May 27, 2006

'Wings' to carry paratroopers 200km

A new military parachute system which fits wings on soldiers could enable them to travel to 200 kilometres after jumping.

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AllofMP3 Declared illegal

Popular Russian online music download service AllofMP3.com has been declared illegal by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), and prosecutions are reported to be underway. The Moscow-based service, whose market share at 14% comes second only to iTunes in the UK, has been accused of not paying royalties to artists.

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A Gun That Only Works In Owner�s Hand

So, what if you�re being attacked, your hand is shaking and you grip the gun differently as a result? What if you�re wearing gloves? What if you�re hands are cut off and you have to shoot the gun at the advancing attacker with your feet? That happens ALL THE TIME in movies and games!

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Things You Didn't Know About Your Body

Some interesting facts about the human body. Some you may know, others probably not, but there's plenty of really good tips here. For example: "Starting 48 hours before your next long flight, take a baby aspirin each day. It'll thin your blood just enough to prevent clots from forming in your legs" A good read...

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Free Photos for Your Web Site or Blog

Sick to death of the rotten stick figures that come with PowerPoint? Want to punch up your presentations, your blog, your Web site? Getting ready to shell out money for custom or stock photography? Don't.

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How to: Set Up an Offshore Banking Account

Do you want to impress women by shredding a bank statement? For some guys an offshore bank account may sound like something out of a James Bond film or maybe a clever way for an arms dealer to conduct business, but for the most part, banking offshore is about saving on tax dollars.

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Mysterious glowing clouds targeted by NASA

Glowing, silvery blue clouds that have been spreading around the world and brightening mysteriously in recent years will soon be studied in unprecedented detail by a NASA spacecraft.

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Apple Reveal Brand New "Pro" Site

Apple have unveiled a brand new designed Pro section of their site featuring some awesome new goodies.

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The most amazing storm pictures you will ever see

Absolutely amazing pictures from a storm chaser in Nebraska.

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What If You Could See Airline Pricing Algorithms?

Price transparency is good for the consumer, and the mere fact that a site like Farecast even gets any buzz is symptomatic of the frustration that consumers feel for the whole ticket buying process.

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Microsoft - eBay rumors

"For several weeks Microsoft has been in discussions about a possible acquisition of online auctioneer eBay, The Post has learned." But talks have cooled because of anti-trust concerns.

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9800 Free Fonts

9800 fonts free to download with a nice preview feature.

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747 cargo plane drops 20,5000 gallons of water (with pics)

"The Tallahassee Regional Airport runway was the site of a demonstration Thursday of the latest in aviation fire fighting tools: a 747 supertanker. The converted 747 cargo plane dropped 20,5000 gallons of water, while flying 180 mph at an altitude of 500 feet."

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Canvas for Wordpress - Design Your Blog with Ease

Canvas brings the freedom to express yourself through design without needing to know CSS or PHP. With Canvas and Ink for Wordpress, you can easily rearrange, reconfigure, and colorize your entire blog without ever touching a line of code.

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Bush gives NSA power to exempt corporations from SEC rules and regulations

Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations

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TagLines - Visualization of the Evolution of Flickr Tags

TagLines is the visualization of the evolution of Flickr tags over time. An algorithm chooses the eight most popular tags for each day, along with interesting photos corresponding to each of these tags. TagLines provides via Flash two metaphors for visualization: the waterfall and river.

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Gmail Code Update: Gmail to Get Prices

The piece of code that really caught my attention though was the line directly below these that says "Get prices". When Gmail detects a product within an email, I'm guessing it will soon display a link on the right that takes you to a Froogle result page for that item.

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"Elephants Dream" film is an open source success story

DVD sales seem to have generated enough funds to pay the bills, and the Blender Foundation is already talking about other projects.

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May 26, 2006

Very Cool CSS Hoverbox Menu Technique

Supercharge your navigation menus with this cool CSS. The examples they show kind of suck but the technique is actually worth looking at.

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First screenshots of Nike+iPod Nano interface

Cool Hunting was at the press release and has posted some screen shots of the new Nano interface, plus some pics of Nike's new iPod-centric line of clothing that has extensive cable management built-in.

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Treasury to refund $13 BILLION to consumers

The Treasury Department said Thursday that it will stop collecting the 3% federal excise tax on long-distance calls and refund about $13 billion to consumers. "It's not often you get to kill a tax," said Treasury Secretary John Snow. Individuals will be allowed to claim three years' worth of refunds on their 2006 tax returns, filed in 2007.

