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Showing posts from April, 2013

The Digital Iron Curtain: Is Iran About to Crash the Global AI Boom?

 For decades, the "Middle East crisis" was a headline about crude oil, tankers, and the price at the pump. But as of March 2026, the stakes have shifted from the engine to the motherboard. While the world watches drone strikes over Isfahan and naval skirmishes in the Persian Gulf, a more quiet, more lethal war is being fought over the very building blocks of the 21st century: semiconductors. The "Digital Iron Curtain" is falling, and it isn't just dividing East and West—it’s threatening to starve the global AI revolution of its most basic needs. The Helium Hostage: Why the Strait of Hormuz is the New Silicon Valley We’ve long been told that the South China Sea is the "front line" of the chip war because of Taiwan’s dominance in fabrication. But the ongoing U.S.-Israel war with Iran has revealed a terrifying bottleneck: The Middle East is the lungs of the semiconductor industry. To make the world’s most advanced 3nm chips, you don’t just need engineers;...

How to shoot a Vine video with the front-facing camera

Right, the time has finally arrived. You can now shoot a Vine video with your front-facing camera - you know what that means  A lot of Vine videos out there are going to be embarrassing, because people will shoot self videos and you know what happens after that. There is also another improvement to Vine - you can now use @mentions in your posts. If you still haven't head about Vine the micro-video app form Twitter - you can check out our other posts about it here . Vine let's you shoot a looped video that looks like a GIF on steroids and these can be shared with your friends. Vine has become very popular and for good reason. With the new feature - the ability to shoot self-videos using the front facing camera - expect a lot of fun videos to start appearing on Twitter. How to turn on, enable the front-facing camera in Vine 1. When creating a post 2. tap the button at the bottom left-hand corner to try the front-facing camera 3. use the same button to switch between your front-fa...

World's Worst Attempt At Parallel Parking. [Video]

Another video has now become an internet hit - video of a woman trying to parallel park her car in Fitzroy Ave, Holylands, Belfast. The students filing it actually went down and asked her if she needed help. She said no and the guys went back up to watch and film. The video is 14 minutes long and in five days has crossed 1.5 million views. The commentary you hear is given by Ciaran Doherty, Ciaran Shannon and friends. The comments are hilarious and listening to it will crack you up. The students also told the BBC that they would like to track her down and meet with her and get her side of the story. This is one video you don't want to miss. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf4TIWECZ30

How to enable Google+ comments on your Blogger Blog

Google have announced that Google+ comments are now available to use on all blogger blogs. What this means is that is you have a blog and you use Blogger - you can bring all your Google+ comments to your blog. This will not only add the power of Google+ to your blog in addition to this, all discussions on Google + that are happening around you blog will also appear. So all public discussions on your Blog and on Google+ will be available for visitors to your site to view. These comments can also be threaded just like all other commenting systems. Facebook comments have been popular on various websites and blogs till now. This has been very popular among many website and blog owners, as it adds the power of Facebook to you blog. With Google+ comments you can now bring the entire power of Google+ to your blog. IN addition to your comments and threads, discussions about your blog happening on Google+ will also be available. This is if it is public - all privacy rights are observed. Google+...

10 awesome 'Deal with it' GIFs

The humble GIF will never loose its importance on the interwebs. People use it for to portray all kinds of emotions and sentiments. Situations are made to have relevance with the use and creation of a moving image also know as a GIF image. These images below will knock your socks off as you would need to 'deal with it'. They come to you in different flavors and well, guess you need to deal with it. Check out these awesome deal with it GIFs below. 1 2 [caption id="attachment_15073" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Source: http://i.imgur.com/qvww0.gif[/caption] 3 [caption id="attachment_15075" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Source: http://i.imgur.com/HXvYa.gif[/caption] 4 [caption id="attachment_15076" align="aligncenter" width="320"] Source: http://i.imgur.com/WXaUlrK.gif[/caption] 5 [caption id="attachment_15077" align="aligncenter" width="304"] Source: ...

Locked In A Room now a top selling Horror Movie on Google Play

If horror movies are your thing then we recommend 'Locked In A Room' one of the top selling horror flicks on the Google Play store. Locked in a room has been produced by Detroit filmmaker Larry Simmons. The Story revolves around three teenagers who get trapped in three separate rooms. The three teens are then watched and observed by a masked man who maintains and takes notes of all the happenings. To add to the fear and terror there is this eerie voice outside their rooms and characters that wonder in as part of the larger plot. The story emerges more intriguing as towards the end the answers need to be found. who is behind all of this and what must come of it. The end will leave you thrilled and spellbound as you find the answer to all the questions. So if you have the time and would like to be thrilled by a horror flick - pick up the movie at the Google Play store and watch it on your Android device. You can also get the movie on iTunes, watch it on YouTube and follow the ch...

