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There’s a group of users on Apple’s Discussion Boards who claim that their Bluetooth keyboards have been devouring batteries since they started using a Magic Mouse. Despite switching to rechargeable batteries and running all pertinent updates, the problem persists. Most of the thread’s participants claim to need new keyboard batteries weekly.

Some have guessed that the Magic Mouse is preventing the keyboard from going into sleep mode. One user swapped his Magic Mouse with a Logitech model and saw the problem disappear, while another claims to have heard from Apple Tech Support that this is a known Bluetooth driver issue and that a fix is in the works.

This thread appeared on November 12, 2009, just a few days after Apple released Wireless Keyboard Update 2.0 on the 9th. The update was meant to “…use the function key one-touch controls of your Mac with your aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard,” and doesn’t seem related to the battery issue.

The Magic Mouse was released on October 20, 2009, and is the first consumer mouse to have multi-touch capabilities. Together, the mouse and keyboard make a pleasant, clutter-free desktop, but aesthetics are worthless if you’re constantly buying batteries. Have you experienced this issue? Let’s hope it gets fixed soon.

TUAWMagic Mouse draining Bluetooth keyboard batteries originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the last quarter, Chrome, Safari and Opera all set new personal bests for browser market share with 4.63, 4.46 and 2.4 percent respectively. This period marks the first time Chrome has pipped Safari to third spot, while their collective prosperity comes at the expense of IE, which continues to hemorrhage users at a rate of 0.92 percentage points a month. Microsoft’s 62.7 percent slice might still look mighty, but projections from Net Applications suggest it could shrink to below 50 percent by May of this year. Unless something magical happens. You’ll probably also want to know that Net Applications monitors incoming traffic to over 40,000 websites and generates a sample size of about 160 million unique visitors each month — making the veracity of its claims pretty robust. One hidden sign of our collective laziness: 21 percent of all users last quarter were still fulfilling their browsing needs with IE 6. For shame.

Internet Explorer losing users as other browsers set share records originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I got my coupon inserts today and they were covered in reminders that it is time to clean out the medicine cabinet. While the manufacturers are hoping that a lot of customers throw out expired items and run out to buy new products, their reminder is a good one. Cleaning out the medicine cabinet helps you avoid using expired products and it also is a good way for you to limit the number of potential dangerous drugs in your home. (Remember, just because it comes with a prescription doesn’t mean it is safe for someone who doesn’t have a prescription to take. Some teens raid their family medicine cabinets to get high, often with deadly consequences.)

Begin by removing everything from the cabinet. Sort all the expired medications into one pile, the unexpired medications you don’t take any more into another pile and everything you still want into a third pile. Put everything you still want back in the cabinet. Make a list of any expired medications you want to replace, as well as any other items you are running low on, like bandages or peroxide.

Dispose of all your unwanted medications properly. After the government realized the effect all those medications going down the drain has on our environment, it has changed the recommendation to flush old medication or pour it down the drain. Unless the medication is on the list of items that still should be flushed, you should follow the SMARxT Disposal Plan, which encourages people to put medications in a sealed plastic bag along with kitty litter or something else gross and put it in the trash.

Are you cleaning out your medicine cabinet this month?

Photo: SXC

Post from: Blisstree

Time to Clean Out the Medicine Cabinet

The Kirlian Photography Device uses high voltage discharges to capture beautiful, luminescent images directly from ordinary film. It is not a machine I’d recommend using in the darkroom.

Kirlian photography, also known as electrography, isn’t anything new—we’ve looked at the technique before—but the Kirlian Photography Device wraps up all the necessary components into one machine. You just put your film on the discharge plate and the device zaps vibrant new life into your photographs.

If you’ve made the jump to digital, an optional transparent discharge plate lets you use the technique with any regular, printed photograph. The Kirlian Photography Device is available now, for $299, for those interested in experimenting with the high voltage technique. [Scientifics Online via Oh Gizmo]

January is typically a slower garden month however there are some garden tasks you should be completing.

