REPORT: Pollution from 15 of world’s biggest ships equal that of world’s 760m cars

“The problem isn’t necessarily with the ships’ 109,000-horsepower (wtf!!) engines that endlessly spin away 24 hours a day, 280 days a year. In fact, these powerplants are some of the most fuel efficient units in the world. The real issue lies with the heavy fuel oil the ships run on and the almost complete lack of regulations applied to the giant exhaust stacks of these container ships.”

Whenever I thought about pollution, Motor cars, power generation stations, industries came to mind, never thought about ships being such a big contributer.

Click on the title to read more.

Test Your Site in Different Browsers Using Adobe BrowserLab

Cross-browser testing has been one of the biggest challenges for Web designers because it is such an arduous and time-intensive task. Now with Adobe BrowserLab, designers have a simple solution that enables comprehensive browser compatibility testing in just a matter of minutes,The bad news is that the service is free for a limited time.

Another way to test your site is to use online services like BrowserShots, which generates screenshots for a web page in more than 80 versions of the most common browsers used in Windows, Linux, and Mac. The process takes time and you may have to wait up to an hour to see the screenshots.

Freeware to make your geeky life easier.

Any self respecting geek has a list of his favourite utilities/tools which he/she cannot do without. I personally carry a folder called MUST at all times on my USB drive which has all these little utilities which can come in handy especially when you are trying to fix somebodies computer or using somebody elses computer.

I generally use a utility which is free, portable (no setup should be required) and small – in that order of preference.

Some of the stuff that I use regularly.

KeePass – Password manager

Recuva – Undelete Files/Folders

VLC Player – Hassle free video player which plays almost anything you throw at it

Duplicate Music Finder – Reclaim you harddisk space

Foxit Reader – Blazing fast Tiny PDF Reader

Microsoft ImageResizerPowertoy – Simplest Picture Resizing-No you don’t need Photoshop for that !

Karens Replicator – Schedule backups of your files on you computer to your USB drive, vice versa

TotalCopy – Copy with a Pause

Directory Statistics – When you don’t know what is occupying your new 250GB hard drive.

Portable Apps – A great site for a lot of portable apps.

Most of these have a portable version, make sure you look for them.

Here is another list which talks about nifty little utilities (all under 1 MB) which can make your life easier. Take a peek.

The 50,000+ Server Club

I work for a company which runs around 500+ servers from a single datacenter, here is a list of companies which are running 50,000+ servers !! 

Most of the free services we use on the Internet reside on one of these servers.  That’s a lot of data being crunched at the same time.  Mind boggling to say the least..

Google SMS

Yet another nifty little service from google.

Google India has launched their SMS service in India which can be used for looking up flight status, PNR status, cricket scores, Calculator, stock quotes, news and many more.

Best of all you don’t pay a premium charge like you would pay with numbers like 575555.

I looked up my brothers PNR status a few times and it works like a charm.  SMS PNR (followed by PNR no.) to 9-77-33-00000.

Click on the title to view more search options and try their interactive demo.

Very handy if you are on the move and do not have access to internet.

Is the Free Web About to Expire?

PC Mag has an interesting article by Lance Ulanoff about how the current recession is going to affect the FREE web as we know it.

“It’s finally happening. The foundation upon which the Web is built—oodles and oodles of free content and services—is about to crumble. It hasn’t happened yet, but the signs that it soon will are all there:

• A glut of free content from largely undifferentiated sources
• Premier providers struggling to maintain a steady flow of new content without the benefit of revenue
• A beyond-hard economy beating back every idea, initiative, and dollar that might help float said content on the free Web
• An uncooperative public that remains unwilling to pay for virtually anything online.”

Gross National Happiness

Nytimes has posted an interesting article talking about an unique initiative undertaken by the Bhutanese Government.

“If the rest of the world cannot get it right in these unhappy times, this tiny Buddhist kingdom high in the Himalayan mountains says it is working on an answer”. – NY Times

Read on for more on this unique concept.

In this era of mindless “Development” we all need to stop for a while and think for a while if we really need it.  We have managed to pillage almost all the natural resources in the last 100 odd years using technology and we don’t seem to be stopping.  Everything is getting bigger and bigger to accommodate the needs of the human race..when do we stop ? Lots of Animals are gone, glaciers are vanishing, temperatures are soaring, air, water and earth are polluted… all of it to sustain one single species of the Animal Kingdom – US.

Australia to shoot 6,000 kangaroos

Now you know why the kangaroo was kicking that man !! 

On a serious note, this is so sad… agreed there is an overpopulation problem, can’t all the science & technology not come up with a more humane method of culling (i hate that word).

And again India and China are also over populated, should we cull some humans too ?

Bent Objects

I have been following this blog for a while now, the kind of innovative things this guy comes up with is simply awesome.. that too just using every day things and some bendy wire.. have a look.. 

I added his widget too today

Kickback

Lol…ouch !! I told you watch your back..always !