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Pretty good and free song identification tool for those MP3′s you forgot to ID3 some years ago
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For those of you living under a rock, inside a deep cave within Ireland, Lotto fever is gripping the country at the moment. The national lottery has not been won now for over 10 weeks and the jackpot is heading for Eur 15M this weekend. I play Lotto on the odd occasion, perhaps when depressed and really looking for an exit from the rat race or possibly on a whim of momentary enjoyment. I know full well that I would be better off doing something else with my cash but in true gambler speak, there’s always that one chance. 
What really surprises me at the moment, is the excitement that this jackpot is producing. 10 years ago I could understand this and it’s not that I’m saying that Eur 15M is not a lot of money. Where I am coming from is that Ireland has been exposed to the so-called Euro Millions lottery for several years now, running each Friday night and with an average jackpot of about Eur 18M. They estimate the chances of winning some sort of prize in the Euro Millions draw to be 1 in 24. Compare this to the Irish National lottery where the average jackpot is maybe a couple of million Euro and the best odds for you winning some sort of prize outside of the 5-4-3-2-1 game which is a different ticket anyway is at most 1 in 48. So there you have it, evidence that Lotto fever really is a contagious disease: everyone in Ireland is contracting a bout of euphoria about a jackpot that is less than an average Euro Millions draw and odds that are at best twice as unlikely as the Euro Millions draw. Okay the odds I’m talking about here reflect winning a minor prize but when you start debating about odds of 1 in X million for winning the big jackpot you kind of lose the argument anyhow. It’s amazing to see how this is gripping the nation when better is on offer each and every week. Maybe it’s national pride, maybe it’s because Lotto has become the Irish dream and as such cannot be replaced by European replicas. Will I be playing this weekend? Hell yes!!
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Not so much a chilling story as a story of a chilling device. Despite the free services offered by most city councils these days for the disposal of white goods, NASA has decided to go with the good old fashioned outer space fly-tipping. Yes, a huge refrigeration unit has just been ditched from the International Space Station in an act of casual littering, a quick look over the shoulder to make sure the Martians weren’t looking and drop! Hopefully this doesn’t land in somebody’s back garden, NASA are quoting a 1 in 5000 chance that somebody might be hurt by it and those aren’t very long odds. source: The Register
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To Padraig Harrington and yesterday’s victory: You treated the British Open like a boomerang, you threw it away but somehow had the confidence that it would come back to you. Congrats Padraig, you did Ireland proud and hopefully it’s the first of many majors to come for you now that you have broken the duck.
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I really can’t make up my mind whether it should be the clip of Irish history or the one where Peter finally meets his biological father.
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If like me you really like the Flock browser and want to move away from your other browsers but one little thing kept niggling at you, the fact that search results keep coming back from Yahoo instead of Google when you do an address bar search then read on. I’m sure that lots of folk using Flock have been used to Firefox and typing words into the address bar instead of the search bar to trawl Google for answers. For some reason though in Flock, despite setting your search engine default to Google it still comes back with Yahoo answers to these address bar searches. The solution is at hand – never fear.
In the address bar type about:config and hit return. Then in the filter box type keyword.url you’ll see one item listed below. Change the value of this from the Yahoo URL to “http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=” and click ok. Away you go, happy once more with Google results instead!
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Nike +
The Nike+ add-on for your iPod Nano is not just some fancy gimmic that iPod developers want you to buy. It’s a seriously cool, accurate and informative running aid for those into their long distance jogging.
I do a lot of running on a weekly basis and I’m constantly looking for things that will make my runs more enjoyable and successful. New trainers, better clothing, etc, etc. However, one thing I would never change is music, I bring an iPod Nano with me on every run. When I heard about Nike+, I was at first sceptical about it but then I gave into temptation.
After a quick calibration over a few hundred metres, simply select your workout type, playlist and away you go. The Nike+ kit consists of two parts. A small pedometer device that goes into your shoe and a small receiver that plugs into the port of your iPod Nano. Nike manufacture shoes specifically for this system with a cavity under the insole for the pedometer but it isn’t necessary to purchase these shoes. I have an old pair of Nike Shox and the device fits snuggly under the lining of the tongue of the shoe.
The system allows you to input your weight also. So, while you are running about it is estimating your calorie burn rate. There is even a workout that is based on calories burned rather than distance, great for anyone trying to shape-up. Over a recent 11km run the accuracy of the device for distance was out by about 5% (underestimated). However, that’s more than acceptable to me as pedometers by nature cannot be wholly accurate and this route involved many uphill and downhill sections hence varying my stride. When you complete your run you get a full lowdown on how you performed and during your run you get updates everytime you run a kilometre or mile (your choice) and also regular updates on your distance left after you hit half-way in a distance run. You can also hear your average time per km/mile all without ever having to look at the iPod. Another nice feature is the “power song” feature. Every runner has a song that releases a bit of adrenalin, “Eye of the tiger” or whatever you want. I always wished the iPod had this feature and now it does by simply holding down the centre button for a second or two.
When you get home, it’s still not over. Connect up your iPod and launch iTunes to transfer your data to the Nike website. You can store your past runs, track your progress, set goals and challenge somebody in Boston to a virtual race. Overall I’m blown away by this simple little package that cost less than Euro 30. I don’t think I’ll ever run without it again. If I had to say something negative I’d be stuck but I guess it would be that the receiver that plugs into the iPod needs power obviously and depending on the state of your iPod battery it might not last some of the longer distance runs unless you’re a top athlete or your iPod is always fully charged.
Rated /5 on Jul 20 2007 by Jonathan Brazil
Vote on this review or write your own at LouderVoice
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Nice one Steven Floyd & co. that is. A group of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are developing a robot that will be able to walk on water. The robot is designed to mimic the abilities of a type of lizard that has mastered the art of water running. Move over rubber ducky, bath-time just found a new cool toy! source: Robot Aims To Walk On Water (PDF)
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We Irish could do with a bit of help from our fellow planet dwellers in China at the moment. Absurd as it may sound the Chinese are investigating plans to help control the weather for the next Olympic Games. Normally they provide rain for crops in times of drought but this time around they are pretty convinced that they can stop light showers and will have a go at strong downpours. We could do with their help to lighten up this “wonderful” Irish Summer that we are having at the moment. source: The Register
