Remember the scene in The Matrix where Neo dodges the bullets? Well, someone turned that scene into an ASCII movie! This is the first ASCII movie I have ever scene, and it is really cool. I am thinking that there had to be some type of frame capturing from the original movie, and then those captures run thru something to convert it to ASCII. If not, then someone just had a lot of time on there hands and some serious ASCII skills.

While searching through digg tonight I came across this neat little article that shows how all the file sizes relate. I thought it was interesting, and it really puts file sizes into perspective, well at least in relation to each other.

* 1000 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte
* 1000 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte
* 1000 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
* 1000 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
* 1000 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte
* 1000 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte – In 2000, 3 exabytes of information was created
* 1000 Exabytes = 1 Zettabyte
* 1000 Zettabyte = 1 Zottabyte
* 1000 Zottabyte = 1 Brontobyte – that is a 1 followed by 27 zeroes

Earlier on this month Logitech released this sweet new gaming mouse, with features such as:

• “On-the-fly” sensitivity adjustment to 1,600, 800, and 400-dpi resolution
• 5.8 mega pixel/second image processing
• Expanded 16-bit data format supports blazing fast moves with pure precision
• Advanced gaming software, exclusive to Gaming-Grade™ mice, for up to five custom sensitivity settings
• Super-slick gaming feet for effortless, precise tracking
• Contoured grip ensures peak performance and comfort—even in the most intense gaming sessions

This mouse is for serious gamers! As Ian Johnson says in his review; this mouse “will give you a slight edge in games, especially when it comes to precise marksmanship.” In addition to the sweet features, the mouse also comes with a three-year warranty! The technical specs are also pretty sweet:

• Image Processing: 5.8 mega pixels/second
• Resolution: 1600-dpi native, adjustable to 400- and 800-dpi
• Acceleration: 15 g
• Throughput: 16 bit/axis USB data format, and 125/sec USB report rate

When all is said and done, if you are seriously into your games, and have $49.99 (U.S.) lying around, you will probably appreciate this mouse.

Hack-a-day has a link up to an interesting article about running Linux from within your gmail acount. Basically you use your 2gig (and counting) email account as a virtual drive to run “GmailFS” on. Its a pretty neat idea and way up on the geek meter.

It seems that the massive amount of attention to the recent changes in the AIM terms of service have hit hard at AOL. Evidently “America Online Inc. plans to make three small but significant modifications to the terms of service for its AIM instant messaging product” due to all the recent attention. AOL is planning on making a few changes to “Content You Post” section “and will explicitly exclude user-to-user chat sessions from the privacy rights an AIM user gives up to AOL.”

“We’re not making any policy changes. We’re making some linguistic changes to clarify certain things and explain it a little better to our users,” AOL spokesperson Andrew Weinstein told eWEEK.com.

The modifications will use similar language from the AIM privacy policy to “make it clear that AOL does not read private user-to-user communications,” Weinstein said.

“We’ll be adding that to the beginning of the section to make it clear that the privacy rights discussed in that section only refer to content posted to public areas of the AIM service.”

More importantly, Weinstein said a blunt and inelegant line that reads “You waive any right to privacy” will be deleted altogether.

“That’s a phrase that should not have been in that section in the first place. It clearly caused confusion, with good reason,” Weinstein conceded.

In the end it seems that the “mis-wording” of the terms of service caused enough commotion to be changed. As of this post the “Content You Post” section of the terms of service has been re-written to:

Content You Post to Public Areas
As explained in detail in the AIM Privacy Policy, AOL does not read your private online communications when you use any of the communication tools on AIM Products. If, however, you use these tools to post Content or other information to public areas on AIM Products (for example, in chat rooms or online message boards), other online users will have access to this information and Content.

You may only post Content to public areas on AIM Products that you created or which the owner of the Content has given you permission to post. You may not post or distribute Content to public areas on AIM Products that is illegal or that violates these Terms of Service. By posting or submitting Content to public areas of AIM Products, you represent and warrant that (i) you own all the rights to this Content or are authorized to use and distribute this Content to public areas of AIM Products and (ii) this Content does not and will not infringe any copyright or any other third-party right nor violate any applicable law or regulation.

You or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title and interest in Content that you post to public areas of any AIM Product. However, by submitting or posting Content to public areas of AIM Products (for example, posting a message on a message board or submitting your picture for the “Rate-A-Buddy” feature), you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. Once you submit or post Content to any public area on an AIM Product, AOL does not need to give you any further right to inspect or approve uses of such Content or to compensate you for any such uses. AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating Content posted to public areas of AIM Products.

Now although I am happy to know that AOL is not reading my private messages I write or receive to other people, I still think it is pretty crappy that could potentially make money off of something someone else did without there expressed permission. Oh well, life goes on.

So…you use AOL’s instant messenger service (AIM) huh? Well so do a bunch of other people. But, have you actually read their Terms of Service (TOS)? Of course not! No one does. I mean, hell, it’s five (5) printed pages long! Well I wonder how many people would stop using the service if they did? Why do I say that you ask? Well allow me to exoplain. The first paragraph of the terms of service starts off like most others, staing that “You Must agree to these Terms of Service to Use AIM Products.” No big deal there right? I mean that is pretty standard after all. Well where it really gets interesting is down around the thirteenth (13) section, the one entitled “Content You Post”, which reads:

Content You Post
You may only post Content that you created or which the owner of the Content has given you. You may not post or distribute Content that is illegal or that violates these Terms of Service. By posting or submitting Content on any AIM Product, you represent and warrant that (i) you own all the rights to this Content or are authorized to use and distribute this Content on the AIM Product and (ii) this Content does not and will not infringe any copyright or any other third-party right nor violate any applicable law or regulation.

Although you or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title and interest in Content that you post to any AIM Product, AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating this Content. In addition, by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses.

Now, if you carefully read the second paragraph of this section, it basically states that; although the content you post (messages you write, and all content contained within them) are technically your own, by using the AIM service, you grant AOL and everybody it is associated with the right to do what ever they choose to with that information. And further more, the last two (2) sentences of this paragraph really ring out in my mind:

You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses.

Not only do you automatically waive your right to privacy, but you also have no say in how they will use your information nor will you ever receive any payment, ever! Now, the lack of privacy I might be able to deal with, but the thought that they could use my ideas, thoughts, or exspressions to further their profit and I wouldn’t receive any sort of compensation, that just pisses me off!