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1. Stolen Camera Finder - Use Photo EXIF Data to Find Your Stolen Camera

A 20-year-old California man was arrested on Wednesday, accused of planting spyware on dozens of computers to secretly photograph women in a state of undress, police said.

Trevor Harwell was taken into custody at his home in Fullerton, where detectives found hundreds of thousands of the pictures on his computer, Fullerton Police Spokesman Sgt. Andrew Goodrich said. [via]

Harwell is accused of installing the program, which gave him remote access to the user's computer and webcam, while working as a technician for a local computer repair company, Goodrich said.

"Once he had access, he would take photographs of the users, usually women. Often, the female victims were undressed or changing clothes," Goodrich said.

Harwell then allegedly stored the photos on a remote server and eventually downloaded them to his own computer.

Apple is paying close attention to all iPad 2 returns during the first few weeks to make sure there are no major production defects. This policy has led to an amusing story that we thought was entertaining enough to share.

The story comes by way of an individual close to Apple:

[Apple's] focus this week has been to troubleshoot all the iPad 2s that customers are returning to the stores. One iPad came back with a post it note on it that said "Wife said no." It was escalated as something funny, and two of the VPs got wind of it. They sent the guy an iPad 2 with a note on it that said "Apple said yes."

We're guessing a free iPad satisfied any objection the customer's wife might have had.

Today, PepsiCo unveiled a breakthrough in bottle technology with the announcement of the world’s first petroleum-free plastic bottle in an effort to further reduce its carbon footprint by piloting production of the new bottle in 2012. The snack and soft drinks company will use raw materials such as switch grass, pine bark and corn husks, and has identified methods to create a molecular structure that is identical to polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, which is the plastic material used to produce a majority of bottles. The race to create a petroleum-free bottle was triggered in 2009 when Pepsi’s rival Coca-Cola unveiled a bottle that was 30 percent plant-based. Environmentalists have been critical of petroleum-based plastic because of their high carbon emissions and for being slow to biodegrade.

If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning....Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways...yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

Ten Unusual Shapes For Mobile Phones

The form factor of your cellphone is quite a defining factor on whether you approve of it or not. The grip, the interface and accessibility, all depend on this. At Yanko, we have covered some really unique and unusual forms and here is a re-cap of the Ten Most Unusual Shapes For Mobile Phones. [via]

10) Nokia 888 Mobile Phone by Tamer Nakisci

A wiggly worm or a bracelet, you choose its form!

For 125 years, Coke's secret recipe has remained one of the most heavily guarded trade secrets in the world. Now a group of accidental soda sleuths say they've stumbled across a list of its ingredients. [via]
Producers of the radio program This American Life came across an article on the history of Coca-Cola in an old copy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Coca-Cola's hometown newspaper. Published on page 2B on February 18, 1979, the article received little attention at the time. But, producers say, that's because no one realized the photo used to illustrate the story is a hand-written copy of John Pemberton's original recipe, jotted down by a friend in a leather-bound recipe book of ointments and medicines, and passed down by friends and family for generations.

The long story of Coke's secret formula begins with Pemberton, a veteran from Georgia who emerged from the Civil War with a morphine addiction. Hoping to cure his ailment, he dreamed up Pemberton's French Wine Coca, a brew that included kola nut and coca wine. But in 1886, as Atlanta passed prohibition legislation, he reformulated the drink without alcohol, renamed it Coca-Cola, and began selling it in Georgia pharmacies.

GPS in cameras and phones tells everyone where you are

There is a little know secret about the pictures you take from your cell phone camera and even your regular camera; each photo is tagged with your GPS coordinates so everyone on the internet can stalk you. How scary is that?

Damn, going to change all my passwords right away. I always figured ’12345′ would be pretty secure. Guess not. It always amazes me the passwords people choose. The best is when people use the same password on each and every site.. you are just asking for trouble...Oh is that you? You better go run and change them upa bit. But people... If you want your data secure don't choose any of these passwords.

Infographic after jump...

With a multiday, multiregion storm impacting 100 million people over the next couple of days, solar roads that melt snow and ice seem less like a far-fetched pipe dream and more like an obvious investment. Engineers on opposite sides of the country are working to make that happen. [via]

Solar Roadways in Boise, Idaho, received a contract from the Federal Highway Administration to build a solar road panel prototype, which was completed early last year. The 12x12-square-foot road designed by engineer and CEO Scott Brusaw is made out of panels encased in strong and durable glass with the traction of asphalt and that won't cause glare.

