In the following video, oceanographer David Gallo shows jaw-dropping footage of amazing sea creatures, including a shape-shifting cuttlefish, a pair of fighting squid, and a mesmerizing gallery of bioluminescent fish that light up the blackest depths of the ocean. He focuses on the work of two scientists: Edith Widder at the Ocean Research & Conservation Association, and Roger Hanlon at the Marine Biological Lab. Enjoy the show!
War protesting geek-style
By Mark O’Neill
When you want to stage a war protest, it pays to have the geeks come along. These guys just know how to get the message across effectively….
College students: The MPAA still hates you
Last year, the MPAA released a study claiming that 44% of all illegal movie downloads via P2P networks could be directly linked to college students with high-speed network access.
Using that report, the MPAA then coerced many college campuses into installing a P2P-monitoring toolkit on their networks. This program reports back to the MPAA directly, and tracks which IP addresses on campus were violating copyrights.
As that saga unfolded, the MPAA was accused of stealing copyrighted material to use as their toolkit, so red-faced, it withdrew its deployments and removed the link to the toolkit from their Web site.
From the AP here:
Hollywood laid much of the blame for illegal movie downloading on college students. Now, it says its math was wrong.
In a 2005 study it commissioned, the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that 44 percent of the industry’s domestic losses came from illegal downloading of movies by college students, who often have access to high-bandwidth networks on campus.
The MPAA has used the study to pressure colleges to take tougher steps to prevent illegal file-sharing and to back legislation currently before the House of Representatives that would force them to do so.
But now the MPAA, which represents the U.S. motion picture industry, has told education groups a “human error” in that survey caused it to get the number wrong. It now blames college students for about 15 percent of revenue loss.
Terry Hartle, vice president of the American Council on Education, which represents higher education in Washington, said the mistakes showed the entertainment industry has unfairly targeted college campuses.
“Illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing is a society-wide problem. Some of it occurs at colleges and universities but it is a small portion of the total,” he said, adding colleges will continue to take the problem seriously, but more regulation isn’t necessary.
So why did the MPAA come clean about its falsified study? Maybe because it’s a crime to intentionally submit flawed documents as testimony to Congress?
I agree that copyrights need to be enforced, but when the copyright holders adopt tactics of organized criminals, pushing a “protection racket” at a bunch of colleges ill-equipped to stand up to rabid attorney teams, they need to be stopped.
The last thing we need is Congress meddling with network administrators who are trying to do their jobs. This applies both to the P2P issue and to the net neutrality issue.
BUG: Introducing the first open source gadget
If you think, eat and dream open-source, then the following will surely bring you to nirvana.
At this year’s CES, a company named Bug Labs introduced a new concept gadget, the BUG. It’s a modular device that can be adapted to your unique needs and preferences, and can even take the place of many of your most essential electronics. In need of a phone, media player or digital camera? No problem, the Bug can do the job. What about a GPS, computer, lawnmower or light saber? You can count on the Bug. Ok, the Bug won’t really cut people in half or mow your lawn, but you get the idea… right?
The principle behind the device is simple. First, you start with a base module, the BUGBase, which is composed of a processor, some memory, a small display, a few input/output ports and a battery. Then, if you want your BUG to accomplish a new function, just add the correspondent module. Yes, we know, some of the smart phones out there can do all of the things we enumerated previously, but the beauty behind this concept is that the Bug is entirely open-source. This means if you are a DIY kind of person and have basic technical knowledge, you should be able to make your own modules and add them to the BUGBase.
There’s an added benefit: You don’t need to have a spendy contract with Cingular or another big-business wireless provider, one of the disadvantages of smart devices like the iPhone.
For the software side, all coding is made though Bug Labs’ SDK, which can be downloaded for no charge from their site.
One thing is for sure, the BUG isn’t for everybody, but if you’re a true computer or gadget lover, and have some Java skills in your background, then you’ll definitely want to get your hands on one of these. The base bundle sells for $549 and comes with the BUGbase and the BugMotion, BugLocate and the BUGcam2MP modules. You may find this a bit expensive, but hey, this shouldn’t stop the truly passionate geeks among you.
From KFC to Transformers robot!
