matt, Author at Peak Geek - Page 48 of 114

Lotus Elise.lwo (click to view in 3D)

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Creators of 3D files have had a real challenge in sharing those files with other users easily. They can post 2D screenshots, or provide 3D files which must be downloaded and opened by somewhat specialized software. SketchFab is providing a great alternative – you upload your 3D file, then can embed it (just like with YouTube videos) in your Kickstarter campaign or whatever, with the users able to view, rotate, zoom, your model just from their web browser – no special software or downloads needed. It’s not a way for people to download files – just a way to help them view what you’ve already created. You can see it in action firsthand in the Lotus Exige model embedded above. Pretty cool. Check out more here or read more at Forbes.com.

UPDATE – well, the first time I embedded this in my post, it worked as intended – all spinning etc from the preview window above. Now it’s linking to an external site…I’m not really sure why? Immature technology perhaps…but still very promising. Also note that the model above is incorrectly named by its creator…the engine cover on this car makes it clear it’s an Exige, not an Elise!

Almost a century ago, Ernest Shackleton‘s Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917) left some film negatives in Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s former hut (from his failed 1912 expedition to become the first to reach the South Pole). Amazingly, it’s taken until now for these negatives to be (re)discovered by New Zealand’s Antarctic Heritage Trust. It’s pretty cool that the negatives are in such relatively good condition, but it also makes you realize how fragile our current archiving of our lives is – we are totally dependent on relatively fragile digital media.

Thanks to Edward Snowden, the NSA revelations keep hitting us…and it’s like some Hollywood movie plot. The latest have been that the RSA installed backdoors into its encryption software for the NSA, and now comes word that the NSA sometimes intercepts shipments of new laptop computers to install spyware on them. I do wonder if all these revelations are true or not, but the reality is that enough of them seem to be true, that the one truth is we cannot trust the NSA to be honest with us. That, and US laws that restrict people from discussing these issues, mean the truth is difficult, or even impossible to discern. For a supposedly free society, that’s a big concern.

Put aside any thoughts of working next week…thanks to the Internet Archive, you can play most of your favorite old console video games for free right from your browser! My favorites are the Atari 2600 ones, but you’ll also find Atari 7800 games, ColecoVision, Magnavox Odyssey, and Astrocade games. Game quality is just as you remember (for better or worse 😉 ), though in my browser at least, none of the games had sound. It’s a nice, easy to use alternative to MAME and worth checking out here.

Do you own an Android smarphone? Chances are, you opted in to passing along location data to Google when you set up the phone…but did you have any idea just how extensive that is? Google’s doing their part to be a bit more transparent here, giving you the ability to view all the location data they have on you. Just go to the location history browser. I wasn’t able to use this as I’ve always been an iPhone user, but this article at TechCrunch sheds some light on the level of detail involved.

There’s no reason to believe that Apple isn’t collecting a similar dataset on its users. There are plenty of beneficial reasons for doing so, but any user of technology needs to be aware of stuff like this..if it bothers you, you can usually opt out.

Author: matt

SketchFab – the ‘YouTube’ for 3D files

Lotus Elise.lwo (click to view in 3D)

Century old film negatives found in Antarctica

The never-ending NSA scandal

Play old console games in your browser!

Google’s tracking you