Video: 253 mph in the fastest production car in the world

Video: Funny Barry Bible

Think this works?

Video: The Music-Playing HP Scanjet

Video: Robotic Arm Ride, a.k.a. The Brain Smearer

Richard Hammond Crash Footage

Video: Boeing 777 Wing Ultimate Load Test

Realistic Physic based desktop manager

Orange County Choppers at HP

It looks like the guys on American Chopper are goingto be making a bike for HP. This video was taken around January 15th while the the Teutals were at HP checking out the factory. They also broke some stuff while there were there.

The Office: Playing Call of Duty

Rapom V8: Road legal drag-machine equipped with a 1.200Hp 8.2 V8 Mopar engine

And to think that there’re some people out there who believe that the Dodge Viper is absurd… Ha! Tipping the scale at 454 kg or 1.000 lb, the Rapom is equipped with a 8,2-litre supercharged Mopar V8 engine (tuned by ICE Racing) that runs on alcohol producing 1000 - 1200hp (depending on blower speed and fuel used). Although technically the Rapom is Road-legal (or… Road-lethal if you prefer), it is only used on the roads for a 10 mile journey back and forth to a local drag racing strip by its creator and owner, Nick Argyle. The builder tells us that the bike was spawned “from the unusual marriage of convenience and naivety”. See, after selling the chassis of his monster truck, Nick Argyle was searching for a much smaller project. He said: “I didn’t have the same workshop space I had when I built the truck. I only had the house garage so it had to be a bike. I was going to buy a new engine for the project but my wife told me to use the one that was still in a garage – a monster truck engine! Despite its size, I thought why not?’ I guess his neighbours must feel relieved that he didn’t have any Jumbo jets lying around his backyard…

Video: Audi’s New R8 In Las Vegas

Article here

Vista serial number

YFKBB-PQJJV-69188-VWGXY-2V3X8
This guy has got some balls. Funny, but its an RTM that's 2 months old and needs to be activated every 30 days or will timebomb at the end of May 2007.

Quote on how Microsoft blocks activation numbers:
"I've been working for MS for a while now (through an outsourced company) and I can tell you that any key is blockable -it's super easy to send an email (containing a product key) to 'actual' MS employees who will then ban the emailed key -this happens many times a day -usually due to stolen credit cards used to purchase Additional Licences of XP. And while I have yet to email a key for Vista -I'm sure that the process is just as easy. The 'tell' that a key is blocked is if an activation agent asks you to click the 'Change Product Key' button on the Activation Dialogue: you type in the key and it keeps comming back is invalid: *Inference*: the key has been 'blocked'. BTW -I have absolutely ZERO interrest in preventing piracy of MS products -the only time I send out the dreaded 'ban this key email' is when someone is doing 2 things: 1) obviously pirating, and MUCH more important, 2) being abusive when they deal MS staff who are just doing their job.
As an aside: when you are activating windows by telephone and the Activation agent asks you for your product key: start the countdown if you are using a pirated key -our asking you for the key means that we will be submitting your key for review, ie: MS will be actively watching for usage of that key -and if they determine that it's being used too much they will ban it -and I suspect (just conjecture here) that future MS anti-piracy innitiatives will disable or cripple versions of Windows using the suspect key.
I feel like I have to say, again, that I have NO interrest in the protection of MS (or any other proprietary software) I'm just trying to explain how it works at MS.
I ALSO feel I should point out that VISTA cracks are a little early -most PCs will not be able to properly run Vista. My personal feeling is that only PCs running a relatively (I almost didn't say relatively, btw) modern dedicated GFX card; a processor running 3 GHz or faster (there might be some movement on this point); and 2, count 'em, TWO Gigs of RAM. -If your PC doesn't measure-up then you are going to find Vista sluggish -at least.
Interrestingly enough Office 2007 seems to work very well on ANY semi-modern PC -And the jump from Office 2003 and Office 2007 is BY FAR (let me say that again: BY FAR) a bigger leap than the jump between XP and Vista.
I, btw, have decided to not install Vista -not just because of the system reqs. -maybe it's the same thing as those users of 2000 felt about XP -but Vista's DRM makes me more than a little uncomfortable.
For the time-being: I dual boot Ubuntu and XP.
(sorry for the long post: I just wanted to share a few thoughts)
(ps-To any MS staffers who frown upon employees expressing opinion: the moniker 'fiver22' represents, not a single person, but about 10 trillion employees -no, really...please believe me. Just because you catch me signing into Digg from work doesn't mean I'm actually THAT 'fiver22', ok?)"

Carroll Shelby's personal Cobra brings $5 MIL

1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Supersnake -- Lot #1301 Sold at $5,000,000
From Autoblog:

The only surviving dual supercharged factory Cobra, this Supersnake was Carroll Shelby's personal car. "When I built this dual supercharged 427 Cobra in 1966, I wanted it to be the fastest, meanest car on the road," said Shelby. "Forty years later, it will still kick the tail of just about anything in the world." Unfortunately, after selling for a gavel price of $5 MIL, it's unlikely this car will see any more roads, let alone kicking tail.

CSX3015 started out as one of the 19 production Competition Cobras and was then cranked up a notch to produce 800 supercharged horsepower. The twin Paxton supercharged 427 was mated to a three-speed automatic transmission. One other Supersnake was built for comedian Bill Cosby, but was wrecked, making this one the only factory survivor. The huge rush of having this extraordinary vehicle bring such a well-deserved insane top bid could be felt for miles around Westworld. We didn't get a chance to ask Shelby about the car during lunch, but we can guess that he was pretty happy with the result.

Video: Demetri Martin

U.S. Air Force, Boeing demonstrate advanced airborne networking first

This illustration shows how the Project Marti concept would work in an urban combat scenario. The near-space vehicle (at center, above) receives near real-time data and images (represented by yellow lines) from lower-altitude unmanned aerial systems through an Internet Protocol network. An information broker onboard the near-space vehicle distributes to ground troops and ground stations only the data (represented by red lines) that matches users’ subscriptions. (Boeing graphic)

Boeing Phantom Works and the U.S. Air Force have demonstrated for the first time how -- with advanced airborne networking and information management technology -- a near-space vehicle can be used as a flexible, low-cost, theaterwide information broker that provides real-time tactical information to ground forces to enhance their effectiveness and survivability.

The demonstration, held late last year in Chandler, Ariz., was the first in a series of experiments dubbed Project Marti (after Radio Marti, a U.S. government radio station that broadcasts information 24/7). The Marti concept seeks to combine the wide-area coverage and loiter time of a near-space vehicle -- such as a High Altitude Long Endurance concept vehicle -- with the sensing ability and agility of lower-altitude unmanned air systems -- such as the Boeing/Insitu Group's ScanEagle Unmanned Aerial System.

"The challenge here is much more than just the establishment of a high-altitude communications relay," said Patrick Stokes, Phantom Works manager of Network-Centric Operations-related programs. "It's really all about effectively bringing the power of real-time information to bear within a tactical theater, and doing so without the need for an expensive, fixed infrastructure."

To bring this communication power to the troops, Project Marti is leveraging innovative information management brokering techniques to provide advanced publish-and-subscribe capabilities across a broad geographical region. Researchers from Phantom Works and the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate recently conducted an initial risk-reduction demonstration of these capabilities.

In the demonstration, multiple information sources, including ground-based software clients representing low-altitude unmanned aerial systems (such as the Boeing/Insitu ScanEagle), delivered near real-time imagery and data through an Internet Protocol network to an airborne information broker (onboard a balloon acting as a surrogate for a near-space vehicle).

The sources transmitted the data simultaneously in a Cursor-on-Target format that allows accurate tactical information to be passed more efficiently among multiple systems. The information broker then successfully distributed to ground stations only the data that matched users' subscriptions.

"This demonstration was the first instance of an airborne information manager storing published UAS sensor data for delivery to ground-based subscribers, who could then utilize that data on a tactical display," said Jim Paunicka, Phantom Works principal investigator on Project Marti. "The subscribers need only display the data that's relevant to their tactical missions, much in the way that an Internet user would employ a search engine to obtain relevant information."

Future tests in Project Marti will expand the amount and complexity of data as well as the number of assets involved. The tests will culminate in a tactically relevant live flight demonstration in which multiple airborne and near-space assets will operate over an extended range to support a large number of ground units.

During this final demonstration, planned for early 2008, live imagery and tactical data from UAS sensors (including those onboard a ScanEagle) will be published to the airborne network through an information broker on a high-altitude surrogate near-space vehicle -- a balloon that will be launched to about 80,000 feet (24,380 meters). Ground units will be able to collaborate with each other to subscribe to data relevant to their respective missions.

Project Marti is one of several programs that support the AFRL's Tactical Information Dominance vision to show how combined UAS and near-space assets can provide widespread information access in tactical operations.

Video: Netflix to offer online movie viewing

From CNN:

Online movie rental service Netflix introduced a new feature Tuesday to allow customers to watch movies and television series on their personal computers and said it will make the new feature available to its subscribers in a phased rollout during the next six months.

Netflix (Charts) will continue to offer DVDs by mail to customers for a fixed monthly fee. They will have the additional option of instantly watching about 1,000 movies and television series on their PCs at no additional cost, according to the company's statement.

Customers using the service will have to perform a one-time installation of a browser applet that will take less than a minute. Then most subscribers' movie selections will begin playing in their Web browser in as little as 10 to 15 seconds after loading.

Movies can be paused and a position bar gives viewers the ability to jump to any point in the movie.

Internet connectivity with a minimum of one megabit per second of bandwidth is required. Faster connections are needed for better quality playback of the programming, with DVD quality possible with a three-megabit-per-second connection, according to the company.

The service will base the number of online viewing hours on a customer's plan. A client with the entry-level $5.99 a month plan will be able to watch movies online for six hours a month, while those with the full $17.99 a month plan that allows them to rent three DVDs at a time will be able to watch 18 hours a month online.

Project Grizzly inventor crafts real-world Halo suit for military use

Via Engadget:

While it's not likely that you'll encounter the Arbiter on any given day, the slightly off-kilter Project Grizzly inventor has gone out of his way (and possibly his mind) to create what resembles a real-life Halo suit, sporting protection from gunfire and ensuring you an award at Covenant gatherings. Troy Hurtubise created the suit, dubbed Trojan, in hopes of protecting Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan and US soldiers in Iraq, and considering that it has withstood knives, bullets, light explosives, clubs, and even a round from an elephant gun, it sounds like quite the winner. Proclaimed to be the "first ballistic, full exoskeleton body suit of armor," Trojan is crafted from high-impact plastic lined with ceramic bullet protection over ballistic foam, and features nearly endless compartments, morphine / salt containers, knife and gun holsters, emergency lights, a built-in recording device, pepper spray, ingestible transponder for those "last resort" scenarios, and there's even a fresh air system powered by solar panels within the helmet. Mr. Hurtubise claims the 18 kilograms (40 pounds) suit is comfortable enough to make road trips in (yes, he tried it), and if any major military would take him up on it, they could reportedly be produced for "around $2,000 apiece." Now that's a bargain, folks.

SNL - Steve Jobs iPhone

Impossible wooden structure?

Movie of how it works here