You are currently browsing the grinding.be archives for January, 2009.
Only a concept at this time:
Ding ding, yes it’s true. Condoms can significantly reduce the likelihood of you catching some nasty virus except this condom is designed for the digital kind. Computer viruses are just as virulent as the biological variety, just as insidious, and just as detrimental. The Condom USB is a device that acts as a stopgap between any USB enabled device and your computer.
Link and photo via yankodesign.com.
Cory Doctorow’s fantastic and amazingly useful novel Little Brother posits a world where Microsoft has started giving out gaming hardware (a new generation X-Box) for free as a loss leader and makes up the profits on the back end with pay-per-use subscription fees and games. The free and ubiquitous X-Box hardware is uncerimoniously hacked and then becomes the base unit of a vast undernet, allowing the protagonist and others to operate out of sight of the DHS.
Well, first of all the Paranoid Linux distribution that was one of the fictional resources of the book is now in real development.
Now? Microsoft has submitted a patent for a free or subsidized computer system that would make its profits off of a pay-per-use or subscription system.
US patent application number 20080319910, published on Christmas Day 2008, details Microsoft’s vision of a situation where a “standard model” of PC is given away or heavily subsidized by someone in the supply chain. The end user then pays to use the computer, with charges based on both the length of usage time and the performance levels utilized, along with a “one-time charge”.
Microsoft notes in the application that the end user could end up paying more for the computer, compared with the one-off cost entailed in the existing PC business model, but argues the user would benefit by having a PC with an extended “useful life”.
“A computer with scalable performance level components and selectable software and service options has a user interface that allows individual performance levels to be selected,” reads the patent application’s abstract.
“The scalable performance level components may include a processor, memory, graphics controller, etc. Software and services may include word processing, email, browsing, database access, etc. To support a pay-per-use business model, each selectable item may have a cost associated with it, allowing a user to pay for the services actually selected and that presumably correspond to the task or tasks being performed,” the abstract continues.
Integral to Microsoft’s vision is a security module, embedded in the PC, that would effectively lock the PC to a certain supplier.
Sure if such a box ever sees the light of day, it will require some serious hacking. But once upon a time Cable couldn’t be stolen, iPhones and X-Box’s were unhackable, and CDs and DVDs were supposed to be impossible to copy.
Welcome to 2009, where Microsoft is trying their best to see you living in a more fictional world. Also welcome to a world where companies are trying their damnedest to change how you think about the things you posess and who really owns them. Food for thought and fodder for Grinding?
As Bruce Sterling called it “an autonomous urban taxi with passengers that are rice plants.”
Agriculture’s about to become a game of Dune2.
It’s never too early to get the children to move things with their minds:
Mattel’s keeping mum about the technology behind its Mindflex game, but – according to several online sources – the game requires the user to wear a headset equipped with sensors that measure brainwave activity.
This ‘activity’ is then used to guide a small foam ball through an obstacle course of hoops, which can be customised by the gamer.
It’s still unclear how the ball is kept in the air throughout its journey around the obstacle course. Some reports have claimed that a fan’s used, whilst other sources have said that Epoc-esque technology is the key to Mindflex’s power.
What we do know is that Mindflex will be paraded by Mattel at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is about to kick-off in Las Vegas.
Link and photo via reghardware.co.uk.
See also:
Forget the wires. Think carbon nanotubes!
Research shows that carbon nanotubes, which, like neurons, are highly electrically conductive, form extremely tight contacts with neuronal cell membranes. Unlike the metal electrodes that are currently used in research and clinical applications, the nanotubes can create shortcuts between the distal and proximal compartments of the neuron, resulting in enhanced neuronal excitability.
What could the tubing be used for? (In the real world, and not this authors sci-fi addled brain)
“This result is extremely relevant for the emerging field of neuro-engineering and neuroprosthetics,” explains Giugliano, who hypothesizes that the nanotubes could be used as a new building block of novel “electrical bypass” systems for treating traumatic injury of the central nervous system. Carbon nano-electrodes could also be used to replace metal parts in clinical applications such as deep brain stimulation for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease or severe depression. And they show promise as a whole new class of “smart” materials for use in a wide range of potential neuroprosthetic applications.
