Subscribe by EmailAsk [GAS]: How did you come to realize that you were a geek?
August 2, 2009 by admin | 8 comments
We’ve all done it; a project that we hold dear in our memory and that made us realize that darn, being a geek is pretty darn sexy after all. For me, it probably was when a few friends and I installed and customized our own Telegard BBS, which was running on an old 286, in the late 80’s. This thing was running on a 9600 baud modem and was receiving around 20 to 30 calls per day. This may sound laughable when compared to what even the smallest website can get today, but we were really proud of what we had accomplished. This eventually led me to start a career in IT and, one day, start this little place that I’ve come to throw so much time into.
But what about you, dear readers? What was the turning point that made you realize that you were going to be a geek, and that this geekiness was going to define how you live the rest of your life? Was it an event, or maybe a crazy project that popped in your mind one day?
Whatever the case, we’d love to hear about it! As usual, the comments section is open for your thoughts!
A Kinder, Gentler Philosophy of Success
August 2, 2009 by admin | 0 commentsIn the following video, Alain de Botton, author of the highly enjoyable The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, examines our ideas of success and failure — and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. Is success always earned? Is failure? He makes an eloquent, witty case to move beyond snobbery to find true pleasure in our work.
HOW TO: Make a Dry Ice Bubble
August 1, 2009 by admin | 1 commentA fun little experiment you can try at home using a simple round plastic container, a strip of cloth, some dry ice, and a soapy solution. Check it out:
The Pentatonic Scale
August 1, 2009 by admin | 3 commentsIn the following video, Bobby McFerrin, best known for his 1988 hit song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”, demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus”, from the 2009 World Science Festival, June 12, 2009.
[Via Neatorama]
Vanish: Self-Destructing Digital Data
July 31, 2009 by admin | 5 comments
Researchers from the University of Washington have developed a new encryption system that allows users to take control over the lifetime of their data. After the user-specified auto-destruct time has gone by, the encrypted data will then become unreadable.
If you wish to use the system online, Vanish is available via an easy to use Firefox extension. How can you use it? Let’s say you want to send some confidential information via Gmail to one of your online contacts. All you need to do it to compose your text, select it with your cursor, right click it, and then select the “Vanish” option. This will garble the information and make it readable only to others who also have the Vanish plugin installed, as long as they read it in the author-established time-frame. If the recipient waits to long, the data will simply become unreadable.
Here’s a quick video presentation of the product:
Would you use Vanish, and if so, how or why would you use it? Do you think the system is flawed? Let us know in the comments section below!
[Vanish]
Pirate Bay driven from Dutch shores
July 31, 2009 by JLister | 0 comments
A Dutch court has ordered three of the Pirate Bay’s founders to block traffic to and from its site to the Netherlands within 10 days or face stiff penalties. It caps a week that will have left the owners feeling a little seasick.
Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde, and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg are now responsible for blocking any Dutch users from sharing files which infringe the copyrights of firms covered by Stichting BREIN, a group covering copyright holders in the country.
If they don’t comply within three days they face a fine of three million euros (US$4.25 million) with a penalty of 30,000 euros ($42,500) for each following day. It’s not entirely clear how the court would go about collecting such a fine given that neither the men nor the site are based in the country.
The judgment comes in the same week as the US movie industry aims to follow in the footsteps of the country’s record labels. While the music industry led the criminal trial which ended in four Pirate Bay staff being convicted and fined $3.2 million, the Motion Picture Association of America has filed a civil action asking for an injunction to stop the site sharing copyrighted movies.
As part of the filing, the MPAA is seeking an official rejection of the Pirate Bay crew’s claims that they have no ownership of the site and that it belongs to Seychelles-based firm Reservella – which the MPAA says is simply a front for Sunde.
Whoever does legally own the site may also be facing difficulties with the ongoing sale to Swedish firm Global Gaming Foundation, which aims to revamp the site to feature entirely legitimate, licensed content.
Wayne Rosso, a consultant hired to oversee this licensing, says talks with copyright holders have gone badly. Rosso has now quit his post noting that he and his staff have yet to be paid for their work and saying he has serious doubts about whether GGF has the funding in place to complete the buyout.
High Speed Robotic Hands Will Amaze You
July 31, 2009 by admin | 2 commentsIf this isn’t enough to convince you, here’s another good reason why we think the robot apocalypse is quickly approaching.
