Comment Re:Interesting (Score 1) 355
I'm feeling a scene from Office Space coming on...
Comment Interesting (Score 1) 355
Because I've been wondering for a while why the yellow ink was always disappearing faster than the other colors on our printers, I wonder if this accounts for some of the loss?
Submission + - What if Real AI will be Born, not Built (arbornet.org)
brilanon writes: A few years old now and approaching its second major version, Critterding is an artificial-life lab and physics sandbox where robotic "critters" evolve locomotion, vision and behaviours like fighting and foraging. It's a great way to teach yourself about evolution and neural nets, both of which I think are mind-expanding to understand.
Well, I forked Critterding at the end of 2009 to make a richer evolver called telepathic-critterdrug. There are numerous small new features and fixes but most importantly, I added five types of mind-altering drugs for them to distinguish from food, in the hopes that they would develop a ritual diet including them like ancient man, use them for utility like by favouring stimulants for faster foraging, or have an accelerated rise to language, art and religious feeling by dint of occasional intoxication.
So I have shown that evolved software can have its performance improved by being put on speed. A pretty amazing result. But so that I'd have a window into their creativity, I added a digital backstore or canvas that they evolve connections into, and move a pen around, in addition to having morphic fields calculated there automatically. So they can evolve a form of cybernetic telepathy, and collaborate on a true-colour animation 1024 frames long, while eating psychedelics, opiates and other mood-modifiers. You can then view this animation a number of ways
It's a toy, but it evolves resilient bio-inspired neuro-controllers that do homing and self-preservation. So if you run it long enough, maybe the Army shows up. Happy hacking!
Well, I forked Critterding at the end of 2009 to make a richer evolver called telepathic-critterdrug. There are numerous small new features and fixes but most importantly, I added five types of mind-altering drugs for them to distinguish from food, in the hopes that they would develop a ritual diet including them like ancient man, use them for utility like by favouring stimulants for faster foraging, or have an accelerated rise to language, art and religious feeling by dint of occasional intoxication.
So I have shown that evolved software can have its performance improved by being put on speed. A pretty amazing result. But so that I'd have a window into their creativity, I added a digital backstore or canvas that they evolve connections into, and move a pen around, in addition to having morphic fields calculated there automatically. So they can evolve a form of cybernetic telepathy, and collaborate on a true-colour animation 1024 frames long, while eating psychedelics, opiates and other mood-modifiers. You can then view this animation a number of ways
It's a toy, but it evolves resilient bio-inspired neuro-controllers that do homing and self-preservation. So if you run it long enough, maybe the Army shows up. Happy hacking!
Comment I don't have VGA (Score 1) 126
I have ColecoVision and a black and white TV.
Submission + - The future of piracy is physical objects (geek.com)
An anonymous reader writes: With the advent of 3D printers and the ability to print your own physical objects at home, so a new form of data sharing, and possibly a new form of piracy, is preparing to take off. The Pirate Bay calls it Physibles — copying things created first as digital objects that get turned into physical objects once they are printed.
How could Physibles become a threat to industry? Because as time goes by more real-world objects are first designed and modeled in digital form. Those designs are stored digitally and then fed into a machine — sometimes a printer — for creation. If you have a 3D printer at home, and that design is shared, you no longer need to buy the physical object as you can create it yourself.
How could Physibles become a threat to industry? Because as time goes by more real-world objects are first designed and modeled in digital form. Those designs are stored digitally and then fed into a machine — sometimes a printer — for creation. If you have a 3D printer at home, and that design is shared, you no longer need to buy the physical object as you can create it yourself.
Submission + - Google to Offer $20k Bounty for Chrome Bugs at Pwn (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: The Pwn2Own contest at the CanSecWest conference has become one of the landmark events on the calendar each year, as researchers gather with nervous vendors in a tiny room to see who can own which browser on which platform and how quickly. But this year's contest will have a much different look than past editions, with participants vying for more than $100,000 in cash by amassing points over the course of three days.
In addition to the main cash prizes, contestants also win the laptops that they're able to successfully compromise targets on. And this year, Google is putting up a prize of $20,000 for every unique set of bugs that can compromise its Chrome browser, without any platform-specific bugs.
The new format will include the assignment of point values for each of the various targets in the contest, which typically are browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome running on Mac OS X or Windows machines. In order to win the contest, a participant must have at least one zero-day vulnerability in one of the targets. Each successful compromise of a target with a zero-day will be worth 32 points, and unlike in past years, targets will not be removed from the competition once they've been successfully compromised by one researcher.
In addition to the main cash prizes, contestants also win the laptops that they're able to successfully compromise targets on. And this year, Google is putting up a prize of $20,000 for every unique set of bugs that can compromise its Chrome browser, without any platform-specific bugs.
The new format will include the assignment of point values for each of the various targets in the contest, which typically are browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome running on Mac OS X or Windows machines. In order to win the contest, a participant must have at least one zero-day vulnerability in one of the targets. Each successful compromise of a target with a zero-day will be worth 32 points, and unlike in past years, targets will not be removed from the competition once they've been successfully compromised by one researcher.
