Claire Hirschkind, 56, is a rape victim. She has a medical implant similar to a pacemaker. She set off an airport security metal detector. Solution? Grope her. When she objects, shove her to the ground, cuff her, and drag her out. Text version here. H/T: KVUE News via Daily Dish....

26 December, 2010

And why single queues, like those at Sydney Credit Union branches and Empire Theatre concession stands, work better. The Engineer Guy explains: H/T: Silas....

26 December, 2010

An early Contrarian post told the amazing story of how Kevin Miller got his iPhone back after he misplaced it in a Chicago bar. Miller got crucial help from an Apple app called "Find My iPhone," which can remotely track an Apple phone's geo-location information and send it to the registered owner in real time. There's no such app for an ordinary desktop—unless you happen to steal the beloved computer of clever hacker called Zoz. He recounted the story, replete with poorly disguised NSFW nudity, at Def Con 18, the underground hackers' conference. (The actual story begins at the 3:15 mark,...

26 December, 2010

Another media outlet has presented admiring coverage of the campaign by Halifax restaurateur Lil MacPherson and Halifax actress Ellen Page to oppose something one might expect environmentally conscious citizens to campaign for: the productive recycling of composted human waste as a worthy alternative to dumping it, semi-treated, in the ocean. A Contrarian reader describes today's Herald story as: One-sided journalism at its worst. Lil MacPherson is not an environmental scientist. Ellen Page is not an environmental scientist. Nowhere in the entire story is there any effort to present the case in favour of biosolids. Even the headline “Rising in defence of province’s...

28 October, 2010

A New York Times article explains something that has long puzzled me: why are institutions where security really matters so lax about passwords, while the corner store requires long, ever-changing, combinations of  upper and lower case, alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters? Why are my credit union and my bank satisfied with a four-digit numeric PIN, which they never make me change? The answer, according to a number of security experts interviewed by the Times, is that passwords don't need to be strong or constantly changed. Worse, "[O]nerous requirements for passwords have given us a false sense of protection against potential attacks. In fact,...

12 September, 2010

The Boston Globe has 40 heart-wrenching photos of the Gulf oil spill. A sampling: Thirty-six more here. Hat tip: Elaine Gibson....

12 May, 2010

We've read a lot lately about the value of swift, full, and forthright apologies when public figures screw up. What about companies that screw up? Blippy is a website that lets users trade updates about their consumer purchases. Recently, an obscure programming error, compounded by mistakes at Google and one small midwestern bank, allowed Google to index the credit card numbers of four or five Blippy customers, potentially exposing these numbers to people browsing the web. Co-founder & CEO Ashvin Kumar's apology to users could serve as a model for companies that find themselves in a similar pickle. Moneyquote: It has been...

11 May, 2010

This big: [Correction appended.] Google Engineer Paul Rademacher has produced a tool that will put a shadow the size of the Gulf oil spill anyplace on earth. (You may need to install the Google Earth Browser Plugin, which Rademacher developed, in your browser.) If the spill occurred off Sambro Island near Halifax, the slick would extend from Rose Bay, Lunenburg Co., in the west, to Port Bickerton, Guysborough Co, in the east: Here's how it would look on Sable Island, where Shell Oil's Uniacke G-72 gas well blew out for 13 days in 1984: Here it is on George's (!) Bank, where Canada...

09 May, 2010

A source I trust tells me the consultant's report on gambling Labour Minister Marilyn More won't release truly is substandard. Let's assume that's the case, and More was right to reject it after many attempts to get the contractor to fulfill the his obligations. Barring public access to the report is still the wrong thing to do. In effect, Minister More is saying interested Nova Scotians aren't sophisticated enough to understand or evaluate the report. It might cause them "anxiety" and "confusion." Such matters should presumably be left to their betters—people like More, and the Gambling Corp. honchos who talked her...

25 April, 2010
Show more
Loading...