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Technology

Technology Category

Independent news, views, opinions and reviews on the latest gadgets, games, science, technology and research from Apple and more. It’s about the technologies that change the way we live, work, love and behave.

The Empire State Building And Other Landmarks Made From One Toothpick

STEVEN J. Backman can make all kinds of buildings from one toothpick. Using one toothpick, a razor blade and glue, the San Francisco native has made the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, the Burj Khalifa and more.

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Posted: 15th, February 2011 | In: Technology | Comment (1)


Liverpool Discovers: Public Art Binds The City

LIVERPOOL Discovers: The Runner (Aka: Look out – it’s the Bizzies) catches the eye in Liverpool’s A Trail of Discovery public art exhibition. Photos:

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The Runner installed as part of Liverpool Discovers - A Trail of Discovery, a public art exhibition which runs until March 20.

Posted: 14th, February 2011 | In: Technology | Comment


172 BBC Websites Saved For Just £3.99: Your Money Not Wasted

THE  BBC is to close 200 websites. (It has over 400 websites.) And 172 of these are to be closed down permanently.

Anyone who has paid their licence fee has funded these sites. The web cost of the £142.50 annual licence fee is just £0.67 per month. How much do EastEnders cost, and other pisspoor shows about home improvement and anything and everything on BBC Three? Save the web. Cull the telly.

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Posted: 10th, February 2011 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comment (1)


The Robot Baby Will Keep You Up At Night

ROBOT baby is the creation of Osaka University’s AFFETTO department of nightmares. Get your silicon breast out. He’s coming in…

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Posted: 9th, February 2011 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comment


Huffington Post Sold To AOL: What’s The New Name?

THE Huffington Post is to be sold to AOL.

Huffington and Tim Armstrong, the chairman and chief executive of AOL, have dubbed the takeover an equation of “1+1 equals 11”.

With that kind of money sloshing around, will new writers still work for free..?

OK – Who wants to back Anorak???

Posted: 7th, February 2011 | In: Technology | Comment


Nasa’s Photo Of The Whole Sun In One Image

THANKS to Nasa we can now see what the sun looks like in the round. These photographs were taken by two Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft, one on either side of the sun.

But what’s going on at the top and the bottom?

And are we along in thinking that although these photos are incredibly vivid and skilfully produced, they lack the magic of an image that pricks the human gene and inspires?

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Posted: 6th, February 2011 | In: Technology | Comment


Kinetica Art Fair 2011: In Photos

THE Kinetica Art Fair, London, is a fun show. The fair is made up of over 4000 exibits showcasing robotic, new media, electronic, sound, light and time-based art. Also there is Australian artist Stelarc, who has a cultivated human ear grown beneath the skin of his left arm…

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E=MConsciousness by Dianne Harris at the Kinetica Art Fair preview, London.

Posted: 4th, February 2011 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comment


Man Sacked For Looking For Knockers On Work Lap Top At Home

HOW private is your work computer? In Australia an employee of the Commonwealth Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism has been sacked from searching for the term “knockers” on his company laptop.

He was at home. He was not working on company time. He was even using his own isp to look for “knockers”, which, though an arcane term for breasts, remains legal pornography.

The man was caught out by a programme called Spector360. It “automatically captures all employee Internet and desktop activity whether they are in the office, traveling or working remotely on both.”

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Posted: 4th, February 2011 | In: Technology | Comment


Google’s Hypocrisy Over Bing’s Theft Of Search Results

GOOGLE claims that Microsoft’s Bing is ‘stealing‘ Google’s search results.

Sebastian Antony explains that Google created fake queries and result on its search engine to test Bing. On December 17, Google engineers tested these results on different browsers and sites. And, as if by magic, by December 31, some of these fake results began appearing on Bing.

