babozor's shared items in Google Reader

Prisoners save their guard's life

2009-11-08T09:41:00Z

Prisoners in Florida rushed to the defence of their guard when he was choked by a violent inmate. Deputy Ken Moon, 64, was alone at his desk at the Orient Road Jail, near Tampa, when he was suddenly attacked by an inmate.

Douglas Burden, 24, grabbed the guard and tried to strangle him, grabbing him in a potentially fatal martial arts choke that can cut off blood supplies to the brain. But as the guard fought for his life, four other inmates rushed to his rescue and forced away Burden, who was imprisoned for drug dealing and drink driving.

Jerry Dieguez, convicted of armed home invasion, punched Burden to make him let go. David Schofield, facing charges of aggravated assault and battery, grabbed Deputy Moon's radio to call for help.

Hoang Vu, in prison on attempted murder charges, and Terrell Carswell, jailed for robbery and drugs offences, backed up the other two rescuers. Sheriff Previtera, of the Hillsborough County Department of Detention Services, said the inmates had "saved the deputy's life".

Deputy Moon was taken to hospital but released the same day. Douglas Burden has been placed in solitary confinement and is facing the additional charge of attacking an officer. Deputy Moon sent letters of thanks to the inmates, which were to be delivered to a judge on his behalf.

When asked why they had helped Deputy Moon, the prisoners said that he was a good person and they liked him.

COFEE Forensic Tool Leaks To What.cd, Admins Ban It

2009-11-08T11:30:07Z

“Law enforcement agencies around the world face a common challenge in their fight against cybercrime, child pornography, online fraud, and other computer-facilitated crimes,” says the marketing blurb on Microsoft’s site.

“They must capture important evidence on a computer at the scene of an investigation before it is powered down and removed for later analysis. ‘Live’ evidence, such as active system processes and network data, is volatile and may be lost in the process of turning off a computer. How does an officer on the scene effectively do this if he or she is not a trained computer forensics expert?”

Using COFEE, of course.

The Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) is a piece of software designed for the use of law enforcement agencies, and provided to the same free of charge by Microsoft. And, largely because of its mystique, has been a much sought-after piece of code.

Indeed, on the private tracker What.cd, users had offered a huge bounty (a reward for finding and sharing something) of 1.6 terabytes.

During the last day or so, a user – who had only been a member for a matter of weeks – uploaded COFEE.

However, What.cd then took the unusual step of removing the torrent. Not just an unusual step but, in my opinion, a very sensible step indeed.

“Suddenly, we were forced to take a real look at the program, its source, and the potential impact on the site and security of our users and staff,” said What.cd management in a statement.

“And when we did, we didn’t like what came of it. So, a decision was made. The torrent was removed (and it is not to be uploaded here again),” they added.

According to the site’s staff, neither them or their host was threatened by Microsoft or law enforcement. The decision was taken purely on the issue of site and member security.

Of course, the tool is now widely available from other sources and while some are saying that the tool is useless to regular Internet users, there are others who disagree. It certainly won’t take long for a detailed analysis to appear.

There will doubtless be lots of finger-wagging and complaints that this tool has become available in this way, but as with unexpected leaks of anything from software, to movies, to music, rarely is the finger pointed at the initial supplier of the material. That is usually way too embarrassing to reveal.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

alex.madrouter

2009-11-08T15:07:18Z

Shared by babozor
je le fais super souvent quand je sais où c'est mais je connais pas l'adresse exacte...

Aujourd’hui, enfin hier soir, ne voulant pas utiliser pagesjaunes.fr j’ai utilisé Google Street pour avoir le numéro de téléphone d’un resto inscrit sur la devanture…

365 Days of Stormtrooper Photography

2009-11-07T19:00:23Z

What do stormtroopers do on their days off? Feed bread to gigantic pigeons, jam out on Guitar Hero, catch fish in a toilet and send vaguely insulting emails to Luke Skywalker, according to these photos by Stefan Le Du.

The amateur photographer is shooting daily photos of stormtrooper action figures posed in various scenarios, either performing everyday tasks or recreating famous film scenes, for a project called Stormtroopers 365.

Several miniseries within the series follow themes, like “D’oh!”, wherein one of the stormtroopers repeatedly gets himself into trouble whether getting his head stuck in a bottle or finding himself upside-down in a box. Another, “Not the Droid”, has the stormtroopers running into Wall-E, Calculon and others while searching for C3PO.

But don’t for a second imagine that they don’t have important tasks to get up to, like “Getting rid of swine flu, one pig at a time.”

See the whole series on Stefan’s Flickr page.

Colorfully Creative Monochromatic Photography

Variety in color can be amazing, but pushing a single color can be even more. Here are some eyeopening monochromatic shots in red, blue, green, purple, orange, and yellow.

85cm bike with 700c wheels!

