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Submission + - Bacteria behaviour can shed light on how financial markets work (theconversation.com)

Submitted by notscientific
notscientific writes: Bacteria invest in proteins in an attempt to reduce stress or increase energy intake, while humans invest in cash. In both cases, better tradeoffs pay off. The similarities in tradeoffs faced by both bacteria and humans during investment are actually quite similar. Now, using synthetic biology, a group of scientists has shown that the outcomes of investment decisions in bacteria can be precisely defined, alluding to the idea that human investment activities, such as financial markets, can be thoroughly understood as well, and even modelled.

Submission + - Common car lubricant speeds imaging apps 10X (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: Reducing the friction of a racing engine is the purview of an engine lubricant known as molybdenum disulfide, or MoS2, but the oil ingredient can also apparently help speed up imaging applications as well. UC Berkeley researchers said the combined a thin film of MoS2 with a sheet of amorphous silicon. Because of the molecular structure of MoS2, the photo-generated electrons it collects are able to move through quickly.

Submission + - Solar Magnetic Field About To Flip (nasa.gov)

Submitted by Freddybear
Freddybear writes: According to measurements from NASA solar observatories, the sun's magnetic field is about to reverse polarity. The event is predicted to occur within the next three to four months and will have effects throughout the solar system. These magnetic reversals happen regularly about every eleven years as part of the solar cycle.

Submission + - U.S. intel agencies to build superconducting computer (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: The Director of National Intelligence is solicting help to develop a superconducting computer. The goal of the government's solicitation is "to demonstrate a small-scale computer based on superconducting logic and cryogenic memory that is energy efficient, scalable, and able to solve interesting problems." The NSA, in particular, has had a long interest in superconducting technology, but "significant technical obstacles prevented exploration of superconducting computing," the government said in its solicitation. Those innovations include cryogenic memory designs that allow operation of memory and logic in close proximity within the cold environment, as well as much faster switching speeds. U.S. intelligence agencies don't disclose the size of their systems, but the NSA is building a data center in Utah with a 65 MW power supply.

Submission + - The rise of the citizen CIO (opensource.com)

Submitted by ectoman
ectoman writes: Government IT departments are producing more open data. Civic participation is on the rise. And where these trends overlap, a new figure emerges: the citizen CIO. Jason Hibbets, author of The Foundation for an Open Source City , writes that increasingly "citizens are identifying—and some are creating themselves—the next wave of applications and resources for their municipalities, such as a crowdsourced answering platform for city services, an open data catalog, and a civic infrastructure adoption website for fire hydrants and storm drains." Hibbets notes that around the country—in cities like Boudler, Raleigh, and Oakland—tech-savvy citizens are partnering with local officials to influence the decisions regarding technical adoption and to help solve municipal problems. "I can’t stress enough how important the partnership component is," Hibbets writes. "In order for government CIO’s to embrace community enthusiasm, citizen CIO’s need to have a good plan."

Submission + - Samsung's strategy to slip away from Android: Follow Palm and BlackBerry (bgr.com)

Submitted by zacharye
zacharye writes: Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: A smartphone vendor plans to launch a new smartphone platform that isn’t really just a smartphone platform, but rather an operating system that will some day power everything from phones and tablets to cameras and cars. Palm and HP tried it with webOS, and that didn’t work out very well. BlackBerry is currently trying it with BlackBerry 10, and its U.S. market share plummeted to just 1.1% last quarter. But that won’t stop Samsung, which is next in line to launch a new OS that it hopes will decrease its dependence on Android and someday power anything and everything that connects to the Internet...

Submission + - TOR Wants You To Stop Using Windows, Disable JavaScript (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: The TOR Project is advising that people stop using Windows after the discovery of a startling vulnerability in Firefox that undermined the main advantages of the privacy-centered network. The zero-day vulnerability allowed as-yet-unknown interlopers to use a malicious piece of JavaScript to collect crucial identifying information on computers visiting some websites using The Onion Router (TOR) network. 'Really, switching away from Windows is probably a good security move for many reasons,' according to a security advisory posted Monday by The TOR Project.

