clipped from www.pcmag.com FBI Working on World's Largest Biometric Database 12.26.07 WASHINGTON - The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion project to build the world's largest computer database of biometrics to give the government more ways to identify people at home and abroad, the Washington Post reported on Friday. The FBI has already started compiling digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns in its systems, the paper said. In January, the agency—which focuses on violations of federal law, espionage by foreigners and terrorist activities—expects to award a 10-year contract to expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives, it said. At an employer's request, the FBI will also retain the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks, the paper said. If successful, the system, called Next Generation Identification, will collect the biometric information in one place for identification and forensic purposes, the Post said.

Queen Addresses Nation Via YouTube - News and Analysis by PC Magazine

Queen Addresses Nation Via YouTube - News and Analysis by PC Magazine:

"A new Royal Channel has been created on YouTube, allowing Web surfers to view the queen's first Christmas broadcast in 1957, as well as other archive footage of the royal family and its events.

The catalogue is at www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel.

The queen, who writes the Christmas message herself and records it in one take, said all the world's great religions taught care and consideration for others less well off."

101 Greatest George Carlin Quotes

This is one of the few humans that makes any sense at all.

clipped from blogzarro.com 101 Greatest George Carlin Quotes I don’t have pet peeves — I have major psychotic fucking hatreds! A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff. Have you ever noticed that their stuff is shit and your shit is stuff? I wanna live. I don’t wanna die. That’s the whole meaning of life: Not dying! I figured that shit out by myself in the third grade. I used to be Irish Catholic. Now I’m an American — you know, you grow. No one knows what’s next, but everybody does it. The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, “You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.” Most people with low self-esteem have earned it. “No comment” is a comment. So far, this is the oldest I’ve been. Capitalism tries for a delicate balance: It attempts to work things out so that everyone gets just enough stuff to keep them from getting violent and trying to take other people’s stuff.

Christmas Carols for Disturbed Friends

I'm humming #8 as I write this...most disturbing

clipped from gingembresplace.blogspot.com 1. Schizophrenia -- Do I Hear What I Hear? 2. Multiple Personality Disorder - We Three Kings Disoriented Are 3. Dementia - I Think I'll Be Home For Christmas 4. Narcissistic - Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me 5. Manic - Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and.... 6. Paranoid - Santa Claus is Coming To Town To Get Me 7. Borderline Personality Disorder - Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire 8. Personality Disorder - You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, and I Don't Know Why 9. Attention Deficit Disorder - Silent Night, Holy oooh look at the Froggy - can I have a chocolate, why is France so far away? 10. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells.. . (received in an email from a disturbed friend) :D

An Orgasm Is All In The Mind

clipped from news.scotsman.com IT’S a scientific fact: human brains are programmed for orgasms - with or without the actual sex act. "It’s the same reward mechanism that encourages us to share our DNA," said Dr Lomas. "But it can be achieved without the physical act of copulation." Only humans have this power to induce mental ecstasy, and it’s a complex set of responses that can be achieved by learned behavioural patterns or triggered by hyper-arousal during peak experiences, he says. "At times of hyper-arousal, our brains are designed to freeload on the behavioural reward that encourages us to reproduce," he said. "And that is another name for orgasm." Dr Cynthia McVey, a psychologist from Glasgow Caledonian University, said that from puberty onwards, achieving orgasm without sexual contact happens in our dreams.

Great Minds Drink Alike

clipped from www.dailygalaxy.com Great Minds Drink Alike: Cafes Tapping Nation's Fascination with Science & Research Major media from the Chicago Tribune to ABC News to Wired magazine and The New York Times have all reported on a new trend sweeping the U.S., Canada, and Europe: the rise of science cafes. Founded in London, the global network of Cafe Scientifique is a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology. Meetings take place in cafes, bars, restaurants and even theatres, but always outside a traditional academic context. "A lot of people come to see real live scientists — some of whom are extremely famous and prominent — and see how their brains work," The quarterly Cafes have tackled diverse issues such as biomechanics, the biology of gender, the big bang theory and global warming, but the basic formula stays the same To find a Café Scientifique event near you visit their global cafe locations map.

