It’s like what JayeCuevas on YouTube said: “hey i have an idea! DON’T TAKE THOSE KIND OF PICS IN THE FIRST PLACE! now there’s a concept”. In any case, even adults need to learn that keeping a record of incriminating pics or text is simply asking for it. It doesn’t help that, with everything connected to the net, what you do foolishly becomes part of the permanent cyberspace history, free for people to check out even years later.

I don’t care if your hot or not. Nudity is best enjoyed up close and personal, free from any recording device. That is, unless you expose your body for a living.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Nothing makes a community livelier than diversity, and geek circles desperately need a woman’s touch. So how do we get more women drooling over specs and components? Here’s my five-step plan.

Release a Gaming PC With a Twilight Paint Job

Like or not, the Twilight saga is here to stay. And when you have women—including those of substance—involuntarily swooning over Stephanie Meyer’s shallow yet infatuation-inducing prose, you’ve got to use that to your advantage.

Enter the Twilight PC. With a painted Jacob and Ella emblazoned on the side of this powerful yet understated ATX tower, appeal to women is all but ensured. However they acquire one (out of their own funds or that of a loved one’s), you can bet they’ll eventually become curious about what makes it tick, introducing them to the components inside.

Make the Next Sims a Really Demanding Game

Already as a joke, enthusiasts like wondering if that new video card can handle Crysis. To attract the legions of female Sims gamers, the next installment of the Sims series should surpass Crysis’s system requirements. All for the sake of creating the most realistic soap opera simulator of course.

This will force women to become more aware of specs, and the components needed to achieve them. Heck, it will probably force them to determine, on their limited budgets, what’s the best overclocking setup possible. And guess where they’ll turn for advice?

Showcase the Attention Women Geeks Already Enjoy

Make it clear to women that there’s an appreciative audience waiting for them. Show them how the novelty of being female and into gadgets is very intriguing for your (typically) male geek. Just ask Sarah Townsend and, more recently, Adrienne Curry. The pioneer America’s Top Model winner recently posted a picture of herself, apparently playing World of Warcraft in her birthday suit:

Yes, if my five-step plan works, women geeks will become a dime a dozen, no longer able to rely on their gender to stand out. Yet this will allow female enthusiasts to distinguish themselves through real achievements, such as pushing the i7 920 past 4GHz merely on air.

Highlight the Success of Geeks

Face it: free from the superficial pecking order of high school, geeks rule more than jocks. They make more, are happier, and actually change the world. Let’s highlight those realities, and show women everywhere that geekdom is where true success happens. Women today are still attracted to successful men, not necessarily because they want good providers, but simply company who know what they’re talking about and how to get things done.

Yes, we’ve all heard stories about a homeless man wasting away his life playing World of Warcraft while living on welfare checks. So let’s make it clear that those cases are exceptions rather than the rule.

Treat the Losers Like Pariahs

Yes, every community has them, the trolls who like picking fights, to sexually-repressed infantile idiots virtually drooling even at the hint that their new online contact is a girl (even if it hasn’t been conclusively proven yet).

So what do we do with them? Treat them like the losers that they are. Show them that their antics will never get them ahead, and they’ll probably leave for dirtier pastures suitable for their immature outlook. What remains are discussions where approaching women will feel confident that they’re in discussions featuring substance, where their opinions and insights are respected.

What do you think? If you’ve got your own ways to get more women into computer hardware, feel free to share below.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

A quick summary for those who can’t watch the video right now: guy gets into jumpsuit, then wears a specially-designed (and most likely heavy) harness that carries a HD-capable Epson projector, a PS3, and loads of batteries. Guy goes around the vicinity, playing games on the a building’s side wall, the road, and even the while floating in the air courtesy of a practice parachuting vertical fan. The video ends with a brief warning not to attempt said stunt in any way, anywhere.

Game played: An unspecified member of the Need for Speed series.
Equipment: PlayStation 3, Epson TW450-HD projector, unspecified battery packs

Post from: The Gadget Blog

I bill for about 4 hours a day on average, and I charge $70 an hour. I mainly fix computer problems related to corrupt hard drives, RAM installation, CD/DVD ROM repair, internet connectivity issues, printer problems, audio problems, and the like.

