p666james :: blog

New in Labs: Refresh POP accounts

The Gmail Team — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:30:00 -0800

Posted by Emmanuel Pellereau, Software Engineer

My little sister recently setup her Gmail account to retrieve messages from her school address, so she can check all of her email accounts in one place. She no longer has to constantly log in to two email programs, and she likes using Gmail's powerful interface for all her mail.

However, sometimes she knows an email has already been sent to her school address, and she just can't wait for the next scheduled fetch to have it show up in her Gmail inbox. As any big brother would, I tried to solve this issue for her and millions of Gmail users.

Turn on "Refresh POP accounts" from the Labs tab under Settings, and the refresh link at the top of your inbox will not only update your inbox with your new Gmail messages, it will also fetch messages from any other accounts which you have set up.

Try it out, and let us know if you have any feedback.

Apple’s New Stance On ‘Cookie Cutter’ Apps: Add More Features Or Perish

Jason Kincaid — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:33:13 -0800

In the wake of Apple’s sudden decision to remove nearly all “sexy” applications from the App Store, we’ve been hearing that the company is also clamping down on so-called “cookie-cutter” applications — iPhone apps that are built from templates using one of the many app-building services available. This would be yet another major change for the App Store, as it already features thousands of such applications. And, perhaps more important, quite a few companies have sprung up to facilitate building iPhone applications. I’ve reached out to Apple to ask if they’d like to clarify their stance, but given their lack of transparency in the past, I’m not betting on getting anything definitive. To try to get to the bottom of the current situation, I spoke with multiple developers (some of whom wished to remain anonymous) to find out what Apple was telling them.

Between the developers I spoke to, the consensus was this: Apple doesn’t appear to be opposed to ‘app generators’ and templates per se, but in the last month or so it has started cracking down on basic applications that are little more than RSS feeds or glorified business cards. In short, Apple doesn’t want people using native applications for things that a basic web app could accomplish. For some of these services that’s bad news, because that’s exactly the sort of application they produce; any new applications they submit are going to get rejected. But all hope isn’t lost for them, provided they can make their apps more useful.

Unlike the ’sexy’ app ban that took place a few weeks ago, when Apple gave developers no options to keep their apps on the store, over the last month the company has been reaching out to at least a few app building services to suggest what they should be doing.

The founders of Appmakr, which has been used by publications like The Atlantic to build iPhone applications, say that the process has been quite positive (though they are quick to clarify that applications built with their tools are more full-featured than the basic RSS apps described above). After some suggestions from Apple, the service is integrating new features like in-app purchases, instant notifications, offline access, and landscape viewing modes to their app templates. Another developer mentioned that they might include a tip calculator for restaurant apps. Appmakr’s hope (and one that I’m sure is shared by other developers) is that applications generated using their tools will eventually be given an accelerated path through the App Store’s approval process, because Apple is familiar and happy with the kind of apps they produce.

However, from what I’ve gathered not everyone is having as much luck as the Appmakr team. Multiple developers mentioned that they’d heard of some app vendors that Apple wasn’t being nearly as accommodating towards — I suspect services offering the most basic templates are getting hit hardest. That said, the developers I spoke to said that they’d only heard about Apple blocking newly submitted applications, and that there wasn’t an indication that Apple is going back and removing all of the overly-basic apps they can find.

So why is Apple doing this? Here’s what Medialets CEO Eric Litman had to say, which I think perfectly summarizes the situation.

This is the ongoing balance point between encouraging innovation and growth on one side and wanting to tightly control user experience on the other. Apple wants iPhone apps to be superior to Web experiences because they are extremely sticky and drive people specifically to buy the iPhone over competing smartphone platforms. Apps that are too simple or largely indistinguishable from the Web, other apps or particularly other apps on other platforms send the message to end users that the iPhone app ecosystem might not be particularly special.

Now the challenge for Apple is that the app building platforms are extremely attractive to a wide swath of the market that would otherwise be reluctant to bear the cost and complexity of developing an app from scratch. We have already seen apps from personal bloggers up to major media brands using some of these platforms, and many of the folks in that spectrum have content Apple would certainly want in the App Store. Interestingly, some of those same developers also have fully custom-built apps in the App Store, too.

So what are the platforms to do about the recent crackdown from Apple? There’s really only one choice if they want to continue to exist on the iPhone: invest in building out considerably more flexibility into their platforms to allow each app to differ from the others they build. Integrate more features and take the time to nail the design and UI elements to be representative of what Apple wants to see in every app.

For better or worse, Apple will be looking more closely at apps from the platforms than from individual developers. AppLoop, the first startup to announce and iPhone-specific app builder, is already gone. Others will almost certainly follow.

Overall, this will almost certainly result in a better experience for users as they have to deal with fewer spammy apps. But, as I wrote when Apple launched its war on sex apps last month, the policy change may also scare developers. After effectively sending a message to developers that basic applications were okay, Apple is again changing its mind. Some developers may be hesitant to build their businesses around the iPhone, knowing that at any moment Apple could have a change of heart and cut off their only mode of distribution.

Thanks to Robert Strojan for the tip
Photo by Goosmurf

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App Store

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Office 2010 Coming in June; Free Upgrade for New Office 2007 Customers

Amit — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:39:48 -0800

Microsoft Office 2010, which is clearly the best version of Office ever, will hit the retail shelves in June 2010.

If you a business customers or an MSDN / TechNet subscriber, you’ll get access to all the new Office products including Visio, Project and SharePoint in May itself.

Buy Office 2007, Upgrade to Office 2010 for free

If you are planning to buy yourself a copy of Office, you don’t have to postpone your purchase decision – just buy a copy of Office 2007 today and you can later upgrade to Office 2010 for free.

To qualify for the free upgrad, you must purchase and active your Office 2007 suite between March 5, 2010 and September 30, 2010.

The other good part is you won’t have to uninstall your copy of Office 2007 for running Office 2010 – the two versions can co-exist except for maybe Outlook.

For details, visit www.office.com/techg.

Office 2010 Coming in June; Free Upgrade for New Office 2007 Customers

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

NSFW: Hey, America! Our draconian copyright law could kick your draconian copyright law’s ass

Paul Carr — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:00:11 -0800

I’ve always had mixed feelings about the DMCA.