• If you had a living Christmas tree it’s time to move it outside and replant it. Leaving a living tree inside for too long can damage the tree’s health.
• 2010 seed and plant garden catalogs have arrived or will be arriving soon. Order your faborite seeds and plants soon after getting your catalogs since popular varieties may sell out.
• Jot down your garden plans for spring 2010 and make sure you work in some crop rotation.
• If you’re planting evergreen shrubs (like azalea or early rhododendrons) shop now.
• If you haven’t yet, snag a 2010 garden calendar. I got the Fresh Picked calendar this year, which is pretty but not full of gardening tips. If you’re looking for a more tip based calendar check out Farmer’s Almanac for some great options for 2010.
• Some cold weather annuals are still available such as  snapdragon, sweet pea, iceland poppy, pansy, candytuft, and more.
• Bare root plants can be planted – think artichokes, blueberries, roses, vines, grapes, plums, asparagus, rhubarb and the like.
• Don’t ignore your holiday gift plants.  Plants such as amaryllis should be indoors but in an area that’s well-lighted and water regularly. water regularly. After blooms fade azaleas, cyclamen and other hardy plants can be set outside in a protected area.
• Prune dormant shrubs, fruit trees and roses. Do not overly prune citrus trees though. Some experts suggest not pruning citrus at all because they need the dense leaves to shade fruit from the sun. On the flip side, other experts agree that some citrus tree pruning (pdf) is perfectly safe and necessary. Citrus is a type of tree I have zero experience growing and tending so the best advice I have on the prune or not to prune debate is to speak with your local extension office and see what other people in your area do for healthy citrus trees.
• Here in Oregon we’ve had some bizarre alternate freezing and warm days. If this happens too much your perennials may push out of the ground due to freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw issues. If you see this happening, push your perennials carefully back into the soil so the exposed roots stay protected.

If you’ve completed all your garden tasks why not try a fun winter garden project?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Garden Tasks for January

Rome, Italy | Optical Oddities

The Jesuit church of Saint Ignazio was supposed to have a glorious dome, but when the money ran out in 1642, the plans were scrapped. Instead of foregoing the dome entirely, painter and Jesuit brother Andrea Pozzo proposed that he paint a life-sized illusion of a dome that would fool the eyes of visitors (as long as thy looked up from the proper angle).

His masterpiece still fools the eye today. Painted between 1685 and 1694, it is a remarkable piece of perspective work.

Pozzo painted another illusion for the barrel-vaunted ceiling of Saint Ignazio. The huge painting depicting the life and works of Saint Ignatius lifts and expands the simple building skyward, with forced perspectives of figures retreating into the heights. The technique is known as quadratura, a mixture of geometrically accurate architecture in forced perspective, and elements of fantasy, like cherubs and floating saints. Pozzo wrote a book on the subject called Perspectiva Pictorum and Architectorum, which was very influential for other Baroque painters.

Both the dome and the central illustration are painted on one 17 meter canvas. His work on the illusions was so well received that he was granted the commission for the rest of the artwork in the church.

In April of 1891 an enormous powder magazine explosion just outside the city rocked Rome and damaged the ceiling artwork (it also collapsed part of the roof of the Parliament building and sent the city into a general panic). A restoration in 1961 repaired the illusion.

The best way to view the illusion is to enter the church, keeping eyes low until you reach the circular marble marker that indicated the ideal vantage point for the dome illusion. A second marker on the floor indicates the ideal viewing spot for the rest of the ceiling.

In 1703 he repeated his dome illusion in Vienna, in a Jesuit church now called the University Church and at the Church of the Gesù in Frascati, Italy.

A New York lawmaker’s plan to introduce legislation this month legitimizing racial profiling in an attempt to prevent terrorist attacks is more than just offensive. It’s counter-productive and dangerous, too.

NY Assemblyman Dov Hikind says law enforcement officers and other government agents should consider race when considering who to stop in security checks, just like they evaluate luggage, demeanor and itinerary.

“Since September 11, if you look at those who have been convicted of acts of terrorism, if you look at all the individuals that are facing trial, the reality is that they are of Middle Eastern or Southeast Asian background, Muslim young men. That is the reality,” he says. “I’m against the concept of profiling, but we’re in a war on terror…We need to use the kind of tools we ordinarily won’t use.”

The arrest of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Christmas Day in a failed attempt to detonate a bomb aboard a Northwest Airlines flight has renewed calls for the use of racial profiling in security screening, but the suggestions is an overreaction to the threat of terrorism, and it isn’t based on any proof that racial profiling works.

(more…)

Something that happens every year, however every time New Year’s Eve comes around there always seems to be yet another idiot that decides it would be cool to break in the New Year by shooting off a round in the

IMG: Sxc.hu

sky. Once again a bullet went stray and hit a kid, this year I read that two different kids got hit on New Year’s Eve.

One boy, 4-year-old Marquel Peters, got hit by a stray bullet while in a church service. Yes, he was in church when he got struck and died from the wound.

Down in Miami, yet another child was struck, this time in the stomach by a stray bullet but currently he is still alive. This child was actually having a late dinner at 1 am with family at Mai Tardi restaurant when the bullet shot through.

Police are searching who shot those bullets, one in Atlanta, the other down in Miami. Course chances are no one will come forward. People need to realize that shooting bullets on new year’s eve is stupid, those that do it need to be shot themselves instead injuring or killing innocent people.  If  they must shoot off something let it be blanks. I know many cities have done away with allowing fire arms to go off and will be fined or put in jail for the night if they do shoot them off.

Post from: Blisstree

New Year’s Bullets Hit Kids