Raymond M. Reskusich

Hackers' posts on epilepsy forum cause migraines, seizures


In one of the first computing hacks seemingly intended to physically harm victims, attackers saturated the web forums of the Epilepsy Foundation with strobing images allegedly calculated to trigger seizures in visitors to the site. In addition to reminding everyone of Snow Crash, this seems like a disturbing escalation in the hacker culture. Obviously this attack is only applicable to those with certain types of epilepsy. Hopefully no more general-purpose attack can be devised. Any brain-meat specialists in the house who can comment on this possibility?

In One Flaw, Questions on Validity of 46 Judges

Apparently, since early 2000, all Patent Court justices have been appointed by an official who lacks the constitutional authority to make such appointments. Now all of the cases that have been ruled on by such justices are, to some degree, up for grabs. Many of these could be retried, with the possibility of rulings coming out differently this time. This could cause some serious chaos in the tech world.

The original article that uncovered this issue is here.

My favorite LJ community for the moment would have to be so_very_doomed, although I am not at all sure how much of this is just the name. It is a collection of news foreshadowing the collapse of human civilization. Depressing stuff, but I'm often thinking about it anyway. Oh, for the days of my youth, when there were not a half-dozen or so impending crises threatening human civilization. OK, yeah, they were there, but I probably felt better not knowing about them.

My fun Wikipedia entry for the day is the Fermi paradox.