Facebook recently announced that they're adding full HTTPS support for the site, to keep you protected from attacks like Firesheep. The feature's finally rolling out, and here's how you can turn it on. To enable it, just hit "Account" in the upper-right hand corner of any Facebook window and go to "Account Settings".
Under "Account Security", hit the change button and check the box that says "Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible". Hit save and exit that window. From now on, whenever you connect to Facebook, it will default to an SSL-encrypted connection, keeping you safe on open Wi-Fi networks from Firesheep-like attacks. If you don't have it yet, you should have it pretty soon—so check back frequently to see if it pops up.
Columbia's Electro Amp jacket is arguably as teched out as a jacket can get really. Designed by a former Intel engineer, the jacket warms itself through the carbon-fiber threads woven into the coat. And even it recharges via USB.
According to GearJunkie, the carbon fiber threads feel like yarn, and they can keep your warm for five hours straight on it's lowest heat setting. But slick tech such as this comes at a premium, and that premium is $1200 dollars. So, how cold are you?
Ifyour grandmother's Facebook account wasn't a tell-tale sign that the internet has come of age, here's another: after this week, the internet will run out of new IPv4 addresses. But don't fret, because we're moving on up to IPv6!
For those unfamiliar with what IP addresses do, they serve as the internet's navigation system in many ways. When you type in a URL/domain name to visit a site, it's attached to an IP address which handles all the dirty work of connecting you to the server the website is stored on. Just like the Wall Street Journal says, this is a lot like the moment when phone companies in the U.S. switched to 10-digit numbers.
The IPv4 addresses theoretically range between 4 and 12 digits, have a size of 32-bits and have 4.3 billion possible address combinations. I'm fairly certain all of you have dealt with IPv4 addresses, which look something like this:
68.127.78.247
(or http://68.127.78.247, when entering them into a browser)
With the change to IPv6, addresses will be 128-bits in size and up to 32 digits long, allowing for 340 trillion trillion trillion unique addresses. When it is finally implemented, it will look something like this:
2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334
(or http://[2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334] in a browser)
And with a whole gang of other notation rules, configuring your router is going to be a bitch in the future. Oh, ALSO, we'll all have to get new routers! (Naturally)
But IPv6 is still in its infancy and is still a few years from being put into use on any sort of widespread level. Until then, the Internet will get by on a diet of repurposed and recycled IP addresses. But for a single day in June, Google, Facebook, Yahoo and a couple of other internet giants will switch over to IPv6-compatible servers to test out the new protocol and find out if there are any major kinks in the system.
You're really into MMORPGs when you spend hours repeating the same tasks over and over again to acquire gold. You're way, way too into MMORPGs when you create a custom six-computer setup to do it that much faster.
Zhek Kromtor's "Frankenstein" setup lets him play several EVE Online accounts at the same time so he can farm for gold and minerals more efficiently. Just look at those janky six-way keyboards and mice that let him control everything at once!
You see, he was temporarily banned for running multiple accounts on one computer at the same time. It's against the rules! But doing this, apparently, is not. Probably because they never thought anyone would be crazy enough to do it. But never underestimate the desire of an addict to get that sweet, sweet gold.
Look, maybe you've had your pocket picked a few times and are really paranoid about losing your wallet. But you're not Julian Assange and I doubt anyone is coming after you, so you probably don't need this biometrically secured wallet.
The Dunhill Biometroc Wallet combines a biometric finger reader with a bluetooth alarm and carbon fiber frame to ensure noone can crack into it without destroying it. If you have the Bluetooth alarm activated, the wallet will sound an alert anytime it is more than five feet from your phone.But the damn thing costs $825 and it's not even that great looking.
How can you listen to music as loud as you want without headphones and without annoying people around you? Consider Klang's ultrasonic speakers, which use a 30,000hz frequency to beam an audible wave to a single point.
Designed as part of a project hosted by Bang & Olufsen, the Klang speakers use a satellite dish design and sound physics to focus the beam to one specific point. As Dvice points out, the soundwave is above the threshold of human hearing range, but ultrasonic waves split in three, producing an audible wave encapsulated by two inaudible ones. Sound is only noticeable when it hits an obstruction. And because of this, the left ear can only hear sound coming from the left speaker and the right ear can only hear sound from the right speaker, creating an intense stereo experience.
