I drove to city hall today in a motorbike and noticed just how much time I spent waiting at red lighted but otherwise empty intersections. I tell you, it sucks that I have to wait so much until the light changes on its own or until a bigger car comes by (for which the red almost instantly goes green). Infuriating! I must’ve wasted about 25% of my trip waiting on empty intersections gnashing my teeth but unable to run the red light because of traffic cameras.

So a little research led me to some very interesting little known hacks that will help me get the green light everytime! You want to save gas and truckloads of time? Do yourself a favor and read on.

First off, some disclaimers

The knowledge put forth here are purely academical in nature. We have researched the methods and gadgets herein described and tickle your fancy with some rather interesting possible applications. However, we reiterate that these are simply for academic purposes and that they should NEVER be used for anything illegal.

Now that those are out, you know that the information that comes next oughta be good. =)

How traffic lights work in the U.S.

Here in the good ole US of A, traffic lights work on a queueing system that puts premium on traffic density and waiting time. How would the traffic lights “know” that there are more cars on your side of the intersection or that you have waited longer than anyone else? It’s the same system they use in Mickey D’s drive-thru, where they embed a loop of wire that detects any nearby electromagnetic field (everything with matter emits an electromagnetic field of sorts, but the wires for these usually detect those coming from machinery like cars, trucks, etc). Meaning, a machinery of sorts that is bigger than the size of your small coupe or about the size of your regular sedan will trip it.

Someone on the net figured out how they can activate or trigger the device even if you are using a small car or even a motorcycle! The mechanism is simple – you just attach some powerful neodymium magnets to the underside of your cycle perpendicular to the road and you are set.

The above condition is all good for smaller vehicles, but still do not let you change red lights to green. It simply allows smaller vehicles to register as bigger ones and let them note that a big vehicle is on queue.

Pedestrian influence

Pedestrians also exert some control over traffic signals via pedestrian buttons such as these.

This photo is NOT by actiononline.biz

Getting the green

For real control over the traffic lights from a moving vehicle, one has to turn to a little-known feature of US traffic lights. Most intersection lights have an infrared scanner that allows emergency vehicles to pre-empt traffic light scheduling systems. Meaning, ambulances, fire trucks, and police vehicles emit an infrared signal that the sensors catch – which will make them turn green for the said emergency vehicle almost instantly! These are MIRTs or mobile infrared transmitters.

Of course, using a MIRT is almost always strictly for emergency vehicles (check with your local laws before using one as it could be illegal in some states). But human ingenuity always finds a way! There is this guy who discusses how to make one from scratch and there is another guy who teaches you how to use a normal universal remote to do the same job.

Getting away with it

This photo is NOT by actiononline.biz

Of course, there is one big problem: getting caught. Most heavy traffic intersections have traffic cameras that take pictures of cars getting into intersections and most of them can capture the tell-tale IR beam that comes from your remote control or MIRT.

So the solution then is not to actually use MIRTs, or, turn to methods of hiding your face (via heavilly tinted windows) and hiding your plate number via reflectorized license plate sprays.

Parting shot

We reiterate that this is purely academic conjecturing at methods of saving gas and time by making sure you always get a green light. These techniques and gadgets should NEVER be used for anything illegal.

Please use this knowledge wisely, if everyone has the technique and uses it indiscriminately then it would mean utter road chaos. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, eh?

Sure, its hard to take an app that uses a roadkill cat as a logo very seriously. But believe you me – it’s one app that can prove very useful.

If you read below, you will find out just what you are missing.

It is primarily a freeware viewer much like a free ACDSee, but can be used as an image converter, image resizer, and picture rotater. You can do gamma correction, brightness, contrast and tint to name a few. There are also filters available for it to make those special effects. You can even do these image manipulations by batch.