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Posted: 3rd, February 2011 | In: Technology | Comment


Volunteers Translate Egyptian Calls Into Tweets

EGYPT: technology and humanity may yet save the country:

“Earlier today, in response to the continued blackout of the Internet in Egypt, Google and Twitter announced that they had set up phone numbers in Egypt for protesters to call into, that would then automatically be turned into voicemail messages, that would then be tweeted out on the account @Speak2Tweet. Of course, the immediate point of this system is not to help organize within Egypt, but hopefully to offer a way for Egyptians to literally speak to the rest of the world.

To further this aim, a number of volunteers outside of Egypt (you know, where the Internet still works) have decided to collaborate online to get those voicemails – which are mainly in Arabic – translated into English.”

It’s amazing when people help each other like this.

Spotters: Karen and all

Posted: 1st, February 2011 | In: Technology | Comments (4)


Facebook Takes On Groupon With Facebook Deals service

WE went to see Facebook’s VP EMEA Joanna Shields talk up at the Facebook Deals service that allows mobile users to claim special offers, rewards and discounts from retailers. Yep it’s Groupon on your phone.

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Posted: 31st, January 2011 | In: Technology | Comment (1)


Iran Sentences Two Porn Website Workers To Death

EGYPT has severed the internet. So. No web porn. And less web porn in Iran, where two Iranians have been given the death sentence for operating porn sites.

Looks like its back to the cemeteries for you fresh-air perverts

Posted: 31st, January 2011 | In: Technology | Comment


Jackie Stallone’s Changing Face: Surgery Timeline

BEFORE Jackie Stallone illustrates how cosmetic surgery can change you not always for the better, know that last year 9,430 women had boob jobs, 5,779 had blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery), 5,779 had breast reductions, 4,959 had a facelift, and 741 men had their mobs cut away. So say the figures supplied by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, aka – get this – BAAPS. Here’s Jackie:

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Posted: 31st, January 2011 | In: Technology | Comment (1)


New York Muslim Sues Facebook For Religious Discrimination And Being A Police State

TO New York, where Montenegro-native Mustafa Fteja has lsot all his freinds in a Facebook meltdown.

Fteja is suing Facebook for $500,000 lawsuit for disabling his account.  His friends were eradicated. He says hw just wants justice (and a cheque would ease the pain):

Fteja claims that his being a Muslim is behind the move.

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Posted: 30th, January 2011 | In: Technology | Comment


Anti-Paedophile App Keeps Mobile Phone Users Safe As Houses

THANKS to Child Defence you kidz will be safe from paedos and any adult who lies about their age. (Are you really 39, mum? Still 39, mum?) Child Defence is not a league of righteousness folks, rather an app that analysis language to generate an age profile.

Use of the terms “daddy-o”, “marzipan” and “Gary Glitter is the Leader” will cause the man pretending to be a teenage boy to be exposed.

Says Child Defence project leader James Walkerdine, from his base at Lancaster University:

“This software improves children’s chances of working out that something isn’t right. Parents told us they would much prefer to see software solutions that empowered and educated their children to help them protect themselves.”

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Posted: 24th, January 2011 | In: Technology | Comment (1)


The Secret Science Of Sexual Attraction In Poland (Not Newcastle): Photos

YOU cannot argue with the science: why men notice women who flash the flesh in winter more than they notice women who do the same in the summer:

Women’s bare flesh in winter is a bigger turn-on for men, says a new research.

To reach the conclusion, a group of male subjects were asked, at different times of the year, to rate photos of women. They gave their highest scores in the winter and autumn, and their lowest scores in the summer.

Researchers at University of Wroclaw in Poland who carried out the experiment believe the seasonal variation may have an impact on mate choice and on levels of adultery.

There is no clear explanation for the variation, but the researchers say one theory is that fewer female bodies are on display in the winter, so the rarity makes them more attractive. *

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Posted: 23rd, January 2011 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comments (3)


Dot Dot Dot: A Bad Video Game Review Is Given Depth With Music And A Big Voice

THE ultimate video game review set to music and voiced by a megalomaniac (or bitter overlooked Star Trek captain). “Axman13” has written a poor review of a RPG called Super PSTW. But is it without depth?

