Coffee Break

#10. Belkin N1 Vision Wi-Fi Route:

Though the new "N" wi-fi standard, which carries data signals faster and farther than its predecessor "G," isn't expected to be officially ratified until next year, it's far enough along that you can buy certified N products with confidence that they will work with your computers and other hardware. Belkin's audaciously designed N1 Vision router stands vertical and reports on network activity in your house so you can see if your kid is downloading video games when he should be doing his homework. It is designed to configure itself the first time you connect it to your cable modem or DSL, and computers still using older "G" adapters will still be able to connect.

#9. Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive:

Who knew file storage could be so chic? The 160 GB eGo has enough room to hold up to 640,000 digital photos, 2,900 hours of music or 240 hours of video (depending, of course, on the compression rate). A new dual-interface version works over USB or FireWire and comes with both types of cords. If you accidentally knock the eGo off your desk, the shock-absorbing case will protect the important documents and precious media stored inside.

#8. FlyTech Dragonfly

WowWee's flying insect soars, dive-bombs, hovers and glides using authentic flapping-wing action, which makes it the first commercially available toy ornithopter. It's lightweight (about 1 oz.) yet sturdy, and sports a 16-in. wingspan. The two-channel radio remote lets you control wing speed and tail rotor speed and doubles as a charging base (a 20-min. recharge gives you about 6 min. of flying time). The kids will love it — if you can bear to let them have it for a while.

#7. Toshiba Portégé R500-S5004

This ultra thin-and-light notebook is a dream machine for road warriors. It runs on an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and offers 2 GB of RAM, an integrated DVD burner and graphics card and built-in wireless capability (both wi-fi and Bluetooth). The 12.1-in. widescreen LED-backlit display is super slim and displays in high-definition (1280 x 820 pixels). With the S5004 model you get a solid-state hard drive, which means no fragile spinning parts, so the machine is less likely to suffer damage if dropped or bumped. Total weight: 2.4 lbs.

#6. Samsung P2

The slim and sexy P2 sounds terrific and plays a variety of music file formats: MP3, WMA and songs from subscription services like Rhapsody and Yahoo Music. The pretty 3-in. screen has touch controls for viewing photos and watching videos, which are displayed at a DVD-quality rate of 30 frames per second. The device also works with BlueTooth headsets and speakers, and soon you will be able to receive forwarded calls from a BlueTooth cell phone. (You'll have to download what's called a firmware upgrade from the Samsung website, but don't worry, it's not as difficult as it sounds.) Comes with 4 GB of memory for $200, or 8 GB for $250.


#5. Sony Handycam HDR-CX7

The CX7 records rich high-definition footage straight to a flash memory card (Sony's Memory Stick PRO Duo), so it feels light and compact in your palm, and the 2.7-in. LCD screen features touch controls for set up and playback. Should you get the shakes while shooting, the CX7 has the ability to stabilize the image (using optics, which is more effective than a digital correction) and smooth out the action. A built-in HDMI port lets you connect the camera to an HDTV and watch your home movies in all their high-def glory.


#4. Palm Centro

Do you secretly covet your friend's smart phone while dismissing it as way overpriced? The new Palm Centro provides an opportunity to get all the essential smart-phone features without breaking the bank. This light and bright device supports Web surfing, emailing, instant messaging and text messaging, and sports a 1.3-megapixel camera and a touch screen that works best with a stylus. A mobile version of Google Maps comes preloaded. The qwerty keypad is seriously small, but the bubble-like tactile design of the individual keys makes them easier targets.

#3. Netgear SPH200W Wi-Fi Skype Phone

This cordless wi-fi phone comes with Skype software already built in, so you can log in to an existing account and start making cheap Internet calls immediately. If you've never used Skype before, do not fear: It takes a few moments to create a new account and you can do it right from the phone's keypad. (The first 10 minutes are free; after that, you'll want to visit Skype.com from your computer to sign up for a service plan with a credit card.) The phone will also work at most public hotspots (including T-Mobile's) so if you have lots of friends overseas, you may not want to leave home without it.


