April 30, 2011
Summer Movie Trailers

Forgetfoo has got a nice collection of trailers for the big Summer Movies.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:13 PM
April 29, 2011
TeeFury - Cheap Geek T-Shirts

Just heard about TeeFury where they sell one geeky themed t-shirt for $10 every day until they sell out. Check out the archive for some of their previous designs. Via Forever Geek.

Posted by Arcterex at 05:16 PM
Portal 2 Free DLC This Sumer

Portal 2 free DLC announced:

Valve teased some downloadable content for Portal 2 recently, but now the developer has gone and spilled the potatoes on the first bit of planned DLC. It's aiming for release sometime this summer, and best of all: it's free for all platforms (PC, Mac, 360, and PS3).
Posted by Arcterex at 02:35 PM
Lamborghini Aventador Video

I'm not a big car person, but this video was pretty awesome.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:21 PM
April 28, 2011
Meet The Cast Of The UK Version Of Jersey Shore

For the love of all that is good and kind in this world please tell me that this is a spoof.

Please.

please....

Posted by Arcterex at 09:00 AM
April 27, 2011
Hacker Typer

Hacker Typer. For when you need to hack, and fast.

Great idea. Kudos to JTStrocel.

Posted by Arcterex at 07:04 PM
TomTom user data sold to Dutch police For Speed Traps

TomTom user data sold to Dutch police, used to determine ideal locations for speed traps. More or less evil than the Apple "Locationgate" debacle?

Posted by Arcterex at 01:23 PM
White iPhone Arrives Tomorrow

Apple officially announced that the White iPhone Arrives Tomorrow.

Apple® today announced that the white iPhone® 4 will be available beginning tomorrow. White iPhone 4 models will be available from Apple's online store (www.apple.com), at Apple's retail stores, AT&T and Verizon Wireless stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

To me it's a bit silly as an iPhone 4S or 5 should be probably coming sometime this year (June-September maybe?), so maybe this is for the freaky die-hards who have been holding off for the last 9 months not buying the iPhone 4 until the white version is available.

Also this falls into the "I'll believe it when I see it" category, as apple has said the white version is coming "next [week|month|few months]" for a while now.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:19 PM
Mal's Song - Video

Delmar shared this on Facebook and as a fan of Firefly I had to pass it on: Mal's Song. Basically a full version of the Firefly theme song with full lyrics and a well edited video to go along with it. To echo Del's comment, dammit, now I must go out and watch all of Firefly again....

Posted by Arcterex at 12:37 PM
April 26, 2011
A Crappy Job

An image like this makes me stop complaining about my job....

Posted by Arcterex at 09:22 PM
Movie Ages (XKCD)

Possibly the most depressing thing I've seen all day. Thank god I still fit in the chart (barely).

Posted by Arcterex at 09:09 PM
Update on PlayStation Network

This Update on the PlayStation Network and Qriocity. Short version: "we got hacked and it's all fubar now".

Posted by Arcterex at 04:40 PM
Great Review of Tiny Wings (iPhone Game)

Maniacal Rage pretty much perfectly describes my feelings about Tiny Wings, and why you should buy this evil, hateful game right away.

And speaking of setbacks, why can't this stupid fucking bird follow the laws of physics? Why does he sometimes smoothly navigate slopes while other times smacking his fat chest on the crest of hills that seem perfectly shaped? Why is island 4 full of curves that seem designed to be impossible to smoothly traverse as if Andreas Illiger--that rotten bastard, that complete asshole--has purposefully designed them to spite me?
Posted by Arcterex at 11:07 AM
Try Ubuntu Online

Want to give the new Natty Narwhal version of Ubuntu Linux before it's out? Using some cool remote desktop stuff you can now Try Ubuntu online before you download. Not 100% with the 3D stuff, and it's only a 15 minute session, but it definitely is neat to check things out first. Kudos for the test drive guys for setting this all up.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:39 AM
Interactive Talking Plush Portal Turret

How could any good gamer guy or gal not rush out and immediately buy this Interactive Talking Plush Portal Turret (video). Seriously, that's awesome.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:18 AM
April 25, 2011
David duChemin Took A Fall

My buddy Len alerted me to the fact that Jeffrey Chapman posted that Vancouver photographer David duChemin took a nasty fall in Italy on his round-the-world photography trip. Ironically David just wrote about risk on his blog. According to Jeffrey David took a bad fall onto concrete and is lucky to be alive and recovering.


