Quote:

Marc Smith:
'If you're 1 in a million, then there are 768 of you on the Internet.'

The History of the Universe

in 200 Words or Less

Quantum fluctuation. Inflation. Expansion. Strong nuclear interaction. Particle-antiparticle annihilation. Deuterium and helium production. Density perturbations. Recombination. Blackbody radiation. Local contraction. Cluster formation. Reionization? Violent relaxation. Virialization. Biased galaxy formation? Turbulent fragmentation. Contraction. Ionization. Compression. Opaque hydrogen. Massive star formation. Deuterium ignition. Hydrogen fusion. Hydrogen depletion. Core contraction. Envelope expansion. Helium fusion. Carbon, oxygen, and silicon fusion. Iron production. Implosion. Supernova explosion. Metals injection. Star formation. Supernova explosions. Star formation. Condensation. Planetesimal accretion. Planetary differentiation. Crust solidification. Volatile gas expulsion. Water condensation. Water dissociation. Ozone production. Ultraviolet absorption. Photosynthetic unicellular organisms. Oxidation. Mutation. Natural selection and evolution. Respiration. Cell differentiation. Sexual reproduction. Fossilization. Land exploration. Dinosaur extinction. Mammal expansion. Glaciation. Homo sapiens manifestation. Animal domestication. Food surplus production. Civilization! Innovation. Exploration. Religion. Warring nations. Empire creation and destruction. Exploration. Colonization. Taxation without representation. Revolution. Constitution. Election. Expansion. Industrialization. Rebellion. Emancipation Proclamation. Invention. Mass production. Urbanization. Immigration. World conflagration. League of Nations. Suffrage extension. Depression. World conflagration. Fission explosions. United Nations. Space exploration. Assassinations. Lunar excursions. Resignation. Computerization. World Trade Organization. Terrorism. Internet expansion. Reunification. Dissolution. World-Wide Web creation. Composition. Extrapolation?

The History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less

A digital Watergate

"Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media."
"From the spring of 2002 until at least April 2003, members of the GOP committee staff exploited a computer glitch that allowed them to access restricted Democratic communications without a password. Trolling through hundreds of memos, they were able to read talking points and accounts of private meetings discussing which judicial nominees Democrats would fight -- and with what tactics."
"Democrats now claim their private memos formed the basis for a February 2003 column by conservative pundit Robert Novak that revealed plans pushed by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, to filibuster certain judicial nominees. Novak is also at the center of an investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA agent whose husband contradicted a Bush administration claim about Iraqi nuclear programs." (Boston Globe)

Microsoft slashed by Amnesty

Microsoft is put in shame by Amnesty because of the company's selling applications to help the Chinese legislation to censor the Net and find dissidents using the online-techs.

'We are focused on delivering the best technology to people throughout the world. However, how that technology is used is with the individual and ultimately not in the company's control.' says Microsoft in defence of the report.

Amnesty's report as reported in The Observer tells that: "China is the world's most aggressive censor of the internet. Websites are banned for using words such as 'Taiwan', 'Tibet', 'democracy', 'dissident' and 'human rights'. Amnesty has recorded dozens of cases of political opponents jailed for circulating material offensive to the Chinese government."

It´s really a strange combination of non-consequence capitalism and trying to save the contracting for the huge OS-contract of China (which is one of the states that have said that they are interested in Linux).

Electric Banana

Is it a car? Is it a motorcycle? Is it really a vehicle or is it NASA's new car for exploring Mars?

Well, this is both a MC and a car, Carver is the new form of crossover-engineering from Vandenbrink: " Steer it like a car and the Carver will bank like a motorcycle.". The interior looks like if you put a steering wheel inside a Harrier-cockpit.

But of course is the idea of Carver not just taken from thin air - the TTW is as old as the moto-bikes and cars. The cross-over-thinking and the possibility to drive more safely like a car but as free as the biker.

A new slave for the scientists

Formulating hypotheses, design experiments, and interpret results is a work for a robot scientist.

British scientists have created a marvel toy for scientists. A robotic doctoral student set to do all those repeated and boring tasks in the scientific process. In a rather dull apparatus; a liquid-handling machine networked to several computers—but packed with sophisticated robotics and advanced AI software.

This is surely the dawn of scientists-to-be and doctoral students...

Student attack

"Students spend an average of $898 a year on textbooks". Mercury News writes about the students which is starting to struggle against the high-priced text-books. And as a former student at University I can say that it´s nothing new in this. The ways is of course to start opinions but also to use exchangesites and turning online, to Amazon and likely.

All the supplemental material that comes with the books is rarely used and the ways of putting out new editions is a couple of ways keeping the price at high levels. If this was made in a manner that wasn´t just to fill the pockets of the publishers.

Twist and turn

The Rubik's cube is back. Again. And it's as analog as in the eighties. "The puzzle has a unique appeal to Generation Y". Dan Knight, the world's fastest solver of the cube and only 24 year old, is stating a fact. And his analysis is that today the intelligent g33k isn't low-valued as in the eighties, rather there is a fad of "the g33ks will rule the world". As mr Knight says: "The Cube is an underground way to be smart. It's dorky, but it's cool to be dorky.".

1974 the cubic puzzle was invented and in the dawn of the eighties it was big: selling 250 million units worldwide 1981. But the puzzling colorful cube was vanished but not forgotten. The toy of mathematics was selling in half a million units 2002. And just as Andy Camann found his mother's Rubik's cube in the cellar and later was second fastest in the world to solve it.

The Rubik cube is an icon, it got some sort of generic status as a symbol of the intelligent ways to solve a problem. But it also is a nostalghia-journey where the games of the parents youth is played by their children. The story of the toys is told in the store and the brands is powered both by the continuance and maybe a growing fatigue of the digital illusions in the computergames.

