Make QR Codes in a Jiffy with Goo.gl [Cameraphones]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5511793/make-qr-codes-in-a-jiffy-with-googl

Google's official URL-shortening service, Goo.gl, just added a very cool trick to its shortening arsenal: Quick QR code creation with a simple URL tweak.

We recently highlighted how to make your personal QR code, but for those of you who don't recall, a QR ("quick response") code is a square barcode that makes getting URLs, location coordinates, any text or contact information onto a phone fast. With a barcode scanner app installed, you just point your phone's camera at the code to read its contents.

Gina detailed how to create QR codes using code generators like this or this, but if you're already using Goo.gl to shorten your URLs, simply add .qr to the end of a shortened Goo.gl URL and it'll instantly generate a QR code for you.

Once you've got your shortened Goo.gl URL—like http://goo.gl/3p8r, which points to Lifehacker's home page—just append .qr like so:

http://goo.gl/3p8r.qr

...and you've got your personal QR code. Not bad.

Note: To use Goo.gl to shorten URLs, you need to be using the Google Toolbar, or you can point your browser here or try this bookmarklet. Also, the other generators listed above offer QR codes that embed text, phone numbers, maps, and ready-to-send text messages in addition to URLs, so if you want more than just a shortened URL, they're probably better options.

[via @mattcuts]

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Xmarks for Firefox Syncs Open Tabs Between Browsers [Downloads]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5512326/xmarks-for-firefox-syncs-open-tabs-between-browsers

Firefox: Fans of the Xmarks bookmark and password syncing service, rejoice. You can now close down any Firefox browser connected to Xmarks and open whatever tabs you left standing on another browser. It's a nice little bit of worry reduction.

Mozilla's own Weave tool added tab syncing in its 1.0 release, so its nice to see Xmarks catch up to the competition. But given that Xmarks works, in one form or another, across Safari and Internet Explorer as well, a future update could make tab syncing much more convenient for the home/office divide.

To get the tab syncing, you'll have to download the preview version of Xmarks' add-on from the blog link below (or grab it here, directly), or wait about a week for the update to show up in Mozilla's add-on repository. Head to your Xmarks settings in the Tools menu, enable tab syncing, and give the Firefox setup and computer you're currently using a name. Do likewise on other computers you've installed Xmarks on. To retrieve single tabs or whole sets from other browsers, head to the Tools menu, open the Xmarks sub-menu, and choose "Open Remote Tabs."

Xmarks states that it uploads your window and tab status in the background, when your browser has a "quiet moment," so it might not always pick up every last tab, especially before a crash. It is, however, a nice piece of mind that costs you nothing. Xmarks is a free download, works wherever Firefox does.

Tab Sync in Xmarks for Firefox! [Xmarks Blog]

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Create Instant QR Codes with a Bookmarklet [Bookmarklet]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5512349/create-instant-qr-codes-with-a-bookmarklet

Creating camera-phone-friendly QR codes with a goo.gl shortlink URL tweak is nice, but one of our readers took the next logical step. His bookmarklets creates a goo.gl link, automatically converts it to a QR code, and shows you the result.

Hosted at his public Dropbox, reader grewal12 put his JavaScript skills to work, offering up two different versions of a bookmarklet. You'll need to copy the code and save it as a new bookmark manually, but once you do, it's a handy little thing. Go to a page you want to make easy for Android and iPhone users to get to with their camera scanners, hit the bookmarklet, and, depending on which version you picked, your code will appear in either a tiny new window or in the same browser tab. Handy stuff.

QR Code Bookmarklets [via grewal12]

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Runco's WindowWall gives you the $100,000 view you always wanted (eyes-on)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/runcos-windowwall-gives-you-the-100-000-view-you-always-wanted/

You see them, as soon as you set eyes on the gigantic, nine-panel screen. Those black lines are plainly visible. But the 46-inch Samsung panels in Runco's WindowWall have 7.33mm bezels that almost disappear from ten feet away, and when we first walked in, we actually thought they were part of the image. In a nutshell, WindowWall is a modular display system that turns entire walls into displays capable of rendering giant images across many screens, or display different media -- say, Doctor Who, LOST, FlashForward, V, Castle, 24, a couple computer screens and an episode of Firefly for good measure -- on each individual one. Making the system work in sync requires quite a bit of hardware, including a power supply unit and display controller unit for every four 1366 x 768 panels used, not to mention an upscaling box and a seriously sturdy stand (sorry, Humanscale) to hold up all that glass. The company boasts the whole system is scalable, meaning you can make it work with as few as four or as many as twenty panels and still run the entire system as a single screen at its full, gigantic native resolution. We weren't able to see these nine pumping pixels at 4098 x 2304, unfortunately, as the only content on hand was 1080p, but the footage did seem to be well synced across all nine screens. Of course, with a system like this the catch is cost -- for the nine panels, frame, reels of CAT cable and veritable server rack required to run this particular WindowWall, R! unco sai d we should expect to pay a heartstopping $100,000. Droolworthy, to be sure, but too rich for our blood. Perhaps if the whole neighborhood chipped in, right before Super Bowl?

Gallery: Runco WindowWall modular LCD multi-display

Runco's WindowWall gives you the $100,000 view you always wanted (eyes-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Animals That Can Live Without Oxygen Discovered, Aliens Basically Guaranteed to Exist Now [Science]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5511882/animals-that-can-live-without-oxygen-discovered-aliens-basically-guaranteed-to-exist-now

Scientists have just discovered the first multicellular animals that can survive entirely without oxygen. They live in the L'Atalante Basin in the Mediterranean Ocean, a place with salt brine so thick it doesn't mix with oxygen-containing waters above.

This is pretty crazy stuff. Previously, it was thought that only single-celled life could exist in such inhospitable places, but this proves otherwise.

The animals took up radioactively tagged leucine (an amino acid), and a fluorescent probe that labels living cells, evidence that they were alive when they were collected. The researchers also found examples of individuals that contained eggs and evidence of apparent molting, which led them to conclude that the animals spend their whole lives in the harsh sediments. The creature's cells apparently lack mitochondria, the organelles that use oxygen to power a cell. Instead they are rich in what seem to be hydrogenosomes, organelles that can do a similar job in anaerobic (or oxygen free) environments.

This is interesting not only for the study of our oceans, but for life off our planet as well. After all, if life can exist where there's no oxygen, what's to say life can't exist in some of the harsher atmospheres that exist on other planets and moons? And at this point, why the hell haven't they contacted us yet? Are we not ready? Just tell us what to do, space friends! Come on! [Science Mag via Slashdot]

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