Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Maybe the Dyn attack was scarier than I thought – maybe it’s a practice run for a cyberwar
I discussed the DDOS attack by Manchester's Dyn with NHPR yesterday - it was the subject of my Monitor column - and I thought I had been pretty realistic about how bad the malware-infected Internet of Things could be. But a Slate piece (here it is) puts me to shame:...
When the Internet of Things becomes The Walking Dead, we’re in trouble
The attack on Dyn in Manchester over the weekend was a reflection of how the Internet of Things has been slapped together in a really insecure way, which is Not A Good Thing. Not good as in, say, ransomware in your implanted insulin pump - pay up or you'll die. I...
November’s Science Cafe NH topics: The drought (our plot to sell more beer during the session) and 3-D printing
The topics are set for the two - yes, two! - science cafe series in New Hampshire: In Nashua on Nov. 2 we'll discuss the causes and effects of our drought, while in Concord on Nov. 15 we'll discuss 3-D printing, and whether it is living up to its promise. As always,...
I found a software license printed on a 107-year-old metal plunger
NOTE: Subscribers to my free newsletter saw this last week. You can subscribe via a webform at bit.ly/monitornewsletters Don't you just hate software licenses and the way they mean you don't really own the things you buy? Of course you do, and you also think...
It’ll be a quiet week in Lake GraniteGeek, my home blog …
I'm going to be tied up (figuratively, not literally) for the next four days so the blog will be quiet. You can take this moment to subscribe to my free newsletter, which comes out Thursdays. This week's edition will have two items written just for it, concerning a...
UNH researcher finds a rogue black hole destroying everything in its path – no, that’s not an election joke
By Beth Potier, UNH News Service: It sounds like the stuff of science fiction: researchers discover a massive black hole wandering at the edge of a galaxy about 4.5 billion light years away. But it’s science fact, and the discovery of this unusual phenomenon is key to...
Eating fish is good for you. Mercury is bad for you. Eating mercury-tainted fish is …
One of the most depressing results of industrial pollution is the way that fish in even the most remote, pristine of New Hampshire lakes are tainted by mercury, deposited there by fumes from coal-burning (mostly) power plants - to the point that pregnant women, or...
100-megawatt solar farm proposed at former Air Force base way (way, way) up in Maine
Former military bases cry out to be reused. Sometimes it works pretty well - Pease Tradeport in New Hampshire is finally taking off - but often they just end up mostly sitting there, a collection of decaying buildings and in-ground pollution that is too expensive to...
Weird lawsuits against imaginary plaintiffs are aimed at quickly changing Google search results
The Washington Post has a fascinating story (right here) about a number of perhaps related lawsuits filed around the country against imaginary plaintiffs. Why? Because ... The answer is that Google and various other Internet platforms have a policy: They won’t take...
Raw vegetable oil replaces heating oil at Keene State (no cafeteria jokes, please)
I've done a lot of stories about biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol over the years, so my initial reaction to a press release from Keene State College saying that they were burning vegetable oil for heat was "ho hum". But it turns out this is a different technology -...
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