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Don't miss this:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html

It was posted (here I think) on a previous related story, it's very long, and I would not have expected to find the subject interesting, but the article makes it fascinating and very readable.

As the AC points out a repeater is probably a good point to tap. But then what do you do with the connection? You will need to run another cable the same size from the tap to a shore based facility to monitor the traffic. Now that would be noticeable!

Maybe the NSA tells the operators that they have a choice;
1) You can give us access at the end point (like AT&T).
2) If not we will likely attempt a tap that may go wrong disrupting your service.

Is there a tin foil hat equivalent for fiber?-)

but it seems to me that it's a hell of a lot easier to drop a cable onto the seabed than to route a cable under or above roads and private lands.

There are still people who haven't read Neal Stephenson's Mother Earth, Mother Board?

While I might not choose to wear something like that, mainly because I'd chose not to have something like that hanging from a shirt because it'd be uncomfortable, it frankly makes me more inclined to consider wearing something like that in public in protest. This is absurd and ridiculous. A prior commenter said something to the effect that even those who know something about electronics might find such a device questionable.. I beg to differ. The damn thing is breadboard/proto-board with a few LEDs on it. The only thing that's a part of that with much mass is the breadboard, and that, by itself is a manufactured, self-contained product.

We're silently slipping into more and more paranoid waters, and allowing fascist tendencies to rise. What this amounts to is a legitimization of conform or you must be a criminal. The signs put in public places these days are almost comical. Especially the, "all it takes is one person to stop terrorism, you. report anything suspicious to the nearest authority." You know, if something really were suspicious, I don't think people really need encouragement. All this propaganda does is encourage people to be more paranoid and freak out at the slightest variation from "normal." It's sickening, and it will destroy us in the US if we keep sliding further down this road. Really... consider your chances of dying in a terrorist attack, its basically near the bottom compared with many other ways of dying you would have thought unlikely, see here: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/09/71743

The best thing you can do to fight terrorism is to live your life as you would otherwise, and fight for the civil liberties we're having taken away. An astronomically larger number of people are adversely affected by the fear attached to "terror" than are actually subject to attacks.

but one was wild speculation, whereas the other had (and has) actual engineering.

I just viewed the WIRED article, and it shows a computer rendering of a 787 Dreamliner with the Aeroflot livery. Perhaps they realized their mistake and changed it.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/images/2007/09/20/aeroflot.jpg

I wouldn't recommend doing this, but it's still cool.

about extending human senses: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/esp.html

This project could easily provide fodder for a follow-up article.

It's amazing that even "tacked-on", purely mechanical senses such as this headband, or this direction-sensing belt will actually re-wire one's brain (more in the linked article). It may be a mechanical hack, but to your brain, it functions as a sixth sense.

Wild. :)

Ever since reading the wired article about the guy with the vibrating compass belt(http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/esp.html ) I've always wanted to build one. Now it looks like I'll have to add infra red vision too...

Is that so? What kind of Nazi phone providers do you have in the U.S.? If that's how a "free" market works, then perhaps it's in the consumer's best interest to have some regulation. Most modern Sony Ericssons support mp3 and midi playback by default and can use them as ring tones. Same goes for Nokia, AFAIK. I can't see how the phone carrier can cripple that, since you can transfer the tune with USB or Bluetooth, like this (note that the easiest part of this method is getting the tune to the phone and using it). But I do know that method is crippled on the iPhone. By whom? By Apple, of course.

According to Wired; the layout tools are weak, it's limited to a lousy 10 MB, and Zoho's Show is better for both layout and online collaboration. So, who exactly is this app aimed at (other than just trying to cash in on the "Google" name)?

WTF is relatedly? That's a douche word.

-FL

The look on Darl's face in the Wired article is simply priceless. Definitely the face of someone who has been beaten time and time again...

