As reported by www.gearjunkie.com, Stiglingh used a DJI Phantom II drone mounted with a GoPro Hero 3 Silver camera to capture the fireworks in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Nice to see an alternative (but still patriotic) use for drone technology!
And The Rockets' Red Glare: Drone Flown Through Fireworks
Did the Fourth of July fireworks get rained/hurricaned out in your town? No worries, videographer Jos Stiglingh took his drone and GoPro camera for a spin through the sparks.
As reported by www.gearjunkie.com, Stiglingh used a DJI Phantom II drone mounted with a GoPro Hero 3 Silver camera to capture the fireworks in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Nice to see an alternative (but still patriotic) use for drone technology!
As reported by www.gearjunkie.com, Stiglingh used a DJI Phantom II drone mounted with a GoPro Hero 3 Silver camera to capture the fireworks in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Nice to see an alternative (but still patriotic) use for drone technology!
Signal-Free Sipping At The Faraday Cafe
Ever wish you had a good excuse to turn off and tune out? Now, at one Canadian coffeeshop, the opportunity has presented itself through the truncation of technology. Welcome to the Faraday Cafe.
Designed by Vancouver artist Julien Thomas, the idea is a socially-minded art project that aims to see how people can allow themselves to react when unencumbered by their technological tethers. The cafe features a Faraday Cage, which blocks all cellphone and wifi signals inside its 8' by 16' perimeter.
“I’m interested in the interactions that can take place in certain scenarios,” Thomas told www.ctanews.ca. "There might be a sense of anxiety…but that’s not a bad thing.”
The Vancouver cafe will be open until July 16th for those who would fancy their coffee with a side of e-silence.
Designed by Vancouver artist Julien Thomas, the idea is a socially-minded art project that aims to see how people can allow themselves to react when unencumbered by their technological tethers. The cafe features a Faraday Cage, which blocks all cellphone and wifi signals inside its 8' by 16' perimeter.
“I’m interested in the interactions that can take place in certain scenarios,” Thomas told www.ctanews.ca. "There might be a sense of anxiety…but that’s not a bad thing.”
The Vancouver cafe will be open until July 16th for those who would fancy their coffee with a side of e-silence.
 |
| The effectiveness of an unrelated one-man Faraday Cage. At Faraday Cafe, the only jolt you will get is from the caffeine. |
Chicago Serves Up Deep-Dish Big Brother With New Downtown Multi-Sensors
Urban engineering requires a lot of data to help cities and their denizens improve. However, the city of Chicago may have taken it into creepy territory with their new, discreet, downtown multi-sensors.
Ostensibly created to track data on climate, pedestrian movement patterns, environmental pollutants, light intensity, sound volume, and (of course, in Chicago) wind, the sensors are an interesting idea to monitor city elements in real time. The worrisome bit is that they also record the cellphone connectivity of passersby. Advocates are quick to point out that the sensors only monitor connectivity to wireless networks, not actual device signatures, but the element of privacy invasion remains.
Computer scientist Charlie Catlett, who has led the team working on this "Array Of Things" project, told the Chicago Tribune that, "We don't collect things that can identify people. There are no cameras or recording devices...sensors will be collecting sound levels but not recording actual sound. The only imaging will be infrared."
However, Gary King, Harvard University's director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, astutely pointed out that, "If they do a good job they'll collect identifiable data. You can (gather) identifiable data with remarkably little information...you have to be careful. Good things can produce bad things."
The data grab is being promoted in part as a means to understand urban environments more thoroughly, and to make cities run more cleanly and efficiently. Hopefully this won't include raids from the Thought Police.
Ostensibly created to track data on climate, pedestrian movement patterns, environmental pollutants, light intensity, sound volume, and (of course, in Chicago) wind, the sensors are an interesting idea to monitor city elements in real time. The worrisome bit is that they also record the cellphone connectivity of passersby. Advocates are quick to point out that the sensors only monitor connectivity to wireless networks, not actual device signatures, but the element of privacy invasion remains.
Computer scientist Charlie Catlett, who has led the team working on this "Array Of Things" project, told the Chicago Tribune that, "We don't collect things that can identify people. There are no cameras or recording devices...sensors will be collecting sound levels but not recording actual sound. The only imaging will be infrared."
However, Gary King, Harvard University's director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, astutely pointed out that, "If they do a good job they'll collect identifiable data. You can (gather) identifiable data with remarkably little information...you have to be careful. Good things can produce bad things."
The data grab is being promoted in part as a means to understand urban environments more thoroughly, and to make cities run more cleanly and efficiently. Hopefully this won't include raids from the Thought Police.
 |
| Will you be e-raided by the Array? Image courtesy the Chicago Tribune. |
Tetris-Enabled T-Shirt. That Is All.
Modern gamers have it so easy. You can race, shoot, hunt, hide, storm, and slay on portable platforms from your cell phone to a high-tech handheld gaming device. However, one man has taken this technology into an entirely different realm: fashion.