David is in a lot of pain, but he hasn't lost his winning spirit, optimism and grace. When called by a friend who asked how he was doing, he mustered the strength to respond "living the dream man; living the dream." Soon enough I suspect that he will be. And I can't wait!

I was honored enough to have lunch with David two summers ago and he's a great guy, glad he's ok and my thoughts go out to him.

Posted by Arcterex at 03:59 PM
Apple Sued Over iPhone Tracking

Who didn't see this lawsuit coming? The whole debacle has hit the point where the lawyers have been called in. *sigh*

So here are my thoughts...


  1. This isn't a big deal


    • The file is only available on your computer or your phone, and if someone with nefarious intent has access to either, you're boned already

    • The file isn't sent to Apple, but kept on your computer and iPhone only
    • This is also covered (from what I hear) in the terms of service (which no one reads)


  2. However, Apple should truncate or encrypt the file


    • You can fix this by setting the "encrypt backup" to prevent it from being available on your computer

    • I believe that Android does this as well, but their file is truncated to the last week or day or last few entries instead of all locations.


  3. You can turn it all off at the expense of usability


    • This data exists so that when you run an application that uses GPS it doesn't take 2 minutes (or more) to sync up with the satellites, and acts as a "fast-forward" to having an idea where you are.
    • You can remove these capabilities completely by turning off the "location services", but then of course you don't get any location based information.


  4. Sadly there's a give and take. We want to quickly 4Square, geotag our images, and see who's nearby, but to get this we have to have that information stored somewhere for our little mini-computer that we carry around in our pocket.

Personally I don't think that anyone has been hurt so badly by this that they desire money (though abusive spouses snooping on where you've been is something that is not a pretty thought), and that in the end I'm sure the only people who are going to come out ahead in this lawsuit are the lawyers, as usual.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:27 PM
April 24, 2011
Uncensored Duke Nukem Forever Trailer

Missed this with the long weekend, but there is a pretty sweet Uncensored Duke Nukem Forever trailer. Thanks Shacknews!

Posted by Arcterex at 07:49 PM
April 21, 2011
Thor VW Spoof Commercial

I have to admit that this'Thor' TV Spot that Aryk sent me surprised me and gave me a LOL. Great stuff.

Posted by Arcterex at 03:11 PM
April 19, 2011
64 GB White iPhone running iOS 5 with Expose-like Multitasking

The latest leak (maybe?) is a 64 GB White iPhone running iOS 5 with Expose-like Multitasking. Looks good, and a more "3GS" like evolution than a "iPhone 4" whole-new system. Bump in RAM and new OS features basically. Not bad. We'll see what really is happening in a couple of months though, but until then, let the leaks and rumors begin!

Posted by Arcterex at 11:04 AM
How to fix any Computer

One again the Oatmeal comes through with a concise guide on How to fix any computer. As someone who knows about these things, this is 100% true.

I must also link to this XKCD which is related.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:27 AM
April 15, 2011
SF to Paris in Two Minutes - TimeLapse Video

SF to Paris in Two Minutes on Vimeo. Awesome. Make sure you go through the last few seconds for a few quick shots of the setup.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:24 PM
Rise of the Planet of the Apes Trailer

'Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes' Trailer Released. Looks good too, hope that they go all the way with it, and don't leave some ambiguous "maybe the humans can win" type ending.

Posted by Arcterex at 11:50 AM
In-depth Design Review of Unity in Ubuntu Natty Narwhal

Sadly this In-depth Unity Design Review is really a video of screenshots, but it brings up a bunch of good points. While I haven't used Unity yet, this video and the description of how it works has made me really nervous about Ubuntu's Natty Narwhal, scheduled for release in a couple of weeks.