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/09/battered-sco-fi.html

(1) It is possible to 'build' on somebody else's content. See Campbell v. Acuff-Rose, involving a parody of Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman. Your example is probably not a parody, and I'm not even sure you can play the result for yourself -- it's an unauthorized derivative work.

(2) EULAs are not automatically unenforceable, but are still subject to principles of contract law. In recent months, portions of two different EULAs have been struck down. Check out this Wired Article.

There is certainly fair use in redistribution. For example, the McDonald's logo is protected by both Copyright and Trademark. Yet, if somebody makes a movie that happens to contain the McDonald's logo, that person does not have to get permission. (Do you really believe that the producers of "Supersize Me" got permission??) Documentary creators generally clear rights because their insurance carriers require it, or because they're worried that even a non-meritorious suit would be expensive, not because the are legally obligated to. The Center for the study of the public domain publishes a Comic Book (?!) about this (see page 13 of that book.)

For the rare slashdotter that does not also read Wired religiously here is a related article on an easy way to send your favorite picture to the moon.

Lunar Legacy

I can't believe that 400 posts in this thread fail to mention that this is a hoax.

Read this article about Ted Molczan and the amateur satellite tracking. It's hard to believe the French have any leverage here.

Apparently their is a now a "mole" inside Sony that claims the 80GB model will drop to $399. I see this as distinctly possible.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/09/rumor-40-gb-ps3.html

We already import >1,500,000 barrels a day from Canada of which >220,000 barrel are extracted from tar sands.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.07/oil.html

If that is the case -- if Azizov isn't trying to cloud the issue -- the implication is perhaps more troubling. It suggests that there is a group of Russian hackers who, on their own, can disrupt the routine functioning of commerce, media, and government any time they want. If so, these hackers represent a stateless power -- a sort of private militia.

I ask him why anyone would trust him. After all, he seems to have a suspiciously intimate knowledge of the Estonian attacks. "Russian IT specialists are knowledgeable and experienced enough to destroy the key servers of whole states," he says. "They're the best in the world."

The implication: Clearly you want them on your side, so why not hire them? Maybe Estonia was simply an advertising campaign.

I suppose this makes some sort of high-tech trifecta: Jim Gray, James Kim (of CNET), and now Steve Fossett.

Speaking with some degree of experience (having done ground SAR in some very remote areas of the United States), I suppose it's predictable: too much money, not enough brains. You won't see these kinds of resources- including retasking Ikonos in the case of Kim- used for finding lost kids and hunters.

Gray: solo boating on a lightweight hull.

Kim: solo self-rescue attempt in unfamiliar terrain instead of staying put.

Fossett: solo flying without filing a flight plan.

I feel sorrow for the families. Not so much for the victims.

Ah, yes, Slashdot. This reminds me of when Jim Gray was lost, and Amazon's Mechanical Turk was put to similar use. People from all over the Internet helped, while Slashdot -- well, Slashdot made "blue screen of death" jokes.

Amazing how some things never change.

The DDoS attack performed by a botnet back in May that took out the government of Estonia lasted for exactly 2 weeks. This was spawned by the Estonian government wanting to remove a statue that was put in place by the Russians after WWII. The Russians didn't seem to take too kindly to that idea (there are a few hundred thousand Estonians of Russian heritage) and supposedly the botnet was led by those people (Russia gov't denies involvement including financial). Bottom line: a botnet performing a DDoS can do it for as long as it wants to. There are so many zombie machines out there that some can be dedicated to certain targets. By the way, the Estonian attack made it to the latest issue of Wired but as far as I know it was never discussed on TV during or after it happened.

There is a hierarchical model to botnets, similar to DNS, where you have the zombie machines doing the work to attack the targets. There can be millions of zombie machines. These are controlled by the botnet herders who basically manage the attack. The herders are commanded/financed by the actual attacker which can be an individual, group, even a government. Having individual machines disabled won't make a difference to a botnet that contains millions or even just thousands of zombies. There are so many levels to the organization that the attackers will never be caught no matter how many attacks are carried out.

