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Tech News
This Is What It’s Like to Intentionally Crash a Ship
When a ship comes to the end of its working life, it has to be torn apart, piece-by-piece, to be disposed of. By that point, though, little care needs to be taken in getting it ashore—so they’re just intentionally run aground. This is what it looks like. Actually, it’s quite dramatic, and I wouldn’t want … Continued
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Tech News
The Smack-a-Mac: How Early Adopters Busted Computer Stress
These days we all love computers, but when they first arrived on the scene they had a few… glitches. So, instead of people punching their computer, they could take their stresses out on the technological equivalent of a stress ball: a Smack-a-Mac. Inspired by the launch of the first Mac, the cuddly little toy meant … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
How Well 100 Top Online Retail Sites Look After Your Password
Ever wondered if the site that you’re typing your credit card details in can really be trusted? Well, a new report reveals how well 1o0 top retail sites look after your details. The research, carried out by Dashlane, used 24 criteria to assess how seriously the sites took security—from acceptance of weak password to emailing … Continued
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Tech News
The Future of PIN Could Involve Color and Shape Buttons
The PIN system is an ageing and not entirely secure technique, especially when it comes to ATMs. But a new system that uses color and shape may go at least some way to solving the problem. https://gizmodo.com/the-10-dumbest-atm-pins-are-even-dumber-than-youd-thin-999973113 With many ATM hacks recording PIN button presses using a small camera, TRI-PIN claims to have a solution … Continued
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Tech News
Google Found an Artificial Brain to Power Its Robot Army
Clearly not content with buying a terrifying robot army, Google is now purchasing a London-based artificial intelligence company to go with it—for a cool $500 million. https://gizmodo.com/google-just-bought-crazy-walking-robot-maker-boston-dyn-1483235880 The Information reports that Google will buy DeepMind for “more than $500 million,” having beaten Facebook in negotiations with the startup at the end of last year. According … Continued
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Tech News
Aphex Twin SAW2 Countdown: Track 19 (“Stone in Focus”)
I am going to do this track-by-track countdown to the release, on February 13, 2014, the day prior to Valentine’s Day, of my book in the estimable 33 1/3 series. It is a love letter to Aphex Twin’s album Selected Ambient Works Volume II, which will mark its 20th anniversary this year, less than a … Continued
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Tech NewsSploid
This six-second animation short is better than most studio movies
Screw the Grammys. The only thing I want to see tonight is this tiny short by Wayne Unten showing the imagined takeoff of Olivia Wright in 1903, “the first to pilot the great grasshoppers of North America.” While taking my kids to the playground, I shot live-action footage of a grasshopper, using my iPhone. This … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech NewsSploid
This building is designed for everyone to climb all over it
This is one of the coolest buildings I’ve seen in a long time: a structure designed to turn everyone into Spider-man by allowing people to climb all over its interior and exterior. It kind of feels like a glitch in the Matrix: a computer-generated mountain that needs more polygons and some textures. And that seems … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech News
Pow!: High-Tech Boom
There’s no such thing as bad publicity in show business, right? Except maybe when your band gains notoriety thanks to being mentioned in a slightly bigger band’s smarmy tantrum of a farewell letter to San Francisco and its rapidly gentrifying ways. https://gizmodo.com/techbrats-and-tech-buses-whats-ruining-san-francisco-1508180786 Thee Oh Sees front-man and Castle Face Records co-owner John Dwyer has had … Continued
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Tech News
This Righteous Vectorscope Clock Brings Analog Back to the Future
Back in the day, vectorscopes used to measure the quality of analog video signals. Needless to say, that’s not exactly something we need done very often today. But some lucky old vectorscopes get badass second lives, in the form of an awesome retro clock. Aaron of Oscilloclocks is no stranger to turning old-school oscilloscopes into … Continued
By Eric Limer -
Tech News
Future-Cops Get Every Inch of Evidence by 3D-Scanning Crime Scenes
Documenting a crime scene well is super important. Once it gets reopened to the public, there’s no going back. You can take all the pictures you want, and they might not cut it, but the Roswell Police have a new future-cop style trick: scanning the whole dang place. Recently Roswell PD in New Mexico became … Continued
By Eric Limer -
Tech News
Throwing Snowballs Is for Losers Who Don’t Have Specialized Weaponry
Snowball fight? Those are for idle teens who have nothing better to do than to go windmilling around, awkwardly flinging globes of snow with little speed and even less accuracy. Snowball war, complete with its own customized slingshot arsenal? That’s what I’m talking about. It shouldn’t surprise you that that’s what our good buddy Joerg … Continued
By Eric Limer -
Tech News
A Simple Twitter Bug Lets You Get Unlimited Followers Just By Clicking
Your number of Twitter followers is sort of a badge of honor. It doesn’t mean much, but having more is something (stupid) to brag about. Thanks to a bug currently active on Twitter, you can have as many as you want, just by clicking one button a ton of times. Discovered by Karnesh Mehrah, the … Continued
By Eric Limer -
Tech NewsSploid
The sun looks evil in ultraviolet
It’s amazing to see how different the sun looks depending on the filters you use. Here you can see it in ultraviolet light, looking as evil as the darkest pits of Mordor. I imagine those sinuous filaments are nefarious serpents made from the souls of dead evil people. Shown in ultraviolet light, the relatively cool … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech NewsMicrosoft
Can You Spot All the Hidden Easter Eggs in This 20 Gigapixel Panoramic?
Multi-gigapixel panoramas are rad. It’s like peeping at the world through a telescope from the comfort of your own ground-floor living room. But Microsoft has made the concept even more fun with its 20 Gigapixel “ArtZoom,” and has hidden a bunch of stuff for you to find. Shot as a series of 2,400 digital photographs … Continued
By Eric Limer -
Tech News
A Third of the Pirate Bay’s Uploads Is Nothing But Porn
You’d have to be crazy naive to think piracy flag-bearer The Pirate Bay is free of porn, but you’ll be forgiven for underestimating exactly how much is hiding out there. It’s 35 percent. The Pirate Bay’s new uploads last year were 35 percent porn, second only to TV and movies which combined make 44 percent. … Continued
By Eric Limer -
Tech News
SNL’s Hilarious Her Parody Is About Loving Yourself, Literally
So maybe you’re not too keen on the idea of falling in love with a completely artificial computer personality. Who could blame you? That’s pretty weird. Maybe instead, the future will be a place where you can learn to love yourself. Wait, actually scratch that; that’s super weird too. Jonah Hill and Michael Cera illustrate … Continued
By Eric Limer -
Tech NewsApple
Watch Steve Jobs Show Off the Mac in Footage Unseen Since 1984
30 years ago, the landscape of personal computing was vastly different. It hardly even existed, compared to what it is today. Footage of the Mac’s initial unveil is out there, but this second, more polished run—a presentation for the Boston Computer Society—hasn’t been available since the event itself back on January 30th 1984. The content … Continued
By Eric Limer -
Tech News
Originally built as a supersonic strategic bomber for delivering nuclear strikes on Moscow, the B-1B Lancer has played a variety of roles for the Air Force in its nearly 30 years of service. And thanks to a newly upgraded cockpit—including four multi-function color displays and a modernized Fully Integrated Data Link (FIDL)—the B-One “Bones” of … Continued