Tuesday, March 9. 2010
I came across this clip from Discovery Channel's Time Warp. It's a table saw that will not cut your fingers if you accidentally make contact with the saw blade. Quite remarkable.
Thursday, December 17. 2009
I was pretty shocked when I saw this article on Pentagon: Insurgents intercepted drone spy videos."
Insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan have intercepted live video feeds from Predator drones, a key weapon in a Pentagon spy system that serves as the military's eyes in the sky for surveillance and intelligence collection.
Though militants could see the video, there is no evidence they were able to jam the electronic signals from the unmanned aerial craft or take control of the vehicles, a senior defense official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence issues.
Obtaining the video feeds can provide insurgents with critical information about what the military may be targeting, including buildings, roads and other facilities.
Shiite fighters in Iraq used off-the-shelf software programs such as SkyGrabber — available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet — to regularly capture drone video feeds, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The interception, first done there at least a year ago, was possible because the remotely flown planes had unprotected communications links. [...]
The military has known about the vulnerability for more than a decade, but assumed adversaries would not be able to exploit it.
I find this shocking that the military was using unprotected communications to transmit video feeds from drones. That's valuable intelligence information being broadcasted.
I think as the US military depends more and more on unmanned vehicles, the more incentive it will be for enemies to exploit this. Imagine if adversaries could jam control signals to these unmanned vehicles, the vehicles may just crash. An even more troubling problem would be if adversaries could hack into these drones, and take direct control of them. It's worrisome because some of these drones carry weapons.
Thursday, September 10. 2009
Currently quite bogged down at work, so short blog posts for the next little while. I watched this 20 minute documentary tonight entitled, " Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground" which traces how electronic waste from the West is ending up in developing nations.
Here's the quick synopsis:
When containers of old computers first began arriving in West Africa a few years ago, Ghanaians welcomed what they thought were donations to help bridge the digital divide. But soon exporters learned to exploit the loopholes by labeling junk computers "donations," leaving men like Godson to sort it out.
Godson, one of the e-waste dealers who have set up shop close to the port, shows the contents of the container he has bought.
“Some are from Germany and the U.K., and also from America,” he says, when asked where the equipment has come from. He sorts through them looking for working electronics that can be sold. He says that maybe 50 percent of the shipment is junk and the rest he will be able to salvage in some way.
After it’s sorted, a lot of the contents of the container will still be dumped at the burn site outside of town.
Hard drives that can be salvaged are displayed at open-air markets. Off camera, Ghanaians admit that organized criminals sometimes comb through these drives for personal information to use in scams.
It's pretty shocking to watch the environmental/public health damage that is being caused by our tech toys.
Enjoy
Thursday, September 3. 2009
Just came across this interesting article on Wired Magazine entitled, " American Vice: Mapping The 7 Deadly Sins." They basically calculate the instances of these sins per capita (eg Lust - Number of STD cases reported per capita) and plot them on a map of America. The results clearly show a huge concentration of sin around Florida, California, and the East Coast, whereas the Midwest has very low rates of sin. Perhaps there is some truth that there are two Americas 
Saturday, August 29. 2009
As you may know, I generally dislike cellphones. Talking on a cellphone while driving is even more concerning. However, texting while driving takes it to the next level, and I'm disturbed when I see that happening.
In either case, I came across a game simulation from the New York Times that measures how well you multitask while driving and texting. It's called, " Gauging Your Distraction."
Every time I come back to Victoria, I get a little shocked when I see people on their cellphone while driving because this practice has been banned in California. Then, a couple seconds pass, and then I remember that it's legal here.... for now.
Enjoy.
Sunday, August 16. 2009
This weekend, I went and saw District 9. I have to admit that I went into the movie with fairly high expectations, and even then, the movie exceeded my expectations. Don't worry, no spoilers.
I think the director did an excellent job of portraying this story as realistically as possible. I'm often skeptical when I see science fiction movies showing humanity suddenly cleaning up its act when it makes first contact with aliens; on the contrary, District 9 shows a very ugly side of humanity. The movie does an excellent job of highlighting some very real problems that humanity still struggles with such as racism, corporate greed, corruption, war, black market trade, trafficking, unaccountable private military, media control, etc.
I also appreciate that the movie didn't require any big name actors to carry the movie. The story is just so immersive and rich that you really don't need big actors. It was reported that this film cost $30 million to produce, and most of that went into the visual effects which were absolutely stunning. This was considered a small budget film especially when you consider Terminator Salvation, and Transformers 2 cost $200 million each. For $30 million, District 9 has a lot of bang for the buck. By the end of the movie, I found extremely satisfied even though they've barely scratched the surface of the story.
I am declaring this the best movie of the summer. Two thumbs up, way up. Definitely go see it in theaters. I'm glad that there are already talks of a sequel.
Sunday, August 2. 2009
Well, this last week has been an emotional roller coaster at work due to the Yahoo Microsoft deal. I have to say, the night before the deal was announced, I was reading the rumours from various tech websites, and I didn't like what I was seeing. There was obviously some anxiety over how much longer I would be able to stay in Silicon Valley, and whether my job would still be here. The idea of becoming a Microsoft employee wasn't very palatable either.
Day break came, and the deal was announced super early in the morning (4:30am ish?). My immediate reaction was, oh my goodness, the stock price is sinking like a rock. I should have seen it coming though, speculators were piling into the stock, driving the price up to $17/share which wasn't sustainable. When the deal finally came, these people were piling out of the stock. It seems like investors in general didn't like the deal because Yahoo didn't get cash upfront for the deal. I have to admit that the deal is fairly complicated. The next two days, I spend several hours sitting through meetings that explained the deal, and its implications. I understand what the deal entails now, but the merits of the deal were definitely not apparent at first glance.
In either case, I was glad to hear that my job wasn't going to be transferred to Microsoft. I will continue be fighting on the side of Yahoo, and my job should be safe. My team should be unaffected by the deal, so I thank God for that.
Anyway, I'm still digesting this deal, and pondering what the future holds, and what change shall come.
|
