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Unread items (8)

• May 19, 2013
• 11:29

  Yahoo Board Approves a $1.1B Pricetag For Tumblr

   » ‎ Slashdot
  TechCrunch reports that Yahoo's string of acquisitions may soon include Tumblr: "The Wall Street Journal is now reporting via Twitter that the rumored $1.1 billion cash acquisition deal for social blogging site Tumblr has been approved by Yahoo’s board of directors. The Tumblr acquisition was rumored last week, with a price tag reportedly north of $1 billion, which appears to be accurate if the WSJ’s sources are correct." The article notes, too, that "Yahoo had only $1.2 billion cash on hand as of its most recent quarterly earnings, which makes an all-cash offer for Tumblr a lot more of a stretch than it would be for someone like Apple, or even Facebook, which acquired Instagram for $1 billion in a mix of both cash and stock."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 10:32

  Trade Group: US Software Developer Wages Fell 2% Last Year

   » ‎ Slashdot
  First time accepted submitter russotto points out the claim of industry group TechAmerican Foundation (reported by Computerworld) that "wages for the software industry are falling, not rising. Wages fell 2% to $99,000 in 2012." Averages are one thing; the article points out though that wages vary vastly within the industry, and that some jobs are harder to fill (thus, better paid) than others. An excerpt: "Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates, a research firm that also analyzes IT wage and employment trends, cited a number of reason for the decline in wages for software professionals. First, technology is becoming easier to implement without having an IT professional, he said. Also, the option of turning to outsourcing creates less pressure to increase wages. As the recession continues, companies continue 'to look at productivity and will often look to hire individuals who are lower cost employees,' said Janulaitis. That could include displaced baby boomer workers who have been out of work for some time and 'will take a lower paying job just to get back into the workforce.'"

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 9:26

  Wikileaks Releases Docs Before Trial of TPB Founder Warg

   » ‎ Slashdot
  Pirate Bay Founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg is to be tried starting tomorrow in Sweden, after his indictment last month for computer hacking and fraud. Wikileaks has released several documents related to his detention and the associated charges. From the summary of this material: "This material includes inter alia the interrogations with GSW and his co-accused, internal correspondence from the Swedish Foreign Minister and the Swedish embassy in Cambodia, damage assessment reports by the companies and the authorities concerned, and correspondence between GSW and Kristina Svartholm and the Swedish prison authorities. The material is formally public, but the Swedish prosecution authority has refused to provide the documents in digital format. Photocopying this volume of paper costs around £350." Notable is the refusal of Warg's request to obtain a graphing calculator while in prison.

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 8:30

  John McAfee's Belize Home Burns To Ground

   » ‎ Slashdot
  Velcroman1 writes "The former island home of anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee burned down Thursday afternoon under circumstance he told FoxNews.com were 'suspicious.' It's an odd choice of words from a man whom the Belize police found suspicious, following the November 2012 murder of American expatriate Gregory Faull, a well-liked builder from Florida who was shot at his home in San Pedro Town on the island of Ambergris Caye. 'I believe that there are a select few with great power in Belize that will go to great lengths to harm me,' McAfee said. 'This fire was not just a strange coincidence.'" Watch for more from McAfee soon.

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 7:27

  Amazon, Google and Apple Won't Need To Pay Tax, Despite Goverment Threats

   » ‎ Slashdot
  girlmad writes "Despite moves by government to get Google, Amazon and Apple to admit they make sales in the UK and US, and therefore should pay tax on these earnings, this article argues these are empty threats and that any taxes paid will get returned to the tech giants in government grants and subsidies. Tough luck to the small firms out there."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 6:28

  NetBSD 6.1 Has Shipped

   » ‎ Slashdot
  Madwand writes "The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. NetBSD is a free, fast, secure, and highly portable Unix-like Open Source operating system. It is available for a wide range of platforms, from large-scale servers and powerful desktop systems to handheld and embedded devices. Its clean design and advanced features make it excellent for use in both production and research environments, and the source code is freely available under a business-friendly license. NetBSD is developed and supported by a large and vibrant international community. Many applications are readily available through pkgsrc, the NetBSD Packages Collection."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 3:24

  Charge Your Cellphone In 20 Seconds (Eventually)

   » ‎ Slashdot
  New submitter GoJays writes "An 18-year-old from Saratoga, California has won an international science fair for creating an energy storage device that can be fully juiced in 20 to 30 seconds. The fast-charging device is a so-called supercapacitor, a gizmo that can pack a lot of energy into a tiny space, charges quickly and holds its charge for a long time. What's more, it can last for 10,000 charge-recharge cycles, compared with 1,000 cycles for conventional rechargeable batteries, according to the inventor Eesha Khare." This one in particular has been used so far only to power an LED, rather than a phone or laptop, but I hope in a few years near-instant charging of portable electronics will be the norm as supercapacitors grow more common.

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 0:18

  Yahoo! Japan May Have Had 22 Million User IDs Stolen

   » ‎ Slashdot
  hypnosec writes with report of the possible theft of up to 22 million user IDs revealed by Yahoo! Japan. That scale is massive, but, he writes, "According to Yahoo, the information that was stolen didn't have passwords or any other information that would allow unauthorized users to carry out user identity verification." A story at the Japan Times adds a bit more detail.

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  

Recent items

• May 18, 2013
• 23:31

  I know who 'Satoshi Nakamoto' is, says Ted Nelson

   » ‎ The Register
  Coiner of 'hypertext' claims to identify the links

  Sociologist, philosopher, computer industry pioneer and inventor of the term “hypertext” Ted Nelson is claiming that he knows the identity of Bitcoin inventor “Satoshi Nakamoto”.…

• 21:21

  Ask Slashdot: Why Do Firms Leak Personal Details In Plain Text?

   » ‎ Slashdot
  An anonymous reader writes "Having entered my personal details (full real name, home address) to websites with an 'https://' prefix in order to purchase goods, I am still being sent emails from companies (or their agents) which include, in plain text, those same details I have entered over a secure connection. These are often companies which are very keen to tell you how much they value your privacy and how they will not pass your details on to third parties. What recourse does one have to tell them to desist from such behaviour whilst still doing business with them if their products are otherwise desirable? I email the relevant IT team as a matter of course to tell them it's not appropriate (mostly to no avail), but is there any legislation — in any territory — which addresses this?"