But what does this mean for you, the user? Well, if these speakers were more than a prototype, you could enjoy porn and/or Justin Bieber as loud as you want without your parents and/or roommates ever knowing. Obviously.
The collapsible camping chair has been a staple of camping sites and tailgating parties for as long as I can remember, but this battery-powered seat warming one from Chaheati is the first I've seen that thaws your keester.
The adjustable heater keeps your nether region toasty at approximately 100 degrees for up six hours. Crank it up to 145 degrees for about 1.8 hours of warmth for more extreme camping.
A tad pricey at $90, with extra batteries costing $35 apiece.
Those ridiculous-miraculous-awesome-awful Vibrams shoes are growing up over the bodies of their fanboys like a symbiotic organism. Their cold-weather boots—FiveFingers Cervinia—now reach half up your leg. I can't wait for them to create a full-body Dune stillsuit. The boots are $160, which is not bad for boots.
When you replaced the old iPhone 3G cover with a transparent case, it revealed a fugly side. But with the iPhone 4, the inner workings and hidden guts are surprisingly good lookin'. Here's how to turn your iPhone 4 transparent.
The mod was simply done by taking the glass panels off the phone and applying paint thinner to remove the paint. That's all. What you're left with are two clear panes that reveal the innards of the phone.
Hide your cables, hide your plugs! This elegant concept, the Plug Hub, can become real if enough people buy it. Think of the $24 you spend as an investment towards a lifetime of peace, serenity and organization.
Rapper T-Pain introduced this new tattoo he got in Hawaii with a tweet: "I think this ones pretty sweet, unless facebook shuts down soon 0_o". That's what the guy who tattooed MySpace's Tom on his back said in 2002.
It kind of makes sense, this "like" button tattoo, if you consider the phenomenon of bad-tattoo-as-meme (and meme-as-bad-tattoo): Maybe T-Pain is trying to embody the viral success of his music. But it's also sort of dumb, because of the fact that he ruined his body and will be forced to spend his 70s and 80s explaining to young people what his tattoo means, after Facebook is replaced with cranial implants.
According to a new study, overweight people have "far heightened" senses of smell for food compared with people who aren't overweight—in particular after eating a full meal. Science: Making the mean joke so you don't have to!
We were trying to determine what Lady Gaga's forthcoming fragrance should smell like, but rumor has it she's decided. It will supposedly smell like blood and semen. Nasty, but I guess that's exactly what a bad romance smells like.
This itty bitty plastic rifle was recently declared a "firearm" by airport security officials at Gatwick Airport. Which I guess makes the toy soldier it had been attached to an enemy combatant?
Ken Lloyd and his wife were transporting the figurine across country lines after having purchased it at the Royal Signals Museum at Blandford Garrison. Officials removed the rifle but let the soldier pass:
Lloyd said his wife had demanded "a reality check".
"The antenna was individually scanned as suspect and as the figurine's SA80 rifle was pulled from the box, the security search officer contacted her supervisor," he said.
The security personnel gave the three-inch bit of plastic back to Mrs. Lloyd, who promptly stuffed it in an envelope and mailed it back home—but not before the airport's customer service department X-rayed the package to make sure there were no very tiny bullets along for the ride.
It seems that Mathias Buttet—the designer for Swiss watch manufacturer Hublot—has found a stash of kryptonite and is decided to use it all in these new watches. Nothing is known about them except that its price will be on the high six and it will be officially presented this March.
Just like you shouldn't kickflip your skateboard grip-taped iPhone case, please don't whack balls with these cases. But, in traditional red, green, blue and black color options, you can at least display your team-colors for $30 here.
Milk jugs, useless. Milk comes in containers, sillies! But this jug is different: Usingscience—a pH sensor—it detects if the milk inside is sour. Which would've saved my granola this morning, truth.
I love stupid single-purpose kitchen gadgets. Inserted into a turkey or chicken, this timer's legs pop up like a boner when the inside reaches 165 degrees—not 180, like most—for perfectly roasted bird. It's $13.
I think I'll judge a book by it's cover on this one. And right now, MeatWater—a protein-rich drink flavored like various meats—sounds like the liquid equivalent of a Dane Cook autobiography.
