By noreply@blogger.com (Damn Cool Pics), Damn Cool Pictures – May 18, 2010 at 07:48AM
Being two of the richest men in the world, did you ever wonder what Bill Gates and Steve Jobs might talk about when they were alone? Well, as this post implies, it might be entirely different than you might think. It might also be extremely funny.
By Gordon DeWitte, Toolmonger – January 05, 2010 at 03:14PM
There’s a neat YouTube video referenced on the Make blog showing a Jackson Lumber 3-Saw Vertical Edger in operation. A “lumber’s eye” view of a 3-saw edger is shown in the picture above: lots of heavy-duty exposed saw blades with an enclosure for the operator. I really liked watching those blades ripping through a large log, and then doing it all over again after the log is rotated. It would be kind of cool to have a 3-saw vertical edger in the garage — yup, that’s my 3-saw edger over there in the corner, behind the Bessemer converter — but the neighbors would probably complain about the noise.
How Lumber is Made [Make Online]
Jackson Lumber 3-Saw Vertical Edger at Work [YouTube]
Jackson Lumber Harvester [Manufacturer’s Site]
By Kevin Purdy, Lifehacker – June 14, 2010 at 08:30AM
If you’re anything like me, you’re doing a sad number of Google searches for things like “one gallon into pints”—while the garlic is quickly browning. This simple visualization of gallons, quarts, pints and cups locks in such volume conversions.
Image by Emma Christensen for The Kitchn. Apologies for an earlier misattribution.
Apartment Therapy’s The Kitchn blog points us to this clever visualization of how many of each major kitchen measurement fits inside one another. I found a big-enough graphic of the trick at a fifth grade math wiki page, but there are likely better and more printer-friendly sizes out there. If you like the idea, of course, you’re free to draw or Photoshop it yourself—and share the results in the comments, if you please.
Got a better way of remembering how many of something goes into something else? Tell us your grandmother’s little trick in the comments.
By The How-To Geek, Lifehacker – June 11, 2010 at 05:00PM
Windows only: Soluto bills itself as an “Anti-Frustration Software”, and it’s not hard to see why—it tracks all the applications in your system boot process, and tells you exactly which ones are slowing you down.
Once you’ve installed the software and rebooted your PC, Soluto springs into action, tracking every single process that runs during the boot process, and then allows you to easily drill down into the list of processes to see exact times for each one. To make it easier for the layman to understand what processes can be removed, the applications are grouped into “No-brainer” or “Potentially removable” groups.
Once you’ve identified an application that you’d like to deal with, you can drill down into the details and control it directly from this screen. You can “Pause” the application, which will effectively remove it from the boot process, or you can “Delay” it, which will change the service to run on a delay instead of directly during the boot process—which will get you to a working desktop a little quicker.
The graph next to the buttons shows you what other users did, so if you really have no idea what something is, you can use the wisdom of the crowd—though we’d like to point out if you really aren’t sure, you might want to Google it first, or ask a more geeky friend.
Clicking the Read more link next to the application name will bring you to a screen that shows even more details about a process,including the process name, what percentage of Soluto users have it installed, and a lot more information.
Other than tracking your boot process, you can also enable tracking while you are running your PC, which will allow Soluto to try and identify more problems with system slowdowns, compatibility, and other issues. You can choose the “My PC Just Frustrated Me” option, which will pop up a screen with some suggestions on what applications might be cause, and send the report to Soluto—though you won’t immediately see any results from doing so.
To better understand how Soluto works, check out this short video which does a great job of explaining the software, how to use it, and how it can help you troubleshoot the boot process:
According to our conversations with Roee Adler from Soluto, the software will always be free for end-users. Soluto’s application does send some information about your PC back to Soluto’s servers in order to analyze your system, but they assured us that it was limited strictly to data about the processes, drivers, and system components, and no personal information is transmitted or kept anywhere.
Soluto is a free download for Windows only, and definitely worth a look if you’d like to troubleshoot your system boot speed issues.
