an image of an eye glowing green...

0wn yourself

2005-06-30

that's what i'm _screamin'_, ibm--cell is gonna R0X0R your b0x, baby!!

ibm seems to have big plans for the cell microprocessor. i've raved about how excited i am to see this thing taking shape on the horizon.

it's time for something new and good, and, while it's not a bottom-up, made from scratch architecture, but i'm pretty sure it's gonna pwn everything else on the market when it comes out.

actually, i wouldn't be surprised to see some kind of suped-up x86 hybrid coming out pretty soon.

*rubs hands together and drools*

i can't wait...

--cid

poison milk? i'm doomed...

so there's this article about terrorists with poison milk, right?

hackers, phreaks, and pirates -- over a decade of confusion and disagreement

i just wanted to bring out this classic paper on the semantics of the word hacker.

i know i've been harping on this lately, but i really wanna differentiate between hackers going about doing hackerly things and hackers using their skills for criminal activities.

hackers are the ones who figure things out--they can do good things or bad things with what they learn, but the point is they _learn_.

phreaks are phone hackers. they explore the phone system.

skript kiddies are people who take others tools, code, and methods and apply them for their own uses. script kiddies may be doing anything from criminal activities to mischevious pranks to benevolent acts, but the term implies that while they use these tools and may even modify them to their own ends, they don't understand the methods and didn't find them for themselves.

criminals are people who commit crimes.

the point i've been driving into the ground for the past few days is this--an individual can and often does fall into more than one of the above categories, and certain activities will certainly fit this description, but just because one applies doesn't necessarily mean the others do.

sorry to keep ranting, but there's been a lot of debate about this recently. gimme your thoughts...

--cid

2005-06-29

big music's still out for blood

called a 'campaign of terror' by technewsworld, i'm afraid i have to agree. the situation is getting out of control.

nobody can seem to agree with everyone else. the music industry says that people are stealing (and they're right, in some cases) but they're lumping all forms of filesharing and downloading together and making it out to be some kind of terrorist act.

what about the ppl downloading something to find new music or check something out to buy it. there are a lot of ppl out there who have found new bands (which they went out and supported) because they stumbled across 'em on p2p networks. there are disagreeing studies out there about the effects of filesharing on album sales, and according to several of them, above a certain breaking point (it was something like 600,000, downloading actually _helps_ increase record sales. and below that point (which would represent independent bands not under the big music umbrella) it would actually do harm.

but there are other studies showing how sharing helps the little unknown bands by getting them out there, getting exposure in a world heavily dominated by a very few extremely large corporations.

who's a boy to believe?

and now, the supreme court has ruled that p2p nets are liable for what people do with their services.

how insane is that? if a criminal uses a phone to talk about a crime he's planning, do they get to go after the phone company for letting it happen? if someone uses a smith & wesson to shoot someone, does someone from their company go to jail?

i sure hope that we can get our act together pretty soon.

--cid

twenty-five terabytes of space simulation goodness

a code for the heavens. that's what space.com's calling it. others call it the 'millennium run'.

me? i call it sweet.

it's the largest simulation of its kind so far. they're tracking the evolutionary paths of matter in a huge (eight cubic light years, if i'm not mistaken) chunk of space. if you're a star trek geek, think voyager astrometrics lab--this is its great great granddaddy.

the more they learn with sims like this one, the more we'll understand about how bodies of matter and the gravitational fields they generate interact with each other, as well as creating a clearer picture of the history of the universe as we can see it.

cool stuff.