I charge $20 just to take a look at your computer. If you decided that you want me to fix it, (after I tell you how long it will probably take) I apply that $20 to your “balance.” Most jobs take about an hour and I bill in 20 minute increments, rounding up. If I have to come to you, there is an additional $30 charge. After hours, holidays, and emergencies have an additional charge of $20 an hour.

In other words, if you want to make a living fixing PCs, you’ll need to take advantage of your potential customers’ limited time, and get paid good money to focus on their problems so they can worry about other things. Here are a few things to expect if you decide to become the neighborhood computer repair technician:

• Expect to be riddled with calls and requests for fixing computers for the rest of your natural life.
• You will get all types of customers… rich little old ladies who pay well… to [those] who will try… to squeeze the most out of you for the least possible amount of money.
• You will get customers who blame you for the remotest computer problem they get even months after you repaired their machines.
• 90% of the problems you fix will be one of these: “My computer is too slow. Please clean it up”, “Help! I got viruses invading my PC!”, “I got blue screens or other funny error message. Fix it or please reinstall Windows.”

So much more useful information available from The PC Guild.

(image from Frank Braski’s Flickr)

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Basically a more detailed discussion of how people get addicted to the internet, the article’s point is scary and interesting at the same time, presenting internet addiction as similar to other “traditional” life-destroying vices like alcohol and drug use. Like those, suddenly cutting off access to a computer may cause more harm than good:

It’s a difficult problem to treat, says Jerald Block, a clinical psychiatrist at Oregon Health Sciences University who specializes in compulsive computer use. Among the three most common methods are antidepressants, treatment for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and extended retreats from the computer. Cutting off access too suddenly or without other treatment worries Block, he says, because the computer has often become a container for aggression and a major relationship for an addict. Removing those can lead to some very aggressive behavior, including suicide or violence against others, he says: “You’re cutting the way they’re dealing with all of their emotions.”

It was honestly very easy for me to laugh at people like Andrew Ross, or even that Chinese dude who died from exhaustion after playing 24 hours straight. How could anyone spend that much time on a computer—a tool—and not profit from it? I usually spend more than 12 hours a day in front of a computer, but at least a significant part of that involves making money for myself. There’s so much information available online, and if you’re not using it to improve your fortunes, what’s the point?

That’s until I realized that, as a smoker, I have my own, nonsensical addiction. What’s the point of smoking something that damages your lungs and shortens your life span? Nicotine may be relaxing, but it’s also tremendously addicting, to the point that I can’t go for several hours at a time without at least a stick or two. In other words, smoking cigarettes is actually detrimental, but I can’t seem to kick the habit. Just like how Andrew Ross was unable to break his addiction to World of Warcraft and the constant search for novel—but ultimately useless—information.

The point is that, based on the increasing documentation on the effects of internet addiction, we should start considering it a genuine problem, and not just a “punchline” as written by Winston.

Source

Post from: The Gadget Blog

And while families are forced to retreat to the roof to avoid the rising water, and while power and infrastructure failure accompany the typhoon’s destruction, at least one Filipino has found the time and resources to capture the flooding up-close—and share it with the rest of the world online.

Here are those snapshots below, with the low quality of the cell phone camera made obvious by the graininess, so apologies for that, dear readers:

Amazingly, despite water rushing in, the resident’s house still enjoyed power—and most likely internet access. Not everyone was that lucky however. It seems someone set up a Google spreadsheet for people in the Philippines to post calls for help; apparently, imperiled residents would text their loved ones, who would then pass the message on by posting it on the Google Doc.

You’ve also got a celebrity saving stranded people with his surfboard, a mall chain converting its various branches into shelters, and video footage of a pedestrian underpass completely submerged. It’s clear that, even as some people are literally fighting for their lives, word is being passed around through technology, whether through cell phones, Twitter, or the internet in general.

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Courtesy NASA

What does this mean exactly? Either most Americans like to surf more at home, like to download more away from the office, or leisurely activities simply require more bandwidth. Think about it: how large are office documents compared to say, movies and music?

