Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Young Teachers Gone Wild on Facebook

Yesterday the Washington Post published a great article about young teachers and their wild Facebook profiles. What did The Washington Post find? Sexual innuendos, a talking sperm cartoon, helpful tips like 'Don't smoke crack while pregnant' and a lot of sexual objectification and drunk party photos.

How do you find these "wild teacher" profiles on Facebook? It's easy.

  1. Log on to Facebook. You need an account.
  2. Join your local neighborhood/city network.
  3. Search Facebook for the name of your local school system.
  4. Then sit back and "watch the public profiles of 20-something teachers unfurl like gift wrap on the screen, revealing a sense of humor that can be overtly sarcastic or unintentionally unprofessional -- or both."


So who is in the wrong here? Are the young teachers naive to the fact that their students, parents and school administrators can see their Facebook profiles? Or are we wrong for holding teachers to a higher standard than the average Facebook user?

Some American states including Florida, Colorado, Tennessee and Massachusetts have banned teachers from having public profiles on MySpace and Facebook. And teachers unions have started warning their members of the dangers of having a racy social network presence. The teacher's unions might want to add Flickr to that caution list. A quick Flickr search for "sexy teacher" introduced us to Jennifer. She's a teacher in Taipei who wants to be a model.

Here's an easy solution for everyone. If you are a teacher, then edit your privacy prefs. Don't allow everyone in a Facebook network to see your full profile. Anyone can join your local city/town network and see your profile. Or take advantage of Facebook's "Limited Profile" feature. It only takes a few seconds to edit your privacy preferences and it could save your job.




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Monday, April 28, 2008

Madonna Uses MySpace to Promote 'Hard Candy' Album

Following in the footsteps of Nine Inch Nails [story], Radiohead [story], and R.E.M., The Material Girl began streaming her latest album Hard Candy via her MySpace page over the weekend, 4 days before its official U.S. release on Tuesday.

Madonna has been building interest in the album with a Hard Candy video widget embeddable on MySpace, Facebook, Hi5 and other services.

She's also performing live at the Roseland Ballroom in New York on Wednesday, April 30 in a show that will be streamed live on music.msn.com.


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Sunday, April 27, 2008

Embarrassing David Hasselhoff Photos [pics]

Back in the 1980's, David Hasselhoff was cool incarnate. His acting role in the hugely successful NBC TV series Knight Rider made him an international mega star. After Knight Rider was cancelled, Hasselhoff cashed in his International appeal for a Top 40 music career in Europe. But Hoff wouldn't deprive his American fans for long. In the early 1990's Hasselhoff came back to primetime with another TV show for NBC called Baywatch.

Recently Hasselhoff has lent his talents to Broadway for Jekyll & Hyde, sat in as a judge on the reality show America's Got Talent and even had a cameo role on the 2008 TV version of Knight Rider.

After such a high profile career spanning over 3 decades, Hasselhoff has partaken in many a cheesy photo shoot. In Hoff's defense, most of the embarrassing photos were taken during the 1980's or in Europe. But many of these photos are very questionable and a few are actually quite disturbing.

See More: Embarrassing David Hasselhoff Photos


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Friday, April 25, 2008

Terminator Karma Sutra [pics]

Fans of the the American TV series Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, might have noticed that TV version of John Connor has a very different kind of relationship with Cameron, his cyborg protector, than the Arnoldbot from the movies. Cameron even puts on nail polish in John's bedroom while they share secrets (season 1, episode 8).

Is there some human/robot love in John Connor's future? If he needs help sparking a robot romance, maybe he should try some Cszar's Terminator pornography. Cszar posed and photographed his T-800 robots having sex in various positions before sharing them on flickr.com.



Cszar's flickr album is titled "Make Love Not War." It's basically the Terminator Karma Sutra. His family must be proud.


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Thursday, April 24, 2008

Kid Trapped Inside Claw Machine [video]

Ever play one of those Lucky Dip or "claw" games before? It's a game of chance commonly found in arcades or family restaurants. You use a joystick to maneuver a claw into position and then drop it and hope the claw grabs a prize. As a child, you probably wished you could reach your hand inside the machine and grab the toy you wanted right? Well this Australian kid managed to not only slip his hand inside... but his entire body.