I mean, I guess we can congratulate Till Krautkraemer for creating liquids that taste like a poached salmon salad, thai beef salad, cheeseburger or Hungarian goulash (best seller!). But doesn't half the appeal of eating meat lie in its physical properties?
The communication components in smartphones and satellites aren't all that different, except that satellite guts are better rated for external factors like temperature and impact. But one British aerospace firm wants to see how well a smartphone fares in space.
Wired says that the University of Surrey and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited are working together to create a satellite, dubbed the STRAND-1, which uses the internals from a commercial Android smartphone to handle all the communication and control, transmitting photos of Earth while it's in orbit.
The researchers are excited by the possibility of using smartphone internals because they cost a fraction of what aerospace-grade components would cost. The satellite, which is 11.8 inches long and weighs under 10 pounds, will initially have an on-board computer that monitors the smartphone components and make sure everything is functioning as it should. If all goes to plan, the satellite will go into orbit sometime this year.
A Best in Show winner at this year's Outdoor Retailer show, the MAKO is a multitool designed specifically for bikes. Which is good! Because I've never been able to figure out what I'm supposed to fix with my regular multitool.
Made of aerospace titanium, the MAKO comes with four 1/4" driver bits, 5 metric box wrench sizes, 2 spoke wrench sizes, and a bottle opener. Because it's not a mulittool if it doesn't have a bottle opener.
The electricity that courses through your body whenever you're together. The way you fit perfectly in her arms, powering you up. The voltage you feel as the relationship sours, when you stick your ring into a wall-socket.
iPhone cases are pretty damn boring, they're like a wasteland of silicone and plastic sameness. Not this one! This case is awesome. The SmallWorks BrickCase ditches those tired materials for Lego, turning your iPhone 4 into a playground for Lego bricks.
It's only $20 on Amazon and works great with any Lego bricks. Go wild, the whole back and top of the iPhone is open for your creative interpretation. This is one of the few times where I approve of adding bulk to your phone.
Sega has installed toilet games in bars and arcades across Tokyo. It's called Toylet and games include measuring volume of urine, measuring power of stream, wiping a wall clean of graffiti and even controlling wind to lift a girl's skirt up.
It sounds insane but also potentially awesome, the games use a pressure sensor attached to an eye level LCD screen for gamers to watch. Those who can pee hard and long will separate themselves from the soft and short. Sega says the games would be available to play only until the end of the month. Take advantage!
I love that crunch-clink sound a chocolate bar makes when I break it in two before stuffing both halves into my mouth. Thanks to this simulation keychain, I can have that sound without any of the calories. Or the oh-so-yummy-taste.
It's the whole "not real chocolate" part that's getting to me, even if the keychain comes inthree flavors—milk chocolate, high-milk chocolate and white chocolate—so I think I'll just get some real chocolate instead.
If you prefer to pretend breaking chocolate with this trinket though, it will be available in Japan for about $7 per bar. If your obsession runs more along the lines of soybeans or bubble wrap though then you don't even have to wait and can order something now.
Let's face it—you're probably up to no good with this keychain tool, which conveniently disguises itself as a key. At about a third of the price of a Swiss Army knife, it has eight handy tools.
That's three different screwdrivers, a pair of tweezers, a wire-stripper, bottle-cap opener, nail file and nail cleaner. It comes with a fake key which the tool hides behind, and a stainless steel key-ring. Just in case the user can't distinguish between a screwdriver and a nail file, the various tools' names are even marked on the key.
Recently some guy decided that perfect way to decorate his 90 square foot apartment was by plastering its walls with 25,000 ping pong balls. For some reason I think he was on to something.
Sounds and looks crazy, but somehow that strange design makes the place feel like the ideal spot for a quick break from work.
If you're annoyed of your iPhone slipping out of your hands, here's an idea: replace the glass back with skateboard grip tape. Sure it might char up your hands but it'll never ever slip again!
Jokes and scratchiness aside, I think it actually looks pretty awesome. It's clean but still full of character. The guy who made this actually made the grip tape iPhone out of necessity, as he dropped his iPhone, breaking its back. He tried other materials first (silicone, sandpaper, etc) but eventually settled on grip tape.
Portion control is the most obvious means to eat better, but how much is too much? ThisWheel of Nutrition dinnerware makes it as simple as putting food on your plate.
