News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
The linked article discusses the state of wireless charging technology for devices (and cars!). There’s a good chance we may see wireless charging becoming commonplace in the near future. (Note that Sonicare toothbrushes have been charging wirelessly for well over a decade.)
Link: http://www.komando.com/…
Yapp is a service that allows the average person to create a professional-looking mobile app for events such as weddings, birthday parties, book club meetings, reunions, fundraisers, retreats, etc. It integrates with many of the features of the mobile device, allowing messaging, maps/directions to the event, photo sharing, etc. Once you create the app for your event, it can be shared with others after they install the YappBox app. Looks like a pretty nifty tool, and it’s free (they make money by offering premium services for a fee).
Thanks to Donna for this link.
Using custom software and a computer cluster of 25 graphics cards, password-cracking expert Jeremi Gosney has created a system capable of guessing 350 billion Windows passwords per second. From the article, it takes 5½ hours to “brute force every possible eight-character [Windows] password containing upper- and lower-case letters, digits, and symbols.” This development reinforces the message of this xkcd comic, that long passwords are much harder to crack than shorter but more complicated ones. Note also that an easy way to create long but memorable passwords is to use a passphrase.
Link: http://arstechnica.com/…
The US government has come out with a new design for the $100 bill, one that incorporates even more security features. There’s a blue strip woven into the bill with bells that turn into “100”s as you move the bill one direction, and moving bells/100s as you shift the bill in another direction. The bill also has an inkwell with a bell inside that changes color as you move the bill, such that it seems to appear and disappear. Really fancy stuff.
The new bills have not been officially released. This is because there is a production problem that didn’t show up in the test phase. Some of the bills have creases in them and are unusable. They only discovered this after printing a billion of the new notes, which (at this time) will all have to be manually checked before being released. They’re trying to find a way to automate the checking process, for obvious reasons.
And on a side note, have you ever wondered how many $100 bills are printed each year? In the last fiscal year (October 1st, 2011 to September 30th, 2012) the US government printed 3 billion of them.
Thanks to Josh for this topic and the links.
Link #1 (the new 100): http://www.newmoney.gov/…
Link #2 (creases; video): http://www.newmoney.gov/media/…
Tor is a computer network that allows people to transmit information anonymously. It is free for anyone to use. The network comprises a large number of servers (called relays) hosted by volunteers. The benefits seem to be good at first glance. Tor allows dissidents in politically oppressive regimes to anonymously get information out to the world at large. Companies and governments can use it to transmit sensitive communications. Journalists can safely connect with whistleblowers. Or it can be used by people who simply value their privacy. Anyone can configure the Tor software to make their computer into a Tor network relay. It’s quite easy for people like you and me to help promote these good causes.
The problem, however, is that criminals also use Tor—including terrorists and child pornographers. And if you’re hosting a Tor server/relay that transferred illegal material, the police can and will come after you. The linked articles give two such cases.
Link #1: http://arstechnica.com/…
Link #2: http://arstechnica.com/…
Atari’s famous video game Pong wasn’t intended to be an actual product. And it generated a lot of backtracking on the part of Atari, as they slowly realized how popular it was going to be. The linked article has details.
Some showings of the first Hobbit movie will be displayed at 48 FPS (frames per second), which is twice the speed of standard films. The author of the linked article says the difference is noticeable and can be distracting enough to take away from the film. On a side note, I’ve always wondered why I could immediately determine if a television show was a soap opera. Turns out the answer is that they use a different frame rate. Wonder if that’s also true for those older BBC shows, which can also be identified at a glance.
