Contact Photo Festival

The 8th annual Toronto photography festival is under way, presenting more than 400 photographers. The festival is open to both emerging artists and professionals, and the works will be on display at public places and galleries around the city. Starting this weekend, Contact will be presenting "The Way I See It" -- an exhibition of photographs taken by inner city kids -- the venues will be:

Rotunda, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen St W -- May 1 - 2, 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Toronto Community Housing, 931 Yonge Street, Main Floor -- May 3 - 7, 8:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

CBC Atrium, 250 Front St W -- May 10 - 14, 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Doors Open, Regent Park, Regent Park Community Centre, 203 Sackville Green -- May 29 - 30, 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Derek Nobbs

Check out the art of Derek Nobbs. He does the usual artist bullshit on his site, claiming his art searches for meaning by asking questions and sometimes suggesting answers -- whatever buddy. That's not to say he ain't a crafty bastard -- cause he is. And sure, you can find deeper meaning if you stare too long at some of pieces -- but you can also find deeper meaning by staring real hard at the mundane. Whatever ... here's one of his really cool pieces -- the Prophet from the Sky.

Trees Across Toronto

May 1st has been proclaimed as Trees Across Toronto Day by Mayor David Miller, in an effort to sustain Toronto's urban forest. There will be tree planting events at parks across the city, and Torontonians are urged to get out there, buy some trees and go planting. It's a great effort, but I'm not sure how much success will be achieved tomorrow. It's going to rain most of the day, and that will probably keep most people indoors. The whole event seems to rely on the public mostly as well -- the government doesn't seem to be backing it with much money. Yeah, I know it's our city -- but it's also our tax dollars that are funding the city.

TTC Lost Article Sale

Lots of people ride the rocket daily -- even I've started doing it -- and lots of people are absentminded, leaving their stuff behind. The TTC keeps it around for 3 months, and if no one claims it, they put it away for their bi-annual sales. Check out the kind of stuff people leave behind, then next week, from May 5-7, drop by the Bay Subway Station and bid on the stuff you want.

Dark Cloud Over Antidepressants

Suicide is the third leading cause of death for teens between 15-19 -- in any given year, 20% of high school students will think about suicide and 10% of them will attempt (US numbers). The traditional method of treatment has been heavy on the drugs, low on the therapy. Now questions are being raised concerning not only the effacy of the antidepressants -- most of which are selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) -- but if they are also pushing teens over the edge and causing them to commit suicide. In England already, SSRIs, with the exception of Prozac, are no longer allowed to be administered to teens. So what to do instead of taking antidepressants? Experts suggest two forms of psychotherapy:

cognitive-behavioural therapy -- which teaches patients to monitor how they think and feel, and what actions they take on those thoughts and feelings. (Reference books can be found here.)

dialectial-behaviourial therapy -- which teaches patients to understand what causes them stress and how about the causes, as well as how to deal with the stress when it does occur without it getting out of control.

No More Wires

The wireless wave is coming, and before it stabilizes there are going to be some winners, some losers, and a bit of confusion and pain for consumers -- and it's all leveraging on the free spectrum that's open for anyone to use -- the same spectrum that's making WiFi such a big hit. Right now the BT Group is rolling out a trail of wireless broadband in Ireland, promising speeds equal to those of most wired broadband service, at less cost. (You'd think Ma Bell would be doing that in Canada as well, seeing as how our population density screams for a wireless solution -- but oh no!) Not only does wireless solutions promise broadband for internet use, it also promises massive data transfers between appliances in your home -- think of your computer sending the latest movie download directly to your TV, or your TV sending video signals to your microwave's LCD panel -- or lite data transfers between appliances anywhere in the world into a concept now being called the "Internet of Things" -- which may grow to have a population greater than that of people on the internet. Some of the technologies that are vieing to define the new standards and capture the market are:

ZigBee -- the wireless standard that will allow the communication amongst thousands of tiny sensors.