--cid

u r c0nnected 2 cid Viscous

c0nnected 2 cid Viscous

okay. maybe i was a little hard on good ol' mr. levy, considering who he is and all. it just bothers me that people have no problem throwing the word 'hacker' around when talking about computer break-ins, but unless you go out and find independent forms of media (which i encourage you to do, anyway--go get as many sources as you can...more points of view.) you'll never hear the term applied to a hacker doing good things.

a hack is a clever solution to a problem. that's it. completely neutral. so, if a problem is getting video frame rates up to speed, it would be a hack. one would be hacking the video system of a computer (in one respect or another).

now, on the other hand, if the problem is how to get forty million credit card numbers out of a database (yes, pun is intended), then the solution to the problem would still be a hack, but instead of hacking video subroutines, you'd be hacking a database system to do something it was not originally designed to do.

imho, the person(s) who took those names and numbers (which should _never_ have been chillin' in cardsystems solutions' computers in the first place) probably did _not_ come up with a clever new exploit to get the info.

it's possible, mind you, but not bloody likely. it's far more plausible that he, she, or they used some canned attack discovered by someone else, and it worked because of lax security on the part of cs solutions.

i dunno. i guess i didn't mean to rake you through the coals like that, but i'd like to see more powerful (i.e. mainstream) journalists showing both sides of the story before its too late.

--cid

0wn your tongue

2005-06-28

hackers mislabeled. again.

well, this time msnbc newsweek sucks.

why is it that any time a criminal uses technology to steal something, or steals something from a computer, the media proclaims him or her to be a HACKER!?

WHY?!?

why do you have to suck, msnbc newsweek? why must you try and cash in on the media's second favourite buzzword? as a journalistic entity, don't you owe it to your readers to give them the truth?

i mean, these guys even had a special illustration made showing a nerdy young guy in a mib suit and glasses, silver briefcase and comically oversized wirecutters hugged close, and sporting an id badge and skulking maliciously.

it's absurd.

it's obscene.

and it happens everyday. *shrugs*

well, i'm just gonna keep learning and reading and exploring and speaking my mind, and you should, too.

maybe, hackers can file some kind of class action libel/slander lawsuit against ppl who drag the hacker name through the mud.

msnbc newsweek, you suck, and i salute you for it!

'til next time...

--cid

0wn your 0wn

amd's anti-intel antitrust action

amd has filed an antitrust suit against intel, it seems.

japan warned intel ahile back. maybe a couple of months.

the problem they have with intel is similar to the problems people had with microsoft for years--bullying companies into agreements to buy _only_ their products.

me? i'm all about choices. i want lots of competition, lots of options.

and besides that, what's going on with the x86 architecture, anyway? we need to seriously rethink the way we put computers together.

and we need to rethink the way we're constructing architectures as well. powerPC, at least, is getting some muscle grafted onto it.

where's the steroid-pumped x86 mutants? i wanna see a dual core, hyperthreaded, short-pipeline master with a dozen high speed risc number crunchers slapped on the bottom.

intel, you need to quit grubbing for money and give us something groundbreaking. that's what capitalism is about (er, is s'posed to be about, anyway). give us something truly new (and good!) and we'll buy it.

amd trounced intel in the sixty-four bit market, but they're catching up. but, like i said, that's not the point.

it's time for something new. somebody's gonna give it to us. whoever does it will be getting paid. but getting labelled as an 'evil corporation' isn't good for business.

*shrugs*

i can't really say how much truth there is to this, but my gut tells me amd prolly has a point. but we'll be watching..

--cid

0wn your architecture.

topix dot net

so topix is kind of a sweet deal. just headline after headline from all over the place.

2005-06-27

teh 31337 Elitests of Leetsbury Hi11s

teh 31337 Elitests of Leetsbury Hi11s

what would america be like if the 'lite were rich, instead of the Elite? what if democracy extended equally through the layers that make up our society? what if we had a say in _EVERYTHING_?

what if people obtain their money and resources based on _what_ they know and can do instead of _who_? what if resources were doled out to those with good ideas, as opposed to those with good connections?

what would happen if school for anything were free (and easily accessible)--would people follow their dreams?

what if our government was open sourced? what if we could take it apart and put it back together to see how it worked?

what would happen to america if everybody had the means and the time to do nothing but the things they loved doing? would we create new wonders or fall into the traps we create for ourselves?

what would happen to the world if america became better? how would the world react if we put our affairs in order? would they take their cues from us? would they still hate us for the things we've done? would we still meddle in the rest of the world's doings?

