If..Else Log

Only works in the UK, Find amusing places close to you

Raymond Chen:

Last year there was a recall of exploding frying pans. For some reason I found this funny.

"The pans can explode or separate when preheated, used on high heat or used for frying," the safety commission said in a statement.
It explodes when you fry something in it.

Apparently "frying stuff" was not in the test plan for the frying pans.

You can search Google for definitions. For example to search for independent, type define:independent in the search bar

Konami has set up a contest in which you can design a camouflage for Snake (or whoever we control this time) to wear in the latest Metal Gear Solid game. The image must be a 640 pixels by 640 pixels JPEG image. The design must be original… you can read the terms and conditions on the site, good luck, I'll be entering too.

Remember the deadline:
US Eastern Standard Time : 10:00 May 11, 2004 to 10:00 June 29, 2004
GMT(EU) : 15:00 May 11, 2004 to 15:00 June 29, 2004
Japan : 00:00 May 12, 2004 to 24:00 June 30, 2004

Art Rage:

ArtRage is a painting package designed to provide a realistic and fun simulation of using paint on a canvas, along with pens, pencils, crayons, and other tools. You can run ArtRage on a normal Windows machine with a mouse, but it works particularly well if you have a graphics tablet. Even better, running ArtRage on a TabletPC takes advantage of the unique interaction of pen and screen to produce a realistic painting feel.

ArtRage is all about playing with paint without the mess, and having fun in the process. You can paint your own image from a blank canvas to completed work, or load in a picture to trace and have the tools pick their colours for you as you paint over it.

Looks promising. As soon as I have time, I'll install it on my image system and have a play around with it.

Engadget:

DVD recorders aren't going to get any faster than 16X. Why? Same reason why CD burners maxed out at 52X - spin the disc any faster and it'll physically crack. The first 16X DVD drives should be out in a few months, probably no later than September.

Doc Searls:

It came to mind when I got an email from a friend that said, simply, RSS is opt-in authenticated Email.

Telegraph:

The new electric armour is made up of a highly-charged capacitor that is connected to two separate metal plates on the tank's exterior. The outer plate, which is bullet-proof and made from an unspecified alloy, is earthed while the insulated inner plate is live.

The electric armour runs off the tank's own power supply. When the tank commander feels he is in a dangerous area, he simply switches on the current to the inner plate.

When the warhead fires its jet of molten copper, it penetrates both the outer plate and the insulation of the inner plate. This makes a connection and thousands of amps of electricity vaporises most of the molten copper. The rest of the copper is dispersed harmlessly against the vehicle's hull.

But despite the high charge, the electrical load on the battery is no more than that caused by starting the engine on a cold morning.

In a recent demonstration of the electric armour for senior Army officers, an APC protected by the new British system survived repeated attacks by rocket-propelled grenades that would normally have destroyed it several times over.

Many of the grenades were fired from point-blank range but the only damage to the APC was cosmetic. The vehicle was driven away under its own power.

Engadget: NASA's jet-powered Personal Satellite Assistant. I want one:-)

BBC: Sweden's new stealth ship.