Here's a fascinating blog post by "Ovid" on how he caught his ID thieves in only a couple of hours. They had racked up a few thousand dollars of charges on his credit card. Maybe Ovid should be a detective, although he did get a couple of lucky breaks. Of course, the credit card companies would never have held him responsible, but it must feel good to personally catch the bad guys. His story is also being discussed on this Slashdot thread.
A PPU (Physics Processing Unit) Card
The first generation of PPU cards are coming to market. Anandtech is reporting on the PhysX PPU card from AGEIA.
Just like GPU cards which added 2D graphics acceleration and later 3D, PPU cards will accelerate physics (no pun intended :-) calculations. Software developers can use the PPU cards to do much better physics simulations without running out of processing power in the CPU.
GPS wristwatch
From a Seattle Times review of the Suunto X9:
Imagine, a GPS receiver that is smaller than some of the basic altimeter watches on the market today. Add in the fact that this GPS receiver also incorporates a magnetic compass and a highly accurate barometric altimeter, and you have a complete backcountry navigation tool. One that fits on your wrist and weighs just 2.5 ounces
Credit card signatures don't matter
When he got frustrated John Hargrave drew a picture of Shamu instead of signing his name on a credit card receipt. The cashier accepted this without even blinking. Surprised, he decided to find out what it would take to have someone refuse to accept his credit card becuase of a mismatched signature.
http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit_card/
It get's pretty ridiculous towards the end, but he finally does manage to get someone to refuse to accept his card.
Fun with remote-controlled web-cams
If you do a google search for
all the hits will be for remote-controlled web-cams. Almost all of them are for public places, and most are not password protected. I found out about this in the comments following up on a March 18 entry on Bruce Schneier's weblog.
How to destroy the Earth
Sam Hughes maintains a detailed analysis of what it would take to destroy the Earth. Needless to say it's a lot harder than most sci-fi movies make it look.
His mission statement for the analysis is:
For the purposes of what I hope to be a technically and scientifically accurate document, I will define our goal thus: by any means necessary, to render the Earth into a form in which it may no longer be considered a planet. Such forms include, but are most definitely not limited to: two or more planets; any number of smaller asteroids; a quantum singularity; a dust cloud.
Donald Knuth audio interview on NPR
A short audio interview with Donald Knuth on NPR.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4532247
"Donald Knuth is legendary in the computer science world for writing a series of must-have reference books called The Art of Computer Programming. Part cookbook, part textbook, part encyclopedia, these books are also considered by many to be technical and personal works of art."
Sesame Steet names for terror alert levels
This site has alternate names for the terror alert level.
Today's level is:
This is the same level as the "real" one, just with a different name.
Build your own LCD projector
Surprisingly easy.
http://www.audiovisualizers.com/madlab/lcd_proj.htm
Not sure if the time spent would be worth the savings, but if you've got a DIY itch you need to scracth…
Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
I watched a funny movie last night, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. It's about one night in the life of two twenty-somethings who get a craving for White Castle hamburgers after smoking some weed. It's kind of a combination of a Wayne's World movie, a Cheech & Chong movie, and a Bill & Ted movie. But unlike these movies, the main characters, Harold & Kumar, are very intelligent (Harold works at an investment bank, and Kumar is applying for med school).