is it safe not to?

what would happen to our kids if we taught them the things that they were interested in and good at? if we foster and nurture the curiosities of children when they're young, would more people grow up loving to learn?

how far can we go?

will we make it that far?

what would happen to corporations if consumers stood up to them en masse? would they bow to the will of the people or attempt to withstand the siege?

what if all the mom-and-pops, all the upstarts refused to sell out?

what if everybody who only does what makes them happy started to only do what makes others happy?

what if politicians were held responsible for their actions? what if the rich were held accountable for theirs? what if there were no lawyers? what if we didn't need them? what if the laws were clean and simple? what if there weren't laws just for the sake of laws?

what would happen to the lazy dog if the brown fox wasn't quite quick enough?

how long will moore's law hold true? is it sustaining the revolution or holding it back?

how far can technology go? how far can it take us along? how far should we allow it to go?

what will happen to america if we don't open our eyes?

when will the money and power realize that credentials are not equivalent to skills or abilities? when will the right people be put into the right places? and when will the _wrong_ people be REMOVED from the right places?

when will every place be the right place?

is it too much to ask?? am i alone??

i hope not.

--cid

2005-06-24

vanderpool presidio lagrande pacifica virtualization and other hardware security ideas

eweek's talking about it. french site configspc has a pretty good article that google or babelfish will translate for you.

hardware security, in combination with properly implemented os level software certainly could be used to make some tight boxes, but it smells of proprietarity (if that's even a word). i just hope that by having both amd with pacifica and presidio and intel with vanderpool and lagrande the market will be able to keep it's options open.

and by that i mean that if these are properly implemented and create viable security enhancements, the open-source community (i.e. linux and bsd and all the other unish flavours) will be able to take advantage of, and not only the entities which have the resources to pay obscene licensing.

but i have no fear. the open source community has always landed on its feet, and i've no doubt that it will continue to grow and enrich our lives, not just giving us software, but giving us a new paradigm, showing a new way to commune with each other, to take care of each other.

we'll see.

--cid

2005-06-19

the fourth (4th) of the july--independence day--deep impact--can't wait

nasa's deep impact project's impactor spacecraft is s'posed to strike it's target--a comet.

the flyby (the other robotic spacecraft involved in the mission) will erect some sort of 'shield' system. that could be accomplished with any number of methods (some cheesier and/or more or less effective), but they've got my interest piqued.

and then our old pal flyby is going to observe the results as his aptly named co-robot impactor smashes into the sunny side of this comet.

assuming everything works, it'll give nasa some good data about collsions with natural bodies in microgravity, data on the composition of these bodies (or at least one of them), not to mention a live test of automatic guidance and targeting systems.

i dunno about you, but my fingers are crossed.

we're gonna 0\?\?|\| 7H15 <0|\/|37!

--cid

2005-06-18

information wants to be free--even in china...

microsoft is cooperating with the chinese government censors to block words and phrases such as freedom, democracy, demonstration, taiwan independence from blogs created with their msn spaces program or service.

while i can understand why they might want to comply with such a powerful body, that doesn't say much for the ms views on freedom of speech and human rights.

c'mon microsoft. don't be scurred. information provides power and just turning your back on a problem doesn't make it go away.

--cid

0wn yourself

40 million more--mastercard, databases, and personal info floating around the 'net

mastercard apparently let banks and account numbers slip into the open.

actually, it was a company called cardsystems solutions from what i've read. this might be their site, but i haven't been able to verify it.

anyway, they got infected by some kind of malicious script, which took the data, but both mastercard and cardsystems have been pretty quiet about it, unwilling to elaborate or take responsibility.

but this kind of major security breach (involving massive amounts of personal customer data) is becoming a common sight in the headlines, lately.

mastercard referred to cardsystems solutions as a victim, but i think that maybe they should be thought of less as one more victim (i mean there's forty million or so victims, in this case alone) and more of another criminal.

