628416
submission
owlgorithm writes:
A USC research group has created software, named ARMOR (Assistant for Randomized Monitoring over Routes), that will be used at LAX Airport to make security and police operations there truly unpredictable. The software records the locations of routine, random vehicle checkpoints and canine searches at the airport, and police provide data on possible terrorist targets, based in part on recent security breaches or suspicious activity. The software then makes random decisions (which are thankfully based on calculated probabilities of terrorist attacks) and tells the police where to dispatch and when. The most notable detail is that terrorists who had access to ARMOR still wouldn't be able to predict the searches.
374113
submission
owlgorithm writes:
Gizmodo summarizes a hack for the multitouch Holy Grail — multitouch without the touch, a la "Minority Report." The article also includes a video tutorial for the hack which explains how it works and why.
313969
submission
owlgorithm writes:
Washington, D.C. area commuters are going to be "scanned like groceries at the supermarket" in order to catch single-occupant vehicles who are illegally using carpool lanes. The article, from the Washington Post, says that infrared cameras capable of detecting human skin will be installed, rather than the visible-spectrum cameras in use today. So much for using dummies in the front seat.
284069
submission
owlgorithm writes:
Apple's new store in Montreal has three parking meters in front, and in their ever-conscious attempt to improve design, they offered to reimburse the city for the parking meters and their revenue if they would remove them. Answer: No, because "We've never done it before, so we can't."
224493
submission
owlgorithm writes:
This article indicates that the last Harry Potter, which is "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," has been leaked four days before it hits bookstores.
It turns out that someone with access to the American edition of the book has taken a photograph of every one of the pages and made them available via bit torrent. Publishers may well be quaking in their boots, but in some places the quality is barely readable. On many pages the pirateer's hands are in the pictures with other pages needing a bit of Photoshopping just to make out the words.
However, the pictures themselves are actually available for your perusal here, for the time being, at least. It appears many of the sites have (naturally) been removing the content.
