Apple Is Enormous. How Enormous Is Apple?
Apple is the biggest company in the world. Apple is worth $725 billion. How big is that, exactly?
Why Was Virginia Using This Horribly Unsafe Voting Machine for Years?
You wouldn’t want “abcde” to be the password standing between a hacker and your computer, and you don’t even do anything important on your computer. So why was it ever all right for hardware that facilitates American democracy to be so stupidly vulnerable?
"Shell Shock" Could Give Hackers Keys to Your Website
You might recall "Heartbleed," a password-thieving software bug that left hundreds of thousands of computers vulnerable while you pretended to understand and worry. Now we've got another source of esoteric computer dread, and it might be even worse.
Computer Program "Passes" Turing Test for the First Time
Sixty years to the day of his death, a computer at the University of Reading passed Alan Turing's test Saturday, successfully convincing judges that they were communicating with a human. UPDATE 6/10: As io9 and others have pointed out, it was not a computer (or a supercomputer) but a chat bot — a program designed to…
Heart of Blandness: A Walking Tour of Silicon Valley
Walking is the only pleasant form of traveling by land. You need no special equipment, training, money, e-tickets, antidepressants, or Twitter followers. Whatever clothes you're wearing will do fine; a hat and shoes are optional. When I've got a few days to spend somewhere, I spend them walking around. So I spent a…
"The publishers Springer and IEEE are removing more than 120 papers from their subscription services after a French researcher discovered that the works were computer-generated nonsense," Nature reports. One paper focuses on "disproving that spreadsheets can be made knowledge-based, empathic, and compact."
Yesterday's transit meltdown at Grand Central was caused by "human error," the MTA reported, after someone at Metro-North decided evening rush hour would be a good time to disconnect half the power supply to the railway's main control computers, for maintenance. A loose wire then disabled the other half.
Professor Makes Up Fake Theft In Attempt To Hide Porn
It’s okay to look at porn, and it’s okay to have a work computer, but you probably shouldn’t combine the two and then lie to police about it.
The FBI's been able to do it for years, but now any Joe Schmoe high school kid can figure out how to monitor people through their computer cameras without triggering the activation light.
Machines are Now Teaching Us How to be Human
Time to surrender, the machines have won and the great experiment has failed: computers are now teaching humans how to be social.
Digital Media Surpasses TV as America's Favorite Drug
America is changing. People these days no longer fly Old Glory, eat apple pie, or take their date a-courtin' before copulation. Instead of mom marrying dad, people are marrying gays, or horses. And our national love affair with TV is being replace by blippity-bloopity-interdigital thingamajiggery.
CIA's Tech Head on Your Data: 'We Try To Collect Everything And Hang On To It Forever'
The man who introduced the CIA's Chief Technology Officer, Ira "Gus" Hunt, at yesterday's GigaOM Structure:Data conference in New York City thought it would be funny to quip, "If you don't give a big round of applause for our next speaker, he's gonna find out and it's gonna go on your permanent record." It was…
Steve Jobs' FBI File Released
The FBI has released, and posted on its web site, Steve Jobs' 191-page FBI file. Read it here. The file consists of a 1991 background investigation conducted when Jobs was being considered for an appointment to the President's Export Council in the Bush I White House, and records of a 1985 bomb threat against him.
The Five Worst Tweets from Rupert Murdoch's Boring New Twitter Account
Ancient Australian fertility god Rupert Murdoch has joined Twitter, and so far he is really bad at it. Not that it has stopped the news media from exhaustively covering his Twitter exploits—which so far include scrubbing a Tweet off of his timeline after it apparently offended people—and for getting completely hoaxed…
Exciting-Sounding 'Cyber Prison Breaks' Worrying the Feds
Trying to capture a single escaped prisoner usually requires a coordinated effort by law enforcement, tips from the public, and sometimes a superhero or two. So just imagine the chaos that would ensue if thousands of inmates were suddenly released from their cells. Logistical nightmare in ALL-CAPS.
YouTube to Launch 'Channels' That Are Like TV Channels
Our favorite Internet place for watching the stars of tomorrow and the stars of yesterday is reportedly preparing to launch at least a dozen new channels in 2012. Unlike Vevo and other existing "channels" that offer whatever unscheduled clips, these new channels will be just like TV channels, with scheduled programs…
'Hacker' Sentenced to Six Years in 'Sextortion' Case
Luis Mijangos, a computer programmer from Souther California, was sentenced to six years in prison last week for hacking into several women's computers, finding explicit photos and videos, and using them to demand more.
New Infinity Math Is So Over Your Head, Just Forget It
New math! Fancier chips! Higgs Boson! Humongous fungus! Acid bases! Sea monster! Asteroid pictures! Fecal bleed! And everyone's best friend is dropping in for the summer! It's your Monday Science Watch, where we watch science—not that you would understand!
[]'Asexual' Ants Actually Total Whores
Ant sex! Bacteria attack! Sleep screwing! Quantum internet! Atlantis shuttle! Safe playgrounds! Disappearing diamonds! Star formation! Asteroid scars! And the bug that haunts your every waking moment! It's your Tuesday Science Watch, where we watch science—on the down low!
[]How a Computer Repairman Took Photos of His Customers in the Shower
Worried your computer repairman is a pervert? Here's a handy guide: If the software he installs suggests that take your laptop to the bathroom when you shower, he's probably using remote-controlled software to take pictures of you naked.
