Whiz of the Web: Thirsty Thursday

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you.

• Ah, nanotech. Is there anything you can't do with it? Scientists have used it now to create "nanofluids" that are much more efficient and effective than traditional coolants. "Who cares about coolants?" you say. Well, you should! These new coolants, filled with tiny particles of metals, each the size of a nanometer, "could dramatically increase the speed of computers, improve the efficiency of car engines, lower the cost of residential heating and even change the way surgery is performed." Not bad for some water with tiny bits in. (Via)
• Check out this fun, simple Shark game. Premise: you're a shark. You eat fish. Go. Oh, but watch out for death fish and poison bubbles! Phillyist made it to level 5 with 13133 points on our first try, but we suspect if we weren't so tired from the film festival, and if we had some more practice under our belts, we could make it much further. How far can you get? (Via)
• So you wandered into the wrong back alley on the internet and got yourself a really nasty and embarrassing infection. It's a really stubborn bit of malware and you just can't seem to get rid of it. Well, let's see what advice a Microsoft expert can give you...oh, okay, just wipe your hard drive and reinstall! No seriously. According to eWeek, Mike Danseglio - the program manager in the Security Solutions group at Microsoft - said pretty much just that at the InfoSec world conference: "for some sophisticated forms of malware, he conceded that the cleanup process is 'just way too hard.'" Here's a more detailed quote from him, which is particularly excellent in that it includes a quote from the movie Aliens (so you can tell he really is a geek):

  When you are dealing with rootkits and some advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch. In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit.

  Right, let God sort 'em out! Great solution. We bet W is going to suggest this fix for Iraq pretty soon. (Via)