We're prepping for hurricane Earl tomorrow - which should be coming in and making a mess right about the time I'm driving home from work.... great. On the bright side it is going to break the 6 day 90+ heat wave we've been suffering through. I'll take it.

I've got some cool stuff for you today so I'll let you get right to it and I'll catch you all tomorrow.

Rob

Link: http://cybernetnews.com/jaycut-free-online-video-editor/

This is way cool - a full featured online video editor. Now no matter where you are or what hardware you have, you can stitch up something interesting.

* Remix/trim videos and images
* Add music, transitions and effects
* Add captions and subtitles
* Automated transcoding
* 1-Click export to YouTube
* Export videos for iPhone, Windows and Mac (MPEG-4 – H.264, MPEG-4 – XVID, AVI – XVID, Flash – H.264)

That’s not all either. They just upgraded the editor a few weeks ago to include webcam/voice-over support, slow motion effects, green screen compatibility, and colorization techniques

Why? Because it's Thursday and you need it.

Link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20015378-56.html

I didn't think Amazon had a chance against Apple until I saw this - apparently instead of the draconian drm that Apple gives away with their video - Amazon lets you do a heck of a lot with your stuff that you legally bought.

Amazon is selling some TV shows for the same price that Apple plans to charge for rentals.

A number of ABC and Fox shows, including hits like "Glee," are available on Amazon's service for 99 cents per episode--the same price as Apple's coming rental option. But with Amazon, the episodes can be downloaded or streamed and do not expire.
"When you buy a video, your viewing rights do not expire (except as provided in our Terms of Use)," Amazon states. "You can watch a video you own online and download it to 2 locations (TiVo, DVRs, and Windows PCs). You can also transfer a video you own to 2 portable devices.

While this does not apply to every movie or show - it's a goodly step towards what should be - simply when you buy something... it should be yours to do with as you will. Take a note Apple.

Link: http://www.physorg.com/news202453100.html

LED's have come a long way - and with these new developments will most likely replace every form of lighting in the next few years.

Researchers from the Nichia Corporation in Tokushima, Japan, have set an ambitious goal: to develop a white LED that can replace every interior and exterior light bulb currently used in homes and offices. The properties of their latest white LED - a luminous flux of 1913 lumens and a luminous efficacy of 135 lumens per watt at 1 amp - enable it to emit more light than a typical 20-watt fluorescent bulb, as well as more light for a given amount of power. With these improvements, the researchers say that the new LED can replace traditional fluorescent bulbs for all general lighting applications, and also be used for automobile headlights and LCD backlighting.

Link: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-blogs-follow-web-designer/

For those of you who are in the same vocation as me - you'll find this interesting... or maybe even useful.

If you are a web designer, chances are there is always something interesting to be found. Whether you are looking for some creative inspiration, trying to stay up on the current trends, or are seeking the latest buttons, textures, or graphics, you can find them. If you simply want to sharpen your skills – or learn new ones – you can do that as well.

Maybe an ad for an amusement park?

Link: http://www.dirpy.com/

Very cool idea here -

Dirpy, which is currently in beta, is an advanced Internet Digital Video Recorder (DVR) service that lets you record and convert your favorite freely available online media. Dirpy offers many useful features like real-time conversions, ID3 metadata tags, offsets, support for high quality formats (including HD), and much more.

You can even make a mp3 out of a You Tube video ... bookmark this one, it'll come in handy.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/7973944/Deep-fried-beer-invented-in-Texas.html

Oh wow, I'm just hoping the North Eastern fairs have some deep fried goodness this year.

The beer is placed inside a pocket of salty, pretzel-like dough and then dunked in oil at 375 degrees for about 20 seconds, a short enough time for the confection to remain alcoholic.

When diners take a bite the hot beer mixes with the dough in what is claimed to be a delicious taste sensation.

Yum!

Link: http://mashable.com/2010/08/30/gmail-priority-inbox/

If you use Gmail and like many of us are flooded with mail check this out....

Priority Inbox is Google’s (Google) attempt to solve the e-mail woes of Gmail (Gmail) power users. At its core, the feature is an algorithm; Priority Inbox uses information such as keywords, the people you e-mail the most and your e-mail habits to select the most pressing e-mails in your inbox. Those e-mails are brought to the top of your Gmail and marked as important so you deal with them first.

Priority Inbox is also an adaptive algorithm. Marking items as important or unimportant teaches the system what types of messages you deem the most urgent.