WiMax -- promising to create hot spots around a central area just as WiFi does, but unlike WiFi's limitation of several hundred feet, WiMax will allow communication at distances of up to 30-miles.

Mobile-Fi -- allowing broadband access while in motion, such as surfing the net while driving your car.

Ultrawideband -- allowing massive data transfers at short distances.

Wilbur

Here's a really neat program to index your harddisk so that you can search the contents and never have to worry where something is any more. Absolutely great tool! If you're on a network, you can even index network drives to be able to find what you seek quickly. And the best part? It's free! Free! (Under GNU.)

Bush's Abuse of Rights

Bush has been granted extraordinary rights by the American courts as being a wartime president -- including the right to detain American citizens indefinitely as enemy combatants. But what war is this? It's a war that may not have an end, against a stateless, intangible enemy known as international terrorism. When will that war end? If ever? More and more some of the powers the president has sounds like the powers of a dictator.

CBC's Sour Grapes

The Globe and Mail reported this morning that CBC and Don Cherry will be severing ties at the end of this season's Stanley Cup playoffs -- after a 23 year relationship. CBC's executives apparently are fed up with Cherry's politically incorrect statements on air -- and there are people on opposite sides of the fence of the issue. My opinion -- cause I'm allowed to have a friggin' opinion on my site -- there goes another bite into free speech as the media sanitizes what is fed to the nation. If every offended whiner has their day, there won't be much left -- every public figure will have a gag placed on them. While I don't always agree with Cherry, the likes of him and Lastman are the kinds of people that say what lots of people think, but are afraid to say. Opinions matter -- and Cherry's style without the pretense is refreshing. What will be have left? The lame-ass commentators they now have on the CBC or TSN? Yep. At least Cherry was entertaining, Canadian and hockey fan. What's next? Censoring This Hour Has 22 Minutes or the Air Farce? Now there's one less reason to watch the CBC.

Gravity Probe B

Einstein's theory of General Relativity predicts that spacetime can be warped by gravitational fields. Since Einstein published the theory, an expansion of his theory of Special Relativity, in 1916, it has become generally accepted by scientists, but never proven, since it was technologically impossible in the past to design an experiment to detect the warping of spacetime by a gravitational force -- that was the past -- this is now, and now there is Gravity Probe-B. GP-B was launched into orbit to run an experiment to detect the warping of spacetime by Earth's gravitational field.

400GB to a Desktop Near You!

Hitachi has revealed the new benchmark for big-ass drives -- it's the 7K400 400GB Deskstar drive. It's intended use is for near-line backup, but the drive is very similar to those used in desktops today -- so you just know where it's going to end up.

Google

Google will be issuing their IPO soon. Investors will start cashing out as the search engine king goes public and makes a whole lot of people rich. But Google is going public at a time when they're facing incredible pressure from competitors -- namely Yahoo and Microsoft. The description of Google in this BusinessWeek article reminds me of the way 3M used to be described -- it's a company driven by innovation, where engineers work in losely knit groups based on their interests and are allowed time to spend on their pet projects. While Yahoo and Microsoft have matured business models, where they milk their investments for all they're worth, Google has one thing -- its search engine -- and soon perhaps, the Gmail service. Can they survive?

Headed for a Crisis?

China's economy is exploding -- it's growing so rapidly that the Chinese government is trying to rein it in so that country's economic and financial infrastructure can handle it. China's current boom is directly fueling the growth in other Asian nations, most notably, Japan. The fear out there is that China may not be able to gain control of their growth before a meltdown from bad loans, investments in shaky businesses and ravenous greed that's fueling it all. If China was to stumble, Japan would feel it -- and so would the other Asian economic powerhouses that have tied manufacturing to cheap labour on the mainland. China's troubles would be felt across the Pacific, and in Europe as well. Those businesses that now depend on goods flowing from the Orient will be hit hard and the world economies would have to hunker down for a little dry spell before things pick up back again.