On the one hand, as an author, I like that it gives me a way to stop illegal copies of my work being distributed in the US, so ensuring that I can continue to make a living without having to get a proper job. On the other hand, as an occasional journalist, I hate that it can also be used by trigger-happy lawyers to prevent certain embarrassing documents entering the public domain.

Thus conflicted, it was with some trepidation that I received news from the old country that Gordon Brown’s government is getting ready to enact its very own version of the DMCA. Called the Digital Economy Bill (DEB), the new statute aims – amongst other things – to halt the rising tide of intellectual property theft on the Internet. But unlike the DMCA, its reach won’t be limited to national borders: any site anywhere in the world that’s accessible from the UK needs to obey the law or else it’s liable to find itself blocked from the entire country. I’m not kidding, this is China-level enforcement.

The bill originated in the House of Lords (our second law-making chamber) where it’s being tweaked and plucked, with various clauses added and removed – before being sent to the Commons (our first chamber) for debate and a final vote. Here in a nut are the key clauses as it currently stands:

Firstly, if the law passes, ISPs will be obliged to keep track of all allegations of illegal file-sharing made by copyright owners. These complaints will be used to produce an list of “persistent offenders” (subscribers who had received more than, say, 50 complaints about them) which will be made available on request to the copyright owners. The list will be anonymised, with subscribers identified only by a reference number, but copyright owners can then apply to the British courts to subpoena the names and addresses of the subscribers involved. Copyright owners can then take legal action directly, claiming substantial damages for each violation. The government is also able to take action: demanding that ISPs cut off internet access from households identified as persistent offenders.

A second – and even more controversial – clause was bolted on by members of the House of Lords in response to the claim that over 35% of copyright breaches occur not through P2P sharing, but rather through media hosts like YouTube and file locker services like Rapidshare. The new amendment will give the courts the power to demand that British ISPs block access to any site that knowingly and unlawfully hosts copyright material. That’s not just sites hosted in the UK but any site anywhere in the world. As with the DMCA, the ISP won’t be liable until they are notified of the illegal content (the ’safe harbor’ defence) providing they then take immediate steps to block the sites hosting them. If, however, the ISPs refuse to act, they will be liable to the full legal costs of the copyright owner. But unlike the DMCA, the amended bill contains absolutely no penalties for copyright owners who file bogus or spurious claims. The effects are about as chilling as can be: it is in the copyright owners’ interests to make as many claims as they like, and in the ISP’s interests to immediately block every site they’re notified of in order to avoid potentially huge legal costs.

Opponents of the bill point out that most cases will never come to court as ISPs will roll over immediately, as they frequently do under DMCA in the US. But the opponents don’t stop there. Hell, they don’t really stop anywhere. Between the amended blocking clause which could, in theory, see sites like YouTube blocked from the UK – and the potential for having one’s entire house disconnected from the web, the DEB has come in from a veritable gale of criticism, much of it vented right here in the blogosphere. Who’d have thunk it?

TechCrunch’s own Devin Coldewey notes that the “persistent offenders” list won’t just affect domestic file-sharers. Internet cafes, hotels and anywhere else that offers public wi-fi access could find themselves taken offline if their customers are found to be swapping copyright files. If anything, these public access points are even more at risk as it doesn’t take many teenagers using your cafe to rack up 50 copyright violations: this despite there being no way for the establishments to police what their customers are doing online. As Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow put it, almost entirely without hyperbole, “UK Digital Economy Bill will wipe out indie WiFi hotspots in libraries, unis, cafes“

In fact Doctorow is one of the bill’s harshest critics, writing numerous posts about its dangers. Not only is he vehemently opposed to the persistent offenders clause but he also rails against the site-blocking amendment, arguing that it will essentially ban file lockers from the UK, even when much of the content hosted on them is perfectly lawful. In response to Doctorow and his ilk, thousands of UK web users have signed petitions opposing the bill. Even members of parliament have come out to publicly attack the proposed measures – as Tom Watson MP told me on Twitter: “Enshrining net filtering at ISP level scares me half to death…. Law has to have a starting point. This isn’t it. Copyright reform for the internet age should be Step One. Rip it up. Start again.”

A clusterfuck, then. A total shit show, even more draconian than the DMCA and even more packed to the gills with chilling effects. There’s an election coming up in the UK and the government is apparently anxious that the law be pushed through before then, but to do so would be a travesty – instead the bill should be scrapped and revisited in the next parliament.

Or at least that was my first thought. Then I actually read the bill.

And, you know what, it’s actually not that bad.

For a start, the first point of contention – the compilation of a persistent offenders list, and the potential banning of them from accessing the Internet – isn’t quite as unfair as it sounds. Despite Doctorow’s claim that “your entire family [can] be cut off from the net if anyone who lives in your house is accused of copyright infringement, without proof or evidence or trial”, there are actually multiple points at which evidence comes into play, and the accused file-swapper is given a chance to defend themselves. The bill requires the creation of an independent tribunal body to hear claims of unfairness arising from the new laws, and alleged infringers have not one but two rights of appeal to the tribunal. With each alleged breach, the new law demands that the ISP send a letter to the subscriber putting the allegations and the evidence to them.

Only once a significant number of breaches have been alledged (the drafters of the bill suggest 50) will the subscriber be added to the persistent offenders list. Again, they will be notified. Only at this point can the copyright owner appeal to the court – using a law that has been around for 36 years – to get the name and address of the offender. Even then, though, they won’t be taken to court. Instead, the copyright owner has to send the subscriber yet another letter (this will be their 52nd) warning them that legal action is imminent if they don’t stop. It’s only then that legal action will be taken, leading to a possible fine and – only at the extreme end of the scale – their Internet access being disconnected.

The second point of contention – the blocking of file-sharing sites – is still pretty bad, but again it’s not quite what some commentators [*cough* Cory *cough*] suggest with headlines like “Lords seek to ban web-lockers (YouSendIt, etc) in the UK“. Yes, the courts will have the power to require ISPs to block sites that egregiously host copyrighted files. But they can only do so if the site involved has refused to remove the copyrighted files – a last resort against foreign file lockers who ignore British court injunctions. More importantly it’s also a power that the British courts have had since the 2002 E-Commerce Directive Regulations (with ISP’s being similarly liable for inaction): the new legislation simply creates a DMCA-style process for making take-down requests easier to issue.

