Mountain Dew Code Red

A cool use of Flash. A bit to Matrixy though.

Boing Boing: Nike sneakers communicate wirelessly with iPod Nanos

"The Nike+ running shoes contain a pedometer sensor and a wireless transmitter that talks to a receiver you plug into your iPod Nano."

(Boing Boing)
Nifty idea, to bad it's a Nike shoe.
Hopefully more items like this will come to market. A very interesting collaboration of technologies. I would purchase something like this if it wasn?t a Nike product.

Check Nike+ to see a video of how it all works.

4 color rebellion » State of the Homebrew - May 2006

"It?s that time of the month again - that?s right! It?s time to address the masses about the hidden wonders of the Nintendo DS?s homebrew scene. It?s been a long time running, and finally, the DS?s homebrew has matured into a beautiful, flourishing technical scene - instead of the fringe experimental field it was back with the gigantic home-made passthru devices."

(4 Color Rebellion)

Maybe this summer, I will get a chance to play around with the DS and maybe get DSLinux up and running.

Wired News: Whistle-Blower's Evidence, Uncut

"In a public statement Klein issued last month, he described the NSA's visit to an AT&T office. In an older, less-public statement recently acquired by Wired News, Klein goes into additional details of his discovery of an alleged surveillance operation in an AT&T building in"

Wired News has published court documents from the EFF and AT&T Court Case.
These documents are believed to be under court seal, and or a version of these documents.
These documents in detail describe measures the NSA have taken to wiretap or gain surveillance of major fiber optic lines used for the transportation of information within a San Francisco SBC/AT&T building. It is believed that more monitoring stations of this nature reside in other locations of the United States, that are currently monitoring Internet Traffic within the US and or traffic leaving the US. Props to Wired.com for publishing these documents, hopefully this and other recent new reports will spark some interest.

"AT&T?s Implementation of NSA Spying on American Citizens
31 December 2005
I wrote the following document in 2004 when it became clear to me that AT&T,
at the behest of the National Security Agency, had illegally installed secret computer gear
designed to spy on internet traffic. At the time I thought this was an outgrowth of the
notorious ?Total Information Awareness? program which was attacked by defenders of
civil liberties. But now it?s been revealed by the New York Times that the spying program
is vastly bigger and was directly authorized by president Bush, as he himself has now
admitted, in flagrant violation of specific statutes and Constitutional protections for civil
liberties. I am presenting this information to facilitate the dismantling of this dangerous
Orwellian project."

(Klein PFD)

"In San Francisco the ?secret room? is Room 641A at 611 Folsom Street, the
site of a large SBC phone building, three floors of which are occupied by AT&T. High
speed fiber optic circuits come in on the 8th floor and run down to the 7th floor where they
connect to routers for AT&T's WorldNet service, part of the latter's vital ?Common
Backbone.? In order to snoop on these circuits, a special cabinet was installed and cabled
to the ?secret room? on the 6th floor to monitor the information going through the circuits.
(The location code of the cabinet is 070177.04, which denotes the 7th floor, aisle 177 and
bay 04.) The ?secret room? itself is roughly 24-by-48 feet, containing perhaps a dozen
cabinets including such equipment as Sun servers and two Juniper routers, plus an
industrial-size air conditioner."

(Klein PFD)

It is up in the air if these findings are actually the NSA monitoring the US, or some sort of filtering of particular areas of the Internet from specific regions of the world.
Links;
NSA warrantless surveillance controversy
Wired News: Why We Published the AT&T Docs
Making Up Your Own Mind
Disussion;
Of denials, state secrets, and network architecture - Topic Ars OpenForum
Slashdot | Wired Releases Full Text of AT&T NSA Document

Pearl Jam releases video under Creative Commons license | News.blog | CNET News.com

"In its latest bid to show its progressive side, popular band Pearl Jam has just released its latest music video, "Life Wasted," under a Creative Commons license."

"Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5
You are free:
* to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
"

Lisence Agreement

An interesting move from Pearl Jam and or Sony, not sure if I would call this actually free as it's a promo just like anyone would receive if one was to run into a record company goon, and or free swag that is sometimes given out at record store along with a purchase. Also having to view the video within Google Video really limits the effectiveness of being able to freely copy and use the file. I'm hoping somewhere else has a more free to use file format. I'm checking out J-Records but seems to be down right now.
Offical Pearl Jam Website
Dicussion of the topic over at /.