Aldi

They're the Wal-Mart of Germany. Big. Powerful. With low prices. The similarities with Wal-Mart are numerous. They are efficient. They control inventory and have a vice-grip on their suppliers. Unlike Wal-Mart however, they carry a limited assortment -- and the assortment are mostly their own private brand labels. In the US, they have the Trader Joe's brand -- where they market upscale food items, at rock bottom prices. And another difference from Wal-Mart -- they pay their employees -- and provide healthy benefits. In Germany, Aldi gives Wal-Mart trouble wherever Wal-Mart tries to set up shop -- and now, they have big expansion plans for North America. Let the fun begin!

Vaccinating the World's Poor

People tend to forget that big-pharma is also big business, and that businesses are out there to make money -- even from the sick and the poor. So it's a bit of a shock when you find a big drug company kicking the tried and true habit -- instead of marketing a new drug in first world countries at exorbitant prices to make their ROI, then turning it lose to where it's need more -- they're doing the reverse -- marketing it cheaply to the third world countries, doing good, and planning to make a profit as well. But it's not just the good heart of the drug companies that is changing the dominant trend -- it's western governments, non-profit organizations, and donors -- most notably, Bill Gates, that's pitching in the money needed to pay for the drugs for the third world countries. There is hope, with a slew of new drugs in the pipeline, ready for clinical trials that will most likely occur in third world countries as well, before the massive rollout.

On April 28th, Let us Remember

April 28th is the day of remembrance for Canadian Workers killed or injured on the job. The date was chosen to coincide with the passage of Canada's first comprehensive Worker's Compensation Act in Ontario, 1914. In 1991 a bill was passed in the Canadian Parliament, adopting April 28th as the day to remember. Those who came before us secured the many rights we, as workers, enjoy today. Let us remember them.

SpaceX

This is a site with a cool design -- makes it seems more like a fanboy site, than a genuine business site -- but nevertheless -- SpaceX is a commercial rocket company that has plans to challenge the establishment in putting payloads in orbit. They plan on delivering payloads at up to 60-70% cheaper than current industry leaders, Boeing and Orbital Sciences Corporation. They plan to have a small rocket ready for commerical use in 2004, and a larger rocket ready for 2006. If they're successful, we might see more commercialization of space. Cool!

Acme Telephonic

This is too funny. There is a service, that for a small fee, will dial your mate presenting his/her phone with any caller ID you want it to be. If your mate is cheating on you and expecting the call to be from that other individual, they will in for a surprise. Quite amusing, quite dumb, and these guys will be out of business soon.

WebJay

This is cool site -- if you have some time to waste and enjoy music. The site hosts listener created playlists of songs available on the web. So if you're bored at the office, or want to find something unexpecting in your day, take a listen!

Small World

Check out this Quicktime video -- funny! Just some of the weird shit you'll find on the net when you have better things to do. (Yes, I said that right.) And when you're done, find other things to prevent you from doing work here!

Bigger & Better

Data, data, data -- data everywhere, and some of us still cringe when our databases hit the gigabyte level. Check out this article on some of the biggest databases out there -- and not only are they big, but boy do they ever perform. Meet AT&T's 96 terabyte database that's compressed down to 26.3 terabytes -- it's a real-time transactional database for operational billing. The British Land Registry has a 20 terabyte DB2 database, running on z/OS that's growing by leaps and bounds -- at its peak, it was processing 702 transactions per second. Experian has an Oracle database running on 4 Sun boxes that handle at peak, 887 simultaneous queries -- and that peak can last up to 8 consecutive hours. Boeing has a 4 terabyte Oracle database that handles at peak, 281 transactions per second. The biggest of all however, is the US Defense Department -- they're building an Oracle database to house the medical records of personnel with a capacity of 50 petabytes, to be hosted on HP Superdome servers. Now that's big!

RFID for the Small-Fry

RFID isn't just for the big boys alone. Quite a few small businesses are in the process of enabling their supply chains with RFIDs. Why? Mainly because they're going to gain the business of the big guns by giving them something they want. Only time will tell if all the investment will pay off however.

Machinima

I read this article in the Toronto Star last week. Apparently a few creative types are being, well, creative, in their video game exploits. Seems like video games just can numb the minds of these players -- they're taking advantage of a new feature making it into more and more games to record their moves, and then dubbing voices to their character movements. Results? Well, a cult following has already boomed for Red vs. Blue. Another cool movie referenced by the article is My Trip to Liberty Village [right click to download] -- a short film made using Grand Theft Auto, from a Canadian tourist's perspective. Another good movie is Anna -- it's the story of a flower, from birth to death, using the Quake III engine -- and it's absolutely stunning! This art form is called machinima, and if you explore the net, you'll be amazed at what you find. [Google machinima!] Now there is the Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences -- created to promote the art form -- and if you've got the time and money, they have a one day film festival coming up in August, in Texas.

The Big Production

Here's an article the suggests that with increasing penetration of broadband, internet marketers will be employing more and more rich media to reach a wider audience, building relationships, brand recognition and loyalty, and hopefully increasing sales. I'm not so sure about this -- I think this targeted marketing effort will reach the same type of people that TV advertisers reach -- the couch potatoes -- the ones who now sit infront of the computer and surf to online gaming and horoscope sites. I could be wrong however, as I found Reebok's Terry Tate - Office Linebacker spots quite riveting. I think Reebok was being a little too subtle however -- that blonde HR Consultant could have shown a little more cleavage to get the point across -- I mean, her breasts weren't even falling out of her top -- or did they and I missed it? And the skirt -- come on, that could have been shorter! What about the tongue in the ear bit -- that was it?! Disappointing. Reebok was definitely going after building a little sleeze into their brand -- they just missed when they didn't take us all the way. I can see how this rich media marketing will work, cause you certainly can't show that stuff on TV. Congratulations Reebok, you've outdone the beer commercials. [Click here to download the clips instead of watching them as streaming media.]

The Information Age

The old adage that content is king is quite true -- especially for ecommerce sites -- and if done properly, can lead online businesses to support their bricks and mortars counterparts to make money. The key is for ecommerce sites to provide, free, relevant information to potential customers, and not push the sales pitch -- rather, sacrifice the sales pitch for building a relationship. Some products just can't be sold on a website -- that doesn't mean that a business should forego an internet presence, or have a minimalist one -- on the contrary -- for those businesses, providing online content will allow customers to lookup what they want before heading to a store. It's all about having useful information -- information with a purpose -- but it's amazing the number of companies who just don't get this -- you'd think it's commonsense.

Modern Machinery

(Also from Information Week.) IBM took a big risk in the 1960s -- it invested a good chunk of money -- more than the US government did in the Manhattan Project -- to build their next generation mainframe -- the System/360. Read this great history lesson of the people and politics, involved in an event that provided a kick to IBM, making them the computing giant they are today, and ushering in the ubiquitous computer for business use. The System/360 turned 40-years old this month.

Open Source

Information Week magazine has done a great job presenting a current state and some insights into the near future on the open source software movement. The article presents open source software as a viable alternative to the paid license model touted by the big vendors. It also presents the potential pitfalls of tying your IT strategies to the open source movement.

Baseline Magazine

On my way home tonight, I read these articles from the latest Baseline Magazine.

Call for Help [PDF] - in 2000, the City of Chicago implemented a 311 telephone system to be the central number for the denizens of the city to reach The City. Of course, giving the city a central number to call wasn't going to work all by itself. Workers had to be trained and accompanying systems had to be put in place -- but by all measure, it's turning out to be a success.