When the kid dug his way to the surface of all the stuffed animals he must have been excited. But that joy obviously turned to horror we he realized he was trapped. As you can see from the video, the kid is obviously terrified. Here's a video of the claw incident from Australia's Channel 9 news.












In the video, the reporter says security staff had to "dismantle" the Lucky Dip to get the boy out. Actually that statement was a little over-hyped. To "dismantle" the machine, all the security staff did was use a key and open the glass window. After all, how do you think they put more prizes inside the Lucky Dip? Have a little boy crawl in with a sack of stuffed animals?.


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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Japanese Elephant Urinal Cleaner [video]

Say hello to Dasubee - The Japanese Elephant Urinal Cleaner. To use Dasubee, just turn him on and back him into a dirty urinal (or maybe it's dirty urinals that turn him on). Dasubee will start scrubbing away and clean up all those urine soaked cigarette butts and that porcelain rim of random pubic hair.

Here's a video of Dasubee in action.



I can't decide if I should add this to my album of useless Japanese inventions or not.

So the next time you are near a urinal in Japan, throw a few peanuts inside and give Dasubee the urinal elephant a treat. Because animal faces and bright colors make cleaning piss fun! ;)

methodshop

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Monday, April 21, 2008

Raw Meat iPod Cover

A Japanese company called Solid Alliance is selling an Apple iPod cover that's designed to look like RAW MEAT. It comes in a cellophane-and-Styrofoam package just like meat does. We've reviewed plenty of iPod/iPhone cases before, but this one gets bonus points for originality. I wonder what my dog will think.

iPod... It's what's for dinner?



More info at rakuten.co.jp and therawfeed.com


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Raw Meat iPod Cover

A Japanese company called Solid Alliance is selling an Apple iPod cover that's designed to look like RAW MEAT. It comes in a cellophane-and-Styrofoam package just like meat does. We've reviewed plenty of iPod/iPhone cases before, but this one gets bonus points for originality. I wonder what my dog will think.

iPod... It's what's for dinner?



More info at rakuten.co.jp and therawfeed.com


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Thursday, April 17, 2008

Cluttered Desktop Art [PICS]

What does your computer desktop look like? Nice and organized or a complete mess full of files, folders and shortcuts? Storing tons of files on your desktop is never a good idea because it slows down your computer... especially the video refresh rate.

In an effort to encourage people to clean up their desktops, Teknograd Mac Support (Norway) has come up with an ad campaign that visualizes the feeling of helplessness that a cluttered desktop can cause.

The campaign features a variety of monstrous cluttered desktops attacking your hard drive. For example, the image below is of a Tyrannosauruses Rex about to devour a helpless hard drive. Other images from the campaign feature a shark, skull and even some space invaders.




More pictures at Macenstein.com.


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Google Website Optimizer

Google has officially launched Website Optimizer, a tool that Webmasters can use to test variations of a site's content and design to increase conversions. The free tool is available at google.com/websiteoptimizer, and the search giant has also launched an accompanying blog, tutorial and discussion board.

Website Optimizer was first rolled out as a beta in late 2006 for users of Google's AdWords platform, but the expansion means that any site owner can access the tool (provided they have a Google account, like Gmail) and start running multivariate tests.




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Pole Dancing Cat Fight [video]

What happens when a friendly pole dancing lesson between two Belgium strippers goes wrong... well, probably something like this [video].




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Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Anya Marina Interview

Sweet. Quirky. Fun. Talented. Cute. Folky. These are just some of the words you might use to describe Anya Marina... but don’t tell Anya that. She’s more comfortable labeling herself Miss Almost or Miss Maybe as she does in her hit song "Miss Halfway." But perhaps "Miss Out-Of-My-Way" would be more appropriate.

