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Mythbusters

Friday September 05, 2008
03:50
Digg: Adam Savage: Mythbuster Retracts Statements About RFID
» ‎ Mythbusters

Mythbusters host Adam Savage is retracting comments he made at a hackers conference
02:38
Boing Boing: Mythbusters host: credit-card companies DIDN'T kill segment on RFID vulnerabiliies
» ‎ Mythbusters

Mythbusters' Adam Savage now says that credit-card companies and Texas Instruments didn't lean on him to kill a story about vulnerabilities in RFID cards:
"There's been a lot of talk about this RFID thing, and I have to admit that I got some of my facts wrong, as I wasn't on that story, and as I said on the video, I wasn't actually in on the call," Savage said in the statement. "Texas Instruments' account of their call with Grant and our producer is factually correct. If I went into the detail of exactly why this story didn't get filmed, it's so bizarre and convoluted that no one would believe me, but suffice to say...the decision not to continue on with the RFID story was made by our production company, Beyond Productions, and had nothing to do with Discovery, or their ad sales department."
'MythBusters' co-host backpedals on RFID kerfuffle
See also: Credit-card companies killed Mythbusters segment on RFID vulnerabilities
Thursday September 04, 2008
20:40
Digg: Mythbuster issues mea culpa over 'censorship' claim
» ‎ Mythbusters

Adam Savage's widely circulated YouTube video account of a pack of credit card industry giants pummeling Discovery Channel into deep-sixing a Mythbusters investigation aimed at RFID is now taking more of a beating than Buster the dummy absorbs on a typical episode of the show. And the knockout blow of that beating is coming from Savage himself.
15:45
Slashdot: Adam Savage Revises Claim of Lawyer-Bullying On RFID Show
» ‎ Mythbusters

Nick writes "A few weeks ago a video of a talk given by Adam Savage of the television show MythBusters spread across the internet (including a mention on Slashdot.) On the video Savage stated that the show was unable to produce s show about previously know RFID vulnerabilities due to a conference call to Texas Instruments that unexpectedly included credit card company's legal council. TI (via a spokesperson talking with cnet.com) stated that only one lawyer was on the call and that the majority of the people on the call were product managers from the Smart Card Alliance (SCA) invited by TI to speak. Then Savage (via a Discovery Communications statement) reaffirmed that he was not on the call himself and that the decision was not made by Discovery or their advertising sales department but rather MythBuster's production company, Beyond Productions."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Saturday August 30, 2008
20:20
Digg: Adam Savage: Credit Card Companies Bullied Mythbusters
» ‎ Mythbusters

Adam Savage: Credit Card Companies Bullied Mythbusters
18:40
Slashdot: CC Companies Scotch Mythbusters Show On RFID Security
» ‎ Mythbusters

mathfeel passes along a video in which Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage recounts how credit card companies lawyered up to make sure the Discovery channel never, ever airs a segment on the flaws in RFID security. "Texas Instruments comes on [a scheduled conference call] along with chief legal counsel for American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else... They [Mythbusters producers] were way, way outgunned and they [lawyers] absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode talking about how hackable this stuff was, and Discovery backed way down being a large corporation that depends upon the revenue of the advertisers. Now it's on Discovery's radar and they won't let us go near it."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
15:30
Slashdot: To Boldly Go Where No Mento Has Gone Before
» ‎ Mythbusters

rjwoodhead writes "This past weekend, my entire family learned what it's like to float in freefall aboard G-Force One (recently featured on the Mythbusters' Moon Hoax show). Being science-lovers, we wanted to do some kind of original experiment. So we decided to test whether the Diet Coke & Mentos reaction was affected by the lack of bubble convection in microgravity. At the lnk you can find the story of how the experiment evolved and how we talked Space Adventures into letting us fool around with sticky and corrosive cola and candy inside their nice clean airplane, as well as high-speed video of the results."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
10:37
Boing Boing: Credit-card companies killed Mythbusters segment on RFID vulnerabilities
» ‎ Mythbusters

Check out the first two minutes of this clip of Mythbusters' Adam Savage telling the folks at the HOPE hackercon about how the Discovery Channel was bullied by big credit-card companies out of airing a program about how crappy the security in RFID tags is. Arphid Watch: Mythbusters and RFID
Friday August 29, 2008
12:10
Digg: Incredible Video: Drawing a 'Mona Lisa' in 80 Nanoseconds!
» ‎ Mythbusters

