Cat of the week

Today's Funny

Today's Funny

Swarm Testing by Mozilla Labs

TestSwarm is a really innovative and awesome idea from Mozilla Labs.
Question : How do i get my javascript tested to run on all browser types?
Old Answer: Install every single browser.
New Answer: TestSwarm by Mozilla Labs.

You can install and run TestSwarm on your own servers which will give you great functionality if you are a web developer. But other than that it is still in a alpha phase. It looks very promising and i signed up to participate my browser in this. Very awesome idea for an IT driven Community
Check it out : TestSwarm

Today's Funny

Scary stuff.

Robots that Deceive and Lie

Robots are the creation of logic, and it seems that to lie is logical in sum situations and that this logic can be translated into computer code. A Swiss laboratory create 10 robots and gave them the ability to communicate with each other. They ran an experiment to see if these robots can deceive one another.

The experiment worked as followed: (extract taken from LiveScience )
10 robots with downward-facing sensors competed for "food" - a light-colored ring on the floor. At the other end of the space, a darker ring - "poison" - was placed. The robots earned points for how much time they spent near food as opposed to poison.
Each robot can produce a blue light that can be seen by the others and which can give away the position of the "food" ring. Over time, the robots evolved to deceive each other about the food ring.

Their evolution was made possible by the artificial neural network that controlled each of the robots. The network consisted of 11 "neurons" that were connected to the robot's sensors and 3 that controlled its two tracks and its blue light. The neurons were linked via 33 connections - "synapses" - and the strength of these connections was each controlled by a single 8-bit gene. In total, each robot's 264-bit genome determines how it reacts to information gleaned from its senses.

The results:

The more successful robots became more secretive. By the 50th generation, they became much less likely to shine their lights near the food than elsewhere in the arena.

My Conclusion :

Does anyone know where we can find John Conner?

Poll Results

The poll results are back. :) What is with vampires that sparkly sparkle? Are they gay? or are they just happy to see us? It seems that the series twilight has sparkled the imagination of 13year old's and change their worlds as we know it. Now every little girl wants a vampire she can match her sequence dress to and one to just be fabulous with! woohoo!

Anyways. Most of you are of the opinion that Vampires should not sparkle and that we should get Wikus from district 9 to kill the sparkly ones. Yay go Wikus go!

Telnet Starwars - A new Hope in ASCII

Did you know that you can watch Star Wars ep iv, a new hope in ascii from your computer. All you have to do is

• go to start
• click run
• type "telnet", this will open a telnet terminal
• type "o" , this should go down a line and display ""
• type "towel.blinkenlights.nl"

After doing this the screen will firstly display text and then the movie will start. Please note that this is streaming through telnet, but it doesn't take up much bandwidth at all. There is no sound, all of the words are also displayed in text, but the movie is done quite well. Check some of the screen shots below.






M

Today's Funny

LOL

Tips on how to keep swine flu to yourself

Our lovely Health Department in South Africa has sent out some posters to help us to keep our swine flu to ourselves. Yesterday the death toll was up to 18 in South Africa where it was about 8 two days earlier.

Apparently you are suppose to wipe on your shoulder and cough down your shirt...Ewe.. And for all of those people who have a phobia of germs, wash your hands every 5minutes.

I already know three people who have swine flu and I know carte blance is saying it is all a conspiracy theory to scam us out of money, but check the posters out. I still believe that it might be useful if you are unfortunate enough to catch H1N1.




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Robotic Hand Coordination

Coordination and a dexterity comes natural to you and me. For a long time we were superior because we had finite control over small objects and fast processing for great feats of dexterity like dribbling a ball. Well the day of the terminator draws closer as this video shows the finite and dexterous control a robotic hand with 3 fingers has. It has the ability to dribble a ping pong ball, throw a and catch a cellphone and it cab even rotate a pen. I was stunned when i saw this. This hand is already capable of picking up a rice grain with a piece of tweezers, imagine the stability it will have to do transplants and operations.
Really impressive stuff :P

watch the video here.



and read the article here.

