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10:00 pm - Sun, August 30, 2015
Slashdot
Neurologist and Author Oliver Sacks Dead at 82
Physician, writer and humanist Oliver Sacks has died of cancer at age 82. Sacks was famous for "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat" and other books, including his account in "Awakenings" (later ma...
10:00 pm - Sun, August 30, 2015
Slashdot
Assange Says Harrods Assisting Metro Police in 'Round-the-Clock Vigil
The Daily Mail reports that Julian Assange seems to have yet another foe (or at least friend of a foe) watching persistently while he stays put in the Ecuadorean embassy in London: Harrod's Department...
08:00 pm - Sun, August 30, 2015
Slashdot
"Hack" Typeface Is Open Source, Easy On the IDEs
Ars Technica writes that "At SourceFoundry.org this week, programmer Chris Simpkins debuted the 2.0 version of Hack, an open-source typeface designed specifically for use in source code." The revamped...
08:00 pm - Sun, August 30, 2015
Slashdot
Linux Kernel 4.2 Released
An anonymous reader writes: The Linux 4.2 kernel is now available. This kernel is one of the biggest kernel releases in recent times and introduces rewrites of some of the kernel's Intel Assembly x86 ...
06:00 pm - Sun, August 30, 2015
Slashdot
AMD's R9 Fury On Open-Source: Prepare for Disappointment, For Now
An anonymous reader writes: With Linux 4.3 AMD is adding the initial open-source driver for the R9 Fury graphics cards. Unfortunate for Linux gamers, the R9 Fury isn't yet in good shape on the open-so...
06:00 pm - Sun, August 30, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: Suggestions For Taking a Business Out Into the Forest?
An anonymous reader writes: I'm a huge fan of primitive survival reality TV. I am also self-employed in web troubleshooting and hosting services. I have to be available 24/7, but a lot of my work is j...
04:00 pm - Sun, August 30, 2015
Slashdot
The Coming Terrorist Threat From Autonomous Vehicles
HughPickens.com writes: Alex Rubalcava writes that autonomous vehicles are the greatest force multiplier to emerge in decades for criminals and terrorists and open the door for new types of crime not ...
04:00 pm - Sun, August 30, 2015
Slashdot
Lights, Camera, Experiment!
theodp writes: The New Yorker's Jamie Holmes takes a look at How Methods Videos Are Making Science Smarter, helping scientists replicate elaborate experiments in a way that the text format of traditio...
02:00 pm - Sun, August 30, 2015
Slashdot
Chris Christie Proposes Tracking Immigrants the Way FedEx Tracks Packages
PolygamousRanchKid submits the news that New Jersey governor (and Republican presidential candidate) Chris Christie said yesterday that he would, if elected president, create a system to track foreign...
02:00 pm - Sun, August 30, 2015
Slashdot
Magnet-Steered Nano-Fish Could Deliver Drugs and Sweep Body Toxins
dkatana writes: David Warner writes on InformationWeek how "nanoengineers" from UC San Diego have created microscopic fish powered by hydrogen peroxide that use magnets to steer themselves. "The "fish...
10:00 am - Sun, August 30, 2015
Slashdot
A FreeBSD "Spork" With Touches of NeXT and OS X: NeXTBSD
There are a lot of open source operating systems out there; being open source, they lend themselves to forks, clones or near clones, and friendly offshoots. There are even services to let you customiz...
08:00 am - Sun, August 30, 2015
Slashdot
Malaysia Blocking Websites Based On Political Content
An anonymous reader writes: A few days ago Slashdot carried a piece of news from Malaysia whereby [news] websites based in Malaysia must be registered. Now comes the news that Malaysia is actively blo...
04:00 am - Sun, August 30, 2015
Slashdot
Do We Need More Emojis?
mikejuk writes to note that the Unicode Consortium has accepted 38 new emoji characters as candidates for Unicode 9.0, including characters depicting bacon and a duck."Why could we possibly need a duc...
02:00 am - Sun, August 30, 2015
Slashdot
New Horizons' New Target: Kuiper Belt Ice Chunk 2014 MU69
Vox reports on the next target destination for NASA's New Horizons probe, an ice chunk in the Kuiper Belt designated 2014 MU69. The plan is not yet final; like any space mission, complications are bou...
12:00 am - Sun, August 30, 2015
Slashdot
MIAOW Open Source GPU Debuts At Hot Chips
alexvoica writes: The first general-purpose graphics processor (GPGPU) now available as open-source RTL was unveiled at the Hot Chips event. Although the GPGPU is in an early and relatively crude stag...
10:00 pm - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
Abusing Symbolic Links Like It's 1999
An anonymous reader writes with this snippet from James Forshaw's recent post at Google's Project Zero, which begins For the past couple of years I've been researching Windows elevation of privilege a...
10:00 pm - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
Cliff Bleszinski's Boss Key Productions Unveils LawBreakers Game Trailer
MojoKid writes: Boss Key Productions has posted its first trailer of LawBreakers (formerly Project Bluestreak), a futuristic game title that's set to release on multiple platforms in 2016. The trailer...
08:00 pm - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
Kristian von Bengston's New Goal: The Moon
Kristian von Bengtson, co-founder of DIY manned space program Copenhagen Suborbitals (which he left in 2014) writes with this pithy plug for his newest venture: "This year, we (a great crew) have been...
08:00 pm - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
Germany Wants Facebook To Obey Its Rules About Holocaust Denial
Bruce66423 writes: In a classic example of the conflict of cultures bought about by the internet, Germany is trying to get Facebook to obey its rules about banning holocaust denial posts. From the lin...
06:00 pm - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
The View From 2015: Integrated Space Plan's 100-Year Plan
garyebickford writes: Wired Magazine has posted an article about the new 2015 version of the Integrated Space Plan, updated 14 years after the last version and descended directly from the original 198...
04:00 pm - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
Systemd Absorbs "su" Command Functionality
jones_supa writes: With a pull request systemd now supports a su command functional and can create privileged sessions that are fully isolated from the original session. The su command is seen as bad ...
04:00 pm - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
GNOME To Start Using Codenames
prisoninmate writes: A discussion between GNOME developers and users during the annual GUADEC conference lead to potential code names for the desktop environment, starting with the upcoming September ...
04:00 pm - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: Best Data Provider When Traveling In the US?
An anonymous reader writes: I am visiting USA 3-4 times a year and I need a data service. I also need to keep my cell phone number, so swapping the SIM card in my phone is not an option. I have bought...
02:00 pm - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
A Courtroom Victory For Microsoft In Cellphone-Related Patent Suit
Mark Wilson writes: Microsoft has been cleared of patent infringement by the US International Trade Commission. The case dates back to 2007 when InterDigital Inc claimed Microsoft infringed its patent...
02:00 pm - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
In Hawaii, a 6-Person Crew Begins a Year-Long Mars Isolation Experiment
The BBC reports that six volunteers have begun a planned year-long stint "without fresh air, fresh food or privacy" in a NASA simulation of what life might be like for a group of Mars colonists. The v...
12:00 pm - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
Arro Taxi App Arrives In NYC As 'Best Hope' Against Uber
An anonymous reader writes with a report at The Stack that "New York City cabs have begun testing a new app-based taxi system in an attempt to win back customers lost to Uber and Lyft." The app is cal...
10:00 am - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
John Conway: All Play and No Work For a Genius
An anonymous reader points out Quanta's spotlight piece on mathematician John Conway, whose best known mathematical contribution is probably his "Game of Life," which has inspired many a screensaver a...
06:00 am - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
How Close Are We, Really, To Nuclear Fusion?
StartsWithABang writes: The ultimate dream when it comes to clean, green, safe, abundant energy is nuclear fusion. The same process that powers the core of the Sun could also power everything on Earth...
04:00 am - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
Kenya's iHub Creates Accelerator Program For Tech-Hardware Entrepreneurs
An anonymous reader writes: The iHub in Nairobi has long been at the epicentre of tech developments in Africa, and has been lauded by both Barack Obama and Satya Nadella in recent weeks. It currently ...
02:00 am - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
A Look At the World's First Virtual Reality Theme Park
redletterdave writes: The Void is the first company to create a virtual reality theme park, where virtual experiences are layered on top of physical, real world environments. Tech Insider was the firs...
12:00 am - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
Uber Hires Hackers Who Remotely Killed a Jeep
An anonymous reader writes: The past several weeks have been rife with major vulnerabilities in modern cars, but none were so dramatic as when Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek tampered with the system...
12:00 am - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
Harshest Penalty for Alleged Rapist Was For Using a Computer To Arrange Contact With Teen
An anonymous reader writes: Today in a nationally publicized case, an alleged rapist from a fairly elite boarding school was convicted of a number of related misdemeanors, but the jury did not find hi...
12:00 am - Sat, August 29, 2015
Slashdot
Croatian Party Advocates Government Adoption of Open Source
An anonymous reader writes: Earlier this year, Croatian political party Sustainable Development of Croatia (ORaH) published a new policy that encourages the government to pursue open source solutions,...
10:00 pm - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Symantec Researchers Find 49 New Modules of Regin Spying Tool
itwbennett writes: Security researchers from Symantec have identified 49 more modules (bringing the total number found so far to 75) of the sophisticated Regin cyberespionage platform that many believ...
10:00 pm - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Ten Dropbox Engineers Build BSD-licensed, Lossless 'Pied Piper' Compression Algorithm
An anonymous reader writes: In Dropbox's "Hack Week" this year, a team of ten engineers built the fantasy Pied Piper algorithm from HBO's Silicon Valley, achieving 13% lossless compression on Mobile-r...
10:00 pm - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Amazon Developing TV Series Based On Galaxy Quest
An anonymous reader writes: Entertainment Weekly reports that Amazon Studios is developing a TV show based on Galaxy Quest, the 1999 film that parodied classic sci-fi shows like Star Trek. In the movi...
08:00 pm - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Ashley Madison CEO Steps Down, Reporter Finds Clues To Hacker's Identity
Dave Knott writes: Following the recent hacks on the infidelity website Ashley Madison, Noel Biderman has stepped down as CEO of both AshleyMadison.com and its parent company. Avid Life Media Inc., th...
08:00 pm - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Microsoft Builds Open-Source Browser Using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft's new browser, Edge, has a new rendering engine, EdgeHTML. Like Edge, the new rendering engine is only available in Windows 10, but it does more than just power t...
06:00 pm - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Ubuntu Is the Dominant Cloud OS
An anonymous reader writes: According to a new report by Cloud Market, Ubuntu is more than twice as popular on Amazon EC2 as all other operating systems combined. Given that Amazon Web Services has 57...
06:00 pm - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Federal Court Overturns Ruling That NSA Metadata Collection Was Illegal
New submitter captnjohnny1618 writes: NPR is reporting that an appeals court has overturned the decision that found the NSA's bulk data collection to be illegal. "Judges for the District of Columbia c...
06:00 pm - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
How NASA Defended Its Assembly Facility From Hurricane Katrina
An anonymous reader writes: Tomorrow marks the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's arrival in New Orleans. Though that time was filled with tragedy, there were survival stories, and a new artic...
04:00 pm - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Boeing Demonstrates Drone-Killing Laser
An anonymous reader writes: Boeing has successfully tested a new weapon system that tracks unmanned aircraft and shoots them down with a laser. The system is surprisingly small — it can be trans...
04:00 pm - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
'Ingenious' Experiment Closes Loopholes In Quantum Theory
Annanag writes: A Bell experiment in the Netherlands has plugged loopholes in the theory of quantum mechanics using a technique called entanglement swapping to combine the benefits of using both light...
04:00 pm - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
French Woman Gets €800/month For Electromagnetic-Field 'Disability'
An anonymous reader writes: If you were dismayed to hear Tuesday's news that a school is being sued over Wi-Fi sickness, you might be even more disappointed in a recent verdict by the French judicial ...
02:00 pm - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Chrome To Freeze Flash Ads On Sight From September 1
An anonymous reader writes: Shaun Nichols from the Register reports that unimportant Flash content will be click-to-play by default in Google Chrome from September 1. He writes, "Google is making good...
02:00 pm - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Study: More Than Half of Psychological Results Can't Be Reproduced
Bruce66423 writes: A new study trying to replicate results reported in allegedly high quality journals failed to do so in over 50% of cases. Those of us from a hard science background always had our d...
02:00 pm - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
German Intelligence Traded Citizen Data For NSA Surveillance Software
An anonymous reader sends news that Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, was so impressed with the NSA's surveillance software that they were willing to "share all data relevant to the NSA...
12:00 pm - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: Advice On Enterprise Architect Position
dave562 writes: I could use some advice from the community. I have almost 20 years of IT experience, 5 of it with the company I am currently working for. In my current position, the infrastructure and...
10:00 am - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
ISRO Successfully Launches Satellite Into Geostationary Orbit
vasanth writes: Indian Space Research Organization (Isro) on Thursday cleared all doubts on its cryogenic capabilities, successfully launching the Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D6), pla...
08:00 am - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Ocean Cleanup Project Completes Great Pacific Garbage Patch Research Expedition
hypnosec writes: The reconnaissance mission of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, dubbed the Mega Expedition by Ocean Clean, has been concluded. The large-scale cleanup of the area is set to begin in 20...
06:00 am - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Inside the Booming, Unhinged, and Dangerous Malvertising Menace
mask.of.sanity writes: The Register has a feature on the online malicious advertising (malvertising) menace that has become an explosively potent threat to end-user security on the internet. Experts s...
04:00 am - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Research Suggests How Alien Life Could Spread Across the Galaxy
astroengine writes: As astronomical techniques become more advanced, a team of astrophysicists think they will be able to not only detect the signatures of alien life in exoplanetary atmospheres, but ...
12:00 am - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Learn FPGAs With a $25 Board and Open Source Tools
An anonymous reader writes: Hackaday has a 3 part tutorial with videos of using open source tools with a cheap ($25) FPGA board. The board isn't very powerful, but this could be the 'gateway drug' to ...
12:00 am - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Canadian Nuclear Accident Study Puts Risks Into Perspective
An anonymous reader writes: A Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) study has concluded that there would be no detectable increase in cancer risk for most of the population from radiation released...
12:00 am - Fri, August 28, 2015
Slashdot
Most Healthcare Managers Admit Their IT Systems Have Been Compromised
Lucas123 writes: Eighty-one percent of healthcare IT managers say their organizations have been compromised by at least one malware, botnet or other kind of cyber attack during the past two years, and...
10:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
Google May Try To Recruit You For a Job Based On Your Search Queries
HughPickens.com writes: If Google sees that you're searching for specific programming terms, they may ask you to apply for a job as Max Rossett writes that three months ago while working on a project,...
10:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
NASA Scientists Paint Stark Picture of Accelerating Sea Level Rise
A NASA panel yesterday announced widely reported finding that global sea levels have risen about three inches since 1992, and that these levels are expected to keep rising as much as several more feet...
10:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
Former Apple CEO Creates an iPhone Competitor
An anonymous reader links to Fast Company's profile of Obi Worldphone, one-time Apple CEO John Sculley's venture into smartphones. The company's first two products (both reasonably spec'd, moderately ...
08:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
Docs: Responding To Katrina, FBI Made Cell Phone Surveillance Its Priority
v3rgEz writes: There's a lot of lessons that the federal government should have learned in the aftermath of Katrina. Increased domestic surveillance, however, appears to be the one the FBI took to hea...
08:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
Open Source, Collaborative Rich-Text, Web-Based Editor Almost Available
johanneswilm writes: Open source web-based editors such as CKEditor and TinyMCE have been available for more than a decade, and some closed source collaborative editors such as Google Docs have been a...
08:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
A "Public Health" Approach To Internet of Things Security
New submitter StewBeans writes: Guaranteeing your personal privacy in an era when more and more devices are connecting our daily lives to the Internet is becoming increasingly difficult to do. David B...
06:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
Kansas Secretary of State Blocks Release of Voting Machine Tapes
PvtVoid writes: Wichita State University statistician Beth Clarkson has filed a lawsuit under Kansas' open records law to force the state to release paper tape records from voting machines, to be used...
06:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
Tech Nightmares That Keep Turing Award Winners Up At Night
itwbennett writes: At the Heidelberg Laureate Forum in Germany this week, RSA encryption algorithm co-inventor Leonard Adelman, "Father of the Internet" Vint Cerf, and cryptography innovator Manuel Bl...
06:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
UNC Scientists Open Source Their Genomic Research
ectoman writes: The human genome specifies more than 500 "kinases," enzymes that spur protein synthesis. Four hundred of them are still mysteries to us, even though knowledge about them could spark se...
04:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
North Dakota Legalizes "Less Than Lethal" Weapon-Equipped Police Drones
According to the Daily Beast, writes reader schwit1, North Dakota police will be free to fire 'less than lethal' weapons from the air thanks to the influence of a pro-police lobbyist. That means beanb...
04:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
AMD Unveils Radeon R9 Nano, Targets Mini ITX Gaming Systems With a New Fury
MojoKid writes: AMD today added a third card to its new Fury line that's arguably the most intriguing of the bunch, the Radeon R9 Nano. True to its name, the Nano is a very compact card, though don't ...
04:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
Analysis Reveals Almost No Real Women On Ashley Madison
gurps_npc writes: Ashley Madison claimed to have about 31 million men and 5.5 million woman enrolled. Those odds are not good for the men, 6:1. But unfortunately, most of those 'women' were fake. This...
02:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
Since-Pulled Cyanogen Update For Oneplus Changes Default Home Page To Bing
ourlovecanlastforeve writes: Nestled into GSMArena's report on the Cyanogen OS 12.1 update for Oneplus [ Note: an update that the story reports has since been pulled.] is this tasty bite: "...you'll f...
02:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
In Praise of the Solo Programmer
HughPickens.com writes: Jean-Louis Gassée writes that once upon a time, we were awestruck by the solo programmer who could single-handedly write a magnum opus on a barebones machine like the Appl...
02:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
Contiki 3.0 Released, Retains Support For Apple II, C64
An anonymous reader writes that on Wednesday the Contiki team announced the release of Contiki 3.0, the latest version of the open source IoT operating system. The 3.0 release is a huge step up from t...
12:00 pm - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
Many Drivers Never Use In-Vehicle Tech, Don't Want Apple Or Google In Next Car
Lucas123 writes: Many of the high-tech features automakers believe owners want in their vehicles are not only not being used by them, but they don't want them in their next vehicle, according to a new...
10:00 am - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
Deep Learning Pioneer On the Next Generation of Hardware For Neural Networks
An anonymous reader writes: While many recognize Yann LeCun as the father of convolutional neural networks, the momentum of which has ignited artificial intelligence at companies like Google, Facebook...
08:00 am - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
You Can Now Be "Buried" On the Moon
Dave Knott writes: Space burials are longer the stuff of science fiction (and wealthy science fiction TV show creators.) The cremated remains of more than 450 people have been shot into orbit. Yet, de...
06:00 am - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
More Cities Use DNA To Catch Dog Owners Who Don't Pick Up Waste
dkatana writes: For many cities one of the biggest cleaning expenses is dealing with dog poop. While it is impossible to ask the birds to refrain from splattering the city, dogs have owners and those ...
06:00 am - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
The Nations That Will Be Hardest Hit By Water Shortages By 2040
merbs writes: Water access is going to be one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century. As climate change dries out the already dry areas and makes the wet ones wetter, we're poised to see some...
02:00 am - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
Will a Tighter Economy Rein In Startups?
Nerval's Lobster writes: It's been quite a ride for the stock market this week. In China, markets cratered; in the U.S., stocks dove for two days, only to rebound on Wednesday. That made many tech fir...
12:00 am - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
"Sensationalized Cruelty": FCC Complaints Regarding Game of Thrones
v3rgEz writes: As a cable channel, the FCC has little to no jurisdiction over HBO's content. That doesn't stop people from complaining to them about them, however, and after a FOIA request, the FCC re...
