Posts Tagged ‘wikipedia’

Google, Renesys, and others point to an internet blackout in Syria, the latest blow in an ongoing and increasingly bloody civil war. Analytics group Renesys confirmed about an hour ago that internet has apparently gone dark, something that was echoed in Google’s real-time transparency report. Umbrella Security Labs has also corroborated this . The apparent outage comes days after the Israeli military conducted airstrikes near Syria’s capital, apparently destroying a scientific research facility .

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Internet traffic from Syria vanishes in the midst of ongoing conflict

If you need yet another reason to ensure your Facebook privacy settings are adequately locked down, Raytheon’s “Riot” software should do the trick. Developed by the Massachusetts-based security firm, Riot — short for Rapid Information Overlay Technology — can quickly mine various social networks for an individual user’s data, using previous posts to predict your future behavior and / or your location at any given time. A video obtained by The Guardian , sourced from a 2010 presentation, demonstrates how the software can quickly dig for sensitive data like the top 10 places you visit most frequently. That information can then be parsed into more specific criteria (how many times you hit the gym each month, what time you typically go,… Continue reading…

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‘Riot’ software could help governments spy on your real-life activity through social networks

DC Comics’ Death of the Family has been one of the best-received Batman series in recent memory, not least because of Greg Capullo’s fantastic art work. The artist ABVH has created some expertly-animated GIFs based on a selection of illustrations from the series by Capullo and Patrick Gleason. ABVH has made a name for himself animating famous works of art. His Animated Banksy series , which saw some of the famous street artist’s best works turned into GIFs, got exposure on a number of art sites . As the files are quite large, we’ll hold off sharing more GIFs, but you can find the full collection in the source link below.

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Iconic ‘Batman’ art turned into jaw-dropping GIFs

An international team of astronomers led by the University of Central Lancashire in the UK has discovered “the largest known structure in the universe.” The team says that the recently observed large quasar group — comprised of dozens of highly energetic star-like objects — has a typical size of 500 Megaparsecs, but the size of the cluster is closer to 1200 Mpc at its widest point. To put that into perspective, the distance between our own Milky Way galaxy and Andromeda is about 0.75 Mpc. The discovery has larger implications for the study of cosmology too. Albert Einstein’s Cosmological Principle states that the universe looks the same regardless of the observation point when viewed at a large enough scale

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Astronomers have found the largest structure in the universe

Welcome to The Verge: Weekender edition. Each week, we’ll bring you important articles from the previous weeks’ original reports , features and reviews on The Verge . Think of it as a collection of a few of our favorite pieces from the week gone by, which you may have missed, or which you might want to read again.

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The Weekender: Hurricane Sandy, iPad mini, Halloween scares, and the Nexus 4

Judge Richard Posner has already decried the state of the US patent system, and now, he’s speaking out about copyright law, as well. In a blog post penned Sunday , the outspoken federal judge cited two main problems with contemporary copyright laws: extensive protection (copyrighted works are typically protected until 70 years after an author’s death), and narrow interpretations of “fair use,” which “can have very damaging effects on creativity.” Posner acknowledged that the “need for reform is less acute in copyright than in patent law,” but insisted that it still deserves “serious attention from Congress and the courts.” Continue reading…

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Judge Richard Posner calls on Congress to reform copyright law

Fun fact: in the Wikipedia article for ” Mobile phone form factor ,” the third entry (behind brick and bar) is “taco” — as in, the Nokia N-Gage looks like a taco. Think about that for a second: the “taco” phone form factor has more prominence than flip, slide, swivel, and watch. This is the N-Gage’s legacy. Continue reading…

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90 Seconds on The Verge: Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

Wikipedia hosts a vast trove of information, but the admitted gender gap amongst the site’s volunteer editors has left many female historical figures out of the digital history books. The Royal Society wants to rectify this: BBC reports that an “edit-a-thon” will be held in London (and online) on October 19th, to celebrate the contributions women have made to science by ensuring that their Wikipedia profiles are comprehensive — or exist at all. Profiles for a few historical figures have been singled out for updates, but the project’s ultimate goal is to improve visibility across the gender divide, and prevent this sort of event from being necessary in the first place. Continue reading…

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Royal Society plans Wikipedia ‘edit-a-thon’ to honor female scientists

If you make a GIF based on 90 Seconds on The Verge , we can’t promise you a car. We can’t even promise you 1/40th a car, despite being 1/40th of an episode of On The Verge , roughly speaking. But our rules are more flexible: submit any GIF, and you might win a recommendation from your peers.

