Is it just me, or does the pre-detergent version have lighter hair than the post-detergent version? Putting aside everything else wrong with this commercial, that's one fishy detergent.

You're right, this video has been around here before (http://www.snotr.com/video/15965/Playing_with_liquids).
Still love the music, though. =)

On the one hand, this man deserves everything he got based on the footage. On the other hand, I'm fairly disappointed about the reaction—or the lack thereof—of the passing people. Most of them have no clue about the context of this one-sided beating (i.e., they were not around when the guy stole her stuff), and for most this situation should appear as if the woman just mugged the guy.

This reminds me of the public abuse social experiments. Woman can verbally and physically abuse her man while the onlookers ignore the fight, cheer on the woman, or laugh at the man. However, man merely raises his voice and people start shooting condemning glances, and the second things get physical people rush to the rescue of the woman.

I'm not saying that women don't deserve to be defended, but men deserve the same privilege. After all, men are nearly as frequent victims of domestic abuse as women, and more frequent victims of non-physical abuse. And even a woman who appears frail and weak can easily beat up a grown man who cannot handle confrontations (emotionally, mentally, or physically), or who is simply unprepared to defend himself.

Only partially related, but enjoy my short rant if you will.
Cheers!

#2 and #5: The guy in the video says (~ 2:37) that they are a small business and don't expect to deal with overseas. This means the product could be a commonplace on the Japanese market without us ever hearing about it, especially once it loses its novelty. =)

#4 I agree with what you say about the process, but it needn't take hours. There is a decent "hacking scene" in the movie Blackhat, where they deploy a phishing attack... nothing too outlandish. Incidentally, that might be the most realistic hacking scene I've ever seen in a movie / series... =)

I felt sorry for Sara at first. She has to deal with all the "inconsistencies", while Adam enjoys so called regular ride in his spaceship... But then Adam got the worst (im)possible whiplash the universe has to offer... =P

Recently, there has been a number of conferences where the topic already assumes that general AI is going to come sooner or later (no longer discussing the "IF scenario" ) and the focus is instead on what we should do in order to assure the AI is not going to go all Terminator on us or on our environment. The idea is to create a consortium to oversee the collection and then compilation of all necessary constraints and reasonable goals for the AI that would be aligned with the humankind's well being and continued existence.

In fact, when talking about the example this guy has given, the constraints could look like "collecting != printing" or "do not use humans for their base materials"... =P

Technically speaking, both "Aluminium" and "Aluminum" are correct. It's just that the latter is an officially accepted alternative commonly used in but ~2 countries, whereas the rest of the world sticks to the original spelling...

#1 Well, it's clearly intended to work within the boundaries of a shame society like China, Hong Kong, or Japan... It only follows that this initiative wouldn't work as intended in the western countries with either guilt society or criminal justice systems...

I wonder why no one seems concerned with the opportunity for mis-identification and the number of (innocent) lives this initiative can ruin just because they happen to look quite similar to an image generated by technology that may or may not actually be reliable to do such a thing accurately... Not to mention that this whole setup assumes the collected rubbish was originally a litter and not a product of a strong wind on a near-full trash container... or a fallen container where lots of rubbish could and likely does spill out and wind or even passing people (who hardly ever stop to straighten up these things) do the rest...

In summary, flawed collection method, likely inaccurate image generation method (I fully agree with #2 there) and they release it in a shame society to ruin a life or two... shame on them!

Now I wonder how would fare people who have tenuous grasp on the bike riding skill in the first place? How about ambidextrous people? How about left-handed people forced to convert to being right-handed? How about combination of such cases?

For instance, I am what I tend to call "partially ambidextrous" or "selectively ambidextrous", which describes a setup where each of my hands is better at handling different tasks, with another group of tasks that, either instinctively or by effort, I can perform equally well with either hand... I cannot say for sure I would be able to ride this bike as there were clearly many who thought so before me and failed miserably to the amusement of many, but I would certainly like to try it out if the opportunity came by! =)

#3 Just in case you are wondering, it is Aurum card deck by Encarded. I ventured to their website full of hopes only to find out that about 90% of their wares (including Aurum) have been sold out and, as far as I can tell, none are to be produced again.

Okay, this is both brilliant and ludicrous... maybe also a tad bit disturbing... =P

I am still amazed by the number of people offended by Lars Andersen's video... He has formidable skills when it comes to his trick-shots (even assuming some of the shots were edited in), maybe it is not the practical or the competitive archery, but archery nonetheless.

As for all the crap spouted by that video of his... so what? Most of us must have come across far more outrageous of a bull being spouted on the internet and did not give a damn... or did you? I certainly did not, just enjoyed his shots and laughed at his pathetic parkour (if it can so be called) attempts... =P

I am officially impressed! All he is missing now is a decent parkour practice to complement his movement skill set... Still, even without aesthetically pleasing / effective movements, his archery skills are formidable! =)

#8 Your example serves as a fine showcase for both sides: I can see an armed citizen stopping the crime in progress, as much as I can see a very pathetic class of criminal that is highly unlikely to ever lay hand on a gun in any country where it is even slightly difficult to do so...

But let's not forget this situation could have ended up a bloody mess as easily. The robber was likely just some punk with little to no proficiency in using a gun, someone who clearly wanted to use the gun mainly for its intimidation prowess rather than to actually shoot someone with it. I imagine that if his intentions / motivation / guts were of a more serious tone, the result would unlikely be him running away but, much more likely, a shootout... Would anyone still consider it a good idea for the grandpa to intervene, if a shootout (injuring x and possibly killing y) were to ensue?

