Barack's YouTube ad begs the question: Is a politician like an old Mac? And is that a good thing? Hacking can be used for good or bad--the Tor case proves the point, Annalee Newitz writes.
From Blogomultisphere to Podthrusting, Annalee Newitz psychs out the cyber trends. Store your data on someone else's server? Sure, it's convenient, but is it safe?
Are role-playing avatars in SL gender specific, or is it just the scientists who study them? Annalee Newitz wonders if a love for science fiction is inherited. Next year, Annalee Newitz will spend at least one weekend doing nothing but sitting in front of the TV and practicing her death moves.
Is it better for women to segregate themselves or stay in the male-dominated realm of Wikipedia and fight to be given an equal voice? Annalee Newitz can't stop thinking about a 2,000-year-old computerlike device made by Greeks wanting to predict the motion of the sun, moon and stars. If you are the registered owner of the media, you are permitted to play it.
If you aren't, it's deleted from your device, and your transgression is reported to the central media certification authority. In the genetic war between the sexes, genes that are good for one sex aren't necessarily good for the opposite-sex children who inherit them. Because copyright laws gum up the process of archiving TV footage, nobody is tracking and indexing TV the way librarians do books and movies.
This is simply ridiculous. The thing is, YouTube isn't about searchability. You don't go there to plug in a search term and find information.
Platial is a mashup of Google Maps and allows you build and store customized maps that you share with friends (try it! it's insanely addictive). Annalee Newitz feels cheated by the walls that have gone up on the web not the walls that protect her personal information, but the ones that prevent her from finding friends.
Not only does PimpedEmail take money away from its users, it takes away their knowledge of how domain names work and by extension, it takes away just a bit more of their power. This is a piece of consumer electronics in the most meaningful sense of that term. Consumers can do what they want with it.
In honor of Bush's efforts to stop torture by setting up secret CIA prisons and to promote freedom by expanding government surveillance powers, we should spend a few days contemplating another great thing this administration has done for the world: It has reinvigorated satire. The attacks led to a blooming of 'citizen journalism," which has coincided with the rise of government surveillance online. How a campy little Samuel L.
Jackson horror flick became an Internet phenomenon. People who inject nasty code into blog feeds are using the web's fastest free-speech engine to wreak havoc and in the process, they could undermine free speech itself. Imagine genetically engineered, supertame, superskinny, super-long-lived, nonbreeding rats.
Or humans. Science says we can do it! How Ms.
Scribe brought havoc to the world of fanfic. The older Annalee Newitz gets, the more she's obsessed with comic books. Ask not how porn has changed the Internet, ask how the Internet has changed porn.
Net Neutrality: Can the telecom companies force pay-to-play rules on the Internet? New York, New York: Annalee Newitz talks a walk on the wild sides of Central Park. Is Goodmail's email certification plan a way to charge for email?
Belgian scientists prove that losing sleep over video games is a good way to lose your memory, too; Annalee Newitz reports. Firefox plug-in will record your entire clickstream, including Google searches and things you've bought online. Sci-fi novelist Octavia Butler could invent a new species, place them in a detailed alternate world and yet never forget that her characters need to eat and go to the bathroom.
Information clutter leads to errors by computer users, according to a new study by the University of Florence. The findings have relevance for software design and search-engine organization in the new attention economy. U.
S. companies struggle with the Prime Directive in dealing with China. Interbreeders: 'So the idea of pure, distinct races in humans does not exist.
' Microsoft, Google and your privacy. Maybe we should rename the FCC. We could just call it the FCFCC, or the Federal Communications for Cash Commission.
What message is the government sending with their treatment of Steven Kurtz? The latest evolution in phone technology is 'voice over Internet Protocol.'
Voting science, or even sticking to a science party line, isn't as easy as you might imagine.
Forget the cast of 'Friends' that Verizon 'Can You Hear Me Now?' Guy will be there for you. Can the Masturbate-a-thon thrive in an era when everyone's cracking down on free erotic expression?
Prostitution may be the oldest profession on earth, but the oldest science on earth is no doubt the study of longevity. The new SB 1386 law requires companies to notify Californians if their personal data is at risk of being stolen by hackers. But does SB 1386 have its limitations?
And now, a moment of silence for the Merlin hand-held proto-Game Boy that I had in sixth grade, Atari game systems, Commodore 64s, reel-to-reel tape players, fax machines...
Geeks have started hacking systems like Friendster, HotorNot and AIM chat to score dates. The nmap port scanner may be useful for protecting your computer, but it can also become a hacker's deadliest weapon. Why do we need computerized brain-imaging machines to detect racism?
Could worms actually be making computers safer?
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