Sure, this could be accomplished with technology. But take a moment to appreciate the human, artistic talent of this man who cannot read or write but can create sculptures that are nothing short of amazing. I love technology, but I never cease to be impressed by humanity.

Is it possible for someone to create a malicious filter without having access to your Gmail username and password? No, however, they can force you to create the filter without your knowledge.

The blogosphere is buzzing about a Gmail Security Flaw that has caused some people to lose their domain names registered through GoDaddy.

To understand how this exploit works let me first explain how I would carry it out (if I were a blackhat). Then we can move on and explain the exploit in detail.

Brandon has written an informative article on this exploit over at geekcondition.com.

If you use Gmail, have filters set up and have a domain registered with GoDaddy you should read the full article. Then I’d recommend you immediately change hosts. My dislike of GoDaddy is documented elsewhere.

They open up their new search tool, Glue, to the Western world and we are impressed.

Extensive beta testing in India, with Indian-centric search results, failed to give us a good idea of the usefulness of this application. It’s just been released here today, and there’s not a lot of content at the moment. But searching for Microsoft gives us a good idea of what the resulting search results look like.

Instead of the typical page of search results pulled from websites, blogs and major news sites, you’ll find results from Wikipedia, stock reports, news, job listings, even Flickr and Google search results. The results are more eclectic than we usually get, and can reveal results you didn’t expect to find.

Just when we were getting used to the no-frills search page that is Google, along comes Yahoo with a bright idea that offers a useful alternative. Glue might prove sticky if the content increases quickly.

Via Yahoo’s Tech News:

The US space agency NASA said it successfuly conducted a first test of a deep space communications network modeled on the Internet.

“This is the first step in creating a totally new space communications capability, an interplanetary Internet,” Adrian Hooke, NASA’s manager of space-networking architecture, technology and standards, said in a statement.

The US space agency said Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers used software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, to transmit dozens of space images to and from a NASA spacecraft some 20 million miles (32.4 million kilometers) from Earth.

NASA said the software protocol, which must be able to withstand delays, disruptions and disconnections in space, was designed in partnership with Vint Cerf, a vice president at Internet search giant Google.

DTN sends information using a method that differs from the normal Internet’s Transmission-Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP, communication suite, which Cerf co-designed, NASA said.

Unlike TCP/IP, DTN does not assume a continuous end-to-end connection, NASA said, noting that glitches can happen when a spacecraft moves behind a planet, or when solar storms and long communication delays occur.

It said the delay, for example, in sending or receiving data from Mars takes between three-and-a-half minutes and 20 minutes at the speed of light.

NASA said that if a destination path cannot be found, data packets are not discarded but kept by each network node until it can communicate safely with another node.

Eventually, it said, the information is delivered to the end user.

A more detailed description can be found at the IEEE website:

The authors give an overview of current work on delay- and disruption-tolerant networking and review the overall architecture proposed by the Internet Research Task Force’s Delay Tolerant Networking Research Group. Their approach to networking makes no assumption that nodes will have end-to-end connectivity, which could be missing with extremely high-latency connections, if the nodes are only in contact with one another infrequently or if contacts are being continually disrupted. They also describe the main protocols the group is developing and give examples of some pilot networks that use these protocols.

StreamDesk is an application that allows you to watch streaming video like Ustream and podcasts without having to open a browser.

The application, which offers versions for both the Mac and Windows, consists of a viewing window and a left-side menu. Nothing fancy or complicated. StreamDesk comes prepopulated with quite a few feeds and you can easily add others. Think of it as an RSS reader for video broadcasts.

I’ve been using it for a couple of days now and consider it a keeper. I watched the space shuttle docking today on SpaceVidCast, which you’ll find on the default menu under “Ustream.tv.Streams”. Not once did the app freeze up or stutter.

If you enjoy watching podcasts I’d highly recommend StreamDesk.

From their site:

StreamDesk has its orgins in the early days of Chris Pirillo’s live stream and it all started as a Opera widget. Later versions were adapted for Vista Sidebar and eventually I discovered HTML Applications (HTAs) since they are html and javascript capable i was able to expand to the first revsions of the standalone version.

Eventually I opened it up to accepting requests and called the released product “KComputer Zone Widget Pack” with standalone installers for each streamer. The per streamer installer eventually got overwhelming and I made a bundle installer for them all but I made one vital mistake… I didn’t comment the code resulting in impossible to edit installer. The said isssues with the 1.0 bundle led me to starting from scatch (the standalone installers to the rescue) and version 2.0 of the bundle was born. I kept going on that path for a while but eventualy I made contact with Windows and Mac software developers.

I worked with both of the developers to get true standalone apps developed. The mac version was the first to be developed and released then later on the windows version was released.

Now back to current time…. the next generation version for windows is in development and the next gen mac version is in the works.
Developers:
Windows: David Kellaway
Mac: GranitW

If you saw the movie Minority Report, you’ll remember the large, interactive computer screen Cruise uses. Life once again imitates art. Someday soon this technology may be used in your home.

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

Oblong Industries is the developer of the g-speak spatial operating environment.

The SOE’s combination of gestural i/o, recombinant networking, and real-world pixels brings the first major step in computer interface since 1984; starting today, g-speak will fundamentally change the way people use machines at work, in the living room, in conference rooms, in vehicles. The g-speak platform is a complete application development and execution environment that redresses the dire constriction of human intent imposed by traditional GUIs. Its idiom of spatial immediacy and information responsive to real-world geometry enables a necessary new kind of work: data-intensive, embodied, real-time, predicated on universal human expertise.

Learn more…

From the Washington Post:

A U.S. based Web hosting firm that security experts say was responsible for facilitating more than 75 percent of the junk e-mail blasted out each day globally has been knocked offline following reports from Security Fix on evidence gathered about criminal activity emanating from the network.

For the past four months, Security Fix has been gathering data from the security industry about McColo Corp., a San Jose, Calif., based Web hosting service whose client list experts say includes some of the most disreputable cyber-criminal gangs in business today.

On Monday, Security Fix contacted the Internet providers that manage more than 90 percent of the company’s connection to the larger Internet, sending them information about badness at McColo as documented by the security industry.

On Tuesday afternoon, I heard back from Global Crossing, one of McColo’s major Internet providers. Their spokesman declined to discuss the matter, except to say that Global Crossing communicates and cooperates fully with law enforcement, their peers, and security researchers to address malicious activity.

Two hours later, I heard from Benny Ng, director of marketing for Hurricane Electric, the Fremont, Calif., company that was the other major Internet provider for McColo.

Hurricane Electric took a much stronger public stance: “We shut them down,” Ng said.

The badness attributed to McColo was not limited to spam. It included child pornography sites; sites that accepted payment for spam and child porn; rogue anti-virus Web sites; and a huge malicious software operation that apparently stole banking and credit card data from more than a half million people worldwide.

Have you noticed your spam folder filling slower today?