The mythbusters compared a CPU vs a GPU and the GPU drew an ACTUAL mona lisa drawing using paint balls in 80 nanoseconds.
Thursday August 28, 2008
09:42
Digg: How MythBusters Will Shut Up Moon Conspiracy Theorists 2nite
» ‎ Mythbusters

On the eve of one of their biggest busts yet, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage take us behind the scenes to explain how they made their own fake photos, built a moon set in an hour—and even went weightless themselves. No, they didn't build a rocket ship and actually go ... yet.
Wednesday August 27, 2008
13:11
Digg: TV's 'Mythbusters' Tackle Moon Landing Hoax Claim
» ‎ Mythbusters

Three years later, the Mythbusters are ready to share the results of their 'trip' as they devote their next show, airing on Wednesday, to the moon landing hoax claims.
Friday August 08, 2008
14:40
Digg: Get a load of the Mythbusters model lunar lander
» ‎ Mythbusters

The much-anticipated Mythbusters episode that will take on the moon-landing-was-a-hoax (ahem) theory is scheduled for Aug. 27, but there is a video available now that shows Adam and Jamie preparing the model lunar surface and a kick-ass lunar lander. Meanwhile, a new season of the show debuts tonight.
Sunday July 13, 2008
23:51
Boing Boing: Periodic Table of Videos: elements as short YouTube episodes.
» ‎ Mythbusters

Here's a new YouTube channel from Nottingham University in the UK -- here, scientist-vloggers are in the process of posting a video for each element of the periodic table. Sort of "Mythbusters" meets chemistry, with real live awesome mad scientist hair. This is one of the neatest, most clever, and most enduringly valuable things I've seen on YT in a while.
Periodic Table of Videos channel, and The "sodium" video, above, is a good place to start.
[ YouTube, thanks Mark "coolest Scottish dude in Silicon Valley" Day ]
Tuesday June 10, 2008
17:00
Slashfood: Ted Allen: Food Detective
» ‎ Mythbusters

Filed under: Science, Television/Film, America, Celebrities
Y'know what I love about Ted Allen? Everything. His carefully sculpted coiff, his evasion of the Queer Eye curse, his smug yet disarming way of knowing so much more about everything than I ever will. And now, as if I needed another reason to worship the damn man, he is hosting the genius new Food Network series Food Detectives.

As if granting my TV prayers, Food Detectives is described as the epicurean answer to Mythbusters. The upcoming primetime show, debuting on July 29th, will feature Allen working with a team of culinary and technical scientists to verify or debunk famous food myths. Slated thusfar: the five-second rule, the gestation of gum digestion, and an apple-a-day's effect on doctors.

Additionally, viewers can submit their own culinary queries. First on my list: Can eating too many carrots turn your skin orange? 'Cause I'd sure like to see Ted all tannined. Which food fables would you like to see tested?Permalink | Email this | Comments
Wednesday June 04, 2008
10:15
Boing Boing: Mythbuster Hyneman on weird energy
» ‎ Mythbusters

In the new Mother Jones, Jamie Hyeman of The Mythbusters looks at a handful of odd ideas in alternative energy sources, from cow shit to grape juice. From Mother Jones:
ENERGY SOURCE: Raindrops
HOW IT WORKS: The Atomic Energy Commission uses special plastic to convert raindrops' falling motion into electricity.
BUSTED: JH: "A when-pigs-fly kind of scenario. It's millions of times more efficient to collect hydroelectric power through a dam than raindrop by raindrop."

ENERGY SOURCE: Dirty diapers
HOW IT WORKS: A British company turns poop and plastic from diapers into gas and oil.
BUSTED: JH: "Are you really going to be able to isolate diapers in such huge volumes that you're running your entire country off of gasoline powered by diapers? No."
Link
Friday May 30, 2008
04:21
Boing Boing: Hackers on Planet Earth NYC announces keynote speakers
» ‎ Mythbusters

New York's Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference has announced its summer lineup of keynote speakers for the conference, which runs July 18-20 in NYC:
The very first of the speaker slots for The Last HOPE have been announced with many more to come next week. We have had more submissions than ever and will need to add an additional track in order to accommodate the best of them. What follows are some of the highlights to date.
Steven Levy, author of Hackers: Heroes of the American Revolution and chief technology writer and a senior editor for Newsweek.
Adam Savage, co-host of the popular TV show Mythbusters and "a maker of things."
Kevin Mitnick, "the world's most dangerous hacker" in the eyes of the government and mass media, imprisoned for over five years, and now a successful computer security consultant.
Jello Biafra, a tradition at the HOPE conferences, former lead singer of The Dead Kennedys and one of America's most interesting social activists.
Steven Rambam, private eye extraordinaire, who can find out anything about anybody and has always been willing to share his knowledge of privacy with the hacker community. (The FBI prevented his 2006 talk from being given by swooping in and arresting him moments earlier. The case against him was later found to have no merit.)

