Category: Website

So AOL is releasing a new IM client for their AIM services called AIM Pro. It’s targetted for businesses, but it’s still free, works with the regular AIM network, and comes with automatic encryption with anyone else that has AIM Pro. If you’re going to use a new AIM client released by AOL, don’t bother with Triton as AIM Pro is a gazillion times better. There’s no more ads and even integrates with Outlook to notify you of meetings.

One thing it still lacks is logging chats, though it does have the ability to save up to 30 days of history (wonder why they couldn’t make it infinite). I’ve given it a shot on my laptop (which doesn’t even have the basic AIM client) and my home computer which had Triton installed (was really happy to uninstall it) and I’ve got to say, it was a lot cleaner than what I would’ve expected. I haven’t tested its integration with Outlook yet (don’t plan to either), but if you do, let me know how it goes.

Apparently, it’s tied up with WebEx to provide solutions to online meetings and web conferences.

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Random Crap:

Which New Browser Is Best: Firefox 2, Internet Explorer 7, or Opera 9? (from /.) – this review done by ExtremeTech is a really well researched article that compares the top 3 browsers of today. Definitely worth a read to see how well they fare against each other.

Bicycle donuts (from Cari) – You know, not everyone can afford to waste tires by doing donuts in the parking lot using their own car. For that matter, not everyone can afford a car. Those lacking the funds to drift and do donuts all day long in their daily driver may want to check out this video. It’s cheaper, safer and a much better workout than inducing your car to oversteer from the comfort of your Recaro. Haha.

Gaming Goodness for the geek in all of us! (from Tera) – On Sunday, Samantha and I went to check out a store I had been told about by one of my students. I was told it sold a “few” second hand games and cd’s. Armed with a well drawn map (thanks Saori!), we traveled 3 stops from Oami on the Togane line to Gumyo. After walking for about 30 mins in sweltering humidity, we came to our destination. 2 large black shops loomed in the distance. From the outside, it looked like one of those stores where you purchase goods aimed at, shall we say, the more mature market. Upon entering the store, I was transported into what can only be called the “Nerd Nirvana”. WOW, a few second hand games I was told! What stood before me was a massive collection of second hand games, CD’s and Manga. I felt like a kid in a candy store. I didn’t know where to start. The store is just amazing! Though the Xbox section does seem a bit small…

I first read about this on SD. JAJAH is a web activated telephony that works by dialing both parties phone numbers and connecting the two of you. What’s interesting is that they’re having a promo where registered users get free phone-to-phone calls between Jajah users. At first, that may sound like any other service which provides free chatting between 2 registered users, but you have to remember, Jajah works by connecting 2 real phone numbers. So as long as you and the person you want to call (either land line or cell phone) is a registered user, you can have Jajah connect you for free for BOTH local and international calls.

Also, if the person you’re trying to call isn’t “registered” per se, you can always “help” them register. ;p

Though someone did mention that they may be harvesting your phone numbers to resell to telemarketers, so you’ve been warned. I personally haven’t tried it yet, though I have registered my phone number.

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Random Crap:

Password-protected bullets (from /.) – The way to make firearms really safe, says Hebert Meyerle of Germany, is to password-protect the ammunition itself. Meyerle is patenting a design for a modified cartridge that would be fired by a burst of high-frequency radio energy. But the energy would only ignite the charge if a solid-state switch within the cartridge had been activated. This would only happen if a password entered into the gun using a tiny keypad matched one stored in the cartridge. This sounds rather stupid… “Dude, we’re under fire!” “I forgot my password to unlock the bullets!”

2D Transformed (from RayAlome) – Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new method of converting a single 2D image into a 3D scene. Do check out that video as it’s pretty neat!

A Rubik’s Cube solving machine (finishes one in 54 seconds) (from RayAlome) – this amazing machine can solve a Rubik’s cube just by snapping some photos and then calculating the moves needed to solve it. Sigh… I still have yet to master the Rubik’s cube.

Teen burns down house over test grades – A Japanese boy burned down his home, killing his stepmother and two younger siblings, for fear his parents would find out he had lied about his score on an English test. Sigh… I wonder what the father would do now?

Quote from /. (#15610682):

The story I heard was that he was arguing before the court that some invention was not obvious. He placed a raw egg on the bench in front of the judges, and challenged the judges to make it stand on its pointy end. They tried balancing it, shaking it to break up the yolk, spinning it, and finally declared the task impossible. Mr. Edison took the egg and crushed the pointy end of the eggshell down on the bench, where he easily stood it on its end. One of the judges said “well, that’s obvious.” Mr. Edison pointed out that, not thirty seconds prior, they had declared the task impossible but now it’s obvious. And that’s why his patent should stand.

