Jacky Bauer's Blog

The National Safety Council, which campaigned to get U.S. states to enforce seatbelt laws, is taking on cellphones, saying on Sunday it was starting a campaign to ban all use of mobile phones while driving. Even so-called hands-free devices should be banned, because studies show they do not make it any safer to talk on the telephone while driving, the group said. “It’s time to take the cellphone away,” said Janet Froetscher, president and chief executive officer of the non-profit group. “Studies show that driving while talking on a cellphone is extremely dangerous and puts drivers at a four times greater risk of a crash,” Froetscher said in a telephone interview. Many states and Washington, D.C. have laws requiring the use of a hands-free device while driving and using a cellphone. But several recent studies have shown drivers are far more distracted when speaking on a mobile phone, even with a speaker or headset, than talking to a live passenger. Last month Dave Strayer of the University of Utah and colleagues demonstrated that drivers using a hands-free device drifted out of their lanes and missed exits more frequently than drivers talking to a passenger. Strayer’s team has also shown that drivers using mobile telephones are as impaired as drivers who are legally drunk. A study from the Harvard Center of Risk Analysis estimates that cellphone use while driving contributes to 6 percent of crashes. Froetscher’s group says that translates to 636,000 crashes, 330,000 injuries and 2,600 deaths in the United States each year. Source: Reuters

The epic battle between plasma and LCD manifests itself in numerous ways–Hz oneupsmanship, contrast ratio and viewing angle specs, lifespan claims–but until now, panel depth was a frontier comfortably dominated by LCD, with ultrathin models like the Hitachi UT37X902. Now Samsung and Panasonic aim to claim that frontier themselves, the latter with the new inch-thick Z1. Panasonic’s press material uses the term “Z1 series,” which indicates to us that the company is planning other screen sizes with inch-deep panels. But for now the only size the company sees fit to announce is the 54-inch TC-P54Z1, due in summer for an undisclosed, but surely sizable, chunk of change. Thin panels pose a number of design quandaries, such as where to connect the cables. Panasonic solves the problem by supplying a separate AV box, with a tuner and connections like HDMI and component-video, which streams audio, video, and control signals to the panel wirelessly. The company uses a 60GHz millimeter wave radio system that sounds similar to the one employed by LG for its wireless displays, and like LG claims the ability to transmit full, uncompressed 1080p video. Aside from Digital Cinema Color, the Z1 incorporates all of the features of the thicker V10 models, including improved 24p compatibility, VieraCast; the power-saving, high-contrast, NEO PDP panel; “infinite black;” and a 600Hz sub-field drive. Source: Cnet

The cat and mouse game between iPhone hackers and Apple has taken a new interesting turn, as the hackers have unlocked the device from the shackles of AT&T. Presenting an incredible New Year gift to the iPhone owners who simply don’t want to be restricted to AT&T network, iPhone hackers have unleashed a software, tagged as “Yellowsn0w”, which is now available as free download for the users. In addition, the software could also be useful to the residents of the places where AT&T’s network is not available yet. A part of the iPhone developer team met at the 25th Chaos Communication Congress, the team members Planetbeing, Pytey, Bushing, and Musclenerd, in conjunction with several anonymous Russian speakers, have demonstrated the way of unlocking and jailbreaking the device in a one hour presentation. While discussing the unlocking procedure, the hackers kicked-off their demonstration with describing iPhone’s basic design, its boot sequence and baseband, and all such entities that were required to unlock the iPhone. The iPhone dev team discussed the various exploits they used for the purpose, which differed starkly from the efforts required for first- and second-generation handsets, along with the manner the unlock code executes, and the method of delivering payload. Source: IT Pro

