Twouble With Twitters

A video asking the question: why do people really need to use twitter?

Twitter is one of the latest social networking tools and it is clear to us at The Listening Post that as a news delivery system, providing instant, on the ground updates via SMS texting, Twitter represents a breakthrough. But what about all the other people who tweet all the time on mundane topics? The people at current.tv threw together a little animation on Twitter that asks the same question.

Pickings from Makezine

I usually watch these Makezine weekend project videos, even though I've never done any of the projects, except this one. The maker of these videos is a guy nicknamed Kipkay, who has an interesting way of combining normal scenes of himself with scenes where he pre-records his voice, to make a superb how to.

Unfortunately, the Make magazine he refers to is in the United States and I'm still trying to figure a way to download it, maybe by a torrent or something. However the website of the magazine is rather good, but if you enjoy projects then be sure to visit Instructables as well. Here are two videos of the many I found.

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Simple Laser Communicator


Fireball Shooter

Glow In The Dark Mountain Dew

Hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and 1/4 of a mountain dew bottle - it glows like a light bulb. No wonder I'm so hyper active!

Making Films

We were bored, one day, at our friend Yazans house.

As us being the high-tech people we are, we decided to entertain ourselves by making a short movie.

It was a comedy, since comedies are fun and easy to make.

We had the horror film Saw in our minds, so we decided to make a short parody of it.

Yazan agreed to be the torturer, and I was the camera man (a mobile phone, but good quality), Khalid was the tortured.

The end product was a few short films, I brought them home and spent 4 hours putting all the pieces together, then adding suitable beginnings and endings.

I then, after taking the agreement of the actors, chose to put it up on Youtube, for the world to see.

I put along with it another film, which I act in, a short parody of Bad Boys, which was originally for our english project.

Watch the films and enjoy!

Queen Rania On Youtube

Royalty and professional hit modernity and technology, broadening the perspective of the internet and its content in the Arab World.

Yes, Queen Rania herself now 'video blogs' on Youtube, mainly about women in the arab world.

And, as Bakkouz has already said, HM does not hope to change the world with a few videos, but she's taking the first step towards it.

Here is her first video on the subject, under the name Send Me Your Stereotypes.

Brainiac: Science Abuse

One of the greatest shows we have missed out on must be Brainiac: Science Abuse, or usually known as Brainiac for short.

This British show is an entertainment show where scientists perform experiments that wouldn't be done in your ordinary chemistry lab.

What makes the show so exciting is that it isn't another science lesson, but a rather interesting show that usually involves explosions.

These involve blowing up a car full of eight gallons of petrol, dropping a few grams of caesium into a bathtub, or blowing up a safe with a Challenger II tank.

Sometimes they take in Physics to the mix, such as potential energy which is when a lump of concrete is swung from a side to land just below another scientists face.

It is aired in Britian on Sky One, and if you want to get it here in Jordan, you can on Showtime. Jump over to Discovery Channel who sometimes air the show.

And if you're like me and don't have the money to pay for Showtime, just download the videos from Youtube.

How To Download Videos From Youtube

I'm actually surprised by the amount of people that still did not know how to download a video from Youtube, so they may then watch the video without internet access, or on another device such as a moblie for example.

Therefore, I will show them how to, and relieve them from thier misery.

If you want to download a video from IKBIS.COM, read my post on the subject!

Step 1: Go to your video, and copy the address.



Step 2: Go to the following website.



Step 3: Paste the address into the box, and press download.



Step 4: Click on the download button below that comes up and save.



Step 5: Now go to this website, and download the player.



Step 7: Open the player, then choose Yes.



Step 8: Open the video you downloaded.

Enjoy!

Using Lines To Multiply

Basically, the method is divided into three steps. First you draw a number of lines for each number in your equation, but separating them. Then you count each corner the amount of intersections of lines and note them down, but the middle dots count as one number. Finally, you put the numbers you got together, and that would be the answer to your equation.

You would've understood nothing from what I just said, so watch the video for a much easier explanation of what happens. I think its great for mental maths when you have large numbers.

How about you, what do you think?

My First Try At Modding

Well, after watching this video I decided to have a go myself. The steps seemed really simple, and I couldn't wait to make it. I found an old, unused webcam as a USB cable, then I got a normal Nokia Charger to fix it on.

I cut both cables, so now only the USB plug was from the camera and the mobile plug from the charger. I stripped both wires, and I have to stress it was a hard job. Stripping wires is terribly stressful and annoying.

