Beta Beta Beta.

Oh boy!  Experimental software!  I especially like the kind that replaces essential programs that I'm constantly using on my computer.  I don't know why I do this, but I've got FireFox 2 Beta 2 installed here.

Of course right away all you extensions don't work.  But that's my own fault for installing before the authors even know this release it out, let alone release their updates.  Don't worry though, in most cases its just a matter of changing the extension's maximum supported browser version.  Shouldn't take long.  And with every release of FireFox they seem to take the most popular and useful extensions and build them in.   So quite a lot of those extensions that I couldn't live without are obsolete.

Like that one that put a little 'x' on each individual tab so you can close it without viewing it: built-in.  (of course all the smart people knew that middle click does this already) 

And remember that Google Anti-phishing extension from a while ago?  Built-in.  But its not quite the same, it doesn't check every page you visit with Google's servers. (it has that mode if you'd like to broadcast your usage)  It periodically downloads the blacklist of known phishing sites to check locally.  No broadcasting, good job.

Google suggest, where they try to guess what you're searching for as you type: Built-in.  And its not as annoying as it is on Google's main page where its actually typed for you.  They unobtrusively list in a dropdown, which I'm cool with.

Restart with tabs: built-in.  This was a sweet extension, on a crash or restart (like after you update all those extensions) it loads up all the tabs you had before it closed.  Along with an "undo close tab" this bit will solve a lot of your headaches from faster than though clicking.

In-line spell checker: built-in.  I was so happy the day I found that extension, cause I can't spell crap.  Hey!  I spelled it right!

And of course there's all around better support, cookies, javascript, live bookmarks.  Just so you know, the extensions list is now in an "Add-ons" menu which combines themes and extensions into a single downloads list.  I got a little flustered trying to find it.

So, nice new features.  But I already had most of the UI ones, it just takes fewer ad-ons to create the same experience.  Not a must-get-immediately download, but its gonna be sweet when you do...


Firefox 2 Beta 2 Start Page

Slick.

Now I don't want to color myself as on of them RTS or PRG types with this post, but I'll admit to having played some Star Craft in my day. In my own defense I'm not very good and I generally get my ass kicked. That being said, this is pretty cool. Someone rigged up a Linux box with a touchscreen and used WINE ( WINE Is Not an Emulator) to run Star Craft on it. Even if you have no idea what's going on, trust me its a cool example of using a touchscreen interface to streamline input. I keep saying that alternate input devices is where its at. I remember using a touchscreen card catalogue in the library when I was like 9. What the hell happened to that?

• YouTube - StarCraft + Touchscreen on linux with wine

Lies In Sheep's Clothing.

TechDirt has an article about the RIAA and MPAA spreading their own "truth" through the guise of education. A while ago the MPAA sent a bunch of partisans into schools to spread the "its stolen if you didn't pay for it" philosophy. Super, but now the RIAA is following suit and plans to send a video to colleges to get all those theiving bastards under control.

How the hell do they plan on getting college students to sit down and watch to that crap? Will it be an in-class lecture? Cause I'm pretty sure I'd be pissed off if they wasted my time and money like that. And you know me, I never get pissed off. The video is pretty heavy on scare tactics. 'Just look at all these people we've screwed with lawsuits. It could be you.' That's the only reason I can imagine colleges requesting this video, to avoid lawsuits.

I think we should take the same action that I used in college to drive AOL out of business. Taking their discs and never watching them. You can glue them to the wall or play frisbee golf with them. (cds fly surprisingly far when thrown properly) Head over to their site and order your dvd copy today. You'll have to mascarade as a college to get one, so I guess I'll have to watch "Accepted" to do some research.

Techdirt: RIAA Following MPAA's Lead In Brainwashing Kids

And I've Been Using My Legs Like A Sucker.

Still confused about web 2.0? Well you should be in all honestly. Its confusing and ill defined. I wish there was a site you could go to that would tell you about the new popular (but not so popular that its stupid like the myspace) thing in web 2.0. Yeah, its a good idea, but its not mine. The folks at web 2 logo dot com got to it first. I took a look at the top 50 list and found that I actively use 20 of them (albeit Google does own a bunch). I don't want to get into whether or not sites should qualify, or if this service will make other 2.0 services easier to find and therefore less cool. I also don't want to discuss that fact that Daily Placebo isn't in there. I told you, we're 1.6 not 2.0.

web2logo.com

When I Was Your Age We Didn't Have Laptops.