After several hours of reading – not just the proposed new law but also all of the existing copyright law, plus the current World Intellectual Property Organisation Treaty (the UK is a signatory) and also hundreds of pages of discussion around all of the above – a few things became clear…

For one thing, many of those opposing the bill don’t seem to be opposed to the bill itself so much as they’re opposed to the entire notion of copyright law, particularly when it’s used by “greedy record companies” or “rich recording artists”. As one commenter put it on the Guardian: “If you want to be solely a ‘recording artist’ and find you’ve been caught short – tough. No one owes you a living. You’ve been rendered obsolete by technology (not me) and you either adapt or fade away like so many other industries.” The only copyright law that people like that will accept is one that lets them steal whatever they like.

Far be it from me to suggest that Cory Doctorow has an anti-copyright agenda, but there’s no doubt he’s the world’s leading proponent of the ‘give everything away free and reap the tangential rewards’ model of intellectual property protection. Creative Commons might work perfectly for a man who makes his living writing and speaking about how he gives things away free, but it’s not always the answer for musicians, authors and filmmakers who don’t have that particular sideline. And I say that as an author who just gave his last book away under a Creative Commons license and who isn’t going to go broke any time soon.

Whatever Doctorow’s biases, headlines like “UK Digital Economy Bill will wipe out indie WiFi hotspots in libraries, unis, cafes” or “Leaked UK government plan to create ‘Pirate Finder General’ with power to appoint militias, create laws” do nothing to encourage rational debate. In fact, they’re curiously reminiscent of “Obamacare will kill grandma” claims from Republicans in the US. Why debate facts when you can drive people to your way of thinking through scary headlines?

And yet, shrill objections aside, it’s equally clear that the Digital Economy Bill has its fair share of potential problems. There’s not a huge amount of new law in the bill, but there are a whole bunch of new processes – new takedown notices, persistent offender lists etc – all of which will need to work properly from day one. In the British government’s haste to rush it through before the upcoming election, there’s a huge risk of passing a bad statute which will prove impossible to enforce.

Most clear of all though is that, beyond a general call to “scrap the bill and start again” (again: paging the Republicans), none of the opponents of the bill are suggesting a credible alternative. For all of our fears of “chilling effects” the fact is that the Internet is shitting all over the intellectual property rights of the UK creative industries (industries which account for 7.9% of the nation’s GDP). Existing law offers almost all of the protections required by copyright owners, but it’s too slow and costly to enforce in the face of widespread online infringement. A shake-up of the enforcement process is much needed – not just to protect fat cat record companies, but also to ensure the livelihoods of thousands of musicians, authors, filmmakers, photographers, artists and the rest who contribute to our cultural landscape. To those people, the effects of an online copyright free-for-all are just as chilling. If the DEB isn’t the right bill , then it is beholden on those attacking it to suggest an alternative.

Here’s mine:

1) My parents run a business that offers free wi-fi to their customers. I know it’s impossible for them to act as copyright police and so, alarmed by the proposed bill, they’ll likely choose to close down their wi-fi hotspots. To avoid that, the law needs to distinguish between domestic and business internet users when it comes to the persistent infringers clause. For domestic users, the 50-strikes and you’re out clause – and the disconnection threat – should stand: it’s a powerful deterrent, and there are plenty of points at which householders can appeal. For businesses and public wi-fi providers, the disconnection threat should be dropped entirely – it’s clearly a disproportionate punishment – but the fine should remain. In both cases, though, the burden should rest on the copyright owner to prove complicity in the infringement. Domestically, this is as simple as proving multiple breaches from the same IP address – there is a duty on the homeowner to lock down their wi-fi and to know what is happening under their roof, especially after receiving multiple notifications. For businesses, though, the copyright owner should face the (almost impossible) task of showing that the business owner is knowingly permitting copyright breaches on their premises. They’ll basically have to send private detectives round and catch the owner in the act – something only worth doing in extreme cases.

2) The current site-blocking amendment should be dropped entirely. Instead it should be replaced with a virtual carbon copy (quelle irony) of the DMCA’s takedown procedures, but with even more severe punishments for copyright owners who file spurious claims. If an alleged infringer files a counter-notice but the copyright owner decides not to then pursue legal action, the former should be immediately entitled to claim damages against the latter, set at a fixed amount (say £250 – a little under $400) for every day each affected file was offline. In the case of entire sites being blocked, these damages could be enormous. The result: copyright owners will have a costly disincentive against filing spurious claims.

3) Finally, and most importantly, the bill should be abandoned until the next parliament. Rushing through legislation is almost never a good idea – and it’s not like it’s going to be a vote winner, either for this government or the next one. With the full lobbying force of the creative industries behind a new law, there’s virtually no chance that it won’t be passed in the next twelve months so MPs should take the next few months to revise it, to consult with experts, to explain it to critics and generally to ensure that everything that can be done to make it fair has been done.

The UK’s creative industries generate £112.5 billion in revenue for the British economy. The Digital Economy Bill should be passed, and it should be passed soon. But more than all of that, it should be passed right.

Google Apps Now Disaster Proof

Leena Rao — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:59:18 -0800

Many of us take the disaster readiness of servers and data centers for granted. But for IT admins from both small and large companies, being prepared for disaster and emergency situations is complicated and expensive issue. Google has made an announcement today for any enterprise users of Google Apps; assuring IT admins that the suite is now fully prepared for disaster recovery. Rajen Sheth, Senior Product Manager, Google Apps, tells us that as of recently, Google is prepared for disaster recovery for all of its products in the Google Apps suite, which include Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Google Video.

Google’s secret sauce is live and synchronous replication. So every action you take in Gmail is immediately replicated in two data centers at once, so that if one data center fails, Google will transfer data over to the other one. Traditionally, Google says, synchronous replication can be very expensive for companies. For example, the cost to back up 25GB of data with synchronous replication can range from $150 to $500+ in storage and maintenance costs per employee. Google says that exact price depends on a number of factors such as the number of times the data is replicated and the choice of service provider. Of course, Google replicates all the data multiple times, and the 25GB per employee for Gmail is backed up for free. And data from Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Google Video, which encompass most of the applications in Google Apps, is also synchronously replicated for free.

The reason that Google can offer these services for free is because the tech giant already operates large data centers simultaneously for millions of users and also balances loads between data centers as needed. Google also claims that its high speed connections between data centers allows the company to replicate and transfer large amounts of data quickly from one server to another.

