Friday, January 27, 2012

HI Proposing Tracking All Websurfing

"Hawaii's legislature is weighing an unprecedented proposal to curb the privacy of Aloha State residents: requiring Internet providers to keep track of every Web site their customers visit."

Of course, if customers choose give up personal information to a service provider as a matter of voluntary contract (e.g., for some promised benefits), then that's completely legitimate. But mandating such data collection is outside the proper scope of government.

Pac-Man Proved NP-Hard By Computational Complexity Theory

"Pac-Man Proved NP-Hard By Computational Complexity Theory"

The Looming Threat of a Solar Superstorm

"The Looming Threat of a Solar Superstorm"

Lego Man Sent to Space by Toronto Teens

"Lego man sent to space by Toronto teens". (Via T.N.)

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Tiny Tunable Terahertz Beam Could Enable Real Handheld Tricorders

"Tiny Tunable Terahertz Beam Could Enable Real Handheld Tricorders"

Printing A Home

Printing A Home. (Via Transterrestrial Musings.)

Funny Titles Mask Serious Science

"Funny titles mask serious science". Here's the full list.

Some of my favorites:
Local Pancake Defeats Axis of Evil
Superbanana Orbits in Stellarator Geometries
New Regions for a Chameleon to Hide

Sh*t Tech Support Agents Say

This video pretty much sums up every tech support call ever made:



(Via Kelly V.)

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Leap Seconds May Be Abolished In 2015

"Leap seconds may be abolished in 2015"

Reynolds: Supreme Court Privacy Ruling Is About More Than GPS Tracking

Glenn Reynolds (aka Instapundit) discusses the latest SCOTUS ruling at, "Supreme Court Privacy Ruling Is About More Than GPS Tracking".

Thomas Edison's To Do List From 1888

Thomas Edison's To Do List From 1888.

You should feel like a total slacker now. (Via Susan Dawn Wake.)

MITx Could Revolutionize Higher Education

"MITx Could Revolutionize Higher Education". (Via Kelly V.)

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Best Response to Interrupting Ringtone, Ever

"When a cell phone ringtone interrupted his viola recital, Slovak musician Lukáš Kmit responded by improvising his own classical version of the Nokia ringtone"

What Does a Conductor Do?

"What Does a Conductor Do?"

(The musical kind, not the electrical kind.)

Astronomers Aim To Take First Picture of Black Hole

"Astronomers aim to take first picture of black hole"

Warrants Needed for GPS Monitoring

"Warrants Needed for GPS Monitoring, Supreme Court Rules"

Monday, January 23, 2012

Stuff That Didn't Happen Before Facebook

"Man shoots nail into his brain, posts it to Facebook from ambulance"

Teenage Girl Sees LP For First Time

John Scalzi's 13-year-old daughter sees an LP record for the first time:



"What? What?! This is huge! This is like ten CDs in one. How many songs does it have on it?"

The Rise and Fall of Personal Computing

"The rise and fall of personal computing". (Via Tyler Cowen.)

Lots of interesting analysis, including this graph (click on image to see full size):

Kodak Vs. Fujifilm

Why did Kodak go bankrupt while Fujifilm thrived?
Surprisingly, Kodak acted like a stereotypical change-resistant Japanese firm, while Fujifilm acted like a flexible American one.
This is reminiscent of how Borders went bankrupt, whereas Barnes & Noble successfully adapted to the digital age.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Man Convicted of Murder Gets Retrial After Virus Eats Transcripts

"Man convicted of murder gets retrial after virus eats transcripts":
Court stenographers normally record proceedings on both paper and digital disk. But Terlesa Cowart, stenographer at Chaviano's 2009 trial, forgot to bring enough rolls of paper and relied on digital recordings alone to chronicle proceedings. She transferred this data to her PC and erased it from the stenograph. Cowart has been fired for the monumental screw-up, The Miami Herald reports.

Bad move. The PC subsequently became infected by an unidentified virus, causing the destruction of the records. No secure backup was taken, so the state will be put through the expense of a second trial that will cause, at the very least, inconvenience for witnesses and heartache for the victim's family.
(Via Bruce Schneier.)

Friday, January 20, 2012

SOPA Update

Update #2: Evan Brown dissents from the Khan Academy video.

Update: Politico reports on 1/20/2012, "PIPA bill vote canceled by Harry Reid".

Original post: I received the following SOPA update from a friend:
The proponents of PIPA/SOPA are now regrouping and redoubling their efforts to force these egregious pieces of legislation into law by forcing a vote next week in the Senate called "Cloture", which in effect forces Senators to vote for a bill as written without debate or amendments. They are doing this as fast as possible because they know opposition is building and they still think they have the votes necessary to pass PIPA.

Although some Senators have said they are working to "fix" the bills to address some of our concerns, they may not get the chance.

It is imperative that we tell our Senators to vote NO on "Cloture". Please help spread the word, as this is a process most Americans are not familiar with, and need to understand if they are going to speak up in time.
Use this link to contact your Senator.

BTW, the Khan Academy has a nice explanation of what's wrong with SOPA/PIPA:

Vinyl Continues Unlikely Recovery

"Vinyl Continues Unlikely Recovery":
For the fourth year in a row, more LPs were sold than in any other year in the SoundScan era; last year, sales soared to 3.9 million, up from 2.8 million LPs in 2010. Of the 228 million physical albums sold in 2011, nearly 2% were vinyl. Two-thirds of those albums were purchased at independent music stores.

Virtual Tunnelling to the Other Side of the Earth

This cute online mapping tool lets you perform virtual tunnelling to the other side of the Earth. (Via Howard R.)

Man With Two hearts Survives Double-Sized Attack

"Man with two hearts survives double-sized attack"

College Professor on How To Earn A Good Grade

"Dear Student: I Don't Lie Awake At Night Thinking of Ways to Ruin Your Life"

Thursday, January 19, 2012

PJM OpEd: "SOPA, Guns, and Freedom"

The 1/19/2012 edition of PJMedia has just published my OpEd, "SOPA, Guns, and Freedom".

Is Google Ditching Search?

Is Google Ditching Search?

What's the Best Animal to Slice Open and Crawl Inside to Stay Sarm?

What's the best animal to slice open and crawl inside to stay warm?

The Faster-Than-Fast Fourier transform

New algorithm from MIT: "The faster-than-fast Fourier transform"
[A] group of MIT researchers will present a new algorithm that, in a large range of practically important cases, improves on the fast Fourier transform. Under some circumstances, the improvement can be dramatic — a tenfold increase in speed.

The Restart Page

The Restart Page: "Experience the restart sequences from a number of operating systems". (Via Kottke.)

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

[Off-topic] My latest RCM OpEd: Why Is Creating Value Good, But Profits Bad?

Off-topic:: The 1/17/2012 edition of Real Clear Markets has just published my latest OpEd, "Why Is Creating Value Good, Profits Bad?"

English Wikipedia to Go Dark January 18 in Opposition to SOPA/PIPA

"English Wikipedia to go dark January 18 in opposition to SOPA/PIPA"

The Virtue of Price Discrimination

Keith Schacht: "The virtue of price discrimination"

Star Trek Mistakes

Star Trek mistakes. (Via Arthur Z.)

Iterative Google Image Search

"What happens if you ask Google Images what's most similar, starting with a blank image, repeating the process 2951 times?"



(Via Howard R.)