On my way home from work last week I saw a guy walking home from school with his two young kids. It was very sweet, but then I got to thinking. The guy was carrying their backpacks, the smaller child had a tiny pack easily slung over the shoulder. While the (slightly) older child had one of those wheeled backpacks more similar to carry-on luggage. And here's where I get to thinking. When I have kids, I am in no way ready or qualified to have kids, and they reach the point that they can no longer lift the required books I'm getting (or making) them ebook readers. I'll buy the books in paperless format, or failing that I'll work out some machine for scanning them.

See, I hated carrying books around in school. Its ridiculous carrying 1600 pages around when you use like 15 a day. Finally in high school I got the idea to hide my books in the classrooms around school. Which worked well till I got caught by an unreasonable teacher. Then I got the idea not to bring my books at all, which worked out surprisingly well. But its not like I had any other options. Why aren't schools embracing ebooks rather than shelling out for quickly outdated and easily (and hilariously) vandalized pages?

I understand there's something nice about leafing through a book, but we're definately past the point of 8 year olds lugging 70 pounds of paper home and back again. Google knows what I'm on about. And many college text books are now available for download to students who are trying to save on book bills. The future is as close as you're willing to allow.

Google offers free book downloads - Lifehacker

Update
Oh yeah. By the time I have kids in school ereaders will be bad-ass.
Philips READIUS E-Reader Scroll Prototype - Gizmodo
LG Phillips E-book: Flexible Means Flexibility - Gizmodo

Momentus Occasions.

Well, all you diehard Placebo addicts know why today is special. For all you recreational users, I'll count to ten while you dive through the archives to look it up.
...
..
.

Ok, that's as long as I can wait. If you didn't find it, here: August 31, 2005. (I swear, you guys can't do anything for yourselves.) That's right this is the day chosen to mark the erumpent arrival of my favorite nephew. Happy first birthday little dude, may all your falls be lessons, your sucesses humbling, and your dreams the caliber of greatness.

Step 4C: Insert Positronic Brain.

I've been thinking about toys recently, and I've concluded that adult toys are better than kids' toys. Well, they can be; for adults. And I had a conversation with someone about this and didn't realize that 'adult toys' usually means something else until the other person said it for the first time. So let me just say, no, not that kind of adult toys.

But there are a few problems with grown-up toys. First is where to learn about all these cool things. You have to scour every model shop, dork convention, and the entirety of the Internet to know that robotic bartenders, pogo stick hydrofoils, fuel cell car models, and remote controlled jets even exist. There is no "Adult Toys 'R' Us" (not that kind of toy) where you can stroll down the isle and see representatives for every conceivable group. It takes hard work just to figure out what you want.

Once you have something in mind, the problem of where to get one still remains. I know from first hand experience the pang of buyer's remorse, as the real McCoy didn't quite match up with my lofty expectations. Its very difficult to judge quality or feasibility of things without being able to lay your hands on one. Like I said, there's no "Adult Toys 'R' Us" where you can go try it before you buy it.

And of course there is the largest obstacle to adult toys, their price. I've had my Carrera priced out for years now and I'm nowhere close to imagining that I could afford it. So you kinda have to keep a lid of your dreams; shoot for the slightly inconceivable and you just might get there. It also helps not to lust after the brand name.

We have to start de-conditioning ourselves. As a good little American I was taught from a young age that store bought goodness one-uped any homemade contraption. While some of the time I did rig my own toys and imagine them up to spec, I still believed that a packaged toy was better. This is not so with adult toys. It takes some work to get over the hurdle and put faith in yourself that given the right tools and materials, maybe even the right kit, you can one-up the store and their piddly wares. Just look at websites like make and hack-a-day and you'll see people making cool stuff every day. Shrug off that iPod and RAZR ad campaign. Make your own adult toys and be proud of yourself for once.

So now I'll leave you with an excerpt from a wired article about making a robot from a prefabricated kit. Its an entertaining and quick read. I'd recommend it to anyone who has dissuaded themselves from building something they wanted.

