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McAfee Security Insights Blog » Blog Archive » Operation “Aurora” Hit Google, Others

2010 Jan 20, 8:26McAfee on the China v Google attack.PermalinkCommentshack hackers security google browser web ie china microsoft malware ie6 technical

Auto-appendectomy in the Antarctic: case report -- Rogozov and Bermel 339: b4965 -- BMJ

2010 Jan 20, 2:03The only doctor in Antarctica has to remove his own appendix. "When Rogozov had made the incision and was manipulating his own innards as he removed the appendix, his intestine gurgled, which was highly unpleasant for us..." Oh wow, Rogozov should for sure appologize for making you uncomfortable. Jerk. There's photos in the report too. Gross.PermalinkCommentshistory science medicine antarctic appendix russia via:kottke

GameSetWatch - Special: The Best Of The 2009 Demoscene, Part 1 - Demos

2010 Jan 19, 2:21"In the latest of an occasional series of demoscene-related posts on GameSetWatch before, AteBit's Paul 'EvilPaul' Grenfell presents a multi-part retrospective on 2009's best demos - starting out with the top ten real-time PC demos of the year."
PermalinkCommentsdemo demoscene graphic game videogame video programming

UVB-76 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2010 Jan 18, 3:24"UVB-76 is the callsign of a shortwave radio station that usually broadcasts on the frequency 4625 kHz (AM full carrier). It's known among radio listeners by the nickname The Buzzer. It features a short, monotonous buzz tone (help·info), repeating at a rate of approximately 25 tones per minute, for 24 hours per day. The station has been observed since around 1982.[1] In rare occasions, the buzzer signal is interrupted and a voice transmission in Russian takes place. Only four such events have been noted. There is much speculation; however, the actual purpose of this station remains unknown." Inspiration for Lost?PermalinkCommentsradio russia mystery

crayons « Weather Sealed

2010 Jan 18, 3:11Crayola's Law: "The number of colors doubles every 28 years!" With chart depicting Crayola colors over the years.PermalinkCommentsvisualization via:waxy history timeline crayon crayola color

View PDFs on Android

2010 Jan 10, 4:07

Irritatingly, my G1 won't show me PDFs so I've made the Google Docs PDF viewer which will load PDFs on the web up in Google Docs. Google Docs has the useful ability to display PDFs in web browsers without any Adobe software and works (mostly) on Android.

This was very easy to put together as an Android activity. First its necessary to register the application as handling PDFs from the web. This is done via the intent-filter declaration in the manifest:

   intent-filter
      action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/
      data android:scheme="http" android:mimeType="application/pdf"/
      category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/
      category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE"/
   /intent-filter
The action part says my activity will view PDFs, the data part says it accepts data with the PDF mime-type and with a URL that has an HTTP scheme. The browsable category is necessary to allow links from a browser to open this activity.

Second, the activity opens up the browser to Google Docs pointing to the PDF.

   Intent intent = new Intent();
   intent.setAction(getIntent().getAction());
   intent.setData(Uri.parse(
    "http://docs.google.com/gview?embedded=true&url=" + 
    percentEncodeForQuery(getIntent().getData().toString())));

   startActivity(intent);
This is very simple code to invoke a new intent browsing to a newly constructed URL for the PDF in Google Docs. That was easy.PermalinkCommentsgoogle docs technical g1 code activity programming android google pdf

Dosh Wallets as art

2010 Jan 9, 12:00PermalinkCommentswallet art design wishlist gift product australia

Two Gentlemen of Lebowski

2010 Jan 8, 1:53Two Gentlemen of Lebowski, by Adam Bertocci: "Thou err’st; no man calls me Lebowski. Yet thou art man; neither spirit damned nor wandering shadow, thou art solid flesh, man of woman born. Hear rightly, man!—for thou hast got the wrong man. I am the Knave, man; Knave in nature as in name."PermalinkCommentshumor via:ethan_t_hein shakespeare the-big-lebowski play parody english

