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Google

Submission + - iOS 6 Adoption Rates Soar Following Google Maps Release (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes: "The Dec. 12 reinstatement of Google Maps on iOS has apparently been enough for some of those reticent users to finally make the upgrade to iOS 6. According to MoPub, the San Francisco-based mobile ad exchange that monitors more than 1 billion ad impressions a day and supports more than a dozen ad networks and 12,000 apps, there has been a 29 percent increase in unique iOS 6 users in the past five days following Google Maps' release on iOS. In fact, MoPub reports a 13 percent increase in iOS 6 users from last Monday to Wednesday alone, which would mean that nearly half of the converts to iOS 6 in the past week switched the very moment Google Maps' standalone app hit the App Store."
Hardware

Submission + - Magnetism flips heat flow (nature.com)

Submitted by
ananyo
ananyo writes: "Researchers have demonstrated that a magnetic field can control the flow of heat from from one body to another. First predicted nearly 50 years ago, the quantum effect might some day form the basis of a new generation of transistors that use heat rather than charge as the information carrier.
The research stems from the work of physicist Brian JosephsonSQUIDs), which are now sold commercially as ultra-sensitive magnetometers. In the latest work, researchers measured the devices’ thermal behaviour. The duo heated one end of a SQUID several micrometres long and monitored the temperature of an electrode connected to it. A SQUID consists of two y-shaped pieces of superconductor joined together to form a loop, but with two thin pieces of insulating material sandwiched in between. As the researchers varied the magnetic field passing through the loop, they found that the amount of heat flowing through the device also changed. The device worked by partly reversing the heat transfer, so that some would flow from the colder body to the warmer one."
Medicine

Submission + - Human Cloning Possible Within 50 Years, Nobel Prize-Winning Scientist Claims (medicaldaily.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Human cloning could happen within the next half century, claims a Nobel Prize-winning scientist.
Sir John Gurdon, the British developmental biologist whose research cloning frogs in the 1950s and 60s led to the later creation of Dolly the sheep in 1996, believes that human cloning could happen within the next 50 years.
He said that parents who lose their children to tragic accidents might be able to clone replacements in the next few decades.
Gurdon, who won this year's Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, said that while any attempts to clone a human would likely raise complex ethical issues, he believes that in the near future people would overcome their concerns if cloning became medically useful.
Privacy

Submission + - Government to spy on computers of the jobless (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Jobseekers will be offered the chance to look for work through the new Universal Jobmatch website, which automatically pairs them up with opportunities that suit their skills after scanning their CVs.

It will also allow employers to search for new workers among the unemployed and send messages inviting them to interviews.

However, their activities may also be tracked using devices known as "cookies", so their Job Centre advisers know how many searches they have been doing and whether they are turning down viable opportunities.

Iain Duncan-Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said the scheme would "revolutionise" the process of looking for work.

He said anyone without a job after signing up to the scheme would be lacking "imagination".
EU

Submission + - ACTA gets death certificate in Europe (ffii.org)

Submitted by Seeteufel
Seeteufel writes: The controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is now officially pronounced dead in the E.U. The European Parliament broadly rejected the Anti-Counterfeiting Agreement a while ago, but there was still a court case pending at the European Court of Justice about the legality of ACTA. The Commission was open about its intent to reintroduce ACTA raticication to the Parliament after a positive Court decision. Now we learn the Commission has withdrawn its questions to the Court.
AI

Submission + - China blocks VPN connections using machine learning algorithms?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The internet control in China seems to have been tightened recently, according to the Guardian [guardian.co.uk]. Several VPN providers claimed that the censorship system can "learn, discover and block" encrypted VPN protocols.

Using machine learning algorithms in protocol classification is not exactly a new topic in the field [scholar.google.com]. And given the fact that even the founding father of the "Great Firewall", Fan Bingxing [wikipedia.org] himself has also written a paper about utilizing machine learning algorithm in encrypted traffic analysis [ieee.org], it would be not suprising at all, if they are now starting to identify suspicious encrypted traffic using numerically efficient classifiers. [springer.com]

So the arm race between anti-censorship and surveillance technology goes on .
Censorship

Submission + - Japanese police charge 2channel founder over forum posts (japanprobe.com)

Submitted by identity0
identity0 writes: According to Japan Probe, Hiroyuki Nishimura, the founder of 2ch.net, has been charged with drug offenses by Japanese police over a forum post made on 2ch in 2010. He is not even accused of making the post, but of failure to have moderators delete it. The post apparently discussed drugs. 2ch.net (also called 2channel) is Japan's biggest forum, with over a million posts a day, of which the post in question was one. The site inspired image board 2chan.net(but is not directly related to it), which spawned copycat English site 4chan.net. More info at Slashdot Japan if you can read Japanese.
Censorship

Submission + - UK Government Changes Tack And Demands Default Porn Block (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by
judgecorp
judgecorp writes: "British Prime Minister David Cameron is set to reverse a policy announced last week, and demand that ISPs filter adult content by default. This system would require users to actively opt out of a filter designed to block adult content and material about self-harm. Last week, after consultation with parents, the Department for Education had said that an opt-in system would be sufficient and no default porn block would be required, but the Daily Mail has announced triumphantly that Cameron will be presenting the policy in the paper. MP Claire Perry, who has argued for the block, will be in charge — and freedom of speech campaigners have branded the sudden change of mind as "chaotic"."

