GeorgeS - Slashdot User

Submission + - Tea Tree Oil Coupon (toothygrinsstore.com)

Submitted by DaveS7 on Thursday May 28, 2015 @06:09PM

DaveS7 writes: save on one of the most powerful and useful essential oils you can get!

Submission + - Untried murder accusations weigh on Ross Ulbricht's Silk Road sentencing (dailydot.com)

Submitted by Patrick O'Neill on Thursday May 28, 2015 @04:39PM

Patrick O'Neill writes: Ross Ulbricht has never been tried for murder but tomorrow, when the convicted Silk Road creator is sentenced to prison, murder will be on the mind of the judge. Despite never filing murder for hire charges, New York federal prosecutors have repeatedly pushed for harsh sentencing because of, they told the judge, Ulbricht solicited multiple murders. The judge herself recently referred to Ulbricht's "commission of murders-for-hire" in a letter about the sentencing, painting an even grimmer picture of Ulbricht's sentencing prospects.

Submission + - Live anthrax shipped accidentally to S Korea and US labs (bbc.com) 1

Submitted by hamsterz1 on Thursday May 28, 2015 @04:22PM

hamsterz1 writes: "The US military accidentally sent live anthrax samples to as many as nine labs across the country and to a US military base in South Korea, the Pentagon says." This news story was posted on the BBC web site under News-US and Canada. What is going on here?, your thoughts!.

Submission + - Sourceforge staff takes over a user's account and wraps their software installer (arstechnica.com) 11

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28, 2015 @03:45PM

An anonymous reader writes: Sourceforge staff took over the account of the GIMP-for-Windows maintainer claiming it was abandoned and used this opportunity to wrap the installer in crapware. Quoting Ars:

SourceForge, the code repository site owned by Slashdot Media, has apparently seized control of the account hosting GIMP for Windows on the service, according to e-mails and discussions amongst members of the GIMP community—locking out GIMP's lead Windows developer. And now anyone downloading the Windows version of the open source image editing tool from SourceForge gets the software wrapped in an installer replete with advertisements.

Submission + - Android M Arrives In Q3: Native Fingerprint Support, Android Pay, 'Doze' Mode (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid on Thursday May 28, 2015 @03:15PM

MojoKid writes: Android M, reportedly known internally as Macadamia Nut Cookie, is on the horizon. Google I/O kicked off this afternoon and the first topic of discussion was of course Google's next generation mobile operating system. For those that were hoping for a huge UI overhaul or a ton of whiz-bang features, this is not the Android release for you. Instead, Android M is more of a maintenance released focused mainly on squashing bugs and improving stability/performance across the board. Even though Android M is about making Android a more stable platform, there are a few features that have been improved upon or introduced for this release: App Permissions, Chrome Custom Tabs for apps, App Links (instead of asking you which app to choose when clicking a link, Android M's new Intent System can allow apps to verify that they are rightfully in possession of a link), NFC-based Android Pay, standardized fingerprint scanning support, and a new "doze" mode that supposedly offers 2X longer battery life when idle.

Submission + - DARPA wants you to verify software flaws by playing games (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie on Thursday May 28, 2015 @02:45PM

coondoggie writes: Researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) think so and were so impressed with their first crowdsourced flaw-detecting games, they announced an new round of five games this week designed for improved playability as well as increased software verification effectiveness.

Submission + - FCC Proposes To Extend So-Called "Obamaphone" Program To Broadband (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh on Thursday May 28, 2015 @02:07PM

jfruh writes: The FCC's Lifeline program subsidizes phone service for very poor Americans; it gained notoriety under the label "Obamaphone," even though the program started under Reagan and was extended to cell phones under Clinton. Now the FCC is proposing that the program, which is funded by a fee on telecom providers, be extended to broadband, on the logic that high-speed internet is as necessary today as telephone service was a generation ago.

Submission + - New Freescale i.MX6 SoCs Include IoT-focused UltraLite (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391 on Thursday May 28, 2015 @01:56PM

__aajbyc7391 writes: Freescale announced three new versions of its popular i.MX6 SoCs, including new DualPlus and QuadPlus parts featuring enhanced GPUs and expanded memory support, and a new low-end, IoT focused 528MHz UltraLite SoC that integrates a more power-efficient, single-core ARM Cortex-A7 architecture. The UltraLite, which will be available in a tiny 9x9mm package, is claimed by Freescale to be the smallest and most energy-efficient ARM based SoC. It has a stripped-down WXGA interface but adds new security, tamper detection, and power management features. All the new Freescale i.MX6 SoCs are supported with Linux BSPs and evaluation kits.