Gordon Ramsay helping James May become a real man

Gordan Ramsey needs no introduction - Hell's Kitchen is one of the TV series that comes to mind. Apart from all the shouting and the use of the f word. We all know that Gordan is actually one cool dude and fun to hang out with. James May is a TV presenter alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond for Top Gear. The video below shows Gordon helping James become a man. The video is amazing and the chemistry between these two dudes is super. Gordon decides that James needs to drink snake whisky, eat a bull's penis and chomp on a rotting shark. What comes off the video needs to be seen, hilarious as it is, it also shows what a nice guy James turns out to be. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xhfJRdwHnU

Gmail Blue - The Blue Inbox for you

Gmail Blue might have been a joke but its's now a reality. If you want to stay closer to nature while working on Gmail and your Inbox - maybe reflect on the ocean, mountains or the moon, while you work. You should try Gmail Blue. Gmail Blue is a Chrome Extension that once installed turns your entire Gmail experience blue. It's still the same old mail but everything turned blue. you click on compose and it's blue, you type and it's blue again. Nothing changes just the colors - it might not be for everyone, but if this is something you fancy and you would like to have a blue inbox, this is extension is worth trying out. In Fact, the folks over at Google say that it was one of the original concepts. many other colors were tried like orange and brown. Brown was a disaster but blue survived. Gmail just celebrated its 9th birthday and with it comes the release of blue. Click the link below to add the extension to chrome and have fun in blue. Moon-child that you are. Get the G...

PSY - GENTLEMAN - Flashmobs

The latest music video by Psy is a masterpiece called 'Gentleman'. The Gangnam style star whose video became the most watched video on YouTube has done it again. Gentleman was uploaded on April 13th, 2013. The month is not yet over and the video is fast coming up to 250 million views. This is in less than a month. Following the success of Gentleman - parodies and flashmobs covering the song are being uploaded to YouTube. Here are a a few of the best and will definitely not be the last. proving once again that Psy is successful on the interwebs and the internet people love him and his music. The parodies and flashmobs will keep rolling out with people rocking to KPop music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASO_zypdnsQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yTeK340hTs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypZbfZLq0s0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsUS6xQYAf4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6OnPAjOFZw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S8oZB-eSGQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHuYtcz2wk8

What is feels like to be followed by a real life Twitter bird [Video]

Yeah, all of us like to be followed on Twitter . Twitter has a birdie that tweets and keeps the song going. What happens however if you find the Twitter Bird following you in real life. Like in the super-market or railway station. Maybe even being followed to your home. French prankster Rémi Gaillard is one such person who decided to try out this experiment and find out people's reactions in real life on discovering they are being followed by the Twitter bird. So check the video below and let us know in the comments section below what you think - fail or win. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5INQR3EyBAA

Google Glass Hacked

Google Glass the futuristic tech gadget from Google has been hacked. Google Glass must have been a target for hackers ever since its release. With a name like Glass it was begging for hackers to try and tinker with it. That is exactly what has been done by Jay Freeman also known as Saurik, who created the Cydia App store for JailBreak iOS phones did just that. With the hack he has successfully gained root access to Google Glass. The way he went about it was that, after discovering that Google Glass ran on Android 4.0.4 he began testing older known exploits and discovered that one exploit worked. The exploit released by a hacker that goes by the name of B1nary, allowed him full access to Google Glass operating system. he says he is not really sure what he would be able to do with the root access. There are some things that could be possible like, storing files locally and not on Google servers. he is not the first to gain root access to Google Glass. So how has Google responded to the ...

How to Watermark your images online

Sometimes when you want to share an image online you would like to add a watermark. Adding a watermark is a quick and easy way to add a word or few words to your images. The greatest benefit by doing this is that it prevents other people from stealing your images and using it as their own - prevents plagiarism. This is a constant threat to online images - sometimes people don't know how to do this the quick and easy way - enter uMarkOnline. uMarkOnline - how does it work uMarkOnline is a very simple and easy to use webapp. It is Windows based and all you need to do is to simply upload your image or images and type the word or words you want to watermark. Once you enter your text you then have a few more options like bold, text size and italics. Once that is done it comes down to choosing a color for your text - use the color picker and location for your watermark. The image will update in real-time with your changes. once your done use right-click to download your image and it'...