World's largest number found

Largest prime-number found. Michael Shafer a chemical engineering student at Michigan State University found out the largest known prime number which is 6,320,430 digits long. Well - he wasn't alone: a distributed network of more than 200,000 computers and two years was involved too.

The new number is a Mersenne prime, especially rare type of prime, that take the form 2 ^p-1, where p is also a prime number. The new number can be represented as 2^20,996,011-1. And this one is the 40th Mersenne-prime found.

Microsoft suffers from amnesia?

The Register tells the story of how hotmail.co.uk wasn't renewed of the software gigant. Lucky for Gates and Co the domain was picked up by a serious and kind man who took contacts with Microsoft. But they didn't answer him. Until Reg did ask what the f... they was doing there was some movement.

1999 did Microsoft forgot to renew the Passport-domain. Michael Chaney was paying for it and at a glance he owned of the Redmond-biz own securitydomain.

As if this wasn´t enough Microsoft lost track of parts of some of their source code for Windows 2000. Even if it's just about 600 megs of code there might be a big flaw and the consequense might be much more developed viruses.

Obesity facts

About 30 percent of American adults are obese. For a 5-foot-4 woman, for instance, this means she is 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight...The United States spent $75.1 billion last year on medical expenses, such as drugs, doctor visits and hospitalizations, related to obesity, according to a study published this month in the journal Obesity Research...obesity-related health problems accounted for 5.7 percent of the nation's total medical expenses...obesity-related costs were about 10.6 percent, or $21.3 billion, of total expenses for Medicaid, the government's health program for low-income Americans...the costs represented about 6.8 percent, or $17.7 billion, of expenses for Medicare, the government health program for senior citizens and the disabled. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Survival kit for the IKEA-trip

"There is no known treatment for IKEA addiction. The best you can do is learn to survive." The Non-Expert is educating exhausted men whose spouses and girlfriends is dragging them around the local IKEA.

The Non-Expert is presenting an IKEA Walkthrough, seeing the IKEA-experience as a game and getting through the five worlds: the parking lot, the showrooms, the marketplace, the self-serve warehouse and finally the checkout. One wrong turn in the WAREHOUSE could cause you to lose precious hours trying to find your way out. So take items off the shelves as you travel, place them on the floor, and make a map as you go. That way, if you make a wrong turn, you will be able to backtrack.

The Tamagotchi is back

I wonder how old the oldest surviving Tamagotchi became. Is there maybe some still alive outthere? The Tamagotchi-story is continuing - Bandai Tamagotchi or Tamagotchi Plus is released in March this year.

The original Tamagotchi has sold in 40 million small digital pets. The new Tama is older and the new features are that the Tamagotchis can date, marry and have children with the help of an IR-interface. I wonder how they procreate...

Don't trust the cover

Have you expected the #14th song on Lauryn Hills "Miseducation..."-album to be the last? No way - there is another one: a cover of "Can't take my eyes of you".

The The Hidden Song Archive is one of this sites you didn't know you needed. Or you might not be needing it but it's rather fun. They have listed all this hidden tracks that artists is putting on their records as Easter Eggs. Another example: At his album "Anti-Christ Superstar" Marilyn Mansson have 99 songs. Tracks 17-98 is blank but the 99th track is called "Revelation 99" and where Manson is doing strange sounds and in some instances they are in reverse.

Ballot your way

In the ever on-going story Stupid Sites the BESTandWORST.com is a new chapter. It's filled with more or less frantic ballots. The possible answers to vote on is often huge and sometimes rather stupid. One of the most frantic is
Ballot No. 2639 - Should I kill Bush

The human fascination on lists, balloting and speed-answers is always present. And this site is just one of these that is taking our fascination seriously and let the visitors make ballots.

Most wanted g33k

This is the most dangerous man of the world. The world of copyright and musicbiz. It's Justin Frankel, the guy who both invented Winamp and later on he founded Gnutella. And all this surely did evolved the use of p2p. The latter he did in secret when hired by AOL which is put a Robin Hood-feel on the story. Born as a kind of 'white trash', living on the road in a mobile home and from a family stuck in the hippie-era his ways in the programming biz was the punker's.

And once a punk, always a punk and Justin Frankel is having new ideas, and since both the Winamp, and Spinner as well as his self-made Shoutcast is owned by AOL and since this company is slowly dying, Frankel is leaving.

1984 and 1984

Marcos.Kirsch.com is putting the old version of the Apple-ad "1984" adjacent to this year's version, run at Super Bowl. It shows the fact that Apple is the world's most intelligent advertising-buyer.

The glorious history of the Mac

The 20 Macs That Mattered Most, a historical article since the Apple's totally revolution in design and the GUI is truly a story worth telling. And as this flic wasn't enough The Folklore is a huge site with the stories of the glorious past of the company of design, geekish ideas and Jobs.

And at the Super Bowl this year Apple did celebrate their twenty years with putting up their classic TV-ad "1984". But hey... there's not Apple if they didn't use the opportunity to show their constantly on-going development: see for yourself.

Fad or trend: girls kisses girls

The newest trend for teen girls isn't wearing the latest designer jeans or driving a cool car, but declaring themselves to be bisexual. - the trend is called 'Bisexual Chic' or 'Faux Bisexual'.
"Girls go for the whole mystery thing. And guys usually think it's attractive. It's a turn-on. It's more of a teasing thing. At parties, girls randomly kiss, and guys are like, `Oh! That's awesome!'"

At one point this might be a proof that there is a more open mind on the bi- and homosexuality but it also somewhat "it ticks men on" - the sexuality is fixed on the males.