Welcome to Pachube, a service that enables you to connect, tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices, buildings and environments around the world. The key aim is to facilitate interaction between remote environments, both physical and virtual.
(Thanks AlgoMantra)
The Internet is responsible for the greatest generation gap since rock and roll. There’s an enormous difference in the way the older and younger generations use the Internet, and that’s healthy. We can look in horror at some things the younger generation is doing, but you’re looking at the future.
It’s not that young people don’t care about privacy, they just have a different socialization. They want to have control over their data: What upsets them is if something happens to their data—say, their photos—that they don’t want. We as the older generation are morally obligated to build systems that will allow the younger generation to communicate, to contribute and be part of society without forcing them into particular boxes that we think is required of them.
A number of prominent websites have recently reported that Coby Electronics, a company that specialized in manufacturing low-end electronic devices is preparing to launch its own line of systems. Dubbed “Midget PCs,” it’s been widely reported that these Linux-based portables will feature 7″-9″ screens, use a Chinese “Longsoon” processor, and cost just $100. It’s Nicholas Negroponte’s dream of a $100 laptop made possible by Chinese technology, right?
Well, no, probably not. There are a couple of interesting hardware tidbits in the story—more on those below, but there are several more fishy things about this. For one thing, as Ross Rubin of NPD pointed out on his blog, the original story lifts a quote he apparently made two years ago, and presents it as a new statement. Rubin contacted Coby Electronics himself, and was told by the company’s PR representatives that “this story, or any announcement regarding a netbook, was not (emphasis theirs) initiated, condoned, or approved by Coby Electronics.” The story itself was dismissed as erroneous.
(via Robot Wisdom)
Desperate IT workers who have been laid off will go rogue in 2009, selling corporate data and using crimeware, reports have predicted.
The credit crunch will drive some IT workers to use their skills to steal credit-card data using phishing attacks, and abuse their privileged corporate computer access to sell off valuable financial and intellectual information, forensic experts have warned.
Both PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and security vendor Finjan are forecasting that the recession will fuel a significant rise in insider fraud and cybercrime in 2009.
A PwC forensic expert claimed the financial-services sector is already investigating a rising number of staff frauds, while Finjan cited evidence of a trend in 2008 for unemployed IT staff in Eastern Europe and Asia to use crimeware toolkits to launch phishing attacks and seed malware to steal financial details.
(via Tomorrow Museum)
I suspect the author of this knows more about programming languages than religions. But it’s still kinda funny.
C# would be Mormonism – At first glance, it’s the same as Java, but at a closer look you realize that it’s controlled by a single corporation (which many Java followers believe to be evil), and that many theological concepts are quite different. You suspect that it’d probably be nice, if only all the followers of Java wouldn’t discriminate so much against you for following it.
(Thanks Dr. P Fenderson)
“The developers of a conceptual, ergonomic 9mm handgun — designed for people crippled by arthritis, muscular dystrophy, or similar conditions that render them too weak to operate normal handguns — hope it will eventually be considered a Class 1 Medical Device. The single-shot gun, dubbed the Palm Pistol, is “an adaptive tool that allows someone otherwise incapable of handling a revolver or semiautomatic weapon to operate one,” said Matthew Carmel of Constitution Arms, the New Jersey-based company developing the gun.
If the gun were designated as a medical device, doctors could eventually write prescriptions for it and then be reimbursed by Medicare. The proposed Daily Activity Assist Device would be symmetrical, ambidextrous, and made largely of stainless steel. For the gun to be fired, two mechanical safeties must be depressed with the fingers on either side of the barrel before the trigger, located on the top and bottom of the gun, is pressed by the thumb. A three-digit combination lock is set opposite to the loading button to help prevent accidental discharge.
The Palm Pistol would hold a single cartridge, loaded by pressing a button in the middle of the combined stock and receiver, which swings to the side. “A single shot means it’s clearly for self-defense,” said Carmel. Depending on sales of the single-shot version, he says a multiple-shot version could be possible.”
(via Discovery.com)
structure built out of usaid food bags
My presentation from CyborgCamp:
Compared to many parts of the world, in the west we’re already living in the singularity.
We can help people in the developing world with technology, and we can learn new things from the problems of the developing world.
Calagator is a unified calendar for the technology community of Portland, Oregon. We are an all-volunteer effort and encourage anyone to import, create, and edit events.
Coby Electronics, a leading international manufacturer and distributor of electronics consumer-packaged goods for discount stores, plans to introduce the first under-$100 laptop by March 2009. Well, it’s $99.95, if you call that “under $100.” You’ll find Coby in dollar stores, drugstores, etc.
Forget Cyber Monday: COBY Plans “Moore’s Law” MIDGET PC for $100 in March
Late Update: Turns out this story was a hoax. Read about it Ars Technica
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