Urban Hack attack

Hackers are a reality. They usually go out to prove a point, fighting for some cause, usually malicious and sometimes harmless. In some cases they are just board and looking to have some fun.

Here is an amusing video where hackers hi-jacked a building to play space invaders with the lights in the rooms. It looks like fun. :-D


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Today's Funny

Finally proof! I knew they were real!!


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Tech Support Cheat Sheet

This is a very valuable sheet for non IT people. I would suggest printing this and giving it to those people who keep on asking you to help them with everything computer related, before you become a slave. We all know these people, in fact I've got a theory that non IT people consider IT people as collectors items, making them feel more "with it".



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Browser Game: DragonFable - Web RPG

Role Playing Games are generally awesome :) You have the ability to level up and kick ass in the way you want to with a character of your choice. The thing that attracts me most to RPG`s is the fact that you can complete the game in your own manner.

DragonFable -WebRPG is a flash based quest game you will find all over advertisements. I must admit it is quite fun. If you spend the time to read the comments is quite funny, and completing the game will take some time.

The creators of the game will allow you free characters and sign up, but all the cool awesome stuff in the game will only be available for players who bought a subscription. This isn't needed to have fun but it sure can get irritating some times.

I like it because its flash based and because i can grow to a character, whilst i wont play this every single minute of every day, i do spend a few minutes in between work and thinking to fight a few baddies.

Its a bit repetitive but leveling up unlocks more features and pets and spells and things that makes you stick to it for an extra level.

Give it a bash at: DragonFable

Today's Funny

Gotcha! :-P

SVG for IE by Google

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is in most graphical tools. It is used heavily in many big projects, such as KDE (linux GUI) and Wikipedia.

The SVG specification is an open standard that has been under development by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) since 1999. SVG images and their behaviours are defined in XML text files which allows it to be searched, indexed, scripted and, even compressed.

Internet Explorer's has no built-in support for SVG, you needed to download an browser plugin to be able to view certain images. Google is fixing that now with JavaScript library named SVGWeb. Here is a quick, one-minute overview.
Or find it on their project page.

Diablo 3 New Class: The Monk

The monk, an extract reads from the diablo 3 site :

had heard countless fantastic stories about the monks, tales that were surely the beneficiary of significant embellishment. The monks’ skin, the accounts said, was as hard as iron, impenetrable by the blade of any sword or by the point of any arrow, and their fists could break stone as easily as you or I would snap a twig. Though the unassuming man before me seemed miles away from what I had heard and read of the monks, I approached cautiously, sliding down onto the bench across from him, eager to take his measure. He beckoned me forward with a small wave of his hand.

"Ah, a soul brave enough to sit with me. Come, friend."

You have to see this guy in action he is kicking some butt and he is not afraid to do it :P Really some nice skills and i character i cant wait to play :) its going to be awesome. Check out the video. Go to the diablo 3 site and click on media :) or try this link.

StarWars - SciFi scanners Epic Fails

I am a huge star wars fan. And i must admit there was quite a few moments in the epicly awesome films when i went "Really?" well SciFi Scanner is taking it to the max with a article on Star Wars most Epic fails.

Dont know what to make of this one, judge for yourself here

Cat of the week

Today's Funny

Hahahahahah!!! What?!

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No Brainer 2 - Browser game

No Brainer is a quick, fun and easy game. You get asked questions and you need to quickly respond by moving your mouse up and down for yes or left and right for no. If you don't respond quick enough your brain gets tazed. Just imagine the drinking game you could make out of this one.





Enjoy

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Funny error messages

Getting an error message just makes my blood boil, but I know getting angry doesn't make the error go away. Here are some funny error messages. Hopefully this will put the smile back on your face.





















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Microsoft Office 2010 ad

This is the ad for Microsoft Office 2010. They played it at teched this year and I thought I would share it with the rest of the people that were not there.

The ad is a bit cliche with the matrix elements in it, but at the same time it is amusing.