Sin City [PDF] - Las Vegas is the American city of Sin. It's a city of excesses -- gambling, drinking, prostitution, food, entertainment and surveillance -- yes, surveillance. No one goes anywhere in Las Vegas, except maybe for their rooms and washrooms, without being scanned, photographed and have their extraneous private details logged, aggregated, mined and analyzed to identify potential tricksters that would try to beat the casinos -- either legally or illegally. In this new world of "fighting terror," Baseline Magazine suggests that the US Department of Homeland Security could learn a lot from the one place in the US that would immediately raise spite in Muslim fundamentalists.

Soldiering On [PDF] - this is classic -- the US Department of Veterans Affairs has spent millions to upgrade some of its systems to allow more efficient processing of claims -- most of it as money going down the drain because they allowed requirements to change on the fly as the project was being run.

Half-Speed [PDF] - the US Navy and Marine Corps awarded EDS an $8.8 billion contract over 10-years to rollout the Navy and Marine Corps Intranet. Wonderful for EDS -- and not. Read this for a lesson on how not to outsource and how not to select the winner for the contract. As EDS is learning -- there is usually a hornet's nest in the details -- and as the Navy is learning -- the lowest bidder ain't always the right choice.

Keeping Out the Digital Swarm [PDF] - here's a short article on the current state of antivirus processes and technology, but really boils down to technology isn't necessarily everything.

Mirror Awards

Looking for the latest hairstyle? Check out these funky hairstyles that won the hair design awards this year. If you want to see if your hairstyle is out of date, check out last year's winners.

aka.alias

I love this entry from a true blue fan! An action movie + team loyalty + a spike of caffeine = a potential violent combination. But Don Cherry would agree, so that makes it OK I suppose.

Sparking the Fire of Invention [PDF]

From MIT's Technology Review -- an article about invention -- how corporations lack vision beyond existing product lines and hardly ever pump money into the invention process -- a process that is seen as subversive within businesses, yet it is also the process that usually yields the next big thing. Now Nathan P. Myhrvold, founder of Microsoft Research and former CTO of Microsoft, along with Edward Jung, former Chief Software Architect of Microsoft have created Invention Science, a company that nurtures and gives inventors free creative rein.

Apple's New Video Editing Tools

Apple has unveiled a host of new media editing and processing tools -- mostly for the OS-X, but some also for Linux. (Remember, OS-X is a UNIX based OS.) The new software, many priced below professional products, but promising the same functionality, may open professional media to the masses. Seems like the trend to take the power from today's media producers and give it away is accelerating -- I can't wait for the video blog to arrive!

Information Security

I was just reading Information Security magazine (March 2004 issue), and found the following articles of interest:

Advanced Screening: six firewalls are evaluated on how well they stand up to application layer attacks.

You're Fired: or how do you motivate employees to stop screwing around and violating policies that are in place to protect an enterprise and the employees themselves? Answer: Fire someone for violating the policy.

Mail Order Husbands

This site is too funny! Ladies, men have had many impersonnal channels to find their brides -- the most low-life of which is the "mail order bride" route. Well, you can now join their ranks! Mail Order Husbands will give you a mate that your sorry ass couldn't find the old fashion way because you scare the shit of men! (Do the compatibility test and check out the success stories -- a riot!) [BTW, this site is a joke OK, don't take it seriously.]

Black Eyed Peas

My wife introduced me to this LA based ban a couple of months ago -- she used their song "Where Is The Love?" for a show her class was putting on. [Listen to the Song.] It's quite positive. A similarly positive song is "The Apl Song." Both songs are from their Elephunk album. I also like "The Elephunk Theme" and "Smells Like Funk" from that album -- and they're quite different from the first two -- but that's OK. Black Eyed Peas is hip-hop group -- but a hip-hop group that has shown that they can write smart music, if not too complicated. [Check out a review of the album.]

Tom Holt's Nothing But Blue Skies

I finished reading this novel tonight -- I was reading it to my youngest over the course of the last couple of months. This is the first Tom Holt novel I've read, and I already have a couple others waiting in the wings. Holt is witty, funny, and a good story teller with quite the imagination. Here's what the back of the book says:

There are many reasons why British summers are either non–existent or, alternatively, held on a Thursday. Many of these reasons are either scientific, mad, or both — but all of them are wrong, especially the scientific ones. The real reason why it rains perpetually from January 1st to December 31st (incl.) is, of course, irritable Chinese Water Dragons. Karen is one such legendary creature. Ancient, noble, nearly indestructible and, for a number of wildly improbable reasons, working as a real estate agent, Karen is irritable quite a lot of the time. But now things have changed, and Karen’s no longer irritable. She’s furious.

Hellboy

I went out with the guys on Thursday night to see the Hellboy movie. Pretty good movie! I was expecting it to be a whole lot of action with kung-fu-chop-suey, but there was little of the martial arts every action movie is overdosing on lately, and the action was tempered with a story that had humour, and, well, a whole lot more dialogue than I was expecting -- and dialogue that didn't leave me wanting to gag either. This is a great comic book to silver screen transfer. Worth it to watch, worth it to own on DVD.

SCO's Baystar Surprise

The Venture Capitalist firm that's bankrolling SCO's fight to kill Linux (or make a bundle from its install base -- depending on who you talk to) isn't happy with SCO these days. Apparently it sent a letter to SCO, claiming SCO has violated parts of their agreement that involved some $20B that was transferred to SCO. Baystar is now looking to pull its funding of SCO. It's about time SCO starts unravelling. For complete coverage, click:

Svend Robinson

He has been a mainstay of the federal NDP party and stealing is totally out of his public character. His admission of guilt is a sad story -- and it's most likely the end of a political career. I hope the media doesn't make a spectacle out of this case.

Gulf Wars II

You have to see this ... quite amusing!

Financial Supply Chain Management

Here's a first for me: Financial Supply Chain Management. It may be the new buzzword, the new mantra for consultants to use milk money from the bottom line. Financial Supply Chain Management is being sold as the next step to ERP -- for those companies that achieved some level of efficiency and cost reduction with the employment of ERPs. So what does Financial Supply Chain Management promise? The promise is: 1) Digtizing of paper documentation, 2) Automate financial transactions, 3) Automate liability management, and, 4) Implement working capital management. I don't want to be a critic, but does that sound like: 1) document management, 2) automated AP, 3) asset management, and, 4) planning and budgeting? Like I said -- bring out the consultants!

Summer is almost here ...

I went out bike riding yesterday evening. The sun was nice and warm throughout the day -- so warm, that I didn't even need my jacket when I went for a walk for lunch. (Today was similarly warm.) It got a bit cold in the evening -- cold and little windy, but manageable nonetheless. I went down Don Mills towards the 401 because I wanted to take pictures of the sun setting over the 401 -- on days when I drove home during the sunset, I've seen some really brilliant sunsets. Not yesterday though. I ended up riding past the 401, to York Mills, and went on to a golf course that is there. While there, I took a couple of pictures. Check out my fotolog, where I posted one.

Subservient Chicken

Burger King is getting into the porn business. Check out this website featuring chicks in lingerie via a webcam, responding to your every whim! Then read this article from Wired.

Sedna's Missing Moon

Scientists that discovered Sedna have speculated that it must have a moon, since its rotation is so slow -- between 20-40 days. However, when they trained Hubble onto the planetoid, they found no moon. A moon was speculated, because it would have been the only thing that could slow Sedna's rotation. Sedna is more mysterious than first thought.

MIT's Technology Review - April 2004

Here are some articles of interest from this month's issue of MIT's Technology Review:

Hybrid's Rising Sun [PDF] - a Japanese automaker has again taken a step ahead of the US auto giants. While the US automakers are now playing catch-up with quality cars, designed well, Toyota has already on the leading edge of the curve with its gas-electric hybrid cars. They're expected to sell 150,000 hybrids this year, and what seemed like a risky investment a few years back might just as well serve to not only transform the auto industry, but push Toyota into the lead.