See an earlier application of similar technology here:
"Inside the High Tech Hunt for a Missing Silicon Valley Legend"
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-08 /ff_jimgray

What's the point of RFID implants? RFIDs are simple devices which can be fairly easily falsified and/or duplicated. Never mind that the implant itself can be removed and swapped. It's an intrusive security layer which offers no security whatsoever. And on top of that, it introduces privacy concerns... we have ubiquitous cameras all over major cities, why not RFID scanners?

BTW, here's an interesting Wired article on the subject.

There was a wired article on fMRI lie detectors.

But Google refunded 200% of the wasted money, not just 50%.

This just goes to prove what we already know, Steve Jobs is cheap.

It's true that people in developing nations will be the most affected by the estimated 160,000 deaths a year due to global warming - see http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2003/09/6 0640. However, in France in 2003, over 15,000 people died from the heatwave, which is generally accepted to be a more common occurrence as global warming increases. In Greece recently, 60 people died in horrific fires over a major part of the Peloponnese, including some trying to escape in cars.

More prosaically, there will be wider impacts that are less likely to kill you, but could well affect your health (e.g. dengue fever and West Nile), wellbeing (more frequent hurricanes, droughts and other extreme weather) and wealth (the US economy will take a dive if it doesn't do anything about global warming). See http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/fcons.asp for some impacts.

So don't be so damn smug and ill-informed - you will be affected in some way, and far more than by local air pollution.

Dudley Hiibel already took this to the supreme court who said that you must show an ID to a police officer when asked.

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2004/0 2/62438

What makes this interesting is that Ohio, apparently has a law that says they can't ask for it.

While there may be local laws that change things, and IANAL, people have lost several similar cases in the past, so there may be an uphill battle here. I know I personally wouldn't convict someone of a BS charge like 'resisting arrest' without some evidence of serious resistance (i.e. bruises or injuries) but beyond that... :[

Dudley Hiibel in Nevada
John Gilmore & his Supreme Court case

Before even thinking about making a powerpoint presentation, (re)read Edward Tufte's wonderful essay Powerpoint is Evil.

Something like Pleo? I don't think it's quite what you want, but still could be interesting. There's an article from Wired about Pleo and its creator here.

Something like Pleo? I don't think it's quite what you want, but still could be interesting. There's an article from Wired about Pleo and its creator here.

http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2004/10/6 5252/

I agree with your sentiment in regards to hand-held communicators - but I believe that a headset is less distracting and in fact might slow drivers down.

Hands free or hand held makes little difference.

This has happened for me, I am in a good conversation and I find that my speed has decreased and that I am a more stable element in the system as a result.

When most traffic is going 65, and you're tooling along at 50 because you're too engrossed in your phone call, you're more unpredictable.

"There is no right to fair use." -- Preston Padden, head of government relations for Walt Disney Corp.

Good point. These are the same guys who can't even get the data in their data base to their agents. The Virtual Case File system has been described as "a train wreck in slow motion". http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,664 45,00.html

I reckon this stuff would be scary -- especially in the hands of the "We don't need no Stinking Warrants" George W Bush Justice Department -- but we can all have a reasonable expectation that it probably doesn't work worth a damn.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006 /05/70908

Abe Simpson could tell you all about Project SHAMROCK.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_SHAMROCK

Rethink the interweb/sat or mobile phone.
Then they cannot track you, send a guided bomb down (Dzokhar Dudayev)
or blow your head off (Yehiya Ayyash "the Engineer").

> Go outside and yell "The government sucks!" three times, then post conspiracy theory crap everywhere. Did they suppress you? No?

