http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl News for nerds, stuff that matters en-us Copyright 1997-2012, Geeknet, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2012-05-24T00:23:05+00:00 Geeknet, Inc. help@slashdot.org Technology 1970-01-01T00:00+00:00 1 hourly http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicslashdot.gif http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl http://slashdot.org/submission/2072465/droneos-dreamhammers-plan-control-the-countrys-growing-robot-army?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed The Pentagon is increasingly transforming the military into an unmanned force, taking soldiers out of harm's way and replacing them with drones and robots. In 2011, it spent $6 billion on unmanned systems. The problem is that the unmanned systems don't work well together thanks to contractors building proprietary control systems (to lock government into exclusive relationships and to make extra money). A company called DreamHammer plans to have a solution to this — a universal remote control that could integrate all robots and drones into one control system. It would save money and allow anyone to build apps for drones. "DreamHammer CTO Chris Diebner compares it with a smartphone OS—on which drones and features for those drones can be run like apps. Of course, Ballista is doing something on a much larger scale. It means that it takes fewer people to fly more drones and that new features can be rolled out without the need to develop and build a new version of a Predator, for example."Is this in the Terminator prequel? nonprofiteer 2012-05-17T15:53:47+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2074253/nato-summit-reading-whats-wrong-with-term-tactical-nuclear-weapons?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed Benjamin Loehrke describes the rather odd definitions of what is a "tactical" nuclear weapon and what isn't. "There is enough ambiguity surrounding the capabilities of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons to render the term "tactical" all but useless for arms control purposes. As the United States and Russia pursue new arms control treaties, they should drop the tactical distinction and limit the total number of all nuclear weapons — strategic, tactical, or other." Lasrick 2012-05-18T15:00:09+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2074331/programing-now-starting-in-elementary-schools?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed The idea of getting kids interested in programming in spite of their common perception of programming to be "hard and boring" is an ongoing Slashdot discussion. With support of the National Science Foundation the Scalable Game Design project has explored how to bring computer science education into the curriculum of middle and high schools for some time. The results are overwhelmingly positive suggesting that game design is not only highly motivational across gender and ethnicity but even finding new ways of tracking programing skills transferring from game design to STEM simulation building. This NPR story highlights an early and unplanned foray into brining game design based computer science education even to Elementary Schools. A short story includes a nice video of students sharing their experiences. the agent man 2012-05-18T16:39:26+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2076551/linux-34-released?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed This release includes several Btrfs updates: metadata blocks bigger than 4KB, much better metadata performance, better error handling and better recovery tools. There are other features: a new X32 ABI which allows to run in 64 bit mode with 32 bit pointers; several updates to the GPU drivers: early modesetting of Nvidia Geforce 600 'Kepler', support of AMD RadeonHD 7xxx and AMD Trinity APU series, and support of Intel Medfield graphics; support of x86 cpu driver autoprobing, a device-mapper target that stores cryptographic hashes of blocks to check for intrusions, another target to use external read-only devices as origin source of a thin provisioned LVM volume, several perf improvements such as GTK2 report GUI and a new 'Yama' security module. jrepin 2012-05-21T00:27:05+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2079453/google-acquires-motorola-mobility-for-79-billion?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed Google has finally completed its acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings. It now leaves Google open to improve Android with around 17,000 Motorola patents. Google says Android will remain free and open for at least five years, and won't favour Motorola hardware. That's what they say, but Florian Mueller says it may not be possible. asavin 2012-05-22T14:30:06+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2081729/autonomous-sound-responsive-high-brightness-led-modules?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed This is a cool little art project on Kickstarter where a bunch of individual high power LED lights are souped up with built in audio analysis hardware and an onboard microphone. At scale, these modules put out over 250 lumens a piece, and can be assembled into enormous arrays in any shape or size for under $50 per module for a modern version of the color organs built in analog back in the day. By the same artists who put together quite a few other cool audio oriented high power LED lighting systems, and other sophisticated lights for use with artwork previously covered on Slashdot. As usual, schematics, design information, and board layouts are available for the project. Gibbs-Duhem 2012-05-23T23:32:09+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2075811/irate-user-forks-gimp-project-claims-gimp-no-longer-an-imp?