Gizmodo: brilliant

UK Spends Billions On High Tech IDs, Has No Way To Read Them

Sean Fallon — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:40:00 EST

Kudos to the British government for spending the equivalent of $6.6 billion US on a biometric National Identity Card program without budgeting for a single card reader. Truly, they operate like a finely-tuned machine.

Basically, they are set to roll out these cards to government officials and then on to private citizens as a way for the authorities to to protect identities and safeguard borders—but not a single police station, border entry point, or job center has a reader capable of extracting information from the card's biometric chip.

It took a Cambridge University security expert to explain the obvious:

"If this capability is not there then the biometrics are, in short, a waste of time. I would have thought that the government would have tried to get the readers rolled out as soon as possible as it is only when you get serious deployments that you start to learn what can go wrong."

The government reaction to the situation was swift and decisive:

"We have always said that we would roll out the scheme incrementally. The card will not be as useful as it could be until we have got the volumes out there. There's no prospect in the immediate future for the government directing anybody that you have to buy those things [readers] because we would be placing a burden on these organizations. The manufacturers of the machines have also got to decide whether it is worth their while to produce them. I think that organisations will decide in time that it is better, quicker and cheaper to have them."

Woah, wait a minute! This is going to money? Nobody said anything about money! [Daily Tech via CrunchGear]

Official Gmail Goggles Add-On Prevents Shameful Drunken Emailing

John Mahoney — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:52:04 EDT

My new favorite Googler Jon Perlow has used his 20% time (that portion of it he doesn't spend hammered, apparently) to write Gmail Goggles, an official Labs add-on that makes sure you really want to send that 3AM email to your ex-girlfriend. Goggles employs five arithmetic problems that appear after pressing send (you choose the difficulty level!) that must be answered correctly in a limited time before your overly passionate and typo-ridden message can be on its way. It can also be scheduled to be active only on your party nights. Thanks big G! [Official Gmail Blog]

Super iPod Pillow is Plusher than Plush, Plays MP3s

AddyDugdale — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:42:12 EST

Let us salute creative types who are super-brazilliant at hacking MP3 players and have a bit of time on their hands, because this is what they can come up with — a super iPod that is 50 times bigger than the real thing, and that probably won't break when you drop it. There's a gallery below, but you can catch all the pics and instructions at Instructables.

[Instructables]

Best Notebook Design Ever

Jason Chen — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:00:04 EDT

Update: I was harsh in my first take of this laptop design. Upon further examination, it's the best thing we've ever seen. Seriously, every design firm should think about hiring Anna Lopez. This lady will design the next iPhone for you. Why doesn't she have a job already? What are you people waiting for?

In all seriousness, our own problems weren't with the fact that we thought it would work with the vehicle in motion (we didn't), it was with the placement (putting it on the steering wheel is bad) and the ergonomics (nobody wants to type with that angle) and the fact that it's a touch-screen keyboard (doesn't work well). – Jason Chen

Designer [via Yanko Design]