Linux users are so creative… and cheap. Sometimes their love for free open source software takes hold in other ways. For example, check out this picture of a custom Linux box I found on afrotechmods.com.
Ubuntu Feisty OS: $0.00. Cardboard box: $0.00. Duct tape: $1.00.
Having the bitchin’est case mod this side of the trailer park: priceless.
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Like to see how websites rate against each other while you browse the Internet?
Alexa, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, has been providing information on web traffic since 1996. Once you install the Alexa Toolbar, you can then view traffic trends, reach and rank, of any site you visit on the Internet. The toolbar then feeds traffic data of the sites you visit back to Alexa. There are billions of people on the Internet and only a minor portion of them have the Alexa Toolbar. This population provides a “sample” of users that Alexa uses to measure web activity and page popularity.
But their toolbar has only been available for PC users with Internet Explorer. For example, here’s the MethodShop.com Alexa Internet Explorer PC only toolbar. Macintosh and PC users with Firefox have been left out of the Alexa sample… until now. An Alexa toolbar called “Sparky” for Firefox was finally released last week.
Why should you care about the Alexa Toolbar? Most people don’t. But if you want to support your favorite websites, then you might want Alexa to track what sites you visit. Many webmasters use Alexa ranking to set advertising rates.
If you are interested, you can get the Alexa Sparky Toolbar for Firefox here.
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The iPhone may be Apple’s first “official” phone, but apparently they toyed with the idea 25 years ago. Way back in 1983, designer Hartmut Esslinger, the same guy who made the Apple IIc computer, came up with this phone/tablet prototype.
Writing an electronic check with the 1983 iPhone.
The 1983 version of the iPhone obviously never made it into production, but it’s still a cool concept. Although writing a physical electronic check seems a little silly now that we have online banking. The image is from fudder.de.
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Apple’s iPhone has enjoyed favorable reviews since its recent debut, but it got some criticism on Capitol Hill in Washington this week.
The phones, which cost between $500 and $600—are usable only on AT&T Inc.’s wireless network and will remain that way until 2012. Even though the phones become expensive paperweights if customers quit AT&T’s wireless plan, the company will still charge a $175 early termination fee, said Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., chairman of a House subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet.
Markey described the phone as a “Hotel California service. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave—you’re stuck with your iPhone and you can’t take it anywhere.”
Timothy Wu, a law professor at Columbia University and commentator on technology issues, described the cell phone industry as “spectrum- based oligopoly” where customers have given up their property rights.
“Imagine buying a television that stopped working if you decided to switch to satellite,” Wu said. “Or a toaster that died if you switched from Potomac Power to ConEd.”
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A lighter and paper shredder helped make Mika Brzezinski the “symbol of television journalism’s guilt trip” about Paris Hilton. Brzezinski used both to destroy a script calling for her to read about Hilton’s release from jail on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program recently. Part serious, part an act, it has become an Internet sensation. More than 2 million people have watched a clip of the incident on YouTube, around 10 times the number who watched it live on TV. Apparently, she’s not the only one sick of the socialite.
“Among journalists it touched a nerve because I think we’re tired of pretending this is important,” she said. “We also know that, deep down inside, our viewers know that we don’t believe this is news. They can’t. They can’t think we’re that dumb.”
Brzezinski, who left CBS News last year, has been working as a news- reader and on-air foil for Joe Scarborough on the show MSNBC is trying out to replace Don Imus in the morning.
Hours after Hilton’s June 26 catwalk to freedom, Joe Scarborough (widget) and Brzezinski discussed one of the day’s other big stories at their show’s opening: influential Republican Sen. Richard Lugar’s declaration that President Bush’s Iraq strategy wasn’t working.
It was then Brzezinski’s turn to sum up the day’s news. She looked down at her script and Hilton was the top story. She froze.
“I could not get through the first three words without crumbling,” she said. “My skin was crawling. This was our lead? On a day like this? To me, it was just the ultimate Paris Hilton out-of-control moment. We’ve gone too far and we’ve got to stop. That was all real. There was nothing planned about that, and I believe we got a little snappy.”
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Authorities tracked down a 4-year-old girl who called 911 nearly 300 times last month by offering to deliver McDonald’s to her suburban Chicago apartment.
Unbeknownst to her mother, the girl used a deactivated cell phone to call dispatchers 287 times in June — sometimes as often as 20 times a shift. Apparently the toddler was given the old cell phone to use as a toy.
Dispatchers heard the child’s voice but could only track the phone’s signal to the apartment complex. So authorities used a ruse to pinpoint her.
“We asked (the caller) what she wanted. She said she wanted McDonald’s,” said Steve Cordes, executive director of QuadCom’s emergency center, which covers Carpentersville.
“We talked with her and we convinced her if she told us where she lives, we would bring her McDonald’s,” he said. “She finally gave us her address. So we sent the police over — with no McDonald’s.”
After police arrived, the girl’s mother took away the phone, Cordes said. Maybe mom should invest in a book called “It’s Time to Call 911” which teaches children when it’s appropriate to call 911.
Under federal law, deactivated cell phones still must be able to access 911. Many deactivated phones will contact an emergency call center if the user holds down the nine key.
[Source: Yahoo]
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Thinking about making applications for the iPhone? Apple released an iPhone developer guide to offer guidelines for creating widgets and applications that will integrate with the device’s Safari browser, mail and mapping applications.
IM chat service Meebo, mini-blogging service Jaiku and gaming site WeeWar have already developed iPhone versions of their software.
The following guidelines will help developers prepare web content and design a website or web-based application for iPhone.
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Not ready to shell out $600 for the new iPhone? You can trick out your current phone with the iPhone ringtones. These ringtones are the official iPhone ringtones ripped off the iPhone.
You can download them HERE from jasonromero.com.
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The iPhone was one of the most anticipated product launches of 2007. So how did it do? According to Blackfriars, an analyst firm that has been monitoring Apple’s stores, iPhone sales topped 500,000 last weekend. Here’s a quote from the Blackfriars daily blog:
“The bottom line: some analysts claimed that the iPhone launch would be a failure if Apple failed to sell 100,000 iPhones during the first weekend. Based upon the limited data we have, we believe that number was exceeded in just the first two to three hours. Blackfriars’ prediction is that Apple will sell 500,000 iPhones this weekend, and based upon limited sales rates reported, that number now looks quite achievable. The only question is whether the demand and iPhone supply is great enough that they might push past the million unit mark this weekend.”
Apple must be pleased with such strong sales over the first weekend, it will be interesting to see if they can keep the sales up, over the coming weeks and months.
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