Author: Serkadis

  • How To Paint A Garage Door?

    Make sure you have the right kind of paint for whatever the door is made out of. So exterior gloss for wood and ferrous metals. You may get away with exterior gloss for aluminum, BUT because of the high thermal conductivity of aluminum, the paint will stick better (and last longer) if it’s especially formulated for aluminum: So try to buy instead the sort of paint marketed as ‘Garage Door Paint’.


    Source flickr.com.

    Of course there are other things to think about. Bare metal or wood surfaces need to be primed with a suitable primer paint. There are specific primers for non ferrous metals (like aluminum). If only quite small areas need to be primed, you may be satisfied using an generic exterior metals primer on aluminum — but keep in mind that this primer will be weaker than the ‘proper’ stuff and the paint job may need redoing sooner than you would otherwise like.

    In most cases, your door will still retain much of its original paint and primer. As with any painting job, make sure all surfaces are clean and free of any rust or flaking paint. First clean the door thoroughly. To remove loose paint use a normal paint scraper. Next, scrub the door with wire wool (you should wear safety glasses for this) or use a pressure wash to remove small flakes. After that, you may want to lightly sand the door down in the flakiest areas, or just rub them hard with a rough cloth.


    Source flickr.com.

    There are special cases, too, of garage doors that have to be recoated differently. For instance, if the door is made of anodised steel, or powder coated steel, ordinary paints won’t adhere to it well at all. In those cases you should have a large label on the door saying that it has been powder undercoated at the factory where it was manufactured. You’ll need an extra strong adhesive paint to use as primer in such cases.

    Exterior paints almost universally are high in volatile organic compounds (VOCs). So the job will be smelly, and the paint brushes will need to be cleaned in white spirit or other strong chemicals afterwards. Wear old clothes and try to paint in slightly windy conditions. It goes without saying that the conditions must be dry, too, ideally for the first 48 hours after the paint is applied. Aim to have two overcoats as well as the primer.

    NB: I have assumed throughout that you meant an exterior door that is opened to let the car in and out, not a door just for people!

  • UPDATE: Raikkonen Crashes Out of Arctic Rally

    Kimi Raikkonen’s first outing with the Citroen C4 WRC turned out to be a total failure, at least as far as the first day of the Arctic Rally is concerned. During the special stage 2 of the Finnish event, the former Ferrari-an lost control of his car in a corner and smashed it into a tree. The fans from the sidelines pushed the car back onto the road, but Kimi was unable to make it to the finish line in the projected time of the stage.

    From what we hear, Kimi has hit the tree and knocked it do… (read more)

  • Nokia Demos Mobile Radar Concept [Radar]

    This is what you do when your company is losing consumer confidence – come up with really spanky little ideas like this one. Nokia is researching a concept that it calls Mobile Radar. So, let’s call it Mobile Radar.

    As well as measuring an object’s distance, speed and direction, you can adjust the volume on the cellphone’s music player – even when it’s in your pocket, or covered by an object. The researchers, from Aalto University, wanted to really ramp up the speed, testing it out on a bike, but apparently there was too much snow in Finland to do it. Astonishing, that. [Just Another Mobile Phone Blog]






  • Ford Fusion Hybrid Gets Bespoke Eco Engine Cover

    MPC, an U.S. automotive equipment manufacturer and Polyone Corporation, an American polymer materials provider have created an eco-friendly engine cover for the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid.

    This project underscores our focus on innovation and eco-friendly technologies," said Doug Callahan, MPC’s vice president of engineering, "It also demonstrates the level of success that can be reached with these types of collaborative relationships,"

    Polyone and MPC, which is a Ford World Exc… (read more)

  • Android 2.1 Plans “Going Very Well” for Sprint

    A member of the Sprint team took to their official message board to bring everyone up to speed in terms of their Android efforts.  As you may know, the carrier plans to update both their Samsung Moment as well as their Hero handsets to Android 2.1 at some point in the first half of the year.

