Here's something I didn't know: Despite encryption, Skype can be wiretapped by the police. Recordings seem to have been used in court in several countries now.

To me that means that Skype is not secure at all. If the police can use a back door, any mildly skilled hacker can exploit that too, I'm sure.

Sitting in a snack place near Leicester Square, looking out the big window front. In a period of only 2 minutes, two people saw me looking, and smiled. I smiled back. One moment, lost in time, but precious.

The cover of this notepad from a professional services company reads: "Space for Ideas". Once you flip the cover, you see the pattern on the paper: This makes it pretty clear what kinds of ideas they expect, doesn't it?

An oversized desk is the only sort worth owning. For one, they’re there for you when you need that extra space for papers and other work (when you need the space, there never seems to be enough). Secondly, when your oversized desk is clean and empty, the unused acreage is a sight to behold.

When a small desktop is clean it merely looks tidy, as it should. But when an oversized desk is clean? That’s conversation worthy. #

I couldn't agree more. I love huge desks. The most beautiful one I have seen was in the basement of a house in the outskirts of Berlin.

It seemed to be from the Art Nouveau period, with nicely curved edges. It was so big that it would have fit everything that I have on my desk right now, plus two open "Die Zeit" newspapers. I also wondered how anyone ever got that thing into the basement, or how to get it out of there.

“But I can’t print from my iPad!”

Well, maybe the problem isn’t with your iPad! Why can’t I just email a PDF to my printer from whatever device I’m on, and let the printer figure out how to print? Device drivers suck. Just mentioning them makes me cringe a little. Why can’t someone make peripherals that suit the way I use technology now, rather than expecting newer devices to support an interface that’s decades old?

technochocolate (via minimalmac)

 

For over 60 years, computers have been based on digital computing principles. Data is represented as bits (1s and 0s). Boolean logic gates perform operations on these bits. Lyric has invented a new kind of logic gate circuit that uses transistors as dimmer switches instead of as on/off switches. These circuits can accept inputs and calculate outputs that are between 0 and 1, directly representing probabilities – levels of certainty. A digital processor steps through these operations serially in order to perform a function. In order to improve efficiency even further, Lyric’s processors are designed to perform many probability computations in parallel.
Lyric Press Materials

As an organizational psychologist, most of my quantitative work revolves around probabilities. The more complex things get, I believe, and the more your work depends on "real world" scenarios, the bigger the role of probability becomes.

You can read more about Lyric on GigaOM.

Looking at a company brochure. Woman in her 40ies, dressed conservatively, looks at you with a half-smile of subtle sadness and resignation. Caption: "Expect more of us. Innovative. We develop intelligent and practical solutions based on latest knowledge and our extensive experience." Who did their marketing, I wonder.

The Star Wars Holiday Special.

Believe me, you won't believe your eyes.

The device's internal security system was chief among these attractions. We left one […] on a park bench for six hours and, upon return, found it in the exact same place.

Hilarious, and true.

Why overcomplicate things?

Ignite the existing community and attract new members by amplifying the experience with relevant and engaging content
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