Hello again, everyone!  Last week I premiered a new facet of Geeknews, where readers had to guess what was pictured below.  I’d like to thank everyone for their answers, and as promised the first correct answer was submitted by ‘tmrafi’ who identified the picture as a standard ball mouse inner workings.  Good job!

Here is this weeks photo:

Good luck on the guesses! Please submit all answers in the comments section.

Flickr.com is widely know as one of the web’s best photo sharing comunities. And people like myself, can lose hours upon hours in there just using the search or “interestingness” feature to look at countless photos people from all over the globe have taken and posted in their accounts.

I’d like to call attention to a “hack” that Andrew Houser has developed by tweaking the Flickr API so that instead of only viewing 50-100 pictures at a time on the Flickr website, you can use his interface at Flicker Leech to view up 200 thumbnails of photos from users public accounts at a time. All you have to do is type in a search word(s) and the thumbnails will display. Click on the thumb, and it will take you to the full size photo in the users public account.

This is an excellent utility in my opinion, and I am thankful to Andrew for creating it. It sure beats crawling through the Flickr website all night, where you can grab thumbs in half the time with Flickr Leech!

Get bad cell reception in your area?  Frustrated because all the cool new phones only work on other networks?  Your cell not able to live up to its full potential because your network has cut out key capabilities?  Well the folks over at Cellswapper.com have a potential solution for you.

CellSwapper allows millions of unhappy cellular users to transfer their contract to another consumer for the remainder of the contract period. The consumer is fully absolved of all responsibility and is free to initiate a new plan with a different carrier. This system also provides an exclusive deal for those looking to start a wireless service plan a short-term contract with no activation fees.

And what a service it is too…they’ve been covered by high end networks like MSNBC, The Wall Street Journal and C|Net. Now the idea of sliding out of your contract may be appealing to some, but be aware that there are a few minor catches.  One is that the “seller” has to make their contract as appealing as possible, which may require including your expensive cell phone, or even a cash bonus.  And on top of that, you pay a fee to Cellswapper for the convenience when someone actually does assume responsibility for your service.

I have to admit, this service does have an appealing nature to me.  I bought my Motorola RAZR through Veriszon Wireless, and was fully aware of the phones capabilities.  However, it wasn’t until I received the phone that I found out that they had blocked two vital features I was keyed in on.  The first being able to use the “V-Cast” feature, which allows you to recieve streaming video on your phone, and the other was being able to transfer ringtones and pictures to and from my computer.  Neither are functional (unless you reprogram your phone).  That frustration alone might prompt me to pursue the Cellswapper service.

Regardless, they have some positive testimonials you can look through to see how its worked out for other folks.  As always, if you have tried this service, or know someone who has tried it, let us here at Geeknews know about it!

For Christmas i had this book on my wish list: “Geek My Ride: Build the Ultimate Tech Rod“.

I didn’t get it.

So anyway, I decided to go look at it tonight and see if I really really wanted it and if so I would probably order it this week. But as I navigated my way through Amazon to my wish list, I came across something else that Amazon was pushing…

“White Trash Etiquette: The Definitive Guide to Upscale Trailer Park Manners”

This is what the Editorial Review says:

White Trash Etiquette contains everything you need to know to live like decent trash, including:

• The proper way to fake a back injury
• How to prevent your in-laws from stealing the silverware at wedding receptions
• The Ten Hottest White Trash Career Opportunities
• How to improve your drunk-driving skills
• Sound advice on everything from lying to your boss to making your next convenience-store robbery fun for the whole family

There’s also troubleshooting for troublemakers:

• I’m getting married; can I still wear white if I’m a tramp?
• Can chicks ever really respect an accountant?
• How do I pick a good bail bondsman?
• How can I get my 14-year-old cousin unpregnant?

And much more.

I’m tempted to add this to my wishlist, but so far i’m resisting the urge.

You probably know by know I’m a Stargate SG-1 fan (got my picture taken with Amanda Tapping and everything!). Ahem, so anyway, there are SG-1 action figures out right now through Diamond Select Toys. These consist of a several series of figures covering everything from Vala’s figure , Jack O’Neil in his Black Ops outfit , Mitchell, a Prior, Thor and much much more - view all figures from this page. Overall these are very nice action figures and feature several points of articulation so you can pose them and the detail on their gear is spot on.
Oh yeah, they have Samantha Carter as well though the figure is probably the one with the least resemblance to the actor. Click the Carter image below for a much closer look, pretty sad resemblance if you ask me. In fact, click here to see the Microsoft Live image results for ‘Samantha Carter‘ and compare for yourself. However, i spot checked a bunch of these figures and they are generally around US$14.99 when purchased singly, they do have some in sets of 4 for around $60.

Send in proof of purchases for 4 of the figures and you can get an Elite Serpent Guard Jaffa figure!