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szc's agglomerationszc's agglomeration Peeks for Geeks - An agglomeration of laconic notes based on my daily RSS and surfing habits and whatever it is that I happen to stumble upon. It could be anything really, though mostly Technology related and the odd international news here and there Articles
“I like the dreams of the future better than th
2007-01-15 21:29:01 “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.” Source: Thomas Jefferson More About: Dreams , Future , The Future , Dream , Better
Both CNN and Reuters have reported that last Sunday, scienti
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Both CNN and Reuters have reported that last Sunday , scientists have discovered a new gene directly linked to Alzheimer’s disease!! Who knows? Maybe finally one of the incurable mysteries of medical science, primary cause of dementia in elderly {mostly} will be solved. I pray that it’s true, with respect to all those who have been linked with anyone suffering from this painful disease :( Source: New gene linked to Alzheimer’s identified Originally published on Sun, 14 Jan 2007 18:57:24 GMT More About: Report , Port , Hat
Tarmas writes “For a limited time only, just like Ubun
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Tarmas writes “For a limited time only, just like Ubuntu’s ShipIt service, Sun Microsystems lets you order Solaris 10 absolutely free of charge. The operating system comes on a single DVD supporting both the x86 and SPARC versions. Also included is Sun Studio 11.” Source: Sun Is Giving Away Solaris 10 DVDs Originally published on Sun, 14 Jan 2007 20:53:00 GMT by kdawson More About: Time , Write , Just , Only , Like
For all those people who, like me, were originally forced to
2007-01-15 21:29:01 For all those people who, like me, were originally forced to read Winnie-The-Pooh books… or maybe you read them out of your own free will, anyway, it is the 80th Anniversary of dear old Winnie… the cute little bear who never grows old :) And to commemorate such even, a special edition Winnie-The-Pooh is available… …from signals.com at a mere $775! :/ Personally I’d go for Eyeore, he’s my favourite, and poor thing got drawn way too many times during parties where we were playing donkey tail! –> 80th Anniversary Special Winnie-The-Pooh - BornRich More About: People , Original , Force , Forced , Those
MP3 players are everywhere, in all shapes, sizes, colors and
2007-01-15 21:29:01 MP3 players are everywhere, in all shapes, sizes, colors and storage space imaginable. Yet no matter how much any company tries, there is still one ruler of MP3 players, undoubtedly Apple Computer Inc. Yet some people just don’t give up. The Walletex company have introduced a new MP3 player, identical in size to a credit card… pretty cool, though not as amazing as one might imagine, since after all most of us know that the core of a USB pen drive is indeed way smaller than it’s exterior packaging. My USB pen drive is a mere 1×8x20mm in size. Add to that some MP3 firmware, and you’re almost there! In all honesty, although innovative, I don’t see myself making use of this toy, then again, there might be some who actually dig this, but I can’t imagine myself using it, since even though it is thinner, it is not exactly smaller than most of it’s competitors, plus it only holds up to 2GB of data. Additionally, there is no way I would keep t... More About: Players , Color , Apes , Play , Player
This is a good one. I wouldn’t say it is an actu
2007-01-15 21:29:01 This is a good one. I wouldn’t say it is an actual joke, more like something worth chewing on. A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them. After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one sideof the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, itwas broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out, “Excuse me, where are we?” “This is Heaven, sir,” the man ans... More About: This , Good , Would
It looks like Microsoft are back on the Internet browser wag
2007-01-15 21:29:01 It looks like Microsoft are back on the Inter net browser wagon and waging war on ‘competitors’, very reminiscent of earlier days when Microsoft was battling Netscape out of the market! Folks at Microsoft have informed that IE 8.0 is already in development… who knows what is in store? Though one thing is for sure, if Microsoft want to eat up a market, they sure have the capital to do so. Survival of the fittest I guess! Personally though, when it comes to something like an Internet browser, unless the users are given an easy way of modifying it to their hearts’ content, I seriously doubt IE will ever fully regain it’s stand. Face it, if a ‘community’ is going to be using the browser, then let the ‘community’ define what goes in each individual browser. IE’s offering, though customizable, is eons away from being as customizable as FireFox. A FireFox browser can almost... More About: Back , Soft
In a not-so-amusing report from SophosLabs, scam emails are