There's an odd, Asimovian irony to having to put together your own robot; it seems like the sort of thing you'd want a robot to do for you.
...
The next chapter tells me that the bags of parts are clearly labeled, and I should under no circumstances open a bag before I'm told. The first set of parts I need is in bag B. I look around for bag B, and it turns out it's sealed inside bag E, which I haven't been told to open yet. This is why a robot can't assemble a robot.

• Wired News: A Robot That Walks Like a Gorilla

Impatience Is A Virtue

That's the story I'm going with, cause I've got impatience to spare. Now as you all know, Arrested Development season three was released yesterday. I am not currently in possession of a copy because I hurt. I don't mean I am hurt. I hurt. I've been going on a wicked regiment of not running or exercising this second half of the summer; a la the summer or George.

So this regatta I sailed in, and kicked ass at, on Sunday has me kinda roughed up. We ended up sailing like 18 miles more than everyone else because our pre-race transportation options fell through and we proceeded to the start under wind power. So we sailed longer, harder, and faster than everyone else out there. Some people just want it more; and those people were us. 8:00 till 3:00 is a full day on a little boat in 15 knots of wind. If you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about, if not I don't know what I can do for you. Here, read this.

Anyway, I'm stiff all over and really didn't like the prospect of running around to try and find my dvds. So I broke my rule and ordered them from Amazon on Monday, right after I ordered my groceries from peapod. They shipped at 5:15 Tuesday morning, which has me fairly optimistic. So back to my impatience. I looked at my tracking information just now and saw that my package had reached the local sorting facility, about 15 miles from my house. I immediately thought "I wish I could go over there and pick it up, so I'll get it today." Stupid. That's the whole reason you ordered it in the first place. So that you didn't have to drive anywhere and get it. So call my Arrested Development fanaticism into question if you must, but I'm not going anywhere.

Update
Damn! Good job Postal Service! I can't believe that my order showed up today. You guys deserve a cookie. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be busy for the next 285 minutes.

You Can't Drown, You Fool, You're Immortal

I'd like to talk a little about immortality. When I seriously consider it, I think that some scientists will devise a means of immortality before my death. Something like figuring out which part of our dna ages us, or developing a process of cell replacement with younger cells. Or even growing a duplicate body and figuring out how to transfer a person's consciousness into it. I dunno, that's for them to figure out.

I also believe that it won't be cheap. So you'll have to be damn rich to be able to have the procedure done. Whether its a reoccurring thing (a daily dose or once every 40 years) or even if its a one time procedure, whoever thinks of it will charge the hell out of the people that want it. It'll become some kind of elitist classism, those who live and those who die. And as we all know, the longer you live the greater your chances for making money. Just look at the highlander, Fry, or like any vampire you can think of. Immortals are loaded. Just from hanging around for long enough.

Now think about the kind of personality most people who'd do this would have. Egotistical, superior, either scared or fearless. Plus, despite their freakishly young looks, they'd be old people and resentful of youth and how the world has changed. Face it all the cool old people are fine with dying. They say stuff like "Am I dying or is this my birthday?" or "That guy's got to stop. . . . He'll see us." So I've got a decision to make. Either join all those rich immortal assholes, or think of something cool to say by the time I die.

The Last Words of Real People

More Baby Steps To Greatness.

Alright, I'm not sure how tricky or useful you'll find this. It isn't so much real world sneakery, its for computering. So all you who try not to muck about in folders and menus can disregard this step and backpedal to "learn to use a computer." The rest of you, lets press on.

I find the 'send to' function on the right click context menu to be very useful. But you may say, "yeah, but I don't want to 'send to' any of those options." Well neither do I, so what I do is make a shortcut to the 'send to' folder and put it in the 'send to' folder. That way modifying my option list is as easy as creating a shortcut.

If you already get what I mean from the previous description, good job, use it or not. Its up to you. If you need a little more get ready, I'm only doing this once.

1. head to your user folder ie: c:/documents and settings/{username}
2. if you don't see a folder titled "send to" hit 'tools>>folder options...' then 'view' and find the 'show hidden files and folders' radio button.
   
