Speaking as one who owns a smartphone and did some awesome shopping over Thanksgiving on the infamous Black Friday – it is totally incredible to be able to shop around with ease and all on the fly to find the hottest deal – everyone knows where I am going with this, the all to amazing Barcode scanning apps – Like  IOS’s ShopSavey.  The power of the barcode in concert with the internet allows us to find any item’s description, best price, and nearest location where we can find the item all with a quick snapshot with our phone’s built in megapixel camera.
A group call the Consortium for the Barcode for Life is putting together an extensive and very impressive database of 5 million DNA sequences cataloging over 500 thousand unique species. Next time you go to your favorite 5 star fine dining restaurant and you order fresh catch Salmon, a DNA barcode could be used to identify that you are indeed getting and eating the real thing.  These DNA barcodes could also be used to identify fake or knock off herbal medicines and offer you a full proof guarantee that you are getting the real stuff. The applications for this are awesome have many possibilities – who knows…maybe one day you will have to pass a DNA barcode scan to get a driver’s license – big brother here we come

We all know how Best Buy loves to love their customers when you go in to buy a suped up car stereo system and then they proceed to up sale you just about everything but the car itself, well now in its latest venture Best Buy has teamed up with Microsoft, Cox and TimeWarner Cable to actually leave you with a few dollars in your wallet and get online with broadband. In a program the call “Connect to Compete” these companies are offering one megabit/sec broadband links to anyone who is at a low income level. Their plan will help level the playing field for families and children who are less fortunate by bringing the vast recourses of the internet to their home allowing them to connect others, companies and other organizations already online. To get on their new super fast connection, Microsoft is offering computers loaded with great software for around $250 – a very thrifty price indeed. This program is targeting the 35 million or so households that do not have internet or are on an old terribly slow snail connection. Best Buy we do like you, but this time we have to give you big cudos along with your partners because “You done did GOOD!” – The day that everyone has access to the internet will be amazing because anyone can create and share their gifts with anyone. From all of us here at UsenetGeeks – “Long live the internet!”

A group of some of our favorite celebs have gotten together to take action and put an end to FAMINE, a man made problem that every human being would agree should not exist today – it’s 2011 F**K Really? Go to one.org – stop FAMINE today.

Het is weer bijna zover. Ieder jaar op 31 oktober is het Halloween, een feestdag die vooral in Ierland, het Verenigd Koninkrijk, de Verenigde Staten en Canada wordt gevierd. Kinderen verkleden zich die dag en bellen savonds aan bij de huizen in de buurt die versierd zijn of het licht aan hebben en roepen “trick or treat”. De bewoners geven de kinderen dan snoepjes. Jonge volwassenen gaan soms naar Halloweenfeesten. In Nederland wordt het feest steeds meer populair in de afgelopen jaren. Ook in Nederland worden er tegenwoordig steeds meer Halloweenfeesten georganiseerd in bijvoorbeeld discotheken en clubs. En Halloween is voor sommige pretparken het nieuwe hoogseizoen geworden! Op parkplanet.nl/halloween staan alle feiten over Halloween 2011 op een rijtje.

Voor voorbereidingen en discussies over Halloween, ga naar alt.halloween.boo

Linus Torvalds was really bored one evening and was looking for something to create, something that would be free that could be shared everywhere. Being an avid programer and geek extraordinaire he decided he might want to try his hand at improving the operating system mini unix or (minix), he had already seen the desktop market flooded by Microsoft Windows and Steve Jobs at Apple had created the Mac OS operating system – Linus wanted to create something anyone could use that would be cool and free, thus one night, exactly 20 years ago today Linix was born with a short but amazingly significant post to the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.minix asking, “What would you like to see most in minix?” Little did Linus know that such a simple query would lead to such an explosive out pouring of ideas creating a bubble of inovation that still continues to grow today. What began as a little hobby for a super geek, would soon become what some techno geeks might argue was the achievement of a lifetime, the creation and growth of the Linix kernel – the core and brain of the free Linux operating system that makes it go. Today Linix is made up of contributions from 1000s of other computer geeks that share Linus’s passion for computers and making them go. Some may even refer to Linus Torvalds as the father of the open source software movement because he created a culture where other coders could be open to create and share and build something great together, something they could look back on and say, “Hey we did that, and boy was that cool!” Today Linix is made up of contributions from folks everywhere, I bet Linus had no idea that one little Usenet post was going to spark the growth of one of the neatest most collaborative free software movements ever. Thanks Linus – we love you for incredible and free software

Could cell phone batteries be a thing of the past? Well a team of mechanical engineers at the University of Winconsin says, “You Betcha!” Well, not exactly in those words, we are paraphrasing a little But the team has created a magic device that stores up a charge just by the user walking around and doing their everyday stuff. The charge that is created and stored in the user’s shoes is enough to power a laptop or a even a mobile phone. Until now, engineers have not been able to create enough power to make our larger more fun power hungry devices go. With these new charging devices you may soon be working off those extra pounds and recharging your iPod at the same time as you can as the power will grow and flow as you move down the street.

If Darth Vader and the Emperor shared an intergalactic condo, being as shady as they are, they would likely make there homestead in the darkest place in space…Hehehe, we will out fox those Jedi rebels yet!…Don’t think so Darth, the jig is up amigo! Earthly Astronomers have now discovered a super dark planet, likely Darth’s secret hideout, though this has not been confirmed as the planet is basically a black hole in space – no really, Darth’s hang out (or TrES-b2) reflects less than 1% of the light from the star that it orbits – it is blacker than black and can barley be seen from space. Earthly scientists are marveled at how it absorbs so much light without giving back – perhaps Darth’s new hangout is entirely made of black coal or some mineral entirely unknown to us – Oh the mysteries of outer space… she is amazing, always keeping us on the edge of our seats, we marvel at your vast incredible greatness Wonder how Darth sees to clean his condo?…..Vader vision?

Remember how we all used to play with silly puddy and how awesome that was? – Well apparently so do some super clever techno geeks at Boston’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). These techno gurus have put rubber and a special paint together so that the rubber can be stuck to anything and magnify the object on the micron level making it possible to see detail smaller than the width of a human hair. The rubber is super cool (Called GelSight) as it sucks up everything it sticks to and creates a picture because the paint on the rubber uses little pieces of super tiny metal to fill in the gaps – the result is a well formed 3D metallic looking image that is easily visible by shining a light that reflects off the metallic image. From there the image can be examined with even more incredible detail using computer scanning technology – this could be used for medical discoveries as we can see things we could not see before, or it could be used for tracking down the bad guys, when examining bullets and matching them to a perpetrators gun. The most amazing thing about this new rubber is the level of detail and the fact that there would no longer be a need for big bulky equipment Check out the video below. Great job MIT

Have you seen Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab 10.1 – oh what’s that you say? – oh yes it is in fact the tablet that looks exactly like the iPad – since you thought so you are indeed very clever because Apple and the ever so incredible Mr. Steve Jobs thinks so too. So much so in fact that they have felt compelled to go after Samsung and stop all sales of the Galaxy in Europe. Apple just might have cut them a break and looked the other way, but they just had to go and copy even the iPad’s packaging….really the packaging….if it looks like an iPad feels like an iPad and comes dressed up like an iPad – would think they want us to the Galaxy is an iPad I am sure Apple can appreciate the gesture as imitation is most definitely the best form of flattery, but really Samsung…the packaging…that’s taking the Galaxy to the stalker tablet level. What this will mean for the Galaxy tablet is unclear, but it should be fun to watch the two go at it….I mean what can Samsung say…reallly. Steve Jobs and 30 geek bystanders to Samsung – “Dude, it looks like an iPad! ” Samsung – “Na UH our is heavier!”

This trailer is actually suppose to be the prequel of the original movie The Thing by John Carpenter. Seems pretty intense. Can’t wait until it comes out to theatres.

Here is the original trailer from 1982. Almost 30 years ago!!