Is E-Bay haunted?

Another post-modern sign o' the times: Amongst the items available for auctioning on e-bay, recently you can find ghosts! The idea - despite its simplicity - is catchy. You are buying an old stick that is supposedly haunted by an old man's ghost, and by that you are providing peace of mind to his nephew who is so-ooo afraid. This scenario was actually believed and the highest bidder reached up to $30.000 for the stick!

Of course after that, people started selling all kinds of ghosts, ghouls, goblins, haunted mansions, and so on. There was also a case where someone advertised: "Why wait for this grandpa's soul to become a ghost? Pre-order Now!" (The poor old folk was still alive and smiling at the photo!). If these facts don't exceed imagination then what does? I wonder what kind of feedback the sellers receive...

Somebody call the Ghostbusters!

Virtual Mobile Noise

I just read that mobile phones have been enhanced with another breakthrough contraption! A German company has released an add-on for Nokia phones that makes custom enviroment noises while-u-talk. For example You can choose to play sounds of a busy street or a wild jungle while on the phone.

This is an old trick, but now with easily exchangeable and programmable sounds you can have the perfect excuses for being late. I would like to insert movie sounds in it: "Sorry I'm late but we are being attacked by terrorists", "I can't get out from this traffic-jam soon, Godzilla is in the way"...

Respect my authoritah!

Developing my Forum I discovered the power of the on-line reputation mechanisms. It's one of the most commonly used features in web-forums, but it's vital for its success. So, according to how many posts one makes, he is given an appropriate title. I used a Hollywood-style ranking system where one begins as an "extra" in a movie and as he posts he becomes: "body-double, supporting actor, leading actor, super-star" and so on. As you can imagine the Administrator of the forum is called "Director" and the Moderator "Asistant-Director". Not very original, I know, but it works fine.

The on-line reputation systems are very important in web-sites like e-bay where you can find out how the other users have evaluated a sellers services... Also in communities like Slashdot, this system is very sophisticated and involves many parameters, not only the naumber of posts (each member can rate another one and be rated. Your rating depends to the rating of the one who rates you... !). All this brings to mind the real sense of Democracy, without imposed authorities. The power is really in the people.
Chryssanthos Dellarokas, a Greek professor in MIT, has made a study on these systems called "Word of mouse"

Greek values, robots and flies!

Recently, an international organisation for ethical rights published "The Ten Ethical Laws of Robotics". A list of guidelines that go further Isaac Asimov?s Laws of Robotics. I quote number 8: "As a representative member of humanity, I will profess a sense of eclecticism by espousing the classical Greek values (beauty, truth, goodness, and wisdom) to the exclusion of the corresponding vices (evil, cunning, ugliness, and hypocrisy)".
Ok, so robots in the future are going to be beautiful by themselves. (What is the matter with you mr. designer? This sattelite antenna doesn't suit my looks. I am not wearing that!) But let's see for a minute what happens now: EcoBot II is a robot designed to explore dangerous or inhospitable areas to carry out remote industrial or military monitoring of temperature or toxic gas concentrations. The downside is that in order to be fully autonomous, it is generating its own power EATING FLIES!
...maybe they are good for it's skin too!
I hope they don't run out of flies because I fear it can get really hungry... (enter: your fears)

Forum anyone?

Lately I've been busy building my personal FORUM. It's a quite fun process and all the major stuff is pre-made (I use phpBB) But it takes time coming up with ideas that will lure members and modifying pieces of the PHP code to serve my purposes.
The result is here> This is a Portal for all my web-sites (including this one) Just click on "Welcome" if you want to check it out. It's in Greek. (being my native lang.)

Kill Bill (Gates)

Thank God for customer rights.
Economic Times is running a story about how a small colouring mistake forced Microsoft to recall 200,000 copies of Windows 95.
And it is not the first time this happens! Some time ago, a Spanish-language version of Windows XP, destined for Latin American markets, had to be revoked. Why? Because while registering the product, it asked users to select their gender between "not specified," "male" or "bitch," !!!!!
The error in translation was too funny to be on purpose!
Nice going...

Mobile Religion

Disclaimer: This text has no intention of offending any religious belief. I just find interesting the new uses of mobile phones

Once merely a useful tool for keeping in touch, the mobile phone is fast becoming an instrument of spiritual enlightenment.

• For followers of Islam, companies such as LG Electronics and Dubai-based Ilkone Mobile Telecommunications make phones that aid Muslims in their daily practice by indicating the direction of Mecca, providing the call to prayer or even incorporating the Quran within the phone. Even those with a regular phone can augment it with a religious ring tone or download a lunar calendar.

• Indian operator BPMobile lets customers send prayers by SMS to a Bombay temple where they are offered to the Hindu god Ganesh.