Link
Monday May 12, 2008
15:11
Digg: Inside Scoop on MythBusters & Indiana Jones 4!
» ‎ Mythbusters

Get this, my cousin works is a production assistant for the crew that shoots MythBusters for Discovery and he just told me that to commemorate and celebrate the release of this highly-anticipated movie, Myth Busters is planning something very special.
Friday April 18, 2008
05:48
Digg: Should Mythbusters tackle the thetan reader?
» ‎ Mythbusters

Show your support for the idea, and Mythbusters. Also...does anyone have a thetan reader to donate?
Tuesday March 11, 2008
23:32
Digg: Mythbusters to tackle the moon landing hoaxes
» ‎ Mythbusters

Set to air April 25th. The build team — Kari, Grant, and Tory — went to Marshall Space Flight Center to use a vacuum chamber there. Looks like they’ll be recreating Dave Scott’s famous feather and hammer drop from Apollo 15, as well as the hoax claim that dry lunar regolith can’t hold a footprint, and how the flag can wave in a vacuum.
Friday February 08, 2008
06:30
Digg: MythBusters' interactive slow motion videos.
» ‎ Mythbusters

Rewatch some scenes in slow motion by your controls.
Wednesday January 30, 2008
13:38
Slashdot: A Mythbuster's Biggest Tech Headaches (and Solutions)
» ‎ Mythbusters

An anonymous reader writes "The Mythbusters' Jamie Hyneman shares his top tech annoyances. Hyneman runs down the little things that bug him about everything from tools (exotic chargers) to cars (useless features). He also notes that there's a lot of room for improvement on PC desktops: 'In addition to being buggy ... extra features tend to bog down your system by demanding more processing power and memory. Computer-makers: Don't load up operating systems with features and then make us sweat to figure out how to get rid of the fat ... There's another solution available to consumers: Switch to a Linux-based OS such as Ubuntu. Since most Linux OSs are free, there's no business reason to bloat up the system with feature frills.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tuesday January 29, 2008
11:10
Digg: Mythbuster Jamie recommends Ubuntu over Vista's bloat.
» ‎ Mythbusters

In this PopularMechanics article, Jamie Hyneman, most famous for the show "Mythbusters" describes his Tech Headaches, including his frustration with the "bloated" features in Vista among other irritations. He offers solutions to many of the problems, and apparently, Ubuntu is the solution to Vista.
Monday January 28, 2008
14:16
Boing Boing: MythBusters tackles "plane on a conveyor belt problem"
» ‎ Mythbusters

Last night I spoke to Adam Savage, co-host of MythBusters. He's in Alaska, where current temperatures range between 0 to 30 degrees below zero. He just finished a test on "cabin fever" (he wouldn't say how long he lasted before murdering his cabin mates and running out into the frozen wilderness wearning nothing but longjohns and a sleeping cap) and is now working on another episode up in the 49th state.
But the real reason I talked to him was to find out about the next episode of MythBusters (airing this Wednesday). It tackles the famous "plane on a conveyor belt problem," that has pitted brother against brother and friend against friend for years.
To get to the bottom of the thought-problem, Adam and Jamie used a real plane, in this case a 400-lb ultralight, and a large conveyor belt. Did the plane take off? You'll have to wait until Wednesday to find out, but Adam said even the pilot guessed wrong. Link
Saturday January 19, 2008
22:40
Digg: o hai. welkum to mythbusters.
» ‎ Mythbusters

the resemblance is uncanny.
Sunday November 18, 2007
23:10
Digg: MythBusters: Are Sharks afraid of Dolphin? YES!!
» ‎ Mythbusters

This video of the mythbusters shows great white sharks being scared off by a fake dolphin.
Tuesday October 23, 2007
17:00
Slashdot: Science: Mythbusters to Test Cockroach Radiation Myth
» ‎ Mythbusters
Saturday October 20, 2007
13:40
Digg: Mythbusters to Test Cockroach Radiation Myth
» ‎ Mythbusters

