The Decliner

This TED video has been blowing my mind for a few days. There’s currently a lot of focus on touch-screen technology as the next standard in interaction with gadgets — everything from Microsoft’s Surface to personal electronic like the iPhone.

The SixthSense device developed by the MIT Fluid Interfaces Lab and Pranav Mistry turns the touchscreen on its head: It is a wearable projector with an attached camera/sensor that interprets natural hand gestures as commands. In other words, with the wave of a hand you can capture images, or perform any number of increasingly complex processes.

The uses for the SixthSense device are demonstrated in the video below, all of which take advantage of the device’s access to online information for tasks like scanning products at the grocery store based on personal preferences — like, red flashing lights when you pick up a frozen Banquet dinner with enough sodium and nitrates to kill a Kodiak bear. Extended abilities include projecting multimedia (like videos) on a normal newspaper, since the device not only reacts to gestures, but can also scan and adapt to whatever the user might have in front of him/her at the time.

Best of all, of course, is the fact that SixthSense can work with *any* surface, since it travels with the user. The implications are huge, as you can tell from the euphoric applause from the TED audience members (any Microsoft employees in attendance might have been in the fetal position, not sure). The only drawback is the bulkiness of the device itself, though the fact that the components themselves are already so affordable would likely make reduction in size and into an attractive retail product much easier.

In many environments the latter would already be largely irrelevant. As I watched the video of the device in action, I could already picture it in use in some far-flung military base, or in use by an Amazon.com employee doing inventory in some cavernous warehouse.

Sometimes the best ideas are just a re-arrangement of existing technology, what the SixthSense team seems to have nailed down is the fact that focusing on people’s existing behavior and molding a design to fit their needs is the key, rather than expecting them to adapt to an elaborate and counter-intuitive device.

One of Russia’s most prominent political youth movements, the anti-Fascist group “Nashi” (or “Nashe”,) was recently back in the news for asserting that it had been behind denial-of-service attacks on Estonian web servers back in 2007, following that country’s removal of a Soviet memorial in the city of Tallinn to a less prominent location.

The statue, referred to as the “Bronze Soldier,” was transported to a cemetery after it was deemed inappropriate by ethnic Estonians because of its commemoration of Soviet rule. Unfortunately, Russia’s foreign relations under Putin’s leadership with former satellite states of the Soviet Union demanded (and demands) a certain amount of docility, and removing the statue set off a firestorm of criticism from the Kremlin, along with its junior, color-coordinated Nashi brigade.

DDoS (denial-of-service) attacks are nothing new, but the severity of the cyber attacks inflicted on Estonia dring the “Estonian Cyberwar” was of a scope rarely seen before. Websites for the Estonian parliament, banks, ministries, and many of its news sources were overwhelmed and shut down. Other attacks involved modification of existing websites, such as the Estonian Reform Party’s (the liberal, free-market party).

Arts Technica reported that Nashe’s “Commisar,” Konstantin Goloskokov, freely admitted that his group had been behind the cyberwarfare directed at Estonia:

“I wouldn’t have called it a cyber attack; it was cyber defense,” Goloskokov said. “We taught the Estonian regime the lesson that if they act illegally, we will respond in an adequate way.”

The fact that Goloskokov is willing to acknowledge his group’s complicity in what is obviously an illegal act only reinforces his comfortable position with the Russian government, and one wouldn’t expect any kind of reprimand to result from the admission.

Still, while Nashe seemed to be at its height of popularity with the Kremlin following the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, and leading up to national election of Dmitry Medvedev, it is reported that the Kremlin’s support of the group has been on a definite decline. It’s not so much that the nationalist ideology behind Nashi has dissipated, but that it is simply no longer necessary to generate support (or intimidate rival political groups) for a pro-Putin/Medvedev platform.

Moreover, while Putin’s government allegedly used Nashi as a proxy to express its “displeasure” with foreign interests and shape public discourse, in the last few years, as Putin’s Kremlin has become far more direct in its foreign policy (such as cutting off natural gas supplies to neighbors, for example), it must seem pointless to take such an indirect approach.

The 2007 DDoS attacks (now attributed to Nashi) have since become a case study used by militaries around the world to highlight the potential dangers that such a seemingly low-tech onslaught can have on a country’s internet infrastructure.

While high-tech attacks like satellite killers and super hackers infiltrating nuclear launch sites might seem like the more glamorous side of cyberwarfare, it is far likelier that we will see DDoS attacks with greater frequency, simply because of the relative ease with which they can be launched by patriotic youth sitting in a non-descript internet cafe somewhere in central Moscow.

I leave you with this, a Nashi production to promote enlistment in the Russian army (in Russian). Note the giant American octopus/Cthulhu creature spreading its tentacles into Russian territory, and the excited man representing Japan bowing agreeably:

My friends, the wait is over. Below are exclusive spy shots obtained by me of Amazon’s new e-reader device, the Kindle II Marble.

Note the improved ergonomic design, and the high-resolution chiseled relief. I am told that thousands of new titles and publications will be available on the Kindle II Marble, each freighted to you in twelve to fifty weeks with exquisite craftsmanship.

The new Kindle Marble will ship with its own heavy mahogany stand for easy reading and portability, and high-tension tethers to heave the device to any room in your home, or perhaps a nearby park.

Behold, the future of reading:

The little Korean taco truck that could: the LA Weekly profiles Kogi, whose owners let their patrons know of their current whereabouts via twitter.

In the parking lot outside the Brig in Venice, Kogi becomes an impromptu nightclub, a taco-driven hookup scene as perfervid as anything with a $40 cover charge.

…Followers keep track of Kogi’s whereabouts on a frequently updated Twitter feed — twitter.com/kogibbq — and the sudden materialization of hundreds of people is like what used to be called a flash mob— but with much better food. The frequent tweets make you feel connected to Kogi, as if you were friends with the owners instead of just another hungry mouth…

This may be the beginning of an entirely new, more intimate relationship with your food. A little too intimate? Maybe!

Idea gets ripped off in 10..9…8…