12:00 am - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
Facebook Is Now Working On Its Own Digital Assistant Called M
Mark Wilson writes: Sounding like a character from a James Bond movie, M is Facebook's personal digital assistant. Ready to compete with the likes of Cortana, M will live inside Facebook Messenger and...
12:00 am - Thu, August 27, 2015
Slashdot
How To Keep Microsoft's Nose Out of Your Personal Data In Windows 10
MojoKid writes: Amid the privacy concerns and arguably invasive nature of Microsoft's Windows 10 regarding user information, it's no surprise that details on how to minimize leaks as much as possible ...
10:00 pm - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Verizon Retrofits Vintage Legacy Vehicles With Smart Features
An anonymous reader writes: Verizon have released an after-market system called Hum that can bring 'smart' features to 150 million existing cars of various vintages going as far back as 1999. The syst...
10:00 pm - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
More From Tim O'Reilly about the 'WTF?!' Economy (Videos)
More From Tim O'Reilly about the 'WTF?!' Economy (Video)On August 12 we ran two videos of Tim O'Reilly talking with Slashdot's Tim Lord about changes in how we work, what jobs we do, and who profits f...
10:00 pm - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Why Modular Smartphones Are Such a Nightmare To Develop
itwbennett writes: Last week Google postponed tests of its Project Ara until next year. Mikael Ricknäs has written about why developing such devices is particularly difficult. The biggest challen...
08:00 pm - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
IBM Tells Administrators To Block Tor On Security Grounds
Mickeycaskill writes: IBM says Tor is increasingly being used to scan organizations for flaws and launch DDoS, ransomware and other attacks. Tor, which provides anonymity by obscuring the real point o...
08:00 pm - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Interviews: L5 Society Cofounder Keith Henson Answers Your Questions
Last week you had the chance to ask electrical engineer and L5 society co-founder Keith Henson about space colonization, his solar power satellite project, and his run-ins with Scientology. Below you'...
08:00 pm - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Meet YouTube Gaming, Twitch's Archenemy
An anonymous reader writes: As expected Google has launched its answer to Twitch, YouTube Gaming available on the web, Android and iOS. Techcrunch reports: "We played with the Android app before the l...
06:00 pm - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Countries Gaming Carbon Offsets May Have Dramatically Increased Emissions
schwit1 writes: Abuse of the carbon offset system may have caused emissions to increase by as much as 600 million tons. That's the finding of a new report from the Stockholm Environment Institute, whi...
06:00 pm - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Most People Use Their Phones During Social Events, Despite Thinking It Harms Conversation
Mark Wilson points out that the Pew Research Center has released a new report on mobile etiquette in the age of smartphones. 90% of U.S. adults now have cellphones and carry them around frequently. Pe...
04:00 pm - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Modular Touchpad Aims To Replace Most Input Devices
An anonymous reader writes: Wired reports on the 'Sensel Morph' input device, which launched on Kickstarter yesterday and blew past its funding goal almost immediately. It's a tablet-sized touchpad, b...
04:00 pm - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Why In-Flight Wi-Fi Is Still Slow and Expensive
An anonymous reader writes: Let's grant that having access to the internet while on an airplane is pretty amazing. When airlines first began offering it several years ago, it was agonizingly slow and ...
04:00 pm - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Buzzwords Are Stifling Innovation In College Teaching
jyosim writes: Tech marketers brag about the world-changing impact of 'adaptive learning' and other products, but they all mean something different by the buzzword. On the other side of it, professors...
02:00 pm - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
NASA Mulls Missions To Neptune and Uranus, Using the Space Launch System
MarkWhittington writes: According to a story in Astronomy Magazine, NASA is contemplating sending flagship sized space probes to the so-called "ice giants" of Uranus and Neptune. These probes would or...
02:00 pm - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Oakland Changes License Plate Reader Policy After Filling 80GB Hard Drive
An anonymous reader writes: License plate scanners are a contentious subject, generating lots of debate over what information the government should have, how long they should have it, and what they sh...
02:00 pm - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
When Should Cops Be Allowed To Take Control of Self-Driving Cars?
HughPickens.com writes: A police officer is directing traffic in the intersection when he sees a self-driving car barreling toward him and the occupant looking down at his smartphone. The officer gest...
12:00 pm - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
US Scientists Successfully 'Switch Off' Cancer Cells
iONiUM sends news that Mayo Clinic cancer researchers have developed a technique to reprogram cancer cells in a lab, essentially "turning off" their excessive cell growth.That code was unraveled by th...
10:00 am - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Wired: IBM's School Could Fix Education and Tech's Diversity Gap
theodp writes: Wired positively gushes over IBM's Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH), saying it could fix education and tech's diversity gap. Backed by IBM, the P-TECH program a...
08:00 am - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Scientific Papers With Shorter Titles Get More Citations
sciencehabit writes: Articles with shorter titles tend to get cited more often than those with longer headers, concludes a study published today, which examined 140,000 papers published between 2007 a...
06:00 am - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
California Bill Would Dramatically Limit Commercial Drones
An anonymous reader writes: California's Senate Bill 142 would prohibit drones from flying under 350 feet over any property without express permission from the property's owner. The bill passed the Ca...
04:00 am - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Dawn Drops To 1470km Orbit, Snaps Sharper Pictures of Ceres
An anonymous reader writes: NASA's Dawn spacecraft, after an extensive series of high orbits around Ceres, has now dropped to just 1,470 kilometers over the dwarf planet's surface. It has begun an 11-...
02:00 am - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: Technical Resources For Non-Technical Disciplines?
New submitter nashpt writes: An accountant friend has recently joined a startup looking at developing a web platform. My friend is now dealing with developers directly where he would not have done so ...
12:00 am - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Massachusetts Boarding School Sued Over Wi-Fi Sickness
alphadogg writes: The parents of an anonymous student at the Fay School in Southborough, Mass., allege that the Wi-Fi at the institution is making their child sick, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S...
12:00 am - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
AT&T Hotspots Now Injecting Ads
An anonymous reader writes: Computer scientist Jonathan Mayer did some investigating after seeing some unexpected ads while he browsed the web at an airport (Stanford hawking jewelry? The FCC selling ...
12:00 am - Wed, August 26, 2015
Slashdot
Stephen Hawking Presents Theory On Getting Information Out of a Black Hole
An anonymous reader writes: Physicist Stephen Hawking claims to have figured out a way for information to leave a black hole. He presented his theory today at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in ...
10:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Fusion Progress: Superheated Gas Kept Stable For 5 Milliseconds
An anonymous reader writes: A company called Tri Alpha has successfully kept a ball of superheated gas stable for a record time, 5 milliseconds, putting them closer to producing fusion power. "'They'v...
10:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
MIT Develops Inkjet-Style 3D Printer That Uses 10 Different Materials At Once
Lucas123 writes: Researchers at MIT have been able to build a printer with uses 10 different photosensitive polymers to create a myriad of objects, and they were able to build it using off-the-shelf c...
10:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
'Gynepunks' DIY Gynecology For Underserved Women
New submitter Alien7 sends an article about a group of bio-hackers who are out to bring DIY gynecological medicine to women who don't have easy access to it.Under the name GynePunks, they're assemblin...
08:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
The Case For Teaching Ignorance
HughPickens.com writes: In the mid-1980s, a University of Arizona surgery professor, Marlys H. Witte, proposed teaching a class entitled "Introduction to Medical and Other Ignorance." Far too often, s...
08:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
The Muddy Truth About Kickstarter 'Staff Picks'
szczys writes: Crowd Funding is the wild-wild west of business financing, and it's not just the people starting campaigns that are playing without many rules. One of Kickstarter's sort algorithm trigg...
06:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
As Coursera Evolves, Colleges Stay On and Investors Buy In
An anonymous reader writes: The hype over online academics has diminished as it became clear that it wasn't a panacea for cheap, global education. While many organizations are struggling with the real...
06:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Many Android Users Susceptible To Plug-In Exploit -- And Many Of Them Have It
Ars Technica reports that a recently reported remote access vulnerability in Android is no longer just theoretical, but is being actively exploited. After more than 100,000 downloads of a scanning app...
06:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Microsoft Researchers Generate 3D Models From Ordinary Smartphones
New submitter subh_arya writes: Engineers from Microsoft Research have unveiled the first technology to perform 3D surface reconstruction from ordinary smartphone cameras. Their computational framewor...
04:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Life With the Dash Button: Good Design For Amazon, Bad For Everyone Else
vivaoporto writes: A scathing review published on Fast Company describes Amazon's Dash Button, the "Buy Now" button brought into the physical world as "the latest symptom of Amazon's slowly spreading ...
04:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Next Texas Energy Boom: Solar
Layzej writes: The Wall Street Journal reports: "Solar power has gotten so cheap to produce—and so competitively priced in the electricity market—that it is taking hold even in a state tha...
04:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
KDE Plasma 5.4 Released
jrepin writes: KDE have announced the release of Plasma 5.4 desktop. This release of Plasma brings many nice touches for our users such as new fullscreen application launcher, much improved high DPI s...
04:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Virgin Media To Base a Public Wi-Fi Net On Paying Customers' Routers
An anonymous reader with a story that Virgin Media "announced this month its plans to roll out a free public WiFi network this autumn, using subscribers' personal routers and existing infrastructure t...
02:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: New Employee System Access Tracking?
New submitter mushero writes: We are a fast-growing IT services company with dozens of systems, SaaS tools, dev tools and systems, and more that a new employee might need access to. We struggle to tra...
02:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Happy Birthday, Linux! An OS At 24
prisoninmate writes: It has been 24 long years since the first ever release of the Linux project on August 25, 1991, which is the core component of any GNU/Linux distribution. With this occasion we wa...
02:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Backwards S-Pen Can Permanently Damage Note 5
tlhIngan writes: Samsung recently released a new version of its popular Galaxy Note series phablet, the Note 5. However, it turns out that there is a huge design flaw in the design of its pen holder (...
02:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Comcast Planning Gigabit Cable For Entire US In 2-3 Years
An anonymous reader writes: Robert Howald, Comcast's VP of network architecture, said the company is hoping to upgrade its entire cable network within the next two years. The upgraded DOCSIS 3.1 netwo...
12:00 pm - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: New Employee System Access Tracking
New submitter mushero writes: We are a fast-growing IT services company with dozens of systems, SaaS tools, dev tools and systems, and more that a new employee might need access to. We struggle to tra...
10:00 am - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Met Office Loses BBC Weather Forecasting Contract
An anonymous reader writes: UK weather forecasts could be run on computers in New Zealand, as the BBC announced that the UK Met Office lost a forecasting contract it held for almost 100 years. The Gua...
08:00 am - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
The IoT, the MinnowBoard, and How They Fit Into the Universe (Video)
The IoT is becoming more pervasive partly because processor costs are dropping. So are bandwidth costs, even if your ISP isn't sharing those savings with you. Today's interviewee, Mark Skarpness, is "...
08:00 am - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
How Poly Bridge's GIF Generator Turned an Indie Game Into a Reddit Sensation
An anonymous reader writes: The creator of bridge physics phenomenon Poly Bridge discusses the rise of the bridge physics phenomenon in a new interview this week. Patrick Corrieri of New Zealand's Dry...
06:00 am - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Calls For Funding NASA Commercial Crew Grow
MarkWhittington writes: As summer starts to give way to fall and the end of the current fiscal year draws nigh, demands that NASA's commercial crew program be fully funded are being heard with greater...
04:00 am - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Who Makes the Decision To Go Cloud and Who Should?
Esther Schindler writes: It's a predictable argument in any IT shop: Should the techies — with their hands on their keyboards — be the people who decide which technology or deployment is r...
02:00 am - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
South Africans Revolutionize Concentrated Solar Power With Mini Heliostats
Taffykay writes: Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) offers significant benefits, but it's often prohibitively expensive. Paul Gauché from Stellenbosch University in South Africa hopes to change that ...
12:00 am - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
2 Arrested In Plot To Fly Contraband Into Prison With Drone
An anonymous reader writes: Using a drone to get contraband into prison seems to be all the rage lately. Police say two men attempting to fly drugs, tobacco and pornography into a Maryland state priso...
12:00 am - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Robots Are Coming For Our Jobs, Just Not All of Them
szczys writes: There was a video published on YouTube about a year ago called Humans Need Not Apply which compared human labor now to horse labor just before industrialization. It's a great thought-ex...
12:00 am - Tue, August 25, 2015
Slashdot
Is a Universal Flu Vaccine On the Horizon?
sciencehabit writes: Two groups of researchers have created vaccines that may lead to a universal flu shot that could protect against every type of flu. Every year millions get a flu shot but with tho...
10:00 pm - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
A Breakdown of the Windows 10 Privacy Policy
WheezyJoe writes: The Verge has a piece on Windows 10 privacy that presents actual passages from the EULA and privacy policy that suggest what the OS is capturing and sending back to Microsoft. The pi...
10:00 pm - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
The IoT, the MinnowBoard, and How They Fit Into the Universe (Video
The IoT is becoming more pervasive partly because processor costs are dropping. So are bandwidth costs, even if your ISP isn't sharing those savings with you. Today's interviewee, Mark Skarpness, is "...
10:00 pm - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
Court: FTC Can Punish Companies With Sloppy Cybersecurity
jfruh writes: The Congressional act that created the Federal Trade Commission gave that agency broad powers to punish companies engaged in "unfair and deceptive practices." Today, a U.S. appeals court...
08:00 pm - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
Skylake Has a Voice DSP and Listens To Your Commands
itwbennett writes: Intel's new Skylake processor (like the Core M processor released last year) comes with a built-in digital signal processor (DSP) that will allow you to turn on and control your PC ...
08:00 pm - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
Swatch Trademarks "One More Thing..."
AmiMoJo writes: It's the famous line Steve Jobs often used on stage to introduce unexpected Apple gadgets since 1999. Of course he wasn't the only one to utter it — TV detective Columbo was catc...
06:00 pm - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
Ashley Madison Hack Claims First Victims
wired_parrot writes: Toronto police are reporting that 2 unconfirmed suicides have been linked to the data breach. This follows pleas from other users of the site for the hackers to not release the da...
06:00 pm - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
A Farewell To Flash
An anonymous reader writes: The decline of Flash is well and truly underway. Media publishers now have no choice but to start changing the way they bring content to the web. Many of them are not thril...
06:00 pm - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
Interviews: Dr. Tarek Loubani Answers Your Questions
Last week you had a chance to ask Dr. Tarek Loubani about his 3D-printable, 30-cent stethoscope project, and other open source, ultra-low cost medical equipment. Below you'll find his answers to your ...
04:00 pm - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
FBI Informant: Ray Bradbury's Sci-fi Written To Induce Communistic Mass Hysteria
v3rgEz writes: The FBI followed Ray Bradbury's career very closely, in part because an informant warned them that his writing was not enjoyable fantasy, but rather tantamount to psychological warfare....
04:00 pm - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
Judge Rules That Inglewood, California Cannot Copyright Public Videos
UnknowingFool writes: Recently a judge ruled in California that the city of Inglewood cannot hold copyrights of videos of public city council meetings which they published on their YouTube account and...
04:00 pm - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
Group Seeks Test For Geoengineering Tool To Fight Climate Change
An anonymous reader writes: A group of retired engineers and scientists has been meeting for several years to develop techniques to fight climate change. They've now reached the point where they want ...
02:00 pm - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
Mostly Theater? Taking Aim At White House 'We the People' Petitions
theodp writes: "Since we launched We the People in 2011," wrote the White House last month, "millions of Americans have engaged with their government on the issues that matter to them. This groundbrea...
02:00 pm - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
MIT's New File System Won't Lose Data During Crashes
jan_jes sends news that MIT researchers will soon present a file system they say is mathematically guaranteed not to lose data during a crash. While building it, they wrote and rewrote the file system...
02:00 pm - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
Twitter Blocks API Access For Sites Monitoring Politicians' Deleted Tweets
An anonymous reader writes: Politwoops is/was a site that monitored the Twitter feeds of politicians and posted any tweets that those politicians later deleted. On May 15, Twitter suspended API access...
12:00 pm - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
Judge Orders State Dept, FBI To Expand Clinton Email Server Probe
An anonymous reader writes: In a hearing over Freedom of Information Act requests to the State Department, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said that former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did...
10:00 am - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
Proposed Rules Would Require Gov't Registration For Malaysian Press Sites
Malaysia's Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak has proposed mandatory government registration for web sites operating within Malaysia. This comes after the Malaysia...
06:00 am - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
Chinese Scientists Discover Structural Basis of Pre-mRNA Splicing
hackingbear writes: On August 21st, the research team led by Prof. Yigong Shi from School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University in China published two side-by-side research articles in Science, report...
04:00 am - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
In Baltimore and Elsewhere, Police Use Stingrays For Petty Crimes
USA Today reports on the widespread use of stingray technology by police to track down even petty criminals and witnesses, as well as their equally widespread reluctance to disclose that use. The arti...
12:00 am - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
Why Car Info Tech Is So Thoroughly At Risk
Cory Doctorow reflects in a post at Boing Boing on the many ways in which modern cars' security infrastructure is a white-hot mess. And as to the reasons why, this seems to be the heart of the matter,...
12:00 am - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
Samsung May Release an 18" Tablet
A report at PC Magazine says that Samsung may soon field a tablet to satisfy people not content with the 7", 9", 12", or even slightly larger tablets that are today's normal stock in trade. Instead, t...
12:00 am - Mon, August 24, 2015
Slashdot
Hugos Refuse To Award Anyone Rather Than Submit To Fans' Votes
An anonymous reader writes: You may remember way back in April there was a bit of a kerfuffle over the nominees for the Hugo Awards being "too conservative" based on a voting campaign organized by a g...
10:00 pm - Sun, August 23, 2015
Slashdot
Tesla Partners With Airbnb, Subsidizes Chargers
Fortune reports that Tesla and Airbnb have teamed up; certain Airbnb properties will get Tesla chargers as a perk. There are 12 locations already equippped with chargers, but expect to see more soon, ...
08:00 pm - Sun, August 23, 2015
Slashdot
Hugos Refuse To Award Anyone Rather Than Submit To Fan's Votes
An anonymous reader writes: You may remember way back in April there was a bit of a kerfuffle over the nominees for the Hugo Awards being "too conservative" based on a voting campaign organized by a g...
08:00 pm - Sun, August 23, 2015
Slashdot
In Germany, a Message-in-a-Bottle Found 108 Years After Its Release
schwit1 writes with a report that an early 20th century experiment has generated a belated data point. One of many floating bottles released 108 years ago to study currents was recently found by a Ger...
06:00 pm - Sun, August 23, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: Tips For Getting Into Model Railroading?
An anonymous reader writes: A relative of mine has been hinting that he'd like me to take over his model railroad collection in the event of his death (or even before that, to make this a bit less mor...
06:00 pm - Sun, August 23, 2015
Slashdot
Not All Uber Drivers Like Surge Pricing, Either
CNET reports that Uber's practice of surge pricing, which sometimes raises the ire of passengers, isn't universally acclaimed by the company's drivers, either. "[M]ost Uber riders," according the the ...
04:00 pm - Sun, August 23, 2015
Slashdot
Google Relaxes Handset Makers' Requirements for "Must-Include" Android Apps
According to The Verge, anyone who buys a new Android phone may benefit from an interesting change in their phone's default apps: namely, fewer pieces of included bloatware. However, the affected apps...
02:00 pm - Sun, August 23, 2015
Slashdot
Underground Piracy Sites Want To Block Windows 10 Users
An anonymous reader writes: Some smaller pirate sites have become concerned about Windows 10 system phoning home too many hints regarding that the users are accessing their site. Therefore, the pirate...
02:00 pm - Sun, August 23, 2015
Slashdot
Windows 95 Turns 20
Etherwalk writes: Windows 95 turns 20 tomorrow, August 24, 2015. Users looking to upgrade from Windows 3.1 should be warned that some reviewers on the Amazon purchase page have been receiving 3.5" hig...
