72-mile WiFi link

By Cory Doctorow at 8:55 pm Thursday, Nov 14 • Comments • Share

A researcher at the San Diego Supercomputer Center has built an FCC-legal, 72-mile long WiFi link, using high-gain, 2-ft. parabolic antenna, running at 1Mb/s. Holy crap! Link Discuss (via Raelity Bytes)

EverCrack packet-sniffer for net-game cheaters

By Cory Doctorow at 8:36 pm Thursday, Nov 14 • Comments • Share

Cringely's latest column describes ShowEQ, a GNU/Linux app you run on the same LAN as a one or more Windows boxes playing EverQuest. ShowEQ sniffs all EverQuest packets, decrypts them, and gives you precognitive powers to know where all the other players in the game are, when someone bad is headed your way, and so on. Link Discuss (via Robot Wisdom)

Busting the No-Fly list, Internet-style

By Cory Doctorow at 8:26 pm Thursday, Nov 14 • Comments • Share

Now that the FBI has admitted to maintaining a secret list of dissident enemies-of-the-state who should not be allowed to fly (though there is no way to find out if you're on the list, why you're on the list, or how to get off the list), the ACLU has created a form for people who are barred from flying to submit their personal info and details. Go get 'em, ACLU! Link Discuss

Mozilla adds Bayesian spam-filter

By Cory Doctorow at 8:07 pm Thursday, Nov 14 • Comments • Share

Another reason to praise Mozilla: Mox hackers have added a Bayesian spam-filter to the Mozilla mailer. A Bayesian filter learns from its user -- you give it some examples of messages that are and aren't spam, and it will use statistical analysis to guess whether new mail is more like spam or more like not-spam. When it guesses wrong, you give it a gentle corrective feedback and it learns, getting better all the time. Link Discuss (via /.)

Sub-$500 Lindows tablet PC coming

By Cory Doctorow at 8:00 pm Thursday, Nov 14 • Comments • Share

Lindows, the company that ships a version of GNU/Linux that runs most Windows apps, will be shipping a <$500 tablet PC (most tablet PCs to date go for $2000-$3000). The device has wireless networking built in, a nice sharp LCD, and will look mighty fine nestled on my coffee-table. Link Discuss (Thanks, David!)

HG Wells, ripoff artist

By Cory Doctorow at 7:54 pm Thursday, Nov 14 • Comments • Share

A new book, The Spinster and the Prophet, traces the story of Florence Deeks, a Torontonian amateur historian who wrote an amazing, enormous history of the world from a feminist perspective during WWI. She submitted the manuscript to Macmillan, HG Wells's publisher, and shortly thereafter, Macmillan published Wells's "The Outline of History," a 1,300-page bestseller that ripped off enormous chunks of Deeks's works. Deeks sued in every Canadian and UK venue available to her and lost all the way. Today, though, she's vindicated in "Spinster and the Prophet," which makes a strong case for the claim of plagiarism. I wrote a novella, "A Place So Foreign," whose mcguffin is the idea that Jules Verne meets time-travellers and uses their technology to plagiarize sf writers from Wells to Gibson. I picked the wrong villain, it seems. Link Discuss (Thanks, Pat!)

Vanity TV: a new scam

By Cory Doctorow at 7:38 pm Thursday, Nov 14 • Comments • Share

Teresa Nielsen Hayden comments on a new variation on the vanity publishing scam that Lore "Brunching Shuttlecocks" Sjoberg encountered:

Ran into an interesting scam the other day. I got a call from someone claiming to be a producer for a television show, saying he wanted to interview me, in my capacity as a Web programmer and the owner of Seven Deadly Productions, for a show on the Bay Area business scene. He was interested in me "as an expert," he said. I'm not an expert on the Bay Area business scene, but I am an expert at bullshitting in interviews, so I called him back. ...

