Tech

477 posts

Google and Skynet Team Up With New Android Robo-Eyewear!

Oh good. Google has decided that the world is ready for digital glasses. That’s right. It’s just about time that we all had facts and data broadcast mere inches away from our eyeballs. This won’t be infuriating in the least. Not one single person will become that guy who has the new fangled Web-Specs, and like a cyborg, will start rattling off all the fun! exciting! mind-numbingly inane things! he just looked up on Google from rolling his head to the side, blinking at lightning speed, and basically walking into traffic because Todd, just had to show off. This thing will be awesome. (The machines. They’ve been sent to kill us.) Continue reading →

Derek Thompson Might be America’s Most Underrated Blogger

Why doesn’t The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson get more attention? I rarely see his stuff linked from other big economics-oriented liberal bloggers and he seems to always be overshadowed by the other writers at his own publication — folks like James Fallows, Ta-Nahesi Coates and (barf) Megan McCardle.

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Tribler Will Be the Death of Copyrights and Patents

Ten years ago, DC Comics published the seminal “Death of Superman” comic book series. In this storyline, Superman takes on a monster called Doomsday, who *spoiler alert* kills Superman. Doomsday was created in a lab on Krypton by a mad scientist named Bertron, who then subjected Doomsday to the harshest possible environments and situations. Consequently, Doomsday died. A lot. However, each time Doomsday died, he would be reconstituted by Bertron, and adapted to whatever killed him. He died thousands of times, and through this forced evolution eventually became virtually indestructible, at which point he turned on Bertron, killed him, and went on a galactic rampage.

New developments in file sharing software now threaten to release a digital Doomsday, and copyright and patent holders may sooner rather than later find themselves in the role of Superman. Continue reading →

Alan Turing Denied Official Pardon for Being Gay

The British government rejected a request today to pardon renowned English mathematician, codebreaker, and computing innovator Alan Turing, who was convicted of gross indecency in 1952. The request for a pardon was initiated by scientists and mathematicians around the world as well as a publicly circulated petition to the government in London.

The online government petition, which was started last year, asked for a pardon that “may act as an apology to many of the other gay men, not as well known as Alan Turing, who were subjected to these laws.” It currently has close to 24,000 signatures. An earlier petition calling for a formal apology prompted then Prime Minister Gordon Brown to write such an apology on behalf of the British government in 2009. Continue reading →