Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Awesome Power of Kickstarter: Digital Bolex Project
March 15th, 2012They’re triple the goal after just a couple of days. Via: Kickstarter: Related: Digital Bolex
FBI Issued Almost 300,000 National Security Letters Over the Last Decade
March 14th, 2012Via: Wired: National security letters are written demands from the FBI that compel internet service providers, credit companies, financial institutions and others to hand over confidential records about their customers, such as subscriber information, phone numbers and e-mail addresses, websites visited and more. NSLs have been used since the 1980s, but the Patriot Act expanded […]
U.S. E-Voting System Cracked in Less Than 48 Hours
March 14th, 2012Via: H-Security: Researchers at the University of Michigan have reported that it took them only a short time to break through the security functions of a pilot project for online voting in Washington, D.C. “Within 48 hours of the system going live, we had gained near complete control of the election server”, the researchers wrote […]
US, EU and Japan Challenge China on Rare Earths at WTO
March 14th, 2012Via: BBC: The US, Japan and the European Union have filed a case against China at the World Trade Organization, challenging its restrictions on rare earth exports. US President Barack Obama accused China of breaking agreed trade rules as he announced the case at the White House. Beijing has set quotas for exports of rare […]
Visual Representations of Data from Smartphone GPS Logs
March 14th, 2012Alternate title: This Is How You Look to MAIN CORE. Via: Geoloqi Blog: These are images of map generated entirely from GPS logs gathered by various versions of the Geoloqi sample application for iPhone and Android for the past 3.5 years. Once gathered, the data was run through a custom script that projects the GPS […]
Britain: CCTV at Petrol Stations Will Prevent Uninsured Cars from Being Fueled
March 14th, 2012Wow. How long until this is linked to other databases? Unpaid property taxes, unlicensed pets, overdue library books, or who knows what else??? Via: Mirror: Cameras at petrol stations will automatically stop uninsured or untaxed vehicles from being filled with fuel, under new government plans. Downing Street officials hope the hi-tech system will crack down […]
Cyborg Snails
March 14th, 2012Via: Nature: The dozen or so brown garden snails crawling around the plastic, moss-filled terrarium in Evgeny Katz’s laboratory look normal, but they have a hidden superpower: they produce electricity. Into each mollusc, Katz and his team at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, have implanted tiny biofuel cells that extract electrical power from the […]
NEW YORK STATE SET TO ADD ALL CONVICT DNA TO ITS DATABASE
March 14th, 2012Via: New York Times: New York is poised to establish one of the most expansive DNA databases in the nation, requiring people convicted of everything from fare beating to first-degree murder to provide samples of their DNA to the state. On Tuesday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and state lawmakers were putting the finishing touches on […]
After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
March 14th, 2012The Internet, and all of the data on it, could disappear in the blink of an eye. Have a nice day. Via: New York Times: After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print. Those coolly authoritative, gold-lettered reference books that were once sold door-to-door by a fleet of traveling salesmen and displayed […]
And Now… Homeless People Used as Wi-Fi Hotspots
March 12th, 2012Via: BuzzFeed: At SXSW, the annual tech startup conference in Austin, 13 homeless men are hanging around the conference center wearing white shirts that say “I’m _____, a 4G hotspot.” Each is carrying a wireless internet device, and for a PayPal donation, will provide conference-goers with internet access for as long as they want. . […]
