mutterings of a cynic

Monday, April 24, 2006

digital forensics

According to Binghamton University, "Child pornographers will soon have a harder time escaping prosecution". They're filing for a patent that details using patterns in pixel noise in a digital image to identify the camera that was used to take the image. The idea is sound - each camera is different and analyzing a sample of its photographs reveals patterns in the noise.

Frankly, is justice so skewed that we actually need overwhelming evidence to make a conviction? Times were simpler when you could shoot on sight. If it all went wrong, you could still apologise to whoever cared.


Friday, April 21, 2006

farming



I like this. Personally I buy a game to play it myself, but I do "sort of" understand people wanting to do this.

Actually - scratch that, it's a silly thing to do. I do however definitely like the fact that it's advertised.

Nothing like taking from the rich and giving delegating to the poor.


Thursday, April 13, 2006

feature bloat

This isn't the usual kind of feature bloat - bloating is the actual feature.



This is the sort of thing that geeks come up with and giggle about over a plastic cup of sweet warm milk. The artists then come up with the ideas years later and the geeks find them really cool. Truth is, they are really cool. Geeks like us just don't have the vision to see a ridiculous idea as anything but. Hats off to the artists I say.


There's some more funky USB pics here


Tuesday, April 11, 2006

wick'd


This reminds me of my school days.

When I was a kid, I thought it'd be a great idea in Tech Drawing class to invent a cigarette box that contained a small section for a few matches and a sandpaper strip in the top. I hadn't realised at the time that there was stigma associated with using the poor man's matches to light a cigarette - the preferred method was to use a lighter.

Tell me - at what point was someone going to tell me that 12 years olds shouldn't be obsessing over cigarettes? Hell I don't care - I'm sure Philip Morris' parents are proud of him.