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Learn How to Create a Keygen

After reading this, you hopefully will have a better understanding of how programs generate and check serials.

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Top 10 Gadgets You Can Actually Afford

Now that we've drooled over the Top 10 Gadgets for the Filthy Rich, it's time to stop playing Trump and return to this thing called "reality." This decidedly thriftier zone isn't such a bad place, since there are plenty of gadgets out there priced for the everyman (and his poorer cousin, the college student). And inexpensive isn't the same a cheap.

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Configuring Rails Environments: The Cheat Sheet

A fairly exhaustive list of the options allowed when configuring a Rails application.

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Wozniak Honors Top Inventions Of 2006

The 25 inventions selected as finalists in the History Channel Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge range from the head-slappingly simple to the mind-bogglingly complex.Steve Wozniak awarded the grand prize.

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An Inside Look at Netflix

An inside look at the Netflix web site deisgn and the essential role that it plays in the company's business success.

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16 Steps to Creating a Bulletproof Startup

Got a great idea? There's never been a better time to turn it into a great company. Here's a 16-step guide to help you do it right.

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12 Tips for avoiding a Mac disaster

Macworld offers 12 ways to protect your data and avoid common pitfalls

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New EASY Pandora Hack Converts tunes to DRM-Free MP3s

Using firefox and a small java program, your pandora tunes will be converted to unprotected mp3 files as you listen. Even better, they are tagged and titled correctly and placed into folders with the band name. Even I can do this.

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25 Worst Tech products of all time

25 of the worst tech products ever made. Topping out the list was AOL!!

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Xbox Live Update Brings Major Enhancements!

A list of features that will be added/changed. "I just got off the phone with Microsoft. They walked me through what features the Live update will include and said it will hit next Friday. The update includes major music and DVD playback tweaks, adding the ability to conduct downloads in the background and boot to the console's dashboard."

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What Makes A Great Logo?

There are four principles that make for a great logo design: Follow solid basic design principles, Be functional, Represent the company, and Be unique. We will go over each of these principles in depth.

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Setting up a server

This article teaches you, the reader, how to configure a GNU/Linux based server with three of the most important services that must be provided in a company, at home, a lab or anywhere else, both for clients and internal usage: web, database, mail.

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May 25, 2006

Track Your Stolen USB Pen

ever lost your USB in college or a university, track down the Theif with this easy teqnique.... read more

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Enron - Skilling and Lay found GUILTY

Just announced - both are found guilty.

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.htaccess Generator

This is a great page for any website owner/creator. It asks a few questions, and then will generate a nice clean .htaccess file for you.

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Apple´s sudden motion sensor in action.

Desktop manager/motion sensor hack for MacBook Pro

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Coming Soon: XBOX 360 Modchips

Team Xecuter thought that those hackers shouldn't be the only ones to be able to play backup games for the XBOX 360 game console, and has announced that the group is very close to releasing a first generation mod-chip for XBOX 360.

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Technorati Teams With The Associated Press

Technorati and the Associated Press this morning initiated a service to connect bloggers to more than 440 AP member newspapers nationwide.

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More Rounded Corners with CSS

"Admit it. You know it, your Mom knows it and even your Grandmother probably knows it by now: Rounded corners, borders and drop shadows (while nothing new) are all the rage these days on the 'Web 2.0, fully Ajaxed, Ajax-enhanced, Ajaxified' Web 2.0-era Web."

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How-To: Build yourself a front projection home theater

"In today's How-To we get to play with other people's toys. We upgraded a home theater to a high definition front projection system. We lay it out, set it up, drill holes, nearly die in a Texas attic, and bring home the popcorn."

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Steal It! Ruby Code & Style

There's a whole world of language features that we sometimes miss out on as Rubyists, such as pattern matching, S-expressions, and external domain-specific languages. But the good news is that we can have them, too, as long as we're not afraid to steal a few things first.

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Commodore 64 emulated in Flash!

cool project... go re-live the good old days!

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Cranking up MPEG Surround

MPEG Surround, a new surround-sound technology, emerged as the star of this week's Audio Engineering Society Expo in Paris. All that's missing are the chips needed to bring the technology to market.

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Adobe Releases New Info On CS3 Due Out Spring 07

Adobe released new info for CS3 due out in spring of 07. This is unusual because Adobe is very secretive about new products. And what they give us looks good. Can't wait till this comes out. See Comments for more links.

