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Submission + - Pentagon Wants to Test A Space-Based Weapon in 2023 (defenseone.com)

Submitted by pgmrdlm
pgmrdlm writes: Defense officials want to test a neutral particle-beam in orbit in fiscal 2023 as part of a ramped-up effort to explore various types of space-based weaponry. They’ve asked for $304 million in the 2020 budget to develop such beams, more powerful lasers, and other new tech for next-generation missile defense. Such weapons are needed, they say, to counter new missiles from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. But just figuring out what might work is a difficult technical challenge.

So the Pentagon is undertaking two studies. The first is a $15 million exploration of whether satellites outfitted with lasers might be able to disable enemy missiles coming off the launch pad. Defense officials have said previously that these lasers would need to be in the megawatt class. They expect to finish the study within six months.

They’re also pouring money into a study of space-based neutral particle beams, a different form of directed energy that disrupts missiles with streams of subatomic particles traveling close to light speed — as opposed to lasers, whose photons travel at light speed.

Submission + - Is Adobe's Creative Cloud Too Powerful for Its Own Good? (vice.com)

Submitted by samleecole
samleecole writes: Recently I was looking around at the state of modern image editors and discovered something really disappointing.

The issue? Well, even with the rise of modern Photoshop alternatives such as Affinity Photo and Pixelmator, these image editors are not designed to handle animated GIFs. Which means that, despite the fact that I’d certainly love to see what life is like outside of the world of Adobe, it looks like I’m stuck in that ecosystem for a little while longer.

Don’t get me wrong: Adobe’s software is great, if a bit expensive. But I do think that its business model highlights just how consolidated its power actually is—and it’s not talked about nearly enough in the creative space.

Adobe is too powerful and can ignore things it doesn’t want to do—whether in the form of cutting prices or ignoring usability concerns—in part because it carries itself like it’s the only game in town.

Let’s discuss how Adobe’s became the center of the creative ecosystem, and why that should be of concern.

Submission + - Linux 5.1-rc1 Has Intel "Fastboot" Graphics Default, Raspberry Pi 3 A+ Support (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Two weeks after the debut of Linux 5.0 Linus Torvalds ushered in Linux 5.1-rc1 as the newest development release. Linux 5.1 is bringing mainline support for the Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+, Intel Fastboot graphics are enabled by default for beautifying the boot experience, the Habana Labs Goya AI accelerator is now supported by this kernel, more Intel Icelake support was merged, and many other changes for Linux 5.1. Linux 5.1-stable is expected by mid-May.

Submission + - The 10th anniversary of Bitcoin: trick or treat? (techradar.com)

Submitted by MentalBrief
MentalBrief writes: Since it launched with an estimated price of less than $0.01 per coin, Bitcoin’s value has increased more than a million times in the last decade to its current price of $6,300 per coin. Its radical instability has drawn criticism, and the decentralised nature of cryptocurrency has also bred controversy with cybercriminals using it for illegal activities – for example by multinational hackers WannaCry.

Submission + - New Long-Spined Dinosaur With "Mohawk Of Large Spikes" Discovered In Patagonia (sciencealert.com)

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: Researchers in Argentina have discovered a new Sauropod with unusually long spikes protruding forward from its body. (Academic writeup at Nature.com: https://www.nature.com/article... ) From ScienceAlert: 'Living 140 million years ago in the early Lower Cretaceous, the newly discovered herbivore Bajadasaurus pronuspinax had a thing for growing spikes. It was part of the Sauropod family, but looked a little like a small Brontosaurus crossed with a porcupine. "The sauropods are the big dinosaurs with long necks and long tails, but specifically this is a small family within the sauropods which were about 9 or 10 metres in length," palaeontologist Pablo Gallina from the National Scientific and Technical Research Council in Argentina told Agencia EFE. Bajadasaurus was a species of this small family, called Dicraeosauridae, all of which have similar spines on their necks. When the researchers discovered the fossils of this previously unknown dinosaur in Patagonia, Argentina, the remains included not only most of the skull, but a whole spine bone. This gave the researchers the chance to investigate what these spines might have been used for. "We believe that the long and sharp spines — very long and thin — on the neck and back of Bajadasaurus and Amargasaurus cazaui (another dicraeosaurid) must have been to deter possible predators," explained Gallina to AFP.'

Submission + - Newly Released Eric Holder Memo: Feds Can Use FISA to Spy on Journalists (reason.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The federal government can use the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to spy on journalists. So said a pair of 2015 Justice Department memos, including one from then–Attorney General Eric Holder.

FISA is controversial in itself. The act is supposed to be used to justify surveillance on foreign targets. But intelligence agencies often use it to secretly spy on American citizens, sometimes without a warrant.

According to the newly released documents, obtaining permission to surveil members of the media is not easy, but it is possible. In one memo, dated March 19, Holder says FISA applications against journalists must be approved by the attorney general and deputy attorney general prior to being brought before a FISA court.