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed Academic Matt Skala, most widely known to Slashdot users for his prescient essay "What Colour are your bits?," is heading up a new fork of the popular GIMP open-source project. Like many other forks of popular open-source projects, Skala's NoXCF-GIMP is both awkwardly named and fueled by a righteous rage over radical UI alterations. GitHub for the project, which makes the software file format neutral, is here. owenferguson 2012-05-20T00:41:39+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2075611/ms-will-remove-oem-crapware-for-99?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed Microsoft even offers up numbers to show how detrimental this OEM-installed crapware is to your system. Microsoft claims that Signature systems start up 39 percent faster, go into sleep mode 23 percent faster, and resume from sleep a whopping 51 percent faster compared to their crapware-ladened counterparts. (A "Signature" system is one without crapware). But now, Microsoft will offer customers the opportunity to give their Windows 7 PC the Signature treatment by bringing it to a Microsoft Store and paying $99, according to the Wall Street Journal. walterbyrd 2012-05-19T17:20:21+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2074275/your-passwords-dont-suck-its-your-policies?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed ZDNet sparked a debate about password policies when John Fontana wrote about my open source (LGPL) password policy project that rewards XKCD-like passwords. Steve Watts of SecurEnvoy replies that it is too little, too late. What better place to debate it than Slashdot? (And shamelessly plug my OSS pet ;) What think ye? Is there hope for passwords? eGuy 2012-05-18T15:25:39+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2074553/golden-age-of-silicon-valley-is-over-with-facebook-ipo?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed Steve Blank, a professor at Berkeley and Stanford and serial entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, says that the the Facebook IPO is the beginning of the end for Silicon Valley as we know it. "Silicon Valley historically would invest in science, and technology, and, you know, actual silicon," says Blank. "If you were a good venture capitalist you could make $100 million." But there's a new pattern emerging created by two big ideas that will lead to the demise of Silicon Valley as we know it. The first is putting computer devices, mobile and tablet especially, in the hands of billions of people and the second is that we are moving all the social needs that we used to do face-to-face onto the computer and this trend has just begun. "If you think Facebook is the end, ask MySpace. Art, entertainment, everything you can imagine in life is moving to computers. Companies like Facebook for the first time can get total markets approaching the entire population." That's great for Facebook but it means Silicon Valley is screwed as a place for investing in advanced science. "If I have a choice of investing in a blockbuster cancer drug that will pay me nothing for ten years, at best, whereas social media will go big in two years, what do you think I'm going to pick?" concludes Blank. "The headline for me here is that Facebook's success has the unintended consequence of leading to the demise of Silicon Valley as a place where investors take big risks on advanced science and tech that helps the world. The golden age of Silicon valley is over and we're dancing on its grave." Hugh Pickens writes 2012-05-18T22:02:18+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2074111/twitter-confirms-support-for-do-not-track?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed In a significant boost to online privacy, Twitter has announced that they will officially support the Do Not Track feature in browsers. While this is a good news for privacy advocates and users in general, it leaves Twitter to use only the information that is handed over to them by the users for advertising purposes. oyenamit 2012-05-18T12:44:22+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2080117/nortel-patents-are-being-used-to-arm-a-patent-troll?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed Microsoft, Apple, RIM and a few other companies formed a consortium to bid for patents of the dying telecom company Nortel and won. Now, these patents are being used to feed a patent troll called Rockstar and it has employees dedicated to investigate and find infringements and pursue litigation. Is anyone surprised? wannabgeek 2012-05-23T03:12:05+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2076397/all-19-studies-on-what-filesharing-studies-really-say-posted?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed You might remember a series of studies that was started earlier this month that promises to reveal what filesharing studies really say. The series was in reaction to a study that was used to promote SOPA. This morning, the series was concluded with some final thoughts from the author, links and full citations for additional review. The author found overwhelmingly that enforcement of copyright was not the answer to the industries woes, but rather, adaptation to a changing technological environment. He also found that, although some studies did comment that file-sharing may have displaced sales, the level of displacement was negligible at worst and had a good positive impact on sales at best. He also found that the only artists that could possibly be harmed by filesharing are the biggest superstars in the industry. Meanwhile, lesser known artists are actually benefiting from filesharing. Those are just a few of the findings. Here's links to the parts of the whole series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Dangerous_Minds 2012-05-20T18:24:59+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2074473/whats-next-after-gpl-and-apache?