Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 185

Junior G-Men

Friend of the blog Ralf sent me this useful document telling us how to spot terrorists and spies in Internet cafes. Suspicion should be directed, for example, at people who are attempting to maintain privacy while browsing (in a public cafe).  Or folks who use ciphers, or who travel long distances in order to use the cafe. Or who pay in cash.I've done all of these things.  I've used Internet cafes in places far from home, like Prague, Lyon, and Ankara.  I've made efforts to maintain my...

Après sam@alshahba.com le déluge

Couldn't have happened to a nicer dictator.Turns out that Basher al-Assad and his wife got his private email hacked by the Supreme Council of the Revolution, Syria's chief opposition group.  The hack was exposed when Anonymous launched an attack on Syrian government sites and inadvertently exposed the Supreme Council's back door.  (Big oops, there, Anonymous.)The Guardian has been combing through the big stack of emails, which give us the idea of Mr. and Mrs. Après-moi-le-déluge at home...

Each to His Drone . . .

Via Bruce Sterling, the news that Liam Young and his Tomorrows Thoughts Today cronies have created a cheap drone network capable of embodying a nomad Internet.The key role that the internet has played in the last year of protests and activism was one so important that it saw Governments cut off internet access nationwide in a bid to slow the momentum of demonstrations, an act that has led to the creation of the project which would act as a solution to that precise scenario. A fleet of...

The Joys of Broadband

Since I got broadband, six or seven years ago, I've had it through the local cable monopoly, Comcast.  No one loves Comcast— they're too big, too slow, too expensive, and have infamously bad customer service (which, however, seems to be improving— when I had trouble last year, they really did their best, for all that the problem was too complex for them). So anyway, I've always been on the alert for an alternative.Qwest, the local phone company, offered DSL in some neighborhoods, but not in m...

Bodacious Battlin' Brontes

via Kris Rusch

Gotta admit, I've often wished I could treat publishers like this. Especially when they put on their stovepipe hats and start twirling their mustaches at me.

Reviews Too Late: Rin

Netflix suggested that I would like the anime series Rin, the subtitle of which is Daughters of Mnemosyne.  Very brave of anyone, let alone Japanese, to put a word like "Mnemosyne" in the title.Rin is an immortal who is also a private detective, sharing an office with her girlfriend Mimi, who is also immortal.  (No straight women in this series, at least so far.)  In the first episode, while hired to find someone's missing cat, she encounters a young man who seems to have lost his memories...

I Alter My DNA Daily

Finally, a scientific discovery made just for me!In the current issue of Cell Metabolism— my basic light reading— researchers report on beneficial changes to DNA achieved both through drinking caffeine and through exercise."The DNA changes in question are known as epigenetic modifications and involve the gain or loss of chemical marks on DNA over and above the familiar sequence of As, Gs, Ts, and Cs . . . Broadly speaking, the findings offer more evidence that our genomes are much more...

Blows Against the Empire

Okay, so at least we know the dimensions of the problem.NASA has admitted that their computers are riddled with hackers, having logged over 5400 intrusions over the last couple years.  The most spectacular of these, originating in China, actually seized control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's systems, "gaining the ability to install malware, delete or steal sensitive data, and hijack the accounts of users in order to gain their privileged access . . . "On another occasion, the...

Connections

I was thinking today about James Burke's admirable television series Connections, where seemingly unconnected historical events were shown to have contributed to a modern scientific discovery.As a fond hommage to that series, I'd like to trace some connections myself— though I'm not going to do science history, because that's not really my strong point.  So here we are in the field of popular entertainment.First, the question: what do the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg have to do...

Mandelbox Set

Last night we went to the First Friday Fractals show at the local Imax, just to get our dose of insane psychedelia.  Here's part of what we saw— only you have to picture this stretched out as wide as the night sky, with full digital sound.
I would advise clicking the "full screen" box on the lower right hand of the display.