tech@vedella

A YouTube video posted by a person who claims to be Hillary Adams, daughter of Aransas County Court-At-Law Judge William Adams shows a video of a man said to be Judge Williams viciously beating her as a teenager in 2004 (in the video, her age is given as 16). The accompanying text states: Aransas County [...]

The Oakland PD union is confused by Mayor Jean Quan's approach to the protests -- they say that after they were ordered to clear the Occupy camp (a mission that led to bloody conflict in the streets), the mayor allowed the protest camp to be re-established in a larger, better organized form. Meanwhile city employees [...]

Wikileaks' founder will be deported to Sweden to face rape allegations within a month. Assange has 14 days to seek to appeal to Britain's supreme court. [Guardian]

Yesterday, I asked you to submit your physics questions for a chance to win either VIP tickets to see Brian Greene tonight in New York City, or a DVD set of Greene's new NOVA series. I did the drawing this morning and the winners are: • Kevin Harrelson — Proud new owner of a DVD [...]

Photo: David Huang This morning, a demonstration took place in McLeod Ganj, a quiet Northern Indian village adjacent to the home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile. In this town on the southern end of the Himalayas, young Tibetan exiles staged a memorial for Tibetans inside China-controlled Tibet who have burned themselves alive [...]

The Occupy Oakland folks have been publishing designs for today's general strike, including this jaunty little number from R Black. Lots more to choose from, too, including the venerable IWW black cat, back from retirement and looking as spry as a kitten. Awesome Posters for Nov 2 General Strike!

The Corporation of London has "paused" its legal action against the OccupyLondon protesters camped outside of St Paul's Cathedral, in the wake of the Cathedral's decision to drop legal action altogether. The Corporation assures the public that it still plans to pursue legal action to remove the protests, but just not right now: "We’re hoping [...]

[Video Link] Roger Doiron, founder of Kitchen Gardens International (an organization that promotes kitchen gardening and home-cooking) argues that gardening for food is a subversive activity, because "when we encourage people to grow some of their own food, we're encouraging them to take power into their hands: power over their diet, power over their health, [...]

The Cure performing their homage to Camus, "Killing An Arab," way back in 1979.

I'm old school when it comes to Planet of the Apes. If they aren't wearing tunics or padded vests, I'm not interested. That's why this painting, entitled "Trophies" -- which depicts a trio of proud gorilla hunters posing over a pile of Boing Boing comment trolls -- is a winner in my book. This masterpiece [...]

The short version: it was killed because making a cut-down Windows for tablets would "threaten" the desktop version that runs on all the hugely successful UMPC/MID/Slate tablets (pictured) that gave Microsoft its unassailable lead over Apple and Android. Then Bill Gates asked where the Exchange client was and had an allergic reaction when iPads were [...]

A pricey, but cool, offering for Mustang aficionados. Ford Motor Co. will soon sell brand-new 1965 Ford Mustangs for just $15,000 each. The only hitch: There's some assembly required. As part of its Ford Reproduction business, Ford revealed today it had approved a new stamping of the steel bodies for first-generation Mustang that buyers could [...]

Danger 5 is an wonderfully kitschy and awesome indie video production about a "1960s-inspired version of World War II" in which five chainsmoking, wisecracking superspies take on Adolf Hitler. Danger 5 (via JWZ)

A flier circulating within the Occupy movement gives detailed instructions for defending yourself against tear-gas attacks, noting that it is "only for defense purposes" and warning "never incite violence." Flier to OWS Protesters: "Defending Against Tear Gas" (via Beth Pratt)

This clip -- from some sort of Japanese candid camera show -- shows a guy having the bejeezus scared out of him by a woman dressed as a ghost hiding behind a half-silvered mirror. Japanese ghost prank (via Super Punch)

Brute Force Studios's Thomas Willeford wrote this great guide to steampunking your jack-o-lantern to make a "Steampunkin." Awesome. Behold, the Steampunkin! (PDF) (via Neatorama)

Something about sparkplugs brings out the exuberant lunatic in advertising illustrators. Above, exhibit B (exhibit A here). AC Spark Plugs

A near-future version of Firefox will have PDF support right in the browser, with no plugins; there's a preview of the feature you can see now. That's awfully handy (though it would be handier if people would finally give up on trying to use PDFs to disseminate information that worked just as well in HTML). [...]

UEFI is a new hardware standard nominally aimed at stopping malicious software, but it could also make it illegal to replace Windows or MacOS with GNU/Linux on your computer. The Linux Foundation has written a technical memo for hardware vendors explaining how they can ship PCs that still protect users from malware, without putting them [...]

From a NYT opinion piece by Joe Nocera, "What the Costumes Reveal"— On Friday, the law firm of Steven J. Baum threw a Halloween party. The firm, which is located near Buffalo, is what is commonly referred to as a “foreclosure mill” firm, meaning it represents banks and mortgage servicers as they attempt to foreclose [...]