The spiel was odd from the beginning. For instance, he described his show as being "like Hard Copy or 20/20 except we only say good things." Hard Copy without the criticism is like World's Scariest Police Chases without the reckless driving. ...

Then he went into the details of what they're going to do for me. He pointed out that they were going to pay for a cameraman and lights and so forth, to the tune of something like ten thousand dollars. This is where my right eyebrow began to lift of its own accord. ...

... [T]hen he dropped the bomb. Well, more kind of sidled the bomb into place. Introduced the bomb. He told me that what with them paying for the videotaping and all, I'd be expected to pay the relatively small cost of "production and editing." Then he quickly moved onto something else which I don't remember because of the klaxon and flashing red lights that were going off in my head.

Teresa uses this as a springboard for an excellent piece on vanity publishers and scam artist agents, linked up and down the whole grifting Web. Link Discuss

700-year-old "Hidden Mickey"

By Cory Doctorow at 7:34 pm Thursday, Nov 14 • Comments • Share

A 700-year old Austrian church fresco has been discovered, with a likeness of what appears to be Mickey Mouse. The Maltese tourist board is considering suing Disney for trademark infringment. Link Discuss (Thanks, Jason!)

Roger Wood show opening Nov 20

By Cory Doctorow at 7:28 pm Thursday, Nov 14 • Comments • Share

My pal Roger Wood, a gobsmackingly brilliant assemblage sculptor who makes breathtakingly wild junk-clocks like the one pictured here, is having a gallery show in Toronto.

When: Nov 20th, 2002 - Jan 19th, 2003
Where: Wagner Rosenbaum Gallery, 169 King St E, Toronto

Roger's clocks are folk-art-cum-fine-art. Put one of Roger's clocks on your shelf and you will smile, every day. If you're in Toronto and you miss his show, you're missing out on a chance to have your mind blown. Say hi to him for me, OK? Link Discuss

Smart-paint heals corrosion in tanks

By Cory Doctorow at 7:20 pm Thursday, Nov 14 • Comments • Share

The US military is developing smart-paint for its armored vehicles. The paint will be a-crawl with "microscopic electromechanical machines... that could detect and heal cracks and corrosion in the bodies of combat vehicles, as well as give vehicles the chameleon-like quality of rapidly altering camouflage to blend in with changing operating environments." Link Discuss (Thanks, Higgins!)

Jim Leftwich's CyberPort

By Mark Frauenfelder at 4:16 pm Thursday, Nov 14 • Comments • Share

Nice Wired news article about Jim "Jimwich" Leftwich's CyberPort interface. Link Discuss

Twisted, Spanglish 'Cucaracha' comic strip goes national

By Xeni Jardin at 11:32 am Thursday, Nov 14 • Comments • Share

Lalo Alcaraz's brilliant and infamous "L.A. Cucaracha" comic just got picked up for a 10-year syndication deal. Right on, Lalo! Link Discuss

UPDATE: Buy prints from Lalo, like the extremely chido "Never Forget Columbus" cartoon at left, at the cartoonista.com store or here on eBay.

Give the gift of space bling-bling.

By Xeni Jardin at 10:34 am Thursday, Nov 14 • Comments • Share

Cool gift ideas from the world's largest space-related e-tailer, thespacestore.com. Below, the $2.5 million Destiny Module replica currently on display at SPACEHAB headquarters in Houston, TX

Hipster welding helmets

By Cory Doctorow at 8:28 am Thursday, Nov 14 • Comments • Share

Hoodlum Helmets: One-stop hipster welding-helmet shop. Link Discuss (Thanks, cruella!)

Canada ponders national ID card

By Cory Doctorow at 8:25 am Thursday, Nov 14 • Comments • Share

Canada's Federal Immigration Minister is calling for a national debate on the merits of a Canadian nation ID card. Why is it that Canada always seems to adopt the worst of US policy, instead of picking up on the good ole First Amendment? Link Discuss (Thanks, Rich!)