As reported by Time.com, "YouTube user Marc Kerger crafted the shirt, which features 128 LEDs and an Arduino Uno microcontroller board, in honor of Tetris’s 30th anniversary." A pair of AA batteries and you're off into belly-based, block-stacking bliss.
Tetris, the iconic Russian brainteaser, was invented in 1984 by Russian engineering student Alexey Pajitnov, and soon after took the world by shape-spinning, stackable storm.
As reported by Time.com, "YouTube user Marc Kerger crafted the shirt, which features 128 LEDs and an Arduino Uno microcontroller board, in honor of Tetris’s 30th anniversary." A pair of AA batteries and you're off into belly-based, block-stacking bliss.
Tetris, the iconic Russian brainteaser, was invented in 1984 by Russian engineering student Alexey Pajitnov, and soon after took the world by shape-spinning, stackable storm.
Frying The Onion Ring: NSA Databases ALL German Tor Users
Tor, an "onion" type encryption service, anonymizes one by rerouting information through various proxy servers. This is extremely difficult to trace and henceforth infuriating to the NSA. Rather than do actual investigations to decide who may actually be committing cybercrimes via this software, the NSA instead chooses to target anyone who has downloaded the program to their computer. They are apparently under the assumption that those of us who are smart enough to recognize what is going on and going wrong are likely criminals for taking the "crazy" steps to protect ourselves.
This revelation, as reported by boingboing.com, first emerged from the investigations of several intrepid German reporters. The leak of this information is thought to have been divulged post-Snowden, leading reporter Corey Doctorow to speculate, "The existence of a potential second source means that Snowden may have inspired some of his former colleagues to take a long, hard look at the agency's cavalier attitude to the law and decency." Yet while the total Tor-based "terrorist" list is currently thought only to apply to German users, one would not be surprised if this did or will soon apply to Tor users in America.
If only one good apple could change the whole rotten barrel. At least we still have a barrel of...onions? Stinking as the whole operation is, the powers that be can't simply stop our freedom of thought just yet.
Electric Excellence For Everyone: Tesla's Affordable Model E
The changing dynamics of sustainable transportation will hopefully soon allow our dependency on fossil fuels to decline dramatically. Now, electric car manufacturers Tesla are taking steps to bring their technology to different levels of the market.
The Tesla Model E is a new and more affordable electric car that could raise the industry's appeal to the masses. As reported by technobuffalo.com, Tesla VP of engineering Chris Porritt indicated "the E will be priced to compete with Audi’s A4 sedan and BMW’s compact 3 series, which both cost a little over $30,000 new." The Model E is significantly less expensive than their flagship $70,000 Model S automobile, thanks to developments made by Tesla's Gigafactory that will enable the creation of lower-cost batteries.
Tesla also plans to release an SUV, the Model X, due out in the second quarter of 2015. The company has refused to comment on any prospective release date for hoverboards.
The Tesla Model E is a new and more affordable electric car that could raise the industry's appeal to the masses. As reported by technobuffalo.com, Tesla VP of engineering Chris Porritt indicated "the E will be priced to compete with Audi’s A4 sedan and BMW’s compact 3 series, which both cost a little over $30,000 new." The Model E is significantly less expensive than their flagship $70,000 Model S automobile, thanks to developments made by Tesla's Gigafactory that will enable the creation of lower-cost batteries.
Tesla also plans to release an SUV, the Model X, due out in the second quarter of 2015. The company has refused to comment on any prospective release date for hoverboards.
 |
| Image courtesy www.gas2.org. |
Down With The Sickness: Your Online Health Records Are Easily Hackable
Your medical records from personal doctors and hospitals are increasingly going electronic, both due to ease of accessibility for providers and the stimulus of $24 billion dollars in federal incentive money (thanks to the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.) Now, serious worries are raised that this sensitive information's accessibility isn't being protected well enough from threats.
According to the Identify Theft Resource Center, over half of the 353 tracked breaches in 2014 were from the health sector. Criminal attacks on health data are on the rise, with the target information (such as a full health profile on a certain person) selling for $500 on the black market. This information can be used to steal an identity to gain care, or worse, commit blackmail with the sensitive material. A Ponemon report claimed 313,000 people were health-record heist victims in 2013, up 19 percent from the previous year.
Politico.com reports that security ratings firm BitSight has rated the health care industry as the least prepared for a cyber attack, thanks in part to their high volume of threats and slow response time. Also, about half of health systems surveyed in an annual review by the Health Information Management Systems Society indicated that they spent 3 percent or less of their IT budgets on security.
Even the Feds admit this is a weak system. The health industry “is not as resilient to cyber intrusions compared to the financial and retail sectors, therefore the possibility of increased cyber intrusions is likely,” according to a warning released by the FBI.
Since 2009, more than 31.6 million individuals (a tenth of the United States) have had their medical records exposed through some form of malfeasance or outright theft, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)