How does Cinemagram work

Cinemagr.am is an amazing app that lets you create short loop videos and share with your friends. Kind of works like Twitter's Vine app - you press the record button and the videos is captured and looped together like an animated GIF image on steroids. The animated GIF has stood the test of time - with all the improvements in Tech and the amount of Technology being rolled out everyday from glasses to watches. The humble GIF stands proud and it's not going anywhere. Users on the interwebs love looking at GIFs - Reddit is testimony to that. So if you like Apps like Instagram  and  Vine you now have Cinemagram. The app is very social once you create your short cinema, share it on your feed. You can also find other feeds to follow and you can also share with your FB, Twitter and other social networking friends of yours. The App also provides different editing editing and filter options. To make your videos and images more vivid. The end result of your productions on Cinemagram are...

Facebook iPhone and iPad App Gets Chat heads and Stickers

The Facebook App for the iPhone and iPad has got a decent upgrade. The visuals for stories on the iPad has been improved and you now have clearer and brighter stories in your News feed. Especially pictures being shared by your friends, which appear on your news feed - looks a lot more interesting and bigger. The two biggest and most noteworthy improvement are 'Chat Heads' and 'Stickers'. Facebook Chat Heads The way this works on the app is that - you keep doing what you normally do. When a friend wants to chat all you need to do is to click on the Chat heads icon to reply. Drag them around and flick them down to close. This way you carry on doing what you usually do and simultaneously chat with all your FB pals. Facebook Stickers. This is one of those fun features to add life to you fb messages. So when you're chatting all you need to do is to tap on the smiley face to add sticker to your chat. You can also tap on the basket to go to the stickers store. Here you can...

This is the Subreddit to help you get out of bed in the mornings

Reddit has all kinds of Subreddits from the crazy to the insane to the very useful. Here is one fun Subreddit for all of you who just can't wake up in the morning. Some of us are owls and some are fowls - the fowls have no problem getting up in the morning. The owls however can't seem to get it together. Waking up in the morning and getting out of bed can be quite a pain for many people. If you need help there is a Subreddit for you to get the job done easier and help you wake up early. The idea for this post came from an interesting topic started by Reddit user Upat5. The title of his post over at LPT was How to make your morning "wake up" easier . he says one of the best solutions that's worked for him is this. Get out of bed for you and not your job 'In short, wake up for you, not your job...'. Which does make a lot of sense if you look at it that way. So if you need help and would like to speak with fellow people, facing the same uphill climb as you. Y...

SoundGator offers free sound effects downloads

Now this is something that is badly needed by you if you have started on your own creative project. Everyone knows that movies are built on sound effects. It brings to the visual the effects to make it seem real. There are a lot of sites out there that might offer sound effects for free and one of the best is SoundGator. On this webapp you can choose from 1000s of sound effects and all of them can be downloaded for free to be used in your media project. SoundGator how it works and how to use. Once you visit SoundGator your journey has begun. All the sounds have been divided into various categories and all kinds of them are available. There are fire sound effects and vehicle sound effects just to name a few. Clicking on any category will open up the sounds in the class. You can preview the sound online but would need to create a free account to download the sound to your PC or Mobiel Device. All sounds are free and some can be very apt for your pet project. So give the site a whirl and ...

How to create a YouTube Video Mashup

Putting two videos beside each other and mashing them together can be loads of fun. One of the latest sensations to hit the InterWebs is video mashups. Creating a YouTube Video Mashup can be interesting and a whole lot of fun. There is also a Subreddit dedicated to YouTube video mashups called youtubedoubler. Where users can share the videos they put beside each other and the joy or pain they created. When creating and mixing two videos together you can get your creativity on and produce something that people love. YouTubeDoubler is the webapp made just for this purpose. With YouTubeDoubler - you can pair two videos beside each other and let them play. You can then give yourself a VJ name and let the crowds view your creations. Once your create your double video you can then sahre it on Reddit, Facebook Twitter or simply mail it out to your friends. Whatever be your interest this site is sure to be a lot of fun. Please let us know in the comments section below if you create a video ma...

