By Andrew Tarantola, Gizmodo – February 20, 2013 at 01:00PM
Steve Sansweet is a bit of a rebel among hardcore Star Wars collectors. While many afficianados will specialize a single type of memorabilia—Rob Foster’s 2,000-piece set only includes figurines for example—Sansweet will pick up anything from the series for curation in his massive, 300,000-piece museum, Rancho Obi-Wan. More » 
2013-02-17 When You Thought I Wasn’t Looking, a set on Flickr.
2013-01-18 Carver Looses First Tooth, a set on Flickr.
By Oracle MySQL Group, Planet MySQL – February 19, 2013 at 08:13PM
MySQL is the world’s most popular open-source database, and powers websites and applications of numerous leading and fast-growing organizations.
On March 12, we’re hosting the first Virtual Developer Day: MySQL at 9am PST to give you a one-stop shop to learn all the essential MySQL skills and the latest features in MySQL 5.6 GA. With a combination of presentations and hands-on lab experience, you’ll have the opportunity to practice in your own environment and gain more in-depth knowledge to successfully design, develop, and manage your MySQL databases.
Featuring speakers coming from Oracle’s MySQL engineering, support, product management, and sales consulting teams, this FREE virtual event has two tracks tailored for both fresh and experienced MySQL users. Attend the live sessions and sharpen your skills to:
• Develop your new applications cost-effectively using MySQL
• Improve performance of your existing MySQL databases
• Manage your MySQL environment more efficiently
If you’re in Europe, Middle East or Africa, don’t worry! We have another live event for you on March 19 at 9:00 GMT so you can join the sessions and get better with MySQL during your business hours.
Don’t miss this opportunity so reserve your spot today!
By Alan Henry, Lifehacker – February 19, 2013 at 05:15PM
If your system won’t boot, you’re running into strange PC performance problems, or you want to test your hardware for failures, you’ll need a good system rescue disc to save the day. With the right one, you can boot to it, use your machine like normal if you have to, scan for viruses, test your hardware, fix partitions, repair your operating system, and more. We asked you last week which rescue discs you thought were the best—the most flexible, functional, and packed with the most useful tools. Then we took at look at the five best system rescue discs based on your nominations. Now we’re back to highlight the winner.
Without a doubt, HIren’s BootCD was the community favorite, bringing in the most nominees in the call for contenders thread and over 59% of the overall vote in the poll.
In second place with over 16% of the votes cast was the ever-popular Ultimate Boot CD, which many of you noted has been in your PC repair toolkit for years and years. Behind it in third with just over 8% of the vote was the Trinity Rescue Kit, and behind it by a mere seven votes with exactly 8% of the votes cast was the aptly named System Rescue CD. Bringing up the rear with just under 8% of the vote, and behind third and fourth place by 24 and 17 votes respectively, was Knoppix, the Linux live CD that’s packed with troubleshooting utilities as well as productivity tools.
The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it’s not because we hate it—it’s because it didn’t get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it’s a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!
By Whitson Gordon, Lifehacker – February 19, 2013 at 06:30PM
If you’re sick of paying for home phone service, you can convert your home phones to use the internet for calls—also known as Voice Over IP (VoIP). Our friends at the How-To Geek show us how to set it up from start to finish.
We’ve talked about OBi adapters before, in our Hive Five on internet calls, but if you’ve been waiting to take the leap, the How-To Geek’s guide will take you through every step of the process. You can use any VoIP provider you want, but they’ve gone with Google Voice for all its awesome features—but non-US users have a lot of choices too. All you’ll need is an OBi adapter (which costs anywhere between $38 and $75), a few cables and your old corded or cordless telephones. Hit the link to check out the guide.
How to Switch to VoIP and Ditch Your Home Phone Bill Forever | How-To Geek
Photo by Billy Brown.
Tomorrow
By Guy McDowell, MakeUseOf – February 18, 2013 at 09:00PM
At a very basic level there are really three major components to the World Wide Web and the information we get from it. Google, Facebook, and…well…porn. Seriously, porn accounts for over one-third of all Internet traffic. That pretty much leaves the other two thirds to Google and Facebook. Google gets the lion’s share of that.
