Thursday, April 19, 2007

The 611HP, the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. Factory on video

I came across this cool video At google video.
At 611HP, the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano is the most powerful production car Ferrari has ever made (Ferrari has made a more powerful limited production car, the Enzo). This comprehensive 45 min documentary reveals the behind the scenes action at Ferrari’s factory in Maranello (they never let cameras in this factory or any other by the way) and gives you a look at how the new 599 is brought to life. As much as I like the new 599, I like the looks of the F430 way more.

Monday, April 16, 2007

TOP 10 tech Websites that will change the way you view the Tech/Real world

TOP 10 tech Websites that will change the way you view the Tech/Real world.
If youre a tech person or just plain in love with all the techno babble thats out there then you definately will want to add these to your roster of sites you visit DAILY

URLs Lifehacker
lifehacker.com

O’REILLY radar
radar.oreilly.com

43 Folders
43folders.com

Wired
wired.com

arstechnica
arstechnica.com

Boing Boing
boingboing.net

Bruce Schneier
schneier.com/blog

Waxy Links
waxy.org/links

Download Squad
downloadsquad.com/

Twit/Mike Laz
twit.tv/mikelaz.com

Technorati Tags:

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Blogger code of conduct proposed

Blogger code of conduct proposed



A prominent internet writer and the head of Wikipedia have collaborated on a set of rules designed to bring civility to the world of bloggers, which can appear to be a world of endless conversational battle.




CBC News
Web pioneer Tim O'Reilly, who is often credited with coining the term Web 2.0, posted a first draft of the Bloggers Code of Conduct on his website and on wikia.com, the site run by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

The code calls on bloggers - people who write and post material in online journals called blogs - to not post "unacceptable" content and delete comments that contain abusive, harassing or threatening content.

It also calls on bloggers to say online only what they would say in person, not to allow anonymous comments, to take action to defend against unfair comments and to connect privately to resolve disputes before posting public comments.

O'Reilly called for a code after prominent blogger Kathy Sierra suspended her blog in March because of death threats on her blog and threats of violence posted on other websites.

"We celebrate the blogosphere because it embraces frank and open conversation in ways that were long missing from mainstream media and marketing-dominated corporate websites," O'Reilly first wrote on his Radar blog a week ago.

"But frankness does not have to mean lack of civility. There's no reason why we should tolerate conversations online that we wouldn't tolerate in our living room."

The draft of the code was posted on Wikia to allow readers to comment and help shape the final document through a community-edited review process similar to the way entries are edited on Wikipedia.

The code has already generated controversy on the site's discussion group over issues of censorship and enforceability of the rules, particularly O'Reilly's first rule of conduct calling on bloggers to "take responsibility for our own words and for the comments we allow on our blog."

Also at issue is the fact that examples of unacceptable content include libel, violations of privacy and confidentiality as well as copyright and trademark infringement.

"Does declaring that you will take responsibility for copyright and trademark violations open you up to more legal exposure than you would have otherwise?" wrote commenter Sethop on the Wikia discussion forum.

Another poster called Dscrimshaw suggested the code should be more flexible to allow bloggers to adopt those rules they feel suit their forum.

O'Reilly wrote that a final version of the code would eventually be posted on bloggingcode.org. Users wishing to adhere to the standard could display a badge that would link to the rules.

According to blog-indexing company Technorati, there are 74.9 million blogs on the internet.


Windows XP to be phased out by year's end FINALLY

Theres some buzz going on about this whole Windows XP being phased out over the next year. I think its about time its a piece of crap. And I dont think that vista will be any better. Im a windows user only because everything I use is built for Windows. Ive toyed with the idea of switching ti linux for some time only Im not so techy (geeky If you will). The next purchase I'll make will be a Mac.
Seems like by 08 Bill and his ghouls will be putting Vista on all new machines, what this means is no support for XP oh yay!! Like there was support for it in the first place.

From what I understand. Vista is a resource hog and has buggy driver issues. And microsfort in its infinite wisdom wants to switch whole over to THAT. Shitty news for the small business or the home user. CASH cow from the large enterprises, for Microsoft, who buys PC by truck load. It's all a big cash grab for the Vultures at Microsoft.
Remember how horrid Windows 2000 and Windows Millenium were? Microsft has a tendency to cram half baked products down the consumers throats. And they're ushering out XP and cramming Vista down our throats now. Gimme a freaking break.

Monday, April 09, 2007

how not to get your ass kicked by the police

The King of comedy is up to his usual no nonsense parody of life. Check out this video from chris rock explaining in simple laymans terms how not to get your ass kicked by the police

Friday, April 06, 2007

Irresponsible energy saving tips

I was just doing alittle research about energy savings tips for the house, and came across a horrible tip that should seriously be disregarded. The souce is from the us department of energy. Here is the link http://www1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/tips/water_heating.html

In this article they suggest that you turn down your hot water tank to 120 degrees.