3. once you've shown the hidden files right click on the "send to" folder and hit 'create shortcut.'
4. drag and drop "shortcut to send to" into "send to" ( you can rename the shortcut if you'd like)
   

That's it. Now you can start adding your own 'send to' folders.
For instance, I've just configured this particular machine to run FireFox when I logon. I made a "Shortcut to Startup" using the 'send to' >> 'Desktop (create shortcut)' option and then sent the new shortcut to 'send to'.

• Last time's 'Baby Steps To Greatness'

Lazy Damn Robots.

Something is wrong here. This isn't just about robots simulating human laziness. This is about motivation. Why in the world would you develop a bipedal robot, overcoming hurdle after gyroscopic hurdle, and then make him ride on a wheeled transport device designed for bipeds? Couldn't you have just made a wheeled robot to begin with? Its a classic case of climbing Mt Everest "because its there." What's next, Asimo learns to take dictation on a PC keyboard?

• The Korea Times : Korean Robot to Drive 2-Wheeled Scooter

Annoying Phrase Of The Month.

Wow that was fast. I saw Snakes on A Plane last week. For anyone who doesn't know, the only reason people go see that movie is to see Samuel L. Jackson deliver the line:

I've had it with these motherfuckin snakes on this motherfuckin plane!

And it was amusing. But now the line is out of control. Its everywhere: news headlines, conversations, tv. I can't even remember all the times I've heard or read it in the last week. It wouldn't be so bad if it was a direct quote, but every single time its applied to whatever situation someone is in. Snakes on a raft, snakes on a map, snakes on a bus, snakes on a lunchbreak. Don't change the damn words! We know there's no plane and no snakes, but we will be able to figure out that you're pissed off about something. It ridiculous and it needs to stop. If you're willing to yell and get angry and drop the f-bomb like Sam, fine, you can say it; but I don't want to hear any more of these pansy-ass watered down renditions fit for a soccer mom on her way to yoga class. I've had it with these MOTHERFUCKING snakes on this MOTHERFUCKING plane.

You've Got Tank On Your Xterra.

This is the Gurkha. Its being promoted as the armored vehicle to succeed the Hummer. Looks to me like an armored up Nissan, but what do I know? These things are sposed to take a bullet or a bomb and keep on truckin. Developed for military use, they'll be deployed by the US and Canada. And by the soccer mom down the street. Because, yes, like the Hummer this monster is finding its way to the consumer market. There's already the first private order from someone in California who's just going to drive it to work.

The companies who manufacture and retrofit armored vehicles say that they're needed more now than ever. And while this may be true in South American or Middle East climes, somehow I don't really buy the ploy that private citizens need to have these on my roads. The article says that people are looking for more protection from terrorism, and of course these companies are willing to step up and sell it to them at $200,000 a pop. But really, how much protection do we need? Shouldn't we also be buying parachutes for our airline flights? How about thick rubber suits to deter lightning strikes?

These tactics are akin to terrorism, using fear to motivate people. At what point will it no longer be acceptable for companies and politicians to do this? Or at what point will we no longer have the ability to indulge in such excess? I'd thought the age of the SUV was winding down, perhaps the rule of armor plating is to follow. We need to find a social deterrent of some kind. We can't shoot or blow up these things, but I bet they're not egg and toilet paper proof...

• TheStar.com - When a Hummer won't do

Civil Disobedience, English Style.

How embasassing. Mere hours after mocking FoxNews.com, I post a link to FoxNews.com. Whatever; they're part of the rich tapestry of the web. I'm just saying they should embrace it. They're welcome to link to Daily Placebo any time they want. Oh wait, does "By Ben Webster" and this image represent their entire citation information? There isn't even a link to this TimesOnline article from Monday I found through Google. Take a gander at a comparison of articles with Times on the left, Fox on the right. Black text indicates duplication. If a teacher in highschool found something like this my paper would have had a big "see me after class" written at the top.

On to the Brits - Segways are now banned in London, unless operated on private property. So no more commuting to work courtesy of the Highway Act of 1835. See, you're not allowed to operate motorized vehicles on paths. But at the same time the Segway doesn't have EU vehicle certification, so you can't drive it on the road. A sneaky work around by regulators, but Segway users have a workaround of their own.

A small but determined group of Segway commuters... insist that they will continue to ride to work, saying they pose less risk to pedestrians than a clumsy jogger.

