It’s a shame when outdated computers end up in the landfill, so we applaud anyone who devises a way to keep them from ending up there. Better yet are those that find a way to not only keep them out, but resurrect what was termed “junk” into pieces of beauty. Here are 10 wonderful pieces of artwork made from discarded computer parts:

#10 Tech vs Earth

sgsteffens [Flickr]

#9 Tech Head

Jim Shores [Flickr]

#8 Journey

Richard H. Freund [Computer Parts Art]

#7 Computer Parts Light

jtarlecki [Flickr]

#6 Net Time

Richard H. Freund [Computer Parts Art]

#5 Computer Part Man

[unknown]

#4 Dino

[unknown]

#3 Hard Drive Motorcycle

[unknown]

#2 Mona Lisa

Sifter [Flickr]

#1 Blind

Lorna Carlson [Flickr]

It’s gadgets like this that make you think twice about having a daughter…

And for those of you that do have daughters, they’ll probably want to know the features:

• Hello Kitty Design
• Compatible with iPod 3G,4G,5G,Photo,Mini,nano
• Car Charger for your iPod
• Built-in FM Antenna
• FM Stereo Modulation
• Frequency Range: 87.9-107.9Mhz (200Khz Step)
• Single Distortion less than 0.5%
• Operating Range: 3 Miles
• International Frequency Software Response
• Wide Audio Frequency Response

This is a statue in Torin Italy that appears to be in 8 bit resolution:

It’s easy enough making your favorite DVD player auto-play DVD’s (that is when you put the DVD into the computer and the DVD player automatically opens to play the DVD). You simply right click on your DVD drive icon, go to properties, select the auto-play tab, and choose your DVD player from the list.

That works fine for that specific situation, but what if you want to watch the DVD later.

You have a few choices here:
1) You could open and close the DVD tray. This would cause the auto-play to kick in again. What a pain!
2) You could click start - programs - (Your DVD Player). Again, who wants to do that?
3) You could make a shortcut to the DVD player on your Desktop. This is better, but is it really necessary?
4) You could open my computer and double click the DVD drive. You know… the intuitive way. That opens a different DVD player you say? Yeah, how annoying.

Here’s how you can change that.

Registry editing time! Click start - run - type in ‘regedit’.

Navigate to:
HKEY_Classes_root\DVD\Shell\Play\Command\

Edit the ‘DefaultValue’ and change to “<path to your dvd player> /DVD “%L”

Close regedit, and give it a try.

Is this covered by the warranty?

I always think it is such a shame when I see computers being thrown into the trash. It’s pretty common when people purchase a new computer that their old computer ends up getting thrown away and finding its way to the landfill. Even if you no longer need your computer, there are a lot of people and organizations that would likely love to have it. While there is a chance that you may make a small amount of money, you’re more likely to come away with a small tax deduction. In the end, even if you don’t make a cent you’ll be doing the right thing by giving your PC new life rather than place it in a landfill (and give yourself karma points in the process).

There are a large number of charities in both North America and Europe that are interested in your old computer. While most of them aren’t interested in computers older than 5 years old, they are very interested in computers that are less than 5 years old. There are a number of them that take these computers, refurbish them and give them to charities or other organizations that are in need of them:

Give Your Computer To Charity: While you won’t get any money for donating your computer to charity, if the charity is a registered charity, you will be able to claim a tax deduction for your donation. You need to consult with each individual charity to see if your PC donation will qualify for this tax deduction.

• Another Byte is a service project aimed at area businesses, residents, schools, and nonprofit organizations interested in recycling and reusing computers. The website serves as a regional and nationwide exchange board directly connecting those wishing to dispose of computers and nonprofit organizations that are in need of them. The service is free and simple to use, making it easy to keep good technology out of the waste stream by putting it back into productivity.
• Share the Technology is a free public-service database to help computer equipment donors connect with nonprofit organizations and individuals with disabilities seeking donations. It’s been in operation since 1996.
• World Computer Exchange is an international educational nonprofit focused on helping the world’s poorest youth to bridge the disturbing global divides in information, technology and understanding. They give new life to your donated computers by helping poor youth in Africa, Asia, and Latin America gain access to the Internet. There is also a Canadian division that now has charitable status.
• National Cristina Foundation is a computer technology and solutions organization to give people with disabilities, students at risk and economically disadvantaged persons the opportunity, through training, to lead more independent and productive lives. In addition to computers, they also accept software and peripherals.
• Computers for Youth is a program with the mission to close the learning gap between low-income children and their more affluent peers by improving the home learning environment. They only accept donations of 50 or more computers at a time from businesses.
• Literacy 4 Kids: is a San Francisco Bay Area program to help place computers in high schools. It provides donated computers, hardware, and software directly to the youth and uses donated money entirely to purchase computer-related items needed by the youths. No member, including the Board of Directors, is allowed to take any salary.
• Youth For Technology: (PDF Format) helps young people achieve goals through technology. It’s a non-profit organization registered as a charity in the United States and in Nigeria. Their specific needs change, but are currently in need of 3 laptop computers.
• Free Geek: Any computer equipment, working or not, can be donated to Free Geek where it will be repaired and reused whenever possible. Non-functioning computers and scrap are recycled responsibly. They do ask for donations for older computers to help with the cost of scrapping and $10 for monitors. The main headquarters is in Oregon with branches in Arkansas, Chicago, Columbus, Michiana (South Bend, Indiana) and Vancouver BC
• ReBoot Canada: It’s a non-profit organization providing computer hardware, training and technical support to charities, non-profits and people with limited access to technology.
• DonateAPC (United Kingdom) is a service for individuals and organisations to donate computer hardware (computers, printers, etc) to UK charities, not-for-profit organisations and educational establishments.
• Computers for Charities (United Kingdom) is a registered charity that offers IT support to charities and volunteer organizations. They refurbish some computer hardware for reuse at these institutions.

