One of our previous tech stoners at The Stranger used to laugh every time I brought him my laptop. "Little paranoid?" he'd say, pointing at the square of post-it I used to cover my webcam.

I told him I didn't know what people were capable of doing, but if a little square of paper could give me a slight edge in the peace-of-mind department, I'd take it. "Nobody can spy on you," he'd say and roll his eyes.

Joke's on him:

Last week, researchers at Johns Hopkins University’s Department of Computer Science showed off an exploit that allows a hacker to take over some MacBook computers and activate their Web cameras without the users’ knowledge.

The webcam hacking technique, first reported by The Washington Post, is said to be similar to a tactic used to spy on Cassidy Wolf, a 19-year-old Miss Teen USA, who fell victim to a webcam hacker earlier this year.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested the man responsible for the spying on Ms. Wolf. He pleaded guilty to charges in connection with his spying on her and a number of other women, using software that could snap a picture or record video of them without warning.

The Johns Hopkins paper, titled “iSeeYou: Disabling the MacBook Webcam Indicator LED,” explains how the researchers were able to reprogram an iSight camera’s microcontroller to activate the recording functions and LED activation lights independently to spy on someone without giving that person any idea that the computer camera is in use.

Which, of course, brings up the question of what the NSA and similar agencies can do with similar hacks, either for "national security" or for spying on exes.

And that other tab you see open? "Mammals Suck," a blog by my old friend Katie Hinde, who grew up to become a milk biologist/anthropologist. Do some mammals produce different milk for boys and for girls? Do breast-fed babies cry more? Why do humans wean faster than our ape cousins?

Check it out on Mammals Suck! And thanks to Greg for the tech tip.