‘Packet Garden captures information about how you use the internet and uses this stored information to grow a private world you can later explore.
To do this, Packet Garden takes note of all the servers you visit, their geographical location and the kinds of data you access. Uploads make hills and downloads valleys, their location determined by numbers taken from internet address itself. The size of each hill or valley is based on how much data is sent or received. Plants are also grown for each protocol detected by the software; if you visit a website, an ‘HTTP plant’ is grown. If you share some files via eMule, a ‘Peer to Peer plant’ is grown, and so on.’
Looks interesting, but won’t install under 64-bit Windows.
‘Significant new capabilities have been added to the US Air Force’s latest superfighter, the F-22 “Raptor”. The USAF’s Raptors cost more than $300m each, and are generally thought to be the most advanced combat jets in service worldwide. However, until recently they were unable to cross the international date line owing to a software bug in their navigation systems.
A group of F-22s heading across the Pacific for exercises in Japan earlier this month suffered simultaneous total nav-console crashes as their longitude shifted from 180 degrees West to 180 East.
Luckily, the superjets were accompanied by tanker planes, whose navigation kit was somewhat less bleeding-edge and remained functional. The tanker drivers were able to guide the lost top-guns back to Hawaii and the exercises were postponed.’
‘Team Hubris is installing a deep brain stimulator, essentially a neurological pacemaker, in my head. This involves threading two sets of stiff wires in through my scalp, through my cerebrum — most of my brain — and into my subthalamic nucleus, a target the size of a lima bean, located near the brain stem. Each wire is a little thinner than a small, unfolded paper clip, with four electrodes at one end. The electrodes will eventually deliver small shocks to my STN. How did I get into this mess? Well, I have Parkinson’s disease. If the surgery works, these wires will continually stimulate my brain in an attempt to relieve my symptoms.’
‘Scientists in eastern China say they have succeeded in controlling the flight of pigeons with micro electrodes planted in their brains, state media reported on Tuesday.
Scientists at the Robot Engineering Technology Research Centre at Shandong University of Science and Technology said ther electrodes could command them to fly right or left or up or down, Xinhua news agency said.
“The implants stimulate different areas of the pigeon’s brain according to signals sent by the scientists via computer, and force the bird to comply with their commands,” Xinhua said. [..]
The report did not specify what practical uses the scientists saw for the remote-controlled pigeons.’
‘A 28-year-old Chico man was killed Monday after he lost control of his car while working on his laptop computer while driving, according to the California Highway Patrol.
“We have reason to believe he was operating his laptop because it was still on and plugged into the cigarette lighter,” said CHP Cmdr. Scott Silsbee. [..]
The crash closed lanes in both directions for nearly two hours and traffic was diverted to alternate routes while a helicopter transported an injured couple to Rideout Hospital and work crews cleared the debris.’
‘Why pay $20,000 for a commercial link to run your television station when a $10 kitchen wok from the Warehouse is just as effective?
This is exactly how North Otago’s newest television station 45 South is transmitting its signal from its studio to the top of Cape Wanbrow, in a bid to keep costs down.
45 South volunteer Ken Jones designed the wok transmitter in his spare time last year when he wanted to provide wireless broadband to his Ardgowan home.’
‘Have you ever gotten up off the couch to get a beer for the umpteenth time and thought, “What if instead of ME going to get the BEER, the BEER came to ME???” Well, that was how I first conceived of the beer launching fridge. About 3 months and several hundred dollars later I have a fully automated, remote controlled, catapulting, man-pit approved, beer launching mini-fridge. It holds 10 beers in its magazine with 14 more in reserve to store a full case. It is controlled by a keyless entry system. Pressing unlock will start the catapult rotating and when it is aiming at your target, pressing unlock again will stop it. Then the lock button can be pressed to launch a beer in the selected direction.’
see it here »
‘Police have arrested and charged two students Friday in an attack on a Germantown High School over an iPod, according to other students and police.
Officials said 60-year-old math and photography teacher Frank Burd broke two bones in his neck.
“You could hear it break. You could hear when he fell on the ground,” said Synquetta Reid, a student who saw the incident.
School officials said the teacher had taken an iPod from a student during class, and after class, two students were waiting in the hall for him. One student pushed him and another threw a punch.
“He fell … on his face. After that, they turned him over and there was all this blood,” Reid said.’
Some pretty interesting facts about technology and the future.
(6.0meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘A middle school teacher trying to buy pot was arrested after she sent text messages to state trooper instead of a dealer, police said.
Trooper Trevor Pervine was at dinner with his wife and parents celebrating a birthday when his phone started buzzing with messages about a marijuana purchase.
At first, Pervine thought the messages were from friends playing a joke, Kentucky State Police spokesman Barry Meadows said. But a couple of phone calls put that idea to rest, and Pervine responded to set up a meeting, Meadows said.