State Department bans Lenovo PCs from classified work

"Remember a few months ago when the US State Department ordered thousands of Lenovo PCs despite concerns by some that the boxes could be infested with evil Commie spyware? Well, the computers have apparently been delivered, and the government has now decided those concerns should be taken seriously. The 16,000 Lenovo computers will basically be quarantined from other government computers, and won't be used for any classified work. Which we assume means they'll be used for games of Solitaire and BitTorrent downloads of patriotic anthems."

So is that where all my tax money is going?
Just brilliant!

YouTube - Duck Hunt 2

"Duck hunt for the Wii"

Way cool !

WSJ.com - Car Makers Court Two Generations

"When Honda Motor Co. launched its boxy Element sport-utility vehicle in December 2002, the company targeted young men -- but it unexpectedly attracted a lot of middle-age women as well. Honda was surprised. Now, as it gears up to launch a new subcompact vehicle called the Fit, the Japanese auto maker is going for another generational twofer.

This time, Honda is deliberately targeting two age groups at once. Some ads for the Fit are appearing in youth-oriented niche publications like Filter music magazine; others have been placed in Time magazine and similar titles with an older readership. Television commercials for the Fit feature cartoon characters such as a "speedy demon" monster. The cartoons appeal to the young but evoke 1970s comic books, says David Smith, creative director for RPA, Honda's ad agency."

A article I read in the WSJ today. I figured I would link it here, even though tomorrow is the last day for free access to WSJ.com. I wish the WSJ would open their site up, instead of requiring subscription fee to view articles. The Internet is meant to be able to link freely, not a roadblock to content. Oh well, it is the Wall Street Journal, I guess they got to make money some how.

Grand Theft Auto - With a Laptop

"You wouldn't trust $100K worth of data to 40-bit encryption authentication would you? So how about your automobile? It looks like stealing a high-end car using a laptop isn't very difficult to do.

Robert Vamosi has written an article on keyless ignition systems based on a study from Johns Hopkins University and RSA. Vamosi notes in the conclusion of his article that the manufacturers of the RFID systems don't seem think there's a problem. So get yourself a tin foil cover for your key! It's an interesting read, check it out here."

I keep hearing more and more about stealing a car with a laptop. I find this very interesting, and almost James Bond like, or something you always saw in the movies but never thought could actually happen.

Links within quote;
Tech
Analysis of the Texas Instruments DST RFID
Media Article
Gone in 60 seconds--the high-tech version
New Article
Car thief brags of prolific success

TIME.com: A Game For All Ages -- May 15, 2006 -- Page 1

"t's a remarkable experience. Instead of passively playing the games, with the new controller you physically perform them. You act them out. It's almost like theater: the fourth wall between game and player dissolves. The sense of immersion--the illusion that you, personally, are projected into the game world--is powerful. And there's an instant party atmosphere in the room. One advantage of the new controller is that it not only is fun, it looks fun. When you play with an old-style controller, you look like a loser, a blank-eyed joystick fondler. But when you're jumping around and shaking your hulamaker, everybody's having a good time."

The Wii is starting to become more and more interesting. I look forward to playing the Wii sometime later this fall. For the first time hopefully I will have more time to play the Wii, than more poor Gamecube. I imagine evenings of April and I playing some Mario, or Animal Crossing ;)
Anyways I hope Nintendo is headed in the right direction. If the DS is a sign of what is to come, then there should be no worries.

Speaking Up: Us Vs. Wii from 1UP.com

"Nintendo is unique in many ways, but perhaps most of all in its ability to stir up gamers' emotions. Sure, plenty of people like or dislike Sony -- and quite a few people hate Microsoft -- but for sheer polarizing power, no one comes close to Nintendo. Its detractors genuinely despise the company and everything it stands for, while its supporters are a living reminder that "fan" is short for "fanatic." Mario himself could kill a Nintendo fan's parents and he'd still find some way to rationalize his loss as a brilliant business move by Nintendo that truly speaks to him as a gamer."

Apple - Get a Mac - Watch The TV Ads

A few new commercials from Apple were released today.
Kind of funny
Check em out if you get a chance.