By Mark O’Neill
Now this is talent I wish I had! A Chinese boy who couldn’t afford his own Hasbro Transformers toy decided to make his own – out of a Kentucky Fried Chicken cardboard box! He was apparently inspired after watching the recent movie.
Just follow the link to see how he put his robot together!
So next time you’re munching on that Big Mac, just remember that the box isn’t just for catching the special sauce that drips from your burger. That box is actually a Transformer in the making!
Super-spies rejoice: Self-erasing paper!
By Rob Dunn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
From the evil empire of Xerox (an old former employer), comes an interesting concept in the age of a “paperless society”: paper that actually erases itself after 16 hours!
The idea behind the self-erasing printer paper is to help eliminate the waste generated when people print off documents for a meeting or other purpose where the paperwork will get thrown away within hours (or minutes) of being printed. These are categorized as “daily use” print jobs – emails, web pages, etc. which are typically destined for a single viewing.
Of course, there are obvious benefits: Copier machine pranks would be fun again, inappropriate jokes could be printed, “stick-it-to-the-man” memos could be left on the boss’ desk, I could go on…
In all seriousness, this is fine and dandy, but how many jammed printers will we see after we send a few of these slightly dog-eared “reprints” through our Laserjets? How easily will the secretary down the hall print off the “big presentation” hand-outs only to find a stack of blank pages right before the meeting? How many additional resources will we devote to the printed page rather than attempting to re-think how we use paper in the office?
While I appreciate the idea of the “erasable paper” (yep, that’s the name Xerox is patenting, what the heck have I been using all these years!?) and its supposed green benefits, I just don’t think that this is the direction we should be taking with our apparent need for handling hard copy.
What are your thoughts? Shouldn’t we be working on a true paperless society, or will that day never come?
I wasn’t speeding officer, I was just feeling the force!
By Mark O’Neill
I would consider myself to be a fairly serious Star Wars fan but as usual, I’ve been reminded that there are some fans even more hardcore out there. This guy has made himself a R2-D2 model and placed it at the back of his car, X-Wing fighter style! Sweeeet!
MacHeads: The unecessary movie
By Ilya Kochanov
Contributor, [GAS]
My article on arrogant Mac fans made as little impact as I predicted it would. It seems like the whole community has decided to fight back against my discriminatory work with a movie dedicated solely to the culture behind owning said brand of computer.
Agreed, there are sub-cultures for almost everything, but owning a computer shouldn’t be one. The film, MacHeads, chronicles the lives of people who compare MacWorld to Mecca. Cool, right? Obviously, a religious pilgrimage to a sacred memorial is the same as going to see a technology company unveil some new products.
I hope I’m not coming off as if I hate Mac fans. No, I love them. But why the hell wouldn’t anyone make a movie about owning a damn PC though? How about a movie wherein the lives of people who have Logitech keyboards are explored?
Tags: Apple, fanboys, macworld, mecca, steve jobs
Botnets: When your computer falls in the wrong hands
What is a botnet, how do botnets work, and how can you protect yourself against them?
If more people asked themselves these questions, botnets wouldn’t be a problem in the first place.
Interested in seeing first-hand what kind of attacks botnets can perpetrate, and want to know how to defend against them? Here is a video series produced by our friends at Watchguard Wire that can teach you what you need to know in order to stay one step in front of the botnet zombie horde.
Nigerian Princes beware!
By Ilya Kochanov
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
What with everyone’s personal information being so readily available on the internet, you’ve probably received mail from an obscure Nigerian prince wanting to transfer millions of dollars into your bank account. Perhaps you’ve even struck some incredibly large inheritance from a relative you didn’t even know you had. That, my friends, is the infamous 419 scam.
There are plenty of things to do upon receiving such an email… You can give in and have your identity stolen then violated like some analogy which I can’t figure out at the moment, or fight back and have said scammer do something ridiculous to induce much hilarity for weeks to come.
419eater.com has been counter-scamming people who try to steal your identity for a while however, their most recent shenanigans are the best we’ve ever seen. Some guy receives a 419 asking for bank info and after calmly refusing to give anything away, informs the scammer that he is paying $100 per-page of hand written content for some government project. The scammer then proceeds to hand write all 293 pages of the first Harry Potter book. Ha!
If you read the accompanying material in 10 page intervals you’ll see that there was a small army of people who helped write this stuff.