Ctrl+Alt+Del Drinking Cups..!

This cup set is for all the people out there who have to work long hours at the office. It’s also for all you computer geeks out there. You know who you are! The ingenious set consists of 3 cups which look like over-sized versions of those Ctrl, Alt and Del tabs you should see positioned at the top and bottom of your computer keyboard, plus a tray designed to look like a circuit board. How very nerdy (yet cool).

Together, Ctrl, Alt and Del are the tabs you press when your computer is being dumb and uncooperative. So, why not combine this computer-refreshing method with the refreshments you desperately require when work has you stressed out? That makes sense, doesn’t it? The cups have black exteriors and white interiors, are made of sturdy plastic, and are dishwasher safe. The best part is that they look so much better than the regular, boring coffee cups you have to drink out of at work.
So, next time your computer decides to turn bonkers and drive you up the wall, you can just push those 3 magic tabs and give yourself a well-deserved break. Speaking of unusual cups, here are some creepy ones that you can easily use for Halloween.

The 10 most funny, inappropriate, and perplexing CAPTCHAs

Most people have a love-hate relationship with the CAPTCHA. We love them because they keep people from spamming our sites (for the most part), but sometimes the make our eyes hurt and frustrate us as we try to figure out what exactly the garbled words say. Sometimes, you can’t even make them out and have try, time and again, to prove that you are human.
Today it might seem hard to remember what life was like before CAPTCHAs started being used by AltaVista and Yahoo in 2000. Back then, CAPTCHAs were designed to prevent automated chat bots and URL submissions. Despite their popularity today not many people know that CAPTCHA isn’t just a something that sounds cool (and kind of like “gotcha”). It’s actually is an acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turning test to tell Computer and Humans Apart”.
Here is something even more interesting than acronyms (yes, such a thing exists). With the billions of CAPTCHAs being jumbled around the web, you’re more than likely to come across one that’s either inappropriate, laugh-out-loud hilarious, or just down right confusing. We’ve compiled a list of the craziest ones we could find. Read on, and be thankful that your email wasn’t stuck behind one of these.

Facebook is always trying to assure us that it’s tough about it’s security, but maybe it’s being a little too tough with this CAPTCHA. (via Sophos)

The other day I was trying to post something for sale on Craigslist but could not get past the CAPTCHA on the final page. I just couldn’t unscramble it for the life of me. I had to click the refresh button three times before I stopped in my tracks to see a CAPTCHA in Hebrew. I suppose, not matching the alphabet of the site you are using is one way to thwart bots.

We move from religious profiling to the White House with the next CAPTCHA. The official White House website unfortunately pictured the above CAPTCHA which one Cisco engineer found while trying to send President Obama a message. A CAPTCHA creator explained that they do “heavy filtering to prevent offensive combinations,” but sometimes “things slip through.” This caption goes right from confusion to treason.


One BoingBoing reader’s patience was put to the test when he tried to post using the site’s DISQUS commenting system (the same one we use on Geek.com). The result was a slew of incredibly indecipherable CAPTCHAs. How many normal keyboards out there have a lambda key?

Beastie Boys fans may be wondering why exactly this CAPTCHA didn’t work. The computer is telling the user that it’s incorrect, but clearly, there is no better answer than the one provided. Perhaps Mix Master Mike can figure it out what went wrong?

Watch Out Yammer And Jive, Google Is About To Enter The Social Enterprise Space

The social enterprise has been growing as more and more companies look to incorporate Facebook-like communications among workers. Jive (which just debuted on the Nasdaq), Yammer, and Salesforce are all betting on the social as an integral part of productivity and business processes in the future. And it looks like Google will be entering the space soon. Google’s Vice President of Enterprise Amit Singh tells us that Google will soon bring a more in-depth Google+ social experience to businesses and institutions using Google Apps.
In October, Google announced that Google Apps users could sign up for Google+, allowing businesses and educational institutions to share posts directly to other users within their workgroups and/or universities.
But Google has further ambitions for Google+ in the enterprise, says Singh, and that involves creating a collaborative environment for businesses. Internally at Google, Singh says that the company is already using Google+ as a collaboration platform and it’s going well. “This can become a new social platform for collaboration across Docs, Gmail, video and other apps,” he explains.
Singh explains that there’s a shift towards moving from individual productivity based applications to more social applications, and this is only going to accelerate. Part of 2012 will entail bringing the Google+ social experience to businesses.
“Google+ is the next big thing for the enterprise,” he says.” “We are going to do the same thing with Google+ that we’ve done with Gmail, and other consumer-facing apps so that Google+ can be adopted in more of enterprise setting.”
While Singh says the specifics of how this is going work for businesses with Google Apps is still being developed, he says that in 2012 Google will offer “some good choices for businesses to take advantage of both internal and external communication capabilities.”
Google entering the social enterprise market isn’t particularly surprising considering the search giant’s ambitions when it comes to social. In terms of usage, Google Apps is a major product for the company (Apps now has 40 million users, and 5,000 firms are joining per day, as per Eric Schmidt). What should be interesting is how Google’s communications and collaboration platform for Apps will affect the current leaders in the market such as Jive and Yammer. Stay tuned.