Submission + - Germany hits 25% renewable power, transition going smoothly says government (nhk.or.jp)

Submitted by
AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: "The German government says the country's shift to renewable energy is going smoothly, with such energy now accounting for a quarter of all power consumption. German economics minister Philipp Roesler said the government has already taken 8 nuclear reactors offline, but this has had no impact on keeping the energy supply stable.

As well as increased capacity there has been a drive to save energy. Some Germans are opposed to price increases, although other countries are experiencing similar hikes."
Technology

Submission + - Using Technology To Make Guns Safer

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Farhad Manjoo writes that there are a number of technologies that gunmakers could add to their products that might prevent hundreds or thousands of deaths per year. One area of active research is known as the “smart gun”—a trigger-identification system that prevents a gun from being fired by anyone other than its authorized user with researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology creating a working prototype of a gun that determines whether or not to fire based on a user’s “grip pattern." Gunmakers been slow to add other safety technologies as well, including indicators that show whether a gun is loaded and “magazine safeties” that prevent weapons from being fired when their ammunition magazine is removed (PDF) that could save 400 lives a year. So why aren’t gunmakers making safer guns? Because guns are exempt from most of the consumer safety laws that have improved the rest of American life because the Consumer Product Safety Commission, charged with looking over thousands of different kinds of products, is explicitly prohibited from regulating firearms. In 2005, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which immunizes gun makers against lawsuits resulting from “misuse” of the products. If they can’t be sued and can’t be regulated, gunmakers have no incentive to make smarter guns. A week before the Newtown massacre, Joseph Loughrey went to a gun store to sell some of his weapons. Loughrey had unloaded the magazine on his handgun, but he didn’t know there was a still a round in the chamber. When he set the gun down on the center console of his truck, it went off, killing his 7-year-old son. " A magazine safety would have prevented Loughrey’s gun from going off after he’d removed the magazine. A smart trigger would have prevented the gun from firing without Loughrey’s hand being on the grip," writes Manjoo. "But Loughrey’s gun lacked both those safety devices, because nobody has ever forced gun makers to live up to the same basic safety requirements as other American companies.""

Submission + - MIT research shows new magnetic state that could aid quantum computing (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Researchers at MIT and other institutions have demonstrated a new type of magnetism, only the third kind ever found, and it may find its way into future communications, computing and data storage technologies. Working with a tiny crystal of a rare mineral that took 10 months to make, the researchers for the first time have demonstrated a magnetic state called a QSL (quantum spin liquid), according to MIT physics professor Young Lee. He is the lead author of a paper on their findings, which is set to be published in the journal Nature this week. Theorists had said QSLs might exist, but one had never been demonstrated before. "We think it's pretty important," Lee said, adding that he would let his peers be the ultimate judges.
Government

Submission + - Obama Releases National Strategy for Information Sharing (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: President Obama on Wednesday released a national strategy designed to balance the sharing of information with those who need it to keep the country safe, while protecting the same data from those who would use it to cause harm. "The National Strategy for Information Sharing and Safeguarding" outlines how the government will attempt to responsibly share and protect data that enhances national security and protects the American people. The national strategy will define how the federal government and its assorted departments and agencies share their data. Agencies can also share services and work towards data and network interoperability to be more efficient, the President said.

The President aimed to address concerns over Privacy by noting, "This strategy makes it clear that the individual privacy, civil rights and civil liberties of United States persons must be — and will be — protected."

More on the strategy is available here and the full document is available here in PDF format from the White House website.
Games

Submission + - Steam for Linux is now an open beta (steamcommunity.com)

Submitted by jotaass
jotaass writes: In news that are guaranteed to make the Linux gaming community (in particular, but not exclusively) excited, Valve has just announced that
the Steam for Linux client Beta is now open to the public. A .deb package is available here. Interesting as well, they are using an empy GitHub repository solely as an issue tracker, open for anyone to submit, edit and track bugs, with no actual code in the repo.