Link: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/27051/use-email-to-send-text-messages-sms-to-mobile-phones-for-free/

Another great article from How To Geek -

Sometimes being able to send out a quick text message to someone you know would definitely be helpful. But what if you are at your computer and can not use your mobile phone? Just fire up your favorite email account and get that message out using the SMS Gateway addresses that we have collected together for you.

To use the SMS Gateway addresses shown here enter the 10 digit mobile phone number for the person you are sending a message to in front of the appropriate address (i.e. 1234567890@carrier.com).

Link: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/08/internet-fail-blockbuster-reportedly-plans-bankruptcy/

We all knew this was coming, apparently the company is going to try and restructure and come out of this but I don't give 'em much of a chance.

Just as video stores once failed to compete with Blockbuster’s larger inventory, the retail chain now can’t compete with Amazon, Netflix, on-demand cable-satellite, and other means of delivering video entertainment that don’t involve going to a store — even as it struggled to keep up, offering DVD-by-mail option.

The irony must be bitter for Blockbuster that as it was preparing for a potential bankruptcy, its once-upstart competitor Netflix was busy ramping up with an iPhone app that streams movies and television shows directly to Apple’s popular devices.

Link: http://www.madville.com/out/cool/326510_minas_tirith_made_from_matchsticks

Not every day you see something like this... way to go.

Check out the article for bigger pics.

Link: http://globalthoughtz.com/2010/08/diggs-loss-is-reddits-gain/

Have you seen the new Digg redesign? I mean it's a good site and all but it's a far cry from what it was. There's tons of people leaving the service for Reddit (which always was a better community imho)

To make matters worse there was a time when most of Diggs front page articles were from Reddit itself.

Oh, and the site's been down a heck of a lot too as overload and balancing problems persist.

Ah, how I miss this show.

Link: http://www.betanews.com/article/Adobe-updates-Webbased-Photoshop-no-longer-demands-membership/1282752551

Everyone needs to do a little photo editing now and then, and the redesigned photoshop extras now looks to be a great online editor.

Firstly, a Photoshop.com account is no longer needed to use Photoshop Express Editor. Users can simply navigate to the Web app, upload photos directly from their local drive, edit and change the photos, and then save them back on their local storage. Previously, an account was necessary, and photos were uploaded to online storage first before they were edited. This is still an option, as Photoshop.com members can still store and share photos online as well as create albums, but it's no longer the only way to use the Editor.

Link: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=9778&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HelpNetSecurity+%28Help+Net+Security%29

Don't like this - in fact tell all the noobs you know as these are getting out of hand.

"Just because it appears that a friend 'likes' a Facebook page or application, shouldn't mean it's safe for you to click and find out more," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "As soon as a page urges you to share or 'like' a link to your friends, and asks for personal information, alarm bells should start to ring. Users need to think twice and avoid being sucked into these increasingly widespread scams."

Facebook users that have been affected should delete references to this scam from their wall, to avoid sharing it further with their online friends.

Link: http://shingakunet.com/school/9000226898/9000283703/special/

It's been a long time since we've spotlighted one of these - but they're addictive and always fun - go waste some time with Grow Valley.

Link: http://artatm.com/2010/08/25-fantastic-jquery-techniques-and-effects-for-creating-awesome-websites/

A whole new batch of jQuery goodness -

Many of us have been using jQuery to a great deal. Be it for photo gallery or featured items or be it any other purpose, jQuery helps in developing any application that you want.

In this post we are publishing 25 Fantastic jQuery Techniques and Effects For Creating Awesome Websites for your use. If you like any of these jquery and you plan to use them then please read the license agreement of the creator as they may change from time to time.

And now for something - completely stupid.

Link: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1729566/adobe-patches-shockwave-bigtime

It's that time of the week again where one of your adobe products requires updating, this time it's Shockwave....

Adobe's Shockwave media player that is getting a whopping big patch to cover 20 security holes.

The patches cover Adobe's Shockwave Player 11.5.7.609 for both the Windows and Mac platforms and the company is rating the update as critical.

"The vulnerabilities could allow an attacker, who successfully exploits these vulnerabilities, to run malicious code on the affected system," Adobe said in a security advisory.

Of the 20 holes, 18 fixes cover problems that would allow remote code execution on affected systems. One could allow a denial of service attack and the final flaw would allow a denial attack and could theoretically be exploited to allow remote code execution.

