Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Silk-Derived Material Could Boost Battery Performance (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Next-generation lithium-ion batteries may hold more charge for a greater number of cycles thanks to a new material derived from natural silk. Scientists at the Beijing Institute of Technology found that not only does their regenerated silk fibroin material work for over 10,000 cycles but it also stores five times more lithium than graphite, which is the most common choice for the anode (negative electrode) in lithium-ion batteries.

Submission + - IBM reported to be developing blockchain-based currency transaction system (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: According to what Reuters [http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/12/us-bitcoin-ibm-idUSKBN0M82KB20150312] describes as ‘a person familiar with the matter’, IBM is working with the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks to develop a digital currency transaction system using the same blockchain technology that underpins Bitcoin — but which will deal with existing national currencies. The anonymous source says: "These coins will be part of the money supply...It's the same money, just not a dollar bill with a serial number on it, but a token that sits on this blockchain," Despite vocal community protest about the potential 'co-opting' of a geographically-neutral cryptocurrency in favour of a centrally-controlled distributed transaction ledger, the IBM project, if true, is only one among hundreds seeking to leverage the blockchain for new transaction systems.

Submission + - Mysterious spy cameras collecting data at post offices in Colorado (fox4kc.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Within an hour of a KDVR reporter discovering a hidden camera, which was positioned to capture and record the license plates and facial features of customers leaving a Denver post office, the device was ripped from the ground and disappeared.

A customer first noticed the data collection device, hidden inside a utilities box, around Thanksgiving 2014. It stayed in place, taking photos through the busy Christmas holidays and into mid-January.

Submission + - Magnetic 'rust' controls brain activity (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Deep brain stimulation, which now involves surgically inserting electrodes several inches into a person's brain and connecting them to a power source outside the skull, can be an extremely effective treatment for disorders such as Parkinson's disease, obsessive compulsive disorder, and depression. The expensive, invasive procedure doesn't always work, however, and can be risky. Now, a study in mice points to a less invasive way to massage neuronal activity, by injecting metal nanoparticles into the brain and controlling them with magnetic fields. The technique could eventually provide a wireless, nonsurgical alternative to traditional deep brain stimulation surgery, researchers say.

Submission + - Huge ocean confirmed underneath solar system's largest moon (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: The solar system’s largest moon, Ganymede, in orbit around Jupiter, harbors an underground ocean containing more water than all the oceans on Earth, according to new observations by the Hubble Space Telescope. Ganymede now joins Jupiter’s Europa and two moons of Saturn, Titan and Enceladus, as moons with subsurface oceans—and good places to look for life. Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt, may also have a subsurface ocean. The Hubble study suggests that the ocean can be no deeper than 330 kilometers below the surface.

Submission + - Powdered Alcohol Approved by Feds, Banned by States

Submitted by StikyPad
StikyPad writes: Powdered alcohol was approved for sale by the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, but that hasn't stopped several states from introducing their own legislation to ban the substance, including Alaska, Louisiana, South Carolina, Vermont, New York, Virginia, Ohio, and Iowa. The utility of powdered alcohol is said to be in weight reduction, particularly for transport on foot when hiking and camping, but lawmakers cite fears about the potential of abuse by minors and spiked drinks.

Submission + - My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord (vice.com)

Submitted by sarahnaomi
sarahnaomi writes: I first met Ross Ulbricht, the 29-year old found guilty last month of creating and operating the deep web marketplace Silk Road, at a craft beer bar on Haight Street.

He arrived wearing a red sweatshirt and blue jeans, his face bearded. He was there for an interview, a sit-down with myself and the married couple I shared a townhouse with in Glen Park. We had a room for rent, and Ross had responded to the classified we posted online.

We did not know, really, what type of person he was, but, as we chatted over lambics and IPAs, I felt relieved: gone was the posturing so obvious in the previous candidates. They worked in advertising, at startups—Twitter employees who talked about how much money they made and the exotic locales where they took their vacations. Ross was a techie, but he didn't act like one. He seemed eloquent, optimistic, down-to-earth. He seemed trustworthy.

Submission + - Highly efficient LED Filament Bulbs look almost exactly like an icandescent.

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A recent article posted on a green building site gives a detailed analysis of a creative new kind of LED bulb that has been popping up Europe and Asia over the last year. They look almost exactly like Tungsten filament bulbs, require no heat sink, and offer extremely high efficiencies in the 100-120 lm/W range. The article describes their construction, compares them to conventional LED bulbs, and describes the result of a report by the Swedish Energey Agency that analyzed the performance of several brands of these these bulbs on the European market. Particularly interesting are links to teardown videos.

Submission + - Google is closing Google Code (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Kohenkatz
Kohenkatz writes: Citing increasing spam and abuse, as well as the rise of Github and Bitbucket, Google has announced the closure of Google Code. Effective today, Google Code is no longer accepting new projects, and it will become read-only in August. After that, tarballs of all project data will be available until June 2016. To help project owners migrate, Google has added an "Export to Github" button to every project.

Submission + - Rendering a Frame of "Deus Ex: Human Revolution"

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Video games are among the most computationally intensive applications. The amount of calculation achieved in a few milliseconds can sometimes be mind-blowing.
This post about the breakdown of a frame rendering in "Deus Ex: Human Revolution" takes us through the different steps of the process.
It explains in detail the rendering passes involved, the techniques as well as the algorithms processed by a computer — 60 times per second.

Submission + - Berkeley builds a heart simulator

Submitted by LeadSongDog
LeadSongDog writes: A bioengineering group has put human heart cells on a silicon wafer to test the action of different drugs. Within a day, they started beating on their own. This isn't a functional heart replacement, but it falls somewhere between in-vivo and in-vitro testing, so it should help speed new drugs to market.

Press release: https://newscenter.berkeley.ed...
Nature: http://www.nature.com/srep/201...

Submission + - Obama Administration Wants More Legal Power to Disrupt Botnets

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: The federal government is seeking more legal power to step in and shut down botnets through an amendment to the existing criminal law, which would allow the Department of Justice to obtain injunctions to disrupt these malicious networks.

The Obama administration has proposed an amendment to existing United Stated federal law that would give it a more powerful tool to go after botnets such as GameOver Zeus, Asprox and others. In recent years, Justice, along with private security firms and law enforcement agencies in Europe, have taken down various incarnations of a number of major botnets, including GameOver Zeus and Coreflood. These actions have had varying levels of success, with the GOZ takedown being perhaps the most effective, as it also had the effect of disrupting the infrastructure used by the CryptoLocker ransomware.

In order to obtain an injunction in these cases, the government would need to sue the defendants in civil court and show that its suit is likely to succeed on its merits.

“The Administration’s proposed amendment would add activities like the operation of a botnet to the list of offenses eligible for injunctive relief. Specifically, the amendment would permit the department to seek an injunction to prevent ongoing hacking violations in cases where 100 or more victim computers have been hacked. This numerical threshold focuses the injunctive authority on enjoining the creation, maintenance, operation, or use of a botnet, as well as other widespread attacks on computers using malicious software (such as “ransomware” ),” Caldwell wrote.

Slashdot Top Deals

Wishing without work is like fishing without bait. -- Frank Tyger

Close