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Man E-Mails Drawing of Spider to Pay Bills, Becomes Internet Sensation

by Dan Reilly, posted Nov 20th 2008 at 10:22AM


Who knew paying bills could actually be fun? We certainly didn't, but an Australian man changed our minds after he attempted to settle a bill with a drawing of a spider. The prank has since become hugely popular on the Web.

When a utility company rep told David Thorne that he owed them $233.95, he emailed her back with the above drawing of a seven-legged spider, saying that he valued it at exactly the same amount. When the rep refused the payment, he asked her to "return" the drawing, then said it wasn't his because he would've drawn it with eight legs. Thorne continued the correspondence and posted it on his Web site, 27bslash6.com, where he has plenty of other humorous posts.

News of the prank spread and Thorne's site crashed after receiving hundreds of thousands of hits. He's since said that the utility company rep thought it was hilarious, and somebody purchased the spider drawing on eBay for $10,000 without any intent to pay up. You can check out the entire hilarious correspondence here. [From: news.au.com]

Google Rolls Out 'Themes' for Gmail

by Tim Stevens, posted Nov 20th 2008 at 9:40AM

Google Rolls Out Themes for Gmail
Google is certainly not a company satisfied to leave a product well enough alone. Gmail, the already hugely popular free online e-mail service, has seen a number of upgrades in the past few weeks. First, it was integrated text messaging, then came easy to use video chat, and now Google is releasing a series of themes to make your Gmailing experience a little more aesthetically pleasing.

Google enabled people to apply custom themes to the Google.com search page many months ago, and since then, a variety of colorful and fanciful styles have been added to let you personalize your search. It's similar here, with Gmail starting with 30+ themes that range from wood-grained to modern and sophisticated. To enable a theme, click on the "Settings" link at the top of the page and click on "Themes." Don't see the link yet? Fear not; Google's doing their typical thing of rolling it out slowly -- it should be there in a few days.

And why is the company being so generous with the feature upgrades lately? Maybe they're still trying to make up for that painful downtime... [From: The Official Gmail Blog]

Google Brings LIFE Magazine Photo Archives to the Web

by Thomas Houston, posted Nov 19th 2008 at 11:01AMBreaking News



Google continues its march towards organizing all the world's information. Just what has it done this time? Google worked with LIFE magazine to digitize and distribute LIFE's enormous archive of photographs, which span over a century and countless cultural, political, scientific sporting, and other historical moments.

Since this was released, we've spent far too much time browsing the archives, and we've found everything from Hitchcock to Billie Holiday, from 'The Third Man' to '2001,' and the historic Lindbergh flight to the Apollo 11 launch. The majority of the photos have titles, descriptions, photographer information, and dates, which makes searching for photos from "World War 2" and "New York," for example, surprisingly easy. You can search by decade, by year, and by pretty much any other search term you can think of. Paul Newman? Check. Dresden, Germany? Got it. Picasso wearing a cow's head mask? Of course!

Continue reading Google Brings LIFE Magazine Photo Archives to the Web

Astronaut Loses Tool Bag...in Space

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Nov 19th 2008 at 10:05AM



It's got to be really embarrassing to be Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper right now. Piper is the astronaut who turned Tuesday's spacewalk to repair a solar panel on the International Space Station into a slapstick comedy.

After she and Steve Bowen, another astronaut, did some prep work, Piper reached into her tool bag only to find her grease gun had sprung a leak, coating everything inside in a slick layer of nastiness. Then, to add insult to injury, she was distracted while trying to clean up the mess and her tool bag floated away. As Bowen laughed at her misfortunes, he was hit with a satellite in the groin.

Ok, so we made up the part about the groin satellite, but you've got to admit that it completes this comedy of errors.

Thankfully, the two were able to share Bowen's tools and begin the repairs to the station's solar panels. NASA also said the tool bag does not pose a problem, and it has floated well clear of the space station. Of course, if it falls into the hands of an alien race who use their knowledge of our gear-greasing technology to enslave us all, NASA may just have to retract that evaluation. [From: CNN]

Man Tells Wife That iPhone Sent His Dirty Pictures to Another Woman

by Dan Reilly, posted Nov 19th 2008 at 8:01AM

A man is swearing there's a glitch in iPhones that attaches pictures to emails and moves them to the sent folder without ever transmitting them. With all the problems the Apple products have had, it sounds somewhat plausible, right? Now, take into account that the alleged malfunction is his way of explaining to his wife why there's a picture of him pleasuring himself in a sent email that's addressed to another woman. If you're like us, your reaction is "oh, come on, man. Seriously?"

This whole mess came to light when a woman posted on an Apple forum to see if anyone else had this problem, saying the future of her marriage depends on the answer. The husband, for his part, admits taking the picture but swears he didn't send it. He even says he visited an Apple Genius Bar, where a technician said it's been known to happen.

