Monday, July 25, 2005

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Personalize the Google home page

The Google personalized home page is like the other Google services: fast and easy to use.  



It can show information from several sources:



  • Gmail inbox

  • Stock Market: Dow, Nasdaq, NYSE, S&P 500 or a stock ticker

  • New York Times, BBC News , Google News

  • Weather forecast

  • Wired News, Slashdot

  • Movies

  • Driving Directions

  • Quote of the Day

  • Word of the Day

Thursday, July 21, 2005

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Laugh yourself slim

Is this cool news or what? You can laugh yourself slim:



"They burned 20 percent more calories when laughing, compared to not laughing," Buchowski said.


"Then we calculated what would happen if somebody laughed for 10 or 15 minutes a day, and we found that it was up to 50 calories, depending on your body size and the intensity of the laughter."



I am not sure about the laughing part, but having a good time and feeling satisfied about your life helps. I'm just back from a 3 week camping trip around Corsica and camping works even better than laughing. Swimming 30 minutes to 1 hour per day, in “cold” water, does wonders for the weight and physical condition. I am down from 97 kilo in September to 82 in July!

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

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John Cleese as Backup Trauma Director Dr. Harold Twain Weck

Monty Python and John Cleese are great fun. This video is no exception even though it is an advertisement for LiveVault backup software.



Via [cek.log]


 

Monday, July 18, 2005

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Electric unicycle

The Segway costs a fortune and is not licensed for use in Italy yet. Luckily there are creative inventors like Trevor Blackwell come to the rescue with a DIY solution.


The eunicycle is way cool but it requires a bit of practice as you have to be able to ride a unicycle. The site has all you need for building your own electric unicycle:


$1.500 in parts is not cheap but well worth the result if you ask me.


Trevor also built a self balancing 2 wheeled scooter, aka DIY Segway:


It is simpler to drive but not without its “problems“:



I get stopped every few blocks by someone ask about how it works. I don't mind telling people about it, but it does take an awfully long time to get to the coffee shop and back in the morning. And I can't quite drink a cup of coffee on it while moving at any speed, so the net result is that I arrive back at the office, 30 minutes later than if I'd just walked, with a cold coffee. A small sacrifice for Science


Cool Or What?


Via [Make vol 02, page 21]

Sunday, July 17, 2005

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Inflatable speakers for the summer

Neat mobile and inflatable speakers:


Cool for the beach but don't overdo it as they are not waterproof.