#2. Nikon Coolpix S51c

Have you ever maxed out your digital camera's memory card midway through a vacation? The 8-megapixel Nikon Coolpix S51c point-and-shoot is tricked out with built-in wireless capability, so you can email your images or beam them directly from the camera to your Flickr account or to Nikon's own online photo bank. It's also got a 3x zoom and a roomy 3-in. LCD screen — and it comes in black.


#1. Apple iPhone

The iPhone changed the way we think about how mobile media devices should look, feel and perform. The design is exceptional inside and out: It's got a slick glass-and-stainless steel case and an elegant touch screen loaded with eye candy. It's an iPod and a 2-megapixel camera. Images and video clips display vertically or horizontally — they reorient themselves depending on how you hold the thing. When the phone detects a wireless network within range — your own home wi-fi set up or somebody else's — it lets you tap once to connect, and then proceed with your Web surfing, Google mapping, emailing and other activities that can otherwise be painfully slow over AT&T's cellular network — the only one, unfortunately, that carries iPhone calls.

Artificial islands — those created by humans rather than natural means — constructed in the distant past and becoming increasingly rampant in recent years have been built by all sorts of revolutionary and bizarre methods and materials, from construction upon existing reefs, drudging of sand and blasted rock, to stainless steel, and even trash.

Photo Photo Durrat Al Bahrain

Ranging vastly in scale from land reclamations to support a single pillar of a building or structure to those which support entire megalithic sized communities to expand upon non-existent land availability in a crowded metropolis as well as structures of art, each has its own amazing features or notability of character.

Pearl-Qatar
Designed to resemble a string of pearls, the Pearl-Qatar in Doha, Qatar is an artificial island spanning nearly four million square meters, creating over 20 miles (32 kilometers) of new coastline, located 383 yards (350 meters) offshore of Doha’s West Bay Lagoon area on a former pearl diving site.

Ritzcarlton Qatar & The Pearl Qatar. Photo Ayham Hassan

Reclaimed for use as a residential estate, once completed it will be the first land in Qatar to be available for freehold ownership by foreign nationals with an expected 15,000 dwellings by 2010. The $2.5 billion U.S. offshore Pearl-Qatar project will eventually house over 30,000 residents in an up-scale, multi-cultural residential community which will be a secure and exclusive Island.

Photo Lynx Eye1

Photo بوبدر

Photo Esmamputsi

Developed by United Development Company (UDC), residential development is intended to incorporate various themes including aspects of Arabic, Mediterranean and European culture, with commercial facilities to support the various residential precincts including 3 luxury hotels and 3 marinas, with combined mooring for over 700 boats in the Riviera Arabia themed districts.

Autopia Ampere
Visionary designer Wolf Hilbertz’s plan to grow a self-sustaining island city on Seamount Ampere, located about halfway between the Madeira Islands and the tip of Portugal, will extend 50 feet down to the bottom of the Atlantic.

Photo Popular Mechanics

Hibertz aims to use the oceans as a home of the future with an ingenious and revolutionary method that he developed, using sunlight to turn minerals in seawater into limestone, which in turn will construct floating island homes.

A massive limestone dam would surround the city to develop Autopia Ampere, beginning with a series of wire-mesh armatures anchored atop a sea mountain connected to a supply of low-voltage direct current, and building components will be grown in the sea.

Photo Popular Mechanics

Over time, electrochemical reactions will draw minerals from the sea to the armatures, creating walls of calcium carbonate — in effect, limestone.

Photo Popular Mechanics

Solar panels, wind generators and a thermal energy conversion system will supply power to the ‘dam’ that will extract power from temperature differences among different ocean currents.

Similar to how a sponge absorbs water, the oceans absorb CO2. By removing carbon-containing compounds from the oceans, the mineral accretion process would help reduce the buildup of CO2, a greenhouse gas — a unique and great way to save the environment if it ever gets developed.

