Tech Brief
On Tech Brief today: Public porn shaming, how gamers dream and Carmack's car hack.
• The day we swap our fleshy prisons for a gleaming steel robot host are a long way away, but it is heartening to know some are already preparing for that time. One knotty problem is translating nerve pulses into digital data and vice versa so none of the world's wonder is lost. .
"Neural interfaces can be abused, obviously, and can be hacked into to enslave and torture minds, or drive people intentionally insane, or turn them into sleeper assassins or mindless consumers."
• Japanese men blackmailed by a computer virus that told the world about what they like in their pornography can now name their tormentors. The Japanese police have collared the writers of the Kenzero virus which named on a website those who downloaded pirated copies of, err, adult-themed games from file-sharing networks. .
"The arrests were made on the grounds of suspicion of fraud as the creation of malware is reportedly not a criminal act in Japan. The article states that the number of victims is around 5,000 but expected to rise and that the pair are charged with defrauding 'tens of thousands' of Japanese Yen."
• The childhood of many gamers was spent in the company of Doomguy - the unnamed marine who mows down imps and other ne-er-do-wells in the iconic shooter.
"It was a completely new intake and exhaust system which put it up to 800 horsepower, and we kept it like that for a while. I think we put the nitrous on there. Eventually we had an engine meltdown at high speed, so at that point we're like okay, now we'll take it apart and do all the really good stuff with the engine."
• It's not just fun with a gun that video games can give you. Oh no. The benefits stretch into real life, even unto your dreams. So says psychologist Jayne Gackenbach. .
"'What happens with gamers is something inexplicable,' Gackenbach explained. 'They don't run away, they turn and fight back. They're more aggressive than the norms.' Levels of aggression in gamer dreams also included hyper-violence not unlike that of an R-rated movie, as opposed to a non-gamer PG-13 dream. 'If you look at the actual overall amount of aggression, gamers have less aggression in dreams,' Gackenbach said. 'But when they're aggressive, oh boy, they go off the top.'
• Apple might be happy to have the phrase 'so simple a child could do it' levelled at their products. .
"Brett did the whole thing for a little more than $20, but you can do it for even cheaper, depending on where and from whom you buy your kit."
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