Authorities say Ann Greenfield, 34, arrived at the meeting point and found Pervine and other law enforcement officers waiting for her.
“She learned her lesson. Program your dealers into your phone,” Meadows said.’
‘If you ever thought car security wasn’t dramatic enough, this Tesla-coil automobile protector should satisfy your desire for spectacle. Attaching a 4-inch coil to a boom on the roof of his car, Australian Peter Terren created what is no doubt the coolest-looking theft deterrent to ever be built into a motor vehice. Terren captured the photo above, showing the coil’s ring of electricity (which he calls the Eye of Sauron, after the character in The Lord of the Rings), with time-lapse photography.’
‘Planned Parenthood Wireless is a new choice for your cell phone service. By signing up for this service, you will help preserve reproductive rights, and ensure access to comprehensive family planning and medically accurate sex education for women and families around the world. You’ll do something you do every day – talk on your cell phone – and you’ll be helping Planned Parenthood as 10% of all monthly charges goes to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, at no extra cost to you.’
‘If lorry drivers can tear their eyes away from the satellite navigation system while approaching the village of Exton, they could well save themselves hours of trouble.
There at the side of the road are the first signs in the country specifically warning them to ignore the satnav.
Owing to a fault in the electronic information system, many drivers are sent through the Hampshire hamlet only to find the lane narrows to 6ft and they get stuck. [..]
The 49-year-old company director said: ‘The problem mushroomed overnight with the advent of satnav.’
‘A federal jury said Thursday that software maker Microsoft Corp. infringed audio patents held by Alcatel-Lucent and should pay $1.52 billion in damages.
Tom Burt, Microsoft corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, said the verdict was unsupported by law or facts.
“Today’s outcome is disappointing for us and for the hundreds of other companies who have licensed MP3 technology.
“We will seek relief from the trial court, and if necessary appeal,” Burt said.’
‘Just because you’re the daughter of Bill Gates does not mean you get to play on your computer all day long.
The Microsoft founder said his 10-year-old daughter, his oldest child, was not a hard-core Internet and computer user until this year, when she started at a school where the students use tablet computers for almost everything. [..]
Gates said he and his wife Melinda decided to set a limit of 45 minutes a day of total screen time for games and an hour a day on weekends, plus what time she needs for homework.’
‘Defense contractors say that within the next 10 years they’ll have a solid state laser mounted on a Hummer that can put a hole in sheet of metal from several miles away. Well Dutch graffiti writers can pretty much do that now with this Hymermobil rocking a GRL L.A.S.E.R. Tagging System.
Find out from Agent Watson how this big fucking laser works and download the open source code.’
This is basically a big laser that lets you draw pictures on the sides of buildings.
(20.7meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘For a mere $82 a computer scientist and electronic voting critic managed to purchase five $5,000 Sequoia electronic voting machines over the internet last month from a government auction site. And now he’s taking them apart.
Princeton computer science professor Andrew Appel and his students have begun reverse-engineering the software embedded in the machines’ ROM chips to determine if it has any security holes. But Appel says the ease with which he and his students opened the machines and removed the chips already demonstrates that the voting machines are vulnerable to unauthorized modification.
Their analysis appears to mark the first time that someone who hasn’t signed a non-disclosure agreement with Sequoia Voting Systems has examined one of its machine’s internals.’
‘The shy and retiring, softly-spoken CEO of Microsoft, Steve “Sounds of Silence” Ballmer is blaming software pirates for Vista’s poor sales.
Ballmer admitted to financial analysts that the predictions for Vista had proved ‘overly optimistic’ and he blamed the pirates in China, India, Brazil, Russia and other emerging markets.
He said his final solution would be to increase the intensity Windows Genuine Advantage as part of an effort to squeeze more revenue from developing nations. [..]
Of course he is ignoring the fact that a lot of people are not buying Vista because it does not offer much more than XP and Windows Genuine Advantage makes their lives a misery. [..]’
‘In a speech Friday night to the Annual American Association for the Advancement of Science conference, Google co-founder Larry Page let slip with a truth we all suspected:
“We have some people at Google [who] are really trying to build artificial intelligence (AI) and to do it on a large scale…It’s not as far off as people think.”
Yep, you read that right, Google is trying to build real AI. The worlds most dominant online company, with the largest conglomeration of computing power the world has ever seen, is trying to build artificial intelligence, and according to Page it isn’t that far away either. The term Googlebot is about to take on a whole new meaning, and in the not to distant future as well.’
‘What does it take to transform your PC into a teraflop supercomputer? It may be less than you think – two graphics cards and programming know-how are enough to push your desktop PC’s performance into a range that required 10,000 processors a decade ago.
