jamming

Iran may have committed cyber-attack on BBC

Just days after watchdog group Reporters Without Borders named Iran as one of the "Enemies of the Internet," the BBC is now claiming to be the victim of a cyber-attack possibly perpetrated by the Iranian authorities.

The news source says that two of its satellite feeds into Iran were jammed earlier this month coinciding with a denial-of-service attack in which some parts of the BBC's e-mail and Internet services were unavailable. The director-general of the BBC Mark Thompson will be giving a speech to the Royal Television Society shortly, in which he plans to explain how the … Read more

The bus rider who jams yappers' cell phones

It might be the 7:30 a.m. bus and you might be semi-comatose from a long night of self-anesthesia, but some people do insist on talking into their cell phones about last night's cabbage stew or a lover who smells of cadaver.

You can tell them to be quiet. But this, too might be ignored. So one rider in Philadelphia decided he'd use an alternative method: he says he simply jams all cell phones on his bus.

I know many will be grateful to NBC 10 in Philadelphia for discovering this remarkably simple method at achieving world peace.

"I guess I'm taking the law into my own hands. And, quite frankly, I'm proud of it," the man told NBC. … Read more

iPad artists adbust with augmented reality

Here's an interesting iPad-equipped, augmented-reality twist on adbusting and culture jamming.

Responding to my recent post about a mural "restored" using a giant QR code, CNET reader victoria_ro pointed to an ongoing project by the New York-based Public Ad Campaign and its Left Coast compatriot The Heavy Projects.

The project, which surfaced in New York's Times Square earlier this year, is dubbed the Augmented Reality Advertising Takeover, or AR | AD, and it "uses augmented reality to transform, filter, and democratize the messaging in public space"--to quote the intro to a video that documents the effort (you'll find the film embedded below).

A clutch of artists create works that appear when viewers toting iPads or other smart mobile devices train their gadgets on given ads. A setup using Junaio's augmented-reality technology, which can recognize images, spies a particular ad and serves up the appropriate art piece.… Read more

CD box sets: It's that time of year again

Downloads and streaming music can't touch physical media for sound quality, or the pleasures associated with truly deluxe packaging.

For a prime example of the state of the art of the box set, check out the extra-thick album sleeves and gorgeous slipcase on Pearl Jam's "vs. & Vitalogy Deluxe Edition" three-disc set. The third disc is a live show from Boston's Orpheum Theatre in 1994. The band is peaking, and it's great to hear this fierce, passionate music sounding this good. To get the full effect, you'll want to play it loud. The … Read more

The best headphones in the world

The Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2011, held last week at the Denver Marriott Tech Center Hotel, not only showcased a vast array of high-end audio designs, there was a special headphone-oriented show within the show called CanJam. It was a fantastic opportunity to sample the world's best headphones and headphone amplifiers.

The energy in the CanJam ballroom was palpable. There's no doubt the headphone market is still expanding at a rapid rate, and anyone who spent some time listening to the latest crop of cutting-edge products had to come away from the experience shaken and stirred. … Read more

NBA lockout games for iOS

Whether you're a sports fan or not, basketball games are often some of the best-made games on any platform. The latest news in the ongoing NBA lockout (which began July 1) is that the owners have decided to skip the preseason entirely, and if the players and owners don't come to an agreement by the end of the day on Monday, they may start to cancel regular season games.

Whichever side of the argument you're on, the iTunes App Store has more than enough basketball-type games to keep you occupied. What's particularly interesting is how developers have come up with clever ways to use the touch screen to play basketball-like games.

This week's collection of apps is all about basketball. The first lets you slam-dunk a basketball with a swipe of your finger. The second lets you shoot baskets and challenge others online against a sci-fi backdrop. The third is the iOS version of a megapopular console basketball game.… Read more

The 404 852: Where it's always bummy in Philadelphia (podcast)

It's our last show before the three-day weekend, so we're wrapping up with a review of the movie box office, and some new services that'll help with the cost of tickets. We're also exploring the idea of 4D movie theaters, and quizzing Wilson on another episode of Tang that Tune. Also, be sure to tune into the second half of the show for the debut of Jeff's new recurring segment, Squishy Moments with Jeff Bakalar!

The 404 Digest for Episode 852

MoviePass: See unlimited movies in the theater for $50 a month. 4D movies: what the heckbeans is that? Do something cat! 2/5 stars for Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Episode 852 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

How to keep hackers away from your pacemaker

With millions of implantable medical devices in the U.S. alone, and some 300,000 more people receiving them worldwide every year, the need to protect these wireless devices from being hacked is increasingly urgent.

Wearers might soon be better protected, thanks to new work out of MIT and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, so long as they don't mind walking around in invisible shields.

The system the research team will be proposing at the Association for Computing Machinery's Sigcomm conference in Toronto this August uses a jamming transmitter small enough to be worn as a watch or necklace.

The device would essentially be authorized to access the implant and send encrypted instructions to the transmitter (the team calls this the "shield"), which would in turn decode the encryption and relay the instructions to the implant.

Using a device that is separate from the medical implant is key for a few reasons: it allows for post-encryption in devices that are already implanted; it enables authorized emergency responders to simply remove the patient's shield in the event of emergencies; and it doesn't require the size of the implants to increase to accommodate and power the shield.

The new system expands on a technique recently developed at Stanford University that allows for sending and receiving signals in the same frequency band. In typical wireless technology, using the same frequency band interferes with the signal, but by employing three antennas positioned precise distances apart, one band can now be used.… Read more

NBA Jam for iPad coming soon (but already being played)

With the NBA season heading into playoff mode, EA Sports is due to release its over-the-top basketball game, NBA Jam for the iPad, any day. The game has actually been out for the iPhone for a few months for $4.99, but the iPad version has lagged behind it.

What's interesting is that if you do a search for NBA Jam in Google, you'll find several reviews and screenshots already up and even plenty of videos of the game running on iPads. However, it's not for sale in the App Store. What's the deal?

Well, if … Read more