    A while back we announced our plans to update our Android devices to 2.1 in the first half of 2010. I just wanted to follow up with a quick status. The 2.1 update is currently being tested and things are going very well so far. We’re still targeting the first half of 2010 and if things continue to go smoothly we should have the update well within that time frame. I’m sure there will be a lot of questions about procedures and more exact time-frames but for now I won’t be able to say much more. I just wanted you all to know that things are still on track. – tooner (Sprint Employee)

    We’re fans of companies who proactively reach out to their users and potential customers.  It’s nice to know what they’re working on and how things are progressing.  It’s that silent, ivory tower approach that turns people off and has them assuming that complaints fall on deaf ears.

    Might We Suggest…

    • Best Buy Mobile Offering 5 Android Under $100
      It’s a great time to be shopping for Android handsets.  Best Buy has announced that they will be carrying five Android powered smart phones at $99 for the holidays.  They’re making it hassle free for …


  • What’s So Magical About an Oversized iPhone? Plenty—And There’s More to Come

    World Wide Wade
    Wade Roush wrote:

    The Apple iPad is one of the most eagerly anticipated computing devices in history. With all the heat and hype that preceded Wednesday’s public debut of the device, it was inevitable that the backlash from skeptical bloggers and Twitterers would be equally ferocious. Still, even after you filter out all the bozos who keep repeating “It’s just a giant iPhone,” or who dismiss all Apple customers as fey elitists, or who have a sophomoric fascination with the hygienic overtones of the name “iPad,” you’re still left with a surprising number of critics who seem inconsolably disappointed over inconsequential details like the width of the iPad’s bezel, or whether the device has USB ports, or Flash, or multitasking, or cameras, or windshield wipers.

    These cranky commentators are missing the point. They can’t see the screen for the stuff around its edges, as it were. There was never any chance that Version 1 of the iPad would have all of the features that fanboys want, or even all of the features that Apple wants. (More on that in a moment.) But it’s already got the three things that really count: 1) a huge touchscreen, 2) an operating system designed around multitouch gestures, and 3) a development kit that will allow thousands of software builders to do amazing things with #1 and #2.

    Apple iPadAmidst the dozens of iPad reviews I’ve read this week, two sentences have struck me as particularly insightful. One was from David Pogue, writing for his New York Times blog: “Like the iPhone, the iPad is really a vessel, a tool, a 1.5-pound sack of potential.” The other was from writer and blogger Rory Marinich: “The product is, simply put, a magical screen that can do anything you ever want it to, no matter what that is.”

    “Magical” is a word so often abused by technology marketers that someone should call Amnesty International. It’s the word Apple itself is using in its central pitch for the iPad: Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price. It’s practically the first word out of designer Jonathan Ives’ mouth in Apple’s propaganda video for the iPad.

    Nonetheless, I think it’s a pretty good word for the feeling I got the first time I played with an iPhone. The fact that the phone really did all the things that I had seen it doing in the TV commercials astonished me. I couldn’t believe that the little icons on the home screen could be so bright and crisp; that they could so instantly respond to my touch; that I could flick my way through a photo album or zoom in on a picture simply by spreading my thumb and index finger.

    Don’t get me wrong. I’d read about the basics of capacitive sensors and multitouch interfaces, so I didn’t think anything supernatural was going on. In fact, I violently disagree with Ives’ argument, in the Apple video, that something has to “exceed your ability to understand how it works” before it can seem magical. What impressed me was that …Next Page »







  • Toshiba TG02 clears FCC, still not US bound

    toshiba-tg02

    Engadget has noticed that the Toshiba TG02, Toshiba’s waterproof version of the TG01, has finally passed through the FCC.  Unfortunately the frequencies on the certification still indicated this smartphone is unlikely to end up on US shores.

    29jan10tosh9b65

    With Toshiba still tweaking the design, one can but hope they device to release a version with a capacitive screen.