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How to make your own "SmackBook"

The video that just showed up today displayed a modified Desktop Manager with AMSTracker to use the sudden motion sensor to toggle desktop switching. Here's the code used, and how to modify it yourself.

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Finding Computer Files Hidden in Plain Sight

Keeping computer files private requires a simple encryption program. For criminals or terrorists wanting to conceal their activities, however, attaching an encrypted file to an e-mail message is sure to raise suspicion. But what if files could be hidden within the complex digital code of a photographic image?

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Underwater Volcano Erupts (video)

New videos show the first ever observations of deep submarine volcanic eruptions. Most of the Earth's volcanic activity happens underwater, anywhere from the surface all the way down to depths greater than 2.5 miles. However, this underwater activity has rarely been seen directly.

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Amazon Debuts AJAX Book Reader

New Interface and technology debuts for getting excerpts from Books

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Dvorak: iPod+Nike = 'Nutty'

John C. Dvorak gives his opinions on Apple's new partnership with Nike, using phrases such as "The irony here is that Jobs has become that sugar water salesman but hasn't noticed it yet"

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Wii Mote May include microphone, VoIP Support

Nintendo has hinted that there are still Wii functions that have yet to be revealed. One of the latest rumors suggests that one of these functions is built-in microphone support. Throwing in VoIP support would be another incentive for the non gamers out there.

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World War I: In Living Color

Amazing color photo's from WWI era. Kinda creepy getting a real feeling for the time period when it's not black and white. The French army was the primary source of color photos during the course of World War One.

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MacBook vent blocked

This is either the most self-explanatory observation or something no-one ever thought of...

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Big Net Neutrality vote in Congress *TODAY* 5-25 - Call Congress Now

The House Judiciary Committee is going to "mark up" Representatives Sensenbrenner and Conyers' good Net Neutrality bill this morning. Urge them to support the Sensenbrenner-Conyers "Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006" (HR 5417) in the Judiciary Committee today, and to support it without amendment.

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Scientists to Test a Fourth Dimension of Space

Scientists at Duke and Rutgers universities have developed a mathematical framework they say will enable astronomers to test a new five-dimensional theory of gravity that competes with Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

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May 24, 2006

Installing and using Linux for the total newbie

So you\'ve heard about Linux and you want to try it out, but you\'re scared you may screw up Windows or that it\'s too hard to install. Well fear no longer, here is a guide for the total newbie.

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USB digital TV tuner roundup

There was a time when adding a digital tuner to a desktop PC was cumbersome, and adding one to a notebook was impossible. Not anymore - these guys have put three USB DVB-T tuners through their paces to see if any of them are worth the money.

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Ajax Tabs Content script

A tab content script that combines Ajax and CSS to let you display a selection of external content on the page, inside a DIV and via CSS tabs. For each tab, you can also dynamically load external .css and .js files associated with the external page if desired.

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Complete MacBook Disassembly Instructions

With Pictures!!

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Download Your TV - The Current Options

TechCrunch gives a round-up of the options consumers have for downloading television programs.

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How much sleep do we really need? the 8 hour myth

The eight-hours mantra has no more scientific basis than the tooth fairy, says Neil Stanley, head of sleep research at the Human Psychopharmacology Research Unit at the University of Surrey in Britain. He believes that everyone has their own individual �sleep need� which can be anywhere between three and 11 hours.

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Anti-cancer Chewing Gum

Finnish researchers are trying to develop a chewing gum that would help to stave off cancer.

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HOW TO: Hack Your Prius

Do-it-yourself modifications lead to better fuel economy, less annoying beeping and more diagnostic data.

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15\" MacBook Pro Secondary Trackpad Click

Now you can right-click on your 15\" MacBookPro without needing to press ctrl. Just click on the trackpad using two fingers, and the context menu will appear.

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Index of 500 Full Length Cartoons on YouTube

There�s no garbage clips to weed through, just 500 full length cartoons organized alphabetically: Futurama, JLU, Thundercats, The Snorks, Super Mario, Transformers, X-Men, and more.

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MIT revamps energy system for more fuel-efficient cars

MIT researchers are trying to unleash the promise of an old idea by converting light into electricity more efficiently than ever before.

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Donnie Darko director unveils futuristic follow-up in Cannes

Southland Tales imagines the impact a terrorist nuclear attack could have on the United States. On being told that people had walked out of his movie during a press screening, the director said he hoped Southland Tales would \"push people\'s buttons\".

