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Good to Know: How Long Will You Survive in Space?

May 27th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in Download This!, Entertainment, depression

My results:

Congrats! You could survive for 1 minute 23 seconds !

In the first 30 seconds any fluid on the surface of your body would begin to boil due to lack of ambient pressure, this includes the saliva on your tongue and the moisture in your eyes. Your eardrums would most likely burst due to the pressure in your body trying to equalize with the vacuum outside. Unlike what some science fiction films have suggested, your body would not explode.

After the first 15 seconds you would lose consciousness. If you held your breath you could potentially stay alive longer but you risk pulmonary trauma. If you didn’t hold your breath you’d pass out sooner, but your lungs might have a better chance of avoiding permanent damage.

The pressure in your veins would rise until your heart no longer had the capacity to pump blood, at which point you’d die.

How long could you survive in the vacuum of space?
OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

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Ubuntu Linux “Hardy Heron” Released Today

April 24th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in Download This!, Linux, Ubuntu

Some of you may read that headline and say “Well whoop-de-crap.” For those of you who have either never tried linux because you were afraid it was too difficult, or for those of you who had hang-ups from a previous attempt to run linux, Ubuntu is the distribution that just might one day make a significant dent in the desktop market.

As an IT professional, I can say most major vendors and ISPs will not give you any help or tech support when it comes to using their product or service. However, there is a huge community out there that will help you try and figure out anything and everything you’d ever want to do with Linux.

Those of you who are thoroughly confused as to what I’m talking about right now, check out this Wikipedia article on Linux.

I’ve been an off-again on-again Linux user for about 10 years now. My experiences have ranged from “totally awesome, makes me feel like an ubergeek” to “That’s it! I give up. I’m going back to Windows.” But the last experience I had was with Ubuntu, and it completely changed my views on Linux not being for beginners.

You can pretty much do all the same things you do in Windows in Ubuntu Linux. It’s one of the most user-friendly, company-supported free operating systems out there. If you’ve got an extra computer lying around, or you’re comfortable with terms like “dual boot” or “virtual machine,” then give it a shot. Otherwise, make sure all your files are backed up and you’re okay with wiping out your Windows partition.

Ubuntu even has a friendly Windows-based installer that can help you all the way through to the Linux Desktop. Download Ubuntu Linux 8.04 LTS (Long Term Support) “Hardy Heron” at Canonical’s web site.

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One Rank to Rule Them All

Previously mentioned Izea Ranks, is set to trump all other ranking systems. Alexa, Google Page Rank, Technorati, Blogjuice, and the other myriad of ranking systems are starting to get nervous, maybe even a little sweaty, over newcomer Izea Ranks.

These other ranking systems all have their prolific search engine-based ranking algorithms and fancy mathematical formulas that basically add up to bloggers and other web site owners having to kiss-up to the ranking provider, and live and die by their numbers.

Those systems might still be well and good, after all, they’ve been mostly good to me (I’m glaring at you, Google). But when you’re a blogger and your livelyhood is based on how popular your blog is, you want a metric that’s actually based on your blog traffic and not whether or not the ranking provider likes you or the way you run things.

Enter Izea Ranks - just install a simple piece of javascript code into your blog’s template (don’t worry, it’s not that complicated - they provide you with instructions) and then within a day or two, you’ll start getting statistics on your blog’s popularity within the blogosphere.

It’s exciting to get daily updates on where you stand, as opposed to waiting 3 or 4 months for a certain company to get off their “google” and update your page rank. That way, you can see what is and is not effective at attracting visitors to your site. This allows blog owners to be dynamic and quick-change artists who can effectively draw traffic and page views.

One of the best things about a daily update though, is that it gives a certain sense of satisfaction to my competitive side. Something about looking at my rank and knowing that there’s thousands upon thousands of blogs that aren’t doing as well as me makes me happy. I know that’s unsportsman-like, but you know you’d do the same thing.

I challenge you other blog owners out there to sign-up for Izea Ranks and install the code, and see how you stack up against The Raging Tech.

Sponsored by IZEARanks

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Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 3 Released

February 13th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in Browser, Download This!, Firefox, Technology, software

Firefox LogoThe Mozilla Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, has released Beta 3 of the much-anticipated 3rd edition of the Firefox browser. It is currently available for download here, but be aware it’s only a beta, it may break your computer entirely, and none of your current extensions (add-ons) will work out of the box. There are ways to enable them through about:config - just do a Google search and you should find it easily.

Firefox is my browser of choice on all platforms; and yes, it even trumps the mighty Safari on the Mac, at least for me. It’s extensible through add-ons and Greasemonkey scripts, has ad blocking, is easily skinned without bogging down the system or worrying about spyware, and can also be easily tuned-up through the about:config page.

If you are still using clunky old spyware-prone Internet Explorer, consider making the switch. Most sites are working out compatibility, and from what I’ve seen of my site stats, the majority of you are already using Firefox. If you’re interested in the bleeding-edge version, go check out that beta. My favorite new feature: resumable downloads - finally!

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Pandora Music Radio

If you haven’t already, you should definitely point your browser over to Pandora, previously covered here. They’ve updated the interface, but the concept is still the same - you go create a radio station based on an artist or band you enjoy, or a song you really like. Then, they try to match that as closely as possible. You can fine tune your personalized station in two fairly easy ways:

1. Add more artists you like: If you like Gnarls Barkley, but you also want some girl rock in there, you might add artist Flyleaf to your station.

2. Vote on music you like or don’t like: Give it a thumbs up and the song will keep playing, and Pandora will learn what you like. Give it a thumbs down and the song stops playing and moves on to the next selection. Pandora also has options to turn on or off the songs flagged as possibly inappropriate or adult language or content.

You can also create more than one station, for free! Pandora is advertising supported, and run by the Music Genome project. If you find an indie artist you like, support them by following the links to buy the tracks on iTunes or Amazon, and you’ll also be supporting Pandora.

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