caffeinemessiah - Slashdot User

Submission + - Gaming foursquare with 9 lines of Perl (uic.edu)

Submitted by caffeinemessiah on Friday August 20, 2010 @05:12PM

caffeinemessiah writes: With the recent launch of Facebook Places, the rise to prominence of Foursquare and GoWalla, and articles in the New York Times about the increasing popularity of "checking in" to locations using GPS-enabled mobile phones, a number of businesses are wondering how to reward frequent patrons. But exactly how susceptible are these "location based services" to being abused? A researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago shows how easily Foursquare can be gamed in 9 Perl statements, and invites readers to submit more succinct versions of the code to game the system.

Submission + - Mumbai Police to Enforce Wifi Security

Submitted by caffeinemessiah on Friday January 09, 2009 @10:34AM

caffeinemessiah writes: In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, the local police are going to be sniffing out unsecured wifi access points and ordering the owners to secure them. The article notes that "terror mails were sent through unsecured Wi-Fi connections" before bomb blasts in other Indian cities. No word on if they'll be walking around using Kismet, or if people who use pathetically weak WEP encryption will be ordered to switch to more advanced protocols. Unfortunately, a gesture like this does not take into account the insidious scenario of walking into a cafe, buying a coffee and then (legally) using the cafe's wifi. Or the fact that terrorists might actually be able to pay to use a cybercafe, and know what VPNs are.

Submission + - Algorithms can make you pretty

Submitted by caffeinemessiah on Thursday October 09, 2008 @11:38AM

caffeinemessiah writes: The New York Times has an interesting story on a new algorithm by researchers from Tel Aviv University that modifies a facial picture of a person to conform to standards of attractiveness. Based on a digital library of pictures of people who have been judged "attractive", the algorithm finds the nearest match and modifies an input picture to the conform to the "attractive" person's proportions. The trick, however, is that the resultant pictures are still recognizable as the person. Here's a quick link to a representative picture of the process. Note that this is a machine learning approach to picture modification, NOT a characterization of beauty, and could just as easily be used to make a person less attractive.

Submission + - Korean rehab camp for Web addiction (nytimes.com)

Submitted by caffeinemessiah on Saturday November 17, 2007 @07:50PM

caffeinemessiah writes: The New York Times has a story about a Korean kids' camp for "curing" Internet addiction. "Seventeen hours a day online is fine," said one such kid at the camp. From the article: "Drill instructors drive young men through military-style obstacle courses, counselors lead group sessions, and there are even therapeutic workshops on pottery and drumming....this year, the camp held its first two 12-day sessions, with 16 to 18 male participants each time. (South Korean researchers say an overwhelming majority of compulsive computer users are male.)"

Submission + - Rick Rubin discloses Sony rootkit called home

Submitted by caffeinemessiah on Monday September 03, 2007 @03:15PM

caffeinemessiah writes: Rick Rubin, the legendary music producer, recently signed on as co-head of Columbia Records, which is owned by Sony BMG. In a recent New York Times interview (on pg. 4 of the online version), he discloses (possibly accidentally):

It was the highest debut of Neil [Diamond]'s career, off to a great start. But Columbia — it was some kind of corporate thing — had put spyware on the CD. That kept people from copying it, but it also somehow recorded information about whoever bought the record...
Seems like the rootkit might have been a little more than your vanilla invade-your-rights-DRM scheme.

Slashdot Top Deals