    Read more at Engadget here.

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  • Kerry Illustrates He Just Doesn’t Get It


    Does he really think the Tea Party anger is about money? That Scott Brown took the liberal lion’s seat because our taxes are too high? Is he seriously that dense or just that condescending…or both?

    “Climate change advocates must match the intensity of conservative “tea party” activists, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Wednesday.

    “I want you to go out there and to start knocking on doors, and talking to people and telling people, ‘This has to happen,’ ” Kerry said in a speech at a climate and energy forum hosted by labor, farm and environmental groups.

    “If tea party folks can go out there and get angry because they think their taxes are too high, for God’s sakes a lot of citizens ought to get angry about the fact that they are being killed and our planet is being injured on a daily basis by the way that we provide our power and our fuel and the old practices,” Kerry added.
    ..” (source)

    Let me help you out Senator Kerry, the Tea Party outrage is about the trashing of our Constitution, the disregard for our founding fathers, the refusal to use history as a guide and the looming threat of the collapse of everything we know and love…the free market system of the land of the free and the home of the brave…the hope of the American dream.

    *Kerry pictured in his group-think bubble.

  • HAPPINESS TIP: TALK AT THE SPEED OF LIFE!

    speed limit sign

    Want to know the dissolution of every relationship in this world? I can tell you in Three Acts:

    ACT ONE: You hurt me.

    ACT TWO: I hurt you.

    ACT THREE: You hurt me even more because I just hurt you so I hurt you even more then you hurt me then I hurt you then you hurt me then I hurt you then you hurt me, because I just hurt you so I hurt you more then you hurt me then I hurt you then you hurt me then I hurt you then you hurt me, etc…

    THE POINT: It’s easy to act cold/hurtful/stonewalling to someone who you feel has said or done something you perceive as cold/hurtful/stonewalling to you.

    But that’s the point. THAT’S the EASY thing to do.

    Basically, we people as a species aren’t mean or evil.

    We are WEAK.

    It takes EFFORT to consciously, openly, bravely, warmly speak up about the hurt you feel — AT THE SPEED OF LIFE – before things spiral negatively downward.

    Yes, it takes EFFORT to take the high road, and to express your vulnerabilities and concerns with warmth and candor — to the very cold/hurtful/stonewalling person you want to communicate with by simply clunking them on the head.

    But this effort is worth it,,, because love and connection are your true sources for happiness — not money, not shoes, not sports cards ….and definitely not the satisfaction of being right about someone/something.

    (Yes, I know, that last one really sometimes does feel as if it will bring us happiness…but in the end it brings us more misery than glory.)

    So next time someone you care about does something that you feel isn’t very caring at all — put in the effort — the bravery — TO SPEAK UP AT THE SPEED OF LIFE — and kill that relationship monster while it’s still small.

    For more love tips check out PRINCE HARMING SYNDROME by clicking this line here!

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  • It Can’t Compete With the Ballsy Germans…

    …but this story is pretty wacky in its own right. Ready?

    “…According to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, the women reported they went outside their home at 255 Browning Road, Telford, when they heard barking dogs. Jessica Kathleen Alexander, 18, and Tammy Nicole Ortego, 29, said two men then threw them to the ground and raped them.

    However, police said both women later recanted their original story.

    They allegedly admitted they had met a man on a telephone chat line and then met him for sex. In exchange, the man — who police say was previously unknown to the women — gave them one pack of cigarettes.