Four Stages of Spiritual Growth

clipped from www.escapefromwatchtower.com STAGE I: Chaotic, Antisocial. Frequently pretenders; they pretend they are loving and pious, covering up their lack of principles STAGE II Formal, Institutional, Fundamental. Beginning the work of submitting themselves to principle-the law, but they do not yet understand the spirit of the law STAGE III Skeptic, Individual, questioner, including atheists, agnostics and those scientifically minded who demand a measurable, well researched and logical explanation. Although frequently "nonbelievers," people in Stage III are generally more spiritually developed than many content to remain in Stage II. STAGE IV: Mystic, communal. Out of love and commitment to the whole, using their ability to transcend their backgrounds, culture and limitations with all others, reaching toward the notion of world community and the possibility of either transcending culture or belonging to a planetary culture desiring to enter into the mystery of uncertainty, living in the unknown.

clipped from www.pcworld.com The 20 (Mostly Free) Downloads You Can't Do Without Cure a sluggish PC, improve your defenses, and have more computing fun with these great programs. Most are freebies, and you can try those that aren't before you put down any cash. Preston Gralla, PC World Monday, October 15, 2007 10:00 PM PDT Which programs should you get? We've put together a suite of 20 must-have applications--the tools that will allow you to get the most out of your PC. We've included a wide variety of software, from security utilities to system cleaners to graphics tools. We've mixed some all-time favorites with some apps that you've probably never heard of. They all have one thing in common: You need them. Now. So read on and start downloading.

Converting Audible Files For Sansa e200 Series Players | The Next Chamber

Converting Audible Files For Sansa e200 Series Players

? Category: Electronics and Mobile Life, Entertainment | ?

Sansa e200 Series

I love my Sansa e270, but it aggravates me that they haven’t included Audible support. Thankfully, after research and my own trial and error, I’ve come to a solution.

First, though, let’s get a few things straight. This isn’t an article that shows you how to hack Audible files and share them on the Internet. You need to own the Audible files that you convert (since you need to install the Audible Manager on your PC). Second, this is for you to use on your Sansa (or, I suppose, any non-Audible supported player). The point is: this isn’t for piracy; this is for your own private use of your own, fully purchased Audible files.

Oh, yeah, and the usual disclaimer: I don’t take any responsibility for any damage or harm to your PC from these instructions. Use them at your own risk. Again, this is just for you to listen to your purchased Audible files, not share them. No file-sharing, boys and girls.

Okay, here’s what you’ll need:

* An older version of the Audible.com Manager
* A copy of Microsoft’s GraphEdit program
* Install the Audible Manager (you’ll need to uninstall any newer version on your PC). Unzip the GraphEdit program to a temporary location (if you’re not sure how to do that, then please Google it).
* After installing the Audible Manager, log in and validate your credentials.
* In the folder where you unzipped GraphEdit, run the register.bat
* Run GraphEdit.
* On the menu, go to File > Render Media File. Browse to the Audible file you want to convert, click on it, and press the “Open” button.
* On the graph, delete the final box labeled “Default DirectSound Device”
* On the menu, go to Graph > Insert Filters
* Scroll down to the listing “DirectShow Filters.” Expand this selection by clicking the plus sign next to it.
* Select “WAV Dest” and click the “Insert Filter” button.
* Drag the arrow from the output connector of the box labeled “Audible Words Codec” to the input connector of the “WAV Dest” box. GraphEdit
* Go to Graph > Insert Filter.
* Select “File Writer” and click “Insert Filter”.
* In the File Dialog box that pops up, give it a filename (ending in “.wav”) and place it in the location you want to save the file. When finished, click the “Open” button.
* Drag the arrow from the output connector of “WAV Dest” to the input connector of the box for file you will be creating.
* Once everything is connected, press the green “Play” button on the toolbar. Depending on the size of the audiobook, it will take a few minutes to finish.
* Since you won’t get a message when the file conversion is done, go to the folder through Explorer to the location you selected to save the converted file. Look at the file, and if you hit F5 (refresh) you will see the filesize changing. When the number stops changing, you know you’re done. Or just step away from you PC for several minutes. :)

Now you can convert the large WAV file to an MP3 and listen to it on your Sansa or other non-Audible-enabled digital audio player. There are plenty of free programs available to convert files from WAV to MP3; just search for them. Keep in mind that the WAV file that will be created can be rather large. It can be anywhere from 170MB for an hour-length program to over 1GB for an 8-hour program. I hope this helps, and let’s hope SanDisk will rectify this in the future by adding Audible support!

Converting Audible Files For Sansa e200 Series Players | The Next Chamber.

Podzinger: At A Glance - Reviews by PC Magazine

Podzinger

REVIEW DATE: 02.16.06
Podzinger
Editor's Rating 4.0 out of 5.0 Read Editor Review Price Check Prices Check Prices

By Bill Dyszel

Podcasts are difficult to search because of the complexity of finding text in an audio stream. A newly launched service called Podzinger offers a set of sophisticated tools for searching out text in the ever-expanding supply of podcasts. Created by BBN Technologies, Podzinger automatically ingests thousands of podcasts and applies speech-to-text conversion and indexing to yield a list of relevant results comparable to Google's searches of Web-based text.

