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Submission + - Not Everyone Needs Probiotics, Suggests Study of Hunter-Gatherer Guts (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: After taking an antibiotic or catching an intestinal bug, many of us belt down probiotic drinks to restore the “natural balance” of organisms in our intestines. Probiotics are one of the fastest growing products in the food industry, now added to yogurts, drinks, and baby food. Yet, not everyone needs them to stay healthy. A new study of the gut bacteria of hunter-gatherers in Africa has found that they completely lack a bacterium that is a key ingredient in most probiotic foods and considered healthy. What’s more, the Hadza don’t suffer from colon cancer, colitis, Crohn’s, or other diseases of the colon that are found in humans eating modern diets in Western nations.

Submission + - PowerVR "Wizard" GPU Is First Mobile Gaming GPU With Hardware Ray Tracing (imgtec.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Imagination Technologies, the people who make the PowerVR line of mobile GPUs, have unveiled a new mobile gaming GPU ("Wizard") that does realtime ray tracing in hardware, at gaming frame rates. It has long been predicted that 3D games would eventually begin to employ true ray tracing to create computationally expensive visual effects like realistic reflections, refractions, shadows and lighting in realtime games. The PowerVR "Wizard" GPU is the first mobile GPU that can do just that in hardware. It remains to be seen how many commercial game engines, game development studios and mobile games will decide to make use of this new interesting new hardware capability. The question whether rival GPU manufacturers like Nvidia or AMD will also jump on the ray tracing bandwagon and put hardware ray tracing units in their future GPUs is also open at this point. If the hardware ray tracing trend catches on, however, and the hardware needed for it becomes mainstream, and more powerful in time, it could make for interesting virtual experiences like "true photoreal VR" when used in conjunction with a VR headset like the Oculus Rift for example.
Security

OpenBSD Team Cleaning Up OpenSSL 304

Posted by timothy from the devil-you-say dept.
First time accepted submitter Iarwain Ben-adar (2393286) writes "The OpenBSD has started a cleanup of their in-tree OpenSSL library. Improvements include removing "exploit mitigation countermeasures", fixing bugs, removal of questionable entropy additions, and many more. If you support the effort of these guys who are responsible for the venerable OpenSSH library, consider a donation to the OpenBSD Foundation. Maybe someday we'll see a 'portable' version of this new OpenSSL fork. Or not."

Submission + - Does Heartbleed Disprove 'Open Source is Safer'? (datamation.com)

Submitted by jammag
jammag writes: "Almost as devastating is the blow Heartbleed has dealt to the image of free and open source software (FOSS). In the self-mythology of FOSS, bugs like Heartbleed aren't supposed to happen when the source code is freely available and being worked with daily. As Eric Raymond famously said, 'given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow'...Tired of FOSS's continual claims of superior security, some Windows and OS X users welcome the idea that Heartbleed has punctured FOSS pretensions. But is that what has happened?"

Submission + - World's First Algae Canopy Produces the Oxygen Equivalent of 4 Woodland Hectares (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by Taffykay
Taffykay writes: The world's first urban algae canopy controls the flow of energy, water and CO2 based on weather patterns, visitor's movements, and other environmental variables. Once completed in time for the 2015 Milan Expo, this groundbreaking bio-digital project from ecoLogic Studio will produce the oxygen equivalent of four hectares of woodland, along with nearly 330 pounds of biomass per day.

Submission + - OpenBSD Team Cleaning Up OpenSSL

Submitted by Iarwain Ben-adar
Iarwain Ben-adar writes: The OpenBSD has started a cleanup of their in-tree OpenSSL library. Improvements include removing "exploit mitigation countermeasures", fixing bugs, removal of questionable entropy additions, and many more. If you support the effort of these guys who are responsible for the venerable OpenSSH library, consider a donation to the OpenBSD Foundation. Maybe someday we'll see a "portable" version of this new OpenSSL fork. Or not.
 

Submission + - The lack of US cybersecurity across the electric grid (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: Meghan McGuinness of the Bipartisan Policy Center writes about the Electric Grid Cybersecurity Initiative, a collaborative effort between the center’s Energy and Homeland Security Projects. She points out that over half the attacks on US critical infrastructure sectors last year were on the energy sector. Cyber attacks could come from a variety of sources, and 'a large-scale cyber attack or combined cyber and physical attack could lead to enormous costs, potentially triggering sustained power outages over large portions of the electric grid and prolonged disruptions in communications, food and water supplies, and health care delivery.' ECGI is recommending the creation of a new, industry-supported model that would create incentives for the continual improvement and adaptation needed to respond effectively to rapidly evolving cyber threats. The vulnerability of the grid has been much discussed this last week; McGuinness's recommendations are a good place to start.