However, the real story is called the Egg of Columbus: In the story, Christopher Columbus attends a dinner which a Spanish gentleman had given in his honor. Columbus asks all the gentlemen in attendance to make an egg stand on end. After all the men tried and failed, they stated that it was impossible. Columbus then placed the egg’s small end on the table, breaking the shell a bit, so that it could stand upright. Columbus then stated that it was “the simplest thing in the world. Anybody can do it, after he has been shown how!”

10 people who don’t matter (from /.) – Not everyone with a fancy title really counts. From Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on down, here are the people you can safely snub at conferences.

The Making of a Motherboard: ECS 2006 (from /.) – ever wonder what how it’s like to create a motherboard. This little tour will give you the insight of an ECS factory that builds motherboards. Pretty fun… well if you’re a geek like me.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (from RayAlome) – In 1969 the US Senate had a hearing on funding the newly developed Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The proposed endowment was $20 … all » million, but President Nixon wanted it cut in half because of the spending going on in the Vietnam War. This is an video clip of the exchange between Mr. Rogers and Senator Pastore, head of the hearing. Senator Pastore starts out very abrasive and by the time Mr. Rogers is done talking, Senator Pastore’s inner child has heard Mr. Rogers and agreed with him. Enjoy. It’s so sad that Mr. Rogers is no longer with us… I remember watching that trolley and always wondering where it’d go.

Falling Japan birth rate due to lack of sex – “Japanese people simply aren’t having sex,” Dr. Kunio Kitamura, director of the Japan Family Planning Association, was quoted as saying by the Japan Times, an English language daily. An association survey of 936 people between the ages of 16 and 49 showed 31 percent had not had sex for more than a month “for no particular reason” — a condition known as “sexless.” “As much as subsidies and welfare programs are important, sexlessness is also a critical issue in this problem.”

Parents pinch pennies from piggy banks – One in four Australian parents regularly “borrow” money from their children’s piggy banks to pay for anything from bread to luxury holidays, a survey said Wednesday. Mums are more than twice as likely to raid their children’s savings than dad, with 35 percent of mothers confessing to the crime compared with 16 percent of fathers.

Ed Helms’ on-scene report (from Microsoft College Careers and MS newsgroup) – a hilarious video of what it’s like to work at Microsoft.

Man who can’t motivate police to investigate a break-in reports a more serious crime instead. (from MS newsgroup):

How to call the Police…
True Story From the Meridian, Mississippi STAR

George Phillips of Meridian Mississippi was going up to bed when his wife told him that he’d left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window. George opened the back door to go turn off the light but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.

He phoned the police, who asked “Is someone in your house?” and he said no. Then they said that all patrols were busy, and that he should simply lock his door and an officer would be along when available.

George said “Okay,” hung up, counted to 30, and phoned the police again. “Hello. I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people in my shed. Well, you don’t have to worry about them now cause I’ve just shot them all.” Then he hung up.

Within five minutes three police cars, an Armed Response unit, and an ambulance showed up at the Phillips residence. Of course, the police caught the burglars red-handed. One of the policemen said to George: “I thought you said that you’d shot them!”

George said, “I thought you said there was nobody available!”

I think I might stop using Google Browser Sync after today’s lastest annoyance. So I’ve already told you how stupid it is that Google Browser Sync doesn’t prompt you for the password when you want to sync (especially for those who sync their passwords and entire identity). Then there’s the fact that it delays Firefox from opening while it connects to its server. Why can’t it do that in the background? Or it should also add the option of syncing when I want it to.

The latest annoyance, I’m getting scared. It’s been prompting with this message box before Firefox loads:

Google Browser Sync needs your Firefox Master Password in order to sync your passwords, please enter it below.

Why does it need to know my Firefox Master Password?!?!? I don’t even tell it to sync my passwords. I’ve double checked my settings on both my machines and neither have the password syncing option enabled. Unless someone’s hacked both my GMail account and my Google Browser Sync password, I find it weird that it should suddenly ask me for my master password…

Maybe I shouldn’t be trusting Google so much… Then again, many people have all their emails on their servers which is even scarier.

Now I have one thing more to dislike about it. There’s no way to turn off the sync tool without uninstalling the extension. I can stop the syncing (basically log off the sync tool), but everytime I load Firefox, it prompts me to log into my GMail account, which is worst than delaying the startup of Firefox while it connects to its servers.

Ah… I found out how to disable Firefox extensions w/o uninstalling them. Apparently if you right click on the extension, you can disable it instead of uninstalling it. I knew Firefox would have something like that.