Sometimes what you use against teenagers can come right back at you and bite you in the ass. A high-pitched tone, which can generally be heard only by youth, was used to keep teenagers away from stores where they were not welcome. The result of this was that now teenagers use this tone to send and receive SMS text messages without their teachers knowing about it. Here’s a New York Times article about it (free registration required).
EasyVMX
EasyVMX is a simple but useful website, which lets you create VMWare virtual machine configuration files with an easy-to-use web interface. Later on, you can use it for running Linux on Windows without a CD-ROM, for example.
Why Goalies Hate the New World Cup Soccer Ball
A short, interesting read on why goalies hate the new World Cup soccer ball. (via Digg)
Japan Subway Station Video
You think trains in Israel are crowded? Check this out.
Hubble Heritage Image Gallery
Hubble Heritage Image Gallery is where you can find amazing pictures taken by the Hubble space telescope. (via Digg)
Top 10 Strangest Clocks
Following their “Top 10” series, TechEBlog published their list of top 10 strangest clocks. (via Digg)
Krunch – online compression/decompression
Krunch is a new web service that lets you compress and decompress (zip and unzip) files online. This is useful if you’re in a place where the correct program for compressing and decompressing your files is not available. (via Download Squad)
Illumio – they implemented my UQAN idea
Here’s another old idea of mine that gets implemented by someone else: Illumio (NY Times story) is the implementation of my UQAN idea for distributing questions over a network of users to get answers from apparent experts. Here’s Illumio’s website although there’s not much to do there.
I have mixed feelings about this. Although I never thought I’d actually get to implementing UQAN, and I want to see how Illumio turns out, I still feel like I should have done it myself. Oh well.
Geeky coolness links
Here are two links to things which are cool in a geeky way:
- Infernoptix Fire Display – a display based on fire.
- MIDAS, automated dorm room system – with the “instant party” button. (via Slashdot)
After you’ve seen this, do you think the two geeks in the “instant party” room would like a fire display?
Good tip in case your cellphone gets stolen
If your cellphone gets stolen, here’s a good tip that will let you disable the phone itself so that the thieves won’t be able to make any calls using it. This is done with the help of a unique identification number, which apparently every phone has. All you have to do is write down this number. In case your phone gets stolen, you give this number to your cellular service provider. (via Digg)