Featured photos taken in Mongolia

http://www.travellerspoint.com/photos/gallery/size/M/features/start/1/countries/Mongolia/

Steve Ward's Singing Tesla Coil video

This is a solid-state Tesla coil. The primary runs at its resonant frequency in the 41 KHz range, and is modulated from the control unit in order to generate the tones you hear.

So just to explain a little further, yes, it is the actual high voltage sparks that are making the noise. Every cycle of the music is a burst of sparks at 41 KHz, triggered by digital circuitry at the end of a "long" piece of fiber optics.

Vector Magic

This site converts bitmap images to vector art - it's an online auto-tracer.

http://vectormagic.stanford.edu/

Welsh village under attack by GPS-blind drivers

Apparently, residents in Llangadog have been frustrated time and time again as drivers of large trucks came rumbling through blindly following directions spat out by navigation systems.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/12/welsh-village-under-attack-by-gps-blind-drivers/

Wood-burning power station opens

The £60m Wilton 10 facility, will use about 300,000 tonnes of woodchips a year and provide enough electricity for 30,000 homes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/7090164.stm

Fixing problem OpenOffice files by unzipping, mixing, and matching

One of the great things about OpenOffice.org is that you can open corrupted Word files with it. Or Word files that are just too big to open in Word, open fine in OpenOffice Writer.

However, every so often you will get a rogue OpenOffice file that just won't behave. It crashes constantly, or behaves in other ways that just don't make sense.

In that case, the best approach is surgery.

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2007/11/fixing-problem-.html

Wake up! Gnosticism and Buddhism in The Matrix

"The Wachowski brothers' 1999 hit release The Matrix draws on multiple religious traditions to establish its complex worldview. Two of the most prominent are Gnostic Christianity and Buddhism, which, like the film, pose humanity's fundamental problem and its solution in terms of ignorance and enlightenment. Because of ignorance, people mistake the "material" world for something real, but they may "wake up" from this dream with help from a guide who teaches them their true nature. This article explores the film's pervasive allusions to Gnosticism and Buddhism, which in turn opens up the question of the film's overarching message and ultimate view of reality."

http://avalon.unomaha.edu/jrf/gnostic.htm

Vista vs. desktop Linux: One year in

"... It's a long story, but the heart of the matter was that they started turning out crappy, overpriced products ..."

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS4756599078.html

Wiimote Hack Is Wireless Multitouch TV

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/clips/wiimote-hack-is-wireless-multitouch-tv-321329.php

This Wiimote hack is one of the more astounding mods we've seen to Nintendo's pride and joy, but even more remarkably, it's really only taking advantage of the Wiimote's IR and Bluetooth capabilities to create what may be the multitouch mecca—multitouch without the touch. So would you wear little reflective rings on your fingers to have tactile control of your television screen?

Crater From 1908 Russian Space Impact Found, Team Says

"Almost a century after a mysterious explosion in Russia flattened a huge swath of Siberian forest, scientists have found what they believe is a crater made by the cosmic object that made the blast."

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071107-russia-crater.html

OOXML Ballot Resolution Meeting Questions and Answers

"... in no situation should it be an allowable resolution for Microsoft or ECMA to say “we’ll fix that in a future version of the specification.” Either it gets resolved at the BRM or it doesn’t."

http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=1921

10 Things You Should Know About MS Office Alternatives

http://www.eweek.com/slideshow/0,1206,a=218822,00.asp

New helmet allows fighter pilots to peer through the jet

No, the headgear in the photo above wasn't some unused prototype created for The Terminator; rather, it's a snazzy new helmet designed to give fighter pilots a better look at their surroundings. Within the tinted faceplate are two projectors which sync up with plane-mounted cameras and display images from the outside for the pilot to view. Essentially, this enables the operator to view high-resolution images (yes, even at night) of areas previously imperceptible without a warplane constructed entirely of plexiglass, and onboard sensors make sure that the imagery reflects exactly where the pilot is looking at any given moment.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/10/new-helmet-allows-fighter-pilots-to-peer-through-the-jet/