December 10, 2010
Shared by Daniel Excellent discussion.
December 10, 2010
GLENN GREENWALD: Well, I just want to underscore how alarming everything is that you just described, both in that report and in your earlier one, which is, whatever you think of WikiLeaks, they’ve never been charged with a crime, let alone indicted or convicted. And yet, look at what has happened to them. They’ve been essentially removed from the internet, not just through a denial of service attacks that are very sophisticated, but through political pressure applied to numerous countries. Their funds have been frozen, including funds donated by people around the world for his—for Julian Assange’s defense fund and for WikiLeaks’s defense fund. They’ve had their access to all kinds of accounts cut off. Leading politicians and media figures have called for their assassination, their murder, to be labeled a terrorist organization. What’s really going on here is a war over control of the internet and whether or not the internet can actually serve what a lot of people hoped its ultimate purpose was, which was to allow citizens to band together and democratize the checks on the world’s most powerful factions. That’s what this really is about. It’s why you see Western government, totally lawlessly, waging what can only be described as a war on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange outside the bounds of any constraints, because that’s what really is at stake here. If they want to prosecute them, they should go to court and do it through legal means. But this extralegal persecution ought to be very alarming to every citizen in every one of these countries, because it essentially is pure authoritarianism and is designed to prevent the internet from being used as its ultimate promise, which is providing a check on unconstrained political power.
December 9, 2010
Why, it’s another robot-themed hotpot restaurant! This time we’re looking at Jinan — once famous for demolishing a whole stash of illegal arcade machines — up in north China, where a ballsy robotics manufacturer started trialling a robot-themed eatery. While there are still human chefs working back in the kitchen, some near-hundred customers will be served by six robots (about ¥40,000 or $6,000 each to build) that follow a white line to seat diners and deliver dishes. Oh, and don’t expect any slapstick comedy here — these bland-looking droids will only stop if you dare stand in front of them. You’ll have to hurry up, though, as this venue closes in about 16 days; but for those who can’t make it, we’ve got a video right after the break. Continue reading Chinese hotpot restaurant gets robot waiters, may soon be serving droids as well (video) Chinese hotpot restaurant gets robot waiters, may soon be serving droids as well (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Dvice | source iQilu, Xinhuanet | Email this | Comments
December 7, 2010
I have decided to maintain a list of corporations, organizations, and politicans who have pulled support for Wikileaks, or have otherwise bowed to political pressure against Wikileaks, and those who have openly supported Wikileaks. I haven’t found a comprehensive list online, but there is so much noise right now that it is hard to find good info. There are questionable accusations being thrown at Twitter and Facebook (for blocking all links to torrent sites), and I’d like some clean, well-sourced data. I see a lot of references to “Amazon, PayPal, and the like” without listing the organizations that are actively suppressing Wikileaks. I think it is important for us to track who is one what side of this debate, since the lines being drawn over Wikileaks are the same lines that divide the larger debate over the future of the internet. I don’t care if there are legitimate reasons for pulling support, if the decision was independently made with no political pressure, or if it is some massive conspiracy to destroy the internet. I just want to take stock and provide sources for who falls on what side of this issue. Here we go. If anyone can add to this list as things develop I’ll try to maintain it. Wikileaks Mirrors Pulled support or spoke out against: – Amazon – EveryDNS – PayPal – Visa – MasterCard – Sen. Lieberman – Tableau Software Publicly supported: – Glenn Greenwald – Ron Paul – XipWire – Anonymous/Operation Payback – The Pirate Bay – DataCell Hedged bets: – Facebook – Twitter – OVH
December 5, 2010
Razorfish ports DaVinci interface to Kinect, makes physics cool (video) Razorfish is a little marketing company that has done some impressive things on Microsoft’s Surface, things you may or may not have seen because that particular brand of pedestal hasn’t exactly become a threat to the global dumbtable market. One of Razorfish’s cool things is a so-called Surface Physics Illustrator called DaVinci, which lets a user doodle on the screen and turn those doodles into balls, boxes, levers, and fulcrums. Now that code has effectively ported that code over to Kinect, as you can see in the video below, letting you do the same sort of things but with thine own two hands floating in mid-air. You can cause shapes to levitate, create gravity between them, make things orbit, even enable magnetism that alternately pulls and hurls your little doodles across the screen. The company is said to be continuing to refine the experience and maybe, if you all ask nice, they’ll even release the app when they’re through so you can try it for yourself. [Thanks, Luke] Continue reading Razorfish ports DaVinci interface to Kinect, makes physics cool (video) Razorfish ports DaVinci interface to Kinect, makes physics cool (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Dec 2010 11:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | sourceRazorfish | Email this | Comments