Archive for February, 2013
NZ: Ministry of TeleFone Announces New Submarine Cable
February 19th, 2013I guess it’s better than a kick in the teeth. *groan* There still won’t be any competition, but at least there will be another physical path. If you don’t get the TeleFone joke, it simply refers to Telecom New Zealand and Vodafone increasingly colluding on service offerings. See the Rural Broadband Initiative, for example. Now […]
The First Bionic Hand that Can Feel
February 18th, 2013Via: Independent: The first bionic hand that allows an amputee to feel what they are touching will be transplanted later this year in a pioneering operation that could introduce a new generation of artificial limbs with sensory perception. The patient is an unnamed man in his 20s living in Rome who lost the lower part […]
DARPA’s Active Authentication Program
February 18th, 2013Via: Foreign Policy: The Active Authentication program is aimed at verifying your identity based on your online behavior instead of an easily guessed or stolen password. “The program focuses on the development of new types of behavioral biometrics focused on the user’s cognitive processes,” Richard Guidorizzi, DARPA program manager, explained in an email to Killer […]
Scientists Create ‘Sixth Sense’ Brain Implant to Detect Infrared Light
February 18th, 2013Via: Telegraph: Scientists have created a “sixth sense” by creating a brain implant through which infrared light can be detected. Although the light could not be seen lab rats were able to detect it via electrodes in the part of the brain responsible for their sense of touch. Similar devices have previously been used to […]
Drones Are Taking to the Skies in the U.S.
February 18th, 2013Via: Los Angeles Times: While a national debate has erupted over the Obama administration’s lethal drone strikes overseas, federal authorities have stepped up efforts to license surveillance drones for law enforcement and other uses in U.S. airspace, spurring growing concern about violations of privacy. The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it had issued 1,428 permits […]
Gun Dealers Report Shortages of Ammunition
February 18th, 2013I’ve heard from a few friends and some other Cryptogon readers who have emailed me with messages along the lines of: “Do you know that .22-long is sold out over here?” I remember past waves of panic buying, but I don’t ever remember .22-lr being sold out before. Via: USA Today: Retailers say much of […]
Zombie Cells Made Out of Silica
February 18th, 2013I understand that they’re making a sort of model of the cell and its organelles out of the silica, but I don’t understand how they plan on re-animating them. Via: U.S. Department of Energy: “Zombie” mammalian cells that may function better after they die have been created by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the […]
Server Maintenance on Cryptogon.net
February 17th, 2013The status on the cryptogon.net server says: “Converting MySQL partition fully over to ext4. ETA 2 hours. During this time, there may be intermittent downtime for MySQL” That’s why it’s down.
The Fed’s Continuing Bailouts of Bank of America
February 17th, 2013Via: New York Times: MANY people became rightfully upset about bailouts given to big banks during the mortgage crisis. But it turns out that they are still going on, if more quietly, through the back door. The existence of one such secret deal, struck in July between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and […]
Microsoft Office 2013 Ties Install to Single PC
February 17th, 2013I’ve been fed up with MS Office for a long time. So much so, that I’ve struggled with slow performance, bugs and crashes with OpenOffice since the early 2000s, and more recently with LibreOffice. If your experience with these free packages has been crap, I understand. The last couple releases of LibreOffice, however, have been […]
