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In this week’s Cinematical Seven, Alison Nastasi writes about those figments of screenwriters imaginations – the hackers. From the ridiculous to the implausibly miscast, these guys and girls litter films with their fingers flying over keyboards, and their allure showing through their quirky costumes.
Every movie with a character who is a hacker is touted as being the world’s uberest of all uber hackers. While certain films try to maintain some semblance of reality when it comes to portraying their leet haxors, other movies beg you to completely suspend your disbelief — arming their geeky geniuses with an array of outlandish talents and tools of the trade. I don’t have a particularly nerdy background in computers, so I’m ok with letting this kind of film take me where it wants to — but there are some instances where the ridiculous segues into the absurd.
Suspiciously absent from the list is the movie, Hackers (pictured above, ©MGM/United Artists). Every hacker character in this movie is an over-the-top stereotype that should not be taken seriously. Link to article.
Twenty-five years ago today, Symbolics Computers of Cambridge, Massachusetts, registered Symbolics.com as a URL. It was the first such claim in computing history:
That same year another five companies jumped on a very slow bandwagon.
It took until 1997, well into the internet boom, before the one millionth dotcom was registered.[...]
It is unlikely that the early dotcoms were thought of as businesses as the early internet was not seen as a place for commerce but rather as a platform for governmental and educational bodies to trade ideas.
Scholars generally agree that a turning point was the introduction of the Mosaic web browser by Netscape that brought mainstream consumers on to the web.
I am fascinated by how technologically savvy these cyber-outlaws are. If I had the ability to crack into restricted and top secret sites to see the information that is available on them I would be tempted to dabble in hacking as well.
There are many types of hackers out there. The more traditional ones hack in order to uncover and understand the ins-and-outs of a technology, tweaking and breaking codes to discover new possibilities. Many of these guys (and yes they are often male) are committed to the open source scene, developing and sharing code with the purpose of improving the IT infrastructure. Unfortunately, these types of vigilante hackers are increasingly outnumbered by those hacking for monetary gain. In 2007, it was estimated that 67% of those who engage in web attacks are profit-motivated.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
Web Urbanist has a great post of case mods on their recent post. The most awesome is disputably this beer dispenser mod. Even non-beer drinkers (like myself) can still appreciate the genius behind this creation.
Instructables has a detailed set of how to’s to let you convert your computer case into a taxidermy beaver. Nothing says quality technology like dead animals. It’s pretty easy, just look at step one:
Purchase a beaver of your very own
There are lots of old taxidermy mounts out there – garage sales, antique stores, ebay are all good sources for older pieces. You’ll probably want a high quality mount since you’ll be removing the bulk of the internal structure, so better quality (ie not falling apart) probably means stronger.
Are you the type of person who needs a USB-charged chainsaw? Well then you need therapy…but if you must go through with your psychotic plans, there’s always the i.Saw for home and office needs.
Methinks this may be a gag listing, but if not, I’m sincerely disturbed by the distance we have gone with these USB toys.
This latch hook rug was obviously made by a computer nerd. On the page is an image of the circuit board it is based on -it’s amazingly well-replicated.
Analyst Robert Graham of Dark Reading, a website dealing with computer security issues, authored a fascinating report on the recent hacking of the popular website phpbb.com. The hacker published approximately 20,000 passwords from the site. A few of the interesting insights about the passwords:
16% of passwords matched a person’s first name. This includes people choosing their own first names or those of their spouses or children. The most popular first names were Joshua, Thomas, Michael, and Charlie. But I wonder if there is something else going on. Joshua, for example, was also the password to the computer in "Wargames," which almost certainly accounts for it being at top. Variations of the name "Jordan" are popular, which almost certainly refers to "Michael Jordan," a prominent basketball start (such as "jordan23," referring to his jersey number). This makes me wonder how many people use "Michael" as a password to refer to their children compared to sports stars.
14% of passwords were patterns on the keyboard, like "1234," "qwerty," or "asdf." There are a lot of different patterns people choose, like "1qaz2wsx" or "1q2w3e." I spent a while googling "159357," trying to figure out how to categorize it, then realized it was a pattern on the numeric keypad. I suppose whereas "1234" is popular among righthanded people, "159357" will be popular among lefties.
4% are variations of the word "password," such as "passw0rd," "password1," or "passwd." I googled "drowssap," trying to figure out how to categorize it, until I realized it was "password" spelled backward.
For the complete list and analysis, visit link.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.
Two students from a technical high school in Argentina built a mouse that can be controlled by eye movements, thus allowing people with total paralysis to use the computer.
The invention is named the "Eye Mouse." This idea is not new but what makes it different is that it is a DIY mouse that almost anyone can build with cheap and easy-to-find components.
How does it work? The free software that they provide, divides the monitor surface in squares and asks the user what he wants to do – focus on an area, right click, left click, etc – with yes and no answers. If the eye looks at the camera, that is translated as a "yes".
With just a webcam, an infrared LED, a small, flexible metal tube and the headband of a welding helmet, anyone can build the mouse at a fraction of the cost of similar devices.
The students wanted to make the Eye Mouse available to everyone, so the software is free. They have published step-by-step instructions on how to build the mouse, originally in Spanish but they have already been translated to English.
Link – via ticbelgrano
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by scbr.
You know someone’s a hardcore Mario fan when they actually design a whole mosaic of Mario art on their wall using push pins. This must have killed their thumbs. I love how the art looks like it’s in pixels. This wonderful display can be found at the Student Computing Center at the University of Fraser Valley…good to know they spend their time studying over there.
Link Via YesButNoButYes
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