10:00 am - Sun, August 23, 2015
Slashdot
The Top 10 Programming Languages On GitHub, Over Time
An anonymous reader writes with a link to VentureBeat's article on the information that GitHub released this week about the top-ten languages used by GitHub's users, and how they've changed over the s...
08:00 am - Sun, August 23, 2015
Slashdot
Some Observers Perceive the Universe To Be Much Younger Than We Do
StartsWithABang writes: It's been 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang for us, and when we look out at a distant object in the Universe, we're seeing it as it was in the past. Its age — as it a...
02:00 am - Sun, August 23, 2015
Slashdot
Why Google Wants To Sell You a Wi-Fi Router
lpress writes: Last quarter, Google made $16 billion on advertising and $1.7 billion on "other sales." I don't know how "other sales" breaks down, but a chunk of that is hardware devices like the Pixe...
12:00 am - Sun, August 23, 2015
Slashdot
Standardized Tests Blamed, Asian Students Ignored In Google-Gallup K-12 CS Study
theodp writes: According to a study released Thursday by Google and Gallup, standardized tests may be holding back the next generation of computer programmers. The Google-Gallup Searching for Computer...
12:00 am - Sun, August 23, 2015
Slashdot
Ubuntu Core Gets Support For Raspberry Pi 2 GPIO and I2C
An anonymous reader writes: Ubuntu Core is a tiny Ubuntu distribution aimed at the Internet of Things, using a new transactional packaging format called Snappy rather than the venerable Debian packagi...
12:00 am - Sun, August 23, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: Maintaining Continuity In Your Creative Works?
imac.usr writes: I recently rewatched the Stonecutters episode of The Simpsons and laughed as always at the scene where Homer pulls into his parking space — right next to his house. It's such a ...
10:00 pm - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
Cheap Thermal Imagers Can Steal User PINs
Bismillah writes: A British infosec company has discovered that cheap thermal imaging attachments for smartphones can be used to work out which keys users press on -- for instance -- ATM PIN pads. The...
10:00 pm - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
Re-Examined IceCube Data Firms Up Case For Extra-Galactic Neutrinos
In 2013, the IceCube neutrino telescope detected dozens of high-energy neutrinos. Now, reports Astronomy magazine, researchers "have sorted through the billions of subatomic particles that zip through...
08:00 pm - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
Big Changes From Mozilla Mean Firefox Will Get Chrome Extensions
Mozilla announced yesterday a few high-level changes to the way Firefox and Firefox extensions will be developed; among them, the introduction of "a new extension API, called WebExtensions—large...
08:00 pm - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
COBOL Comes To Visual Studio 2015
New submitter dmleonard618 writes: Micro Focus isn't writing off COBOL just yet. The company is trying to win developers over with COBOL with the latest release of Visual COBOL for Visual Studio. The ...
06:00 pm - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
Mobile Phone Data Can Track the Spread of Infectious Diseases
jan_jes writes: Researchers have used anonymous mobile phone records for more than 15 million people to track the spread of rubella disease in Kenya and were able to quantitatively show that mobile ph...
06:00 pm - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
John S. Lewis On the Space Commodities Market
John S. Lewis -- Deep Space Industries' chief scientist, author, and University of Arizona professor -- speaks in an interview with Air & Space magazine about the practicalities and possibilities ...
04:00 pm - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
Apple Launches Free iPhone 6 Plus Camera Replacement Program
Mark Wilson writes: Complaints about the camera of the iPhone 6 Plus have been plentiful, and Apple has finally acknowledged that there is a problem. It's not something that affects all iPhone 6 Plus ...
04:00 pm - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
JAXA Prepares To Try Making Whiskey In Space
schwit1 writes: An experiment to test how whiskey ages in weightlessness is about to begin on ISS: "H-II Transfer Vehicle No. 5, commonly known as "Kounotori5" or HTV5, was launched on Wednesday from ...
02:00 pm - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
Amazon To Stop Accepting Flash Ads
An anonymous reader writes: Starting on September 1, Amazon will no longer support Flash across its advertising platform. The online retailer sites changes to browser support and a desire for customer...
02:00 pm - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
NASA's Hurricane Model Resolution Increases Nearly 10-Fold Since Katrina
zdburke writes: Thanks to improvements in satellites and on-the-ground computing power, NASA's ability to model hurricane data has come a long way in the ten years since Katrina devastated New Orleans...
10:00 am - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
Yet Another Compromising Preinstalled "Glitch" In Lenovo Laptops
New submitter execthis writes: Japanese broadcaster NHK is reporting that yet another privacy/security-compromising "glitch" has been found to exist in preinstalled software on Lenovo laptops. The art...
08:00 am - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
WordPress Hacks Behind Surging Neutrino EK Traffic
msm1267 writes: More than 2,000 websites running WordPress have been compromised and are responsible for a surge this week in traffic from the Neutrino Exploit Kit. Attacks against sites running older...
06:00 am - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
Two US Marines Foil Terrorist Attack On Train In France
hcs_$reboot writes: A heavily armed gunman opened fire aboard a packed high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris late Friday afternoon, wounding several passengers before he was tackled and s...
02:00 am - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
Extortionists Begin Targeting AshleyMadison Users, Demand Bitcoin
tsu doh nimh writes: It was bound to happen: Brian Krebs reports that extortionists have begun emailing people whose information is included in the leaked Ashleymadison.com user database, threatening ...
02:00 am - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: Do You Press "6" Key With Right Or Left Hand?
New submitter ne0phyte73 writes: In some countries and in some touch typing books key "6" is pressed with right hand and in some others with left. It's not a big issue until you have a split keyboard....
12:00 am - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
Gamers Are Fans of Games, Not Genres
_xeno_ writes: A recent article on Steam Spy talks about how a "target audience" for game genres doesn't exist — or, more specifically, how there is no such thing as an "FPS gamer" or an "MMO ga...
12:00 am - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
Amazon Work-Life Balance Defender: Prior Employer Nearly Killed Me and My Team
theodp writes: New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan questions whether her paper's portrayal of Amazon's brutal workplace was on target, citing a long, passionate response in disagreement fro...
12:00 am - Sat, August 22, 2015
Slashdot
Object Storage and POSIX Should Merge
storagedude writes: Object storage's low cost and ease of use have made it all the rage, but a few additional features would make it a worthier competitor to POSIX-based file systems, writes Jeff Layt...
10:00 pm - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
The Real NASA Technologies In 'The Martian'
An anonymous reader writes: On October 2, movie audiences will get to see Ridley Scott's adaptation of Andy Weir's brilliant sci-fi novel The Martian, about a near-future astronaut who gets left for d...
10:00 pm - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
Meet Linux's Newest File-System: Bcachefs
An anonymous reader writes: Bcachefs is a new open-source file-system derived from the bcache Linux kernel block layer cache. Bcachefs was announced by Kent Overstreet, the lead Bcache author. Bcachef...
10:00 pm - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
MIT 3D Prints With Glass
An anonymous reader writes: MIT's Mediated Matter Group has published a paper and a video about their new technique for 3D printing with glass. The top part of their printer is a kiln that heats the g...
08:00 pm - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
A New Take on Wearable Devices
minstrelmike writes: A company called Polyera is working on a wrist-worn device with a flexible, fabric-like screen that uses e-Ink technology and can go days without recharging. "Right now we design ...
08:00 pm - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
Do You Have a Right To Use Electrical Weapons?
An anonymous reader writes: David Cravets points out a growing debate in U.S. constitutional law: does the second amendment grant the same rights regarding electrical weapons as it does for traditiona...
06:00 pm - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
Firefox Will Run Chrome Extensions
An anonymous reader writes: Today Mozilla announced some big changes to its extension support. Their new addon API, WebExtensions, is mostly compatible with the extension model used by Chrome and Oper...
06:00 pm - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
City of Munich Struggling With Basic Linux Functionality
jones_supa writes: Just like the city planned a year ago, Munich is still calling for a switch back to Windows from LiMux, their Ubuntu derivative. The councilors from Munich's conservative CSU party ...
06:00 pm - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
Jeb Bush Comes Out Against Encryption
An anonymous reader writes: Presidential candidate Jeb Bush has called on tech companies to form a more "cooperative" arrangement with intelligence agencies. During a speech in South Carolina, Bush ma...
04:00 pm - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
Twenty Years Later, Nintendo's Virtual Boy Is Still an Oddity
An anonymous reader writes: Nintendo launched its Virtual Boy gaming console twenty years ago today. Expectations were high after the company sold tends of millions of its previous devices, but the Vi...
04:00 pm - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
San Jose May Put License Plate Scanners On Garbage Trucks
An anonymous reader writes: It's bad enough that some places have outfitted their police vehicles with automated license plate scanners, but now the city of San Jose may take it one step further. They...
04:00 pm - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
New Blood-Cleansing Device Removes Pathogens, Toxins From Blood
jan_jes writes: A team of scientists at the Wyss Institute last year described the development of a device to treat sepsis that works by mimicking the human spleen. The device cleanses pathogens and t...
02:00 pm - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
Linux Foundation Project Will Evaluate Security of Open Source Software
An anonymous reader writes: The Core Infrastructure Initiative (CII), a project managed by The Linux Foundation, is developing a new free Badge Program, seeking input from the open source community on...
02:00 pm - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
MDM Vulnerability In Apple iOS Sandbox Facilitates 'Rogue Apps'
An anonymous reader writes: A vulnerability in Apple's iOS sandbox, which could affect personal information as well as configuration settings, has been discovered by Appthority's Enterprise Mobility T...
02:00 pm - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
The Boeing 747 Is Heading For Retirement
schwit1 writes: After 45 years of service, Boeing's 747, the world's first jumbo jet, is finally facing retirement as airlines consider more modern planes for their fleets. The article gives a brief b...
12:00 pm - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
How Viking 1 Won the Martian Space Race
derekmead writes: NASA launched the Viking 1 spacecraft to Mars forty years ago. The probe was the first to achieve a soft landing on the planet, providing the first images and data from Mars. Politic...
10:00 am - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
UK Government Signs New Deal With Oracle
An anonymous reader writes: The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has signed a deal with Oracle that should allow it to cut down on spending and licensing costs with the software provider. The three-year...
08:00 am - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
Germany Says Taking Photos Of Food Infringes The Chef's Copyright
xPertCodert writes: According this article in Der Welt (Google translate from German), in Germany if you take a picture of a dish in a restaurant without prior permission, you are violating chef's cop...
06:00 am - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
Bozza Wants To Be Africa's Answer To iTunes, Spotify and Netflix
Mickeycaskill writes: South African startup Bozza has grand ambitions of becoming a trusted platform for pan-African music, video and poetry, with artists keeping 70 percent of revenues. Whereas Netfl...
04:00 am - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
MIT Researchers Discover "Metabolic Master Switch" To Control Obesity
New submitter ahbond writes: The meme of the chubby nerd alone in the basement may be a thing of the past. Well, at least the chubby part, if recent work at MIT pans out and we're able to use a biolog...
02:00 am - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
Do Old Programmers Need To Keep Leaping Through New Hoops?
Nerval's Lobster writes: In recent years, it seems as if tech has evolved into an industry that lionizes the young. Despite all the press about 21-year-old rock-star developers and 30-year-old CEOs, t...
12:00 am - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
Hyperloop Getting Closer To Reality, Groundbreaking Set For 2016
An anonymous reader writes: On Thursday, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) said it would break ground on the futuristic railway in May 2016. The company says it has signed agreements with Oe...
12:00 am - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
More Ashley Madison Files Published
An anonymous reader writes: A second round of Ashley Madison data was released today. The data dump was twice as large as the first time, which was bad enough for "19 Kids and Counting" star Josh Dugg...
12:00 am - Fri, August 21, 2015
Slashdot
Intel's Collaborative Cancer Cloud, an Open Platform For Genome-Based Treatments
Lucas123 writes: Intel and the Knight Cancer Institute have announced what will be an open-source service platform, called the Collaborative Cancer Cloud. The platform will enable healthcare facilitie...
10:00 pm - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Engaging Newbies In Email Encryption and Network Privacy
reifman writes: All six parts of my series introducing beginners to PGP encryption and network privacy are now freely available. I hope it's useful for Slashdot readers to share with their less-techni...
10:00 pm - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
NVIDIA Launches $159 Mainstream Maxwell-Based GeForce GTX 950
MojoKid writes: NVIDIA is launching a new mainstream graphics card today, the GeForce GTX 950, based on the company's GM206 GPU. The GM206 debuted on the GeForce GTX 960, which launched a few months b...
08:00 pm - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
HooperFly is an Open Source, Modular Drone (Video)
Tricopters, quadcopters, hexicopters. A HooperFly can be any of these, or an octocopter or possibly even a larger number than that. The HooperFly is a modular creation, and spokesman Rich Burton says ...
08:00 pm - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Startup Builds Prototype For Floating Data Center
1sockchuck writes: California startup Nautilus Data Technologies has developed a floating data center that it says can dramatically slash the cost of cooling servers. The company's data barge is being...
08:00 pm - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Now Google Must Censor Search Results About "Right To Be Forgotten" Removals
Mark Wilson writes, drolly, that the so-called right to be forgotten "has proved somewhat controversial," and expands on that with a new twist in a post at Beta News:While some see the requirement for...
06:00 pm - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Another Step In Quantum Computing: A Functional Interconnect
New submitter Gennerik writes: According to a recent article in the MIT Technology Review, a team of international physicists have been able to create a quantum computing interconnect. The interconnec...
06:00 pm - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Regionally Encoded Toner Cartridges 'to Serve Customers Better'
sandbagger writes: The latest attempt to create artificial scarcity comes from Xerox, according to the editors at TechDirt, who cite German sources: "Xerox uses region coding on their toner cartridges...
04:00 pm - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Movie Studio Sues Individual Popcorn Time Users For Infringement
An anonymous reader writes with another story about Popcorn Time, after yesterday's report that two Danes were arrested for sharing information about how to use it. From the article at BGR:Often descr...
04:00 pm - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Finland Considers Minimum Income To Reform Welfare System
jones_supa writes: The Finnish government is considering a pilot project that would see the state pay people a basic income regardless of whether they are employed or not. The details of how much the ...
04:00 pm - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
New Rules Say UK Video Bloggers Must Be Clearer About Paid Endorsements
AmiMoJo writes: New guidelines for video bloggers who enter marketing relationships with brands have been published. Earlier this year the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that paid endorse...
02:00 pm - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Bruce Schneier On Cisco ROMMON Firmware Exploit: "This Is Serious"
When Bruce Schneier says of a security problem "This is serious," it makes sense to pay attention to it. And that's how he refers to a recently disclosed Cisco vulnerability alert about "an evolution ...
02:00 pm - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Evidence That H-1B Holders Don't Replace US Workers
Okian Warrior writes: In response to Donald Trump's allegations that H1B visas drive Americans out of jobs, The Huffington Post points to this study which refutes that claim. From the study: "But the ...
02:00 pm - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Stopping Universities From Hoarding Money
HughPickens.com writes: Victor Fleischer writes in the NYT that university endowments are exempt from corporate income tax because universities support the advancement and dissemination of knowledge. ...
12:00 pm - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Former Russian Troll Wins Lawsuit Against Propaganda "Factory"
An anonymous reader writes: Lyudmila Savchuk, a former Russian internet "troll" has been awarded one rouble ($0.01) in damages after she sued her ex-employer claiming it was a propaganda "factory". A ...
10:00 am - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Tiny Pebbles Built the Gas Giant Behemoths
astroengine writes: Scientists have long puzzled over how gas planets like Jupiter and Saturn got to be so big. Current theories suggest the cores of these behemoths are comprised of mini-planets, som...
08:00 am - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Lightning Wipes Storage Disks At Google Data Center
An anonymous reader writes: Lightning struck a Google data center in Belgium four times in rapid succession last week, permanently erasing a small amount of users' data from the cloud. The affected di...
06:00 am - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Google Releases Version 1.5 of Its Go Programming Language, Finally Ditches C
An anonymous reader writes: Google has released the sixth major stable release of its Go programming language Go 1.5. VB reports: "This is not a major release, as denoted by the version number and the...
04:00 am - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
How Long Until We Have a Home Robot That Lives Up To the Hype?
moon_unit2 writes: You may have heard of "personal robots" such as Jibo, Buddy, and Pepper. One journalist recently met one of these home bots and found the reality less dazzling than the promotional ...
02:00 am - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
KDE Applications 15.08.0 Released
jrepin writes: KDE announces the release of KDE Applications 15.08. With this release a total of 107 applications have been ported to KDE Frameworks 5. There are several new additions to the KDE Frame...
12:00 am - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Reflection DDoS Attacks Abusing RPC Portmapper
msm1267 writes: Attackers have figured out how to use Portmapper, or RPC Portmapper, in reflection attacks where victims are sent copious amounts of responses from Portmapper servers, saturating bandw...
12:00 am - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
HTV-5 On Its Way To the ISS
nojayuk writes: There's another launcher delivering cargo to the ISS apart from US and Russian vehicles, and it's Japanese. The fifth Koutonori (White Stork) cargo vehicle was successfully launched to...
12:00 am - Thu, August 20, 2015
Slashdot
Google Targets Low-Cost Android One Phone At African Markets
jfruh writes: In order to meet its goal of bringing Android to five billion users, Google needs to get smartphones into the hands of people in the developing world. The company's Android One program a...
10:00 pm - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Linus Torvalds Isn't Looking 10 Years Ahead For Linux and That's OK
darthcamaro writes: At the Linuxcon conference in Seattle today, Linus Torvalds responded to questions about Linux security and about the next 10 years of Linux. For security, Torvalds isn't too worri...
10:00 pm - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Former Rep. Louis Stokes, the Man Who Saved the Space Station, Dies At Age 90
MarkWhittington writes: The Associated Press noted the passing of former Rep. Louis Stokes at the age of 90. Since Stokes was an African American Democrat first elected in 1968, most of the accolades ...
10:00 pm - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Another Slew of Science Papers Retracted Because of Fraud
schwit1 writes: A major scientific publisher has retracted 64 articles in 10 journals after discovering that the so-called independent peer reviewers for these articles were fabricated by the authors ...
08:00 pm - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Could the Best Windows 10 Laptop Be a Mac?
dkatana writes: Now that Windows 10 is finally out there many people are looking for the best laptop with the power to make the new OS shine. The sweet spot appears to be in $900-$1500 machines from D...
08:00 pm - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
MIT and Samsung Researching Solid-State Batteries
jones_supa writes: Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Samsung have developed a new approach to one of the three basic components of batteries, the electrolyte. The new findings a...
08:00 pm - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Two Arrests In Denmark For Spreading Information About Popcorn Time
An anonymous reader writes: You may recall Popcorn Time, the software that integrated torrents with a streaming media player. It fell afoul of the law quite quickly, but survived and stabilized. Now, ...
06:00 pm - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
The Crowdfunded Board Game Renaissance
An anonymous reader writes: FiveThirtyEight has an article about the surging popularity of new board games, which is being boosted by campaigns on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Si...
06:00 pm - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Interviews: Ask Dr. Tarek Loubani About Creating Ultra-Low Cost Medical Devices
Tarek Loubani is an emergency medicine physician who works as aconsultant doctor in the emergency departments in London, Canada and Shifa Hospital in Gaza. He is also an assistantprofessor at the Depa...
04:00 pm - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Air Traffic Snafu: FAA System Runs Out of Memory
minstrelmike writes: Over the weekend, hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled in the Washington, D.C. area after air traffic systems malfunctioned. Now, the FAA says the problem was related to a...
04:00 pm - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
New Genes May Arise From Junk DNA
An anonymous reader writes: Junk DNA (or noncoding DNA) is a term for section of a DNA strand that doesn't actually do much. Huge tracts of the human genome consist of junk DNA, and researchers are no...
04:00 pm - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Intel Discloses Detailed Skylake Architecture Enhancements
MojoKid writes: Intel is still keeping a number of details regarding its complete Skylake microarchitecture and product line-up under wraps for a few more weeks, but at a public session at IDF, some o...
