:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Thursday, January 14, 2010 ::

google.cn

Forgot to pass this on a couple of days ago...

I guess its good news for those concerned about Google's presence in China. Seems things are getting worse rather than better (the official line was the hoped to improve the situation over time) so they are as good as giving up. Shame the goal of bringing information to the people wasn't reached and sad to see the extent the government (presumably) will go to to infringe human rights and prevent activism.

"Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident--albeit a significant one--was something quite different.

"First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses--including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors--have been similarly targeted. ...

"Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. ...

"Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users' computers."

Click through to read on.

Labels: Censorship, IT, Liberty, News, Politics

:: Dan 14.1.10 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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There is a pattern to my blogging here that shows that every time I buy an actual hard copy of a newspaper I blog about half a dozen stories out of it I may otherwise never have stumbled upon. This is no exception, here are my picks from Thursday's Guardian:

British therapists still offer treatments to 'cure' homosexuality
"Survey suggests a significant minority of mental health professionals continue to provide treatments to gay men and lesbians despite no evidence they can change orientation and concerns they are harmful...One counsellor who is a member of the British Psychological Society said: "Although homosexual feelings are usual in people, their physical expression, and being a person's only way of having sexual relations is problematic. The physical act for male homosexuals is physically damaging and is the main reason in this country for Aids/HIV. It is also perverse.""
This is outrageous. It can be criticised, if not demolished, from so many different angles I don't think I need to point that out. It's like a throw back to the 50s, when our society lost great minds like Turing because of it's backwards treatment of sexuality. From some of the quotes in the article there are, to me, some scary signs of counsellors forcing their personal (probably 2000 year old religious based beliefs) on people. These practitioners should not be allowed to "help" people again.

Are women doing better or worse in IT since Ada Lovelace?

Why not let the security services spy on Twitter? It's not like they'll learn anything from it

Getty Images now licensing hand-picked Flickr photos

Google's would be watchdogs are distracted by its chew toys

Vintage sound chips? They are music to my ears
Chip tunes goes mainstream?

E-government survey urges councils to free data

"Never mind the recession - Lego is now so popular that there are 62 little coloured blocks for every person on the planet. Yet only five years ago this family business was on the brink of ruin. Jon Henley reports from the Danish town where it all began"

Labels: Electronic Music, Feminism, Flickr, gay, Google, IT, Lego, News, Photography, Politics, Retro, Secuirty, web 2.0

:: Dan 28.3.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Extracts from A Day in the Life of Mr Lee, the original CatCam whore.



And other users can be found on flickr
Buy the camera, and GPS tag, or DIY kits, here.

Labels: Cats, IT, Photography

:: Dan 21.7.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Crazy Questions at Google Job Interview

That made me think! Good fun too.

Labels: Google, IT, Logic, Maths

:: Dan 19.6.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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A CAPTCHA (IPA: /?kæpt??/) is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine that the response is not generated by a computer. The process involves one computer (a server) asking a user to complete a simple test which the computer is able to generate and grade. Because other computers are unable to solve the CAPTCHA, any user entering a correct solution is presumed to be human. A common type of CAPTCHA requires that the user type the letters of a distorted image, sometimes with the addition of an obscured sequence of letters or digits that appears on the screen.

Those things piss me off. I fail them far too often. If I were a character in a Philip K. Dick story it would be the first sign I'm not actually human, as I believe I am, but either an automaton, simulacrum, or a figment of my own or someone else's imagination. I'm pretty sure I'm not a character in a book but can't rule out the other four.

Labels: IT, Literature, Sci-Fi

:: Dan 12.5.08 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Interesting video demo of content-aware adaptive image resizing

Labels: graphics, IT

:: Dan 31.12.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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gusset trends
Originally uploaded by gusset.


Listening habits and searching trends
"The amount of information Google collects every time someone queries is astounding. Some of this information has been made available to the public through Google Trends. By entering in a search string you are given a graph showing search volume, news reference volume, a chart of the top ten regions, as well as top ten cities and languages."
Obviously I couldn't resist checking the gusset trend, see screenshot above.

Labels: Google, IT, Search

:: Dan 31.10.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Steampunk
Originally uploaded by pashasha.


dev.null quotes the Boston Globe's article on steampunk. Well worth a read if you're into moddified hardware or any of the science-fiction that inspires it (Verne, Wells, Gibson, Sterling, Stevenson etc.). Make sure you check the pictures, otherwise you'll just get the impression that all these people do it make up ridiculous names for things (eg "The Nagy Magical-Movable-Type Pixello-Dynamotronic Computational Engine") [login required on the BG site, some photos on Flickr here].

Terry Gilliam's film Brazil is also noted as an inspiration and it happens to be on BBC 2 tonight. The film is co-written by Tom Stoppard, which reminds me I meant to link to this story about Stoppard's time working on The Bristol Evening World, published from the very building I'm sat in as I type this.

P.S. Pashasha also has a great set of "Music Things" pictures.

Labels: Cyberpunk, Flickr, IT, Literature, Mods, Sci-Fi

:: Dan 29.8.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Damn you Spokesy for getting me started on this. I'd been trying to avoid it as myspace already sucks up too much of my time. Although, you can't deny that it is a lot slicker and better coded. And I've already caught up with lots of old friends I'd lost contact with.



The legal case that much of the media reported was threatening to shut the site down last week seems to be on the back foot due to a lack of evidence. The prosecution has been given two weeks to come up with some evidence. I can't see the site getting shut down, that wouldn't be in neither party's interest. Facebook's most valuable asset is not it's code, lovely and shinny as it is, it's its 32M strong user base come advertising market. The case will settle.

Labels: facebook, IT

:: Dan 30.7.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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