Gypsy.com Sells For $22,222: Dorset.com, Croydon.com And Others Got For Even More

GYPSY.COM has sold for $22,222 on Sedo, a domain name brokerage house.

While Dale Farm residents work out how much actual land you can buy for that much cash, Dorset.com, Croydon.com, EastSussex.com, WestSussex.com, Hampshire.com and Shropshire.com all sold for $33,333 each. It’s all odd, isn’t it, how on the internet you can buy a name and pretend to be part of that actual place, though you might live miles and miles away. And it’s complete waste of money:

The group that governs Internet domain names is opening up the system so that companies and organizations can apply to create their own versions of .com, .org or .gov. Under the new rules, instead of a coke.com, Coca-Cola might control the domain .coke and assign Web addresses such as drink.coke or bottle.coke.

Anorak

Posted: 3rd, October 2011 | In: Technology | Comment

Typewriter Turns Your Words Into Cocktails: Video

WRITERS, authors and bloggers love the image of the upright typewriter. Sure, they don’t actually own one because they are utterly redundant and can’t be plugged into the mains.

You can’t pretend you’re working while dawdling around on twitter either.

That doesn’t stop them from adorning their worthless personal blogs with pictures of typewriters. This is especially foolish when you consider that there is a way… kinda… where you can make a typewriter that is of some use to a writer.

Basically, trade in your romantic, dewy notion of an archaic typing device and replace it with one that gets you blind drunk. If there’s one thing that writers like more than tapping out words, it’s alcoholism.

Mof Gimmers

Posted: 30th, September 2011 | In: Technology | Comment (1)

Spotify Adds ‘Private Listening’ So You Can Keep Your Embarrassing Albums To Yourself

If you are a heavy user of Spotify and Facebook you’ll know that the pair recently did a little deal, so that stuff you play on Spotify gets shared with all your Fbook buddies. This is fine, but I guess makes people a little more cautious about what they play. After all most of us like to appear as edgy, young cool hipsters, even if most of the time we listen to dad rock classics rather than the hottest new combo from Dalston.

Well it appears Spotify has been tuning in to the online debate for they have introduced something called ‘Private Listening.’ Earlier today the streaming music service’s official Twitter account announced ‘Now you can temporarily hide your guilty pleasures. We call it “Private listening” and you can find it in the Spotify/File menu.’

Anorak

Posted: 29th, September 2011 | In: Technology | Comment

Canadians Are Cashing In On The Tea Party.com

CANADIAN rockers The Tea Party might be cashing in:

A sum of $1 million would put the musicians in elite company. Only a few dozen domain names have sold for that much or more, including sex.com ($13 million), vodka.com ($3 million), and poker.com ($1 million). The key to a big payday is marketing and timing. “Domain names are Internet real estate,” says Marc Ostrofsky, author of Get Rich Click! and an entrepreneur who bought Business.com for $150,000 in 1995 and sold it four years later for $7.5 million. “A good way to think about them is like tenants in a shopping mall. You’ve got your anchor tenants like Business.com and mutualfunds.com, and then you’ve got seasonal guys who come and go like teaparty.com.”

Will Mr Anroak.co.uk ever make it to President?

Anorak

Posted: 28th, September 2011 | In: Technology | Comment

Cern Faster Than Light or Follow The Money: The Time Machine Snake Oil

SO, we’ve the announcement today that scientists at Cern have discovered particles moving faster than the speed of light.

The science world has been left in shock after it was announced that CERN scientists had recorded subatomic particles travelling faster than the speed of light in a finding that could overturn fundamental law of physics.

So, the big question is, is it actually true? Or have they managed to cock up their measurements? Neither you nor I know enough physics to be able to decide that one directly but there is another way to work it out.

Follow the money.

Tim Worstall

Posted: 26th, September 2011 | In: Technology | Comments (2)

The Robot Evolta Challenge: Photos Of The Ultimate Sports Hero

ALTERNATIVE Olympics Sports: The Robot Evolta triathlon event in Oiso, west of Tokyo. Three types of the 17 centimetre (6.7 inch) -tall, green and white imp-like robot, powered by three of Panasonic’s rechargeable Evolta AA batteries, plan to challenge an ultra distance triathlon on the Island of Hawaii on Oct. 24, covering the 3.8-kilometre (2.4-mile) swimming, 180-km (112-mile) bicycling and 42.2-km (26-mile) running, in one week with only three rechargeable batteries. Brillaint. And if the little master can hold a cricket bat, eat crisps, marry a super-tanned sweetheart in OK! and explain indiscretions in the lap-dancing club with the phrase “I was rechargin’ me batteries”, we might yet have the ultimate British sportsman…

Anorak

Posted: 23rd, September 2011 | In: Technology | Comment

Nasa’s Falling UARS Satellite Misses North America But Hits Eurovision – Which Is Lucky

SO. What’s it feel like to get hit by a satellite failing from space? You may soon get to answer that question because the UARS satellite is heading this way. The chance of you getting hit by the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is 1 in 3,200, states the BBC. And that’s not too shabby.

The thing will arrive on Mother Earth – or your granny’s house – this Friday evening or Saturday morning.

Nasa says that debris could fall across an area 400-500km long. And all we know for certain is that when the lumps of bran-shattering metal do pull through the atmosphere, Nasa says it will not be over North America.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States, based in North America by liable to colonise anywhere soon, may be disappointed not to get the device back.

Anorak

Posted: 22nd, September 2011 | In: Technology | Comment (1)

Scarlett Johanssoning Photos: Scarlett Johansson’s Mirror Bum Starts A Meme

SCARLETT Johansson has started a trend. The meme is called ScarlettJohanssoning. All you need do it take a photo of your bum reflected in a mirror and see it leaked it onto the internet… Somr of these are very funny…

scarlett-johansson-4

Image 1 of 21

Anorak

Posted: 20th, September 2011 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comments (2)

Glowing Live Cats To Replace Cats Eyes On Motorways: Photos

HAVE you seen the cats that glow in the dark? Cats Eyes are now a thing of history as scientists invents cats – whole cats – that can sit in the middle of motorway lanes and prevent accidents. After years of waiting,  might this be that moment when cats can finally help mankind and do a day’s work? Maybe. Anorak would prefer to go with glowing dogs, who are more likely to “sit” and “stay” than cats. And what of tortoises? But the debate is best saved for later.

Anorak

Posted: 12th, September 2011 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comment

Guardian Tweets 9/11 Live On Twitter: Bad Taste Porn Crashes And Burns @AuschwitzLive

THE Guardian wonders what 9/11 would have looked like in real time on Twitter. What would the mass murder and horror have looked like on the social network? So. The Guardian creates a Twitter feed called @911tenyearsago. It will guess what people would have said in 140 characters or fewer as thousands were murdered. You can already read thousands of FBI pager messages on Wikileaks. But the Guardian loves Twitter. And if this experiment is a success it could set up a Facebook page and see how many people “like” 9/11 and then repeat the exercise in live Tweets from @ImLiveAtAuschwitz and @OnBoardTitanic.

Anorak

Posted: 11th, September 2011 | In: Technology | Comment

Ignacio Torres’ Moving Photographs Makes Stars Of Us All: Photos

IGNACIO Torres has created “Stellar“. Says he:

“I created the images shooting the subject from four different angles, taking the pictures all at the same time with a synched flash.”

Anorak

Posted: 8th, September 2011 | In: Technology | Comment

Turk Guvenligi Hacks Daily Telegraph And Other Websites

THE Daily Telegraph has been hacked. Also hit are UPS, BetFair, The Register, Vodafone, National Geographic and around 200 other sites. All sites are vulnerable. It’s just a shock that such big sites should be so easily hit.

The hackers are called Turk Guvenligi (trans: Turkish Security, Come to Papa).The sites are still there – the hackers attacked the domain name system (DNS), by which users are directed to websites.

This means that emails sent to the sites would have been delivered to the hackers’ site.

Back in April this year, the Telegraph was hacked by a group called Romanian National Security. It was upset at the paper’s identification of “gypsies” and “Romanians”.

Anorak

Posted: 5th, September 2011 | In: Technology | Comment

All Wikileaks Top Secret Information Is Now Online And Free – Maybe

WHAT news of Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder – he of the many dead? Well, the joke is that Wikileaks are unhappy that their own secrets are being leaked:

Wikileaks says its former pals at the Guardian, “negligently disclosed top secret WikiLeaks’ decryption passwords.”

Anorak

Posted: 2nd, September 2011 | In: Technology | Comment

Are These Photos Of Sick Steve Jobs Fakes?

STEVE Jobs is ill. How ill? Well, the Now former CEO of Apple has cancer. Anyone who has lived with a cancer patient nows how grim it can get. The weight loss is the visible sign of change. And the photos doing the rounds show a painfully thin Jobs. But as with many things on the internet, an argument develops that the photos may be fakes? Why anyone would make fake photos of an ill man is an odd one. But a voice on Reddit says the pictures are fake. Anorak would guess that the Reddit photoshop expert has not watched a love one get eaten by cancer, much less a vicious form of the disease that is attacking Jobs.

Anorak

Posted: 27th, August 2011 | In: Technology | Comment

Tripping Steve Jobs Gets The Taiwan CGI Treatment: Bill Gates Is Darth Vader

STEVE Jobs is starring on Taiwan’s NMA News channel. Yep. He’s finally made it. You will see the the drugs haze, the birth of a computer,  a fight with Bill  Gates and a bout with death. Who wins..?

Anorak

Posted: 26th, August 2011 | In: Technology | Comment

Found: Planet Made Of Diamond

WE. ARE. RICH! Astronomers have found a planet made of….diamond.

Says Matthew Bailes of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne:

“The evolutionary history and amazing density of the planet all suggest it is comprised of carbon — i.e. a massive diamond orbiting a neutron star every two hours in an orbit so tight it would fit inside our own Sun.”

Yeah, whatever. D.I.A.MOND.

Anorak

Posted: 25th, August 2011 | In: Technology | Comment

No Quick App for Apple’s Mr Fixit: How Steve Jobs Inspires Diabetics

STEVE Jobs, the 56-year-old who co-founded and led a world revolution in communications with Apple Corp and then introduced the IPod and IPhone has quit as head of the world’s most successful company.

Thousands of column inches will be written of the man who: left college to become co-founder of a computer giant in a Silicon Valley garage; left the company and later returned to head up the ailing company’s new found success.

He will stay linked to Apple as Chairman of the Board.

agw

Posted: 25th, August 2011 | In: Technology | Comments (11)

Daily Mail Kills Off IstyOsty – Are There Other Ways To Read The Mail And Not Encourage It?

GOODBYE IstyOsty, you were the site that enabled people to read the Daily Mail without having to actually read the Daily Mail. The Mail was not too keen to someone using its work without even a link back to its own site.

Anorak

Posted: 17th, August 2011 | In: Technology | Comment

Why Was Facebook Murder Plot Victim Corey White Killed?

COREY White, 22, has been shot dead in Philadelphia. His lover, 20-year-old London Eley, allegedly offered $1,000 on Facebook for someone to kill him. She advertised thus:

“I will pay somebody a stack to kill my baby father.”

Anorak

Posted: 16th, August 2011 | In: Technology | Comment (1)

Pathetic Police Arrest Man For Organising Water Fight On Blackberry And Facebook

SO tough are the police in David Cameron’s Bullingdon Britain that a 20-year-old man from Colchester in Essex has been arrested for allegedly arranging a big water fight via BlackBerry Messenger and Facebook. The man is charged with “encouraging or assisting in the commission of an offence“.

An Essex policeman addresses media:

“In the light of recent events, we would have to be careful that [the planned water fight] is not all that it seems.”

Are the police observing Blackberry Messenger and Facebook – or are the big US corporations working with the police to profile their customers?

Cameron says he will “look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality”.

Anorak

Posted: 16th, August 2011 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comment

Operation Cup Of Tea: Forget The London Riots Let’s Have A Nice Sit Down

OPERATION Cup Of Tea is the Twitter hashtag that will undo the London Riots and make things better.

Operation Decent Biscuit is in the planning phase. What we need is hero to make OCoT fly. We’ve found him…

Anorak

Posted: 9th, August 2011 | In: Technology | Comment

Graham Linehan Finds That Twitter And Reddit Are Like Brass Eye – Only Less Believable

GRAHAM Linehan – a writer on Father Ted, The IT Crowd, Brass Eye and more – finds that writing for twitter on 140 characters or fewer can create problems.  has made it to the front page of Reddit. His Tweet was:

Forget @DeanEsnard and do searches for anyone else boasting about involvement in riots. Take screengrabs. #riotprevention

Read the rest of this entry »

Anorak

Posted: 9th, August 2011 | In: Technology | Comment

Blackberry Security: Another victim of London Riots?

THE bleeding-heart liberals among us are worried that the backlash to the London Riots will usher in a harsher police state and that tolerance will get swept out with the broken glass. Let me just put in a techie’s plea for something else in danger of getting pushed aside: the security of  Blackberry Messenger.

Anna Leach

Posted: 9th, August 2011 | In: Technology | Comment (1)

London Riots: Forget BBM, It’s the Back-Button That Has Created Generation Whatever

Every week, the Daily Mail will blame the internet for something else. Pedophiles, exam results, cancer and yes, the random violence that has swept through London in the past three days. I love the internet, but I’m going to do the same.

Anna Leach

Posted: 9th, August 2011 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comment

Riot Police Promise To Spend More Time on Twitter

POLICE Officers promised to spend more time on Twitter trying to predict where violence would break out after copycat riots sprang up in Brixton, Walthamstow, Dalston, Islington, Westfield, Oxford Circus and Ponders End following the protest about the death of Mark Duggan in Enfield on Saturday night.

Anna Leach

Posted: 8th, August 2011 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comments (2)