Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Isaac Asimov's 50-Year-Old Prediction for 2014 Is Viral and All Wrong (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: So the internet has obviously exalted over noted non-ass Isaac Asimov's vision for 2014, which he articulated in a New York Times opinion piece in 1964. The sci-fi writer imagined visiting the 2014 World Fair, and the global culture and economy the exhibits might reflect. NPR called his many predictions, which range from cordless smart telephones, to robots running our leisure society, to machine-cooked 'automeals', "right on." Business Insider called the forecast "spot on." The Huffington Post called the projections "eerily accurate."

The only thing is, they're not.

Taken as a whole, Asimov's vision for 2014 is wildly off. It's more that 'Genius predicted the future 50 years ago' makes for a great article hook. Asimov does hit a couple pretty close to home: He got pretty close to guessing the world population (6.5 billion); he anticipated automated cars ("vehicles with 'robot brains'"); and he seems to have described the current smartphone/tablet craze ("sight-sound" telephones that "can be used not only to see the people you call but also for studying documents and photographs and reading passages from books.")

Submission + - Academics Against Mass Surveillance speak out

Submitted by Koen Lefever
Koen Lefever writes: Over 250 Academics Against Mass Surveillance demand American and European security agencies to stop large scale monitoring of the population: "The signatories of this declaration call upon nation states to take action. Intelligence agencies must be subjected to transparency and accountability. People must be free from blanket mass surveillance conducted by intelligence agencies from their own or foreign countries. States must effectively protect everyone's fundamental rights and freedoms, and particularly everyone's privacy. "

Submission + - What's The Best Programming Language To Learn First? (itworld.com) 3

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: Sure, your first programming language was probably BASIC on the Apple IIe or Atari 800. But what should the kids today learn? Matthew Mombrea takes a systematic look at the question, considering it in light of which languages are the most commercially useful and which lay a good foundation for learning other useful languages.

Submission + - Surround-Ultrasound Creates "Anti-Gravity" Forcefield (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: Researchers at the University of Tokyo have published a paper and video describing a technique that is explicitly not an anti-gravity system, and doesn’t pretend to be, but looks very much like one. “The essence of levitation is the countervailing of gravity,” according to the provocative opening of a paper published Dec. 14 on the Cornell University science-publishing site arXiv.org that describes a way to not only raise an object into the air, but maneuver it in three dimensions using only standing waves of ultrasound. Since the mid-1970s, researchers have been able to levitate small objects using focused beams of high-frequency sound that bounce off a flat surface and create a wave of pressure that pushes the object into the air. But they couldn’t cause an object to float, and they couldn’t move it around in any direction other than up or down. The University of Tokyo team led by Yoichi Ochiai built a system that could raise small particles, water droplets and even “small creatures” off a flat surface and zoom them around within an open, cubical area about 21 inches on each side. The system uses four sets of phased arrays – speakers producing focused beams of sound at around 40kHz – to create waves of ultrasonic force on every side of the object rather than just one. The force produced by each of the four ultrasound sources can be changed – and the force on the object manipulated – using the same techniques utilized by older systems. Coordinating the frequencies and force of ultrasound arrays on four sides, however, creates a consistent focal point for the force from each. By keeping frequency changes in sync, the system creates a “bubble” within which the force from all four sources is consistent no matter where within the target area the focus is directed.

Submission + - CryptoLocker Evolves into a Worm to Spread Independently (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: CryptoLocker was a worrying enough piece of malware when it was a simple Trojan horse, but it has evolved into a worm, and can now easily spread under its own steam via removable drives. It means the figure of 250,000 infected PCs could soon skyrocket. Researchers believe that the differences in the new variant, discovered by Trend Micro, could mean it is the work of a copycat gang of cyber criminals and not the creators of CryptoLocker.

Submission + - Windows 8 And Windows 8.1 Pass 10% Market Share, Windows XP Falls Below 30%

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: With the release of Windows 8.1 to the world in October, Microsoft ended 2013 with two full months of availability for its latest operating system version. While Windows 8.1 is certainly growing quickly and eating into Windows 8s share, the duo has only now been able to pass 10 percent market share, while Windows 7 seems to be plowing forward unaffected. The latest market share data from Net Applications shows that Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 made steady progression in December 2013, gaining a combined 1.19 percentage points (from 9.30 percent to 10.49 percent). More specifically, Windows 8 gained 0.23 percentage points (from 6.66 percent to 6.89 percent), while Windows 8.1 jumped 0.96 percentage points (from 2.64 percent to 3.60 percent).

Submission + - China: The Next Space Superpower (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: "As 2014 dawns, China has the most active and ambitious space program in the world," says this article. While it's true that the Chinese space agency is just now reaching milestones that the U.S. and Russia reached 40 years ago (its first lunar rover landed in December), the Chinese government's strong support for space exploration means that it's catching up fast. On the agenda for the next decade: A space station to rival the ISS, a new spaceport, new heavy-lift rockets, a global satellite navigation system to rival GPS, and China's first space science satellites.

