Google Fiber picks Kansas

I was sorry to hear that Google passed on North Carolina for its Google Fiber project. Kansas City, Kansas won out.

I hope it had nothing to do with the animosity our state’s current leadership has shown towards high-speed broadband, but you never know.

After a careful review, today we’re very happy to announce that we will build our ultra high-speed network in Kansas City, Kansas. We’ve signed a development agreement with the city, and we’ll be working closely with local organizations, businesses and universities to bring a next-generation web experience to the community.

via Official Google Blog.

Update 9:26 PM: All hope may not be lost for NC after all.

Make: Online | Circuitry, Anatomy, and Repair Tips for Common CFL Lamps

Here’s a nice guide to repairing CFL bulbs yourself!

I don’t know about you, but I’m so used to the paradigm established by old-style incandescent bulbs that when one of my CFL’s “blows out,” it doesn’t even occur to me that I might be able to repair it in the garage. Or at least, it didn’t until I saw this page from Pavel Ruzicka, which does a good job of explaining the general principles of operation of CFL lamps and gives great details about their most common failure modes. Apparently, replacing a single capacitor will often do the trick. [via Hack a Day]

via Make: Online | Circuitry, Anatomy, and Repair Tips for Common CFL Lamps.

Transaction canceled

I posted about a fake “transaction canceled” email I got but today I experienced a real canceled transaction.

I’ve been looking around for an LG Optimus V phone and thought I’d found the perfect one on Craigslist. It was priced at 60% of what a new phone costs:

VIRGIN MOBILE ANDROID – $120 (RALEIGH)
Date: 2011-03-28, 7:30PM EDT

THIS IS THE LG OPTIMUS V BRAND NEW IN BOX CALL 919-758-xxxx this is a touch screen

Continue reading →

Biting the hand that feeds

I’ve never understood how some people who’ve made their living serving in the military can turn around and proclaim that government is bad. Especially when they continue to enjoy government-paid health care and other benefits.

It makes me glad that I made it out of the military with my ability to think intact.

ACH Payment canceled scam

Got this scam email today. Of course NACHA does not send emails about any transactions, so you can consider this to be fraud.

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:36:01 +0000
From: risk@nacha.org
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v2.10.03) Personal
Message-ID: <2450512739.Q2NA84TE047826@urzrjfbftr.tlgwdedu.info>
Subject: ACH payment canceled

The ACH transaction (ID: 58051732944390), recently sent from your bank account (by you or any other person), was rejected by the other financial institution.

Please click here to download further information

If you have any questions or comments, contact us at info@nacha.org. Thank you for using http://www.nacha.org.

Jake Barnett, boy genius

Meet Jake Barnett, a 12-year-old math prodigy from Indiana who is already blazing new trails in science.

“We were in the crowd, just sitting, listening to this guy ask the crowd if anyone knew why the moons going around Mars were potato-shaped and not round,” she recalls. “Jacob raised his hand and said, ‘Excuse me, but what are the sizes of the moons around Mars?’ “

The lecturer answered, and “Jacob looked at him and said the gravity of the planet . . . is so large that (the moon’s) gravity would not be able to pull it into a round shape.”

Silence.

“That entire building . . . everyone was just looking at him, like, ‘Who is this 3-year-old?’ “

via Genius at work: 12-year-old is studying at IUPUI | The Indianapolis Star | indystar.com.

Rush’s Greensboro show postponed

I found out today that the Rush show in Greensboro I was planning to see on Friday has been pushed back by a day. Apparently those wicked “unforseen circumstances” caught Live Nation off guard.

Look, I’m a busy guy. My wife is a busy woman. Even our kids are busy. We all planned for me to see this show months in advance, because that’s what it takes to coordinate all of our schedules. I know Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neal Peart are rock stars and putting on a tour takes a herculean effort, but I was really looking forward to taking a day off of work and driving with my brother to see them play.

Telling fans three days before the show that it’s been postponed is pretty stupid, in my book. Now I can’t go. This sucks.

Live Nation announced today that due to unforeseen circumstances the Rush performance previously scheduled for this Friday, April 1st in Greensboro has been postponed one day and will now take place on Saturday, April 2nd at the Greensboro Coliseum. Doors remain 6:30 pm with show time at 7:30 pm.

After much consideration, as the Toledo performance would have been the 4th show in 5 days the decision was made to delay the show rather than move forward as previously scheduled. The added time between shows will ensure that fans in Toledo are treated to the best performance that Rush can deliver. As a result, the Toledo performance previously scheduled for Wednesday, April 6th will be postponed one week and will now take place on Wednesday, April 13th at Huntington Center.

Tickets for both of the previously scheduled performance will be honored at the rescheduled dates. Fans requiring a refund may do so at point of purchase.

For complete tour and ticket details visit: www.livenation.com and www.rush.com

Artificial Leaf

Fascinating.

Speaking at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in California, MIT professor Daniel Nocera claims to have created an artificial leaf made from stable and inexpensive materials that mimics nature’s photosynthesis process.

The device is an advanced solar cell, no bigger than a typical playing card, which is left floating in a pool of water. Then, much like a natural leaf, it uses sunlight to split the water into its two core components, oxygen and hydrogen, which are stored in a fuel cell to be used when producing electricity.

With a single gallon of water, Nocera says, the chip could produce enough electricity to power a house in a developing country for an entire day. Provide every house on the planet with an artificial leaf and we could satisfy our 14-terrawatt need with just one gallon of water a day.

via Artificial Leaf Could Be More Efficient Than the Real Thing | Wired Science | Wired.com.

Internet pioneer Paul Baran dies

Internet pioneer Paul Baran died over the weekend at the age of 84. Baran’s packet switching technique provided the foundation of today’s Internet.

I find it amusing that AT&T told him it would never work.

In the early 1960s, while working at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, Calif., Mr. Baran outlined the fundamentals for packaging data into discrete bundles, which he called “message blocks.” The bundles are then sent on various paths around a network and reassembled at their destination. Such a plan is known as “packet switching.”

“Paul wasn’t afraid to go in directions counter to what everyone else thought was the right or only thing to do,” said Vinton Cerf, a vice president at Google who was a colleague and longtime friend of Mr. Baran’s. “AT&T repeatedly said his idea wouldn’t work, and wouldn’t participate in the Arpanet project,” he said.

via Paul Baran, 84, Dies – Helped Pave Way for Internet – NYTimes.com.

United Parcel Service Notification virus

I’ve been getting occasional emails with the subject “United Parcel Service notification” and the following text:

Dear customer.

The parcel was sent your home address.
And it will arrive within 7 business day.

More information and the tracking number are attached in document below.

Thank you.
© 1994-2011 United Parcel Service of America, Inc.

There is an attachment with the email that is called United Parcel Service document.zip or UPSnotify.rar, though there are other names, too. The attachment isn’t a document at all, of course: it’s a trojan horse designed to infect your computer with a virus (called TROJ_SPYEYE.SMEP) that allows others to control it. Trend Micro says the “controlling” site for the virus has since been shut down, so the risk may be low.

I’ve read that these fake emails also masquerade as coming from FedEx and DHL.

As always, do not click on links or attachments from people or services you don’t know, especially if they are written in poor English. Also, consider switching to Linux or a Mac.