Podzinger: At A Glance - Reviews by PC Magazine.

97th Floor | Social Media for Firefox

Brief Overview:

The tool is the the ultimate time saver to building powerful social media accounts. One of the secrets of top Diggers, Stumblers, Navigators etc... is being the first to submit stories already becoming popular on other social news sites. For example you can browse Reddit to find good stories already submitted and be the first to submit them to Digg. You can browse Digg and be the first to Stumble pages that are becoming popular there. Most if not all articles on the front page of Digg are submitted to StumbleUpon and will get a lot of Thumbs up. If you were the first to Stumble that when the page reaches the Popular page for its tags and category on Stumble your account will be the one listed next to it, which will give you more friends and fans and so on.

97th Floor | Social Media for Firefox.

Save Our Digital-Image History, Please - Columns by PC Magazine

by Lance Ulanoff

The U.S. government must help us preserve digital images and, in turn, our legacies.

We are at constant risk of losing our digital images. It's a subject that worries me, and one I've touched on before. This time, however, I have a new proposal: Let's create a national human image database. It wouldn't consist just of people, but of everything. Everyimage that humans capture digitally would be stored here.

Crazy idea, huh?

Maybe, but let's think about what's happening today. ….

<section cut away, click thru for whole article>

Library of Congress

Apparently, the Library of Congress agrees with me. The world's largest library has created a relatively well-funded National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. Its goal is laudable: "to develop a national strategy to collect, archive and preserve the growing amounts of digital content . . . ." The problem is that it doesn't go far enough. While the LOC is working double time to preserve digital information produced in maps, movies, sound recordings, Web sites, and databases, it's mostly just trying to encourage consumers to save their digital images. I'd like the LOC to go further.

Imagine a national digital-image directory managed by the Library of Congress. Everyone could upload their images at full resolution, please. (Otherwise, how will historians zoom in to the really nitty details, like how many stars were on that general's uniform in that parade?) The photos could be organized by geo-location and family. Other family members could access them, but those who submit the images will understand that after a period of time (say, a decade), the images will become part of the master database. Folks could also option to make those photos part of the national database at the outset.

<section cut away, click thru for whole article>

Save Our Digital-Image History, Please - Columns by PC Magazine.

Taking Good Intentions At Facebook Value - Security Watch

Wednesday December 19, 2007
Taking Good Intentions At Facebook Value
Categories:

E-Mail, Office, Phish
Tags:

Facebook, social networking

A McAfee Avert Labs blog entry asks some tough but necessary questions about the signup and registration process at Facebook.
Throughout the process Facebook asks you to enter certain information and install certain software that, by the standards of recent experience, seem irresponsible.


* They ask for your e-mail username and password

* They ask for your AOL Instant Messenger username and password

* They ask you to ignore browser security warnings.

* They ask you to download and run a .EXE file from an insecure site so that it can copy your contact information and upload it to their servers.

Call me suspicious, but practices such as these seem dangerous. And once you condition users to expect to do such things, perhaps they'll do them on other sites as well, including phishing sites.

And make sure to check out the CAPTCHA they show in the blog.

Taking Good Intentions At Facebook Value - Security Watch.

Verisign Exec: Kids Just Don't Worry About Security - Reviews by PC Magazine

Verisign Exec: Kids Just Don't Worry About Security

12.04.07

discuss Total posts: 2

by Natali T. Del Conte

VeriSign may not be a recognizable brand, but the company's checkmark logo is. VeriSign executives discussed how its technology will intersect with Christmas shoppers at a media dinner on Monday in San Francisco.

Consumers look to the checkmark logo as a symbol of trustworthiness, which is why institutions choose to work with VeriSign to secure the financial identity of customers, according to Fran Rosch, vice president of authentification solutions for VeriSign. As the holiday shopping season progresses, consumers will inevitably be looking to protect themselves when buying gifts online.

"When we talk about having a relationship with the customer, it is tricky because we don't really have one," Rosch said. "We have a relationship with an online institution that has a relationship with the customer. We are okay with that as long as the customer feels a high level of trust when they are using that institution."

VeriSign's marquee product is the VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) program. It is a one-time password (OTP) program that is currently being used by eBay and PayPal, designed to help defeat scam sites that sell discount electronics, among others.

