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Welcome to Cyber Dump 11, your weekly roundup of what's happening in this insane age of technology that we live in. All source links are below.
- Youtube link
- Archive.org mirror
- Torrent
- Keybase mirror
VIRTUAL REALITY
Guy Godin released a trailer for virtual desktop, an app that recreates your computers desktop in virtual reality. The really cool thing is that since VR space doesn't have to follow the same rules as meatspace, you can have multiple virtual desktops, giant, cinema sized screens floating in 360 space and more. It'll be available on Steam, March 28th.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjE6qXd6Itw
In other VR news, Tekton Games announced the development of WalkAbout, a system giving users the freedom to walk about in VR, no matter the size of the physical room they're in. They do this by rotating the virtual space, so that the user can keep travelling in any given direction. It also has a cool feature built in so that the users don't get tangled up, or trip on the cables from their headsets.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW6nlLV88Zk
- http://uploadvr.com/redirect-your-own-walking-with-this-movement-system/
BITCOIN
Shift Devices released the beta of their hardware bitcoin wallet, The DigitalBitBox. This little thing plugs into your USB port, allowing you to send and store bitcoins with high levels of security. Private keys are encrypted, and never leave the device, and there are other cool features like micro sd backups, and 2nd factor authentication. It's available for $120.
- https://digitalbitbox.com
INTERNET OF THINGS
Charif Mahmoudi wrote a detailed guide covering the basic ways to protect your Internet of Things devices from the myriad of attacks they might come under. Aimed primarily at Raspberry Pi's, it shows you how to set up a firewall, intrusion detection systems and secure communications.
- https://www.hackster.io/charifmahmoudi/iot-security-tips-to-protect-your-device-from-bad-hackers-768093
ROBOTICS
Stanford's Biomimetics and Dexterous Manipulation Lab created SCAMP, a little bug-like robot that can fly, stick to walls and climb them.
The same lab has also been busy creating other tiny robots too. Inspired by ants, these micro robots can team up to pull objects up to 2000x heavier than themselves.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAhLW1eq8eM
- http://motherboard.vice.com/en_uk/read/tiny-robots-pull-a-car-video
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU8Q7gIdiMI
DIY
Youtube channel Mr Gear uploaded a video showing you how to make a hot glue gun out of a lighter and soda can. Simple, but effective.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqcyEzNU5WA
In other DIY news, Brian Dipert wrote an interesting hardware teardown of the Amazon Dash buttons. One feature included that I thought cool was a little microphone. Apparently during wifi setup, the button receives config intructions via ultrasound waves. Pretty cool.
- http://www.edn.com/design/consumer/4441569/Teardown–Amazon-Dash-Button-is-the-ultimate-in-consumer-convenience
VIDEOS
Colin at Adafruit made a video about Bluetooth Low Energy, explaining what it is, how it works, and what you can do with it.
There's also a very interesting documentary called The most dangerous town on the internet, and it explores the different physical locations that highly sensitive data is stored worldwide. Lots of nuclear bunkers and hacker hideouts.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItV08vGqACM
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CashAq5RToM
THIS WEEK ON NODE
This week I finally finished the handheld linux terminal version two, so I made a couple of videos showing how to make it, and some of the different things you can do with it. Had some great feedback, and I think I'll start looking into how I can possibly manufacture them. That's it for this week.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZc5gUKcRZA
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMkhRK2lV0E
If you want to pick up some merch, and help support NODE, head over to the NODE shop. Lots of products, color options and worldwide shipping. Thanks for watching, until next time.
- http://N-O-D-E.net/shop/
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BY NODE