Comment: Re:By algorithm makes sense (Score 1) 326
A little-known fact about Unity: Mark Shuttleworth stole the idea from a kid who dropped out of a bus-driving magnet school in Cape Town.
Smithsonian Releases 128-Year-Old Recording of Alexander Graham Bell 122
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the oldest-school-record dept.
from the oldest-school-record dept.
redletterdave writes "Thanks to a newly developed audio extraction technology called optical scanning, the Smithsonian was able to recover the voice of Alexander Graham Bell from one of his hundreds of discs he donated to the museum, which were once considered 'mute artifacts.' Since many of the collected recordings are very fragile due to their age and experimental nature, optical scanning is a non-invasive procedure that creates a high-resolution digital map of the disc or cylinder, which is then reconstructed and used to simulate the motion of a stylus moving through its grooves to reproduce the original audio content. Bell, who created this recording on a wax and cardboard disc on April 15, 1885, can be heard clearly saying, 'In witness whereof — hear my voice, Alexander Graham Bell.'"
Comment: Re:Why this is idiotic (Score 1) 104
This reminds me of the film Minority Report; retinas at-a-distance are quick and convenient in public. One of the concerns about eyeballs and fingers is that if someone wants to impersonate me is to forcibly take them. (xkcd #538 with knives, not wrenches.) Am I safe with brainwaves? Does that de-escalate it from knife back down to wrench?
Comment: Re:Talk about forgetting your password! (Score 2) 104
Granted, it would prevent drive-by tweeting if people would have to calm down before they could login... (grin)
I plan to set my passthought while browsing Reddit, so the only tweets I can send are drive-byes.
Passthoughts, Not Passwords: Authentication Via Brainwaves 104
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the get-your-thinking-straight dept.
from the get-your-thinking-straight dept.
CowboyRobot writes "A new study by researchers from the U.C. Berkeley School of Information examined the brainwave signals of individuals performing specific actions to see if they can be consistently matched to the right individual. To measure the subjects' brainwaves, the team utilized the NeuroSky Mindset, a Bluetooth headset that records Electroencephalographic (EEG) activity. In the end, the team was able to match the brainwave signals with 99% accuracy (pdf). 'We are not trying to trace back from a brainwave signal to a specific person,' explains Prof. John Chuang, who led the team. 'That would be a much more difficult problem. Rather, our task is to determine if a presented brainwave signal matches the brainwave signals previously submitted by the user when they were setting up their pass-thought.'"
Comment: Re:astounding that defaults are not tougher (Score 1) 210
Sure, I'll take you up on it. Let me just finish this script I'm working on, then we can count up the machines. On an unrelated note, the Shodan API is actually quite nice to work with...
Comment: Re:Nice Try China! (Score 1) 282
I suppose that this might be one reason: you can't know before you visit a site whether it's going to be a worthless, crappy, admonger.
Comment: Re:How's it work on Android? (Score 1) 232
This guy had one answer: "when I travel I take only my Linux laptop." If I'm already taking a laptop to do things that a chromebook can't do, why should I have to take a chromebook, as well?
For myself, I've got a Windows partition for things like this. But I can definitely see the chromebook advantage.
Comment: Re:How's it work on Android? (Score 1) 232
Two crazy hacks?
Comment: Re:good move (Score 1) 57
Indeed. The last thing I want is to be fishing for my keys when my arms are full of prize-fighting eels.
Comment: Re:good move (Score 1) 57
I just noticed tonight that it says to keep the remote key far away from the rear of the truck when washing it because splashing water could cause the automatic power liftgate to open if it sees a key nearby.
Wut?
"Oh, no! My shipment of prize fighting eels! I told you to walk around the front of the car!
State Rep. Says Biking Is Not Earth Friendly Because Breathing Produces CO2 976
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the pedal-price dept.
from the pedal-price dept.
terbeaux writes "The fact that Rep Ed Orcutt (R — WA) wants to tax bicycle use is not extraordinary. The representative's irrational conviction is. SeattleBikeBlog has confirmed reports that Orcutt does not feel bicycling is environmentally friendly because the activity causes cyclists to have 'an increased heart rate and respiration.' When they contacted him he clarified that 'You would be giving off more CO2 if you are riding a bike than driving in a car...' Cascade blog has posted the full exchange between Rep Ed Orcutt and a citizen concerned about the new tax."
Comment: Re:Depends on if you include work (Score 1) 329
There was one in my dorm room at college, though.
There was one in mine, too, but colleges started removing them about 8 years ago. Everyone had cell phones, and no one checked their student voice mail.
Comment: Re:Google Apps (Score 1) 243
The point they're trying to make, and doing so badly, isn't that "Docs is one of the Google Apps", it's "Docs is fully integrated with Google Apps".
Wut?
On that page, they seem to be saying, "Here's the apps! Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides!" What muddies the water for me is that (on this page) "Docs" only seems to apply to the word processor, not the spreadsheets or anything else. I want to say that they were called Docs, collectively, when introduced, and Docs started to apply to the word processor only when Drive was introduced, but I really don't know for sure. I think GGP is on the right track: it's a branding issue.
Comment: Re:I get it, but no (Score 1) 101
Meanwhile, there is a growing ecosystem that depends on the API. We wouldn't want to swee all of that just suddenly stop working one day either.
This makes me think we're dealing with the inverse situation to that of the Riemann Hypothesis in mathematics: There is currently an ecosystem of math results that are currently tenuous because they rely on this huge unproven conjecture. One day, it will be proved or disproved, and all the dependent results will either be vindicated or swept away.