AT&T on Saturday began offering refurbished iPhones for the lowest price yet seen in the United States: $99 for a black 8GB iPhone 3G (refurbished) $199 for a black 16 GB iPhone 3G (refurbished) The price points are not entirely unexpected. For several weeks before Christmas, Apple blogs were buzzing with rumors that Wal-Mart would be selling a new version of Apple’s iPhone at the magical $99 price. But it was not to be. On Friday, Wal-Mart confirmed that starting Sunday, Dec. 28, it will carry the hot-selling phone at nearly 2,500 stores — but starting at $197, not $99. AT&TS’s $99 iPhones are the same old models, slightly used. Refurbished phones are previously owned devices that have been unused or lightly used and returned during the 30-day trial period. Each refurbished phone is independently quality tested and loaded with the latest software to meet current factory standards. Some refurbished iPhone 3G devices will have minor scratches. The catch? The heavily discounted phones come with the usual 2-year contracts, which can cost up to $2,000, depending on the plan. Source: CNN

Comcast is offering new, higher internet access speeds to its customers in some of Comcast’s biggest markets. This is the first step in Comcast’s plan to offer the higher speeds to all of its customers over the next two years. The new Internet connection speeds have been designed to access large amounts of information more quickly, facilitating access to videos, online games, and large software programs. The new Internet connection speeds will also make Comcast’s Internet access more competitive with Internet access offered by phone companies. Consumers will be able to choose between two new connection speeds through Comcast, and businesses will be offered one new speed, Reuters reported.

Comcast will offer an “Ultra” service package with 22 megabits per second downstream speed and 5 Mbps upstream speed for $62.95 per month, and an “Extreme 50″ package with 50 Mbps downstream speed and 10 Mbps upstream speed for $139.95 per month. Currently, Comcast Internet connection speeds range from 6 to 8 Mbps, Reuters reported. The new Internet connection speeds are based on a technology known as “Docsis 3.0,” and Comcast will make them available in the Boston metropolitan area, southern New Hampshire, and parts of New Jersey and Philidelphia. Comcast has already offered one of the new speeds in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., for several months as a test run.

Source: CRN

A few years ago Nike was the company advertising on mass while producing par products. Puma was sitting in the back making nice clothes and became one of my favorite brands.

Now it seems that Puma is everywhere and Nike is starting to sit back. It also seems Nike's quality is up a tad.

gLyo: Nike is not sitting back from anything; they are still milking the Nike SB Dunks for all they are worth (which is $1000+ for some pairs). Some of their shoes are pretty solid, and some totally suck.

The same goes for Puma(i like puma shoes badly, lol), but they don't have an ultra-popular streetwear brand like Nike SB.

Addidas recently "stepped up their game" with the Adicolor line, which has some very interesting colorways, but not many are actually very wearable.

My personal favourites are Asics Onitsuka and Vans. Very solid wearable shoes with a nice amount of flair.

aseq: I think Nike is still huge in the US. I haven't got any numbers on it, but over here i see more adidas and puma. I think both Puma and Adidas are better looking than Nike, but i also support wearing sports stuff because it's functional, not because it looks good. Puma are worn as day-to-day sneakers, while pretty much all nike shoes are running or training shoes.

Should make a bigger poll, missing also: Reebok, Asics, Fila, Lotto, Coq Sportif, Ellesse, etc.

Step 1.

Convert DVD to iPod video with Cucusoft DVD to iPod Converter(Suite)

Tools required:Latest Cucusoft DVD to iPod Converter or iPod Converter suite

Launch DVD to iPod Converter, you will see the right UI.
1. Select the button "Open DVD",you also can click "File" to open the ifo file or vob file directly.

2.choose the title you want to convert. You can right click to "uncheck all".As usual, the longest title is the main file of the movie.

3.(optional) Set your preference.

4. Click the "Convert" button to start the converting.

Done.

Receiving an Unhandled Exception Error during game launch or while actually playing can be caused by a few problems. As always, please patch the game first. The patch includes several fixes that may correct this type of error. You can patch the game by connecting to Battle.net for the auto-patch or you can download and run the stand-alone patch from our patch page at http://www.blizzard.com/patches/. After installing the patch, please reboot your computer and test the game again. If the patch does not correct the problem, please follow the steps below.