With VIP, users have a single, portable credential that they can carry with them on a credit card, token, or cell phone interface, for example. That device will generate a brand new OTP when consumers ask it, so that when they log into a secure site, they can use both their regular password as well as the VeriSign-generated OTP, providing a double layer of protection.

"Consumers want this more and more on, not only their financial services, but also on the services that host their personal information like their social networks and dating sites," Rosch said.

Rosch said that the baby boomers demand a high level of security as the phishers and pharmers get more and more advanced.

"The concerns we worried about last year are not the concerns we worry about this year," he said. "And the concerns we worry about this year are not the concerns we'll worry about next year. The people who are trying to get your identity are really smart and they'll continue to advance their technology as well, which is why we have to continue to advance ours."

While baby boomers may be sticklers about security, VeriSign execs admitted that the Facebook generation is still a bit too lax about online security. They grew up documenting their lives online and may not learn the importance of protecting their passwords until they make enough money to protect.

"That generation is in for a hard lesson in terms of what information they put on the Internet," said Todd Johnson, senior vice president of worldwide marketing for VeriSign. "In more ways than one!"

Verisign Exec: Kids Just Don't Worry About Security - Reviews by PC Magazine.

eBay, Yahoo Japan to Link Sites - Reviews by PC Magazine

eBay, Yahoo Japan to Link Sites

12.04.07

discuss Total posts: 1

by Reuters

TOKYO (Reuters) - EBay Inc and Yahoo Japan will link up their auction sites to make cross-border bidding easier, in a deal that will give U.S. auction titan eBay another chance to woo lucrative Japanese consumers.

Shares in Yahoo Japan, owner of the nation's biggest auction Web site, rose 3.9 percent to 56,400 yen on news of the deal.

EBay pulled out of Japan in 2002 after only two years, a rare failure for the world's largest online auctioneer, after struggling to make inroads to a market where Yahoo Japan and Rakuten Inc already operated well-established sites.

EBay and Yahoo Japan, which together have about 4 trillion yen ($36 billion) in annual successful bids, will first launch a Japanese-language site on which Yahoo Japan users can bid for eBay items, spokesmen from the two firms said.

The companies will introduce the site, called Sekaimon or "Gateway to the world", at a news conference at 11 a.m. (0200 GMT) in Tokyo. The Web address is www.sekaimon.com

eBay, Yahoo Japan to Link Sites - Reviews by PC Magazine.

Shop at Amazon.com without a Credit Card - Reviews by PC Magazine

Shop at Amazon.com without a Credit Card

12.11.07

discuss Total posts: 1

by Brian Heater
Just in time for the major holiday push, Amazon is making Bill Me Later's payment system available to its users. Visitors will soon have the option of shopping on the site without being required to use a credit card.

"Bill Me Later has developed a very customer-centric method to make online shopping even easier," Amazon's vice president of payments, Matt Swann, said in a release issued this morning. "We are pleased to make the convenience of Bill Me Later available to our tens of millions of Amazon customers."

Amazon has made an equity investment in Bill Me Later, which, according to industry analysts, is "the most widely adopted alternative payments technology for the largest online retailers." However, Amazon has thus far refused to announce the details of its investment.

Shop at Amazon.com without a Credit Card - Reviews by PC Magazine.

Drive On Water

Okay, this is just too cool...

clipped from quickplanner.blogspot.com

Hispanic Surnames Crack Top 10

Rather than fight trends, it seems more useful to notice their historical precedents as well as their potential to increase our strength as a whole through diversity.

clipped from www.iconoculture.com Hispanic surnames crack top 10 Hispanic surnames Garcia and Rodriguez have moved into the top 10 most common last names in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau (NYTimes.com 11.17.07). Garcia moved to No. 8 in 2000 from No. 18. Rodriguez soared to No. 9 from No. 22. Martinez is No. 11, nearly displacing Wilson as No. 10. In all, six Hispanic surnames rank among the top 25. Making the list of top 10 names exemplifies how Latino population growth, increased by both birth and immigration, has impacted everyday American culture. Garcia and Rodriguez are traveling the same historical road as other ethnic names like O’Reilly and D’Amato, which have become socially acceptable. More English-dominant Latinos express pride in their roots because their last names are becoming part of the mainstream. Latino names, like other things Latino, are becoming so common that they are becoming part of the mainstream.

Kids Site on Excersize Balls in Class Instead of Chairs!