02:00 pm - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Researchers Grow Tiny Human Brain In Lab
schwit1 writes: A team of researchers from Ohio State University claim to have grown a human brain in their lab that approximates the brain of a five-week-old fetus. They say the tiny brain is not con...
02:00 pm - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Another Wave of Publications Shut Down Online Comments
AmiMoJo writes: The debate about comment sections on news sites is often as divisive as the comments themselves. Recently outlets such as The Verge and The Daily Dot have closed their comments section...
02:00 pm - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Italian City To Dump OpenOffice For Microsoft After Four Years
An anonymous reader writes: Between 2011 and 2014, the municipality of Pesaro, Italy, trained up its 500 employees to use OpenOffice. However, last year the organization decided to switch back to Micr...
12:00 pm - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Debian Founder: How I Came To Find Linux
An anonymous reader writes: Ian Murdock has pretty solid open source cred: in 1993 he founded Debian, he was the CTO of Progeny and the Linux Foundation, and he helped pave the way for OpenSolaris. He...
10:00 am - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
New Tool Allows Scientists To Annotate Media Coverage of Climate Change
Layzej writes: Have you ever been skeptical of a climate change story presented by a major media outlet? A new tool holds journalists to account for the veracity of their stories. "Using the Climate F...
08:00 am - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Sprint Drops Two-Year Contracts
An anonymous reader writes: Following the recent news that Verizon has ended smartphone subsidies, now Sprint has announced it is ending two-year contracts as well. This leaves AT&T as the last of...
06:00 am - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Hackers Publish Cheating Site's Stolen Data
pdclarry notes that many news outlets are reporting that 9.7 GB of data stolen from cheating website AshleyMadison.com has been published online. "The dump contains files with titles including 'aminno...
04:00 am - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Microsoft Patches Remote Code Execution Hole for Internet Explorer
mask.of.sanity writes: Microsoft has released an out-of-band patch for Internet Explorer versions seven to 11 that closes a dangerous remote code execution flaw allowing attackers to commandeer machin...
02:00 am - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
IBM 'TrueNorth' Neuro-Synaptic Chip Promises Huge Changes -- Eventually
JakartaDean writes: Each of IBM's "TrueNorth" chips contains 5.4 billion transistors and runs on 70 milliwatts. The chips are designed to behave like neurons—the basic building blocks of biologi...
12:00 am - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Enormous Red Sprites Seen From Space
astroengine writes: A gorgeous photo, captured from the International Space Station on the night of Aug. 10, 2015, shows an orbital view of thunderstorms over the city lights of southern Mexico as a r...
12:00 am - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Intel Promises 'Optane' SSDs Based On Technology Faster Than Flash In 2016
holy_calamity writes: Intel today announced that it will introduce SSDs based on a new non-volatile memory that is significantly faster than flash in 2016. A prototype was shown operating at around se...
12:00 am - Wed, August 19, 2015
Slashdot
Bitcoin Fork Divides Community
HughPickens.com writes: The Bitcoin community is facing one of the most momentous decisions in its six-year history. The Bitcoin network is running out of spare capacity, and two increasingly divided ...
10:00 pm - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
Mice Brainpower Boosted With Alteration of a Single Gene
Zothecula writes: By altering a single gene to inhibit the activity of an enzyme called phosphodiesterase (PDE4B), researchers have given mice the opportunity to see what an increase in intelligence i...
10:00 pm - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
Windows Memory Manager To Introduce Compression
jones_supa writes: Even though the RTM version of Windows 10 is already out of the door, Microsoft will keep releasing beta builds of the operating system to Windows Insiders. The first one will be bu...
08:00 pm - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
FCC Fines Smart City $750K For Blocking Wi-Fi
schwit1 writes: FCC's Enforcement Bureau today announced a $750,000 settlement with Smart City Holdings, LLC for blocking consumers' Wi-Fi at various convention centers around the United States. Smart...
08:00 pm - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
AMD Still Struggling With Linux Gaming
An anonymous reader writes: AMD's Linux gaming performance has been embarrassingly bad, and it doesn't look like there's any quick remedy. Virtual Programming just released Dirt: Showdown for Linux, a...
08:00 pm - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
Google Announces a Router: OnHub
An anonymous reader writes: Google has announced they're working with TP-LINK to build a new router they call OnHub. They say it's designed for the way we tend to use Wi-Fi in 2015, optimizing for str...
06:00 pm - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
Revisiting How Much RAM Is Enough Today For Desktop Computing
jjslash writes: An article at TechSpot tests how much RAM you need for regular desktop computing and how it affects performance in apps and games. As it turns out, there's not much benefit going beyon...
06:00 pm - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
Intel Skylake Gen9 Series Graphics Architecture Unveiled
MojoKid writes: Intel's Skylake is here and the new architecture comprises Intel's 6th generation Core line of CPUs. In recent testing it was confirmed that Intel's Skylake-based Core i7-6700K is the ...
06:00 pm - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
Multiple Vulnerabilities Exposed In Pocket
vivaoporto writes: Clint Ruoho reports on gnu.gl blog the process of discovery, exploitation and reporting of multiple vulnerabilities in Pocket, the third party web-based service chosen by Mozilla (w...
04:00 pm - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
Jason Scott of Textfiles.com Is Trying To Save a Huge Storage Room of Manuals
martiniturbide writes: Remember Jason Scott of Textfiles.com, who wanted your AOL & Shovelware CDs earlier this year? Right now -- at this moment! -- he trying to save the manuals in a huge storag...
04:00 pm - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
The Tech Problems Inside Nintendo's Amiibo Toys
An anonymous reader writes: Nintendo's line of amiibo figurines are coveted by fans and collectors, even scalpers and robbers, with some harder to come by models fetching high sums on auction sites. B...
04:00 pm - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
The Agonizingly Slow Decline of Adobe's Flash Player
harrymcc writes: Security and performance issues with Adobe's Flash Player have led to countless calls for its abandonment. But a significant percentage of major sites still use it--and many of those ...
02:00 pm - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
Uber Lowers Drunk Driving Arrests In San Francisco Dramatically
schwit1 writes: According to crime statistics from the San Francisco Police Department there were only two drunken driving arrests last New Year's Eve in San Francisco, the lowest since 2009. This new...
02:00 pm - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
US No-Fly List Uses 'Predictive Judgement' Instead of Hard Evidence
HughPickens.com writes: The Guardian reports that in a little-noticed filing before an Oregon federal judge, the US Justice Department and the FBI conceded that stopping U.S. and other citizens from t...
02:00 pm - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
Splitscreen Gaming Is a Culture, Not a Mode
SlappingOysters writes: Grab It discusses the loss of splitscreen gaming to the Halo series in this article that asks developer 343 Industries to re-evaluate its position on cutting the feature. The d...
12:00 pm - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
Trump Targets the Abuse of H-1B Visas
An anonymous reader writes: As part of Trumps comprehensive immigration overhaul, his plan not only addresses immigrants who enter or stay in the country illegally, but also the H-1B visa program and ...
10:00 am - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
Implanted Optogenetic Light Switch Lets Scientists Flip Neurons On and Off
the_newsbeagle writes: Optogenetics is a fairly new (and fairly awesome) research tool for neuroscientists: By using light to jolt certain neurons into action, they can study how those neurons functio...
08:00 am - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
Breathing Beijing's Air Is the Equivalent of Smoking Almost 40 Cigarettes a Day
iONiUM writes: The Economist has a story about how bad the air quality is in Beijing. Due to public outcry the Chinese government has created almost 1,000 air quality monitoring stations, and the find...
06:00 am - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
You Can Have My TIPs When You Pry Them From My Cold, Dead Hands
szczys writes: Should you trash brand new parts developed decades ago and adopt newer models? The argument centers around TIP parts which are a standard type of transistor developed in 1969. This deba...
04:00 am - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
Mars One CEO Insists, Our Mars Colonization Plan Is Feasible
szotz writes: Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp has a bizarre definition of the word "plan". Last week he debated two MIT aerospace engineers who were co-authors on a report that said that astronauts would su...
02:00 am - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
Wuala Encrypted Cloud-Storage Service Shuts Down
New submitter craigtp writes: Wuala, one of the more trusted cloud-storage services that employed encryption for your files, is shutting down. Users of the service will have until 15th November 2015 t...
12:00 am - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
DirectX 12 Performance Tested In Ashes of the Singularity
Vigile writes: The future of graphics APIs lies in DirectX 12 and Vulkan, both built to target GPU hardware at a lower level than previously available. The advantages are better performance, better ef...
12:00 am - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
"Father Time" Gets Another Year At NTP From Linux Foundation
dkatana writes: Harlan Stenn, Father Time to some and beleaguered maintainer of the Network Time Protocol (NTP) to others, will stay working for the NTP another year. But there is concern that support...
12:00 am - Tue, August 18, 2015
Slashdot
How an Obscure Acronym Helped Link AT&T To NSA Spying
netbuzz writes: Slashdot on Saturday highlighted a story by Pro Publica and the New York Times that used Snowden documents to reveal previously unknown details of the "highly collaborative" relationsh...
10:00 pm - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
WearDuino Uses Arduinos to Make Wearable Medical Sensors (Video)
WearDuino, now being developed by PDX Wearable Health Lab, is the brainchild of Mark Leavitt, MD, PhD; "an experimenter, maker, mentor and consultant in wearable health technologies, drawing on his li...
10:00 pm - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
Google's Project Sunroof Tells You How Well Solar Would Work On Your Roof
An anonymous reader writes: Google's Project Sunroof aims to make the task of installing solar panels easier by providing financial advice and stats on what solar energy could do for you. The project ...
10:00 pm - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
Debate Over Amazon Working Conditions Goes Back Years
Nerval's Lobster writes: This weekend, The New York Times published a lengthy report about working conditions for white-collar workers at Amazon. Describing the e-commerce giant as a "bruising workpla...
08:00 pm - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
Android M's Official Name Is Marshmallow
An anonymous reader writes: As they've done in the past, Google has revealed the name for the upcoming version of Android with a new statue in front of its headquarters. Android's sixth version will b...
08:00 pm - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
BitTorrent Clients Can Be Made To Participate In High-Volume DoS Attacks
An anonymous reader writes: A group of researchers have discovered some of the most popular BitTorrent applications, including uTorrent, Mainline, and Vuze are vulnerable to a newly discovered form of...
06:00 pm - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: Buying a Car That's Safe From Hackers?
An anonymous reader writes: I'm in the market for a new car, and I've been going through the typical safety checklist: airbag coverage, crash test results, collision mitigation systems, etc. Unfortuna...
06:00 pm - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
Virginia Ditches 'America's Worst Voting Machines'
Geoffrey.landis writes: Computerized voting machines are bad news in general, but the WINVote machines used in Virginia might just have earned their reputation as the most insecure voting machine in A...
06:00 pm - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
Interviews: Ask Engineer and L5 Society Cofounder Keith Henson a Question
Keith Henson is an electrical engineer and writer on space engineering, space law, cryonics, and evolutionary psychology. He co-founded the L5 society in 1975, which sought to promote space colonizati...
04:00 pm - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
Police Training Lacks Scientific Input
An anonymous reader writes: Police have been under a microscope over the past year for their involvement in some high-profile shootings. We've heard over and over that police need more and better trai...
04:00 pm - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
Data-Crunching Could Kill Your Downtime At Work
An anonymous reader writes: How many of you are reading this at work? One of the unspoken perks of many white collar jobs is that you can waste time while still appearing productive. Workplaces are aw...
04:00 pm - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
The Network Is Hostile
An anonymous reader writes: Following this weekend's news that AT&T was as friendly with the NSA as we've suspected all along, cryptographer Matthew Green takes a step back to look at the broad le...
02:00 pm - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
IBM Launches Linux-Only Mainframes
An anonymous reader writes: IBM is introducing two mainframe servers that only run on Linux. It's part of a new initiative from the Linux Foundation called the Open Mainframe Project. "The idea is tha...
02:00 pm - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
Rupert Murdoch Won't Be Teaching Your Children To Code After All
theodp writes: Plans for Rupert Murdoch & Co. to teach your children to code just hit a bump in the road. Murdoch's News Corp. last week announced it plans to exit the education business as it ann...
02:00 pm - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
'Drinkable Book' Pages Clean Dirty Drinking Water
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists have developed what they're calling the "Drinkable Book," which contains pages that can be torn out and used to effectively filter drinking water. The book has j...
10:00 am - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
Could a Digital Pen Change How We Diagnose Brain Function?
An anonymous reader writes: By using custom tracking software to monitor the output from a digital pen, MIT researchers say they have found a way to better predict the onset of brain conditions like A...
08:00 am - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
F-35 Might Be Outperformed By Fourth-Generation Fighters
savuporo writes: Defensetech.org posted a story relaying a report from National Security Network titled "Thunder without Lightning: The High Costs and Limited Benefits of the F-35 Program". According ...
04:00 am - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
SteamOS Has Dropped Support For Suspend
jones_supa writes: As pointed out by a Redditor, it seems that suspending the machine is not officially supported by SteamOS anymore. A SteamOS user opened a bug report due to his controllers being un...
02:00 am - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
Georgia Aquarium Battles Federal Government Over Belugas
An anonymous reader writes: The Georgia Aquarium has argued in court that the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration's denial of its permit to import beluga whales from Russia was arbitrary...
12:00 am - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
The Promise of 5G
An anonymous reader writes: From instant monitoring of leaking pipelines, to real-time worldwide collaboration, the increase in machine-to-machine communications that 5G allows will change the way we ...
12:00 am - Mon, August 17, 2015
Slashdot
Legal Scholars Warn Against 10 Year Prison For Online Pirates
An anonymous reader writes: The UK Government wants to increase the maximum prison sentence for online copyright infringement from two years to ten. A number legal experts and activists are pushing ba...
10:00 pm - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: How To "Prove" a Work Is Public Domain?
New submitter eporue writes: YouTube claims that I haven't been able to prove that I have commercial rights to this video of Superman. They are asking me to submit documentation saying "We need to ver...
08:00 pm - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
The 10th Anniversary of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
An anonymous reader writes: The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is celebrating 10 years of service in its mission to study Mars from orbit. Recently it has discovered an ancient lake that might hold...
08:00 pm - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
How 'Rock Star' Became a Business Buzzword
HughPickens.com writes: Carina Chocano writes in the NYT that once, a long time ago, a rock star was a free-spirited, convention-flouting artist/rebel/hero/Dionysian fertility god who fronted a world-...
06:00 pm - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
Donald Trump Thinks Going To Mars Would Be "Wonderful" But There Is a Catch
MarkWhittington writes: Donald Trump, the mercurial real estate tycoon and media personality who, much to the surprise of one and all, has become the front-runner for the Republican nomination for pre...
06:00 pm - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
Ecuador Declares State of Emergency Over Volcano
An anonymous reader writes: The President of Ecuador declared a state of emergency following growing fears over the increasing activity in the Cotopaxi volcano. Rafael Correa ordered the evacuation of...
04:00 pm - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
The 2015 Underhanded C Contest Has Begun
Xcott Craver writes: The 8th Underhanded C Contest is now underway. The goal of the Underhanded C Contest is to write C code that is as readable, clear, innocent and straightforward as possible, but w...
04:00 pm - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
Death Star Science: The Physics Of Destroying An Earth-Sized Planet
StartsWithABang writes: The ability to destroy an Alderaan-like (or, ahem, Earth-like) planet has long been the dream of slashdotters everywhere. But generating the power necessary to unbind a planet ...
02:00 pm - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
Is There an Ed-Tech Critic In the House?
theodp writes: Educational technology has been stuck for awhile, laments Hack Education's Audrey Watters in And So, Without Ed-Tech Criticism... (an accompanying 1984 photo of Watters making a LOGO tu...
02:00 pm - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
Registered Clinical Trials Make Positive Findings Vanish
schwit1 writes: The requirement that medical researchers register in detail the methods they intend to use in their clinical trials, both to record their data as well as document their outcomes, cause...
12:00 pm - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
How Weather Modeling Gets Better
Dr_Ish writes: Bob Henson over at Weather Underground has posted a fascinating discussion of the recent improvements made to the major weather models that are used to forecast hurricanes and the like....
10:00 am - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
Health Watchdog To Bring Legal Action Against Soylent Over Lead, Cadmium Levels
An anonymous reader writes: We've previously discussed Soylent, the self-proclaimed "meal replacement." The product has not been without controversy, and now it's likely to see some more: As You Sow, ...
08:00 am - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
Paywalled Science Journals Under Fire Again
The Real Dr John sends this report from The Guardian:Emeritus professor Stephen Leeder was sacked by the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) in April after challenging a decision to outsource some of t...
04:00 am - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales Is Now Chairing Lessig's Presidential Bid
Funksaw sends a followup to Tuesday's news that Lawrence Lessig is pondering a presidential campaign: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is now chairing the committee for Lessig's campaign. Wales said, "La...
02:00 am - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
Mozilla Tests Improved Privacy Mode For Firefox
An anonymous reader writes: Firefox's privacy mode stops your computer from keeping track of where you've browsed, but it doesn't do anything about external tracking. A new feature just rolled out to ...
12:00 am - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
XKCD Author's New Unpublished Book Becomes Scientific Best-Seller
An anonymous reader writes: XKCD cartoonist Randall Munroe will be publishing a new book in November, but it's already become Amazon's #1 best-seller in two "Science & Math" subcategories, for mec...
12:00 am - Sun, August 16, 2015
Slashdot
One Petabyte of Data Exposed Via Insecure Big Data Systems
chicksdaddy writes: Behind every big data deployment is a range of supporting technologies like databases and memory caching systems that are used to store and analyze massive data sets at lightning s...
10:00 pm - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
How California Is Winning the Drought
An anonymous reader writes: California is in its fifth year of drought; the past four years have been the driest four-year period in recorded history, and the hottest as well. There have been consiste...
08:00 pm - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
The Realities of a $50 Smartphone
An anonymous reader writes: Google recently reiterated their commitment to the goal of a $50 smartphone in India, and a new article breaks down exactly what that means for the phone's hardware. A budg...
08:00 pm - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
AT&T Helped the NSA Spy On Internet Traffic
An anonymous reader writes: Newly disclosed NSA documents show that the agency gained access to billions of emails through a "highly collaborative" relationship with AT&T. The company provided acc...
06:00 pm - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
The Lingering Effects of Ebola
An anonymous reader writes: The Ebola panic is long past, and the outbreak is well under control. But for the thousands who survived the disease, the suffering continues. "Many survivors are now retur...
06:00 pm - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
Lawsuit Over Two-Word Tweet Moves Forward
An anonymous reader writes: A defamation suit filed by a former Minnesota high school student has gotten approval from a federal judge to proceed. The suit was filed in response to a suspension issued...
04:00 pm - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
Evolutionary Robotics
schwit1 sends news that researchers from the University of Cambridge have developed robots that emulate natural selection. The "mother" robot designs and builds its "child" bots, and then tests them a...
04:00 pm - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
The Challenge of Working At Amazon
An anonymous reader writes: The NY Times has a lengthy exposé on the working conditions within Jeff Bezos's Amazon. "Even as the company tests delivery by drone and ways to restock toilet paper a...
02:00 pm - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
Documents Indicate Apple Is Building a Self-Driving Car
An anonymous reader writes: The Guardian has obtained correspondence through a public records request that indicate Apple is seeking a facility in the San Francisco area to test a self-driving car. "I...
02:00 pm - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
Federal Judge Calls BS On Homeland Security's 2008 STEM 'Emergency'
theodp writes: In 2008, the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security enacted 'emergency' changes to Optional Practical Training (OPT) to extend the amount of time foreign STEM graduates of US colleges could st...
12:00 pm - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
New Rules From the FCC Open Up New Access To Wi-Fi
CarlottaHapsburg writes: White space — unused channels in the VHF and UHF spectrum — is already part of daily life, from old telephones to going online at your coffee shop or plugging in b...
10:00 am - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
Google Research Leads To Automated Real-Time Pedestrian Detection
An anonymous reader writes with a link to a story about one of the unexciting but vital bits of technology that will need to be even further developed as autonomous cars' presence grows: making sure t...