maybe what they did wasn't as bad or malicious as the person who stole all the numbers, but they should be held accountable for what they did(n't) do in the first place.

specifically, what i'm saying is that if this company makes money by handling parts of the credit card business that the credit card companies can't or won't deal with. that means there is a certain amount of trust involved between them and the credit card company, just like there is trust between the card company and its' customers.

part of their job is to provide a secure environment to utilize the huge data warehouses they have access to for legitimate purposes _WITHOUT_ exposing that information to hostiles in the outside world.

they have FAILED in this capacity of their job. and it's not a small job. not, like they forgot to make the pizza sauce, or didn't order enough of a certain size of tire.

it's not like the lead singer got sick and they had to cancel a tour--these guys were careless and/or incompetent with information that could cause a whole lot of grief to a whole lot of people.

i just hope that pretty soon, america will hear this wakeup call and act. corporate america certainly reacts when their money is threatened. well, our money (and our rights) is being threatened by them, so now private america needs to react. we need to come together to protect ourselves before this snowballs out of our control.

--cid

playstation portable. 0wn yours today...

so, i know i'm always pimpin' tnw, and normally, i've never had any issue with shelley olhava's writings, but in this article, she's flat out wrong, imo.

yes, people are doing things with the device that sony didn't intend to do with it. yes, some of the techniques learned _could_ be used for piracy, but does that guarantee that people will pirate games? no (though, some people are gonna pirate games (and music and movies...) as long as there are games out there to pirate.. it's just human nature). does sony have the right to tell people what they can do with the consoles they puchased? depends on who you talk to.

should they? in the opinion of this author, hells no! just because sony designed and built the psp, doesn't give them the final say in how people use them--that's ridiculous. that's like the phone company telling you exactly how you can use your phone...er..wait a second.

but, seriously, that's crazy. it's not right to tell someone they _have_ to use a device they paid for a certain way. that's a complete stifling of creativity.

going back to the phone, bell wanted to play music over the phone lines. what would our world be like, now, if he'd gotten his way, and nobody could talk over the phone? or if you could talk, but nobody was ever allowed to have a modem?

that's what technology is all about. it builds and expands and then uses itself to build and expand some more. it's an exponential curve based on finding out new things using everything that everyone who came before you has already found out.

it's life.

change, movement, growth. sony didn't develop all the technology that the psp is built on, they merely assembled the pieces and ideas. and in that respect, all the ideas and expectations for how and what the device would be capable of, and how it would be carried out, were based largely on the ideas and requests of gamers. that's right, the gamers. people who spend their hard earned money on them, spend hours of their lives using them everyday.

its the end user who _really_ uses the console. it's the user, whose ideas (and money) paved the way for this console. it's the user who owns the playstation portable, not sony.

if they don't wanna support us, then so be it. but we're still going to take our toys and tinker with them 'til they do exactly what we want them to do. so, next time, stop and think about whose rights are _really_ being squeezed.

tinkering with your station might void your warranty or violate your tos or something. you might not get any official support from sony, but that DOES NOT mean that homemade games and utilities will be any less fun.

late.

--cid

0wn your psp

voip--it's still a buzzword. see? yahoo! knows.

looks like yahoo! just bought voip company dialPad, so, we'll have to see where this goes.

does that mean we can expect to see some googlePhone services, soon? google has been paying attention to the way yahoo! and search.msn do things for awhile, now.

it's bound to happen, it's always just been a question of when--databases are cool--someone's always gonna be building ever-more-massive databases on anything humans (and corporations, which imho are very much alive and working to preserve their 0wn self interests) find to be of interest or use.

if you can't tell, i've got mixed feelings about these mergers, growths, and expansions. one the one hand, we could possibly reap the benefits of these incredible new services and technologies. but, on the other hand, corporations often limit these new technologies in fear of losing control or not making enough money with them, so it's not always (always not?) a good thing.

--cid

0wn yourself

2005-06-17

roaches robots = roachbots

the good folks at discovery recently posted an article about roaches driving robots around.

they run around on top of a trackball which serves as both an inverted two degrees of freedom hamster wheel and the control mechanism.

pretty cool, but definitely wierd.