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Retailers Gather Data the Same Way Spies Do

\'Data mining\' provides valuable clues to customers\' spending habits.

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Sony Rootkit Settlement Finalized

A federal judge on Monday gave final approval to a settlement in a class action suit against Sony BMG Music Entertainment over anticopying software the company had embedded in some music CDs.

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The Mathematical Structure of Terrorism

The complex patterns of the natural world often turn out to be governed by relatively simple mathematical relationships. As our catalogue of natural phenomena has grown more complete, more and more scientists have begun to look for interesting patterns in human society.

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Repairing Windows XP in Eight Commands

Article describing how to repair Windows XP when your PC is inaccessible from the standard boot procedures, and you have to use the recovery console as your last resort!

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Apple + Nike

Could the two companies have a partnership as early as tomorrow?

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First Photos of MIT\'s $100 Laptop

The photos in the Flickr set are the first available pictures of the working prototype of the $100 laptop from MIT.

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Video of Vista Beta 2 in Action

CNET has a video look at Vista beta 2 release in action.

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Protecting yourself against the BitTorrent bandits!

Anti-P2P organizations are actively polluting P2P networks with fake peers, sending out fake or corrupt data in order to waste bandwidth and slow down file transfers. At its worst, when downloading copyrighted torrents as much as a fourth of the peers can be attributed to various Anti-P2P agencies. There is also a much more serious side to this...

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46 Screenshots of Windows Vista Beta 2

Microsoft is unveiling Beta 2 of Vista. One of the significant differences in Beta 2 is that the implementation of UAC (user account control) privilege elevation is much more intrusive. Also, the elevation dialog doesn\'t just pop up; it switches Vista into what Microsoft calls \"secure desktop\" mode. Here\'s 46 images of Beta 2.

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eWeek\'s review of the new MS Office 2007 Beta 2

eWEEK Labs\' evaluation of Microsoft\'s Office 2007 Beta 2 unearthed compelling features and tools, and reminded us why enterprises continue to rely on the productivity suite.

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14 year old kid becomes millionaire through online scamming

Akin is, like many things in cyberspace, an alias. In real life he\'s 14. He wears Adidas sneakers, a Rolex Submariner watch, and a kilo of gold around his neck.

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People in vegetative state revived by pill

A sleeping pill can temporarily revive people in a permanent vegetative state to the point where they can have conversations, a study finds.

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New Sensor Technology Looks at Molecular \'Fingerprint\'

New sensor technology developed by engineers at the US Department of Energy\'s Argonne National Laboratory can now detect chemical, biological, nuclear, and explosive materials much more quickly and efficiently.

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Cops ask fiction writer for DNA after he posts a horror story online

\"The police have repeatedly visited the student and demanded that he submit his fingerprints and DNA to them so that they can compare the fictional murder he described in his story to evidence from any similar unsolved murders.\" Sometimes your writing is TOO good...

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Install the Vista Sidebar on XP - In One Package!

There have been hacks for a while now to allow people to install the Windows Vista sidebar by assembling files from various sources but I just stumbled across a single executable package that MSTN put together.

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Thinking in Logarithms Can Be Natural

There are asymmetries in the way animals perceive numbers and time, and a recent experiment showed that pigeons underestimate the midpoint between two time intervals.

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Microsoft Releases Vista, Longhorn, Office Betas - Simultaneously

In an unprecedented move, Microsoft Tuesday simultaneously released beta versions of its three major upcoming software releases -- Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Windows Server, code-named Longhorn.

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Study Finds No Link between Marijuana and Lung Cancer

A marijuana cigarette also deposits four times as much of that tar as an equivalent tobacco one. Scientists were therefore surprised to learn that a study of more than 2,000 people found no increase in the risk of developing lung cancer for marijuana smokers.

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1000+ public domain images

Scanned remains of castles, deserted abbeys, old manor houses, mansions and stately homes; also engravings, woodcuts and pictures of Old England and Wales. Most are public domain unless otherwise noted, and can be used as historical reference in teaching, royalty-free stock images, scrapbook clip art and/or on websites.

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Americans bet 4 billion dollars online despite ban

US residents spent more than four billion dollars last year on Internet gambling, despite a de facto prohibition on such wagering in the United States, according to a report.The American Gaming Association said its analysis supports the need for a congressional study of ways to regulate online gambling for US residents.

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May 22, 2006

Politicians Enlist Whiz Kids to Help Build Blogs and Podcasts

Veteran politicians more familiar with turntables and typewriters are enlisting twentysomething computer whiz kids to help them brave the digital world of blogs, podcasts and the Web as they look to connect directly with voters.