• In the United States and several European countries subscribers can receive a daily text message from the pope. The Pope's Thought of the Day

• In the United States people can subscribe to a daily service called The Seven Spiritual Laws, which features the holistic teachings of Deepak Chopra. Currently available from two U.S. mobile operators, the service provides daily aphorisms as well as diet tips and an inspiring image.

• In Israel you can download "Psalms in his Palm" and excerpts from scripture through PilotYid.com, a Judaism-oriented service for users of Palm OS devices.

• In China, people burn paper effigies of material goods, including mobile phones, to ensure their dead relatives are fairing well in their parallel lives.

• On a recent field trip around Asia, Genevieve Bell, senior researcher at Intel, saw people getting their mobile phones blessed by a Buddhist monk. "Because they are wearing them on their bodies, they didn't want them to be bad for them," she says.

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

How about this:

Do you love your pet? Me too! But the unfortunate ones have a tendency of passing away quicly (considering a human's life expectancy). Now, Genetic Savings & Clone promises to clone anyone?s pet for about $50,000!

The news are great (unless you had a pet-sheep, so you knew all about it years ago!). No more fighting between divorced about the ownership of the cat. No more mourning if your dog accidentally finds himself underneath the wheels of a vehicle. And if we clone race-horses to win all the races? Is there an anti-cloning control?

Welcome to the new era where your cloned version of Lassy will be mating Sony's robot-dog!

A timed disaster!

Here are some timings I collected over the net. Set your stopwatches... Go!

• 24 hours and 23 minutes after the Russian operators began "experimenting" on the Chernobyl reactor, it exploded in the worst nuclear accident in history (1986).
• 2 hours and 40 minutes passed between the time that the unsinkable Titanic struck an iceberg and when it finally sunk.
• 56 and 103 minutes took the WTC towers to collapse over thousants of people(2001).
• 6 minutes took the horrific Hartford Circus Fire to kill over 150 people (mostly women and children) in 1944.
• 73 seconds after liftof the space shuttle Challenger explodes (1986).

The same with computers:

• The Witty worm took 45 minutes to infect every possible machine in its threat portfolio.
• A half an hour is all it took for Nimda to spread worldwide.
• The Slammer worm did most of its dirty work in under ten minutes.

And now for the horrible truth (are you still counting?):
20 minutes is how long your average unprotected PC running Windows XP will last once it's connected to the Internet before it's infected by some spyware or virus!

This statistic is provided from the SANS Institute who clearly declare that 20 minutes is not long enough to update your Windows PC before it is too late. Think that you have to immediately link to Windows Update and get the latest patches from Microsoft. Then reboot. And get more patches. And reboot... (repeat to infinity). Oh, and don't leave out the latest anti-virus updates and anti-spyware updates either. Gotta have those. Oh oh oh, and don't forget WinXP SP2 which can be as large as 260 MB. And users are supposed to download all this in less than 20 minutes?

The Institute provides this very usefull PDF titled: "Windows XP: Surviving the First Day". GOOD LUCK! (Suddenly I feel very happy that I still use WinME)

Asperger? No, thanks (and get away from me!)

I just finished studying Avenue for my paper. Avenue is a programming language used to write scripts on ArcView 3. ArcView is a GIS user-friendly GIS program developped by ESRI. GIS stands for Geografic Information Systems and is a technology that combines databases with digital maps, thus projecting spatial data. Why am I telling you all this? Think about the amount of specialisation involved in this project: I am learning Avenue which is used ONLY on ArcView and ONLY for the early versions of the program, which in turn is one of dozens of software used to represent GIS data. And what is GIS again?

Anyway, I'm not good at learning programming languages fast (I still remember the painful experience of learning C in 3 weeks this Winter...). As I was taking a break I run through this article on the NET about Asperger's disorder It's a mental disease whose symptoms include an inability to interpret peoples' emotions from their facial expressions, incredibly logical thought processes that make math easy but human relations darn near impossible, and fear of physical contact with other people. And it's quite irritating to find small pieces of that behaviour in myself. It must be the walls that close towards me. (No, I'm not insane, it's a figure of speech!)

There is a new book around that is supposed to be very good and describes the life of Christopher Boone, a fifteen year old boy who suffers from Asperger's. The title of the book is "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time". In the beggining Christopher finds a neighbor's dog dead with a pitchfork stuck in it:
I decided that the dog was probably killed with the fork because I could not see any other wounds in the dog and I do not think you would stick a garden fork into a dog after it had died for some other reason, like cancer for example, or a road accident. But I could not be certain about this.

I'm on my way to the bookstore already!

