Written by: Joseph Albahari Are your passwords safe? That depends on when you last changed them. On April 7, it was made public that the security of the Internet was compromised by the Heartbleed bug. Heartbleed, or CVE-2014-0160 as it is technically named, is an OpenSSL security bug that has affected about 17 percent of the internet’s websites. The bug ...
Read More »Backers demand refund
Written by: Joseph Albahari With the help of generous Kickstarter donations, tech company Oculus VR was set to revolutionize the world of gaming. But in March, much to the dismay of the Internet, Facebook decided to buy Oculus VR for $2 billion. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, commented on the deal after it was made public. “After games, we’re ...
Read More »Pokemon ‘catches `em all’: Website surprises with response to multiplayer gaming experiment
Written by: Joseph Albahari The Infinite Monkey Theorem states, “With one thousand monkeys typing on a typewriter, eventually one will write Shakespeare.” That deduction was considered when an anonymous programmer decided to create a program that allowed multiple people to play the same game simultaneously. The social experiment named “Twitch Plays Pokémon” began on Feb. 12 and was hosted by ...
Read More »Robot band gives new face to music industry
Written by: Joseph Albahari Daft Punk is not the only musical robot group storming the media in 2014. Z-Machine, an all-robot band created by Yoichiro Kawaguchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo, and designed by Naofumi Yonetsuka, a fellow robotics engineer of the university, has come into the spotlight. Kawaguchi and the other creators worked with Squarepusher, a recording ...
Read More »Gamers big losers in the flap over ‘Flappy Bird’
Written by: Joseph Albahari Sometimes, what is created must also be destroyed. Flappy Bird, one of the most downloaded games of 2014 across IOS, Windows and Android marketplaces has been removed this week at the request of its creator. Created by Dong Nguyen and developed by DotGears Studios, Flappy Bird was first released in May of 2013, but the game ...
Read More »Chris Brown throws tantrum in rehab
Written by: Anthony Pope Hello, World—Anthony here bringing you all the latest and greatest celebrity gossip that had us buzzing this week. First up, Chris Brown is still crazy. It’s being reported that while the singer was in rehab earlier this month, he became violent and started throwing objects at the staff. Sounds like the Breezy we all know and ...
Read More »PlayStation 4 has big release
Written by: Steven Setser Hello, and welcome to the final issue of SpecTech for this semester. I would like to announce my retirement from the Spectator. I will no longer be writing SpecTech, and I would like to thank all of my readers for their support during the last few years. This week has been a busy one for Sony, ...
Read More »Miley still shocking over seas
Written by: Anthony Pope Hello, World—Anthony here bringing you all the pop culture events that had us buzzing this past week. The 20th annual MTV Europe Music Awards kicked off in Amsterdam over the weekend. The EMAs are just like the VMAs here in the States expect with more lights, drugs and European celebrities. Stars such as Katy Perry, Eminem, ...
Read More »Gaga has bad luck, they read her ‘pokerface’
Written by: Anthony Pope Hello, World—Anthony here bringing you the latest celebrity gossip that had us buzzing this past week. It seems Hollywood has caught a major case of the babies. Several stars have revealed pregnancies in the last week. Gwen Stefani, Olivia Wilde, Drew Barrymore and Kerry Washington are all reportedly pregnant with babies due in the spring and ...
Read More »Hedgehog returns with kicking vengeance
Written by: Steven Setser After 2006, many thought that Sonic was finished, but then the impossible happened: a Sonic boom. After hits like Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations, many wondered what Sonic would do on next generation systems. Sonic Lost World was announced exclusive to Nintendo and seems to have been heavily influenced by the company itself. Is ...
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