--cid

2005-06-16

landline wireless or cellular pots?

tnw is talking about it. btfusion is an interesting blend of residential landline service and combination wireless phone. the handset (at least the first choice) looks like it's going to be a motorola, and it will supposedly be able to hop back and forth between cellular networks and a voip connection at home (or in the office).

they've got a little wireless hub that you plug into your lan or pc, and while i haven't seen any hard-and-fast tech specs on the five-sixty, it's apparently going to be 'quad band' which can mean more than one thing depending on who you talk to. but, theoretically, you could operate over european and american gsm networks, as well as american cmda networks, and maybe even anolog (amps) towers as well. they don't really elaborate, but i'm sure it will come out soon enough.

definitely a cool idea. i can't wait to see if they implement it properly. and if the rates are gonna be worth it.

now, they just need to figure out how to make it work as a sat phone, too, so you really could take it everywhere.

--cid

2005-06-15

go check it 0ut

MemoryHole and MemoryBlog.

go check it out.

--cid

0wn yourself

china's still trying to police their little corner of the internet..

cnn mentioned it. china is still attempting to control the data that passes through their part of the internet.

'pirates' who gain access through alternative means (wireless over the border, satellites, packet radio, etc.) are the only _real_ connection the chinese people have to the internet.

the chinese government already has the major backbone routers under their control, filtering content and access to their liking. and it's been that way for awhile.

it's important that these 'pirates' (patriots?) can get their voice out because it provides the world with a better picture of what is going on under the scene. like many governments, the chinese already 0wns the major media, and by controlling the main traffic routers, they can almost shut down the average citizen voice, replacing it with whatever passive message they wish.

theres a great (if hard to understand) presentation from one of the hope conferences (by bill xia) you can listen to in order to get a better view of _how_ this lockdown has happened and how they enforce it.

learn something, today.

--cid

public spectrum? education? narrowing the digital divide?

well, these digital divide guys seem to have some interesting ideas on the matter.

personally, i think america has forgotten what the phrase 'public spectrum' actually means, and i think that is sad. but, since the fcc seems to be bent on selling off our airwaves, then at least this gigantic, public trust fund for education would be a better use for the money than lining the pockets of the people in 'charge' or strengthening the fcc's own budget.

as twenty-six hundred says, if you see something, say something..

--cid

0wnyourself

i wanna live the 'terabyte lifestyle' -- or big drives in little configurations?

i want a 'terrabyte lifestyle'. so, thank you, bbc, and thank you seagate.

giga is good, but tera is terrific.

i apologize for that.

--cid

forget the whales--save the pay phones

christian science monitor is running an interesting story called save the pay phone-a suddenly endangered species.

not the most complete point of view on the matter, but an interesting read nonetheless. and it's true--payphones are disappearing quicker than the 'bill of rights'.

i guess i understand _why_ payphones are dying, but it's still sad to see them go. the end of another era approaches.

--cid

2005-06-14

Feds move on wireless Web, cell phones in flight | CNET News.com

c|net is talking about the feds and their plan for wireless internet and phone access on planes. the fcc is gonna auction some more public spectrum. at least it's for a good thing, this time.

and when i say good time, i'm talking about wireless broadband, NOT people yapping away for hours (it's bad enough just being crammed in there with that many often irritable people anyway) on their cell phones.

if they _do_ end up throwing in the bit about the cell phone access (and let's be honest, it'll prolly pass 'cause they want you to use those minutes anywhere you can..) then for the love of patience and sanity, let us hope that they implement some sort of reasonable procedure like a 'no cell phone sign', maybe a certain time when phone calls would be allowed, or, dare i dream--cones of silence.

i dunno, i guess it's not really fair to tell people where they can and can't use their cells (with obvious exceptions such as while driving (some are better than others), in theatres, in places where the phones could cause destructive interference, et cetera), but if people talking on their cellular phones on an airplane will be anything like the average cell phone user wandering around on the street, in the stores and in restaurants, then it could get out of hand real quick.