Each encased panel generates 7.6 kilowatt hours of electricity per day, and can be connected to smart grids to power homes and business. Wireless LED lights embedded in the glass create road signs and weight-sensitive crosswalks. They also contain heating elements that can melt snow and ice.

The technology to make snow plowing obsolete is similar to what's already used in automobile windshields. Heating elements in the glass melt existing snow or ice and prevent accumulation from developing. By preventing snow-related auto accidents and improving road access for emergency responders, the technology would save a lot of lives.

It could also save cities a lot of money.

Track Mouse Activity On Your Computer

Anatoly Zenkov provides this nifty tool (Mac and PC) to track your mouse pointer. Really simple. Just start it, let it run, minimize the window, and carry on as usual. In the end, you get this image that looks something like a Pollock. Circles show areas where the pointer didn't move while the tracks show movement. [via]

The above is my own activity during the past couple of hours. I was just randomly browsing while watching the Laker game, so it's kind of all over the place. Run while using a single application for a while, and you might see something like Zenkov's tracks on Photoshop.

Best Invention Ever! New Way to Pour Beer

I’ve watched this video at least five times and still have no clue how this thing works (I was a political science major. Things like this are way beyond my understanding).

But there’s no denying the fact that this wonderful contraption now falls within the top-five inventions of all-time:

1. Light bulb
2. Automobile
3. New beer dispensing machine
4. Las Vegas
5. Flat screen television

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Glass stronger and tougher than steel? A new type of damage-tolerant metallic glass, demonstrating a strength and toughness beyond that of any known material, has been developed and tested by a collaboration of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology. What’s more, even better versions of this new glass may be on the way. [via]

“These results mark the first use of a new strategy for metallic glass fabrication and we believe we can use it to make glass that will be even stronger and more tough,” says Robert Ritchie, a materials scientist who led the Berkeley contribution to the research.

The new metallic glass is a microalloy featuring palladium, a metal with a high “bulk-to-shear” stiffness ratio that counteracts the intrinsic brittleness of glassy materials.

“Because of the high bulk-to-shear modulus ratio of palladium-containing material, the energy needed to form shear bands is much lower than the energy required to turn these shear bands into cracks,” Ritchie says. “The result is that glass undergoes extensive plasticity in response to stress, allowing it to bend rather than crack.”

People often post offensive or insensitive things on their Facebook, and sometimes those updates and pictures can be downright criminal - literally. [via]

Check out Techland's list of things you shouldn't do on Facebook, lest you want to face some sort of negative repercussions. Ranging from being convicted of a criminal offense to making yourself a target of a robbery to things that can help you lose your job, here's things that you can easily avoid doing. Try to exercise common sense when using the social network: It's all public knowledge after all.

1. Post About How Much You Hate Your Job

It's tempting to air out your grievances on Facebook, but remember your employer could be watching.

Dr. June Talvitie-Siple formerly of Cohasset High School was asked to resign after she updated her Facebook status to call local area parents "arrogant and snobby" and to refer to some her her students as "germ bags." The statements may or may not have been true, but she should have kept her opinions to herself if she wanted to keep her almost $100,000 a year job.

2. Show That You Support Underage Drinking Through Your Pictures

The police are now scouting Facebook pictures for evidence of underage drinking, so before you post that fun night out, you might want to think twice. Several students at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse faced underage drinking fines after pictures of him at a party surfaced on his Facebook page.

Of age hosts of parties can face legal action too: Theodore and Laura Berent hosted a party where they served alcohol to minors and found themselves in trouble with local law enforcement after pictures ended up on Facebook. And, if your employer finds your drinking questionable, you can be fired. A Barrow County, Ga. teacher was fired because she posted pictures of her drinking at the Guinness Factory and in Temple Bar in Dublin. Although she claims she didn't appear intoxicated in the pictures, she couldn't erase the fact that she used an explicative word on her Facebook, which also led to her removal.

Space View of World Airline Traffic In a 24-Hour Time Lapse... AMAZING!!!

It's hard to believe how much the world has transformed in the past decade; but this handy time lapse video tells the whole story. This is the coolest thing I have seen all year!

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Top 10 Gifts NOT To Buy Your Girlfriend / Wife

Tis’ the season to be stressed out because you have absolutely no idea what gift to get that special lady friend, but I’m here to help. I am an expert in getting horrendous gifts and completely freaking out on the inconsiderate jerkbag that decided a Sham Wow was the way to go this Christmas. [via]

I have compiled a list to assist! Below you will find the top things to ensure you have a happy, knife-wound free holiday with that special bitch in your life. Take note guys, these will save you a trip to the emergency room and/or divorce court. Share!