After a nuclear holocaust, would cockroaches really be the last creatures standing?
Friday October 19, 2007
18:00
Slashdot: Science: Mythbusters to Test Cockroach Radiation Myth
» ‎ Mythbusters
16:43
Slashdot: Mythbusters to Test Cockroach Radiation Myth
» ‎ Mythbusters

redwoodtree writes "An article on the site for the Tri-City Herald sums it up perfectly: 'Contrary to popular belief, not a significant amount of research goes into cockroach radiation.' To test the old saw about 'the cockroaches being the only survivors of a nuclear war' Discovery Channel's Mythbusters are going out to Hanford Site, where plutonium was manufactured for the first nuclear bomb. It's the single most polluted nuclear waste site in the U.S. The Mythbusters are going to take cockroaches and other insects and apply successively higher doses of radiation in a controlled setting."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Friday September 28, 2007
03:10
Digg: Mythbusters busting up Masturbation Myth. [Robot Chicken Video]
» ‎ Mythbusters

Robot Chicken sketch featuring the Mythbusters!
Monday August 27, 2007
23:40
Digg: Mythbusters: What would really happen if you put a bull in a china shop?
» ‎ Mythbusters

The Mythbusters set up a makeshift china shop in a corral to see if the myth will hold up.
Monday June 25, 2007
15:23
Boing Boing: Blade Runner turns 25: an appreciation by Mythbuster Adam Savage
» ‎ Mythbusters

Xeni Jardin:
Snip:
Twenty-five years ago, the Ridley Scott film Blade Runner became an instant science fiction classic. Set in a sodden, squalid Los Angeles of 2019, the neo-noir masterpiece influenced a generation of filmmakers and video-game designers. Long before I teamed up with Jamie Hyneman to form the MythBusters, I was a special-effects modelmaker, and Scott's cyberpunk gem almost instantly became the most important film in the canon of movies I love.
I'm still such a big Blade Runner fan that I watch it at least once every 18 months. I also own pretty convincing replicas of the "blade runner blaster" wielded by Harrison Ford's world-weary former cop Rick Deckard. The source material was a Steyr Mannlicher .222 target rifle magazine cover, with a Bulldog .44 carriage underneath. I can't get enough of this prop. Now, I want a working one.
Link to "Blade Runner at 25: Why the Sci-Fi F/X Are Still Unsurpassed," at Popular Mechanics, by Adam Savage
Link to the Blade Runner Director's Cut DVD on Amazon, here's a big fat fansite, here's the Wikipedia entry, here's IMDB. (thanks, Matt Sullivan)
Reader comment: Mike says,
To go along with your Blade Runner 25th anniversary story, a replica of Deckard's firearm is currently for sale on ebay with about 1 day left: Link.
15:10
Digg: BLADE RUNNER TURNS 25!!!
» ‎ Mythbusters

Adam Savage, star of The MythBusters and a special-effects maestro himself, offers an appreciation of why the movie still matters today.
12:48
Star Wars: Slashdot: Blade Runner at 25, Why the F/X Still Matter
» ‎ Mythbusters

mattnyc99 writes "Today marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Blade Runner, Ridley Scott's dark vision of the future that changed the future of filmmaking and still stands up today, argues Adam Savage of The MythBusters (and the F/X crews of The Matrix and Star Wars). Between the "lived-in science fiction," pre-CGI master models, futuristic cityscapes and tricked-out cars, don't you agree? And after we got the first official glimpse of him from Indiana Jones 4 this weekend, isn't Harrison Ford still the man?"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Saturday June 23, 2007
08:20
Digg: Results from every single myth tested on MythBusters
» ‎ Mythbusters

Can you get better gas mileage by drafting a semi? Will your stomach explode if you drink diet coke and mentos? Can you open a pad lock by shooting at it? Can you trick a bloodhound by crossing a river? Plus hundreds more myth results from MythBusters.
Monday June 18, 2007
13:30
Boing Boing: BoingBoing week in review: June 11-17, 2007
» ‎ Mythbusters

