Tafiti Brings New Light To Searching

If you love pretty graphics and shiny interfaces you'll probably love Tafiti. It's an experimental search engine tool that was built on Silverlight, Microsoft's version of Flash. It works on any browser that supports Silverlight and provides the user a somewhat cosmetic solution to generic, boring search engine results and gives it a more stylish interface. Ironically, I would compare the experience of navigating Tafiti's interface to doing so on a Mac GUI. I got the same clean, shiny experience.

However, despite how nice it looks, I still think that it lacks the practicality and efficiency of a Google search. Keep in mind that Tafiti is backed up by Microsoft Live Search which I think is the crappiest search engine of the whole lot. It does have some potential though, as long as Microsoft keeps the interface quick to navigate and the seaches relevant.

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Kipkay's Battery Hack

I'm an Electronics Engineer but the thought of opening up batteries never came to me before. I mean, I know theoretically what the basic components of a battery are and how it works. I just don't know what exactly lies underneath the smooth metalic packaging of a regular 12 volt battery.

What Kipkay discovered inside these basic consumer batteries certainly surprised me. How can eight $4-$6 batteries equal to one $2 battery? It's absurd! However, now that I think of it more, packaging, shipping, and marketing does add up. Talk about not getting what you paid for. The proof lies in the video.

12 Volt Battery Hack! You'll Be Surprised... - video powered by Metacafe

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Yahoo Answers Your Questions

I'm a little obsessed with Yahoo Answers right now. This site allows you to participate in three ways: asking questions, answering questions and voting the best answers to questions. I personally like answering questions. I don't know, maybe there's a know-it-all inside me dying to get out. Questions range from thought provoking (How have you experienced the power of prayer in your life?) to practical (What is the best defense against mosquitos?) to "doh!" (Cole's and Diland phone number?).

It's a great time waster, although I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, if you know what I mean. Still, it's not such a bad place to find answers to your questions as there are a lot of people like me willing to share their expertise.

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5 Great Instructables Projects

I love projects. Finishing a project and admiring the product of my hard work just gives me great satisfaction. Not to mention showing it off to my friends (although I have reason to believe that more than once the enthusiasm they showed was less than heartfelt, haha).

Instructables is a great resource for all types of do-it-yourselfers. The projects range from piece of cake to what the heck?. Check out these great project ideas (great reasons to dust off your soldering iron).

• The Barbie Box: This is a camouflaged case/boom box for your mp3 player. I'm not sure what the inspiration of the author of this was, maybe the Hide-a-pod? Although, if it was up to me, I would definitely choose a different theme. I'm not a Barbie type of girl after all.
• LED Throwies: These are gorgeous in the dark. You can use them to decorate your garden or house for a party, or just throw them around for fun.
• NES Controller MP3 player: Another great mod idea for an mp3 player. The author of this instructable used a fairly cheap mp3 player and it looks very easy to do.
• Use an LCD Monitor as a TV Without a Computer: This is such a great idea. LCD monitors are considerably cheaper than LCD televisions it makes sense to try to use them as a tv display. Why didn't I think of this before?
• Turn Your Old Monitor into a Fishtank: So you've got an old monitor? Rather than throwing it to the dumpster, why not turn it into a fishtank?

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The Palm Foleo Makes Sense

The Palm Foleo was announced a few months ago and is due to be released anytime soon. When I first heard about this device, I was seriously doubting the saleability of a device that was not quite a laptop and not quite a PDA. It seemed so in-between to me.

However, the more I hear about this device and the more I thought about it, the more sense it made to me. I mean a lot of people nowadays use their laptop just for email and web browsing, why not have a device that does this alone and does a good job on this? Think about this, it turns on instantly (no long startups), it's lightweight, it has 5 hours battery life, it has wifi, come to think of it, it is starting to sound like a very good idea.

All we have in the name of portable email and web browsing before the Palm Foleo were puny devices with tiny keyboards and/or equally tiny and clunky touchscreen pads. It's either that or laptop computers that cost and arm and a leg and with lousy battery life to boot. The only problem I have with this is the lack of support for video and multimedia. Come-on, even PDA's and cellphones can play multimedia. I'm not asking for dvd playback after all, just online embedded video or videos from email attachments. Surely they can add this feature later?

Anyway, you can check out these links for more info on this device.

• Brighthand's first thoughts on the Palm Foleo
• PCMag's Hands-on with the Palm Foleo
• Palm Infocenter's Hands-on Gallery
• Palm Infocenter's Foleo Webcast
• Palm's official site
• Palm Foleo Wiki
• ProFoleo - A Foleo centric website

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Guy Creates iPhone Replica

This guy just created his own iPhone from wood and metal. It's like taking shop class to a whole new level. It looks damn realistic too. Unfortunately, the whole site's in Japanese and I don't understand Japanese. However, the photos tend to explain every step. I want one!

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Losing Weight for Geeks

I don't know what difference being a geek has to losing weight but anyway I'm willing to try anything that sounds remotely sensible. Not that I'm overweight or anything, but I've been feeling like such a heffer since I gained around 20 pounds over the last 6 years. G333k (I suppose that's pronounced geeek) presents 8 practical ways to lose fat. Here you go...

• Drop sodas forever Sodas are the enemy number one of this society. Drop it and your GI will get lower instantly. This will change the direction your body is taking and will reduce the amount of food converted to fat. If you are addicted to soda or have cravings, make sure you have only one in the morning, and once every two days. Gradually drop to once a week until you are happy without them. They are the pest of our century and are the main reason of people looking unhealthy. (I completely agree with that explanation. Although, I must admit that dropping them is easier said than done. I don't know why but I just can't seem to help myself. I love sodas! But, for my health's sake I will try to give it another shot. Sodas are bad... sodas are bad... sodas are bad.)
  
• Drop fast-food forever Fast food are bloody expensive! They are the typical solution to an unorganized geek. Get organized at your next shopping day and make sure you don’t need it anymore. If you really like the taste and are addicted. Make sure you get what you like once a week only, and at lunch! That way, your addiction will fade away softly. (Again, easier said than done! I'm not addicted to fast food but eating fast food is my quick answer to hunger. I mean, fast food delivery is the best thing since sliced bread. Or is it the worst thing? I seem to have relied on fast food far too much. Fine, fine, fast food is bad... fast food is bad... fast food is bad.)
  
• Drop sugary food to only once a week Cakes, chocolate bars and such are also raising your GI and making your flubber shine. Don’t cut them off entirely of your life. For starters, it’s nearly impossible to do, second you will find that once a week is just enough! (That sounds like a piece of cake to me, no pun intended. I've never been a fan of sugary food because they make my throat hurt.)
  
• Drop carbs at dinner Carbs are easily put to use by the body during the day. At night, they sit in your stomach and as you go asleep they will be more likely to be converted to fat. Carbs are converted to energy, which is used in your daily life. Unlike models, don’t drop carbs entirely or you will have serious issues at 50. Instead, reduce the carbs intake at dinner, as it won’t sit in your stomach all night. Carbs include pasta, potatoes, rice and bread. Also check the labels of whatever you’re eating at dinner to find out how much carbs it contains. (This was a major Aha! moment for me. I knew carbs were bad but I could never cut them out completely from my diet. Carbs are everywhere! But cutting them out from dinner is a more doable thing. Brilliant!)
  
• Eat dinner earlier This simple fact will allow you to digest better, and sleep better. If your body is able to process dinner before bed time, much less will sit there all night and turn into fat. (This one looks like a difficult one... I can't stand sleeping on an empty stomach.)
  
• Get physically active twice a week Sport is good. Any sport. From boxing to table-tennis. It makes you move, and that’s good for you. We live in a society that doesn’t make good use of our bodies. We’ve never moved so little. We travel by sitting, we work by sitting, we relax by sitting. This is just bad and it’s only getting worse. Find what you like and get involved. (Physically active to me means standing up to go to the bathroom. Does that count?)
  
• Sleep more In our fast paced life, sleep is a very underestimated asset. Good sleep makes you more focussed. It also helps the body recover and then get to work on itself. It takes about 7-8 hours for the body to recover, then after that it only starts to build and focus on what needs improvement. You can’t really get any better if you don’t sleep properly. Why do you think that babies sleep so much? (This doesn't help me at all since I already sleep for about 8-9 hours per day.)
  
• Increase protein intake Imagine a balance. To lose weight or get leaner, you will need to raise the amount of protein intake. It’s a very simple ratio: more protein than carbs in a day, and you get leaner. As bloody simple as it sounds. However, this is a hard task as carbs are everywhere, but decent intakes of protein are rare. (That's no problem at all. I love meat. Looks like I'll just have to eat more meat than rice or bread.)

Web 2.0 Sites and Such

• If you love Web 2.0 sites like me, then get a load of Go2WE20.net. It's a nice visual directory of all (at least that's what they say) the Web 2.0 sites out there. And believe me, there are a LOT of sites in this directory. You'll probably need a whole day if you want to browse them all (and you probably will if you're a tech geek like me).

• Web 2.0 really is about sharing information. Listio is a Web 2.0 site that lets you share information and reviews about other Web 2.0 sites. They have also conveniently listed the top 100 sites according to users votes. Among the top are Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon and Reddit.


• Lastly, if you have a favorite website but would like to find others like it, then you'll definitely love Youlicit. It does exactly that... recommend other sites that are similar to a site you type on a text box. It works really well too. For instance, typing Engadget.com gets me these results. Nice.

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The New iMac

The new iMac is extra thin and extra yummy. I am a Windows user but I think this just might make me switch. I mean look at it. Ok, I can't think of anything else to say right now I'm just in awe. Here's some links for you...

• Official Apple site - get a load of all the iMac info here... I can't help but drool
• First iMac Unboxing - Engadget takes us through their first iMac unboxing. Read about their first impresions here.

Of course I'll post more info about the iMac when it becomes available to me. As for now, I still can't wait to get one. When my budget permits of course.

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Leaked Torrents from Warner Bros.

Looks like some media execs. are starting to realize the value of torrents as a means of publicity for their shows. Torrentfreaks reveal that a number of pre-air tv shows appearing on Bittorrent might have been inside jobs done for publicity. Apparently, these torrents are doing a good job creating buzz for these new shows that people would otherwise ignore. Hmmm, so is this a case of hipocracy on the media side? It looks like they want the best of both worlds. They use torrents when it benefits them and call it piracy and stop it when it threatens them. Hypocracy, indeed.

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