Archive for the 'Technology' Category
‘Mass Transit Cameras Spot Bad Guys, No Human Judgment Required’
June 7th, 2012And while we’re at it, how about using Google searches to identify pre-crime? Via: Fast Company: A new breed of security cameras can supposedly detect terrorism and crime without a human judgment call–and mass transit agencies are shelling out big bucks for the product. San Francisco’s Municipal Transit Authority, which oversees the city’s MUNI trains, […]
Google Fellow Wants to Offer Online Graduate Degrees for $100
June 7th, 2012In ten or twenty years, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the majority of paid work in companies, that is, work that isn’t done by machines, being done by these “certificate” holders. They’ll live in ever expanding slums, autonomously policed by RoboCops and drones. They’ll have fast Internet and there will be Superbowl commercials about […]
RAND Suggest Reality TV Style Control Room Layout to Deal with Military Drone Data Glut
June 6th, 2012In a weird case of life imitating art, the film, Sleep Dealer, depicts a grim future in which drone missions are broadcast on a reality TV show. Via: Wired: Turns out, reality TV control rooms and Air Force ground stations actually have more in common than you might surmise. The volume of footage exploited in […]
Google Creating 3D Models of Metropolitan Areas
June 6th, 2012Via: Google: An important next step in improving all of these areas—comprehensiveness, accuracy, and usability of our maps—is the ability to model the world in 3D. Since 2006, we’ve had textured 3D buildings in Google Earth, and today we are excited to announce that we will begin adding 3D models to entire metropolitan areas to […]
Fear and Loathing and Windows 8
June 6th, 2012This piece is long, but it’s quite a knee-slapper. I’d love to hear recordings of Microsoft tech support calls when Windows 8 starts showing up in front of “normal” users. My guess is that millions of clueless people are going to buy computers with Windows 8 installed and think that something broke when they see […]
U.S. Army Increases Lithium Battery Power Density by 30%
June 6th, 2012“The primacy of new killing technologies and technologies of political control go hand in hand with the clean energy systems.” —Forget the Green Technology – The Hot Money Is in Guns Via: U.S. Army: Army scientists are squeezing more power from batteries by developing new methods and materials with incredible results. “Our battery group has […]
SpaceX Flight Opens Door for U.S. Military Payloads
June 6th, 2012Via: Reuters: Space Exploration Technologies’ unmanned Dragon capsule arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday following a test flight for NASA that could open the door to a long-desired and more elusive customer – the U.S. military. The cargo capsule blasted off May on 22 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida and three days […]
New Hydrogen Powered Drone Can Fly for Four Days
June 5th, 2012Via: Los Angeles Times: A massive experimental drone designed by Boeing Co. engineers to fly for up to four days at a time completed its first test flight above the Mojave Desert at Edwards Air Force Base. The drone, called Phantom Eye, and its hydrogen-fueled propulsion system have the potential to vastly expand the reach […]
Microsoft Update and The Nightmare Scenario
June 5th, 2012Via: F Secure: About 900 million Windows computers get their updates from Microsoft Update. In addition to the DNS root servers, this update system has always been considered one of the weak points of the net. Antivirus people have nightmares about a variant of malware spoofing the update mechanism and replicating via it. Turns out, […]
Castoff NRO Satellites Have Better Telescopes Than Hubble; If Pointed at Earth ‘Can See a Dime Sitting on Top of the Washington Monument’
June 4th, 2012The way it was told to me back in the 1980s, by a guy I thought was nuts, was that, “A dime on the sidewalk was no problem,” for NRO. Well, that’s pretty similar to what was just printed in the Washington Post today: NASA official Michael Moore gave some hint of what a Hubble-class […]