By Brian Barrett, Gizmodo – June 11, 2010 at 04:40PM
GE Engineer Matt Gluesenkamp decided that to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the laser, he’d destroy any hope you ever had of lightsabers becoming a reality. Hey, Matt, next time just blow up some balloons or something. More »
Lightsaber – Engineers – Laser – Star Wars – Shopping
By Mark Wilson, Gizmodo – June 11, 2010 at 02:40PM
Most extended battery packs for the iPhone are drab boxes. How we have lived in such a world, I do not know. More »
IPhone – Apple – Smartphone – Handhelds – Business
By Lee Mathews, Download Squad – June 11, 2010 at 12:00PM
Filed under: Open Source
Dubbed SparkleShare, Bons is building his project using Mono, GTK+, and Git. Like Dropbox, SparkleShare sets up a local folder which is automatically kept in sync — though not in the cloud. Instead, you and your friends/coworkers set up connections to each other’s shares (or you can keep everything to yourself, of course). That’ll make SparkleShare an extremely interesting option for teams who need to collaborate via the ‘Net — and for users who want to keep files in sync without floating them in the cloud.
And since you’re hosting your own server, there’s no monthly fees to worry about — which is always a bonus.
A Linux release is the first item on the agenda, with OS X and Windows versions to follow. Bons is seeking contributors — if you’re interested in helping out, drop him a line on the SparkleShare web site!
[via OMG! Ubuntu]
Coming soon: an open source Dropbox alternative with collaboration originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dropbox – Open source – Download Squad – Microsoft Windows – SparkleShare
By Lauren Pon, Lifehacker – June 11, 2010 at 11:30AM
Tugboat bowlines, fisherman’s knots, sheet bends. The best knots are named for their jobs on the ocean, but they have numerous, practical uses on land as well. Here’s how to tie the versatile bowline (and more properly tie any knot).
There are dozens of knots with hundreds of uses. Tied properly and with suitable material, they are extremely reliable—the very reason that sailors have been relying on tried and true methods of knot tying for centuries.
Sailors, rock climbers, boy scouts—anyone schooled in the practical art of knot tying—will tell you that tying a knot is one thing, but tying it properly is another. You can improve your knots by dressing them properly and, of course, with practice.
Photo by MShades.
When a knot is properly dressed, it means that each part of the knot is in the right place with the correct tension. The rope doesn’t cross itself unnecessarily, and nothing is more slack or taut than it should be. Knots that are improperly dressed can lead to excessive stress and rubbing on the knots, which will gradually weaken the rope and, eventually, cause the knot to fail.
The above is a properly dressed knot. Note the adjacent rope in each part of the knot; there are no unnecessary crossovers or tangles. What this really boils down to is practice and patience – take care to keep your knots neat as you’re tying them, fixing as you go as well as when you set, or tighten, your knot.
The bowline (pronounced “boh-lin”, and pictured at top) is a knot that’s used to form a fixed loop on the end of a rope. In sailing, it’s commonly used to attach a line to the head of a sail, or has other objects passed through it. Even if you don’t know more knots than how to tie your shoelace, learntosail of Hubpages.com has a quick lesson on how to tie this useful knot. According to learntosail:
There are over 200 different types of bowline knots out there. But few are more secure or faster to tie than the one used in this sailing story.
You can tie the quick-tie bowline blindfolded, in the dark, behind your back, or underwater. It will hold your boat in a storm and you can tie it around yourself as a safety line.
The bowline has many uses, and with practice, you can tie one in under ten seconds. Master this knot and you’re sure to find uses for it in your everyday hacks. Better yet, check out the previously posted video above on how to quickly tie a bowline.
And finally…
We’re no strangers to a good knot or two, and the best way to make better knots is to practice and expand your knowledge base. From tying up a serial killer to marking your luggage, here are some of our best posts on useful knots and how to tie them.
By KipKay, MAKE – June 11, 2010 at 09:00AM
Spin activated lights for your butterfly yo-yo.
Thanks go to Eric Chu for the original article in MAKE, Volume 22.
View the PDF of this project. and then subscribe to MAKE magazine for other great projects
you can do over the weekend.
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By Mike Masnick, Techdirt. – June 10, 2010 at 05:47PM
A few years back, you may remember, that former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens got a lot of attention for his infamous description of the internet as “a series of tubes,” as part of a longer talk that repeatedly highlights that he didn’t quite understand what he was regulating:
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