No matter how much I dislike, or even hate, this kind of music... that guy can dance! =)

Very interesting idea which makes the lock difficult (if not impossible) to address with the conventional lockpicking tools! And even with a potential lockpick designed to address this lock, the picking might take up far too long because of the sheer amount of combinations introduced... very good!

That said, I see two drawbacks of this set: no.1 the "keyhole" seem a bit too open so even something as simple as smearing it with a handful of mud is likely to jam the mechanism, and no.2 the key is rather bulky for the places where one, especially men, usually put their keys, which means you have to put the key where you're not used for it and, in my experience, that increases your chances of forgetting where put it and / or even losing it... although this doesn't affect anyone who carries keys in a bag / purse / etc... Not to mention that if you leave it on a shelf, your dog (maybe even cat) may take it for a new toy... =P

For all those interested in the ridiculous and various oddities from all over the world: the US has proven its worth once again! That said, this law still cannot compare to the dial-up modem paranoia after War Games, I guess they are slipping... =)

#4 There are already sensible laws in place to cover the use of a laser pointer that way, but this one is certainly not amongst them nor ever will be.

#1 I don't disagree with the underlying idea, but there is also the flip side.

In a country where being armed is such a commonplace that strangers may think twice before starting something petty on a street / in a pub, it is also much simpler for properly motivated... or desperate... people to get a hold of these arms and then use them to gain whatever it is they wish to gain. More than that, it also significantly raises the odds of these people actually going through with whatever impulse or plan they may have, because arms have that sort of an empowering effect. As pointed out in the video, melee just doesn't cut it anymore... and healthcare system's situation is probably of a lesser concern to those people...

I honestly think this was waste of R&D money... Unless it can move+aim and reload fast enough to accommodate at least the 60 000/min cadency, and I doubt it can do so with the 30 000/min already, then what exactly is the point? Yes, that one target is royally screwed, but so is any target shot with just one .50 BMG round (no matter whether it was fired from a sniper rifle or BMG itself)...

Well, he failed to dispel any of the "myths" mentioned in this video... Bare statement that contradicts another statement, possibly a myth, does not dispel or disprove it... To do that, one would have to present some sort of evidence or supporting data, and that he failed to do in all cases.

In the single attempt to provide a sort of an elaboration using a high-level piechart, he uses a nigh completely irrelevant sample... The children of 5 years and under are NOT in any way a noteworthy representation of ALL the people in the world. It is even greater a mismatch of samples since the decline of childbirth in certain countries and people living much longer than in the past, but it would be a completely non-representative sample even in the middle-ages... Either that, or it is simply a logical fallacy of analogy, and a bad one at that.

Finally, he mentioned we know "how" to solve the issue he drifted off to (~83% of children under 6 die of preventable diseases/malnutrition/etc), while we clearly don't, because there is no system in place to deal with it. This suggests that either the "how" is not clear to all of us, or the "how" he is thinking of is not exactly a viable solution to the problem, in any case, we cannot be sure for he forgot to elaborate on the "how"... Which means he failed to prove even something he himself brought up...

#1 Probably the closest comparison to what you meant would be probably Realistic Historical Sword Fighting (European knight) vs. Iaido, or just generic Kenjutsu (Samurai).

On a battlefield, European knights were clad in a rather heavy suit of armour, with their swords not exactly diamond tough or *that* sharp, they were quite heavy and offered fair defensive capabilities... Most of their damage to one another would come in a form of a piercing attack or, much more often, a blunt trauma (sword to armour/to shield).
On the other hand, Samurai, while clad in a suit of armour, were still significantly more mobile and agile, but also far less protected than their European counterparts. Their weapon of choice was a blacksmith's marvel, both in toughness and in battlefield sharpness, but it was also rather light in comparison and offered little to no defensive capabilities. They dealt damage to one another by slashing, rarely by piercing strikes, but certainly not by bashing...

Now, it was "demonstrated" several times, that should the two weapons collide, the European sword would be likely cut off by the Japanese sword. That said, Japanese swords are far too light for the slashing strike to successfully pass through the knight's armour, or to deal significant enough blunt damage that way. Which basically means that the weapons would become next to useless, and the whole thing might be settled by armour clad punches, kicks and body slams vs. Jujutsu... and that is a different matter entirely. =)

I really love how we, as a society, made it through the dark ages. The dark times when the likes of Spanish Inquisition and various other "confession seekers" were known to had used variety of tools to make common people confess to the act of witchcraft... or to anything else they desired them to confess. And how we finally broke free of these idiotic notions and recognised, not only that the torture for potential information (or confession) is unethical, but also that it is fundamentally flawed; that the guilty are likely to be somewhat prepared for the possibility and offer false information, while the innocent break easily and offer utter nonsense, both of which is finally labeled as a "confession". Splendid!

Really beautiful! By the way, is it just me or anyone else thought the upcoming OSX should use the squirrel running in circles ( 1:06 ) as the new loading screen? =P

I may be wrong but does this really belong in 'Awesome'? To me, this looks like something taken right out of the 'Short Film' category... That one still exists, right? Either way, I cannot seem to find a single "awesome" thing about this video, though that may be just about my perception.

Well now there are 3 (that I know of) filtering water filtering technologies. We have the old-school tablets, we have the LifeSaver bottle/canister (post in #2 link), and now we also have this DrinkableBook. Each has its clear pro-cons, but no matter which solution, I should think that combination of the three is much better than relying on just one.

Tablets: Super easy to transport/carry and deploy, but there is only a limited amount of tablets in one package so you must ensure they get used on larger quantities of water (as much as one tablet can cover) otherwise you are just wasting, and they are likely to run out far sooner than the other two solutions.

LifeSaver: Incredible idea for disaster area response. The technology appears sound, effective and sufficient, but the solution appears rather impractical for the "common" daily life in third world countries.

Drinkable Book: I would say this solution has the application exactly opposite to that of the LifeSaver solution. It is bulky, clearly not meant for emergencies or for use on the go, but for the "common" daily life in third world countries, this solution appears to be the clear winner. It even provides available, yet easily to ignore (if so desired), education about water habits to stay safe.

So now aid providers, governments and all the involved can see that we have a fair range of solutions to the varied water crises... And yet I doubt we are going to see any significant improvement in our lifetime.

(In regard to discussion between #8 and #10, here is my contribution)

If you "force" western companies, especially the well-off companies such as Apple, to raise their costs in the far east, you are likely to approach the threshold of costs which keeps the production in those countries, instead of them developing a far 'better', albeit (one time) expensive, possibly automated, production solution locally. And if they do that, conditions for people in those countries are likely to significantly worsen. (~ #8)

Now, is it sad and soul crushing? Quite so... BUT it indicates that the problem lies elsewhere. One problem is the mind-boggling number of people in China and India - western's low-cost outsourcing choices. Just think how few people (in comparison) live in ANY, or even any combination of up to 4, of the western countries. Yet there is still unemployment, poverty, and homeless present... Imagine what China and India have to deal with.

Plausible solution to that problem is to create additional job opportunities en masse. But to ensure that these opportunities remain, you must ensure they appeal to foreign (or local) companies / investors more than the alternatives. One of the most obvious ways to achieve that is to do exactly what we know and loath about these working conditions: pitiful wage + horrendous working conditions. It is an ugly solution without question, but it is keeping those people from starving on the street...

From our side? Instead of trying to push responsibility on others (Apple, Nokia, etc), we could simply stress donations and display mass interest in the research of 'safer yet cheaper' or 'safer yet same cost' production / assembly processes that, once discovered, could be adopted by these factories.

#4 I believe another problem posed by electric cars was their battery. The 'old-fashioned' was nickel-based and its production was creating more pollution than any electric car's potential benefit to the environment... And then there was also the tiny problem with recycling of those nickel batteries, or more precisely, how the waste just kept on piling up for there is / was no recycling process available.

When these problems are solved, possibly by alternative battery technology for electric cars, it will again come down to pollution from energy production alone, and that is significantly lower than emissions from all those cars we have now. Not to mention that there are already some promising ideas for re-visiting nuclear energy. =)

#7 They tried that some time ago, but the end result was basically a car covered in solar panels. Now, this presents a dilemma for the owner: Do I leave the car outside at the mercy of the weather (extremely tricky especially during colder seasons) and / or for anyone to intentionally or accidentally smash the solar panel(s) on the surface of my car while they are trying to capture any sunlight the daytime has to offer, or do I park it in the garage where, while being safe, the purpose of those solar panels, for which I paid through the nose for, is completely moot?

That and then there are countries where sufficient sunlight is barely a matter of summer and spring, making the car once hell of an expensive electric car for the rest of the year.

PS: I cannot phantom why Ford would go with this aspect of electric cars for their marketing. The person driving is usually not bothered by the noise the car makes (unless something goes wrong), or they actually enjoy it (the revs!)... So do I understand it correctly that this commercial targets imaginary customer that would buy a silent car for someone who often drives around his/her house (or his/her walking path) so the noise in the neighbourhood is reduced?

#6 #7 I would say the main difference is that while faith could be expressed as 'reliance' (doesn't require proof), theoretical concept/theory could be expressed as 'curiosity' (seeks the proof). Also, it is important to distinguish between religion and faith, so I hope #6 meant faith and not religion.

As for the actual topic of this video, I read the paper by Hawking some time ago and was rather... I guess "disappointed" is the right word. It was interesting to read, however, as most of this topic is theoretical, the lack of any calculations makes it appear more of a summary of thoughts rather than a theory or a proof.

The majority of the second half sounds very much like when an amateur is trying out some weird "keyboard" application on his/her computer (allowing for various instrument output per keystroke), and just presses keys randomly and frantically. I am talking from experience here, and it positively hurts my ears...

The implementation of the automata musicians is very Japanese and generally awesome, however, s/he would do well to include people other than engineers, and generally closer to the world of music, the next time it comes to putting together an actual song.

#10 While there are several ways to get one started (apprenticeship, reading about the process, imagination, etc) the most challenging and important thing is to practice, practice, practice, practice and practice... Trust me, this is not by far the first blade this person has made... =P

#18 That's the guy! Though I do remember slightly different setting of the fight, is it possible he attempted this more than once? =P

I honestly didn't know Google+ still existed. Also, no matter their attempts to popularise this product of theirs over the years, patience (and persistance) seems not so much a virtue, as a life sentence. =P

I remember seeing videos on a technique very similar to this one. The practitioner that time was of Chinese descent, bit on the older side with that awesome "Kung-fu master" beard and was using lots of "diverting" movements, which resembled fast-forwarded puppetry. Nonetheless, he accepted a challenge from some fairly low-ranking MMA fighter and tried it in an actual fight...

To this day, I remember bursting into laughter when the MMA fighter came up to this person and basically grounded him with one, very well landed, straight to the nose... Gloves on, of course, so the fight got back up afterward but it was perhaps even sadder than that straight as it turned out into one-sided dogfight... =P

#10 This video disproves neither, don't worry! Also, how could you even begin to compare Jedi and this guy?! xD

#10 True. It's strange though, this common sense construct should suggest a cycle where security standard is upgraded reasonably long before it can be circumvented by a third party. I guess this is not in place because of the immense costs it would represent... and/or maybe because such cycles would be nigh impenetrable, which would likely lead to downfall of security systems, as the customers would (over time) forget what failure of such system entails.
To illustrate: If you couldn't concieve that someone breaks into apartments to steal things (simply because there are no existing victims to burglary and therefore no burglars), would you still lock your door?