What sets IrfanView apart from the same software in its genre (like Microsoft PhotoEditor, ACDSee,  etc) is the wide range of files and devices that it is able to manipulate. It can open and edit pictures from the scanner, camera, JPG/JPEG, GIF, 8BF, etc. This author uses it to create ICO files for sofware logos and markings – all coming from JPG files. One can even make a screensaver from the pictures you select (with optional background music) which you can give away to your friends without IrfanView, therefore making it a lightweight screensaver compiler.

It’s speed and ease of use is also of note.

Of course no software is perfect: IrfanView cannot be used to open CYMK files properly because it is primarily an RGB file editor because it does not allow for color-managed viewing.

Then again, it packs all this punch in a 1.37 Mb executable. Oh and did I mention that it is free? Get your copy at http://www.irfanview.com/

For people who manage multiple accounts at the same time (yes I mean you – the one with a separate account for your workstuff, family stuff and naughty stuff), the time has come for you to use ALL your accounts at the same time!

What do I mean?

• You don’t have to keep logging on and off anymore
• You don’t have to use a Yahoo Messenger substitute like GAIM* that doesn’t let you use your avatars, audibles, backgrounds,  nor the buzz functionality
• You don’t have to stoop down to oh-so-slow java programs online as YM alternates – like meebo*

Simple – no plugins to install (some of those could come with viruses), no hard to install equipment, hardware or software! And did I mention that there is a step-by-step video you can reference below?

Behold the simplest method that you can use to enable you to log-in simultaneously with your multiple yahoo accounts! See the video I have attached or follow the simple hack that needs less than 10 steps.

1. Click on Start Menu
2. Click Run
3. Type “regedit” without the quotes, press Enter
4. Navigate to and expand the following in the said order: HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Yahoo, pager, Test
5. Right-click on Test and create a new DWORD value (32 bit).
6. Rename that value as “Plural” without the quotes.
7. Set the value of “Plural” to 1.

Of course, there is a downside to all of this:

• Meebo still covers your tracks better than YM (that plus meebo is easier to get away with for you unlucky grunts who are not allowed to install YMs in the office)
• GAIM will still have the better interface because of its tabbed nature.
• We never know if Yahoo will support this hack come version 9 for YM.

But if you are a home user, you have 2-3 accounts, you have the real estate on your desktop (a.k.a. 21 inch monitors and above), and/or feel like getting those nutty audibles, avatars, smileys, emoticons, emvironments, webcam, voice chat, conference and all – then stick to whatever floats your boat.*

Source: Great Yahoo Trick – HackingVideo

* All copyrights and brand names are the ownership of their respective companies. Comparison between Yahoo Messenger, GAIM and meebo have not been subject to scientific testing. All opinions and comparisons written here are the personal opinions of the writer of this post and is not the opinion of YDS Web Solution, Inc., its staff, its management nor of this blog.

Yes it’s true, some people actually pay big money for artwork that they can’t see – at least not with the naked eye.

To the casual observer, William Wigan’s artwork appears no more than a speck of dust resting on top of a pinhead. However, simply slipping it under an electric microscope (yes, I spelled that right – not an electron microscope … an electric one) will show you that there is a full-color miniature Elvis Presley sculpture on top of it.

Grab the next pin in his collection and you will have a near perfect rendition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves – complete with the evil witch of a stepmother.

Of course working on such detailed miniscule masterpieces has both rewards (almost $30,000.00 each) and it’s dangers – perhaps he is the only artist in the world to have inhaled one of his full sculptures!

While working on his Alice in Wonderland’s Mad Hatter Tea Party, he committed the mistake of inhaling at the wrong time. Alice was never found again!

Here are more of his work:

William made a boxing match no bigger than a matchstick head:

A little girl resting on a strand of human hair:

How He Does It

So how does he do it?

He meditates to bring down the rate of his breathing and his heartbeat. Using a scalpel, he then carves out matchsticks, sand, sugar, salt, etc. doing quick cuts in time with the lull between heartbeats. Wigan describes the process as akin to piercing a bubble without bursting it.

Cool. I have some spare matchsticks and sugar cubes around … you willing to try?

Sources:
William Wigan’s Official Site
The Daily Mail
Urban Legends