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 18:21

  Data Center Managers Weary of Whittling Cooling Costs

   » ‎ Slashdot
  Nerval's Lobster writes that a survey from the Uptime Institute "suggests something it calls 'green fatigue' is setting in when it comes to making data centers greener. 'Green fatigue' is exactly as it sounds: managers are getting tired of the increasingly difficult race to chop their PUE, or Power Usage Effectiveness. The PUE is a measure of a data center's efficiency. The lower the PUE, the better — and Microsoft and Google, with nearly limitless resources, have set the bar so high (or low, depending on your perspective) that it's making less-capitalized firms frustrated. Just a few years ago, the Uptime Institute estimated that the average PUE of a data center was around 2.4, which meant for every dollar of electricity to power a data center, $1.4 dollars were spent to cool it. That dropped to 1.8 recently, an improvement to be sure. But then you have companies such as Google and Microsoft building data centers next to rivers for cheap hydroelectric power in remote parts of the Pacific Northwest and reporting insanely low PUEs (below 1.1 in some cases). The Institute latest survey of data center operators shows only 50 percent of respondents in North America said they considered energy efficiency to be very important to their companies, down from 52 percent last year and 58 percent in 2011."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 17:18

  Canadian Cellphone Users May Get Justice Over Phantom Charges

   » ‎ Slashdot
  An anonymous reader writes "For years, Bell Mobility customers in northern Canada were charged 75 cents a month for 911 emergency service. The problem is that cellphone users outside Whitehorse, Yukon, don't have access to 911 service. The Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories ruled against Bell this week, following a class action lawsuit which challenged the phantom cellphone 911 billings. Subject to a possible final appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, Bell will likely owe 30,000 northern cellphone subscribers some bucks."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 16:19

  Wired Writer Imagines Google Island

   » ‎ Slashdot
  theodp writes "The last thing Wired's Mat Honan remembered before awaking on the self-driving boat that dropped him on the island was sitting through a four-hour Google I/O keynote in Moscone Center and hearing Google CEO Larry Page promote a vision of a utopia where society could be free to innovate and experiment, unencumbered by government regulations or social norms. 'Welcome to Google Island,' a naked-save-for-a-pair-of-eyeglasses Larry Page tells Honan. 'As soon as you hit Google's territorial waters, you came under our jurisdiction, our terms of service. Our laws — or lack thereof — apply here. By boarding our self-driving boat you granted us the right to all feedback you provide during your journey. This includes the chemical composition of your sweat. Remember when I said at I/O that maybe we should set aside some small part of the world where people could experiment freely and examine the effects? I wasn't speaking theoretically. This place exists. We built it.'"

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 15:16

  Syrian Electronic Army Hits Financial Times Sites, Feeds

   » ‎ Slashdot
  puddingebola writes with an excerpt from the New York Times: "The Web site and several Twitter accounts belonging to The Financial Times were hacked on Friday by the Syrian Electronic Army in a continuing campaign that has aimed at an array of media outlets ranging from The Associated Press to the parody site The Onion, according to a claim by the so-called army. The Syrian Electronic Army said it seized control of several F.T. Twitter accounts and amended a number of the site's blog posts with the headline 'Hacked by Syrian Electronic Army.' Hackers used their access to the F.T.'s Twitter feed to post messages, including one that said, 'Syrian Electronic Army Was Here,' and another that linked to a YouTube video of an execution. Both messages were quickly removed.'"

  

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• 14:21

  Arduino Branches Out, With a Plug-and-Program Robot

   » ‎ Slashdot
  mikejuk writes "The new Arduino robot looks a bit like a robot vacuum cleaner, but it has a lot more going for it and it certainly doesn't suck — well not unless you add an air pump to it. As always, the Arduino Robot is completely open source and comes as an easy to assemble kit involving no soldering, just some plugging in of components. It consists of two circular boards, 19cm in diameter, each with its own Arduino controller. They fit together to create a stack about 10cm tall. The bottom board has two wheels and motors which allow it to move in any direction. The top board contains lots of sensors and a central display. The two communicate via a serial connection. There is also a lot of space for expansion. There is a new library which can be downloaded to help write programs for this fairly sophisticated robot. There is only one big problem with the Arduino robot — you can't buy one at the moment. If you really can't wait, until early July when they should start shipping from the Arduino shop and from distributors, then you will have to get to the Maker Faire San Mateo (May 17-19) where they are being demonstrated and sold."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 13:19

  After Kickstarter Record, Pebble Smartwatch Lands $15M From VCs

   » ‎ Slashdot
  LeadSongDog writes "The Globe and Mail is reporting that the 'Pebble' smartwatch has matched the $15M record for Kickstarter funding after initially being panned by the VC crowd." One advantage that the Pebble has over rumored watches from big names like Google and Apple is existing.

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 12:20

  Electronics-Loving 'Crazy Ants' Invading Southern US

   » ‎ Slashdot
  From an article at the Houston Chronicle (not The Onion) comes a report of concern to anyone in a warm climate with, well, electronics. From the article: "According to researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, invasive 'crazy ants' are slowly displacing fire ants in the southeastern United States. These 'Tawny Crazy Ants' have a peculiar predilection toward electronics as well. 'They nest in electronics and create short circuits, as they create a contact bridge between two points when they get electrocuted they release an alarm pheromone,' says UT research assistant Edward LeBrun. 'The other ants are attracted to the chemicals that other ants give off,' he adds. At this point, more ants arrive and create a larger nest." The L.A. Times also has a report, which says "Thus far, the crazy ants are not falling for the traditional poisons used to eliminate fire ant mounds. And when local mounds are destroyed manually, they are quickly regenerated. 'They don't sting like fire ants do, but aside from that they are much bigger pests,' LeBrun said. 'There are videos on YouTube of people sweeping out dustpans full of these ants from their bathroom. You have to call pest control operators every three or four months just to keep the infestation under control. It's very expensive.'"