Anya's debut album "Exercises in Racketeering" won the San Diego Music Award for best local artist and her music has been used on several TV shows including MTV’s The Real World, Numbers and the hit ABC-TV drama Grey’s Anatomy. Anya's song "Miss Halfway" also appears on the Grey’s Anatomy, Vol. 2 soundtrack.

When Anya isn't serenading millions of TV viewers, she still finds time to do stuff like act in the Lions Gate romantic teen comedy 100 Girls and fill the morning drive DJ slot on San Diego’s 94/9 FM. Not too shabby for "Miss Halfway."

In between DJ shifts and recording sessions Anya found a little time to sit down and answer some of our questions.

Interview: Anya Marina - DJ by Day. Pop-Star by Night.



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Monday, April 14, 2008

Reporter Owned By Sled [video]

This Canadian Global news reporter thought the bottom of a sledding hill was a great place to do his broadcast. He was wrong.

Watch the clip. After doing a full frontside flip and coming within inches of smashing his face, the guy finishes his report and professionally signs off.



Totally reminds me of the infamous Grapefall video when a Fox reporter falls off a platform while trying to smash grapes with her feet on live TV.

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Analog TV Fines

Did you buy a cheap TV recently? Think you got a good deal? Think again.

The FCC is handing out over $3.9 million in proposed fines to retailers including Wal-Mart, Target and Sears for failing to inform consumers the analog TVs they sold in 2007 won't be able to receive digital signals without a separate tuner after Feb. 17, 2009. Manufactures such as LG and Vizio are also being fined for labeling violations. Looks like everyone was trying to offload their useless TV inventory at our expense. Rat bastards!

So at the end of the day, that good deal you got on that cheap TV might not have been such a good deal after all.

If you decide to return the TV, just pack it better than this person did [pics].

Tutorial: How NOT to Ship a HDTV




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007's Spy Gadgets

Although the James Bond movie series began with a surprising lack of gadgetry and big-budget fireworks, who would the Bond we've come to know today be without all his gadgets?


Here's a list of some of our favorite James Bond gadgets and how realistic/functional they'd be in the real world.




There are plenty more Bond gadgets. These were just some of my favorites. Thanks to a remastered DVD collection of the James Bond movie series fans can relive all their favorite gadget scenes over and over again.


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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

My iPod Broke While I Was on Vacation

It always breaks my heart when we get a "my iPod broke while I was on vacation" email like the one below. When you are on vacation you probably don't have a computer to help fix the iPod. And worse yet, a broken iPod means no music or movies to enjoy on the plane ride home.

"hey there, methodshop!

okay, so I'm flying into La Paz, and my iPod starts acting funny. I'd heard they don't do well at high elevations, so I go to put it to sleep and I get the - gasp - sad iPod icon, along with a url for apple. this does not look good.

I arrive in Cochabamba, 3 thousand feet closer to sea level, and look at my iPod. the menu is there, all well and good, but when I go to play a song I find that the Thing-is-empty.

no songs on it. nothing. nada. zilch.

what the heck happened?!?!?! and how can I restore some tuneage before my 13-hour journey home on Sunday?

help me, methodshop. you're my only hope... Tracy"


Hi Tracy. Nice Facebook profile picture by the way. You are in a sticky situation right now. I won't try to sugar coat it - that would probably just make it more sticky. Anyway, there are a few things you can do to try to fix your iPod.

  1. The sad iPod icon is not something you want to ever see. The first thing you should do is reset your iPod. Cross your fingers and restart the thing. If you are lucky, it will be good as new. It will just start working again and all your music will be there like nothing ever happened. The directions on how to restart your iPod vary from model to model so check out this link for more info: How to Restart a Frozen iPod.

  2. If the restart trick didn't work, you should try putting your iPod into Dianogtisc Mode. This will run a series of hardware tests on your iPod. If the hard drive test fails, then you are probably screwed. But keep reading, there are more tips below.

  3. Next you should try connecting the iPod to a computer and running a hard drive check. Mac's have a program called Disk Utility (Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities). If you are on a PC, then open My Computer from the desktop and right-click on the iPod. Then select Properties > Tools tab > Defragment Now). But Windows computers won't recognize Mac formatted iPods. So you'll have to try to find a Mac.

