I feel uncomfortably like a prophet. In January, and again last week, I wrote about the prospect of UAVs used as weapons by terrorists; yesterday a man was arrested who "planned to attack the Pentagon using 'small drone airplanes' filled with explosives and guided by GPS." In August I wrote about omnipresent mobile phones turning the world into a panopticon; today's NYT has an article about ordinary Koreans paid by the government to snitch on scofflaws with photo evidence. Last year I wrote a piece for The Walrus about the crucial importance of online pseudonymity for bloggers reporting on the Mexican drug war, now that the traditional media there has been terrified into utter silence; yesterday the headless corpse of one such journalist, a woman named Marisol Macias Castaneda, was found next to a scrawled message warning people not to write about the drug cartels on social media sites. These are not three separate subjects. Cheap and/or ubiquitous cameras and facial recognition make surveillance ever more omnipresent; the dangers and uncertainties of other new technologies, like hobbyist UAVs, lead to calls for even greater scrutiny; and eventually online anonymity/pseudonymity will be the only kind there is. That isn't entirely a bad thing. It's because of crowdsourced surveillance that New York police lieutenant Anthony Bologna faces two investigations after apparently gratuitously pepper-spraying protestors. But it means the ability to remain pseudonymous online will only become more and more important in the years to come. Do the services that connect people online seem to realize this? Sadly, the answer mostly ranges between "No" and "Hell, no."
Sunday, 2 October 2011
?For Those Who Don?t Want To Believe?
I feel uncomfortably like a prophet. In January, and again last week, I wrote about the prospect of UAVs used as weapons by terrorists; yesterday a man was arrested who "planned to attack the Pentagon using 'small drone airplanes' filled with explosives and guided by GPS." In August I wrote about omnipresent mobile phones turning the world into a panopticon; today's NYT has an article about ordinary Koreans paid by the government to snitch on scofflaws with photo evidence. Last year I wrote a piece for The Walrus about the crucial importance of online pseudonymity for bloggers reporting on the Mexican drug war, now that the traditional media there has been terrified into utter silence; yesterday the headless corpse of one such journalist, a woman named Marisol Macias Castaneda, was found next to a scrawled message warning people not to write about the drug cartels on social media sites. These are not three separate subjects. Cheap and/or ubiquitous cameras and facial recognition make surveillance ever more omnipresent; the dangers and uncertainties of other new technologies, like hobbyist UAVs, lead to calls for even greater scrutiny; and eventually online anonymity/pseudonymity will be the only kind there is. That isn't entirely a bad thing. It's because of crowdsourced surveillance that New York police lieutenant Anthony Bologna faces two investigations after apparently gratuitously pepper-spraying protestors. But it means the ability to remain pseudonymous online will only become more and more important in the years to come. Do the services that connect people online seem to realize this? Sadly, the answer mostly ranges between "No" and "Hell, no."
Cueboy Quest is an adorable 8-bit style physics game
You play an 8-bit cowboy whose goal on each level is to get to the door (and thus to the next level), but the door is often locked. To get it to open, you must shoot at one or more targets, and those targets aren't always in your line of sight. For example, on one level the the target is a balloon which is stuck all the way at the other end of the screen. You must first nudge it free, and then watch it float up and try to shoot it before it floats clear off the screen. Your bullets are chunky pixels that have some weight - the have arcing trajectories, so you don't always hit exactly where you aim.
There's another level where you must jump on the balloon as it floats up, use it as a platform to get to the other end of the screen, and then turn to shoot it very quickly before it flies away. Each level is very short, and most of them are quite easy. And not only are the graphics 8-bit blocky, but they're large too. Simply beautiful!
Cueboy Quest is an adorable 8-bit style physics game originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
AT&T Begins Sending Throttling Warnings to Top Data Hogs
Following a trend set by other carriers, AT&T has begun sending SMS warning messages to the top 5 percent of data users on its network. The message alerts consumers that they are among AT&T's top 5 percent that billing period, and suggests they use Wi-Fi to avoid reduced data speeds in the future.
Saturday, 1 October 2011
An Affordable Computer for Kids from Kid Computers
My daughter recently spilled water on her computer and killed it. �She was devastated because she didn’t know how she could do her schoolwork without a computer. �Luckily, hers was repairable, but we could have been facing a considerable expense if we had to replace it. �Kid Computers understand how important computers are to education, [...]
Boomshine is a soothing-yet-frustrating time waster
That single click triggers a chain reaction; circles start exploding, and other circles colliding with the shockwaves explode as well, creating their own shockwaves, which then catch other circles.
It's been done before, yes, but this one is a great iteration. The soundtrack is mellow, with lots of piano and some nice percussion (not electronic - it sounds like drums).
At each level you need to make a certain number of circles explode to go on to the next level. I got up to level 12, where you get 60 circles and need to make 55 of them explode. And then I kept trying and trying, but simply couldn't get it. I did get to 54 circles a couple of times, but as they say, you don't get points for trying.
There's no time limit, so you can carefully study the pattern of motion and place your click at the exact right place to create the best chain reaction. I've found that clicking near the middle of the screen works quite well, especially if the balls are slowly moving in that direction. By the time the first shockwave dies off, the oncoming balls usually hit it and the chain reaction continues.
What level did you reach? Screenshots please!
Boomshine is a soothing-yet-frustrating time waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The Only Threads on Princeton's "Magic Carpet" Are Electrified [Science]
![Click here to read The Only Threads on Princeton's "Magic Carpet" Are Electrified](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_skawBLYNdIrwHsjWhhhPIsJQaKwfaegwAWMd761379BX9dp1r9Y9xWHsJ8PsU4VUwXWPXc8I34_CF5ks1_1avKE2l7CSBE-ZS-W4Do_CP9ydJXZoqbRngLZ9gL3CtgwgZuynfp=s0-d "Click here to read The Only Threads on Princeton's "Magic Carpet" Are Electrified")
TBB Review: Iphone 5
Apple has done it again, and this time they are introducing one of the best ever made hand held devices the market has ever seen. I want to shy away from using the term phone, as this term really does not do any good to this amazing device. Many of us were impressed with the iphone 4 and its amazing specs and features. However, according to the Apple engineers the iphone 5 will be one of the best iphone ever [...]
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