The original article

3 Tips to Maximize iPod Battery Life

I’m a heavy user of Apple products; more specifically the iPod nano and my lovely Powerbook, so I thought I’d try something new and throw some tips out there on how to maximize the battery life on your iPod.

1. Turn off Backlight — The most resource intensive mechanism in the iPod (except the shuffle for obvious reasons; and the hardrive in the 30GB and 60GB iPod is probably a different case) is the backlight so turning it off or even minimizing the amount of time it stays lit to two or five seconds can increase your iPod’s battery life. Head onto Settings > Backlight Timer > Off
2. Use Smart Playlists — Of course, every time you use the scroll-wheel to navigate or skip songs you’re using battery power and Smart Playlists exist for a reason, so use them! Instead of skipping songs often, utilize Playlists to create collections of songs you love and further extend your battery’s life. You could use Tangerine, which is currently in beta and free to create playlists for you. Paul Stamatiou wrote a review of Tangerine. And here are some guides as to how to construct Smart Playlists.
3. Adjust Volume Limit — The higher the volume, the more power the iPod uses and thus keeping it at a normal level will lengthen the battery life. Since the introduction of Volume Limit, you could set how loud the volume will go before it reaches its max. Now, I realize setting it at a ‘normal’ level could sometimes cripple you in certain circumstances like riding a loud bus. Play with it and see what works for you. Besides, it’ll help save your hearing! Head to Settings > Volume Limit > adjust accordingly

I caught on to these tips myself by requirement as my aging iPod nano forced me to

Plants with Eyes

Ok..it isn't real...but it is still cool

Making a list..checking it twice!

This was taken from a forum I visit: (it may take a while to sink in)
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Ima Dreemin
Gov. A White
Chris Muss
Jess Lyke
D. Juan Swee
Hugh Sterno
Wendy Treetop
Glyss Anne
Chill Wren
Liz-Ann "Two ears" Leigh
Belle Cindy Snow
I.M. Dreem
Ingo Ferwyte
Chris Muswitt
Avery Chris
Miss Carr
Dai Wright
Mayor Dazeby
Mary-Ann Bright
Anna May
Hall York Rhys
Mrs. Bea White

Playstation 3 vs. XBOX 360 - A Game Developer's Perspective - hardCOREware.net

As I suspected, the Xbox wins.

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Playstation 3 vs. XBOX 360 - A Game Developer's Perspective - hardCOREware.net

As long as consoles have existed, discussions, debates, arguments, fights, and all out WARS have taken place over who makes the best video game units. Growing up, I was always a Nintendo fan boy; I didn't want to hear anything about Sega Genesis... In my mind, Nintendo had Mario, Zelda, and other great first-party titles. Sega had Sonic, and red blood.

Things are slightly more complicated these days however. Console makers are taking different approaches to designing their products; some go for hardcore processing power, others focus more on online gaming. We already have a heated debate going on in our forum about which console is better, PS3 or XBOX 360.

I thought it would be a good idea to ask my friend, who is a lead programmer for a large gaming company that produces games for both PS3 and XBOX 360. He has also worked on PS2, XBOX 1, and PC games in the past 6-or-so years. Obviously, considering his position working with both consoles and both Sony and Microsoft, he doesn't want to step on any toes, so wishes to remain anonymous at this time. Here are his thoughts on the subject:

PS3 vs. XBOX 360

Being a video game developer (I develop for both, Playstation 3 and XBOX 360) people ask me almost daily which platform I think is better. These are my personal feelings, in no way does this reflect my employer.

Short answer: XBOX 360.

Long answer: Price, performance, visual quality, game selection and online support. I think the XBOX 360 wins in every category.

Price: This is obvious; the XBOX 360 core is only $299. The PS3 is around $499 for the 20GB version. It comes with a hard drive, but you don’t need a hard drive to enjoy a lot of great games on the 360 so I think it’s fair to compare both core systems.

Performance: On paper, the PS3 is more powerful. In reality, it’s quite inferior to the 360. Without getting into too many details, the three general-purpose CPU’s the xbox360 has are currently FAR easier to take advantage of than the SPU’s on the PS3. I suspect a few years down the road some high budget, first party PS3 exclusive titles will come out that really take advantage of the SPU’s and do things the XBOX 360 can’t, but I don’t think the console is worth buying based on this speculation (for some it will be though, we'll have to wait and see how these games turn out).

Graphics: The XBOX 360 is a clear winner. The GPU is more powerful. It has more powerful fillrate, and far more pixel and vertex processing horsepower. Part of the reason is their choice of memory, and architecture of pixel and vertex procesing. I can’t get into details but the same vertex shader will run much slower on the PS3 than the XBOX 360. The 360 also has a clever new way rendering high definition anti aliased back buffers. To accomplish the same effect on PS3 is prohibitively expensive. For this reason I think many games will have no choice but to run in non-HD resolutions on the PS3 version, use a lower quality anti aliasing technique, or do back buffer upscaling. The end result in all cases is going to be noticeably worse image quality.

Game Selection: The XBOX 360 has a huge head start here. 1 year is an eternity in gaming. Almost all multi-platform developers have made the XBOX 360 their primary platform due to timing of release-to-market, this means the games will look and perform better on the 360. The PS3 versions will be ports of the 360 versions. (The opposite was true for XBOX 1 vs. PS2). The XBOX 360 is also far faster to develop for due to better development tools (massively popular Visual Studio .NET vs. proprietary, buggy PS3 compiler and debugger), better documentation, and easier architecture (3 general purpose CPU’s vs. 8 specialized processors that require DMA). Timing has also caused all next-gen middleware developers to make XBOX 360 their primary platform, and they will ‘add ps3 support’ as needed. This support will probably be inferior to the XBOX 360’s due to manpower and more importantly, demand. It’s this catch-22 now that will continue to drive the 360 forward and hold PS3 back.

The other obvious point here is that right now the Xbox360 already has a very impressive line-up of titles on store shelves; the ps3 just launched, and has virtually nothing of interest. Also, many 360 games are already discounted ($35 for Fight Night 3 on Amazon). PS3 games are all full price since it just launched.

World's Rarest Big Cat Captured

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/11/061116-russia-leopard.html

Photo in the News: World's Rarest Big Cat Captured

November 16, 2006—In the remote forests of southeastern Russia, scientists have captured what's believed to be the rarest big cat on Earth: a Far Eastern leopard.

The animal is so scarce that only 30 are thought to survive in the wild.

The team, led by biologists from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, caught the 100-pound (45-kilogram) male in a snare last week while studying Siberian tigers in the Russian Far East, 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the Chinese border (See Russia map).

The chance capture gave biologists a priceless opportunity to study the elusive feline, and Melody Roelke (below), a specialist in big-cat genetics with the U.S. National Institutes of Health, wasn't shy about getting a closer look.

She and other team members conducted a thorough series of tests on the leopard, from studying its teeth to collecting sperm samples, before releasing the animal back into the wild.

Among the scientists' main concerns is whether Far Eastern leopards, also known as Amur leopards, can continue to sustain their tiny, isolated population, or whether disease and inbreeding may eventually wipe out the cats.

"This capture represents a milestone in our cooperative efforts to save the Far Eastern leopard and Siberian tiger from extinction," said Dale Miquelle, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Russia Program, in a statement.

"With the information gained from these animals, and others to come, we will be in a much better position to determine appropriate conservation actions."

—Blake de Pastino

If women ruled the world

If women ruled the world.......... (all in good fun of course ;) )

See it Here

Plasma caught in a bottle

This is pretty cool. I suggest not trying it at home though.