DO NOT DO THIS. You run the risk of allowing the bacteria called legionnaires disease to grow in your hot water tank. Legionnaires disease Dies at basically anything above 122 degrees. See the diagram.

122 degress is the slow death range of the bacteria. In Ontario, I am not sure about the rest of Canada. The Building code by law states that any hot water tank installed must be set 140 Degrees. This high temperature Kills the Bacteria in the tank.
Please disregard any advice you read or are told about lowering the temperature of your hot water tank to anything below 140 degrees F, to save energy.
You will be placing your family at potential risk in lowering the temperature. You may have had a new hot water tank installed in the past year and were told to have a tempering valve on the tank to cool the water to 120 at delivery from your fixtures. NOT to worry. If your hot water tank is set at high 140Degrees f then you are safe and the bacteria has been killed at the tank.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Why are you whispering?

Why Are you Whispering?
SO I'm class on Wednesday morning and my phone starts ringing. You have to understand the ring tone I have. It sounds like one of the ancient old days phones, you know that loud ring? yeah that one!!.
So I fumble about with getting it out of my coat pocket in the mean time the prof has staopped talking and is now staring at me.
I answer it and wouldnt you know it , it's gill. NOw whats funny about this is she is whispering.
Gill: Hi (in a whisper)
Me: also whispering now: Gill I'm in class
Gill: I know I just wanted to say Hi.
Shane: Hi
Gill: what time are you done?
Shane Gill I'm in class and the prof is glaring at me.
Gill: Ok call me later.
Shane: Why are you whispering?
Gill:'cause you're in class.
How funny is that, she's whispering because im on the phone in class

how to buy a flat panel monitor


Are you thinking about buying a flat panel monitor? We did and here's what we did to figure out which flat panel monitor was right for us. So I figured I'd post about how to buy a flat panel monitor.

It's actually a funny story really. First off we knew we wanted to get rid of the huge honking 19 inch monitor we had on our desk top.
Neither of us really had any idea what we should look for in a flat panel monitor, other than what our budget would allow us. SO bearing that in mind we went to our local big box stores . Future shop and best buy for a look see. And man what an education in monitors that was. We looked at LG 19 monitors and syncmaster monitors and a few other I dont remember which ones they were any longer. We finally settled on an NEC Multisync 1940wcxm its the model in the pretty picture you see there.
What attracted us to this one is it was about 40 dollars cheaper than the equivalent LG Monitor we were also looking at.
Here are its features and I'll explain why we chose this one in a few moments.

NEC MultiSync 1940WCXM - flat panel display - TFT - 19"

Description: The NEC Multisync 1940WCXM is a 19 in, flat panel computer monitor. Compared to other flat panel monitors on the market, it is relatively inexpensive at around $260. Comes with a built-in set of stereo speakers. Weighs 10.1 lbs.

Pros: Has 700:1 contrast ratio, which is higher than some similarly priced monitors. In fact, the typical cost of a product with this high a contrast ratio is $360. This monitor can eliminate the need to have PC speakers sitting on your desk -- just plug your PC's audio into the monitor and use the speaker that it has built in. Accepts DVI input.

Suitability: A flat panel monitor, suited for those who want a spacious thin screen monitor. The 5 ms response time of this screen makes it ideal for fast-moving games and for watching movies.

What you want to look for is at least a 600:1 contrast ratio, above that you really can't see the difference. We looked at a few of the higher contrast ratios and could see no difference in the quality of the images on the screen. So that narrowed down a few of the more expensive monitors right away. We liked the idea of having built in speakers though it wasn't a biggy because we have a great sound system for our computer. We or rather I liked the fast response time of 5ms (milliseconds) I do a bit of gaming though not a heavy gamer. Its just fast!! Hey I'm a guy and I like fast things!!
The dvi input was also important for me.
Digital Visual Interface. The DVI port provides a pure digital video signal to a digital flat-panel display or projector. Using a digital signal for the entire path maintains the image quality at the highest level, because the signal is not degraded as a result of a digital-to-analog conversion.. We watch alot of movies on our computer. So having this capability is important. And beign that the way that media industry is going digital is just better. So you definately want a DVI capable monitor.
Now heres the funny part and why we chose this monitor.
We liked the look and the above mentioned qualities and so decided NEC was the way to go. So we dragged the tech guy over to that monitor and said we want this one. Funny thing was there wasn't any boxes above or below the display model. The price was 229 which was right in the ball park we were looking to spend. SO we said we'll buy the display model (do this if you can it's cheaper) So he mumbles something about not being able to sell the display. I asked him to check with his manager, he ran off , 20 minutes later he shows up with the manager in tow. The manager tells him to disconnect it and gives us the price point of 179$! SCORE. To say we were Pleased about it was a bit of an understatement. Always pays to ask doesn't it!!!

So in short this is how you buy a flat panel monitor