Sunday, August 31, 2008

Comcast to cap online use

The cap will be set at 250gb. If you go over that, you get a courtesy call from Comcast as a first warning. The second time that you go over, your account will be immediately suspended for an entire calendar year. People that watch movies or video's online are going to be hit hard because you can go over your daily limit in minutes.

And don't forget that companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and others are offering online (cloud) storage. Some applications such as Google's http://docs.google.com/ are online and would be completely inaccessible to small business's or home offices.

Plus there are X-box, Playstation, Nintendo and many other consumer boxes that require the internet to access online games, calenders, address books, and even clocks.
clipped from news.cnet.com

Comcast to cap monthly consumer broadband

Comcast notes that the median usage for most residential customers falls somewhere between 2GB and 3GB, a number that is regularly broken within a matter of hours and sometimes minutes by customers taking advantage of streaming HD video and online backup services. The company breaks down basic usage numbers similar to what's seen on the marketing materials on a consumer hard drive:


* Send 50 million e-mails (at 0.05KB/e-mail)

* Download 62,500 songs (at 4MB/song)

* Download 125 standard-definition movies (at 2GB/movie)

* Upload 25,000 high-resolution digital photos (at 10MB/photo)

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Saturday, August 30, 2008

How does it feel to die?

This article takes the guess work out of death. How does it feel to drown? How long does it take? Is Lethal Injection painless? Do you die from strangulation or from a broken neck?

This article explains the most common ways to die, what it likely feels like and how long it takes in most cases.

Death special: How does it feel to die?

Drowning
The "surface struggle" for breath
Heart attack
One of the most common forms of exit
Bleeding to death
Several stages of haemorrhagic shock
Fire
It's usually the toxic gases that prove lethal
Decapitation
Nearly instantaneous
Electrocution
The heart and the brain are most vulnerable
Fall from a height
If possible aim to land feet first
Hanging
Speed of death depends on the hangman's skill
Lethal injection
US-government approved, but is it really painless?
Explosive decompression

It takes your breath away

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Do animals have emotions?

A nice article with some example of why some people believe that animals have emotions.

Do animals have emotions?

Spite
After a fight in which he trounced another young male, Reuben, the latter retreated with "his ass up in the air", a sign of submission. Instead of letting him be, Nick slashed Reuben's rump with his canines. "He harassed the females, swatted at kids and bullied ancient Gums and Limp," writes Sapolsky. One day, Nick took exception to a female baboon, Ruth. When threatened by a male, a female usually runs up a tree and to the end of a flimsy branch, where the heavier male cannot follow her. "So Ruth gallops up the tree, Nick after her, and Ruth leaps out to a safe edge," Sapolsky recounts. "Nick promptly climbs onto a stronger, thicker branch directly above her. And then urinates on her head."
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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Spammers are hiring firms to defeat CAPTCHA's

You send the firm the CAPTCHA's and a real person solves it and send it back to the customer. Apparently the employee solving the puzzle only gets paid if the puzzle is:

Solved correctly
Solved within 60 seconds (even though the rule is under 20 seconds)

The firm charges $1 for every 1,000 CAPTCHA's that you send. They also sell Gmail and Yahoo mail accounts in bulk

Web Fraud 2.0: Thwarting Anti-Spam Defenses

Spammers have made great strides this past year in defeating CAPTCHAs, the distorted text used as a security test to ensure a person and not a machine is behind a computer screen. But automated programs that spammers use to thwart CAPTCHAs still aren't nearly as successful as the practice of hiring thousands of people to do nothing but remotely solve the puzzles for clients.

captchamain.jpg
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Friday, August 22, 2008

The iPhone is Apple's solution to the Enterprise

Even though most every one agrees when it comes to Apple and Enterprise, the iPhone is helping Apple reach into Enterprise. Apple had only had 1% in Oct. 2006 and jumped to 4.5 just 9 months later. It is no coincidence that the iPhone was announced in Jan. 2007 and started shipping that summer.

This is significant because Enterprise adoption of Mac's had been at a stand still.
clipped from blogs.eweek.com

The iPhone Halo Effect

The surprising findings come in a report Forrester Research released today. The long-winded title: "Corporate Desktop Operating System Trends, Q4 2007 Through Q2 2008: Windows Vista Deployments Are Finally Ramping Up, While Mac Continues Its Slow March on the Enterprise." The analyst firm monthly surveyed more than 50,000 enterprise end users from 2,500 organizations to compile the operating system trends.

Enterprise OS Adoption
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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Girl Produces Crystals With Her Eyes

Amazing! These crystals (about seven a day) are very sharp but do not hurt the 12 year-old Lebanese girl who has baffled medical experts. Could be a hoax, but even so the video is worth a look.
clipped from break.com

Girl Produces Crystals With Her Eyes

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Friday, August 15, 2008

Don't they look Alike?

Comparison pictures showing how much alike some people are to odd things:
Tom Selleck looks like the Red Baron
Mick Jagger looks like a batfish
Britney Spears looks like Mr. Freeze
clipped from www.funniez.net
Don't They Look A Like?
bruce-vilanch
robert-smith
gary-busey
wilford-brimley
nick-nolte
george-bush
bill-gates
britney-spears
christopher-lloyd
crypt-keeper
donatella-versace
dr-phil
eddie-van-halen
flava-flav
fred-thompson
jack-nicholson
james-carville
james-hetfield
jamie-hyneman
john-kerry
michael-jackson
pope-benedict
posh-spice
tom-selleck
mick-jagger
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Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Flockbar Legend (Mac)


Flockbar Legend (Mac)
Originally uploaded by Flocking
This graphic show the helpful buttons along the top right hand side of the Flock browser and what their purpose is

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