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 11:18

  Intel Rolls Out "Beacon Mountain" Android Dev Platform For Atom

   » ‎ Slashdot
  MojoKid writes "In an effort to coax developers to begin taking Atom seriously as an Android platform, Intel has just released a complete suite of tools that should help ease them into things — especially since it can be used for ARM development as well. It's called Beacon Mountain, named after the highest peak outside of Beacon, New York. As you'd expect, Beacon Mountain supports Jelly Bean (4.2) development, and with this suite, you're provided with a collection of important Intel tools: Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager, Integrated Performance Primitives, Graphics and System Performance Analyzers, Threaded Building Blocks and Software Manager. In addition, Android SDK and NDK, Eclipse and Cygwin third-party tools are included to complete the package."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 10:17

  Fed. Appeals Court Says Police Need Warrant to Search Phone

   » ‎ Slashdot
  An anonymous reader writes "In a decision that's almost certainly going to result in this issue heading up to the Supreme Court, the Federal 1st Circuit Court of Appeals [Friday] ruled that police can't search your phone when they arrest you without a warrant. That's contrary to most courts' previous findings in these kinds of cases where judges have allowed warrantless searches through cell phones." (But in line with the recently mentioned decision in Florida, and seemingly with common sense.)

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 9:19

  UK Consumers Reporting Contactless Payment Errors

   » ‎ Slashdot
  leathered writes "The BBC reports that some customers of UK retailer Marks and Spencer have reported that the store's contactless payment terminals have debited their cards despite being in their bags or pockets, sometimes paying twice when they have used another payment method. The cards are supposed to work only when the card comes within 4cm of the terminal. Customers of fast-food chain Pret a Manger have been reporting similar problems, and in both cases cited the customers weren't even aware they had been issued with NFC-enabled cards by their bank."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 8:20

  FBI Considers CALEA II: Mandatory Wiretapping On Every Device

   » ‎ Slashdot
  Techmeology writes "In response to declining utility of CALEA mandated wiretapping backdoors due to more widespread use of cryptography, the FBI is considering a revamped version that would mandate wiretapping facilities in end users' computers and software. Critics have argued that this would be bad for security (PDF), as such systems must be more complex and thus harder to secure. CALEA has also enabled criminals to wiretap conversations by hacking the infrastructure used by the authorities. I wonder how this could ever be implemented in FOSS."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 7:25

  Bloomberg To HS Grads: Be a Plumber

   » ‎ Slashdot
  An anonymous reader writes "This being college graduation season, the insights provided by commencement speakers should be familiar by now: find work in a field you're passionate about, don't underestimate your own abilities, aim high, learn to communicate and collaborate with others, give something back to your community. Billionaire Mike Bloomberg, whose current job is Mayor of New York City, evidently decided to break the mold by advising less academically adept youngsters to consider a career in plumbing. High wages, constant demand, no offshore competition. 'Compare a plumber to going to Harvard College — being a plumber, actually for the average person, probably would be a better deal'. Ouch! And hey, like a lawyer, a plumber can always dabble in politics."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 6:28

  Of 1000 Americans Polled, Most Would Ban Home Printing of Guns

   » ‎ Slashdot
  An anonymous reader writes "In results that may signal some discomfort with the enormous DIY promise of 3D printing and similar home-manufacturing technologies, a new Reason-Rupe poll finds that an otherwise gun control-weary American public thinks owners of 3D printers ought not be allowed to make their own guns or gun parts. Of course, implementing such a restrictive policy might be tad more difficult than measuring popular preferences." This poll is of only 1000 people, though; your mileage may vary.

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 3:25

  Happy Culture Freedom Day!

   » ‎ Slashdot
  Blug_fred writes "For the second edition, today is the time to celebrate Culture Freedom Day. While not as popular as HFD or SFD, celebrating Free Culture involves finding Free Culture artists, inviting them to your place and having them perform, display or talk about what their creation(s). Of course you can always simply project a couple of Free Culture movies and launch a discussion about their business models. Either way you can find all the happening for today here on the map and we sincerely hope there will be something of interest near you."

  

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• 0:20

  RPiCluster: Another Raspberry Pi Cluster, With Neat Tricks

   » ‎ Slashdot
  New submitter TheJish writes "The RPiCluster is a 33-node Beowulf cluster built using Raspberry Pis (RPis). The RPiCluster is a little side project I worked on over the last couple months as part of my dissertation work at Boise State University. I had need of a cluster to run a distributed simulator I've been developing. The RPiCluster is the result. I've written an informal document on why I built the RPiCluster, how it was built, and how it performs as compared to other platforms. I also put together a YouTube video of it running an MPI parallel program I created to demo the RGB LEDs installed on each node as part of the build. While there have certainly been larger RPi clusters put together recently, I figured the Slashdot community might be interested in this build as I believe it is a novel approach to the rack mounting and power management of RPis."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• May 17, 2013
• 21:12

  NASA Meteoroid-Spotting Program Captures Brightest-Yet Moon Impact

   » ‎ Slashdot
  From a NASA press release published Friday: "For the past 8 years, NASA astronomers have been monitoring the Moon for signs of explosions caused by meteoroids hitting the lunar surface. 'Lunar meteor showers' have turned out to be more common than anyone expected, with hundreds of detectable impacts occurring every year. They've just seen the biggest explosion in the history of the program." Watch the flash for yourself.

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 18:33

  Password Strength Testers Work For Important Accounts

   » ‎ Slashdot
  msm1267 writes "Many popular online services have started to deploy password strength meters, visual gauges that are often color-coded and indicate whether the password you've chosen is weak or strong based on the website's policy. The effectiveness of these meters in influencing users to choose stronger passwords had not been measured until recently. A paper released this week by researchers at the University of California Berkeley, University of British Columbia, and Microsoft provides details on the results of a couple of experiments examining how these meters influence computer users when they're creating passwords for sensitive accounts and for unimportant accounts."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  

• 18:26

  Google builds crowdsourcing into new Maps code stack

   » ‎ The Register
  Wants a unique map for every user

  Google I/O Google has been giving more details about how it has redesigned its Maps software by adding in crowd-sourced photographic and driving directions to its coding scheme.…

• 18:06

  Google's Native Code browser tech goes cross-platform

   » ‎ The Register
  Write web modules in C/C++ that run on both Intel and ARM

  Google I/O At its annual I/O conference in San Francisco this week, Google unveiled a new version of its Native Client technology that allows developers to deploy binary code for web applications in an architecture-independent way.…

• 17:29

  Crowdsourced Network Planning For Connection-Bridging Startup

   » ‎ Slashdot
  An anonymous reader writes "Tom's Hardware reports on the Connectify Switchboard software that "divides the user's traffic between Wi-Fi, 3G/4G and Ethernet-based connections on a packet-by-packet basis. Even a single stream — such as a Netflix movie — can be split between two or three Internet connections for a higher resolution and faster buffering." As part of its Kickstarter campaign, Connectify is geolocating their backers to optimize deployment of their servers. This is a clever way for supporters to influence the project beyond pledge levels and stretch goals, and it's actually kind of fun to watch."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  

• 17:17

  Yahoo! to 'share something special' in New York on Monday

   » ‎ The Register
  Is hastily called event related to Tumblr rumblings?