Almost all the responders on the forum are kindly telling the woman that her husband is being a bit dishonest, to say the least. Susan later posted that this is just the latest in a line of evidence of infidelity but, ever the optimist, she wanted to be sure. Ideally, she gets a big settlement out of this and her husband realizes how lucky he was not to have the offending pictures posted on the forum along with his full name. [From: The Inquirer]

Woman Conned Into Holding Down Toilet Lever While Thief Raids Home

by Dan Reilly, posted Nov 18th 2008 at 4:26PM



You've got to have questionable character to steal from anybody, but it takes a special type of person (without any respect for humanity) to prey on a 91-year-old woman. That's exactly what a thief in New Jersey did this week after posing as a water inspector to get into the senior's apartment and rob her blind, NJ.com reports.

What he did next would be funny if it weren't so cruel. After saying that he needed to check the water, the man tested a faucet in the kitchen, and then flushed the woman's toilet. Talking on a cell phone the whole time to bolster his image of authority, the thief then told the woman she had to hold down the toilet or else her house would explode. She did as she was told but after two minutes, her suspicion ultimately got the better of her and she let go, only to discover the man ran off with $3650 in cash.

We sincerely hope this guy is caught and punished as severely as possible. While we're sure most of you aren't as gullible as this woman, please let this serve as a reminder to be skeptical of anyone who shows up at your door, even if they're talking hurriedly on a cell phone. [Source: NJ.com]
Engadget

Artist Wants Webcam Installed In Her Prosthetic Eye

by Engadget Staff, posted Nov 17th 2008 at 4:31PM



Tanya Vlach, a San Francisco-based artist, lost her eye in a 2005 car accident, and now keeps a blog chronicling the "monocular life." She's got a real-enough looking prosthetic peeper, but Tanya's a self-described "sci-fi geek," and, with the approval of her doctor, she's put out a call for engineers to build her a camera... for her fake eye. \

Likening her possible future self (the one with the eye-cam installed) to a cyborg, Tanya reasons that her aesthetic-only eye could become a source of "augmented reality," and she's got a list of possible specs up on her blog for would-be engineers to begin with. Just some of the things mentioned for inclusion are: DVR capabilities, MPEG-4 compression, a microSD slot, A/V out, and Bluetooth. In other words, Tanya Vlach is insanely cool. Emphasis on the insanely part. [Via Digg]

Heated Mouse Pad Keeps Your Fingers Toasty

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Nov 15th 2008 at 5:12PM

Heated Mouse Pad Cooks Your Fingers
In keeping with our legal requirement to cover every piece junk that plugs into a USB port, we present you with the heated USB mouse pad.

With the winter months quickly kicking into gear, those of us with substandard heating in our homes and apartments will be looking for ways to stay toasty while sitting in front of our PCs. Of course, wrapping yourself in blankets and drinking cup after cup of hot cocoa won't keep your extremities consistently warm. And while you can put on big fuzzy slippers, typing in mittens is all but impossible.

But for 1,980 yen (about $20) you can pick up a USB-powered heated mousepad that will keep your digits, and your pointing device of choice, heated. In fact, you could probably cook on this thing, which can sustain temperatures of about 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).

We like to keep warm too, but we're not sure that melting your mouse is worthwhile. [From: OhGizmo!]

Why You Should Never Try to Steal a Law Student's Laptop

by Dan Reilly, posted Nov 14th 2008 at 2:41PM

A thief learned the mistake of trying to steal a law student's laptop last week after after becoming a punching bag for an Arizona State student he tried to rip off. Armed with a baseball bat, the intruder, Gabriel Saucedo, allegedly climbed through an open window into Alex Botsios' apartment, waking the student and threatening to smash his head in.

Botsios was willing to let Saucedo take his wallet and guitars. Then the robber made the mistake that ultimately landed him in the hospital -- he went for the laptop. According to Botsios, he said "Dude, no -- please, no! I have all my case notes...that's four months of work!" Saucedo, obviously underestimating the fury of an overstressed, overworked first-year, was unsympathetic. That's when Botsios could take no more.

Wrestling Saucdeo to the floor, Botsios separated the bat from the thief and repeatedly punched him in the face. When it was all over, police had to get Saucedo stitched up before charging him with armed robbery and kidnapping, while Botsios only suffered some scrapes and a bruised knuckle. Most importantly, at least to the student, is that his laptop, which he called "his baby," escaped unharmed. Next time, Saucedo might want to try robbing a third-year student, as they're generally more docile. [From: KTAR.com]

What's New in Windows 7?

by Tim Stevens, posted Nov 14th 2008 at 6:00AM

What's New in Windows 7?

While Windows Vista (launched in early 2007) addressed a number of Window's XP's biggest issues, most notably a much needed security refresh, Microsoft's most current operating system (OS) came with its own string of new headaches, like incessant pop-ups and some frustrating incompatibilities (not to mention its own set of flaws). Despite what those Mac vs. PC commercials might say, Microsoft has been listening, and its answer is Windows 7. It recently gave a preview version to a number of early-access developers and journalists, so let's run down some of the highlights of their early impressions of this OS that could still be several years away.


Continue reading What's New in Windows 7?


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