Posted by Arcterex at 11:48 AM
Expo 86 Anniversary Party

Friend of mine on Facebook pointed me to the Expo 86 anniversary party at Science World. If you're a 30-something Vancouverite you definitely remember Expo 86 and should get in on this. Live 80s music, Expo 86 Films, etc.

Posted by Arcterex at 09:05 AM
"It Gets Better" Video

Great video from Adobe: It Gets Better. Beautiful and true all at once.

My personal note to people who have nothing better to do than make fun of / insult / torture / oppress people because of their sexual orientation: "Grow the fuck up, this world has way more screwed up things to freak out about than man on man or woman on woman love".

That is all. Merry Friday.

Posted by Arcterex at 08:55 AM
April 14, 2011
Tweetbot Released

Last night I saw that Tweetbot launched and bought the $1.99 app sight unseen, based on the various reviews from people around the net. My prediction? Tapbots is going to make a lot of money over the next few days.

Do we need another twitter app? No. Is tweetbot perfect? No (I really like the 'bar above the keyboard UI that the official app has). Is it gorgeous and functional, with some pretty sweet UI innovation? Hells yes. Is the price in that sweet spot low enough that one would buy it sight unseen but not at the basement bottom $0.99? Yup.

Mostly I got it because I'm a whore for twitter apps and I saw a bunch of people online loving it:

Anyway, no affiliate links to download or anything, just wanted to say if you like twitter apps and haven't gotten this already, read some reviews and then plonk down the two bucks.

Posted by Arcterex at 08:58 AM
April 13, 2011
Microsoft Unveils Internet Explorer 10

Microsoft Unveils Internet Explorer 10. More of the same as in IE9. They still need to nuke IE6 from orbit however.

Best thing in the article was this last paragraph:

Interestingly enough, Internet Explorer 10 was running on the ARM version of Windows. That never gets old. Windows on ARM. Tight IE release schedule. Linux the most popular mobile operating system. Apple entirely mainstream and boring and hated for it. We're living in frickin' wonderland!
Posted by Arcterex at 01:56 PM
5 of the Best Twitter Apps for Mac

MacAppStorm has the In-Depth Showdown of 5 of the Best Twitter Apps for Mac.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:16 PM
Flock Is Dead, Long Live Flock

Back in 2005 Flock was announced, and now, 6 years later, Flock has come to the end of the road as support is ended.

I loved the idea of flock, but (similar to RockMelt) I could never really get into using it. They had a good run though. I wonder if RockMelt will meet the same fate or not though.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:03 PM
Video shows young girl receiving full pat-down From TSA

Video shows young girl receiving full pat-down, drug test from TSA.

Dear USA, you disgust me sometimes.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:46 AM
April 12, 2011
Sorting Algorithms in Folk Dancing

Many thanks to loyal UFies reader Zacsek for passing on this note:


I recently received these links, and I thought of sharing them with you, maybe they are interesting enough that you will post them: different sorting algorithms illustrated with traditional folk dances from Transylvania.
I think it's an awesome display of culture and worst case performance of the algorithms :))


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmPA7zE8mx0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyZQPjUT5B4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROalU379l3U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns4TPTC8whw

Definitely worth the link! Thanks for compiling the selection for me!

Posted by Arcterex at 01:47 PM
nginx 1.0 Released

So if you're in the webserver world at all you'll probably have heard that nginx 1.0.0 has been released. This is a stable version of the now 9 year old webserver. If you've never heard of it but want to learn more, hit up their about page.

Posted by Arcterex at 06:59 AM
April 11, 2011
AT-AT for America

Now this is an inspirational project I can get behind! AT-AT for America via Forever Geek.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:31 PM
Mirror (Comic)

Honestly today's Abstruse Goose comics kinda freaked me out a bit.

Posted by Arcterex at 01:19 PM
April 10, 2011
The Register on Ubuntu 11.04

Natty Narwhal with Unity: Worst Ubuntu beta ever. In case you can't tell from the article title, they didn't like it.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:13 PM
Ars reviews GNOME 3.0

Ars reviews GNOME 3.0. Short story - they mostly like it except for some stuff that hopefully will be better in the next few updates.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:13 PM
On iPhone Killers

Aryk sent me this cartoon which pretty much illustrates the problem with the batches of "iPhone Killers" out there.

