Author: AMH

Phased surveillance

By AMH

There’s a very nice summary and assessment of a proposal for a web of surveillance cameras around Pittsburgh over at Pittsblog today. The proposal is presented as an anti-terrorism measure and has multiple phases of cameras being installed, starting with major infrastructure but over time extending the web of cameras into “high-risk neighborhoods”. Besides just a general sense that this much surveillance without a specific justification is problematic, Pittsblog offers the following criticism of the proposal: The Pittsburgh plan is completely silent on what I call “the human back end.” So Pittsburgh arranges to collect all of this surveillance data. … Continue reading Phased surveillance

Wooden Adder

By AMH

If I knew any woodworking, I would absolutely make myself one of these beautiful binary marble adding machines. It’s a six-bit binary adder, implemented with marbles and wooden toggles that allow for carrying. The page describes in a good bit of detail how it works, but if you just want the high-level overview, scroll to the bottom and watch the video demonstration. It’s really pretty amazing.

I never did understand en passant…

By AMH

Tomb Chess is pretty fun – it’s like chess, without all of the complicated rules, more randomness, and undead pieces. Basically, the board is a graveyard, and the pieces are “buried” until you decide to release one without knowing what type of piece it is – or even if it is your or your opponents’. There are no tricky moving rules – just left/right or up/down. With the simplicity and the randomness, you can’t think too much, so it moves a lot faster – it truly is the internet version of chess….

I’m not a lawyer, but I play one on the internet…

By AMH

There are tons of ways in which the law doesn’t keep up with technical developments, but this is an interesting example of technology perhaps pushing too far ahead of the law. A company was found guilty of unauthorized practice of law by virtue of their online legal expert system. The system was focused on bankruptcy law, and the sales pitch used stressed that this was “an expert system and knows the law. Unlike most bankruptcy programs which are little more than customized word processors the Ziinet engine is an expert system.” It seems that this use of “expert system” in … Continue reading I’m not a lawyer, but I play one on the internet…

Break out the drinks with umbrellas in them….

By AMH

It’s been a bit slow recently on the contentful updates, but X-Entertainment is holding a summer megaparty, meaning that Matt is going to post at least something every day between now and August 1. Which means, if you aren’t an X-Entertainment reader, now’s a fine time to check it out. The weblog is fun, but the mainstay is the articles, reviewing pop culture cruft such as sodas, snacks, old TV ads and movies, and of course lots of toys – scroll through the list of articles on the front page to get a taste.

21st Century Comparison Shopping

By AMH

I haven’t tried this out yet, but Frucall lets you comparison shop by calling them on your cell phone from a store and entering the bar code of what you’re thinking of buying. [via Physics Geek] Their system will check in their database of products, providers, and prices and let you know a range of prices, where you can get that item, etc. It’s a free service, from what I can see, except for whatever your cell phone provider charges for the call. If you are at your computer, you can also just search their database directly. I tried that … Continue reading 21st Century Comparison Shopping

This and that….

By AMH

I’m back from traveling for a couple of weeks and am digging out from a backlog of real and electronic email and feeds that I’ve fallen behind on. So, that is going to just be a hodge-podge link dump today of what caught more than my passing attention… I don’t think I would use the Polar Clock in a web browser or even on my computer, but this would make an awesome digital clock to hang on the wall. The only thing that is a little odd is that the outer ring is the day of the week instead of … Continue reading This and that….

Fantasy, not Sci-Fi

By AMH

This weblog post has a really fun table contrasting current cyberattack techniques to those in classic cyberpunk stories, particularly Gibson’s stories. [via Boing Boing] The comments are also worth reading – it’s interesting to think about whether the difference indicate that we haven’t come as far as Gibson predicted, or whether they reflect dated presumptions about how technology of the future would work on Gibson’s part. The observations about the types of systems being attacked (focusing on the recent denial-of-service attack against Estonia) are particularly interesting, I think: Cyberpunk stories: Cyber-attack targets were fancy-pants specialized computer installations accessible to few, … Continue reading Fantasy, not Sci-Fi

Stuff I want to make…

By AMH

You can buy these adorable Tetris Magnets, but they also look pretty trivial to make for yourself if you’ve even done plastic canvas work. I also think this Tie Top Tank looks incredibly cute and simple. I just need to finish off the one or two projects I already have underway before I can justify starting anything new….. I’m also tempted to pull out one of the smaller patterns I’ve worked up on my own and submit it to the Knit Pattern of the Day or Crochet Pattern of the Day calendar. But it is interesting to note that they … Continue reading Stuff I want to make…

Countdown….

By AMH

If you haven’t already seen it, check out this video that counts down from 100 using clips from 100 different movies. [via Ghost in the Machine] There’s not a lot to say except that it’s very clever. I didn’t think about it ahead of time, but as I was watching I was pleased that, where possible, famous scenes with numbers were used – of course 88 was the target speed of a time-traveling Delorean….