Google says synchronous replication is a more attractive option than the common practice that many small businesses take by backing up email by copying the data to a tape on a weekly or daily basis, which seems to be an arduous task. Larger companies opt for a storage area network (SAN) to back up data, which Google says is an expensive process.

Sheth declined to identify the timeline of when each app began to use the backup solution. Sheth did say that bringing all the apps together into replication was a complex process. Google Apps is currently being used by 2 million businesses with 20 million active users.

Photo Credit/Flickr/ClayIrving

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Google Apps

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Google Wave May Finally Tread Water With Email Notifications

MG Siegler — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:41:01 -0800

Remember Google Wave? No, not Google Buzz — Wave, that other social information pump that Google launched last year. It’s hard to blame you if you don’t. While Google’s goals are ambitious with Wave, many users couldn’t figure out what to do with it, or why they needed it in their lives. Perhaps more importantly, it was basically impossible to know if someone was talking to you in Wave unless you had it open all the time. Not anymore.

Wave is finally turning on email notifications to alert you about new and updated waves. From the Inbox menu, simply select the new “Notifications” option to set how often (if at all) you’d like to receive them. The Wave team recommends that if you’re not a heavy user of Wave, you should get notified “immediately” upon a change. For more active users, the team seems to have a smart approach:

When you’re added to a new wave, or a wave that you are on changes, we’ll send you an email with a short summary of the text and links to go straight to your updated waves. Rest assured, we know waves can change a lot, so we will only send you one notification about a changed wave until you have logged in to look at it (i.e.: if a wave changes 10 times after we send the first notification, we won’t send 10 more emails). Waves you have open also won’t trigger updates.

While Google Wave and Buzz are completely different, they do share some similarities, and are fundamentally about Google pushing newer, more social ways to communicate. Of course, with Wave, Google didn’t shove it into the massively-used Gmail, so it seems that Wave hasn’t been able to gain the footing that Buzz has — even though Buzz arguably needs more work than Wave right now. As of December, Wave had sent out a million invites, but there are probably several times more people already using Buzz — again, just because of the Gmail thing.

The Wave team notes that this feature is still a work in progress and that there are some bugs (the ones listed don’t seem major).

CrunchBase Information

Google Wave

Google Buzz

Information provided by CrunchBase

Etacts Launches First Implementation of oAuth For Gmail IMAP Accounts

Jason Kincaid — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:38:45 -0800

Earlier this week, we reported on a number of new security enhancements that we expect Gmail to launch in the next few days, including oAuth support. It looks like we were right: a small startup called Etacts, which launched last month, has just implemented oAuth for Gmail IMAP accounts, allowing Etacts to securely tap into your email without the security risks associated with handing over your Gmail password. This appears to be the first public implementation of Gmail IMAP oAuth support. For email services, this is a big deal. We expect Google to announce support for the new feature more broadly this week.

So why does this matter? Etacts is a powerful tool for making sure you keep in touch with the friends, family, and business associates that are important to you. But at launch, it came with one significant flaw: it required users to hand over their Gmail account passwords (without them, the service wouldn’t be able to automatically pull in your new email). Even though Etacts seems trustworthy, handing over a password carries risks — if the service was ever hacked, there’s a small chance your password could have been compromised. With oAuth, this isn’t an issue.

Now instead of entering your password, Etacts redirects you to a special Google site, where you can elect to grant Etacts access to your account information (you can revoke this permission at any time). Etacts still stores your email header information, which contains the subject, timestamp, and recipients of each message, but most people probably won’t have an issue with that.

Now, oAuth isn’t a magic bullet for security — if you give a malevolent service access to your Gmail account, they can sift through your email. What they won’t be able to do, though, is access any of your other Google services (Calendar, Google Checkout, etc). And they won’t have your password stored anywhere, so in the event that their servers get hacked, you won’t have to worry about your password being compromised.

It’s worth pointing out that Google offers oAuth access to some of its other services, like Calendar and Contacts, but this is the first time they’ve offered it for email. Gmail also appears to be the first major email provider to offer oAuth access.

CrunchBase Information

Gmail

Etacts

Information provided by CrunchBase

The Beast File: Google

Alex Chitu — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 02:14:00 -0800

Hungry Beast, a news program that airs on ABC1 Australia, had a segment about Google a few days ago. The TV show defines Google as an advertising giant whose main goal is to track users and deliver targeted ads.

Many of the numbers that are supposed to show Google's power are outdated. For example, the number of Google servers was estimated to 450,000 in 2006. comScore estimated that Google attracted more than 2 billion searches a day in July 2009.

Hungry Beast claims that Google "wants to own your phone, your email, your computer and your entire digital life". Using the verb "own" is inappropriate, since Google simply hosts your email and offers software for your phone and your computer. Projects like Data Liberation show that Google's doesn't want to trap your data.

Another claim is that "Google wants to own the cables that deliver the Internet and the electricity to power them", when Google's goal is to "help make Internet access better and faster for everyone" by showing that it's possible to "deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access". Like Gmail, which offered for the first time 1 GB of storage for free, or Google's bid in the FCC spectrum auction, which helped consumers because Google convinced FCC to add some new rules: the winner of the auction has to "give its customers the right to download any application they want on their mobile device, and the right to use any device they want on the network".

The video concludes that Google's ultimate goal is to gather data about everyone in the world and to show great targeted ads. Actually, Google's mission is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". Google's disrupting business model pushes the boundaries of technology by democratizing knowledge. Ads are only the fuel that helps Google accomplish its mission.

"We aspire to make Google an institution that makes the world a better place. (...) With our products, Google connects people and information all around the world for free. (...) By releasing services, such as Gmail, for free, we hope to help bridge the digital divide. AdWords connects users and advertisers efficiently, helping both. AdSense helps fund a huge variety of online web sites and enables authors who could not otherwise publish." (Google's IPO Letter, 2004)

{ via Harvey Sanchez }

Cute Stuff

Paul Damien — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:53:56 -0800

Cute Stuff

Various cute stuff, and silly sites from the web.

ZooBorns
PostSecret
Super Cute Protesters
http://whythefuckdoyouhaveakid.com/
!! omg blog !!