Public Domain Day

2010 Jan 6, 3:41Public Domain Day sounds neat. Not just celebrating the public domain but celebrating new works now available in the public domain every Jan 1st. But we'll have to wait at least nine years to celebrate in the US. We need to get the copyright lifetime to match up with retro things regaining popularity -- like when big band music was briefly popular again.PermalinkCommentscopyright ip public-domain law legal

Kempa.com » Absolutely surreal excerpt from a New Yorker profile of Vampire Weekend

2010 Jan 6, 1:58Tom DeLonge tries to sell Vampire Weekend a website. "...this whole thing reads like a scene from a modern-day Spinal Tap. Weird music industry insanity crossed with internet startup hucksterism with a dash of awkward standoffishness. I love it. All of this is heightened by the fact that BOTH parties are being followed by separate documentary film crews, who are filming the insanity. How weird is that?"PermalinkCommentsinternet music vampire-weekend band documentary via:waxy

WPAD Server Fiddler Extension

2010 Jan 5, 7:42

I've made a WPAD server Fiddler extension and in a fit of creativity I've named it: WPAD Server Fiddler Extension.

Of course you know about Fiddler, Eric's awesome HTTP debugger tool, the HTTP proxy that lets you inspect, visualize and modify the HTTP traffic that flows through it. And on the subject you've probably definitely heard of WPAD, the Web Proxy Auto Discovery protocol that allows web browsers like IE to use DHCP or DNS to automatically discover HTTP proxies on their network. While working on a particularly nasty WPAD bug towards the end of IE8 I really wished I had a way to see the WPAD requests and responses and modify PAC responses in Fiddler. Well the wishes of me of the past are now fulfilled by present day me as this Fiddler extension will respond to WPAD DHCP requests telling those clients (by default) that Fiddler is their proxy.

When I started working on this project I didn't really understand how DHCP worked especially with respect to WPAD. I won't bore you with my misconceptions: it works by having your one DHCP server on your network respond to regular DHCP requests as well as WPAD DHCP requests. And Windows I've found runs a DHCP client service (you can start/stop it via Start|Run|'services.msc', scroll to DHCP Client or via the command line with "net start/stop 'DHCP Client'") that caches DHCP server responses making it just slightly more difficult to test and debug my extension. If a Windows app uses the DHCP client APIs to ask for the WPAD option, this service will send out a DHCP request and take the first DHCP server response it gets. That means that if you're on a network with a DHCP server, my extension will be racing to respond to the client. If the DHCP server wins then the client ignores the WPAD response from my extension.

Various documents and tools I found useful while working on this:

PermalinkCommentsproxy fiddler http technical debug wpad pac tool dhcp

Don't Be Afraid: Passengers Break into "Hey Jude" During Newark Scare | NBC New York

2010 Jan 5, 5:47Oppresive airport security brings people together! 'A traveling guitarist is becoming viral sensation after leading a group of passengers in a rousing round of the Beatles' classic "Hey Jude" while stuck at Newark airport over the weekend.' Includes videoPermalinkCommentsvideo humor airport security music beatles

Cheap Multiplayer Tricks for New Super Mario Bros. Wii

2010 Jan 5, 1:47

The New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a great game. Its the fun of old school Mario with the addition of great graphics and the kind of multiplayer I've wanted for Mario since playing the original as a child: its got up to four player simultaneous cooperative multiplayer. I recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed Mario in the past. Watch this amazing video of level 1-3 you can unlock in the game.

As noted elsewhere, multiple players attempting to navigate platforms, grab power ups, and throw turtle shells creates new challenges but along with that there's new ways to be incredibly cheap.