Introducing the Kalashnikov MP3 player

Now that's something new! The AK-MP3 is a Kalashnikov-shaped Mp3 player with 20GB of storage. (visit site)

Andrey Koltakov, the creator, says: "Hopefully, from now on many Militants and Terrorists will use their AK47s to listen to music and audio books. They need to chill out and take it easy." Right on, brother. I doubt that the AK-MP3 will do much to promote world peace, love and understanding... But it will sure deter would-be muggers from attacking you on the street!

And another thing. If you are visiting Athens for the Olympics make sure you don't forget your AK-MP3 player. I am sure the security officers will appreciate your innovative style!

Industrial Design Excellence Award

Check out the 2004 Bronze Award on Transportation!


Seriously. Ever thought about how nice your new mobile is, how sexy a car can be, how pretty your new furniture and so on...? Well the guys behind the Industrial Design strive to make boring things look amazing. And they deserve some aknowledgement. Visit the Industrial Design Excellence Awards site...

Watch Out for 4-1-9 scams!

I've just read a very funny story concerning 4-1-9 scams.

Maybe you have seen a recent film with Nicolas Cage where he's a professional con-man and tries to steal money by promising wealth to people. According to the US government, this kind of fraud is labeled 4-1-9 (see the article) and occurs in various forms like: Disbursement of money from wills, Contract fraud, Purchase of real estate, Conversion of hard currency, Transfer of funds from over invoiced contracts, Sale of crude oil at below market prices...

The most successful cases of Advance Fee Fraud is the fund transfer scam. In this scheme, a company or individual will typically receive an unsolicited letter by mail from a Nigerian claiming to be a senior civil servant. In the letter, the Nigerian will inform the recipient that he is seeking a reputable foreign company or individual into whose account he can deposit funds ranging from $10-$60 million that the Nigerian government overpaid on some procurement contract. Initially everything seems very easy, but soon the victim is requested to travel to Nigeria. Individuals are told that a visa will not be necessary to enter the country. The Nigerian con artists may then bribe airport officials to pass the victims through Immigration and Customs. Because it is a serious offense in Nigeria to enter without a valid visa, the victim's illegal entry may be used by the fraudsters as leverage to oblige the victims into releasing funds. And so on... the victim is trapped!

The funny part comes in: There is guy called Mike who has a site dedicated to fighting back against those who send out the notorious 419 e-mails. The story describes a case where the scammer pretended to be "Prince Joe Eboh of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)" and Mike "Father Hector Barnett of the Church of the Painted Breast"! The scammer took the bait and ended up painting his bare breast with the red Masai war-paint as a gesture of faith and belief...!

Cell-Phone SPAM

If you thought your spam problems couldn't get any worse, check your mobile phone. Cell phones are becoming the latest target of electronic junk mail, with a growing number of marketers using text messages to target subscribers. Cell phones know where they are. So you can get a CD purchase offer when you approach the local CD multistore and so on... Also there are spam messages that request you to forward them to 10 people in order to save the life of a little girl (just like e-mails). It can become very annoying. Don't forget that the same thing made the e-mail providers to start thinking of charging for e-mails in order to fight it! (story)

In Japan, where text messaging is more popular than talking on cell phones, wireless spam was a huge problem a few years ago. NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest cell-phone provider, said spam text messages overloaded its systems at times in 2000 and 2001, freezing some customers' screens and spreading programs that caused some phones to automatically dial Japan's equivalent of 911. The company eventually brought the problem under control by installing security and spam-filtering software on its network and in its phones. But do the companies really want it to stop? Don't forget that the increased circulation of SMS means revenues for them too! I hope yes. After all, considering the expansion of Bluetooth technology, soon we will be bombed with junk sms from every shop we walk by, at no cost for them, only for us.

Kill SMS Spam Where It Starts. Last month, the European Union enacted new digital privacy rules that require companies to obtain consent before they send e-mail and SMS text messages to mobile phones. Each of the EU's 15 members and 10 countries joining in May will set its own penalties. In Britain, Vodafone launched a trial service to allow its users to report when they get an unsolicited text message. If they get one, they can forward it, at no cost, to Vodafone. The company, in turn, will forward it to Britain's Standards of Telephone Information Services.

Coca Cola Spyware?

There's a new security threat at some of the US nation's military bases and it looks very much like a can of Coke. Specially rigged Coke cans, part of a summer promotion, contain cell phones and global positioning chips. The winning cans from the company's "Unexpected Summer" promotion have a panel on the outside and a big red button like a cell phone device. Winners activate it by pushing the button, which can call Coke's prize center.

That has officials at some installations worried the cans could be used to eavesdrop, and they are trying to establish protective measures. The Coca Cola Company explains that there is nothing to worry about, but still US military bases are asking soldiers to xamine their Coke cans before bringing them in to classified meetings. The Marine Corps said all personnel had been advised of the cans and to keep them away from secure areas. Paul Saffo, research director at "The Institute for the Future", a technology research firm, compared the concern about the Coke cans to when the Central Intelligence Agency banned Furbies, the stuffed toys that could repeat phrases!

