Unisex connector

As well as being a software engineer I am a keen (strictly amateur) sound engineer for my church. We use XLR cables for a lot of stuff, microphones, amps, keyboards. I occasionally can't find quite the cable I'm looking for, would this solve some of my problems? I think it might.
Of course the real question is how much it costs - there is no point shelling out twice as much money as for a 'normal' XLR connector (you might as well buy two normal cables). We do use Neutrik connectors on most of our cables and any connectors that get broken get replaced with Neutrik ones.
Neutrik also make Speakon connectors which I have used once or twice. Speakon are used for Loudspeakers, these seem like the best product around for this purpose. I would happily replace all our speaker connectors with Speakon - especially if anyone from Neutrik is reading this I could do with 6 off 4-pole chassis connectors and 6 off 4-pole cable connectors (that would be grand) or some of the unisex XLR ones to try?
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How secure is secure?

Picture by: Ian Britton - FreeFoto.com

FreeFotoFreeFoto

ComputersComputer Printed Circuit Board Network cable RJ45 Hard Disk

Two separate research teams, from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne and security consultancy Inverse Path have been studying the electromagentic emmisions of keyboards. Every time a computer keyboard is tapped, it produces a small radiative emmision. It turns out that this keystroke radiation is actually pretty easy to capture and decode -- if you're a computer hacker-type, that is.
The idea of someone sniffing out keystrokes with a wireless antenna may seem ripped from the pages of a spy thriller, but criminals have already used sneaky techniques such as wireless video cameras placed near automated teller machines and Wi-Fi sniffers to steal credit-card numbers and passwords.
The Ecole Polytechnique team did its work using an oscilloscope and an inexpensive wireless antenna. The team was able to pick up keystrokes from virtually any keyboard. With the keyboard's cabling and nearby power wires acting as antennas for these electromagnetic signals, the researchers were able to read keystrokes with 95 percent accuracy over a distance of up to 20 meters (22 yards), in ideal conditions.

If pulling keystrokes out of thin air isn't bad enough, another team has found a way to get the same kind of information out of a power socket. Using similar techniques, Inverse Path researchers Andrea Barisani and Daniele Bianco say they get accurate results, picking out keyboard signals from keyboard ground cables.Link
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>Click breaks the law

A report due to be broadcast on the BBC News channel will demonstrate journalists breaking the law.

The BBC News programme Click, which is "The BBC's Flagship technology programme" really should know better. In order to expose the risk of cyber crime, Click managed to acquire its own low-value botnet after visiting chatrooms on the internet.

Click claim that "If this exercise had been done with criminal intent it would be breaking the law."

However this is not just misleading it is wrong.The computer miuse act section 1, clearly states it is an offence of
Unauthorised access to computer material
(1) A person is guilty of an offence if—
(a) he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access to any program or data held in any computer;
(b) the access he intends to secure is unauthorised; and
(c) he knows at the time when he causes the computer to perform the function that that is the case.

• They accessed programs running on the computers - they must have been to create or use the Botnet
• The access was unauthorised
• They knew it

That by the definition of the Computer misuse act is an offence regardless of intent. It take a lot to make me cross. This has made me cross. Very cross.Link
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Even Fairer Trade

According to the guardian website, "Britain's most popular chocolate bar, Dairy Milk, is to become Fairtrade certified in Britain and Ireland in a move that will double the amount of cocoa bought from smallholders in the developing world under the sustainable farming scheme.
The decision - the highlight of Fairtrade Fortnight - will transform Fairtrade chocolate from a niche preference to a mainstream ethical benchmark, bearing the sustainability kitemark on 15% of chocolate sold in Britain. Cadbury's chief executive, Todd Stitzer, said he plans to convert the group's other chocolate brands to Fairtrade "as soon as we can do it". Dairy Milk is the first mainstream chocolate bar to be sold with a commitment to pay cocoa suppliers the "Fairtrade premium" of $150 (£105) a tonne above market prices. When the bars go on sale this summer the value of Fairtrade chocolate sales in Britain will leap from £45m to £225m. Cadbury's pledge to buy 10,000 tonnes of cocoa under Fairtrade terms will triple certified sales from Ghana."Link
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Sculpting Nature

I saw Alastair Heseltine’s art at Treehugger which is one of this sites I have in my RSS reader.
Alastair is a Canadian sculptor plying his craft in the Pacific North West. He designs and photographs cool stuff relating to the environment. According to his website, Heseltine’s imagery is “guided by the inherent nature of material and by construction systems evolved through mindful observation and play.” He also draws “from the full spectrum of routines and activities that support my practice: Design, craft production, farming and rural life.”

