Just days after Ohio announced problems with all of the e-voting machines used in that state, Colorado has decertified e-voting machines from all four major vendors in the space, noting serious problems with them all, including a 1% error rate in counting ballots (1%!). So at what point do the e-voting companies stop stonewalling and finally just admit that they need to start again from scratch? At this point, it's beyond clear that none of these firms is even the least bit trustworthy -- and yet, they continue to protest these decertifications, despite piles upon piles of evidence that these machines have serious problems.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

ChazeFroy writes "CourtTV (TruTV) has a new series starting Dec. 25 at 11 pm called 'Tiger Team.' It follows a group of elite penetration testers hired to test organizations' security using social engineering, wired/wireless penetration testing, and physically defeating security mechanisms (lock picking, dumpster diving, going through air vents/windows). They do all of this while avoiding the organizations' various security defenses as well as law enforcement. The stars of the show also did a radio spot this morning in Denver." Wonder how they socially engineer away the presence of a camera team in the air vents.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Back in October we pointed to a totally pointless lawsuit against Facebook from a woman who blamed the company because her mobile phone was getting text messages from Facebook against her wishes. The problem with the lawsuit, however, was that it wasn't Facebook's fault, as the reason the woman was getting the errant text messages was because she had received a new phone number. The previous owner of the number had signed up to receive the text messages, and they carried over to the new subscriber. There's no doubt that this could be quite annoying and upsetting to the woman, but it's hard to see how Facebook really should have known about it or could be seen as the party liable here -- so it appeared to be yet another lawsuit where someone targets a hot company just because it's a hot company. In this case, though, it appears to have worked. Facebook has agreed to settle the lawsuit and pay the legal fees of the plaintiff, while also agreeing to make it easier to stop such text messages and working with mobile operators to learn about recycled numbers. While Facebook probably had a decent chance of winning the case, from a PR/user relations standpoint it probably made sense to settle and do everything possible to make this less of a problem.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

The annual ITP show is a two day exhibition of interactive sight, sound and physical objects by the student artists of ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University). Here are some of our favorite projects this year, this is a giant post - scroll scroll!

Picture here, single white android.

The 'Is our machines learning?' machines 2.0
The 'Is our machines learning?' machines is a networked art installation in which test-taking robots behave according to how users engage with a website composed of questions from real U.S. standardized tests. The physical installation consists of machines that are mechanically capable of making marks on standardized test forms with a pencil. These machines rest on top of antique school desks, ready to pencil in multiple-choice bubbles on SCANTRON test forms. In a separate online space, visitors coming to a website determine which multiple-choice answers the machines in the installation select to fill in. At this website, users can watch the machines respond to their input via a streaming video feed from the installation - Link & more.

---

Pusher/Puller
Sound/Space is a architecturally-inspired physical interface for pushing and pulling sound -- an interactive architecture prototype. The device is meant to both stand on its own, reacting to what it hears, and provide control over the audio environment for the users.

By pushing and pulling the points along the shape's exterior, users will be able to change the parameters of filters, delays, buffers, etc., allowing them to "play" the sounds around them as music- Link & more.

---

momo : a haptic navigation device
A haptic navigational device that requires only the sense of touch to guide a user. No maps, no text, no arrows, no lights. momo sits in the palm of your two hands and navigates you to an end location by leaning and vibrating. Akin to someone pointing you in the right direction, there is no need to find your map, you simply follow as the device gravitates to your destination - Link & more. The NYTimes got to this one just a few minutes before I did, ah well.

---

morgen: they'll wake you up
Project is based on the idea that while many people hate their alarm clocks, few hate their mothers. Morgen is an interface that uses the connections between people to make waking up a more dynamic and meaningful experience.

Via a Facebook application, friends and family can vie for the job of waking up the Morgen user on a particular day. They create a new message that makes its way wirelessly to one of Morgen's nodes--an expandable system of networked objects that the user can place throughout the room. The user knows that each day, they will receive a new message from someone, but they will not find out whom until they walk over to their alarm in the morning. At the time the user wishes to wake up, one of the nodes begins to make sounds, which gradually increase in volume - Link & more.

---

Compass Ion Organ
Compass Ion Organ is a posture and meditation support belt embedded with sensors which track the curvature of the users spine, and provides feedback for the wearer in the form of visual and sonic information via a microcontroler to software(Max/MSP/Jitter). The belt has a calibration button which can be set for each user in order to give personal readings about their current state of spinal posture. The information coming from the user influences changes in realtime, to visual and/or sonic algorithmic compositions. These are displayed on a large flat panel LCD screen which the user is facing. The compositions for the belt will explore different mathematical principals about balance and order, such as Lindenmayer Systems and Fractals, as well as irregularities, dealing with atonal and chaotic patterns. The feed back of visuals and sound is meant to guide the user into proper alignment and help them maintain it once they have it. The algorithms are designed to reflect balance when the spine is straight and discord when it is not - Link.