06:00 am - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
Motorola Quickly Shows Next Moto 360 Smartwatch, 'Flat Tire' Display Lives On
MojoKid writes: Will they or won't they continue on with the 'flat tire' display? That's been the big question surrounding Motorola's next generation Moto 360 smartwatch. Today, we finally learn the a...
04:00 am - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
Can Cuba Skip Cell Phone Connectivity?
lpress writes: Cuba has a second generation cellular network and Internet access is limited to about 5% of the population via work and school accounts and (mostly dial up) access in a few homes, so it...
02:00 am - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
London Deploys Cycle Superhighways Despite "Old Men In Limos"
dkatana writes: London's mayor Boris Johnson had to fight its way through stiff resistance to the new Cycle Superhighways to see his vision of a cycling capital become reality. Detractors included the...
12:00 am - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
HBO, Netflix, and Amazon Targeting Kids
An anonymous reader writes: The latest high-profile show to join one of the major streaming services probably isn't one you watch: Sesame Street. However, it's a clear signal for a growing trend: thes...
12:00 am - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
How to Quash Firefox's Silent Requests
An anonymous reader writes: Unlike older versions of Firefox, more recent versions will make a request to a destination server just by hovering over a link. No CSS, no JavaScript, no prefetch required...
12:00 am - Sat, August 15, 2015
Slashdot
Commodore Smartphone Hits Trademark Opposition
damnbunni writes: As reported on amiga-news.de, it appears that Massimo Canigiani didn't license the Commodore trademarks before announcing that Commodore PET Smartphone. The company that actually own...
10:00 pm - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Astronomers Discover Nearby 'Young Jupiter' Exoplanet
An anonymous reader writes: Astronomers from Stanford and the Kavli Institute have discovered a new exoplanet orbiting 51 Eridani that strongly resembles a young Jupiter. They say its similarities cou...
10:00 pm - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
FreeBSD 10.2 Released
moderators_are_w*nke writes with news that FreeBSD 10.2-RELEASE is now available. Here is the download page, the release notes, and release errata. Features highlights:The resolvconf(8) utility has be...
10:00 pm - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Octopus Genome Sequenced
An anonymous reader writes: A large, international team of researchers has completed the full sequencing of the octopus genome. "The researchers discovered striking differences between the genomes of ...
08:00 pm - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
'My Name is C.H.I.P. and I'll Be Your $9 Computer Today' (Video)
Think of C.H.I.P as a tablet computer that runs Linux instead of Android, "without the tablet bits," says interviewee Dave, who gave a talk -- which was mostly live demos -- at OSCON 2015. 50,000 C.H....
08:00 pm - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Former Employees Accuse Kaspersky Lab of Faking Malware
An anonymous reader writes: Reuters reports that two former employees of Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab faked malware to damage the reputations of their rivals. The alleged campaign targeted Microsoft, AV...
08:00 pm - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Windows 10 Still Phones Home With Data In Spite of Privacy Settings
Penguinisto writes: According to Ars Technica, Windows 10 will still send telemetry and other data to Microsoft-owned domains — no matter how tightly you crank down the privacy settings. Even wi...
06:00 pm - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Physical Books Successfully Coexisting With Ebooks
An anonymous reader writes: When ebooks experienced their meteoric rise a few years ago, many were predicting the death of physical books. Early sales figures seemed to bear that out — ebooks ke...
06:00 pm - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
UK Industry Group Boss: Study Arts So Games Are Not Designed By 'Spotty Nerds'
nickweller writes: John Cridland is the leader of the Confederation of British Industry, a group that represents over 100,000 UK businesses. In a recent interview, he spoke about his enthusiasm for ad...
04:00 pm - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
CNN and CBC Sued For Pirating YouTube Video
vivaoporto sends word that in a rare case of an individual taking on large corporations for copyright infrigement, a New York man has sued news networks CNN and CBC after they took a video of his from...
04:00 pm - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Rosetta Probe's Comet Reaches Closest Approach To the Sun
An anonymous reader writes: The European Space Agency has released pictures taken by the Rosetta probe at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko as it reached closest approach to the Sun. The comet has...
04:00 pm - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Cheap, 3D-Printed Stethoscope Challenges Top-of-the-Line Model
mask.of.sanity writes: Tarek Loubani, an emergency physician working in the Gaza strip, has 3D-printed a 30-cent stethoscope that beats the world's best $200 equivalent as part of a project to bottom-...
02:00 pm - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Australian Courts Make Life Hard For Dallas Buyers Club Copyright Owner
New submitter Harlequin80 writes: There has been a significant update in the landmark case between the Dallas Buyers Club (DBC) and iiNet, an ISP in Australia, where DBC has been trying to blaze new t...
02:00 pm - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
How Microsoft Built, and Is Still Building, Windows 10
An anonymous reader writes with this Venturebeat story about how Windows 10 is different from previous versions because of the way it was designed, including 15 public preview builds, and how much wor...
02:00 pm - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
SAP Paid Bribes To Panamanian Officials
jfruh writes: A former SAP exec has pled guilty to bribing Panamanian officials in a successful attempt to sell SAP licenses to the Panamanian government. Vicente Eduardo Garcia, SAP's former vice pre...
12:00 pm - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Hands On Samsung's New Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy Note 5 At Unpacked New York
MojoKid writes: Samsung held their Unpacked 2015 event in New York City today and the company unveiled its latest flagship, big-screen smartphones, the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note5. Immediately fo...
10:00 am - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Off-Grid Home Ecocapsule To Hit the Market This Year
Kristine Lofgren writes: If you dream of living totally off-the-grid anywhere in the world, you need to get your hands on this home. Nice Architects just unveiled their incredible egg-shaped Ecocapsul...
08:00 am - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
England To Test "Electric Motorways"
DaneTerry88 writes: Highways England plans to test under-road wireless charging equipment that could be buried beneath motorways to top-up cars as they drive. Charge-as-you-drive technologies have alr...
06:00 am - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Climatologists: By 2100, the Earth Will Have an Entirely Different Ocean
merbs writes: The ocean is in the midst of radical, manmade change. It can seem kind of crazy that one of the most immense properties on Earth—the ocean washes over 71 percent of the planet&mdas...
04:00 am - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Facebook CIO Discusses Zuckerberg's "Will You Resign?" Email
CarlaRudder writes: When Mark Zuckerberg sends an email with the subject line, "Will you resign?" people remember it. In this case, the email went to the entire company after someone leaked damaging i...
02:00 am - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Oracle: Google Has "Destroyed" the Market For Java
itwbennett writes: Oracle made a request late last month to broaden its case against Android. Now, claiming that 'Android has now irreversibly destroyed Java's fundamental value proposition as a poten...
12:00 am - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Stagefright Patch Incomplete and Zero Day in Android Google Admin App Found
msm1267 writes: A patch distributed by Google for the infamous Stagefright vulnerability found in 950 million Android devices is incomplete and users remain exposed to simple attacks targeting the fla...
12:00 am - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Clinical Trials Begin For Russia's First Medical Exoskeleton
pRobotika writes: Seven hundred people volunteered to try out the ExoAtlet when the Russian startup advertised its imminent clinical trials. Only a handful of these could be accommodated when testing ...
12:00 am - Fri, August 14, 2015
Slashdot
Samsung Pay Launches In Korea In August, US In September
Mark Wilson writes: The main thrust of Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event was to launch the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+, but the company also provided some details about Samsung Pay. With so many s...
10:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: Best Big Battery Phone?
An anonymous reader writes: Samsung's announcement today of the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6+ was a disappointment to a lot of power users. The phones both use a 3,000 mAh, non-removable battery. This ...
10:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Nintendo Fires Employee For Speaking About Job On a Podcast
An anonymous reader writes: You may not have heard of Chris Pranger before, but he's one of the localizers that works to bring Nintendo games over to the west. He recently talked about the localizatio...
10:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Robotic Lawn Mower Gets Regulatory Approval
Dave Knott writes with news that US regulators have given iRobot clearance to make and sell an unmanned lawn mower.The company, known for its robot vacuum cleaner Roomba, has designed a robot lawn mow...
08:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
'Banned' Article About Faulty Immobilizer Chip Published After Two Years
An anonymous reader writes: In 2012, three computer security researchers Roel Verdult, Flavio D. Garcia and Baris Ege discovered weaknesses in the Megamos chip, which is widely used in immobilizers fo...
08:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Printing Flexible Lithium-Ion Batteries
ckwu writes: The designs of pacemakers, watches, and other wearable gadgets have to be tailored around existing battery shapes, such as cylinders, coin cells, and rectangles. But a team of researchers...
06:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Redefining Security Visualization With Hollywood UI Design
An anonymous reader writes: Most security interfaces today leave a lot to be desired, and many security pros are gaming enthusiasts, accustomed to a sharp and engaging virtual world. ProtectWise CEO S...
06:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
The UK's War On Porn: Turning ISPs Into Parents
New submitter SMABSA writes: With British Prime Minister David Cameron announcing plans for porn users to be required to register their bank account/debit card as a means of age verification, Spiked-O...
06:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Interviews: Game Designer Steve Jackson Answers Your Questions
A while ago you had the chance to ask Steve Jackson, founder and editor-in-chief of Steve Jackson Games, about the numerous games he's created, his efforts to digitize those games, and what to do when...
04:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Time Runs Out On Sweden's Sexual Assault Charges Against Julian Assange
As the Guardian and many other sources report, the clock has run out on the three 2010 charges of sexual assault on which Swedish authorities had hoped try Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Assange ha...
04:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
New IP Address Blacklist Based On Web Chatter
itwbennett writes: A new approach to assembling blacklists analyzes chatter on the dark and open Web and can find malicious IP addresses that would have been missed using honeypots and intrusion detec...
04:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Facebook Intern Gets Preemptive Ax For Exposing Security Flaw
Engadget reports that Harvard student Aran Khanna, who was about to begin an internship at Facebook, had that internship yanked after he created (and took down, but evidently too slowly for the compan...
02:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Facebook Awards Researchers $100k For Detecting Emerging Class of C Bugs
An anonymous reader writes: Facebook has awarded $100,000 to a team of researchers from Georgia Tech University for their discovery of a new method for identifying "bad-casting" vulnerabilities that a...
02:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
California Fights Drought With 96 Million "Shade Balls"
HughPickens.com writes: Katie Rogers writes in the NY Times that the city of Los Angeles is releasing 96 million plastic "shade balls" into the 175-acre Los Angeles Reservoir to help block sunlight an...
02:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Airline Begins Weighing Passengers For 'safety'
New submitter Lopsemily writes to note that passengers on Uzbekistan Airways may face a new pre-flight check: In a recent statement, the country's flag carrier announced it will weigh passengers and t...
02:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Don't Hate the Phone Call, Hate the Phone (And the Network)
Ever screamed at your phone, or wanted to, when it can't handle the basic job of linking you to another person by voice? antdude writes to say that The Atlantic has posted a long article titled "Don't...
12:00 pm - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
The History of the Patent Troll
An anonymous reader writes: Patent trolling is not a new problem, although recently it seems that the issue has captured the attention of a broader audience. Four years ago, NPR produced an episode of...
10:00 am - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Spoken Language Could Tap Into "universal Code"
sciencehabit writes: While we know a lot about language but we know relatively little about how speech developed. Most linguists agree that a combination of movement and sound like grunts and pointing...
08:00 am - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Russian Government Threatening To Block Reddit Over Cannabis
An anonymous reader writes: The Russian Government is threatening to block the social linking site Reddit across its country if they do not comply with removing a thread dedicated to growing cannabis....
06:00 am - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Fossil CEO: Wearables Smothering Swiss Watch Business
itwbennett writes: I think technology and the whole idea of wearables ... has taken some of the oxygen out of the Swiss business,' Fossil CEO Kosta Kartsotis told analysts on a call to discuss the wat...
02:00 am - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Samsung Unveils V-NAND High Performance SSDs, Fast NVMe Card At 5.5GB Per Second
MojoKid writes: Sometimes it's the enterprise sector that gets dibs on the coolest technology, and so it goes with a trio of TCO-optimized, high-performance solid state drives from Samsung that were j...
02:00 am - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
GitHub Desktop Launches To Replace Mac and Windows Apps
An anonymous reader writes: GitHub today launched a unified desktop version for Mac and Windows — you can download it from desktop.github.com. GitHub Desktop will automatically replace the previ...
12:00 am - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
"Chaotic Architecture" At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
New submitter CarlaRudder writes: NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) is ditching old, rigid, legacy tools and adopting a much more flexible approach that allows people within the company to pick and choo...
12:00 am - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Drone Racing League Receives a $1 Million From Miami Dolphins Owner
An anonymous reader writes: Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is investing $1 million in drone racing. The Drone Racing League (DRL), a New York startup, announced the investment today. The league hop...
12:00 am - Thu, August 13, 2015
Slashdot
Tel Aviv Has Become a "Beta City" For New Technology
dkatana writes: Hila Oren, founder and CEO of Tel Aviv Global, part of the city government, writes an an Op-Ed for "Cities of the Future" where she details how, based on citizen participation and unpr...
10:00 pm - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Will Ad Blockers Kill the Digital Media Industry?
HughPickens.com writes: Michael Rosenwald writes at the Columbia Journalism Review that global online ad revenue continues to rise, reaching nearly $180 billion last year. But analysts say the rise of...
10:00 pm - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Tim O'Reilly and the 'WTF?!' Economy (Video)
This is a conversation Tim Lord had with Tim O'Reilly at OSCON. Tim O'Reilly wrote an article titled "The WTF Economy,", which started with these words: "WTF?! In San Francisco, Uber has 3x the revenu...
10:00 pm - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Brain Scan Predicts the Success of Social Anxiety Disorder Treatment
jan_jes writes: MIT researchers performed brain scans on 38 SAD patients and were able to predict with about 80% accuracy which patients would do well in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Use of the...
08:00 pm - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Fitbit Wants To Help Corporations Track Employee Health
jfruh writes: Fitbit is pitching its iconic fitness trackers to businesses as a tool to save money on health care costs. Many companies have wellness programs to encourage workers to exercise more, an...
08:00 pm - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
The LibreOffice Story
An anonymous reader writes: Jono Bacon in his latest column writes about the story of LibreOffice and how it rose out of the ashes of StarOffice and OpenOffice.org. Bacon also touches on why he feels ...
08:00 pm - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
The Fastest-Growing Tech State Is... Minnesota
Nerval's Lobster writes: What's the fastest-growing state for technology jobs? You might be tempted to say California or New York, or even North Carolina. But according to new data from the U.S. Burea...
06:00 pm - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Samsung Researchers Propose 4,600 Micro-Satellite Space Network
Bismillah writes: Samsung Electronics has proposed a network consisting of 4,600 micro-satellites that could act as backhaul for terrestrial cellular networks and take low-cost internet access worldwi...
06:00 pm - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Thunderstrike2 Details Revealed
An anonymous reader writes: Prior to DefCon and BlackHat, we learned that Trammell Hudson had developed a firmware worm for Apple machines that could spread over Thunderbolt hardware accessories. Now ...
04:00 pm - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Broken Windows 10 Update Causes Reboot Loops For Some Users
An anonymous reader writes: The Guardian reports that some early adopters of Windows 10 are finding their computers stuck in a reboot loop after installing a particular update. KB3081424 is a cumulati...
04:00 pm - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Massachusetts Embraces Philanthropy-Funded K-12 CS Education
theodp writes: The Boston Globe reports that after more than two years of lobbying, the Massachusetts Computing Attainment Network (MassCAN) — an advocacy group comprised of Boston-area execs fr...
04:00 pm - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Lenovo Installed Software On Laptops That Persisted After Complete Wipes
An anonymous reader writes: The Next Web has confirmed reports from owners of Lenovo laptops that the company used a BIOS feature to install its software on the laptops even if a user wiped a device c...
02:00 pm - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Clinton Surrendering Email Server/Data To Feds After Top Secret Mail Found
An anonymous reader writes: Hillary Clinton's lawyer has surrendered three thumb drives with copies of emails from her server to the Justice Department, which is also where the controversial Clinton p...
02:00 pm - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Russian Missile Parts Found At MH17 Crash Site
An anonymous reader sends this report from the BBC: Fragments of a suspected Russian missile system have been found at the Flight MH17 crash site in Ukraine, investigators in the Netherlands say. They...
02:00 pm - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Ubuntu Phones Now Available Worldwide (On Some Networks)
An anonymous reader writes: When Canonical's phone-centric adaptation of Ubuntu first made it onto devices last year, it received a mostly "wait-and-see" reception. For anyone outside Europe, they did...
12:00 pm - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Tech Firms, Retailers Propose Security and Privacy Rules For Internet of Things
chicksdaddy writes: As the Obama Administration and the rest of the federal bureaucracy hem and haw about whether and how to regulate the fast-growing Internet of Things, a group representing private ...
10:00 am - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
US Busts Insider Trading Hackers
An anonymous reader sends news that U.S. authorities have dispersed an insider trading ring that broke into remote servers to grab press releases before their official publishing date. The group hacke...
08:00 am - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
'Privacy Visor' Can Fool Face-Recognition Cameras
itwbennett writes: Dark shades aren't enough to go incognito in the age of face recognition camera systems. For that you need the Privacy Visor developed at Japan's National Institute of Informatics. ...
06:00 am - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
OpenSSH 7.0 Released
An anonymous reader writes: Today the OpenSSH project maintainers announced the release of version 7.0. This release is focusing on deprecating weak and unsafe cryptographic methods, though some of th...
04:00 am - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Cisco Developing Royalty Free Video Codec: Thor
An anonymous reader writes: Video codec licensing has never been great, and it's gotten even more complicated and expensive in recent years. While H.264 had a single license pool and an upper bound on...
02:00 am - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Kali Linux 2.0 Released
An anonymous reader writes: Kali Linux 2.0 has been released, together which an assortment of interesting new features. Most importantly, Kali is now a rolling distribution, using Debian Testing as th...
12:00 am - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
MIT Designs Less Expensive Fusion Reactor That Boosts Power Tenfold
jan_jes writes: Advances in magnet technology have enabled researchers at MIT to propose a new design for a practical compact tokamak (donut-shaped) fusion reactor. The stronger magnetic field makes i...
12:00 am - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Our Early Solar System May Have Been Home To a Fifth Giant Planet
sciencehabit writes: A cluster of icy bodies in the same region as Pluto could be proof that our early solar system was home to a fifth giant planet, according to new research (abstract). That planet ...
12:00 am - Wed, August 12, 2015
Slashdot
Researchers Fight VR Focus-Switching Headaches
An anonymous reader writes: One of the biggest problems virtual reality headsets have yet to overcome is the headaches they cause in a subset of users. For a lot of users, this is caused by needing to...
10:00 pm - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Hackers Remotely Cut a Corvette's Brakes
An anonymous reader writes: Security researchers presented work at the USENIX conference today showing an easy way to hack into a car's electronics using a small gadget that plugs into modern dashboar...
10:00 pm - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Sending Angry Emails Just Makes You Angrier
An anonymous reader writes: Sending a blistering email can be cathartic. People consistently report feeling better after venting, and doing so over email is no exception. But researchers find those wh...
10:00 pm - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
The NSA's Philosopher
An anonymous reader writes: In 2012, the NSA decided it needed an in-house ethicist to write about the philosophy of surveillance. They searched within the organization for a candidate, finally giving...
08:00 pm - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Prosecutors Op-Ed: Phone Encryption Blocks Justice
New submitter DaDaDaaaaa writes: The New York Times features a joint op-ed piece by prosecutors from Manhattan, Paris, London and Spain, in which they decry the default use by Apple and Google of full...
08:00 pm - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Microsoft Releases Windows 10 IoT Core For Small, Embedded Devices
An anonymous reader writes: One of the more interesting aspects of Microsoft's Windows 10 push is their desire to see it running on hobbyist hardware platforms. Today they released Windows 10 IoT Core...
06:00 pm - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Lawrence Lessig Wants To Run For President So He Can Resign
An anonymous reader writes: Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig has announced his intention to explore a bid for the U.S. presidency. By Labor Day, he will decide whether he has the support necessar...
06:00 pm - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Oracle Exec: Stop Sending Vulnerability Reports
florin writes: Oracle chief security officer Mary Ann Davidson published a most curious rant on the company's corporate blog yesterday, addressing and reprimanding some pesky customers that just will ...
06:00 pm - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Firefox 40 Arrives With Windows 10 Support, Expanded Malware Protection
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla today launched Firefox 40 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Notable additions to the browser include official Windows 10 support, added protection against unwan...
04:00 pm - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Uber Drivers Arrested By Undercover Cops In Hong Kong
The Stack reports that local police have raided Uber's Hong Kong office, "after several officers posed as Uber customers and arrested drivers on Tuesday morning in an attempt to put an end to illegal ...
04:00 pm - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Internet's Deep Infrastructure Could Double As a Sensor Network For Earthquakes and More
citadrianne writes with an article at Motherboard that exposes an interesting under-use of the worldwide physical network that carries Internet traffic. Even though there are many thousands of miles o...
04:00 pm - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
BlackBerry Denies QNX Was To Blame In Jeep Cherokee Hack
itwbennett writes: Last month, security researchers demonstrated how to circumnavigate the in-vehicle entertainment system of the Jeep Cherokee to take over the car itself, including control of the da...
02:00 pm - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
How Many Scientists Does It Take To Write a Paper? Apparently, Thousands
An anonymous reader writes: The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the current spike in number of contributors cedited in scientific journals. The problem is highlighted by a recent physics paper whi...
02:00 pm - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Severe Deserialization Vulnerabilities Found In Android, 3rd Party Android SDKs
An anonymous reader writes: Closely behind the discoveries of the Stagefright flaw, the hole in Android's mediaserver service that can put devices into a coma, and the Certifi-gate bug, comes that of ...
02:00 pm - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Finnish Politician Suggests Embedding Chips In Citizens To Protect the Welfare State
New submitter janit writes that social benefits to Finnish citizens living outside of Finland have in recent days been the cause of controversy, and links to an article which suggests just how much of...
12:00 pm - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Microsoft Creates an AI That Can Spot a Joke In a New Yorker Cartoon
An anonymous reader writes: For over a decade Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor at the New Yorker, and his assistants have gone through 5,000 cartoon entries for the magazine's caption contest each week...
10:00 am - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Breathalyzer Bike Lock Stops Drunken Cyclists In Their Tracks
Zothecula writes: Driving while drunk is a bad idea even on a bike. Slowed reflexes and decreased awareness of the world around them can make a drunk cyclist a danger on the road. Working in much the ...
08:00 am - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Why the Freemium Business Model Isn't What It Used To Be
mattydread23 writes: A few years ago, every enterprise software company was trying freemium — the idea of giving a product away to build users, then charging for additional features. Now, that m...
06:00 am - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Scientists Develop Electronic Skin Sensors For Controlling Mobile Devices
MojoKid writes: Wearables seem to be the "Next big thing" when it comes to consumer electronics devices. But while most current devices put a new tech-infused spin on an old idea like a wristwatch, re...
04:00 am - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Pixar's Universal Scene Description To Be Open-Sourced
An anonymous reader writes: Today Pixar announced their second major open source project, Universal Scene Description. USD is the technology that enables 'hundreds of artists to operate simultaneously...
02:00 am - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: Switching To a GNU/Linux Distribution For a Webdesign School
spadadot writes: I manage a rapidly growing webdesign school in France with 90 computers for our students, dispatched across several locations. By the end on the year it will amount to 200. Currently,...
12:00 am - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Galactic Survey: The Universe Dying as Old Stars Fade Faster Than New Ones Are Born
astroengine writes: A study of more than 200,000 galaxies, encompassing wavelengths of light from the far ultraviolet to infrared, shows that the universe is producing half as much energy as it did 2 ...
12:00 am - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Japan To Restart Nuclear Power Tomorrow After Energy Prices Soar
An anonymous reader writes: After the Fukushima meltdown, all of Japan's nuclear power plants were shutdown, the last in late 2013. This week the government plans on starting up reactor No.1 at the Se...
12:00 am - Tue, August 11, 2015
Slashdot
Google Is Restructuring Under a New Company Called Alphabet
Mark Wilson writes: Sundar Pichai is the new CEO of Google as the company undergoes a huge restructuring. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are moving to a new company called Google Alphabet whic...
10:00 pm - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
New Video Shows Shot Down Drone Hovered For Only 22 Seconds
AmiMoJo writes: The saga of the drone shot down in Kentucky got a little bit longer today. A new video from the drone shot down by William Merideth shows that it only hovered over his property for 22 ...
10:00 pm - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
Continued Cord Cutting Hits the Pay TV Business Hard
An anonymous reader writes: Cord cutting is not a new concern for the pay TV business but a recent massive sell-off in media stocks has many in the industry worried. Cable, satellite and TV companies ...
08:00 pm - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
Google, Facebook and Twitter To Block "Hash Lists" of Child Abuse
An anonymous reader writes: Facebook, Google, and Twitter are teaming up with the UK's Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to share hash lists of blocked indecent images. The move is intended to ensure th...
08:00 pm - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
How Uber Is Changing Life For Women In Saudi Arabia
An anonymous reader writes: Being unable to legally drive is hard for many women in Saudi Arabia, especially working women. With notoriously poor mass transit options, and the stigma attached to women...
08:00 pm - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
Growing Vegetables In Space, NASA Astronauts Tweet Their Lunch
An anonymous reader writes: Astronauts on the International Space Station got their first taste of space-grown lettuce today. It took the astronauts about an hour to harvest and prepare the lettuce bo...
06:00 pm - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
Coca-Cola To Fund Research That Shifts Blame For Obesity Away From Bad Diets
An anonymous reader writes: The NY Times reports that Coca-Cola is teaming up with influential scientists to support research into fighting obesity through other means than improving diet. They've pro...
06:00 pm - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
Manipulating Microsoft WSUS To Attack Enterprises
msm1267 writes: Microsoft's enterprise-grade Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), used to download and distribute security and driver updates, poses a significant weak spot if not configured properl...
06:00 pm - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: Capacity Planning and Performance Management?
An anonymous reader writes: When shops mostly ran on mainframes, it was relatively easy to do capacity planning because systems and programs were mostly monolithic. But today is very different; we use...
04:00 pm - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
OpenGL ES 3.2 & New Extensions Unveiled
An anonymous reader writes: With kicking off ACM SIGGRAPH '15, The Khronos Group came out with several big announcements, including the release of OpenGL ES 3.2 (which incorporates Android AEP functio...
04:00 pm - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
Scotland To Ban GM Crops
An anonymous reader writes: Scotland's rural affairs minister has announced the country will ban the growing of genetically modified crops. He said, "I am concerned that allowing GM crops to be grown ...
04:00 pm - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
Study: Ad Blocker Use Jumps 41 Percent
Mickeycaskill writes: A report from Adobe and anti-ad blocking startup PageFair says the number of ad block users worldwide has increased by 41 percent in the past 12 months to 198 million monthly act...
02:00 pm - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
HTC Doesn't Protect Fingerprint Data
An anonymous reader writes: Biometric authentication is becoming commonplace — fingerprint scanners have been used on laptops for years, and now they're becoming commonplace on phones, as well. ...
02:00 pm - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
Buzz: a Novel Programming Language For Heterogeneous Robot Swarms
New submitter pRobotika writes: Designing the behavior of robot swarms is difficult; the larger the group, the more tricky it is to predict its dynamics and the causes of errors. Buzz is a new open-so...
12:00 pm - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
Stingray-Like Device Enables Blackmail In S. Africa
New submitter PalmAndy writes to note that: South African Police nabbed some criminals using an IMSI catcher device, similar to a Stingray, in Johannesburg. The article says that it was made in Israel...
12:00 pm - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
Chinese Tech Companies Building Factories In India
jfruh writes: Over the past two decades, China's relatively high skill, low cost workforce made the country a powerhouse of tech and electronics manufacturing. But in a sign that things might be chang...
08:00 am - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
Many Australians Forced To Pay For "Unbreakable" Cryptolocker Ransomware
An anonymous reader writes: Australians are paying thousands of dollars to overseas hackers to rid their computers of an unbreakable virus [Cryptolocker]. The deputy chairwoman of the Australian Compe...
04:00 am - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
2.4 Million Customer's Records Stolen From Carphone Warehouse
AmiMoJo writes: The UK's data watchdog is "making inquiries" after Carphone Warehouse said the personal details of up to 2.4 million of its customers may have been accessed in a cyber-attack. Details ...
02:00 am - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
Cortana Can Now Replace Google Now On Android Devices
The Verge reports that Microsoft's Cortana can now be used (at least for beta testers) as a drop-in replacement for the Google Now assistant on Android devices; that means users can select launching C...
12:00 am - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
MIT Researchers Develop 'Real Steel' Robot With Human-Like Reflexes
MojoKid writes: MIT researchers have developed HERMES, an advanced robot that is capable of manipulating objects and environments in nearly the same way as humans do. But this isn't just a project des...
12:00 am - Mon, August 10, 2015
Slashdot
Cuba Uses Big Data To Help Tourism, But Their Networks Lack Capacity
dkatana writes: The Cuban government is very active in reshaping the country's industry, not only focusing on leisure and cultural tourism. The biggest challenge, however, is the quality of Internet c...
10:00 pm - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
Windows 10, From a Linux User's Perspective
Phoronox features today a review of Windows 10 that's a little different from most you might read, because it's specifically from the point of view of an admin who uses both Windows and Linux daily, r...
10:00 pm - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
"Pixels" DMCA Takedown Even Worse Than We Thought
ForgedArtificer writes: So we all know about the Pixels takedown on Vimeo, and that it was pretty bad in a lot of ways. But did you know that they took down the short film that inspired the movie? Tur...
08:00 pm - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
Windows 10 RSAT, Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3 Coming This Month
We've heard a lot lately about the release and reception of Windows 10; however, the Windows family includes more than just the most-seen desktop OS. Mark Wilson writes: Microsoft's Gabe Aul has revea...
08:00 pm - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: How To Safely Use Older Android Phones?
An anonymous reader writes: Like many people reading this site, I have several older phones around as well as my newest, fanciest one; I have a minimal service plan on one of these (my next-to-most-re...
06:00 pm - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
Tech Firm Ubiquiti Suffers $46M Cyberheist
An anonymous reader writes: Brian Krebs reports that Ubiquiti Networks, known for their wireless networking hardware, has lost $46.7 million to a scam in which thieves were able to impersonate employe...
06:00 pm - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
Finnish Police: If You See Uber Car, Call 911
emakinen writes: The police in Helsinki, Finland has announced in a tweet that if you see someone driving Uber car, you should call 911 (or actually, 112 in Finland). In an article in the local newspa...
04:00 pm - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
A Fermilab First: Detecting Oscillating Neutrinos
An announcement at last week's American Physical Society's Division of Particles and Fields conference revealed that Fermilab's NOvA experiment has for the first time observed oscillating neutrinos, w...
04:00 pm - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
Tesla Suffering Cash Flow Issues; Every Model S Means a $4,000 Loss
An anonymous reader writes: The latest reports from Tesla show a trend of missing positive cash flow targets. Despite previous guidance to the contrary, Tesla is losing more than $4000 per car in oper...
02:00 pm - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
Linux Servers' Entropy Pool Too Shallow, Compromising Security
The BBC reports that Black Hat presenters Bruce Potter and Sasha Moore described at this year's Black Hat Briefings a security flaw in Linux servers: too few events are feeding the entropy pool from w...
02:00 pm - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
Anti-Piracy Firm Sends Out Wave of Takedown Notices For Using the Word 'Pixels'
An anonymous reader writes: Columbia Pictures recently released a movie called Pixels to widespread ambivalence. As part of the movie industry's standard intellectual property defense strategy, it hir...
10:00 am - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
The Internet of Compromised Things
An anonymous reader writes: Jeff Atwood has a post about a security threat that's becoming more prevalent every day: spreading malware through a compromised router. "Router malware is the ultimate man...
08:00 am - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks August 12-13
The Perseids have been active in our skies for a couple of weeks already, but the peak of the meteor shower is coming up in just a few days. Overnight at the end of August 12th and the beginning of Au...
04:00 am - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
How To Shoot Down a Drone
gurps_npc writes: Popular Mechanics has a nice article about how to shoot down a non-military drone. Interestingly enough, a Super Soaker will do the job while a standard paint gun does nothing. It do...
02:00 am - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
Windows 10's Privacy Policy: the New Normal?
An anonymous reader writes: The launch of Windows 10 brought a lot of users kicking and screaming to the "connected desktop." Its benefits come with tradeoffs: "the online service providers can track ...
12:00 am - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
Dual GPU Battle: GTX 980 Ti SLI vs. Radeon R9 Fury X Crossfire
jjslash writes: High-end GPU parts from Nvidia and AMD are plenty fast, these days. While top-end cards from both can provide playable performance at 4K, many games dip down to and below 30fps. Folks ...
12:00 am - Sun, August 9, 2015
Slashdot
Google Fi: Simple Until It's Not
An anonymous reader writes: When Google started Project Fi, one of their big goals was to make cell phone calling simple and predictable. By combining Wi-Fi calling with cellular networks and flat $10...
10:00 pm - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
Japanese Engineer Develops 'WalkCar,' a Mini-Segway
rtoz writes: A Japanese engineer has developed a portable transporter small enough to be carried in a backpack that he says is the world's first 'car in a bag'. The lithium battery-powered "WalkCar" d...
08:00 pm - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
Google Pressured To Police Stolen Webcam Videos On YouTube
An anonymous reader writes: A new report from Digital Citizens Alliance has called on Google to do a better job of making sure illicit webcam footage doesn't stick around on YouTube. Over the past sev...
08:00 pm - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
Congressional Black Caucus Begs Apple For Its 'Trade Secret' Racial Data
theodp writes: In Silicon Valley this week, Rep. Barbara Lee called on Apple and other holdouts among the nation's tech companies to release federal data on the diversity of their work forces. She was...
06:00 pm - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
Hacker Shows How To Fabricate Death Records
wiredmikey writes: Hackers the Def Con gathering in Las Vegas on Friday got schooled in how to be online "killers." A rush to go digital with the process of registering deaths has made it simple for m...
06:00 pm - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
Fourth Bangladeshi Blogger Murdered
An anonymous reader writes: In May we discussed news that three bloggers in Bangladesh had been targeted for brutal killings in recent months over what they wrote online. Now, the local branch of Al-Q...
04:00 pm - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
Real-Time Control of a Humanoid Robot
An anonymous reader writes: A new project at MIT aims to put humans in real-time control of a humanoid robot. Operators strap into a vest that contains control circuitry and a pair of arm-like joystic...
04:00 pm - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
IBM Drops $1 Billion On Medical Images For Watson
An anonymous reader writes: IBM is purchasing a company called Merge Healthcare for $1 billion. The company specializes in medical imaging software, and it will be a key new resource for IBM's Watson ...
02:00 pm - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
Hackers Actively Targeting Gas Pumps
An anonymous reader writes: Security researchers from Trend Micro wondered what kind of cyberattacks might target one of our most common and vital pieces of infrastructure: gas pumps. So, they set up ...
02:00 pm - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
FBI: Retweeting a Terrorist's Tweet Could Land You In Trouble
An anonymous reader writes: Twitter has become a valuable tool for U.S. law enforcement agencies in their fight against terrorism. It's been used as evidence in trials, it's provided useful intelligen...
10:00 am - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
Dr. Frances Kelsey, Who Saved American Babies From Thalidomide, Dies At 101
circletimessquare writes: Plenty of regulations are bad (some because big business corrupts them) but the simple truth is modern society cannot function without effective government regulation. It kee...
08:00 am - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
French Killers Inspired By Breaking Bad TV Show
hcs_$reboot writes: Four people who planned to dissolve a young French woman's body in acid were inspired by hit US TV show Breaking Bad. Two men went to the woman's house to settle a €6,000 drug...
06:00 am - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
Leaked Documents Suggests Uber Is 'Losing Millions'
New submitter DaneTerry88 points out an article about the financial state of Uber, poster child for the sharing economy. Documents leaked to Gawker seem to indicate the company is still far from profi...
04:00 am - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
Certifi-gate: Another Huge Android Vulnerability
An anonymous reader writes: Security research firm Check Point has released information about a new vulnerability called Certifi-gate, which they say compromises the security of hundreds of millions o...
02:00 am - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
The Man Who's Kept His Face Off the Internet for 20 Years
An anonymous reader writes: Jonathan Hirshon is a 48-year-old Silicon Valley PR guy. He was an adult when the internet went mainstream, and he went online with a unique bit of forethought: "I decided ...
12:00 am - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
Fantastic Four Reboot Released To Tepid Reception
An anonymous reader writes: Another month, another superhero movie based on the Marvel universe. Today marked the release of Fantastic Four, an attempt to reboot a film franchise that did poorly in th...
12:00 am - Sat, August 8, 2015
Slashdot
BitTorrent To RIAA: You're 'Barking Up the Wrong Tree'
An anonymous reader writes: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sent a letter to BitTorrent last week asking the company to help stop copyright infringement of its members' content. B...
10:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
Company Testing Standardized Salaries Is Struggling
jmcbain writes: In April 2015, Dan Price, the CEO of online payments company Gravity Payments based in Seattle, announced that all employees would have their salary bumped up to a minimum $70,000. Sla...
10:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
Internet Search Engines May Be Influencing Elections
sciencehabit writes: Thomas Epstein, a research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research in Vista, California, has found that the higher a politician ranks on a page of Internet ...
10:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
Verizon Ends Smartphone Subsidies
JoeyRox writes: Verizon has discontinued service plans that include subsidies for upgrading a smartphone. The new plans require customers to pay full price for their smartphones, either up front with ...
08:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
The Bog Bodies of Europe
schwit1 writes: It's a regular occurrence in Europe for dead bodies to be found in peat bogs. The bogs preserve the bodies, providing scientists a window into the past. However, many of the bodies exh...
08:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
How To Make Money As an Independent Developer
itwbennett writes: A new survey of 13,000 developers in 149 countries by U.K.-based research company VisionMobile compared, among other things, the most popular versus the most lucrative revenue model...
06:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
EFF Releases Privacy Badger, an Addon That Algorithmically Blocks Online Trackers
New submitter zfc writes: Online tracking has become a pervasive invisible reality of the modern web. Most sites you load are likely to be full of ads, tracking pixels, social media share buttons, and...
06:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
Underwater Chemical Garden Powers a Light Bulb
Zothecula writes: Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have grown underwater chimney-like structures capable of generating enough electricity to power a light bulb. The team linked several ...
06:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
Chemical Treatment Transforms Skin Cells Into Neurons
An anonymous reader writes: Two teams of researchers have independently succeeded in turning skin cells into neurons using a chemical cocktail. One group used human cells from healthy individuals and ...
06:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
ProxyHam Debunked and Demoed At DEFCON
darthcamaro writes: Last month, the ProxyHam project talk for DEFCON was mysteriously cancelled. In its place as a later edition is a new talk, in which the ProxyHam approach will be detailed and debu...
06:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
Military Data Center In a Suitcase To Get Commercial Release
judgecorp writes: The Mobyl Data Center, designed for the US Department of Defense, puts a data center in a rugged suitcase-sized box, and it will shortly be available commercially. The box includes u...
04:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
Amid Agony, Scientists Discover World's First Venomous Frog
sciencehabit writes: Some discoveries come with a price, and Brazilian biologists Carlos Jared's discovery of the world's first known venomous frog came with agony. When Carlos picked up a Brazilian h...
04:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
Mozilla Issues Fix For Firefox Zero-Day Bug
An anonymous reader writes: Thursday night Mozilla released a Firefox security patch after finding a serious vulnerability that allows malicious attackers to upload files from a user's computer. The u...
04:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
North Korea Is Switching To a New Time Zone
jones_supa writes: North Korea has announced that it is winding its clocks back by half a hour to create a new "Pyongyang Time" — breaking from a time standard imposed by what it called "wicked ...
02:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
Researcher Exploits 18-Year-Old Design Flaw To Compromise X86 Chips
jfruh writes: Security researcher Christopher Domas has demonstrated a method of installing a rootkit in a PC's firmware that exploits a feature built into every x86 chip manufactured since 1997. The ...
02:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
The Connoisseur of Number Sequences
An anonymous reader writes: 75-year-old Neil Sloane is considered by many to be one of the most influential mathematicians of our time, not because of the theorems hes proved, but because of his creat...
02:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
LibreSSL 2.2.2 Released
An anonymous reader writes: LibreSSL 2.2.2 has been released. According to the release notes: "This release marks the end of the OpenBSD 5.8 development cycle,featuring expanded portable build support...
02:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
Tesla Model S Has Been Hacked
cartechboy writes: First, it was Chrysler last month with its Uconnect system being hacked while being driven down the road. Now, it's Tesla's turn. That's right, the Silicon Valley automaker's very o...
12:00 pm - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
Good Economy? Tech Layoffs Are Up
Nerval's Lobster writes: If you look at the broad numbers produced by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy seems great, especially for the tech industry: The unemployment rate for tech pro...
10:00 am - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
One Night In the Hotel Room of the Future
Mickeycaskill writes: Hub by Premier Inn in London is pitching itself as the hotel room of the future, using technology to make staying in a city easier and simpler. Automated kiosks, digital temperat...
08:00 am - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
EFF Releases Privacy Badger an Addon That Algorithmically Blocks Online Trackers
New submitter zfc writes: Online tracking has become a pervasive invisible reality of the modern web. Most sites you load are likely to be full of ads, tracking pixels, social media share buttons, and...
06:00 am - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
Twilight of the Bomb
merbs writes: On the 70th anniversary of the first nuclear bomb, Motherboard's Brian Merchant toured its crater with one of the last living Manhattan Project scientists. Here's the inside story of the...
04:00 am - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
Zimperium Releases Stagefright Detection Tool and Vulnerability Demo Video
Mark Wilson writes: We've already looked at the Stagefright vulnerability, discovered by Zimperium, and shown what can be done to deal with it. Affecting up to 95 percent of Android devices, the vulne...
04:00 am - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
An Epic View of the Moon In Earth's Orbital Embrace
astroengine writes: As a suitably impressive follow-up to the new "blue marble" image of our world released in July, NASA shared a gorgeous animation created from pictures captured by NOAA's Deep Spac...
02:00 am - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
Microsoft Open-Sources Windows Bridge For iOS
An anonymous reader writes: Previously known as Project Islandwood, Microsoft today released an early version of Windows Bridge for iOS, a set of tools that will allow developers to port iOS apps to W...
12:00 am - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
4th Circuit Holds That Obtaining Extended Cell-Site Records Requires a Warrant
schwit1 writes: In the new opinion, the Fourth Circuit (Judge Davis joined by Judge Thacker, with Judge Motz dissenting) holds that ordering a cell provider to hand over "extended" records is a Fourth...
12:00 am - Fri, August 7, 2015
Slashdot
Latest Samy Kamkar Hack Unlocks Most Cars
msm1267 writes: Samy Kamkar has built a new device called Rolljam that is about the size of a wallet and can intercept the codes used to unlock most cars and many garage doors. The device can be hidde...
10:00 pm - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
Marvell's Kinoma Create Keeps On Creating (Video)
Marvell is the parent company. Kinoma is the company Marvell bought in 2011 that "provides an open-source, cross-platform ECMAScript stack aimed at developing software for Internet of Things products ...
10:00 pm - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: Patch Management For Offline Customer Systems?
New submitter Nillerz writes: What, in your experience, is generally the best way to distribute patches in a way so customers can download them, considering that the machines are offline? Are there an...
10:00 pm - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
Tesla's Creepy 'Solid Metal Snake' Robotic Charger Slithers Its Way Into Model S
bigwophh writes: Last year, Elon Musk hinted at a new product that Tesla Motors was working on in its research lab. What Musk described seemed creepy at the time, especially considering that he had ju...
08:00 pm - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
NBC Report: Russian Hackers Behind Attack On Pentagon Mail System
New submitter packetspike alerts us to a story at CNBC, according to which U.S. officials have told NBC News that Russian hackers are behind a "sophisticated cyberattack" against the unclassified emai...
08:00 pm - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
Israeli Security Company Builds "Unhackable" Version of Windows
New submitter Neavey writes: Sounds too good to be true, but Morphisec, an Israeli startup, claims to have built an unhackable version of Windows. Its not yet publicly available, a red flag if ever I ...
08:00 pm - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
India Adopts Comprehensive Open Source Policy
An anonymous reader writes: The Government of India (GOI) has adopted a comprehensive and supportive open source policy that builds on earlier efforts to adopt open standards for procurement. As we've...
06:00 pm - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
U.K. Government Seeking To End Reliance On Oracle
jfruh writes: The U.K. Cabinet Office has reportedly asked government departments and agencies to try to find ways to end their reliance on Oracle software, a move motivated by the truly shocking numb...
06:00 pm - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
World of Warcraft's Next Expansion: Legion
Today at Gamescom in Germany, Blizzard unveiled the next expansion for World of Warcraft, called Legion. The expansion will raise the level cap to 110 and bring adventurers to a new continent: the Bro...
04:00 pm - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
At Black Hat: Square Reader To Credit Card Skimmer In 10 Minutes
New submitter arit writes with word that three recent Boston University grads have demonstrated at Black Hat software and hardware attacks on the Square Reader used by many mobile vendors to process c...
04:00 pm - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
Planar NAND Development Ends After 26 Years
Lucas123 writes: The non-volatile memory used in thumb drives, SSDs, smartphones and any other mobile device today has at last hit an engineering wall. The major developers of planar NAND this week sa...
02:00 pm - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
Reddit Updates Content Policy, Bans More Subreddits
AmiMoJo writes: Reddit's new CEO, Steve Huffman, announced new a content policy and the banning of a small number of subreddits today. Additionally, some subreddits will be "quarantined", so users can...
02:00 pm - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
KDE Plasma 5 Problem Traced To Bug In Intel Graphics Driver
prisoninmate writes with news that certain complaints about the KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment may not be KDE's fault at all:Apparently, KDE Plasma 5 runs just fine, and the issue is related to a se...
12:00 pm - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
Starting Now At Netflix: Unlimited Maternity and Paternity Leave
vivaoporto writes: Netflix announced Tuesday that, during the first year after their child's birth or adoption, employees will be able to take off however long they feel they need to. They can return ...
12:00 pm - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
Windows 10 Start Menu Wins IDSA Design Award
jones_supa writes: Despite some criticism, it turns out that the design of the Windows 10 Start Menu isn't bad at all, as a designer organization has recently decided to give Microsoft its own Digital...
12:00 pm - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
MIT "Yolk and Shell" Nanoparticle Promises Longer-Lived Rechargeable Batteries
jan_jes writes: A new "yolk-and-shell" nanoparticle created by researchers at MIT and Tsinghua University in China could boost the capacity and power of lithium-ion batteries. The researchers have cre...
08:00 am - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
Id Software Founds a New Office In Germany
jones_supa writes: With some high-profile releases on the horizon, ZeniMax Media is expanding with a new studio in Frankfurt, Germany. Posted via Bethesda blog, reads the official ZeniMax statement: "...
06:00 am - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
Compiling to JavaScript: TypeScript vs. Haxe
lars_doucet writes: Released in 2012, Microsoft's TypeScript is perhaps the best-known "compile to JS" language, but it wasn't the first. One of the earliest was Haxe, whose JS target first appeared i...
02:00 am - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
TPP Copyright Chapter Leaks: Website Blocking, New Criminal Rules On the Way
An anonymous reader writes: Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) [Wednesday] morning releasedthe May 2015 draft of the copyright provisions in the Trans PacificPartnership (copyright,ISPannex, enforc...
12:00 am - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
Data Center Standard Proposal Adds WEE To PUE
judgecorp writes: A proposed revision to the data center efficiency standard will delight the infantile by adding WEE to PUE. Seriously, PUE is widely used to compare data center efficiency, but criti...
12:00 am - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
Will Robot Cabs Unjam the Streets?
An anonymous reader writes: The Atlantic has a story with some video of a traffic simulator showing just how the roads can be jammed up by people looking for a place to park. (You can play with the si...
12:00 am - Thu, August 6, 2015
Slashdot
SDN Switches Not Hard To Compromise, Researcher Says
alphadogg writes: Software-defined switches hold a lot of promise for network operators, but new research due to be presented at Black Hat will show that security measures haven't quite caught up yet....
10:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
Spyware Demo Shows How Spooks Hack Mobile Phones
An anonymous reader writes: Joe Greenwood, of cybersecurity firm 4Armed, recently gave a live demonstration of some of Hacking Team's leaked spyware to the BBC. Tracking Bitcoin payments, recording au...
10:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
REMzen Claims They Can Help You Sleep Better (Video)
Meet Jeremiah Scott, Co-Founder & CEO of Portland, OR, based Remzen. Their first product -- crowdfunded, of course -- is supposed to ship this October. It's an "intelligent sleep mask that collect...
10:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
Samsung To Push Monthly Over-the-Air Security Updates For Android
wiredmikey writes: Smartphone maker Samsung said on Wednesday that it soon will implement a new Android security update process that fast tracks mobile security patches over the air when security vuln...
08:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
Lexus Unveils Its Working Hoverboard
An anonymous reader writes: Lexus has revealed its eagerly anticipated "SLIDE" hoverboard, which uses magnetic fields to carry its rider without touching the ground. The board is confined to custom-bu...
08:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
MH370: Fragment Is From Missing Flight
hcs_$reboot writes: The plane part (the flaperon) that was found on a beach in the Indian Ocean on Réunion island was determined to be part of MH370, the Malaysia Airlines flight that vanished mo...
06:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
USC Vs. UC San Diego In Fight Over Alzheimer's Research
New submitter BVBigelow writes: In Southern California, a legal skirmish between USC and UC San Diego is escalating into into a full-blown fracas, replete with restraining orders, loyalty oaths, and a...
06:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
Parts of SOPA Hiding Inside a Boring Case About Invisible Braces
derekmead writes: The most controversial parts of SOPA, an anti-piracy bill defeated in 2012 after a massive public outcry, may end up becoming de facto law after all, depending on the outcome in an o...
06:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
Drone Drops Drugs Onto Ohio Prison Yard
Okian Warrior sends a report from CNN about an incident last week at a prison in Mansfield, Ohio, where a brawl broke out after a drone dropped a package of drugs into the prison yard. Prison staff ha...
04:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
Intel's Skylake Architecture Reviewed
Vigile writes: The Intel Skylake architecture has been on our radar for quite a long time as Intel's next big step in CPU design. We know at least a handful of details: DDR4 memory support, 14nm proce...
04:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
China To Plant Internet Police In Top Online Firms
itwbennett writes: Websites based in China already have to abide by strict provisions for online censorship, and will often delete any content deemed offensive by government censors. But under a new p...
04:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
LibreOffice 5.0 Released
New submitter ssam writes: The Document Foundation has announced LibreOffice 5.0, the tenth major release since the launch of the project, bringing new features including Windows 10, Android and Ubunt...
02:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
Tech's Enduring Great-Man Myth
An anonymous reader writes: Did Steve Jobs deserve his reputation as a brilliant inventor? Since Jobs's death in 2011, Elon Musk has been thrust into the spotlight as a man who can shake the pillars o...
02:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
Idaho Law Against Recording Abuses On Factory Farms Ruled Unconstitutional
onproton writes: An Idaho law that made it illegal to record and document animal abuse or dangerous hygienic practices in agricultural facilities, often referred to as an 'ag-gag' law, was ruled uncon...
02:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
Sounds Can Knock Drones Out of the Sky
angry tapir writes: Next week at the USENIX Security Symposium, researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejon, South Korea, are presenting research into knock...
02:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
Largest DebConf Ever Will Hit Heidelberg In Mid-August
New submitter alfino writes: Less than two weeks away, DebConf15, the 16th Debian Conference, scheduled to take place 15–22 August in Heidelberg, Germany, has been officially announced. The orga...
12:00 pm - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
FDA Approves First 3D-Printed Drug Tablet
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has for the first time approved a 3D-printed pill for human consumption. The printing technique allows higher and more precise dosages...
10:00 am - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
Google: Poor Kids Might Grasp Macbeth If They Code Like Kids At $43K/Yr School
theodp writes: While the CollegeBoard warned against drawing a causal link between learning computer science and improved learning in other subjects, Google has no such qualms. "CS is much more than c...
08:00 am - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
OS X Bug Exploited To Infect Macs Without Need For Password
An anonymous reader writes: A new flaw has been discovered in the latest version of OS X which allows hackers to install malware and adware onto a Mac without the need for any system passwords, resear...
06:00 am - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
Tilting 4WD 'Spider Car' Makes Light Work of Bizarre Terrain
Zothecula writes: The Swincar Spider is a remarkable tilting 4-wheeler concept that boasts absolutely ridiculous rough terrain capabilities. Each wheel has its own electric hub motor and is independen...
04:00 am - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
How Boing Boing Handled an FBI Subpoena Over Its Tor Exit Node
An anonymous reader writes: Cory Doctorow has posted an account of what happened when tech culture blog Boing Boing got a federal subpoena over the Tor exit node the site had been running for years. T...
02:00 am - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
Why Bill Gates Is Dumping Another $1 Billion Into Clean Energy
An anonymous reader writes: A little over a month ago, Bill Gates made headlines when he decided to double down on his investments in renewable energy. Now, he's written an article for Quartz explaini...
12:00 am - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
Using Math To Tune a Video Game's Economy
An anonymous reader writes: When the shipping deadline was approaching for The Witcher 3, designer Matthew Steinke knew there was a big part of the game still missing: its economy. A game's economy is...
12:00 am - Wed, August 5, 2015
Slashdot
IBM Locking Up Lots of Cloud Computing Patents
dkatana writes: In an article for InformationWeek Charles Babcock notes that IBM has been hoarding patents on every aspect of cloud computing. They've secured about 1,200 in the past 18 months, includ...
10:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Dungeons & Dragons Is Getting a Film Franchise
New submitter IT.luddite sends word that Hasbro and Warner Bros. have announced Dungeons & Dragons will be getting its own film franchise. They already have a script, and they'll be working with p...
10:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Microsoft Makes Push To Get Back Into E-Sports
An anonymous reader writes: In October, Microsoft will publish Halo 5: Guardians, the first game in the series to be developed exclusively for the Xbox One. Microsoft is taking the opportunity to make...
10:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Amazon Cuts Down On Prime Sharing
An anonymous reader writes: Tech Crunch reports that Amazon quietly rolled out changes to how their Prime subscriptions can be shared. The good news is that existing members aren't immediately losing ...
08:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
FAA Has Approved More Than 1,000 Drone Exemptions
coondoggie writes: The Federal Aviation Administration today said it has issued 1,008 exemptions to businesses wanting to fly unmanned aircraft in the national airspace. Such small drones have been on...
08:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Epson Is Trying To Kill the Printer Ink Cartridge
An anonymous reader writes: Inkjet printer cartridges have been the bane of many small businesses and home offices for decades. It's interesting, then, that Epson is trying something new: next month, ...
08:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Giving Up Alternating Current
An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday we discussed Soylent, the artificial food substitute created by Rob Rhinehart and his team. As it turns out, this isn't Rhinehart's only unusual sustainability pr...
06:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Facebook Allows Turkish Government To Set the Censorship Rules
New submitter feylikurds writes: Facebook has been blocking and banning users for posting Kurdish or anti-Turkish material. Many screenshots exists of Facebook notifying people for such. You can insul...
06:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Cleaning Up Botnets Takes Years, May Never Be Completed
Once a botnet has taken root in a large pool of computers, truly expunging it from them may be a forlorn hope. That, writes itwbennett, is: the finding of researchers in the Netherlands who analyzed t...
06:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Hackers Exploit Adobe Flash Vulnerability In Yahoo Ads
vivaoporto notes a report that a group of hackers have used online ad networks to distribute malware over several of Yahoo's websites. The attack began on Tuesday, July 28, and was shut down on Monday...
04:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Ada Initiative Organization To End, But Its Work Will Continue
An anonymous reader writes: Today the Ada Initiative announced that the nonprofit will shut down in mid-October. Founded in 2011, the Ada Initiative is a nonprofit feminist organization created to hel...
04:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
EFF and MuckRock Need Your Help Tracking Biometric Surveillance
v3rgEz writes: Police departments are increasingly tracking your face, your fingerprints, your tattoos — and even your DNA. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock are working to uncover...
04:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Toshiba, SanDisk Piloting 3D NAND That Doubles Previous Capacity
Lucas123 writes: Under a joint development agreement, Toshiba and SanDisk have begun pilot production of a new 48-layer 256Gb NAND flash chip in a brand new fab in Mie prefecture, Japan. The new X3 ch...
02:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
NTT, Japan's Largest Fixed Telecom Provider, Begins Phasing Out ADSL
AmiMoJo writes: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), the third largest telecoms provider in the world, is beginning to phase out ADSL for broadband internet access (Google Translate helps...
02:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Philadelphia Hackers and Others Offer Brotherly Love To Fallen Robot
An anonymous reader writes: Since a hitchhiking robot was destroyed in Philadelphia over the weekend, there has been an overwhelming show of support according to its co-creators Frauke Zeller and Davi...
02:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Behind the Microsoft Write-Off of Nokia
UnknowingFool writes: Previously Microsoft had announced that they had written off the Nokia purchase for $7.6B in the last quarter. In doing so, Microsoft would create only the third unprofitable qua...
12:00 pm - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Houston Firm NanoRacks To Take Chinese Experiment To International Space Station
MarkWhittington writes: The Houston Chronicle's Eric Berger reports that for the first time a Chinese experiment will fly on the International Space Station, thanks to an arrangement between a researc...
10:00 am - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Researchers: The Thermostat In Your Office May Be Sexist
sciencehabit writes: If you're constantly bundling up against your office building's air conditioning, blame Povl Ole Fanger. In the 1960s, this Danish scientist developed a model, still used in many ...
08:00 am - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Fuel Cells Promise To Reduce Carbon Emissions of Mobile Base Stations
Mickeycaskill writes: Vodafone says fuel cells could reduce the carbon emissions and noise pollution caused by mobile base stations in remote areas of developing economies. The company has 122 million...
06:00 am - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Buzz Aldrin Publishes Moon Expenses Form
An anonymous reader writes: Proving once again that the government has a form for everything, Buzz Aldrin has unveiled his Apollo 11 documentation on social media over the past few days, including a t...
06:00 am - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
KFC South Africa Lets Customers Listen To Music Using Bone Conduction
An anonymous reader writes: The end of annoying restaurant muzak may be nigh: A KFC branch in South Africa has put together a playlist of local artists for diners to enjoy — so long as they do s...
04:00 am - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
India Blocks Over 800 Adult Websites
William Robinson writes: The government of India has blocked over 800 adult websites through a secret order. “Free and open access to porn websites has been brought under check,” N.N. Kaul...
02:00 am - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Lessons From Your Toughest Software Bugs
Nerval's Lobster writes: Most programmers experience some tough bugs in their careers, but only occasionally do they encounter something truly memorable. In developer David Bolton's new posting, he di...
12:00 am - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Counterterrorism Expert: It's Time To Give Companies Offensive Cybercapabilities
itwbennett writes: Juan Zarate, the former deputy national security advisor for counterterrorism during President George W. Bush's administration says the U.S. government should should consider allowi...
12:00 am - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
Obama Unveils Major Climate Change Proposal
An anonymous reader writes: Two years in the making, President Obama formally unveiled his plan to cut power plant emissions today, calling it the "single most important step that America has ever mad...
12:00 am - Tue, August 4, 2015
Slashdot
FirefoxOS-Based Matchstick Project Ends; All Money To Be Refunded
Kohenkatz writes: Matchstick, a project built on FirefoxOS that aimed to compete with Google's Chromecast, which was initially funded on Kickstarter, is shutting down and will be refunding all pledges...
10:00 pm - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
EFF Coalition Announces New 'Do Not Track' Standard For Web Browsing
An anonymous reader writes: The Electronic Frontier Foundation, privacy company Disconnect, and several other organizations are publishing a new DNT standard. Partners in the coalition include: publis...
10:00 pm - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Privacy Alert: Your Laptop Or Phone Battery Could Track You Online
Mark Wilson writes: Is the battery in your smartphone being used to track your online activities? It might seem unlikely, but it's not quite as farfetched as you might first think. This is not a case ...
10:00 pm - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Microsoft Creates a Quantum Computer-Proof Version of TLS Encryption Protocol
holy_calamity writes: When (or if) quantum computers become practical they will make existing forms of encryption useless. But now researchers at Microsoft say they have made a quantum-proof version o...
08:00 pm - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Soylent 2.0 Comes Bottled and Ready To Drink
An anonymous reader writes: Soylent has announced today their latest product, Soylent 2.0. It comes premixed and ready to drink in recyclable bottles. Each bottle is one fifth of a scientifically bala...
08:00 pm - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Apple Testing Service That Allows Siri to Answer Calls and Transcribe Voicemail
An anonymous reader writes: Apple is reportedly testing a new feature which would allow Siri to answer your calls and then transcribe the voicemails as text messages. The iCloud service would then sen...
06:00 pm - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Clinton Plan To Power Every US Home With Renewables By 2027 Is Achievable
Lucas123 writes: As part of her campaign pledge, Hillary Clinton has said she would make it a priority in her first term to increase the number of solar panels by 500M and U.S. installed solar capacit...
06:00 pm - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Leading the Computer Revolution In a Totalitarian State
szczys writes: How do you enter the information age when computers, and the components that go into them, are embargoed by other countries and imports of any value are restricted by your own? This and...
06:00 pm - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Researchers Create Mac "Firmworm" That Spreads Via Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapters
BIOS4breakfast writes: Wired reports that later this week at BlackHat and Defcon, Trammel Hudson will show the Thunderstrike 2 update to his Thunderstrike attack on Mac firmware (previously covered on...
04:00 pm - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Inside the Failure of Google
An anonymous reader writes: An article at Mashable walks through the rise and fall of Google+, from the company's worries of being displaced by Facebook to their eventual realization that Google servi...
04:00 pm - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Pictures of a Comet From 9 Meters Away
An anonymous reader writes: Back in November, the European Space Agency triumphantly put a lander on the surface of a comet and then tragically lost contact with it when it failed to anchor and couldn...
04:00 pm - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
The Web We Have To Save
An anonymous reader writes: Hossein Derakhshan endured a six-year prison term in Iran for doing something most of us would take for granted: running a blog. He has a unique perspective — he was ...
02:00 pm - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Tiny Black Holes Could Trigger Collapse of Universe—Except That They Don't
sciencehabit writes: If you like classic two-for-one monster movies such as King Kong vs. Godzilla, then a new paper combining two bêtes noires of pseudoscientific scaremongers—mini black h...
02:00 pm - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Nokia's HERE Maps Sold For $3.2 Billion To Audi, BMW and Daimler
vivaoporto writes: Nokia announced an agreement to sell its HERE digital mapping and location services business to a consortium of leading automotive companies, comprising AUDI AG, BMW Group and Daiml...
02:00 pm - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
CollegeBoard: Analyses of CS Study Benefits Shouldn't Be Interpreted As Causal
theodp writes: Code.org, backed by some of tech's wealthiest individuals and their companies, is this close to getting computer science declared a 'core subject' in K-12 public schools. So, when the n...
10:00 am - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Tesla Presses Its Case On Fuel Standards
An anonymous reader writes: Tesla is preparing their case to leave federal mileage and emissions regulations intact, or make them even more strict. In addition, the company is fighting other car maker...
08:00 am - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Modding Community Putting HD Textures Into Resident Evil 4
jones_supa writes: The Ultimate HD Edition of Resident Evil 4 does not fully adhere to its name, as terrain textures are actually not in high definition. A couple of fans called Cris and Albert are ch...
04:00 am - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Girls Catfish ISIS On Social Media For Travel Money
MarkWhittington writes: Yahoo Travel reported that three women in Chechnya took ISIS for $3,300 before getting caught. They are now under investigation for Internet fraud, which seems to be illegal ev...
02:00 am - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Unicode Consortium Looks At Symbols For Allergies
AmiMoJo writes: A proposal (PDF), submitted by a Google engineer to the Unicode Consortium asks that food allergies get their own emojis and be added to the standard. The proposal suggests the additio...
12:00 am - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Sociologist: Job Insecurity Is the New Normal
Mr.Intel writes: Allison Pugh, professor of Sociology at University of Virginia, and author of The Tumbleweed Society: Working and Caring in an Age of Insecurity, says workers in the U.S. are caught u...
12:00 am - Mon, August 3, 2015
Slashdot
Research Scientists To Use Network Much Faster Than Internet
nickweller writes with this story from the Times about the Pacific Research Platform, an ultra-high-speed fiber-optic research infrastructure that will link together dozens of top research institution...
10:00 pm - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
Non-Invasive Spinal Cord Stimulation Gets Paralyzed Legs Moving Again
schwit1 writes: A new technique called transcutaneous stimulation has allowed five men with complete motor paralysis regain the ability to move their legs voluntarily and produce step-like movements. ...
10:00 pm - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
DoD Ditches Open Source Medical Records System In $4.3B Contract
dmr001 writes: The US Department of Defense opted not to use the Department of Veterans Affairs' open source VistA electronic health record system in its project to overhaul its legacy systems, instea...
08:00 pm - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
Challenger, Columbia Wreckage On Public Display For First Time
An anonymous reader writes: A new exhibit at Kennedy Space Center is letting the public see wreckage from the Challenger and Columbia shuttles after keeping it from view for decades. Two pieces of deb...
08:00 pm - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
China To Impose Export Control On High Tech Drones and Supercomputers
hackingbear writes: Following similar hi-tect export restriction policies in the U.S. (or perhaps in response to the U.S. ban on China,) China will impose export control on some drones and high perfor...
06:00 pm - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
Lennart Poettering Announces the First Systemd Conference
jones_supa writes: Lennart Poettering, the creator of the controversial init system and service manager for Linux-based operating systems has announced the first systemd conference. The systemd.conf w...
06:00 pm - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
Uber Invests $1 Billion In Indian Market
New submitter keithlynpitts writes: Uber is looking to expand it's services in India, and will invest $1 billion there in the next nine months. India is the second biggest market for Uber after the U....
04:00 pm - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
Epic Mega Bridge To Connect America With Russia Gets Closer To Reality
Sepa Blackforesta writes: A plan for an epic bridge connecting Russia's easternmost border with Alaska's westernmost border could soon be a reality, as Russia seeks to partner with China. Sijutech rep...
04:00 pm - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
Hitchhiking Robot's Cross-Country Trip Ends In Philadelphia
An anonymous reader writes: A hitchhiking robot that successfully traveled across Canada in 26 days last year and parts of Europe, has met its demise in Philly. Created as a "social experiment," hitch...
02:00 pm - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
Death Toll at 4 In NYC Legionnaire's Outbreak
Reuters reports that four people have died of Legionnaire's Disease in an outbreak in the Bronx, and 65 more have exhibited symptoms of the disease. The Bronx was also home to the most recent flare-up...
02:00 pm - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
New Telemetry Suggests Shot-Down Drone Was Higher Than Alleged
AmiMoJo writes: The pilot of the drone shot down Sunday evening over a Kentucky property has now come forward with video seemingly showing that the drone wasn't nearly as close as the property owner m...
10:00 am - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
Want To Fight Climate Change? Stop Cows From Burping
sciencehabit writes: A simple supplement to a cow's feed could substantially decrease a major source of methane, a planet-warming greenhouse gas, a new study suggests. Each year worldwide, the methane...
08:00 am - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
Solar-Powered Flight For 81 Hours: a New Endurance World Record
Hallie Siegel writes: A team of researchers from ETH Zurich have just set a new endurance record for solar powered flight of an unmanned autonomous aircraft, achieving over four days of solar-powered ...
04:00 am - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
Samsung Woos Developers As It Eyes Tizen Expansion Beyond Smartphones
New submitter Manish Singh writes: Why is Samsung, the South Korean technology conglomerate which has the tentpole position in Android, becoming increasinglu focused on its homegrown operating system ...
02:00 am - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
One In Four Indiana Residents' E-Record Data Exposed in Hack
Reader chicksdaddy reports that a data breach involving four million patients and more than 230 different data holders (from private practices to large hospitals) hit Indiana especially hard. It's the...
12:00 am - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
Facebook's Slender 'Aquila' Drone To Provide Internet In Remote Areas
Mickeycaskill writes: Facebook will start testing a 400kg drone with the wingspan of a Boeing 737 next year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said, as part of the company's drive to connect people in remote ar...
12:00 am - Sun, August 2, 2015
Slashdot
Answering Elon Musk On the Dangers of Artificial Intelligence
Lasrick points out a rebuttal by Stanford's Edward Moore Geist of claims that have led the recent panic over superintelligent machines. From the linked piece: Superintelligence is propounding a soluti...
10:00 pm - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
ARIN IPv4 Addresses Run Out Tomorrow
jcomeau_ictx provided that teaser of a headline, but writes: Not really. But the countdown at tunnelbroker.net should go to zero sometime tomorrow around noon, considering it's at 45,107 as I write th...
10:00 pm - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
Ask Slashdot: Can You Disable Windows 10's Privacy-Invading Features?
An anonymous reader writes: I really want to upgrade to Windows 10, but have begun seeing stories come out about the new Terms and how they affect your privacy. It looks like the default Windows 10 sy...
08:00 pm - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
In Windows 10, Ad-Free Solitaire Will Cost You $10 -- Every Year
Wired UK reports that the pre-installed Solitaire on Windows 10 capitalizes on the long-cultivated addiction that some users have to the game with an interesting bargain: rather than being an ordinary...
08:00 pm - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
Researchers Find That Queen Bees Vaccinate Their Offspring
The Washington Post reports that a team of researchers have discovered a previously unrecognized behavior in bees which gives the insects an extra layer of protection against certain diseases. Though ...
06:00 pm - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
Microsoft Taps PBS To Advance Its National Talent Strategy With 'Code Trip'
theodp writes: You don't have to be Mitt Romney to question PBS's announcement that it will air the Microsoft-funded 'reality' show Code Trip, in which Roadtrip Nation and Microsoft YouthSpark will se...
06:00 pm - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
ISPs Claim Title II Regulations Don't Apply To the Internet Because "Computers"
New submitter Gryle writes: ArsTechnica is reporting on an interesting legal tactic by ISPs in the net neutrality fight. In a 95-page brief the United States Telecom Association claims Internet access...
04:00 pm - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
"Happy Birthday" Public Domain After All?
New submitter jazzdude00021 writes: No song has had as contentious of copyright history as "Happy Birthday." The song is nearly ubiquitous at birthday parties in the USA, and even has several translat...
04:00 pm - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
Japanese Police Arrest Mount Gox CEO Mark Karpeles
McGruber writes with the news as carried (paywalled) by the Wall Street Journal that Mark Karpeles, who headed bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, has been arrested by Japanese police: In February 2014, Mount G...
02:00 pm - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
Windows 10 Upgrade Strategies, Pitfalls and Fixes As MSFT Servers Are Hit Hard
MojoKid writes: The upgrade cycle begins, with Microsoft's latest operating system--the highly anticipated Windows 10--rolling out over Windows Update for free, for users of Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. For ...
02:00 pm - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
Silicon Valley's Big Lie
HughPickens.com writes: Danny Crichton writes at TechCrunch that startups in Silicon Valley run on an alchemy of ignorance and amnesia and that lying is a requisite and daily part of being a founder, ...
10:00 am - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
10 Years of Intel Processors Compared
jjslash writes to Techspot's interesting look back at the evolution of Intel CPUs since the original Core 2 Duo E6600 and Core 2 Quad processors were introduced. The test pits the eight-year-old CPUs ...
08:00 am - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
JAXA Successfully Tests Its D-SEND Low-Noise Supersonic Aircraft
AmiMoJo writes: JAXA, the Japanese space agency, has successfully tested its low sonic boom demonstration aircraft D-SEND#2. The unmanned aircraft is floated up to 30,000m by balloon and released, fal...
04:00 am - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
In Korea, Smartphones Use Multipath TCP To Reach 1 Gbps
An anonymous reader writes: Korean users are among the most bandwidth-hungry smartphone users. During the MPTCP WG meeting at IETF'93, SungHoon Seo announced that KT had deployed since mid June a comm...
02:00 am - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
GasBuddy Has a New Privacy Policy (Spoiler: Not As Customer Friendly)
An anonymous reader writes: GasBuddy has been a popular iOS and Android app for the last 5 years used to find the cheapest place to get gas. According to the Google Play store, there are over 10 milli...
12:00 am - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
Critical BIND Denial-of-Service Flaw Could Take Down DNS Servers
alphadogg writes: Attackers could exploit a new vulnerability in BIND, the most popular Domain Name System (DNS) server software, to disrupt the Internet for many users. The vulnerability affects all ...
12:00 am - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
Questioning the Dispute Over Key Escrow
Nicola Hahn writes: The topic of key escrow encryption has once again taken center stage as former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff has spoken out against key escrow both at this year's...
12:00 am - Sat, August 1, 2015
Slashdot
Tor Project Pilots Exit Nodes In Libraries
An anonymous reader writes: The Tor Project has announced a new initiative to open exit relays in public libraries. "This is an idea whose time has come; libraries are our most democratic public space...
10:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Urthecast Brings You Earth Images and Videos from the ISS (Video)
Most of us probably won't ever visit the International Space Station (ISS) and look down at the Earth (motto: "The only planet we know has beer, so let's not ruin it"). Looking at pictures and videos ...
10:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
China's Island-Building In Pictures
An anonymous reader writes: The South China Sea is just small enough to have high strategic value for military operations and just large enough to make territorial claims difficult. For over a year no...
10:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Will Autonomous Cars Be the Insurance Industry's Napster Moment?
An anonymous reader writes: Most of us are looking forward to the advent of autonomous vehicles. Not only will they free up a lot of time previously spent staring at the bumper of the car in front of ...
08:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Munich Planning Highway System For Cyclists
An anonymous reader writes: The German city of Munich has been looking for solutions to its traffic problem. Rush hour traffic is a parking lot, and public transit is near capacity. They think their b...
08:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
System Administrator Appreciation Day 2015
ninjagin writes: They might be underneath a desk, hauling cables above your ceiling, swapping out a drive in your data center, putting the blue smoke back inside that old pizza box on the rack, up at ...
08:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
$340 Audiophile Ethernet Cable Tested
An anonymous reader writes: Ars Technica has posted a series of articles attempting to verify whether there's any difference between a $340 "audiophile" Ethernet cable and a $2.50 generic one. In addi...
06:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Samsung Wants To Bring Back the Flip Phone With Bendable Screens
redletterdave writes: A new patent filed last April but published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office earlier this month suggests Samsung might be working on a smartphone that can bend in half lik...
06:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
NASA's Drone For Other Worlds
An anonymous reader writes: A group of engineers is building a new drone. What sets this apart from the hundreds of other drone development projects going on around the world? Well, these engineers ar...
06:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Ebola Vaccine 100% Successful In Guinea Trial
An anonymous reader writes: Doctors and researchers have been testing a vaccine to protect against Ebola in the west African nation of Guinea. Trials involving 4,000 people have now shown a 100% succe...
04:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Mozilla CEO: Windows 10 Strips User Choice For Browsers and Other Software
puddingebola writes: Mozilla CEO Chris Beard has sent an open letter to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella complaining about the default settings in Windows 10. Users who upgrade to 10 will have their defaul...
04:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Google Rejects French Order For 'Right To Be Forgotten'
Last month, French data protection agency CNIL ordered Google to comply with the European "right to be forgotten" order by delisting certain search results not just on the European versions of Google'...
04:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
NVIDIA Recalls Shield Tablets Over Heat Risk
An anonymous reader writes: NVIDIA has issued a recall for 88,000 units of its 8-inch Shield tablet sold in the past year. Predictably, it's because of the battery. There have been reports of overheat...
02:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
A Robot That Can Walk and Jump On Water
Taco Cowboy writes: Researchers from Seoul University and Harvard have constructed tiny robots that can walk across the surface of standing water, and even jump into the air. The robots were designed ...
02:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Ex-TEPCO Officials To Be Indicted Over Fukushima
AmiMoJo writes: Three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company will face mandatory indictment over the March 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The prosecution inquest pane...
02:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Why Micron/Intel's New Cross Point Memory Could Virtually Last Forever
Lucas123 writes: As they announced their new 3D XPoint memory this week, Micron and Intel talked a lot about its performance being 1,000X that of NAND flash, but what they talked less about was how it...
12:00 pm - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Google Straps Aclima Sensors To Street View Cars To Map Air Pollution
Eloking writes: Google and a San Francisco-based Aclima have equipped Google's Street View cars with environmental sensors in order to map urban air quality. The project aims to create high resolution...
10:00 am - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Cameron Tells Pornography Websites To Block Access By Children Or Face Closure
An anonymous reader writes: Prime Minister David Cameron says that if online pornographers don't voluntarily install effective age-restricted controls on their websites he'll introduce legislation tha...
08:00 am - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Germany Won't Prosecute NSA, But Bloggers
tmk writes: Despite plenty of evidence that the U.S. spied on German top government officials, German Federal Prosecutor General Harald Range has declined to investigate any wrongdoings of the secret ...
06:00 am - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Japanese Scientists Fire the Most Powerful Laser On the Planet
Sepa Blackforesta writes: Scientist from University of Osaka claim have fired the world's most powerful laser. The beam was intact for 2-petawatt, pulse lasted just one picosecond. While it produced a...
04:00 am - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Robots Must Be Designed To Be Compassionate, Says SoftBank CEO
An anonymous reader writes: At the SoftBank World conference in Tokyo, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has made a case for robots to be developed so as to form empathic and emotional relationships with peo...
04:00 am - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May Making Show For Amazon
mrspoonsi writes: Amazon has announced that former Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May will be reuniting to create “an all-new car show” that will be exclusively ...
02:00 am - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Google's Project Loon Balloons May Cover Sri Lanka With Internet Access
Zothecula writes: Sri Lanka is set to become the first country with universal Internet access after signing a memorandum of understanding with Google to use the company's Project Loon balloons. Offici...
12:00 am - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
The Weird History of the Microsoft Windows Start Button
Gamoid writes: Windows 3.1 was so complicated that even a Boeing propulsion scientist couldn't figure out how to open a word processor. A behavioral scientist, who once worked with BF Skinner at Harva...
12:00 am - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
The New Google Glass Is All Business
An anonymous reader writes: Google scrapped an early version of its smart glasses in January, but has developed another model just for businesses. The company hopes to get this newest version of Glass...
12:00 am - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
NY Judge Rules Research Chimps Are Not 'Legal Persons'
sciencehabit writes: A state judge in New York has dealt the latest blow to an animal rights group's attempt to have chimpanzees declared 'legal persons.' In a decision handed down this morning, New Y...
12:00 am - Fri, July 31, 2015
Slashdot
Hacker's Device Can Intercept OnStar's Mobile App and Unlock, Start GM Cars
Lucas123 writes: Security researcher Samy Kamkar posted a video today demonstrating a device he created that he calls OwnStar that can intercept communications between GM's RemoteLink mobile app and t...