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed Simon Phipps discusses the likely outcome of a shift in open source license use among community and commercial projects, in light of recent indications of a decline in the use of the GPL in favor of Apache. 'While the newest open source projects such as OpenStack and OpenShift have chosen to use the Apache License, I believe in time we will see the licensing trend for new open source projects targeted at commercial collaboration swing back to the center, away from either the GPL or Apache extremities,' Phipps writes. Enter the Mozilla Foundation's updated MPLv2, which Phipps believes 'occupies a sweet spot: permissive enough for corporations, copyleft enough for communities, and well-written to boot.' snydeq 2012-05-18T19:47:59+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2074661/recommendations-for-a-laptop-with-a-keypad-that-doesnt-suck?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed I'm seeking the collective's recommendations on a laptop with a numeric keypad that doesn't suck.For practicality reasons, an external USB keypad is less convenient than a built-in one. A keypad is required for entry of lots of numbers, and using the alpha keys with the Fn key to turn them into a keypad is not acceptable.Looking at the larger manufacturers, it seems that none of their business grade laptops (e.g. Lenovo's T-Series or similar quality levels) have numeric keypads. Looking at their laptops that do have keypads, invariably they are cheap, plastic and flimsy. Looking at Lenovo's offering with a Keypad, whilst it's a 15" screen, the vertical resolution is just 768 pixels, and the build quality of it leaves a lot to be desired.I need to find something that is built to the quality of a "real" ThinkPad, or even a MacBook Pro, but has a full-sized keyboard with a numeric keypad and there doesn't seem to be anything like that on the market at the moment. This is a mystery to me as to why it would be the case as I'd imagine it's business users who need to use a keypad more than the average user, yet it is the consumer grade laptops that have keypads. PhunkySchtuff 2012-05-19T02:43:11+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2075737/arm-intel-battle-heats-up?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed Low-power processor maker ARM Holdings is stepping up rhetoric against chip rival Intel, saying it expects to take more of Intel's market share than Intel can take from them. With Intel being the No. 1 supplier of notebook PC processors, and ARM technology almost ubiquitously powering smartphones, the two companies are facing off as they both push into the other's market space."It's going to be quite hard for Intel to be much more than just one of several players," ARMs CEO said of Intel. Anonymous Coward 2012-05-19T21:01:25+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2074481/jaguar-and-land-rover-to-be-built-in-china?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed Those of you still hanging on to Jaguar and Land Rover as the last vestiges of the truly British automobile in the States may find yourselves grasping at straws as Chery announces a nearly two billion dollar joint effort with the auto brand to move production to Changsu in China. ourlovecanlastforeve 2012-05-18T19:56:45+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2074669/amazon-patents-pitching-as-seen-on-tv-products?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed Q. What do you get when you surround the image of Men in Black star Will Smith trying on sunglasses with a pitch for 'MIB Bill Smith Dark Shades'? A. U.S. Patent No. 8,180,688. 'Many people consume broadcast media such as television shows and movies for many hours a week,' Amazon explained to the USPTO in its patent application for a Computer-Readable Medium, System, and Method for Item Recommendations Based on Media Consumption. 'The consumed broadcast media may depict a variety of items during the course of the transmission, such as clothing, books, movies, accessories, electronics, and/or any other type of item.' So, does Amazon's spin on As Seen on TV advertising deserve a patent? theodp 2012-05-19T03:05:54+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2073519/software-patents-good-for-open-source?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed The Australian software patent system could be used by open source developers to ensure their inventions remain available to the community, a conference organised by intellectual property authority IP Australia heard this week. According to Australian inventor Ric Richardson, whose company came out on top of a multi-million dollar settlement with Microsoft in March, a world without software patents would be "open slather for anybody who can just go faster than the next person". Software developer Ben Sturmfels, whose 2010 anti-software-patent petition won the support of open source community members such as Jonathan Oxer, Andrew Tridgell, and software freedom activist Richard Stallman, disagreed. schliz 2012-05-18T07:46:22+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2079977/new-york-proposing-legislation-to-ban-anonymous-speech-websites?