30 March 2009

Get Latitude and Longitude values from Google Maps | Google | Tech-Recipes

Get Latitude and Longitude values from Google Maps | Google | Tech-Recipes:
"Looking up an address in Google Maps will center the map on that address if it was found. Because this trick provides the latitude and longitude of the center of the map, moving the map around manually after that will change the center position and this technique will not work accurately.

When the location you want is in the center of the map, copy and paste this code into the location bar of your browser and press enter:

javascript:void(prompt('',gApplication.getMap().getCenter()));

18 March 2009

Now You CAN Give One



Cursing: Remote-Controlled Flying Fuck Takes Things Pretty Literally

Lie to Me - The Inpiration Behind the Show



Dr. Paul Ekman, whose ideas are the basis for Lie to Me, the popular TV show.


LIE TO ME's scientific advisor Paul Ekman, Ph.D., breaks down the real science in each episode.

Dr. Ekman is the world's foremost expert on facial expressions and a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine. Ekman has served as an advisor to police departments and anti-terrorism groups (including the Transportation Security Administration). He is also the author of 15 books, including "Telling Lies" and "Emotions Revealed."

14 March 2009

Kraken | National Institute for Computational Sciences


Kraken | National Institute for Computational Sciences: "Kraken



The new Kraken is a Cray XT5 system, consisting of 8256 compute nodes, each with two 2.3 GHz quad-core AMD Opteron processors, totaling 66048 compute cores. Compute nodes run Compute Node Linux (CNL) 2.1, an operating system designed to minimize overhead, thus allowing scalable low-latency global communication. Each node is connected to a Cray SeaStar router through HyperTransport, and the SeaStars are all interconnected in a 3-D-torus topology. The resulting interconnect has very high bandwidth, low latency, and extreme scalability."

Apple, .Mac, and the Need for Improvement

I am always amazed at how Apple computers OS, and most software can be surpassingly wonderful, but at the same time how their signature software offerings, like the .Mac Web based email, and their whole .Mac experience, can be so terrible. Are they not watching what Google is doing?

Also frustrating, but more understandable, is the lack of certain software, such as Google's Chrome browser, for Mac.

I love my MacBook Pro, especially because I can run VMware Fusion and have the best of both Windows XP and Mac OS X (or Linux, or whatever else I want) - VMware's software engineers should rightly win the Nobel prize for something - I just wish that there were more software written for the Mac platform, and that the .Mac experience didn't suck quite so badly.

07 March 2009

Nanotech Buzz (Creative Weblogging)



"The density achievable with the technology we've developed could
potentially enable the contents of 250 DVDs to fit onto a surface
the size of a quarter," says UC Berkeley assistant professor Ting
Xu.

05 March 2009

A few tidbits about Mail’s fancy data detectors in Leopard | MacYourself

A few tidbits about Mail’s fancy data detectors in Leopard | MacYourself: "So what are the downsides to data detectors in Mail? A lot of people don’t like how they interfere when you attempt to select certain areas of text. I can understand this frustration — it has happened to me a number of times. While I choose to keep them enabled, others may be interested in learning how to disable Mail’s data detectors. There’s no setting in the application preferences to turn this functionality off, so we’re going to venture into Terminal to get the job done. If you’ve never used Terminal before, you can find it in the Applications folder under Utilities or by searching for it via Spotlight. Once you’ve got it open, copy and paste this code in the Terminal window and press Enter/Return.

defaults write com.apple.mail DisableDataDetectors YES

If Mail is currently open, you will have to quit and relaunch it for the change to take effect. Disabling data detectors using this command isn’t permanent, so you can reverse it at any time by replacing the YES with NO.

defaults write com.apple.mail DisableDataDetectors NO

For those who are a bit more ambitious, you can even use a Terminal command to get data detectors to (kind of) work in iChat. The reason I say kind of is because they tend to randomly start and stop working at any given time. This instability is undoubtedly why Apple has them disabled in iChat by default. Still, if you want to give it a shot for giggles, here’s what you need:

defaults write com.apple.iChat EnableDataDetectors 1

Replacing the 1 with a 0 will reverse the change. I wouldn’t recommend messing with iChat due to the erratic behavior of its data detectors, but nonetheless it might give us a little insight into what Apple has planned for future software updates or versions of Mac OS X. Hopefully they get iChat squared away and bring Safari into the picture to compliment Mail’s useful implementation of the feature."

04 March 2009

Clean Tech

"Let's wipe out toilet paper
by Christian Wolmar
Latest news, sport, business, comment and reviews from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk

Using tissue after you've been to the loo is bad for the planet. Washing is the greener option – and it's more hygienic too

Toilet paper is a serious issue. But the minute one starts talking about it, the giggles start. So let me get my position out clearly first. Three years ago I went to India and discovered botty nirvana. While I was suffering from one of those inevitable bouts of Delhi belly, I was staying in a room with a spray attachment that allowed me to clean my anus – let's call spades spades here, it is not my bottom – without having to touch it or use paper.

It saved me from piles and rash, and definitely avoided a lot of pain. The first few times I checked whether I was clean with toilet paper but soon I realised that was unnecessary. I was spotless every time in both senses of the word.

So when I got back to Britain, I found that fortunately I had a shower attachment that reached over to the toilet and I could perform the same task. Result: large amounts of toilet paper saved, and a far cleaner and refreshed feeling that was far more hygienic. As for the wetness, there is a choice – either dab off with a small amount of toilet paper or use a towel specially for the purpose. Remember the towel is nothing more than drying off clean buttocks, pretty much the same as coming out of the shower, but obviously I change it regularly. Of course in the Indian heat, a bit of dampness did not matter.

Enough of my personal hygiene. Now for the wider points. If everyone in the world used as much toilet paper as people in the UK, let alone Americans, there would not be a single tree left. It is all very well talking about the sustainability of different brands, but in truth we should all be using water sprays. They are increasingly being fitted in India, replacing the rather more difficult jug and left hand technique which requires rather more contact than most westerners can contemplate.

Of course, on the continent they have bidets whose purpose has always been a mystery for the British – but it suggests that they have a better understanding of cleaning their private parts than we do. Indeed, you can never get properly clean by simply wiping, since you are, effectively, pushing the stuff into your skin. Would anyone dream of cleaning their hands by simply wiping them on tissue paper?

The ideal would be a toilet designed to spray and dry. The brilliant hand air sprays developed by James Dyson, which dry your hands in 10 seconds, are rapidly taking over in public toilets in hotels and restaurants. His next task should be to design the environmentally friendly loo with water and air spray built in. I have heard they exist in Japan already. The only downside might be that men will stay on the loo even longer to read their papers, enjoying a draught of hot air up their backsides.

Above all, though, we need to talk about this issue. There are serious environmental considerations at issue. The fact that it is so difficult even to mention this subject is down to our Victorian prudishness. A few years ago, dog doo-doos were in the same unmentionable category but now owners have to get used to the idea of picking up the brown stuff, a far more yucky task than using water spray to clean one's anus.

This should be the next area where massive environmental gains can be made with very little downside, except for Kimberley Clark and those irritating puppies that waste a forest of trees in every Andrex advert.

* Forests
* Waste
* Recycling
* Water

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions"