Category Archives: Original Duenos

Posts by the original Duenos.net crew.

Heroes

If you’re not currently a “Heroes”:http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/ fan, then get to it. Since I never have time for regular TV watching, I schedule in large blocks of time where I view a season at once. Instead of waiting to download them all through “bit torrent”:http://www.bittorrent.com/ (Don’t know what bit torrent is? “Start reading”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_%28protocol%29.), you can click this “link”:http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/video/episodes.shtml to see every episode that “GE”:http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=GE owned NBC have kindly made available for your viewing.

Automated garages

Imagine a world without carbon monoxide-filled walks to the car, without predatory spot-stealers and without accidental parking dings. Imagine a world in which cars park themselves and you are imagining the wonderful world of “automated parking garages”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-storey_car_park#Automated_parking like this one by “Klaus parking”:http://www.klausparking.com/. Watch the video, it’s pretty cool.

If you’re interested in learning more, “this”:http://www.gizmag.com/go/6848/ is the best I could find from “Gizmag.com”:http://www.gizmag.com/.

X-Ray vision??

After I heard about the new backscatter “x-ray scanners”:http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/03/06/bt.backscatterxray/index.html that see through clothes, a friend of mine told me about a cheaper technique to look through women’s bathing suits and see what’s underneath. Now, I haven’t tried this, but if you’re interested in learning more (or seeing examples) go to “XRayHunter.com”:http://www.xrayhunter.com/index2.php and see for yourself.
Using the “near-infrared” color spectrum, cameras absorb light from the skin itself, ignoring light, tight clothes like bathing suits. As with any social ailment, there is a cure however, being sold by “Cramer Japan”:http://www.cramer.co.jp/ in the form of an “IR-proof”:http://www.pacificsports.com/index.cfm?fa=Catalog.detail&productID=1765&categoryID=75&viewAll=1 swimsuit. More about that from “Weird Asia News”:http://www.weirdasianews.com/2007/05/08/new-japanese-swimsuit-stops-nude-ir-photography/#more-678.

2007 word of the year

With 2007 winding down I get the urge to look back at this year and wonder if there’s a way to sum it up in just one word. Dictionary-maker Merriam-Webster has done just that, and their word is w00t! It turns out that it’s not just “l33t-speaking”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet techno-junkies using my favorite bargain word but real people too. M-W’s president, one Mr. John Morse apparently thought it was the perfect choice, blending new technology and linguistic whimsy. For those of you who think this choice to be wholly unorthodox, consider last years choice of “truthiness”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness and be happy it’s not another Colbert reference.
Here’s an “AP article”:http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5imcJd2ELqieBlFxBLhBnP5k4juaAD8TFGLM00 about it, and a link to “woot.com”:http://www.woot.com/, your source for heavily discounted crap.

eBooks in the round

In case you somehow missed it, I love eBooks. I love eBooks so much that I can’t stand their clunky design and unimaginative interfaces. Also I’m not so happy about their high price range but this design from Christian Holland has rocked my eBook-loving soul to its core. I love this thing and really want someone to make it a reality. You can find it and other lesser entries in this “submission forum”:http://boards.core77.com/viewtopic.php?t=14530&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 from design site “Core77”:http://core77.com/.
Thanks to the “original article”:http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/12/core77_one_hour.php from “TreeHugger”:http://www.treehugger.com/.

Oh Copyright, you seething souless monster you

So most of us here at Duenos die a little bit inside every time we think of Copyright as it applies to anything digital, technological, or really just any given joy that exists in the universe. One of my particular favorites in the RIAA, with their rather impressive track record:
Spying on students, trying to screw grandmothers, pursuing lower class single moms, and even inspiring a sort of nonprofit company to help people sued by the unethical corporate atrocity (can’t find the link for now, much appreciated if anyone can toss it this way). Oh and the MPAA isn’t any exception, they’ve even broken copyright themselves!
Anyway, in the spirit of all this I thought we might rehearse a little bit about copyright and fair use, as explained by our good pal Disney:
Making fair use of 27 Disney movies, the creators of this movie explain Copyright law, Fair Use, and how Disney intimidates people into staying away from its products. Will Disney consider suing the creators and increasing the negative publicity it gets from its actions?
A Fair(y) Use Tale (NOT a Disney movie)
Much thanks to www.theinquirer.net and Kent Yates at GSLIS@UIUC for the tip offs.

Head-mounted sweat gutters


Look at this. It’s a sweat band that channels the sweat away from your face. Instead of just delaying interfering perspiration like most headbands, it directs it safely aside. I found out about this sweet sweat band in an “article”:http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/002529.php
from the amazing “Cool Tools blog”:http://www.kk.org/cooltools/. Want one yourself? Check out “Amazon.com”:http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JF0YJS/ref=nosim/kkorg-20.