October 2008
33 posts
3 tags
Twitter Goes Mainstream - WSJ.com →
Can’t get more mainstream than the WSJ: “When the service [Twitter] first appeared a couple of years ago, its appeal seemed largely limited to narcissists who wanted to let everybody know what they were doing in real time. But, like blogs and social-networking sites, Twitter is starting to cross into the mainstream, as a wide range of people find interesting uses for the brief notes....
2 tags
World of Peacecraft →
And who says religion can’t benefit from modern tech? From Ars: “If you’re looking for something a little more peaceful, or maybe something with a little religious twist, then you may want to check out the creatively titled World of Peacecraft. The game is being created by The Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers.”
Social networks exploding, may appear in... →
A report in Ars says that a convergence of acceptance in social networking and fast-shrinking government budgets may result in greater government use: “Citizen social networks will complement, and may replace, some government functions. ‘Today, the primary role of social networks for governments is to facilitate the exchange of information and to establish novel collaboration patterns,...
What's more alarming than tracking the Dow? Seeing... →
The Globe provides a very educational overview of what some key market indices being cited in the press really mean: “While the public watches the Dow Jones Industrial Average, experts are watching the TED spread, the VIX, or even the Baltic Dry Index (which just collapsed). Some of these financial indexes have lately emerged to become celebrities in their own right, with cameo appearances...
3 tags
Shopping: How to Look Like a World Leader on a... →
Humorous article on both fiscal and fashion responsibility from Lifehacker.
2 tags
Chris Pirillo tells how to keep your laptop safe... →
Technology Review: Open Up and Say Eureka →
“In fact, open-source hardware, as it’s called, is increasingly popular among all types of engineers, from students and hobbyists to entrepreneurs to engineers at large companies like Sun Microsystems and Nokia. The basic idea is that if the parts and designs for devices—and electronics are only one example—are available to the public, then more people can modify the...
2 tags
Lehman failure dogs Evergreen Solar - The Boston... →
Todays Boston Globe has an interesting example of how the finance crisis is impacting one high-tech manufacturing firm: “Evergreen, when it needed to raise money in July to build a plant at the old Fort Devens site, arranged a $375 million bond deal with Lehman. But there was a catch. As part of the transaction, Evergreen had to lend Lehman 30.9 million shares of its own stock - so that...
6 tags
A Robot Network Seeks to Enlist Your Computer →
I frequently have to talk about the threat of botnets to less tech-savvy Windows PC users, and it’s difficult - its hard to do without using lots of jargon and extensive (read boring) explanation of how the internet works. John Markoff has done a great job of presenting the threat in today’s NY Times: “Programs take over PCs remotely and wire them into “botnets,” which help send...
3 tags
Pew Says Internet, Cell Phones Bring Families... →
Via Yahoo News: “Pew reports positive impacts from the high rates of technology ownership in nuclear families. “Some analysts have worried that new technologies hurt family togetherness, but we see that technology allows for new kinds of connectedness built around cell phones and the Internet” …. “Family members touch base with each other frequently with their cell...
Ars: 40 years later, some wonder if Carterfone is... →
Spykee, the spy robot you build yourself! →
Not sure whether this is cool or scary, but Meccano, which used to be make the European equivalent of erector sets, has brought out a do-it-yourself spy robot that you control via WiFi, and can even talk over VoIP.
Physical Security Maxims →
4 tags
How Technology Almost Lost the War, but Should Do... →
“Defense technology evolves in a world choked by systems engineering and onerous testing and certification; an approach designed during the industrial age to eliminate risk before you start bending metal. It sucks at thinking about risk/reward or dealing with urgency. “
Google's Super Satellite Captures First Image |... →
“The spacecraft can take photos at a resolution of up to 41 cm — close enough to zoom in on the home plate of a baseball diamond..”
In fact, Google is getting the imagery from National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and only has access to 50cm imagery. Still, it is pretty impressive that Google’s images are only slightly behind what the NGA is getting.
Happy 25th birthday, cell phone service →
“The first call was placed to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell in Germany from the president of Ameritech Mobile Communications at a ceremony held outside Soldier Field, Chicago, IL. This transatlantic conversation launched the nation’s first citywide commercial cellular system and transformed communication.”
1 tag
“Asked what tools the government has left, White House press secretary Dana...”
– “US has dwindling number of tools in econ crisis”, Associated Press via Yahoo!
Hot Fuzz stun wool on the lam: Officer blasts... →
In a scene worthy of Hot Fuzz, police in Wales stun a sheep that wandered onto a road. From the Daily Mail: “Everyone had stopped their cars and a few people had got out and were trying to herd the sheep away from the carriageway. ‘The police then arrived and they went towards the sheep but it moved away from them. ‘Then one of the officers got out his Taser gun and fired it at...
2 tags
Plunging costs show there's plenty of backbone... →
From Ars: “Prices for data transit continue to plunge, according to new research out from TeleGeography, and they’re falling by almost 40 percent a year. Despite all the doom-and-gloom from ISPs, who claim they need to impose bandwidth caps and throttling in order to keep the bits flowing, the news is a reminder that the world’s backbone providers actually have huge surpluses of...
Google Mail Goggles (no kidding) →
A new gmail feature aimed at preventing GUI - Gmailing Under the Influence: “Gmail can’t always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we’re launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help. When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you’re really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better...
IETF working on making IPv6 and IPv4 talk to each... →
“The Internet Engineering Task Force has been thinking about ways to make the IPv4 world talk to the (future) IPv6 world. This way, we don’t all have to upgrade at the same time. In order to make more progress before the next IETF meeting in November in Minneapolis, a two-day interim meeting was held last week in Montréal. After staunch resistance, NAT may come to IPv6 after all One...
BBC NEWS | Simpsons actor reads 'stay calm' →
If you want to hear what a real “Nucular Alert” sounds like, listen to this “script written by the BBC and the government to be broadcast in the event of a nuclear attack… Harry Shearer, the voice of The Simpsons’ newsreader Kent Brockman, read the warning for Radio Five Live in the style of 1970s newscaster Walter Cronkite.”
Cultural appropriation of the kick-ass kind →
“What are 4,000 Tongans doing living in suburban Dallas? Working at DFW airport, for the most part. A Tongan employee of American Airlines told family and friends about a Texas community with a low cost of living and lots of airport-associated jobs, and helped start a migration from Tonga to Texas. The community has been well-received, perhaps because Tongan culture is heavily family...
Norwegian standards body implodes over OOXML... →
The standards shakeup continues: “Standards Norway, the organization that manages technical standards for the Scandinavian country, took a serious blow last week when key members resigned in protest over procedural irregularities in the approval process for Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) format. The 23-person technical committee has lost 13 of its members.”
3 tags
A tip o’ the hat to BoingBoing for this...
Mac, Linux and iPhone pulling market share →
The growth in market share for Mac OS and Linux at the expense of Windows continues - the surprise in this data is the share growth for the iPhone. This, combined with the “Other” share including Blackberry and other mobile browsers, shows potential confirmation of a shift to mobile.
Skype security flub leads to discovery of Chinese... →
“If you’re an authoritarian government that closely monitors your citizens’ online communications, here’s a tip from Ars Technica: tell your minions not to store the logs on publicly-accessible servers. This is exactly what China has done with information pulled from the TOM-Skype network, leading a handful of researchers to discover that China is logging text messages and...
