Can-Do vs. Can’t-Do Culture | Re/code
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw
Hasnain says:
"What mistake did all these very smart men make in common? They focused on what the technology could not do at the time rather than what it could do and might be able to do in the future. This is the most common mistake that naysayers make."
Posted on 2014-01-02T17:38:18+0000
WiTrack
WiTrack: Through-Wall 3D Tracking Using Wireles Signals
Hasnain says:
"WiTrack is a device that tracks the 3D motion of a user from the radio signals reflected off her body. It works even if the person is occluded from the WiTrack device or in a different room. WiTrack does not require the user to carry any wireless device, yet its accuracy exceeds current RF localization systems, which require the user to hold a transceiver. It transmits wireless signals whose power is 100 times smaller than Wi-Fi and 1000 times smaller than cellphone transmissions."
Holy ...
Posted on 2013-12-31T08:36:41+0000
Zoom, enhance. Corneal reflections can reveal bystanders (Wired UK)
Researchers at the Universities of York and Glasgow have managed to successfully extract identifiable images of bystanders from reflections in people's eyes
fogus: The best things and stuff of 2013
Pseudo-random ramblings from Fogus.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2013-12-27T23:11:34+0000
Classic 70s and 80s games go online
Classic video games from the 1970s and 1980s have been put online by the Internet Archive and can be played within a web browser.
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2013-12-27T23:04:02+0000
Why Some People Respond to Stress by Falling Asleep
Fight or flight, or sleep
Hasnain has not yet written a summary for this.
Posted on 2013-12-27T20:51:05+0000
Philip Guo - The Two Cultures of Computing
The Two Cultures originally referred to the schism between the sciences and humanities. However, I've noticed a similar schism in computing between users and programmers, which makes it hard to teach programming to beginners.
Hasnain says:
"There are now two main cultures in computing: Most computer users treat software as a tool for getting tasks done, while programmers hold conversations with their software. One big challenge when teaching programming, no matter in what language, is getting students used to a conversation-oriented programmer culture, which is very different than a tool-oriented user culture"
Posted on 2013-12-27T07:47:24+0000
How to generate a random snowflake
'Tis the season... And it's about time I pose my first question on MMA SE. So, here's an holiday quest for you Graphics (and P-chem?) gurus. What it is your best code for generating a (random) sno...
Essays from the funniest man in Microsoft Research - The Old New Thing - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
James Mickens has written a number of essays for ;login: magazine. The wall-of-text presentation is kind of scary, and the first time I encountered them, I skimmed the essays rather than reading them through. As a result, my reaction was, "I got tired." But if you follow the path and read the essays...
Hasnain says:
These are absolutely hilarious and worth reading.
"Interestingly, these kinds of intuitive arguments are not intuitive. A successful intuitive explanation must invoke experiences that I have in real life. I have never had a real-life experience that resembled a Byzantine fault tolerant protocol. For example, suppose that I am at work, and I want to go to lunch with some of my co-workers. Here is what that experience would look like if it resembled a Byzantine fault tolerant protocol:
JAMES: I announce my desire to go to lunch.
BRYAN: I verify that I heard that you want to go to lunch.
RICH: I also verify that I heard that you want to go to lunch.
CHRIS: YOU DO NOT WANT TO GO TO LUNCH.
JAMES: OH NO. LET ME TELL YOU AGAIN THAT I WANT TO GO TO LUNCH.
CHRIS: YOU DO NOT WANT TO GO TO LUNCH.
BRYAN: CHRIS IS FAULTY.
CHRIS: CHRIS IS NOT FAULTY.
RICH: I VERIFY THAT BRYAN SAYS THAT CHRIS IS FAULTY.
BRYAN: I VERIFY MY VERIFICATION OF MY CLAIM THAT RICH CLAIMS THAT I KNOW CHRIS.
JAMES: I AM SO HUNGRY.
CHRIS: YOU ARE NOT HUNGRY.
RICH: I DECLARE CHRIS TO BE FAULTY.
CHRIS: I DECLARE RICH TO BE FAULTY.
JAMES: I DECLARE JAMES TO BE SLIPPING INTO A DIABETIC COMA.
RICH: I have already left for the cafeteria."
Exclusive: Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - As a key part of a campaign to embed encryption software that it could crack into widely used computer products, the U.S. National Security Agency arranged a secret $10 million
Hasnain says:
"Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show that the NSA created and promulgated a flawed formula for generating random numbers to create a "back door" in encryption products, the New York Times reported in September."
"Undisclosed until now was that RSA received $10 million in a deal that set the NSA formula as the preferred, or default, method for number generation in the BSafe software, according to two sources familiar with the contract."
-_-
Posted on 2013-12-20T21:52:42+0000