Download Squad

Always dreamed of running a sweatshop, but were worried about the legal ramifications? Sick of paying American workers boatloads of money just because the government says it's fair? Really, it's a free country, so you should be able to pay people whatever you feel like, no? Who cares if they need a certain wage to live, no one forced them to take the job. You're the victim here. But like Superman flying over the horizon in his confusingly bright colored outfit, a hero is coming to save you.

Behold, Offshoring.com, where you can hire cheap, skilled labour for as little as $4 an hour. How is this possible? Because the workers are in the Philippines. You can hire everything from programmers to graphic designers for a fraction of what they cost in the US. According to their website they are an American company with a headquarters in Atlanta who send people to the Philippines to run offices staffed with skilled Filipino workers. These workers will work whenever you work, Monday-Friday, and speak English. No word in the FAQ as to whether the workers are chained to their computers or not.

And, as an added bonus, you can fire any worker you want for whatever reason AND you don't even have to do it yourself. You just tell the office and they fire the worker for you. Which, one would assume, involves a large trap door and some sort of flesh eating monster. God bless capitalism.

[via wired]

Some people claim to be addicted to their Apple products. Turns out it might be true. Everyone always assumed that Apple gear (iPods, Macs, iPhones, etc) have sold well because they are well built and user friendly, but a recent police investigation has determined that they are actually infused with small amounts of LSD, that the user absorbs slowly through their skin, creating a sense of wonder and euphoria.

One of the first to get suspicious that something might be rotten with Apple was legendary music producer Quincy Jones. Jones, one of the world's foremost music experts, found that a song was always better when heard through his iPod than when he listened through his top of the line, outrageously expensive stereo system. "I thought maybe it was the experience of wearing headphones, isolating me from the world that made the music more incredible" says Jones. "Turns out it was because I was high as a kite." At his urging, a research team from Columbia University began testing Apple products and found the drugs were present in almost every item Apple sells -- the only notable exception, the Apple TV, which still sells poorly no matter how high the consumer base.

Scientists say that the amount of LSD absorbed through the skin is not enough to harm a human being, though it has been shown to be fatal in laboratory mice. The dose is just strong enough to make the user relaxed and happy, explaining why people become so attached to their Macs and iPods. Researchers also say this might explain the pretentiousness and strange superiority complex that almost all Mac users seem to have, though they say further study is needed to be sure.

-- Editors note. This story was edited on a Mac. Dude. Pretty colors.

Fireworks, parades, unicorns made of ice cream, pleasant leprechauns doing amusing jigs; these things are fun. Backing up files is not. If you disagree with this you may be a loser. Check that, you are a loser. Or a network admin. Wait, that should read AND a network admin. Boring network geeks aside, backing up files is important. Much like prostate exams. Important, but painful. If you're not backing up files at home, here's a free tool that you can use to get on board the fun bus.

AutoVer is about as straight forward as it gets. Easy to install and use, and does everything you'll need it to do. Plus some advanced features sure to keep the die-hards interested, such as version controlling. It's obviously not really something you'd want to use in a large scale work environment, but if you're to forgetful/lazy/narcoleptic to manually back up files on your home computer, it's worth a look at. Once you have it set up, it runs pretty well on it's own, and handles errors smoothly. It doesn't explode if your back up drive fails, or any of that fun stuff, and works with flash drives and the like. And the price is perfect. Mmmmfree.

The European Union has faith in BitTorrent. So much so that it's donating $22 Million to help us be able to steal share files. The BBC is one of the biggest investors, figuring that since people download TV shows now anyway, they should probably try to get in on it. Which makes sense. Nobody watches TV on TV's anymore; it's like listening to music on CDs. And when you see someone walking around with a Discman, you judge them. Don't pretend that you don't.

One of the main goals of this project, which they're calling P2P-Next, is to create an open source, BitTorrent-compatible client that can be used for live streaming. Which could be great for getting decent quality streaming TV. None of this watching poor quality out of sync episodes with strange asian subtitles. The team developing the core technology is the folks behind the BitTorrent client Tribler. With a cool $22 Million from the EU, along with another $6 Million from other partners, this project seems to have the backing it needs to succeed. They are hoping to create an environment that encourages sharing, but removing share ratio sanctions and letting the users moderate the content. All of this is great news. Since anything that will let us pirate share files quicker and easier is downright exciting.

[Via TorrentFreak]

As we told you earlier, the TSA recently launched a new blog used to get suggestions from Johnny Everyman for improving the airport security process. And boy is it working. The TSA has already changed a practice in which passengers were required to take all their electronics out of their carry on bags during screening.

Oh, so they instituted this national policy some time ago, then due to public complaints, decided to rescind it? Nope. The head office never knew it was happening. What? Really? They say that local TSA offices set it up independently and they were never told. Yeah, but don't they ever fly? Apparently not. If not for the blessed internet, they would never have known that this was going on.

The irony of the whole thing is that this blog was set up to allow the users to help explain and improve the airport security process, giving the traveler a greater sense of ease when flying. Instead it brought to light the frightening fact that the TSA wasn't in the loop on some important security measure. At least they've got it under control now. Good ol' internet. Protector of the free world.

[via slashdot]