    The WCSO said Alexander advised they filed the report because they “didn’t enjoy the sex.” (source)

    There’s so much I could say here about jails being full if women could have men arrested every time they “didn’t like the sex”…but I won’t say a thing! 😉

  • Carnation Chembur – Review

    Hi,
    I own a Apr 2008 Alto LXi which has clocked 33900 Kms. Have been dying to try out the carnation that has opened up next to R K Studios in Chembur. I have finally managed to find time to book an appointment with them. Went online to find out the phone number and was happy to see that one can book a service online. The web form asked for some basic details (but the car registration number was not captured!!!). I submitted the form online at 11:30 AM. I received a call back from them at 2:30 Pm the same day. Not a bad response time at all. The service engineer allotted to me called me and understood my requirement – The suspension needed to be overhauled. He went on to explain that apart from my complaint, they would do a through inspection and would let me know in detail what else needs to be done. To be honest, I was impressed by the way in which I was spoken to. Well, my appointment is for Saturday afternoon and am hoping that my experience is good. I am planning to get the following things done:

    1. Suspension overhaul
    2. Fixing of loose clamp on the back bumper
    3. Rattling from the glove compartment latch
    4. Wheel rotation & balancing
    5. Creaking sound from the back left door.

    Watch this space for more information on my experience with carnation

    Cheers

  • Early Morning Swim: Karl Rove, Rudy Guiliani, Racist White Guys — Worst Persons in the World

    Shorter wingnuts: leave W. alone!

    Conservatives, who often complain that Obama blames former President George W. Bush too much, did not appreciate Obama’s recitation of the facts. “The blaming of the past administration is pathetically unpresidential,” blogged National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez last night. On Fox News this morning, Brian Kilmeade asked former Bush adviser Karl Rove if it’s “good politics” to “bring up your predecessor and talk about your first year in office while looking back at his last year in office?” “No, I think it makes you look weak,” replied Rove.

    Remember, these little tirades have nothing whatsoever to do with Obama’s speech. To wingnuts, all Democrats are always “pathetically unpresidential” and “weak.” The speech was just an excuse to say so.

  • Malaysia opposition leader Anwar faces ‘show trial’

    Amnesty International has urged the Malaysian authorities to drop politically motivated criminal charges of sodomy against Anwar Ibrahim, the country’s opposition leader, after he lost an appeal for access to the government’s evidence against him on Friday.

    His trial is now set to begin on 2 February at the High Court. This case is the second time in 12 years that the authorities have brought such charges against the former deputy prime minister.

    Following his public criticism of then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed in 1998, Anwar was arrested and convicted on sodomy and corruption charges. He spent six years in solitary confinement before his conviction was overturned and he was released.

    “The Malaysian authorities have resorted to the same old dirty tricks in an attempt to remove the opposition leader from politics,” said Sam Zarifi, Asia-Pacific director at Amnesty International. “Malaysia’s judiciary should throw out these charges.”

    Amnesty International considered him a prisoner of conscience before his release in 2004.

    For five years, Anwar was banned from seeking public office as a result of his conviction on corruption charges. After the ban expired in April 2008, he won a parliamentary seat on 26 August 2008, and become opposition leader as head of the People’s Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Rakyat).

    But one month before his election, on 17 July 2008, Anwar was again arrested on charges that he had committed sodomy with a male former aide. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and loss of political office.

    The criminal charge of sodomy against Anwar, under Section 377B of the Penal Code, is at odds with international human rights standards. This British colonial-era law provides for prison and whipping, a punishment that violates the international law prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment. Moreover, the UN Human Rights Commission in 1997 ruled that sodomy laws infringe the fundamental right to privacy.

    Amnesty International is seriously concerned about fair-trial issues surrounding Anwar’s case. The prosecution’s refusal to deliver evidence to the defence at the pre-trial stage infringes international fair-trial standards and Malaysian law.

    “Anwar’s case has rightly raised doubts among the international community and investors about Malaysia’s commitment to justice and the rule of law,” said Zarifi.

    Under Section 51A of the Malaysia’s Criminal Procedure Code, the prosecution must deliver documents and a written statement of facts favourable to the defence. The UN Human Rights Committee has established that the minimum facilities for fair trials “must include access to documents and other evidence which the accused requires to prepare his case.”

