Gizmodo reports that a small business owner has taken physical security of his property into his own hands:
When necessary, Terrill fires up the 400lb device and powers it from afar with a remote control. Using the control and a walkie-talkie, he approaches the vagrants around his bar and a local day care center to inform them via the robot’s loudspeaker that they are trespassing on private property. If that doesn’t do the trick, he gets rough with the water cannon. Apparently the robot has been so successful that the owner of the day care facility wishes she had three more just like it.
In the 1800s America had a notorious problem with armed gangs “defending” their respective territories. The British concept of a police force was adopted to help introduce a more democratic form of law enforcement. While far from perfect, the economy of scale made security more affordable to each person or even community who otherwise might not be able to pay for a special security force. Now the cost of police has reached a point where modern technology will increasingly be added to the mix to fill the security gap.
Exciting news. The Mounties have arrested seventeen people in connection with botnets:
Although the hackers operated from about a dozen towns all over Quebec, their botnet network was international in scope, infecting 39,000 computers in Poland, 28,000 in Brazil, and 26,000 in Mexico– the top three countries affected by the group. In all, they hacked into more than 100,000 computers in 100 countries.
Suspiciously round numbers, but nonetheless a good read.
When thinking about advanced in aviation, wind-tunnels are a necessary step. The cost of disaster is simply too high not to test extensively before deployment. It is a world far removed from the common software development lifecycle.
Oobject shows some fine examples, including one from the Wright brothers:
The interior and exterior of wind tunnels have unusual design requirements that often make them accidental architectural masterpieces.
Test environments as masterpieces? I like the sound of that. Perfect material for presentations to developers who scoff at the idea of testing.
BlueProximity is a clever program that sets up your computer to lock itself when your phone is out of bluetooth range, and unlock itself when it comes close enough again.
With so many enterprise users getting cell-phones issued by default, it makes for a clever two-factor solution.
Bluetooth isn’t the strongest model, but the concept is worthy of note and the fact that it can be tested today for free is a big bonus.