45843431
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another random user writes:
There is now so much debris in orbit that the space environment is close to a cascade of collisions that would make space extremely hazardous, a major international meeting has concluded.
Its summary position stated there was an "urgent need" to start pulling redundant objects out of the sky.
Scientists estimate there are nearly 30,000 items circling the Earth larger than 10cm in size. Some are whole satellites and rocket bodies, but many are just fragments.
These have resulted from explosions in fuel tanks and batteries, and from the high-velocity impacts between objects.
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another random user writes:
A new type of battery has been developed which its creators say could revolutionise the way we power consumer electronics and vehicles.
The University of Illinois team says its use of 3D-electrodes allows it to build "microbatteries" that are many times smaller than commercially available options, or the same size and many times more powerful.
It adds they can be recharged 1,000 times faster than competing tech.
The researchers said their innovation should help address the issue that while smartphones and other gadgets have benefited from miniaturised electronics, battery advances have failed to pace.
44985405
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another random user writes:
Two film studios have asked Google to take down links to messages sent by them requesting the removal of links connected to film piracy.
Google receives 20 million "takedown" requests, officially known as DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notices, a month. They are all published online.
Recent submissions by Fox and Universal Studios include requests for the removal of previous takedown notices.
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another random user writes:
TED fellow Jinha Lee has been working on the SpaceTop 3D desktop in collaboration with Microsoft.
Allowing people to interact with machines in the same way they do with solid objects could make computing much more intuitive, he told the BBC. He can see the system coming into general use within a decade.
The system consists of a transparent LED display with built-in cameras, which track the user's gestures and eye movements. The design was inspired by what he sees as a human need to interact with things.
"Spatial memory, where the body intuitively remembers where things are, is a very human skill," he said. Translating this to the digital world will enable people to use computers more easily as well as complete more complex tasks.
42743633
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another random user writes:
The world's largest online ticket retailer is to stop requiring users to enter hard-to-read words in order to prove they are human.
Captcha — which asks users to type in words to prove they are not robots trying to cheat the system — is used on many sites. But Ticketmaster has moved to ditch it in favour of a simpler system.
Ticketmaster is now using software created by New York start-up Solve Media, a similar service that asks for well-known phrases, or simple multiple choice questions.
42575775
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another random user writes:
Antigua is seeking permission to run a website that sells music, movies and software — but ignores copyright law. The Caribbean island is due to appear before the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 28 January seeking permission to run the site.
The decision to set up the site is the end point of a long-running dispute with the US over gambling. The US has objected to Antigua's plan saying it amounted to official "piracy" of intellectual property.
Antigua went to the WTO after the US moved to stop American citizens using gambling services, including web-based betting shops and casinos, run from the Caribbean country. Antigua claims that action deprived it of billions of dollars in revenue.
The WTO agreed with Antigua and dismissed a US appeal against its ruling. However, because the US took no action to lift the controls on cross-border gambling Antigua filed an application to recoup its lost cash by other means.
It sought permission to sell movies, music, games and software via a store that would be able to ignore global agreements on copyright and trademark controls, reports filesharing news site TorrentFreak. It wanted to be able to sell up to $3.4bn of those goods before having to make copyright payments.
The WTO rejected that figure, but said Antigua could sell $21m annually via the store before it had to consider paying copyright fees. The US is believed to have offered to pay Antigua $500,000 annually as compensation for the lost revenue.
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another random user writes:
Nokia is releasing design files that will let owners use 3D printers to make their own cases for its Lumia phones.
Files containing mechanical drawings, case measurements and recommended materials have already been released by the phone maker.
Those using the files will be able to create a custom-designed case for the flagship Lumia 820 handset.
The project makes Nokia one of the first big electronics firms to seriously back 3D printing
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another random user writes:
A surge in research into the novel material graphene reveals an intensifying global contest to lead a potential industrial revolution.
Only identified in 2004, graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms making it the thinnest material ever created and offering huge promise for a host of applications from IT to energy to medicine.
Latest figures show a sharp rise in patents filed to claim copyright over different aspects of graphene since 2007, with a further spike last year.
China leads the field as the country with the most graphene patents (2,204) while the Korean electronics giant Samsung stands out as the company with most to its name.