Now here's an idea I'd like to watch in real time. It seems like a great idea --- drain off a bit of that energy might help in concentration and learning. But might it not also lead to a group of kids bouncing around even more than normal and thru harder to gain their attention? Fascinating idea...

clipped from www.iconoculture.com WittFitt rolls out Active Sitting 101 WittFitt wants to harness kids' propensity for movement and improve their fitness and focus by replacing classroom chairs with bouncy stability balls. The program educates students and teachers on benefits of a healthy spine and core muscles, and how to safely sit on stability balls. Teachers using the WittFitt program report that ball-based students are more attentive than when sitting in chairs because they can fidget without being disruptive (Fargo Forum 11.4.07). WittFitt is being used in classrooms in nine states. Similar programs are in use in European classrooms (WittFitt.com 11.07). A 2006 study by the Mayo Clinic on ways to combat childhood obesity found that students liberated from desks were less obese, and mentally sharper too (CBSNews.com 3.29.06). Although PE classes have been getting lost in the shuffle for years, addressing kids' bodies and minds is a surefire way to make the classroom a more engaging, enriching place.

Physical Therapists Use Nintendo Wii for Stroke Patient

Experts have been suggestion for years that regular exercise is the key to good health and that they key to regular exercise is to make it fun. Now doctors are taking the same advice into the physical therapy arena. Following are clips from a terrific article about the experimental practice.

clipped from www.pcmag.com LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Franklin Perry used to spend hours performing video game feats with his thumbs but lately he has been using the Nintendo Wii, and the rest of his body, to regain his strength after suffering a stroke. Robbie Winget, an occupational therapist who oversees use of the Wii at Dodd Hall, said news that a rehab hospital in Alberta, Canada, was using the popular new video game system sparked the idea. "I thought it was cool that you used your body to control the movement," said Winget, who added that Nintendo has not provided the hospital with the video game console. All the patients at Dodd Hall usually undergo a total of three hours of daily therapy and work with the video game system for about 30 minutes per day two to three times per week. "This is more fun. It makes it more exciting. It gets me to work harder," said Perry, who has a fierce video game rivalry with his teenage nephew.

Pester Me

clipped from cybernetnews.com PesterMe (Homepage)– If you have a hard time remembering to do something, PesterMe is the answer. It lets you manually set a reminder duration and some text that it will pop-up with at the interval that you specify. As you can see in the screenshots to the right there really isn’t much to the application. It is kept to the bare minimum but there is also a System Tray icon that you can use to have it stop pestering you or to configure what it is pestering you about. So when something needs to get done…there is no better way to remember than to receive the pop-ups that we all normally dread! Oh yeah…and it can play a sound as well. Note: No installation is required.

Create HotKeys to do Multi Tasks more Quickly on your PC

clipped from cybernetnews.com CyberNotes: AutoHotkey To The Rescue! clipped from cybernetnews.com AutoHotkey is a scripting language that is used by people all around the world. You can automate a ton of different tasks in no time at all and the software you need is completely free. What’s even better is that you can compile your script into an executable file so that other people can use it without needing to download the software themselves. Before you go and start creating your own scripts there are already several available. One site in particular that has a huge list available is DonationCoder.com. Yes, the list is enormous so I’ll point out some of the most useful ones. TicTocTitle - Most people don’t want to have their taskbar autohide because they constantly look at the clock. No problem! Put it in the titlebar of your window using TicTocTitle.

Quick, EZ, Original and Free Productivity Software

clipped from cybernetnews.com More Freeware Apps from DonationCoder December 5th, 2007 3 Comments Written by Ryan clipped from cybernetnews.com Finding apps that make you more productive is always something that I look forward to, and DonationCoder is once again on top of that! Just a little while ago they started a Getting Organized Challenge to see what programmers could come up with. My first thought was that this was going to be a roundup of existing programs, but instead they required that any submitted apps not be released prior to November 1, 2007. There are 10 programs in total, and all of them are offered completely free of charge. How can you beat that?

6 Quick Ways to JAZZ-UP your photos

note to self -- keep in mind for product design

clipped from www.makeuseof.com beFunky - This is by far my favorite tool. With beFunky you can take any of your photos and turn it into a cartoon like drawing. You can either convert it into a black and white sketch drawing or into a colorful animated painting. Rasterbator - Looking for DIY-style wall-sized poster? This tool lets you take any image and convert it into a huge (up to 20 meters), awesome looking, rasterized wall poster. MagMyPic - Fun website where you can turn pics into cool magazine covers. ImageMosaicGenerator - Here you can get a mosaic version for any image you submit. Graphita - Graphita is a quick online app that lets you add some fun to pics by using captions, funny objects, speech bubbles, notes, doodles and more. Photo2Text - Photo2Text is a simple web tool that lets you convert images to text files and download them to your computer. You can also check out earlier posted ‘5 really powerful Online Image Editing Tools,