Submission + - Companies Petition Congress to Reform 'Business Method' Patent Process (opensource.com)

Submitted by ectoman
ectoman writes: This week, a coalition of more than 40 companies sent a letter to Congress asking for legislation that expands the Covered Business Method (CBM) program, a move some feel would stem patent abuse in the United States. Expanding the scope of CBM—a program that grants the Patent and Trademark Office the power to challenge the validity of certain business methods patents—would expedite the patent review process and significantly cut litigation costs, they say. "The vague and sweeping scope of many business method claims covering straight forward, common sense steps has led to an explosion of patent claims against processes used every day in common technologies by thousands of businesses and millions of Americans," says the letter, signed by companies like Amazon, Netflix, Red Hat, Macy's, and Kroger).

Submission + - Google 'Glass' to be banned while driving (stuff.tv)

Submitted by RockDoctor
RockDoctor writes: "Stuff" magazine, a "gadget" oriented mag, is reporting that the UK's Department for Transport is planning to ban drivers from using Google "Glass", using the same law (1988 Road Traffic Act) that is used to ban drivers from using hand-held mobile phones.

While there are obvious parallels between the distraction potential of the mobile phone and of "Glass", there are arguments in the other direction that the speech-control aspects of "Glass" could make it less distracting than, say, a touch-screen SatNav. So, to ban "Glass" driving or not?

Typical fines for using a mobile phone while driving are £60 cash plus three penalty points on the driving license ; the points expire 3 years after the offence and if you accumulate 12 points then you've lost your license. Repeat offenders may experience higher fines and/ or more points. Around a million people have received the penalty since the mobile phone ban was introduced in 2003.

Submission + - All Facebook Users Get Secure Browsing By Default

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After having introduced secure browsing as an option in 2011, and having begun rolling out always-on HTTPS by default for users in North America late last year, Facebook is finally making it the default option for all users. The feature makes sure that the information sent by the users / browsers to the company servers is always sent via the Transport Layer Security (TLS) cryptographic protocol, making it more secure if intercepted. According to Facebook software engineer Scott Renfro, when the feature was first introduces two years ago, more that a third of users had enabled it immediately despite the fact that it could slow down their Facebook use.

Submission + - iPhone Hacked in Under 60 Seconds Using Malicious Charger (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: Apple's iOs has been known as a bastion of security for many years, but three researchers have now shown iPhones and iPads can be hacked in just under 60 seconds using nothing more than a charger. OK so it's not just a charger but the Mactans charger does delete an official app (say Facebook) replacing it with an official-looking one which is actually malware which could access your contacts, messages, emails, phone calls and even capture your passwords. Apple says it will fix the flaw, but not until the release of iOS 7, the date of which hasn't been confirmed yet. So watch out for chargers left lying around.....

Submission + - Pinch-to-zoom Apple patent rejected by USPTO (pcworld.com)

Submitted by freddienumber13
freddienumber13 writes: In another patent surprise, this week from the USPTO, where a claim by Apple for pinch-to-zoom has been rejected by the USPTO on the grounds that the claims were anticipated by previous patents or unpatentable. This will be welcome news for Samsung that back in April asked for a stay of the trial [http://phandroid.com/2013/04/18/samsung-apple-trial-stay-request/] however Apple have a short period of time in which they can appeal this finding.

Submission + - German Court Finds Fantec Responsible for GPL Violation on Third-Party Code (opensource.com)

Submitted by ectoman
ectoman writes: Are firms responsible for GPL violations on code they receive from third parties? A German court thinks so. The Regional Court of Hamburg recently ruled that Fantec, a European media player maker, failed to distribute "complete corresponding source code" for firmware found in some of its products. Fantec claims its third-party firmware supplier provided the company with appropriate source code, which Fantext made available online. But a hackathon organized by the Free Software Foundation Europe discovered that this source code was incomplete, and programmer Harald Welte filed suit. He won.

Mark Radcliffe, an IP expert and senior partner at DLA Piper who specializes in open source licensing issues, has analyzed the case—and argued that it underscores the need for companies to implement internal GPL compliance processes. "Fantec is a reminder that companies should adopt a formal FOSS use policy which should be integrated into the software development process," he writes. "These standards should include an understanding of the FOSS management processes of such third-party suppliers. The development of a network of trusted third-party suppliers is critical part of any FOSS compliance strategy."

Submission + - Android Fragmentation Triples as 12,000 Distinct Devices Recorded in Use (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: Last year when OpenSignalMaps reported that there were almost 4,000 distinct Android devices in use, people were pretty surprised at the number. Well prepared to be even more surprised as the number has trebled in just 12 months to 11,868 distinct Android devices, of which 47.5% are Samsung devices and which, in total, are running eight different versions of Android.

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