DIY RFID human implants are on the rise. I have found over sixteen instances of midnight engineers implanting RFID tags in their hands. The general excuse is for automation purposes. Examples such as unlocking a computer screen saver or opening doors that have been outfitted with electric deadbolts. In my own case the idea of implanting technology that I have researched and spec'd out was very appealing. The fact that it can actually do something useful is quite secondary. The most rewarding part of this project was learning about RFID at a much deeper level.

I found this off of dorkbot.org which I found from Wired's 2005's 10 Sexiest Geeks.

Its cool, weird and just plained fucked up at the same time. I want to know how is body responded to the implant.

:: Mikey Sklar :: Electric Clothing ::

Nicholas Carr Disputes The Threat to Mainstream Media From The Long Tail (CNET, TSCM, TWX)

Nick Carr, ex-executive editor of the Harvard Business Review, argues that far from overturning current media models, blogs will come to resemble “old media”. He writes:

…the blogosphere is going to end up looking a lot like the old “mainstream media.” Rather than being a great democratic free-for-all, the blogosphere will become steadily more rigid and hierarchical. Structurally, it’ll resemble the magazine world. A relatively small number of high-traffic blogs will dominate the market, and then there’ll be a whole lot of more specialized blogs with fewer readers… It won’t be quite as hard for blogs to climb the hierarchy as it is in the print world (simply because the costs of blogging are so much lower), but it won’t be easy, either.

Indeed, the technologies we use to manage our blog reading will reinforce the hierarchy. RSS, for example, imposes the old subscription model on the blogosphere - it’s fundamentally anti-democratic, as it tends to lock us into a set of favorite blogs. (Even though blogs are free, the subscription model imposes real switching costs.) Also, the inevitable (in my view) shift away from blog search engines based on posting date… to ones that use measures of “relevance” based on traffic or link intensity… will also make the hierarchy more rigid and less democratic - as will third-party headline aggregators like Memeorandum, which also tend to reflect and reinforce established patterns of popularity.

The Media Stock Blog » Nicholas Carr Disputes The Threat to Mainstream Media From The Long Tail (CNET, TSCM, TWX)

An online auction of a "brand new vulnerability" in Microsoft Excel had reached about $60 when eBay pulled the item late Thursday.

A seller using the name "fearwall" started the auction Wednesday evening at 1 cent. It was up to $56 on Thursday afternoon with 21 bids placed, and eBay quashed the auction soon after that.

The online auctioneer removed the item because it contravened its guidelines, eBay spokeswoman Catherine England said Friday. "The listing was pulled for violating our policy against encouraging illegal activity," she said in an e-mailed statement.

Microsoft is aware of the reported flaw and has been working with eBay on the matter, a company representative said in a statement. "This possible vulnerability was being auctioned on eBay, but has now been removed," the representative said.

According to the description of the item on eBay, the vulnerability was discovered on Dec. 6 and all the details were submitted to Microsoft. The flaw lies in the way Excel validates data when handling documents and exploiting it will compromise a user's PC, according to the now-removed eBay post.

Microsoft is not aware of any attacks that attempt to use the reported vulnerability, the software maker said. The company will continue to investigate the issue and may provide a fix as part of its monthly patching process or issue a security advisory, the Microsoft representative said.

The eBay seller even had a special offer for Microsoft employees: a 10 percent discount. "To qualify, you MUST provide @microsoft.com e-mail address and MUST mention discount code LINUXRULZ during checkout," the now-removed post said.

eBay halts auction of Excel flaw | CNET News.com