I'd love to see new McGuyver episodes where he could bring down a nuclear military base using a can of coke and a talking doll! Paranoia goes better with coke...

Super Smart Ringtone Album !

Ok. How about this: A fine example of our digital life and the digital madness...
A group from Germany called "Super Smart" released their first album only in ringtone format. Forget about cd's, the future is here! The price is only 2 euros and it is easily downloadable and portable to your cell phone. The group is supposed to attack the music industry this way bypassing the normal -expensive- music distribution channels. Moreover, the album is not crappy, you can listen to samples of "Panda Babies" on the Official Site.

Phone ringtones are big business. An estimated £70m of ringtones were sold in the UK in 2003, up from £40m in 2002. GoFresh (a Mobile Music label) already signed up 20 artists and last month said it has sold a million ringtones in just under a year of operation.
Specialisation on musical production is not fresh. Already there are people who write music for supermarkets, elevators, commercial jingles, computer games, hi-tech devices... So, why not ringtones?
Next up: New-wave painters commit themselves to cell-phone logo production...!

Quick! Hide the weapons!

...and don't forget the laptop!

If you asked me how can a PC be used as a weapon I would think of 2 ways: As a remote bomb detonator and when I throw it out the window over innocent by-passers (especially after 10 consequent blue-screens). Apparently there are more ways...
It appears to be that the U.S. house of Reps. want to classify Pentium 4 and above CPUs as weapons. This would mean that all these will require export licenses.(story). Today, computer sellers are required to get a license to export any computer with performance equal to or greater than a system with 32 Intel Itanium processors. The current version of the defense authorization act would lower that limit to systems deemed "militarily critical" by the Department of Defense. That level is currently set to the equivalent of a computer using a Pentium 3 processor running at 650MHz, state of the art in 1999 but considered feeble today.

Next up: Cell phones!

Want To Be A Hacker?

Remember the 90's classic movie "Sneakers"?

The story was that 6 very talented programmers were hacking the security of big companies and afterwards they informed them of the holes/disadvantages of their network in order to be fixed.
Once again a case of life immitating art immitating life. Since then a lot of people go by the occupation "Professional hacker" and do exactly the same thing. It shouldn't come as a surprise when I read that in Los Angeles there is a Hacking boot camp, where for only(?) $4000 you can learn how to penetrate every kind of security imagined...link
Great stuff! I wish I could attend this seminar too. But, it makes me think. How can the professors teach how to break security that is supposed not to break? Do they know how? Is there a key behind every encryption method just waiting to be taught at a seminar? Do they teach people how NOT to crack systems UNLESS they are allowed to?
I am confused. As much as I admire hackers I can't stop thinking of another movie: "Outbreak". After all the virus that nearly destroyed the world was supposed to serve humanity...

Mongolians need surnames!

Monogolians, who have customarily used only first names, are now required by law to have last names as well. Unfortunately, most people are choosing "Borjigin," Genghis Kahn's tribal name. The director of the State Library is attempting to fix this by publishing advice on historically accurate surname choices for potential Borjigins. Mr. Besud has spent years poring over the dusty archives of the state library to compile a book of possible surnames for the nameless. He obtained access to the highly secret archives of the country's Communist Party, which included detailed lists of the names of noble families who were prohibited from party membership. link

It ain't easy finding your surname..!

Pixies Live in Athens

I just came back from the PIXIES concert in Rockwave Athens 2004. The band was great, everybody had a wonderful time and I remembered how much I like their music. As you may have noticed my BLOG nickname comes fron the title of one of their albums. I believe that Pixies' music is very powerful and sophisticated. It's like everybody on stage is playing a different tune, but together they sound like a wonderful multi-layered formula that needs to be decyphered. It is wonderful, powerful, mind-boggling and raw music with true feeling. I just love them.

Opening with "Bone Machine," and traversing a crowd-pleasing set list that was weighted toward material from their first three releases--the 1987 EP "Come On Pilgrim, the 1988 album "Surfer Rosa" and its 1989 follow-up "Bossanova"--the quartet sounded as if they'd never gone away.

Black's voice remains an incredible instrument, one that seems specifically designed for the loud-soft-loud dynamics that the Pixies perfected long before the style was appropriated by the likes of Nirvana and Radiohead. While he can hold a pitch-perfect note indefinitely--as he proved this night on "Caribou"--his steely vocal cords can still belt out the best scream in the business: he didn't hold back at all on "Debaser," and seemed no worse for the wear when switching gears to "Monkey Gone to Heaven."

If only they had played "Where is My mind?" Where was theirs?