machine

The 404 1,142: Where we play Genesis naked (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Rare full recording of 1983 Steve Jobs speech reveals Apple had been working on iPad for 27 years.

- "Steve Jobs" spotted on the back of a truck in Xi'an, China.

- Machine Gun Kelly gig at Microsoft Store cut short by police.

- Capcom opens "human meat" butchery in London for the launch of Resident Evil 6.

- New York Times smears use of "really," but Jerry Seinfeld rebutts.

Bathroom break video: Videos of people posing for still photos

Episode 1,142 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | … Read more

Time Machine running slow after OS X 10.7.5 update

After installing the latest OS X 10.7.5 update for Lion, a number of users are finding their Time Machine backups are taking forever to complete. In some cases the backups only run at a few kilobytes per hour, with text claiming that the backups will take between days to weeks to complete. People report this issue occurring with a variety of Mac models and backup setups, including backing up to local drives and to Apple's Time Capsule devices.

In addition to Time Machine running slowly, those experiencing this problem have noticed Spotlight also takes forever to update … Read more

Rapper's wild Microsoft Store performance triggers police call

A Microsoft Store stirred up more excitement than expected when a rapper's performance got out of hand.

Appearing at Microsoft's Atlanta retail store last Friday, rapper Machine Gun Kelly quickly revved into high gear, jumping on tables filled with desktops and laptops, throwing a promotional sign, and giving the finger to Microsoft employees urging him to get down.

The rapper also let loose a string of expletives at the store staffers and reportedly stomped on five computers before the staff cut off the music and his microphone, according to Web site AllHip.com. Annoyed that his performance was … Read more

Symphonic lowriders, phone-y birds at electronic-art fest

The International Symposium on Electronic Art came to New Mexico for 2012 to show off the intersection of art, nature, and technology under the theme of "Machine Wilderness."

For two weeks, the notable art corridor between Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos played host to ISEA with a full schedule of panels, keynotes, performances, and all sorts of interesting and interactive art installations. … Read more

Lowrider symphony: Hot hopping-car orchestra performs

Take a lowrider car club. Add a couple of artists. Throw in some wireless audio technology. Do some choreography. Practice for four months. Roll it all out in a parking lot in Albuquerque, N.M. Congratulations, you've just created a lowrider symphony.

Officially called "Symphony 505," a reference to one of New Mexico's two area codes, the performance piece took place during ISEA2012 Albuquerque: Machine Wilderness, a collection of art, science, and technology events with an international conference.

I caught the event on a warm New Mexico Sunday evening. It was equal parts baffling and fascinating. The cars moved about the parking lot, sometimes following each other, sometimes making their own purposeful paths. … Read more

Recycled cell phones take wing as robotic birds

A very odd flock of birds landed in Albuquerque, N.M., this past week. There wasn't a feather in sight as four winged creatures sat on bare branches, flashing their eyes and lifting their wings. These art objects are fashioned entirely from recycled phone parts.

Escape, an installation piece by U.K. artists Neil Mendoza and Anthony Goh, turns unremarkable phone scrap into curious and engaging little birds. Each bird contains an Arduino controller.

When hooked up to the cell network in Europe, the birds can take and make phone calls. Here in New Mexico, they are reprogrammed to react to the proximity of people approaching them. … Read more

Q&A MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week readers wrote in with questions about whether or not the Maps app from iOS 5 could be installed and used on iOS 6, how best to use an Apple ID for business purchases, if you can back up multiple internal hard drives to Time Machine, and how to tackle PDF files appearing black in Web browsers. We welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Using Maps from … Read more

Is this the greatest Lego Mindstorm machine ever?

Few of our past Lego stories compare to this elaborate device, which sends hundreds of small toy balls through a series of 17 challenging Lego Mindstorm contraptions including zigzag stairs, spiral lifts, and even a basket shooter.

The mesmerizing machine took a 21-year-old Japanese brick artist nicknamed "akiyuky" more than 600 hours to build and stretches beyond imagination at 4.9 feet by 21.3 feet. While we could spend several paragraphs describing the many intricacies of this doodad, the embedded seven-minute video below shows in better detail than we could tell the full 101.7-foot path each ball travels through. … Read more

'Crisis' malware targets VMware virtual machines

Security researchers have discovered a single piece of malware that is capable of spreading to four different platform environments, including Windows, Mac OSX, VMware virtual machines, and Windows Mobile devices.

First uncovered last month by security company Integro, Crisis was originally described as a Mac Trojan capable of intercepting e-mails and instant messages and tracking Web sites visited. Additional scrutiny by Symantec has found that the malware targets both OSX and Windows users with executable files for both operating systems.

Crisis is distributed using social engineering techniques designed to trick users into installing a JAR, or Java archive, file masquerading … Read more