He describes himself as working with mixed media relating to the environment and being inspired by the inherent nature of material and by construction systems evolved through mindful observation and play.

Ain't that the most visually descriptive wood pile you've ever seen? Take a peek (below) at more examples of his natural art. Link
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I want one of these

I have always wanted a lightsaber - those cheap plastic ones never really felt right. I even thought about making one on my Dad's lathe, a solid hefty peice of metal with a decent light source.
now there is a place that you can order the bits from
They don't look too pricy either. Most importantly they look really cool
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Evolution leads us

Today is Darwin's birthday,
Let us celebrate by singing the Evolutionary Hymn. Wether you believe the theory or not this is an amusing song to the tune of Lead Us, Heavenly Father, Lead Us

Lead us, Evolution, lead us
Up the future's endless stair;
Chop us, change us, prod us, weed us.
For stagnation is despair:
Groping, guessing, yet progressing,
Lead us nobody knows where.

Wrong or justice, joy or sorrow,
In the present what are they
While there's always jam tomorrow,
While we tread the onward way?
Never knowing where we're going,
We can never go astray.

To whatever variation
Our posterity may turn
Hairy, squashy, or crustacean,
Bulbous-eyed or square of stern,
Tusked or toothless, mild or ruthless,
Towards that unknown god we yearn.

Ask not if it's god or devil,
Brethren, lest your words imply
Static norms of good and evil
(As in Plato) throned on high;
Such scholastic, inelastic,
Abstract yardsticks we deny.

Far too long have sages vainly
Glossed great Nature's simple text;
He who runs can read it plainly,
'Goodness == what comes next.'
By evolving, Life is solving
All the questions we perplexed.

Oh then! Value means survival -
Value. If our progeny
Spreads and spawns and licks each rival,
That will prove its deity
(Far from pleasant, by our present,
Standards, though it may well be).
by C.S.Lewis
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Max your life

Do you want to live a light life? It just doesn't sit well with me.

John 10:10 says “…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Life shouldn’t be lived “light”. God gave us life that we might live it and enjoy it. Living life light is life without God, like diet coke, its pretty good, sometimes you can even mistake it for the original, but really, its not the real thing.

"I don’t want to live a light life. I want my life to be full fat. I want to experience the world that God created, live my life to the full. But I know that this doesn’t just mean life’s luxuries. If all I did was eat donuts, I wouldn’t be looking or feeling very good. But if I keep it balanced, have some vegetables, do some exercise then it works out quite well.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, if you go for the full fat, live a life with Jesus then there are going to be some things that don’t always seem so delicious. If you take the diet route then it might seem to be going along very well but in the end its just a bunch of chemicals, its not real."
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Image source http://adsoftheworld.com
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Mission One EV - Mission Accomplished

What do you get when you combine lithium-ion batteries with a high-performance electric motor and components straight from the racing circuit? Answer: The fastest production electric motorcycle in the world.

Mission Motors has just revealed its all-electric sport bike it looks great and has great specs immediately by the sound of our jaws hitting the floor. After a couple of years of staying almost perfectly in stealth mode, the Mission One is being unveiled today at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference. The Yves Béhar-designed bike sets a new performance standard for electric two-wheelers with a top speed of 150 mph, 100 foot-pounds of torque at any point between 0 and 6,500 RPM and an estimated range of 150 miles. The charge time is targeted for under 2 Hours at 240VLink
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Cusrory flying

I have always enjoyed kites, big one small ones. You name it I like them.
This kite is a really clever design, looks like it would be difficult to fly. Apparently it has Quad-line control, asymmetrical framing, stainless fittings, and opposed-bow tensioning for the sail. They come together to make this incredible kite look like it has been digitally pasted right into the sky.
It isn't. Carefully designed by Tim Elverston, this high-end addition to the WindFire collection will really make people stop and think.
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Logical delusion

I don't want to steal this guys thunder as he explains this so well. Just click on the readlink and read it for yourself.He endevours to "show that atheism - i.e. the belief there is no, or cannot be, a God is an untenable position to hold, and self-contradictory."Link
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Face Ache

I think this bit of software is so fantastic - ok I haven't had time to try it out exhaustively but first impressions - very good.
"KeyLemon provides a new experience to access your computer.
Instead of typing your password, you just need to smile to the webcam and KeyLemon will recognize you.
It is fast, simple and convenient. So, start now and create your own and unique face model!"

