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Linux

Submission + - Accessible Computing Foundation Creating Fully Accessible GNU/Linux Distro

Submitted by
elwin_windleaf
elwin_windleaf writes: "The Accessible Computing Foundation's Jonathan Nadeau has started an IndieGoGo campaign to create a GNU/Linux distribution that's focused on accessibility. With 360 million blind and low vision people around the world, and most accessibility software being proprietary and prohibitively expensive, this distro could make a world of difference.

Jonathan is a blind GNU/Linux user himself who, in addition to starting the Accessible Computing Foundation, also organizes the annual Northeast GNU/Linuxfest."
Earth

Submission + - George P. Shultz: A Cold Warrior on a Warming Planet (sagepub.com)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: Great interview in this article at the Bulletin's subscription journal (this article is free). From the abstract: "In this interview, he talks about two missions: reducing nuclear weapons and reducing carbon emissions. Shultz defends the Reagan administration’s strategy for nuclear weapons reduction, including Reagan’s unwillingness to abandon the Strategic Defense Initiative...He recommends a revenue-neutral carbon tax for combating climate change, arguing that such a tax can level the energy playing field by forcing energy producers to bear a cost for polluting the air.
Government

Submission + - Unseen, All-Out Cyber War On The U.S. Has Begun (infoworld.com) 1

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "Security pros and government officials warn of a possible cyber 9/11 involving banks, utilities, other companies, or the Internet, InfoWorld reports. 'A cyber war has been brewing for at least the past year, and although you might view this battle as governments going head to head in a shadow fight, security experts say the battleground is shifting from government entities to the private sector, to civilian targets that provide many essential services to U.S. citizens. The cyber war has seen various attacks around the world, with incidents such as Stuxnet, Flame, and Red October garnering attention. Some attacks have been against government systems, but increasingly likely to attack civilian entities. U.S. banks and utilities have already been hit.'"

Submission + - Researchers find that some cancer apps aren't delivering reliable results (pmlive.com)

Submitted by
beeudoublez
beeudoublez writes: "Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center examined four apps that use photographs of skin lesions to make assessments and whether they suggest any type of diagnosis or estimate the risk of malignancy.
Testing their sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values, the researchers found that three of the four apps incorrectly classified 30 per cent or more of melanomas as unconcerning."
Google

Submission + - Google Now Boasts World's No. 2 And No. 3 Social Networks (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes: "A new report released Monday revealed that Google+, less than a year and a half after its public debut, is now the No. 2 social network in the world with 343 million active users. Even better for Google, YouTube, which had not previously been tracked as a social network until recently, is now the No. 3 social network in the world with about 300 million active users. Google Plus and YouTube are being used by 25 percent and 21 percent of the global Internet populace, respectively."
Open Source

Submission + - Why a Linux user is using Windows 3.1 (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by colinneagle
colinneagle writes: About two weeks back, I was using my Android tablet and looking for a good graphics editor. I wanted something with layers and good text drawing tools. That’s when it hit me. We already have that.

Photoshop used to run on Windows 3.1. And Windows 3.1 runs great under both DOSBox and QEMU, both of which are Open Source emulators available for Android and every other platform under the sun.

So I promptly set to work digging up an old copy of Photoshop. The last version released for Windows 3.1 was back in 1996. And finding a working copy proved to be...challenging. Luckily, the good folks at Adobe dug around in their vaults and managed to get me up and running.

And, after a bit of tweaking, I ended up with an astoundingly functional copy of Photoshop that I can now run on absolutely every device I own. And the entire environment (fonts, working files and all) are automatically backed up to the cloud and synced between systems.

But what other applications (and, potentially, games) does this give me access to? How far can I take this?
Education

Submission + - Does recreational computer use affect high school achievement? (springer.com)

Submitted by tokkov
tokkov writes: Is playing videogames or “using a computer for fun” positive, negative or neutral on student achievement in high school? According to recent research published in the journal Educational Technology Research and Development, researchers at Columbia University found that students who “use a computer for fun, such as talking to friends or relatives, emailing, surfing the internet or listening to music” or played video games 1-2 hours per day had increased academic achievement in mathematics and reading up to grade 10 (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11423-012-9274-1). Between grade 10 and 12 there was no added benefit. Positive effect sizes were small but comparable to doing your homework or participating in extracurricular activities.
Cloud

Submission + - Your Cloud Provider (Probably) Isn't Spying On You (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "Last week the CEO ServiceNow made a minor splash by claiming that it was awfully easy for a cloud provider to spy on the data they stored for you or discriminate based on pricing. But while that's possible, in many cases it turns out to be simply not practical enough to be beneficial. Even moves like restoring outages for higher-paying customers first turn out to be more trouble than they're worth."
Space

Submission + - SpaceX Plans Heavy Lift Vehicle for 2013 (pinehead.tv)

Submitted by
Anthony James
Anthony James writes: "For SpaceX, 2012 was the year of the Dragon. In 2013 the Falcon Heavy, SpaceX’s heavy lift vehicle, is set to steal some of the spotlight away from the Dragon.

The Falcon Heavy is currently in development and builds off of the Falcon 9 first stage and the Merlin 1D engine, an upgrade of the engine currently flying on the Falcon 9."
Biotech

Old Inkjet Becomes New Bio-Materials Printer 39

Posted by timothy from the but-the-ink-is-so-expensive dept.
MikeChino writes "Instructables member Patrik has successfully transformed an old HP5150 inkjet printer into a DIY bioprinter. To do this he removed the plastic covers and panels and rewired the paper handling mechanism. Then he prepped ink cartridges to be able to handle biological materials by opening the lid, removing the ink, and washing it out with deionized water. For his first experiment, he printed a simple solution of arabinose onto filter paper."
Government

Submission + - GAO Finds US Military's Critical Technologies List Outdated, Useless (securityledger.com)

Submitted by
chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: "The U.S. Department of Defense has stopped updating its main reference list of vital defense technologies that are banned from export, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), The Security Ledger reports.

The Militarily Critical Technologies List (MCTL) is used to identify technologies that are critical to national defense and that require extra protection — including bans on exports and the application of anti-tamper technology.
GAO warned six years ago that the Departments of State and Commerce, which are supposed to use the list, found it too broad and outdated to be of much use. The latest report (GAO 13-157) finds that the situation has worsened: budget cuts forced the DOD to largely stop updating and grooming the list in 2011. Sections on emerging technologies are outdated, while other sections haven't been updated since 1999. Without the list to rely on, the DOD has turned to a hodgepodge of other lists, while officials in the Departments of State and Commerce who are responsible for making decisions about whether to allow a particular technology to be exported have turned to ad-hoc networks of subject experts. Other agencies are looking into developing their own MCTL equivalents, potentially wasting government resources duplicating work that has already been done, GAO found."
Hardware

Submission + - New server can be parachuted into extreme environments (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: A rugged server from NCS Technologies introduced on Friday can withstand drops, will work in extreme temperatures and can be deployed via parachute into crisis areas or war zones if needed. The Bunker XRV-5241 is a 1U rack server designed for organizations such as the military and first responders that need servers in rugged environments. The server has been tested to meet U.S. Department of Defense specifications for environmental, temperature and shock requirements.

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