Food for thought! =)

#11 No, I'm not motivated enough for that... =/

#12 Actually, I haven't ventured into what should or shouldn't be done. All I did was to explain your involvement in #5's post and possibly reminded you that your advice would serve you better than agitation over an offensive post. As for #5's post, it has already received its critique via the rating system, no need for me (or anyone) to venture there again.

Somehow this reminds me of the hacking from the new Ubisot game Watch_dogs. It only helps to demonstrate just how full of technology our every day life has become... =)

Also, despite being against the tone of #5's post, I feel obliged to add this to be fair.

#8 I can point out where you "said" it. You see, #2 brought up the idea that they (thieves) not only open the cars, but that they also start them using said box. As we all know, starting a car usually suggests stealing thereof. And since you built up on this premise by suggesting possible explanation, you demonstrated support for the idea. Such support, for the purposes of #5's post, is the very same thing as saying so yourself.

Just following your advice to #5 about reading a interpreting before lashing... He clearly isn't the only one in need of such advice.

#1 This kid may be smart (from what I gather he attended university when he was high school age, so most likely is), but what really intrigues and deserves admiration is his drive, fact that he managed to clearly identify a goal/dream and the willpower to stick with it.

There are smart/intelligent (or both) people everywhere. I personally know enough genius-level IQ (among other things) people that it might qualify as a commonplace. I know tons of academic performers with straight A transcripts from prestigous institutions, various academic awards and who know how rare schollarships, but vast majority of these people aren't really going anywhere special in their careers, or toward any noteworthy goal... Either because they simply don't have any stable dream or goal, they aren't motivated enough to work toward it, or because they don't have the willpower to stick to it.

Getting a stable job and having salary to afford some extra comfort may sound like a goal in this economy, but it's a rather weak one even now. This kid is quite amazing that way.

#1 #3 Well it's all about simple distinction: Does the country want to be a member of the EU, or does the EU want said country to be a member?

There are few member countries which would do quite well (or even better) on their own, but are currently helping the EU survive, so the EU is trying their best not to chase them away by being more... flexible when it comes to some trespasses. On the the other hand, there are countries which are dragging the EU down, and those will be gladly sanctioned for any trespass in order to get more money to fix/face any problems they themselves (other like them, or worse than them) pose.

And if you think about situation(s) of Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, you will see that it's actually quite straightforward.

PS: For those who find EU documents to have too many footnotes, I advice looking around. Pretty much any commercial or contest has at least one footnote/exception, contracts and other legal documents are full of them, and far worse than having lots of footnotes and exceptions is to don't have them at all, or lack the truly important ones, e.g. US's Bill of Rights, where there is not a single footnote mentioning that any right listed can be disregarded at government's convenience (before Patriot Act, and more freely ever since).

#8 Various conductivity levels of the environment in its path...

#1 No, it doesn't debunk anything. It shows you only one type of lightning: the commonly seen negative charge Cloud-to-Ground lightning.

Very interesting footage, but the guys in the video get too much screen type for my taste.

#3 Not history, people... although time itself is also fairly efficient in these matters it doesn't come close to what people have destroyed en masse, and unfortunately, even people of recent history (see "Nazi book burning"... =/

As for the video itself namely the "ancient battery", I suggest an alternative question to the classic and ever repeating "how did they...?", let's ask something more interesting, like "what was it meant to power up?"... food for thought =)

First I'd like to say that I like this "discovery" very much. This paired with the "rise" of the Thorium based nuclear energy may, in fact, lead us to a new age where energy and fuels are far less of a concern... AND/OR where technology will make yet another amazing leap forward. At least that is what I'd like to imagine.

#3 #15 Current battery technology is far "larger" (depends on the use-case of course) and heavier in comparison. Which means that if it's possible (and it is) to build an electric car, such as Tesla Model S (or the all-road version), with current battery technology within reasonable weight limits, it will be considerably lighter and "smaller" should this technology be used instead. Unless, of course, they decide to change the technology whilst keeping the same size of the battery, which they might want to do to increase the driving range or some other aspect of car's performance.

Your reaction in #15 indicates that you are under the impression that they will take that same small (? 20x30x2mm ?) piece of graphene (used to power up a LED light for ~5 minutes after ~2 seconds of charging) and attempt to power up a car with it. If that's the case, then be at ease. They are first going to devise some folding arrangement, layering system, possibly even introduce some separative layers and maybe even improved container before it comes to that. Not to mention the charging for the battery of that purpose is going to take more than ~2 seconds... However, in case you were aware of all this, then I cannot phantom why you'd use comparison of these two use-cases to illustrate your point there.

#17 & #18 That was unnecessary...

#5 From what I can tell, while active pieces stand in the center of their respective squares, all "irregular" movement (captured pieces, knight, and presumably even rocade) takes place over the grid, -the squares' borders-, avoiding all active pieces. Bishop and queen, while moving diagonally, will encounter no collision piece in this manner, so there is no way for adjusting their trajectory.

As for the functionality itself, I have several ideas. My guess would be that there, underneath the board, is a robotic "arm" with an electromagnetic tip. This arm moves under said piece, turns on the tip, moves the piece, and then turns the tip off again (notice that no 2 pieces ever move at the same time, so rocade will probably be a 3 phase exchange something like: traveling the upper border/grid A to midAB, traveling the lower border/grid B to A, continuation on upper grid midAB to B);

#7 That's one of the best points about Thorium...

You see, I do not dispute your point, you're right there, BUT maybe you didn't account for one of the mains reasons, why new energy solutions have lead to conflicts. One of the main reasons was simply battle over resources, because either the materials were scarse, OR they were scarse compared to the amount required to sustain requires output.

However, In this video, we learned that this stuff is not only much more common than Uranium, but also that we need much less of it to achieve the same output. So, in my opinion, if this works as advertised and people/companies open to this idea, it could indeed drastically improve how things are in the world.

Something else that I find extremely curious about this, Norway, -country with of the largest quantities of oil, and therefore one of the countries least concerned about the energy-relevant resources' shortage-, is one of the first countries to house experiment that explores alternative, and so far it seems that also much more efficient, method to extract energy... That could send very good message out there... =)

#14 That would depend on what they do. I think base2 (binary) would still be the system of choice for programmers... even though base16 (hexadecimal) is widely used for color definition (god save CSS coders ^^)...

So let's do a short summary:
- By narrator's admission, this new system would do (close to) nothing for mathematics in general;
- All advantages would impact pretty much only elementary school kids;
- Two new symbols would have to be introduced and distributed (talk about messing up ASCII);
- One of the newly introduced symbols would be constantly mistaken for our favorite variable "x", while the other one would collide with the small epsilon, which is also employed in mathematics (most common used in calculus);

Somehow, this system appears to focus greatly on teaching basic mathematics to kids, which is an amazing thought, but somewhat disregards other levels/branches of mathematics, defeating the whole purpose of numeric system choice...

One thing that, in my opinion, wouldn't be all that difficult to include in this design: some "mechanism" (could be in it's simplest form - oxygen depriving cap) to put out the flames...

Of course, one could say that if we do some calculations (or at least an educated guess) in advance we can put there about the right amount to cook whatever we are planning without any fuel left over, but there are situations where termination of your cooking procedure is a consequence, which also entails loss of any fuel consumed until that point, so wasting any more than that is extremely undesirable...

Remember, you can be as far away from this experiment as your cable to the remote reaches. ^^

Also, notice that the only component, which is not required for the experiment to work, and is there only to keep you informed, - geiger counter -, costs* approximately the same amount as all necessary components combined...

*used #10 's price table for reference

Clips like these are the best testimony that this era has no shortage of capable stunt actors... =)

#8 With this, except for the "available information on their site" part, I disagree... and I will tell you why... =)

First, "rip off" would suggest it is the same level of technology, or lower... while it is actually higher. While kinect captures low-precision movements in an "ambiguous" space which are then transfered to dimensions of your screen, this device is meant to capture high-precision movements in an allocated space (screen).

Second, it is not non-existent per se, it is in development. From consumer's point of view it does not exist, but from developer's point of view it may very well be fully functional. If you do some extra research, you might find it is already near completed.

Last, yes, you can think of it as giving $70 for something that is not out there just yet... but isn't that the spirit of "pre-orders"? Also, this pre-order has an advantage to it (or a disadvantage, is the glass half-full or half-empty?): You can think of it as a gamble. You're giving $70 for a product that is yet to be released => its price is still speculative, and it's yet to be tested by the public. Now, this product may come out, and be completely worthless, which would result in both the price and company going down... BUT if it turns out to be everything they are promising, then the price is likely to go up... I wouldn't be shocked by $100 - $500, in which case, you would have saved some, if not a lot of, money... There, if you want to make an informed choice (or a bet), you can contact them and ask for specifica their site doesn't have (I'm planning to do so), or you can just hover over their blog and wait for something of value...

Great day, everyone! =)

#5 That's exactly what it is, if it actually "is"... =P

Which also means that you either have to initialize the buffer before you take your caption (meaning there will be need for pressing "capture" button 2 times), or it simply stores circa 5 sec long loop (longer or shorter) which is then stopped by pressing the capture button, and deleted once the desired caption is saved...

It can be something else of course, but I highly doubt it's going to be that different from what I listed above... There are some inherent disadvantages to this technique: like misplacement on the screen - people can move to side or so... and turning some part of the photo back in time could result in bodies without heads and vice versa... ^^

Also initiated buffer would, once again, require right timing (though it would provide much bigger frame to work with)... and loop-styled buffer would consume battery in a flash not to mention there would have to be some additional memory "physical buffer" (after all, it is deaf video of, let's say, 5MP caption per fraction of second...unless you make it by second, which would probably defeat the purpose of this whole idea)

Now that my thoughts are out of my head I'll take my leave... Enjoy! ^_^

Shawshank Redemption!! My favorite movie, how could I not like this... Also, amazing drawing skills - 2 handed, or 1 handed, that picture is great!

Question though, does anyone know the name of the song? =)

#(removed comment) Nice try, those are Belgians though.

#8 Agreed, on both counts...

In my opinion the whole idea of texting while driving is stupid... don't even know what kind of genius started that, or why. If you need to get in touch with someone why not just call? They even manufacture most of the cars with built-in handsfree sets... puzzling >_<

I have great confidence in my multitasking, as well as driving, skills... and even with that I only read texts on red lights, or write short "will be late"s while stuck in traffic jams...

Side note - I think this method is rather cruel, people who are only just taking their driving tests (+ meaning they haven't yet had the opportunity to text while driving, unlike people who own licence already) are often nervous and stiff even without additional "torture"... Strange thing though, drivers from Belgium are usually avoided as swiftly as possible when encountered in traffic (main reason, other than stereotype, being that the testing in Belgium is deemed insufficient/non-existent by almost any other country)... I wonder why this "torture" started there...? :o)

I see the potential too... it looks like an early stage of my int. design project...