How to track the progress of flights in a particular area

This is simply fascinating to watch. With Flightradar24.com you can check out the progress of flight anywhere in the world. You can also select your own area where you live or an airport near your home. With this you can then track the progress of flights - especially if this is something you really like. many of us have spent countless hours plane-spotting and marveling at all the different birds up there in the sky. FlightRadar24 gives you an opportunity like none-other. You can choose to see and follow the paths of flight anywhere in the world. Especially rewarding is to track the progress of flight near you. Gives you the feeling of being able to track flights just the way the guys do, who are tracking it on radar at airports. The wonder of flight never seizes to amaze people and if you are one of them who belong to this category, then this will be something fun to do. Especially during that part of the day, that can become quite boring. Check out flightradar24.com now and be amaze...

Tracking Flight real-time with Apple Maps on a Boeing 737 [Video]

Saw this post on Reddit and decided tom post it here. Uploaded by YouTube user jzzsxm - the video was taken on-board a 737 flying across the US. On screen you can see the progress of the flight flying at about 500 miles/hour. You get a sense on fast these airplanes actually cover distances. It must be simply amazing to do this and stare at your screen using Google Maps and checking your progress in real-time. The videos was first posted to Reddit and the discussion rages on as to whether GPS or Wi-Fi was being used. No matter how this gets done, it's a fascinating video to watch. Please leave a comment below with what you think. Original post on Reddit here . Video using Apple Maps to track flight status on-board a 737. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z43IaDnrVw8

what is Kik and how does it work

Kik is a fast social messenger for SmartPhones, and can be used over cross-platforms. With Kik uses can send free SMS and text messages. Free apps like Kik and Whatsapp are fast becoming the most used Apps on phones and could in the long run pose a threat to social media sites like Facebook. With kik users can send free SMS messages bypassing messaging rates offered by carriers. users can send unlimited SMS' for free, and also send pictures and share videos with their friends. Group messaging is also possible and therefore, with one share people can share stuff with their immediate group of friends. What is Kik and how does it work. Once you download the app which is available for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Nokia and BlackBerry. The app will integrate with your phone contacts and if you friends also have Kik, you can start messaging and texting for free, by turning on the Address Book matching feature. There are also Kik cards to help you search for funny videos on YouTube an...

What is Whatsapp and how does it work

Whatsapp has become the No. 1 cross-platform mobile SmartPhone communications. The app to be used on an iOS platform will cost a moderate $0,99 per year. Android users have the ability to communicate with friends and family, absolutely free. The ability to Send SMS text messages absolutely free is what has made Whatapps the de facto standard from cross-platform communications. Users can communicate with each other for free without having to pay for SMS. WhatsApp Messenger is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia. In addition users can also create groups and use group messaging to stay in touch with each other. In addition users can also share videos and photos for free with their friends. What is Whatsapp and how does Whatsapp work. Whatsapp uses your own internet connection plan like 3G and Wi-Fi to send SMS messages for free. So since the app is using your own data plan - video messages and pictures messages can be sent for free. There are also no intern...

Productivity Owl helps you stop wasting time on the internet

Productivity Owl is here to make sure you stop wasting your precious work time on sites not helping you. With Productivity Owl you get an animated character that gets angry when you go to time wasting websites, and stop concentrating on your work. The is a Chrome Extension that when installed will help you out with your work day, or your study day. When setting up the extension you would need to enter a list of allowed websites, and a list of blocked websites. When browsing you have only 30 seconds to get what you want and get out. Failure to do so will annoy the owl, and it will swoop down and close the webpage you're currently wasting your time on. Productivity Owl - How does it work. Once you add the extension to Chrome you would need to set 'Allowed Sites' and 'Blocked Sites'. Blocked sites can be accessed only during times you've setup. Work related sites can be visited whenever you want. Visit a site that is not on your lists and by default you have 30 se...

How to use LinkedIn Mentions in Status Updates and Conversations

LinkedIn has a new feature that's been announced. The ability like in Facebook to use Mentions - this would mean that on LinkedIn you can mention your connections in a status updates and you can also mention companies in your updates. So let's say you start a conversation and would like to mention some of your connections . Start by typing their names and a drop-down should appear with all your connections beginning with those letters. Choose the ones you want and get their names added to the conversation. When you're replying to a status update that has you mentioned you can use the Facebook style @Name to reply to a person or a number of people in the conversation. The feature is being rolled out to all English speaking LinkedIn users over the next few days, and later on to all LinkedIn users. The feature will ensure that there are now threaded conversations on LinkedIn, and have a very Facebook style of conversations. This would definitely be at a huge advantage for Li...