Review: Grand Theft Auto III 10th Anniversary for iOS

In October of 2001, Rockstar Games dropped a bomb on the gaming world. That bomb was called Grand Theft Auto III. In just one release, Rockstar shifted their flagship 2D series into a 3D world, introduced an enormous chunk of the population to the concept of massive sandbox games, and stirred up the first of many controversies that the company has since become known for.
Just over 10 years later, GTA3 is back — but now it’s mobile. As of yesterday, it’s available for iOS and Android. Same game, same grit, same campy over-the-top action… but in your pocket.
So, how has the game held up? How well did it make the jump from controller to touchscreen? Is it worth your $5?
Lets go ahead and answer those immediately: Surprisingly well, moderately okay, and probably.

For a game that’s probably older than the TV sitting in your living room, Grand Theft Auto 3 is still remarkably entertaining. I won’t wax on too much about the gameplay itself; many hundreds of reviews did that a decade ago, and it’s still the same game (save for a few little perks ported in from modern GTA games, like instant retries on failed missions) it was then. What worked well then still works well today: you run around, explore, go on a few hundred missions, then blow up everything in sight whenever all that gets boring.
It’s not what most would call “gorgeous” by today’s gaming standards (read: it’s no Infinity Blade II), but it really does still look good. The audio is also wonderful, with an absurd amount of dialog, sound, radio chatter, and music crammed into the 500 MB package. At the very least, it’s a wonderful testament of how far technology has come; what required a big ol’ dedicated gaming console just a decade ago now runs effortlessly on an itty-bitty battery-powered slab of glass.

To say it “runs effortlessly” requires a bit of a caveat, though. Rockstar claims support for all of the more recent iOS devices, including the iPhone 4, iPad 1, iPhone 4S, and iPad 2. On the latter two, it’s butter. On the iPad 1, graphic quality takes a massive hit (see the comparison shot above) — and still, framerate issues tend to rear their head. (Alas, I don’t have an iPhone 4 handy to test it on, so I can’t comment on the compatibility there.)

Look up at the screen shot above. The buttons! They’re everywhere! You can feel your hands cramping already.
It’s actually quite playable — in most cases, at least. The D-pad drops wherever you put your thumb when you’re hoofin’ it, and the other buttons are big enough that they’re not too much trouble to find (Oh: and if you think you could layout a better control scheme, you can re-arrange/re-size them in the settings screen.) Driving isn’t too bad either (though, man is it easy to flip your car now. I don’t know if they tweaked the physics engine or something, but it’s far easier to find yourself upside down and covered in flames than I remember.)
Shooting, however, is a rather terrible experience… which is unfortunate, considering how crucial it is to the game as a whole. The game has an autolock system which, even after fair amount of playtime, never seems to work the way I expect. It’s not so bad as to make the game impossible (just quite frustrating at times) but is detrimental enough that it influences my recommendation.
As for said recommendation: if you’ve never played through GTA3, I wouldn’t suggest having the mobile experience be your first. The controls, while acceptable, just take away too much of the magic. GTA3 is a great game and was far ahead of its time; if it’s going to be played by a newcomer, it deserves to be played as originally intended. If you played through the original (or started it, and never got a chance to finish before Mom slung the PS2 at a garage sale) and are just looking to swim in nostalgia, however, it’s easily worth the 5 bucks.
You can find GTA3: 10th Anniversary in the App Store here

Eligible Selected Candidates for Punjab Laptop Scheme by Mian Shahbaz Sharif

100K Free Laptops

Overview
The objective is to provide 100 thousand free laptops to talented students currently studying at public sector colleges and universities and high achievers of the boards in Punjab. The motivation behind provision of 100 thousand free laptops is to help students overcome problems and difficulties in the way of learning and professional growth.
 

Google Doodles Come To Shirts, Mugs & Stickers Via Google’s New Zazzle Store

Can’t get enough Google Doodles? Apparently, there’s a big demand for the iconic redesigns of the Google logo which celebrate holidays, historic events and famous people, places and things. Today, Google has given its online Doodles archive a makeover and has launched an accompanying Zazzle store, allowing you to buy your favorite Doodle emblazoned on the product of your choice.
Zazzle, as you probably know, is the print-on-demand marketplace that lets users upload their own artwork in order to sell custom products like t-shirts, hoodies, coffee cups, stickers, posters, and a wide array of home and office goods.
The new Google Zazzle store (that’s fun to say) now features hundreds of Google Doodles, organized by year, going all the way back to 2000.

In addition, the Google Doodle online archive, which once only featured static images, now includes more interactive Doodles, allowing you to do things like “enjoy front-row tickets to a Martha Graham dance, send the first man to space or learn more about why one doodler decided to ‘cartoonize’ Mary Blair,” explains Googler Ying Wang on the company’s blog.
Unfortunately, the animations are only available for select Doodles. Clicking through to others, it’s apparent that many are still just regular images. But the site’s makeover did bring the refreshed Google look-and-feel as well as new filters at the top that let you search Doodles by year and country.

128 Gb flash memory fits your fingertip

 

World’s first 128Gb 20nm NAND flash could pack 2TB into a 2.5″ SSD – Intel and Micron’s joint venture IMFT has announced that it has produced a 128Gb die. A package combining eight such dies together would be small enough to fit on a fingertip and boast an unprecedented 128GB capacity. Mass production will start in the first half of next year, and devices using the new dies are likely to start shipping in 2013.
IMFT also announced that it had started mass production of a 64Gb 20nm die. This part was first announced in April of this year. Consumer delivery should start in the middle of next year.