Terrence O'Brien
Staten Island - http://www.terrence-obrien.com
'Awful Library Books' Blog Showcases Absurd Texts
There are tons of one joke blogs out there, but most of them are a tad low brow. It's a relief, then, to see Awful Library Books marry our love for quick, cheap laughs with something a little more sophisticated than stripper moms.Awful Library Books was started by Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner, a pair of Michigan public librarians who have taken it upon themselves to point out some of the outdated and absurd tomes clogging up library shelves across the country. The blog features scans of the covers of books like 'Dee Snider's Teenage Survival Guide' and the 1985 computer program guide, 'Star power: Mastering WordStar, MailMerge, SpellStar, DataStar, SuperSort, CalcStar, InfoStar, StarIndex, CorrectStar, StarBurst, ReportStar & PlanStar.'
Yet, if this blog becomes popular, it may drive interest to some of these obscure and ridiculous titles, annulling at least part of their argument for retiring these texts. [From: Boing Boing]
EPA May Have Suppressed Anti-Global Warming Study
Accusations are flying over leaked e-mails (warning: PDF) that the EPA suppressed an internal report that casts a skeptical light on using regulations to reign in carbon emissions and reduce global warming. The 98-page report (warning, PDF), primarily authored by Alan Carlin, argues that there is no reason to regulate carbon dioxide in the U.S. since much of the science cited by the Environtmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its recent pro-regulation recommendation to President Obama is outdated. Carlin claims that recent studies show that long-held assumptions about hurricanes in the Atlantic, the shedding of ice sheets in Greenland, and the trend of rising temperatures worldwide may be misguided.
Pre-Teens Build Successful iPhone App
Apparently the children of the world are out to make us at the Switched offices feel, well, a tad unaccomplished. When it isn't nine-year-old Indian girls working for Microsoft, it's 11-year-olds getting astrophysics degrees, and sixth graders getting $6.5M to fund video game ventures. Even non-prodigy children seem to stumbling across rare interstellar phenomena these days.So it's not that shocking that 11-year-old Owen Voorhees and his brother, 9-year-old Finn, were able to churn out an iPhone application. Despite their pre-teen status and programming skills learned on the fly, the duo produced a polished app that reached number 13 on the most popular paid-apps list in Apple's app store (education category).
The Daily Engadget: Track Your Tech at gdgt, Microsoft 'Pink' Phone?
Our friends over at Engadget obsessively cover everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics, which is why we compile this daily roundup of their top stuff. For more details on any of these stories, click on the Engadget links in each story below.
Gizmo-tracking Site gdgt Launches
Former Engadget editor-in-chief, Ryan Block, and Engadget founder, Peter Rojas, unveiled their latest project yesterday -- gdgt. The site mixes social networking, news aggregation, and wikis to build a database and a community around gadgets. It's like Facebook, Wikipedia, and Newsvine had a baby -- but for nerds.
Microsoft Prepping iPhone Competitor?
Although the Zune's popularity may pale in comparison to the iPod, Microsoft may be getting ready to take on the iPhone with a Microsoft-branded handset, codenamed "Pink." Details are still slim, but the new system appears to be running on top of Windows Mobile.
FFSearcher Stealthily Hijacks Your Searches
Click fraud, the redirecting of search requests to malicious sites, is one of the more easily recognized pests in the malware world. The problem for the fraudsters is that most users quickly realize something is amiss when they search for something on Google and it is instead displayed on some other (and likely unfamiliar) site.But the hackers behind the new Nine Ball attack have figured out how to disguise their click fraud scheme by using Google's AdSense for Search program. The Google product allows users to put a Google search box on their page, and the company profits by collecting commission on ads displayed alongside the results. FFSearcher, as the new scheme is called, has found a hole in the system that allows it to hijack all searches on Google and redirect them through a custom AdSense search. That means that search results are displayed with little evidence that the data is being intercepted by a third party. The fraud is even harder to recognize since FFSearcher doesn't point you towards other malicious sites, it simply collects revenue if a searcher clicks on ads displayed on the results page.
SecureWorks has alerted Google to the fraud, and Google has begun shutting down AdSense accounts associated with it. Unfortunately, FFSearcher has the ability to switch accounts, meaning Google may simply be engaging in a wild goose chase.
Thankfully, there are ways to detect an infection. AdSense searches don't appear exactly the same as a standard Google search. If your search results page doesn't display a total number of results, you may have been a victim of FFSearcher. If you think you have been compromised by FFSearcher, run anti-malware programs (yes, plural) such as Spybot, AVG, or -- for the more advanced among you -- HijackThis. [From: Washington Post, via SlashDot]
Has E-mail Made the Thank You Note Obsolete?
In the age of texting, Twittering, e-mailing, and Simul-Tubing, the art of the hand-written message has suffered. Jen Burke Anderson of the San Francisco Chronicle finds herself wondering, is sending handwritten thank you notes passe in the digital age? It's been common practice for a long, long time to send handwritten thank you notes to your wedding guests, to friends who let you crash on their ...First Hybrid Train Unveiled in Kansas
Fuel cells are supposed to be the future of power, but they've got a long way to go before they're mainstream. Companies have been tossing them in cars (so many cars), planes, cell phones, even MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices). So where is this supposedly game-changing technology showing up next? Well, if you're a locomotive-loving Kansas town with a healthy Department of Defense investment, the ...Thieves Using Google Earth to Kidnap Koi Fish
People have been using Google Earth to find all sorts of crazy things: secret military installations, marijuana crops, sunken ships, and pools for "dipping." Thieves have even used the satellite imaging app to seek out lead roof tiles. So it should come as no surprise that other criminals are now making use of the tool to steal fish. (Well, maybe kind of surprising.) According to the Telegraph, ...Girl Gets a Shock While Tweeting in the Tub
We shouldn't need to tell you that electronics and water don't mix. We also shouldn't have to say that there's no need to tweet while scrubbing your body clean. According to the Croatian Times, Romanian teen Flavia Maria Boricea was apparently so addicted to the microblogging service that she needed to tweet from the shower, and she spent so much time updating, her laptop battery died. Rather ...Switched Download: Handbrake Rips DVDs for iPhones, Other Devices
Handbrake What it does: Handbrake converts DVDs and other videos into formats for easy sharing between your computers or loading onto a portable device or console. What we like about it: Handbrake is dead simple to use, with one-click presets that format for the iPod, the iPhone and iPod Touch, Apple TV, PSP, PS3, and Xbox 360. But power users can access advanced controls to fine-tune options ...
