The Newest Car Wars™ covert weapons emplacement

May 172011
 

I love Car Wars™.  As far as I’m concerned, forget all the adventure books, Car Wars was the pinnacle of Steve Jackson Games‘ portfolio.  Uncle Albert was my hero, and I would have gone bankrupt outfitting at his stores.

So it’s particularly heart-warming to discover that someone, somewhere, at the Prince George’s County State Highway Commission must share my love for this wonderful game.  I mean, only someone as warped as myself in that regard come have come up with the following piece of crossing equipment.

 

[youtube 2i31MUs-xAA Crossing Cannon]

This is a preview of The Newest Car Wars™ covert weapons emplacement. Read the full post (281 words, 1 image, estimated 1:07 mins reading time)
 Posted by on May 17, 2011 Ghosts In The Machines , , ,  No Responses »

Rendered Robot Rock

Nov 272009
 

I know, cheesy title, but no title really sums up what we’re discussing here.

This is, of course, for those of you who’ve been living in a cave for the past 8 years or so.

One of the things that always blows my mind is the Animusic videos.  They’re really easy to explain – Take a piece of music (usually written by the creators of Animusic), a custom piece of software to listen to the notes of the music, and a kick ass set of computer rendered figures in a scene playing instruments, and you’ve got it.

This is a preview of Rendered Robot Rock. Read the full post (179 words, estimated 43 secs reading time)
 Posted by on November 27, 2009 Ghosts In The Machines No Responses »

XP SP3 Released To Manufacturing

Apr 232008
 

Microsoft has announced the release to manufacturing of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3).

According to their press release:

We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Online documentation for Windows XP SP3, such as Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the Microsoft TechNet Windows XP TechCenter, will be updated then. For customers who use Windows XP at home, Windows XP SP3 Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer.

This is a preview of XP SP3 Released To Manufacturing. Read the full post (110 words, estimated 26 secs reading time)
 Posted by on April 23, 2008 Ghosts In The Machines ,  No Responses »

Hasta la Vista, USB

Apr 162008
 

Lots of people like to give The Register all kinds of grief for it’s … umm … informal style of reporting?

Of course, it has nothing to do with their ability to ferret out such gems tech companies would prefer not to become common knowledge, such as Phorm’s proposed deep-packet inspection or BT’s still inexplicable secret testing of the same against a large number of users without their knowledge.

Honest.

It almost certainly isn’t because of stories such as this one, which tells of a potential problem with Windows Defender (a Microsoft security application). It seems that a recent update to Windows Defender is causing USB devices to die.

This is a preview of Hasta la Vista, USB. Read the full post (325 words, estimated 1:18 mins reading time)
 Posted by on April 16, 2008 Ghosts In The Machines No Responses »

When Good(?) PR Goes Bad

Apr 092008
 

Either something is in the tap-water-from-a-spring PR drones in the UK are drinking, or an intrinsically abject failure of intelligence is coming to the fore, but they seem to be losing their “magic” touch of late.

“We were adware, not spyware, honest” Phorm was caught with its hand in the cookie jar (no pun intended) recently, making some rather intriguing “clarifications” of the Wikipedia entry about the company.

Having read the differences between the two versions (pre and post PR drone assault), I can understand why Phorm might want to “clarify” their entry.  Parts of the entry they “clarified” include

This is a preview of When Good(?) PR Goes Bad. Read the full post (656 words, estimated 2:37 mins reading time)
 Posted by on April 9, 2008 Ghosts In The Machines , , , , , ,  No Responses »

Bad Phorm

Mar 292008
 

In recent months, there has been growing discussion online regarding the proposed deal between major ISPs in the UK, such as BT, Virgin Media, and Carphone Warehouse, and a company called Phorm.

The basic premise goes something like this1:

  1. A customer of an ISP signed up for the system types in a URL.
  2. The page request is routed through the ISP to Phorm’s servers.
  3. Phorm’s servers modify a cookie on the user’s computer.
  4. Phorm’s servers forward the request for a URL to the website being requested.
  5. The website being requested sends back all the relevant page data to Phorm’s servers.
This is a preview of Bad Phorm. Read the full post (1943 words, estimated 7:46 mins reading time)
 Posted by on March 29, 2008 Ghosts In The Machines , , , ,  No Responses »

Best Job In Town

Mar 172008
 

I love space. No, really, I do. That’s one of the reasons I write science fiction. Between “Inner Space”, the world’s oceans, and outer space, what lies outside our atmospheric cocoon, it’s hard to tell which one is the most “alien”, and the most fascinating for me.

But space … To paraphrase Douglas Adams, it’s big – mind-bogglingly big. The potentials for me, as an author, are obvious.

This is a preview of Best Job In Town. Read the full post (831 words, 1 image, estimated 3:19 mins reading time)
 Posted by on March 17, 2008 Ghosts In The Machines No Responses »

Speaking of which …

Mar 142008
 

Tom Simonite over at New Scientist magazine reported recently about a new development in thought-to-* devices.

Named “Audeo”, the device intercepts and interprets the nerve impulses your brain sends to your vocal cords, reproducing the words you thought to speak electronically. Outwardly, it’s just a neckband, but it’s hard to determine from the information what other equipment is needed, assuming the neckband is just the “receiver” that catches the impulses.

The device was “unveiled” at a Texas Instruments conference, with Michael Callahan, co-founder of Ambient Corporation, demonstrating the device in a cross-stage phone call.

Shortlink for this post: http://wp.me/p2cbiZ-15

This is a preview of Speaking of which …. Read the full post (364 words, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)
 Posted by on March 14, 2008 Disability, Ghosts In The Machines No Responses »

Nailing it

Mar 042008
 

El Reg was kind enough to tell geekdom of Nine Inch Nails‘ new album, Ghosts.

Why would El Reg care? Probably because of the way NiN is distributing it. The first nine tracks are available for free download, with the option to order the rest of the album (36 tracks in all) either as high quality downloads or the 2-CD set.

This is a preview of Nailing it. Read the full post (330 words, estimated 1:19 mins reading time)
 Posted by on March 4, 2008 Ghosts In The Machines , , , ,  No Responses »

The Vista From Here …

Feb 252008
 

… Might not be great right now.

Microsoft’s woes with the long heralded but problematic replacement for Windows XP seem far from over.

Service Pack 1 (SP1), due for widespread release in mid-March 2008, has a worrysome knowledgebase article1:

Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista is an important update for Windows Vista. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) contains many security, reliability, and feature updates for Windows Vista. A program may experience a loss of functionality after you install Windows Vista SP1. However, most programs will continue to work as expected after you install Windows Vista SP1.

This is a preview of The Vista From Here …. Read the full post (465 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)
 Posted by on February 25, 2008 Ghosts In The Machines No Responses »
 Older Entries

Bad Behavior has blocked 331 access attempts in the last 7 days.