If you’re looking for the out-of-the-ordinary workout, here’s one you can try… it’s the shoveglove. The guy who invented it seems very serious about it, so I guess it’s worth a shot. I think I’ll stick to the gym, at least for now. (via Freakonomics Blog)
Animated map of daily Google traffic
This short animation shows a day of Google traffic over a period of 24 hours. Although it’s short and doesn’t reveal much, it’s still very intriguing. (via Digg)
I’m curious about Second Life
Second Life is a virtual world I recently heard about. I’m very curious about it, as it seems people are really getting into it as a place to hang out, despite it being entirely on their computer screens. Now it appears that there are ways to make profit in this virtual world, as this CNET article suggests. Additionally, according to the showcase part of the Second Life website, “Suzanne Vega will become the first major recording artist to perform live in Second Life avatar form”. That’s cool. Extremely geeky, yet cool.
On a side note – looks like Alpha World, the virtual world I played around with about 10 years ago, still exists.
Book Recommendation: Freakonomics
I’m nearing the end of a book I got not too long ago, called Freakonomics. The book’s writers present data related to real-life issues and examine it objectively in a way that puts the reader’s intuition to the test (proving common beliefs and exprets’ opinions wrong). The book is an extremely interesting and a fascinating read.
Wikimapia – cool use of Google Maps
I’ve always liked Google Maps, but the really cool thing is the fact that it is open, which means people on the web can use it to do very cool things. Like Wikimapia, for example, which is a place where people can put squares around places in the sattelite map and describe what the place is. Now, Wikimapia announced their 1,000,000th place on the map, which is a good reason to go check it out. Here is, for example, a close up on Tel-Aviv in Wikimapia.
Following AOL’s mess: The seven ways people search the Web
For those of you who are not connected to online technology news, here is some background: recently, AOL published a gigantic list of search terms (what people are searching for) of their users that they have collected for about 3 months. Here’s just one article of many about this issue. It was a stupid act, and AOL quickly withdrew the file. However, as things usually happen with the Internet, once you have something interesting online it won’t go away for a long time (ask the poor Star Wars Kid). So people started poking into the data AOL published and soon enough, even though the data was anonymous (users were referenced by IDs, e.g. “user no. 312431”), real users were identified (the first one was this nice 62 year-old widow (NY Times article, free registration required)).
Now, Paul Boutin published an article following an analysis of the data, which outlines the seven ways people search the web, or the seven “types” of users according to their searches. So… are you a Pornhound? ;-) (via Slashdot)
Pictures That Lie
CNET News published a collection of digitally manipulated images, some of which appeared on covers and in stories of very respectable newspapers. (via Digg)
How Hizballah Hijacks the Internet
Time Magazine posted an interesting article on how Hizballah cyber-terrorists find vulnerable websites to use as a way to pass messages, then get discovered and start over with a different website. (via Digg)
Bump Keys – open any key lock
Here’s a pretty amazing video, which shows how easy it is to open any key-locked door, no matter how expensive the lock is, by using just a filed key (which can be home made) and a small hammer. The lock is opened without being damaged. (via Digg)
Israel hacks into Hezbollah TV
Turns out Israel is using technologically advanced ways to “to wage a psychological war in Lebanon”, says this article by the Australian Herald Sun. (via Digg)