i can't speak for the international community as a whole, but there a lot of american morons who a.) let their cell phone run their life, and b.) rudely brandish it publicly, loudly and at the most inappropriate times.

we (as a culture) need to take a step back and analyze our priorities. waiting to make that call doesn't seem like that big a restriction, in the general interest. i mean, yes, it would be nice to let your ride know exactly when to get you, but that same message could be conveyed _silently_ through sms or email (or any number of other text based messaging protocols). and yes, i've also thought about all the crazy ringers and sounds that these devices make, which, on the one hand, i'm very interested and amused by, but which, in the course of an average sms conversation.

i s'pose i'm just being a crotchety old fart, but it just drives me nuts what some people do with those things. i'll stop ranting right there. but it will be way cool to be on a broadband pipe right there in your seat on the big jet plane...

--cid

0wn yourself

i have been welcomed.to.THE.SCENE--you can be, too..

so, if you haven't checked out THE.SCENE, yet, you should make it a priority.

there are nine episodes out now with more on the way. a fiction series based on the dvd early release ftp scene, and they've got such a great way of telling the story. very addictive.

best of all, they offer free legal downloads through http, bitTorrent, eDonkey, limewire and other p2p networks.

download swarming has proved its power time and time again, so it's good to see such a positive use of the potential p2p can hold. and it's also good to see so much independent media coming out.

there's so much more to your world than the mainstream would have you experience. go find something cool. and go watch the.Scene.

--cid

0wn yourself

2005-06-13

i've just gotta give this matthias wandel dude some shouts!!

all right, so i was surfing through some of infiltration.org and i found a link to a site by a dude named matthias wandel and i'm extra-impressed. this d00d is bad-ace, my friends. we're talking �ber 1337, filled with the nerdy power, people.

this dude built a digital camera using the ccd from his flatbed scanner. his brother is a big nerd, too. just one big, nerdy, ultra-creative hacker family? the environment? the genes?

who knows.

but one thing's for sure, we could all learn a thing or two from the wandel brothers. (or we've all got a little nerd in us?)

2005-06-11

too much slashdot (/.) goodness to talk about...

so, i know i pimp slashdot _way_ too much, but that's just because they come up with _so_ many good stories. and today is no different.

they're talking about the eff's anonymity program called tor. and they mention a bbc story about the singing robot benches that are being installed at cambridge. cmdrtaco points to his page on mame arcade cabinets and how cool they can be. hp's coming out with a new pa-risc processor, promising more speed for it's high end servers. nasa's new administrator's firing like twenty people (and more may follow). and my personal favourite--the underhanded c contest, where the goal is to create normal-looking, readable, apparently innocent code that will wreak some kind of havoc. i'm curious to see which clever hack will be the weiner.

keep your eyes peeled.

--cid

0wn yourself

2005-06-08

cell sales sail? see cell soon....

Technology News: Hardware: IBM To Reveal Details of New Cell Chips

i've said it before, and i'll say it again--the cell looks like it's gonna be one _bad_ operator. ibm's released more of the details. check it out, 'cause they're gonna be sick. ps3 will prolly be the first big roll out of a commercial product--then we'll get to see what it can really do.

--cid

i just found the romseyredhead

well, i can't say that i know a whole lot about romsey, but i've gotta take a second to say how cool i think it is that sandra gidley runs a little blog called romseyredhead. it's not really that i'm so interested in parliament, though to a certain degree i am.

i simply find it applaudable that politicians are finally starting to take advantage of this sort of thing. now, we need a method to take all our opinions and comments and ideas and feelings and _convey_ them to our governmental representatives. perhaps a way to index comments on political representatives blogs which could feed databases that queries could be run on. at least they'd have the opportunity to hear our collective voice as a potent source of guidance.

whether they'll listen or not is a different matter entirely.

get back at me.

