Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Scientists Think They’ve Figured Out The “Uncanny Valley”
July 27th, 2011Via: Digital Trends: Researchers from the university of California, San Diego, have discovered that a mismatch between movement and humanoid traits could be causing the uncanny valley effect, or the uneasiness we feel when we look at humanoid robots or CGI creations.
New Long Range Wi-Fi Standard Extends Network Range Out to 100km; 22Mbps
July 27th, 2011Via: TechEYE: New standards for long range wireless networks have been published today by the IEEE. The 802.22 standard for Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRANs) means that broadband access can be provided over long distances, up to 100 kilometres. This will mean that rural areas could more easily benefit from broadband access, with developing countries […]
Russia Launches Telescope With 10,000 Times the Resolution of the Hubble Telescope
July 27th, 2011Via: Christin Science Monitor: Russian scientists are jubilant at news that the Spektr-R, a powerful space telescope conceived in the depths of the cold war, was finally lofted into orbit aboard a Zenit rocket Monday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Once it is fully operational, the new radio telescope will sync up with ground-based […]
General Council of U.S. National Security Agency: Americans Are Tracked Via Mobile Phones
July 27th, 2011I’ve been waiting for them to make this one official for a long time. Related: Synthetic Environments for Analysis and Simulation The Last Roundup: MAIN CORE Via: Wall Street Journal: Is the government using cellular data to track Americans as they move around the U.S.? According to the general counsel of the National Security Agency, […]
China: Maniac Fascist Regime Forces Anyone Who Offers Free Wi-Fi Internet Access to Purchase Monitoring Software That Costs $3,100
July 27th, 2011Via: New York Times: New regulations that require bars, restaurants, hotels and bookstores to install costly Web monitoring software are prompting many businesses to cut Internet access and sending a chill through the capital’s game-playing, Web-grazing literati who have come to expect free Wi-Fi with their lattes and green tea. The software, which costs businesses […]
Mozilla Is Making an Android-Based Mobile OS
July 26th, 2011Via: Gizmodo: Choice is a wonderful thing, but successful restaurants have smaller menus for a reason. If you’ve been grappling with making a decision on phone platforms as is, Mozilla’s about to chuck their hat into the ring with their Boot to Gecko mobile platform. … So where does Android fit into all of it? […]
Google Wasn’t Just Sniffing for Wi-Fi Base Stations
July 26th, 2011Via: Cnet: Google’s Street View cars collected the locations of millions of laptops, cell phones, and other Wi-Fi devices around the world, a practice that raises novel privacy concerns, CNET has confirmed. The cars were supposed to collect the locations of Wi-Fi access points. But Google also recorded the street addresses and unique identifiers of […]
Cryptogon Android App
July 26th, 2011Despite all the posts on Cryptogon about smartphones acting as tracking devices, many of you use them anyway. So, how about a Cryptogon Android app? A Cryptogon reader has created one and it’s available for free at Static Wave Studio. Thanks, Dave! I had nothing to do with the creation of this application. That’s another […]
ACLU Lawyer on License Plate Scanners: “What Kind of a Society Are We Creating Here?”
July 21st, 2011Via: Boston Herald: Civil libertarians are raising the alarm over the state’s plans to create a Big Brother database that could map drivers’ whereabouts with police cruiser-mounted scanners that capture thousands of license plates per hour — storing that information indefinitely where local cops, staties, feds and prosecutors could access it as they choose. “What […]
Apple OS X Lion: ‘Apple borrows so heavily from iOS that at times, cycling through features makes the whole thing feel like you’re merely operating an iPad with a keyboard attached.’
July 21st, 2011All I see is a large iPod that serves as a tamperproof vending machine. —Apple’s iPad as Metaphor for The Nightmare Future of Computing If Apple has its way, and if the sales of its mobile devices carry on in the manner they have up until now, a post-PC outlook will even fit devices that […]