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90 Seconds on The Verge: Monday, September 24th, 2012

Earlier this year, the Safecast project teamed up with Chumby co-founder Andrew “Bunnie” Huang to launch an open-source map of radiation data across earthquake-ravaged Japan. Now, the group is taking a similar approach to measuring air quality across Los Angeles. On Wednesday, Safecast announced that it has received a $400,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to create real-time maps of air pollution in LA, in cooperation with Crash Space , an LA-based hackerspace.

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Safecast to create real-time maps of air quality in Los Angeles

AT&T’s LTE expansion continues with a fairly major batch of announcements today: the company has turned on 4G LTE in seven new US markets, with more sites planned by the end of 2012. Syracuse, Bakersfield, and Anchorage are among the cities with LTE now available — it’s the first time AT&T has expanded into Alaska. Coverage in the New York / New Jersey and Washington, DC areas has also been expanded. Almost four dozen other markets are promised by “the end of the year,” including forays into Seattle, Portland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Hawaii. This will almost double AT&T’s LTE availability, bringing it from a current 60 markets to over 100

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AT&T expands LTE to Syracuse, Anchorage, and more, announces almost 50 planned launches

OLPC OS, the Linux-based operating system that powers the One Laptop Per Child project’s XO-1 devices, has received a major update . Released at the weekend, version 12.1.0 includes built-in text-to-speech support and a switch from Mozilla’s Gecko browser engine to the collaborative WebKit, which powers Safari and Chrome. While the change was motivated by Mozilla dropping support for embedding Gecko in third-party applications last year, the release notes describe WebKit as “a far superior alternative” and note that users will experience “faster activity startup time and a smoother browsing experience.” Other updates to the OLPC OS include support for USB DisplayLink adapters and a refresh of the system’s offline Wikipedia library, which…

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One Laptop Per Child devices updated with text-to-speech and WebKit

Guys, remember that time when we landed on Mars? That was pretty awesome, right? You stayed up until 3 AM watching it, right?

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90 Seconds on The Verge: Monday, August 6th, 2012

Lexar has been somewhat reluctant to adopt the new XQD memory card format , developed as a replacement for the CompactFlash card, but the company has now decided to make the jump. Last week, Lexar announced that it will indeed support the XQD specification with a new line of cards due out later this year. The format, based on PCI Express, was developed by SanDisk , Sony , and Nikon , and features write speeds of up to 125MB/s. Lexar collaborated with Nikon to develop its own XQD card, which is currently supported only by the Nikon D4 (the company says its cards will be compatible with future XQD-based models, as well). As of now, Sony is the only company actually selling cards in this format, though that will change by the third quarter of..

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Lexar announces XQD memory cards for Nikon D4, available Q3 2012

Okanagan Specialty Fruits has created a genetically modified apple that doesn’t turn brown when sliced or bruised, but is facing opposition from many within the apple industry, The New York Times reports. Although the practice of genetic modification is commonplace in processed foods, the apple in question — known as the Arctic Apple — would be one of the first genetically modified fruits to make its way to consumers if it receives approval. The company aims to increase overall apple sales by making the fruit more attractive to retailers and consumers alike, but the US Apple Association worries that it will mar the public’s image of the apple as a healthy and natural food. For more on the controversy, take a look at the full… Continue reading…

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Genetically engineered apples that won’t turn brown stir up controversy

Wikimedia, the parent of Wikipedia, may be helping to create a competitor to TripAdvisor or Lonely Planet. Skift reports that the board of trustees have voted to approve an ad-free travel guide, which will allegedly be built in partnership with other travel wikis. Administrators from Wikitravel and Wikivoyage have reportedly pledged to work with Wikimedia, with Wikitravel administrators complaining that their own site — owned by Internet Brands — is “frozen in time.” This new project, one person says, gives the site a second chance. Relatively little is known about the unnamed wiki, but Skift says that serious development will start in September. The free guide will be written by users and supervised by Wikitravel and Wikivoyage…

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Wikimedia may be launching its own online travel guide

Wikipedia has announced updates to both its iOS and Android apps — and in yet another data point in an increasingly common trend, they are both dropping Google Maps in favor of the open-source alternative OpenStreetMap. Last year Google put rate limits into place for users of the Google Maps API, and a steady string of defections has emerged in the subsequent months: Foursquare , Apple , and Microsoft have all moved to OpenStreetMap in various products. According to the Wikimedia Foundation, the move away from proprietary Google APIs will allow its app to run on “millions of cheap Android handsets” that don’t utilize Google’s own applications themselves. While Wikipedia is currently relying on Mapquest for map tiles, it will be moving to… Continue reading…

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Wikipedia updates mobile apps, drops Google Maps for OpenStreetMap