  Yahoo! will hold a "product-related news event" this upcoming Monday with CEO Marissa Mayer in attendance to "share something special."…

• 16:48

  Cell Phones As a Dirty Bomb Detection Network

   » ‎ Slashdot
  First time accepted submitter iinventstuff writes "The Idaho National Laboratory has built a dirty bomb detection network out of cell phones. Camera phones operate by detecting photons and storing them as a picture. The INL discovered that high energy photons from radiological sources distort the image in ways detectable through image processing. KSL TV reports that the INL's mobile app detects radiation sources and then reports positive 'hits' to a central server. Terrorists deploying a dirty bomb will inevitably pass by people carrying cell phones. By crowdsourcing cell phones, the INL has created a potentially very large, inexpensive, and randomly mobile radiation detection grid."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  

• 16:19

  Adobe's Creative Cloud fails at being a cloud

   » ‎ The Register
  Sync feature suspended by Adobe FOR TWO WEEKS

  The file-syncing part of Adobe's new Creative Cloud family of technologies has been intermittently broken for a week, taking the "cloud" part out of Adobe's "Creative Cloud" redesign of its products. Now Adobe is suspending it "for the next couple of weeks" to make updates.…

• 16:15

  NASA signs off on sampling mission to Earth-threatening asteroid

   » ‎ The Register
  2016 launch date set for OSIRIS-REx mission

  NASA has given final approval for a billion-dollar mission that will visit one of the most potentially dangerous asteroids to Earth, collect samples, and then bring it back home for analysis.…

• 16:07

  Linux Mint 15 'Olivia' Release Candidate Is Out

   » ‎ Slashdot
  New submitter Anand Radhakrishnan writes "The release candidate for the much-anticipated Linux Mint 15 'Olivia' is available for user testing. Its many new features include Cinnamon Control center, an improved login manager with HTML 5 support, a driver manager, and a lot of under-the-hood improvements. 'A new tool called MintSources, aka "Software Sources," was developed from scratch with derivative distributions in mind (primarily Linux Mint, but also LMDE, Netrunner and Snow Linux). It replaces software-properties-gtk and is perfectly adapted to managing software sources in Linux Mint. From the main screen you can easily enable or disable optional components and gain access to backports, unstable packages and source code.' This release with Cinnamon looks really tempting."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  

• 15:28

  US military welcomes Apple iOS 6 kit onto its networks

   » ‎ The Register
  The battle with BlackBerry, Samsung marches into the cloud

  The US Department of Defense has welcomed Apple's iDevices into its secure networks, and has announced that that it is "taking bold steps to provide sound information and proper analysis as it fortifies its cloud computing, acquisition and data processes."…

• 15:25

  Australian Government Backdoor Internet Filter Shuts Down 1,000 Websites

   » ‎ Slashdot
  An anonymous reader writes "The Australian government has secretly censored over 1,000 web sites through a hitherto-unused internet censorship law. In April the Melbourne Free University was blocked without any explanation. Section 313 of the Telecommunications Act allows the government to close web sites without warning to "uphold laws, protect public revenue and safeguard national security". This is open to abuse as Australians only have limited free speech rights which already make it difficult for the press to report corruption."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  
• 14:43

  Nintendo Hijacks Ad Revenue From Fan-Created YouTube Playthroughs

   » ‎ Slashdot
  mcleland writes "The BBC reports that Nintendo is now using the content ID match feature in YouTube to identify screencap videos of people playing their games. They then take over the advertising that appears with the video, and thus the ad revenue. Nintendo gets it all, and the creators of these videos (which are like extended fan-made commercials for the games) get nothing. Corporate gibberish to justify this: 'In a statement, the firm said the move was part of an "on-going push to ensure Nintendo content is shared across social media."'"

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  

• 14:33

  Jailed Romanian hacker repents, invents ATM security scheme

   » ‎ The Register
  Add-on device blocks card skimmers

  A Romanian man serving a five-year jail sentence for bank-machine fraud says he's come up with a device that can be attached to any ATM to make the machine invulnerable to card skimmers.…

• 14:24

  Climate scientists agree: Humans cause global warming

   » ‎ The Register
  Of those who have an opinion, over 97% say we're to blame

  A major study of nearly 12,000 peer-reviewed papers in the climate-science literature has – again – proven that among climate scientists, an overwhelming percentage agree with the consensus view that human activity causes global warming.…

• 14:01

  9th Grade Science Experiment: Garden Cress Won't Germinate Near Routers

   » ‎ Slashdot
  New submitter SessionExpired writes "Five 9th graders from Denmark have shown that garden cress won't germinate when placed near a router (Google Translation of Danish original). Article text is in Danish, but the pictures illustrate their results. The exact mechanism is still unknown (Danish original), but experts have shown interest in reproducing the experiment."

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  

• 13:55

  MIT takes battery-powered robot cheetah for a gallop

   » ‎ The Register
  Biomimetic big cat needs no power cord, just a walker

  Video Fast, agile robots for reconnaissance and rescue have been under development for half a decade or more, but they all have needed to be tethered to a power cable. Now MIT thinks it has cut the leash with a battery powered "cheetah" capable of outrunning a human.…

• 13:18

  Review: Star Trek: Into Darkness

   » ‎ Slashdot
  J.J. Abrams’ 2009 reboot of Star Trek was wildly successful. It raked in hundreds of millions at the box office, and revitalized the Star Trek franchise, which had languished for 7 years without a new film and 4 years without a TV presence (after 18 consecutive years of new shows). It also did something no Trek movie had done before; it made Star Trek ‘cool’ in the public consciousness. Combined, those factors ensured Abrams would get another turn at the helm of a Trek movie, and sooner rather than later. With today's release of Star Trek: Into Darkness, that trend is very likely to continue. It's a movie with all the same strengths and weaknesses of its predecessor, and if it worked before, it'll work again. Read on for our review.

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  

• 13:01

  Hey you! Under that rock!

   » ‎ ThinkGeek: What's New
  Get out from under there! Tsk tsk, what have you been doing? Look at all the links you've missed out on this past week!