Xeni Jardin:
The sippy cup terrorist secret agent mom, and TSA's weird "Mythbusters" denial.
Giant snake terrorizing Pennsylvania (Pesco)
Scans of old comic book ads, a screensaver, ad for paper spaceship, photo of the genuine article. (Mark)
Map shows how kids aren't allowed to roam around (Mark)
Video: Doze Green one-liner drawing (Pesco)
Taipei street-basket virtuoso throws 140 balls/minute (Mark)
Laugh Out Loud Cats: rediscovered short film (Xeni)
Pac Man Skull (Pesco)
Jamais Cascio on his new hearing aids (Pesco)
The Cosmoboy jacket (Pesco)
SciFi.com is going to nuke its fiction archive (Cory)
Cory's column on the origins of the copyright wars (Cory)
Mr. Wizard (1917-2007) (Pesco)
Cyber-walrus (Cory)
Creationist Archie comic (Mark)
EFF privacy attorney is a magnet for privacy invading street-searches (Cory)
Ice cream patent wars in the 1930s (Mark)
Sexual predators online - the real story (Cory)
White Stripes album sold on thumb drive (Mark)
Terrorists are stupid (Cory)
Flickr users in Germany and Asia complain of image censoring (Xeni)
(Image: Respectful LOLdaptation of a truly amazing photo by Paul Nicklen, as blogged in this BB post).

Sunday June 17, 2007

01:00

Digg: TSA denies sippy cup incident

» ‎ Mythbusters

Friday June 15, 2007

19:59

Boing Boing: TSA denies sippy cup incident

» ‎ Mythbusters

Mark Frauenfelder: Picture 3-30

Yesterday I posted an entry about a mom who was detained for trying to sneak a sippy cup past the TSA at Reagan Airport.

Steven says: "TSA is denying the entire event."

The TSA has a "MythBusters" page showing videos of the Sippy Cup Terrorist incident. The videos have no sound. The first video shows a woman pushing a stroller while a uniformed person walks beside her.

The second video shows the mom (a Secret Service agent) with the stroller, arguing with a couple of people in uniform. She fumbles with her backpack for a bit, then attempts to walk away. [[Update: after several people pointed it out, it looks like mom could be dumping the contents of the sippy cup on the floor. It's hard to tell, though, because a guard is blocking the view.]] A woman in uniform grabs her arm and stops her. Mom takes her kid out of the stroller and continues to talk/argue with the uniformed officer. It's hard to tell what's going on because they have moved so far down the hall. Clearly, though, mom isn't too happy. She's got a kid, a backpack and a stroller, and she now has to deal with this officer. The little kid wanders off and the mom has to chase her. The female officer picks up her microphone and speaks into it. Mom comes back with her kid under her arm and continues to rummage through her stuff.

A man wearing a tie comes over. He must know the woman because he picks up the kid. A cop on a bike doesn't want to miss out on the action, so he pedals over, gets off the bike and takes off his helmet. Mom is on her knees, rummaging around. What is she doing? Now she stands up, looking upset. She walks up the corridor and starts wiping the floor. Is this where she spilled the water? I didn't catch that part. A third security guard supervises her as she wipes the floor. I don't blame the guards for being interested. Dealing with 100 false alarms a day would desensitize anyone, but watching a woman get upset about a sippy cup perks them right up and gives them something to focus on.

Mom does a good job of wiping. Guard #3 speaks into his microphone -- possibly reporting to the head of TSA that mom is good at cleaning up, which means she is probably trying to hide something.

Now mom is back at her stroller, talking to #1 and #2. Guard #3 has never been happier. He slides a sign on a pole in front of woman and begins manhandling other passengers, redirecting the flow of traffic around the woman. This is an important day for him. He nudges the sign an inch and rotates it a couple of degrees, checking his work.

A forth official comes over and hands #3 a piece of paper. It's a memo from Cheney, congratulating #3 on his fast-thinking. #3 scratches his nose and looks down, trying to hide his pleasure.

Oh wait -- it's not a commendation from the vice president. It's a roll of paper towels. Apparently mom didn't do a good enough job of cleaning the floor. It's still wet!

Now I'm beginning to get the picture. Mom is a slip-and-fall terrorist. If she hadn't been stopped, who knows how many tailbones might have been broken that day!

The bicyclist guard has joined #3 to monitor mom's floor-wiping technique. She's got a roll of paper towels in one hand, and she rolls several sheets at a time into the other. This must be the way they deal with tough spills at Secret Service headquarters.

#3 is getting fancy with his arm movements as he directs people around the potentially disastrous spill. He's going to be telling the story of how he thwarted the Sippy Cup Terrorist to his grandchildren.