10. Any Special / On Sale Jewelry

Please for the love of all that is good and fashionable…stop buying heart-shaped pendants with matching earrings and bracelets, fellas. I know the abundance of lame jewelry store ads make cheap, bad necklaces seem like the right thing to do, but…it isn’t. How about you try planning for Christmas before December 24th, save your dough and buy her something she deserves and not from some mall jeweler that believes rings shaped like two hearts hugging are in fashion.

9. Electronics

Women don’t care about the latest and greatest from technerds.com — we understand you guys want your iTouch, iPhones and iPads, but giving us electronics is a ginormous iFuckingLoatheYou right to the face. We don’t care if our television is LCD or if we have a blue tooth for our drive home. We know it’s for you anyway and honestly, most of us don’t even know what any of that electronic crap does. We want pretty, nice things, not something that will distract you from sexing us up later or doing the laundry. Stop being so selfish, asshole.

8. Kitchen Supplies

I swear to Jesus if you don’t know the non-kitchen supply rule by now, you deserve to be cheated on. The last thing your woman wants to open up on Christmas morning is a reminder of the huge meal she has to prepare all by herself (mainly because your lazy ass is already drunk on eggnog) and no device you buy her from Williams-Sonoma is going to make her personal hell any easier to swallow. Maybe you should stick a bottle of vodka in her stocking so she can forget what a fucktarded cockbag she married.

7. Lingerie

You don’t know our size and you sure as hell don’t know what looks good on us. I understand that nothing turns you guys on more than some lacy, red thing you see in the window of your local Frederick’s shop, but trust me, guys, bad move. I’m okay with dressing up like a skank for my man, but some women find it demeaning (uptight bitches); I don’t know if a conversation about how the only reason you bought her this slutty outfit is because you’re addicted to porn is one best served chilly and in front of the Christmas tree.

6. Exercise Equipment

I don’t care if your chunkalicious wife keeps mentioning how bad she wants to get in shape and she needs a treadmill – she will hate you forever if you stick that baby under the tree. It’s one thing to encourage her big booty to get to the gym and work off her “baby weight” (even though your kids are in college), but it’s another to stick something under the tree that screams “I agree, Biggie! You need to slim that fat ass down!” Plus, you know she won’t use it, it will collect dust and will just cause fights about how tired she is and how you don’t help out when you bring up that she doesn’t use it anymore.

5. Car Related Items

GP…what? I have no sense of direction, but I don’t give a damn if I’m late and/or if my boyfriend gets upset. Buying her anything for her car isn’t for her…it’s for you. She doesn’t care that her car is messy. She doesn’t use that sunshield thingy you bought her for Valentine’s Day and she certainly won’t use one of those snow brush devices to scrape off ice because she will lose it in the mess of her car and just end up scraping her windows with a credit card like she’s done since she was 16.

4. Beauty Supplies

I know you guys see the piles and piles of anti-aging cream and exfoliating scrubs in the bathroom, but resist the urge to participate. If we unwrap anything that even indicates we look older than 30 you will get a death stare followed by a flood of tears and the ever-so-popular “No, I love it, honey. Thanks. Sniffle.” Buy her a gift certificate to a spa or Sephora. Don’t try to be a plastic surgeon.

3. A Stripper Pole

This has happened. My friend took a stripper class to get into shape and her husband shoved a pole under the tree the next year. WE AREN’T GOING TO THOSE CLASSES FOR YOU, DUMB ASS. I know you’re just dying to see what we are up to and you wanna see your lady’s new-found talents, but installing one of these in your house will only ensure your disappointment when you realize she sucks. Plus she will have all the ammo she needs to start accusing you of going to strip clubs all the time and not being happy with the “real” woman in your life.

2. Anything from Walgreens

I don’t care if it’s candy, stuffed animals or candles. We will know. That place has a distinct, weird smell and the second we open that wrapping paper it will waft out. Plus, most everything there is crap and literally has “As Seen on TV” on the box. Again, I don’t care if they are the only store open on Christmas Eve; plan better, idiot.

1. Pictures of Yourself

I get that you are trying to be romantic here, but if we want to show your grubby mug in our office, we will snap a pic, print it out and frame it. This gift screams cheap and insecure. Are you that narcissistic to go through the pictures, find the one that you look the most handsome in and then give it to your sweetie? If so, how about you buy her a camera and you get some therapy, egomaniac.

