Overview of the news of the week in the world of techno.
Piracy
Business hacking has its international competition, the Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition (CPTC), which puts a hundred schools in the world in competition. Each team of students must find the vulnerabilities of a fictional company. For the first time, Concordia University took part last November; it was she who hosted the first round of the contest for the Canadian division. And it was the Montreal university that won and could make it to the world final, which will take place in the United States in January 2023. “These skills are similar to those expected of ethical hackers in the job market”, explains the Professor Carol Fung, who supervised the Concordia team.
The Closer
PHOTO PROVIDED BY HEINEKEN
“The Closer” is a Bluetooth bottle opener launched by Heineken that puts the computer to sleep when you open a bottle.
A “high-tech bottle opener that closes working apps when the user opens a bottle”… Heineken’s email was so intriguing that we asked to try this gadget called “The Closer.” In fact, it is a Bluetooth bottle opener that activates when enough pressure is exerted on its teeth. We can then couple it to a computer, which goes to sleep when we open a bottle. And it works, say, half the time. Rather fun, but the Bluetooth connection is finicky. We understand that this is more of an advertising wink than a future successful product. It is also not for sale, but obtained in exchange for a message on Heineken’s Instagram account.
Netsuke
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE MMFA
To accompany its exhibition on the netsuke, these small engraved objects, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has modeled them by photometry to be able to scrutinize the details.
Tiny gems of popular Japanese art in the 17th centurye century, netsuke are featured at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, which has devoted an impressive digital section to them. Highly prized by collectors, these small engraved objects, sometimes in ivory, which were used to hang objects from the belt of a kimono, are full of details often invisible to the naked eye. The netsuke have therefore been modeled by photometry and can be scrutinized at the museum with a smart phone or remotely by computer. You can turn them in all directions, zoom in until you see the slightest inscription while a narrator tells the story of these Buddhas, monkeys and other mythical Japanese subjects.