The air from that balloon was then released into a chemical solution to see if there was a color change. The intensity of the color change could be used to find the blood alcohol level of the person. To increase the demand for his machine, Harger worked to make drunk driving illegal and to make the results from his Drunkometer admissible as legal evidence. Harger lived to the ripe-old age of 93, dying in 1983.

This Weekend's Tech Deals

Sale		List
$649.99		$849.99	SAMSUNG Black 26" 720p LCD HDTV W/ ATSC Tuner Model - We want one, do you?
$15.99		$55.99	Crucial Ballistix 1GB (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Give everyone you know more memory.
$79.99		$109.99	Halo 3 Legendary Edition Xbox 360 Game Microsoft - We only want this for the Spartan Mjolnir Mark VI helmet case.
$749.99		$849.99	Fujitsu LifeBook A6110 - Great first computer for the kids.
$10.24		$14.99	Logitech R-10 PC Stereo Speakers - Sleek looking speakers for 10 bucks.
$11.99		$79.99	Creative TravelDock 900 Speaker - One of the cheapest iPod docks we have seen.
$197.99		$799.99	Magellan RoadMate 2200 GPS Navigation System - We keep posting GPS systems in hopes someone will buy us one.
$14.99		$34.99	Innovage Jumbo Universal Remote - A giant remote for your home theatre.
$23.99		$39.95	'Oscar Outlook' Sun/Moon Wireless Weather Station - Know the weather without looking out the window.
$59.99		$89.99	Delphi Roady XT XM Satellite Radio - Portable : House to Car to Pocket.

Daily Link Roundup

ATAX Survival Tool The MP3 speaker jacket - Although jackets integrating MP3 players are nothing new, this is the first we’ve seen that makes wearers look like they’ve just washed up from a shipwreck. CES: Big, Bad-Ass Speakers We Wish We Could Afford Review: Eye Fi 2GB SD Card Wins CES Award For a Good Reason Nintendo cross-stitches Tiny Camera Stand Is Flexible, Fits On Your Keychain Dreamflyer - Personal Flight Simulator Machine Network Solutions Using Questionable Tactic to Sell More Domain Names - aka DO NOT SEARCH FOR DOMAIN NAMES THROUGH NETWORK SOLUTIONS! Import Your Hotmail Messages into Gmail Nintendo Wii Mii-Shaped Chocolates for Valentine's Day - The figures aren't based on your own Mii avatars... Sorry. Steal Download Music From Any Shared iTunes Library with OurTunes Flyby Of Mercury Coming Up In NASA's Messenger Mission - Exploring some of the last unexplored terrain in the inner solar system at 141 thousand mph! Video of people from 1 to 100 hitting a drum - Not exactly tech-centric, but rather neat. Swedish MPs call for legalized file-sharing - Seven Swedish Members of Parliament from the Moderate Party have written a stirring call for the legalization of file-sharing. CES best of show winners from ZDNet.com

Tech History Made on January 11, 1922

On this day in 1922 the first diabetes patient was treated with insulin. The 14 year old Leonard Thompson's terrible condition greatly improved as he regained his strength and energy. The research for insulin had begun many years before when doctors noticed that if an animal 's pancreas was removed it would develop diabetes. Doctors began extracting fluid from the blotches on the pancreas. These blotches turned out to be the hormone insulin that would save the lives of millions. Even though, in saving the life of Leonard , the Toronto General Hospital had not found a cure, it had finally found an effective treatment.

Daily Link Roundup

Everex Announces $400 CloudBook - Cheap laptop to be sold at Wally World. Snake Oil Alert: Anti Radiation Cellphone Case Adding A Second Monitor Was Never So Easy - With this USB to DVI device. Sandisk Shows Off Their USB Bling - A flash-drive hidden in a necklace MySpace Subpoenaed In Megan Meier Case - A woman and her daughter use MySpace to harass a 13 year-old girl into committing suicide. CES: Nikko Electronics to Finally Release R2-D2 DVD Projector Thanks Striking Writers, Online Video Going Up, Up, Up, Up Ceramic Hybrid Needles Take The Sting Out Of Shots - Hollow needles so fine patients wouldn’t feel them piercing their skin, clustered together on a patch, can draw blood as efficiently as standard hypodermic needles. Admirable Spirit, but Rules Are Rules - A man with prosthetics will probably not be allowed to run in the Olympics.