• 12:29

  Congress Demands Answers From Google Over Google Glass Privacy Concerns

   » ‎ Slashdot
  Today eight members of the U.S. Congress have sent a letter to Google's Larry Page, asking him to address a number of privacy concerns about Google Glass. In the letter (PDF), they brought up the company's notorious Street View data collection incident, and asked how the company was planning to avoid a similar privacy breach with Glass. They also ask how Google is going to build Glass to protect the privacy of non-users who may not want their every public move to be recorded. Further, they ask about the security of recordings once they are made: "Will Google Glass have the capacity to store any data on the device itself? If so, will Google Glass implement some sort of user authentication system to safeguard stored data? If not, why not?" Google has until July 14th to respond.

  

  Read more of this story at Slashdot.

  
  
  

• 12:25

  Google research chief: 'Emergent artificial intelligence? Hogwash!'

   » ‎ The Register
  'We have to make it happen'

  Google I/O If there's any company in the world that can bring true artificial intelligence into being, it's Google, but the company thinks SkyNet is unlikley to appear in the Googlenet without help from the Chocolate Factory.…

• 12:15

  Home & Office : Doctor Who Glow in the Dark Molded Decals

   » ‎ ThinkGeek: What's New
  24 timey-glowy stickers for Whovians in the dark. Looking for something to distract you from that crack in your bedroom wall? Or that Silent that you forgot was standing in your closet? Maybe some glow-in-the-dark stickers will help! 24 sticker set, including Daleks and Weeping Angels. $14.99

• 11:46

  Sorry, Larry Page: Tech-Industry Viciousness Is Here To Stay

   » ‎ Slashdot
  Nerval's Lobster writes "At this week's Google I/O in San Francisco, Google CEO Larry Page stood onstage and took unscripted questions from an auditorium of conference attendees. That's an unusual move for any chief executive, the sort of thing that risks giving their PR people a heart attack. But Page wasn't up there to offer insights into strategy or drop hints about upcoming products: he wanted to talk about how negativity in the tech industry stood in the way of innovation. 'Despite the faster change we have in the industry, we're still moving slow relative to the opportunities that we have,' he said. 'And some of that, I think, has to do with the negativity. Every story I read about Google, it's us versus some other company or some stupid thing.' Being negative, he added, is not how the tech industry makes progress. But minutes later, Page couldn't resist swiping at Oracle and Microsoft. And Google's battles are just one small element in the circular firing squad that comprises most of the tech industry: Apple versus Google versus Samsung versus Microsoft versus Oracle versus Salesforce versus lots of little startups. Those battles won't fade away anytime soon, because corporations have one goal: profit. And so long as other rivals' technological innovations or marketplace maneuvers stand in the way of that profit, the lawsuits and the CEO sniping will continue. The part of Page's talk that centered on peace and love played well to the audience at Google I/O; but it's easier to argue that the true mode of the tech industry, at its core, is Darwinian competition. Do you agree?"

  

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• 11:05

  Amtrak Upgrades Wi-Fi

   » ‎ Slashdot
  New submitter WillgasM writes "A bit of good news for American travelers, according to the New York Times: 'After years of criticism of the wireless service on its trains, Amtrak announced on Thursday that it had upgraded its cellular-based Wi-Fi using broadband technologies that will improve the speed and reliability of the Internet in its passenger cars.' So far the service has been rolled out on the high-speed Acela lines and a few routes in California, but they hope to have the rest of their trains upgraded by the end of Summer. We're still an order of magnitude away from high-speed rails in other countries, but it's nice to know someone's trying."

  

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• 10:28

  Nvidia opens pre-orders for handheld Shield console three days early

   » ‎ The Register
  Let the feeding frenzy commence

  Nvidia is now taking orders for its Shield handheld gaming console, three days early, though the Android-running Tegra-powered gadget won’t make its way into punters’ hands before the end of next month at the earliest.…

• 10:23

  Geologists In Norway Are Using Drones With Cameras To Hunt For Oil

   » ‎ Slashdot
  garymortimer writes "Geologists have long used seismology on the bottom of the ocean or have been throwing dynamite from snowmobiles when they look for oil. But now researchers at Centre for Integrated Petroleum Research, a joint venture between the University of Bergen and Uni Research, have found a new preferred method – using drones to map new oil reserves from the air. ... The group’s main task is to create digital maps in 3D of potential oil fields. Using laser scanners, infrared sensors and digital cameras, the researchers create realistic, virtual models. ... Pictures shot with the help of a drone complement the images from low-level terrain that the researchers already have in hand. The end result is more precise and complete 3D models."

  

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• 10:05

  Yahoo! triumphs! in! $2.75bn! Mexican! standoff!

   » ‎ The Register
  Mighty award against it abruptly slashed to $172,500

  Yahoo! has said that a Mexican appeals court threw out a $2.75bn ruling against it and Yahoo! Mexico over contracts in the country.…

• 9:40

  Geek Toys : Dungeons & Dragons Clue

   » ‎ ThinkGeek: What's New
  The classic game of Clue, now with a massive dose of D&D. Clue is great game because accusing people is fun. Plus, it always came with little metal weapons (except for the rope). Well, time to send the classic game through a magic portal; time to beef it up with D&D! $39.99

• 9:40

  How BlackBerry Is Riding iOS and Android To Power Its Comeback

   » ‎ Slashdot
  alancronin sends this excerpt from ZDNet: "... the trend that brutally undercut BlackBerry phones during the past five years — the 'bring your own device' movement — is now driving significant sales of BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES), the company's backend software. 'Our customers have been asking, "Can you just take what you've done on BlackBerry and put it on iOS and Android?"' said Pete Devenyi, BlackBerry's SVP of Enterprise Software. ... Secure Work Space will be an app in the Apple App Store and Google Play, pending approval from Apple and Google, respectively. It will include secure email, calendar, contacts, tasks, and document editing. It won't allow data leakage including copy and paste between Secure Work Space and the rest of the device. IT will be able to remotely wipe everything in the Secure Work Space without affecting any of the other apps or data on the person's device, in a BYOD scenario."

  

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• 9:37

  Tablet? Laptop? HP does the splits with Tegra-based SlateBook x2

   » ‎ The Register
  Netbook with removable screen, anyone?