41390405
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another random user writes:
Making digital copies of music, films and other copyrighted material for personal use is to be made legal for the first time under government plans.
It has previously been illegal in the UK to rip songs from a CD to a digital player or transfer eBooks, music, films and games from one device to another.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said the move was "not only common sense but good business sense".
"Bringing the law into line with ordinary people's reasonable expectations will boost respect for copyright, on which our creative industries rely," he said.
"We feel we have struck the right balance between improving the way consumers benefit from copyright works they have legitimately paid for, boosting business opportunities and protecting the rights of creators."
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another random user writes:
New York's taxi authority is to vote on whether or not the city's iconic yellow cabs should accept bookings via smartphone apps.
Taxi-hailing apps have been widely adopted in other cities around the world. In New York, where taxi operators are highly regulated, several companies have written to the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) calling for plans to allow the use of the apps to be rejected.
Among them are companies who offer pre-booked minicabs, rather than ones hailed from the street. They argue that using a smartphone to hail a cab is in effect a pre-booking, and may take away a large amount of custom.
In the 1980s, New York's yellow cabs could be pre-booked, that many complained meant it was difficult to hail a cab. Some fear that smartphone apps could create a similar problem.
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another random user writes:
A hum that comes from mains electricity has allowed forensic scientists to establish whether recordings are genuine.
For the last seven years, at the Metropolitan Police forensic lab in south London, audio specialists have been continuously recording the sound of mains electricity.
It is an all pervasive hum that we normally cannot hear. But boost it a little, and a metallic and not very pleasant buzz fills the air.
"The power is sent out over the national grid to factories, shops and of course our homes. Normally this frequency, known as the mains frequency, is about 50Hz," explains Dr Alan Cooper, a senior digital forensic practitioner at the Met Police.
Any digital recording made anywhere near an electrical power source, be it plug socket, light or pylon, will pick up this noise and it will be embedded throughout the audio.
This buzz is an annoyance for sound engineers trying to make the highest quality recordings. But for forensic experts, it has turned out to be an invaluable tool in the fight against crime.
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another random user writes:
Bitcoin-Central, a currency exchange that specialises in virtual cash has won the right to operate as a bank. They got the go-ahead thanks to a deal with French financial firms Aqoba and Credit Mutuel.
The exchange is one of many that swaps bitcoins, computer generated cash, for real world currencies. The change in status makes it easier to use bitcoins and bestows national protections on balances held at the exchange.
Under European laws, the deal means Bitcoin-Central becomes a Payment Services Provider (PSP) that has an International Bank ID number. This puts it on an equal footing with other payment networks such as PayPal and WorldPay. As a PSP it will be able to issue debit cards, carry out real-time transfers to other banks and accept transfers into its own coffers.
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another random user writes:
Users accessing Apple's iTunes Store in Russia have been getting porn images when searching for films to rent.
Movies without images have been linking to xxx.xxx web address. The intention might have been to link to a placeholder, said one IT expert, but addresses ending in .xxx are real websites with explicit content.
40730271
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another random user writes:
Disappointed that your Roomba can't clean your house while also telling you that you that shirt your girlfriend hates looks great on you? Researchers at Georgia Tech are working hard to solve that problem by teaching robots to lie, and they’re taking lessons in lying from some of nature’s most deceptive animals — squirrels. Because hey, what could possibly go wrong with that plan?
Deception is not something that comes very naturally to today’s artificial intelligence programs. For most robots, it's hard enough to navigate the world the way it is without introducing fantasies about the way it's not into the equation. So to help robots get the hang of misleading others, the team has turned to the squirrel, or "forest liar", to give robots the tools they need to learn the subtle arts of deception.
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another random user writes:
Taiwan-based Macronix has found a solution for a weakness in flash memory fadeout. A limitation of flash memory is simply that eventually it cannot be used; the more cells in the memory chips are erased, the less useful to store data. The write-erase cycles degrade insulation; eventually the cell fails. "Flash wears out after being programmed and erased about 10,000 times," said the IEEE Spectrum. Engineers at Macronix have a solution that moves flash memory over to a new life. They propose a "self-healing" NAND flash memory solution that can survive over 100 million cycles.
