publications

Honoring some of the nation's brightest high school seniors for achievements in math and science, Intel yesterday awarded the three highest prizes in its Science Talent Search for three very different types of projects.

The top prize of $100,000 went to Evan O'Dorney, 17, of Danville, Calif., for a project in which he compared two ways to estimate the square root of an integer, discovering which one was the quickest. Though that may sound abstract to non-math people, the results of O'Dorney's research allowed him to solve other equations that could be used to encrypt … Read more

Linton Weeks' March 5 National Public Radio article, "Whatever Happened To The Audiophile?" questioned the pursuit of better sound. It was one of too many articles written by an outsider who had no idea of what he was talking about, but that didn't stop Weeks from making his case for the demise of audiophilia. Weeks spoke to the usual suspects--professors, industry spokespeople, and even an audio journalist or two--but the tone of the article was skewed. It presented audiophiles as oddities, people desperately clinging to their hi-fis, while everyone else is happily listening to music over the … Read more

The inventors of the digital camera, the industrial robot, public-key cryptography, and the barcode are just some of those being inducted into this year's National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Today, the National Inventors Hall of Fame announced its latest selections of the people responsible for some of the key technologies that we use and rely on today.

In 1975, a Kodak engineer named Steve Sasson built a device that was able to capture an image, convert it to an electronic signal, and then digitize and store that image, leading to the world's first digital camera, according to the … Read more

Sen. Charles Schumer wants online companies to switch to a more secure protocol to better protect consumers who access Web sites via public Wi-Fi hot spots.

The New York Democrat yesterday issued a call to such companies as Amazon and Twitter to switch their default pages to HTTPS from HTTP to help prevent cybercriminals from stealing online passwords and credit card numbers over public Wi-Fi networks. In his request, Schumer said that programs such as Firesheep allow even hackers with no programming skills to easily capture usernames, passwords, browsing history, and other private information from unsuspecting users in spots with … Read more

Living amongst a sea of data can be a great thing, but only if it can be put to use.

Google plans to open the tools behind its Public Data Explorer to the general public later today, allowing any group or individual to upload their data into the tool and manipulate it for comparison or presentation purposes. The Public Data Explorer currently allows you to compare datasets from around the world uploaded by partners such as the U.S. Census Bureau or the World Bank.

But lots of smaller local organizations or even companies have reams of data on economic and social trends … Read more

The last time you used a public Wi-Fi hot spot, did you get the feeling you were being watched? Good. You very well may have been.

Just last week the U.S. Federal Trade Commission published the Wise Up About Wi-Fi page that offers tips for safe use of public Wi-Fi. Among the tips is the familiar advice to use encryption at all times (look for "https:" in the address header and the lock icon in the address bar or it the bottom status bar, depending on your browser).

The FTC's public-Wi-Fi safety page recommends that you … Read more

Apple has been accused by a coalition of 36 Chinese environmental groups of ignoring hazardous and unhealthy conditions at the factories in China where its components are assembled.

Released yesterday by the Institute of Environmental and Public Affairs (IPE), the report "The Other Side of Apple" ranked the iPhone maker dead last among 29 other tech companies for their responsiveness to health and environmental concerns in China.

Specifically, the report claims that Apple ignored concerns at Wintek, a factory that makes touch screens for the iPhone and iPad as well as components for other companies. Wintek came under … Read more

Much of the recent concern about the Web's lack of privacy protections has focused on Facebook--rightly or wrongly. Just a few days ago, Chris Matyszczyk described in his Technically Incorrect blog how a man blackmailed women into providing him with revealing photos by breaking into their e-mail accounts using data he collected from their public Facebook profiles and searching for racy image attachments, which he threatened to make public.

(In August 2009 I described how to keep your Facebook profile private, and while some of the settings have changed since that time, the steps are about the same.)

The … Read more

On the Web, your life is an open book. Typing a name or telephone number into one of the many free online directories may disclose a person's age, previous cities of residence, and the names of close relatives.

If you're willing to pay a few dollars, you may be able to find the person's date of birth, current and past addresses, photos, videos, estimated annual income, the value of their residence, and social network profiles (although much of this information is available for free as well). Fee-based services also check public records for the person's criminal … Read more