Geekish

Anyone who works as a freelancer these days has to be at least a bit familiar with techie things. But it isn’t just that. When I was a kid and those vaguely SF puppet shows were on the television and all the other kids wanted to be Greg Gogetem or Steve Savetheuniverse, I wanted to be the guy in a white coat and glasses called Doc or Brains. Here are some technology-related feeds I find useful and/or entertaining.

Slashdot » NY District Judge Dismisses Blogger Suit Against Huffington Post

Saturday 31 March 23:16:00 UTC 2012

The Chicago Tribute reports on a ruling announced Friday that the Huffington Post violated no law in profiting enormously from the unpaid contributions of bloggers who wrote much of the content that has spurred the site's success. Says the article: "John E. Koeltel, a district court judge in New York, dismissed a class action sought brought against the Huffington … [Link]

Geeks are Sexy Technology News » Dog vs. Lightsaber Sith Cat: Fight! [Video]

Saturday 31 March 23:00:27 UTC 2012

Never underestimate the power of the dark cat… if he runs away, he’ll be back to stab you in the back.[Via]No related posts. [Link]

WIRED » After Car-Tracking Smackdown, Feds Turn to Warrantless Phone Tracking

Saturday 31 March 22:24:23 UTC 2012

Prosectors are shifting their focus to warrantless cell-tower locational tracking of suspects in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that law enforcement should acquire probable-cause warrants from judges to affix GPS devices to vehicles and monitor their every move. [Link]

Slashdot » Minecraft Creator Announces Space Sandbox Game Mars Effect

Saturday 31 March 22:14:00 UTC 2012

An anonymous reader writes "Notch posted the official page of Mars Effect today, saying through Twitter, 'it's a completely different game! Our takes place in space, and focuses on characters, and lets you land on planets!!' He gives more detailed on the new website, noting the game will be based around hard science fiction (think Star Trek sci-fi) and … [Link]

Geeks are Sexy Technology News » R2-D2 Slippers [Pic]

Saturday 31 March 22:00:05 UTC 2012

Most awesome-looking pair of slippers EVAR.[Via]No related posts. [Link]

Slashdot » Samsung Says Their TVs Aren't Really Spying On You

Saturday 31 March 21:12:00 UTC 2012

lightbox32 writes "Samsung has finally responded to an article recently published by HD Guru titled 'Is your TV watching you?' [See this related Slashdot post] which discussed the fact that new features in Samsung's top 2012 models — including built-in microphones, HDTV camera, wireless and wired Internet connection, built-in browser with voice to text conversion, face recognition and more … [Link]

Geeks are Sexy Technology News » 8-Bit Google Maps – Google’s Awesome April Fools Prank

Saturday 31 March 20:23:33 UTC 2012

If you were a fan of the Dragon Warrior series on the NES, then you’re going to absolutely love the April Fools prank from Google this year: 8-Bit Google Maps! You can click the Quest button on ANY google map search and convert your bit of the world into an 8-bit quest, with hidden monsters!No related posts. … [Link]

Slashdot » Nano-SIM Decision Delayed

Saturday 31 March 20:11:00 UTC 2012

judgecorp writes "The decision on the next generation of even-smaller SIM cards for phones and other devices has been delayed by standards body ETSI, and the issue (which should have been settled this week) is nowhere near resolution. Apple wants to trim the existing micro-SIM further, Nokia wants to move to something like a micro-SD card which may involve … [Link]

Geeks are Sexy Technology News » The Dark Knight Rises Trailer: IN LEGO [Video]

Saturday 31 March 20:00:06 UTC 2012

An awesome stop-motion re-creation of the second trailer for The Dark Knight Rises, which by the way, is almost upon us! Enjoy![Via Neatorama]No related posts. [Link]

Slashdot » Software-Defined Radio For $11

Saturday 31 March 19:13:00 UTC 2012

Malvineous writes "Don't have $1500 to drop on a USRP? A Linux kernel developer has discovered that a Realtek digital TV tuner chip has an undocumented mode that turns it into a software-defined radio, with a frequency range of 64-1700MHz. The going rate for one of these USB devices can be as low as US$11. If you're unfamiliar with … [Link]

Geeks are Sexy Technology News » Amazing Mortal Kombat Sleeve Tattoo [Pic]

Saturday 31 March 19:00:41 UTC 2012

[Via]No related posts. [Link]