So they're just going to flaunt the rules and continue to ride their dorkmobiles to work? Whew, watch out! Protest on the march in London. Or, protest on the gentle forward lean, at least.

• FOXNews.com - Segways Banned From British Streets, Sidewalks, Roads - Patents and Innovation

You Hit My Bonsai.

So you've got a lot of time on your hands; and some money; and a green thumb. Well I've got something for you. If you've ever though about bonsai and decided that it was too sterile or boring, jazz it up with CrashBonsai. This artist takes model die-cast cars and modifies them to look like they've been in accidents. So now your wimpy little tree is a manly tribute to destruction. Head over to the showroom and kick the tires on these one-of-a-kinders. (if they haven't been bought yet.) You can spend from 75-150 bucks on these surprisingly detailed miniatures. To get some ideas of how to fit your tiny topiary around a crash site (shaping trunks and roots to fenders and hoods) look at these examples in the gallery. And hey, if you can't grow shit, the site points out that they also look great on your coffee table or desk.

• About Crash Bonsai

I Can't Force You To Read This.

An article at TechDirt lays some smack down on Harry Fuller's little snippet about TV/Internet integration. Its mostly about Stephen Colbert and how Harry says he's doing it all wrong. He tries to tee up on the recent Star Wars green screen challenge.

"But can you find that video on the Colbert Web site? Of course not, you have to go to YouTube to see the videos fans produced. Colbert thinks he can use the Web to force people to watch his TV show? Not too swift."

I'm gonna have to jump on the TechDirt wagon cause most of that noise doesn't make any sense at all. Fuller is a former TV executive, so I guess he wants all information easily contained and sanitized for consumption in a single location. That way they can "force" you to view their content. For example, I just looked at the source code of FoxNews.com and didn't find a single external link other than its ads. Yeah, you get the Internet. Colbert talks about (and creates) current Internet events on his show. He doesn't just have a sad little site that tries to supplement what I saw on TV. If I want more information on something, there are way better sources than FoxNews.com. In all honestly I can't even remember most websites that they tell me on TV. I have never been to ColbertNation.com. But I did vote to name the bridge in Hungary (after Chuck Norris), because I found a link to it on another site.

That's what the executive fringe doesn't seem to get. I'm not typing in a url and staying confined within that domain. I'm clicking links, I'm looking at sources, I'm enjoying quality websites that aren't concerned with cornering market share. When I post external links here I assume that most of you will at least glance at them. And I fully expect that I'll loose a good portion of traffic from people that just never make it back. The Internet is too big and interesting to limit readers like that. I've come to expect it, and I can only hope that people will be drawn in by my terribly witty insights. So I think that what Stephen Colbert is doing is exactly what Internet integration should be. Becoming part of the buzz and accepting it as its own medium, not just a way to corral more eyeballs into your roundhouse.

P.S.
Harry Fuller,
No I'd never heard of current.tv (wikipedia), but now I have thanks to the external link on your post. And now they have another link from my post. See how the Internet goes down?

This Ant is Dead.

Move over mantis shrimp, you've lost the title. The new fastest creature in the animal kingdom is the trap-jaw ant. They lock their mandibles open like a crossbow and trip a latch to unleash up to 64 m/s of fury on their prey.

I know, its not all that interesting, but just imagine the lame scientist studying these guys who suddenly realized they were world champions. Stay with me, it gets better. These ants close their mouths so fast that they can use it to propel themselves as a defence mechanism. They just bite the ground and depending on the angle, they fly either up or backwards. Watch the video, its worth it. Something about it really reminds me of that trampoline bear video. Its probably the slow motion lifeless animals hitting the ground that does it.

Now I don't know about you but ever since I saw 'Ants' on insect invasion week a while ago I have a real problem when I see like 1,000 ants. Knowing that they can bite and 'jump' like this, you might think I'm a little nervous. But there's comfort here because the ants are physically incapable of biting us. We're so big and they're so light, it's pretty much just like biting the ground and they get shot backwards. Yeah, I'm sleeping fine.

• Ant's super-fast bite is a built-in 'ejector seat' - life - 21 August 2006 - New Scientist

Best Buds.