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South Africa's Caster Semenya a man?

Is SHE a he? That is the question being asked at the world championships about South Africa's Caster Semenya.

"The 18-year-old 800m gold medal favourite has burst on to the world scene in recent months, with her appearance, including obvious facial hair, and muscular build igniting speculation about her gender."

"The IAAF is aware of the issue and has conducted physical tests and genetic screening to try to determine the legitimacy of Semenya's sex."

IOC rules generally state athletes must compete under their gender-at-birth.

I honestly can't make out from the picture which gender she is, but on the other hand, most of the female athletes look like men to me. The exercise so much that there is nothing left of their breast and womanly curves. If the outcome is that Semanya is a woman, then I feel sorry for her and that they are putting her through all of this, after all of her hard work.

Read the rest of the article here.

M

Today's Funny

Twilight Barbie Dolls - fan-pires' delight

If Twilight-inspired greeting cards and clothing weren’t enough to satisfy "fan-pires", now they can add Edward Cullen and Bella Swan Barbie Dolls to their collections! As a tribute to the on-screen lovers, Barbie has created a set of dolls modeled after Robert Pattinson’s Edward Cullen and Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan.

I am lost for words. Vampires are suppose to be scary and mean. Now they sparkle and little girls play with them. We've already got purple dinosaurs teaching kids stuff on TV, what next? Are we going to start having tap-dancing werewolf as pets?


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Peppermint Crisp Milk Straw

I've seen these products where they sell you falvoured straws to drink you milk with. What a waste of money.

Since I've been a kid, I have used peppermint crisp chocolates for exactly this.

You simply bite off both sides of the chocolate exposing the peppermint, then you put the chocolate into your glass of milk and start sipping away.

This is a lot better, because not just does it make your milk minty flavoured, you also get to eat the straw afterwords.

Go ahead an try it for yourself. It is quite a tasty snack.

M

Today's Funny

Terrible F1 accident



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District 9

The talk of the town today is known as District 9. And apparently all over America and Europe the Movie is boasted as the best sci-fi movie of all time. They even say it is so good that the film will launch Neill Blomkamp into sci-fi stardom, on par with George Lucas and the Wachowski Brothers (from the Matrix).

The plot:
Aliens were found to be landed in Johburg, everybody waited for technology or a massive fight but nothing happened (DUM DUM DUM!). The aliens were ultimately housed in a government camp inside Johannesburg. The overcrowding and militarization eventually turned the area into a slum known as District 9, and a massive black market was established between the aliens and a group of Nigerians.

Sounds like trouble. One of the main characters is called Wikus van der Merwe, lol cant wait to hear the accent. All and all it seems like a very good movie and everybody is ranting and raving about it.

If i can give some tourists from overseas some advise, don't try to visit the real District 9 in South Africa, there are no aliens and your probably not gonna keep the clothes on your back. Its not a tourist destination :P

All and all go check it out, you might just love it :)

Phobias - The Scary Truth

A phobia (from the Greek: φόβος, phóbos, fear or morbid fear), is an irrational, intense, persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, or people.

The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive, unreasonable desire to avoid the feared subject. When the fear is beyond one's control, and if the fear is interfering with daily life, then a diagnosis under one of the anxiety disorders can be made.

We all have or have had fears at some stage in our life. Looking at the list of common phobias that are found among children, I know I could associate with quite a few of them.

Looking at a list of phobias, I found quite a few interesting ones that I didn't know exist.

• Anablephobia- Fear of looking up. Imagine the stiff neck.
  
• Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia- Fear of the number 666. That is quite a mouth full.
• Judeophobia- Fear of Jews. Heil Hitler!
• Nyctophobia- Fear of the dark or of night. Iron maiden was preaching the truth.
• Papaphobia- Fear of the Pope. Who is your daddy?
• Phobophobia- Fear of phobias.
• Proctophobia- Fear of rectums. Ughm...
• Scolionophobia- Fear of school. I think I had this one.
• Syngenesophobia- Fear of relatives. I definitely have this one!