Mom thinks she's finished wiping up and hands #3 the used paper towels, but #3 isn't letting her off that easy. He crouches down, cleverly using the overhead lighting to catch telltale reflections of missed water spots, pointing them out to mom. #3 uses the sign's pole as an aid to swivel around quickly, catching more and more missed water. He's damn good.

Finally, he lets her go, taking the paper towel roll and sticking it in a cubby in his desk. When will he get to use it again? he wonders. He is jolted out of his daydream by the realization that he has not removed the sign! Quietly admonishing himself, he runs over quickly to retrieve the sign and put it in its rightful place.

Mom is back to rummaging though her stuff with #1 and #2 watching carefully. #3 makes some final adjustments to his trusty sign, then stands next to it and gazes longingly at the other two officials, who are still dealing with the sippy cup terrorist.

The video suddenly ends here. Link (Thanks, Steven!)

Reader comment:

jordan says:

We at NowPublic (well, Bill Adler again) have an update to the Sippy-Cup Airport-Nightmare story... The TSA has retaliated, with a "Myth Busters" section on their website (can Discovery Channel sue them for that?), attempting to discredit Monica Emmerson and her sippy-cup-wielding son. The video is inconclusive, as it has no sound, and the incident report seems incomplete; it also has some "sensitive info" that somehow got overlooked by the black pen, and a few run-on sentences... meanwhile, Ms. Emerson will be appearing on MSNBC tomorrow.

Link

Here's a Washington Post article about the incident and its aftermath.

Monday June 11, 2007

11:47

Boing Boing: Biometric door locks are cool, plus Schneier likes 'em

» ‎ Mythbusters

Xeni Jardin:

BoingBoing reader David K says,

The NYTimes has an article (Link) on a new, commercially available fingerprint scanning lock you can install on your front door in about 20 minutes.
They (mostly) like it, and quote [well-known security expert] Bruce Schneier on what a great idea this is. He brings his characteristic wit, reason, and smarts: "'Honestly, who’s going to get a photo of your fingerprint to trick the scanner?' he said. 'If I had a photo of your key, I could fool your lock. I can also get a rock and throw it in your window.'"
Personally, I am constantly frustrated that in this modern age, the device I crucially rely on several times a day still uses centuries old technology that is preposterously prone to mechanical failure and human error. The prospect of never again fumbling for a key, frantically jiggling a bad copy, or finding a locksmith at 2am is positively delightful.
That said, I see two major downsides: (1) batteries run out (2) how long until some intrepid tinkerer figures out how to hack this with a garage door opener or something ridiculously simple (a la Bic pen in Kryptonite lock).

Shown above (via NYT article): "After the SmartScan lock is programmed, it can be opened from the outside, right, with the swipe of a finger."

The $199 lock is called SmartScan, and is manufactured by CA-based company Kwikset. Press release here.

Jesus, I sure hope the lock works better than the gutwrenchingly slow, bloated Flash page on which Kwikset is promoting it -- not only does it take for frikkin' ever to load, it launches in a daggoned pop-up window, and may crash your browser (depending on your OS/browser combo). Who designs these sites, drunk chimpanzees? Reluctant Link.

You can't buy SmartScans yet, but there's a mailing list at that godawful website for alerts when the product is out.

Reader comments: Won't someone please think of the fingers? BB reader DaKu did:

My 2-Pesos (sicilian-style): As a former citizen of Colombia (thankfully I am now U.S. citizen), I can firmly say that the advent of these new locks there (if they ever take off), will mean that people will have to be very guarded with their fingers, to make sure that they are not stolen to break an entry. I can see it now: Fist Guards®: To keep your hands in one piece...

Nicholas Weaver says,

In practice, these locks can be very easy to fool. Mythbusters did a episode with such locks. Getting the fingerprint was suprisingly easy and, when cleaned up, a XEROX of the fingerprint was sufficient to open the lock! You don't leave photos of your keys all over the place, but you do leave photos of your fingerprints. Heck, you could probably take a little camera and read the print directly off the sensor!

Alex Antener says,

Here is a Video from the Chaos Computer Club in Berlin (CCCB) on how a fingerprint can be hacked. It is spoken in german language but the way the hack is shown it can easily be understood.

Sunday May 13, 2007

11:02

Digg: Is Mythbusters The Best Science Show on the Telly?

» ‎ Mythbusters

← Myst MythTV →