--cid Viscous

0wn yourself

2005-06-07

powerPC no more?

according to tech news world (which kicks ass, btw), apple is talking about dropping the powerPC platform, made by ibm and if i'm not mistaken, developed partially by motorola as well, in favor of an intel setup.

i don't quite know how to feel about that. on the one hand, my biggest beef with apple has always been the closed, proprietary crap they like to pull, and it'll be interesting to see a mac built out of regular pc components.

but somehow it just feels like they're doing the right thing for the wrong reason. from what i've been hearing, the powerPC architecture has really come a long way. i mean, they don't have smoking clock speeds, but they seem to do just fine.

and the cell microprocessor (ibm, toshiba, sony) looks like it's gonna kick ass for real.

number crunching math coprocessor slaves are a good thing.

but it's like i've been saying for years, now--we've been teaching these architectures new tricks for decades, and while they _do_ keep getting better and better (moore's law and all that), it's still based on old technology. the basic idea of a processor hasn't been redesigned in way too long.

and different companies have their fortes (not to mention different business agendas) so, it prolly won't happen any time soon, but intel, ibm, amd and several other companies need to put their heads together, take everything they've learned in the past ten or fifteen, and do it right.

think about it--we could _SHATTER_ moore's law. we could be living in the jetson's world. and i want a rosy, dammit!

well, apple, i guess we'll see what happens. keep your eyes open, everybody.

--cid

0wn yourself

2005-06-02

eight year olds, dude. eight year olds.

now, people can sign up for instant alert to provide them with info on ped-arrests and a host of other sex-offenders as easily as signing up for a mailing list about golf.

at least in texas, cali, and florida.

sex offenders, as most of you prolly know already, have to update their address info and often have to run around door to door to let their new neighbors know who's moving into the hood.

but now you won't have to wait for the pedophiles, flashers and rapists to mosey on by--you can track it in realtime, right from your cell phone.

isn't technology great?

--cid

puttin' on the foil, eh?

french and dutch say pu to the eu

well, the dutch have apparently joined the french in shooting down the constitution. what's a union to do, right?

--cid

looks like gm is going asian

CNN.com - GM, partners to build China plant - Jun 2, 2005

okay, gm, maybe i'm just not understanding the logic, here, but exactly how is building a four hundred million dollar factory in china gonna help the us economy?

maybe they're setting it up so they can start selling gm vehicles to the chinese citizens. no? don't think it sounds plausible?

crazy times, boys and girls. i'd watch this kind of thing, 'cause international business breeds a certain mindset of its own. some of these multinationals think of themselves more like a sovereign nation than a business, and in some cases, they may not be far from the mark.

gm, rest assured, we'll be watching you.

--cid

0wn yourself.

more cool surround sound tricks

not sure how long this has been out, but it definitely looks sweet. prettty soon we'll have personal audio (as in silent to everyone but the listener) with no headphones, just tightly focused beams of sound or something.

--cid

2005-06-01

nanotech news names nifty new molecule marks making mobiles minute

god, i just _love_ those guys over at technewsworld.com. this time, it's a boon to nano.

nanotechnology is one of the most promising fields in modern science, showing potential for great advances in fabrication and engineering, computing and data storage, communications, medicine, almost anything you can think of.

if you've never heard of nano, just think about it like legos--but instead of little plastic blocks, their moving around individual _atoms_.

nanotech's nothing new, really, as a concept, anyway, but it's only really been picking up speed the past decade or so. lately, they've been learning some cool new tricks, as well as some new toys. check out atomic force microscopes and scanning tunneling microscopes if you're curious.

once it matures to a level where programmable, self-replicating 'nanobots' for lack of a better word are possible and/or the government realizes the implications, we'll probably see a massive lockdown spring into place. government restrictions on nanotech could easily be in the same class as weapons of mass destruction.

the potential (for good, not just bad) is staggering. but i guess we'll just have to wait and see if the technology keeps trotting along.

me? i think they ought to build home nano kits, just like legos, and we could mix and match with our friends. open source it!

late.

--cid

0wn your nan0