WIRED » Apple's Biogas Fuel Cell Plant Could Go Live By June

Saturday 31 March 18:56:00 UTC 2012

Apple says that a biogas-powered fuel cell system that will help power its Maiden, North Carolina, data center could be up and running as early as June, much earlier than previously expected. [Link]

Slashdot » New Engine Raises Possibility of Cheap Travel To the Moon

Saturday 31 March 18:09:00 UTC 2012

shreshtha writes with this intriguing bit from The Daily Mail: "A tiny satellite thruster which can journey to the Moon on just a tenth of a litre of fuel could usher in a new low-cost space age, its creators hope. The mini-motor weights just a few hundred grams and runs on an ionic chemical compound, using electricity to expel … [Link]

Geeks are Sexy Technology News » Productivity Illustrated [Pic]

Saturday 31 March 18:00:06 UTC 2012

[Via]No related posts. [Link]

Geeks are Sexy Technology News » Dedicated to all the monsters who screwed our nights: The Monster Alphabet [Video]

Saturday 31 March 17:00:43 UTC 2012

Can you name them all?[La Pompadour]No related posts. [Link]

Slashdot » The Phantoms of Google+

Saturday 31 March 16:58:00 UTC 2012

theodp writes "Engadget reports that Google wants a patent on its System and Method for Generating a Ghost Profile for a Social Network. The brainchild of five Googlers, the invention is designed to convert anti-social-networking types to the joys of Google+ and its ilk. From the patent: 'A problem arises when users of social networks are friends with people … [Link]

Geeks are Sexy Technology News » Little League: An Adorable Webcomic about Superheroes

Saturday 31 March 16:00:36 UTC 2012

Click Picture to Enlarge!Oh the sadness! 🙁Click Picture to Enlarge![Source: Little League]No related posts. [Link]

ProgrammableWeb.com » 20 APIs Used in 7 Days: Foursquare, ESPN and Digg

Saturday 31 March 15:30:09 UTC 2012

This past week 15 new mashups were added to our mashup directory and 20 different APIs were used to build them. Some of the newer or less frequently seen APIs include Amazon SES, ESPN, Geoportail, Readability , Readmill, ReadSocial and Topsy. The most often used APIs this week are Facebook, Google Maps and Twitter. And the most commonly used types … [Link]

Slashdot » Ask Slashdot: It's World Backup Day; How Do You Back Up?

Saturday 31 March 15:29:00 UTC 2012

MrSeb writes "Today is World Backup Day! The premise is that you back up your computers on March 31, so that you're not an April Fool if your hard drive crashes tomorrow. How do Slashdot users back up? RAID? Multiple RAIDs? If you're in LA, on a fault line, do you keep a redundant copy of your data in … [Link]

Geeks are Sexy Technology News » Sexy Cobra Trooper [Pics]

Saturday 31 March 15:00:11 UTC 2012

Ok, I want to be part of Cobra now! Where do I sign up? :)[Via JBGillund]No related posts. [Link]

Geeks are Sexy Technology News » Amazon Deal of the Day: 61% Off Sucker Punch (Two-Disc Extended Edition) [Blu-ray] – $13.99

Saturday 31 March 14:55:56 UTC 2012

For today’s edition of Deal of the Day, Amazon has Sucker Punch (Two-Disc Extended Edition) on Blu-ray for just $13.99. That’s 61% off the movie’s usual retail price of $35.99.From an Amazon.com reviewer:The extended cut of Sucker Punch adds approximately 17 minutes and 45 seconds of additional footage, and is R-rated. The extended cut is much darker than the theatrical cut; … [Link]

Slashdot » Adobe Releases Last Linux Version of Flash Player

Saturday 31 March 14:27:00 UTC 2012

dartttt writes "Adobe has released Flash Player version 11.2 with many new features. This is the final Flash Player release for Linux platform and now onward there will be only security and bug fix updates. Last month Adobe announced that it is withdrawing Flash Player support for Linux platform. All the future newer Flash releases will be bundled with … [Link]

Geeks are Sexy Technology News » Geekifying Word Play

Saturday 31 March 14:00:19 UTC 2012

I don’t know if this is just the writer in me, but I thoroughly enjoyed this guy’s absolutely nerdy deconstruction of common phrases, word play and phrase fumbles.[vsauce]No related posts. [Link]

Slashdot » Glibc Steering Committee Dissolves; Switches To Co-Operative Development Model