  4. If the iPod is being stubborn and won't connect to the computer, then try forcing the iPod into Disk Mode. Running a hard drive check might be hard to do, especially while on vacation when you typically don't have a computer handy. If you are lucky, there might be a pale nerdy kid with a laptop in the shade by the pool. Go flirt with him. Show him your nerdy Facebook profile picture. He might be able to fix it for you.

  5. Here's you last resort. You're going to have to erase the iPod. Sometimes the hard drive on the iPod just gets too fragmented and messy after adding and deleting thousands of songs over months or years of use. The best way to clean up all those scatted blocks of data is to start fresh. The problem is, you probably didn't bring your computer on vacation with you. And worse yet, without your computer, you don't have access to your iTunes music collection. So if you choose to erase your iPod, you should try to use a local computer (hotel, friend, Apple Store, etc.) with iTunes installed to either load some CDs you buy while on vacation or make friends with someone who will let you borrow some MP3s for the plane ride home.

  6. When all else fails, buy a book at the airport. Sorry. When you get home there are some more iPod Support articles that you might find helpful. And if your iPod has a bad hard drive, then try our iPod Repair Service to get it replaced. Good luck Tracy and we hope you didn't have to read anything past step 1.


If you plan on taking your iPod on vacation near water (beach, lake, boat, etc.), then make sure you get a waterproof case for your iPod.


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Monday, April 07, 2008

Facebook Chat

According to the Facebook blog, the social network is launching a live chat feature this week allowing users to communicate in real time from their Facebook profile pages. It's still in beta I think. Not everyone has been able to install the new chat application yet. I've gotten a few install errors so far and I don't see the chat app in my profile yet.

A chat application is great news for Facebook users. The "Wall" application was great for some things. But sometimes you just want to have a conversation with someone that isn't publicly posted in their profile or doesn't have the delay of going to their "Inbox" first. In case you were wondering, all Facebook Chat conversations are one-to-one, completely private, and only between Facebook friends.



Bonus: You don't have to get IM account info from all your Facebook friends. Just install the app and your Facebook friends will automatically get added to your chat list.

To add the Facebook Chat application to your profile, just click here. But remember it's a little buggy still. Don't flip out if you get an error. Hopefully they will get things all straightened out by the end of the week.

I hope they add a "Pages" option to the chat app next. It would be nice to be able to chat with fans on the MethodShop.com Facebook Fan Page.


methodshop

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MacBook Battery Check

The rechargeable batteries in MacBooks, iBooks, PowerBooks and iPods are categorized as "lithium-ion." Lilon batteries, as they're often called, provide reliable power for everything from cell phones to laptops, supplying significantly more power than nickel-based cells. Basically, Lilons are not your father's Duracell.

The following tips will extend the life of any Lilon battery whether it's playing games, answering e-mails on your laptop or watching a movie on your iPod or iPhone.

Tutorial: Maximizing iPod and MacBook Battery Life

This tutorial even shows you how to use the Terminal in OS X to check your current battery capacity and help you figure out when you need a new battery for your laptop.


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Saturday, April 05, 2008

'Type' faster on a Mobile using SlideIT and/or ThumbKey

If you've got a Windows Mobile-based device with a touch screen, and you're terrible at texting/writing quickly, then take a look at these products from Israeli company, Dasur.

First up is SlideIT which is an app that combines a keyboard, graffiti as well as predictive text. It's best explained by taking a look at their video demo. After the jump, we'll also look at their ThumbKey product.





Source: Gizmos for Geeks

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Blogged Rates MethodShop.com 8.1 out of 10

The results are in. Yesterday Blogged.com reviewed MethodShop and gave us an 8.1 out of 10. Amy from Blogged.com had this to say in an email she sent us:

"Our editors recently reviewed your blog and have given it an 8.1 score out of (10) in the Technology / Computers category of Blogged.com. This is quite an achievement!" [Amy; Blogged.com]


MethodShop at Blogged
Why didn't we get a perfect 10? MethodShop.com isn't exactly breaking new ground or changing the world with our gadget tutorials and reviews. But we do have some great stuff like our piece on the iPod DJ Revolution or our compilation of Rejected iPod Engravings. The problem is, after 10 years of articles, there's definitely a lot of crap buried within these pages.

Perhaps Amy and the Blogged.com judges were less than wooed by such subpar literary crap as...


Will Blogged.com ever give MethodShop.com a perfect 10? Maybe. But we're gonna have to send Amy some flowers or something first.
"Please accept my congratulations on a blog well-done!!" [Amy; Blogged.com]
Thanks Amy! I wonder if she's a real person or just like a database spider that some programmer named "Amy." My friend Greg at GetUSB.info got the exact same email but his blog got a 8.5. Stupid 8.1. - I guess we have a little room for improvement.


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Friday, April 04, 2008

Nexcopy USB Flash Drive Duplicator

The USB Duplicator by Nexcopy is an interesting product to say the least. Granted it wouldn't apply to the average consumer, but it does have it's place. In addition, I would say USB flash drives are the #1 most under-rated promotional item business' have missed out on, so I can see why this product is coming to marketing. Get your company logo branded on there, load her up with data, sales material, promotional videos, tutorials...I could go on and on...



Even if a customer deletes the data off the flash drive, the company logo is still branded on the device. Always in the customers face, always reminded them where they got the drive.

Maybe it's the process of data loading the information onto the drive on why flash drives haven't become more popular with companies for handing out information. It's a very viral gadget. The USB duplicator is an obvious choice for making such a life, much easier. The Nexcopy USB duplicator is a 20 target system and the company says a 5 minute mpeg video (about 30MBs) can be copied in about 40 seconds. This means the USB duplicator can churn out [estimated] 1,200 drives in about 1 hour. I'll have to back that number down considering swapping the drives, the OS identifying the drive etc. But even so, the USB duplicator turns a miserable task into an easy process.

USB music albums are becoming a much bigger hit these days as well, and having a USB duplicator to make your album definitely speeds up the process from a hub and copy-n-paste. I know you can put the following information onto a CD or DVD, but for the groupies, something unique like a flash drive is just ideal. Putting your band video, back story interviews, lyrics etc. onto USB is a new way to give a bands fans something unique. The other advantage with making a USB album is increasing a bands margin on selling promotional items. Your 20% margin is a lot more in dollars with a $25 USB drive than a $10 T-shirt or $7 CD.



So again, the USB duplicator concept isn't for the masses, but is a great idea for the select few. Speaking of which - are you [or someone you know] part of the select few? If so check out the USB duplicator from Nexcopy.

Source: GetUSB.info


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A Motorized Monocycle

Leave it to those crazy Dutch (no offense ;-)) to create a motorized monocycle that isn’t even street legal! This wheel operates by using a centrifugal clutch on the inner steel frame to engage the 67″ diameter outer flywheel which makes contact with the ground using a rubber tire. A single rider can achieve speeds of 25MPH as the monocycle is powered by a 31cc, four-stroke 1 1/2-hp engine and steered by the passenger leaning to one side or the other. The frame is made of fiberglass which encloses the engine, drive train and fuel tank and provides a cushioned seat for riders up to 275 lbs.

This crazy gadget can run up to 2 hours on a full tank (1/2 gallon) of gas but to own this ultimate single wheeled vehicle you’ll have to pull out your credit card with a high credit limit as this impractical, albeit cool, vehicle is more expensive than Hyundai Accent which comes with a different kind of tilt steering wheel, seat-mounted and side-impact airbags, heating and air and a roof.
You can get your very own for only $12999 + $800 shipping!

Source: Gizmos for Geeks

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Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Rickrolling Mania

Have you been "Rickrolled" yet?

1980s pop star Rick Astley is now making headlines again after years in obscurity thanks to millions of Web surfers being Rickrolled by pranksters. Webmasters and bloggers are purposely redirecting unsuspecting Internet users to a video of Astley performing his hit “Never Gonna Give You Up”.

