News and Views
Online Privacy: Is Sweden a Dystopia?
What is a dystopia? It is usually an imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. In Sweden, every citizen is a number inside a computer, literally. A scenario like in the film THX 1138 is pretty much what [...]
Microsoft’s Humantenna: the Next Big Thing in Gaming?
Guest blogger Lance Seidman writes: It should be no surprise that the gaming industry is growing every day as it attracts new types of gamers and programmers from every walk of life and mainstream media coverage upon the release of hotly anticipated games becomes more commonplace. Even Mom and Dad aren’t left out when there [...]
Open Source Weight Loss Week 1: the Rollercoaster
I’ve completed the first week of a year-long project involving sharing any and every detail of my attempt to lose weight and improve my overall health. This week is full of highs and lows as my body adjusts to a sudden increase in activity. As per the advice I’ve received from numerous exercise sites, I’ve [...]
Five Reasons to Shop Online
Online shopping has grown in popularity over the years due to its various advantages and benefits over traditional shopping at brick and mortar establishments. Matt Ryan’s recent LockerGnome article about pushy salespeople exposes a major disadvantage in shopping at conventional stores, particularly ones that specialize in technology. We all know the frustration and annoyance felt [...]
Dead Drops Offer Global Offline Anonymous File Sharing Network
It’s one of those cyberpunk ideas that sounds almost impossible to implement on any global capacity, but Dead Drops are very real — and over 800 of them exist around the world with more being added every day. USB Dead Drops are a modern take on an old spy practice of dropping a message in [...]
The Science of Momentum in Portal 2
This may be a slightly strange subject for LockerGnome but I found it interesting. Fellow Gnomie Kat Shaw and I have started designing test chambers — after helping Matt Ryan with his article yesterday — and we’re trying to make them as devilishly deadly and difficult as possible. The test chambers we’re designing will use [...]
Diablo III: 12 Years In The Making
For the benefit of those who haven’t played Diablo or Diablo II, Diablo III is an action-packed role-playing game that combines elements of the hack and slash genre. The highly anticipated release of Diablo III is imminent. It has been twelve years since Diablo II was released, yet to this day there are still people [...]
Gilgamesh and Open Source Filmmaking
The Tube Open Movie is inspired by the expiration poem of Gilgamesh, and is an experiment in distributed collaboration. Furthermore, it also is a continuation in thought of the open movie. This includes, above all, crowdsourcing to help the project off the ground. The tale of a king seeking immortality is one that has been [...]
Pushy Third-party Salespeople in Electronics Stores Need to Go
I really don’t want to be “that guy” who’s known for giving bad reviews about retailers or tech businesses. I love my weekly trips to Fry’s and Best Buy because it allows me to see what geeks and non-geeks alike are being exposed to in the retail world. What products are being pushed right now, [...]
Do You Need to Own a Suit to Work in Technology?
It seems like I can’t check my email over the past week without hearing about Mark Zuckerberg’s trademark hoodie, or his presentation to potential investors while donned in a set of pajamas. Analysts are debating back and forth on whether or not his clothing choices are a detriment or an asset to his multi-billion dollar [...]
