Martians
Discovered On Mars!
The Molecular Expressions web site
is reporting that these tiny "Marvin the Martian" cartoons were
microscopically etched onto the Opportunity and Spirit
digital camera CCDs by chip designer Mark Wadsworth.
Women Over 40 Just Wanna Have Fun
An AOL study
released recently shows that U.S.
women over the age of 40 spend almost 50 percent more time each
week playing online games than men and are more likely to
play online games every day than are men or teens.
Bad Robots
MIT graduate student Sommer Gentry's
two passions are swing dancing and the creation of complex
decision systems. So, naturally, she invented a
swing-dancing robot. Swing dancing, it turns out, requires a
lot of subtle, improvisational communication between partners.
So Gentry wrote a paper detailing how robots could be built to
engage in such communication with human partners.
Liars Prefer Telephone to E-Mail
Jeff Hancock of Cornell University
in Ithaca, New York, has discovered that people
lie more on the telephone than via e-mail.
Support Ad-Free,
Spam Free Content!
Mike's List costs hundreds to host
and send each month, but has zero advertising, zero spam and
zero revenue from subscription payments. This exciting issue of
Mike's List is sponsored by your fellow readers who sent money
in the past week to support ad-free, spam-free content: Jooly ($20), Duane ($10), Jonathan ($10),
Andre ($10), Mike ($3) Louis ($20) -- and also by the Mike's List "Buck a
Month Club": Jeff, John, Ray, Joseph, Mark, Sherrin, Ian,
Ricardo, Terry, Dennis, Amira, Judy, "L", Joel, Charles, Glenn,
Paul, Nicholas, Audrey, Doug, Phil, James, Gloria, Timothy,
Gordon, Brian, William, James, Security, Bram, David, Evren,
Ankesh, Roger, Peter, Andrew, John, Roger and my mom.
Go here to use
your credit card via PayPal to sponsor Mike's List with a quick
and easy contribution. (You can use your credit card via PayPal.)
Don't Try This At Home
A Star Wars fan named Shawn Crosby
expresses his enthusiasm for the movie series through
car
modification.
A web site called
Virtual Cinematography has posted a PDF file detailing how
the Matrix: Revolutions "Super Punch" -- when Neo clocks Agent
Smith in slow-mo -- was created using digital effects
technology.
Here are
step-by-step instructions for setting up an ATM spoof -- as
useful for learning how to spot this malicious crime as for
committing it.
If you're an incarcerated alcoholic
with access to the Web -- and, if you're reading this
newsletter, chances are pretty good -- you're in luck!
The Black
Table tells you how to make "Pruno," an alcoholic beverage
usually made in prisons using fruit, sugar and ketchup.
eBay is nice, but don't let it
become an obsession!
Lying with Photoshop
Sure, Adobe Photoshop is great for
fixing flaws in photographs. But FaceFilter fixes flaws in the
faces of the people you photograph! Are your family members too
ugly, too grumpy or too old?
Fix them
with FaceFilter!
Mike's List on
the Radio
Craig Crossman's
Computer America features Mike Elgan every
Thursday night. The show runs from 7pm to 9pm SVT (Silicon Valley Time). Listen
to Computer America on your local Business TalkRadio station or
over
the Internet every weeknight. Don't miss Computer
America!
Gotta-Get-It
Gadgets
A new lawnmower
from Evatech is an all-terrain, gas/electric hybrid
remote-control toy for people who
hate mowing the lawn. The mower, called the RCLM2004S, has a
built-in gyroscope for better control.
Here
are
four
videos. Wheeee! (Watch out for the neighbor's dog!)
Vulcan
Inc., the company run by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen,
showed off for the first time ever its
FlipStart at the exclusive DEMO 2004 conference in
Scottsdale, Arizona. FlipStart is a "MiniPC" prototype, a
fully functional Windows XP PC in a PDA size. FlipStart
features integrated 802.11b/g wireless and sports options like
Bluetooth. Its 1GHz processor, 256MB RAM, 30GB internal hard
drive, 1024x600 display, 1.3 megapixel digital camera, USB 2.0
port and QWERTY keyboard set FlipStart apart from regular PDAs.
