Yummy Wakame

Using TestDisk and PhotoRec.

TestDisk can recover lost partitions of virtually any filesystem. PhotoRec can recover files of most types, including most picture and video formats. PhotoRec can be used on existing partitions, or can be used to recover files on deleted partitions without having to recover the underlying partitions. Both PhotoRec and TestDisk can be run on DOS, Windows (9x, NT, 2000, XP, 2003), Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Sun Solaris, and Mac OS X, and, their developers claim, can be compiled and run on most Unix systems.

Full detailed instructions

BBC Radio: Material World
“Blue-sky-thinking researchers are looking to the stratosphere to meet the ever increasing demand for super-fast internet access. They are testing airships that fly 12 miles above the Earth and which beam back wireless broadband that’s 200 times faster than a wired connection. These ‘High Altitude Platforms’ could provide us with floating communications hubs in the future, as well as offering disaster management or environmental monitoring to developing countries.”
Listen to the latest show

Wired Magazine reports that someone has figured out how to crack the Windows DRM (Digital Rights Management) they use to prevent file sharing, particularly with music downloads. The article indicates that you too can crack the code by downloading a piece of software and then using that to unlock the security that sites like Napster use to keep users subscribed.

I’m such a fan of this, as I think DRM is complete bull – so now I can “unlock” all of the songs I bought and actually play them anywhere I want, and do with them as I please. Of course, those of you who would like to use the software for less legal means, more power to you and yours.

History Today:

The ‘animal Victoria Cross’ presented to the only dog officially registered as a Second World War Prisoner of War has gone on display in London.

Relatives of the late owner of Royal Navy mascot Judy presented the PDSA Dickin Medal and decorated collar to the Imperial War Museum yesterday, where they now feature in The Animals’ War exhibition. The items were offered to the museum by the son of Leading Aircraftsman Frank Williams, Judy’s wartime owner.

Born in Shanghai in 1937, Judy survived a torpedo hit on HMS Grasshopper in 1942 and helped crew members locate water when shipwrecked on a Sumatran island. Captured by the Japanese and interred at a camp in Medan, Judy formed a lifelong bond with Frank Williams, protecting him and other prisoners from the brutal guards. The airman offered the camp commandant one of Judy’s puppies in a plea to protect her and she became officially listed as POW 81A Medan. She encountered alligators, wild dogs, a Sumatran tiger and even bullet wounds and was eventually de-mobbed and spent six months in quarantine before she was awarded the PDSA Medal in London. Still accompanying Frank to Africa for his work, Judy was buried there when she died in February 1950.

Frank’s widow Doris commented: “Judy repeatedly saved my husband’s life and that of his fellow prisoners during the war. It was Frank’s wish for Judy’s PDSA Dickin Medal and collar to return to PDSA before being presented to the Imperial War Museum, where her courage and devotion to duty will be remembered by generations to come.”

New Compound Causes Cancer Cell Suicide
Scientific American: Suicide is the regular mode of cell death. When cells reach the end of their useful life, internal mechanisms kick in and the cell automatically perishes, a process known as apoptosis. But in cancer cells this mechanism has often been genetically disabled or otherwise broken, allowing tumors to proliferate. Now researchers have found a way to reactivate programmed cell death and thereby treat cancer.

Read the article…

And here we see a baby panda sleeping softly…

Click here if you can’t see the video above.

Via Cute Overload!

Instructables shows you how.

All you need is a dry wipe board, a usb camera, a computer and some free software – monkeyjam!

My littlest boy Tristan (age 4 and ⅝’s) is standing in front of me with his chest puffed up proudly. I cant resist poking a nipple. He pushes my hand away and says in his deepest voice,

“Don’t mess with the big boys.”

Last weekend things got a little out of hand at Celebrate Erie – which should be called the ExcuseToDrinkBeerIntheStreets AllWeekendLong Festival where you can also find yummy food… and a hilarious drunkard trying to light his cigarette (after I’ve secretly dipped it in beer)…

Beer Devil

Can’t see this video? Click here to watch it.

(It should be noted amongst those that tsk and those that hrm while watching this video, that LittleMissPerfectHerself did indeed behave worse than the Beer Devil towards the end of the last evening… but she was scrupulous enough to hide the camera.)

And now my three favourite comics strips will entertain you while I do stuff.

Cape Town-based singer/songwriter Verity has broken the paradigm of the major record labels by pre-selling her album on www.iamverity.com to 5,000 fans and corporate sponsors on a trust basis, before she records it.

Her purely internet-based business model which launched her career and is empowering other local artists has already attracted the attention of the local and international music industry.

There are already over 700 future owners, in more than 21 different countries worldwide and she will be giving over 10% of each sale to two charities – Live Your Dreams, which helps other artists to achieve their dreams and POWA (People Opposing Women’s Abuse), to assist in raising awareness of the abuse of women in South Africa.

Check out the project and become a Future Owner at www.iamverity.com.

Thanks Kirstin!

ZENBURGER: “Jane Goodall is currently in town telling us that, within 10 years, chimpanzees in the wild could be extinct. Not only because of disease and loss of habitat, but simply because we are killing them.

And eating them.

New Scientist reported last week on the international trade in what is euphemistically referred to as ‘bushmeat’. Primates, including chimpanzees and gorillas, are hunted and killed – and the meat sold illegally at markets in Paris, Brussels, London, New York, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago and Los Angeles.

It’s simply a case of economics. People in rich nations – with ‘exotic’ tastes – are prepared to pay big money for bushmeat. Whole african communities are supported by this. I think it’s called supply and demand.

If you care about the fate of your closest relatives, a good starting point is The Great Ape Project. Also check out Jane Goodall’s own site.”

SketchUp from Google allows you to build 3D Models for Google Earth. I haven’t played with it all that much, but I love the idea!

Animal Rescue Blog: Your place to keep up to date on the latest emergency relief news, commentary and photos/videos from animal rescue efforts around the globe.

Psychology Today: There’s a revolution going on. And it’s not being fought with guns and bombs but with garden-variety fruits and vegetables.

Call it the “smart-food revolution.” It has to do with the growing body of research showing that everyday produce can function medically to prevent, treat and even cure common diseases.

Many green grocery items contain goodies that can help ward off the diseases of aging, such as cancer and heart disease, and slow down the aging process itself. Some of them can even halt the brain deterioration and memory loss that tends to accompany aging.

All together, the findings suggest that relatively simple diet modifications can slow down the normal process of brain aging and memory impairment. And delicious little blueberries may be the smartest food of all. more…

Should you buy that ticket now or wait? FareCast shows you the price history on US tickets and forecasts if the price is going up or down and suggests when you should buy your ticket. FareCast even shows you how the price changes depending on time of day you’re willing to fly. Currently FareCast is in beta and only offers departure airports Boston and Seattle, but will eventually incorporate cities nationwide.

FlySpy, also currently under development, will help people buy the lowest priced airplane ticket for a given destination: You specify your departure city and destination city, an optional departure date and how long you want to stay. The results show a graph of flight prices over the next 30 days so that you can quickly determine which days are the cheapest to fly. Then you book your flight simply by clicking on that point in the graph.

I can’t wait till one of these sites goes worldwide!

As with most web-based email options, the login phase of your gmail session is encrypted and protected from prying eyes. However after you’ve been logged in, you’re sent to a non-SSL-encrypted inbox where you, and anyone sniffing your network (like your company’s Network Administrator), can read your mail. This is especially a risk for those of us using WiFi where your information is ripe for the plucking.

A simple solution to the problem for those of us using Gmail is to log into gmail using this url: https://gmail.google.com instead of http://gmail.google.com.
This ensures that the entire process after logging in is encrypted on their secure server.

“It took us 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil.

So why should you care?”

www.willyoujoinus.com

I urge you to check out Chevron’s advertising campaign. Wow…

Now anyone who wants highly intuitive and seamless website tracking can get a Google Analytics account without waiting in line by visiting google.com/analytics or by clicking on the “Analytics” tab within AdWords. It’s ridiculously easy to set up and like with most Google products, absolutely free.

Take the tour…

Nice one Nathan! Turns out animals love to get drunk too – especially on my drink of choice.

Can’t see this video? Click here to watch it.

“Reindeer eat hallucinogenic mushrooms more for the high than the nutrition, [Balcombe] argues, and normally carnivorous jaguars sometimes trip on tree bark.” Wired Magazine.

From Wired: How to secure your data

Surveys suggest that 3 out of 4 companies monitor employees’ online activity. Protect yourself from workplace prying by following a few simple rules:

Cover your clacks

If you suspect the man is logging your every keystroke, install Spyware Doctor 3.8. It’ll expose any program running silently in the background while you work. (Note: you may need an admin password to install the app. If your IT department refuses to help, try bribing them with a spool of blank DVDs.)

Surf undercover

Prevent your boss from tracking your daily URL crawl with a Web-based program like The Cloak, which masks the addresses of sites you visit by redirecting your browsing through its domain.

Change up your email

Don’t use your work email for anything other than, well, work. If you want to send private messages over your employer’s servers, set up an encrypted email account with a provider like Hushmail.

IM on the DL

With an admin password, you can download an encrypted service like PSST (psst.sourceforge.net) or a program like Encrypted Messenger, which encodes most IM clients. The quick and dirty way: open an AOL IM account and use the Web-based chat service. With all the Web activity at work, the chance that anyone will notice your texting is small.

Delete Files Forever

You do know that file-recovery software can resurrect everything you just emptied out of your Trash or Recycle Bin, right? It may look as if you’ve removed them from the hard drive, but the 1s and 0s of the so-called deleted files still exist. The only sure way to permanently erase sensitive material is to overwrite the disk space with new data.

PC
Download the free Eraser app, which uses a process rigorous enough to meet Pentagon standards.

Mac
Choose “Secure Empty Trash” from the Finder menu and the skeletons in your hard drive are toast.

Get peace of mind

Still spooked? check out the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s guide to cloaking tools.

And I owe it all to Shawn!

www.programmermeetdesigner.com
“…created to unite programmers and designers because rarely is a person good at both programming and designing. PMD helps programmers and designers partner up to make websites and web applications that look and work great. It also lets entrepreneurs and writers find people to work with.”

Talk about a fantastic idea! So here is my ad:

Designer looking for a Programmer for long-term partnership

Bikely helps cyclists share knowledge of good bicycle routes.

Some of Nathan’s favourite routes