Submission + - Intuit, maker of Turbotax, lobbies against simplied tax filings (propublica.org) 1

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Return-free filing might allow tens of millions of Americans to file their taxes for free and in minutes. Or that, under proposals authored by several federal lawmakers, it would be voluntary, using information the government already receives from banks and employers and that taxpayers could adjust. Or that the concept has been endorsed by Presidents Obama and Reagan and is already a reality in some parts of Europe.

Sounds great, except to Intuit, maker of Turbotax: last year, Intuit spent more than $2.6 million on lobbying, some of it to lobby on four bills related to the issue, federal lobbying records show.
The Internet

Netflix Gets What It Pays For: Comcast Streaming Speeds Skyrocket 328

Posted by timothy from the everyone-should-get-the-same-amount-of-water-and-electricty dept.
jfruh (300774) writes "Back in February, after a lengthy dispute, Netflix agreed to pay Comcast for network access after being dogged by complaints of slow speeds from Comcast subscribers. Two months later, it appears that Comcast has delivered on its promises, jumping up six places in Netflix's ISP speed rankings. The question of whether this is good news for anyone but Comcast is still open."

Feed Google News Sci Tech: Google tries to trademark the word 'Glass' - InsideCounsel (google.com)

From feed by feedfeeder

ExtremeTech
Google tries to trademark the word 'Glass'
InsideCounsel
Google already has the trademark for "Google Glass," but is seeking an additional trademark for the word "Glass" by itself, in the futuristic font Google uses in its marketing campaign. According to reports, however, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office...
Contact Lenses Containing Microcameras – Google Just Patented ThisGadget Gestures
Google Micro Camera System To Usher In Next-Gen Contact LensesUbergizmo
Google Applies For A Smart Contact Lens Patent Containing A Micro CameraAndroid Headlines - Android News

all 42 news articles

Comment Grudgingly reluctantly... (Score 3, Interesting) 386

by 140Mandak262Jamuna (#46756975) Attached to: Slashdot Asks: How Do You Pay Your Taxes?
That is how I pay my taxes. But I do pay them. That is how I pay my taxes. I do not see taxation as theft, as many conservatives, libertarians claim. I see government as a long term venture capitalist, who invests in the entire next generation of America. Some of them will strike it big, and others will strike out. If I am one of the fortunate group that was able to take full advantage of the investment the government made in me, investments that protected my earning potential and my property rights, then the tax I pay is just dividend to the venture capitalist. So despite all the reluctance and the pain associated with parting with my money, I know it is the right thing to do. The government investment in the next generation depends on it. I can invest better on my children, and the government investment is creating competitors to my children. If I believed in Social Darwinism, I will fight taxes tooth and nail. But I believe human beings should rise above this level of self interest and pay the taxes. --

Comment Reluctantly, grudgingly, (Score -1, Offtopic) 146

by 140Mandak262Jamuna (#46756757) Attached to: How Amazon Keeps Cutting AWS Prices: Cheapskate Culture
That is how I pay my taxes. But I do pay them.

I do not see taxation as theft, as many conservatives, libertarians claim.

I see government as a long term venture capitalist, who invests in the entire next generation of America. Some of them will strike it big, and others will strike out. If I am one of the fortunate group that was able to take full advantage of the investment the government made in me, investments that protected my earning potential and my property rights, then the tax I pay is just dividend to the venture capitalist.

So despite all the reluctance and the pain associated with parting with my money, I know it is the right thing to do. The government investment in the next generation depends on it. I can invest better on my children, and the government investment is creating competitors to my children. If I believed in Social Darwinism, I will fight taxes tooth and nail. But I believe human beings should rise above this level of self interest and pay the taxes.

Comment Re:also (Score 1) 171

by Shakrai (#46756621) Attached to: First Phase of TrueCrypt Audit Turns Up No Backdoors

The metadata argument wears thin on me. If my phone number is two or three levels removed from a terrorist I really don't see why it's objectionable that the Government take a precursory look at my call logs. They'll quickly find that I'm a rather boring sort, whose connection with the terrorist was likely limited to ordering the same take out, and my privacy isn't significantly impacted by having someone review my call logs after obtaining a court order.

Traditional police investigative techniques would be at least as invasive, if not more so. Ever been interviewed by the police because you're one or two levels removed from a criminal suspect they're attempting to establish a case against?

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