Submission + - Drone made of Lego takes flight (suasnews.com)

Submitted by
TVmisGuided
TVmisGuided writes: "People have made UAVs out of wood, aluminum, even 3D-printed plastic. But now comes the tale of C#/C++ developer Ed Scott who, after damaging his Gaui 330x, got the idea of designing and building a Lego quadcopter. And it worked! "Most people go to their favourite hobby store to get parts for their UAV, I go to my kids playroom.""

Submission + - Makerbot Cracks Down On 3D-Printable Gun Parts (forbes.com) 1

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: In the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut shootings, the 3D-printing firm Makerbot has deleted a collection of blueprints for gun components from Thingiverse, its popular user-generated content website that hosts 3D-printable files. Though Thingiverse has long banned designs for weapons and their components in its terms of service, it rarely enforced the rule until the last few days, when the company’s lawyer sent notices to users that their software models for gun parts were being purged from the site.

Gun control advocates were especially concerned about the appearance of lower receivers for semi-automatic weapons that have appeared on Thingiverse. The lower receiver is the the “body” of a gun, and its most regulated component. So 3D-printing that piece at home and attaching other parts ordered by mail might allow a lethal weapon to be obtained without any legal barriers or identification.

Makerbot’s move to delete those files may have been inspired in part by a group calling itself Defense Distributed, which announced its intention to create an entirely 3D-printable gun in August and planned to potentially upload it to Thingiverse. Defense Distributed says it's not deterred by Makerbot's move and will host the plans on its own site.

Submission + - Video game creator Eugene Jarvis is Player One (chicagotribune.com)

Submitted by
BigVig209
BigVig209 writes: "The Chicago Tribune has done a really nice profile on Eugene Jarvis, President of Raw Thrills, a.k.a. the man who invented Defender.

"Jarvis was born and raised in Silicon Valley.... Jarvis, who is responsible for a remarkable number of gaming innovations and an absurdly long list of successful titles stretching four decades...[has] witnessed (or had a hand in) a number of pivotal moments in the history of the medium.

Scrolling games, for instance. Jarvis pioneered scrolling. (Which is like being the first guy to say, "Hey, what would happen if we added pages to this stone tablet?") Also, dual joysticks — he created dual joysticks.""
Windows

Submission + - Dell, HP Windows 8 'Atom' Tablets Delayed Until 2013 (informationweek.com)

Submitted by
CowboyRobot
CowboyRobot writes: "Dell and other vendors have pushed back until January the launch of Windows 8 tablets that use a new, energy-efficient Intel chip that was supposed to put Windows devices on an even footing with the iPad and Android tablets in terms of performance and battery life, but which is apparently causing big headaches for system builders. Most PC makers currently offer Windows 8 systems, such as the Dell XPS 12, that use Intel's older Core architecture instead of Clover Trail. Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet also runs an Intel Core chip. Core packs more power than Clover Trail, but does not support Connected Standby and consumes batteries more quickly."
Government

Submission + - FTC Strengthens Children's Privacy Protections Online (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission today updated the privacy standards that protect children's privacy online. The new rules say companies must gain parental consent before collecting a kid's geolocation data, photos, and videos. It also broadened existing language to include third parties and companies that collect data on users across multiple websites. 'While the new rule strengthens such safeguards, it could also disrupt online advertising. Web sites and online advertising networks often use persistent identification systems — like a customer code number in a cookie in a person’s browser — to collect information about a user’s online activities and tailor ads for that person. But the new rule expands the definition of personal information to include persistent IDs — such as a customer code number, the unique serial number on a mobile phone, or the I.P. address of a browser — if they are used to show a child behavior-based ads.'
Power

Submission + - Training Under Way for New Nuclear Plant Operators (go.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From abcnews: "Southern Co. in Georgia and SCANA Corp. in South Carolina are the first to prepare new workers to run a recently approved reactor design never before built in the United States. Training like it will be repeated over the decades-long lifetime of those plants and at other new ones that may share the technology in years to come. Both power companies are building pairs of Westinghouse Electric Corp. AP1000 reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta and SCANA Corp.'s Summer Nuclear Station northwest of Columbia, S.C. While the nuclear industry had earlier proposed a larger building campaign, low natural gas prices coupled with uncertainty after last year's disaster at a Japanese nuclear plant have scaled back those ambitions."

start thinking about getting your tinfoil hat radiation hardened
Electronic Frontier Foundation

Submission + - The Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents (eff.org)

Submitted by l2718
l2718 writes: The Electronic Frontiers Foundation announced today a large donation by Mark Cuban and Markus Persson to the EFF Patent Project. Notably, part of Cuban's donation is for the creation of the "Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents" (the first holder is current staff attorney Julie Samuels). Time will tell if the new title will help her advocacy work.

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