Jumping Higher
A second player means a head one can jump on to reach higher locations. Jump on your friend's head at the apex of their jump while holding down the jump button yourself for maximum jumping. In the game you can also grab other players and hold them over your head. This is useful for reaching the top of the flagpole at the end of levels. On that same line, if the player you grab has a flying cap you can now use them to fly in the same manner you would use a flying block which makes it easy to get two players to the top of the finish flagpole if only one of you has a flying cap.
Power-Ups
Normal power-up blocks now spawn enough power-ups for everyone. A mushroom is spawned for each small player and full power-ups for the rest, except in the case everyone is small: then one of the power-ups is a full power-up. If there's two players and you're both small, the full power-up always jumps out of the block to the right. Some hidden power-up blocks only give out one power-up and in that case its a mushroom or not based on the player who hits the block - so be sure that a big player hits that if you have one.
Death & Bubbles
When a player dies but at least one other player lives the dead player comes back in a limbo bubble from which they must be released before they may play again. Because of this, in a tough spot you can send one player in and leave a second behind. If the first dies you don't lose your place in the level and the first comes back in a bubble ready to try again. For instance, if you're trying to get the last star coin in 2-1 which sits just above the abyss, one player can just jump to their death for it and as long as another player lives you've collected the coin. However you need not sacrifice your life to do this: you can press down and 'a' to force yourself into a bubble saving yourself from death. This is true in general as long as you have enough time to see your death coming. This is also useful if one player runs ahead to the right. The screen will expand a bit but then it will just move to the right following the player in the lead. Players left behind walls or now forced into lava pits will die unless they use the bubble.
Misc.
  • If all players hit the ground at the same time from a ground pound it acts like hitting a pow block, killing the enemies on the screen.
  • If you hold a player who has a projectile power over your head they can still use their power.
  • Bubbles can be popped by hitting them with your fire or ice projectiles as well as thrown shells or blocks.
  • All players get the extra lives from anyone collecting 100 coins or finishing a level with more than 7 enemies on the screen.
PermalinkCommentsmultiplayer mario wii

Emanuel Derman's Blog: Trading Places

2009 Dec 31, 1:50Har har: "I had a fantasy in which the Fed and the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) switched roles. If a bank failed at 9 a.m. one morning and shut its doors, the TSA would announce that all banks henceforth begin their business day at 10 a.m. And, if a terrorist managed to get on board a plane between Stockholm and Washington, the Fed would increase the number of flights between the cities."PermalinkCommentseconomics humor airplane emanuel-derman tsa fed government

Mystic Lake Software: Sensor - Accelerometer & Magnetics

2009 Dec 28, 8:04"Just as I was finishing my first look at the accelerometer and magnetic field sensors a couple of threads cropped up on the Android Developer's group..."PermalinkCommentsandroid cellphone programming development java sensor technical 3d orientation

YouTube - HAMSTERDAM HILARIOUS VIDEO! WATCH!

2009 Dec 27, 7:43"Have a look what happens when a huge hamster hits the Amsterdam Canals in a giant inflatable ball!" Almost a good idea. Maybe next time add some paddles to the outside of the ball.PermalinkCommentshumor video youtube hamster amsterdam water

Developing on a Device | Android Developers

2009 Dec 26, 7:11Wow, that was easy to setup. After installing the driver Eclipse just asks me if I want to debug on my phone or my virtual device.PermalinkCommentstechnical reference android programming development cellphone g1 documentation google

Benji Hughes – Discover music, videos, concerts, & pictures at Last.fm

2009 Dec 22, 7:17Listen to "Why do These Parties Always End" and "You Stood Me Up"PermalinkCommentsmusic benji-hughes electronica folk rock

(Video) Panic Attack! And The Power Of The Web - PSFK

2009 Dec 21, 3:40"“I uploaded (Panic Attack!) on a Thursday and on Monday my inbox was totally full of e-mails from Hollywood studios,” he told the BBC’s Latin American service BBC Mundo. “It was amazing, we were all shocked.”" And I can see why -- its a good video.PermalinkCommentsvideo scifi robot youtube hollywood

YouTube - "Move B*tch Get Out The Way!" Desperate House CAT on Roomba Driver Bitch Slaps a Dog pit bull Sharky

2009 Dec 20, 12:19Lazy cat is also disgruntled and rides a RoombaPermalinkCommentsvideo humor cat dog roomba
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