You can download the latest Shockwave here

Link: http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/make-and-receive-calls-in-gmail.html

Google just added voice calling from within Gmail - which is cool I suppose. I have yet to play around with it but maybe I'll get some extra time soon.

Link: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

UBCD gets an update - this is a must have software for any system tinkerer...

There are so many tools on this puppy there are far too numerous to list here - go and take a look, or download it and play around with it. You'll be glad you did.

Score another one for Japanese TV - seeing these guys slide down the stairs made my day.

Link: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=105822368

How about 2 cool things in one? Here we have a Sci Fi video that's way cool and then we find out it's for the new Iron Maiden song. Bonus.

Link: http://www.betanews.com/article/Toshibas-hard-drive-breakthough-could-herald-megacapacity-drives/1282246111

Bit-patterned drives could hold some 2.5 terabits of data on every square inch of recordable space. Contrast this with the highest densities that Toshiba has currently been able to squeeze out of current technologies -- 541 gigabits -- and the company's breakthrough seems even more stunning.

Such a breakthrough would mean a current standard 3.5-inch HDD could hold at least 8 terabytes of data

It will be a while before you see these on the market though, expect the tech to come to you around 2013.

Link: http://www.howtogeek.com/news/internet-explorer-will-finally-stop-drawing-a-pointless-2-pixel-border-around-web-sites/487/

Another really annoying IE trait is going away with version 9 - the 2 pixel border drawn by default around the body tag. While this is good news, it's tempered somewhat by the amount of people still using IE6.

Posting has been kinda slow the past few as I'm transitioning into a new job. This week things will start to settle down a bit and starting tomorrow will be pretty much back to normal.

So, hang in and I'll see you all tomorrow.

Rob

Link: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easy-listening-pleasures-10-websites-free-audio-book-downloads/

Well, I thought I knew all of the places to get good free and legal audio books -but I was wrong.... which is a good thing as I'm on the last book of The Chronicles of Amber and I need some new material.

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11065301

Oh boy, when it rains......

ITunes accounts linked to Paypal have been targeted in a scam with a number of users complaining that they have been cleaned out.

Apple and Paypal refused to discuss the details of the incident.

First - I'd change my Itunes password - Second I'd unlink my PayPal account until there's some disclosure about what is going on.

Link: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/08/24/0520245/Windows-DLL-Vulnerability-Exploit-In-the-Wild

This is troubling, I can expect a wave of dead systems coming. There's a vulnerability in the way Windows handles looking for a DLL file - and many apps are affected.

Many Windows programs can be exploited simply by tricking users into visiting malicious Web sites or opening malformed documents because of the way the software loads code libraries -- dubbed "dynamic-link library," or ".dll" in Windows -- as well as executable ".exe" and ".com" files. If hackers can plant disguised malware in one of the directories an application searches when it looks for those files, they can hijack the PC.

This one won't go away quickly - so prepare for trouble. Microsoft has released a tool to mitigate the issue but it's mostly for corporate and not very end user friendly.

There are other workarounds customers could take, including blocking outbound SMB (Server Message Block) traffic at the firewall and disabling Windows' built-in Web client.

But you know that 99% of people won't have a clue how to do this.

So if you're a system repairer or tech get ready for some extra work.

Link: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?ctid=307

If you want to hear whats going on in the emergency services world without buying a scanner - this is a great way to listen in. Support for all types of feeds - (I've linked to my area for example so if this appeals to you check out what scanner frequencies are available for your neck of the woods)

Thanks to Osh for pointing this out - cool tune!

Link: http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2010/08/lg_to_reveal_31-inch_oled_panel_doubling_size_of_current_record_holder.html

Seems like its taken quite a long time for OLED tech to get to the masses. This one's from LG and it's a beauty. Lets hope it makes it to the market.

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38731070/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

There's something rotten in HDMI again - don't fall for it.

Have you seen HDMI cables online or in stores labeled "120 Hz," "240Hz" and "480 Hz"? It's easy enough to slap such labels on HDMI cables but it's a sham. HDMI cables can no more be manufactured for specific refresh-rate HDTVs than a garden hose can be manufactured specifically to water seeded lawns and sod lawns. The same water flows through either one. The same HDTV signal flows through all HDMI cables, whether labeled "120Hz" or "480Hz" — or not labeled at all.