A lot of us skip breakfast in the morning, be it because we don’t have time to make something, don’t have the patience, or for some other reason. Yuri Suzuki and Masa Kimura are aiming to make your breakfast a little easier, a little quicker, and a lot more interesting. Their latest project is a Rube Goldberg-like machine that does everything from fry your eggs to brew your coffee. The coolest part about this project is it was built with the help of the public. The two designers put out an open invitation for people to come help in constructing…
Hack
The incredible breakfast machine
Business
Google announces Project 10^100 themes
Google has finally whittled down the more than 150,000 ideas submitted as part of its Project 10^100 to 16 themes that will compete for $10 million in funding.It’s taken far longer than Google had originally anticipated, but the results of the company’s 10th anniversary project to solicit ideas that could change the world are ready for inspection. Google is asking the public to vote on the most worthy of the 16 “idea themes” that it has identified from the submissions it has received over the past year.Google had originally planned to choose individual ideas, but was “overwhelmed” by the number…
Tech Support
A Free Reverse Cell Phone Search To Find Out Who Owns Any Number
Thanks to the technology available nowadays, you can instantly discover the full name, address and even background information about anyone by having only their phone number. This is done by using a “reverse cell phone search” – let’s take a closer look at how this is done.
As you might imagine, this type of service will usually cost a few bucks, but there is a way to get the same information for free.
With the phone number you want to get details about, go to Google and type in the number. Use the following format: “555-555-5555″ (make sure to include…
Business
SA launches corruption hotline
Mr Zuma first mentioned the hotline during his election campaign, saying it would help make the government more accessible to the public. The hotline can also be used to report corruption in public offices. The BBC’s Pumza Fihlani says corruption and lack of service delivery are among South Africa’s key challenges. Mr Zuma has himself been accused of corruption, which he has always denied. The charges were dropped in April after prosecutors said there had been political interference in the case under the previous administration. In July, there were widespread protests by township residents demanding better public services, such as…
Business
RIL charging ‘illegal’ margin on K-G gas: RNRL
Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL (RNRL.NS : 88.3 -0.05)) on Sunday echoed its attack against Reliance Industries (RELIANCE.NS : 2153.15 +12.3) (RIL) and alleged that RIL was charging illegal and unauthorised margin on the sale of K-G D6 gas. RNRL, in a conference call with reporters, accused that RIL was charging marketing margin without the approval of empowered group of ministers (eGoM). The company claimed that power and fertilizer units, which have already signed gas sale purchase agreements, are expected to bear an additional burden of over Rs 10,000 crore due to the marketing margin charged by RIL. RNRL seeks the…
Business
Bharti, MTN reach pact on $24-bn deal
Bharti Airtel Ltd (BHARTIARTL.BO : 414.65 -7.2), India’s biggest mobile-phone company, and South Africa’s MTN Group Ltd have reached a $24-billion preliminary agreement to buy each other’s shares, the first step in a planned merger, three people familiar with the matter said. Bharti sweetened its bid to buy 49% of MTN by increasing the cash portion of its $14-billion offer, the people said, asking not to be identified before an announcement later this month. MTN, Africa’s biggest wireless company, and its shareholders are poised to acquire 33% of Bharti for about $10 billion, they said. In a note issued late…
Business
Reliance insurance bid for Air India unfair: NIACL
NEW DELHI: Public insurer New India Assurance has accused the troubled NACIL of flouting the tender norms for about Rs 45,000-crore insurance cover for Air India’s fleet to favour a consortium led by an Anil Ambani group firm, which refuted the allegation. While NACIL declined to comment on accusations contained in a letter sent to it by New India Assurance, Reliance General Insurance said it had supplied all the information and documents desired by the aviation company for the tender. In its letter to National Aviation of Company of India of India Ltd (NACIL), New India Assurance Co said, “Tender…
Business
Tata Motors invites FDs from public to raise Rs 1,500 cr
NEW DELHI: Within less than a year, the country’s largest auto maker, Tata Motors, has come to the public for the second time to raise about Rs Some common investment rulesIndia’s ten biggest wealth creatorsCo FDs good bet for low-income investors 1,500 crore via fixed deposit schemes, offering up to 9.88 per cent annual interest for a three-year deposit. In a public announcement, the firm today said on a minimum fixed deposit of Rs 20,000 for two and three years, it would offer 8 per cent and 8.75 per cent interest respectively under the quarterly income plan. Under another scheme…
Business
Qualities Of Highly Effective Banner
Advertising has a fundamental role to play in the endorsement of a organization’s products or services. It not only guarantees brand visibility but also influences the consumer’s thinking.
The use of banner printing as an advertising medium to lure the public is quite prevalent across the world. It is a time-tested and trusted medium, which any sales executive would swear by. The popularity of a banner and its efficacy is obviously governed by its design, and printing has a major role in ensuring that the end product comes out the way it is expected to.
Banner printing demands careful and…
Facebook
If Twitter’s Worth $10 Billion, Facebook Is Worth $100 Billion
Robert Scoble wrote a late night post over the weekend which suggests Twitter is worth between $5 and $10 billion dollars based on a sampling of businesses in approximately 8 cities. What sort of math was used to deduce this valuation? Absolutely none, but if you want to purchase shares at such a ridiculous valuation, Howard Lindzon will sell shares to you. Scoble’s post simultaneously hypes the already bloated Twitter bubble while making jabs at Facebook.
Back in March, Robert Scoble was saying the exact opposite. Scoble is pretty good at writing a headline which will drive a lot of…
Hack
C64 Visual Debugger
Root Labs wrote about ICU64, a Commodore 64 emulator with a couple unusual features. The most special of these is the ability to show the entire working RAM of the system. Each RAM address lights up when accessed. The user can also zoom in or change the values at each address if they want. This sounds complicated, but the demo videos demonstrate the power of these abilities. This would also serve as a great primer on lower-level code’s memory management. Unfortunately [mathfigure], the author of ICU64, hasn’t released this out to the public yet, but should be released soon.
Videos after…
Facebook
Another Facebook Newsfeed RSS Application Emerges, Will Facebook Let It Stay?
Back in May Facebook shut down an application that converted your Facebook news feed into its RSS equivalent. In theory it makes a lot of sense but unfortunately Facebook claims that such actions violate their privacy policy. Months later another developer has released an RSS application which displays the most recent stories in RSS format.
The new system doesn’t appear to use Facebook’s Open Stream which makes me guess this one will be shut down as well. It’s unfortunate because this is clearly a feature that many users want. Listening is one of the most important social media activities and…