But there ARE Google Reader alternatives! You don’t have to be locked into the Googlesphere for your news anymore. You can customize the news you want to see and view it the way you want with these tools that aren’t (yet) owned by Google. Not that Google Reader is bad, but it is having its difficulties apparently. Google Reader works and lead the way in RSS feed readers for a long time, but it’s boringly simply, even for Google design ethics. These readers add new dimensions! They add new ways to physically interact with your news. They grow with you and if life does anything, it grows. So, prepare to breathe new life into the way you use news!
This Google Reader alternative is gaining traction like a thousand pound man driving a monster truck. Mind you, I don’t like the name. I thought we were past the days where web applications had names that had nothing to do with their functions. But it’s kind of cool. The news that you are getting is news that means something personal. No, it is much more than an RSS feed reader, and more than a social network aggregator. Look at what you can bring together here: Twitter feeds and hashtags, Facebook statuses from your primary and up to two of your secondary Facebook pages. Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and the grand-daddy, RSS.
“RebelMouse is your public home on the web, representing what you share and care about.” Isn’t that the point though? What good is news about what Obama ate for breakfast or which Kardashian farted this morning? I want to know how my friends and family are doing. I want to know what game changers in the different fields I’m interested in are doing. RebelMouse does that AND I can share my custom newspaper-ish site with the world.
I have to say, I’ve been putting off signing up for RebelMouse for several months. Then I watched as some of my favorite writers for television started piling on it. Then web writers, developers, and designers. Then I signed up for the purpose of this article. Now, I really like it!
FlipBoard came pre-loaded on my Samsung Galaxy SZ XVI or whatever number it is. I love it. FlipBoard and the phone that is. Although the phone’s rounded rectangle shape and touchscreen are suspiciously like the iPhone. Apple should sue.
Justin Pot already did a really good article on FlipBoard especially as it relates to the Android OS, so you should check that out and then come back here. Go away. Come here. The main point I want you to take away from Justin’s article is that FlipBoard allows you to add feeds from pretty much anywhere, even Google Reader. And it’s fun to use. Those are the two main points. Yes, I’ll leave it at that, otherwise it’ll become too much like Monty Python’s Spanish Inquisition skit.
Sadly, perhaps happily,oh dear I’m not sure, Google+ IS a good alternative to Google Reader. I’m not sure how I feel about Google+ still after over a year of trying to use it off and on. It’s kind of like when someone sticks their finger in your belly button. It’s a weird feeling, but not sure if it’s a good feeling. At first it seemed like Google was playing, “Me too!” to Facebook, kind of like Orkut did with MySpace. Look where they are now. In the basement behind that $400 coat hanger someone once called an exercycle. You were so proud of it once, now you look at it in shame.
Google+ does work, as essentially a Google Reader on growth hormone. It is garnering much more attention and use, especially amongst the tech crowd. Which probably includes you. Apparently, Google+ can also have a significant impact on SEO rankings as well, which is no real surprise. I believe that’s an engineered marketing feature to get the tech crowd using it. It is working.
These three new Google Reader alternatives are going into my kit bag for keeping up with my world, connecting others to my world, and sharing my world with you. They are breathing new life into the way I stay connected to my sphere of influence and my sphere of concern. That’s the news that matters. That’s the news that shapes our lives.
How do you get your news? Let us know in the comments. If you work for any of these companies, I’d be glad to hear what you think of my reviews, or about features I may have missed. In the comments, right down there. Yep, right there.
The post Bring The News To Life With These Slick Google Reader Alternatives appeared first on MakeUseOf.
Hooded blankets
By Jamie Condliffe, Gizmodo – February 18, 2013 at 06:04AM
When you’re starting out in photography, with your shiny new DSLR, the world of lenses can be complex and scary place: prime this, wide angle that, and what the hell is focal length anyway? Don’t worry! This video should have you covered. More » 