Hmm... Microsoft has invited the FireFox team over to Redmond to attend some kind of Vista readiness workshop. I can't help but think this may be some kind of scam to 'disappear' the open source competition. "Sure, come on over. We'll have cool-aid and play bocce ball." And they were never seen again. Course, I could be wrong.

• M-Dollar: Microsoft invites Firefox development team to Redmond

Pssst. Hey Buddy, You Wanna Buy A 3-Series?

Slightly irregular. Yeah you know that shelf at the grocery with all the dented, miss-, or un-labled cans? Imagine that only bigger. The car carrier "Cougar Ace" hit some rough seas on its Trans-Pacific voyage. They say that the ship is stable, and recovery teams are onboard to clean up the mess. But "most decks suffered vehicle damage and all the vehicles must be resecured", so you know what that means! Oddly cheap new cars that are not perhaps as pristine as you'd as think. Oh and no, I don't mean BMW 3-series. We're talking Mazda.  Why would German cars be coming from Japan?  Silly.  Check out the photo gallery for more.  Ships aren't sposed to list like that.

• Cougar Ace Makes It To Alaska, Mazdas Inside Did A Shake n' Bake - Jalopnik

I Predict You Will Pay Too Much...

This is badass. I don't care who you are, it pisses you off when you book a flight and the price drops. Enter Farecast. Aside from a clever name this site promises to deliver the unthinkable. Premonition. Well, I doubt its actually a gypsy and a crystal ball behind the curtain, but the "how it works" page is less than revealing. To be useful I'd say its a Machine Learning program hooked up to the flight information databases. So it observes and conjectures and corrects itself when its wrong. Nice guys, this is an excellent solution to the "where you do you get high quality training data" problem. Another nugget is that (if it is ML) the longer they operate the site, the more accurate it will get.

Now, I don't understand why ticket prices fluctuate like this, but lets hope its not under the airline's direct control. And if it is lets hope they don't find out about this site. I can just picture some executive screwing with prices and watching the software scramble to try and explain it.

• Airfare Predictions - Farecast

I Imply, You Infer.

Who says social networking and metadata don't get you anything? When investing in a new device, its a good practice to read some reviews or get recomendations from knowledgable friends. A lot of online markets have implemented a review section, but I can't help wondering what people's motives are for posting a review there. Are they a fanboy? A hater? What would be better is harvesting usage data to generate a kind of implicit recommendation. And that's just what Yahoo! did.

Top 10 Cameras Used On Flickr - CyberNet News: Hardware, Downloads, Gadgets...Technology Done Right!

Pictures on Flickr are generally of pretty good quality, and in some cases are taken by seasoned photographers. So a large collection of high quality digital photography with camera origin metadata should be a pretty sweet source of data. Makes me wonder what other markets this could be applied to. Graphics cards from users of a gaming site, Corporate workorders for window maintience, automobile performance records from emissions testers? Honestly metadata is only going to get more detailed and more ubiquitous and I think we should start thinking of ways to leverage it. While protecting the privacy of the data, obviously.
Their list:

1. Nikon D50
2. Nikon D70
3. Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
4. Canon EOS 20D
5. Canon EOS 350D Digital
6. Nikon D70s
7. Cybershot
8. Canon Powershot S2 IS
9. Canon EOS Digital Rebel
10. Nikon D20

More Like The H-Drifter.

Remember ZipZaps? Well this is not that. It is a small car, but the zip is lacking. The explaination is what makes this interesting. The toy is meant as a demonstration of hydrogen fuel cell technology. That's right you generate your own hydrogen and pump it in at a tiny filling station. Watching solar electrolosis: neat at first, but then you get distracted by grass growing. Still I spose its on par with any of those at home science experiments I did when I was a kid. Growing crystals, baking soda and vinegar, sucking eggs. The article basically comes to the conclusion that I've been asking about for a while now. Why are we using electricity to make hydrogen to put into cars? Lets just make better batteries and skip the middleman.

Nevertheless, the H-racer does provide a powerful lesson about the feasibility of a hydrogen fuel economy. And that lesson is that, as demonstrated, it is a disappointing power delivery system. As you patiently wait ten minutes for the fueling station to extract enough energy from the solar panel to create enough hydrogen to eventually run the car, you can’t help wondering why you didn’t just strap the solar panel and a battery to the car and be done with it? Instead of a miracle fuel, the tank full of hydrogen is just acting as a complicated battery with plenty of built-in inefficiency and extraordinarily low capacity.

