Archive
Category: Weblog
Random assortments, selected for semantic content.
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Lucky the ISS is with AAMI
According to a report here and a statement made by a Russian Space Forces official, the International Space Station may have suffered a minor collision with a piece of space debris. Astronauts awoke to the gut-wrenching sound of metal scraping against metal, which lasted for a period of about one second. However, subsequent examination with… Read more →
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Mapping the Internet
Opte.org has recently completed an interesting project to map the TCP address layer of the internet. Some 4 294 967 296 (232 for the non-savants) addresses exist, and the project has used some clever reduction techniques (and approximations) to reduce the relevant nodes by 8 orders of magnitude, allowing them to render the image in… Read more →
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Australian ISP Liability Under Review
Mere weeks after the sentencing of the three operators of an MP3 download website (who escaped jail time), the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) has launched another action – this time against directors and employees of Com-Cen, an Australian ISP. The ISP is alleged to have breached copyright by hosting (though not operating) a similar… Read more →
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The Doublespeak of IDE Devices
The Los Angeles County Council has, according to Canutseon, requested the removal of several potentially offensive technological terms. Among them are the adjectives ‘master’/’slave’ (used in conjunction), to signal the mode of accessing an IDE device affixed to a computer. If this is true, it is indeed a feat of mind-boggling ignominiousness. Perhaps the Californian… Read more →
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Internet Extra
First up, a hilarious Dr Seuss satire site, showcasing the finest Seuss parodies of the web. My favourites are ‘Freud on Seuss’, ‘The New Testament According to Dr Seuss’, ‘If Dr Seuss Wrote for Star Trek’, and – of course – ‘Deconstructing Dr Seuss’ (rather amusing). Israeli scientists have produced a self-assembling nano-transistor. Of some… Read more →
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Ephemeral Tech Support
In more sedate news, the Washington Post has an interesting, if overstated, article about how the ephemeral nature of the internet is affecting academic research. Apparently, sources cited in research papers and theses change their Universal Resource Indicators (‘URIs’) very frequently, rendering references obsolete and gradually delegitimating the citing work. One solution to this problem… Read more →
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Have You Been iJacked?
Wired brings word of yet another bizarre, technology-inspired urban trend beginning to crop up amongst owners of Apple iPod music devices. Ranking among flash mobbing and playlistism, morning joggers seem to be approaching one another and exchanging headphone jacks (hence the term ‘jack swapping’) in order to glean a glimpse of the other person’s musical… Read more →
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Electronic Onomatopoeia
IEEE Spectrum has an interesting article on the future of high-powered microwave (HPM) weaponry, and its potential impact upon electrical systems and human organisms: An HPM weapon can induce currents large enough to melt circuitry. But even less intense bursts can temporarily disrupt electrical equipment or permanently damage ICs, causing them to fail minutes, days,… Read more →
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News Update
Now that the university semester has finished, great bounties of news should flow unimpeded for the next three months. In order to increase the breadth of coverage, fewer lengthy discourses about the items will be attempted. Instead, I will attempt to publish an article (or three) every few weeks, which will cover issues in more… Read more →
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Packer loses defamation claim
Kerry Packer yesterday lost a defamation case against rival media group John Fairfax Pty Ltd. Packer claimed that a satirical caption appearing in The Sydney Morning Herald on 16 December, 1999 construed him as ‘a power-crazed greedy man.’ Unsurprisingly, Fairfax-owned newspaper The Age was quick to carry the story. Fairfax’s defence was that the article… Read more →