Archive for the 'Technology' Category
FBI Holding Carrier IQ Data for ‘Law Enforcement Purposes’
December 13th, 2011There’s a shocker. Via: The Verge: When we spoke to Carrier IQ at length about the company’s controversial cellular tracking service, there was one question we didn’t include in the transcript. “Would you say no if the government asked Carrier IQ for a wiretap into user databases?” we asked. At the time, we felt the […]
Internet Piracy Bill: A Free Speech ‘Kill Switch’
December 12th, 2011Via: The Hill: What began as an attempt to restrain foreign piracy on the Internet has morphed into a domestic “kill switch” on First Amendment freedom in the fastest-growing corner of the marketplace of ideas. Proposed federal legislation purporting to protect online intellectual property would also impose sweeping new government mandates on internet service providers […]
Rare Photographs Show Ground Zero of the Drone War
December 12th, 2011Via: Wired: The epicenter of global terrorism, and the CIA’s highly classified drone war against extremist groups, is a black hole on the map — a region of Pakistan off limits to outsiders, and especially Westerners. It’s an area so dangerous that even the Pakistani military avoids it. The CIA may have launched 70 drone […]
Company Wants to Mine the Moon’s Resources and Leave Trash Behind
December 12th, 2011Via: Los Angeles Times: Most people don’t take it literally when they’re told to shoot for the moon — but thinking small isn’t Naveen Jain’s way. The 52-year-old Internet entrepreneur is a co-founder of Moon Express Inc., one of several companies in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, in which privately funded teams will try […]
British Police to Test Riot Control Laser
December 12th, 2011Via: Telegraph: A shoulder-mounted laser that emits a blinding wall of light capable of repelling rioters is to be trialled by police under preparations to prevent a repeat of this summer’s looting and arson. The technology, developed by a former Royal Marine commando, temporarily impairs the vision of anyone who looks towards the source. It […]
Predator Drone from U.S. Air Force Base Used in North Dakota Police Operation
December 11th, 2011Via: Los Angeles Times: Armed with a search warrant, Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows on the Brossart family farm in the early evening of June 23. Three men brandishing rifles chased him off, he said. Janke knew the gunmen could be anywhere on the 3,000-acre spread in eastern North […]
Sound-Triggered Smartphone Ads
December 10th, 2011The really terrifying aspect of this is not the technology itself, but that some group of troglodytes will actually install this on their phones on purpose. Related: shewhomeasures.com: How about genitalia couplers (like in the video above—yes, watch closely) that communicate with the phone via Bluetooth? You know, for those extra special notifications, like when […]
Learning High-Performance Tasks with No Conscious Effort
December 9th, 2011Via: Medical Express: New research published today in the journal Science suggests it may be possible to use brain technology to learn to play a piano, reduce mental stress or hit a curve ball with little or no conscious effort. It’s the kind of thing seen in Hollywood’s “Matrix” franchise. Experiments conducted at Boston University […]
Microsoft Can Remotely Kill Purchased Apps
December 9th, 2011Microsoft has had this capability for years, but it was related to pirated software and they would just kill certain functionality (see Office Genuine Advantage program). What you’ll be reading below is Microsoft taking another page out of Apple’s locked-down-vending-machine playbook. Via: PC Magazine: Microsoft’s terms of service for its Windows Store allows the company […]
U.S. Air Force Funds SETI, Will Investigate Using Radio Telescope Array to Detect and Track Orbiting Space Objects
December 7th, 2011Via: SETI Institute: The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) is once again searching planetary systems for signals that would be evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Among its first targets are some of the exoplanet candidates recently discovered by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. “This is a superb opportunity for SETI observations,” said Jill Tarter, the Director of the […]
