Month: May 2005

This Makes Me Uncomfortable

Technology sure is an unfettered beast when we want it to be.

In the latest race to calm people’s qualms about travelling via airplane, a new security scanner is being considered for testing in the U.S. It’s much more effective than the X-ray machines currently in use, as it intelligently reconstructs the person’s body from the data. I can’t say much more because obviously details are not easy to come by.

You can see some sample images in this article.

Essentially proponents are saying that it will be used in lieu of a strip search, or for special cases. I say welcome to a slippery slope. We all know how that story ends.

Opponents are saying this is perverse, as the scanning of people only exposes the exterior of their bodies and not their interior, which strip searches would do. So it cannot replace strip searches. They are upset at the thought of officers at airports viewing images of naked children, or purposefully choosing the scanned people in order to obtain a free strip show.

The article finally mentions that officials are declining to say when or where these machines may be put into testing.

Yeah!

Public Service Announcement from Hitachi

Maybe you remember that PSA (Public Service Announcement) aired on T.V. in the 1980’s about how a bill becomes a law or some such? Anyhow, for some strange reason Hitachi has decided to follow in its footsteps in its announcement of a new technology to be used in storage products (read hard drives).

The technology behind it is mildly interesting to us geeks (you can start consuming the details at Ars Technica), but to consumers it means larger drives for cheaper. Simple as that.

However Hitachi wanted to make sure everyone understood it’s new technology product, so they made a nice cartoon for your learning needs.

Rated ‘A’ For Adult, and ‘F’ For Freakin’ Hilarious

Just a few files I’ve been meaning to put up here. Note that the first one is not really suitable for anyone younger than a teen. So if you’re younger than 16 or so, don’t click that link … just don’t!

Yes, I know, anyone under 16 will now be forced to click the link. But I have absolved myself of all responsibility.

Why don’t they make ads like this and run them when I watch T.V.?

Several years ago I found this animated fight scene online, and have saved a copy of it here. This was around the time of the first Matrix movie, and it obviously pales to that film’s special effects. But the non-stop punishment of the stick people is a must today!

I’m Only Here To Help

I know a few people who are currently slaving away in their academic dungeons, trying feverishly to finish some kind of ‘learned’ document. It could be some kind of monster thesis, or it could be some weekly assignment. These things can be tough, as often these people are thinking in the back of their minds that they may or may not want to publish these papers once they’re written.

So I want to help. I found a great service online where you can have your paper written for you, and it will be generated in a way that it is ready for submission to whatever body of approval you desire. It’s not going to be gibberish either, it will include images, citations, and all that other stuff that makes paper committees smile when they wake up in the morning.

There’s only one limit – it will only generate papers suitable for computer science academics. Sorry, but perhaps there is some special attribute of the computer science industry and it’s willingness to accept silly names and words for common things that makes this work so well. I mean really, what the heck is a CPU anyways? Can’t we just call it a ‘computer brain’?

If you’re interested in getting your paper made for you, go check it out.

If you’re curious about the veracity of the results, know this – a paper was created using this program and was accepted for a conference this year. Yes, the conference committee apparently read it over and thought it would be interesting enough and informative enough to have it presented at the conference. Quality stuff, I tell ya.

If you’re still in doubt, I could mention that the team behind this new tool is currently attending the esteemed M.I.T institute … or is that redundant? OK, just M.I.T.

Did I mention it’s free? I’ve even thrown together a sample paper, which you can view here