2007-01-15 21:29:01 In a not-so-amusing report from SophosLabs , scam emails are being sent out with death threats, informing users that they’ve been stalked by professional hitmen! I really wish though they’d sent one to me, as I’ve personally been locked at home for the past days due to my upcoming examinations!!! :) SophosLabs, Sophos?s global network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have warned of a spammed-out email that pretends to come from a professional hitman, hired to kill the recipient, but are really interested in stealing money. The emails claim that the recipient has been stalked by a hired assassin for 10 days, but that the […] Source: Scam Email Blackmails With Death Threat Originally published on Sun, 14 Jan 2007 08:52:33 GMT by ignoramous More About: Mail , Report , Port
Is this the first fruit of the infamous Microsoft + Novell d
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Is this the first fruit of the infamous Microsoft + Novel l deal? According to an article on CNET News, Mono; the once upon-a-time thorn in Microsoft’s side, is to support the 3rd incarnation of C#. This is undoubtedly good news of course for us mere mortal developers!! So, rejoice I guess :oP –> C# 3.0 support coming for Mono More About: Fruit , Famous
Talk about a terrific death… err, surely I meant terri
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Talk about a terrific death… err, surely I meant terrifying :oP Now the weird part is that this 600 year old mummy was, of course, mummified (excuse the Bush-ism)… so, from my very limited knowledge of mummification techniques, I ask… did they actually mummify her like that? did they mummify her whilst still alive? (impossible since mummification also involves removing the brain through her nose… Hannibal… where are you?)… anyhow… it’s just somewhat of a troubling thought! –> Terri fied Amazon mummy More About: About , Talk , Death , Sure
Paulraps writes “Notorious Swedish file-sharing websit
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Paulraps writes “Notorious Swedish file-sharing website The Pirate Bay is planning to buy its own nation in an attempt to get around troublesome international copyright laws. The organization, the world’s largest bit torrent tracker, has set its sights on Sealand, a former British naval platform in the North Sea that has been designated a ‘micronation’ and claims to be outside UK jurisdiction. With a target price of $500m it won’t be cheap, but Pirate Bay says contributors will become honorary citizens.” –> Pirate Bay to Purchase Sealand? More About: File Sharing , Write , File , Webs , Ring
So… Google amaze us again! I am impressed at the rate
2007-01-15 21:29:01 So… Google amaze us again! I am impressed at the rate these guys roll out projects!! Here I am testing Google Spreadsheet; which although still at a very early stage, I have been using and can say it is a pretty impressive piece of code… as well as Google Notebook, which is slowly slowly replacing my bookmarks completely… …and now… they have just released Google Browser Sync ; a neat little extension for firefox that preserves your browser state across any number of computers… this is amazing for people like me who work on more than one pc concurrently… and guess what… IT WORKS!! Conspiracy theories will of course be fuelled by this as far as private data is concerned… it is true that technically google can gain access to sites they would otherwise be unaware of… or most bookmarked sites etc..etc… but it shall be pretty hard for them to do that since all the data can be encrypted using a key of any length that you dec... More About: Press , Again , Esse , Maze
Today my schwag arrived!!!!!!! Unfortunately I am not in a
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Today my schwag arrived!!!!!!! Unfortunately I am not in a position to actually post any photos of it at this point in time since my digital camera is at my gf :( So anyway, here is a roundup of what I actually got movabletype keychain this keychain is, for want of a better word, BEAUTIFUL!!! I just love it!! perplexcity cards anyone who knows me knows that this is perfect for me… I love these games!!! livejournal.com pencil well in all honesty I don't use pencils of this kind, preferring clutch pencils due to their finer lead, yet being an ex livejournal user I really like this pencil and in fact don't really plan on using it since I want to keep it as is! goatse stickers i'm not really into the whole goatse thing, especially since each time I think of it I imagine that appalling picture on the site which kinda makes my stomach verrrryy uncomfortable… yet hey… they are stickers… so I'll definitely find something to do with them ... More About: Today , Tuna , Arri , Fortuna , Fort
Most of us heard it as a rumour…
Today it was all over
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Most of us heard it as a rumour… Today it was all over the blogs… As of now I have just started entering my first online web 2.0 spreadsheet as google has been kind enough to grant me access to the limited beta…. …comments for now…incredible…simply and utterly incredible…I do not event want to TRY and imagine how much js code is actually involved in this site… but whoever worked on it till now… CONGRATS!!!! {in all honesty I DO know how much code there is behind the scenes, long live Venkman ;o)} I'll post proper commentary about this after my last exam today week! More About: Hear , Rumour , Over , Most
Haven't had much time to update due to exams, yet how ca
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Haven't had much time to update due to exams, yet how can I not update or at least write something today? The date is 6-6-6 and soon the time will be 6.6.6 :) Just love it :) In other news… my notebook is doing great… my exams are also going great… I feel confident to have aced at least 3 out of the 5 i've sat for till now… i do not know what shall happen after tomorrow… that exam is a nightmare {lambda calculus anyone?} but after that the rest should also be pretty nice-'n-easy. Then I am going to embark on a mission of translating valleyschwag.com into Maltese… which I am doing for two reasons The guys and the community there are AMAZING people… really fun… and I love promoting good ideas I realllllly need to brush up on my written Maltese, so this will be a perfect excercise …then there are the bonus reasons… i can promote the site more with Maltesers like me it is a web oriented task… and hence I ... More About: Time , Exams , Update , Have , Much
Have you ever thought of scanning your entire hard disk for
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Have you ever thought of scanning your entire hard disk for virii, setting a filter in Photoshop, rendering a small scene in 3d Max and browsing the internet at the same time? If you have… and you’ve tried it… then you know what I am talking about when I say that your pc would ‘die’ right there on the spot… …not with multi-cores it won’t! Stay tuned… I am no major reviewer… but I just got my first Dual Core T2500 notebook and will be describing my experience in layman’s terms shortly…. ..of course the above IS very possible… and believe me… everything is smoooooth :) More About: Disk , Scanning , Your , Entire , Hard
Well, with a new notebook due tomorrow morning, and one hell
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Well, with a new notebook due tomorrow morning, and one hell of a heavy expenditure on it ( > ?2,300 ) one would of course need some form of protection… alas this doesn’t come cheap! The notebook bag supplied with my ASUS W2Jc is pretty neat, yet it is no better than wrapping your notebook in, say, 10 layers of film. Obviously with a notebook cast out of Aluminum, and the sheer looks of this baby, one needs a case to match… and I therefore have been on the lookout {albeit casual} for a nice and sturdy Aluminum case… I didn’t know they made them in black too, which is ideal since it matches my notebook… so at first I was looking for a silver case, already aware that: these do not come cheap they are very hard to come across in Malta it is very hard to find one to fit a 17″ notebook they weigh a ton they are not thin..in fact, somewhat bulky and fat they get scratched very easily and dented …I had almost given up {i.e. stoppe... More About: Notebook , Ebook , Book , Note , With
Fuss over the upcoming Windows Vista is increasing at a dras
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Fuss over the upcoming Wind ows Vista is increasing at a drastic pace… I can recall just a few years back when just a handful of us even knew that a new version of Windows was due (2003)… then codenamed Longhorn… …so many promises…so few kept…so many delays…so very Microsoft! But then again, with their market share, maybe they can afford to be ‘rude’ and delay their products at will…. though not for too long I can assure you… I personally see a day when Windows will no longer be the only viable solution… especially with the new upcoming KDE 4… it’s bound to be a killer. Of course, the next thing out is Vista, due in the last quarter of this year, and on shelves in the first quarter of 2007 (i.e. 4 years late). Paul Thurrot keeps a keen eye on the ongoings of this product, as well as many others, so if interested hop over to his site, he sure can tell it better than I can :) Paul Thurrott’... More About: Windows Vista , Asin
Looks like I am not the only one who is really excited to re
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Looks like I am not the only one who is really excited to receive my schwag for this month… just look at this link and you will see some of the buzz as it happens! The Chronicles of Valleyschwag » Blog Archive » The May Issue I also happened to check out a geomap of subscribers, looks like I am the only one from Malta who subscribed, so I hope that considering our size here the plane won't just 'pass by' and drop the package into the sea instead [joke] :oP powered by performancing firefox More About: Real , Only , Like , Look , Really
Hello World!
Well here I am… just set up my blog here
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Hello World ! Well here I am… just set up my blog here since in all honesty blogger kinda got on my nerves!!! So we’ll see what being here is like now :o)) [Note: my main reason for leaving blogger though was the lack of support for categories] powered by performancing firefox More About: Blog , Just , Hello World , Hell
In some rather out-of-date-by-now news, to brighten up my cu
2007-01-15 21:29:01 In some rather out-of-date-by-now news, to brighten up my currently-very-monotonous-exam-ridden-lif e, the guys from Valleyschwag have finally sent out their ‘care’ packages for this month… …so in all honesty, I really have nothing to complain about since my uni-exam-month has two major events to colour them up… My brand spanking-and-smelling-of-new ASUS W2Jc arrives after tomorrow [I hope, after 2 months!], so i can finally rid myself of this rented notebook I am using…. right now though I really miss my W1 which of course I sold a month ago *sigh* My SHWAG also finally arrives… I’m guessing toward the end of this week, though my hopes are realistically focused on next week My order from Amazon for my ’summer-reading’ books should be here also sometime this week… I got a nice load of ‘learn how to speed read at 1000 words per minute’ books In other news…. I have finally managed to solve a Rubi... More About: News , Bright , Right , Rather , Some
First we had mechanical floppy drives… unnecessary bat
2007-01-15 21:29:01 First we had mechanical floppy drives… unnecessary battery drain for notebooks… that is now history [thankfully] and we had mechanical mice… replaced by ir mice and nowadays laser mice… …that leaves us with mechanical hard drives and mechanical optical drives…. that’s all that’s left ‘mechanically’ in our pc’s…. …say hello to the first notebook that does without a mechanical hdd… by far the worst nightmare to our notebook battery… who knows… at this rate maybe even optical drives shall become a thing of the past… especially considering that 32gb is technically on par with the latest bluray discs in terms of capacity at least… read on…. Pocket-lint.co.uk Samsung say 32Gb flash drive will go into Q1 and Q30 laptops news story in Notebooks Samsung say 32Gb flash drive will go into Q1 and Q30 laptops powered by performancing firefox More About: Drive , Essa , First , Mechanical , Mecha
It has been displayed in sci-fi films… and tech-gossip
2007-01-15 21:29:01 It has been displayed in sci-fi films… and tech-gossipers would proclaim that they knew this day would finally arrive… and for a change, they were correct! In an article on ANSA.IT, there is reported that the first long distance heart surgery has been performed in 50 minutes by a robot!! What with the new artificial muscles, robotic suits and all… only one thought comes to mind at times… “How I wish I were born today!” since who knows what the future will hold beyond my years of existance!! (ok fair enough, i’m still in my twenties… and maybe some might even say that with the rate we’re going, maybe I don’t even want to live further into the future… but I’m a tech and it’s natural for me to dream of such!!) oh well.. read on… –> ANSA.it - News in English - Italian robot does heart surgery powered by performancing firefox More About: Film , Films , Tech , Play , Gossip
Ok… having given myself some time to reflect over last
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Ok… having given myself some time to reflect over last nights’ results… seeing Malta ending up last in the Eurovision Song Contest, not only do I now think that he deserves it… but I honestly think that all Malta really deserves it! I honestly do like the winning song, albeit not being my preference… that there would have been the Greek song.. I simply loved it.. as well as Romania. But what STINKS the most is that the larger part of our {maltese} votes went to Switzerland… and I repeat… this is SO STUPID! It is OBVIOUS that the Maltese voted for Switzerland just because there was a friggin Maltese guy singing! This is not to say that their song was bad… on the contrary… but see, that is the point here, my gut tells me that the SONG was NOT the reason the Maltese voted for them… which is such a pity and so childish… I can already imagine the infantile screams before placing the call-vote… “We cannot vote f... More About: Time , Self , Last , Myself , Over
news @ nature.com - Geometric whirlpools revealed