Comment Re:This is Linux ! (Score 1) 3

by Andy Prough (#45809785) Attached to: Chromebooks' Success in 2013 is a Gut Punch to Microsoft
I don't know about a Core i3 Windows notebook. But I do have a Chromebook and a Core i5 (Haswell) Windows notebook with 4 GB ram and an SSD drive, and there is no real comparison. The Windows notebook absolutely runs laps around the Chromebook. I love the little Chromebook - it's so lightweight and requires zero maintenance. But this Windows notebook is only 4 pounds and has an 11 hour battery life (mostly due to Haswell chip), and it's definitely the one I grab most of the time now.

Submission + - Julian Assange Video DMCA'ed Offline During Aussie Election

Submitted by Pav
Pav writes: On the verge of going viral (600,000 views in a week) this video was taken offline during the Australian election. It's a humourous spoof of the various contenders, plus a guest appearance by the real Julian Assange, who breaks into a few bars of "The Voice" by John Farnham, jarringly and an octave too low — apparently this was the cause of the DMCA concern.

Submission + - Building Snow Dens for the Saimaa Seals

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: A project to construct man-made dens for the endangered Saimaa seal will continue after recently receiving EU funding for the next five years. The Saimaa ringed seal is among the most endangered seals in the world, having a current total population of only about 310 in the Saimaa area of Finland. The population is descended from ringed seals that were separated from the rest of their species after the last ice age. This seal, along with the Ladoga seal and the Baikal seal, is one of the few living freshwater seals in the world and Finland is working hard to preserve its tiny population. The University of Eastern Finland and Finland’s Forest Government Organization are leading a group of volunteers to build the right size snow drifts near the water. Finding volunteers has not been a problem as dozens of volunteers participate in den counts each spring, covering the entire Saimaa area. Last winter, a full one-half of the man-made dens were housed by the seals, so the project is considered to be successful.

Submission + - IA State AIDS Researcher Admits to Falsifying Findings

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "With countless lives depending on their work," writes Brett Smith, "it seems unthinkable that AIDS researchers might falsify their work. However, that's just what Iowa State University assistant professor Dong-Pyou Han has admitted to, according to federal documents." Han resigned from the project in October after admitting to tampering with samples to give the appearance that an experimental vaccine was causing lab animals to build up protections against HIV. According to the NIH, Han apparently spiked rabbit blood with human blood components from people whose bodies had produced antibodies to HIV. 'This positive result was striking, and it caught everybody’s attention,' said the NIH. However, researchers at other institutions became suspicious after they were unsuccessful in duplicating the ISU results. The Iowa State AIDS research project had been awarded $19 million in federal grants over the past several years. Han has agreed to be banned from participating in any federally-financed research for three years.

Submission + - Iowa ISP is charging cellular prices for DSL home internet service (change.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The East Buchanan Telephone Cooperative is planning to charge cellular prices for home DSL internet service starting on January 1st, 2014. A 5GB plan costs $24.95 a month while a 25 GB plan will run $99.95 per month. 100 GB is the most data you can get in a package for $299.95 per month. Each additional GB is $5. They argue that the price increase is justified because their costs have increased by 900% since 2009. About half of their customers use less than 5 GB a month while their largest users use a whopping 100 GB a month. They argue that the switch to measured internet will appropriately place the cost on their heaviest users. If small ISP's are able to get away with changes like these what will stop the large ISP's from trying the same things.

Submission + - Nvidia's GameWorks program usurps power from developers, prevents optimization (extremetech.com)

Submitted by Dputiger
Dputiger writes: Nvidia's GameWorks program has been marketed as an extension of The Way It's Meant To Be Played that gives developers access to Nvidia-created libraries for implementing advanced DX11 functions. Unfortunately, those libraries are closed — which means neither the developer, AMD, or Intel can optimize their own drivers for running a GameWorks game. GameWorks is already used in titles like Arkham Origins and Assassin's Creed IV — which means Nvidia now controls how its competitors' perform in those titles.

Submission + - 'Military-Style' Raid on California Power Station Spooks U.S. (foreignpolicy.com) 1

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: Interesting piece about April's physical attack on a power station near San Jose, California, that now looks like a dress rehearsal for future attacks: Quote: "When U.S. officials warn about "attacks" on electric power facilities these days, the first thing that comes to mind is probably a computer hacker trying to shut the lights off in a city with malware. But a more traditional attack on a power station in California has U.S. officials puzzled and worried about the physical security of the the electrical grid--from attackers who come in with guns blazing."

Submission + - Convicted Spammer Jeffrey Killbride Flees Prison (ksby.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: According to the article "Officials at the Federal Bureau of Prisons say an inmate escaped from a minimum security area of the federal prison in Lompoc. Prison officials say Jeffrey Kilbride, 48, was discovered missing at around 1:30 p.m. on Friday."..."A search is reportedly underway. Prison officials say Kilbride was serving a 78-month sentence for conspiracy and fraud. He was due to be released on December 11, 2015."

Slashdot Top Deals

What good is a ticket to the good life, if you can't find the entrance?

Close