noemi

BeautifulPeople.com Hit by Shrek Virus; “Ugly” People Let In

August 2, 2023 by noemi

If Anonymous and LulzSec were to hit targets such as BeautifulPeople.com, then perhaps they would bring about more lulz. The social network for the good looking has been hit with a virus called “Shrek”, which allowed applicants to pass through the screening process more easily. Indeed, it seemed to approve people who normally would not have passed the site’s requirements.

If you have not heard of this site yet, it is an online dating site that only allows – as the name says – beautiful people. And how do they determine who is beautiful? Who is to say what’s beautiful and what’s not? That’s where their “strict” rating system comes into play, where the voices of the members are heard. In short, existing users vote on whether or not an applicant is beautiful enough to be part of the site. In other words, it is nothing but an extension of social cliques you find in high school, college, or wherever.

Still, the site has not been unsuccessful. To date, they have over 700,000 members from all over the world. This number suddenly swelled by the tens of thousands recently, which made the management suspicious. (I wonder why – isn’t it possible that there are tens of thousands beautiful people wanting to be part of their site?) In any case, they discovered that there was something wrong – the virus.

As if the original premise is not already borderline ridiculous as it is, the management decided to inform the “incorrectly accepted” people that they cannot retain their membership status. As managing director Greg Hodge says, “We have sincere regret for the unfortunate people who were wrongly admitted to the site and who believed, albeit for a short while, that they were beautiful. It must be a bitter pill to swallow, but better to have had a slice of heaven then never to have tasted it at all.”

New Search Engine Inspired by Human Vision

August 1, 2023 by noemi

That is, vision as in how we literally see objects around us. Everyone knows about Google, Yahoo, and the other search engines that we use today. No matter how good these search engines may be, though, they are still limited by the fact that we have to enter search terms to get results. That means we need to have a name, a word, or a phrase for what we are looking for.

Now what if there were a search engine that takes images as the search query? Say you’re at a supermarket and you find something in a nice package, but you are not sure if it is good. You can always go visit Google and enter the name of the product and look for reviews. Alternatively, you can use your smartphone to take a picture of the item and use it to search.

Is that really possible? With the new technology that Cortexica ((Cortexica)) is working on, searching this way just might become the norm soon. The basis of the technology is simple – it is “a bio-inspired vision system enabling intelligent image recognition using principles derived from the human visual cortex.” The platform is patented – of course – and it provides a whole new way of doing things, at least search-wise.

How do they do it? Much like how our vision system works, the VisualSearch platform recognizes objects by identifying key features. These key features remain unchanged in spite of differences in lighting, orientation, and size.

To see what this technology can actually do, they already have an iPhone app called WINEfindr, which can be found in the app store. Obviously, this app is limited to wines, but it showcases what can be done.

The technology is very new, but work continues to be done, making the possibility of visual searching becoming part of our routine very real. Exciting? Definitely! Something that will take the place of barcodes and QR codes? Perhaps.

Four Steps to Going to the Dark Side (of the Internet)

August 1, 2023 by noemi

The recent spate of hacker attacks on high profile web sites have spawned a renewed interest in the “dark side of the Internet” – if the interest has waned at all. I don’t know much about being a hacker except for what I hear from other people and what I read online. And if there is one interesting article that you ought to read on hackers and hacking, it’s this recent one published on the BBC by Jane Wakefield.

Now I don’t know just how accurate the details are, but coming from BBC, one would expect the article to be well-researched and verified. So if you want to go over to the dark side of the Internet – not that I am encouraging you to – there are four steps to follow. ((Source: BBC))

Start lurking in different underground hacking forums.
Become an active participant in topics.
Bring some ‘proof’ of what you’ve said – for example ‘I’m posting for free five credentials to Paypal. Want more? Call me up!’.
Earn a reputation and you’re in.

I don’t know if there are any of you out there who will verify these steps, but go ahead and start a discussion if you wish!

The article also covers the “human” side to hackers. They’re secretive but social – as long as they operate within their circles, I suppose. They also like to talk philosophy, apparently, and they are keen on literature. They’re also a collaborative community, with a structure akin to the mafia.

If anything, this article makes one’s interest level spike as to what the life of a hacker really is. What makes them tick? What makes them do what they do?

Photo via The Tech Herald

Les Paul Google Doodle – Cool BUT Costly!

August 1, 2023 by noemi

So last week, how much time did you spend playing with the Les Paul Google Doodle? Arguably, that Doodle is the second best that Google has come up with. I personally prefer the Pac-Man Doodle although it seemed to me that more people voiced out their appreciation of the more recent Doodle.

And it also seems that more people spent time actually staying on Google’s home page – not to do anything else but play with the virtual guitar and record their handiwork! According to ExtremeTech ((ExtremeTech)), the “simple” Doodle cost the world a whopping 10.7 million man hours. Imagine countless people stopping work to play their favorite tune using the Doodle. Imagine the same people conducting searches to find out which strings to “pluck” in order to get their desired tone. It’s easy to understand just how many hours were spent playing on the guitar all over the world.

Now let’s talk money. Those 10.7 million man hours – how much does that cost? Working on the assumption that the average Google user earns $25 per hour, those hours translate to $268 million. Oh please don’t let the executives read these figures or they just might ban Google. Then again, who is to say that those executives didn’t spend their fair share of time on the Les Paul?

And speaking of money, the Doodle didn’t come free for Google. The guys at ExtremeTech seem to love doing math, so they went ahead and calculated the cost of the Les Paul Doodle – a mere $15,000. Well, it’s not a small sum but comparing it to the cost in productivity, it’s a drop in the bucket.

Google, you may be a productivity killer at times, but you still rock!

Real Life Hoverbike

July 31, 2023 by noemi

Admit it. You’ve wanted a hoverboard forever, or anything that hovers and actually works, for that matter. The idea of having a means of going around without wheels touching the ground (without having to take an airplane, that is) is something that most every person dream about. Well, at least most every person that I know.

Thanks to Chris Malloy, a real life hoverbike just might be within our reach in the near future. The hoverbike he is making can be seen below. It has two rotor blades (made from Tasmanian Oak, with the edges being carbon fiber) at the ends, while the seat and control area are in the middle. As you can see, the bike is almost as long as a car!

The bike has an engine packing a whopping 1170cc, with the rotors receiving 80kW each. The designer/maker thinks that the hoverbike has the ability to hover – more like fly – up to 10,000 feet (that’s 3000 meters) and go as fast as 278 kilometers per hour.

Here is how the hoverbike would look like in action.

Thorough testing is set to begin, so that the hoverbikes can be put into production. If you want one (you know you do), you have to start saving up $40,000 as that is supposed to be the base price for the hoverbike. Malloy and his team are willing to make working prototypes for those who cannot wait, though, but I don’t know the price tag of those. Alternatively, donate to their project, and get a chance to win a working prototype.