MORE ON TIVO'S EVIL BANNER ADS

PVRBLOG has more on TIVO's decision to place banner ads on the screen when you fast foward through commercials. Bastards.

HOW TO STEAL YOUR NEIGHBORS' WIFI BANDWIDTH AND PROTECT YOUR OWN

(hat tip slate)
Slate has an article on "how to steal wifi bandwidth and protect your wifi from being stolen. Now, before you become concerned that E-R is going over to the Dark Side, it isn't the stealing that we are interested in, it's the tips on how to protect your WiFi from those who are out to steal it.

And after all, stealing is such a nasty word. I prefer the "involuntary reapportionment of the available supply."

Anyway, learn how to avoid getting your WiFi signal stolen.

HOW TO: TURNING AN OLD LAPTOP INTO A PICTURE FRAME

HOW TO: Turning an old laptop into a digital picture frame

BE VEWY VEWY QUIET ... WE'RE HUNTING WABBITS ... ONLINE?

(hat tip engadget)


Now you can hunt and bag your prey online, using a remote controlled .22 caliber rifle with a webcam mounted on it. If Elmer Fudd had this bad boy, Bugs' head would have been above his fireplace in a heartbeat.

Users can currently target practice at the website.

And in this era of cell phone detonated terrorist bombs, how long before the bad guys get the idea to try and off someone with a remote controlled 30.06? They did it in THE JACKAL, remember that?

Course, if I've thought of it, you know the Secret Service must've.

BIG BROTHER IS NOW BIG TEACHER

(hat tip engadget)


The use of RFID tags in schools is making it's way from Japan to the U.S. Kids get an I.D. badge with an RFID chip built in. Teachers won't have to take attendence anymore and will be able to see where students are anywhere on campus with the click of a mouse.

So much for "smokin' in the boys room."

FLIPPER GETS A NEW ... WELL ... FLIPPER!

Okay, it's a fin. An artificial fin. Researchers have given Fuji (seen below) and artificial fin after Fuji lost hers. And check it out - she's getting some serious air.



Now that's what I call doin' the Lord's work!

MORE BLACK FRIDAY ADS

Google is your friend. ;)

AIRFORCE RELIES ON REDMOND FOR NETWORK SECURITY

Is it me, or did we just take one step closer to the nightmare scenario in WAR GAMES?

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO APOLLO 12

Thirty-five years ago today, with Command Module Pilot Dick Gordon orbiting 60miles above in Yankee Clipper, Commander Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr., and Lunar Module Pilot turned Lunar Artist Al Bean set their Lunar Module Intrepid down in the Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms) making Apollo 12 the second manned lunar mission. Conrad and Bean became the third and fourth men to walk on the moon.

"Wooppee! This may have been a small step for Neil, but it's a long one for me!"

IS TIVO MAKING A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL?

(hat tip daily rotation)


Or, is it the beginning of the end for DVR as we know it?

In an effort to placate Hollywood, your TIVO box will quietly download a software patch update which will narrow the window that Pay per View programs can be watched before they are rendered inert.

So, for Tivo, the phrase "watch what you want, when you want it" isn't entirely true anymore.

Meanwhile, there's this little diddy from engadget which reports that TIVO has been cutting deals with advertisers and is planning on placing BANNER ADS on the screen when you attempt to fast forward through commercials!

HELLO? REMEMBER THE IDEA BEHIND TIVO?!

And Congress is considering bills that would MAKE IT A CRIME TO FAST FORWARD through commercials! Yeah, that's going to get me to buy stuff.

I can see the ads now - use a remote, go to jail.

Meanwhile, pushers are still selling drugs to our kids.

Build your own LCD Video Projector

HACK A DAY: Build your own LCD Video Projector

Out for a couple of days

Due to a death in the familiy, there will be no updates for the next day or two. Please check back with us later this week and thanks for reading.

TECH TUESDAY

WHAT IS BLACK FRIDAY?
(hat tip linkfilter)
The first rule of Black Friday is, you do not talk about Black Friday. At least that's the attitude of the retailers who put out last-minute killer deals the day after Thanksgiving. This website gives us a heads up on how to save a BOATLOAD of cash before and on the busiest shopping day of the year.

HOW TO OF THE DAY: RIP YOUR iPOD TO YOUR PC
(hat tip metafilter)
MACheads have been able to do this since "oh before you were born." Now, us PC folk can have all the fun too. Jobs is going to hate this.

RIP PW
(hat tip tom's hardware)

According to Bill Gates, the password is dead. Redmond's leader of the cyber world envisions a world where smart cards and 64-bit computing will replace the password in both the business and personal world.

Isn't this the same guy who said "we would never need anything more than 640K of memory?"

DOIN' THE LORD'S WORK
(hat tip linkfilter)
Grid or distributed computing, first pioneered by SETI@HOME's use of home PCs to listen for ET, will now be used to solve world problems by helping to "unlock genetic codes that underlie diseases like AIDS and HIV, Alzheimer's or cancer, improve forecasting of natural disasters and aid studies to protect the world's food and water supply."

Interested users can download a program which will activate itself when PCs are idle and download data to analyze and report back to researchers.

Can anyone say Noble Prize?

THE COMPUTER - HOW IT WORKS (from 1971)
(hat tip geek press)

SEE THE COUNTRY - TRAVEL SEGWAY?
(hat tip the giz)

Coast-to-coast on a Segway. 2500 miles in 3 months. 10MPH. Man, this guy had patience.

GOODBYE PC, HELLO GADGETS
(hat tip neowin)

Although consumers are poised to purchase more than 54 million PCs this year, consumer groups see a trend away from PCs and towards gadgets like flat panel TV sets.


TECH TUESDAY: HI-DEF RADIO


HOW STUFF WORKS: How Instant Messaging Works


HACK A DAY: Bluetooth Controlled RC Cars

HACK A DAY: TiVo video extraction with Mac OS X

TiVo video extraction with Mac OS X
(hat tip hackaday)

I guess Macs really are good for something!

WHAT IS MALWARE?

And how to prevent it.

WEEKEND EDITION

NEILSEN TO RATE DVR USE
(hat tip slashdot)
Nielsen has plans to measure TV ratings Among DVR Users. Since over 7 million Americans are now "tivo-ing" now and watching later, the primetime business model is getting out of wack. So Nielsen plans to ask DVR users to rate the programming in order to have a more accurate picture of what Americans are watching.

How are they going to measure those who get their TV via bit-torrent?

LEXMARK IS SPYING ON YOU
(hat tip techdirt)
If you've bought a Lexmark printer lately, you may wish to think twice before you install it. It appears that Lexmark is installing SPYWARE with it's printer drivers which reports back customer usage via the printer interface. That's NOT cool.

When will they ever learn?

HAS AOL LOST IT'S MIND?
(hat tip techdirt)
With broadband companies like SBC Yahoo and DSL Extreme making broadband cheaper than dial-up, what's AOLs response? Telling it's own broadband customers to shop elsewhere.

Yet another reason why AOL sucks.


HACK A DAY: Converting an etch-a-sketch into a mouse for your PC.
(hat tip linkfilter)
Man, some people have WAY too much time on their hands.

Bonus hack: Controlling your RC car via Bluetooth