Ultra Ever Dry
I won’t even bother trying to explain how wondrous this “nano-tech coating” is. Just watch the video.
I can’t vouch for the validity of this product, but it’s fun to think up of uses for it. What would YOU use this on?
via NPR
xkcd Password Generator
It may seem counter-intuitive to have a plain English passphrase instead of a t0tta11y l337 password, but what it comes down to is how many bits of entropy you can generate while not following any predictable patterns.
Lifehacker has a great article explaining why old password tricks aren’t working anymore with the amount of raw computing power available today.
If you’re lazy and you want to make use of the XKCD passphrase method above, you can always lean on a passphrase generator.
My favorite combination is using LastPass along with its support for two-factor authentication. For those of you unfamiliar with two-factor authentication, the way it’s implemented with LastPass (and Google, if you enable it), is that a random number is generated that needs to be entered in after you provide your passphrase. This random number can either be SMS’ed to you or you can view it using the Google Authenticator app. That random number rotates every 15 or so seconds. It’s a little cumbersome, but in order for somebody to gain access to websites I use, they would need to know my LastPass passphrase AND physically have my iPhone.
Be safe, everyone!
Lifehacker – Your Clever Password Tricks Aren’t Protecting You from Today’s Hackers
Pareidolia
Pareidoloop (Image courtesy of prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com)
This is creepily mind-blowing. Hooray for Pareidolia.
What happens if you write software that generates random polygons and the software then feeds the results through facial recognition software, looping thousands of times until the generated image more and more resembles a face? Pareidoloop. Above, my results from running it for a few hours. Spooky.
30-story Hotel Assembled in Two Weeks
To say this is an incredible feat of engineering approaches understatement. I purposefully used the term “assembled” in the title since the parts of the hotel are prefabricated elsewhere. I’m sure that the prefabrication process will add a significant amount to the total time required for this 30-story hotel to come into existence.
Still, though, imagine living in that area, going on vacation for a few weeks and then returning home to see a 30-story hotel.
I Want To Live!
Though this is only a tech demo showing the “emotive capabilities” of a game engine on the PS3, it is an amazingly succinct and poignant narrative on the birth of self-awareness within a “newborn” android.
I also thought that embracing the “uncanny valley” within this context was a smart move. Since the featured character is an android, our expectations are lower for lifelike emotion—we are pleasantly surprised and in awe when we do see emotion. That subtlety drives the power behind this short film.
Enough of my chatter. Watch this film!
via BoingBoing via EuroGamer.net
Are Mobile Devices Destroying Your Body?
I’ll admit that I exhibit addictive behavior when it comes to my mobile device(s). If you think you fall into that category, the infographic below may be of some use.
via Lifehacker via How-To Geek
High Speed Video of Canon DSLR Shutter
Here’s a great video showing the mirror and shutter mechanism in a Canon DSLR. The action begins 60 seconds in.
Keep in mind that the entire real-time duration of the mirror swinging up, the shutter coming down, the exposure, the shutter coming back up and the mirror swinging down is .213 seconds.
Great find, Tom!
Google Store View
My favorite camera store, B&H Photo Video, is one of the first businesses participating in having virtual tours of their stores via Google’s Street View technology.
If you look up B&H Photo Video on Google Maps, you can step inside.
via Wired.com
Capturing video at the speed of light — one trillion frames per second
So what kind of camera do you have? How fast can it shoot? 1/4000th of a second? 1/8000th of a second? Pshaw. What do you think of a camera that can shoot 1/1,000,000,000,000th of a second? That’s so fast that it can capture light traveling in slow motion!
MIT researchers have created a new imaging system that can acquire visual data at a rate of one trillion exposures per second. That’s fast enough to produce a slow-motion video of a burst of light traveling the length of a one-liter bottle, bouncing off the cap and reflecting back to the bottle’s bottom.
via MITnews
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