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Pakistan has lifted its ban on YouTube after its attempts to block local access to the video hosting service have been blamed for a near global blackout of the site for about two hours on Sunday. This appears to have been a misguided attempt to change DNS routing.

supposedly, a trailer for a forthcoming film, which portrays Islam in a negative light, was the cause of the restrictions. A leading net professional told BBC News: “This was probably a simple mistake by an engineer at Pakistan Telecom. There’s nothing to suggest this was malicious.” Other countries that have temporarily blocked access to YouTube include Turkey and Thailand.

You can find the full story is at BBC News.

Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!

 — Golda Meir

In his teaching material Beyond the License: Teaching the Principles of Effective Station Design, L. B. Cebik, W4RNL has prepared an excellent resource for those of us who are constantly seeking the perfect ham shack design.

The most numerous questions ham students ask before and after class or during breaks concern equipment and antennas. The third most popular group of questions relate to station design, everything from finding a source of AC to running cables through the walls, from operating desks to special lighting. Every new ham wants an effective station, however modest the investment in equipment. (Read more)

SOURCE: L. B. Cebik, W4RNL

I have not tested these $99.95 heavy-duty noise-reduction headsets, but they sound like they would be good for ARES use under a helmet, or hard hat. They are described as being built of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS). The dome of the speaker is hard, durable and heat-resistant. Layers of sponge filter ensure high passive noise reduction levels (NRR) of 24dB, which means a reduction in the amount of background noise reaching your ears. The three-layer-thick earpad seals each of your ears from the high noise environment. They are available with most connectors needed for ham radio use.

The speakers are connected by a metal frame which crosses behind your head. Though the sturdy material of the speakers are a bit weighty, the Velcro taped headstraps with which you wear the headset relieves much of the weight and provides adjustable, comfortable wearing experience.

The electret microphone offers consistent and accurate transmission. It is connected to the headset with a strong metal frame which helps adjusting it to the most suitable position while not getting loose.

SOURCE: gadgetinfinity.com

Is that like jumbo shrimp, or millitary inteligence?

SOURCE: ThinkGeek

This video is probably as close as we normal humans will ever get to a ride in the first production Tesla along with Elon Musk. He is as fascinating as his car. He was the co-founder of PayPal and the founder of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), of which he is currently the CEO and CTO. SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles.

Musk owns a Tesla Roadster, serial number 0001, from Tesla Motors, a company in which he is the principal investor and Chairman of the Board. The Roadster is a battery electric sports car with a 220 mile range. It is fast—zero to sixty in less than four seconds fast. If nothing else, it serves as proof that a car can be ecologically clean, as well as cool.

In my opinion, Microsoft first needs to fix their operating system before they worry about finger-flicking in the context of manipulating the interface. Otherwise, they will continue to receive the other well known gesture.

Ina Fried over at Cnet posted the latest info on Bill’s newest operating system.

I still don’t know much about what Windows 7 will do or what it will look like, but I can tell you that you won’t have to rely on a keyboard and mouse to use it.

After decades of investing in things like speech technology and handwriting recognition, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said that users appear ready for new ways of interacting with machines. And, he said, advances in those areas and in touch-based gestures will find their way into the next version of Windows, known as Windows 7. (Read more)

SOURCE Cnet

So, you just had to be an early adopter and bought a HD-DVD player before the “standard” was established. What do you do now that Toshiba has thrown in the towel and the HD-DVD format has become the Betamax of the twenty-first century? Do you also own a Minidisc player and a Laser Disc player?

The option you will like most is to try to make the best of the situation by converting your movie collection to Blu-ray. Consider that you may also get some extra deep discounts on HD-DVD formatted movies as they are blown out of retailer’s inventories.

The first step is to buy a Blu-ray recorder. You can then make copies from HD-DVD to Blu-ray. WIRED’s wiki has some good advise for you as you Convert Your HD DVDs to Blu-ray.

The US Navy’s first attempt to hit malfunctioning spy satellite USA 193 with a missile could come around 5:30 p.m. Hawaii time on Wednesday Feb. 20_th (0330 UT, Feb. 21_st) during the lunar eclipse. This is based on an air traffic advisory warning pilots to steer clear of a patch of Pacific Ocean near Hawaii just when USA 193 is due to pass overhead.

Until the satellite is shot down, it remains visible to casual sky watchers during evening passes over US and Canadian towns and cities; experienced observers say the decaying satellite is sometimes as bright as the stars of Orion, making it an easy target for unaided eyes and off-the-shelf digital cameras. Details, photos and more information are available at SpaceWeather.com.

SOURCE: SpaceWeather.com

An on-line source for predictions for your location without the need to download software is heavens-above.com.

On Wednesday night, February 20_th, the full Moon will turn a
delightful shade of red and possibly turquoise, too. It’s a total lunar eclipse—the last one until December 2010. Sky watchers in Europe, the Americas, parts of the Middle East and Africa are favored for good views of the two-hour event. Visit SpaceWeather.com for full coverage including maps and timetables, live webcasts and discussion.

SOURCE: SpaceWeather.com