Dubai Waterfront
The Dubai Waterfront — now known as Waterfront — is expected to become the largest waterfront and largest man-made development in the world, adding more than 44 miles (70 kilometers) to Dubai’s coastline.

Photo Imredubai

A conglomeration of canals and artificial islands occupying the last remaining Persian Gulf coastline of Dubai, the most populous emirate of the United Arab Emirates, the vision of the project was “to create a world-class destination for residents, visitors and businesses in the world’s fastest growing city.”

Dubai in 2009

The World
The World — one of several artificial island projects being constructed in Dubai — is a man-made group of 300 islands created in the shape of the continents of the world in the profile of a world map, located 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) off. The World is built primarily using sand dredged from the sea, originally conceived by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai.

Each island in the archipelago ranges from about 150,000 square feet (14,000 sq meters) to 450,000 square feet (42,000 sq meters) with a distance between each island at an average of 328 feet (100 meters). The entire development covers an area of 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) in length and 3.8 miles (6 kilometers) in width, surrounded by an oval breakwater. Roughly 144 miles (232 kilometers) of shoreline has been created.

Photo EFP

The overall development cost of The World was estimated as $14 billion U.S. Individual islands prices range between $15 and $50 million U.S. but one island is still for sale at a price of $250 million U.S.

The project was unveiled on May 6 2003 by Sheikh Mohammed, and dredging began 4 months later in September 2003. By January 2008, 60% of the islands had been sold, 20 of which were bought in the first 4 months of 2007. On January 10 2008, the final stone on the breakwater was laid, completing initial development. The next phase of the project is to hand over the individual islands to developers.

The small private artificial islands of private homes, estate homes, dream resorts, and community islands can only be accessed by boat.

For the Complete Article ...
[source]

but did you know that the Hague is in fact completely overrun with naked and semi-naked Dutch men and women? Yes people, it’s time to get your magnifying glasses out, because here comes the Top 10 Naked People on Google Earth!

10) The one that got so many people so hot under the collar. Many people think she’s on her front, but personally I remain unconvinced.

9) Very close to the original topless sunbather, this one is definitely female, I think. It looks like she’s lying on her front, and she does appear to have some kind of top on, so keep your hair on people!

8 ) Just six doors down, here’s a half-naked Dutch, person. Wearing a sarong perhaps?

7) This ones been widely discussed on other sites, but I personally reckon this is a guy, wearing shorts. Phew!

6) This person thinks they have privacy on this rooftop (haven’t they seen Enemy of the State?), and they’re definitely topless! (Sex unknown of course, but topless nevertheless.)

5) Outside a café on the beach (presumably before it opened that day), we find someone sitting calmly in a chair, blissfully unaware the whole world can now see them in their birthday suit.

4) The previous nudist may have also been unaware that just on the other side of the building, there was another person sunning themselves - flat on their back and completely in the altogether! Does anyone know someone that works in this café by the way?

3) Again on the beach, here’s a couple of naked people who think they can hide behind a wind-break! Pah! Don’t they know there is no escape?

2) Hiding away behind some bushes is no escape either… Mind you, I wish that person would keep their legs together. Yeuch!

1?) Well, do you know of a better one? I’m sure there’s loads more brilliant ones yet to be found, so get searching! Post a comment with your find then I’ll add the best ones here.

[ Google Sightseeing ]

i've select a few typography works from DeviantArt and others
enjoy ...

Desimal, credit [halfnaked]



Typo Gift: Mana_Process, credit [TrIXInc]




Type face - Edwin, credit [heuif]



Made of words, credit [rawimage]



tastes like chicken, credit [Axtrix]





words, credit [ehmaysink]



we are made of words, credit [sunfairyx]



Contrast, credit [GunkvM]



Expectations, credit [Kisamoi]



source [unknown]



source [unknown]

enjoy the mobile art show

























and to which i found is the best of all