Concealed Weapons Tie Will Sneak Past Security

Nerd Approved:

“From Fashionably Geek:
On the front: a harmless stopwatch. On the back: dynamite. It gives you
something to fantasize about during your next boring business meeting.”

Product Page ($40—$44)

Duel Shots: Take Ten Paces

Nerd Approved:

“Get a friend of yours over to your place, pour a couple shots and face off. Each of you can grab the pistol
grip handle and point the double barrels at each other as you choke
down that moonshine. After seeing these. i can’t believe you would do
shots with any other glass.”

Product Page ($16)

IE8 Beta Released To Public

Not that I’d use it, but still….

Slashdot: “English, German, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese versions of Internet
Explorer 8 have been released for public beta. New features include
accelerators, which provide instant context menu access for a number of
common tasks; automatic crash recovery, which prevents a single page’s
failures from taking down your entire browser; and browser privacy, a
feature that didn’t make Firefox 3. I’m primarily a Firefox user, and
I’ve been using IE8 at work (MS) for the past few weeks. It’s a
definite improvement over previous versions, and brings a lot to the
table that Firefox requires extensions for. Give it a spin, submit
feedback, and help keep all browser makers on their toes by facing each
other’s competition.”

Lockdown Is an Alarm and Security Camera for Your Laptop

Lifehacker:

“Mac OS X only: Free application Lockdown is a security alarm for your Mac laptop, complete with remote arming and a security camera. Your Apple Remote handles the arming, and once armed, the application’s alarm is triggered by your laptop’s motion detectors, MagSafe removal, keyboard or mouse activity, closed lid, or external device removal. When the alarm is triggered, your iSight snaps a timestamped picture and can even email it to you. Based on previously mentioned iAlertU, Lockdown doesn’t currently add much beyond a slightly tweaked interface. However, it’s been a while since we highlighted iAlertU, and since many back-to-school readers will also be heading back to the library soon, it’s a good time to highlight both apps. Neither is foolproof, but a loud alarm in a university library could be all the extra security you’d need. Lockdown is freeware, Mac OS X only.”

Lockdown [via Cool OSX Apps]

Trailer for British sitcom – NO HEROICS

Gonna have to bittorrent this one…

AICN: “This hits Britain’s ITV2 Sept. 6. Will it be as funny as “The Tick” or “The Specials”? You judge!”

Genetically-Engineered Hairs Improve the Human Ear

i09:

“As humans age, their hearing naturally grows less acute because they
begin to lose tiny sensory hairs (pictured, magnified) in their inner
ears that convert sound waves into neurological signals. But now
scientists have figured out how to genetically-engineer the cells that
generate these sensory hairs. This is a boon for people who are losing
their hearing, but it could also lead to super-hearing. Add more
sensory hairs to an ear that’s in good condition, and you might get
someone who is more sensitive to sound.

PhysOrg has the report:

At
birth, humans have about 30,000 hair cells, which can be damaged by
infections, ageing, genetic diseases, loud noise or treatment with
certain drugs.

In most cases, damaged hair cells do not
regrow in mature humans. But recent research has kindled hope that
nerve deafness may one day be curable.

A team of scientists led
by John Brigande at the Oregon Health and Science University, in
Portland showed that implanting a gene known as Atoh1 into the inner
ear of a mouse embryo coaxed non-sensory cells to become hair cells.

Brigande is confident that this technique could be used in humans too,
after a reasonable period of testing. What’s fascinating is that this
research allows scientists to generate sensory hair cells out of other
kinds of cells. Which could lead far beyond the “super hearing” idea.
What if skin cells on your fingertips were genetically altered to
produce these sensory hairs? Would you “hear” in your fingers? Image by Shayne Davidson/Human Molecular Genetics.”

Growing New Ear Hairs that Can Boost Hearing [PhysOrg]

Son of the Dark Knight

Ubiquity: Firefox Gets its Quicksilver On

This is frakkin badarse….

43 Folders:

“Take a few minutes this week to look at the Ubiquity plugin for Firefox. So far, I’ve spent just enough time with it to have my mind blown by the Quicksilver-like interface it wants to bring to web browsing.

And, like our favorite OS X launcher, Ubiquity also has an ambitious mission: to move beyond onesie-twosie key shortcuts by using user-extensible commands to intuitively hook together bits of information like model train cars:

Ubiquity’s interface goal is to enable the user to
instruct the browser (by typing, speaking, using language) what they
want to do.

[…]

We aren’t there yet.
Instead, we have the rudimentary systems of structured natural language
commands. You can select something and Ubiq “translate this to French”,
or “email it to Jono”. In both cases, Ubiquity is smart enough to
realize what “this” and “it” refers to, as well as knowing who Jono is
(by talking with my web-mail’s contact list). It’s also smart enough to
be able to understand commands like “map Chicago Comics” and “yelp
Tapas near SF” and give you rich previews and search results to get you
where you want to be quickly. Even better, both of those commands let
you insert results directly into, say, an email you’re writing so that
you never have to interrupt your chain of thought.

Install it, try it for yourself, and, as you get started, do make liberal use of the Key Commands page (only available after install). There’s also tutorials (that I have not looked at much yet) that show how to make and share new commands.

Every quarter or so I’m sorely tempted to experiment with The Big Move from Safari to Firefox. It’s never stuck before, but Ubiquity makes it damned clear that the latest experiment starts right now. This looks amazing.”

[Ubiquity link via: Waxy]

Hard drive that fits in your wallet

Boing Boing:

“A
20-gig 1.8″ hard drive, with the absolute minimum of enclosure, is on
sale for $45 in China. Sourced from Samsung, the unit has a tiny USB
plug and a picture of a platter assembly on the side.

Crush hard drive! Crush!”

[Beto via Everything USB and Gadget Lab]

BurnAware Free Burns CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray

Lifehacker:

“Windows only: BurnAware Free burns data, audio, and video CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs. Since we last mentioned BurnAware,
it was bought up by a software company, turned shareware, and has now
made the round trip back to freeware—so if you ran into the shareware
version when you tried downloading it, BurnAware Free is worth a grab.
There are still shareware versions that support advanced features like
simultaneous disc writing, but chances are you’ll be happy with the
free version. This one could come in particularly handy if and when you
actually get a Blu-ray burner on your PC. BurnAware Free is freeware,
Windows only. For other great alternatives, check out previously mentioned ImgBurn or Totally Free Burner.”

BurnAware Free [via CyberNet]