Preview this bundle

Links for 2010-03-01 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00:00 PST

take up beekeeping
The Coop Bee Plan - http://j.mp/bpQZVf & http://j.mp/aE0B9u

10 Animals with the Longest Lifespans

John Farrier — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:07:52 -0800

Mother Nature Network has a photo gallery of ten animals with very long lifespans, including the red sea urchin:

The red sea urchin or Strongylocentrotus franciscanus is found only in the Pacific Ocean, primarily along the West Coast of North America. It lives in shallow, sometimes rocky, waters from the low-tide line down to to 90 meters, but they stay out of extremely wavy areas. They crawl along the ocean floor using their spines as stilts. If you discover one, remember to respect your elders — some specimens are more than 200 years old.

Link via Digg | Photo: Kirt L. Onthank, Wiki Commons.

London Council Issued Parking Tickets to Self, Refused to Pay Fine to Self

Alex — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:54:20 -0800

It doesn’t get any sillier than this, folks: the councils of 6 boroughs in London issued parking tickets to themselves, then refused to pay the fines to themselves.

One farce saw Islington Council in North London issue a ticket, then take itself to an appeal hearing – where it asked for costs against itself. The costs process involves another four steps.

Stunned adjudicator Gerald Styles said he could not make an order for costs because the council could not "act wholly unreasonably or vexatiously against itself".

You can’t make this stuff up: Link

Movie bloopers from 1936

Robert Birming — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:38:36 -0800

A collection of Warner Bros. movie bloopers from 1936, featuring Humphrey Bogart, Joe E. Brown, James Cagney, Bette Davis, Kay Francis, Leslie Howard, Paul Lukas, Barton MacLane, Fredric March, Paul Muni, Pat O’Brien, Claude Rains, and more.

Link [YouTube] – The Retronaut via Stuart Witts

The Monogamous Peruvian Poison Frog

Alex — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:17:56 -0800

Biologists have discovered the first truly monogamous amphibian, the Peruvian poison frog in the rainforest of South America. They’ve also discovered a fascinating reason that these frogs remain committed to each other: it all boils down to real estate!

After mating, a female mimic poison frog lays her eggs on the surface of leaves. The male frog then takes away the tadpoles that hatch, carrying them one by one on his back to pools of water which collect in bromeliad leaves high up in the branches of trees.

Each of half a dozen babies are put into their own tiny pool, which he then looks after. When the tadpoles become hungry, the male calls to his female partner who arrives to lay a non-fertile egg in each pool, which the tadpole eats as food. [...]

Their tadpoles cannot survive without the care of both their father and mother, as there is too little natural food in their smaller pools. So the adult frogs stick together.

Link

The 14 Freakiest Serial Killers You've Probably Never Heard Of

Queuebot — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:06:34 -0800

Some serial killers become massively infamous and have movies made about their lives, while others for various reasons slip through the cracks of history without leaving much of an impression on our collective conciousness. This doesn’t mean there aren’t some incredibly disturbing relatively unknown killers in our history though, take Tillie Klimek for instance:

Tillie found a schtick, and stuck to it. Namely: murderous insurance fraud. She went through five husbands, three neighborhood children, and just about anyone else she could get her hands on. Not only did she grab insurance money out of the deal, she also gained a reputation as a fortune teller based on predicting the deaths of these people. At one point, she was buying a dress for her husband’s funeral, when a stranger asked when he had died. Her response? “Ten days from now.”

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by redsfaithful.

5 Things Benefiting From Global Warming

Alex — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:19:18 -0800

Climate change isn’t all bad; it just depends on your perspective! If you’re a mountain, a jellyfish, or some of the other things on this list, your future may be pretty bright.

1. GREENLAND GETS A MAKEOVER

The town of Qaqortoq (Julianehåb), Greenland by Jens Buurgaard Nielsen [wikipedia]

In “The Princess Bride,” the evil genius scolds his henchman by saying, “Do you want me to send you back where you were? Unemployed … in Greenland?”

That threat might have carried some weight in the movie, but in real life, Greenland’s prospects are looking up. Its massive ice sheet is rapidly thawing, which means more and more arable land is surfacing all across the island. Industrious residents have begun growing broccoli and other crops during summer months, and speculators are drilling for gold, diamonds, and coal. Geological surveys also suggest that Greenland may contain vast offshore oil reserves.

These newfound sources of wealth have the island’s 58,000 residents, most of them Inuit, feeling empowered. In November 2008, three-quarters of them voted for independence from Denmark, which has governed the island as a colony for centuries. Ambitious local politicians even hinted that, if the movement continues, they may deserve some special consideration from the European Union. Especially because, as the Arctic ice continues to melt, new shipping lanes will open up just off of Greenland’s coast.

2. JELLYFISH LIVING LARGE

Although times are rough for most ocean-dwelling plants and animals, jellyfish are flourishing. For reasons that scientists don’t completely understand, the higher temperatures and increased acidification of ocean water are making the marine environment more hospitable to jellyfish. In addition, the overfishing of predators has left this invertebrate with an abundance of plankton to munch on. All these factors have led to record jellyfish “blooms” around the world, from Mexico to Great Britain to South Africa. In some parts of the Black Sea, blooms contain as many as 1,000 tiny comb jellyfish per cubic meter.

GOOD Magazine video of the Giant Nomura jellyfish [YouTube Clip]

But do good times mean drawbacks for humans? You bet. Some jellyfish can weigh up to 450 lbs., with tentacles up to 120 feet long. Massive Nomura jellyfish off the coast of Japan have decimated fishing villages by devouring fish eggs and tearing apart fishing nets. Plus, as we all know, their stings are nasty. Swarms around Hawaii and Japan have wreaked havoc on tourism industries that rely heavily on snorkeling and boat tours.

3. MOUNTAINS REACH NEW HEIGHTS

Jungfrau, one of the summits of the Alps. Photo: Jphoto [wikipedia]

While climate change is forcing glaciers to recede, it’s also allowing mountains to get taller. As the water stored in glaciers drains away, they mountains underneath them have less of a load to carry. And without all that weight, they can rise to their full heights. In the western arm of the Alps, for instance, mountains are growing at a rate of .035 inches per year. That’s good news for skiers, climbers, and large hills with Napoleon complexes.

4. HELLO, SMALLPOX

Smallpox virions. Transmission electron micrograph by Dr. Fred Murphy, Sylvia Whitfield / CDC

After decades of vaccination campaigns, the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated in December 1979. But thanks to global warming, this little virus, which wiped out half a billion people during the 20th century, may be making a comeback.

