The World's Fastest Greasel

"Someone once told me that setting a land speed record on a dry lakebed was like drag racing on the ocean. Even though it was an odd analogy, after a few days on the dirt, I know exactly what he means. I looked at my watch, did the math and then asked around. I was in disbelief; did we really go that fast on our final run?"

Yahoo has created a 100% peanut oil powered car using a diesel engine. It's pretty incredible speed-wise for being just peanut oil powered. The speed on their second run was a mircaulous 98.158. Pretty darn fast. Did they achieve the speed of 160? Well, no. In racing, like life, there are sometimes unforeseen problems. Things happened, but still, they're the World's Fastest Greasel. The only problem in it is that the smoke flies everywhere.

"Are we going to come back and try again next year? You bet and we think we can go over 160 then, all the while spreading the word on alternative fuels. Take that Gasoline-powered Internal Combustion Engine. The future is here and it looks a lot like the past."

Don't even try speeding in Italy

If you think you can get away speeding in Italy, think again! A Lamborghini Gallardo has been donated to the Italian State Police (Polizia di Stato) by Automobili Lamborghini SpA for their 152nd anniversary. The V10, 500 bhp 190 mph performance car has been liveried in the colours of the state police and includes a siren and flashing lights on the roof. This is the first time that a Lamborghini will be used by Italian police. Why is it being used? Because there are many vehicles in Italy that can easily escape the 130mph speed limit they have there. The Lamborghini can easily keep up and pursue any runaway criminal.

The police Lamborghini is also outfitted with cutting edge car technology, that will even make James Bond gasp. A gps system, intercom, and a neat device that can check the area for stolen vehicles. Anytime now the US and Canada will catch on. Maybe someday all police cruisers will be 500 horsepower vehicles.

10 Ways to ruin your blog

Want to ruin your blog? Heres how:

1. Excessive Ads
I’d completely agree. While different blogs can get away with different levels of advertising (and I’d argue affiliate programs) there comes a point where the number of ads on a site can turn readers away. I would also argue that ads that are aggressively positioned on a blog can turn readers away also. If when a reader arrives on your blog and no content at all is visible you might want to consider the possibility that readers will leave frustrated.

2. Cliques
I think that a cliquey blog can be just an uninviting a place as a cliquey forum and that it can happen on two levels. Firstly the blogger themselves can be very cliquey in only linking out to a certain few other privileged bloggers (something A-list bloggers - whatever they are - are often accused of). Secondly the comments sections of blogs can be a cliquey place also with those commenting using in jokes, jargon and/or being snarky to new readers. While some successful blogs get away with cliquey behavior (and a few actually seem to thrive on it) the average blog trying to find it’s feet can suffer a lot as a result of it.

3. Trolls
This one applies with blogs and it’s something that I’ve seen frustrate a number of bloggers to the point where they’ve actually thrown in the towel and have given up blogging. Likewise trolls can frustrate readers and cause a lot of flaming between a blog’s community to the point where they almost take over.

4. Fights
Once again this can apply on a blog on two levels (both fights between bloggers and fights in comments). While an occasional fight (or vigorous discussion) can actually add life to a blog (if it’s done in a constructive and non personal way) - taken too far they can completely destroy a blogger’s (and blog’s) reputation. I’ve seen a number of bloggers go too far and/or pick the wrong fight - only to find that they become known as the blogger who said or did something stupid.

5. Heavy Handed Moderating
This one does vary a little from blog to blog. Some bloggers obviously moderate comments more heavily than others (for example blogs like Seth Godin’s doesn’t have comments, others like Lifehacker have comments for registered members only, others queue all comments for moderation and some are quite selective on what comments they allow to appear). Each approach
can
work but bloggers get into trouble mainly when they change the rules along the way. If you want to moderate comments heavily I personally believe it’s your right to do so although my own belief and style is that blogs tend to work best when the reading community are able to participate in the conversation unhindered.

6. Lack of Moderation
I’ve seen a few bloggers become almost laughing stocks because of the level of comment spam that they allowed to go up on their blogs. If you’re not going to put the time into moderating comments switch them off.

7. Don’t over post
Once again there is some room to move on this one. Some blogs do tend to get away with a lot of posts each day (some of the tech blogs for example post 20+ times a day) however every blog seems to have a posting frequency that seems to be optimal for it’s topic and readership.

8. Violating Privacy
This isn’t one that I’ve really seen any bloggers do - but if they did (perhaps with comment leavers email addresses?) I can see it would have a negative impact upon that blogger’s reputation.

9. Slow Site
The same thing is true to some extent (perhaps slightly less critical than with forums where users view multiple pages per session). A slow loading blog will often frustrate readers to the point that they’ll surf off to some other site before it fully loads).