How does a Rickroll work? It's basically a bait and switch. Let's say I make a link that says Sexy Paris Hilton Video and you click on it. Instead of actually seeing Paris Hilton, you'd be directed to a Rick Astley music video. That's a "Rick Roll".

Yesterday YouTube decided to get in on the joke. Several links on the YouTube homepage purposely "Rick Rolled" users. Why? Yesterday just happened to be April Fools’ Day.

The act of Rickrolling has even evolved beyond cyberspace. Pawl Fisher, a student at Eastern Washington University (EWU), recently "Rick Rolled" a March basketball game at his school. Here's the clip:





So what has this done to Astley’s record sales? They are way up. Even his iTunes sales are up. His record label is trying to get a re-release of Astley greatest hits album out not only to keep up with demand but to obviously cash in on the Rickrolling craze. Astley recently spoke to the LA Times and called the phenomena "bizarre" and only hopes that his daughter receives no embarrassment over it.

Personally I think it's one of greatest phenomena ever to sweep the Internet. By the way, the error page for MethodShop is a "Rickroll".

So the next time you randomly click on a link and see a short guy with red hair wearing a black shirt and a tan trench-coat singing... congratulations, you've been Rickrolled.


methodshop | youtube

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Rickrolling Prank Becomes an Internet Phenomena

Have you been "Rickrolled" yet?

1980s pop star Rick Astley is now making headlines again after years in obscurity thanks to millions of Web surfers being Rickrolled by pranksters. Webmasters and bloggers are purposely redirecting unsuspecting Internet users to a video of Astley performing his hit “Never Gonna Give You Up”.

How does a Rickroll work? It's basically a bait and switch. Let's say I make a link that says Sexy Paris Hilton Video and you click on it. Instead of actually seeing Paris Hilton, you'd be directed to a Rick Astley music video. That's a "Rick Roll".

Tuesday YouTube decided to get in on the joke. Several links on the YouTube homepage purposely "Rick Rolled" users. Why? Tuesday just happened to be April Fools’ Day.

The act of Rickrolling has even evolved beyond cyberspace. Pawl Fisher, a student at Eastern Washington University (EWU), recently "Rick Rolled" a March basketball game at his school. Pawl actually taped parts of the video before the game and edited in some game footage. So he didn't actually stop a game in progress. But it's still really funny. Here's the clip:





So what has this done to Astley’s record sales? They are way up. Even his iTunes sales are up. His record label is trying to get a re-release of Astley greatest hits album out not only to keep up with demand but to obviously cash in on the Rickrolling craze. Astley recently spoke to the LA Times and called the phenomena "bizarre" and only hopes that his daughter receives no embarrassment over it.

Personally I think it's one of greatest phenomena ever to sweep the Internet. By the way, the error page for MethodShop is a "Rickroll".

So the next time you randomly click on a link and see a short guy with red hair wearing a black shirt and a tan trench-coat singing... congratulations, you've been Rickrolled.


methodshop | youtube

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PC Inside Aquarium

As computers get faster, they get hotter. Hardware manufactures do their best to cool things down like adding heatsyncs and small fans to internal components, likes high-end video cards and processor upgrades. But eventually heat will become an issue and you'll have to try reducing heat by adding internal fans or some liquid cooled parts...

Or you could just submerge your entire computer inside an aquarium tank filled with mineral oil.

I'm not kidding. You seriously have to see this video to believe it. The guys at Puget Custom Computers actually assemble a computer inside an aquarium and then fill it with mineral oil. Not only does the PC look stylish, but heat no longer becomes an issue because the entire computer is liquid cooled! They call it Mineral Oil Submersion Cooling.

There's a surprise at the end of the video. I won't spoil it. You'll just have to watch it and see.





If you want to copy this video off of YouTube and watch it on your iPhone or Apple TV then check out this tutorial: How to Copy Files Off YouTube.


methodshop

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Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Google's April Fools' Day Joke

For April Fools Day 2008, Google's Gmail rolled out a fake "custom time" feature, which purports to let users send e-mails into the past and consequently never miss important deadlines again.



You can read more about this fake Gmail feature here.

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