Following stages involved interviews with few people, and based on their responses, among other things, introduce different genre of functions, and getting rid of the "pop-up of death" (appearance of stuff in your field of vision, center of it or otherwise distracting locations)... although mine version seems a bit more bound to the design of glasses as we know them today, unlike: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-A6pD_FWmYxg/T3xUSvVz8LI/AAAAAAAAABk/qdfLOQRlrXE/s649/glass_photos3.jpg

Originally my project wasn't meant to be useful, just interesting and thorough (and blah blah blah), now it seems it may actually be useful to someone... hopefully... =)

#9 & #14 Moore's law... Amazing to observe, isn't it? =)

#2 I don't want to take the wind out of your sails, but if this is something you want to hand out, then it would be better to start with Claude Shannon, who in 1937 basically fathered informatics... not to mention, even some years later when it came to Stefan Odobleja, he wasn't the ONLY one doing some paving in this field... No problem with little patriotism, though...

This following section is partly a reaction to #8 's comment, but it's written in a general way, so where it does not apply to #8 it's not meant to suggest otherwise:

For those linux fans who have something against OSX, apart from "Pimped Linux" where you can actually modify your page tables (among other things), and which I doubt many of you have ever come in contact with, there aren't very many things you can do on linux that cannot be done with OSX... If we would be talking about what the graphical interface allows you to do, okay, then OSX is quite restricted, but what person assessing what system can or cannot do, is restricted to graphical interface?

Moving on, I'm big fan of certain Linux distributions (Fedora, Debian), but I'm also quite a fan of OSX as it is much more supported these days... It is still extremely pricy piece of hardware, yes, but so what, it's not like we're battling prices here (and who doesn't like it or doesn't have the money, need not buy it... then go for Linux of Windows, preferably Linux ^^)...

About the factory issues, read more, Apple did not invent those conditions nor is the first with these kind of problems...

#15 Exactly, media and non-tech-savvy people do not know (or care) much about scientists, but they do love celebrities and public figures... Although I dislike how media twist certain things (Steve Jobs was more of a designer than developer/engineer... not like people get that from media), it still is quite predictable process...

I must have missed the time when it all merged under the headline "Tricking"...

<DISCLAIMER =read only if you are interested in some background story>

However, story behind this is surprisingly straightforward. Originally, there were forms/sequences that were taught in different martial arts/schools thereof, it was meant (in the first place) to learn the techniques used within the form, and simulate a scene of (usually) multiple opponents attacking in a way that is good for using said technique. Then it became way to demonstrate the Martial Art itself... and once it spread wide enough, people came to regard it more as a show, than as an actual Martial Art demonstration... and with that in mind came need for it to become more "flashier" which is also the point where the main collection of flashy show-off moves started.

</DISCLAIMER>

I've been doing different Martial Arts all my life, and I have always liked this aspect of Martial Arts (and other disciplines), however as much as I do love aesthetically pleasing flashy techniques, I prefer the useful ones a bit more...

If someone is interested, I advise Wushu for people who are interested in flashy techniques, Taekwondo for people who want both flashy and useful techniques, and Wing Chun for people who don't really fancy themselves with flashy stuff, but prefer EXTREMELY (my opinion) useful techniques...

PS: #1 and #2 : I can't really remember the name, but I've seen some youtube videos from this girl... Although it was basically a gymnastic sequence performed by a very flexible (among other things) girl - not as fancy, it was still worth watching. =)

#10 To be completely honest, I didn't verify her reversing precision, but you did get Antarctica wrong for sure...

I was expecting them to try some more complex palindromes to confuse her a little bit. ^^

I don't know how about others (though it seems there already is wave approval), but.. without criticizing anyone's music sense... this is extremely unattractive piece of equipment. It lacks both maneuverability and speed... there isn't even a trade off - "one for the other" as it's not even that fast in comparison to other solutions. All that (nothing) for the same risk... Not appealing at all...

Also, was I the only one expecting quite something different after reading "Downhill Freeride"? =P

PS: Gonna stick with snowboarding/skiing (free, extreme, or otherwise), if not "flying" (http://www.snotr.com/video/8394)

#15 Well you certainly beat me doing that... =P

Otherwise I agree with #4. Every person has some kind of talent. It just has so many forms and symptoms (googling counts too ^^), that unfortunately not every talent can be used or discovered by common means... therefore some degree of luck (fate or force, if that is your thing) is required. =)

Good hunt and luck figuring out yours...

#7 My guess is that it'd be much higher if title and description didn't mention anything about Super Mario... then the background music would define the theme (while pleasantly surprising some) and majority would think how great drumming skills he has, and how it actually kinda matches the tune.

Not only is his craftsmanship skill amazing, but this is also a great demonstration of two other things.

First, that there still exist people who actually can do something this, in fact, amazing in their own hands... in contrast to majority, which can no longer navigate without automatized machinery (well there are those who can barely do a division on paper nowadays)...

Second, is it just me or are there others who thought something along this line "What a great hobby idea for an old age!"... ? At one point in my life, I tried piecing together plastic models which from time to time could move to a certain degree, but this is something on entirely different level. =)

And it works!! =P

Beautiful! I loved the parts - especially the repeated one 0:49 - where he puts certain strings (B and E if I'm right) out of tune. Those were like a balm for ears.

I can vividly imagine the train of "next time" events:

Someone will be driving too fast, police patrol (A) starts the chase, then some other police patrol (B) spots the speed-breaking police car and assumes it's worth checking out... the police patrol (A) isn't stopping and police patrol (B) is getting agitated. Once the original speed-breaker stops, police patrol (A) gets out with a gun to arrest him, and police patrol (B) spots the gun and opens preventive fire from agitation...

I'm not checking news that frequently, but when something like that happens remember this post of mine...