---

Plink Jet
Plink Jet is a robotic musical instrument made from scavenged ink jet printers. The mechanical parts of four printers are diverted from their original function, re-contextualizing the relatively high-tech mechanisms of this typically banal appliance into a ludic musical performance. Motorized, sliding ink cartridges and plucking mechanisms play four guitar strings by manipulating both pitch and strumming patterns like human hands fingering, fretting, and strumming a guitar. Plink Jet is designed to play itself, be played, or both. The result is an optionally collaborative performance between both the user and Plink Jet, with the user choosing varying levels of manual control over the different cartridges (fretting) and string plucking speeds (strumming) - Link & more.

---

Afterimage - Mind Frame II
'Afterimage - Mind Frame II' is a visual installation where the audience discovers and recreates images in empty picture frames. Physical, mental, and emotional interactions all come together in this piece. Audiences see an abstract moving image composed of tiny white blocks projected in a picture frame placed at eye level in a gallery setting. After the array of blocks stops moving, an afterimage of a familiar image is revealed in the otherwise blank frame.

The array of tiny, moving blocks forms a very vague representation of the original image and the afterimage it creates is not very clear. But regardless, the audience perceives a well-defined impression of the subject. This happens because the afterimage subconsciously invokes the original image from their memory, neurologically combining it with the afterimage from the eye. Therefore audiences don't see just the afterimage, but a combination of the afterimage and the original image from their own memory which fills in the details more fully as they remember the original image. It's a surprising experience, and created entirely in the mind from memories and a grid of glowing blocks! - Link.

---

Balance Board
This project consists of two pieces: a platform with embedded sensors and a box giving feedback (via light) as to how a patient's weight is distributed between the left and right feet. It can be used by a therapist to detect weight bearing & balance issues and track progress, by the patient to give feedback and positively reinforce correct weight bearing, or as an aid to exercises that help with weight bearing & balance. It was developed primarily for use by stroke patients - Link.

---

Jabberjockeys
Jabberjockeys consist of a pair of underwear (one male, one female) which discreetly inform a partner when the other gets aroused. By sensing subtle changes in temperature, moisture and pressure the undergarments detect arousal. The underwear automatically notifies the partner by activating vibrating motors sewn into the fabric of their underwear, thus enabling them to discreetly share their heightened emotions. The sensors that are sewn into the underwear are galvonic skin response sensors, pressure sensorss and a stretch sensor. The ouput consists of a grid of small vibrating motors. The controllers are Arduino Lilypads. Communication is achieved via bluetooth to the wearer's cellphones - Link.

---

More:

• Project listing - Link.
• ITP winter show photos here - Link.
• More about the ITP winter show - Link.

If you attended the show and have others you enjoy, post up in the comments!

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Smivs writes "The BBC reports that an ocean may not be the source of the jets emanating from Saturn's moon Enceladus. Controversial research questions the moon's promise as a target in the search for life beyond Earth. A chemical analysis of Enceladus, led by University of Colorado planetary scientist Nick Schneider, failed to detect sodium, an element scientists say should be present in any body of water that has been in contact with rock for billions of years. Spectral analysis with the Keck Telescope found no sodium in the plumes or in the vapor in orbit around the moon. At stake is whether Saturn's moon could support alien life and is thus a worthy target for a NASA exploratory mission to detect it. Such a mission to Enceladus is one of four currently under review for further development."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Say no more. (Usual cautions apply and read the comments for some tips on "keeping all your digits and spleen," which is always something to keep in mind.)

