New Cushion Promises Cooler Rear

By JR Raphael
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Japanese researchers have come up with another cool way to keep you cool.

The same guys who brought us the USB Air-Conditioned Shirt have now developed a seat cushion that can keep you comfy down below. Kuchofuku’s new Suzukaze Air-Conditioned Cushion brings delight to your derriere with a fan-powered blast of air that, evidently, “dissipat[es] the heat and moisture accumulated around the buttocks.” Now that’s a winning slogan if I’ve ever heard one.

This half-pound gadget is also quite energy-efficient. Its low-power fan, according to company estimates, will only hike up your electric bill by five cents a month — and that’s with eight hours a day of use.

I’d love to be a fly on the wall during the marketing meetings for this thing.


Big Brother’s Back: NASA Worker Suspended Over Blog Postings

By JR Raphael
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

A NASA employee is off the job because of what he posted on his blog.

Federal Computer Week reports the man — a worker at Johnson Space Center in Houston — made posts soliciting donations and campaigning for political candidates on company time. He’s also accused of sending non-work-related emails while on the clock.

NASA has suspended him without pay for 180 days, according to FCW. They say his actions violated the Hatch Act, a policy that governs political activity of government-funded employees.

This serves as a reminder for us all: The things you type on a work computer are not private. Just last week, a study by research agency ProofPoint found 41 percent of all large American companies have staff members in place to monitor outgoing messages. Half of those staffers have no other responsibilities outside of watching what you do. And it’s not just the big corporations playing big brother, either; about 30 percent of all companies, small or large, admit to the same.

Some other interesting numbers from the report:

  • Eleven percent of all U.S. companies say they’ve taken disciplinary action specifically related to blogging or message board posting.
  • Thirteen percent have punished workers for spending time on social networks.
  • More than a quarter of the companies doing monitoring have fired someone because of what they found. Adult-oriented content is the most common violation.

Yikes. Guess I’ll have to switch over to oggling co-workers instead of internet babes. That’s still allowed, right?

Are video comments the next stage in blog evolution?

By Mark O’Neill

I’ve been listening to the pros and cons recently about whether video comments should be inserted into blogs. I honestly can’t make my mind up whether or not it’s a good idea. Mashable and Techcrunch have both started doing it, but the general consensus across the web is that video comments are a bad idea and will end up becoming a short-lived fad.

Here are four pros and four cons regarding video comments, just off the top of my head :

Pros :

  • Makes the blog more interactive.
  • You can put a face, voice and personality to the comment.
  • It’s difficult sometimes to work out what tone the person is taking in a text comment. With a video comment, you can see right away if the person is happy, sad, angry, whatever.
  • It helps to build up a more intimate friendly blog community, which in turn helps the blog owner to build up the RSS subscriber base. People with wacky funny personalities will contribute more, people will visit more often to see the wacky funny people do their thing and so on.

Cons :

  • The operator can’t moderate them
  • You can’t leave links to your blog so people may be less inclined to leave a comment.
  • The videos may slow the loading of the page down.
  • Some people might get carried away with the whole thing and rant on and on. Who wants to listen to a ten minute rant?

What do you think about video blog comments? Can you think of another pro or con?

If GAS suddenly decided to introduce video commenting, would it make you more or less inclined to comment on the blog? Would you personally leave a video comment or is the whole thing just a silly fad?

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Villains steal arrogant businessman’s social security number

By Mark O’Neill

One of the things I really appreciate in life is seeing the cocky arrogant people being taken down a peg or two. I can’t begin to describe how satisfying that is and I hope this guy gets to eat his humble pie very soon.

Todd Davis owns a fraud-prevention company called LifeLock and this company sells “comprehensive fraud protection”. What this basically boils down to is that he charges people $10 a month to set fraud alerts with credit bureaus so that if someone suddenly goes on a credit spending spree, the credit bureaus are alerted and the person in question is also alerted. Helpful if you’re not the one who has been doing the spending, so you can then shut down the credit line and stop the person who has stolen your identity.

By the way, Davis is actually charging people for something that can be done for free – and he knows it.

The reason why Davis is making me laugh is because he tried to prove how effective his service was by widely advertising his Social Security number in all his advertisements. In fact he dared people to steal it. He wanted people to try and steal his identity so his fraud alerts would get set off and he could boast about how super his service was.

So all the villains decided to take him up on his offer and his fraud alerts failed him big time.

There have been at least 87 attempts to steal his identity, including 20 driving license applications. One guy successfully got a $500 loan and now Davis is stuck with repaying it. Unhappy Lifelock customers are now suing him because the fraud alerts didn’t work for them either, a lawyer is trying to get a class-action suit going, and to top it all, the Experian credit bureau is suing Davis in California for “deception” and “abuse”.

Oh and by the way, Todd Davis’s Social Security number is still on Lifelock’s website. Does this guy never learn?

Via Wired

Artist Creates World’s Biggest Drawing Using GPS

World's Biggest Drawing

Artist Erik Nordenakar wanted to create something unique, the world’s biggest drawing. How did he do it? He traveled all around the world, carrying a GPS-enabled briefcase, to draw his self-portrait on a map of the world. After 55 days, he came back home and used the GPS data to finish his masterpiece. His trip brought him through 6 continents and 62 countries, covering around 70,000 miles. Video after the break.

Continue reading ›

New Vehicle to Travel via Road and Rail

By JR Raphael
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Doc Brown’s Delorean may soon have some competition.

Okay, this one won’t travel time, but it will function a bit like the train-adapted machine from the movie’s third installment. Toyota is working on a new “road-rail” vehicle that will — as the name implies — travel along the tracks, then jump off and keep going on the road.

As European news agency AFP reports, the so-called dual mode vehicle will carry as many as 25 people at a time. Its goal is to put rarely-used railroads around the world back to use, without the old limitations.

“Our contribution is expected to be another step toward more practical use,” a spokesperson for Toyota affiliate Hino said.

The dual mode vehicle is powered by diesel and rolls on four iron railroad wheels and four rubber road wheels. Yet-to-be-added are the rotating hover wheels to let it fly high over the skies of Hill Valley, with Jennifer and Einstein securely in tow. Vroom vroom, gentle dog. Vroom vroom.