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed Republican Assemblyman Jim Conte "[this] turns the spotlight on cyberbullies by forcing them to reveal their identity." and Republican Sen. Thomas O’Mara "[this will] help lend some accountability to the Internet age." are sponsoring a bill that would ban any New York-based websites from allowing comments (or well, anything) to be posted unless the person posting it attaches their name to it. But it goes further to say New York-based websites, such as blogs and newspapers, to “remove any comments posted on his or her website by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post.” Fluffeh 2012-05-22T23:37:51+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2076609/amazon-poised-to-get-cut-of-ca-sales-taxes?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed Eager to host Amazon warehouses and receive a cut of the tax on sales to customers statewide, the LA Times reports that two California cities are offering Amazon most of the tax money they stand to gain. After agreeing to collect California sales taxes beginning in the fall, Amazon is setting up two fulfillment centers in San Bernardino and Patterson, which will gain not only jobs but also a tax bonanza: Sales to Amazon customers throughout California will be deemed to take place there, so all the sales tax earmarked for local government operations will go to those two cities. The windfall is so lucrative that local officials are preparing to give Amazon the lion's share of their take as a reward for setting up shop there. 'The tax is supposed to be supporting government,' said Lenny Goldberg, executive director of the California Tax Reform Assn., of the proposed sales-tax rebate. 'Instead, it's going back into Amazon's pocket.' Sen. Mark DeSaulnier added: 'It seems like the private sector finds a way to pit one city against the other. You can't give away sales tax in this manner.' theodp 2012-05-21T02:28:22+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2079919/saps-vp-arrested-in-false-barcode-scheme?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed With barcode scanning being so commonplace, nothing seemed out of the ordinary when Thomas Langenbach, the vice president of SAP, was found scanning boxes upon boxes of Lego toys before purchasing them. Little did anyone know, the 47-year-old Silicon Valley executive was actually engaged in a giant scam. Langenbach would visit several Target stores and cover the store's barcodes with his own, so when he would bring the boxes up to the register, Langenbach would pay a heavily-discounted price. For example, this tag swapping allowed him to buy a Millennium Falcon box of Legos worth $279 for just $49. Once he bought the discounted Lego boxes, the SAP executive would take to eBay (under the name "tomsbrickyard") and sell the items. Langenbach reportedly sold more than 2,000 items on eBay, raking in about $30,000. He was finally caught by Target security on May 8, and he was arraigned on Tuesday on four counts of burglary. redletterdave 2012-05-22T21:41:02+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2073883/inexact-chips-save-power-by-fudging-the-maths?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed Computer scientists have unveiled a computer chip that turns traditional thinking about mathematical accuracy on its head by fudging calculations. The concept works by allowing processing components — such as hardware for adding and multiplying numbers — to make a few mistakes, which means they are not working as hard so use less power and get through tasks more quickly. The Rice University researchers say prototypes are 15 times more efficient and could be used in some applications without having a negative effect. Barence 2012-05-18T10:38:25+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2074289/wozniaks-original-system-description-of-the-apple-?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed Opening with the line, "To me, a personal computer should be small, reliable, convenient to use and inexpensive." Stephen Wozniak gave his system description of the Apple-II in the May, 1977 issue of BYTE.It's instructive to read what was worth bragging about back then, such as integral graphics, "A key part of the Apple-II design is an integral video display generator which diectly accesses the system's programmable memory. Screen formatting and cursor controls are realized in my design in the form of about 200 bytes of read only memory."And it shows what the limitations were in those days, "While writing Apple BASIC, I ran into the problem of manipulating the 16 bit pointer data and its arithmetic in an 8 bit machine.My solution to this problem of handling 16 bit data, notably pointers, with an 8 bit microprocessor was to implement a nonexistent 16 bit processor in software, interpreter fashion." CowboyRobot 2012-05-18T15:44:25+00:00 http://slashdot.org/submission/2074807/colloidal-display-turns-soap-film-into-a-projector-screen?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed 3 graduate students from University of Tokyo, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Tsukuba have developed Colloidal Display — a clear projector screen that can control its transparency. Normally soap film will pass through the light but Colloidal Display does not. It mixes colloid into the solution and uses an ultra sonic speakers to vibrate the surface of the soap film to achieve this. They have created several prototype such as 3D planer screen to show how this technology can be useful. Anonymous Coward 2012-05-19T05:17:43+00:00