10. Actually… there is no #10 - Oh wait! Over promising and under delivering
I totally agree. I see some bloggers who are repeat offenders in hype/spin and making undelivered promises and all this really achieves in my view is dilute their message and make me more and more wary of anything they claim or promise in future. While you might have grand goals for your blog - setting (and communicating) realistic achievable goals is important. No one will complain if you over achieve - but in the blogosphere people can be ruthless is you under perform.

Original Article Here

Photo Manipulation

It's amazing what some photo programs can do now. Take a look at this impressive picture by Sovereign. He used a picture and totally changed it.

Before Image:

You guessed it, heres the after image:

Heres another outcome with that same picture, by Sasaski.

Two very talented Graphic FX artists. Both these 2 images were entered in a competition. The first one won the gold trophy, the one by Sasaski was runner up.

Starcraft II Announced!

The sequel to the biggest hit strategy game has just been announced. Starcraft 2. I can bet that the gamers in Korea are going crazy right now, as Starcraft is an extremely popular game there. I think i'm going to pick this game up too. The game will also work with Vista! Now the Korean gamers will finally upgrade(Microsoft will be seeing a nice income boost) The release date is still unknown. The question is, can the maker of Starcraft; Blizzard create a game better than the prequel? Starcraft was released in 1998 and is still popular to this day, fans have been waiting for years for this! Some people like me gave up on it and thought "Heck, they got World Of Warcraft now, they could care less about Starcraft". I've definetly changed my mind about Blizzard now. They really do care. More info to come!

Microsoft planning to buy Yahoo?

Looks like the war between Microsoft, Yahoo and Google might become a one sided war. Will Yahoo give in to the multi billionare company?

Was $80 billion too little for Yahoo? If you believe a recent story in the LA Times, as many stock buyers appeared to have, that was indeed the case.

But would such a deal really make sense for the Windows giant?
Dan Kusnetzky, IDC vice president for system software research, can't see it.
"Since Microsoft is already presenting MSN in that space, I don't know what benefit they would get by acquiring Yahoo," said Kusnetzky.
Gordon Haff, senior analyst for research house Illuminata Inc., agrees and elaborated on why the deal wouldn't make sense.
"With a market cap of over $58 billion, Yahoo would be a huge acquisition for even a Microsoft—both in terms of money and integration," said Haff.
"While it's true that Microsoft has done a basically piss-poor job with MSN over the years, I seriously question whether a Yahoo purchase would be a practical way to re-bootstrap its online presence," Haff said.
Laura DiDio, however, can see reasons why Microsoft might pull the trigger on a Yahoo acquisition.

"I think Microsoft has to make a dramatic move, and I don't rule anything out," said DiDio, the Yankee Group's research fellow for application infrastructure and software platforms.
"Whatever anyone thinks of Microsoft, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, no one would deny that they are fierce and committed competitors," she said. "In Google, they face the strongest, richest, most edgy competitor they've seen in a generation. [Google co-founders] Larry [Page] and Sergey [Brin] are, in some respects, younger versions of Steve and Bill.
"At the very least, Microsoft has to be rethinking its timetable for the release of the Microsoft Live products. Google's aggressive moves and the overarching perception among the financial and industry analysts and the media that Google is the 'IT' company and Microsoft is falling further behind dictate that Microsoft initiate a bold move of its own. That may or may not be Yahoo. But the list of potential online Internet/search engine companies that Microsoft can purchase outright, acquire a stake in or partner with is pretty short," DiDio said.

"Ballmer has made it clear from recent public pronouncements and the ferocity with which Microsoft fought [and ultimately failed] to buy a very expensive stake in AOL, that it would like to buy search engine/online content/online advertising expertise. This hasn't happened so far. I would look for Microsoft to jump-start its own Microsoft Live initiatives, retool MSN and still try and buy something. Yahoo is not out of the question. It's highly improbable that Microsoft executives will sit back and let Google do to them what Microsoft did to so many of its competitors," she said.
Stacey Quandt, an Aberdeen Group Inc. research director, can also see it happening.
"Microsoft was late to take advantage of the Internet, and MSN has never lived up to the promises envisioned. The expectations for Google's growth and its relationship with AOL make Yahoo an appealing acquisition target for Microsoft," said Quandt.
A better question is, Can even Microsoft afford the deal?

"Yahoo has a market cap of $58.4 billion and Microsoft has a market cap of $286 billon, so in theory Microsoft could buy them. Microsoft could probably purchase a controlling stake for $30 billion, but it would reduce cash on-hand by at least 75 percent. Yahoo would be an expensive acquisition for anyone including Microsoft," Quandt said.
"The risk to Microsoft is that the purchase of Yahoo would be a major investment in Web content and a potential distraction. At present Microsoft has focused more on Web services than Web content," she said.
"However," Quandt continued, "Microsoft needs to find new avenues for revenue and can no longer expect this to come primarily from traditional avenues such as the operating system and Office applications."

Original article here

Torrenting

Software. New software is being released daily and the more thats released, the more people want to get their hands on it.

Welcome to the world of bittorrent.

It's so popular that it's pretty much a "must" now.