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Comment Interesting, but sounds like spam (Score 1) 1

This actually sounds like an interesting app. But I downvoted your submission, because it is worded like an advertisement. Ads are not appropriate for Slashdot articles; that's called "spam". Please submit again as a description of this kind of technology, with your app just mentioned as an example. Be sure to mention other similar or related technology. One example is Beeminder, which charges you money instead of publicly shaming you if you don't make good on your promise. Extra points if you are honest and mention one or more direct competitors - it will help you, not hurt you, if yours really is the best.

Submission + - Gecko feet inspire hand-held Spider-Man paddles

ygslash writes: DARPA is developing hand-held paddles that can be used to scale vertical walls. The adhesion technology employed in the paddles is based on Van der Waals force, inspired by the feet of certain species of geckos known for their excellent climbing ability. In a recent test, a man weighing almost 100 kg (220 lbs) and carrying a heavy pack that added about 23 kg (50 lbs) of additional weight, was able to scale a vertical glass wall almost 8 m (25 ft) high using the paddles. However, the paddles are reported to be 'not battlefield-ready yet'. Apparently, smooth glass walls are not usually what you need to climb in real battlefield conditions.

Submission + - Google admits tax laws need to change (afr.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The managing director of Googleâ(TM)s Australia and New Zealand operations has called on governments to clarify grey areas in the global tax system and put an end to a blame game of shaming individual companies over transfer pricing practices. She said Google contributed to the economy in many areas, but the company supported the idea of changes in tax law.

Submission + - Why the Turing Test is Not an Adequate Way to Calculate Artificial Intelligence (ibtimes.co.uk)

concertina226 writes: You may have heard that a supercomputer succeeded in passing the infamous Turing Test over the weekend at a Royal Society competition, but scientists say this is not really a milestone for artificial intelligence at all.

One of the founding fathers of modern computing, in 1950, wartime code breaker Alan Turing published a paper considering the question "Can machines think?" In the paper, Turing mentioned the word "test", and stated that he believed that by the year 2000, computers might be able to be programmed to imitate humans so well that they would be able to fool an "average interrogator" for five minutes.

"He [made] predictions about the size, memory and speed of computers that are surprisingly accurate, and he thought that by the year 2000, 30% [of people] would be unable to tell which was which," Aaron Sloman, a professor of artificial intelligence and cognitive science at University of Birmingham tells IBTimes UK.

"Now, he didn't say that this would prove that machines are intelligent. He said that many people have published arguments about [the fact that machines can't think], and he decided to knock down each one.

"He only set up the test to provide a framework for refuting those arguments. He called it the "imitation game" and lots of people started referring to it as a test, but if you read the paper, it's clear that he doesn't think that this can be sensibly provided."

Submission + - There's No Wind Chill on Mars (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: Even though daytime temperatures in the tropics of Mars can be about –20C, a summer afternoon there might feel about the same as an average winter day in southern England or Minneapolis. That’s because there’s virtually no wind chill on the Red Planet, according to a new study—the first to give an accurate sense of what it might feel like to spend a day walking about on our celestial neighbor. “I hadn’t really thought about this before, but I’m not surprised,” says Maurice Bluestein, a biomedical engineer and wind chill expert recently retired from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. The new findings, he says, “will be useful, as people planning to colonize Mars need to know what they’re getting themselves into.”

Comment Re:it's explained in the study (Score 1) 86

The paper itself mentions only the ion hypothesis; the article linked by OP attributes the other hypothesis to "Keith Forward, a chemical engineer at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona". The point is that the study makes no claim about the validity of any hypothesis. It only rejects the previously widely accepted one. So the title of the article is quite fair; it's not "clickbait".

Comment Re:it's explained in the study (Score 3, Interesting) 86

The title is unfortunate (it's clickbait)... At the end of the paper, they point out that small amounts of water adsorbed on the surfaces of these oxides should create H+ and OH- ions in a density that does explain the static generation effect.

No, that's just one of two alternative hypotheses mentioned at the end of the article. The second is transfer of the zirconium itself between the particles. There could be other ideas. The point of this study is only to eliminate the widely assumed electron-transfer hypothesis, not to establish any alternative. So the title is quite accurate.

Submission + - Will cloud services be traded just like stocks and bonds one day? (networkworld.com) 1

Brandon Butler writes: Today, cloud computing resources are bought and sold in a fairly straightforward process: A company needs extra compute capacity, for example, so they contract with a provider who spins up virtual machines for a certain amount of time.