Pneumatic Snowball Cannon - Link

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

TorrentSpy has lost the first round of its case against the MPAA, but the details suggest that it's for all the wrong reasons. TorrentSpy, of course, is like many other torrent trackers: it's a search engine. While the MPAA went after TorrentSpy claiming that it was violating copyright laws like Grokster/Morpheus, TorrentSpy pointed out (correctly) that the Supreme Court only said that service providers who actively encourage copyright infringement can be held liable. Instead, TorrentSpy noted, it was a search engine, just like Google -- which is quite accurate. However, the court seemed to have difficulty understanding this -- and when the court ordered TorrentSpy to spy on its users (against TorrentSpy's own terms of service), the company instead chose to cut off US users. This seemed quite admirable and reasonable. It was, in fact, a lot more admirable than the MPAA, who hired someone to hack into TorrentSpy's servers and pass on internal emails. However, it appears that TorrentSpy's decision to not spy on its users and to block access to US users is part of what caused it to lose the case. The ruling isn't on the merits of the actual copyright claim, but on the claim that TorrentSpy destroyed evidence -- such as the IP addresses of its users. There does appear to be some additional egregious destruction of evidence from TorrentSpy beyond just the IP addresses of users -- which was incredibly stupid for the company. That certainly hurt the company's position. However, that does not address the merits of the original lawsuit. The MPAA, of course, is claiming this is a huge win, but that's just its usual press release quote and has little to connect it to reality: which is that the MPAA won this case on a technicality rather than the merits. TorrentSpy plans to appeal, so this is hardly over -- but the destruction of evidence will hurt the rest of TorrentSpy's position, no matter how reasonable it may have been.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

christian.einfeldt writes "In August of 2007, the State of New York passed legislation requiring its CIO, Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, to gather information on the advantages and disadvantages of adopting either ODF or OOXML as a document standard, and to report her findings by 15 January 2007. As part of her duties under that legislation, the CIO issued a Request For Public Comment to get feedback on the topic. The deadline for that public comment is 28 December 2007 — so there is still time for the Slashdot crowd to be heard."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

As expected, the FCC agreed today to ever so barely relax media ownership rules. While we rarely find FCC Chair Kevin Martin's arguments convincing, on this one he's correct -- and we still can't figure out why people are so up in arms. The details show that it's an incredibly minor change to the rules. In the top 20 media markets, newspapers can merge with a single radio or TV station -- but not if that TV station is one of the top 4 stations in that market. In other words, newspapers who are struggling to get beyond just being newspapers can finally expand into other media areas. I can't understand why people are freaked out about this. At best, a newspaper can now own a tiny radio or TV station. The fear of only one point of view getting through is totally laughable for a variety of reasons. First, there are more sources of media than ever before in history -- by a long shot. To think that a single TV station or newspaper can dominate the conversation is laughable. Second, since it can't involve a top 4 TV station, it's hard to believe that this new entity will have all that much dominance in the market. There seems to be nothing wrong with this proposal. Of course, don't expect this to go anywhere. Thanks to misleading hysteria over the issue, the Senate quickly stepped in to block the FCC's ruling, at least for the time being.

However, in another decision that doesn't make much sense at all, the FCC did vote to cap cable growth. As we've pointed out in the past, the rationale for this makes almost no sense, and will likely decrease choice of providers in many regions. With media ownership, you're talking about a highly competitive market. With things like cable, you are not -- so it makes very little sense for the FCC to cap cable's growth -- except as a favor to Kevin Martin's friends in the telcos.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

An 8 x 8 LED-based multitouch input device using an ARM7 microcontroller with USB 2.0 with a >25Hz capture rate.

LED Touch Panel - [via] Link

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Invisible Pink Unicorn writes "Researchers at MIT have found a way to induce cells to form parallel tube-like structures that could one day lead to tiny engineered blood vessels. The researchers found that they can control the cells' development by growing them on a surface with nano-scale patterning. The work focuses on vascular tissue, which includes capillaries, the tiniest blood vessels. The team has created a surface that can serve as a template to grow capillary tubes aligned in a specific direction. The cells, known as endothelial progenitor cells, not only elongate in the direction of the grooves, but also align themselves along the grooves. That results in a multicellular structure with defined edges — a band structure. Once the band structures form, the researchers apply a commonly used gel that induces cells to form three-dimensional tubes."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Stunning zip tie ring, and likely a good project to (re)make if you're in to casting your own jewelry - [via] Link.

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Usually when I get a phishing scam email, it directs me to a lame 3rd-rate-Geocities kind of website, but this one has a custom domain: www.secure-your-credit-card.com.

Of course, the true purpose of the site is exactly the opposite of what is claimed. Anyone naive enough to fill out the form with their credit card information will learn the hard way about phishing scams.