More Options To Keep PCs Out Of The Landfill

• Inner City School: If you have an older computer that still works, but isn’t a version that charities will accept, consider donating it to an inner city school. Due to extremely limited budgets, inner city schools will usually accept any computer as long as it is in working condition and it would of course be a hugely valuable tool for any school that could get it. You would need to contact schools in your area directly.
• Craig’s List: This free service is an excellent place to dispose of a computer. There are plenty of people who would love to have an older computer that is still in working condition and it should be not problem finding someone to take it if it is offered for free. If you have a newer computer, you can probably sell it for a bit.
• Freecycle is another community where it is relatively easy to get rid of any computer hardware or software. Simply say what you have and there will likely be someone at your door within the week to take it away.
• eBay: Even if your computer is rather old, you may find someone willing to pay for it on eBay. Many people have older computers themselves and can use the parts for their own computer. If it is a newer version, it should sell rather easily in this platform.
• Leave It Outside: If you live in a large city, all you may have to do is leave it outside with a “Free” sign on it. In many places your computer will be claimed by someone within a couple of hours without the hassle of having to arrange meeting times or other logistics.
• Recycle Your Computer: There are a wide variety of companies that recycle computers. While this keeps them out of landfills, there is usually a cost associated with disposing your computer this way.

Keep these other alternatives in mind before simply dumping your old computer into a landfill. Not only will using one of the above methods make the planet a bit greener, in many cases the computer you no longer need will become a valuable asset to someone else who will greatly appreciate the opportunity to use it.

We kid you not. A Japanese costume company (Angel Kitty) has done wonders to show the full potential of what can be done with a USB powered keyboard when incorporated into a bra (dare we call it a wonderbra?) and placed on top of one of their models wearing a Kitty Waitress costume.

The back of the USB keyboard has a thick layer of silicon to protect the wearer’s “assets” should the costume ever need to be removed for non computer related reasons. While we don’t imagine that many of the geeks out there would have a woman willing to don this piece and let them type away without some serious money exchanging hands, it does allow us to dream a bit now, doesn’t it?

Jeremy Schoemaker, a popular Internet blogger and successful Internet entrepreneur, has been subpoenaed over a slander lawsuit where a third party individual left a comment on his blog. The results could have huge consequences for anyone that blogs depending on the judge’s decision.

Schoemaker has posted a copy of the subpoena on his blog. Although Schoemaker is being vague per the advice of his lawyer, it seems this revolves around a web design firm Schoemaker hired for a design project called Quick Connect and his unhappiness with their results. Schoemaker posted about it and some comments were made that Quick Connect considered “slanderous”.

This is very important case, as it will set the precedence on what is acceptable and unacceptable in terms of blog comments. It will also help identify what a blog owner is and is not responsible for in a similar situation on their own blog. If owners are responsible for the comments left on their blogs, we could see a huge transformation on what a blog actually is with much more screening of comments if not seeing them being removed altogether.

Anyone that has a blog should be closely watching the outcome of this law suit.

Phone makers have long had three of the five senses incorporated into their phones (hearing, sight and touch) and Sony Ericsson has now incorporated a fourth: smell (can taste be that far behind?). When we first heard about it, it reminded us of those vehix.com commercials where they are asked to come up with something that will improve the user’s experience on the site and the failing entry comes up with “new car smell - everytime you click on the mouse a new car smell comes out of your computer.”

Obviously Sony Ericsson feels this is going to be a winning combination for the Japanese market and in a nation where people pay to breath fresh air and to have their money literally washed so it’s clean when they use it, it wouldn’t surprise us if it is a big hit.

The phone unit is called the SO703i “aroma phone� from DoCoMo made by Sony Ericsson. The phone incorporates small scented sheets into the phone that give off one of 11 relaxing (and hopefully pleasant) odors that customers can hand pick for their phones. The aroma phone is due for launch in February 2007 and only available in Japan.

One of the most frustrating issues using the Google toolbar spell checker in Explorer (yes, I know, I should use FireFox and I do, but I also use Explorer from time to time to make sure my websites are coming up correctly in that browser) is that if you are spell checking quickly, the checker will add a highlighted misspelled word to your OK list. If you’re like me and your spelling sucks (and you often misspell the same words when tying quickly), adding the misspelled words to the OK list is quite problematic.

Unfortunately, there is no way to edit the list from the Google toolbar itself and every time I need to deleted the words accidentally added, I have a terrible time finding how to do it. So, for everyone who has the same problem, and especially for me so I can find out how to do it quickly the next time, here is how you edit your spellcheck list:

(There currently isn’t) a way to edit your SpellCheck dictionary from the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer. However, you can edit entries with a text editor. To do this, click the “Start” button on your Windows taskbar, select “Run” and then enter the following into the text box:

notepad “%HOMEPATH%\Application Data\Google\User Dictionary.txt”

If you’ve added words to your SpellCheck dictionary, a text file showing the words you’ve added will open. You can then edit, remove or add any words in this file. Once you’ve made the changes, please save the file.

Now maybe next time I won’t have to waste 30 minutes trying to remember how to do this…