Nvidia today released the first public beta of its CUDA, software developer kit, which so far has only been available to a limited number of developers. The company promises that the software will allow full access to the 128/96 cores of GeForce 8800 graphics cards and leverage their floating point capability, not only for graphics, but other applications that rely on number crunching performance as well.’
‘An elderly woman who had been living without power in her home due to hurricane damage was finally seeing the light Friday night, when power to her home was restored. What makes her story amazing is that the hurricane which put her in the dark was Andrew, almost 15 years ago, and she’s been living without power to her house since August 24, 1992.’
‘The author of ForestBlog, a blogging tool, has discovered that the MPAA was using his code in violation of his license. He gives the code away for free, but requires that users link back to his site and keep his name on the software. The MPAA deleted all credits and copyright notices from his work, and used it without permission. They ripped him off:
Way back in October last year whilst going through the website referals list for another of my sites I stumbled across this link. That’s right, my blogging software is being used by the MPAA (Motion picture Association of America); probably one of the most hated organisations known to the internet. Cool, I thought, until I had a look around and saw that all of the back links to my main site had been removed with nary a mention in the source code!’
‘A Russian court has thrown out a case against a village headmaster from the Ural mountains region who allegedly used pirated Windows software. [..]
But Mr Ponosov said he did not know that the software was pirated and his campaign attracted high-profile support, including from Russian officials and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. [..]
The case was closed “due to the minimal damage inflicted” on Microsoft, Elvira Mosheva, a judge at the court in the Perm region of the Urals.
Asked about the case at a press conference earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: “Catching someone just because he bought a computer and threatening him with prison – that’s crap.”‘
‘The British start-up Quietrevolution developed a vertical axis wind turbine which is not only more aesthetic but is also better at gathering wind near and around buildings, which frequently vary in direction. The Helical wind turbine is also quieter because the blade tip speed is lower. [..]
According to quietrevolution the QR5 will generate around 10,000 kWh per year in a site with an average wind of 5.9m/s. This is equivalent to about five low-energy houses’ electricity demand, or the electrical needs of a twenty man office. Unlike other turbines which are usually noisy the unique shape of the quietrevolution turbine allows it to operate in near silent which is ideal for operating close to residential areas. [..]’
‘New Mexico has taken its fight against drunken driving to men’s restrooms around the state.
The state has ordered 500 talking urinal cakes that will deliver a recorded anti-DWI message to bar and restaurant patrons who make one last pit stop before getting behind the wheel.
The top of the devices feature the state DWI slogan — “You drink, you drive, you lose.” [..]
The cakes have enough battery power to last about three months.’
‘Australia’s close military alliance with the United States is to be further entrenched with the building of a high-tech communications base in Western Australia.
The Federal Government is about to approve the base after three years of secret negotiations with Washington.
The Age has been told the base, which will be built on defence land at Geraldton, will provide a crucial link for a new network of military satellites that will help the US’s ability to fight wars in the Middle East and Asia. It will be the first big US military installation to be built in Australia in decades, and follows controversies over other big bases such as Pine Gap and North West Cape.’
‘A bill introduced to the US House of Representatives would require ISPs to record all users’ surfing activity, IM conversations and email traffic indefinitely.
The bill, dubbed the Safety Act by sponsor Lamar Smith, a republican congressman from Texas, would impose fines and a prison term of one year on ISPs which failed to keep full records.’
‘It’s never too late for toilet training. Some Malaysian colleges may soon offer courses on how to keep public restrooms clean, the national news agency reported Thursday. [..]
Malaysia’s government recently said it wanted to start a “toilet revolution” in a country where public restrooms have long nauseated citizens and tourists with their lack of basic items such as toilet paper, soap and sometimes even toilet seats.
Lau said his ministry plans to soon introduce a system for the public to lodge complaints about filthy toilets via cell phone text messages.’
‘Twenty years before most scientists expected it, a commercial company has announceda quantum computer that promises to massively speed up searches and optimisation calculations.
D-Wave of British Columbia has promised to demonstrate a quantum computer next Tuesday, that can carry out 64,000 calculations simultaneously (in parallel “universes”), thanks to a new technique which rethinks the already-uncanny world of quantum computing. But the academic world is taking a wait-and-see approach.’
‘String theory could be ruled out by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator scheduled to open by the end of 2007, a new study says. The finding offers a new approach for testing this potential “theory of everything”, a goal that has so far proven elusive. [..]
In 2006, string theorist Allan Adams of MIT in Cambridge, US, and others offered a more promising check. They showed that some particle collisions could reveal whether certain fundamental assumptions underlying string theory are wrong.
Now, another team has shown that the energies needed to reveal such effects are achievable at the LHC, which is being built in Geneva, Switzerland. The team was led by Jacques Distler of the University of Texas in Austin, US.’