Scientists believe that smallpox can live for decades, or even centuries, while frozen in the Arctic tundra. As temperatures continue to rise, some experts believe there is a distinct possibility that caches of smallpox stored in the ice could thaw, leading to a global epidemic. Indeed, when a mass grave was unearthed in Siberia in the 1980’s , testing showed that the antigen the virus was still active in the dead bodies. It’s a terrifying thought, but there is some good news. Even if smallpox resurfaces, an effective vaccine has already been in invented, so casualties wouldn’t be nearly as high as they were in previous centuries.

5. SATELLITES SPIN FASTER

Track Earth's satellites with NASA J-Track-3D [Java applet]

For years, space researchers have recorded small changes in the speed of orbiting satellites. Sometimes they’d speed up; other times they’d slow down. Scientists soon found a correlation between these changes and the 11-year cycle of sunspots—the dark areas on the surface of the Sun that are caused by intense magnetic activity. Sunspots alter the density of the gases in the thermosphere, the outer layer of the atmosphere that is home to most satellites. When the gases become less dense, satellites travel faster; when they become more dense, satellites slow down.

It turns out that it isn’t just the Sun that’s been affecting the satellites, though. Increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are also altering their speeds. On the surface of the Earth, carbon dioxide actually cools things down. This makes the thermosphere less dense, allowing satellites to go faster. Scientists confirmed the effect in 2006, and the phenomenon may actually be benefiting us. With less drag, satellites require fewer course corrections and stay aloft longer, meaning that the giant hunks of metal won’t fall to the ground as often.

__________

The article above, written by Gideon Banner, appeared in the Jan - Feb 2010 issue of mental_floss magazine. It is reprinted here with permission.

Don't forget to feed your brain by subscribing to the magazine and visiting mental_floss' extremely entertaining website and blog today!

One-off Rolls-Royce coupe up for grabs

Pankaj — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:49:04 -0800

There are certain items that are distinguished from the rest of the range by their origins, and generally, the result is a one-off piece. Looking at this “Black Ruby” Rolls-Royce coupe, you would be forced to dwell on for a while, if the creator has brought his fondest dream to reality. Originally created by the Indian-based designing firm for a Maharajah for his private collection, this Rolls Royce-based model that comes complete with Ferrari Enzo-style doors was touched by the Indian designer Dilip Chhabria before it was nicknamed “The Black Ruby.” Priced at $1.2 million, this head turner is listed for sale by a London-based company for those who find this creation a direct extension of their own personality.

Check out the image gallery after the jump:

Via: Auto Blog/Car Scoop

Dog Suicide Bridge

Alex Turnbull — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:19:06 -0800

In 1859 a wealthy man bought a piece of land overlooking the River Clyde, on which he built a mansion. When the mansion was expanded in 1892, an access road over the Overtoun Burn was required, and so the Overtoun Bridge was built.

50 years later a bizarre series of suicides began to take place on the bridge, whereby dogs would regularly throw themselves to their deaths from the parapets.

Since the suicides began, it is claimed that at least 50 dogs have killed themselves here; all at virtually the same spot, and all of them long-nosed breeds.

Why they jumped is still a mystery.

Many theories have been put forward; hypnotic water sounds, some sort of interference from a nearby nuclear base, electrical impulses, and even ghosts – but it took a canine psychologist (and a Channel 5 documentary) to provide a vaguely plausible explanation.

Bing maps view of Overtoun bridge and one of the estate’s buildings.

Dr David Sands found that Mink were breeding under the bridge, and posits that their strong scent is simply irresistible to inquisitive dogs. Combine this with a dog’s low viewpoint, and perhaps one can see why a dog would leap over the edge to their death.

However, with around 20,000 mink in Scotland, it seems a little strange that dogs aren’t chucking themselves off more bridges all over the country.

So, why do you think all these dogs decided to end it all from the Overtoun Bridge?

More info: Overtoun Bridge at Wikipedia.

Locations: Scotland / Categories: Bridges, Weirdness

View in Google Earth

Cat Lift

Miss Cellania — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 05:20:53 -0800

You know how people help their cats to reach upper floors by installing cat ladders? Those can’t hold a candle to this cat-operated automatic feline elevator! Link (embedded video)

5 Banned Toys and Games

John Farrier — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:05:22 -0800

Popular Mechanics has assembled a list of five popular toys that were eventually banned in the US. Among the toys on the list is the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab, marketed between 1950-51, which contained actual radioactive materials:

Called “the most elaborate Atomic Energy educational set ever produced” by the Oak Ridge Associated Universities, this sophisticated science kit contained four types of uranium ore, its very own Geiger counter and a comic book called Learn How Dagwood Splits the Atom. A form on the back of the instruction manual allowed a burgeoning Ernest Rutherford to send a note to New Haven, Conn., bearing the message, “Gentlemen: I need replacements for the following radioactive sources, (check which): ALPHA____, BETA _____, GAMMA ______ or CLOUD CHAMBER SOURCE____.”

Mechanical engineer and inveterate tinkerer Bill Gurstelle fondly recalls the Atomic Energy Lab, saying, “everybody wanted that kit.” Nowadays, he adds, “science kits are just sugar and salt.” This kit appeared 21 years too soon—the as-yet-nonexistent CPSC never got a chance to ban it. In the meantime, here are the results of our recent experiments with eight new, and decidedly less radioactive, science kits.

Link via Glenn Reynolds | Photo: Oak Ridge Associated Universities

Nosey: Staticy Cat

Johnny Cat — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:14:55 -0800

(YouTube Link)

From Kham4002 comes the amazing Staticy Cat, Nosey, with his new best friend, balloon.

Just what YouTube needs. Another funny cat video. :)

The inspiration for this video came from our cat actually getting the balloon stuck on himself without any help from us. He had been playing with it for quite a while before he walked over it and got it stuck on his stomach. We decided to re-enact the event.

The music is called “The Alley Cat Song” originally by Frank Bjorn. Not sure who did the MIDI version.

via Unique Daily

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Gately complaint is rejected by PCC | Mail Online
"Gately complaint is rejected by PCC | Mail Online" http://j.mp/bMJaiu - Pah!

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Google Nexus One: The TechCrunch Review

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Barclays Pensions

Stephen Fry...

Paul James — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:50:00 -0700

Stephen Fry in America, is one of the best programs on TV.

That is all.

Daddy or Chips? I-Phone or Smartphone?

