Mike Wheatley
Latest from Mike Wheatley
Safecast Gets Funding To Map Air Pollution in LA
What with so much conflicting information from government officials following last year’s nuclear disaster in Fukushima, many Japanese turned to an open source map created by Safecast to track local radiation levels in real time. Safecast’s maps proved to be such a hit that now, the organization led by Sean Bonner has been commission by ...
How Your Carrier Might Be Stealing Data From You
Surely they wouldn’t do that, would they? Perhaps not intentionally, but according to a new study from researchers at the UCLA, it’s far more common than anyone seems to realize. Computer World first reported that some (but not all) carriers may be unintentionally charging their customers for data that they never receive. It happens due ...
Tech Giants Unite: Google, Facebook and Friends Team Up To Form Lobby Group
Silicon Valley’s biggest names are bearing down on Washington DC today, in order to fight for a ‘free and innovative’ internet for us all. Under the banner of “The Internet Association”, the likes of Facebook, Google, AOL, and others have officially set up a lobby group in order to make their presence felt at Congress. ...
Apple Maps Is So Confused It Couldn’t Even Score In A Brothel
Apple has just released its iOS 6 operating system, but already it’s come in for some harsh criticism due to numerous inaccuracies and mistakes with its new mapping software that replaced Google Maps. Misplaced towns, cities and businesses, plus dozens of other errors, have drawn dozens of complaints from Apple users, particularly in the UK. ...
Big Money Data: US Military Spending Laid Bare
In this week’s big money data series, we take a closer look at one of the government’s biggest and, perhaps (depending on your viewpoint), one of its most unnecessary annual expenditures; it’s military budget. So large are the numbers being bandied around when we speak of military budgets and the global arms trade that they ...
In-Flight Wi-Fi: More Expensive, But Much, Much Faster (No Thanks To Gogo)
It’s fair to say that since its introduction four years ago, in-flight Wi-Fi hasn’t exactly ‘took off’ in the way that people would have liked. Fact is, most airlines around the world simply don’t offer in-flight Wi-Fi to begin with, and those that do (mostly US airlines) invariably use the provider Gogo, which doesn’t exactly ...
Angry Big Data: Mapping Protests Around The World
Since the emergence of a controversial movie ridiculing the Islamic prophet Mohammad sparked uproar in the Middle East, resulting in the death of the American ambassador after the storming of the US consulate in Benghazi, protests have erupted across the Muslim world. Similar angry scenes have taken place in China, and to a lesser extent, ...
How Facebook Gets Hacked
Yesterday it was revealed that a UK-based information privacy company is offering the world’s first social media insurance plan to cover against Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts being hacked. The chance to receive a lump sum if your social media accounts get hacked may well appeal to some, but just how necessary is ...
WARNING: Dump Internet Explorer or Risk Getting Hacked!
PC users running Internet Explorer versions 6, 7, 8 or 9 as their default browser are being advised to stop using it immediately following the discovery of a critical vulnerability that could allow hackers to take over their computers. The vulnerability, which was only revealed two days ago by researcher Eric Roman on the Rapid7 ...
Why Your Wi-Fi Sucks (And How You Can Give It a Kick Up The A$$)
Wi-Fi. Ever wondered why does my internet suck? Even when internet service providers promise you the earth – blazing fast speeds and the ability to download entire movies in seconds – unless your device is plugged directly into the router, you’re unlikely to see those speeds. Why does my wifi suck, even though we pay ...
