Here’s an interesting post from a guy who is a malware research director. He discovered a fairly lame trojan horse virus and tried to track it back to it’s author, YoGangsta50, simply by using readily available web information.
Category: Technology
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How about a nice game of chess?
For those that remember the 1983 movie War Games, this is the line that the computer utters after it realizes that Tic-Tac-Toe is unwinnable.
Well, let’s add checkers to the list. Not that it’s true when most humans play, but scientists have proven that the top checkers computer program cannot be beaten.
Another memorable line from War Games (the heros were trying to escape an island):
Well, what kind of an asshole grows up in Seattle and doesn’t even know how to swim?
There’s no point to that quote, it just makes me laugh…
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The $1,975 iPod
Here’s an interesting iPhone review. While it gets good reviews as a gadget, this is what it said about the iPhone for professionals:
The unhappy fact is that for all the glamorous marketing and positioning, iPhone turns out to be the worst $1,975 investment (iPhone plus two years minimum, mandatory service) you could make in mobile communications. If you put that kind of money into a BlackBerry, Treo, Windows Mobile, or Symbian device, you will be blown away by what a genuine professional mobile handset can do for you, out of the box, through incremental improvement by the manufacturer and wireless operator, and extension by downloadable third-party software.
Ouch.
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Google Maps Street View
OK, who has checked out Google Maps new Street View feature? It is both very cool and a little freaky. It only works in certain cities. But in those cities you can click on a street in the Google map and see and actual street level photograph. From the photo view, you can totally navigate around. Brooklyn is covered so you can literally walk around my neighborhood. Here’s the building where we will be moving (the doors right in front of the bus).
My first question is where did they get all the photos? They were clearly taken early in the morning. There isn’t much traffic or people around. But every once in a while you do see a person. How weird would it be if you saw yourself? It’s a bit Big Brother.
My big question is, how do you keep this up to date? Is it just a gimmick or will people find important use for this?
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Font humor
OK, that may seem like an oxymoron to most, but this web site agrees with my general distaste for MS Comic Sans. It seems like every person who first discovers fonts other than Ariel and Times New Roman goes first to MS Comic Sans. It is definitely a pet peeve of mine. The name should tell you that it is not a serious font. If you are using MS Comic Sans in an Excel spreadsheet, there is something seriously wrong.
Of course that’s just me…
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Cool Google Map mashup
I was checking the status of my wife’s flight. She’s flying JetBlue. When you check the status, you get the usual table of actual and estimated times. But if the plane is in flight, there is a View Map link.
This link is a Google Maps mashup, showing the actual position and course of the plane. Simple, but very cool.
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Firefox Add-ons
I just installed two nice add-ons, both Google map related. Both are incredibly simple. The first allows you to highlight an address on a web page, right click and map it with Google maps. Simple, but something I do all the time.
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1886/
The second is even more useful. Same concept but you set your home address (and optionally two other addresses) and when you highlight an address on a web page you can right click and get directions from your home to that address (supports either Google or Yahoo).
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1104/
To me these show how sometimes the simplest little addition to functionality can make all the difference.
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What we don’t know
An amusing and informative link from Wired magazine.
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A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods
Chris Welch forwarded me this link. I don’t even understand all of it, but I found it fascinating…
Steve Fischer's Random Blog 