Paul James — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:52:00 -0700

My T-Mobile contract is up for renewal, which currently costs be about £45- a month.

Should I get £10- off my current subscription or upgrade?

Or I could switch to o2 and get a sexy iPhone, or stick T-Mobile and get the T-Mobile Touch with Windows Mobile 6?

Comments Please

How to play .OGG Vorbis files in iTunes (Windows and OS X)

Paul James — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:10:00 -0700

Play .ogg files in iTunes by downloading and installing the free Xiph QuickTime Components.

Requirements: Mac OS X (PowerPC and Intel):

version 10.3.9 or 10.4 and later;
QuickTime for Mac OS X - version 7 or later;

Windows:

QuickTime for Windows - version 7 or later.

Computer Problems

Paul James — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:18:00 -0800

I'm currently experiencing hardware issues with my computer, and i'll be out of action briefly.

Best P2P Software

Paul James — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 06:26:00 -0800

Among my group of friends, I often get asked what is the best P2P software.

Now I have used a variety of software from Kazaa, to Napster, however I now only have three installed on my computer, I am prepared to test other software, if anyone wants to recommend something for me to test, let me know in the comments and I will update the post.

Azureus

I feel I should love this software, however I don't.

Azureus is a bit torrent download manager, that now comes packaged with content provided by vuse.

As I said, I feel I should love this software, its made by the community at large, is open source... However as I said, I don't like it.

Downloads are slow and sluggish with speeds not able to reach my bandwidth download limit, files often don't start, and I know this can be put down to the file being downloaded as it is a torrent, however I have tested the same torrent files in Limewire Pro, and Limewire always give the better results 35 files after nearly half an hour, .

My rating would be a low 2 out of 10.

Limewire

I've always had a negative view of Limewire, I view it as a modern day Kazaa, full of dummy and fake files, however on a recommendation I gave it a try.

I installed Limewire Pro, which can manage magnet files, and torrent files.

I was very impressed with the download speeds on Limewire. It took total use of my bandwidth, overall very impressed. My only critism with this software, is that the included search is not brilliant, in fact most searches included a lot of spam files, or very low quality. There was also movies recorded in the cinema which I wasn't too impressed with. Further, there was not many results returned, for example I ran a search for Elton John which only resulted in 35 results.

Its hard to rate this software, if I rate the software without the search I would probably be giving it a 10/10, however the search results as so bad, I feel it is only deserving on 4/10.

Another concern I have with this software, is privacy. Your IP address is on view for all to see, you could possibly use a proxy, however I would be dubious of the quality of downloads using such a method, and it would mean ensuing your proxy servers are valid, and should anything happen to the proxy during a nights download, it could literally bring it to a standstill.

WinMX

Good Old WinMX, most people I mention this little gem to, still believe it to be closed down.

However this is the network, that will not die, and I still think is the best!

WinMX was launched in 2000, and to look at the interface, nothing much has changed since then.

But WinMX worked well from the start, fair enough fake files were a problem, however there are methods for ensuring your not downloading a fake. Que's were also criticised on WinMX, however if you leave the software running, you soon get up them ques.

However, on September 13, 2005, FrontCode Technologies the company behind WinMX was the recipient of a cease and desist letter from the RIAA. The RIAA letter demanded that FrontCode immediately stop the encouragement of copyright infringement on its network. Several days later on September 21, 2005, shocked members, including myself, found ourselves unable to connect. FrontCode complied by taking the WinMX domain down, along with the critical host cache server that was in effect the end of WinMX.

However, as testament to the amazing cultural influence of this network, as well as the strength and ingenuity of its community, the network was resurrected two days later. Primitive host cache servers were established allowing the WinMX client to connect the restored network.

Going forward, the WinMX Group that restored the network, decided to stop work on the network, but the network persists... Its now back, with a new installer that makes it work on Vista, along with a network that protects your privacy infringement as no data is stored on any server, attempts to block fake files by having the IP address, of fake file hosts blocked, as well as a new network structure that aims to ensure WinMX is around, at least for the moment!

Obviously the software doesn't have a support team, however there are extensive forums on the WinMX World website to provide support.

WinMX can be downloaded freely, from patch.winmxconex.com.

If I get the chance, I will publish a guide on how to get the best from WinMX, as I admit it is confusing!

Overall Rating for WinMX has to be 10/10

iPlayer, 4od, Sky Anytime and the Kontiki Download Manager

Paul James — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 05:45:00 -0800

Our sister blog, Mary B get some information on what I think is something anyone in the UK installing the iPlayer, 4oD or Sky Anytime need to know, head over to... this post to find out more.

Drugs.. Legal in 10 Years

Paul James — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 12:26:00 -0800

The Chief Constable of North Wales, Richard Brunstrom has claimed that all drugs such as cocaine will be made legal, and decriminalised within 10 years.

I can't say I agree that it will be decriminalised in 10 years, given the narrow minded people we have running this country, but I do believe it should be decriminalised, a lot of crime and poverty is caused through illegal drugs, and if control of these substances was under some form of control, all the better I say!

New Year

Paul James — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 08:40:00 -0800

For the first time in years, I wont be going out this New Year's Eve - thank god!

I am not a misery, please dont get me wrong, but the though of being out in a pub/club spending the night there with a couple of hundred other people does not appeal.

Instead, Chrissy and I will be sat watching TV in the comfort of our living room.

Heroes Season 2:

Paul James — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 04:41:00 -0800

I found over on the Mary Blighthouse Blog links to all the current episodes of Heroes, season 2.

Mary Blighthouse

Fine wine and food

Paul James — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:44:00 -0800

Last night Chris and I, had Caz and George over for dinner.

It was a really nice night, far better than we could have hoped for.

On Saturday we will be hosting a mini party, well I say party it will be for me, Chris, Dylan, Kath and Caz... Or any number below that.

We are not the greatest of fans of big party's, they become anti-social as appose to being a friendly atmosphere due to the noise levels etc. I don't think I could bare a party with loads of guests, for a start it means you have to talk to everyone.

Our idea is far better, a group of close friends, lots of drink and frivolity.

Ps. You can also smoke in your own home, just.

Low Energy God Damn Lightbulbs

Paul James — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:10:00 -0800

I have to take my hat off to people in power who try to make us save energy.

After various issues with our electricity supply (where E.On can not read the correct meter) we have had to take to keeping a daily log on all the electricity units that we use.