We first heard about the plans to introduce an all-electric DeLorean into the marketplace back in October , but the prototype car made an appearance at the recent New York Auto Show, bringing some fresh details with it. Autoblog spoke with DeLorean Motor Company president Stephen Wynne , who confirmed that the DMCev is still being targeted for an early 2013 release with an estimated asking price of $95,000. The new DeLorean will be powered by a 32kWh “Flux Power” lithium iron phosphate battery pack, and while the previously-announced 125 mph top speed is still the same, things have shifted on the acceleration side. DMC had initially stated that the car would boast a 0 to 60 time of 4.9 seconds, but according to Wynne the company is now… Continue reading…

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Electric DeLorean makes auto show appearance: 0 to 60 in under 6 seconds for $95,000

Nokia and T-Mobile apparently want to remind us that the Lumia 900 isn’t the only Windows Phone available in the US. To that end, Nokia is bringing back a promotion where Lumia 710 owners can get a free custom “Xpress-on” backplate of their choice in white, cyan, fuschia, or yellow to replace the white or black version they purchased. Yes, CMYK is a go .

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Nokia offering free Lumia 710 color cover, drops phone price to free on-contract

Today an ex-Intel engineer plead guilty and was convicted of five counts of wire fraud, admitting that he stole design and manufacturing documents from the chipmaker after he had begun working for rival AMD. According to prosecutors, Biswamohan Pani gave notice of his intentions to leave Intel on May 29, 2008, neglecting to tell the company that he had already accepted a new job offer from AMD. Instead, he asked for additional vacation time before his departure. Pani, who had already begun downloading documents from Intel’s computers, used the vacation time to begin his new job at AMD — after which he procured even more Intel documents.

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Former Intel employee pleads guilty to stealing company’s secrets even after joining rival AMD

E Ink is often touted as a preferable display technology for e-readers because, among other things, it’s easier on the eyes then traditional backlit LCD panels. The flipside is that devices like the E Ink Kindle line require exterior illumination to be read — but Amazon may be planning to solve that problem. TechCrunch reports that it got a look at a new Kindle prototype that used a front-lit display, providing an adjustable ‘soft glow’ that made text much more readable in low-light environments. The technology is said to come from a company called Oy Modilis, which was reportedly acquired by Amazon back in 2010, and consists of a layer of material laminated atop the E Ink screen that diffuses light evenly across its surface

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E Ink Kindle prototype reportedly spotted with glowing front-lit screen

In an industry increasingly powered not only by the moral but fiscal support of its fans, the idea of a fake Peter Molyneux Twitter account inspiring a game developerment meet-up shouldn’t be that surprising. But you may be surprised to hear that the real Peter Molyneux, former head of Lionhead Studios and Microsoft’s European Game Studios, is considering attending the Brighton, England portion of the international event later this month. MolyJam2012 is set to kick off on March 31 both in Brighton and the San Francisco area. The event is described as the 1st annual international @petermolydeux game jam.

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Fake Molyneux game design challenge may include real Molyneux appearance

Released today by Hard Case Crime books: The Comedy is Finished, by the late Donald E. Westlake. Book description: The year is 1977, and America is finally getting over the nightmares of Watergate and Vietnam and the national hangover that was the 1960s.

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Donald E. Westlake’s lost novel: The Comedy is Finished – exclusive Boing Boing excerpt

Wikipedia is a huge repository for information that millions of people constantly rely on, but its crowdsourced nature means that finding the line between fact and interpretation isn’t always easy. We’re not talking about kids editing the Mega Drive article to casually mention how it was totally more powerful that the Super Nintendo, but more about how the very nature of a fact can be rendered irrelevant by the site’s inflexible guidelines. Take the case of Timothy Messer-Kruse — an expert on the Haymarket riots who’s written two books on the subject. He found out that his edits to the Wikipedia entry were being rejected as “minority views,” despite citing primary sources and research he had built up over the years

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How Wikipedia deals with competing factual claims

Can two seemingly disparate things — Google’s PageRank and hydrogen bonding in water — come together to create a tool that can help predict and map out the interactions between millions of molecules? It might sound far-fetched, but associate chemistry professor Aurora Clark of Washington State University and colleagues Barbara Logan Mooney and L. Rene Corrales have done just that and explained it in a paper published in the Journal of Computational Chemistry . It’s called moleculaRnetworks, but before we get into just what it does, let’s clear up some of those terms: PageRank is a patented algorithm that helps Google determine the relevancy of links, and hydrogen bonds (seen above) are relatively strong forces that attract molecules..

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Google PageRank algorithm used in tool to model interactions between molecules