OK, I give.

Whisky Tango Foxtrot, Over?

The price is GBP9.99, which is quite reasonable. Can car dealers outsmart it? Yes, but they won't. Painting a body panel is under $100. Sanding the entire car and then painting it, properly, is over $1000. Replacing a bent fender is also MUCH more expensive than bondo-ing it.

The usual ways to tell if a car has been crashed are to sight along the top of the "shoulder" of the car, and see if it's straight; or to tap on the body panels in likely spots and feel for the dull thud of Bondo (fiberglass putty used to fill in a dent, rather than replace a body panel or pound out the dent).

Both sighting and tapping require skill, this tester only requires patience (you should test lots of places).

Why do you care? If a car was in an accident, even if the body panels and suspension/drive train parts are fixed, chances are the frame is bent, and this will reduce the safety of the car in a crash situation, and will also cause many of the parts near the wheel to wear out more quickly.

Now, I've driven lots of cars that were "reclaimed" from accidents (sold by insurance companies to auto reclaimers, who then fix up the car and sell it), and there's often very little wrong with the car. Maybe the frame is straight. However, reclaimed cars are sold at auction for very low prices, so the opportunity for an unscrupulous dealer to make a windfall is right there.

So this paint tester is a pretty good tool to help you make sure you pay the correct price for the car.

You might also consider getting CARFAX records for the car, which will accomplish pretty much the same thing. But then you don't get this clever gadget. I wonder what ELSE it will do?

Reusable paper that has magical qualities: CHECK

Flying cars SURELY cannot be far behind.

(SRSLY, OMFG THAT IS SO COOL !!!!11!!)

Um, hi. That video is almost two years old. The YouTube page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCeK0Trz9E0 has a news story from the BBC from the same time, indicating that the problem was known to the UN, and that the UN was asking for change.

I am not sure, but I believe I heard that the Japanese government did something about this.

Followup, please?

Thanks.

There are plenty of good hundred-dollar watch winders. I wish I had one, because every time I want to wear my nice Swatch IRONY automatic skeleton silver watch, I have to find some WD-40 to unstick the crown, then set the time, then shake the darn watch for about 5 minutes to get it partially wound. Then again, I'd have to plug such a thing in, and that's a few watts right there.

Tourbillion movements in watches counteract the minute effects of gravity. If you spend your day with your arm out flat (typing), a regular watch will run at a different speed than if you spend it with your arm hanging down (meeting clients?). Over the course of a year, this could mean a difference of 5 - 10 seconds. So instead, the tourbillion spins the escapement around, reducing the error, at a mere $10k - $100k extra per watch. It's also an incredibly cool thing to watch when you are bored. (Gee, could that be the real reason? DING DING DING DING)

Calling this thing a "tourbillion" is somewhat facetious, but if you're going to spend $100k for a watch, why not spend $1k for the winder, and this one looks really cool.

http://onastick.net/drew/sinistar/

Wait. It's clear that CNet misrepresents Applebaum by stating that he was upset with Apple's response. In his article detailing the 'sploit on www.securityfocus.com he states he was happy working with Apple.

He does note that he saw his bug in Apple's database was marked as a dupe of a MUCH older bug, leading him to be a bit snippy about what's been holding up a fix....

Apparently Applebaum is annoyed because he showed Apple the exploit on Feb 5 and they didn't fix it in a security update released on Feb 11.

Um, yeah. RIght. Fix an OS in 6 days.

The module with the security hole is called "loginwindow." It is the "parent process" of everything associated with the logged-in user, ie., about 90% of the stuff running on the computer.

Even if the security hole is fixable in 6 days, I certainly would NOT want Apple to release a fix without adequate testing. 6 days is not enough time.

Applebaum has very unreasonable expectations.

Hey Striped Pants, last time I checked, all computers were made out of plastic, metal, chemicals, etc.

What you might not have understood is that the OLPC XO is designed to last a lot longer than the typical laptop, and to be user-repairable.

Mary Lou mentioned the replaceable backlight on the display, for example. It takes a trained tech an hour (really!) to replace the screen on a typical laptop. And that means replacing the entire top-half of the computer, and throwing away all the bits that didn't break!

Longer lasting = greener. User-fixable = unprecedented.

Could they have made the XO out of metal or wood instead of plastic? Maybe, but it would be heavier, more fragile, and more expensive.

scientology DONATES tons of books to libraries. It's quite likely that your library didn't pay anything to get those books.

I used to go around with stacks of business cards with polite rebuttals to the various points made in the books, and insert them into the book, pushed tight against the binding, so that they would not fall out easily.

For instance, in scientology books talking about drugs, and how scientology is 100% DRUG FREE, I'd insert cards with links to audio recordings and hand written notes, by Hubbard, talking about his drug usage.

When the book talks about Hubbard's scientific prowess, I'd point to records of his academic failures.

If nothing else, pointers to http://scientology-kills.org and http://scientology-lies.com are always relevant.

Feel free to play along.

My source at Danger assures me that the platform is held back largely at the explicit request/threat of the wireless service.

After all, why should old phones get new features, when new phones require new service contracts?

Ah. My audio recording expert friend explains it all: The Yamaha NS-10 speakers are the "king" of the "what your music will sound like on cheap speakers." (Some people use the speakers from their Ampex ATR-100 recorder, or Auratones aka "HorrorTones.")

So obviously the HS50M are intended to sell into that market, especially since Yamaha claims they cannot make NS-10s any more: http://www.cdmasteringservices.com/ns10nearfieldmonitors.htm

@NEX, take your complaints up with Yamaha. It's their slogan, I'm just reporting it.

As for whether using cheap speakers for monitoring, well, people often like to "preview" their music on cheap speakers. But "monitor" them on cheap speakers? Again, take it up with Yamaha.

Joel, as someone else said, "Don't worry, make music."

Many speakers have switches to compensate for wall or corner placement. (Wall and Corner placement is sometimes called "Half Space", "Quarter Space", and "Eighth Space.")

Sometimes the switches are labelled "bass rolloff." In any case, choose the setting that sounds most accurate to you. Note that if you put the speakers up against the wall, and you have neighbors on the other side of the wall, they will not be your friends any more.

Also stuffing the ports with foam plugs (which probably came with) is another way to turn down the bass boost that wall or corner placement gives.

NFM speakers are designed to be OK with them 2-3 feet from your head, and 2-3 feet between. Don't be worried that you're too close. Putting them on the desk on either side of your MacBook is not such a bad thing, even if they are 4 inches from the wall behind and 2 feet from the walls aside.

If you are in a "booth," the soundproofing that will make your neighbors not hate you is also going to make the speakers sound better. But that's a lot of work and expense.

Also, these monitors are usually used to emulate "cheap home speakers," thus the slogan, "If Your Mixes Sound Good on These, They Sound Good on Anything."

Be that as it may, they are inexpensive and amplified. My Audio Guy friend says that you should buy a cheap ADC amp and a pair of used Tannoy concentric monitors. That will probably cost a bit more than this setup, but the sound, well, it's AMAZING.

Yes, that's Edward Everett Horton narrating.

He was at his best in "Top Hat" with Fred Astaire, or perhaps you think he's better as the narrator of the "Fractured Fairy Tales" segment of "The Bullwinkle Show."

Superb! I am a big fan of the Oblique Strategies, but the Oblique Strategies are clearly the fussy finials on the balustrade; these are the foundations of the house.

Agave nectar has a very low glycemic index (15), true, but puffed rice cereal does not (about 80 or 90, research varies). Indeed, puffed rice cereal is just as high as high fructose corn syrup.

So using Agave nectar will help SOME, but it does not make rice crispy treats into a diabetic-friendly food.

Also, the GI of sweets doesn't affect the number of calories. Rice crispy treats are seriously junky food, being full of sugars and fats. They'll still make you fat.

I know it's boring, but apples are a superb snack if you are trying to watch your weight. They taste good and usually have 50 calories per 100 grams. Rice crispy treats have about 375 calorie per 100 grams.

If you REALLY care about your glycemic index, though, let me point out that apples have a glycemic index of about 38.

Bananas are also pretty good. Have a look.

At this exact moment, JC Penney has some leftover XMAS GIFT radios/flashlights/whatevers on super ultra closeout. Discover brand.

No doubt, less wonderful than the FreePlay. But for the DIY crowd, a $10 device is pretty attractive.

CoffeeGeek.com is my coffee website.

There are many vacuum brewers available, brand new, right now. The Bodum Santos is an "automatic" electric one that doesn't do a very good job (too weak). You can get one for about $100.

The glass ones are less expensive, but there are two tricky parts:

1) Heating them without causing the glass to crack.
2) Managing the filter that keeps the grinds out of the brew.

If I'm feeling like the standard drip brewer just won't be good enough, I make my coffee in a saucepan:

1) Grind to medium 1 troy ounce of beans per 16 fluid ounces of water, or to taste. (Note that most office coffee is about 1::24, and that pale coffee they serve at cheap conventions is 1::32)

2) Heat water in saucepan until just boiling. Add coffee, stir, cover pan, remove from heat. (Optimal temperature for coffee brewing is 200 F)

3) Wait 5 minutes. (Optimal brewing time is 4-6 minutes, but if you use less coffee, brew shorter. Longer = bitterer, shorter = weaker.)

4) Pour coffee through chinois (conical, fine strainer) into serving carafe. Don't bother using a pestle to squeeze the last drops out unless you're a fiend.

You can make as much coffee as you want with this method. Ideal for large parties.

Chinois: Here's a typical chinois set: http://www.amazon.com/Fox-Run-Three-Stainless-Chinois/dp/B0000VLPMQ/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1201219761&sr=1-11

Amazon also usually has some in the $15 range.

Note: ANY strainer will work as long as the mesh is fine enough to hold back the grounds, AND the straining surface area is big enough to allow the coffee to pass through the strainer in just a few seconds. The Chinois has a steep conical shape for this exact reason. A standard "bowl" strainer would soon become clogged with grounds and have a bunch of coffee dripping through very slowly.

Chinois is also great for making stock, straining jelly, etc, and extracting juice from difficult fruits like pomegranates.

@Joel, Cooks Illustrated, the geek's perfect cooking porn magazine, recently tried an unseasoned cast iron skillet versus a pre-seasoned one (Lodge Logic brand), versus one they borrowed from someone's southern grandma.

(Seasoning is a pretty complicated process whereby the cast iron of the pan takes up some grease from the food and forms a blackened coating that improves browning and reduces sticking. There doesn't seem to be any good science about exactly what the coating is, or how it works, but it's generally recognized that an unseasoned pan is a disaster for anything like eggs.)

Short answer: Preseasoned is better than unseasoned (duh), but the family heirloom is the best, by a lot.

Just to make sure, they cooked with all three for a few hundred dishes and then re-ran the test. Both the unseasoned and the pre-seasoned skillets were much improved, but the heirloom was still much better.

Unfortunately, most of their content requires paying to access, but they also are advertising-free (except their TV program, America's Test Kitchen, which has the typical PBS "sponsorship").

Cooks also publishes a line of cookbooks called "The Best Recipe," where they try dozens or even hundreds of variations on recipes to find out what's really the best approach. How can one get ideal smoked ribs in half the time? Does cooking a roast in a hot oven turned down at the end work better than a cool oven turned up at the end, or is it really necessary to brown the roast in a pan and then cook it "low and slow" for hours?

As I said, perfect food geek porn.

GOBO the $3000 pricetag includes a 64 GB Solid State Drive, which is a $999 upgrade on its own.

I can't understand why people want an SSD personally. I mean, I know it's fast, and it might be lower power, and it's definitely got the NEEEEEET!!!!! factor, but $999 is a lot of money.

The processor upgrade from 1.6 to 1.8 is $300.

And, just to be thorough: the Ethernet dongle is $29, the modem dongle is $49, and the external SuperDrive DVD is $99.

These people are making something rather like Tibetan Buddhist tsa-tsas.

http://www.tsatsastudio.org/

OK, here's my Suckiest Gadget Story, which happens to be about a vacuum cleaner, even.

ONCE UPON A TIME, for a short time, I lived with a girlfriend who had some seriously insane cats. Most of the time, I'd just see crazy glowing laser eyes glaring out at me from under a couch, or behind a plant. Once in a while, though, they'd plop down near me, just beyond arm's reach, and act like they wanted to be petted. But when I'd reach over, no matter how carefully, they'd give me the "do not want" face and zoom out of the room, Road Runner dust swirls and everything.

The good news is that they weren't allowed in the bedroom, and their litter box was in the second bathroom. Also, my clothing was never shredded nor "marked." So although I was getting no Cat Value, I wasn't paying any major Cat Penalty either.

Well, all this changed shortly after my girlfriend borrowed my vacuum cleaner. I had one of those indestructible old vacuums -- made of some kind of avocado-colored miracle plastic in the Sixties, it weighed as much as a five-year-old. I was not overly fond of it, because it was ugly and never worked all that well, but it seemed utterly unstoppable, so I never bothered to replace it. So on I went through life with an indestructible, loud, heavy, ancient, ugly, boring, not very good vacuum cleaner, and so I was just as happy to have it at her place as mine.

She put it in the second bathroom. The one where the cat box was. And there was nothing wrong with that, until one fateful day when she was cleaning the cat box.

Now, at that point in time, clumping cat litter was a pretty fresh idea, and most brands were labelled "flushable." My girlfriend was pretty careful, scooping out just the used clumps of litter, and carefully flushing them a few at a time. Until one day, when the inevitable happened. She flushed the litter, but it didn't go down the drain. Nor did it just sit there, with a bowl full of water. No, litter and sewage started backing up and it looked like they weren't going to stop. So she grabbed the vacuum cleaner hose, and jammed it deep into the bowl....

When I showed up a few hours later, she immediately apologized for killing my vacuum cleaner. Obviously, I had a quick look to see if this were possible.

When I turned on the vacuum for a moment, the unmistakable acrid smell of burning electrical insulation came forth, followed immediately by smoke. I lifted up the cleaner off the floor, flipped it over, and a few flames flickered momentarily. Strangely, the vacuum seemed to weigh twice as much as it usually did!

Disassembly revealed that the entire vacuum chamber was filled with a hardened, concrete-like substance made of clumped litter and cat feces. Even the hose and the bag chamber were caked with this heinous concrete. There was no way this vacuum was ever sucking again.

At first she was relieved that I wasn't mad, but had to be reassured that I was not laughing at her but rather at the circumstances of the death of the loud, heavy, ancient, avocado-colored, boring, supposedly indestructible vacuum cleaner.

SKEP said what I would say. A Boost-a-roo, or even a cheap Altoids tin amp with a bunch of jacks will give you DRAMATICALLY better sound, especially from an iPod.

Grumpy because Sanrio already had BAD BADTZ-MARU which was very appealing to men, and he's been shelved. Now Sanrio decides the mouthless, ultimately inoffensive HK is just the ticket.

Grumpy.

I keep meaning to buy this: http://www.angel-art-house.com/oil_painting_details.aspx?ID=6083

Then again, there's this: http://www.angel-art-house.com/oil_painting_details.aspx?ID=10582

I guess I could also ask them to reproduce one of the blank pieces of paper that Dalì signed....

There is a surprisingly large number of sex addicts in the world. Oh yes, you can make the joke and laugh about how everyone's a sex addict, but if you were to actually go to a sex addicts anonymous meeting, where all of people in the room think they are "addicts" in the worst sense of the word, and ask, "How many of you have had, or nearly had, a car crash due to your sexual addiction?" every hand would go up.

Damn near every sex addict has a car crash because they were "distracted" by their sexual behavior.

And that is why I tell my wife to stop driving like a maniac. Because someday, the person in front of her is going to have an orgasm and lose control of their vehicle, and she won't have enough time to avoid the accident.

This is a wonderful thing that brightens the afternoon.

Mark F -- MORE PORK SAUSAGES MOM! Please?

This made my day. Can't wait to see the MST3K version.

That's not a scary cockroach, this is:

http://uglyoverload.blogspot.com/2007/12/opalescent-cockroach.html

(props to uglyoverload, which all right thinking citizens endorse.)

If you're over about 20, and you've ever brushed your teeth without toothpaste, you know WHY you use toothpaste. Your mouth-crud smells like the goop at the bottom of a goldfish bowl.

So how exactly will this help that?

No, what will kill FaceBook are the apps.

I am sick to death of being super-poked, movie-compared, attacked by zombies, vampires, ninjas, robots, pirates, and monkeys. I do not want my brains gamed. I don't have a million dollars, so I don't want to compare how I'd spend it with my friends. (Besides which, I'd give it to my money manager, and do what s/he said. Exciting game.)

I came to Facebook because I found old, lost friends. These friends came to Facebook, apparently, for the same reason. Now we're all being super-friend-spammed and not paying attention as hard as we possibly can.

Ugh. Luckily, I can ignore Facebook, just like I ignore Friendster, Orkut, MySpace, and all the ones before it. But without me ogling FaceBook, how are they going to make the money off the ad impressions? I suspect the advertisers will soon figure out that only really bored youngsters are poking at every app to come down the pike, and if they HAD money, they'd spend it becoming un-bored in some other way. (Or perhaps on Ritalin.)

It might not make you feel even one iota better, but I can assure you that the appropriate people at Apple have been apprised of the situation. Several other people at Apple, with whom I converse, expressed horror and dismay at this report, and especially that it's not just one person complaining.

In the mean time, let me offer some alternatives.

First, Newer Technology sells replacement batteries, often offering more capacity than original batteries at a slightly lower price (ie. 4.8 AH instead of 4.1, for $95 instead of $120). They've been doing this for a really long time, and I've never seen complaints. I've used several of their batteries, and been completely satisfied.

http://www.newertech.com/

Second, if you are willing to do some research and take a chance, you can also find inexpensive replacement batteries on eBay (say, $35 to $50). It looks like many people are selling the exact same batteries. I bought one very recently, and it has been OK for a week or so. Checking the battery information provided by the battery in System Profiler, it looks like a good battery.

Note that neither the Newer Tech battery or the eBay batteries will look exactly like the Apple brand battery, but then again, sometimes Apple batteries don't, either.

ZZZEBRA, I am delighted to hear that you've made up your mind already.

My note was intended for people who weren't familiar with the XO, however. Some of them might be under the misconception that it is a general purpose laptop at a super-bargain price point.

I want them to understand that it's not intended for the typical first-world consumer market, and that the ASUS EEE is indeed a much better fit for that market, because the EEE has faster processors.

Cory Doctorow's original article doesn't make that point clear, so that's what I was trying to do.

After all, it's not going to do the OLPC foundation any good if a zillion people purchase the XO, then hate it, and try to return it. (Nevermind the well-intentioned but under-informed buyers.)

MARKSIMPKINS The OLPC foundation employs like 6 people in their office, total. Almost everyone else is either an advisor, or is constantly flying to Asia to deal with manufacturing issues.

I'm actually surprised they actually decided to make the "buy 2 get 1" offer available on a public website instead of just their trusted shareware contributors, because selling computers is a HUGE hassle. I bet they just plain don't have enough staff to handle world-wide shipment hassles.

(Why US only? The cruel reality is that the US buys half the consumer-priced computers in the world. Usually, the entire European Union and Japan vie for the #2 market spot. Luckily, the EU is making it much easier to sell/ship/manage, so Europe is getting better treatment from the computer companies. (And I bet you say "oh really? when?" and I hardly blame you.))

As people have said, you can either find a friend in the US to re-mail it to you, pay the US Post Office for the same privilege, or get a group order together and email the OLPC foundation and make a proposition. They might do it for what you consider a reasonably small number of units.

Best of luck. By all means, set up a list of people who DEFINITELY WOULD buy 2 to get one in your country. It'll save the OLPC trouble if they decide they CAN do another few countries in their next round of offerings, if nothing else.

Two things you might wish to know about this "XO Computer"

1) The keyboard is weensy, and not very pleasant for touch typing. It's intended for kids, and it's intended to be at least somewhat waterproof. I am pretty sure one can plug in a real keyboard. The screen is also weensy.

The graphics system is NOT suitable for playing a first-person shooter, and the CPU is a 500 MHz "x86 compatible" GEODE processor. Chances are, even a real Intel 500 MHz CPU would be a lot faster. But the GEODE runs on appx 1 watt of power. Low power is very important for the XO, because many of the target children don't have reliable electricity.

Indeed, almost all the innovation of the XO is to make it run at very low power levels, and make it share networking capabilities via 802.11s "mesh" networking. Us "first world" geeks have electricity and wireless networking almost everywhere.

2) Comparing this computer (which costs $400 because you are donating one) to the Asus EEE (which costs $400 for one), the EEE is a better computer for the money. Faster processor, bigger screen, etc. Also the EEE can run Windows, which is arguably a plus.

The OLPC initiative "XO" is not going to be your favorite laptop. If you want a cheap laptop, and don't care about kids in Africa, get an ASUS or a secondhand Mac or IBM portable. You'll like it a lot better.

I'm donating and getting one because:
1) I am pals with Mary Lou Jepsen and several of the other people on the team, so I feel strong motivation to support "my people."
2) Getting one will be the simplest way to build and test software for it, and I dearly want to ship some "games" that teach stuff.
3) Even without reasons 1 or 2, the idea behind sending computers to poor children is fascinating enough that I'm willing to contribute to this "noble experiment" and see what happens.

Note that if you are REALLY paranoid, you can call your local shredding company, and make an appointment to come in with a stack of drives, and they will let you WATCH them shred them, and GIVE YOU BACK the shreds if you want (or they will dispose of them).

(I should find some old drives to go shred, just for the YouTube value.)

Note that a drive that's more a year or two old is hardly worth reformatting and using as a disk drive. New drives rarely last longer than 3 years before failing drastically, and older, longer-lasting drives are very low capacity.

Apparenlt, you can hack Apple's Time Machine to enable backup onto "unsupported" network file systems.

Are you REALLY going to trust your backup data to a hack?

Are these file systems tested at all? You'd better hope not, because if they were, why would they be disabled?

Madness!