Me and my partner live in a 1 bedroom apartment in the city of Manchester. Its a new build, less than 2 years old.

I would assume that energy conservation was given little or no thought when the property was designed.

At the moment, it is bitterly cold outside, however trying to heat a room with an electric heater is no easy task, as it doesn't warm up and it is currently costing us about £10 per day in electricity costs.

So its costs us £10 per day to keep the flat and water warm.

But hang on a minute, are we not suppose to use less energy, and use all these energy saving gadgets that are on the market...

Well, the simple answer is that we use as many Low Energy light bulbs that we can which are going to save the planet, however what else is being done?

Why do we not have a new design for an electric heater that can heat a room efficiently and with lower energy costs?

I thought when I realised the above, that I must be wrong, surely someone has invented a new heater that can heat a room efficiently..

...Well I tried a google search... here it is my only concern is that only one result is for low energy heating, and then this isn't really an option (It is using tubes which are situated at floor level, however will they be able to warm a large room?) all other results are for low energy light bulbs... Oh and "switch and save" energy suppliers.

It is time for everyone to think about how we use our energy, and what it is being used on. Technologies of old, can no longer be used, and must be adopted to meet the new demands of today.

Hollywood, UK

Paul James — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 12:47:00 -0800

The proposed expansion of Pinewood Studios, apart from being being big news for British and worldwide filmmakers, will include residential space, as well. The Independent claims as many as 2,250 new homes are included in the plan to expand the historic site. And when I say included...

The new development would double the size of the existing studio. It also calls for living and working spaces to overlap so that residents would, for example, live in a building with the facade of a Venetian palazzo that could be used for filming.

Zoho Writer Adds Full Offline Access with Gears

Paul James — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 12:42:00 -0800

Zoho, the company responsible for a suite of office products has taken the final steps toward full offline access by allowing users to both read and edit Zoho Writer documents from your desktop - offline, add a simple sync using the power of Google Gears and your documents are back in your Zoho account online.

Zoho in my humble opinion is one of the best online office suits available at the moment, and far surpasses the work of Google.

4 More Street View Cities added to Google Maps

Paul James — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 18:03:00 -0700

Left: Darth Vader & Storm Trooper outside the Kodak Theatre.

The Google LatLong Blog has announced that 4 more citys are avalible in google maps.

San Diego
Los Angeles
Houston
Orlando

This is in addition to San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Miami and Denver that was there when Street View initially launched.

ITV fury as Cory Stars show put online

Paul James — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:07:00 -0700

ITV Chiefs are furious after Coronation Streets so called star, Anthony Cottons new chat show has leaked online... I suppose it wouldn't have been too bad, had it not got slated by viewers.

Unfortunately the clip was quickly removed from Youtube where it was showing, so I cant show you it... However if you know where it is, let me know and I'll post it here.

It's The "Torchwood" Life for Richard

Paul James — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:07:00 -0700

Richard Briers, a fave of mine from the Goodlife is to guest star in Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood...

Fopp Manchester to make its return!

Paul James — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 05:29:00 -0700

It appears that my much loved cheap DVD, CD, and book store is to make its return! HMV has struck a deal to buy the fopp brand, reopening several stores, including the store here is wee Manchester.

Source BBC

Talk about 12 inch pianist...

Paul James — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 03:58:00 -0700

Bravo recently featured a show where a kinda cute fella shows how to play the piano with his penis!

Stills from show below, and video below (if it doesnt get removed)

The full 27 second clip can be seen here...

$100 Laptop Porn

Paul James — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 00:24:00 -0700

Nigerian users of the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child initiative) have been using the US charity donations to explore porographic sites on the interet.

According to a Reuters report last Thursday, laptops in a primary school in Abuja "have gone awry as the pupils freely browse adult sites with explicit sexual materials."

Nigerian Reporters have reported finding porographic images on computers they had seen.

A representative of the One Laptop Per Child aid group was quoted as saying that the computers, part of a pilot scheme, would now be fitted with filters

Posh Spice Takes a Beating

Paul James — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 00:24:00 -0700

The much-hyped Victoria Beckham TV show was beaten in the ratings by a repeat of BBC crime drama Waking The Dead.

Only 3.5 million tuned in to ITV1's one-hour special following Posh Spice's move to Los Angeles.

The show itself, was a complete work of fiction from the company owned by Simon Cowell. It even carried a disclaimer at the beginning of the show stating that "some scenes" were faked, and that the role of Victoria's assistant was played by an actor.

New York property listing - did I mention the sex parties?

Paul James — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:36:00 -0700

New York's property blog Curbed, finds a catch in an otherwise attractive Craigslist flatshare ad:

"I host one to two male sex parties a week. One after work (usually 6:30pm-11pm) and one on the weekend (usually 8pm-2am). The parties are on the second floor (my room) as well as on the first floor EXCEPT your room. You room is off limits to my guests. The parties are not very noisy except for the guys talking in the kitchen. The parties are very social as we play movies and socialize in the kitchen.
Also, I have a maid that cleans up immediately after the parties - so you don't have to worry about that. If you are cool with all this, let's talk!"

[via Curbed]

Spink's out-of-town splurge

Paul James — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:36:00 -0700

The Times a while ago, carried a fascinating story of developer Mike Spink's huge £42m deal which leaves him the proud owner of a run down 30,000 sq ft mansion called Park Place, in Remenham, Henley-on-Thames.

This is the most ever spent on a property outside London (to date)... but then it's an utterly unique proposition, packed with history, from countless links with royalty to a recent spell as a boarding school. By any standards this one hell of a massive project!

Nestoria adds clever parking feature to maps

Paul James — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:36:00 -0700

Nestoria, one of my favorite property websites, have added a clever new feature. Partnering up with ParkAtMyHouse, they now offer information about local parking opportunities - not just conventional carparks but privately rented parking spaces - with each and every property search.

World's most amazing houses

Paul James — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:36:00 -0700

Architectural amazement all gathered and bundled over at the Amazing Things blog.

Harry Potter Finally Leaked Online...

Paul James — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 06:48:00 -0700

The new Harry Potter book has been leaked online in its entirety, only a mere four days before it goes on sale!

I wont post the link to it, however I am sure a determined Potter fan can find it.

I'm sure Miss Rowling is wishing she could cast a spell to make it go away.