Archive for the 'Technology' Category
The Pirate Bay to Fly ‘Server Drones’ to Avoid Law Enforcement
March 20th, 2012Via: U.S. News: The world’s largest and most resilient BitTorrent site plans to redefine “cloud computing” with a plan to move at least some of its servers onto unmanned drones miles above Sweden. In a Sunday blog post, The Pirate Bay announced new “Low Orbit Server Stations” that will house the site’s servers and files […]
In Sweden, Cash Is King No More
March 19th, 2012Maybe the Greeks are on to something with the tems, which is quite different from other schemes in that each account may only hold a limited amount of the currency. This is a very interesting idea because it prevents speculation, encourages commerce and eliminates large targets for thieves. Via: AP: Sweden was the first European […]
Greece: Euro Free Alternative Currency Takes Off
March 18th, 2012I just helped out some people here in New Zealand recover from a bad computer virus situation. They paid me with a one year old heifer that we’re going to eat! In terms of the time I spent on the job and the tangible value of that heifer, this represent the best compensation that I […]
Scientists Create New Materials by Manipulating Sub Atomic Particles
March 18th, 2012Via: Stanford University: Researchers from Stanford University and the U.S. Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have created the first-ever system of “designer electrons” – exotic variants of ordinary electrons with tunable properties that may ultimately lead to new types of materials and devices. “The behavior of electrons in materials is at the heart […]
Microsoft: Data Mining Your Digital Effluvia
March 18th, 2012People seem to be cracking up and looking for technological fixes to what amounts to mental illness that was caused by their technology in the first place. Here’s how Becky chronicles milestones and other pleasant moments with our children. She pastes photographs to sheets of paper and handwrites the details of what happened on the […]
Using Mobile Phone User Location Data for ‘Crowd (Soft) Control’
March 18th, 2012shewhomeasures.com: Via: PhysOrg: Eighty-eight percent of Americans now own a cell phone, forming a massive network that offers scientists a wealth of information and an infinite number of new applications. With the help of these phone users — and their devices’ cameras, audio recorders, and other features — researchers envision endless possibilities for gathering huge […]
Former Senior U.S. Intelligence Official and Current Booz Allen Hamilton Senior Vice President Joan A. Dempsey: ‘We’re a Few Years Away from Realizing Real Quantum Processing and Quantum Computing’
March 18th, 2012Bamford lays out a narrative below about the “enormous breakthrough,” but, at the end of the day, it’s conventional computers. There’s no mention quantum computers, or even the far less “out there” photonic systems. Is Bamford’s piece a limited hangout? —Bamford Claims NSA Has Made “An Enormous Breakthrough” in Cryptanalysis And now… Via: CNN: One […]
Bamford Claims NSA Has Made “An Enormous Breakthrough” in Cryptanalysis
March 16th, 2012Well, it has been the $64,000 question for a couple of decades: Can NSA break something like PGP? While there might be other black world technologies that could be up to the task (there’s no way to know), what we do know is that a practical quantum computing capability would be, for all intents and […]
CIA Chief: We’ll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher
March 16th, 2012Via: Wired: More and more personal and household devices are connecting to the internet, from your television to your car navigation systems to your light switches. CIA Director David Petraeus cannot wait to spy on you through them. Earlier this month, Petraeus mused about the emergence of an “Internet of Things” — that is, wired […]
Ex-Microsoft Employee Launches ‘Fixing Windows 8’ Initiative
March 15th, 2012It looks like Microsoft is going to Vista itself again, or worse, with Windows 8. If you’re responsible for supporting Windows users, you better be sitting down as you watch the video below. Hopefully, Microsoft will come to its senses and include a ‘Windows 7’ mode for mouse and keyboard users… Ah well, at least […]
