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  Many Facebookers Blindly Accept Friend Requests, Aussie Study Finds

  JP 12:52 am on December 9, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Daisy, Daisy Feletin, e mail addresses (10), Facebookers, female profiles, friend (5), nbsp (1,601), Read (1,390), taking security, U.S. (106)

  Filed under: Web, Social Networking

  Despite warnings of scams, Facebook users still don’t seem to be taking security seriously. We’re not sure what encourages this reckless behavior, but it apparently isn’t isolated to U.S. shores. The folks at Sophos, an anti-virus firm, took it upon themselves to figure out just how trusting Australians are when it comes to Facebook friend requests. They created two female profiles — Daisy Feletin, a 21-year-old bachelorette, and Dinette Stonily, a 56-year-old wife. From each profile, researchers sent friend requests to 100 random people in the appropriate age group.

  The result? A larger chunk of people, 46-percent, accepted Daisy, but Dinette ended up with more friends because eight unsolicited Facebookers asked to be her friend. Considering the prevalence of scams exploiting such habits, it’s frightening that so many people would blindly accept a request from a person they’ve never met. Even worse, people who accepted the requests also had posted sensitive information (like e-mail addresses and birthdays) on their profiles — in other words, handing themselves over to scammers on a silver platter.

  Continue reading Many Facebookers Blindly Accept Friend Requests, Aussie Study Finds

  Many Facebookers Blindly Accept Friend Requests, Aussie Study Finds originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  '2001' Geeks, Rejoice! World Learns Why HAL Sang 'Daisy'

  JP 12:55 am on November 7, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: 2001 a space odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke (2), Carol Lockbaum, Clarke, Daisy, Daisy Bell, HAL (2), HAL Sang, IBM (3), John L. Kelly, Max Mathews, nbsp (1,601), pod bay doors, Read (1,390), scene

  Filed under: Computers

  

  We’re sure many of you are familiar with the death-of-HAL scene from the Kubrick classic ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ in which the rebellious computer slowly, and childishly, drones the lyrics to ‘Daisy Bell.’ It’s one of the most memorable scenes in a film loaded with iconic images (the obelisk monolith) and phrases (”Open the pod bay doors, HAL.”), yet we’ve always wondered: Why ‘Daisy?’

  It turns out that the choice of ‘Daisy Bell’ was a tribute to the IBM 704, which, thanks to the brilliant programmers at Bell Labs, became the first computer to sing, way back in 1962. The popular ditty from the late 19th century was chosen by geniuses John L. Kelly, Carol Lockbaum, and Max Mathews as part of a demonstration of speech synthesis. Before he’d penned the film’s namesake novel, author Arthur C. Clarke, who also co-wrote the screenplay, paid a visit to a friend at Bell Labs. There, Clarke was treated to a performance by the IBM 704, and later, inspired by what he’d seen, reproduced it in the dramatic death scene of HAL 9000.

  You can hear the audio of the entire speech demo here, and watch the ‘2001′ scene played back-to-back with a clip from a 1963 documentary about the Bell Labs demo here. Or you can just watch the video below (ignore the incorrect year and model number) to hear the IBM 704 sing ‘Daisy Bell’ without the rest of the demo, or any comparison to the evil, paranoid machine from ‘2001′. [From: Bell Labs, via Boing Boing]

  ‘2001′ Geeks, Rejoice! World Learns Why HAL Sang ‘Daisy’ originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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