Great animation as always, RSA Animate did previously very good animations (my recommendations) like The Secret Powers of Time, Drive, and many more which are worth watching. =)

Concerning this animation in particular, I'd like to point out that there is (and has been for a long time) an opinion, that US education system is very bad, with some exceptions in form of universities which are one of the best in the world {MIT, Harvard, Stanford, CalTech, Berkeley, etc} - we probably all know this one... but the thing is, by mixture of culture and education, children who are failing due to the system are diagnosed some peculiar disorders so that school can say "we are not a bad school, we just have many 'special' kids". Scary thought, right?

Notice that in europe, when there is a kid who is falling behind, he is not sedated, but: In good schools - he gets some extra attention to help him understand the matter and then, more often than not, succeeds (other stuff - if he does not succeed - is the same as in a bad school). In bad schools - he is left to repeat a year or is recommended to some easier school (or school focused on something he is good at), where he has better chances at succeeding. And when a kid in fact is diagnosed to have some disorder such as ADHD or something similar... doping him with medicaments is the last option parants or school consider.

NOTE: I knew one mother who didn't consider other solutions... the notable part is that few months later, she herself was diagnosed as a mentally unstable and had to be medicated, whereas her son is battling his disorders by running for a local track team...

Once again, I got carried away and wrote and wrote and wrote... Hope nobody minds. ^^

Military (and scouts/campers) use pills to clean "any" water to make it drinkable, which is probably slightly better solution for catastrophe survivors... but this solution could be helpful to people who have problems with supplies in general (3rd world countries), where they can't get hold of enough food, much less stashes of cleaning tablets for water.

Though yes, the idea behind this isn't exactly new, this solution is. It seems to be able to serve for a longer periods of time, it's made from cheap materials and given there are so many people supporting (directly or not) people in these conditions (lack of supplies/survivors/...), this should be affordable. Nice design by the way =P

This clip is indeed very bad... Usually you watch clips like this to extend your knowledge in the field that is difficult to grasp by simply reading textbook... this "clip" does NOT offer any such extension. :-/

#20 I don't want to argue much on the topic of light here... enough people already do that, but I couldn't help but notice your great "explanation".

If you really did study light for many years, you should know that majority of experiments in this field (especially this certain topic) assume single light source directly in front of you... which doesn't make your points completely invalid, but being educated in this field, you should know better. You decided to correct someone who assumed something you, as a self-proclaimed educated person, should know is basic assumption for these experiments.

Next thing is, if you are travelling at the speed of light and still have some blood in your body to worry about (assuming you still have some body to worry about =)... then you probably can as well accept that your blood, that is pumped in the same direction your body is moving, is travelling faster than light... at least to an outside observer.

Flow of history from a different angle... even the dancing styles... LOVE IT! ^^

Some parts of our planet untouched by man sure are astonishingly beautiful - My favorites are especially the mountain views and the waterfalls. I have always loved these kind of videos and hoped one day I might be able to see some of it with my own eyes.

PS: Baby polar bears are super cute! ^^

Someone is quite a capable fella... Nicely done details, as well as the engineering part. Must be great feeling once you finish creation like this. =)

So using #11 's analogy, you are saying that person who steals your TV after breaking into your home is not a "thief" but whatever his day job is (like a plumer, or LOCKSMITH). Hacker is the same thing (well I've spent unnecessary number of posts trying to explain that). Having the knowledge of doing something doesn't give you heading "hacker". Notice your analogy, you are saying that locksmith COULD break into (IT security specialist - the good one - COULD also break into...), yet hacker is someone who already did... so is thief who not only broke into, but also stole something.

#10 Now, you are describing IT security specialist. It's very well paid field (even in Czech Republic, actually one of the biggest salaries I have ever heard of in Czech Republic was one of certain IT security specialist... that guy was one of the reasons I started caring about this field, well a long time ago)... which means being very good is an asset. "he looks for posibilities, which could lead to breaking into computers" your quote is the nearly exact definition of what makes a successful person in this field. (to czech: Naprosto netykajici se tematu, vpodstate jen pozdrav. Je mile sem tam narazit na nekoho s ceskou vlajeckou. =)

Well this will be my last post in this thread. I tried my best, I'm sure that for those who are not satisfied with whatever I've written, there are tons and tons of literature on the topic covering far more than I could ever manage. Good Luck

#8 What you described as "hacker" is what is called "IT specialist", he/she can be talented or even called genius - depending on how good he is at what he does, or solutions he provides...

The misconception of the term "hacker" is actually the other way around, apparently many people came to believe that it's automatically some heinous crime, which generated neo- idea that it's actually something completely legal, while both being extremes and neither correct. It's in fact really just minuscule violation, but it still is and was by default illegal activity... to give some idea of precision... legally it's very close to "breaking and entering", by itself the action is illegal, but it's not very serious offense. What usually matters is what you do ONCE you "break and enter" be it in virtual space or reality (only in reality you don't really come across people who just want to try out their lock-picking skills).

#3 Well I'll elaborate to clear whatever misunderstanding there might have been.

First, hacker IS by definition illegal 'occupation'. Reason/motivation may differ but it's still illegal. Once you do it with authorization of your target (making it legal), then it's no longer being a hacker, just being computer geek. ^_^ I know personally many people who try their network/programming/OS skills this way.

Second, cracker is a person with malicious intent as well as certain set of methods used to achieve them, but they are still hackers... you could call it sub-division. To put it in simple terms: SOME hackers are crackers, but ALL crackers are hackers.

Hope this clears as much as possible.