Saturday 31 March 13:30:00 UTC 2012

First time accepted submitter bheading writes "Following years under controversial leadership which, among other things, led to a fork (which was in turn adopted by some of the major distributions) the glibc development process has been reinvented to follow a slightly more informal, community-based model. Here's hoping glibc benefits from a welcome dose of pragmatism." Share on Google+ Read more of this … [Link]

Geeks are Sexy Technology News » Ph.Diva and the Mystery Band – Animation of Life in the Biotech lab

Saturday 31 March 13:00:20 UTC 2012

April Brite, (aka the Ph.Diva) is a biotech Postdoc. April is thrilled when her abstract is picked for an oral presentation, and starts preparing her presentation. When her PCR does not go exactly as planned, she sets off on a journey filled with frustrations, anticipation, fascination and determination. Will our Ph.Diva make it in time for her conference?[Ph. Diva]No related … [Link]

New Scientist – News » Report reveals earlier problems at North Sea gas site

Saturday 31 March 12:42:47 UTC 2012

A report published last year by the oil and gas firm Total details the problems it faced drilling for deep gas below the Elgin platform [Link]

Slashdot » Wind Map of US Will Blow You Away

Saturday 31 March 12:29:00 UTC 2012

Hugh Pickens writes writes "Talk about visualizations. Ever wondered what the wind would look like if you could see it in action from above? A new project posted online by a pair of Google computer scientists, called simply Wind Map, has to be seen to be believed. "It can be quite hypnotizing to watch the gusty trails blast across … [Link]

Slashdot » Google Maps Directions Adds Real-Time Traffic Estimates

Saturday 31 March 10:51:00 UTC 2012

First time accepted submitter constpointertoconst writes "If you use Google Maps to calculate directions, you may now notice (if your route is covered by their traffic data) an "in current traffic" travel estimate for current route. Some may recall that Google Maps had a similar estimate in the past, but it was removed last year due to poor accuracy." … [Link]

Slashdot » Chinese Internet Firms Punished For Permitting Spread Of Political Rumors

Saturday 31 March 8:03:00 UTC 2012

First time accepted submitter rover42 writes "Major Chinese sites Sina and Webo 'have been legally punished for permitting the spread of unfounded rumors. Specifically, the report cites unfounded rumors that were spreading like wildfire on Sina Weibo of an attempted coup d'etat happening in Beijing.' The source is the state-run Xinhua." Sadly for the people of China (even if … [Link]

Slashdot » JAXA Creates Camera That Can See Radiation

Saturday 31 March 7:00:00 UTC 2012

New submitter Ben_R_R writes "The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has created a camera that can 'see' radioactive contamination by detecting gamma rays emitted by radioactive cesium and other substances. The camera has been tested in the disaster evacuation zone around Fukushima. The image captures levels of radiation in six different colors and overlays the result over an image captured … [Link]

WIRED » A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Mar. 31

Saturday 31 March 5:39:17 UTC 2012

Google's daily brainteaser helps hone your search skills. [Link]

Slashdot » German Court Rules Rapidshare Is Legal, But Must Adjust Content Policies

Saturday 31 March 5:12:00 UTC 2012

New submitter loosescrews writes "Online file locker Rapidshare is legal in Germany, but has to adjust its policy regarding infringing content, the Higher Regional Court in Hamburg has ruled. Rapidshare plans to appeal. Rapidshare was sued by the German copyright organization Gema which represents 64.000 copyright holders. After reading the verdict, both parties claim they are victorious." Share on Google+ Read more … [Link]

Slashdot » Smartphones Invade the Prepaid Market

Saturday 31 March 2:22:00 UTC 2012

jfruh writes "When tech geeks debate the state of the smartphone world, they usually focus on the iPhone and its high-end Android rivals from the major carriers. But Android is rapidly entering the lower-end world of contractless prepaid phones that you can buy at 7-11 or Wal-Mart. 63 percent of prepaid phones sold in 2011 were smartphones, and while … [Link]

Geeks are Sexy Technology News » Keep Science in Our Schools

Saturday 31 March 1:36:57 UTC 2012

I know this is meant as a gag…but I really do dream of a world where quantum physics is on the highschool syllabus. I mean if quantum computers come into common use and the IQ of the world keeps rising, isn’t it plausible?[By Fake Science]No related posts. [Link]