Warping it up!

Fini Alring’s Glossy Tech Zine

Secure Video Conferencing via Quantum Crypto

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2005

Roland Piquepaille writes “If you use a webcam to talk with your mom, this tool is not for you. But if you’re working for a company and that you have to routinely discuss about sensitive future projects or the possible acquisition of another company, you need more security, and this new video conferencing system based on quantum cryptography is a tool you need. According to this article from Nature, researchers from Toshiba have developed a system which can generate 100 quantum ‘keys’ every second, fast enough to protect every frame in a video exchange. This technology, which today is working over a distance of about 120 kilometers, could become commercially available within two years at an initial cost of $20,000. This overview contains more details and references.”

Slashdot | Secure Video Conferencing via Quantum Cryptography

Google Experiments with Video Blogging

Tuesday, April 5th, 2005

[/.] PunkOfLinux writes “TechWeb has an article about Google’s plans to start a video service that sounds similar to Picasa. Excerpt: ‘While there’s no formal announcement yet, Google co-founder Larry Page said Monday that the well-known search engine concern would soon let the general public upload self-produced videos to Google’s servers, partly in an effort to learn more about how to more efficiently search and display information about video-based data.’”

Slashdot | Google Experiments with Video Blogging

Jon Johansen Breaks iTunes DRM Yet Again

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005

[/.] ikewillis writes “Remember earlier today when Apple released an update supposedly blocking the hole in iTMS recently discovered by Jon Johansen? News.com reports that he has already worked around the update, and iTMS can now be accessed from non-Windows/MacOS X systems using the new version of his PyMusique software. You can view his blog entry on the issue (ironically titled So Sue Me). More power to you, Jon!”

Slashdot | Jon Johansen Breaks iTunes DRM Yet Again

Open Source Journalism

Saturday, February 12th, 2005

[/.] jvm writes “Markos of Daily Kos wrote today of what he describes as the legacy of blogging: open source.
Not software, but the philosophy. From the article: “When I’m asked about blogging’s legacy, I talk about open source. Open source politics, open source activism, open source journalism — the aggregation of thousands on behalf of a common cause.”
Relatedly, egoff writes “You might have seen some coverage of Jeff Gannon, a conservative reporter who lobbed softball questions during White House press briefings. It was discovered that he was using an alias to get past White House security. The language of open source development is used throughout their description of the reporting process. At Poynter Online, journalists discussing this story have compared the random blog readers who did the bulk of this research to “what Woodstein did back in the day.”"

Slashdot | Open Source Journalism

Asteroid Named After Douglas Adams

Wednesday, January 26th, 2005

According to slashdot; tc writes “MSNBC is reporting that an asteroid has been named after Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy fame. Fittingly, the asteroid carried the provisional designation 2001 DA42, thus commemorating the year of his untimely death, containing his initials, and incorporating the famous answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. This seems like a fitting tribute to me.”

Slashdot | Asteroid Named After Douglas Adams