One of the best things to happen in the history of computer gaming is, without a doubt, modding. For the uninitiated, a mod is a player-created addition to an existing game. In the beginning, modding was crude: replace some sprites, put in new music, and voila, you have Star Wars Doom. Thankfully, over the years [...]
Alright, alright. I’ve dawdled enough. Everybody say it at once now: “All you have to do is kidnap the password holder and force them at gunpoint to enter the password.” Doesn’t that feel good? Now let’s move on. Bojinov et all are aware of their method’s weaknesses, such as susceptibility to eavesdropping (they use the term “shoulder surfing”) [...]
Yesterday I featured the preliminary work of a Stanford/Northwestern University team claims to have succeeded in embedding 30-character passwords into the subconscious memory of it’s subjects. The group will present their findings at the 21st USENIX Security Symposium in August. The interesting part for me was how they accomplished this. As mentioned yesterday, implicit memory [...]
Found an interesting item over the weekend, and while I couldn’t come up with one explainer comic about it, I did think of three or four jokes on the subject. So in an experiment I call, “Can maki draw a comic every day?” I’ll be spreading out this topic over the course of the week. There [...]
I love cavemen. Who doesn’t?* Of course my personal Venn diagram intersection ‘cavemen’ would include multiple species and sub-species, locales and time frames. And cave dwelling is optional. While we’ve visited cavemen and their treasure trove teeth in prior adventures today’s comic inspiration came partially** from increasing evidence (again from teeth) that Neanderthals had a [...]
The above happened to me at work long ago. I only wish I could have escaped so easily. There are unspoken rules regarding using a public restroom. Unspoken until they are broken anyway. 1. Don’t get in the stall right next to somebody else. Comfort zones are much larger when bathroom faculties are involved. 1a. [...]
Just when you thought the moon couldn’t get any lamer, it starts telling dad jokes. As much as I enjoy giving the moon a hard time for being a dumb old rock that never lived up to its sci-fi potential*, every now and then something about it, resembling interesting, catches my eye. The moon has [...]
[Split yesterday's comic up as it was causing some confusion. I'll keep playing with the format though.] Ah, my favorite target of ire. My dear friend. My favorite pal, the moon. The moon. The moon. The moon. The Moon. Yesterday Pop-Sci had an article about simulations showing that moon dust is toxic. It’s not what you think, though. You won’t die from [...]
I had all sorts of ideas lined up for today. Mostly random stuff: Stories of bathroom etiquette, things to do while bored at an airport, geoengineering strategies, etc. But when two articles about my two favorite denizens of our fair solar system popped up in my feed this week, I had to play to my [...]
It’s been a while since my last installment of HypochondriACK!TM Previous episodes can be found here and here. Although the fear I present in the comic can easily be seen as whipping myself into odontophobia I neither have a doctor phobia nor have I ever had a bad enough experience during a visit to cause [...]