Submission + - IBM Tracks Your Pork From Farm To Fork (singularityhub.com)
kkleiner writes: "IBM has set out to prove it can revolutionize the food industry with data, starting with China. Six industrial slaughterhouses and 100 markets in Shandong Province are part of a large scale test in tracking pork from farm to customer. Pigs are marked with ear tags containing unique barcodes, those same barcodes appear on the bins that carry their meat during processing, and on the packages for the pork placed in stores."
Submission + - Supreme Court: GPS devices equivalent of a search, (wired.com) 2
gambit3 writes: "The Supreme Court says police must get a search warrant before using GPS technology to track criminal suspects.
The court ruled in the case of Washington, D.C., nightclub owner Antoine Jones. A federal appeals court in Washington overturned his drug conspiracy conviction because police did not have a warrant when they installed a GPS device on his vehicle and then tracked his movements for a month."
The court ruled in the case of Washington, D.C., nightclub owner Antoine Jones. A federal appeals court in Washington overturned his drug conspiracy conviction because police did not have a warrant when they installed a GPS device on his vehicle and then tracked his movements for a month."
Submission + - Tin Whiskers On Toyotas Revisited (eetimes.com)
clm1970 writes: A recent investigation into the supposed "Tin Whiskers" on the Toyota acceleration problem has yielded some results. A symposium at the "International Tin Whisker Symposium" detailed that depending on how the accelerator pedals in Toyota vehicles were actuated could trigger sudden and unintended acceleration. It seems safe to say that "tin whiskers" are a big problem when there's enough interest to have an "international symposium" on the subject.
Comment Another Step to Total Information Awareness (Score 3, Insightful) 196
I'm not a tinfoiler (in fact, part of my job is to try to help tinfoilers) but this is just another (? inexorable) step towards total information awareness. MasterCard and others have demonstrated an almost spooky ability to make future predictions based on seemingly irrelevant data, predictions that hold true and provide valuable guidance for large populations, despite the fact that individuals will be harmed. With a little more database interconnectivity, coupled with a gigantic complex of computers, there's no limit...
-Dan
Printers Could Be the Next Attack Vector 175
New submitter rcoxdav writes "Researchers have found that the upgradeable firmware on some laser printers can be easily updated and compromised. The updated firmware could then be used to do anything from overheating the printer to compromising a network. Quoting: 'In one demonstration of an attack based on the flaw, Stolfo and fellow researcher Ang Cui showed how a hijacked computer could be given instructions that would continuously heat up the printer’s fuser – which is designed to dry the ink once it’s applied to paper – eventually causing the paper to turn brown and smoke. In that demonstration, a thermal switch shut the printer down – basically, causing it to self-destruct – before a fire started, but the researchers believe other printers might be used as fire starters, giving computer hackers a dangerous new tool that could allow simple computer code to wreak real-world havoc.'"
Merck Threatens Merck With Legal Action Over Facebook URL 115
angry tapir writes with an excerpt from a Techworld article: "Germany's Merck KGaA has threatened legal action after it said it lost its Facebook page apparently to rival Merck & Co. in the U.S., though it has yet to identify defendants in the case. In a filing before the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Merck said it intends to initiate an action based on the apparent takeover of its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/merck by its similarly-named but unrelated competitor, Merck & Co."
Comment There's just got to be something wrong... (Score 1) 442
Are you sure you got today's code?
Submission + - New Images of Tumbling US Satellite (perso.sfr.fr)
arisvega writes: An amateur astronomer has recorded images of the out-of-control US satellite as it tumbles back to Earth. Theirry Legault, from Paris, captured the video as the satellite passed over northern France on 15 September. The six-tonne, 20-year-old spacecraft has fallen out of orbit and is expected to crash somewhere on Earth on or around 24 September. The US space agency says the risk to life from the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is 1 in 3,200. Mr Legault, an engineer, used a specially designed camera to record the tumbling satellite through his 14-inch telescope, posting the footage on his Astrophotography website.
UARS could land anywhere between 57 degrees north and 57 degrees south of the equator — most of the populated world. Nasa says that most of the satellite will break or burn up before reaching Earth. But scientists have identified 26 separate pieces that could survive the fall through the atmosphere. This debris could rain across an area 400-500km (250-310 miles) wide. Robust, spherical satellite components such as fuel tanks are often most likely to survive the fiery plunge to Earth, say space experts. Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite The "productive scientific life" of UARS ended in 2005 when it ran out of fuel. Nasa said scientists would only be able to make more accurate predictions about where the satellite might land two hours before it enters the Earth's atmosphere.
UARS could land anywhere between 57 degrees north and 57 degrees south of the equator — most of the populated world. Nasa says that most of the satellite will break or burn up before reaching Earth. But scientists have identified 26 separate pieces that could survive the fall through the atmosphere. This debris could rain across an area 400-500km (250-310 miles) wide. Robust, spherical satellite components such as fuel tanks are often most likely to survive the fiery plunge to Earth, say space experts. Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite The "productive scientific life" of UARS ended in 2005 when it ran out of fuel. Nasa said scientists would only be able to make more accurate predictions about where the satellite might land two hours before it enters the Earth's atmosphere.
Comment Women to the Rescue? (Score 1) 533
I attended a talk this year that Jimmy Wales gave at a local university, where he described wanting to actively increase the number of women contributing and editing Wikipedia. Barriers he cited included the fact that "Men are very comfortable making authoritative statements about things they know nothing about."