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Electronic Pickpocketing: New Scanner Steals All CC Info Easily

Credit card issuers, along with the U.S. State Department, have begun Installing radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in credit cards and passports because the technology holds more data than magnetic stripes and can be read quicker.

But, that convenience, experts warn, can also put people at risk of having their information taken.

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The future is a scary place, yes -- but one thing we don't need to fear is being unaware that we're thirsty. Research and development firm Cambridge Consultants will be showing off its intriguing "i-dration" concept fitness water bottle at CES in a few weeks, combining a series of sensors on the bottle itself that communicate with an app you've got installed on your smartphone. The bottle will measure ambient temperature, how much fluid you've pounded, and how often you've consumed it; the phone, meanwhile, will use its accelerometer to measure how hard you're working out and combine that with heart rate data from a chest strap. After crunching some numbers, the app determines whether you're low on H2O -- and if you are, it'll make a blue light on the bottle pulse. If it seems like a roundabout way to stay hydrated... well, that's because it is, but Cambridge's angle is that this is a demonstrator for cool new ways that sensors can be tightly packed and integrated with smartphones to create "hardware apps." Speaking of, we could use a tall, cool glass of water. [via]

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Most Popular How-To Guides of 2010 From LifeHacker

LifeHacker.com is a great resource. They have compiled an awesome list of their most popular How-To guides of 2010. Below is that list with links out to their How-To guides. While the list is mostly techy geeky stuff, Lifehacker covers guides on general life issues as well. Enjoy!

How to Downgrade Your iPhone 3G[S] from iOS 4 to iOS 3.1.3

When Apple released iOS 4, it brought a lot of great features (like multi-tasking) to iOS devices. Unfortunately for iPhone 3G owners, the update slowed their devices to a crawl (and subsequent releases showed little improvement). Some people had luck speeding things up with a few tweaks, but many of us found we were better off downgrading from iOS 4 back to iOS 3.1.3. (If you're one of the lucky few who found their 3G's iOS 4 performance satisfactory and are yearning for more, here's how to enable multitasking and home screen wallpaper on the 3G and iPod touch 2G.

How I'd Hack Your Weak Passwords

While not exactly a straight how-to, security expert John Pozadzides' explanation for how easily he'd hack your weak passwords was a good reminder how important password security is. That's why we also showed you how to set up an easy, any-browser password solution.

How to Back Up and Play Your Wii Games from an External Hard Drive

Apart from video game makers' fear of piracy, there's no good reason why you shouldn't be able to store your Wii games on a hard drive and skip all the optical disc clutter and the hassle of swapping out discs every time you want to play a different game. Our guide to backing up and playing Wii games from an external hard drive puts all your games a few clicks away, cover art and all. As an added bonus, see our guide to hacking your Nintendo DS for easy backups and single-cartridge playback.

How to Ditch Big Brother and Disappear Forever

In an internet world, it may seem impossible to drop off the grid. During this year's Evil Week, we took a closer look at what it takes to ditch Big Brother and really disappear.

Make Free VoIP Calls from Google Voice

Google Voice is one of our favorite communication tools. Apart from the obvious (it creates one phone number that rings all your phones), you've got tons of clever ways you can put Voice to use. Perhaps the best involves setting up Google Voice with the right provider for unlimited free VoIP calling. Quick bonus: Don't forget about all the awesome ways you can take advantage of free calling in Gmail.

How to Boost Your BitTorrent Speed and Privacy

Whether you use BitTorrent to deliver the latest Linux distribution or to fulfill your entertainment needs, our guide to boosting your BitTorrent speed and privacy will get your downloading faster and obscure your downloading habits from prying eyes.

How to Build a Hackintosh Mac and Install OS X in Eight Easy Steps

We've walked through how to install OS X on non-Mac PC hardware—commonly referred to as a Hackintosh—a couple of times before, but with video walkthroughs of every step of the process, it's never been easier to build a Hackintosh Mac and install OS X.

How to Run Mac OS X in VirtualBox on Windows

We've had lots of fun running OS X on non-Mac hardware, but if you'd rather keep your regular Windows installation and occasionally run OS X in a virtual machine, our guide to running OS X in VirtualBox on Windows will get you up and running.