  HP is to follow its Windows 8-based tablet keyboard combo, the Envy x2, with an Android Jelly Bean version - the computer giant’s take on Asus’ popular Transformer series.…

• 9:19

  Lonely-heart Maltese techie vs Bonnie Tyler for Eurovision crown

   » ‎ The Register
  32 years since that Bucks Fizz feelin'

  Eurovision 2013 A hopelessly sweet song about a ruthlessly organised techie who gets the girl will fight with the ballad from rock vixen Bonnie Tyler and 24 other acts to lift the Eurovision Song Contest crown Saturday night.…

• 9:06

  Breaking news, LITERALLY: Financial Times vandalised by hackers

   » ‎ The Register
  Stiff Pink 'Un left swinging in the wind

  The Financial Times website and its Twitter accounts were this afternoon hijacked by pro-government hackers from the "Syrian Electronic Army".…

• 9:03

  T-Shirts & Apparel : Vitruvian Prime

   » ‎ ThinkGeek: What's New
  Proportions of Optimus It's evident that the displacement and asymmetry of the Decepticon reflects the disproportioning of temperament and drive to rule Cybertron. Balance and beauty of the Autobot body leads to equal balance of strength and compassion. $19.99 - $20.99
• 9:03

  T-Shirts & Apparel : Head Of Cobra

   » ‎ ThinkGeek: What's New
  Cobra! Attack! The fearless, faceless leader known only as Cobra Commander is among the greatest and vilest of villains in the Marvel universe. Trained to become a member of the Arashikage ninjas, the Commander is more than just a brilliant mind. His plain life as a use $19.99 - $20.99

• 8:58

  Mozilla Delays Default Third-Party Cookie Blocking In Firefox

   » ‎ Slashdot
  hypnosec writes "Mozilla is not going ahead with its plans to block third-party cookies by default in the Beta version of its upcoming Firefox 22. Mozilla needs more time to analyze the outcome of blocking these cookies. The non-profit organization released Firefox Aurora on April 5 with a patch by Jonathan Mayer built into it which would only allow cookies from those websites which the user has visited. The patch would block the ones from sites which hadn't been visited yet. The reason for Mozilla's change in plans is that they're currently looking into 'false positives.' If a user visits one part of a group of site, cookies from that part will be allowed, but cookies from related sites in the group may be blocked, and they're worried it will create a poor user experience. On the other side of the coin, there are 'false negatives.' Just because a user may have visited a particular site doesn't mean she is comfortable with the idea of being tracked."

  

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• 8:34

  Hey, Teflon Ballmer. Look, isn't it time? You know, time to quit?

   » ‎ The Register
  Microsoft chief defies pundits by hanging on - we reveal how

  Analysis Those who upgraded to Windows 8 aren't the only ones unhappy with the new touch-driven operating system - Wall Street is too. Just don't expect any of the criticism hurled at Steve "Teflon" Ballmer, Microsoft's shy and retiring boss, to stick.…

• 8:23

  T-Shirts & Apparel : Crest of Hyrule

   » ‎ ThinkGeek: What's New
  In a new color! Although not as versatile as a Kokiri Tunic, this Crest of Hyrule t-shirt will camouflage you better if you enter the Twilight Realm, although it's not guaranteed to fit if you turn into a wolf. $17.99 - $19.99

• 8:16

  97% of Climate Science Papers Agree Global Warming Is Man-made

   » ‎ Slashdot
  An anonymous reader writes "A meta-study published yesterday looked at over 12,000 peer-reviewed papers on climate science that appeared in journals between 1991 and 2011. The papers were evaluated and categorized by how they implicitly or explicitly endorsed humans as a contributing cause of global warming. The meta-study found that an overwhelming 97.1% of the papers that took a stance endorsed human-cause global warming. They also asked the 1,200 of the scientists involved in the research to self-evaluate their own studies, with nearly identical results. In the interest of transparency, the meta-study results were published in an open access journal, and the researchers set up a website so that anybody can check their results. From the article: '... a memo from communications strategist Frank Luntz leaked in 2002 advised Republicans, "Should the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly. Therefore, you need to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate." This campaign has been successful. A 2012 poll from U.S. Pew Research Center found less than half of Americans thought scientists agreed humans were causing global warming. The media has assisted in this public misconception, with most climate stories "balanced" with a "skeptic" perspective. However, this results in making the 2–3% seem like 50%. In trying to achieve "balance," the media has actually created a very unbalanced perception of reality. As a result, people believe scientists are still split about what's causing global warming, and therefore there is not nearly enough public support or motivation to solve the problem.'"

  

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• 8:11

  Who is the mystery sixth member of LulzSec?

   » ‎ The Register
  And, hang on, what happened to all the loot...

  Analysis Thursday's sentencing of three core members of hacktivist crew LulzSec and an accomplice hacker who gave them access to a botnet closes an important chapter in the history of activism. But it also leaves a number of questions unanswered.…

• 7:34

  Patenting Open Source Software

   » ‎ Slashdot
  dp619 writes "The tactic of patenting open source software to guard against patent trolls and the weaponization of corporate patent portfolios is gaining momentum in the FOSS community. Organizations including the Open Innovation Network, Google and Red Hat have built defensive patent portfolios (the latter two are defending their product lines). This approach has limitations. Penn State law professor Clark Asay writes in an Outercurve Foundation blog examining the trend, 'Patenting FOSS may help in some cases, but the nature of FOSS development itself may mean that patenting some collaboratively developed inventions is inherently more difficult, if not impossible, in many others. Consequently, strategies for mitigating patent risk that rely on FOSS communities patenting their technologies include inherent limitations. It's not entirely clear how best to reform patent law in order to better reconcile it with alternative models of innovation. But in the meantime, FOSS still presents certain advantages that, while dimmed by the prospect of patent suits, remain significant.'"

  

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• 7:29

  Murdoch Facebook gloat: You're like my $580m, 'CRAPPY' MySpace

   » ‎ The Register
  Billionaire media tyrant has a Ratner moment

  Rupert Murdoch had a Gerald Ratner moment on Twitter earlier today when, in a warning to Facebook, he labelled MySpace - a website he once owned - as "crappy".…

• 7:04

  That $1,000 the lad in Lagos needed? Just email it with Google Wallet

   » ‎ The Register
  Be afraid, PayPal - be very afraid

  Google has integrated its payment Wallet with Gmail, enabling PayPal-style transactions from within the Gmail interface, and to any over-18 American with an email address and a Google Wallet account.…

• 6:50

  Florida Activates System For Citizens To Call Each Other Terrorists

   » ‎ Slashdot
  An anonymous reader writes "Sheriffs in 13 Northeast Florida counties announced an online system Thursday for residents to report suspicious activity they think may be terrorism-related. The site provides examples of red flags to watch for, such as people with an unusual interest in building plans or who are purchasing materials useful in bomb making. Important places to watch include hobby stores and dive shops."

