Smart tags to reveal where our trash ends up - environment - : Via 15 July 2009 - New Scientist.

Ever wondered where your trash goes to die? New Scientist is collaborating with Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a ground-breaking experiment to electronically tag and follow ordinary trash as travels from ordinary garbage cans to landfills, recycling plants, and possibly some extraordinary destinations.

The team behind the experiment, MIT's Senseable City lab, led by Carlo Ratti, have made a device that is about the size of a small matchbox and that works like a cell phone - without the phone bit. A SIM card inside the chip blips out its location every 15 minutes, the signal is picked up by local cell phone antennae and the chip's location is relayed back to MIT. [ Read more ... ]

New software can identify you from your online habits - tech - 16 May 2007 - New Scientist Tech: "IF YOU thought you could protect your privacy on the web by lying about your personal details, think again. In online communities at least, entering fake details such as a bogus name or age may no longer prevent others from working out exactly who you are.

That is the spectre raised by new research conducted by Microsoft. The computing giant is developing software that could accurately guess your name, age, gender and potentially even your location, by analysing telltale patterns in your web browsing history. But experts say the idea is a clear threat to privacy - and may be illegal in some places. [ Read more ... ]

Invention: All-knowing browser - tech - 10 April 2007 - New Scientist Tech: "Ever given false information when prompted for personal details by a website? Don't worry, the US copying and computing company Xerox hopes to eliminate that kind of questioning because it believes it can get the information without even asking. [ Read more ... ]