dessalles

[Justice - Stress (Auto Remix) sounds like a DoS attack]

About 3 weeks ago CNN experienced a Denial-of-Service attack from computers thought to be located in China. Briefly, DoS attacks are a method of making a website or service unavailable to its intended users by flooding it with traffic from automated systems (or to put it in more personal terms, imagine someone setting up an auto-dialer to constantly call your mobile phone so as to prevent your friends and family from reaching you - that’s a DoS attack). However, more interesting than the attacks on CNN are the ones that targeted SlideShare, the YouTube of PowerPoint presentations, only a day later. These attacks, also based out of China, were thought to be in response to some politically oriented presentations hosted on the site. And while it’s hard not to sympathize the assailants of a site working to make business presentations ubiquitous in ways they probably shouldn’t be, it’s startling to consider that these cyber-militants found user generated content hosted on SlideShare credible enough to warrant attacks equal to those that targeted a major international news corporation. read the rest of this entry »

If you’re not familiar with the amazingness that is, what I consider to be, the greatest thing to ever happen to NYC, let me fill you in: someone bought a cargo barge, built a pool in it, docked it a couple blocks from my apartment and let me swim in it for free last summer.

Sadly the Floating Pool Lady seems to have found a permanent home in the Bronx, which is unfair since they already have a baseball team. I’m gonna miss rolling out of bed and stumbling to the Brooklyn shore for some Saturday morning laps.

And for what ever reason, this song sounds like my inconsolable sorrow over the floating pool’s departure.

[Animal Collective - Street Flash]

Between last week’s cyclone and the protests in the fall, there have been a lot of reasons to talk about Myanmar. And recently, non-governmental aid and political outreach have been absolutely everywhere: Architecture for Humanity, Shilo, and celebrities, among other initiatives. read the rest of this entry »

I’ve only just started digging into Grand Theft Auto IV, so I’m not gonna offer much of a review here; but I thought I would throw out a couple early notes…

With Rockstar’s decision to model the game world after New York City, the one thing myself and many others were eager to learn was how the GTA experience would differ for those already familiar with NYC. What I’m finding is that Liberty City doesn’t build on any functional understanding of New York as much as it appeals to my emotional appreciation for it. It’s very much an artistic impression - “it’s like a painting” as a friend put it.

However, with that said, the environment’s intricate detail and unbelievable richness demands comparison and inspection. And the first thing I did upon setting foot in Broker, Liberty City’s answer to Brookyln, was hijack a car and attempt to connect landmarks, streets and neighborhoods to their real-world counterparts. There are plenty of connections to make, almost all with a brilliant satirical twist; however, Rockstar understandably, though disappointingly, resisted the temptation of mirroring the exact layout and geography of Manhattan and its surrounding boroughs. All the major parks, monuments, bridges and buildings have their place, but you won’t find yourself killing drug dealers outside your local bodega at any point in the game. read the rest of this entry »

read the rest of this entry »