But what will that process look like in, say, 2020? If efforts by a handful of companies come to fruition, there could be a lot more wheeling and dealing that goes on behind the scenes. An idea is being floated to package cloud computing resources into blocks that can be bought and sold on a commodity futures trading market. It would be similar to how financial instruments like stocks, bonds and agricultural products like corn and wheat are traded on exchanges by investors.

Blocks of cloud computing resources — for example a month’s worth of virtual machines, or a year’s worth of cloud storage — would be packaged by service providers and sold on a market. In the exchange, investors and traders could buy up these blocks and resell them to end users, or other investors, potentially turning a profit if the value of the resource increases.

Comment Re:Cryptographically signed elections? (Score 1) 266

This same thing happened in the US. I forget the new station, but they released stats on the election days before it happened. whatever, no one would ever believe it happens here though...

Here's the story. It was KPHO in Phoenix, Arizona. They displayed a banner at the bottom of the screen announcing the exact percentages by which Obama defeated Romney with 99% of results in - more than two weeks before the election.

The station claims it was a mistaken display of a test graphic. Could be that's what happened in Azerbaijan, too, if we want to give them the benefit of the doubt. Do we?

Comment Re:Cryptographically signed elections? (Score 3, Interesting) 266

Only a handful of mathematicians would trust that.

Paper ballots with independents actually conducting the election taking ballots and counting them, etc, with overseers from all political parties welcome to watch the entire proceedings, from start to finish.

Simple and transparent.

No, even the mathematicians wouldn't trust it. See Bruce Schneier's 2006 essay that explains why.

Use paper ballots. Period.

However, crypto can still add value - it can go a long way towards preventing fraud and errors even in a paper ballot election. Scantegrity is an open-source system, invented by Rivest (the "R" in RSA), Chaum, and other researchers, that helps secure a paper ballot election by supplying each voter with a simple verification code that can be written down. The codes in no way compromise the anonymity of the voters, and cannot be used to determine what vote was cast. But they can be used by individual voters to verify that their votes have been counted correctly, and by election officials to verify that ballots have not been tampered with and that the results have been tallied correctly. The overhead cost of the system is low.

Scantegrity has been used successfully in two real elections - municipal elections in the Takoma Park, Maryland in the U.S. But so far it doesn't seem to be catching on very much. I guess it doesn't quite suit the needs of the big money electronic voting industry.

Submission + - Dual Boot Gnu/Linux and android tablet is released

An anonymous reader writes: PengPod1040. The PengPod1040 can now boot three different OS options from internal memory, select-able with a built in bootloader. This 9.7" high resolution tablet can run Android, GNU/Linux and now Ubuntu Touch . Ubuntu touch is made so one can have the same friendly Ubuntu experience, but is touch friendly, which has the ability to navigate the Ubuntu desktop without having to use a mouse and keyboard.

PengPod has pledged to make all source and tools used to build the images available so users can build their own OS top to bottom and guarantee it free tracking from the NSA or others. The PengPod has previously found some success as a low cost touch platform for industrial/commercial control systems and is partnered with ViewTouch, the original inventors of the graphical POS to offer PengPods as restaurant register systems.

Sources
Reuters
liliputing

Submission + - Lenovo Shows Android Laptop In Leaked User Manuals (itworld.com)

itwbennett writes: PC maker Lenovo accidentally posted manuals on its website showing an Android laptop called the IdeaPad A10. Lenovo spokesman Chris Millward said the company had planned on making an official announcement for the device, and that 'the product has not been canceled. It will be going out to the market.' Launch dates and pricing to come, but specs show that it could be a budget product.

Submission + - The Single Best Overview of What the Surveillance State Does With Our Private Da (theatlantic.com) 1

Lasrick writes: Conor Friedersdorf at the Atlantic writes up a new report (and infographic) from NYU's Brennan Center for Justice: 'Enter a new report published by Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School. "What the Government Does With Americans' Data" is the best single attempt I've seen to explain all of the ways that surveillance professionals are collecting, storing, and disseminating private data on U.S. citizens. The report's text and helpful flow-chart illustrations run to roughly 50 pages. Unless you're already one of America's foremost experts on these subjects, it is virtually impossible to read this synthesis without coming away better informed..

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