• October 22nd, 2010

    Google TV Rooted, Homebrew Software On the Way?

    Got Google TV? Well now you can get root. This isn’t a full root access, mind you, but it’s a start. AndroidForums user Apeman shows us how to access the GoogleTV’s recovery menu and there is a tempting entry in the menu allowing for USB uploads. This means, in short, that eventually someone will be able to figure out how to add homebrew apps to Google TV.

    The folks at the forums are digging further so I’d expect this thing to be wide open by November. → Read More

    July 13th, 2007

    Professor Owns Student Trying To Own

    There’s a terrific story over at IT Toolbox that tells of a professor and one of his childish teenage students. Nicknamed “Pima” (for being a pain in his ass), the student would goof off and pretend to be uber-l337 by changing the root password, arguing points in class – you know, that sort of thing. Since all the students’ PCs are netbooted from a central computer in the class, when the prof. discovered root had been changed, he became curious. Curiosity eventually lead the cat to become mischievous. He recorded some choice sound files with a microphone, wrote a script to play them back, and set the computer’s speaker volume at 75%. To make sure this little brat would be set straight, he even went so far as to pry the volume button off with a pocketknife! The stage was set. Pima sat down with a shit-eatin grin on his face. Minutes later, three separate files were played at intervals: → Read More

    October 12th, 2006

    Dyson Root 6: Robo-Sucker

    Looks like Dyson has done it again. Their new Root 6 uses the same air chamber design as their vacuums and doesn’t lose suction when filled with filth and muck – I can attest to this, as we’ve had the Dyson Ball for a while after picking it up for a song at Best Buy. The name and shape are kind of creepy, but it looks like it’s all sucking all the time with this baby. The Root is rechargeable and will be available October 23 for about $149.99. → Read More

    September 15th, 2006

    Chicago Board of Trade invests in Attention futures service ROOT

    Entrepreneur Seth Goldstein announced today that his company ROOT has received $1 million in funding from the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), a futures exchange founded in 1848. Bernard W. Dan, CEO of the Chicago Board of Trade, will join the board of directors at ROOT. ROOT is a commodities exchange for Internet- generated consumer leads. Today they provide a service that applies quality standards to mortgage service lead sellers wishing to sell their leads to mortgage service providers. Far more interesting, though, is their experimental service ROOT.net, a virtual vault for managing attention data (browsing, search history and potentially much more – see partial screenshot at the bottom of this post). In the future, ROOT is likely to offer chunks of attention data that consumers have chosen to expose to prospective buyers in a futures market. It’s very experimental, but I think it’s fascinating. Though ROOT.net is in its infancy today, I think it’s the most important part of ROOT. The news that CBOT has invested in the company and its CEO has joined its board is a very important validation of the Attention Data concept. → Read More

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