ZoneAlarm, a Windows firewall and antivirus program, is celebrating its birthday today and you can get the professional version for free if you download it today.  It normally costs $40, so get it soon if you need a firewall/antivirus program.

Get ZoneAlarm Pro Free here.

I ran across this video the other day.  It's pretty funny.

I like the ending. "Ubuntu?"

Festo, a German engineering company, has designed some interesting things.  Last year, they made a robotic flying manta ray, now they have made some robotic jellyfish.  One version flies through the air and another swims under water.  Watch the video to see.

Smashing Magazine has posted some great underwater photos.  Some of them are of underwater creatures, some are of people, and they are all amazing.

This is a really neat-looking video (not real-time) of some clouds that look like waves.

via Dark Roasted Blend

Microsoft announced that today is now "Global Anti-Piracy Day," as they are calling it.  According to the press release, today marks "a simultaneous launch of education initiatives and enforcement actions in 49 countries on six continents to combat the sophisticated, illegal trade of pirated and counterfeit software."

Some of the more interesting statements include:

"Counterfeit software exposes consumers to an increased risk of viruses, worms and other damaging code including spyware and Trojan horses."  Last time I checked, the risk of viruses and such is not increased by using a pirated copy of Windows, but rather by using Windows in the first place.

"Customers expect to receive genuine, high-quality software..."  Uh, from Microsoft?  Yeah, right.  "...but counterfeit copies often contain malicious code and/or malware and fail to operate properly."

"This, in turn, can present a significant risk of security breaches and lost business data, damaged reputation, and the need to invest thousands of dollars to recover from incidents of malicious software on individual workstations."  And we all know this never happens when using Genuine Microsoft products.

"Should the software end up being counterfeit, customers are provided with information on what they can do to secure a legitimate copy of the software."  Yes, the information is that they can go pay another $140 or more for a new copy.

The folks over at the Pirate Bay have also acknowledged the day.  See below.

Valve has announced that they will begin hosting select mods through Steam.  The first mods that will be hosted are:

Age of Chivalry  -  First-person medieval combat total conversion.

D.I.P.R.I.P.  -  Post-WWIII vehicle combat total conversion.

Insurgency  -  Realistic modern warfare total conversion.

Synergy  -  Co-op mod with deathmatch and teamplay support.

Zombie Panic: Source  -  Zombies; self-explanatory.

I have not played all of these yet, but I have spent a while in Insurgency and it is very fun.  One of my favorite mods (probably my #1 favorite), The Hidden, is not hosted yet, but hopefully it will be soon.  Either way, it is an exhilarating experience, so download it if you have a Source game.

NASA commisioned a guy to make a rap video about astrobiology.  That has to be one of the strangest things I have ever heard of.  Check it out.

Also, if you haven't already, watch the LHC Rap.

So I guess there isn't much to do in Russia now.  At least, not for the people who formed a giant smiley face when a satellite would be taking an image of the area.  Check out the google maps screenshot and the photos from the event.

Last night I found out that I won an Aquagate Max from Cooler Master's Summer Pixel Contest.  Sweet.  All I did was click some buttons.  Thanks Cooler Master!