Regardless of who's in the White House, one constant remains: The federal government doesn't seem to have any problems with going after journalists.

Submission + - Sandra Benez, the data analyst from Space: 1999 dead, 72 (hollywood.com)

Submitted by sandbagger
sandbagger writes: Space: 1999 actress Zienia Merton has died at the age of 72. Born in Burma (now Myanmar) in 1945 to a half-English, half-French father and a Burmese mother, Zienia found fame as data analyst Sandra Benes in the hit 1970s British science-fiction TV show. A tweet posted on the official account of the firm of Space: 1999’s creator, the late Gerry Anderson, on Friday (14Sep18), announced the news she had passed away. In an era where computers were mysterious and threatening, and women were just entering the workforce, the actress provided a human face to what was then a new subject. The last words she uttered in a Space: 1999 role were: 'Remember us'.

Submission + - New Leaked Moto X 2016 With Metal Body (etechtime.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The rumour has started to show some effects. There was a buzz that Motorola may come up with something new. Two leaked images of Moto-x the flagship program of Motorolla, has added fuel to the fire.
Motorolla has taken a step forward from the previous year. Two expected products could be named as Vertex and Vector –Thin.
Vertex could replicate Moto X Play from 2015.Rather is taken itself to another level. It reportedly has a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED touch screen, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 625 SoC (with an over clocked octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU, going up to 2.4 GHz from the stock 2 GHz), either 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage or 3GB/32GB, a 16 MP main camera with laser and phase detection autofocus, and a beefy 3,500 mAh battery. The Vertex will be 7mm thick, with metal body. It is expected to have a home button below the screen, which is surrounded by a square metal ring that houses the fingerprint sensor.

Submission + - Could a new type of supernova eliminate the need for dark energy?

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: Back in the 1990s, scientists were quite surprised to find that when they measured the brightness and redshifts of distant supernovae, they appeared fainter than one would expect, leading us to conclude that the Universe was expanding at an accelerating rate to push them farther away. But a 2015 study put forth a possibility that many scientists dreaded: that perhaps these distant supernovae were intrinsically different from the ones we had observed nearby. Would that potentially eliminate the need for dark energy altogether? Or would it simply change ever-so-slightly the amount and properties of dark energy we required to explain modern cosmology? A full analysis shows that dark energy is here to stay, regardless of the supernova data.

Submission + - Game Theory's Take on Privacy and Targeted Ads

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: We all have a natural aversion to being tracked by advertisers, but what does game theory have to say about it? A working paper by two marketing professors considers a game in which advertisers collect information about consumer preferences. The result? Advertisers try to tell us what we want to hear, but knowing this, consumers stop trusting them. There is an exception:

So when should consumers offer up their personal details? If they are looking for specific or niche products and the companies that offer those products are selective about where they advertise.

Submission + - Own a Raspberry Pi? You need to download this Raspbian Linux OS update (betanews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: No matter how great hardware is, you need software to make it have any value. After-all, what good is a computer without an operating system? Who would want a powerful graphics card without drivers? A good computing experience is the successful marriage between hardware and software.

A great example of this is the Raspberry Pi. At first, the specs and diminutive size pull you in, but then you must ask, what can you do with it? You will need to install an operating system to get started, and one of the most popular is Raspbian. Today, that lightweight Linux distro gets a big update. There are some significant updates here, so trust me when I say you need to get it!

Submission + - Methamphetamine Vaccine Appears to Block High in Mice

Submitted by JMarshall
JMarshall writes: "To help overcome the destructive brain chemistry of drug addiction, scientists are developing vaccines that block drugs from generating a high or even reverse an overdose. Researchers have now created a vaccine that cultivates a potent immune response against methamphetamine. Rodents given the vaccine didn’t become as hyperactive after a dose of methamphetamine as those that weren’t immunized against the stimulant."

Submission + - How to hack slasdot (slashdot.org) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: There is an easy way to censor submissions from slashdot users. Go into their account and select submissions. Mark the last month of submissions as spam using the tagging box and the slashcode will close down that users submission privileges. Do this to anyone with whom you disagree so that slashdot can become news for nobodies.

Submission + - 'Chilling Effect' of Mass Surveillance Is Silencing Dissent Online, Study Says (vice.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Research suggests that widespread awareness of mass surveillance could undermine democracy by making citizens fearful of voicing dissenting opinions in public. A paper published in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, the flagship peer-reviewed journal of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), found that "the government’s online surveillance programs may threaten the disclosure of minority views and contribute to the reinforcement of majority opinion.” The NSA’s “ability to surreptitiously monitor the online activities of US citizens may make online opinion climates especially chilly” and “can contribute to the silencing of minority views that provide the bedrock of democratic discourse," the researcher found.

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