Monthly Archives: June 2008

EU selling out private data to the US

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It looks like the EU has not learned a thing from the outrage of giving away flight data and swift financial data to the US, and is now agreeing to give all data the US wants as long as it is ‘adequately protected’. What that level of protection is, isn’t defined, so if the US says it’s adequately protected (say, by having it lying about in a taxi on a USB drive), then the EU will automatically have to give the US the data.
Not only that, but it also looks like there is absolutely no safeguard as to what the US government will do to the data once it’s finished with it. Destroy it? Sell it? Apparently the EU is saying: “Whatever”.

Is free will governed by thought?

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Most fysiologists and psychologists know that movements are initiated by the brain some time before the conscious mind thinks about them and ‘decides’ to initiate them.

This article rounds up a little on desicion making in general, showing that the time could be up to 30 seconds before determination when making mistakes and 10 seconds when picking ‘random’ events. Amazingly, ‘random’ desicions can be predicted accurately around 70% of the time!

Become an Astronaut part 2

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So, if you were upset that ESA was hiring astronauts because you’re not a European and couldn’t make it, no problem!

The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is seeking an astronaut to support the ISS program./a>

Surprisingly the job requirements are way less stringent than for the ESA. You can make do with a batchelor degree (as opposed to two degrees and being a published leader in your field) and good health, or, if you want to fly your way in only 1000 hours in jets (not 3000 in experimental jets). Damnit, I make the qualifications for this one!

Image Fulgurator

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The Image Fulgurator is a device for physically manipulating photographs. It intervenes when a photo is being taken, without the photographer being able to detect anything. It intervenes when a photo is being taken, without the photographer being able to detect anything. The manipulation is only visible on the photo afterwards. The manipulation is only visible on the photo afterwards.

In principle, the Fulgurator can be used anywhere where there is another camera nearby that is being used with a flash. In principle, the Fulgurator can be used anywhere where there is another camera nearby that is being used with a flash. It operates via a kind of reactive flash projection that enables an image to be projected on an object exactly at the moment when someone else is photographing it. It operates via a kind of reactive flash projection that enables an image to be projected on an object at exactly the moment when someone else is photographing it. The intervention is unobtrusive because it takes only a few milliseconds. The intervention is unobtrusive because it takes only a few milliseconds. Every photo another photographer takes of an object at which the Fulgurator is also aimed is affected by the manipulation. Every photographer takes another photo of an object at which the Fulgurator is also aimed is affected by the manipulation. Hence visual information can be smuggled unnoticed into the images of others. Hence visual information can be smuggled unnoticed into the images of others.

Basically it projects ghosts into digital images unnoticeably.

The N-Prize

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It was the X-Prize that Burt Rutan’s Spaceship 1 took when it launched into space and recovered.

Google is offering the Lunar X-Prize together with the X-Prize foundation for the first team that lands on the moon and transmits back to earth.

The N-Prize is for a microsat launched into space for a price of under GBP 999,-. The winner will receive GBP 9,999.99 as long as the sat stays up for more than 9 orbits.

In part it’s about pushing boundaries in a bit of a crazy way with some degree of (financial) motivation behind it.

This is an interview with the founder of the prize

Push and Synchronization – Email, Calendar, Address Book

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Synchronica is the one solution I’ve found for synching the iphone.

Winfonie Mobile 2 has been tested and known to work allowing you to synchronise your iphone with lotus organizer 6.1. There are two versions: one for your contacts and one for your calendar. No to do list or notes as the iphone doesn’t support them.

The iphone is starting to look like a business tool after all!

Microsoft Coffee

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There are a couple of *NIX distributions out there that come on a CD with loads of hacking and cracking tool. None is officially released by Microsoft. Untill now. COFEE (Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor) is a USB stick with allegedly over 100 tools and a mouseclick away from hacking your base, some of it by ransacking your live RAM. It’s distributed to law enforcement all over the world, and MS denies that it uses the MS backdoor.

There’s loads more to find out there on Google.

Jet-powered bike is not safe

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Look, if you want to get to work faster, you should drive a car. I know you ride your bike to help save the environment and exercise and all those noble reasons, but let’s be honest: adding jet propulsion to your bicycle kind of defeats both of those purposes.

And really, this bike, which has a WWII-era buzzjet attached, has a better probability of ending your commute with you as a fine paste on a brick wall than a few minutes early to work. But hey, you know, if you’re the adventurous type and you love WWII relics, I guess this is as good a combo as any to suit your needs.

Official URL

Star Wars gets unofficial sequel: Lockheed’s orbital missile barrage system

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Lockheed’s Multiple Kill Vehicle-L space superiority platform promises to be the final word in the event of an intercontinental ballistic missile attack. Part of the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System, the MKV-L is designed to deal with the multitudinous targets an ICBM launch would provide, rather than take out a single warhead.

ICBMs can be tricky. They act as a far-reaching delivery system for a swarm of smaller warheads — some of which are dummies to confuse opposing countermeasures — that shower a broad area in booms, bangs, fire, and general badness.

The MKV-L would respond with a barrage of its own, firing a pathfinder seeker warhead that would keep track of the number of enemy projectiles and take no prisoners, eliminating every warhead, dummy and even the delivery vehicle. Now that the milestone of a calibrated pathfinder seeker has come and gone, Lockheed is setting its sights on the next step: running tests in a true flight environment in the next year or two, and getting the system online by 2017.

As a quick aside, Lockheed needs to work on its renderings. The odd assortment of bland space balls, cones and cans aren’t really inspiring a lot of confidence in me.

Official URL Link