  

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• 6:45

  El Reg drills in Office 365: See the evidence

   » ‎ The Register
  Trevor goes visual

  Vid This week, Trevor Pott kicked off his exploration of Office 365 with this overview.…

• 6:26

  I said ‘no’ to a million-pound Tech City empire

   » ‎ The Register
  Handed on a plate, thrown back in your face

  Something for the Weekend, Sir? I have been propositioned in a toilet by a 72-year-old man. He wants me to move in with him and do the business.…

• 6:08

  Opportunity Breaks NASA's 40-Year Roving Record

   » ‎ Slashdot
  astroengine writes "After nine years of hard Mars roving, Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity has broken a 40-year-old extraterrestrial distance record. On Thursday, the tenacious six-wheeled robot drove 80 meters (263 feet), nudging the total distance traveled since landing on the red planet in 2004 to 35.760 kilometers (22.220 miles). NASA's previous distance record was held by Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt when, in December 1972, they drove their Lunar Roving Vehicle 35.744 kilometers (22.210 miles) over the lunar surface. Although it's broken the NASA distance record, it hasn't surpassed the international record, yet. The Soviet Lunokhod 2 remote-controlled moon rover roved 37 kilometers (23 miles) across the lunar surface and, so far, remains the undisputed champion of distance driving on an extraterrestrial surface."

  

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• 6:04

  Apple chief Cook: You - senators. Get in here and redo this tax law

   » ‎ The Register
  Listen up, Popeye, fix it if you don't like it

  Apple supremo Tim Cook will dare US senators to rewrite tax laws seeing as the politicians are so upset about tech giants' tiny contributions to America's public coffers.…

• 5:44

  Congress: It's not the Glass that's scary - It's the GOOGLE

   » ‎ The Register
  On-head TV, fine - but you can't skip the ads on this one

  Comment Google Glass is wrapped around the faces of only a few thousand people right now. The company says the device is in very early beta mode. And yet lawmakers in the US have already pounced on the company demanding answers about how the privacy of netizens using the gizmo will be protected.…

• 5:24

  Hunt: I'll barcode sick Brits and rip up NHS's paper prescriptions

   » ‎ The Register
  'Fell asleep in the hospital and woke up as a one-armed woman!'

  UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt wants to tear up the NHS's clumsy system of printed prescriptions - and instead use "unique barcodes" to dish out medication straight to the poorly.…

• 5:06

  IT bloke publishes comprehensive maps of CALL CENTRE menu HELL

   » ‎ The Register
  Seven year mission in the touch-tone catacombs

  Most people can't bear to use automated call centre phone lines for even a few minutes. But one former IT manager has spent seven years on the phone in a bid to produce a map of Britain's phone menus.…

• 4:44

  Trying to kill undead Pushdo zombies? Hard luck, Trojan is EVOLVING

   » ‎ The Register
  Malware remains undead, adds double-sneaky stealth mode

  The crooks behind the Pushdo botnet agent have developed variants of the malware that are more resistant to take-down attempts or hijacking by rival hackers.…

• 4:24

  TOO GOOD! Groupon ex-boss to drop, er, 'motivational business album'

   » ‎ The Register
  Andrew Mason to share 'wisdom' through music

  Ex-Groupon chief Andrew Mason is moving to San Francisco to start a new company, after of course, he releases an album of "motivational business music".…

• 4:04

  Half of youngsters would swap PRIVACY for... cheaper insurance

   » ‎ The Register
  Only old fogies care who knows where they were last summer

  More than half of UK youngsters think being tracked is a small price to pay for cheaper car insurance, and 26 per cent will be actively seeking a pay-by-the-mile policy in the hope  of saving a few quid.…

• 3:29

  'I think you DO do evil, using smoke and mirrors to avoid tax'

   » ‎ The Register
  Plus: 'What's next? Will they ask for my inside leg measurement?'

  Quotw This was the week when someone kicked Blighty's tax ant-hill and sent MPs and multinationals scurrying in all directions. The Public Accounts Committee called Google and its auditor Ernst & Young back to give more evidence about their British tax dealings, after a Reuters report suggested there might be "inconsistencies" in their original testimony.…

• 3:28

  Brain Zapping Improves Math Ability

   » ‎ Slashdot
  sciencehabit writes "If you are one of the 20% of healthy adults who struggle with basic arithmetic, simple tasks like splitting the dinner bill can be excruciating. Now, a new study suggests that a gentle, painless electrical current applied to the brain can boost math performance for up to 6 months. Researchers don't fully understand how it works, however, and there could be side effects." We've covered various other potential benefits to having your brain shocked.

  

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• 3:15

  Time to get your hands on Hyper-V 3.0: Let's do this

   » ‎ The Register
  Join your fellow readers and our experts - 11AM UK

  Live training! At last, our eagerly awaited live training session with the tech gurus from QA training is ready to roll.…

• 3:04

  What IS the difference between Virt and Cloud?

   » ‎ The Register
  Pin your ears back and we'll tell you

  There's a lot of talk – some might say hot air – about cloud computing, what it is and what it is not. Ask 10 people and you will probably get 15 answers.…

• 2:28

  Prankster 'Superhero' takes on robot traffic warden AND WINS

   » ‎ The Register
  'We are unable to accept your claim of super powers'

  A blogger claiming to have superpowers has exposed a flaw in a parking company's vehicle recognition system which could see innocent drivers wrongly hit with fines.…

• 1:55

  The quest continues for a fondleslab that fondles you back

   » ‎ The Register
  British vibro pioneers say: Anything can be a speaker

  HiWave, the haptics company which emerged from Brit hi-fi consortium NXT with a mission to make our fondleslabs fondle us back, has fragmented into a part which makes money and the more-interesting Redux.…

• 1:38

  Surface Pro to hit Blighty priced 25% up on top-o-the-range iPad

   » ‎ The Register
  'That's cos it replaces your current laptop+iPad combo'

  Microsoft has confirmed prices for the Surface Pro: the 128GB model will cost punters 25 per cent more than a top of the range iPad.…

• 1:19

  Microsoft conceals job ad in Bing homepage

   » ‎ The Register
  Use Internet Explorer with debug on? You're our kinda guy

  Microsoft are looking for a new Bing developer - but you'll need to be pretty smart to apply. Oh, and you can only use Internet Explorer, which rules a fair number of applicants out.…

• 1:03

  Have your users managed to force iOS devices on you?

