Archive for the 'Technology' Category
New Power Meters in California Can Ration, or Cut Off Electricity by Remote Control
January 8th, 2008The Nanny State, for-the-children, technocratic control grid thermostat story doesn’t seem so bad, compared to the story below about the “new” new power meters that are being rolled out in California. The state is actually making asymmetric warfare much easier for those who will eventually try to fight. There will be a window of opportunity […]
France: First All Electric Light Aircraft Flight
January 8th, 2008“As far as I can tell, there is no viable propulsion system on the horizon for aircraft outside of liquid fuels… You won’t see a plug-in Boeing 747 anytime soon.” —Sandia’s Sunshine to Petrol Project Seeks Fuel from Thin Air Nope. You won’t see a plug-in Boeing 747 anytime soon. But this reminds me of […]
Germany: Chaos Computer Club Seeks Injunction on Use of Electronic Voting Machines
January 8th, 2008Via: Heise Online: Chaos Computer Club (CCC) seeks a decision by the Hesse State Court to have voting computers prohibited for the state election on January 27, as reported by Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper today. A voter had asked for a temporary injunction, which the newspaper claims to have a copy of, for the CCC last […]
California to Set Thermostats via Remote Control
January 6th, 2008What could possibly go wrong? For example, hackers will never figure out how to take control of these systems. Oh no. That won’t happen. * chuckle * Via: American Thinker: In the proposed revisions to Title 24 is the requirement for what is called a “programmable communicating thermostat” or PCT. Every new home and every […]
Shell’s $30 per Barrel Oil Shale Process
January 3rd, 2008For years, I wanted to believe that Peak Oil could bring this horror show down. My problem, of course, was that I couldn’t ignore simple, observable realities and the fact that evil people have many plans up their sleeves. Some of you view collapse due to Peak Oil as a given. I understand that desire. […]
RiverGlass
January 2nd, 2008I bet my nga.mil reader will click the link, and all the other spooks who finally started masking their IPs. Via: RiverGlass: Keeping pace with new data has emerged as the critical issue facing government intelligence operations. The variety and volume of incoming data and the responsibility to respond appropriately now more than exceeds the […]
The Voice of God Weapon
December 25th, 2007Via: Wired: The Voice of God weapon — a device that projects voices into your head to make you think God is speaking to you — is the military’s equivalent of an urban myth. Meaning, it’s mentioned periodically at defense workshops (ironically, I first heard about it at the same defense conference where I first […]
FBI Prepares Vast Biometrics Database
December 22nd, 2007I have a running hypotheses that the plan is to physically track each individual’s position on the ground, at all times. In AT&T Invents Programming Language for Mass Surveillance, I speculated that the mobile phone data might be the way that it is being done. Well, there’s no need to speculate about what They want […]
IBM Building Metaverse
December 21st, 2007I like the Snow Crash world more than the tech. Stephenson got it right: grim burbclaves, corporate statelets, private armies, and toxic, polluted urban wastelands. Is it sci-fi or is it just outside your window? This Wikipedia description of the Snow Crash setting is pretty good: The story takes place in Los Angeles, in the […]
Schneier: Microsoft Vista SP1 Includes Random Number Generator that Could Contain NSA Backdoor
December 18th, 2007But since most people don’t know which operating system that they’re using… Via: Bruce Schneier: Dual_EC_DRBG Added to Windows Vista Microsoft has added the random-number generator Dual_EC-DRBG to Windows Vista, as part of SP1. Yes, this is the same RNG that could have an NSA backdoor. It’s not enabled by default, and my advice is […]
