Massive Biometric Project Gives Crores of Indians an ID: Aadhaar faces titanic physical and technical challenges: reaching millions of illiterate Indians who have never seen a computer, persuading them to have their irises scanned, ensuring that their information is accurate, and safeguarding the resulting ocean of data. This is India, after all—a country notorious for corruption and for failing to complete major public projects. And the whole idea horrifies civil libertarians. But if Aadhaar’s organizers pull it off, the initiative could boost the fortunes of India’s poorest citizens and turbocharge the already booming national economy. [more inside]
posted by infini
on Aug 30, 2011 -
30 comments
A geek named daniel_k wanted to help his fellow Vista users. He created a set of drivers that would get their Creative sound cards working under Vista -- something beyond the ken and expertise of Creative's engineering team. Creative VP Phil O'Shaughnessy, however, took umbrage. The results?
A PR disaster with hundreds of users pledging to boycott.
posted by ed
on Mar 30, 2008 -
66 comments
Comey made frantic calls to his own chief of staff and to Robert Mueller, then FBI director, while he raced to the hospital, sirens blasting. He sprinted up the stairs of the hospital to get to Ashcroft's room before Gonzales and Card did.
. . .
"I couldn't stay if the White House was engaging in conduct that had no legal basis."
Comey testifies that there was something of a line to resign that day: Mueller; then Comey's chief of staff; and then Ashcroft's chief of staff—who asked only that Comey wait until "Ashcroft was well enough to resign with me."
A
Saturday Night Tuesday Morning Massacre narrowly averted by an illness and the Madrid Train Bombings? Is it a High Crime and Misdemeanor if "the president was quite willing to forge ahead with an illegal program"?
Absoluelty riveting, it reads like a tale out of paperback thriller: in a darkened hospital room, a White House consigliere barges past the sick man's wife, and demands the disoriented Attorney General official sign a paper.
"First, they tried to coerce a man in intensive care -- a man so sick he had transferred the reins of power to Mr. Comey -- to grant them legal approval. Having failed, they were willing to defy the conclusions of the nation's chief law enforcement officer and pursue the surveillance without Justice's authorization." I'm waiting for the movie, but you can
watch the video now.
posted by orthogonality
on May 16, 2007 -
95 comments
Of all the Christmas cards I received this year from political action committees,
this one from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep & Bear arms best summed up the holiday spirit to me.
posted by jonson
on Dec 29, 2005 -
75 comments
Memory - 36 cards. Turn two over. If the pictures match, both get eliminated. Else turn them back and select another two. Repeat till field is cleared. Post the number of moves you took.
[via]
posted by Gyan
on Nov 13, 2005 -
77 comments
Seen something like this on one of your credit or debit cards recently?
09/25 DIGITAL AGE 888-529-98 CYPRUS, SE $24.99
Join the crowd. You might remember something from earlier in the summer, when
CardSystems Solutions reported a security breach that had gone on for months. Or maybe you remember a bit of
more recent news, when "a California judge ruled Friday that Visa USA Inc. and MasterCard International Inc. don't have to send individual warnings to thousands of consumers whose personal account information was stolen during a high-tech heist uncovered earlier this year."
My family was hit on three different cards from three different banks in less than a week. Doesn't seem to matter if you ever used the card online
or not. Any guesses where "Digital Age" is getting all these valid credit and debit card numbers? Anyone? So, please, check your statements and be prepared to cancel your card immediately if you've been hit, too. Nothing good will come of these criminals being able to make additional charges against your accounts, using different shell companies to hide themselves,
continuing to do this sort of thing for years
posted by RKB
on Oct 13, 2005 -
29 comments
Orson Scott Card on
The Riots of The Faithful:
So Newsweek prints an uncorroborated allegation about American interrogators flushing Qurans down the toilet in order to get fanatical Muslim prisoners to talk, and there's rioting and death all over the Muslim world. There are several lessons to be learned from this incident, some trivial, some quite important...
posted by NotMyselfRightNow
on May 27, 2005 -
103 comments
Kartenfalthelme. Work getting you down? Feel assaulted by schedules, bosses, unreasonable demands? In an imperialist mood? Order your
KuK Atelier cardmodel helmets today!
Für Vergrößerung klicken!
[All content in German, but don't let that stop you!]
posted by mwhybark
on Oct 13, 2004 -
4 comments
Copperfield's Card Trick
Pick a card without clicking it or selecting it and the image of David Copperfield will remove that card from the six cards.
How does this work? I've tried it four or five times and it gets it right everytime.
posted by fenriq
on Dec 15, 2003 -
32 comments
This new trading card game takes an ironic look a a bunch of "Bad Ideas" from the dot-com boom and bust. The object is to remain in business as long as possible by raising money from VC's and forcing your opponents to spend resources on developing bad ideas... You can't actually generate any revenue, of course :-)
posted by sib
on May 1, 2002 -
7 comments
Not embedded in your hand, just your credit card. Your Providian VISA with Smart Chip Technology comes with a smart chip that's embedded on the front of the credit card. Soon, a smart chip will let you store information and applications that make shopping easier and more secure. Anyone here a little leary of this kind of "smart"ness? Thoughts?
posted by thunder
on Jul 3, 2001 -
23 comments
The IDEO identity card project. I'm fascinated by the micro-genre of busness cards. There's something about that tiny space that seems to get people's creative energy going in ways that even the big wide-open spaces of the web don't (
not always in good ways). These designers are pushing the envelope in every direction: DNA, Bluetooth, plastic bags, incinerators, cameras, anonymity, you name it.
posted by rodii
on Jan 13, 2001 -
11 comments