YouTube earnings zero from clicks and here's why

Many YouTube partners have been surprised to see that clicks from their videos have been reporting 0 earnings. This has started from April 1 2013 and YouTube have announced the reason. The announcement has been that earnings will no more reflect in 'Adsense for content host'. This means that earnings will no more be calculated from within Adsense and if you want to find your earnings you can do so from within YouTube Analytics. So what does this mean for YouTube partners - there is no change in the way you get paid. End of the month calculations on final earnings will include all YouTube click earnings. To find out how much you earned per day, you would need to check from within YouTube analytics. How to check YouTube earnings. 1. Signin to YouTube 2. Click on your username 3. Click on video manager 4. Click on Analytics 5. Under 'Earnings Report' click on estimated earnings. This was announced via the official YouTube for partners blog. Here you can find a sum of all...

How to save Yahoo Mail Attachments directly to DropBox

Starting today Yahoo Mail have partnered with DropBox to help you easily save your attachments directly to DropBox. This means that you don't have to download your attachments first and then save to DropBox. For users familiar with DropBox the free cloud storage software - any and all sorts of file types can be stored using the service. So all your vacation pictures, important docs like tax returns and all your whitepapers and videos can be stored directly. You can sign-in to DropBox right within Yahoo Mail and store all your files and folders in the cloud. This post will help you save Yahoo Mail Attachments directly to DropBox. How to save Yahoo Mail attachments directly to your DropBox account. 1. Sign in to Yahoo Mail 2. Click on the attachment. 3. Click on the 'Save to DropBox' button 4. You're done If you don not have a DropBox account as yet, you can click on 'More Options' to create a new account and name a new folder to save all your attachments. How t...

How to save a windows live movie maker file for YouTube

Windows Live Movie Maker has a button to directly upload your project to YouTube . Sometimes however there might be technical reasons and the button might not work. The workaround is that you save your movie in a YouTube accepted format and then use the YouTube upload link to directly upload your movie. There are a few steps to follow to save your WLMM project in .WMV format. This is a format that is accepted by YouTube. When you hit the upload button on YouTube - you will be able to upload your video without any problems. This post will be a guide on how to save a windows live movie maker file for YouTube. This way you're all set to get your videos up and running on YouTube no matter what. How to save a windows live movie maker file for YouTube 1. Go ahead and create your video project 2. When it comes time to save click on 3. The drop-down on the top 4. Choose 'Save Movie' 5. Now choose 'Recommended for this project' and hit save 6. You're done. This way you ...

How to preview BlackBerry 10 on your Android or iOS Device

BlackBerry has been relentlessly trying to make a comeback with their new OS - BlackBerry 10 . Launched recently through a large event, the BlackBerry team are in earnest trying to get users to sample their latest offering and hopefully switch sides. Along the same lines Blackberry have another trick up their sleeve  You can now preview BlackBerry 10 features on your Android Device or your iOS device. So if you want to check out the latest BlackBerry OS on your iPhone or iPad you can do so now. What are some of BlackBerry 10 features available for preview? These are some of the features BlackBerry 10 has and they are hoping you ditch the apply for a berry. 1. Unlock screen 2. Minimising Apps 3. BlackBerry Hub 4. BlackBerry 10 keyboard 5. BBM Video Chat How to preview BlackBerry 10 on an Android or iOs device Simply point your mobile browser to  blackberry.com/glimpse So would your ditch your iPhone, iPad or Android device for a new BlackBerry 10 device. Let us know in the comments sec...

Twitter to start charging for 'AEIOU' 'Y' will still be free

Twitter announced a new service - well actually the original name of Twitter was twttr. Twttr will be launched again and this time they will be charging $5 if you would like to use vowels. Y however will still be free to use. This is going to be called a two-tiered service. if you want full use of the site you would need to pony up $5, if not use the service without the vowels. Twitter says that by doing this will be actually be enhancing the service and provide a more efficient site. Youngsters already omit a lot of the vowels and so.... it makes sense. Please see a mockup of the most Retweeted Tweet in Twitter history and how it appears without the the of 'AEIOU". Twttr will be rolling out shortly and initially to a small percentage of users - 10% to be exact. Now before you start feeling all depressed consider that you have only 140 characters to play around with. Now with vowels gone you will have more room and more space and your tweets will now look prettier. if you wou...