The first step is to reinstall the game, but before reinstalling, you may want to back up your single-player character files. These files are stored in the Diablo IISave folder on your hard drive. The character files have the same name as the character. Save these files to another directory or to a floppy disk and then restore them once you have reinstalled the game.

Uninstall Diablo II by going to Start, Programs, Diablo II, and choose Uninstall Diablo II. Once the game is uninstalled you can delete the Diablo II folder from your hard drive.

Now, run a thorough scandisk and defrag of your hard drive(s). You will probably find it helpful to disable your screen saver and power management features before you scandisk or defrag. Sometimes Windows will restart the defragmentation and/or scandisk if your screen saver or power management kicks in.

(Windows 98/Me)

- Click on the Start button and go to Run.
- Type in "scandisk" (without quotes) and click the OK button.
- Follow the prompts and select "Thorough" scandisk and let it run.
- This will tell you if there are any problems on the hard disk.

- Click on the Start button and go to Run
- Type in "defrag" (without quotes) and click the OK button.
- Follow the prompts to defrag your hard drive.
- This will make the available space more usable by your programs.

(Windows 2000/XP)

- Open My Computer, and select the local disk you want to check.
- On the File menu, click Properties.
- Click the Tools tab.
- Under Error-checking, click Check Now.
- Under Check disk options, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box and the automatically fix file system errors box.
- Select yes to schedule after restart if a dialog box comes up prompting you to do so.
- Restart your computer

- Open My Computer, and select the local disk you want to check.
- On the File menu, click Properties.
- Click the Tools tab.
- Under Defragmentation, click Defragment now.
- Select volume to Defragment.
- Click Defragment.

Reinstall the multiplayer or full version of Diablo II and then install Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. You will need your original Diablo II play disc for the first part of the installation and the Expansion disc to finish the installation. You will also need to have your original Diablo 2 CD Key for Diablo II and the Lord of Destruction Diablo 2 CD Keys accessible while you install. Windows 2000 users need Administrative rights to run the Diablo II program.

Bugged CD-Key Explained
Many people get this error because Diablo II overlaps itself and keeps it logged in your Processes. When overlapped, your Diablo 2 CD Key is still logged with Battle.Net, disabling you from connecting with the same CD-Key. The removal of this is very easy if you carefully follow the instructions below:

Questions and Answers

Q: Why, when I try to log onto Battle.Net, does it say I’m in use of my own CD-Key?
A: This is known as the “Bugged Diablo 2 CD Keys.” This is because Diablo II has overlapped itself.

Q: What steps must be taken to remove the bugged usage and give me validation to log on?
A: There are a few steps you can take to reset your usage. Read the following:

Manual Removal

• Close your Diablo II window.
• Press CTRL+ALT+DEL and move to your “Processes” tab.
• Look for a program called “game.exe”.
• Once you’ve located this, press “End Task”.
• Retry logging onto Battle.Net after “game.exe” is terminated.

*Note: If you are unable to follow the instructions above, simply restart your computer.*

Adobe Systems announced late Tuesday that it had begun shipping Creative Suite 4, its bundle of professional graphics and media applications. The launch, which Adobe described as the largest in the company’s history, includes updated versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Contribute, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Soundbooth, OnLocation, and Encore. Four different flavors of the suite are available with prices ranging from $1,699 to $2,499. Adobe continues to improve integration among the applications.

After Effects, for example, can import Photoshop 3D layers and export content directly into Flash. Options for working with high-definition video and mobile content expand too, with support for the latest formats as well as for making Adobe AIR applications.Adobe also started distributing new version of Flash Player 10. This version of Flash, which Adobe launched in a beta version in May, includes support for custom filters and special effects, native 3D transformation and animation, advanced audio processing and GPU hardware acceleration, Adobe said. It also includes a new text engine aimed at providing designers and developers with more text layout options.

Source: CW, Cnet