#4 True that, although I was hoping it could be found under the "like what they are doing" heading. =)

This was rather exhausting yet in the end interesting speech. It's not all that new idea to include hackers (by definition 100% illegal activity) in the industrial and legal side of the system, there were several attempts to facilitate such 'transfer', as well as few joke propositions... One I remember:

Certain enterprise posted "Hiring Hackers specialized in banking security. Please place a copy of your CV and motivation in the folder /xx/xy on my workstation. {Name of the poster}" I can't remember the name, but even though it was just a joke at the time, the idea spread further and talk on this matter became far less sarcastic afterwards.

There are also many types of hackers - not talking about their focus/specialization more of their motivation and drive. Some like what they are doing, some do it for money, some just test their skills, and finally some who do it to harm others. It's a rough grouping but the point is: except for the last group (harming) they all can be convinced to actually use their skills for something beneficial given right approach.

After stating that the speech was exhausting, I've done really great job keeping this comment short... well done me! =/

Now I feel silly still having this ( http://www.snotr.com/video/4074/Mad_Brits - slightly longer version) in bookmarks after 2 years... Liked it back then, like it now. =)

#6 In fact it can't. Nuclear power plants create (depending on the measures taken) from only land to multiple factor pollution during its years. Unlike certain other power generations, the issue isn't only the fact that one day we will run out of the materials, but also the fact that we have no real idea what to do with nuclear waste - other than store it in the land. Also there is the possibility of malfunction or sabotage (nature nearly managed quite a sabotage recently in japan). So in the end nuclear powers only and real positive points are 1. high output, 2. materials needed aren't running as low as others... nearly everything else is a negative.

Another thing is, I don't really think Greenpeace do that much to actually help this planet. Not only that I have yet to encounter educated and/or "environment pollution" aware Greenpeace member, they also gather funds under the slogan 'save our planet', then go and use them to travel over the world and tag their motto in bigger letters so that they 1. pollute some more, 2. piss off people who won't stop their business for obvious reasons (such as profit, and/or possibly even responsibility for feeding their family/families of their employees). On the other hand, there are projects at many universities thorough the world (not only there), which research methods how to limit/clean existing pollution, as well as improve utilisation of renewable and clean energy sources... and the only money they get is for their results (something Greenpeace have yet to discover) from government or private investors...

Just saying, I am not against the idea of actually 'saving' our planet, but it's really sad, that majority of attention in this concern goes to the group as pathetic as this one... Although I make room for the possibility that there are some productive members of this group, it might actually even turn out to be hindering circumstance for them.

#14 Yeah, and if you want music version for that, then just watch Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)... right? ^_^

Local publication is somewhat lacking the credits part, but on the official site there are additional information such as the sources as well as the speakers, which in my opinion should be hard part of the song itself (for portability reasons). So that anyone who is captivated by the song's content can back-search original presentations/documents. I for example completely missed TED Talk about CERN's supercollider back in 2008, but found it thanks to this.

Well the video is terrible, but the idea is awesome. All that is left is to figure out a way to start a fire in humid environment... =)

This one is actually quite impressive. Not only has it very nice feel to it, it was also made using only the simplest of resources... I like it!

#11 I'm one of those people. I can, and make things like this (when project requires it), I have no wife and lots of spare time... I believe it's called being a student. ^^ And even outside of this specifica, it can still be just a hobby. Some people tend to their garden, some build airplane models, ..., some build automatons. And it's not like your hobbies cease to exist once you get a work or wife (well maybe some), you just have to rearrange your time table.

You can't really say this is a pointless device. There are many people who start playing around with rubik's cube, yet are unable to get it to it's original state... that's when this device comes in and resets the cube. ^^ It's not like this device is a waste of resources, it's just LEGO, your phone and time put into nxtOSEK and C/C++ programming - If you know what you're doing the longest part is actually assembling the LEGO part.

@ #9 Isn't "Trance accompanies technology well" the same thing as saying "Technology accompanies technology well."...? It's not that I don't like trance, just saying...

Well! we all can see the difference. In comparison to quite a number of "ranch bred Presidents", Obama is not only using his head, he also doesn't take himself too seriously unlike 'some' of his predecessors. (something that many consider to be given by reaching a high position, even though one of the pronounced greatest patriots of USA stated something implying quite otherwise)

By the way, pretty nice payback, but can't help it, Fox board is not gonna like him for a while... ^_^

I know this video isn't exactly the latest one, but still. After reading all these posts I thought summarization is in place.

1. It is indeed feasible. As a matter of fact, it isn't all that difficult of a task. Of course there is the relativity of 'not being difficult'...
2. Those DIY circuits are quite essencial to the whole interaction thing. To be exact, they are electromagnets with wireless switch pre-designed so that they work in 'sets'.
3. Whoever was under the impression there is no shadow, look carefully near the box (it's shadow to be exact). I assume person who said there is no shadow was looking for it on the background wall, it's not there due to lighting. (just notice where the light sources are)
4. For those who are under the impression that computers, watches, and/or other electronics in the vicinity of this 'giant electromagnet' would be under it's influence, would be best to point out that it's not by far turned on it's full capacity. Just look at how 'slowly' those !!electromagnetic!! balls are moving towards it. Just for the record, were this device on it's full capacity, distorted would be not only computers and other electronics, but also all people in that room, given the fact that every magnetic piece of metal would suddenly start flying towards that electromagnet at quite high speed.
5. Comical part, you can buy 'giant electromagnet' on the ebay, but it's highly improbable to do so unless you convince someone to put it up there first - it's quite simple to get one outside the ebay, so making the deal via ebay can't be all that hard to set up.

Conclusion, it could be done, but as we're on the internet there is no definitive proof whether it's fake or not. I'd say not fake, but that's just me.

PS: I'd really like to know the name of the music, if anyone knows, please do tell.