At last I had both wires stripped, and the inside wires stripped as well. The charger cable had two wires, one red and one black. The camera one had one red, one black, one green, and one white one.

According to the video, the red and black ones were the electricity ones, while the green and white ones were the info parts for the USB (send/receive data). I checked the voltage of the wires, while plugged in to the computer, using my dad's voltmeter.

It read 5.05 volts, which was the usual for USB, so I knew I was on the right tracks. The next step was to join the wires together, in the video the guy soldered them, but I don't have a solder so I just twisted them over each other.

I went ahead, and taped over the uncovered wire, then tested it. A huge warning sign screamed into my face, saying "Not Charging". I resisted the urge to break the mobile and smash it into smithereens. I felt stupid, so I started trying several different mobiles.

Most gave the same message, and I wondered why. Usually the message comes up when there is not enough voltage to charge, so I looked on the back of the charger. The output was 5.7V, and I wondered why mobiles were so fussy about 0.7V! Does it really matter?

Anyway, the charger worked on my mobile, the great Nokia N70. I have no idea why it was the only one that worked, maybe because the N series is special or something. I will try to test it on my dad's N73 and see what happens.

Now a question to the audience. Have you ever tried modding something and how did it end up? I'd like to hear from you. :D

Foxhole Radios, As Seen In WWII

Geek Knitting

Read more.

Jordan University Mahjoob

Hahaha.

And this is the best ever made advert from Honda, you must see it. (from Youtube)

Laily Nhaary

The same ringtone becomes the craze, hearing it from the bathroom to the grave - and even from the beggers mobile (my favourite). A great video from Emad Hajjaj.

Note: Arabic Only

Download Ikbis Videos

I have been busy in my lab, adding H2O to C6H12O6, forming huge explosions and trying again. At last, I have found it - a way to easily download videos from Ikbis.

You'd see that many extensions will work on popular sites for video download, like YouTube. Ikbis however, won't. It seems it isn't as popular as the other sites and no extension has bothered to add it. Do not fear, this is quite easy.

Go to your selected video and scroll down, till you find this:

Since you can't highlight it, you'll have to write it down. Now just write the URL into your address bar and choose to save it. Or you can use a download manager to quickly download the file.

Once it finishes downloading, you won't be able to open it. Go download an FLV Player, such as BitComet FLV Player (the one I'm using). You should now be ready to go. Have fun!

UPDATE: If you use Internet Explorer, you can see the FLV files in your temp folder (C:/Windows/Temp/), after you seen them fully on Ikbis. Thanks Bilal.
UPDATE2: I am an idiot, no need for the stupid link - you can download it straight away. *bangs head on desk*

Makezine On Youtube

Now, if only I was in America, I would definitely buy the Make Magazine. It talks about making unusual stuff at home, or your "garage" as they say on the site. Everything from small robots to jet engines have their own home on Make, as they give you step by step instructions on how you can make each one inside the magazine.

MAKE brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life. MAKE is loaded with exciting projects that help you make the most of your technology at home and away from home. This is a magazine that celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will.

Not in America? No problem, for a person for Make called Bre Pettis exists. He presents you every weekend with projects straight from the magazine.

Hosted on YouTube, his entire videos are here. Be sure to leave a comment for him. There are quite alot of projects you'll enjoy. One of them is the jet engine 'candle', where he uses a jar, some wire, a diffuser and the methanol fuel (in the form of antifreeze) to make a cool 'blast'. See the video here.

Be sure also to check out the other videos he has, and also see the video on the faire they did. You should also download the videos to your computer so you can watch them later, by using something such as VideoDownloader or Unplug. Have fun!

Ikbis, an arab's Youtube

Ikbis (إكبس), is a word in arabic meaning "click". Now, it's a video portal, an arab's equivilant of Youtube. Ikbis is surprisingly popular, with quite alot of videos, and not all of them are arabic. Ikbis was released in 20 November 2005, and is running and gaining new people and videos everyday. What did you expect from the first video sharing website in the Arab World?

Ikbis is the first photo and video sharing service in the Arab World. Ikbis is part of TootCorp, a media company based in Arabia and founded in September 2005. TootCorp has special interest in citizen media and self-publishing. Other services by TootCorp include Toot and Toot Advertising Network (TAN).

With that said, let me introduce you to the Laughing Toy:

Laughing Guaranteed