May 2008 Archives

The next month fits "nicely" into four weeks and following my normal pattern will have articles on the 3rd, 5th, 10th, 12th, 17th, 19th, 24th and 26th June - eight in all.

I follow news on quite a few sites - and not all of them are IT or technology based - but I choose a lot of my postings on CCS-PK from a small number of 'favourites'. These include :

• Boing-Boing - USED
• BBC News - including Science & Technology sections - USED
• Gizmodo and Engadget - USED
• hdtv - with PSPSPS and Playstation blog - USED
• MAKE magazine, LadyAda & several other Arduino sites - 1, 2, 3 - USED
• Slashdot - USED
• The Register & The Inquirer - USED
• Retro Thing, Music Thing & Chip Collection - USED

Over the next month I will select just one item from each of these when I have to post an article. As I use each "bullet point" there will be fewer to pick from for the next post. It will be an interesting exercise to discover whether specifying my sources before the event makes any difference.

Look carefully at the big screen and you'll see it says "AT&T Network Operations Center".

AT&T are a large US telecoms firm and the picture is of their global network centre in New Jersey, USA.

Royal Pingdom have a whole host of pictures from other "NOCs" - including one less-than-cool place.

The BBC had an article a few weeks ago to celebrate the 15^th year since the Web was 'invented'. They got 10 leading figures in the modern world to say what they think will happen in the future ... see here.

A similar article can be found in the 'Click Online' section, titled "The business of future gazing".

Ever wonder why we don't like eating and drinking at the computers in school?

Clearly, one reason is that you might drop crumbs and liquids onto them - and then they need fixing.

But it's also down to hygene - just think of all those different hands touching the keyboards - day-in, day-out - and how clean are they?

Then, if you are eating you are likely to be touching the keyboards, touching your food AND touching your fingers on your mouth - transferring all those germs to your sensitive little digestive tracts.

Read more in this BBC article entitled "Keyboards are dirtier than a toilet".

Barcodes don't need to be boring.

The 'Dark-Roasted Blend' weblog has a great article about some of the designs that can be seen on products in Japan. It goes on to look at other places where barcodes have been used in other ways.

For example, scroll down the page a short way and you will see examples of poster-art by a Russian studio that incorporate barcodes into the artwork. (I have included a small version of one below here - but visit the site to see more for yourself.)

If you fancy a tatto but can't get one done - parent's won't let you or maybe the pain bothers you ....

Try printing your own.

MAKE magazine has an article about it which in turn points to this UK site - Crafty Computer Paper - where you can get the paper needed to print your tattoo out.

Right - now go out and be creative.

If you have set yourself up an account over there you can download the free demo to try it out - and if you like it you will probably have to wait to get hold of the full version of this wonderful little puzzle game until they release it over here.

It is too complicated to try to describe the game mechanics and you will find the YouTube video (below) helpful in making things clearer. (The demo itself contains a helpful introduction to the game.)

No descriptive bit - just visit here for pix - and here for a video.

Additional - 1st May 2008 - bidding reached over $9k on eBay.