Submission + - Black Hole Plays Pool With Plasma

Submitted by the monolith on Thursday May 28, 2015 @12:48PM

the monolith writes: The Hubble Space Telescope is revealing that there is a pool game in progress, with a long shot being played out on a cosmic scale. It appears that the first recorded shot was observed in 1992, while subsequent canon shots were recorded between 1994 an 2014. In actuality, the shots are plasma, the current player is a black hole, and the playing surface is galactic space itself.

The BBC has a story on the observations and interpretations While the journal Nature has the paywalled in-depth article.

The current score is unknown, and one can only hope that there were no life forms involved in the collision.

Submission + - A new bionic lens implant could give you permanent 20/20 vision (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by Kristine Lofgren on Thursday May 28, 2015 @12:40PM

Kristine Lofgren writes: Contacts and eyeglasses are so 2014. Researchers have revealed the Ocumetics Bionic Lens, a painless implant that can correct your vision for the rest of your life. In recent trials, patients walked away with perfect vision after a quick 8 minute procedure. The process is safer than LASIK and even protects against cataracts in the future.

Submission + - A Tool for Analyzing H-1B Visa Applications Reveals Tech Salary Secrets (ieee.org)

Submitted by Tekla Perry on Thursday May 28, 2015 @11:13AM

Tekla Perry writes: "The golden age of engineers is not over," says a French software engineer who developed a tool for mining U.S. Department of Labor visa application data, but, he says, salaries appear to be leveling off. Indeed, salary inflation for software engineers and other technical professionals at Google and Facebook has slowed dramatically, according to his database, and Airbnb and Dropbox pay is down a little, though Netflix pay is through the roof. The data also shows that some large companies appear to be playing games with titles to deflate salaries, and Microsoft is finally offering technology professionals comparable salaries to Apple and Google. There's a lot more to be discovered in this interactive database, and researchers are getting ready to mine it.

Submission + - GoPro Drone Coming in 2016, Will Sync to Cloud (roboticstrends.com)

Submitted by stowie on Thursday May 28, 2015 @10:49AM

stowie writes: Rumors have been swirling for some time that GoPro was developing a drone. Well, now it's official. Speaking at the Code Conference, GoPro CEO Nick Woodman announced the company’s plans to come out with a quadcopter in the first half of 2016. Woodman said “the quad is in some ways the ultimate GoPro accessory,” adding that the company is testing software that will wirelessly sync up GoPro footage to the cloud.

Submission + - How Tesla Batteries Will Force Home Wiring To Go Low Voltage (cepro.com)

Submitted by CIStud on Thursday May 28, 2015 @10:20AM

CIStud writes: The advent of solar power and home batteries from companies like Tesla will force the reinvention of home wiring from primarily AC high voltage to DC home-run low voltage to reduce power conversion loss. To avoid the 20% to 40% power loss when converting from DC to AC, home wiring will have to convert to home-run low-voltage, and eventually eliminate the need for high-voltage 110V electrical wiring.

Submission + - US sides with Oracle in Java copyright dispute with Google (cio.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd on Wednesday May 27, 2015 @07:33PM

walterbyrd writes: Nothing about the API (application programming interface) code at issue in the case materially distinguishes it from other computer code, which is copyrightable, wrote Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli in a filing in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Submission + - Secret Service tries to steal $115K from a business couple

Submitted by schwit1 on Wednesday May 27, 2015 @07:20PM

schwit1 writes: The Secret Service seized a business couple's bank account with no warning merely because they had withdrawn just under $10,000 several times.
After months of litigation against the United States government, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen West moved to dismiss the case earlier this month, meaning the Bednars will get their money back. However, the government refused to cover the Bednar's $25,000 in legal fees, which the couple is entitled to under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act. Though the fight to get their $115,000 back is now over, the family is continuing to push to have their expenses covered.

First the government tries to steal their money. Now, it is trying to ignore the law by not paying their legal fees, even though the law requires it to.

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