Google on Tuesday unveiled Swiffy, a free tool for developers to convert some Flash files (.SWFs) into HTML5 code. The upshot? It’s now easier than ever to get Flash content visible on platforms that don’t support Adobe’s Flash Player — like the iPhone and iPad — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Since we began in 2007, the Data Liberation Front has been focused on one thing: making it easier for you to take your data in and out of Google. Our first step was to make it easier to get your data out of our products, one product at a time. While we’ve made great progress on this front, we’ve been on the lookout for even better ways to let you take your data out of Google.
Today we’re pleased to announce the Data Liberation Front’s first revolutionary product: Google Takeout — via redwolf.newsvine.com
In 2009, Satoshi Nakomoto (possibly a real person, possibly a pseudonym for one or more hackers) invented Bitcoin, the first peer-to-peer currency. Bitcoin, which works along the same lines as the Bittorrent network you might use to download movies and music, isn’t the first online currency. Linden Dollars, the unit of exchange in Second Life, are widely traded and regulated by game’s maker, Linden Lab. Nakomoto’s innovation was using math-heavy cryptography techniques to create a medium of exchange that doesn’t require a central authority or physical tangibility (like gold) to deter counterfeiters and regulate the money supply.
Each time bitcoins change hands, so does a transaction history encoded in a string of characters. This hash value
or digest can be decoded by anyone with sufficient computer power and time to devote to the effort. When bitcoins are exchanged, a digest is broadcast to the network of users, a participant does the work of decoding the transaction history, and other users quickly confirm their history is accurate. (The decoders earn a 50-bitcoin bounty for their work.) This happens about once every 10 minutes. Everyone who holds the currency agrees on who owns what, which ensures people can’t copy-and-paste their way to millions or defraud other users without the whole network agreeing that it happened.
In other words, Bitcoin isn’t just a currency, it’s a massive experiment in group trust. It’s also a hint of the financial system to come and, ultimately, a scam — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The Greens have released a report which has found 83 per cent of Australia’s mining industry is foreign-owned — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Ensamble Studio is back for an encore performance with this bizarre cow-eaten concrete enclosure, finally finished and ready to be a real living space if you can stomach staying inside chewed-out architecture — via Dornob
A long copy ad for Wagon Wheels by GPY&R Sydney was Australia’s sole winner of a Press Lion in Cannes.
The ad – featuring the quirky tale of the invention of the Wagon Wheel — won a silver lion — via mUmBRELLA
The annual Sea No Evil benefit auction is fast approaching. It seems the lineup and art included in show just gets better each year (see 2010 and 2009), so you will want to be at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium starting at 6pm that night as She Wants Revenge will be playing and Captain Watson from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will be speaking — via Arrested Motion
The association representing Australia’s internet industry today claimed that 80 to 90 per cent of Australians would have their internet connections filtered for child pornography this year, following the release of an industry code in July that will focus on a blacklist of sites supplied by international policing agency, Interpol –via redwolf.newsvine.com
After ANZ Bank concluded a trial of contactless, phone-based Near Field Communication (NFC) payments in April, the bank has revealed it won’t be pursuing the technology in its current form — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A landscape architect sacked over his use of an email chat service has been found to have been unfairly dismissed, in the latest case in Fair Work Australia to deal with internet and social media use in the workplace — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The Netregistry Group has taken over the business of stricken web hosting firm distribute.IT after hackers permanently obliterated files and websites belonging to more than 4800 accounts during a devastating half hour of infiltration — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Remember the beginnings remarkable rural rebuild from last year? It may be rather hard to forget: 4.5 million plane parts (or: 400,000 pounds of airplane) were transported by truck and helicopter, then turned into a unique desert dwelling — a feat finally completed last month.
First the plane was sliced into major sections, then moved by the best means possible to its destination — a hilltop location in Malibu surrounded by sparse rolling landscapes, perfect for wing-shaped roof forms.
Designed by David Hertz Architects, the new buildings (a main and guest residence pair) use the wings, stabilizers and more to enclose and shape spaces.– via Dornob
Give your area rug a makeover with this project by Sean from MAKE on MAKE: Projects.
I saw an expensive designer
labyrinthcarpet like this in a catalogue years ago, and wondered at the time if I could recreate the effect on the cheap by taking electric hair clippers to a piece of ordinary deep pile carpet. Long story short: It works!
— via CRAFT
The LN scooter, which has now landed at selected dealers ahead of the full launch. There’s an LN 150 to follow later in the year. Both are twist and go
automatic scooters, mixing that with old school looks reminiscent of the original using plastic and metal — via Retro To Go
A new type of tree kangaroo, a 2.5-metre-long river shark, a frog with vampire-like fangs and a turquoise lizard are among hundreds of new creatures found and being documented in a report by conservationists working in the Pacific island of New Guinea.
Some 1,060 previously unknown species of mammals, fish and birds have been spotted in the volcanic island over a 10-year period.
The Final Frontier report, which was put together by WWF as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, marks a brief respite from the escalating rate of animal and plant extinctions which is taking its toll across the planet and has left a quarter of all known mammals on the endangered list — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Fine art print on bright white, matte, ultra smooth, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using an advanced digital dry ink method to ensure vibrant image quality — via Society6
The continued support by several of Australia’s largest internet service providers for a voluntary version of the Federal Government’s mandatory ISP filtering scheme has attracted the ire of the world’s largest digital rights group, the Electronic Frontiers Foundation.
This week, Telstra and Optus reiterated that they were still planning to start filtering their customers’ traffic for a list of internet addresses provided by the Australian Communications and Media Authority which it has deemed to contain child pornography. The initiative is a stop-gap measure agreed to by ISPs and the Federal Government in mid-2010 while a review is carried out into the Refused Classification category of content which the wider mandatory filter will block.
Another major ISP, Primus, is also planning to implement the voluntary filtering scheme — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Houses, as a rule, have sharp edges. Some have the occasional curve (art deco properties in particular). But most don’t. The builders of this four-bedroom circular house in Inkberrow, Worcestershire don’t seem to have read the rule book.
It’s weird, it’s modern and it is very distinctive. Not cheap, but not as expensive as you might think either at £699.950. Find out more from Rightmove — via WowHaus
Duncan Kitchin is an amateur astronomer in Oregon. Like many of us, he has a telescope that’s kind of a pain lugging outside (my old ‘scope was the same size and shape as a water heater, leading to much hilarity as it sat in the living room). Duncan got tired of dragging it out when it was clear, then hauling back inside when the observing was done.
What’s a guy to do?
Well, if you’re an astronomer and a Doctor Who fan, the solution is obvious: pour a concrete pad, install the permanent mount for the ‘scope, and then make yourself a protective shell around the whole thing… shaped like the TARDIS! — via Bad Astronomy
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