Computer mouse has gone through a remarkable transformation from those good old days till today. From serial port to wireless, metal ball to laser… you name it! Mice today are engineered to your comfort and needs.

Computer mouse was first invented by Douglas Engelbart and his team at Stanford Research Institute. At that time, its body was made from wood.. which doesn’t look like a mouse at all! It was introduced to the public in a demonstration on December 9, 1968 in San Francisco. Here is the epic picture of the first mouse.

Mouse innovation was started from this wooden mouse in 1968… and here are some old school mice that still looks cool.

Are you a… Microsoft fan boy and you love to toast? You might want to consider getting this:

Photo credits – http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazw220/

Yes, you heard it right – Prison.

This “5–Star” prison is called Justice Center Leoben located in Styria, Austria. This luxury place is designed by architect Joseph Hohensinn (Hohensinn Architektur) and currently hosting 205 inmates and is fully booked.

The word “prison” is always associated with “hell” and “suffering” but this particular prison has well-designed cell with clean and classy facilities like basketball court, gym room, ping pong, computer, television, football table and etc. I’m sure you give that a second thought after you see these amazing pictures…

More pictures can be found here.

If you want to read something absurd and worth a laugh, read on.

Introducing… the World’s Dumbest Laws – 25 of them from US to England to Indonesia and more!

ONE

The head of any dead whale found on the British coast is legally the property of the King; the tail, on the other hand, belongs to the Queen – in case she needs the bones for her corset.

TWO

In Bahrain, a male doctor may legally examine a woman’s genital but is forbidden from looking directly at them during the examination; he may only see their reflection in a mirror.

THREE

In London, it is illegal to flag down a taxi if you have the plague.

FOUR

In Vermont, women must obtain written permission from their
husbands to wear false teeth.

FIVE

In Boulder, Colorado, it is illegal to kill a bird within the city limits and also to “own” a pet – the town’s citizens, legally speaking, are merely “pet minders”.

SIX

In the city of York, it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow.

SEVEN

In Chester, Welshmen are banned from entering the city before sunrise and from staying after sunset.

EIGHT

In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon more than six-feet long.

NINE

In Florida, unmarried women who parachute on Sundays can be jailed.

TEN

In the UK, a man who feels compelled to urinate in public can do so only if he aims for his rear wheel and keeps his right hand on his vehicle.

ELEVEN

In San Salvador, drunk drivers can be punished by death before a firing squad.

TWELVE

In London, Freemen are allowed to take a flock of sheep across London Bridge without being charged a toll; they are also allowed to drive geese down Cheapside.

THIRTEEN

In England, all men over the age of 14 must carry out two hours of long bow practice a day.

FOURTEEN

In Indonesia, the penalty for masturbation is decapitation. (A good one!)

FIFTEEN

In Miami, Florida, it is illegal to skateboard in a police station.

SIXTEEN

In Lancashire, England, no person is permitted after being asked to stop by a constable on the seashore to incite a dog to bark.

SEVENTEEN

In the UK, a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants – even, if she so requests, in a policeman’s helmet.

EIGHTEEN

Royal Navy ships that enter the Port of London must provide a barrel of rum to the Constable of the Tower of London.

NINETEEN

In Ohio, it is against state law to get a fish drunk.

TWENTY

In Alabama, it is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle.

TWENTY ONE

Under the UK’s Tax Avoidance Schemes Regulations 2006, it is illegal not to tell the taxman anything you don’t want him to know, though you don’t have to tell him anything you don’t mind him knowing.

TWENTY TWO

In France, it is forbidden to call a pig Napoleon.

TWENTY THREE

It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside down.

TWENTY FOUR

It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.

TWENTY FIVE

It is illegal for a cab in the City of London to carry rabid dogs or corpses.

AND A BONUS…

In the city of Chico, California, detonation of a nuclear device in the city will lead to the payment of a fine of $500.

IN ADDITION…

If you want somemore, check out this article for 25 “Only In America” Dumb Laws!