    On 29 January, however, the Malaysian Federal Court failed to uphold the prosecution’s obligation to provide access to evidence which Anwar’s lawyers believe may help exonerate him. In an earlier decision, the Court of Appeals had termed the defence’s application for evidence a “fishing expedition.”

    “The court’s decision to allow the prosecution to withhold key evidence sets a dangerous precedent for criminal cases in Malaysia,” said Zarifi. “This is a recipe for unfair trials.”

  • Portable Freezer Concept is Fisher-Price Nice [Ruben Iglesias]

    This is not a kid’s toy to build spatial awareness and Tengu knowledge. Rather, it’s a cute idea for a portable freezer by a dude called Ruben Iglesias* that’s powered by photocells in two LED lamps, working via magnetic induction.

    See those two yellow things in the lid? That’s you, that is. Well, maybe it’s some of our readers. They contain the photocells that power the freezer, dispensing the current via magnetic induction, and double up as lamps. You can set the lights to three modes: On; Flicker; and SOS, I’ve eaten all the pies and am so fat I can’t get off the picnic rug. Muuuuuuuum!

    If you’ve really stuffed the freezer box (this is not a euphemism) then you’ll need both of the yellow thingies to keep your scran cool. If you’re a Zoe-bot and it’s only half full, then you only need one of the batteries. I likey. [Yanko]

    *I’m really hoping he’s Julio Iglesias’ nephew and this is actually a container to transport the fresh blood of virgins that his uncle needs to stay looking “young” (I mean that in the loosest possible terms, of course.)






  • Toshiba to sell Hello Kitty Regza LCD TV

    It’s not the first Hello Kitty TV out there, but this new Toshiba TV is perhaps the one with the most discreet design. Announced [JP] today, the Hello Kitty 19A800KT is a 19-inch LCD TV that sports the cartoon cat on both the device itself and the remote controller. But that’s not all.

    In addition, a Hello Kitty will pop up on the screen every time you mute the TV or change channels (see picture below). Technically, we have an HD TV (1,366×768 resolution) from Toshiba’s REGZA line with 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 2×3W speakers and 2 HDMI ports.

    The Hello Kitty TV will go on sale in Japan on February 5 for $700. Needless to say, the device is Japan-only at this point.


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  • Netsize calls out App Store as most successful mobile platform

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    Netsize unveiled the results of something called the Mobile Trend Survey 2010 at European mobile tech conference M-Days, and they say that 87% of industry professionals surveyed put Apple’s App Store front and center when asked about the most successful platform for mobile software. Android came in next at 60% of people expecting it to find success, and then drops off into generic answers and lots of smaller mobile outlets.

    What’s perhaps most interesting is that while this announcement came out today, the survey was likely done before the official iPad announcement, and since Apple has made it clear that the App Store will play a huge part in the iPad’s future as well, that’s just more checks in the win column. Apple gets a lot of credit for its quality hardware (and rightly so), but it might actually be the App Store model (for better or worse) that becomes the most significant creation of the past few years.

    TUAWNetsize calls out App Store as most successful mobile platform originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Netbiscuits Signs Tasty Deal With UMG For Artist-branded Mobile Websites

    Chances are you’ve never heard of Netbiscuits – I sure hadn’t. But the company operates one of the world’s largest B2B web software platforms enabling thousands of publishers to create, manage and generate revenue from mobile websites.

    Netbiscuits serves the mobile Internet programs for brands like Yahoo, MTV, and eBay, and well known digital agencies such as Razorfish, Isobar, and ad networks like Google-owned AdMob. To give you an idea of its size: globally, Netbiscuits claims to deliver more than 1.5 billion mobile page impressions on a monthly basis.

    This morning, the decade-old company announced that it has partnered with Universal Music Group to help the music company expand its line-up of direct-to-consumer mobile content and services, after a successful test run centered around a mobile website for Bon Jovi in November 2009.