I don't know quite how good/secure this software is but I installed it and 'enrolled' my face it seemed quite happy unlocking and locking my PC (though it is only a screen saver at the moment). This is an alpha version but it was able to recognise easily where on the video picture my face was, not that difficult a feat you might imagine by image recognition for computers has been a hard nut to crack.
Having unlocked the screen several times without incident I thought I need to try a different face - the easiest one to get hold of was my wife, I asked her to sit down in front of the camera and the screen didn't unlock - fantastic, not only can the software recognise my face it can differentiate between mine and my wifes (ok so not hard I'm bald she has long blonde hair). Try it out see what you think.
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What a to do?

What do you do with recycled stuff?
It often seems that the stuff that we recycle actually gets downcycled into something less useful - for instance recycled plastic. It can be quite hard to get the purity that the manufacturer want from the material so we end up with things like Recycled plastic lumber.

From wikipedia "When different types of plastics are melted together they tend to phase-separate, like oil and water, and set in these layers. The phase boundaries cause structural weakness in the resulting material, meaning that polymer blends are only useful in limited applications.
Another barrier to recycling is the widespread use of dyes, fillers, and other additives in plastics. The polymer is generally too viscous to economically remove fillers, and would be damaged by many of the processes that could cheaply remove the added dyes. Additives are less widely used in beverage containers and plastic bags, allowing them to be recycled more frequently."

Other products are ones like coat hangers made from recycled paper.
I know that it is better (probably) to recycle stuff but surely it is better to try to avoid downcycling where at all possibleLink
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Standby shutdown - Energenie

This product looks to be a great idea. The Energenie
It is a standby 'buster', the Energenie Standby Shutdown is clever enough to recognise when you have put an appliance on standby - it'll then automatically switch off the mains power.


To switch on again, press the green button on the Energenie. Great for TVs, Sky Boxes etc, and you can use it with more than one appliance as long as the max load of 13A is not exceeded.

How to use the automatic Standby Shutdown

Step 1: Simply plug your appliance into Standby Shutdown socket, then plug Standby Shutdown into a wall socket.

Step 2: Switch on the appliance and use it in the usual way; the automatic Standby Shutdown will have set itself up after two minutes of use.

Step 3: When you have finished, switch the appliance to standby as normal. The automatic Standby Shutdown then automatically cuts off the power after a short period.

Step 4: To switch your appliance back on, simply press the reset button on the device.

You can use Energenie Standby Shutdown with multiple plug sockets, but note that all connected appliances will be turned off when Standby Shutdown automatically activates.

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The Bean Vac battery operated vacuum coffee canister is apparently one of the most significant coffee accessories to hit the market in recent years. I know that leaving coffee beans open to the air will gradually degrade the beans and that ground coffee degrades faster. I know the importance of keeping beans fresh to preserve flavor! How do you do this in a home environment? Even if you purchase your beans fresh out of the roaster and they are packed in a one way valve bag, once you open the bag, the beans are exposed to the air and simply rolling up the bag will not keep the air out. We have always recommended using a vacuum coffee storage canister for storing coffee beans. Until now, this usually meant a bit of manual labor was involved pumping the air out by hand. With the Bean Vac, keeping your coffee fresher has never been easier. The Coffee BeanVac is simple and effective. Just place coffee beans inside, pull the handlebar shut, and watch the powerful motorized vacuum and soft silicone seal create a precise environment which fends off moisture, oxidation and acidity so your coffee stays fresher longer. A strong vacuum seal is created in just over a minute. A vacuum indicator button lets you see the vacuum seal activating. When the button depresses you know the vacuum is locked in.
I love the idea of this gadget; does it actaully work? Or am I just sucked in by the manufacturers information?
If you want one you can get them at Amazon - let me know how you get on.
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