Monday, September 10, 2007

Conspiracy!: RFID Chips May Cause Tumors

VERICHIP.JPGWe guess some technology is just too bad to be true. Because despite being approved by the FDA back in 2005, RFID chips were shown to cause animal tumors—in a number of studies—back in the mid 90s. So are the studies bunk? Not necessarily, because the AP has consulted "leading cancer specialists" who feel the findings are a red flag. But the plot thickens...

In 2005, two weeks following the approval of VeriChip Corp's RFID chips, FDA overseer Tommy Thompson left the FDA. And five months later he ended up on the board of VeriChip Corp. Coincidence? Honestly, we're not sure.

While most of us fear the Big Brother aspects of RFID, the positive medical prospects are quite promising. You know, if they don't cause gigantic tumors in the 2,000 people who currently have implants. [AP via engadget]

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Worm Supercomputer: World's Biggest Supercomputer is a Virus?

supercomputer.jpgThe Storm Worm Botnet currently infects between one and ten million computers worldwide, which means that it has access to a huge amount of processing power and somewhere between 1 and 10 Petabytes of RAM. This apparently makes it one of the most powerful computers in the world, with more computing power than the ten fastest supercomputers in the world combined.

These interesting, but admittedly vague and flaky estimates come from computer Scientist, Peter Gutman. Although you can pick at the numbers quite easily, the guy makes a very interesting point. While projects like Seti@Home can harness a lot of computing power, a virus or worm that doesn't need to ask permission from a user could conceivably be vastly more powerful. Imagine the potential if virus writers found more interesting things to do with those cycles than send spam.

Will the first person to find extraterrestrial signals be an amateur hacker, rather than Seti? Could complex protein folding solutions be found by bored crackers? And would the benevolent act of finding a cure for a genetic illness outweigh the malevolent act of creating the worm that rounded up the processing cycles needed to do it? [Uber Review]

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Saturday, September 08, 2007

some of the MOST AWESOME HDR photos that I have seen

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcnbits/ and a slideshow/grid of her work http://picturesandbox.com/lightbox_install/7jhs7u27

Varenna

Varenna HDR from 3 exposures handheld (I never use tripod :) 82mm - 1/500seg - f/5,3 - ISO 100 Nikon D80 with 18-200 VR

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MusicSamplr.com - Firefox, browser of choice

http://musicsamplr.com

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Stuff We Like: Power Your Gadgets From An Airplane Headphone Jack

USB.png The Inflight USB Power Unit connects directly to the headphone jack found in the armrests of most commercial airplane seats and passes power to your gadgets via a USB connection. It would be convenient as hell to have outlets at every seat instead of headphone jacks, but now you can get the best of both worlds. The unit won't power anything as big as your laptop, but should be able to supply a charge to any device that natively supports USB charging (like your iPod, cell phone, or PSP). The basic Inflight USB Power Unit will set you back $35, and you can optionally purchase iPod and mini B connectors. Anyone planning on adding this to their Go Bag?

Inflight USB Power Unit [Inflight Power Recharger Cables via Windows Fanatics]

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