My Avatar, My Self [PDF] - there are two virtual worlds out there that point to where digital socializing is heading. 1) There, and, 2) Linden Lab. Both are quite unlike online games such as Everquest or Sims. And both are supporting rich worlds with slick 3D interfaces, where individuals are represented by 3D avatars, rather than a static icon or flat character. I can see the day when virtual personas become every bit as important as real-life personas -- maybe even more -- it doesn't take much imagination to see the real and digital world blending.

Sweet Hope [PDF] - Malaria kills 3,000 children, most under five years of age, daily. In sub-Saharan Africa, it claims 90% of its victims -- worldwide, 1,000,000 people die each year from it -- and before they die, they suffer -- and it's not only the deaths, it's the second-hand victims -- the baby that will die without the mother's support; the children that will starve because their parents can't work. For decades scientists have failed to develop an effective vaccine, but now there's hope that a new vaccine may help -- while it may not be the sole weapon to wipe out malaria, it may just be good enough to make the difference.

Sensor World [PDF] - the world is madly rushing to measure, look at, keep tabs on, just about everything. Advances in tiny, wireless sensors promise to always keep an eye on everything and report back to somewhere. Just one thought though -- how the hell are we going to handle all that data?

Prototype [PDF] - check out some technologies that are making it out of the lab and coming to a product near you soon -- such as a new compression method that promises to deliver larger images across the internet, faster; and, a credit card that requires you to input your secret code before it can be used.

Innovation News [PDF] - with text messaging taking off on mobile devices in North America, and already big in Japan, China and Europe, you had to wonder how long it would take before spammers took notice. Think about it -- you're driving along the road, and as you approach different businesses, your mobile device alerts you to a message -- only it's a spam for the businesses you're about to drive by. Not possible you say? Well, think about this -- telcos have been mandated in the US to be able to pinpoint your cell phone via GPS in case of emergencies. They know where you are. And there are no laws stopping them!

Nano Writing [PDF] - dip-pen nanolithography is a new promising method of building things on the nano scale -- metals, DNA, proteins, etc., on a wide range of surfaces. What may make this method succeed? It's cheap.

Spam Filters [PDF] - here's a cool graphic on how spam filters work.

Born Chemist [PDF] - here's a short bio on Percy Lavon Julian, a black chemist, who in the face of racism, didn't give up and went on to make great contributions to the synthesizing of steroids -- used today in a variety of topical medications.

Designed and Made in China [PDF] - forget China's manufacturing prowess -- look out for its ability to tweak and innovate the designs being sent to them to mass produce. The day is rapidly approaching when China will be able to innovate just as fast and be as creative as the west.

The Integrator

Where was this when I was in University?! From Wolfram Research comes the Mathematica powered Integrator. Input any function you wish to integrate and presto! The answer is on the web! [Naj, thanks for the link!] If integrals don't turn your crank, check out the other science and math tools that Wolfram has made available via the web. Other offerings from Wolfram can be found here.

RoganJosh

Just found this site by accident. It's got some funny pictures -- check 'em out!

Gopher

I just read this Wired article, and it took me back to my University days -- the days when the Netscape browser wasn't invented yet, the world wide web was just some fancy of Tim Berners-Lee -- the days when I searched the internet for information via gopher. Gopher was invented at the University of Minnesota in 1993, just before the web went prime time. The design was simple, text based and menu driven -- making it easier to use than FTP. Gopher's use spread quickly across the internet, using a client/server architecture. To this day, there are still many gopher servers out there -- and there is even a service that allows you to access gopher servers via a web browser. Eventually, gopher servers will completely disappear -- unless a few enthusiasts get their way.