By Johnny Daniels Contributing Writer, [GAS] While President Obama is going around thinking that his sparkling, very expensive new smart phone is secure and hacker-proof, convicted hacker Kevin Mitnick has some bad news for him – it’s not secure at all. Mitnick, who spent nearly 5 years in prison for hacking offences, told Fox News […]
In the following video, MIT grad student David Merrill demos Siftables — cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Is this the next thing in hands-on learning?
By Jimmy Rogers Contributing Writer, [GAS] If you’re any kind of geek and you’re in my age bracket (18-25), you probably got excited when you read the title of this article. The Oregon Trail is an iconic game for many young geeks because it was available in schools (something about being educational), fun to play, and a bit […]
By Brian Boyko Contributing Writer, [GAS] Ponginator is a robot, and as far as robots go, this one is fairly simple. It plays music, says a few words cribbed from audio files, and shoots ping-pong balls from pressurized air guns. We’ve been doing a series on crazy inventors with crazy inventions. Vernon Graner and the […]
Pablos Holman is a futurist, IT security expert, and notorious hacker with a unique view into both breaking and building new technologies. In the following presentation, he explains what drives computer hackers to do what they do best: break into gadgets, networks, and systems.
by Chip Camden Contributing Writer, [GAS] Way back in the dark ages when I first started programming in BASIC, the first stumblingblock I encountered on my quest for programmerhood was the statement: X = X + 1 My High School algebra training screamed out, “That’s an unsolvable equation!” I soon learned that the above is […]
Featured at the Nepcon world exposition in Japan, “Pack in Instance” is a new packing technology that allows you to perfectly pack sensitive items, regardless of size of item or boxes. Just insert packing material in the box, inject a special gel and… voilà!… instant protection for your valuable gear. [Via Newlauches]
By hooking a $250 Motorola RFID reader and an antenna to his laptop, Chris Paget was able to easily harvest and clone multiple RFID identity documents while driving through San Francisco. Fortunately for the victims Chris is a white hat hacker and only did this to prove that using RFID-enabled identify cards can only be […]
P.W. Singer was the Defense Policy Task Force coordinator for the Obama presidential campaign. He’s also a sexy geek. Jon Stewart calls him “the Shecky Greene of robotics.” Here he talks about the coming robot uprising and his book “Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century“.
Filmed during the Wired NextFest event located in Chicago in June 2005, (Yes, this is pretty old, but still cool nonetheless), these robotic stepping stones were used to demo a new kind of visual tracking system. Further details on what we think seems to be the same (or very similar) technology can be found here.