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Submission + - Law and Governance as a "Social Technology"

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Virgin’s Entrepreneur blog has an article on an idea called "Startup Cities” which argues that governments should adopt the trial-and-error processes of tech startups. By giving municipalities strong autonomy, the article argues, reforms can be piloted on a smaller scale as different municipalities try different political solutions. From the article: "The biggest paradox of today’s world is that we have rapid, constant progress in physical technologies like phones and computers, but billions of people have no access at all to good law and governance, or what you might call ‘social technologies’. If we can treat law and governance as tech – then perhaps we can innovate in it.” The idea brings to mind Nassim Taleb’s argument that political risk should be spread over small, local jurisdictions so that policies don’t bring down entire countries if they fail.

Submission + - Shortcut, highly efficient event concessions (shortcutapp.com)

Submitted by Buford Taylor
Buford Taylor writes: Founded by early employees of Eventbrite and Uber, Shortcut lets attendees at live events skip the queue at the concession or merchandise stand. They can order from their phones and receive exclusive discounts for their next event.

For the venue, it's increased sales, it's happier attendees, and it's a way to finally know which of their attendees are spending money at concessions.

Submission + - 5 Programming Languages You'll Need Next Year (and Beyond) (dice.com)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: Over at Dice, there's a breakdown of the programming languages that could prove most popular over the next year or two, including Apple's Swift, JavaScript, CSS3, and PHP. But perhaps the most interesting entry on the list is Erlang, an older language that was invented in 1986 by engineers at Erricson. It was originally intended to be used specifically for telecommunications needs, but has since evolved into a general-purpose language, and found a home in cloud-based, high-performance computing when concurrency is needed. "There aren’t a lot of Erlang jobs out there," writes developer Jeff Cogswell. "However, if you do master it (and I mean master it, not just learn a bit about it), then you’ll probably land a really good job. That’s the trade-off: You’ll have to devote a lot of energy into it. But if you do, the payoffs could be high." And while the rest of the featured languages are no-brainers with regard to popularity, it's an open question how long it might take Swift to become popular, given how hard Apple will push it as the language for developing on iOS.

Submission + - Reglue: Opening Up the World to Deserving Kids with Linux Computers (linuxjournal.com)

Submitted by jrepin
jrepin writes: Today, a child without access to a computer (and the Internet) at home is at a disadvantage before he or she ever sets foot in a classroom. The unfortunate reality is that in an age where computer skills are no longer optional, far too many families don't possess the resources to have a computer at home. Linux Journal recently had the opportunity to talk with Ken Starks about his organization, Reglue (Recycled Electronics and Gnu/Linux Used for Education) and its efforts to bridge this digital divide.

Submission + - Tesla And Panasonic Have Reached An Agreement On The Gigafactory

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Tesla's been pretty quiet regarding its upcoming gigafactory lately, but that's about to change. It seems the Silicon Valley startup has reached an agreement with Panasonic in regards to the gigafactory, and Panasonic's going to end up having skin in the game. While the electronics giant was originally skeptical of Tesla's battery factory, it now isn't just on board, it's actually going to participate in the construction of this new facility. It's reported that Panasonic will invest 20 billion to 30 billion yen (194 million to $291 million at current exchange rates), and supply fabrication machinery necessary for cell production. That means Pansonic could end up footing the bill for $1 billion of the total $5 billion anticipated investment required for the gigafactory to get off the ground. If things continue to move forward the Gigafactory should be online by the end of 2017.
Transportation

Full-Size Remote Control Cars 91

Posted by Soulskill from the no-mr-bond-i-expect-you-to-die dept.
cylonlover writes "Thanks to efforts of groups such as Google, Oxford University, BMW and Continental, we're getting closer and closer to the advent of autonomous cars – vehicles that drive themselves, with the human 'driver' pretty much just along as a passenger. Researchers at Germany's Technische Universität München, however, are looking at taking things a step further. They're developing remote-control cars that could travel along city streets with no one in them at all, their operator located somewhere far away."

Submission + - Cockroaches Evolving to Avoid Roach Motels (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Only a few years after roach motels were introduced in the 1980s, they lost their allure for an increasing number of German cockroaches. Researchers soon realized that some roaches had developed an aversion to glucose—the sugary bait disguising the poison—and that the insects were passing that trait on to their young. Now, scientists have figured out how this behavior evolved.

Submission + - Microsoft to launch Kinect for Windows sensor in 2014 (wordpress.com)

Submitted by awaissoft
awaissoft writes: Microsoft will finally deliver a Kinect sensor for Windows sometime next year.

The company announced Thursday that the Kinect for Windows sensor will use the same set of technologies key to the new Kinect sensor for the Xbox One, both of which will allow people to issue commands using voice and gestures.

The sensor will include a high-definition color camera and a noise-isolating multi-microphone array. Also part of the system will be a technology called Time-of-Flight, which measures how long it takes for photons to bounce off a person or object. Combined, these features promise greater accuracy and precision in detecting your movements and voice commands.

Like its Xbox One counterpart, the Kinect for Windows sensor will be able to pinpoint more parts of the body, opening up more accurate skeletal tracking. The sensor will also use a greater field of view to handle a variety of room sizes. A new infrared feature will help the sensor “see” better, especially in darker conditions.

The launch of the Kinect for Windows sensor and the corresponding software development kit means that developers will be able to create apps that take advantage of the features.

“We’re continuing our commitment to equipping businesses and organizations with the latest natural technology from Microsoft so that they, in turn, can develop and deploy innovative touch-free applications for their businesses and customers,” Microsoft said in a blog post Thursday. “A new Kinect for Windows sensor and software development kit (SDK) are core to that commitment....

Submission + - Debian's oldest developer, Ray Dassen, has died of unknown causes. (thepowerbase.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Debian Project today is mourning the loss of legendary Linux developer Ray Dassen. Ray Dassen served the Linux community and Debian at large for nearly all of Debian’s life, having joined the project in the very beginning working hand-in-hand while the project’s founder, Ian Murdock.

Submission + - GIF's Inventor Weighs In on Pronunciation (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Rambo Tribble
Rambo Tribble writes: As covered by the BBC, the GIF's inventor, Steve Wilhite has given his opinion that the acronym for the Graphics Interchange Format file should be pronounced "jif". This conflicts with the OED's take on the matter. Wilhite made his pronouncement whilst receiving an award for his work at the Webbys.

Submission + - OWASP accepted as a Google Summer of Code Mentor Organization

Submitted by Fabio Cerullo
Fabio Cerullo writes: OWASP has been selected as an official Google Summer of Code (“GSoC”) mentoring organization in 2013!
Open source software is changing the world and creating the future. Want to help shaping it? We’re looking for students to join us in making 2013 the best Summer of Code yet!

OWASP is an open community dedicated to enabling organizations to conceive, develop, acquire, operate, and maintain applications that can be trusted.

All students currently enrolled in an accredited institution are welcome to participate in the Google Summer of Code 2013 program, hopefully along with the OWASP Foundation.

Below you could find all the instructions on how to participate.

https://www.owasp.org/index.php/GSoC

Any questions, just let me know.

Thanks and regards,

Fabio Cerullo

Submission + - Google's BigQuery vs. Hadoop: A Matchup (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: Ready to “Analyze terabytes of data with just a click of a button”? That’s the claim Google makes with its BigQuery platform. But is BigQuery really an analytics superstar? It was unveiled in Beta back in 2010, but recently gained some improvements such as the ability to do large joins. In the following piece, Jeff Cogswell compares BigQuery to ome other analytics and OLAP tools, and hopefully that’ll give some additional context to anyone who’s thinking of using BigQuery or a similar platform for data. His conclusion? In the end, BigQuery is just another database. It can handle massive amounts of data, but so can Hadoop. It’s not free, but neither is Hadoop once you factor in the cost of the hardware, support, and the paychecks of the people running it. The public version of BigQuery probably isn’t even used by Google, which likely has something bigger and better that we’ll see in five years or so.

Submission + - Xen to Become Linux Foundation Collaborative Project (linuxfoundation.org)

Submitted by jrepin
jrepin writes: The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced the Xen Project is becoming a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project. Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects are independently funded software projects that harness the power of collaborative development to fuel innovation across industries and ecosystems. The Xen Project is an open source virtualization platform licensed under the GPLv2 with a similar governance structure to the Linux kernel. Designed from the start for cloud computing, the project has more than a decade of development and is being used by more than 10 million users. As the project experiences contributions from an increasingly diverse group of companies, it is looking to The Linux Foundation to be a neutral forum for providing guidance and facilitating a collaborative network.
NASA

Submission + - NASA Asteroid Capture Mission to Be Proposed in 2014 Budget (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
MarkWhittington
MarkWhittington writes: "Included in President Obama's 2014 budget request will be a $100 million line item for NASA for a mission to capture and bring an asteroid to a high orbit around the moon where it will be explored by asteroinauts. Whether the $2.6 billion mission is a replacement or a supplement to the president's planned human mission to an asteroid is unclear. The proposal was first developed by the Keck Institite in April, 2012 and has achieved new impetus due to the meteor incident over Russia and new fears of killer asteroids."
Bitcoin

Bitcoin Currency Surpasses 20 National Currencies In Total Value 583

Posted by samzenpus from the fake-money dept.
Velcroman1 writes "More than $1 billion worth of bitcoins now circulate on the web – an amount that exceeds the value of the entire currency stock of small countries like Liberia, Bhutan, and 18 other countries. Bitcoin is in high demand right now — each bitcoin currently sells for more than $90 U.S. — which bitcoin insiders say is because of world events that have shaken confidence in government-issued currencies. 'Because of what's going on in Cyprus and Europe, people are trying to pull their money out of banks there,' said Tony Gallippi, the CEO BitPay.com, which enables businesses to easily accept bitcoins as payment. 'So they buy gold, they put it under the mattress, or they buy bitcoin,' Gallippi said."

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