The Great Geek Manual

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I like being around books. It makes me feel civilized. The only way to do all the things you’d like to do is to read.

- Tom Clancy

1858
At 2:45am, the first telegraph message sent via undersea cable is transmitted from Trinity Bay, Newfoundland to Valentia, Ireland at a rate of approximately four words per minute. The project’s supervising engineer, Charles Bright, will later be knighted for the achievement.

1864
Giovanni Batista Donati makes the first spectroscopic observations of a comet tail using the small comet, Tempel, 1864 II. He discovers that, at a distance from the Sun, the spectrum of a comet is identical to that of the Sun, because its visibility is only reflected sunlight. Donati demonstrates that a comet tail formed close to the Sun contains luminous gas. In the spectrum of light from the comet tail, Donati discerned three absorption bands superimposed on a continuous spectrum, which he designates as alpha, beta, and gamma.

1962
Astronomers Allan Sandage and Thomas Matthews accidentally discover the first quasar, 3C 273.

1963
Britain, America, and Russia signed a Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in Moscow to prohibit nuclear weapons tests “or any other nuclear explosion” in the atmosphere, in outer space, or under water. The treaty allows for underground testing, but it stipulates that such tests may not cause “radioactive debris to be present outside the territorial limits” of their own nation. A total of one hundred eight countries will sign the LNTB Treaty before it goes into effect on October 10, 1963.
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When I’m navigating through random snaps of libraries that aren’t mine, I often wonder why no one has ever created a library labyrinth. Sure, it would be a pain in the ass to find something specific, but just imagine how much fun it would be to wander in a maze while you were browsing for some new literary treasure to get lost in?

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New Releases

Bad Moon Rising
St. Martin’s Press. (ISBN-13: 978-0312369491) Hardcover. Length: 352pp
A Dark-Hunter Novel. Fang Kattalakis isn’t just a wolf. He is the brother of two of the most powerful members of the Omegrion: the ruling council that enforces the laws of the Were-Hunters. And when war erupts among the lycanthropes, sides must be chosen. Enemies are forced into shaky alliances. And when the woman Fang loves is accused of betraying her people, her only hope is that Fang believes in her. Yet in order to save her, Fang must break the law of his people and the faith of his brothers. That breech could very well spell the end of both their races and change their world forever. The war is on and time is running out…

Hitler’s War by Harry Turtledove
Random House. (ISBN-13: 978-0345491824) Hardcover. Length: 512pp
A stroke of the pen and history is changed. In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, determined to avoid war at any cost, signed the Munich Accord, ceding part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler. But the following spring, Hitler snatched the rest of that country and pushed beyond its borders. World War II had begun, and England, after a fatal act of appeasement, was fighting a war for which it was not prepared. Now, in this thrilling, provocative, and fascinating alternate history by Harry Turtledove, another scenario is played out: What if Chamberlain had not signed the accord? What if Hitler had acted rashly, before his army was ready–would such impatience have helped him or doomed him faster? Here is an action-packed, blow-by-blow chronicle of the war that might have been–and the repercussions that might have echoed through history–had Hitler reached too far, too soon, and too fast.
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Resources

10 More Cool Things You Can Do With YouTube Videos – Yeah, everyone knows that YouTube is the place to go watch videos online, but did you know how many things you can do with those videos? You can rip MP3s, create ringtones, and even set a video alarm.

Best of Wikipedia – A Tumblr that offers up random wikipedia articles of interest each day. Fun for trivia buffs.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Dark Web Design – Webdesigner Depot takes a look at some best practices for maintaining readability and usability while working with dark-colored webpages.

FreeAppAlert – A great website that lists paid iPhone apps that have just become free. Great way to keep up on the latest toys for your iPhone.

TweetBlocker – It’s no secret that Twitter has become a preferred playground for spammers. Hashrocket’s TweetBlocker sets out to change this by giving users a simple tool to easily identify spammers in the group of users they are following. TweetBlocker automatically identifies the spammers in your follow list and lets you easily unfollow and block them right from the TweetBlocker dashboard.

The Ultimate Guide To Speeding Up Firefox 3.5 – I like Firefox but it’s not as fast as it used to be. This is a comprehensive, safe guide to optimizing Firefox 3.5 for speedy browsing.
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Art

• Josh Ellingson is selling prints of the graphic “Wi-Fi Diner” that he created for Wired Magazine in 2003.

Comics

• io9 asks What’s With All The Undeath In Superhero Comics? My answer: money.

Film

• The first concept art for Thundercats is out, and it doesn’t entirely suck.
• Heckler Spray pick the Top 30 Shockingest Movie Moments.
• Movies Oddity chooses the 10 Best Movies That Didn’t Win An Oscar.
• Paramount is refusing to screen G.I. Joe for critics… meaning *drum roll* it’s going to seriously suck.
• Time Traveler’s Wife is not a sci-fi film, it’s a drama… you know, like Back to the Future.

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From monkey to arcade. Follow the evolution of the video games player. This is why we have opposable thumbs, to grab them joysticks.

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Source: Casuallyhardcore.net