Hacking News Roundup! Not Entirely What You Expect…
Tuesday, 12th July 2011Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture, Technology
Tags: geeks, hacking, rupert murdoch, tech culture
Written by: R Bryant Francis
Though Lulzsec may have vanished in the background, Anonymous has taken up the flag of operation #Anonsec—but that’s chump change compared to the storm that’s been rumbling in Great Britain in the last few days. If you thought Lulzsec’s shenanigans were pretty rough, they’ve got nothing on Rupert Murdoch’s British Newspaper News of the World, which was forced to shut down over a huge scandal its propagated.
That scandal? Hacking into people’s cell phones, and listening to and stealing their voice mails.
More on that outrage in a moment–first, Anonymous. The faceless, headless, V-For-Vendetta worshipping hackers targeted Booz Allen Hamilton today, a Military contractor that was targeted for its involvement in a recent surveillance minor-scandal. Anonymous managed to make off with 90,000 military-related email accounts and passwords–not just of Booz Allen employees, but military employees staffed at US CENTCOM and SOCOM, as well as other military departments. The long and the short of it Continue reading “Hacking News Roundup! Not Entirely What You Expect…” »
TECH – ‘Science Fiction’ is Officially Just ‘Science’: Meet the Digital Person
Thursday, 23rd June 2011Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture, Technology
Tags: digital person, science fiction, tech culture
Written by: R Bryant Francis
Meet Aimi Eguchi. She’s the latest member of J-Pop band AKB48—a band so big in Japan, the group receives millions of votes each year on which of their 61 members is the most popular. She’s just like the other girls—pretty, a winning smile, can woo dozens of Otaku just by showing up on camera…except there’s one catch. She’s not real.
Aimi Eguchi isn’t an actual new member of the musical group. She’s a digital composite, with facial features and body profile borrowed from her fellow group members. But as you can see from this video below, she looks pretty damn life-like.
This wasn’t just a one-shot stunt though—she’s been part of the group “officially” for some time now, complete with her own page on their website that detailed her hobbies, age, and hometown. She even appeared in a photoshoot prior to this.
Of course, this isn’t Japan’s first non-human idol, it’s just the first one where active deception has taken place. While this should evoke questions about the nature of humanity and what the state of existence is for a human-like entity created in a computer and not in the womb…instead mostly just evokes a certain Disney Channel Original movie. Personally, I’m not exactly excited that our first A.Is won’t be awesome, sarcastic badasses, but instead…pop singers.
But hey, maybe you’re okay with this? Or are you with some of her fans, who are shocked by this reveal?
TECH – Lulzsec Opens Fire, Teams up with Anonymous for Hacking Spree
Monday, 20th June 2011Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture, Technology
Tags: anonymous, hackerz, lulsec, tech culture
Written by: R Bryant Francis
At 12AM Eastern Lastnight, Lulzsec took to twitter to announce Operation Anti-Security, (or #AntiSec), after making earlier comments on the nature of celebrity and tax funding. They’re teaming up with Anonymous to target Government agencies, banks, big corporations, and “whitehat security terrorists.” They’ve stated their top goal is to “steal and leak any classified government information, including email spools and documentation.”
Lulzsec also has continued an open-source trend that began with their open requests for target suggestions last week, and have full-on invited their followers to join in on the attack. So this time, on top of weathering the efforts of a group of skilled hackers, government agencies Continue reading “TECH – Lulzsec Opens Fire, Teams up with Anonymous for Hacking Spree” »
TECH – Japanese Computer Rated “Most Powerful In the World,” still can’t play Crysis on Best Settings
Monday, 20th June 2011Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture, Technology
Tags: crysis, fujitsu, most powerful computer in world, tech culture
Written by: R Bryant Francis
The New York Times today reported that the world’s newest Supercomputer, called “K” is being brought online in Japan. It’s rated as being three times faster than the Chinese computer Tianhe-1A, which previously held the record. “K” stands for “kei,” meaning 10 quadrillion—the number of calculations per second researchers intend for K to perform at peak capacity. That’s the power of combining one million desktop computers.
Fujitsu’s plan is to use the computer for earthquake simulations, climate modeling, nuclear research/weapons development, and other forms of testing. It would join the ranks of the world’s ten most powerful supercomputers, five of which, including the third-most-powerful computer Continue reading “TECH – Japanese Computer Rated “Most Powerful In the World,” still can’t play Crysis on Best Settings” »
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