You Can’t Spell “Bad” Without Spelling “Ad” – Pogue’s Posts Blog – NYTimes.com

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

David Pogue has an article out regarding Spammers today…
Quite entertaining, but I think he missed something….
Take a look at his article first… You Can’t Spell “Bad” Without Spelling “Ad”
And here\’s my reply…
David,
You\’re usually right on it, but I think you missed something here…
The spammers are *NOT* trying to get you to read it (spam). They simply don\’t care. That\’s it. They simply don\’t care if you read it or not.
They are looking for the person that keeps using Internet Explorer, and doesn\’t understand their mail application. They are looking to sneak one message past the *default* settings, and make him glance at the message.
Regarding the subject lines like “About last night” or “I think I love you.”, that\’s simple. They are looking for the person that will go, oh they must of sent it to the wrong person. Or that will believe that their mail application went south.
Even better for them, there are people that simply don\’t care that the spammers are sending the emails to them. You do know that there are a few of those out there…? Yes, I don\’t understand it either, but they do exist. I was able to capture one of them for a while, but he was so depressed, I was forced to let him go… Okay… You got me, I let him go due to the PETA blockade around the house, then due to my compassionate nature. They claimed I was harming the poor thing….
Spammers simply don\’t care.

Hedy Lamarr helped invent Radio Frequency Hopping

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

From Wikipedia…

The most celebrated invention of frequency hopping was that of actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil, who in 1942 received patent number 2,292,387 for their \”Secret Communications System.\” This early version of frequency hopping used a piano-roll to change between 88 frequencies, and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or to jam. The patent was rediscovered in the 1950s during patent searches when private companies independently developed Code Division Multiple Access, a civilian form of spread-spectrum.

Can you believe it?  Hedy Lemarr helped to invent a practical wide sprectrum, frequency hopping radio communications system….  Where did I find this?  Not Wikipedia…  Nope, right here…at Britney Spears\’ Guide to Semiconductor Physics.
Yes, I was taking a look at the sight, after seeing references to it on a slashdot article. I assumed it was a spoof site, but it looks accurate, and educational.
via Frequency-hopping spread spectrum – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Pixar\’s Dogs OF The Future Are Speaking For Themselves [Up]

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Technology is letting this puppy, from Pixar\’s Up, remind you of your pet\’s priorities: squirrels, fetching, and tracking.


It is nice to see a slightly new spin on the common \’make the dog talk\’ animation idea (even though snausages did it first.) Granted, if they wanted to make it really fresh, they would have made the dog a Republican, just saying. Up will be released on May 29th.

Lifehacker – Five Best Free Data Recovery Tools – Data Recovery

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

The best way to recover from unexpected data loss is to be properly prepared. With one of the following tools on hand, you\’ll always be ready to save your data from the Reaper.
While the best defense against data loss is redundant and real-time backup, we understand that sometimes data loss sneaks right up on you. Whether your vacation pictures didn\’t make it safely from your camera to your computer or a bumblin\”

(View the rest of the article at Lifehacker – Five Best Free Data Recovery Tools – Data Recovery)

Episode 252: Dex Role

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

I don\’t think that I have mentioned

Darths & Droids.
Darths & Droids is a screen capture comic, typically taking footage from the Star Wars Prequel movies, but using a different script. In this series Star Wars never was filmed, and the players are playing a SciFi RPG game…
It\’s quite funny, and neat at how they have captured the typical gamer in the series…
For example, the current episode… 252… I guess it really is set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Where the diners look just like they came out of the 1950s.

(See the Rest of the Story – Episode 252: Dex Role.)

Apple\’s iMac Firmware Update 1.4 fixes ATI issues

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Apple today released an iMac Firmware Update 1.4 to resolve some outstanding issues with certain models freezing and another issue with Bootcamp, Apple\’s technology for allowing users to run Windows on Mac. According to Apple\’s documentation, the update fixes intermittent system freeze issues for iMac computers with ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics and fixes wake-from-sleep issues in Boot Camp. Readers report that the iMac freezes occur in a wide variety of applications–and even when not running Mac OS X (such as Bootcamp) and that typical troubleshooting steps do not resolve the issue.
Users much follow the follow the instructions in the updater application (/Applications/Utilities/iMac EFI Firmware Update.app) and the updater will launch automatically when the Installer closes. After the firmware is successfully applied to the iMac, the Boot ROM Version will be: IM91.008D.B08.\”

(See the Rest of the Story – Apple\’s iMac Firmware Update 1.4 fixes ATI issues.)