Though you may be finishing your holiday shopping online, away from the mobs at the malls, ubiquitous user reviews on most merchant websites make shopping online slightly less lonely. It's nice to know that you're not the first one to try out some product, but just how helpful are user reviews? Even the most cursory pondering on this subject leads to a whole slew of questions and concerns. Just who are these reviewers and can you trust their opinions? Are they influenced by unseen motives (like free meals)? Perhaps their criteria for judging something is completely different than what you would judge on? Before you know it, you've spent hours chasing user reviews down a rathole, and you've ended up where you started -- no closer to finishing your shopping. So, do user reviews actually make shopping online better, or are they just a waste of time? We are already plagued with the paradox of choice: where an increase in the number of choices available has been shown to actually decrease satisfaction (since by choosing 1 thing, we are not choosing 89 others, and that makes us sad). So, add to this a dizzying array of user opinions, and all of a sudden, even choosing a box of tissues ceases to be a mundane task. Do I want the normal "Puffs" (average rating, 4 stars) or do I want the "Puffs Plus Lotion" (average rating, 5 stars) for more money? Where in this process does the fact that I use my tissues to clean my monitor once in awhile come in to play (in which case the Lotioned tissue would definitely not be a 5 star product)? User reviews have been around for years now, yet not much has been done since they were first launched to make them more useful. Perhaps the true role of user reviews is to serve as a sort of a sanity check -- it's the health rating posted at the front of a restaurant. As long as nobody has seen any cockroaches running around the kitchen, it's safe to eat.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

anthrax writes "Ignoring Congressional and public comments, the FCC voted to relax ownership rules that have prevented broadcasters from owning newspapers in the nation's 20 largest media markets. After holding several public hearings that overwhelmingly opposed the relaxation of the rules, and Congressional hearing where Democrats and Republicans (even Ted 'Tubes' Stevens) voiced opposition to the move, the FCC voted 3 to 2 to relax ownership. On the same day the FCC voted 3 to 2 (by a different split) to cap the size of any cable company at 30% of the nationwide market, a limit Comcast is up against."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I had heard there was a 5k friend limit on Facebook. I just didn't take it to heart. Until I reached 5k and tried to add 5001., at which point FB reminded of the limit.

It was a weird moment ,but actually one that I have come to respect and appreciate. Facebook went from being a way to broadcast information to 5k people, probably 4k of which I didn't know or even have a business link to, to a platform I either had to take seriously or walk away from.

I try to have open lines of communications with anyone who is interested in The Mavs, HDNet, HDNet Fights, 2929 Entertainment, Radical Buy or any of the many other businesses I'm associated with. If they had a question, I wanted to be able to at least acknowledge it, if not answer it. My email address, mark.cuban@dallasmavs.com is readily available across the net.

What I had not accounted for was that there were a lot of people who I had never met or had any connection to, who took the concept of FB "friending" literally. They wanted to interact as if we were long time friends. I was getting FB emails asking me how i was doing. What I was up to tonight. What did i think of X, Y, Z. Stuff that I was not going to tell a total stranger, even if they were my FB "friend"

So I started paring down "my friends". Based on where they lived, or what friends we did or didn't have in common, who they worked for and whether or not I thought there could be some, or any common ground. It was kind of a bizarre process of deciding who i didn't want as a :"friend". I actually felt bad "cutting" people from my friend list, but I really didn't have a choice.

i also had to make decisions on the 100 plus new friend requests I get per day. Could this person really be my friend ? Could this person really be someone i do business with ? Did I actually know this person ?

Its kind of a bizarre process of clicking on ignore and deleting friend requests. To any of you who I have deleted or ignored. Its nothing personal.

My new FB strategy is not exclusively about "friends" in the truest sense of the word. Its about three layers of "friends"

The first layer has my real friends. Those people who who I have actually met in real life and who I enjoy keeping in touch with. FB provides a great way to keep up with things with them via pictures, notifications, etc.

The 2nd layer is people who I have tangential connections to. They may just live in Dallas Fort Worth. They may be self proclaimed Mavs or MMA or movie fans, or in groups I'm in. For whatever reason there is something about them that I could connect to.

The 3rd layer is emerging as a very unique and interesting network in FB.
Its what I will call "The Power Layer." These are people who in whatever industry they are in , retain some level of power. Having them as FB friends, although very simple and non committal, gives me some level of access to them, and them to me. These are people that if they sent me a FB mail, i would certainly read and respond to , and I think they would do the same.

Its what I could also call the one shot layer. If you have an idea or thought, you get 1 shot, per year to get their attention. Anything more than that probably could and would get me deleted. Everyone at this layer gets pitched continuously. Myself included. If you abuse it, you lose it.

I honestly was shocked at how many people that I really respect in the business world are on FB. It will be interesting to see if big business networking flourishes on FB or if participation on FB is just a way for "the Power Layer" to get a better understanding of, and to keep track of what is happening in the FB universe

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments