Timely tech stuff

Source: Security How do you identify a potential saboteur? According to a recent study, those most likely to fall into this category, from an IT perspective are "...disgruntled, paranoid, generally show up late, argue with colleagues, and generally perform poorly." Carnegie Mellon, in response, has developed a technique for assessing the threat level of your IT people.

Source: Michael Geist. This Toronto columnist dismantles the recent claims by the MPAA that Canada is a seething cesspool of movie pirates (Arrr! Avast, ye scurvy Hollywood swabs!). The 50% figure the MPAA quoted for camcorder piracy doesn't mesh with figures they reported to the US government, that of 23%. Specifically, of the 1400 movies released prior to August 2006, only 179 were pirated, and it is estimated that about 75% of those came from movie insiders (based on a 2003 study), not theatrical showings. This reduces Canadian Piracy figure from 50% to 3%. Ah, well, that's Hollywood for you, were everything they create is an illusion. Moreover, movie companies make as much as 85% of their revenues now on DVDs and merchandising, so the small hit immediately around the release date is only a drop in the bucket of their revenues. Consider that as soon as the DVDs hit the market the camcorder copies become worthless, being of far lower quality. All said, the expected loss in, say last year's $45 billion revenues due to Canadian Piracy is small enough to have no perceptible affect on that figure.

Source: PhysOrg A University of Washington professor has discovered what may be a massive body of water, about the size of the Arctic ocean, under East Asia. The subterranean ocean can be seen on these images as a large red spot. It's existence had been theoretically predicted, but now they have proof of its existence.

Source: TechWorld D-Wave, a company based in British Columbia, will be demonstrating the worlds first commercially-available quantum computer, just in time for Valentine's day. The 16-qubit machine being demonstrated is referred to as an adiabatic quantum processor because it can handle thermal noise that has, in the past, been a serous limitation to getting quantum computers out of the lab. There is some skepticism that the system will work, including from one of the researchers who developed the adiabatic model on which the computer is based. Well, the proof will be in the pudding, as they say (whoever "they" are).

Source: Salon An entertaining interview with Scott Rosenberg, author of "Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software" which attempts to demonstrate, to the uninitiated, just how difficult it is to develop good software.

Assorted (vaguely) tech-related images

Source: Doctor Who Tardis USB Hub

Source: A Little Surrealism To End The Night On

Source: The Original 1983 Microsoft Mouse

Source: Watch Cog Cufflinks

Source: Vision Board II's Keys are Tough to Miss

Robot dogs and flying cameras

Source: Coolest Gadgets This device mounts high on the window and, in the event of an accident, maintains a record of the car's current speed, rate of acceleration, and a video of the last few seconds prior to detecting an impact... assuming the back box doesn't become a flying projectile of its own. The memory is continuously reused as it operates.

Source: Engadget This annoying little device is powered by ambient light, and hums various tunes throughout the day. Just to add to the fun, it tweets occasionally when it senses motion.

Source: Engadget These robot dogs are capable of interacting with their owner, eventually learning up to 650 words. Apparently they also sing karaoke. And here I though they were house-broken.

Source: Gizmodo This High-Definition camcorder can generate video at 1920x1080 and measures just 1.5 inches by 3 inches. Expect to see these things showing up anywhere an extreme sport enthusiast wants you to "be there" with them.

Source: Gizmodo This device is designed to let soldiers know, silently, what the people behind them are trying to tell them (things like, sniper up ahead). The vest can create 15 distinctive patterns as a tactile display on a soldier's back. And in a situation where betraying your position could be a life-or-death matter, silent communication is a good thing.