In Diet, Extra Ordinary and Super Size configuration, disregarding your health is as simple as shattering the proper strategic place setting—unfortunately, it doesn't look like the design is actually for sale.
Extremely clever, but the fact that each portion is shaped like a pie/pizza/cheese wheel slice won't help dieters one bit. So we'd better start growing celery and grapefruit in wedge form, stat.
At least Vertu can point at its concierge service as one of the reasons its phones are so damn pricey. Mobiado can't even claim its phones are stylish.
Still, the Classic 712ZAF candybar handset is made from aluminum, stainless steel, sapphire crystal and a ceramic coating, so at least it can withstand being dropped when you're pummeled for being such an expensive jerk.
Don't expect much more than a 2.2-inch QVGA screen, A-GPS, 5.0-megapixel camera with LED flash and noise cancellation via the two microphones. It comes in six different colors—namely, black, black satin, silver, grey, blue and red, with the price not yet known.
Men! Do you smell so bad that even your laptop has started stinking? Desperate times call for desperate measures, which means you might just have to consider this USB scent flower.
As your lookey-holes can see, it's in the shape of a flower, but don't let that put you off. You can't put a price on a harmonious working environment, nor be too picky about aesthetics. Besides, each bouquet—which retails for $9.99—has three refill cartridges which last for months. The USB flowers come in different colors and scents, so every day can be an Ocean Breeze, Purple Lavender, Pink Jasmine or White Chamomile day. Shop.
If you thought those micro four-thirds cameras were pricey for their size, get a load of this Japanese spy camera. Considering it costs $120 and weighs just 12g, it might just be the most expensive camera per millimeter ever.
The actual size is 2.5cm x 2.5cm x 2.6cm, and it shoots video at 640 x 480 resolution. Photos can be taken too, at 1600 x 1200 res, plus there's even a mono speaker within that tiny casing. It takes microSD cards for recording onto, and has a miniUSB port for transferring footage to PCs. You can find them here.
The world may never know whether Steve Jobs actually packed ninja stars on that fateful flight to Japan, but in the (extremely likely) event that he didn't, you can recreate the fantasy on your own. In action figure form!
The newest model figurine some pretty intricate updates—a wedding band on Steve's hand, more durable glasses, and, of course, a handful of Ninjutsu weaponry. He's even got a mystical white iPhone 4, probably acquired with lightning ninja dexterity.You can find it here.
If you look very closely at the Urwerk UR-110 watch, you can just about make out a face. Not, like, a watch face. The face of an uncaring machine delivered to us with some nefarious intent.
The UR-110 has a confusing layout, but is actually quite practical; by placing the time on the watch's right edge, you can see be subtle when you're checking just how long that presentation's been droning on. And amongst all that raw titanium, there's still a touch of whimsy: a "Oil Change" indicator that alerts you if your watch needs service.
My favorite part? Urwerk hasn't decided on a price yet.
Most multi-chargers bore me to tears, but JoyFactory's Zip, Touch-n-go looks like it was designed by people who actually care what these things look like on your desk. It uses magnets to connect the gadgets' cables to the charging-pod.
It's not on sale yet, however JoyFactory claims it'll come in somewhere between $49 and $99.
If every office chair converted into a narrow bed-like furniture item like this, I'd be in heaven—there'd finally be an excuse for all those accidental office naps.
Scottish Spirits, despite the name, is not a Scottish liquor company. It's based in Panama. But that's not important. What is important is that it sellswhisky in a can. Real, straight whisky. 12 ounces of it. In a can.
Again, it's not scotch. That's okay. It's eight shots of whisky. In a can. For the first time ever.
No, it's not sold in the US. Not yet. But I can safely say, after seeing many things in a can, whisky is the best one yet.
Finally, a reason for science to exist: A researcher in Philadelphia (of course!) has discovered the single most effective cure for a hangover. And it's really pretty simple.
Coffee and aspirin. That's it! So much simpler than my current cures of "building a time machine and preventing myself from drinking the night before," and, if that fails, "staring at the wall until the day is over." This is all according to Thomas Jefferson University's Michael Oshinsky, who, no joke, gave rats hangovers:
Ethanol brings on headaches thanks to a chemical acetate it can produce and even low doses can affect some people more than others, said the study.
Professor Michael Oshinsky, of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, induced headaches in rats using small amounts of ethanol.