• Popular Mechanics - Hydrogen Micro-Economics

I'm All About No Maintenance

I've had a pantleg or two eaten by a hungry bike chain, so this is an interesting concept for me. I've also been de-railed and screwed up the (deceivingly intricate) workings of my shifters and conventional drive system on multiple occasions. What if there was no chain though? Would it really be no-maintenance? That's what the Dekra D-Drive is claiming.

The biggest advantage of having all the gears and drive shaft enclosed is that the D-Drive system never requires cleaning, lubrication or maintenance.

Looks like a cool idea, but I'm not quite convinced that its worth a $300 upgrade. And if this thing breaks in the middle of a ride you're definitely screwed.

• Chainless Bikes : Goto Reviews

Spilled Milk Sabotage.

Alright... that's it. I'm issuing a challenge to the cereal-ologists of the world. Design a better cereal that doesn't shoot milk all over the counter top. You know what I'm talking about. You're pouring milk on some delicious flakes but one rogue wafer has other ideas. In an exercise of fluid dynamics that seems almost cartoon-like the stream of milk jumps from the bowl and lands a few inches away on the counter. I know an obvious solution is to stop eating things that come in flake form. But I swear I've had this happen with Fruit Loops too. Loops! Honestly! So I've come to the conclusion that we need to focus significant scientific energies to solving this scourge. Its the war on unruly breakfast materials. We need to wipe out the threat before they bring the battle into our brunch; or -god help us- linner. I'll be damned if I have to live in a world where people pour the milk in their bowls first, then add the cereal second. Just thinking about it gives me the jibblies.

The Treadmill To The Future.

Oh Internet, what will you do next? You have to admit that there's a change happening in websites these days, whether you believe in web 2.0 or not. And meanwhile I have to admit I'm warming a bit to the term itself. But there's quite a debate in trying to describe what it is (if anything). I'd like to venture a supposition that it depends on who you are and what you expect, which dictates what qualifies or doesn't. Since I have no interest in developing or capitalizing from this 'revolution' my concepts may be very different from an investor looking for the next money train. So here's a hybrid summary of 10 common attempts to constrain this ethereal (pun alert) concept.

• 10 definitions of Web 2.0 and their shortcomings at twopointouch: web 2.0, blogs and social media

I'm a hearty subscriber to the "marketing buzzword" camp. But there must be something else to it since its so easy to feel the presence (truthiness?) of web 2.0. Its like pron in that sense, "I know it when I see it." But there must be a way to say it. I think of it as new and exciting, but also a certain look and feel that couples with functionality. I also like to think that there won't necessarily be a web 3.0.

I you've ever worked with Artificial Intelligence, you know that the definition of what qualifies as AI is continually changing. A computer that will beat a chess master is no longer an acceptable test case. So maybe its like AI in that the definition changes as time and technology progress. Something that was 2.0 four months ago, is not now because there are a new set of exciting sites and services that are. We could just mean the slick bleeding edge of the web. So rather than a Road Ahead, its more like a treadmill and staying where you are is moving forward. Alright... that joke was ridiculous.

There is definitely something to the concept that there isn't a strict dividing line between 1.0 and 2.0, but a spectrum as to the "oh-ness" of a site. Daily Placebo, for instance, is currently at about a web 1.6 level. What with our swanky new banner, CSS, collapsing comments, DPmail, blogsearch, wiki, and shameless self promotion. Granted there's not very much user content control, but I'm pretty sure you guys are illiterate anyway.

Any man playing grabass spends a night in the box.

"Hmmm... I wonder if I could get locked in a box for two years." That's what over 70 people in Russia must have said to themselves before volunteering for a new Mars Mission Simulation. That's right simulation. Spend all that time waiting around and when they let you out you haven't even gone anywhere. I'm not sure exactly what the habitat would be like, but I'm going to guess nowhere near as nice as Bioshpere 2. Off hand I'm imagining something like "the box" from Cool Hand Luke. But if over 70 people want to spend 520 days in there, it must be a little nicer.

• Volunteers line up for simulated mission to Mars - space - 16 August 2006 - New Scientist Space