So, have you ever wondered what are the technical specs of the official website for the White House and the US President?

Here are all the technical 101s that you want and (probably) you need to know about WhiteHouse.gov.

It’s not “Powered by Linux”

YES! WhiteHouse.gov runs on Windows Server, uses IIS 6.0 (not the latest IIS 7) and ASP.NET 2.0 (not 3.5).

Here are more technical specs, in bullet form to sum things up:

• Uses JQuery 1.2.6 (The popular Javascript library)
• Uses GZIP compression
• uses Vary: Accept-Encoding (This forces proxies not to server GZIP content to agents that cannot decode it)
• uses Cache-Control: private and max-age
• Uses WebTrends Live tracking
• Uses the meta keywords tag
• Uses ViewState (Allows the site to store server-side data on the browsers)
• Uses WebResource.axd (A script file generated by ASP.NET)
• Uses more GIFs than PNGs
• Uses 5 stylesheets and 12 JavaScripts
• Uses heavy JPG compression
• Uses image sprites (Combination of several small images into one)
• Uses Packer (A utility that encodes a JavaScript file into a compressed format)
• Uses a non-transparent favicon

Interesting to know more? Jump to this page, everything is explained in details.

Amazingly creative – This is how I (and I bet most of you guys will) describe this creative site: MSPaintAdventures.com.

All of the artwork and graphics are drawn and created using Microsoft Paint, pretty neat!

So basically MS Paint Adventures is an “interactive” adventurous kind of comic. Somebody says it is a comical game, others say it is a comical story… well I say it is both. It is a mixture of that… uh, hard to describe unless you pay a visit here.

[MS Paint Adventures: You've already got arms, numbnuts!]

I’m not a comic lover, really but I can say that MS Paint Adventures hooked me up for a good amount of time! KUDOS!

Oh ya, it has a save and load game features too… in case you can finish “reading”… anyway enjoy!

Drop me your comments if you are hooked to it somehow.

ArtPad (by Art.com) is a brilliant tool for those who likes to paint and draw. ArtPad gives you the freedom and flexibility to express yourself.

Tons of colors to choose from, various brush sizes, opacity control and few great tools like paint bucket and text input besides paint brush.

[ArtPad’s painting canvas]

On top of that, you can apply different frames to your painting. There is also a gallery where you can browse and view other paintings. (Lots of creative and colorful paintings here).

Here are a few fantastic paintings created in the past using ArtPad:

Start painting here: http://artpad.art.com/

The title says it all!

I’m not kidding nor fooling around. You can really watch Star Wars using your Command Prompt or any Telnet enabled terminal.

Start Watching

What you have to do is just simply telnet to 193.202.115.241 or towel.blinkenlights.nl.

Here is how to do it via Windows Command Prompt.

Open your Command Prompt (Run… > “cmd”) and then type in:

telnet 193.202.115.241

Well, if you are not good in typing numbers, you may type towel.blinkenlights.nl instead.

Screenshot

Here is a snapshot if you are wondering how will it looks like :=)

[Star Wars the Movie]

Have a good movie!

I stumbled upon this interesting video.

I/O Brush is a project by MIT Tangible Media Group back in 2003/04. For more information, check out their project website here.

FACEinHOLE.com will virtually put you on the plane, makes you a F1 driver, a celebrity, be on magazine cover and… well anything and everything you can imagine!

There are tons of scenarios for you to choose, from art to sport and more. If non of the available scenarios suit your taste, feel free to suggest to them what you want.

[Felipe Massa, anyone?]

Put Your Face in The Hole!

It is very easy to make your own FACEinHOLE. Select a scenario, upload your face (or snap with your webcam). You might need to adjust your face – rotate, resize, control brightness, etc.

After you face framed in nicely, you are good to go! Now, add speech bubble if you want and finally, save it.

If you miss the link, here you go buddy: http://www.faceinhole.com/us/

I’ve been hooked to it for hours now… darn!

Anyway, enjoy!