by Cooee on November 13, 2008
Google really did capture those scenes when it sent a car equipped with cameras down Pittsburgh’s Sampsonia Way in May to take photographs for its online maps. But these images and most of the other scenes caught on Sampsonia were staged by artists Ben Kinsley and Robin Hewlett. The Google feature provides panoramic street-level photographs online so users can get a feel for wherever they might be heading - a virtual reconnaissance mission of sorts.
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by Cooee on November 13, 2008
When a user enters a PIN into the card the display shows a one-time number with which to authenticate each online credit card transaction. With EMUE’s technology, even if all of these details are stolen the hacker is unable to make any online transactions because the security code is different each time.
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by Cooee on November 4, 2008
Increasingly, as Google burrows deeper into everyday computing, its product announcements are prompting questions about its ability to gather more potentially sensitive personal information from users.
Data gathered through most of the company’s services “disappears into a black hole once it hits the Googleplex,” said Simon Davies, director of London-based Privacy International, referring to Google’s headquarters.
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by Cooee on November 4, 2008
MySpace is turning to third-party tech firm Auditude to deliver the technology through a combination of patented assets: a sophisticated ad-serving platform with a video-fingerprinting system that cross indexes billions of seconds of TV and online footage in seconds. The Auditude technology is similar to a system already being employed by the only site that has more traffic than MySpace: YouTube.
www.reuters.com
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by Cooee on October 27, 2008
A draft US Army intelligence report has identified the popular micro-blogging service Twitter, Global Positioning System maps and voice-changing software as potential terrorist tools.
A chapter on “Potential for Terrorist Use of Twitter” notes that Twitter members sent out messages, known as “Tweets,” reporting the July Los Angeles earthquake faster than news outlets and activists at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis used it to provide information on police movements.
Besides Twitter, the report examined the potential use by militants of Global Positioning Systems and other technologies.
theage.com.au
by Cooee on October 26, 2008
One of the researchers, Charles A. Miller, notified Google of the flaw this week and said he was publicizing it now because he believed that cellphone users were not generally aware that increasingly sophisticated smartphones faced the same threats that plague Internet-connected personal computers.
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by Cooee on October 23, 2008
The futuristic shoes currently generate 1.2 watts of electricity, “a level sufficient to run an iPod mobile music player forever, as long as the wearer keeps walking,” said spokesman Hideomi Tenma.
theage.com.au
by Cooee on October 23, 2008

The moment of truth is about to arrive in Britain with the deployment of the first major government biometric programs: ID cards (initially for foreign workers) carrying fingerprint records will be launched next month while automated immigration gates have begun recognition checks on passengers carrying the new generation of passports arriving at Manchester Airport.
British passports now carry chips that record facial recognition data but will eventually add fingerprints.
”One issue that remains is the speed with which data can be downloaded from the computer chip (in British passports),” says Mark Lockie, editor of Biometric Technology Today and program director of this week’s conference.
theage.com.au
by Cooee on October 21, 2008
Twine uses artificial intelligence–machine learning and natural language processing–to parse the contents of Web pages and extract key concepts, such as people, places, and organizations, from the pages that a user saves.
For example, creating a twine–a bundle of bookmarks related to a particular topic–devoted to a specialized technique in computer game design quickly led to the discovery of twines (created by other users) devoted to other areas of game design and to twines devoted to a popular game that uses the technique.
On the surface, Twine looks a lot like many other social-networking applications: users make connections, share, and discuss information, and the artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing built into the website is not immediately obvious.
technologyreview.com