self

New iPhone app scores sexual performance

We are all insecure.

Our noses are too big, too small, too pointy from the side. Our hair is too thin, if it exists at all.

And as for our ability to please a member of our target gender in the bedroom, well, admit it, we are all a bit freaked.

So a highly caring and simultaneously enterprising man called Chris Alvares has released an iPhone app that scores us objectively as we strive for sexual Kilimanjaro.

It's called Passion. And its heart is very simple.

In the hard sell at the Apple App Store, Alvares lays it on … Read more

The 404 388: Where there's a Tesla coil in the room

Somehow we make it past the wild Tesla coil in the room to bring you an awesome (if not kind of late) show! Today we show you how to self-destruct your private data, discuss how 3D is totally lame, and why we think Jon Stewart should run for president.

Sorry for starting late today, live listeners! I think today's show made up for the tardiness, and it all starts with Little Big Planet celebrating one million user-created levels. Since the game's popular release, a level is created every 21 seconds or so, on average, which means that if you were to play all of the levels it would take 5 years to finish them all, and that's only if you're playing 24 hours a day. Wild!

I'm also very excited (big surprise!) about the rerelease of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, dubbed TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled. Who can forget that classic side-scrolling beat-em-up? I logged so many hours at the local nickel arcade next to my house just sitting there with my friends feeding nickels into that machine. Those were always my favorites kinds of games, and there used to be so many titles, too, including Streets of Rage, Final Fight, Simpsons, and Sunset Riders! Ahh, the old days when you actually had to go to an arcade to play a video game...

We also complain about the recent upsurge of all things 3D and how even YouTube is jumping on the bandwagon, offering users the capability to display their 3D videos in multiple formats. Later on in the second half, we analyze Jon Stewart's role as America's Most Trusted Newscaster, according to an online poll by Time Magazine. Should we be scared that America is relying on a comedian to report the daily news? We're not questioning Stewart's credibility here--he's clearly a smart man--but we're wondering how Comedy Central will leverage such a powerful figure.

OK, I have to bring up the Wikipedia page one more time and then I'll shut up: after a brief recess following yesterday's announcement, the page is now in Wiki-limbo. We need users and 404-supportive Wikipedians to populate the page with more details about the show, the hosts, references, guests, etc...since we can't do it ourselves (no, really, we can't), feel free to insert our appearance on "Fox Strategy Room" as well as other blogs on the Internet that mention The 404, even if it's your own! Anything helps, but please remember not to edit the redirection page; only edit the content at the existing address. Thanks, everyone!

EPISODE 388 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Strap yourself in to the Self-Portrait Machine

You no longer have to be a Michaelangelo or Rembrandt to paint great portraits, thanks to technology. Jen Hui Liao's Self-Portrait Machine will machine-assist the "artist," via straps tied to the wrists, to sketch a self-portrait, after a picture is taken while seated at the device.

The Renaissance and Dutch masters talked about capturing the soul of the subject in their paintings. But hey, since I can't draw squat save for stickmen, this device (spotted at the Royal College of Art Show) will do just fine. However, since there's no word on a commercial launch, … Read more

Tweet your favorite Flickr shots with Autopostr

Twitter and self-promotion go together like peanut butter and jelly, but without the right tools it takes work. I've recently begun using a handy service called Autopostr that takes most of that work out of the equation, by posting whichever of my Flickr photos I want straight to Twitter with a minimal amount of effort.

On any photo or photos you wish to share with your Twitter buddies you simply add a hash (#) in the title or "autopostr" as a photo tag. The service scans your Flickr account every five minutes, and takes any of those tagged … Read more

Science mag warns: 'Could the Net become self-aware?'

It sounds like an Astroturf campaign for the upcoming computers-gone-bad movie "Terminator: Salvation," but in fact New Scientist magazine is being completely serious when it asks if the Internet itself could soon become "self-aware." The article explains:

In engineering terms, it is easy to see qualitative similarities between the human brain and the Internet's complex network of nodes, as they both hold, process, recall, and transmit information.

Fortunately for anyone worrying about how to best serve our new robot overlords, the article points out that even if this does come to pass, it won't, &… Read more

This USB device will self-destruct in 5 seconds

Now this is something any spy could use.

Fujitsu Labs unveiled a self-destructing USB drive Friday. It's still just a prototype, but it appears ready to solve real-world problems.

It's larger than the average 1GB USB drive, but there's also a lot more going on inside. The device has a processor and a battery. The owner of the drive has two options: the information can be automatically erased after a set time period, or if the USB drive is plugged into a non-authorized computer, the data will erase itself or the entire device will become unusable.

Fujitsu … Read more

Quick encryption

If you find yourself needing to share sensitive data with other users by e-mail or on a portable device, this easy-to-use app provides a handy solution.

Silver Key launches a three-paned interface similar to many e-mail clients. However, using this app is so easy you can perform all your encrypting tasks without opening the interface, as we proved in our tests. Quick context-menu access and drag-and-drop functionality made encrypting files a simple process. We also liked that we could choose not to include a self-extracting executable with the encrypted output file, and that recipients didn't need to have Silver … Read more

Government should lead transition to self-encrypting drives

I've recently written about a new standard published by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) for self-encrypting drives. With this standard, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital are shipping or will soon ship self-encrypting hard drives for laptop computers. This in turn should prompt a transition, where users will opt for systems with self-encrypting drives rather than install encryption software utilities.

To me, this conversion is inevitable since hardware-based cryptographic processing tends to lead to superior security and performance while eliminating the muss and fuss around software procurement, installation, and maintenance.

Given these benefits, I believe that the U.… Read more

Self-encrypting drive standard gains momentum

I've long been a big proponent of self-encrypting drives as the best way to encrypt data-at-rest on PCs and storage systems.

This belief became a lot more real in January when the Trusted Computing Group published three storage encryption standards for laptops, enterprise storage, and software interoperability. Fujitsu, Hitachi, Seagate, and Toshiba support these standards and are already shipping self-encrypting drives.

In February, IBM joined the fray, further validating the self-encrypting drive standard. IBM announced that its massive DS8000 storage system will now offer self-encrypting drives to protect the confidentiality and integrity of data-at-rest. LSI, another leading storage system … Read more