[Via BotJunkie]
Woman Drags Leashed Kid Through Verizon Wireless Store
July 31, 2009 by admin | 7 commentsI know that kids can sometimes be a real pain when you bring them shopping, but it’s not a reason to drag them along by a leash, especially if they’re on the floor when you’re doing so.
[...] She was charged with felony first-degree cruelty to children. Police say she was observed by customers and employees at a Verizon store, dragging a small child around by a backpack leash. The child had visible marks on the neck from the incident. She remains in jail without bail.
[Via TechEblog]
My Amazon Kindle Ate My Homework
July 30, 2009 by Casey | 1 commentBy Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
So, speaking of e-books… you may have heard that in a twist of Orwellian irony, Amazon recently wirelessly deleted copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from customers’ Kindles. Apparently there was a copyright issue, in that the third party distributor who okayed the e-versions of the books did not actually have the authority to do so. Of course, Amazon promptly refunded the money, and all’s well that end’s well – unless, of course, your homework was in that book.
A Chicago law firm just filed a lawsuit on behalf of a 17-year-old high school senior who claims that he’d been using his Kindle to take notes in the book itself for his AP English class. The book disappeared, and so did his homework.
I had a look at the complaint, and here are the basic claims against Amazon: (1) violation of their own Terms of Service (which includes a “right to keep a permanent copy,” (2) violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (for accessing the Kindles without permission), (3) trespass to chattels (i.e., stealing), (4) conversion (if it doesn’t count as stealing because of the refund, they were forced to convert to a different form), (5) breach of contract, and (6) violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act.
On the one hand, this was a very peculiar situation and I have a feeling that Amazon is going to be very careful that it doesn’t happen again. On the other, the law firm is completely right in that it’s a terrible, terrible precedent to set – so maybe getting a judgment against Amazon would make sure it’s not. However, digital copyright is incredibly complicated. The complaint says it’s like Amazon sneaking into your room at night, taking your books, and leaving money on your nightstand. Is it really the same? Who knows. But my instinct is that this is the first sign of the digital copyright problems that have plagued music and increasingly films/TV for the past ten years making their way to books.
The kid who lost his homework, who’d been reading Orwell’s 1984, noted, “It’s a bit ironic.” Maybe his teacher will let him write an essay about modern interpretations of Big Brother instead.
Cybraphon: The Emo Robot Musician
July 30, 2009 by admin | 0 comments
Engineered and built by Found, a Scottish musical collective, Cybraphon is a robot that performs music according to its mood. Its mood changes according to what people say about it online: When lots of people talk about him, he’s happy, and when all he hears is silence, he gets melodramatic. Check it out in the following video:
Jailbreaking could help terrorists, Apple claims
July 30, 2009 by JLister | 8 comments
Apple has claimed that jailbreaking iPhones – that is, altering their software to allow the user to run applications without restrictions – could turn them into tools for deliberately bringing down cellphone networks.
The claims come in a response to a government review which takes place every three years to decide which situations should be exempted from copyright laws. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a request asking that the act of modifying the iPhone’s software should be deemed legal for people who own a handset.
Because the software is licensed (whereas the handset is sold), Apple maintains that modifying the software is a breach of copyright. It rejects the argument that such behavior is covered by section 117 of the US Copyright Act which allows for situations such as installing software on a computer or making a back-up copy to protect against losing it if the computer is damaged.
The most striking note of its response, however, is the claim that jailbreaking makes it easier to access the baseband processor, the component which connects the handset to the network – in this situation, Apple warns that jailbreaking could modify the software controlling this processor and lead to GPS functions failing.
More seriously, it says jailbreaking could make phones more vulnerable to hackers. As they would be able to access the baseband processor, this could let them change the Exclusive Chip Identification (ECID), the number which identifies the handset to the nearest cellphone tower. Apple claims that this creates a risk of two phones with the same ECID connecting to a tower simultaneously, which could potentially see one user unable to make or receive calls. (PC World questions this claim, noting that iPhones have a secondary identification number built into the SIM.)
According to the filing (PDF link), the consequences could be more serious than inconvenience, Apple says somebody hacking into a jailbroken phone and controlling the baseband processor software might also be able to get round limits on the amount of data the handset can send at once. At best this might allow them to evade data call charges. At worst they could deliberately overload the cellphone tower and crash its operating software
District 9 – New Promo Trailer
July 30, 2009 by admin | 0 commentsSony Pictures just released a new trailer for Neil Blomkamp’s upcoming sci-fi movie, District 9, which will be released in movie theaters on August 14, 2009. Enjoy!
