The Self-Healing Minefield From the current Village Voice: "Utilizing commercial off-the-shelf computer chips and 'healing' software, the networked minefield detects rude attempts to clear it, deduces which parts of itself have been removed, and signals its remaining munitions to close the hole using best-fit mathematics."

Bonus ubertasteless Flash animation courtesy of DARPA here. Color me fascinated and repulsed in equal measure.
posted by Armitage Shanks on Nov 27, 2002 - 40 comments

Employing a rather breath-taking counter, Netsizer claims to track the growth of the internet (users and hosts) in real time based on a methodology briefly and unsatisfyingly explained here. According to Netsizer the number of internet users already tops 800 million, but the Cyber Atlas is projecting 700-950 million users in 2004. Does anybody really know what's going on?
posted by taz on Sep 1, 2002 - 7 comments

"Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots.... Any time you skip a commercial.....you're actually stealing the programming" According to Jamie Kellner, CEO of the Turner Broadcasting system, you're committing a crime if you don't watch every commercial during a broadcast. Even going to the bathroom doesn't seem to be a good enough excuse to him for missing a commercial. While I sympathize with those who are trying to create and maintain business models for content and programming in these days of advanced technology, arguing that the use of this technology is some kind of moral lapse is both laughable and insulting.
posted by gspira on Apr 29, 2002 - 38 comments

Will Durst: "ABC has its blue circled logo in the bottom right with red-and-white stripes shooting offscreen, and CBS has a motto: 'America on Alert.' Not all of the cable stations have official mottos but that's why I'm here. To help."
posted by tpoh.org on Oct 4, 2001 - 6 comments

What we do here on Metafilter is unimportant and should be prioritized so more important, corporate network traffic can get through. "The problem is that it was devised by a bunch of hippie anarchists who didn't have a strong profit motive. But this is a business, not a government-sponsored network." (LA Times link)
posted by crasspastor on Jul 26, 2001 - 29 comments

First Boo.com goes down, now DEN. The Digital Entertainment Network is closing it's doors after running out of cash. After raising over 33 million dollars, they burned it at rate of up to $3 million per month, pulled their $75 million stock offering, and with no revenue model in place, they had to close up shop, with 150 people suddenly out of work.
posted by mathowie on May 18, 2000 - 4 comments

This article at zdnet is all about how wireless web devices aren't that handy, and how our lives would suck if wireless web access was everywhere. I heartily disagree. I have a wireless 2Mb LAN connection at work and it's liberating (it's possible to code, listen to shoutcast mp3 streams, and check email outside or down at the coffee house next door). My PCS phone is useful too, I can surf a few important websites when I don't have a laptop around, getting news, weather, and email. Wireless access is certainly a Good Thing, and should make our lives easier, but the article's author is blaming the possible deluge of information on wireless, instead of the user. How would a wireless broadband connection make your life better or worse?
posted by mathowie on Feb 1, 2000 - 8 comments