   » ‎ The Register
  Check this, it might stop them losing all the data

  NetApp has used its acquired IonGrid technology to provide iOS mobile devices with access to file data stored on its FAS arrays, along with browser access to business apps.…

• 0:59

  Bill Gates Regains the Position of World's Richest Person

   » ‎ Slashdot
  jones_supa writes "Bill Gates is once again the world's richest person. He recaptured the title from Mexican investor Carlos Slim, as Microsoft hit a five-year high. It is the first time Gates has held the mantle since 2007. His fortune is valued at $72.7 billion, up 16 percent year-to-date. At the same time, Mr. Slim's América Móvil, the largest mobile-phone operator in the Americas, has dropped 14 percent this year after Mexico's Congress passed a bill that could quash the billionaire's market dominance. That's helped erase more than $3 billion from the tycoon's net worth. What comes to Bill Gates, most of his fortune is held in Cascade Investment LLC, a holding entity through which he owns stakes in more than a dozen publicly traded companies and several closely held operations. He has donated $28 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation."

  

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• 0:50

  US government wants security research on car-to-car nets

   » ‎ The Register
  Car crashed? Have you topped up its anti-virus or turned it off and on again?

  David Strickland, Administrator of the USA's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), has told that nation's Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that he plans to research the security requirements of automated cars and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) networks.…

• May 16, 2013
• 23:58

  Foxconn still flogging iWorkers, but more lightly

   » ‎ The Register
  Fair Labor Association finds better safety, more loos, but also overwork

  The Fair Labor Association's (FLA's) latest report on workers at Chinese manufacturer Foxconn, Apple's preferred source for many iThings, has found many staff are still working longer hours than is allowed under Chinese law.…

• 23:26

  Swedish Data Center Saves $1M a Year Using Seawater For Cooling

   » ‎ Slashdot
  alphadogg writes "A data center in Sweden has cut its energy bills by a million dollars a year using seawater to cool its servers, though jellyfish are an occasional hazard. Interxion, a collocation company in the Netherlands that rents data center space in 11 countries, uses water pumped from the Baltic Sea to cool the IT equipment at its facilities in Stockholm. The energy used to cool IT equipment is one of the costliest areas of running a data center. Companies have traditionally used big, mechanical chillers, but some are turning to outside air and evaporative techniques as lower-cost alternatives."

  

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• 23:03

  Honey, I BLEW UP the International SPACE STATION - in full 3D

   » ‎ The Register
  CTO's radical rig blasts Sandra Bullock into Spaaace

  A few years ago the idea of accelerating a BlueArc filer would have seemed bizarre; it's got its own hardware acceleration. But now media special effects processing can be so mind-blowingly intensive that the hardware accelerated filer itself needs accelerating.…

• 22:34

  Larry Page: You Worry Too Much About Medical Privacy

   » ‎ Slashdot
  jfruh writes "Larry Page revealed that he'd been suffering from a vocal cord ailment that impaired his ability to speak for more than a year. The positive feedback he got from opening up about it inspired him to tell attendees at Google I/O that we should all be less uptight about keeping our medical records private. As far as Page is concerned, pretty much the only legitimate reason for worry on this score is fear of being denied health insurance. 'Maybe we should change the rules around insurance so that they have to insure people,' he said."

  

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• 22:00

  Curiosity at 'Cumberland'

   » ‎ NASA Image of the Day
  NASA's Mars rover Curiosity used its front left Hazard-Avoidance Camera for this image of the rover's arm over the drilling target "Cumberland" during the 275th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (May 15, 2013). The rover team plans to use Curiosity's drill to collect a powdered sample from the interior of the rock for analysis by laboratory instruments inside the rover. This is the mission's second rock-drilling target. The rover drove from its position beside the first drilling target, "John Klein," to its position beside Cumberland with drives of 121 inches (308 centimeters) on Sol 273 (May 13) and 26.6 inches (67.5 centimeters) on Sol 275. Curiosity's total odometry on Mars is now 2,385 feet (727 meters). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

• 22:00

  Combination Vision Test

   » ‎ xkcd.com
  

• 20:36

  Yahoo! May! Buy! Tumblr! For! One! BEELLION! Bucks!

   » ‎ The Register
  Hipster favourite could make Yahoo! cool again

  Yahoo! has reportedly opened its chequebook, pencilled in nine zeroes with a one in front, and waved it around in the general direction of blogging site Tumblr.…

• 20:05

  Robotic Bartender Assembles Your Drink, Monitors Alcohol Consumption

   » ‎ Slashdot
  First time accepted submitter Sabine Hauert writes in with news about a robotic bartending system called Makr Shakr. "You're at a busy bar. You order your personalized cocktail through a smart phone app; a drink dispenser measures out the beverage according to your instructions and a Kuka robotic arm give it a shake (or stir), while another garnishes it with a slice of lemon; the made-to-order concoction is delivered to your waiting hand via a slick little ten-lane conveyor belt. The 'mixology system' tracks your order from start to finish: a large display behind the bar shows you the number of drinks ahead of yours in the queue, the current wait time, and lets you know when your drink is ready to be picked up. It also shows you what's popular to drink tonight among both the ladies and the gents in the crowd, and lets you influence drinking trends in real-time by incorporating your suggested tweaks on popular recipes."

  

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• 19:35

  Australia's net filter sneaks into operation through back door

   » ‎ The Register
  Regulator's ban on dodgy shares site wipes out hundreds, exposes censorship mechanism

  Australia's national internet filter has re-emerged as an incompetence-powered zombie, after the nation's corporate regulator mistakenly blocked access to hundreds of sites.…

• 18:48

  Opportunity Mars rover sets NASA distance record

   » ‎ The Register
  All-time champ, however, remains 40-year-old Russki

  The never-say-die little rover that could, Opportunity, has set a new distance record for extraterrestrial NASA vehicles.…

• 18:47

  Congress asks Google to explain Glass privacy policies

   » ‎ The Register
  Pesky laws and governments interfering yet again

  The pilot phase of Google Glass is barely off the ground, but the Chocolate Factory's high-tech specs have already drawn the scrutiny of the US Congress over concerns that they could infringe individual privacy.…