A striking image, from a Wired online essay by Kim Zetter about electronic badges for the 2012 DefCon hacker conference, shared by comrade Macy Cronkrite:

The Goon badges, the red ones (above) with a scarab beetle on them, are designed to affect other badges as the goons pass conference attendees. Clarke's personal badge, as well as the badge of conference founder Jeff Moss, will also have an effect on other badges in their vicinity.

"In theory," Clarke says, "it should be possible to figure out where we are by looking at the residual effect on other badges. It's kind of like you leave behind a wake of information."

"Wake of information" — that phrase resonates with "Shul", the ancient Tibetan word for a path, a clearing in the forest, a footprint, a stream-bed ... an emptiness that leads to a something.

And perhaps the words also echo with another meaning of "wake": a ceremony for the dead, a celebration of departure — as order fades and entropy inevitably grows, and the tide of chaos rises to wash away all that was written on the sand ...

^z - 2012-08-14