Tech History Made on January 10, 1949

On this day in 1949 the 45 record was introduced by RCA. The original record, the 78, was 10 inches in diameter and spun at 75 to 80 RPM. The 45 was only 7 inches in diameter but held the same amount of music as the 78 by spinning at a slower rotation of only 45 RPM. The 45 was cheaper to make and easier to take with you. Like the 78, it only had one song per side but became a popular medium for rock and roll. This is mostly due to the fact that it was cheaper than LP's or EP's, so all of the young fans could afford 45's. We solute you, 45, for helping millions rock.

Tech History Made on January 9, 1843

On this day in 1843 William Hedley passed away. Hedley worked for many years managing a coal mine. The coal was moved by horse drawn carriages that rode on wooden rails. Hedley's boss commissioned an engineer to build a steam locomotive but it was too heavy to operate on the existing wooden rails. Once they were replaced with iron rails the boss asked Hedley to build another steam locomotive, which Hedley would name Puffing Billy. The engine was 8 tons but was not a very smooth ride. Hedley found that if the rails and wheels were smooth that the ride would be smoother and there was still enough friction to keep the engine moving. He continued to work with steam engines until his death at the age of 63. Today, Puffing Billy is the oldest surviving steam railway locomotive in the world. It is displayed above as it was originally constructed in 1813.

Daily Link Roundup

BoKlok - Ikea Houses? - Looks like Ikea is building low-cost homes, now. Brighter LED Lights Could Replace Household Light Bulbs Within Three Years Voltaic Generator Solar Bag - Solar-powered lap-top bag Banks banned in 'Second Life' How to Avoid the 10 Worst Energy Zappers - aka Peppiness Pouncers CES: Laptop Back(pack) Shell Saves Shoulders CES: Belgian Plushie Webcam Is Watching You - If you don't like the one we featured last year. Personal Mini Microwave – It Will Be Mine Grabit Pack - Another Alternative To Overstuffed Pockets Eva Funderburgh's Pixel cookies! - A Flickr how-to on making them CES: FyreTV Brings the Porn for Ten Bucks a Month - Like Tivo but streaming and all porn (unless all you Tivo is porn, then in that way they're still similar.) Billboard alterations by "The Decapitator" - This guy (or girl) alters street ads to make the people appear as though their heads have been removed.

Daily Link Roundup

Today brings us some gorgeously geeky artwork, a brew baking Bender and (of course) more new neat gadgets from CES.

"Supersonic" Zeppelin-Shaped Theremin by Björn Schülke - Visit the link to his site for more geek-savvy sculptures. Take Screenshots of Complete Web Pages with Screengrab (Firefox) CES: LG Watch Phone Prototypes - A watch phone that doesn't suck? Saitek’s New Cyborg Gaming Keyboard Lets You Assign Colors To Key Zones CES: Flir's Predator-Vision Security Cam Defends Conference Hall Table The beer brewing Bender replica - Robots and beer! Naps Help Your Memory, New Study Suggests CES: Hands-on with the Philips 'WOW vx' 3D Display - True 3D without the glasses. CES: Panasonic's Enormous 150" Plasma TV Dwarfs All Competitors Case holds stun gun and iPod Bombshell: Google and Facebook Join DataPortability.org - The group is working on a variety of projects to foster an era of Data Portability - where users can take their data from the websites they use to reuse it elsewhere. Sceners Threaten to Destroy BitTorrent, “One Step at a Time” TV star publishes bank details in anti-privacy editorial, gets ripped off

Tech History Made on January 8, 1942

Today is Stephen Hawking's 66th birthday. If you're reading this blog you're probably familiar with Hawking's work or at least know he's considered the foremost theoretical physicist alive today. You may also know that Hawking has a serious condition known as ALS or Lou Gehrigs Disease. This leaves him paralyzed and an emergency tracheotomy leaves him unable to speak on his own. He has overcome this with the help of some really neat technology. It's a custom developed computer system attached to his chair that converts text to voice. He controls this auto complete program with his fingers and is able to communicate freely with those around him. He can now gives lectures and appear on talk shows. The only problem the English Hawking has with the program is that it gives him an American accent.

