Cybernudity — Now You Don't See It, Now You Do

Technology may solve problems, but it also spawns new technology to solve the new problems caused by recently-spawned technology. While one group of upright entrepreneurs works to protect the privacy of victims targets of clothing-penetrating 3D holographic body scans (marketed for airport security), a group of hackers works just as hard to remove the digital…

New Media Studies

“The academic institutionalization of New Media Studies is happening in several disciplines simultaneously – you’ll find it in fine arts programs, communications programs, computer science programs, rhetoric programs, journalism programs, literature programs, and perhaps (finally) even creative writing programs. One of the milestones of the past year was Brown University’s announcement of a graduate fellowship…

When a Free Download Isn't Free

“Last week, writer Glenn Fleishman offered his book, Real World Adobe GoLive 6, as a free download. | But instead of the few hundred downloads Fleishman expected, the book was downloaded about 10,000 times in just 36 hours. And because he’s charged incrementally for bandwidth, Fleishman estimates he could be billed $15,000 at the end…

Language Inspired by Orwell set to Fool Hackers

“Dubbed NewCode, the [programming] language promises to revolutionise software development, as the language makes it impossible to express a security vulnerability in a program’s source code. ‘We were inspired by Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which there is a language called NewSpeak which made it impossible to express political dissent,’ says the group’s leader, Julia Jones….…

Misfired Messages Roil Businesses

“Today’s on-the-go workers are sending e-mails and instant messages containing derogatory comments and jokes, risqué images or sensitive information in droves — to the wrong people…. One woman bad-mouthed a recent job candidate as a ‘suck up’ in an e-mail she then accidentally sent to that prospective employee. He was hired to be her boss.…