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Stunning Images - Amazing Imagination

Kuteev (aka Kuteev Designs) shows off some truly amazing images. Enough text, let\'s look into the mind of an artist, shall we?

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How to Silkscreen Posters and Shirts

Silkscreening is such a great happy medium � nestled comfortably half-way between hand-drawn and mass production, more colourful than photocopying and with an aesthetic all its own.

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CSS3 Preview

A preview of the nice things to come in CSS3. Most of them are supported by either Gecko (Firefox and a few others) or WebKit (Safari) based browsers, so have one (or both) open. IE users don\'t get to have any of the fun yet.

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Create HDR images in Photoshop CS2

Here\'s an excellent little tutorial on how to create an HDR (High Dynamic Range) image in Photoshop CS2. This requires a camera that can allow you to control exposure (bracketing), and a tripod or solid surface to work off. HDR... it\'s the latest trend.

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The Web Workflow - Part 1 - Developing a Design

A web designer talks about his design process. Has many pictures and examples of how a design is made and revised.

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INSANE Mosaic! Check this out... crazy.

This is crazy. It goes on forever... please. I\'m begging you. Check it out...

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See the guy who stole your macbook

Undercover, a piece of software for macs, can now take pictures of a thief if you install it on your macbook or macook pro using the built-in iSight camera. Assuming it doesn\'t overheat first.

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Asymptote: The Vector Graphics Language

Asymptote is a powerful descriptive vector graphics language.\r\nA major advantage of Asymptote over other graphics packages is that it is a programming language, as opposed to just a graphics program.

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Office 2007 - Microsoft Developer Video Tutorials

Original tutorial Videos from the Microsoft DPE team

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17gigs of free searchable textures and models

Spectralogue - thousands of free textures and some fully textured tileable 3d models. No registration, no ads, no chance for the server.

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Ethanol: Myths and Realities

Ten questions and answers about the fuel that\'s supposed to save the economy. There\'s plenty of misinformation swirling around and a host of questions. What exactly is ethanol? How is it made and used? And is it really a viable alternative to gas? Here\'s what you need to know now.

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320GB Western Digital Hard Drive for $99 (no rebates!)

Office max a nice little sale on western digital hard drives.

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Afraid Of Re-installing Windows XP?

This site has a very useful tutorial if you have an old and slow XP machine with hundreds of programs and you want to re-install. This site will show you how to save your old partition in a virtual machine, and have a nice, new install of Windows.

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120 GB Monster Drive-Pocket Sized!

US Modular is introducing the 120 GB Monster Drives to the public before the end of 2006. These USB hard drives are small enough to easily fit in your pocket and range from $99-$399.

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Vista\'s Make Or Break Moment

Testers of Microsoft\'s latest operating system say the next build, which they\'re betting will hit this week, better be good.

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Ubuntu Dapper Drake 6.06 Guide

An amazing, thorough guide on Ubuntu Dapper Drake 6.06

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Fast OS Switching on Black MacBook (video)

New black MacBook running Ubuntu, WinXP, and MacOS all at the same time! This is the ultimate setup!

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Free Stock Photos, Images and Textures

Lots of great photos.

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Wired News leaks FULL AT&T NSA documents!

Happened at 2:00AM EST on Monday. This is going to be huge news.

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MacBook: What you need to know

This is a really good breakdown of what you want/need to know about the new MacBook from Apple. Things like color and hard drive options, the high gloss screen, totally new keyboard design, and integrated graphics. Good information from Macworld.

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Modifying a Laptop BIOS for Fun and Profit

In today\'s hack, we will analyze and modify a laptop BIOS image for fun and profit. Note that this is stupidly dangerous: a bad flash and we\'ll end up with a doorstop, or we\'ll have to remove the chip and reflash it manually. But in either case, the outcome can be fun.

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Google insiders sell off $6.5 Billion in stock

If you take a look at Google\'s insider trading sheet you will note that company insiders have sold off $6.5 Bn worth of stock while not buying a single share (some insiders have sold every last share). With rumors of click fraud running rampant one has to wonder if these people know something the rest of us don\'t.

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Crazy AdSense Experiment: Unethical But Legal $10,000/Month

\"Developing Made for AdSense Web Sites for Dummies\" tutorial as an attempt to create a vaccine against Made for AdSense web sites.

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life is absurd