Scientists from the Smithsonian Institution used motion sensitive cameras to capture the wildlife along the Appalachian Trail near Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. The goal of the project is to document animal traffic on the nearly 600 mile stretch of the 2,175 mile trail that runs from Georgia to Maine.

Most of the pictures were taken at night due to human traffic during the day. Animals depicted
vary between black bear, deer, coyotes, and even a rare Bobcat. It is awesome to see local wildlife captured in their natural settings along a trail I hiked as a kid.

See the Washington Post photo gallery, ‘Animals at Night‘ or read more about it.

(via Dad)

I just joined the official Zune group on Facebook the other day and when I looked at the number of fans I saw this…

I’m sure lots of Zune haters will get a kick out of any reference to Hell and the Microsoft device. I am actually a fan and my review will be coming in a couple of days.

CoinCalc.com is a simple and straight forward site aiming to estimate how much moola you have stashed away in your change jar. All you need to do is weigh your jar of coins, grab a handful as a sample and enter the quantity of each coin you pulled out into the CoinCalc form. The site does a little math and guesses how much money is in the jar based on your sample.

I just happened to have a jar full of coins that needed to be tallied and wrapped up so I though I would give CoinCalc.com a run for it’s money (pun intended). I took 5 samples of various sizes from the same cup of coins. After counting the number of coins I would put them all back in the cup and shake them around to keep it as fair of a test as possible. I happen to have a small postal scale at hand so calculating the weight of the coins was a snap. My first weighing included the weight of the cup which came to a total of 3.375 pounds. After running all of the numbers through CoinCalc.com, I realized the weight of the cup was inflating the estimate. I weighed the empty cup and subtracted that weight from the previous weight resulting in 2.8625 pounds of pure coinage. The results are summarized in the table below:

The total value of my coin-collection was $28.91 which came out to the following:

CoinCalc.com came within $10 at most of the actual value after correcting for the weight of the cup. CoinCalc’s estimation was more accurate than I thought it would be. The site gives you a good ballpark range of the value of your coins without having to dump them all over the floor and count them out one by one or paying a fee to have Coinstar count them for you.

Speaking of counting, I like to wrap my own coins and I use this little device from MMF Industries pictured below to tally them up before wrapping.

You simply dump your sorted coins into their respective slot and the plastic container will keep them stacked until they reach the top. At that point there is a slit where surplus coins fall out leaving you with the exact quantity for the roll. I think I got this from my parents a couple of Christmas’ ago.

(via BoingBoing)

U.S.News & World Report does an annual feature on 50 Ways To Improve Your Life. This year the multimedia team tackled a video project recruiting everyone in the office to say a few lines about each of the 50 resolutions. Here is the final product which shows many of the faces behind the weekly magazine. Watch out for me, I talk about reducing corn in your diet. Fun!

These Guess “Damita” boots look like ghetto space boots from the year 3019. Too fly for this solar system.

As the days inch towards Christmas people around the nation will be frantically finishing up their shopping and wrapping gifts. I’m not a big fan of wrapping gifts. For one, it is an extra step before hoisting the gift off to it’s recipient. All the work and energy, physical as well as creative, that goes into the presentation is quickly shredded to a pulp as it is ripped off and tossed aside for the main attraction below the surface. That precious wrapping paper, tape, and pretty bow will make their way to the trash where they will rot away in a landfill.

But my biggest gripe is the price for all of that frilly paper, which only provides only a moment of glee. And while I would like to see the 2007 Christmas season be the one that ditches the idea of wrapping up gifts (after all, being green is in vogue) there is a snowflake’s chance in hell that is going to happen. Companies that make wrapping paper and related products must be raking it in as the busiest shopping season heads into full insane-o-mode. I couldn’t find any statistics about wrapping paper revenue, but I am sure that it is such a large chunk of company profits that the last thing they would want to do is stop the frivolous holiday tradition.

How could I get out of wrapping gifts without disappointing my family and friends while not spending a dime? Why not turn to the one thing that has helped give consumers the things they want without charging them a thing, advertising-supported goods! I would gladly accept gift-wrapping materials that have been plastered in logos if it were free and saved me time. It seems to make sense in helping companies spread brand awareness as the giftee would be exposed with a happy and joyous moment of opening a gift which creates a positive psychological effect and brand association. Companies could ship it to people for free or give it out at stores with every purchase. Boxes already pre-wrapped and decorated using a Christmas variation of the corporate colors and branded tissue paper inside would be the perfect ad vehicle to their next potential customer. And with the cost of buying everything in bulk, the company wouldn’t be spending more than the usual barrage of printed material such as full-page magazine ads, billboards, or direct mailing fliers. Wrapping paper would be unusual in the fact that it is actually useful! That’s a valuable exchange in my book.

I’m surprised I haven’t seen this idea more widespread. Lots of stores offer gift wrapping though it is usually offered as an extra service for a price. Why not offset that cost with advertising? Everything else seems to work that way. And it’s not like Christmas isn’t already over-marketed, over-hyped, and over-crowded with the consumerism mentality of BUY, BUY, BUY! Why not just a little bit more with free wrapping paper?

One of the hardest words for me to spell is definately definatly definetly… well the point is it is a difficult word. Luckily, there is a great protest-site at www.d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com which shows you the correct way. Although how would you find it if you typically use the one of the many misspellings? I like to remember it as de–fin–itely.

Yea, that is defiantly definitely tricky.

Much of our digital information is stored and accessed through online accounts, most of which only offer a standard username and password authentication process. While this single factor authentication is sufficient for most cases, two-factor authentication offers enhanced security. But before I go any further, lets make clear what single-factor and two-factor authentication actually are.

In order to authenticate who you are online, you need to demonstrate one or more of the following factors:

• “Something you know”, such as a password or PIN.
• “Something you have”, such as a mobile phone, credit card or hardware security token.
• “Something you are”, such as a fingerprint, a retinal scan, or other biometric.

Most online systems require only something you know, usually a username and password combination. The weakness of this system is the password because if it is too short or easily guessable then an attacker can brute force, or systematically guess every possible combination, until they have access and compromise your account. A password that is too long and convoluted can be a burden to remember though harder to guess by a third party. Adding another authentication factor will greatly increase your security as well as making the login process less cumbersome.

This is where VeriSign comes in. They have developed an identity protection service that gives you access to a random, one-time use password that piggybacks on your existing username and password credentials. The device used to deliver the 6-digit code is the size of a credit card and easily fits into a wallet. With the press of a button, a new set of numbers will be generated for you to authenticate with when logging in to protected sites.

The system isn’t perfect as the card costs $54 and only works with members of the VeriSign Identity Protection Network. Right now that network includes eBay, Paypal, and VeriSigns own OpenID service. Keep in mind this is still in testing mode. With online identity protection becoming a bigger issue, I can see this growing and including more members in the near future.

Some sites that I would really like to see participating in this program would be Amazon.com, GMail, and my bank USAA.com. If I relied more heavily on PayPal and eBay for my income I would definitely sign up, but for now I will sit out and wait for more sites to join before plunking down the $50.

For more information about two-factor authentication check out episode #94 of Steve Gibson’s Security Now Podcast.

The holidays are fast approaching and that generally means it is time to start eating some treats. NorthPole.com has a zillion recipes for things like cookies, fudge & candy, and cakes to keep your taste buds fresh and happy this winter season. Everything is easy to follow with ingredients, measurements, and thorough instructions even a cooking scrooge like myself could follow along and bake up a batch. Now the hardest part will be going through the lists while picking a reasonable amount of cookies to prepare.

Rands knows nerds and what it takes to live with them. It sounds like his post The Nerd Handbook comes from first hand experience but it describes me pretty well. Take the opening sentence:

“A nerd needs a project because a nerd builds stuff. All the time. Those lulls in the conversation over dinner? That’s the nerd working on his project in his head.”

I thought everyone constantly mulled over projects in their head?

Rand goes into further details about a nerd’s relation to the computer, why we nerds build little caves to be tucked away from society, our quest for absorbing information, and why nerds generally dislike social situations. Yup, I can relate to all of this and if you ever wanted to get a peak inside me to see how I tick, then I suggest cracking open The Nerd Handbook.