How to Turn Your iPod touch into an iPhone: 4G Edition

The latest iPhone and iPod touch are nearly identical devices, apart from the inconvenient fact that the latter isn't actually a phone—but that's never stopped us before. With the right tools, you can turn an iPod touch into an iPhone, saving considerable money in the process.

How to Reboot Your Sleep Cycle and Get the Rest You Deserve

Can't remember the last time you went to sleep and woke up feeling rested? Our guide to rebooting your sleep cycle may be able to help you get the rest you need.

How to Quit Facebook Without Actually Quitting Facebook

As Facebook's popularity grows and its maze of privacy options grow more complex, the social network has undergone a lot of scrutiny for the way it handles (or rather, doesn't handle) its users' privacy. Our guide to quitting Facebook without really quitting Facebook helps you stay connected without sacrificing your privacy.

How to Tether Your Android Phone

Tethering your computer to your phone's data plan is great, providing you with an internet connection on your computer anywhere you've got a signal. But the process depends to an extent on your Android phone. When we first showed you how to tether your Android phone, we detailed how to root your phone to enable tethering. For an easier route, you can use tethering apps like PDAnet, Tether, or EasyTether. Before you do tether, here's what you'll want to know first.

How to Get Started with Usenet in Three Simple Steps

Usenet is an old-school, online bulletin board that's also remarkably adept at downloading really big files really quickly. In most cases it's faster than BitTorrent, more secure, and extremely reliable. So if you haven't already, here's how to get started with Usenet in three simple steps.

The Ultimate Start to Finish Guide to Your XBMC Media Center

XBMC is easily our favorite open-source, hackable media center application. We detailed how to build a silent, standalone XBMC media center on the cheap last year, but our start to finish guide to your XBMC media center is sort of like our XBMC bible, and includes our building guide, our step by step or turning it into a video game console. and a whole lot more.

How to Transform Your Windows Desktop with an Amazing Windows Phone 7-Style HUD

Fancy the look and feel of the Windows Phone 7 interface so much you wouldn't mind having it on your desktop? This quick and simple guide will transform your Windows Desktop into a Windows Phone 7-style HUD in just a few clicks.

How to Manipulate People

It's nice to be honest with people and avoid using dirty tricks to get them to bend to your will. Luckily our guide to manipulating people is less about the manipulation and more about spotting it to avoid ending up the gullible victim.

Set Up a Geeky Media Center that Non-Geeks Can Actually Use

The catch to that awesome media center you set up in your home theater? It may be powerful, but no matter how streamlined you made it, it's unlikely most of your loved ones have ever used something like it before. Make things easier on them: Set up a geeky media center non-geeks can actually use.

The Step-by-Step Guide to Digitizing Your Life

If your analog media is collecting dust—or you wish it were—our guide to digitizing your life aims to save it from obsolescence.

Recover Data Like a Forensics Expert Using an Ubuntu Live CD

Whether or not you've gone entirely digital, you've still got a considerable amount of data stored on your hard drive. But hard drives crash and files can be accidentally deleted. Our guide to recovering data like a forensics expert will help you get it back.

How to Install Android on an iPhone in Six Easy Steps

Don't feel like choosing between an iPhone or Android? Install Android on your iPhone and get the best of both worlds. It's not a perfect port yet, and as of this writing it works best on an iPhone 3G, but it's a helluva start.

[via] We've seen our fair share of slow news days here at Switched, but, according to a computer programmer named William Tunstall-Pedoe, none in living memory has ever been quite as dull as April 11th, 1954. On that Sunday, Belgium held a general election, a Turkish academic named Abdullah Atalar was born, and a soccer player named Jack Shufflebotham died. And, apparently, that was about it.

As the Telegraph reports, Tunstall-Pedoe arrived at this conclusion using a computer program called True Knowledge. The program analyzed 300 million facts about "people, places, business and events," and used complicated algorithms to calculate the most "objectively" boring day since 1900. "Nobody significant died that day, no major events apparently occurred and, although a typical day in the 20th century has many notable people being born, for some reason that day had only one [Atalar] who might make that claim," Tunstall-Pedoe explained.

There is, of course, some obvious irony to Tunstall-Pedoe's declaration. After all, we're writing about that boring date today, and today isn't really that boring, is it? The ultimate x-factor may just be Atalar, who now researches atomic-force microscopy and digital integrated circuit design at Bilkent University. If the academic eventually wins the Nobel Prize, or solves global hunger, or does anything else life-altering, he may just save his birthday from historic infamy. The pressure's on.

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