Well, that is because yelling "The government sucks!" 3 times doesn't do much, so it is not suppressed -- yet. Now, if you do something a little more visible...

http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/20 07/04/kinberg_0410

Cheers,

---fred

Yeah, it's payback for the retractable Capitol dome thing. http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2002/0 6/53048

Don't forget about one of the more colorful episodes in the license vs. buy issue. That was the time that a parking garage in Hoboken New Jersey let a poorly-negotiated software licesnse expire, rendering a robotic parking structure inoperable yet full of cars which were stuck there for several days, as discussed on Slashdot some time ago

No, he didn't.

I do believe your confusing porn with something emotional and meaningfull, like say a relationship. Its a quick physical release, nothing more.

I'm not going to suggest that porn doesn't feel good. But you imply that it is emotionless and meaningless, which is absurd. Porn affects your thoughts, your perspectives and attitudes regarding other people (as well as yourself), and the things you may expect or attempt when actually engaged in sex (as opposed to just watching it on video). This has consequences, which are frequently negative (PDF).

Anyway, whether you agree or not, here's a Wired article for the discussion...

Internet Porn: Worse Than Crack?

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2004 /11/65772

Internet pornography is the new crack cocaine, leading to addiction, misogyny, pedophilia, boob jobs and erectile dysfunction, according to clinicians and researchers testifying before a Senate committee Thursday.

Witnesses before the Senate Commerce Committee's Science, Technology and Space Subcommittee spared no superlative in their description of the negative effects of pornography.

Mary Anne Layden, co-director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Cognitive Therapy, called porn the "most concerning thing to psychological health that I know of existing today."

"The internet is a perfect drug delivery system because you are anonymous, aroused and have role models for these behaviors," Layden said. "To have drug pumped into your house 24/7, free, and children know how to use it better than grown-ups know how to use it -- it's a perfect delivery system if we want to have a whole generation of young addicts who will never have the drug out of their mind."

Pornography addicts have a more difficult time recovering from their addiction than cocaine addicts, since coke users can get the drug out of their system, but pornographic images stay in the brain forever, Layden said.

Jeffrey Satinover, a psychiatrist and advisor to the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality echoed Layden's concern about the internet and the somatic effects of pornography.

"Pornography really does, unlike other addictions, biologically cause direct release of the most perfect addictive substance," Satinover said. "That is, it causes masturbation, which causes release of the naturally occurring opioids. It does what heroin can't do, in effect."

The internet is dangerous because it removes the inefficiency in the delivery of pornography, making porn much more ubiquitous than in the days when guys in trench coats would sell nudie postcards, Satinover said.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), the subcommittee's chairman, called the hearing the most disturbing one he'd ever seen in the Senate. Brownback said porn was ubiquitous now, compared to when he was growing up and "some guy would sneak a magazine in somewhere and show some of us, but you had to find him at the right time."

The hearing came just days after a controversy over a sexually suggestive Monday Night Football ad that has many foreseeing a crackdown on indecency by the Federal Communications Commission.

It is unclear what the consequences of Thursday's hearing will be since it was not connected to any pending or proposed legislation.

Brownback, a conservative Christian, is also scheduled to be rotated off the sub-committee in the next session.

When Brownback asked the panelists for suggestions about what should be done, the responses were mild, considering their earlier indictment of pornography. Several suggested that federal money be alloc

I would say with a parts budget of $1K US, I could probably get a simple one (that could fly to a given waypoint) working within a few weeks/months. With $10K, you could make a very capable one -- probably with a range of several hundred km -- which could carry a small payload (a few grams of radioactives go a long way, ya know.)

Considering that a classic 'dirty bomb' (conventional explosives dispersing radioactives) only does surface contamination, they're relatively easy to clean up. http://blog.wired.com/biotech/2007/02/wash_that_di rty.html is one method being developed. From what I've read, they're pretty much a non-issue boogeyman designed to boost the funding of our heroes at Homeland Security.

A few grams of active biologicals, say, some reworked viri, would be a LOT more dangerous than a few grams of random radioactives. Course, they'd be a lot harder to brew up in the bathtub at this time...