Siemens plans to roll out at CeBit
this year a ball-point pen that's also a smart
phone. The tri-band PenPhone
can be used to write on paper, but it can also
read what you write as you're writing it, digitizing your
scribbles, which can then be sent as
text messages.
What
do you buy a spoiled child who already has everything? How about
a
motorized scale replica of Porsche's 550 Spyder? Order it
online for $7,500.
Here's the video.
Inventor Alex
Terrazas and Edmond Ducommun have created what they call the
Wireless Walden system, which tracks how much exercise you do
and gives you "points" which allow
a certain amount of TV time. A basketball contains a sensor
and a wireless chip that tracks dribbling. If you play
basketball for 20 minutes, the ball tells the TV to allow you to
watch for 30 minutes. If you want to watch more, you'll have to
exercise more. A stair machine has a similar contraption. So far
Terrazas has lost 40 pounds.
Wacky
Web Sites
Type the URL of your
choice at the end of
the Oragulator URL and you can mess around with any web
site.
The
Swipe Toolkit Data Calculator is a calculator that tells you
approximately what your personal information is worth "on the open
market."
Martial arts master
(and U.S. Secretary of Defense) Donald Rumsfeld demonstrates
esoteric kung fu moves on the
Poe
News web site.
There's a lot of trash on the internet. Especially at
Dumpster World.
Technorati put up a page showing the collision of blogs and
Amazon.com books.
The PMS Tracker web site's
Worst PMS in the World contest will award $750 to whoever
tells the best -- or the worst, depending on your point of view
-- PMS story.
Baffled by all the choices at BlockBuster? Here's a web site
that will tell you What to
Rent. It works by evaluating what else you like, then
suggesting movies based on that evaluation. (They're clearly
angling to be acquired by NetFlix.)
The earth is surrounded by hundreds of satellites. The
View
From Satellite web site lets you see where each of them is
at any given moment by showing you what it would see if it had a
camera pointed straight down at the earth (and, in fact, many of
them do).
Twisted
Games
Escape From Neverland
Squirrel Chaser
Zombie Terror
Real Balls
Mystery Pic o'
the Week
What is it?
Go here to send YOUR guess (be sure to say where you live).
If you're first with the right answer, I'll print your name in the
next issue of Mike's List!
 LAST WEEK'S
MYSTERY PIC:
No, it's not a "blood pressure and
blood oxygen level detector," a "device to record the sound of
one hand clapping" or even a "bionic middle finger," as
suggested by some readers. In fact, it's a tiny Linux computer
called the GumStix, based
on the PXA255, and designed as a proof-of-concept prototype for
a wearable computer or tiny Linux-based PDA. Mega Mike's List
congratulations to J.J. from Southern Ontario, Canada, for being
first with the right answer.
Got a New E-Mail Address?
Don't forget to tell Mike's List! It's
easy!
Just go here to change it. The whole process takes about
5 seconds. Change your address as often as you like.
Mike's List Lite
If you'd like to
read Mike's List on your mobile device -- or if you just have a
spectacularly slow connection -- try the Mini-Me version at
www.mikeslist.com/lite.htm. It's a
text version of the current issue without live links, pictures,
graphics or colors. It's perfect for AvantGo and other mobile
content delivery services.
Recommend
to a friend
If
you don't have anything nice to say, say it to me!
Send rumors, gossip and inside information
here.
Go
here to keep Mike's List Ad-Free
The best newsletters anywhere,
personally recommended by Mike:
Get
healthy and feel great. Get Vegetarian
Organic Life,
published by Mike's vegetarian organic wife!
Master Windows and
your PC with the LangaList
Subscribe to one -- or all --
of the TechLetters with an easy, one-click sign-up
|
