Why Can’t Hollywood Get Computers Right?

Posted on March 18, 2014 by StevenTorresRamos

I’m glad Her won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The story’s good, the acting’s good and, above all, the technology story makes sense.

You might think that’s a little odd, considering that Her is the story of a guy who falls in love with a Siri-like operating system on his phone.

This futuristic OS is so sophisticated that you can’t tell it’s not a real person. She sounds like Scarlett Johansson, in fact.

That’s a big technological leap. But given that this movie is set in the “slight future” (as director Spike Jonze says), it’s not an implausible, silly leap. Especially because all the other technologies in the movie are brilliantly plausible.

In Her, we’ve finally standardized on a wearable technology. Not glasses, not watches — it’s an earpiece. It’s always online, it understands speech, and it doesn’t require taking your eyes off the road.

click below for entire article…

via Why Can’t Hollywood Get Computers Right?.

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Beware of This Dangerously Convincing Google Docs Phishing Scam

Posted on March 18, 2014 by StevenTorresRamos

A very tricky phishing scam that takes advantage of Google Docs is making its way around the web. And since it uses a google.com URL and even makes use of Google’s SSL encryption, it’s almost impossible to tell that it’s a hack. Your best safeguard, as always, is a little bit of common sense.This phishing scam starts like many other phishing scams: with an email. The malicious message reportedly arrives with the subject line “Documents” and points to a Google Docs link. Again, it shows up in the address bar as a google.com domain and takes you to a fake log-in page that looks just like the real Google login page. This is how the hackers get you.

click below to read entire article

via Beware of This Dangerously Convincing Google Docs Phishing Scam.

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Is There a Drone Flying Around the Harlem Building Collapse? (Updated)

Posted on March 13, 2014 by StevenTorresRamos

New Yorkers were shocked on Wednesday morning when reports of a building collapse in Harlem hit the wires. It didn’t take long for smartphone cameras to fill up everyone’s social media feeds. But wait. In that one… Is that… a drone? (Update: Yep! It’s some random guy’s DJI Phantom 2.)

Indeed, it looks like there’s a drone flying around the disaster area. The better question, however, is whose drone is it?

Local TV reporter Don Champion suggested that it was authorities using a drone to aid the investigation. This is not a crazy thought, as drones are already being used to help firefighters and police officers in cities around the world. It would also confirm rumors that the NYPD is experimenting with drones, which is really not a crazy thought especially since the NYPD chief said last year that he was interested in using drones in the city limits. When we called on Wednesday morning, the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information, for the NYPD says that the drone is not theirs. And I quote, “Why would we use drones?”

via Is There a Drone Flying Around the Harlem Building Collapse? (Updated).

WATCH VIDEO OF DRONE HERE

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Bright House set to match Google’s Fiber speeds in Tampa community

Posted on March 13, 2014 by StevenTorresRamos

Despite some recent PR setbacks, Google has become the people’s champion in cities with its gigabit fiber network — thanks in part to the low reputation (and speeds) of regular providers. However, one cable outfit, Bright House Networks, is at least seeing the commercial value in such installations. It’s joining forces with a real estate company to build a gigabit fiber-to-the-home network for a 6,000-unit development in Tampa, Florida. The first houses will be occupied this summer, with completion slated for 2017. Bright House said the move is not a response to Google’s recent announcement that it’ll expand Fiber to 34 more cities, but meant rather as a “differentiator” for the community. With its average internet speed around a fortieth of that figure, we imagine the rest of the company’s 2.4 million subscribers will keenly notice the difference.

via Bright House set to match Google’s Fiber speeds in Tampa community.

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MakerBot Replicator Z18 3D Printer

Posted on March 12, 2014 by StevenTorresRamos

THINK BIG, BUILD BIGGER
Powered by the new, user-friendly MakerBot Replicator 3D Printing Platform, the MakerBot Replicator Z18 is equipped with a massive build volume of 12 x 12 x 18 inches (2,592 cubic inches!), and an enclosed and heated build chamber designed to minimize curling. That means you can 3D print professional-quality models that are up to one-and-a-half feet (about half a meter) tall.

Need realistic prototypes and complex models? The MakerBot Replicator Z18 offers 100-micron layer resolution. Get smooth-to-the-touch surfaces that don’t need sanding, finishing, or postproduction.

UNPRECEDENTED AFFORDABILITY 

At just $6,499, the MakerBot Replicator Z18 offers a breakthrough advantage with the best price/performance in its category. 

MakerBot Replicator Z18 3D Printer.

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Epilogue: Hernán Molina was a standout at architecture and tennis | Tampa Bay Times

Posted on March 7, 2014 by StevenTorresRamos

ST. PETERSBURG — In his day, Hernán Molina played with some of the biggest stars in tennis. Bill Tilden, Jack Kramer and Tony Trabert knew Mr. Molina as an up-and-coming player, a former national 18-and-under champion in his native Argentina and a member of the national championship University of California at Berkeley team.