    The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

    Netbiscuits will essentially be aiding UMG in setting up and operating artist-branded mobile websites, which will give fans the ability to interact with other fans and to make purchases directly from their handsets. Based on the mobile websites, Netbiscuits also enables UMG to set up hybrid apps for several major platforms, including the iPhone, Android, and Windows Mobile devices.

    UMG also plans to utilize the text messaging service that comes integrated within the Netbiscuits platform, providing music fans with SMS alerts whenever their favorite artists are in town.


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  • Michael Dell pulls Mini 5 Android tablet from his parka, offers to put one in yours in ‘a couple of months’ (video)

    Michael Dell pulls Mini 5 Android tablet from his parka, offers to put one in yours in 'a couple of months'

    Hot on the heels of us thinking maybe the Dell Streak / Mini 5 was possibly due for a name change to the “M01M,” a roving heckler from TechCrunch managed to catch the man himself, Michael Dell, on the street and get a quick demonstration of the thing — which he with no uncertain terms referred to as the “Mini 5.” He swiped through a number of home screens and quickly showed the five megapixel camera on the back, mentioned 3G wireless, and then tucked it away again. No price was given, but the biggest news is confirmation that it’s coming out in “a couple of months,” which is something of a surprise given the company was still calling it a concept just a few weeks ago. Video of this choice encounter is after the break.

    Continue reading Michael Dell pulls Mini 5 Android tablet from his parka, offers to put one in yours in ‘a couple of months’ (video)

    Michael Dell pulls Mini 5 Android tablet from his parka, offers to put one in yours in ‘a couple of months’ (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Confirmed! Reddit Users Really, Really Dislike Pop-Up Ads [MediaMemo]

    It is all Apple, all the time in techland this week. Except at Reddit, where the social news site’s users spent most of yesterday obsessing about something else: A rogue ad.

    Reddit is a Digg-like community-powered news aggregation/curation service that Conde Nast bought a few years ago and has more or less left alone. The publisher has made a very cautious attempt to introduce some advertising into the free site, but so far it’s just toe-in-the water stuff. Because Reddit users really, really hate advertising.

    Here’s proof: The deluge of angry commentary that dominated the site Thursday after visitors started seeing a pop-up ad that wasn’t supposed to be there.

    The short version of the story is that Reddit says this was an honest mistake that wasn’t really their fault — they lay the blame on other Conde sites and Google’s (GOOG) DART ad-serving service. But the say they’re sorry anway, because “we would sooner bludgeon ourselves to death with keyboards than run pop-over ads.”

    You can find a longer version of the tale via Reddit engineer Mike Schiraldi’s blog post, which is pretty entertaining. And you can get a sampling of Reddit users’ reaction here, but be warned that some of them use salty language to complain about seeing advertisements.

    Oh, and the ad in question? Tangentially related to Apple (AAPL), after all — they were for iPad carrier AT&T (T). But they were promoting the carrier’s relationship with competitor Research in Motion (RIMM).

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  • Toshiba TG02 lives, drops by the FCC

    Before the Nexus One and the HD2, there was the Toshiba TG01, sprinting along with a 1GHz Snapdragon in its belly and a 4.1-inch front end. Alas, that phone was hamstrung by a resistive touchscreen and a poorly thought-out skin atop an even worse OS (WinMo 6.1), but even by today’s standards its hardware spec is top notch. Color us intrigued, then, to find its successor finally making its FCC debut — with Bluetooth, GPS and WiFi (802.11b/g) connectivity in tow and a case outline suggesting some earlier leaked shots might still be accurate. It’s a quad-band GSM handset, though from the tests we’ve seen it appears to sadly lack 3G frequencies for the US. The marketing name has also been confirmed as the TG02 and with MWC 2010 fast approaching, who’s to say we’re not going to have a brand new Toshiba handset to fawn over? Go past the break for more.

    Continue reading Toshiba TG02 lives, drops by the FCC

    Toshiba TG02 lives, drops by the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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