News flash: "anonymized" data sets aren't.
Riding with the Stars: Passenger Privacy in the NYC Taxicab DatasetThere has been a lot of online comment recently about a dataset released by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission. It contains details about every taxi ride (yellow cabs) in New York in 2013, including the pickup and drop off times, locations, fare and tip amounts, as well as anonymized (hashed) versions of the taxi's license and medallion numbers. It was obtained via a FOIL request earlier this year and has been making waves in the hacker community ever since.
The release of this data in this unalloyed format raises several privacy concerns. The most well-documented of these deals with the hash function used to "anonymize" the license and medallion numbers. A bit of lateral thinking from one civic hacker and the data was completely de-anonymized. This data can now be used to calculate, for example, any driver's annual income. More disquieting, though, in my opinion, is the privacy risk to passengers. With only a small amount of auxiliary knowledge, using this dataset an attacker could identify where an individual went, how much they paid, weekly habits, etc. I will demonstrate how easy this is to do in the following section.
tl/dr: Jessica Alba didn't tip.
DNA Lounge: Wherein we're the best!
I kinda saw that coming, because for only the second time ever they had actually booked their awards party at DNA (you know, the club that has won "best club" in their little poll basically forever), and they cancelled it at the last minute. That's what we call "the writing on the wall."
Anyway, if you find an actual paper copy of it, you'll see that we won:
- Best Overall Party Venue: DNA Lounge
Best Overall Dance Party: Bootie SF
Best Drag Show: Trannyshack
Best Burlesque Show: Hubba Hubba Revue
So, hooray! Congratulations to everyone who makes those events awesome.
Those are the "Reader's Poll" winners, of course. Dr. Kingfish brings the snark:
The editors made sure all the "Best Place To Do A Cutesie-Sounding Thing We Completely Made-Up" and "Best Thing That Is The Name of The Thing We're Saying Is The Best At It" went to other stuff and other places. Also, the reader's poll gave "Best Late Night Eating" to Grub Steak because apparently it's 2002.Sadly, we are only loved and adored by actual people.
Hey, photos:
Haphead
Haphead: a near-future videogame subculture webseries by Jim Munroe - Kickstarter
Ten years from now, videogames are so immersive that teenagers learn lethal skills just by playing. They're called hapheads.
Maxine is a quiet teenage girl working at a factory that's manufacturing new haptic cable inputs. After she steals one, her favourite rabbit-ninja game gets a whole lot more punishing, with the haptic feedback loop beating skills into her muscle memory.
But it's just a game... until a fellow haphead causes her father's death. Then she starts to apply her new deadly abilities to finding out why.
For more of the story, check out our original proof-of-concept trailer that we made earlier this year to get our production funding.
From the creators of Ghosts with Shit Jobs, which I hope you've seen.