Daily Link Roundup

CES is here, and we'll be bringing you highlights from the conference whether you like it or not. Why? Because that's all anyone is blogging about, so take it and like it! Seriously though, we have some great articles for you from CES and even mixed things up a bit from a few that (dare I say) are not from CES!

CES: Logitech MX 5500 Revolution - If I were a keyboard, I'd have sex with this keyboard. CES: WowWee's Tribot Spins, Sasses, and Kicks RoboSapien in the Crotch osliving.com - "Welcome to Open Source Living, an archive of the Web's best Open Source software, applications and references for a zero-cost / top quality digital experience." CES: Alienware's Curved LCD Monitor Prototype - You gotta see this thing (with video). CES: Pepcom: PocketFinder GPS Locator - Wherever this pocket-sized device goes, you can locate it's position to within 5 feet. Starry Night Bed Lacking Only a Toilet Sony BMG Sort of Drops DRM CES: Pepcom: Fujitsu Concepts - A few out-of-this-world concepts from Fujitsu. It’s People! Soylent Heat Is People! - A new office building being constructed near Stockholm’s Central Station plans to tap the rush of daily commuters as an economical source of heat. Flunked: 14 Signs of a Deficient Intellect (TheMishMash.com) New Year’s Tech Resolutions - These are resolutions that tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook should adopt, in Erick Shonfeld's opinion. Flickr to Authenticate Using OpenID Foliage Covered Botanical Building by Mass Studies - If you’re a fan of botanical architecture, this might just be the coolest building ever.

Tech History Made on January 7, 1927

On this day in 1927 the first transatlantic phone call was made. While many homes had telephones, communication between the US and Europe was made by telegraph. AT&T teamed up with the British government to make the first phone call from the US to England. The first call was made between AT&T's president, Walter Sherman Gifford (seated in the photo) in his office in New York, and the secretary of the British Post Office, Sir George Evelyn Pemberton Murray. These early transatlantic phone calls were completed by converting the telephone signal to radio waves, sending the signal across the ocean, then converting the signal back to telephone on the other shore. 31 calls were made that day at a cost of $25 dollars a minute, all of which had such poor sound quality that the two parties could barely understand each other. Almost makes your cell phone bill seem reasonable, doesn't it?

Tech History Made on January 4, 1809

On this day in 1809 Louis Braille was born in Coupvray, France. Braille was blind from a youth and read in school by feeling letters (like the ones you're reading now) raised on paper.It was not easy to do, especially differentiating between letters such as O and D. So Braille designed a system of raised dots that represented all the letters of the alphabet and numbers. He patterned his system after a code French soldiers used to communicate. Braille's system (known today of course simply as "braille") spread worldwide afters Louis Braille's death in 1852. Below, you see this paragraph written in braille.

Daily Link Roundup

Unless you subscribe to Grinn Blog, you're probably not familiar with our Daily Links feature. This is because it has always been a subscriber-only feature. Daily Links is a list of articles we've felt were noteworthy, but weren't worth blogging ourselves either because they're already so well covered, or simply can't be said anymore about.

But, as a new-year's resolution of sorts, we've decided to make our Daily Links public to everyone who visits the site and have renamed it to the Daily Link Roundup. With that, I bring you today's notable links.

