Shorten The Road

Have you ever said something similar to “If you like that movie, you are going to love…”? If yes, has your predictions been true? If yes, then Netflix wants to give you a million bucks.

http://www.netflixprize.com/index

Netflix is looking to improve its recommendation system by sponsoring a money contest open to anyone almost anywhere. To qualify for the million dollar prize, you must improve the recommendation system by 10%.

I’m interested from hearing from anyone who would be interested in forming a team.

Hope all of you enjoyed your holiday (Labor Day) weekend; we got some nice weather in the tri-state area.

I recently stumbled across this site.

http://www.ipod-video-converter.org/

This software can convert your DVDs into the iPod format with a variety of options. During the conversion process you will be able to choose the video size, video quality and audio quality. Of course, the higher these settings are, the greater the disk space consumption will be. The conversion process can take a long time, so the “shut down computer automatically after conversion” comes in handy.

What is next? No cooks.

World’s First Automated Restaurant Opens in Germany

I would guess if you are a person who likes this and that on the side and no this or no that or add this or extra that, this may not be the best restaurant for you. But if you like to order when you are ready and not wait for the server to come to the table, this might be the restaurant for you. Have you ever wanted an additional item during your meal like a drink refill and you had to flag down the waiter? No more; you need something, just plug it into the computer when you are good and ready.

Getting on a plane and you have not caught up on all the Shorten the Road posts? Or by some small chance you have other websites you frequent in which you are not up to date on? HTTrack is a neat little utility which will help you browser websites offline.

http://www.httrack.com/

HTTrack helps you facilitate downloading WWW sites into a local directory on your computer. It even has options to help you streamline your downloads; for example you can choose to exclude or include links based on a variety criterion.

Best use of urine since the Danny (Brad Savage) urinated into the truck’s radiator while escaping from the Soviets in Red Dawn. Years ago scientists have made recharging a battery with urine a reality. In fact, many other bodily fluids can be used including blood, tears, and semen. The current challenge is to create biochips with this rechargeable technology small enough to implant into the body to help fight/treat diseases. Image a biochip that monitors for any deficiencies in the body and triggers different organs to react appropriately.

Here is a short article from National Geographic on the subject:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0818_050818_urinebattery.html

This puts a new spin on going green. We should look to colleges to power our cities. As students ‘relieve’ themselves from their academic pursuits by partaking the in the social aspects of drinking, their reusable energy should be harnessed to power their campus and local cities.

In September 2005, 4 million players were infected with a virus in the online realm of “World of Warcraft.” Quarantine areas were circumvented by infected players, cities became uninhabitable and were abandoned, and players avoided large groups. The game never recovered. Blizzard, the game’s creator, had to reset the game to eliminate the outbreak.

Since then, this scenario has been studied by various groups including the CDC (Center of Disease Control), to determine how a real epidemic would spread. I was inspired to post this article, because almost two years later, I heard a BBC report on it. An August 22, 2007 yahoo news search for ‘Warcraft virus’, returned 30 articles for the month of August 2007. One of my favorite headlines from that search was ‘Nerd Plague to Save the World.’

So, the next time you are being nagged by your spouse or significant other to stop playing your games, remind them the important role you are ‘playing’ in saving their lives and the lives of the human race.

First, buy hundreds of thousands of shares in a penny stock.
Second, spam the world about the how great the company is and mention that they will present a fail-safe plan for world peace, plus they found a cure for cancer.
Third, as soon as a very tiny fraction of the targeted audience of the spam reacts to the best stock tip they ever received by buying some shares and pushing the price a few cents higher, sell the stock and gain a 30 – 40 % profit!
Lastly, repeat steps 1 - 3 with a different stock.

Today we saw an increase in email that got past our filters. Spammers, good bad or indifferent are always finding ways around the industry filters. Spam filters get updated and spammers find another technique around them.

According to a report by the California Business and Professions Code, the cost to US organizations is more then 10 billion dollars. So, could there be a vested interest in the continuance of this industry?  (yes, but I don’t subscribe to that conspiracy).
http://www.spamlaws.com/state/ca.shtml

Here are a couple of sites I came across while looking up today’s abuser. The first link is a good FAQ regarding stock spam and the various techniques:
http://spamnation.info/stocks/FAQ.html
http://www.qwoter.com/spam.php
http://www.spamnation.info/stocks/