MetaFilter posts tagged with technology

Skin Deep.

gman — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:10:27 -0800

A beautification engine developed by computer scientists from Israel. Before and After shots.

Now we need to implement this for Metafilter comments.

mattholomew — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:11:28 -0800

Google rolls out Mail Goggles, designed to prevent drunk or otherwise impaired emailing by forcing you to answer basic math questions. And no, it's not April 1st.

Great Cyber Crimes and Hacks

netbros — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:44:22 -0800

The best criminal hacker is the one that isn't caught — or even identified. These are 10 of the most infamous unsolved computer crimes as selected by PC Magazine. However, some do get caught. Here are nine of the most infamous criminal hackers to ever see the inside of a jail cell. PCMag also reached back into the early days of computing and dredged up the most inspiring examples of hacker brilliance they could find. WANK Worm MoD Skynet satellite hacked CDUniverse credit card breach Military source code stolen Anti-DRM Kucinich on CBSNews.com ApplyYourself hack 26,000 site attack Hannaford and Sweetbay credit card breach Comcast.net redirected

"No, Miss Vega. Consider the Black Box theory!"

Blazecock Pileon — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:04:09 -0800

"So, that’s my long and winding history of a little postcard from the Upper West Side of Manhattan!" Suzanne Vega writes about writing the hit song Tom's Diner, coping with its numerous remixes, and its part in the birth of the MP3 music compression format.

File under 'futility'

mattholomew — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:39:13 -0800

Having seen their profits eroded to filesharing networks and Itunes, the major labels have a new plan: Go back to physical media.

That giant fountain projection thing

Artw — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:39:58 -0800

Primal source at GLOW (video), Burble London (an implementation of Open Burble) (video), Evoke (video) - the transformative artworks of Haque Design and Research. Interview with Usman Haque. Previously.

One Web to Rule Them All

netbros — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 22:21:07 -0800

"I would like to take a broader look at the Web. I would like to consider what the Web can do for society on a scale we have not yet seen. And I would like to enlist your help to get us there." ― Tim Berners-Lee announces the World Wide Web Foundation "Our success will be measured by how well we foster the creativity of our children. Whether future scientists have the tools to cure diseases. Whether people, in developed and developing economies alike, can distinguish reliable health care information from commercial chaff. Whether the next generation will build systems that support democracy, inform the electorate, and promote accountable debate." ― Berners-Lee's speech before the Knight Foundation announcing the formation of the World Wide Web Foundation. Here is the concept paper.

stop crying kindle fanboy

taz — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 07:16:24 -0800

Some are calling it the "Kindle Killer". (Demo launch video at engadget.) Plastic Logic's new e-reader, expected to be out in the first half of 2009, does promise to offer a lot that Kindle and most other other popular e-readers don't, like a larger display, big enough to provide a newspaper or magazine layout; touch-based markup and annotation; the ability to read standard documents and other file types without conversion; (promised) Wi-Fi connectivity (including the ability to transfer documents between readers); and last but not least, a screen display that you can hit with a shoe, and isn't that something we've all been waiting for during these tense times? But in the Plastic Logic vs Amazon Kindle smackdown, "Plastic Logic says they don't plan to compete with Kindle directly, instead, it's targeting business mobile professionals with 'a lot of documents already,' not those who will get all their content from the Amazon store." Heh. The question on everyone's lips, of course, is what about price? Wired reports that while pricing has not been announced, "officials said the reader would be "priced competitively" with devices such as the Kindle, which currently costs $359". Other questions? The NYT touches on issues of privacy, mentioning that, "as an electronic device, newspapers can determine who is reading their paper, and even which articles are being read. Advertisers would be able to understand their audience and direct advertising to its likeliest customers" and wonders "how much people will pay for a device and the newspaper subscription for it". (emphasis mine)

(Internetworking Frequency, 2.4 gigacycles.)

TheOnlyCoolTim — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:36:35 -0800

The Early Television Foundation and Museum Website covers the nascent days of the nation's pastime, with interesting items like mechanical TVs and programming schedules from 1939.

Obama is inclusive in his support for PNGs

finite — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:49:51 -0800

Despite his carefully cultivated maverick image, McCain is playing it traditional and conservative by using HTML 4.01, the W3C spec from 1999.