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Internet tool fights censorship by making banned data look 'normal'
It's getting harder to evade censorship in countries like China and Iran, which have increasingly taken to blocking VPNs, the Tor network and any other service that might let you see the unflattering truth. A clever new tool should help you leap over those hurdles, however. Marionette, developed by researchers at RedJack and Portland State University, masks your visits to banned sites and services by making your data transmissions seem innocuous. It doesn't just disguise the traffic type -- you can program it to mimic the variances you'd expect from a given form of traffic (say, a voice chat) and respond in a convincing way when the censors' blocking software comes calling.
MarionetteBot is a frightening fusion of Kinect and mannequin
Japan has found new heights (depths?) of creepiness today with the United Arrow Marionettebot, a custom Kinect hack pairing Microsoft's motion-tracking camera with display mannequins.The mannequins of United Arrow's clothing store mimic the poses and movements of passersby. It's billed as a marketing effort in the video above, despite being the stuff of nightmares.
Pre-order your own Gunstringer Mini Marionette
If there's two things Joystiq is all about, it's antiquated puppet technology and indie-development studios, so naturally The Gunstringer tickled our fancy in an incredibly specific, thoroughly satisfying way. Had we known that Twisted Pixel would soon be releasing its own Gunstringer Mini Marionettes, however, we probably wouldn't have spent all last week building our own out of clothes pins and yarn. The 16-inch Gunstringer Mini Marionette, available to pre-order on Twisted Pixel's site, is a replica of the marionette seen in the western's FMV sequences, will set you back $100 ($110 for an autographed version), and is expected to exit pre-order status before the end of November. Shoot past the break for a full look at the little guy's prototype.
MacBook Marionette
Most puppets scare me. Horrid little creatures, only coming alive when controlled by some being of perceived omnipotence manipulating every aspect of their pathetic little lives. But enough about my puppet paranoia, and on to this awesome hack. Some cunning (and brave! I'd never swing my notebook around like that!) soul has created a piece of digital artwork using the motion sensor built into his PowerBook. When he swings the machine, a little animated man on the screen reacts with realistic physics to the movement. Hooray for digital inertia![via UneasySilence]
Rumor: Mario Paint 2 and Shiggy's new game
Got your grain of salt? Good, you're going to need it for this one.Games Asylum is reporting that a quote from Shigeru Miyamoto in N Gamer magazine reveals a sequel to Mario Paint in Marionette. The site purports that this was a term that floated around back in the GameCube days. It was supposedly going to be an internet service for the console.The site also states that Shigeru Miyamoto is working on a new Wii game that will utilize the Wiimote's speaker. The game is supposedly focused on 4-player action where the speaker in the Wiimote will call out the name of the player who has the next turn.Again, all of this is just speculation at this moment as there is no evidence to back up these claims. Anyone care to check out the issue of N Gamer magazine this is supposed to come from?[Thanks AssemblyLineHuman!]