“He could go out on the court with any of them, he was that good,” said John McQuillen, a longtime doubles partner of Mr. Molina’s. “He could have turned pro but decided to be an architect. Pros didn’t make much money then.”

Mr. Molina would make a name for himself designing condominiums in South America and the Pinellas gulf beaches. The meticulous, hand-drawn plans still clutter his study, rolled up and stuffed into boxes beneath two shelves of tennis trophies. The alcove-sized room lies at the end of a hallway, an afterthought in the home he designed several years ago.

Please read on learn about my friend and help keep his memory alive. RIP Hernan, you were a many things to many people, but to me you will always be a great friend.

via Epilogue: Hernán Molina was a standout at architecture and tennis | Tampa Bay Times.

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The LIVR Hoax: Everybody’s Favorite New Drunkbro App Is Fake

Posted on March 7, 2014 by StevenTorresRamos

Yesterday, the developers of an app called LIVR began cold-calling tech writers. The pitch was fun! A social network you can only access when you’re drunk, thanks to a breathalyzer accessory. If it seems like the platonic ideal of SXSW catnip, that’s because it was engineered to be exactly that. LIVR is a hoax.

We were first contacted by LIVR yesterday morning in the form of a press release sent to our tipbox. Heaven forbid you ever be exposed to press releases in your lifetime, but suffice it to say LIVR’s was convincing, full of the nextify 2.0 jargon that makes everyone hate Silicon Valley:

LIVR acts as a biometric bouncer to a global party. Before gaining access, users first must blow into a plug-in breathalyzer and demonstrate a minimum BAC (Blood Alcohol Content). All users on the network must achieve a minimal level of intoxication thereby guaranteeing that all users logged into LIVR at a given time are in a similar state of mind. As a user metabolizes their alcohol, they must drink more and re-check in.

The app included features like Drunk Dial™ (the trademark was a nice touch) which randomly connects two inebriated souls, and Truth or Dare, which “connects users to crowd sourced activities daring them to accomplish a task, earning LIVR points when they do.” Crowd source. LIVR points. This all sounds about right.

via The LIVR Hoax: Everybody’s Favorite New Drunkbro App Is Fake.

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Watch a man get stunned by the Chaotic Unmanned Personal Intercept Drone (stun copter!)

Posted on March 7, 2014 by StevenTorresRamos
You’re gonna want to steer clear of this CUPID. The Chaotic Unmanned Personal Intercept Drone, or “stun copter,” can deliver 80,000 volts of pure projectile terror directly into the skin of an ill-intentioned hoodlum. This is serious business for Chaotic Moon, the folks behind Shark Attack and the Pizza Hut touch table. The Austin-based design studio created the flying machine as a tech demo, but CUPID could be quickly brought to production whenever a personal security or law enforcement client sees fit. This prototype unit is based on a Tarot Hexacopter, originally designed to carry a digital SLR for video and aerial photo shoots. With a Phazzer Dragon on board, however, a few modifications made this an entirely different beast. FOLLOW LINK TO WATCH VIDEO

via Watch a man get stunned by the Chaotic Unmanned Personal Intercept Drone (stun copter!).

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Wireless Emergency Lights Can Brighten Up Your Next Power Outage

Posted on March 7, 2014 by StevenTorresRamos

Public places are equipped with emergency backup lights so that in the event of a power outage people can find their way to safety. So why shouldn’t your home have that too? The ReadyBright system from Mr. Beams lets you easily install emergency backup lights all around home—which is probably a minefield of toys if you’ve got kids—that automatically power up when the power disappears.

The battery-powered lights—which come in versions for mounting on the ceiling or low to the ground—each run for about 40 hours thanks to low-energy LED bulbs. But the cornerstone of the system is a rechargeable flashlight/remote designed to stay plugged into an outlet all the time. It detects when the electricity goes out and automatically sends out a wireless signal telling all the backup lights in a 70-foot radius to turn on.

via Wireless Emergency Lights Can Brighten Up Your Next Power Outage.

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Another Day, Another Retailer in a Massive Credit Card Breach – DailyFinance

Posted on March 6, 2014 by StevenTorresRamos

The corporate hacks keep coming. The latest target, according to cybersecurity blogger Brian Krebs, is the beauty supply chain Sally Beauty (SBH), a retailer that draws customers from salons and other stylists.

A new batch of 282,000 stolen debit and credit cards were posted for sale this week on underground marketplaces, and Krebs believes they have been used at one of Sally Beauty’s 2,600 stores. It’s the latest scoop from Krebs, who has managed to penetrate the criminal underground to break major stories, including the Target (TGT) and Neiman Marcus hacks.

He used a similar technique to help triangulate the source of the Sally Beauty data breach, working with banks to buy back some of their compromised cards and analyze which stores had transactions on each account. Krebs says the underground marketplaces offering the stolen Sally Beauty card data were also affiliated with the same young Ukrainian man whom he has linked to sales of data purloined from Target

via Another Day, Another Retailer in a Massive Credit Card Breach – DailyFinance.

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