This will make a great movie someday.

Who wants to bet Jason Statham is being called up right now to be cast for a movie?

An almost unbelievable story was posted on the Wired website today about something you won't hardly believe really happened.  A diamond heist in one of most densely concentrated areas of wealth in the world.  Possible Italian mob connections, insurance scams, and a "team" of specialists with nicknames like "The Genius", "The Monster", and "The King of Keys".  What more could you ask for? It really is a great read and reads like a script.  The characters are unbelievable, and their ingenuity even more so.  This story will make a great movie someday.  

To read what I'm blabbering on about take a gander at this: Wired: The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Diamond Heist

Google Voice

Google recently announced it will release a preview of a service which will allow users to access their voicemail through a google account and even receive SMS transcription of the voicemail to their phone. It is an adaptation of an earlier service they acquired several years ago, called GrandCentral, which ties all your phone numbers and voiceboxes into one service. It will be interesting to see how this service is integrated into the G1 phone that was launched late last year. 

You can read more about it on the official Google Blog

Via LifeHacker

Gaming Deals

First up is ISU's Game Renegades favorite Peggle, for just $2.50 after coupon.  This is through PopCap and is the downloadable Windows edition.  I purchased this title earlier today and it comes with 5 installs.  Tax applies after rebates.

Coupon: "blitz1"

*Next, till March 15th BestBuy offers Several EA titles for only $10 in-store with a coupon through their Reward Zone service Gamers Club.  I picked up Red Alert 3 today at the BestBuy in Ames and the coupon worked flawlessly.  It is free to join both the Reward Zone and Gamers Club and you can print the coupon immediately upon registering.  Two of my friends also picked up the game so we can play the Coop Campaign, which one of my friends inquired about earlier (a coop RTS that is).  After you sign up for the Gamers Club it is on that site under Special Offers.  The included games are:

Red Alert 3 (both the normal and "Premier" edition)

Crysis

Crysis Warhead

EA Sports 08 Collection

FIFA Soccer 08

The Orange Box

All are just $10 after the coupon.

*I am in no way affiliated with BestBuy I just think this is a great deal.

Weird Tech Fixes

If you've ever dropped an electronic device into water, especially a cell phone, you know how tramatic it can be.  But from my past experiences with flash drives going through the washer, watching users on XtremeSystems spill watercoolant in their computers, and wanderings about the Internet, it's not always a loss.  Electronics are usually very good at surviving a dunk every once in awhile as long as you let them dry before turning them on again.  A tip that the New York Times gives is to put the aqautic victem into a jar of rice so that the rice will absorb the water and quicken the drying process.   After seeing that article I had some more to add.  If you actually read this blog maybe you can add some of your own tech fixes in the comments. 

A suggestion for the bright camera flash is to take a clear film canister and affix it to the flash to diffuse it.

For keeping the cell phone cool, also remember that the lower rating for temperatures isn't just for show. The battery will drain even quicker with the cold that Iowa winters bring.  I have a friend who after a long day at work had to trudge through the snow to get back to his apartment.  He was wearing gloves, but just holding his iPod, the battery had drained before he got back making for a very cold boring trip.

Also, if you have a disk that has more than just dirt but has a lot of surface scratches you can try and use toothpaste to mend minor scratches. I saw this on a forum a long while back when I couldn't get my Warcraft 3 cd to install. You need a fluoride based toothpaste because it works on the same principle that basically you are polishing your disk instead of your teeth and filling in some of the scratches. You do NOT want to use something that has crystals in it or something similar because they will end up scratching the disk more, just the plain white paste. You put small dabs at the center of the disk and use your fingers to spread it out from the center. From there just polish it in and use a damp cloth to get the rest of the toothpaste off. It worked well enough for me to install the game again, but if you try it it's at your own risk. 

Since then Blizzard (the makers of the game) have created an online distribution site where you can buy or register your old games and then download them from the site using their torrent client.