AltWeeklies Wire
Need an Answer? Ask ChaChanew
Online truth-seekers are discovering some very old-school options to Google searches — services such as Cha-Cha, where real people get your answers for you.
Boston Phoenix |
Caitlin E. Curran |
09-04-2008 |
Tech
Tags: computers & technology
Cookie Caper: Secure Browsing Flaw Reveals a Nasty Exploitnew
I was crushed to see the Cookie Monster has been dabbling in "grey hat" SSL exploit hacking. The gleefully delusional crumb muncher is the mascot of a new cookie-snatching hack that can collect your login info on Gmail, Netflix, or even your bank. Well, he's not real, but the danger is.
Charleston City Paper |
Joshua Curry |
09-03-2008 |
Tech
The Celebrity-starved Denver Media is All Twitterpated During the DNCnew
All the same, as mind-numbingly inane as most Twitter feeds have been, there have been a few that were illuminating. For instance, this one from the Denver Post.
How to ChaChanew
How to make a little cash on the side by answering random questions on the internet.
Seven Days |
Bridget M. Burns |
08-20-2008 |
Tech
Where-Fi?: An underground scouting report on Lowcountry wi-fi hotspotsnew
How to find the best places to leech wi-fi.
Charleston City Paper |
Joshua Curry |
08-13-2008 |
Tech
Tags: computers & technology
The Human Life Extension Movement Sees a Glorious Future for Us Allnew
People involved with the loosely connected movements of life extension, transhumanism and singularitarianism think we're soon going to be able to extend our lives almost infinitely. And they're working feverishly to survive into that golden age. They're willing to pop pills and radically reduce how much they eat just to live a bit longer.
New Haven Advocate |
Adam Bulger |
08-12-2008 |
Culture
The Chumby Diaries: A Partial-Attention Love-Hate Storynew
Is the ambient widget device a friend who will share corn-bread recipes and glimpses at its panda cam, or a foe who will steal your passwords?
L.A. Weekly |
Gendy Alimurung |
08-11-2008 |
Tech
Velva's Multimedia Geekfest Bends More than Circuitsnew
Velva's work displays both a geek's love for technology and for tearing technology up and making something else out of it. That something in this case is songs that pile up glitchy beats, circuit-bent-toy sounds, eight-bit-video-game noises, and customized analog synth guitars (including the "space axe" and "guitari").
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
08-04-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Forget Murky Coffee Dates -- Romantic Evasiveness Has Peaked Onlinenew
The entire discourse of "dating" today reminds me of what Roland Barthes said of text when he proclaimed the death of the author: "Everything is to be disentangled, nothing deciphered; the structure can be followed, 'run' (like the thread of a stocking) at every point and at every level, but there is nothing beneath."
NOW Magazine |
Jacob Scheier |
07-28-2008 |
Culture
How Technology is Turning the Tables on the Westernization of Popnew
The exchange of musical ideas between the West and the rest of the world is evolving into a genuine conversation, and that can only be an improvement. The internet may be giving the music industry all kinds of fits, but it's pretty great for the health of music itself.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
07-28-2008 |
Music
School, Virtually: Higher Education Gets a Second Lifenew
Professors shrouded in virtual alter egos may one day become commonplace as universities turn to online technologies to cope with increasing enrollment, decreasing budgets and a diversifying student body. Second Life by Linden Labs is the cutting edge of tools being tapped by academia. But new professorial cliches are the least significant of changes forcing scholars to take a critical look at where higher ed might be headed.
San Diego CityBeat |
Megan Burks |
07-23-2008 |
Education
Can Location-Specific Advertising Generate Revenue for WiFi?new
When NAC took over EarthLink's Philly network, it proposed a hybrid business model: steady revenue from wired broadband for large businesses combined with a free public access network that could generate revenue from advertisements. This latter part is particularly interesting, because, while it sounds promising, no reliable model exists for ads on a WiFi network.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Timothy J. McLaughlin |
07-22-2008 |
Tech
The Nokia Lolitas: A Combustible Mix of Minors, Sex and Technologynew
An emerging trend of DIY teenage sex imagery raises questions about the limits of technology and the appropriate legal response. Should kids be facing criminal records for taking naked pictures of themselves? Also: Just how widespread is this trend, and how should officials handle it when students make their sex lives public?
New Haven Advocate |
Rachel Slajda and Erin Lynch |
07-22-2008 |
Tech
A Bristol Nonprofit Wants to Replicate Your Brain and Bequeath It to a Robotnew
Some transhumanists are interested in eliminating certain diseases, or in slowing down the aging process. More ambitious ones, such as Bruce Duncan or the folks at the Willington, Connecticut-based World Transhumanist Association, believe that technology could eventually help us outlive death.
Seven Days |
Mike Ives |
07-18-2008 |
Tech
Not-So-Pretty Facebooknew
Yes, we all hate them. You thought you were done with cliques in high school, but social-networking sites have brought them back with a vengeance.
Boston Phoenix |
Sharon Steel |
07-17-2008 |
Tech
Tags: computers & technology