He then gave them doses of caffeine and anti-inflammatories to find it blocked the acetate and relieved the headaches.
Is this real? Well, it's science, so it has to be! But what does it mean?
For one thing, that dehydration isn't the cause of hangovers—the rats Oshinksy got drunk weren't dehydrated—so don't worry about coffee further dehydrating you. For another, all the weird cures your roommate is always trying to make you take—"A raw-egg-and-vodka wheatgrass shot? And I have to drink it from the opposite side of the glass? Are you sure about this?"—aren't even as effective as what your grandfather (and grandmother) were taking.
For those considering gastric bypass surgery, take a look at Amazon's do-it-yourself kit. It's only $260 (cheap!) and comes with 3 sets (so you don't have to get it right the first time!). Bring your own anesthetics and instructions, though.
There's not much you can say about this video of a bartender pouring out a series of rainbow-hued shots than WOW. I wonder if they all tasted different?
My guess, if so, would be yes, yes they do. I think I can spot algae, cucumber, '70s bathtub, earwax, urine, raw sausage, pureed carrot, rust, and bloodied water.
If you ever got close enough to a black hole to get this view, you'd be on your way to anextremely horrible death and possibly other universes. So, uh, thank goodness for the magic of the internet?
What you're looking at is a computer-generated image, posted by NASA today, that shows the visual distortions that take place as light bends towards the immensely strong gravitational forces:
Every star in the normal frame has at least two bright images—one on each side of the black hole. Near the black hole, you can see the whole sky - light from every direction is bent around and comes back to you.
So that's what it's like to stare a black hole dead in the eye. It's sure less scarier than falling into one.
What the hell, Sony Ericsson? "Reality Display"!? Are you just jealous of Apple's Retina Display; Samsung's Super AMOLED Plus and LG's NOVA buzzwords? Whatever, this Android Gingerbread phone is slim at 8.7mm—yes, a new "world's slimmest" phone.
You've got to feel for LG really, who had barely a day riding the "world's slimmest" float with their 9.2mm Optimus Black, and before it the iPhone 4, which is a shade thicker.
The Arc has a 4.2-inch Reality Display with 854 x 480 resolution, which they say brings a brighter, clearer picture than other displays thanks to the "Mobile Bravia Engine". There's an 8.1MP camera on the back (no forward-facing cam here), and two color options: midnight blue and misty silver.
This patent-pending iPhone neck-mount has dual uses. It can slither around your neck for hands-free viewing while on the go, or coil up on the desk in front of you, for stationary media-watching.
I just found out that it costs more than a penny to manufacture a penny. Specifically, it costs 1.62 cents to produce that 1 cent copper coin. And that's been the case for a while now! What the hell?
Why's it cost so much? Apparently, the penny is made from 2.5% copper and 97.5% zinc and those metals have gone up in price as of late. In fact, if you could melt the coin, you'd have materials totaling 1.62 cents—more than the cent that measly penny is worth. That's crazy! What's crazier is that it's been that way since 2006. Aren't useful things supposed to be greater than the sum of its parts? Shouldn't they have changed the metal mixture to something cheaper by now?
Apparently, the director of the Mint tried to make the penny cheaper to manufacture but Congress shut that initiative down. As it currently stands, the Treasury boss can "recommend changes in metal content or in the amount of coins produced" but only Congress can make the final decision.
So maybe it'll eventually become worth the money to make! Though really, I figured this loss in manufacturing would make for a good reason to kill off the penny (I mean, who likes pennies?). But with old school Congress calling the shots, I doubt that'd ever happen—no matter how useless and expensive pennies become.
Would you believe me if I said that King Juan Carlos of Spain has the sound of giggling children set as his ringtone? And that it went off during a meeting with a Honduran ambassador?
According to Spanish newspaper El Pais, the King was shooting the breeze with a Honduran ambassador when the ringtone piped in:
But before accusing him of break and understand it's probably his GRANDCHILDREN. Juan Carlos never said what the ringtone actually was, but AOL news mentioned that he has a whole bunch of of the little runts, which would make sense. Moral of the story? The sensibilities of "royalty"—whatever that now means—are just as middlebrow as your own.
Can shirt pockets ever be too big? Can you appear sane with a netbook crammed into your chest pocket? No matter the answers, this weird shirt can be ordered now for $30 here.