Speaking of media, the study chorused Captain Obvious by citing “porn” as one of the more popular activities online, including it in a traffic-happy triumvirate including YouTube and gaming. Their respective peaks? Midnight eastern for video, and somewhere between 8 and 11PM in the same time zone for gaming.

If Arbor is correct, then it’s clear that the east coast still represents the majority of internet traffic in the US. Makes sense actually, when you consider that it’s more dense population-wise than its western counterpart (at least way back in 2000, feel free to point to more current census data in the comments). Simply put, more people live there, and all things being equal, that means more people going online.

But what does this all mean really? Well, companies who provide services and products online should start appealing more to the night-centric online crowd, if they already haven’t done so. It’s also reasonable to assume that evil office ITs are doing a better job of limiting online access at the workplace, no?

Source

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Courtesy http://technogra.ph

The BBZ setup is basically a proprietary freezer chest that keeps stored beer just above freezing temperature. According to Luigi C. Nuñez, the president of the company responsible for inventing, patenting, and marketing the product, another key to the process are the so-called beertenders, who regularly visit the chests know how to move the bottles inside the freezer for optimum cooling. Nuñez likes to call them specialized sommeliers of some sort.

Nuñez had much more to say about his product. The BBZ process doesn’t rely on ice—meaning no water usage—and isn’t power-intensive. Other tidbits shared to the press include BBZ’s apparent appeal with women, who seem to favor cold beer more than men, and a special trick. Take a few gulps until no beer remains in the neck of the bottle. Tap the side of the bottle with a spoon firmly, wait a second, then pour into a glass. The force causes the beer to crystallize, turning it into instant beer slush!

BBZ has convinced 80 establishments throughout the Philippine capital of Metro Manila to buy into the setup, advertising their beverages as “Beer Below Zero”. Nuñez and company are expanding to Malaysia, Singapore, and Guam, and hope that their alcohol-friendly product not only makes loads of money, but put the Philippines on the map as well. Hopefully not as a nation of drunkards, mind you. More info is available beerbelowzero.com. Cheers!

Source

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Ultimately however, such performance is piss poor, especially when you consider that the US average has increased only by 1.6 Mbps since May 2007. A practical no-show for a country responsible for many of the innovations that characterize how we use the Internet today (search engines, social networks, and social media!). Here are the top and bottom five US states:

1. Delaware – 9.9
2. Rhode Island – 9.8
3. New Jersey – 8.9
4. Massachusetts – 8.7
5. New York – 8.4

1. Hawaii – 3.0
2. Wyoming – 2.6
3. Idaho – 2.6
4. Alaska – 2.3
5. Montana – 2.3

Both US territories (Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico) ranked even lower, at 1.1 and 1.0 respectively.

In any case, we shouldn’t read too much into what the stats say. After all, those who compile such data are totally reliant on users who actually tested their connections. It’s reasonable to assume that the majority of internet users have yet to contribute to compilations such as speedtest.net’s world results. If you’ve ran your internet connection through a speed test, feel free to share the results in the comments below.

Source (Image Source)
Speedtest.net World Results

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Courtesy Google Tutors

To make a long story short, dopamine—the same neurotransmitting checmical linked to feelings of happiness and fulfillment—also rewards us when we successfully make “intellectual connections” and divine “meaning”. In other words, that’s why you feel so compelled to follow links in Wikipedia, or Google for new terms as they enter your consciousness. Dopamine makes you feel good whenever you discover the history of your favorite TV show, or the scientific processes that drive a microprocessor.

There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but the source article on Slate implies somewhat that this quest for new (and sometimes ultimately useless information) can turn into an addiction of sorts. The way we are made actually encourages this to happen, as our brain can easily hardwire to accomodate a state of constant seeking and finding. So those three-hour long Wikipedia-Google sessions become easier to fall into the more it’s done.

While it may not be as debilitating as obsession with pharmaceuticals, the continuously entertaining and never-ending quest for stuff online may make us “less likely to meet… real needs.” Have you ever been late to that important meeting or hot date, thanks to an unwillingness to pull yourself from the computer? Or how about forgetting to pre-schedule that blog post, since you were busy sniffing out info on a totally unrelated current event?

Source

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