M

Today's Funny

Babysitting to the max!

What to do when Zombies Attack!

A few students from the University of Ottawa has wrote the paper "When Zombies Attack" showing a Mathematical Model for Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse.

A quick extract reads:
"We show that only quick, aggressive attacks can stave off the
doomsday scenario: the collapse of society as zombies overtake us all"


The only way to survive doomsday is by is to killing them all quickly :P Maths have proven it.
Very cool article if your into math.

Here you go: When Zombies Attack

Your last email in this digital age

A lot of us are living today in a digital age, 80% of your daily life is probably computer or Internet related. But what happens when we leave this world? We are leaving things and people behind is it still a good idea to have a will on paper? Do you have a safe with your last instructions in? If no, consider the following services from the Last Messages Club.

The Last Message Club offers you a online will and email service so you can send your final email with your instructions on your death for a very small service fee. E-Mails they are currently faulting range from funny messages to the more technical. Surely an option to consider :)

Visit them here and see what they can offer you :)

Cool Strategy Game for browser Gemcraft TD

Gemcraft TD is an awesome browser game.. gosh look at the time its 6pm already and I started playing at 11am :P Really fun with a save option upgrades and tough but fun stages. Awards are given in the form of amulets and collecting them all is proving to be a fun challenge. The dynamics of the game is simple, upgrade your gems by combining and build towers to place your gems on. Very good effects for and the graphics are quite good. Your going to have loads and loads of fun :)

Find it here: Gemcraft TD

A Post about Open Atrium

Recently i had to install an open source content management system on Linux. I didn't get that much help on the Internet for my distribution of Linux i used, so i put the steps in a document for referencing..
find it here : OPEN ATRIUM

Cat of the week

:-) The Limits of The Internet

I noticed something quite peculiar today. When you search for a smiley face :-) no results are returned on google or on bing? The face smile is one of the most used smileys on cellphones and emails how can there be no posts about it on the internet? How weird. I will now end this observation with a few smileys with the hope that the google bots might catch it soon :) :-) :') X-) :P :D

Today's Funny

The Poll results

The poll results are back, and it seems that most visitors like the new look and feel. We are very glad to hear this, as we spend a bit of time getting it to work. We will pour in a bigger effort to try and bring more functionality and extend the page and speed it up a bit more. If you have any comments please feel free to let us know, every bit helps :)

PrimeSense’s 3D sensing chip

What is the future of television? I'm not quite sure but it seems that the next step is for the actual television to know if your watching it. There are many possibilities lying in that regard and it seems that PrimeSense knows it. PrimeSense’s 3D sensing chip allows for the chip to know exactly how many people are watching the telly. Actually it is a bit smarter than that, it knows exactly how many adults and how many children are watching the telly, and it can be applied to enforce age restrictions on channels.

Intresting stuff, are you watching television? or is the television watching you?

Wired`s 10 Worst Evolutionary Designs

I stumbled across this article about the 10 Worst Evolutionary Designs, and I must admit there are some silly things.
Like for example:

6 Shark-fetus teeth. A few shark species have live births (instead of laying eggs). The Jaws juniors grow teeth in the womb. The first sibling or two to mature sometimes eat their siblings in utero. Mmm ... siblings

Well here is the link check it for yourself :)
10 Worst Evolutionary Designs

A new version of Google Search

The new Microsoft search engine has been the talk of town and market shares. Bing was launched recently as Microsoft search engine with a lot of yahoo`s under the hood technologies. The new search engine is clean and fast and Google is feeling the pinch. In fact they are getting a bit worried, so much that they recently started to work on improvements in speed and indexing.

Google specifically states that its goal for the new version of Google Search is to improve its indexing speed, accuracy, size, and comprehensiveness. Here’s what they wrote:

“For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search. It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits “under the hood” of Google’s search engine, which means that most users won’t notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we’re opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback.”

Give it a go at : NEW GOOGLE but remember it still a beta :)