Forget blaming it on the dog, thanks to Amazon students have a 21st century excuse for lost homework. When Amazon foolishly yanked 1984 from thousands of Kindles, Justin Gawronski’s electronic notes for a summer assignment became useless.
Want to know how much screen time William Shatner commanded in Star Trek? Or how little Chekov received, for that matter? Carnegie Mellon has you covered, as it has “face mined” the entire series.
Ticketing red light runners is standard practice in many big cities, but Chicago is considering doing one better and scanning every car going by for up to date insurance.
Last week, Spokane-based engineer Adam Chronister posted a Youtube video, where he cracked open a government-subsidised DTV converter box, only to find a hidden camera. Turns out, the whole thing was a hoax.
Following in Britain’s footsteps, it looks like the Japanese government is looking to install CCTV cameras in every conceivable public place in order to keep an eye on the populous. But since it’s Japan, they’re doing it in a uniquely Japanese way: via their ubiquitous vending machines.
The idea behind the Big Brother House, designed by Julien De Smedt Architects for the Ordos 100 Project in Inner Mongolia in China, is that it’s “a place where one can watch and be watched.” Essentially a Jenga-like configuration of window-walled blocks that surround an atrium, from which people can peer into any of the rooms—and or be gawked at themselves. Even the outer walls are windows, allowing passersby to see whatever disgusting things you’re up to. Here’s a few more shots to help you wrap your head around how it works:
Britain is absolutely covered in closed-circuit TV cameras, ensuring that anyone walking through London is easily tracked by a shadowy group of law enforcement officials in some dark room somewhere. How unsettling and Orwellian! Well, one enterprising Brit decided to see just how long it would take for the cops to show up after parading around in front of the cameras in an 8-foot-tall alien outfit. Spoiler: not very long. [Undercurrents via Urban Prankster]
According to the company, the GeoEye-1 satellite is the highest resolution commercial satellite orbiting the planet right now. It reached orbit yesterday, but in reality, it’s not an ordinary commercial satellite: it’s fully controlled by the Department of Defense’s U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. And two guys named Larry and Sergei.
Better flush your porn transfer folder before heading home from Tijuana, guys, because the DHS can and will find it, according to a report by the Washington Post. They also have permission to take your laptop or any other electronic device to an off-site location indefinitely, and share its contents with other agencies or private entities (read: anyone) for translation, decryption, or “other reasons.” And it’s not just your laptop you should be careful about, unfortunately.
When Brandon Dilbeck wrote about how shitty his Comcast service was on his no-traffic Blogspot blog, he didn’t think anyone was watching. But this guy was. And when he received an email from Comcast support that directly addressed his specific problem shortly after his post went up, he understandably got a little freaked out.