2009-11-06T17:26:00Z

CyclingWMD

jdevl

2009-11-06T09:16:22Z

jdevl

Doc Marten's with glow-in-the-dark skeletal feet

2009-11-06T19:53:10Z

It's been a good 20 years since I had a real hankering to wear Doc Marten's around, but I have to say I'm tempted by these skeleton boots whose bones glow in the freaking dark!

1914 BONES 14 EYE BOOT BLACK LAMPER (via Street Anatomy)

Tim Biskup's Darth Vader and Astroboy

2009-11-07T04:43:34Z

BB pal Tim Biskup has a show of paintings and sculptures opening at the Barracuda Shop in Los Angeles next Friday evening, November 13. The show, titled "I Hate Everyone But You," will also feature prints by designer Matt Goldman and runs until December 3. Dig Biskup's psychedelic Vader above? Check out his take on Astroboy after the jump.

RAIL GRIND SUCCEED

2009-11-06T22:55:12Z

RAIL GRIND SUCCEED

Three simple steps...

2009-11-06T09:36:08Z

More pics and info...HERE!

Calculatrices XP et MacOS

2009-11-06T10:32:08Z

Nous avons tous eu cette grosse calculatrice sur le bureau. Un designer de l’agence Mintpass a eu la bonne idée de dessigner une vraie calculatrice ayant le design de la calculatrice Mac OS ou Windows XP. La version Mac possède un casier en métal et un écran LCD 2 lignes.

L’idée est vraiment sympa et j’espère qu’une société pourra en produire un jour (avec les bonnes licences).

Via Technabob

Introducing Closure Tools

2009-11-05T18:30:00Z

Millions of Google users worldwide use JavaScript-intensive applications such as Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Maps. Like developers everywhere, Googlers want great web apps to be easier to create, so we've built many tools to help us develop these (and many other) apps. We're happy to announce the open sourcing of these tools, and proud to make them available to the web development community.

Closure Compiler
Closure Compiler is a JavaScript optimizer that compiles web apps down into compact, high-performance JavaScript code. The compiler removes dead code, then rewrites and minimizes what's left so that it will run fast on browsers' JavaScript engines. The compiler also checks syntax, variable references, and types, and warns about other common JavaScript pitfalls. These checks and optimizations help you write apps that are less buggy and easier to maintain. You can use the compiler with Closure Inspector, a Firebug extension that makes debugging the obfuscated code almost as easy as debugging the human-readable source.

Because JavaScript developers are a diverse bunch, we've set up a number of ways to run the Closure Compiler. We've open-sourced a command-line tool. We've created a web application that accepts your code for compilation through a text box or a RESTful API. We are also offering a Firefox extension that you can use with Page Speed to conveniently see the performance benefits for your web pages.

Closure Library
Closure Library is a broad, well-tested, modular, and cross-browser JavaScript library. Web developers can pull just what they need from a wide set of reusable UI widgets and controls, as well as lower-level utilities for the DOM, server communication, animation, data structures, unit testing, rich-text editing, and much, much more. (Seriously. Check the docs.)

JavaScript lacks a standard class library like the STL or JDK. At Google, Closure Library serves as our "standard JavaScript library" for creating large, complex web applications. It's purposely server-agnostic and intended for use with the Closure Compiler. You can make your project big and complex (with namespacing and type checking), yet small and fast over the wire (with compilation). The Closure Library provides clean utilities for common tasks so that you spend your time writing your app rather than writing utilities and browser abstractions.

Closure Templates
Closure Templates grew out of a desire for web templates that are precompiled to efficient JavaScript. Closure Templates have a simple syntax that is natural for programmers. Unlike traditional templating systems, you can think of Closure Templates as small components that you compose to form your user interface, instead of having to create one big template per page.

Closure Templates are implemented for both JavaScript and Java, so you can use the same templates both on the server and client side.

Closure Compiler, Closure Library, Closure Templates, and Closure Inspector all started as 20% projects and hundreds of Googlers have contributed thousands of patches. Today, each Closure Tool has grown to be a key part of the JavaScript infrastructure behind web apps at Google. That's why we're particularly excited (and humbled) to open source them to encourage and support web development outside Google. We want to hear what you think, but more importantly, we want to see what you make. So have at it and have fun!

By the Closure Tools team

Why yes, I am Canadian.

2009-11-05T17:00:54Z

Why yes, I am Canadian. Why do you ask?

cuz u iz sew nice.

Picture by: Casey Caption by: Lol_Witteh via Our LOL Builder

» Recaption This!

» View All Captions

New Car Camo

2009-11-06T08:45:07Z

Shared by babozor
quelle horreur!...

Car companies go to great lengths to hide new models from from the public (or car paparazzi) during road testing. They’ve gotta drive the cars, but they don’t want to give away their designs too early.

Car camouflage used to be handled with wraps, fake bodies, or fake pieces attached to the actual body. Like:

But lately I’ve noticed more companies using swirly decals or geometric stickers to mask the shape. Check these out:

I would assume once cars get deeper into the testing phase, and aerodynamics, wind noise, and overall ride quality need to be fined tuned, the bulky camp comes off and the swirly surface decals come on. But it does seem like the swirls are new in the last few years.

I wonder who’s behind them (since the same patterns are apparently used by different brands). Which company or inventor is the king of car camo?

(images from WorldCarFans).

If we were chemical elements...

2009-11-06T07:32:23Z

Author: chris
Posted on: 2009-11-06 14:09:48

Time Breakdown of Modern Web Design

2009-11-06T07:32:23Z

Author: bennybb
Posted on: 2009-11-06 11:42:38

Animated stereoviews of old Japan

2009-10-28T05:05:29Z

In the late 19th and early 20th century, enigmatic photographer T. Enami (1859-1929) captured a number of 3D stereoviews depicting life in Meiji-period Japan.

[Sumo wrestlers]

A stereoview consists of a pair of nearly identical images that appear three-dimensional when viewed through a stereoscope, because each eye sees a slightly different image. This illusion of depth can also be recreated with animated GIFs like the ones here, which were created from Flickr images posted by Okinawa Soba. Follow the links under each animation for the original stereoviews and background information.

[Meeting at gate]

[Buddhist ornament dealer]

[Geisha washing their hands in the garden]

[Chujenji Road, Nikko]

[Geisha playing music]

[Firewood dealers]

[Great Buddha of Kamakura]

[Torii gates at Inari shrine, Kyoto]

[Geisha girls with flowers and cat]

[Traveler in the mountain fog near Chujenji]

[Clam diggers having lunch]

[Tokyo Industrial Exposition, Ueno Park, 1907]

[Campfire on the peak of Mt. Myogi, Nakasendo]

[Geisha in a tearoom]

[Kitano temple, Kyoto]

[Road along the Fuji river]

[Geisha drinking beer in the park]

[Buddhist priest in full dress]

[Geisha looking at stereoviews]

Perth's Uggly Puggle Babies

2009-11-05T14:18:26Z

Two Puggles (baby echidnas) born in August were put on display for the media at Australia's Perth Zoo yesterday. The Puggles' names are Moa and Kain. Having bred the notoriously difficult-to-breed species three years in a row, the zoo believes it has the foundation of a captive breeding program for its critically endangered cousin, the long-beaked echidna of New Guinea.

Photo credits: Lincoln Baker

Many more pictures below. Click "Continue reading..."

EU kills 3-strikes proposal (yay!) but all is not well (eek!)

2009-11-05T18:30:52Z

You might have seen that the EU's "Telecoms Package" squeaked through with some protection for users' rights intact -- specifically, the proposal to allow "3-strikes" rules (whereby everyone in your house would lose internet access if any member was accused, without trial, of copyright infringement) was killed. But it's not as good as it could be, nor as good as it was before the content industry's lobbyists got their chums to rewrite it.

Jérémie Zimmemrmann writes,

The European Parliament and the Council of the EU came to an agreement on the "Telecoms Package" negotiations. They laid down legal and procedural guarantees against restrictions of Internet access. The new provision gives[1] "effective judicial protection and due process", guarantees "the principle of presumption of innocence and the right to privacy" and the respect of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
However, the text only speaks of "a prior fair and impartial procedure" instead of a prior ruling by the judicial authorities, guaranteed by the original "amendment 138", and contains loopholes and ambiguities. The invalidation of freedom-killer measures such as "three strikes policies" will now depend on interpretation by the European Court of Justice and national courts. Moreover, the text only relates to measures taken by Member States and thereby fails to bar telecom operators and entertainment industries from knocking down the founding principle of Net neutrality.

Europe only goes half-way in protecting Internet rights.

Previously:

Bicycle defense kit fits in Altoids tin

2009-11-05T19:42:11Z

Luke Iseman sells a Bicycle Defense Kit for $19.90.

The Bicycle Defense Kit (BDK) offers options for dealing with aggressive motorists. Contained within an altoids tin, the 8 tools vary in detectability, potential to cause damage, and legality.

Specifically, cyclists can:

• Issue "citizen citations" with official-ish tickets.
• Label offending vehicles with an "I was a jerk to a cyclist" sticker.
• Introduce the risk of paint damage with a Jolly Rancher.
• Create certain coating cremation via DOT3 brake fluid.
• Make cars stink worse than their exhaust with a carefully-placed stink bomb.
• Throw a trusty bolt to dent offending traffic as it passes.
• Lock out loony drivers by filling their keyholes with super glue.
• Cut through tire valve stems with a utility blade.

Bicycle Defense Kit