What 007 Wants For Christmas

If you are a car buff or a fan of the James Bond franchise, you'll have no doubt become accustomed to the Aston Martin. Just in time for Mr. Bond's Christmas list is the new Aston Martin Carbon Black Special Editions. According to Uncrate the new finish will be available for several models from the manufacturer and is designed to give different appearances under differing conditions.

Follow the link above to find out that the cars feature "Lightweight seats formed from Carbon Fibre and Kevlar saving 17 kg over the standard seat also feature together with Piano black facia trim, centre stack and centre console, anodised black tread plates and unique sill plaques build on the carbon theme. The Aston Martin 700w Premium Audio System is delivered as standard in the V12 Vantage while the DBS boasts the Bang & Olufsen Beosound DBS audio system as standard."

Twitter Attacked By "Iranian cyber army"

The BBC is reporting that Twitter was attacked by a group of hackers calling themselves the "Iranian cyber army". Visitors to the site last evening were being redirected to a page showing a message declaring it had been hacked.

According to the article the "It showed an image of Arabic text overlaid on a green flag carrying the name of the third Shi'i Imam, Imam Husayn.

It also included a poem in Persian which said: "We shall strike if the leader orders, we shall lose our heads if the leader wishes."

Also included were the words: "Those that wage fight on the path of God win."

For it's part Twitter has admitted that it's Domain Name Server (DNS) records had been "temporarily compromised".

Wired Reboots A Christmas Story

Just yesterday I was explaining to a colleague that my favorite part of Christmas is settling in to a comfy chair and enjoying the greatest Christmas movie of all time! I can relate with Ralphy, there are so many parts of "A Christmas Story" that send my back to my childhood, and I'm pretty sure that his father was modeled after mine.

Imagine my joy this morning when I came across this little update from Wired. Oh, and in case you've never seen 'The Greatest Christmas Movie Of All Time' here's a little snippit to wet your appetite.

Let The Year In Review Countdowns Begin - YouTube

The Official Google Blog is first out of the gate with it's list of top viewed videos in 2009 and much to my surprise there were one or two that I hadn't viewed. Perhaps that is because I'm busy, or that I have a life, or life just got in the way. Regardless, for your viewing pleasure here is the roundup of what you watched in 2009:

Most Watched YouTube videos (Global):
1. Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent (120+ million views)
2. David After Dentist (37+ million views)
3. JK Wedding Entrance Dance (33+ million views)
4. New Moon Movie Trailer (31+ million views)
5. Evian Roller Babies (27+ million views)

Most Watched music videos on YouTube (Global)*:
1. Pitbull - I Know You Want Me (82+ million views)
2. Miley Cyrus - The Climb (64+ million views)
3. Miley Cyrus - Party In The U.S.A. (54+ million views)
4. The Lonely Island - I'm On A Boat (48+ million views)
5. Keri Hilson - Knock You Down (35+ million views)

Google Going Mano a Mano With iPhone

There are plenty of reports out there that say that Google is testing it's own branded Android phone that it hopes will go head to head with Apple's iPhone and RIM's Blackberry devices. A new Google branded phone, being dubbed Nexus one by some sites, has apparently been handed out to Google employees around the globe for trials. The Nexus one was produced, according to the Globe and Mail, by HTC the maker of the Dream, Magic, and G1 android phones but will contain no HTC branding and will be sold directly by Google independent of cellphone carriers.

“If subscribers can get a cutting-edge handset from Google, shop for the best plan, and take that handset to another provider as soon as a better service offer comes out, carriers will have to rethink what loyalty means,” Forrester analyst Charles Golvin said in a Web note. “Such disruptions would clearly be good for customers, since few actually want to make a long-term contract commitment and more choice in service will promote competition and more price options.”

I still love my HTC Dream, hopefully the Nexus one will not hit the market here for a year or so when it's getting close to time for an upgrade.

Christmas Light Hero

I can only assume that when you are a former special effects guy at Disney Imagineering there are certain expectations placed upon you to prepare a Christmas light show that even the Clark Griswald would be proud of. That can be the only conceivable explanation for what Ric Turner has created with his Christmas light version of Guitar Hero, well that and the totally awesomeness of it!




Thanks to Cnet for pointing us to the Make posting.

Turning Down The Volume On MP3 Players

The European Commission is proposing a volume limit on all MP3 players sold in the European Union (EU). Studies have shown that some players reach maximum volumes of 120 decibels and the commission is suggesting that a limit of 85 decibels be enforced with a user override allowing up to 100 decibels.

According to this BBC News article, Dr Robin Yeoh, an audiology consultant at the Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust, said: "More and more young people are referred to me by their GPs with tinnitus or hearing loss as a direct result to exposure to loud music.

"It's the sort of damage that in the old days would have come from industrial noise.

"The damage is permanent and will often play havoc with their employment opportunities and their personal lives."

I Just Couldn't Resist Posting This,

I want to post it again, and again... I've got stacks and stacks of these videos piled up all over my PC ;)

Developer Banned From iTunes App Store

Apple has expelled Chinese software developer Molinker and it's approximately 1000 applications from the iTunes App Store. Molinker, who's applications where described as mostly knock-offs of other developers apps, is accused of gaming the rating system to entice downloads.

According to Wired "iPhoneography wrote a long letter to Apple's marketing boss, Phil Schiller, and posited that Molinker was giving out promotional codes -- essentially free copies of the applications -- in return for these 5-star reviews."

By all accounts the majority of reviews on Molinker products were 5 star with the remainder in the 1 star range, which probably more accurately reflected the true value of the software.

More commentary in the Wired article here.

Coin Toss Not Completely Random

Researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) have conducted a study to determine whether or not the toss of a coin results in a completely random outcome, 50% heads or tails. The study involved 13 students who where observed tossing a coin 300 times each and recording of the results of each toss. Prior to starting each participant was given some instruction on coin toss technique and time to practice. The results showed that on average heads came up 57% of the time with one participant achieving a whopping 68%.

I know a few curlers who'd love to get there hands on those instructions! In fact I've heard that former Canadian Champion Colleen Jones was known to have practiced the toss of a coin hundreds of times trying to gain an edge, if ever so slightly. Perhaps she was onto something?

Btw, there was no mention of the denomination of the coins or whether or not the same coin, or same series (year) of coin was used.

Source: CBC News