Jamie Condliffe

This Is How ATMs Get Hacked in Russia: Using Explosives

Forget super-skinny card skimmers and clever malware attacks. In Russia, many of the attempts to illegally obtain cash from ATMs are rather more crude—because they involve explosives. English Russia points out that more than 20 Russian ATMS have been blown up recentlyin an attempt to steal money. The site reports that criminals pump the cash…

This CD DJ Deck Doesn’t Play CDs

You’re looking at Pioneer’s new XDJ-1000 DJ deck. What’s special about it? It’s the first deck of its kinds to, err, not play CDs. Pioneer’s original CDJ -1000 ushered in a shift among many DJs to stick their vinyl in a closet and instead play using CDs. But now the CD’s practically dead, so decks…

The Anatomy of Steak Cuts Explained in Two Minutes

If you’ve ever wondered what the difference between a Kansas City Strip and a Sirloin was, or where the hell the T in your T-bone came from, this video will help. The best kind of anatomy lesson, this clip by Eater explains where all the most important cuts of steak come from—as well as telling…

The First Close-Up Image of Comet 67P From the Philae Lander

Followinga successful day in space yesterday, which saw humankind land a spacecraft on a comet for the first time ever, the Philae Lander has now sent back the first close-up images of the surface it now rests upon. The image above is a two-photo composite captured by the spacecraft’s CIVA imaging system, showing that the…

Why Not All Free Software Is Free

Meet Matt Lee, the Technical Lead at Creative Commons. He has a good beard, true, but he also believes very strongly in concept of Free Software. Not free as in a free lunch, but free as in free speech. Allow him to explain. In this video, he explains the four key characteristics that make a…

Drones Made Out of Mushrooms Will Decompose When They Crash-Land

It may not look much different to a regular drone, but that’s a good thing—because this little biodrone is made from materials that allow it to biodegrade and simply melt away into its surroundings. The drone, you see, is designed to leave as little trace as possible if it crash-lands. The main airframe of the…

Sony’s PlayStation Vue Wants to Replace Your Cable Box

Sony has announced a new cloud-based TV service, which will offer a large selection of TV channels without a monthly contract and be available across a range of devices. It’s Sony’s play to replace your cable box. Originally spoken about at CES 2014 back in January, PlayStation Vue will roll out as an invite-only beta…

Scientists Are Sending Data-Carrying Spiral Lasers Across Entire Cities

Twisted laser beams may just be the key to unlimited bandwidth in the future—and now a team of scientists has used them to beam data through the air, from one side of Vienna to the other. We’ve already seen twisted laser beams transmit data at speeds of over 1.6 terabits per second via fiber-optic cable.…

The Relationship Status of the U.S., Visualized

Ever wondered where people are more likely to get hitched, or perhaps live out their life solo? These maps, created by Nathan Yau, show how relationship status varies across the entire country. Taking data from the American Community Survey, which goes down to the county level, Yau created maps which show the proportion of married,…

It’s not concrete with measles. In fact, this is how Olympus uses software to automatically differentiate between safe and unsafe air gaps in porous materials—too many pores, and the samples don’t make the cut. That’s particularly important for new kinds of foamed metals, that are increasingly used in airplanes. [Olympus]

Mozilla’s New Website Takes VR to the Internet

Most websites sit in your browser in boring old 2D. But Mozilla has decided that it’s time to change that, and the launch of MozVR.com brings virtual reality to the mainstream web. The page is especially designed to allow Oculus Rift owners to browse technology demonstrations that attempt to showcase how a future web, where…

Netflix now plays in 1080p on your iPhone 6 Plus. (Here’s some stuff you should watch.)

FCC Considering a Break With Obama’s Thinking on Net Neutrality

On Monday, Barack Obamafinally stood up for the internet—but the head of the FCC, Tom Wheeler, is said to be ‘frustrated’ with the President’s plan. And that means it may well break with Obama’s thinking. The Washington Post reports that Wheeler, talking to officials from Google, Yahoo and Etsy at the meeting were this news…

The Century-Old Machine That Gave Us MP3s and JPEGs

Back in 1894, Olaus Henrici invented a machine called the Harmonic Analyzer. Way ahead of its time, it could pick out all the individual frequencies that make up complex sound waves—a technique we now rely on for everything from compressed audio to digital images. In this video, Engineering Guy explains how the harmonic analyzer was…

This Is What Wikipedia Sounds Like

While you may expect it to sound more akin to a room full of people who all think they’re right trying to shout louder than each other, it turns out Wikipedia actually sounds rather beautiful. Created by Stephen LaPorte and Mahmoud Hashemi, this is what it sounds like if you take Wikipedia’s recent changes feed…

How to Build a Pillow Fort, According to an Architect

Building a pillow fort is one of life’s simple pleasures, young or old. But like anything, it’s more satisfying when done properly—so why not take some advice from an architect? Over at Fatherly, architect Ben Pell—who’s responsible for building thingslike this—shares his advice for building the best pillow fort. A blend of fatherly learning and…

All of Microsoft’s Best Subscription Services Are Now in a $200 Bundle

Live in a Microsoft bubble? Then you might be able to make good use ofits newWork & Play Bundle, which wraps up all its subscription services in one place for $200 a year. The package, which will be available until January 4th in the U.S., includes Office 365 Home, Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Music Pass,…

Galaxy ESO 137-001 tears through its neighbours in the vast Norma cluster, in the process losing most of the gas it needed to make the its generation of stars. Stellar suicide, in other words. [ESO/M. Fumagalli via New Scientist]

How You Can Supercool Water at Home (And You Should, It’s Fun)

Super-cooled water is super fun the first time you see it. Still in liquid state, it’s actually well below zero—so when you touch it with a spoon, say, it turns solid right before your eyes. The best bit? You can make it at home. All you need to do is shove a few bottles of…

This CCTV System Actually Edits People Out

You might think that the whole point of surveillance cameras was to, y’know, watch people. But what if we were actually edited out of the street scenes they show? That’s what San Francisco-based Prism Skylabs is doing, reports New Scientist. The idea is fairly simple, though not necessarily reassuring. You see, the company’s tech, used…