Posted by Arcterex at 11:10 AM
April 09, 2011
Canadian Combat Coffee 101

Great video on making Combat Coffee by some Canucks in Afganistan. Posted if for nothing more than the "not a fucking timmies in sight" comment :)

Via this reddit story (with awesome comments as usual).

Posted by Arcterex at 03:25 PM
April 07, 2011
The "Creepy" App

Not sure how old this is, but check out the Creepy app. It will scrub the internet for location data for a given twitter or flickr ID and display it all in a nice map for you. Good reason to start removing those geotags from your images and social network data. Think about this as doing for location data what Firesheep did for https security.

Posted by Arcterex at 04:07 PM
Pow: Zero-configuration Rack server for Mac OS X

Pow is a new hotness from the guys at 37 Signals. Single command, no gems, no extra bits, it just runs. Site looks great on the iPhone too.

Posted by Arcterex at 04:02 PM
First Full-Length Trailer for Doctor Who Season Six

First Full-Length Trailer for Doctor Who Season Six. OMG epic. Thanks Aryk, now I need a change of pants.

Posted by Arcterex at 02:15 PM
April 06, 2011
RockMelt Releases Beta 2

The new "social" browser, Rockmelt, has released Beta 2 with New Chat, View Later, New Twitter App, and Chromium 10. Looks nice.

Posted by Arcterex at 08:44 PM
GNOME 3 Released

GNOME: The Free Software Desktop has finally after a few delays, actually released GNOME 3.0. Wow, that's a long time coming, I remember the discussions starting about this .... well, one of the first references I could find was a newsgroup post from 2001. Anyway:

Huge congrats to the GNOME team, I can't wait to get this going!

Posted by Arcterex at 03:38 PM
Linux Releases: Banshee, Ubuntu 11.04 Beta, "Jupiter"

Before you ask, yes, I am going through a backlog of RSS on OMG Ubuntu :) Here's some nifty stuff from the last few days:

Posted by Arcterex at 12:43 PM
TweetDeck Introduces Web Beta (Closed Beta)

Similar to Seesmic before them, the Tweetdeck guys have introduced Introduced TweetDeck Web Beta, a webapp version of tweetdeck that doesn't depend on Adobe AIR for it's install. You can sign up with your tweetdeck account for the Beta, but you have to wait until you're chosen to actually participate.

Personally I found the Seesmic webapp the least compelling of their product offerings for some reason, however these days things are going more and more towards webapps so I have high hopes for tweetdeck.

Posted by Arcterex at 11:11 AM
April 05, 2011
GNOME vs. KDE: The Latest Round

Datamation.com (via slashdot) has the latest from the GNOME vs. KDE world and how the Linux desktop landscape is looking these days.

Posted by Arcterex at 11:02 PM
The Bollywood 'Iron Man'

Oh man I'd totally go to see this! Check the 'Ra One' Trailer.

Posted by Arcterex at 10:24 PM
April 04, 2011
Watch Four Minutes of 'Green Lantern'

I'm not convinced it won't be horrible, but I'll still go and see it in the theater after Aryk sent me the link to Watch Four Minutes of 'Green Lantern'.

Posted by Arcterex at 08:17 PM
April 01, 2011
First Teaser for Torchwood: Miracle Day!

Aryk sent the lin kfor the First Teaser for Torchwood: Miracle Day and I have to say that even though it basically shows nothing, I cannot wait for this to start!

Posted by Arcterex at 11:51 PM
Fugly Android

Fugly Android is a tumblr site to showcase Android customizations that have just gone too far...

Actually some of them are kinda cool, but I really don't know if I'd want to use them day to day. I'd like a bit more customization than iOS allows, but the curse of unlimited customization is.... well, just look at the link to see. Sometimes there is something to be said for "just leave it close to how it came" ya know? Via Daring Fireball (from a few days ago... I'm still catching up).

Posted by Arcterex at 10:02 PM