One day all comments will look like this:

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Posted: 23rd, January 2011 | In: Technology | Comment


Drivers Take On The Iciest Hill In The World (Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh)

TO Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They come to watch the ice hill races…

Posted: 19th, January 2011 | In: Technology | Comment


Stephen Fry’s GPS Masterclass Will Keep You Stupid

STEPHEN Fry tunes into the voiceover in his head and tells viewers of his QI show that GPS works like this:

“You send a signal from your GPS device. You’ve got to be at least three, usually four or five satellites – that receive your signal. And the difference in time it takes to get from one satellite to the other to the other, which is milliseconds, allows them to calculate your position to within 10 metres.”

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Posted: 18th, January 2011 | In: Technology | Comment


David Beckham’s Porsche Is For Sale: Photos

ANYONE who wants to buy David’s Beckham’s Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet can. For all petrol heads, this one’s a 3.6L H6 SFI DOHC Turbo Gasoline car in Matt Black. It’s got 6,774 miles on the clock. It’s got a Techart exhaust, ’23’ emblems “throughout (on the front hood, deck lid, rims and steering wheel), also embroidered on the front and rear seats and custom fitted floor mats”.

Beckham is listed as a “non smoker”.

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Posted: 11th, January 2011 | In: Technology | Comments (11)


Jared Loughner: The Fake Facebook Accounts

JARED Loughner is the stick with which to beat Sarah Palin crosshairs – but not Barack Obama’s gun. Richard Bartholomew looks at the fake Facebook sites set up in Loughner’s name that aim to push a vested interest, to make capital from a grammar Nazi who murdered six peoples, shots 14 more and ruined many lives:

A number of Twitter feeds and forums are trumpeting what purports to be information from Jared Loughner’s Facebook page – e.g. here:

Although Jared Loughner’s Facebook page has been scrubbed, leave it up to some extremely proactive folks who are on top of the situation. Look very closely at the people Loughner admires: Kenyan-born Muslim Barack Hussein Obama, Saul Alinksy, Noam Chomsky, Hugo Chávez and Che Guevara…ALL COMMUNISTS! What did I tell you?

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Posted: 10th, January 2011 | In: Technology | Comment


Fail Of The Day: The Breasts That Bend Time

CAN you believe all you see on the internet?

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Posted: 10th, January 2011 | In: Technology | Comment


Simone Back Died On Facebook Because Mental Illness Is Mocked

SIMONE Back, 42 and living in Brighton, posted on her Facebook Wall a Christmas Day message:

“Took all my pills be dead soon so bye bye every one.”

She had 1,048 friends. None of them called the authorities. Did they do this because modern life is about watching without engagement?

She took the pills. Simone Back died. Her body was found when her mother, Jennifer Langridge, heard of the message and called the police. That was 17 hours the original post.

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Posted: 7th, January 2011 | In: Key Posts, Technology | Comments (14)


Sega Toylets Games: Can Your Pee Lift The Girl’s Skirt?

SEGA has released its Toylet games. It’s big step up form chasing the fag butt down the drain or cleaning the bowl. Can your urine win? Can Sega take on the Nintendo Wii? Wired reports. Grab your curly crosshairs and read on:

“Each urinal is installed with a pressure sensor. An LCD screen is mounted on the wall above, letting the gamer select from and play four different minigames. There’s “Mannekin Pis,” which simply measures how hard you can pee, and “Graffiti Eraser,” which lets you remove paint by pointing a hose in different directions.

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Posted: 7th, January 2011 | In: Technology | Comments (3)


Steve Jobs Versus Dragons’ Den: The iPad Is Crap

STEVE Jobs will now pitch his iPad to The Dragon’s Den. The iPad might be the saviour of long-sighted iPhone users and people for whom travels rugs and other lap warmers are not high-tec enough.

And because it sits on your lap it is perfect for interactive masturbators and other iUsers.

But what we think is not important – what the smug-faced, mocking moneymen make of it is:

Posted: 6th, January 2011 | In: Technology | Comment