2007-01-15 21:29:01 news @ nature.com - Geometric whirlpools revealed - Recipe for making symmetrical holes in water is easy. Bizarre geometric shapes that appear at the centre of swirling vortices in planetary atmospheres might be explained by a simple experiment with a bucket of water. Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby have created similar geometric shapes (holes in the form of stars, squares, pentagons and hexagons) in whirlpools of water in a cylindrical bucket1. The shapes appear easily enough once the bucket is spinning at a rate of one to seven revolutions per second, they say. Tomas Bohr and colleagues made plexiglass buckets, 13 and 20 centimetres across, with metal bottoms that could be rotated at high speed by a motor. They filled the bucket with water and spun the bottom to whip up the liquid into a whirlpool that rose up the sides of the container. This set-up is very similar to the rotating bucket that Isaac Newton used in the seventeenth c... More About: News , Nature , Pool , Metric , Pools
Today I stumbled upon this really wicked IQ test from Tickle
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Today I stumbled upon this really wicked IQ test from Tickle.com… no not the usual tickle IQ test everyone takes… there was another one hidden amongst the maze of tests, called the ‘Super’ IQ test.. anyway… all I think that is super about this is that it is longer… some 60 questions or so… anyway… I got a 147, which I don’t know if I should be happy or sad about… all I know is that it is 2am and I want to sleep now hehe :o) I’ll probably try it again some other time when I’ve given myself enough time to forget the answers I already came up with [will I ever?] So anyway, here is what my result was… Stefan Z, your IQ score is 147 Your overall intelligence quotient is the result of a scientifically-tested formula based on how many questions you answered correctly. But it’s only part of what we learned about you from your answers on the test. We also determined the way you process information. The way yo... More About: Today , Stumble , Upon , This , Real
I have to share this, albeit being an old joke, I need to ha
2007-01-15 21:29:01 I have to share this, albeit being an old joke, I need to have it here for future reference, since every time I read it I am in fits! The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5 year phase-in plan that would be known as "Euro-English". In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of the"k". This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20% shorter. In the 3rd year, publik aksep... More About: Joke , Share , Have , Need
A few years ago, most Maltese people (Maltesers? hehe) used
2007-01-15 21:29:01 A few years ago, most Maltese people (Maltesers? hehe) used to download and make use of ’special’ type faces when they wanted to use specific Maltese characters like ? , ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, à, À, è, È, ì, Ì, ò, Ò, ù and Ù. This ’special’ font was such a pain to use! What they had done with it was essentially to hack a couple of fonts like Arial and Times New Roman (which I am not even sure is all that legal either for some fonts), and they replaced the vector data for keys like ‘[’ and ‘]’, or ‘{’ and ‘}’ with a Maltese character vector such as ?, etc… Of course this had one major problem, the key code for the character was still that of the original one, ex. ‘[’, so the minute you changed the font, all Maltese words like ‘A?barijiet’ magically became ‘A]barijiet’… not very nice! Well, way back then, this was excused since I.T. was very ‘fresh’ in Mal... More About: People , Most , Years , Year , Ears
Windows X’s Shrine has a really cool article about the
2007-01-15 21:29:01 Windows X’s Shrine has a really cool article about the current TOP 300 Freeware software titles. Though personally I would debate how ‘freeware’ some titles are… then again, it’s an excellent list… and it even has hyperlinks!! [awww] –> TOP 300 Freeware software! More About: Windows , Windows X , Article , Wind , Cool
We have all heard about nanotechnology; yes we all know what
More articles from this author:2007-01-15 21:29:01 We have all heard about nanotechnology; yes we all know what it is… but have we seen it? It is said that to truly be able to appreciate something, you must see it from a relative perspective… So here it is… below is a picture of an ANT carrying a Nanochip!!! [source: www.theage.com.au] More About: Technology , Nanotechnology , Techno , Tech , Note 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |



