86 Words

Now THAT is a LOT of CUBES!

The pictures below are all part of a large mural done entirely in Rubic’s Cubes by Toranto based Cubeworks Studio.

The mural, which is just outside of Hong Kong, uses more than 85,000 cubes and is 13 feet high by 200 feet long!

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Here’s a kind of a side view that shows how long this thing is - keep in mind, it’s 13 feet tall too!

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Here’s a shot of a guy presumably working on part of the mural.

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And finally, here’s a wide shot (that STILL doesn’t show the whole thing!) to give better idea of scale.

- Original Article on Make -

Tags: Reference, Real World, Make, Current Events, Just Cool, Geek Stuff, Art / Visual, General by Jai
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Portable Hotspots too expensive? Would you settle for… Free?

FreedomPop, while still in “beta” is already making waves in the internet service industry!

For the (refundable) deposit cost of the router hardware ($50 - $100), you can have free internet access whenever you’re in a supported area (mostly bigger cities). Later this year, they’re adding LTE which should extend their coverage dramatically!

Including the just-announced LTE clip, there are 4 router types to choose from.

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The blue markers indicate coverage areas in the continental U.S., but the story is a little better than the map makes it look from this view!

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Notice that, on this map of the Chicago coverage, the area covered actually touches both Michigan to the north and Indiana to the southeast! That’s WAY bigger than “just Chicago”!

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This is what the Photon router (the one I chose) looks like. It’s only 2.6 x 2.6 x 0.5 inches and allows up to eight devices to connect!

- FreedomPop official site -

- Announcement of LTE Clip later this year on SlashGear -

Tags: Current Events, Reference, Real World, Geek, Gadgets, Net Life, Geek Stuff, Gaming, Life Tips, General by Jai
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86Words Back From Christmas Break!

What, you’re not buying that?

But… But… It happens EVERY YEAR!

Fine, we’re back anyway. <pout>

86Words Returns from The Holidays (”Share and Enjoy”)

Okay, reality is that this has been a monumentally busy (and productive) year, and even busier during the holiday season.

I shall try to keep up.

Tags: Current Events by Jai
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The Island that Will Soon Fall Off the Map

A small island in the South Pacific that has been “on the maps” for over 115 years apparently doesn’t even exist!

Some scientists chose this island while seeking a remote work area, but when they reached the location, it wasn’t there; they sailed right through it.

There are other theories as to it’s “nonexistence”, of course, but the official word was that it was never there in the first place.

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This is the map picture included with the article to show the island’s location near New Caledonia.

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I decided to check it out on Google Maps myself, and here’s what I found. The island IS strangely empty looking…

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“So let’s take a look at the satellite view,” I thought. It was wholly unhopeful, if somewhat scary. Is it me, or does it look like something was (hastily) removed here?

-Source Article at ABC News -

Tags: Reference, Real World, Geek, Scary, Weird, Virtual, Current Events, Geek Stuff by Jai
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Should I use the {xyz} FaceBook App?

I tend to avoid Facebook apps that ask for permissions that don’t seem necessary. This turns out to be a lot of apps!

http://apps.secure.me can help. They catalog and track over 500,000 Facebook apps by their permissions, and by their use (or misuse) of those permissions.

They provide several ways to look up the app in question.

One quick and easy check, and you can decide if an app is safe!

App Advisor by secure me

Something about the app icons marching across the main secure.me page with their “reputations” displayed is very comforting!

Flipboard (one of my all-time favorite apps on iOS) has a very good Facebook reputation, despite asking for permissions it doesn’t need (because it doesn’t misuse those permissions).

On any app that you’ve accessed on Facebook, you can remove some of the permissions it asks for. Go to the settings for that app and simply click the “X” next to the permission you don’t want it to have. Now you can access the app without the app accessing you!.

Note: 86Words will do a post in the near future specifically on the topic of changing Facebook app permissions for our users who need the assist!

http://apps.secure.me

Tags: Gadgets, Current Events, Collections, Reference, Net Life, Life Tips, Geek Stuff, Software, HowTo, General by Jai
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How to store 240 copies of EVERY BOOK EVER WRITTEN in a single ounce of storage material…

I’m sensationalizing, it’s closer to 239!

Harvard scientists have used DNA molecules to store binary data using cytosine and adenine as zeroes, and thymine and guanine as ones (DNA CATG sequences).

While the numbers in the article don’t seem completely correct (they seem to allow only 6 megabytes of address space), the scientists have used the system to successfully store enormous amounts of data!

(Note: Google Books estimates 130,000,000 books have ever been written).

19-Bit Address Storage = 524,288 total addresses of 96 data bits (12 bytes) each. Total = 6,291,456 bytes (6 MegaBytes) exactly.
There are some unusual properties of that number involving primes, so perhaps there’s more to it?

- Original Article on ExtremeTech -

Tags: Current Events, Weird, Reference, Science, HowTo, Geek Stuff, Software, General by Jai
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Maximum color print resolution? Challenge accepted!

The picture below may not look like much, but you have to realize, it’s been really, really enlarged!

The original image is only 50 microns across. This means that you could fit over 250,000 copies in the space of one square inch!

It was printed using a new technique that allows the absolute highest possible color resolution; if you try to make the dots any smaller, they’re below the wavelength of the colors of the reflected light!

$Full colour image printing and resolution test patterns Printing colour at the optical diffraction limit Nature Nanotechnology Nature Publishing Group$
You could fit about 100 copies of this thing in a square the size of an average amoeba (the “well known” variety of amoeba; amoeba proteus)!

- Original Article on Nature.com -

Tags: Current Events, Weird, Reference, Just Cool, Science, Geek Stuff, Art / Visual, General by Jai
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(Another) new species discovered over the web!

The ready availability of digital cameras combined with the ease of sharing images over the web has made things happen that wouldn’t have otherwise.

Criminals identified on Facebook, archeological finds and shipwrecks found on Google Earth, and new species’ identified on Flickr.

This unusual lacewing isn’t the first new species found this way, but I bet it won’t be the last either!

Share and Enjoy!

The blue and black bits near the rear of its wings are what make this speciman unusual.

Here’s a view of the more common green lacewing (Chrysopa Oculata) for comparison.

A New Species Discovered On Flickr The Picture Show NPR 1
And finally, another view of the new lacewing (dubbed Semachrysa jade).

- Original Article on NPR -

Tags: Current Events, Reference, Just Cool, Net Life, Geek Stuff, Science, General by Jai
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Yeah. It’s true… And I nailed 80% of it!

Apple has released the new iPad. It’s not the iPad 3, or iPad HD, or iPad Pro.

It’s actually called "The New iPad"!

What in the world are they going to do when the next one comes out?!?

(Oh, and yeah, that’s my only complaint!)

See the story at the jump!

It has just about everything that was rumored, and then some! The resolution (and speed, and battery life) are in-freaking-credible! The name, however, has me wondering if they changed it at the last second just to put off the predictors!

All of the stuff you’re used to still works (and a lot of it is improved), but even the stuff that hasn’t changed gets an automatic upgrade to the new Retina Display resolution, with improved reading, visuals, graphics… And everything else involving your eyeballs!

- LifeHacker’s Discussion of The New iPad -

Tags: Current Events, Reference, Gadgets, Just Cool, Geek Stuff, General by Jai
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A Heartwarming Story About Love, Companionship, Survival, and Huge, Hideous Insects!

Interestingly, those warm feelings are the insects’!

This (harmless) Walking Stick insect has been believed extinct since the 1920’s (declared officially in 1960).

However, a few (24 in total) were found alive in a single, remote spot.

Interesting points about these guys include the fact that the male sleeps with his legs wrapped protectively around his (sole) female companion.

It’s a really good read.

Go read!

The (very few) survivors were found under a single plant on this remote, jagged rock, at an altitude of 225 ft. above sea level!

Here’s an overhead view of the "island". It really is pretty much just a rock cliff sticking out of the water (and pretty damned far away from any real land too)!

And here’s the picture you’ve probably been waiting for - a view of the actual bug. DON’T JUDGE, you probably look pretty hideous to them too, and it’s likely that you’re less docile!