Technolotics #10 – So good they made it thrice!

Technolotics - An antique show about technology

This weeks episode totaled out at over 90 minutes! But we enjoyed it so much, we wanted to let you listen to the lot. It’s now available as three separate parts

[audio https://garethstack.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/10_technolotics_1of3.mp3]

[audio https://garethstack.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/10_technolotics_2of3.mp3]

[audio https://garethstack.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/10_technolotics_3of3.mp3]

Listen: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Feed: RSS

Notes

90% True

For decades polygraphs have come under such criticism for their unreliability, that they are not submissable as evidence in many jurisdictions and ‘defense’ senarios [1].
Now neuroscientists testing changes in brain blood flow during lying claim they can attain a 90% accuracy on lie detection.

[2]

Although this method (involving enormous MRI machines) is not courtroom viable, could it one day lead to a functional method of determining falsity?
Clearly an improvement on the polygraph, the usefulness of any kind of lie detector may always be obscured by three factors

Antisocial personality disorder (commonly referred to as Psychopathy / Sociopathy) individuals are capable of dishonesty without any overt physiological changes
Mentally ill or intentionally decieved testees may test negative, but be unaware of the ‘untruth’ of their statements
Even a perfect lie detector can only detect lies, not untruths

Is this really detecting dishonesty, or merely stress, like a GSR test

Finally, hands free porn!

Have researchers developed a non invasive method of mind controlled computing [3] ?
Previously electrodes had to be implanted in the brain to allow such control
It is questionable if this really represents a route to hands free control – simple two command binary control at the moment; biofeedback currently allows more dynamic control

Printing ‘things’

The revolutionary world of protyping machines [4]

Evolving Software

Genetic Algorithyms are evolving, and hold the promice of revolutionising software development [5]

MIT to make 100 dollar laptop

New MIT project aims to produce hardware for the developing world [6]
Neat features like Crank powered, tablet / notebook / ebook configurations
This may be useful for NGO’s, but its price point is many times the monthly income of an entire village or slum in many developing regions

Copy ‘Protected’ Flash

Digital Ripoff Mugging in your pocket [7], new flash memory released which forces DRM on users.

Good news for Homebrew Fans

PSP firmware downgrader released [8]
If hardware manufacturers allowed free homebrew liscensing this sort of thing would have a lot less motivation

Spy(ing on your)Kids

Parent use tech to keep tabs on thier kids [9]
From grade reporting smart cards, and tracking GSM phones, to chiped cars; parents in the US now have an array of technologies to track and control their offspring

MS back HD DVD over Blu-Ray

Bad news for the Blu-Ray consortium, as MS back HD technology in Vista [10]
MS Claim that HD tech has simply delivered better results outside the lab, and the Blu-Ray group have not managed to achieve many goals outside lab, but is this a strike at the PS3 and Sun?
Sonys PS3 will use Blu-Ray technology for its backup media, and Suns Java mobile has been chosen as Blu-Ray’s ‘interactivity layer’
MS claim – blu-ray does not yet allow user backup, support backward compatible hybrid disks, requires expensive upgrades to fabrication facilities, and has lower 20gig vs 30gig real world capacity
The Blu-Ray disk association has released a press release which denys each of MS’s allegations in turn[11], they claim

Blu-Ray’s launch capacity will be 50gigs
Copying will be a function of the copy protection system which is the same in both formats
HD DVD is also not natively compatible with DVD, unless Red lasers are added to the DVD hardware
Java is better than the MS proposed interactivity layer

Suicide Girls in the News

Suicide girls in the news twice this week
Rebel girls claim owner is a tool
Chilling effect of FCC porn squad OR a publicity stunt [12]
Looks like a little of both [13]

FCC to wiretap VOIP

Last Friday the FCC released it’s CALEA First Report and Order [14], which allowed law enforcement to apply the same wiretipping laws used for copper – to VoIP service.[15]

Record your life

Mit graduate student designs the first effective lifelog. Nothing will ever be the same. [16]
The system, which he intends to commercialize and build into one portable device, records all a days conversations, translates them to text with speech recognition software, and tags each conversation with meta data memory triggers like news events contemporaneous with the conversation

Kevin Sites changes the news

The controversial solo journalist and independent media blogger takes citizen journalism to the next level with a contract from yahoo [17], a new step for the media giant
Site was previously best known for U.S. filming a US Marine shooting a wounded Iraqi insurgent in a Fallujah mosque
Yahoo aim to “cover every armed conflict in the world within one year, and in doing so to provide a clear idea of the combatants, victims, causes, and costs of each of these struggles – and their global impact”.
Sites will be yahoo’s sole correspondent “deliver(ing) stories via a five-fingered multimedia platform of text, photography, video, audio, and interactive chat”

No fly madness

Ever wonder why you’re getting cavity searched every time you use an airport? [18]
Turns out there are 2 seperate lists, nofly and the ‘selectee’ list
Erroneous entries can only be removed by the law enforcement agency which added them; ‘the terrorist screening centre’ exists to double check these names
Agencies can add individuals to these lists for any reason or none. They make no sence from an anti terrorism perspective
Even sharing a last name with a known alias of a ‘suspected terrorist’ is enough to land on the list, which can be a nightmare to get off
Nun faces another no fly screwup [19]

RIAA attack bittorrent

Corrupt torrents spring up on bittorrent trackers. [20]
These torrents incorrectly report the number of seeders and leachers to trackers, falsly inflating their popularity, and crash out at 97 – 98%
They have appeared on both MiniNova and MyBittorrent, and all orginate from the same IP
Are these the first volleys in an attack on bittorrent?
Could these be the work of Movielabs [21], and company formed by six of the hollywood majors to attack peer to peer services
If you’re worried about your privacy, we recommend the PeerGuardian 2.0 software [22], which is compatible with many P2P programmes

Media Pimp

TFM [23]
Free Online Typing Test [24]
IpodderX released for Windows [25] – highly rated, bitorrent supporting podcast client
‘Shining’ parody of Kubricks classic [26] (Coralized link), and here’s a link to the original [27]
Pee-mail [28], wees your mail
The Adventures of Captain McGillicuddy [29]Woo hooo! I’m a captain!