Link via inventorspot.com.
From dvice.com:
From Pixelsumo:
“Each of the five oak machines in Loop System Quintet – connected by a single drive-shaft – draws a different ‘knot’ of light in space, predetermined by the ratio of the cogs that drive it. These ratios are directly related to formal theories of musical harmony (Harmonics). The resulting light patterns, perceived by the viewer only as the machines rotate, can therefore be regarded as visual transcriptions of musical chords….The circles of energy produced by the lights also relate to string theory, a complex scientific theory stating that matter is comprised of vibrating ’strings’ of energy rather than single, isolated particles”
conrad shawcross from hihihi on Vimeo.
via Bookhling
Via futurismic.com, the good, bad and awesome predicted for 2009.
From /. :
“CNN reports on a simple test to determine the presence of genes linked to Prostate Cancer. These five genes, if present, can increase the risk of prostate cancer up to nine times. ‘More than 25,000 American men will die from prostate cancer this year. But prostate cancer can be treated successfully if the disease is caught early. A blood test that can detect whether a man is at high risk for developing prostate cancer is on the horizon. The study was published in the February 28, 2008, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.’ It turns out the company actually wants to test saliva, making the test significantly easier and more convenient.”
Testing for any genetic issues is a double edge sword. Yes, if you know in advance, you can be more diligent about watching for the signs of the disease progressing. On the downside, knowing you might become ill can be even more stressful. At least if you live in the US, you insurer can’t drop you because of this new knowledge.
Proof that text messaging it just another tool in anyone’s arsenal:
Israel and Hamas have mounted psychological warfare on each others’ civilian populations. Hamas says it is firing threatening text messages at Israeli mobile phones and jamming radio stations while Israel is bombarding Palestinians with menacing phone calls and leaflets.
“The messages say that the Palestinian resistance missiles will reach you wherever you are and your government won’t be able to protect you,” said Abu Mujaheid, spokesman for the Palestinian Resistance Committees.
Hamas says it can send up to 70,000 text messages but so far there have been reports of just dozens. “[Israel is] sending text messages and interrupting Palestinian radio and trying to scare Palestinians with their messages so we are running a counter campaign by sending text messages to Israelis,” Mujaheid said.
Link via textually.org.
Image by V. V. Kalininski, link via nextnature.net.
Treasure hunter Nathan Smith testifies that he used Google maps to find buried treasure in South Texas. Smith also monitored the treasures location with updated satellite images to ensure that no one was poking around long enough to gain legal rights to his findings.
The 39-year-old musician from Los Angeles located a 19h century boat, which has a supposed cargo of gold and silver off the Texas Gulf coast. Smith is attempting to gain rights to dig at the location where he believes the missing ship is. He believes this to be the location because of written accounts found on Google and the readings of gold and silver from metal detectors at the site.
Real life NATIONAL TREASURE?
Link via slashgear.com.
New security check points in 2020 will look just like something out of the futuristic movie, The Minority Report. The idea of the new checkpoints will allow high traffic to pass through just as you were walking at a normal pace. No more, waving a wand to get through checkpoints. The new checkpoint can detect if you have plans to set off a bomb before you even enter the building.
How does it work?
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is developing a system called Future Attribute Screening Technology, or FAST for short. The system uses cameras to detect slight alterations in pupil sizes, blink rate and even direction of gaze. A laser radar called BioLIDAR measures heart rate and changes between heartbeats. The BioLIDAR can even monitor a persons respiration and track movements in the face, neck, and cheeks. Stressed out? A thermal camera will pick up on this too by gauging changes in the skin temperature.
The protoypes’ initial tests results are showing over 75% accuracy for deception or mal-intent by test subjects. Given these numbers, it might show up even sooner than 2020.
See also:
Link via /., photo via techfragments.com.
