Today's Links
Brush off your electronics course textbook. This fella's been designing functioning logic gates using LEGO. They aren't very efficient, but for gates without power they function very well.
Blockbuster drops late fees a/o January 1st, 2005: Too little, too late. Their business model is a dinosaur. With video on demand and pay-per-view available to the average consumer for the same price without the hassle of having to drive or walk to the store to rent and return, any large video rental business is going to buckle under their own weight. This probably won't affect the boutique neighborhood rental stores (like Queen Video at Queen/Cameron Sts. in Toronto) as they offer a really deep back catalog selection and knowledgeable staff - neither of which is offered by Blockbuster, or for that matter Rogers Video. I can recall thinking 'oops' when I went into a Blockbuster a year or two ago when they were in the midst of their BIG PUSH to convert people to DVDs by clearing out their VHS and LaserDisc libraries as quickly as possible. The problem was they didn't replace the tapes with equivalent DVDs - they just reduced their title count by two thirds. Now if you walk into a Blockbuster, it's a cavernous space with little selection, half the store is sale merchandise and video games, as well as candy and soft drinks, and about half the remaining space is new releases, leaving a quarter of the store devoted to back catalog. Give me a break! BB has an online presence now as well but they're going to take a big hit getting rid of all of those retail outlets over the next few years...
That big & tall bridge in France. Wow! The Viaduc de Millau would make Caesar proud.
The Beatles recorded Christmas albums for their fan club members between 1963 and 1969... Download them here! BitTorrent Links to better files: One, Two.
Prisoners' Inventions: "This project... illustrated many incredible inventions made by prisoners to fill needs that the restrictive environment of the prison wouldn't allow. The inventions cover everything from homemade sex dolls, condoms, salt and peper shakers to chess sets."