The Great Geek Manual

Resources

10 Alternatives To Mininova – After nearly five years of loyal service, Mininova disabled access to over a million torrent files when it partly shut down its website. Starting today, only approved publishers are able to upload files to the site, but luckily there are plenty of alternatives.

100 Google Wave Robots – Google Wave Robots are the best way to explore Wave. Here is the huge list of Google Wave Robots that you can add in your contacts and enjoy waving.

61 Free Apps We’re Most Thankful For – LifeHacker has compiled a list of free applications its users are thankful for. There’s a lot of the usual suspects, along with a few little-knowns.

All My Apps and NiNite – These two sites are the only two places on the internet I can find where you can install all the usual apps you load up on a new computer in one fell swoop, including Firefox, Flash, and VLC. Read the rest of this entry » » »

Book: Heat Wave
ISBN-13: 978-1401323820

Author: “Richard Castle”
Series: Nikki Heat series
Publisher: Hyperion
Genre: Mystery
Release: September 2009
Length: 208 pages (Hardcover)

Rating: D+ (60 / 100)

Verdict

Sadly, what might have been a golden opportunity to add some depth to a funny but often overly simplistic mystery series (Castle) has turned out to be little more than a cheap marketing gimmick. Hardcore fans of the series will enjoy a few chuckles from this book, but anybody expecting any real mystery is going to be sorely disappointed.

Pros: It will evoke a few chuckles from fans of the TV series.

Cons: Short, shallow, and seriously simple plotline. Poor dialog. No real twists.

Synopsis

In Brief: The fictional title character of ABC’s hit television series Castle kicks off his new series of books featuring tough and sexy New York police detective Nikki Heat.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

Art

• Tenacious Toys is accepting preorders for its line of Bertie Bots.

Comics

• NPR has compiled a list of literary graphic novels titled These Aren’t Your Geek’s Graphic Novels.

Film

• Interview: Submit questions for Digg’s upcoming interview with Peter Jackson.
• The BBC takes a look at How Disney created its first African-American princess.
• Den of Geek has some of the first photos from the upcoming BioShock movie.
• Reuters names the Top 10 movie flops of the decade.
• Total Film is looking forward towards The 49 Films That Will Define 2010.
• Yahoo! News remembers the Top 10 movie flops of the decade.

Read the rest of this entry » » »

Technology is ruled by two types of people: those who manage what they do not understand, and those who understand what they do not manage.

- Mike Trout

Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology.

- John Tudor

1877
Thomas Edison demonstrates his hand-cranked phonograph that records sound onto tinfoil cylinders for the first time.

1951
The first US underground atom bomb test, designated “Uncle,” is detonated. The low-yield 1.2 kiloton bomb is detonated seventeen feet beneath the surface of Frenchman Flat, in Nevada as part of Operation Buster-Jangle. It leaves an eighteen hundred foot diameter crater one hundred feet deep.

1961
The first US satellite carrying an animal is launched by Mercury-Atlas 5 from Cape Canaveral. The passenger, a five-year-old chimpanzee named Enos, orbits the Earth twice over the course of three hours and twenty minutes. During the mission, Enos carries out the lever-pulling performance and psychological tests that he had been conditioned for over the past sixteen months. Enos performs the tasks with a high degree of accuracy, receiving shocks for the minimal number of incorrect answers. Even when the controls malfunction and Enos begins receiving consecutive shocks for correct answers, the frustrated chimpanzee continues to the proper sequence through the end of the flight.

1965
Canadian Space Agency launches the satellite Alouette 2.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

The longest holiday weekend of the year is here, and while, for many, that means observing a series of time-honored traditions with their families, for the young adults of the internet generation , new traditions are being are being established.

10. The invitations stipulate that costumes are required.

9. The gathering strictly is BYOEC: Bright your own Extention Cord.

8. Places are set in a Lan Party configuration, to allow for filesharing during the meal.

7. At least one of the guests is present only as an avatar. Read the rest of this entry » » »

1868
Thomas Edison of Boston, Massachusetts applies for his first patent. The patent is for an “electrographic vote recorder,” which will enable a legislators to register a vote either for or against an issue by turning a switch to the right or left. Before his death in 1931, Edison will come to be known as one of the most prolific inventors in history, with a record 1,093 US patents.

1923
Radio amateur Léon Deloy (call sign 8 AB) of Nice, France connects on a 109 meter wavelength with F.H. Schnell (call sign 1 MO) in Hartford, Connecticut in the first two-way trans-Atlantic radio transmission. Deloy announced his intention to make contact with an American earlier in the year at the ARRL convention in Chicago. As a result, many Americans were listening for the signal.

1948
The first instant camera, Polaroid Land Camera, first goes on sale at a Boston department store. The camera, invented by Dr. Edwin Land, produces a sepia-colored photograph in approximately one minute. Price: US$89.75

1964
NASA launches the Mariner 4 probe on a mission to Mars from Cape Kennedy. On July 14, 1965, it will become the first satellite to transmit close-up photographs of the planet.
Read the rest of this entry » » »