Archive for the 'Technology' Category
End of Windows XP Support Era Signals Beginning of Security Nightmare
April 12th, 2012I’m one of the large but dwindling number of XP holdouts, but the clock is definitely ticking down. I’ve been using Windows 7 on other computers and find it to be pretty much ok, so I’ll probably go to that when I have to. What are you other XP users going to do? Via: Network […]
Royal Canadian Mint to Create Digital Currency
April 12th, 2012It’ll be anonymous, will it? So people will be using smartphones, which amount to the most awesome goddamned deployment of mass surveillance technologies in history, to anonymously buy and sell things? Don’t look at me. I just work here. Via: TheStar: The Royal Canadian Mint wants to get rid of pocket change — and it’s […]
Oh Sure: ‘This Internet Provider Pledges to Put Your Privacy First. Always.’
April 12th, 2012Alternate headline: Supposedly Privacy Focused ISP Has Former NSA Technical Director on Advisory Board. Have a nice day. Via: Cnet: Step aside, AT&T and Verizon. A new privacy-protecting Internet service and telephone provider still in the planning stages could become the ACLU’s dream and the FBI’s worst nightmare. Nicholas Merrill is planning to revolutionize online […]
U.S. Sues Apple, Large Publishers Over Ebook Price Fixing Scheme
April 11th, 2012Via: Reuters: The Justice Department accused Apple Inc and five major publishers of conspiring to push up the prices of e-books and limit retail price competition. The conspiracy has caused e-book consumers to pay “tens of millions of dollars more for e-books than they otherwise would have paid,” the Justice Department said in a lawsuit […]
Obama Administration’s Backdoor Wiretap Bills
April 11th, 2012Via: Antifascist Calling: Under the guise of “cybersecurity,” the new all-purpose bogeyman to increase the secret state’s already-formidable reach, the Obama administration and their congressional allies are crafting legislation that will open new backdoors for even more intrusive government surveillance: portals into our lives that will never be shut.
Hack Attacks Warning On Medical Implants
April 11th, 2012Via: Tech Week Europe: Security firms have warned hackers could use radio signals to attack pacemakers and other medical implants, potentially killing people. Researchers from McAfee have shown they can take control of insulin pumps implanted inside diabetes patients, while scientists at the University of Massachussetts have shown they can use radio attacks to turn […]
3 Major Publishers Sue Open-Education Textbook Start-Up
April 10th, 2012I’d love to know the mechanisms by which students come to be required to buy, say, a calculus textbook for over $200. What has to happen to get a racket like that up and running? Suitcases of cash? Prostitutes? All-expenses-paid-conferences/colloquia-as-vacations? Horse heads tucked into beds with people? Via: The Chronicle of Higher Education: Open-education resources […]
A New Microchip Knows Just Where You Are, Indoors and Out
April 10th, 2012Via: MIT Technology Review: Broadcom has just rolled out a chip for smart phones that promises to indicate location ultra-precisely, possibly within a few centimeters, vertically and horizontally, indoors and out. The unprecedented accuracy of the Broadcom 4752 chip results from the sheer breadth of sensors from which it can process information. It can receive […]
Military Researchers Zapping Brains to Make Better Snipers
April 8th, 2012Better snipers? *pfft* You’ll need this technology to help you make sense of all the information on your Heads Up Display: Via: The Week: Over the past few years, however, it’s become increasingly clear that applying an electrical current to your head confers similar benefits. U.S. military researchers have had great success using “transcranial direct […]
Two Qubit Quantum Computer Built Inside a Diamond
April 7th, 2012Via: Science Daily: Diamonds are forever — or, at least, the effects of this diamond on quantum computing may be. A team that includes scientists from USC has built a quantum computer in a diamond, the first of its kind to include protection against “decoherence” — noise that prevents the computer from functioning properly. The […]