The Next Google Search Challenger: Blekko Is That a Projector In Your Pocket, Or... Oh, Shut Up - A blackberry-sized projector. Holy Hotspot! Mecca Gets Wall-to-Wall Wi-Fi! - Saudi Arabia has set up a mesh WiFi network. A Little Scary: Nano-Nukes Belkin Washable Mouse - Cheap, Simple And Cheetos Resistant 25 Skills Every Man Should Know: Your Ultimate DIY Guide Reuters Tech Week: Robots! - A neat little year-in-review for robotics. Man Jumps Onto NY Subway Track To Save iPhone - Seriously. Integrate Gmail and Google Calendar with Enhance Gmail - Greasemonkey script. Whopper Freakout - (Ghetto Version/NSFW)

Tech History Made on January 3, 1977

On this day in 1977 Apple was born. 31 years of innovation has brought us the Macintosh, OS X, iTunes, iPod, iMac, iPhone and the Mac Mini. Many people give Apple credit for popularizing the personal computer with Lisa, which sported the first mouse. We aren't Apple fanboys over here but we do love our green iPod Nano.

This Weekend's Tech Deals

Sale		List
$75.24		$134.99	ZyXEL 200Mbps Wireless Router - Go wireless in '08.
$13.95		$68.00	Kingston 2GB SD Card - Make more room for all your pictures.
$99.98		$169.99	Delphi XM Radio Reciever - Pause and Play your XM!
$89.99		$149.00	RCA Next Generation Camcorder - Weighs less than a 1/4 lb.
$24.50		$45.99	Cross 1.5 in Digital Photo Frame - Display all your best holiday photos.
$147.99		$249.99	PalmOne Tungsten E2 PDA Handhled - Get organized in the new year.
$23.95		$99.99	SanDisk 2 GB Cruzer Titanium - If James Bond had a flash drive it would be this one.
$39.99		$99.99	JBL Portable Speaker System - Big sound on the go.
$999.99		$1449.00	Westinghouse 42" 1080p HD Monitor - 42 inches of HD goodness.
$4.99		$5.99	TRIPP LITE Surge Supressor - Have a place to plug in all your gadgets.

Cellphone Drivers: You're Slowing Us Down!

We all have read that cellphone use while driving causes accidents, but recent studies also suggest that it causes traffic congestion in several different ways.

The most recent of these studies found that students in a driving simulator were less likely to switch lanes when the lane they were in was moving slower than the others if they were on their cellphones. This adds to a buildup of vehicles in a lane, effectively slowing both that lane and connecting lanes.	Another study shows that drivers on their cells in many ways drive like drunks: Following at greater distances and having slow response times when hitting the breaks and recovering from breaking.	Mathematicians at the University of Exeter recently determined that late breaking can cause "mystery" traffic jams that previously appeared to have no cause whatsoever. Late breaking cellphone users can cause a wave of slower and slower traffic, turning the interstate into a parking lot.

New Cards

Each day when I walk down to my (snail) mailbox and open it I wonder what surprises await me. Will it be a bill? Did my latest Popular Science come in? Did that client finally send in their check?

Regrettably, one thing that will always await me is an "OPEN IMMEDIATELY! YOUR RESPONSE IS URGENTLY NEEDED!!!!!1" [sic] credit card offer. I can always count on at least one of these nuisances a day - be it for myself, my wife or my business.

The ironic thing is, I don't think I have ever returned a response for one of these "deals". If I ever do get a new card, I do it the same way as everything else I do: Using the internet! There's tons of information out there that will help a person pick out the best card for him, so why just get a card because it was thrown in your face? You could visit the card-supplier's sites directly (MC/Visa/AmEx/Discover), or even better yet go to one of the many "Apply for a business credit card" sites that allow you to compare multiple card options side-by-side.

(Note: If anyone out there in the audience works for a credit card junk mail shipping facility, please take me off your mailing list... Seriously.)

Add More File Types to Windows Thumbnail Preview

It's always frustrated me that Windows Explorer only supports a few different file types for it's thumbnail preview of your files. Recently I ran into a thing called ThumbView that will add a butt-load of other file types to Explorer's list of thumbable files, including cut, dcx, dds, mdl, mng, pcd, pcx, pic, pix, png, pnm/pbm/pgm/ppm, psd/pdd, psp, pxr, sgi/rgb, tif/tiff, tga/vda/icb/vst, wal and xpm images.

The best thing about it is that it doesn't install any software that runs in the background. The app is actually just a shell extension that only gets called when a preview needs to be generated. Clever programmers out there can even write their own "Thumbnail Extractors" to add support to additional file types.

Download ThumbView Here.