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Comment And Fire qualifies for many definitions of Life (Score 5, Insightful) 401

by Quantus347 (#45193775) Attached to: Physicist Unveils a 'Turing Test' For Free Will
The fact that a smartphone (Or I assume by extension any personal computer) can qualify should be an indcator that the test itself is flawed. Just like how many early definitions of Life applied to Fire (breaths, eats, grows, responds to outside stimuli, etc) even though it is just a chemical reaction.

Comment Re:I'm shocked (Score 5, Informative) 289

by Quantus347 (#44951719) Attached to: Boy Scouts Bully Hacker Scouts Into Submission

Wow, bullying, in the boy scouts? I'm utterly shocked. Who would have though an organization full of teenage asshole testosterone pumps would be susceptible to bullying?

Just because the national management is regrettably old-fashioned and very very conservative does not mean the youth themselves are assholes. At that age they more often actually live up to the public Ideals.

Comment Re:A gift for those skipping out on their contract (Score 1) 378

by Quantus347 (#44882503) Attached to: Obama Asks FCC To Make Carriers Unlock All Mobile Devices
The contracts that the rest of the world think are a ridiculous and counter-productive system?

Besides, this would have nothing to do with contracts. It just means that if you want to change carriers, you would be able to take your phone with you. IF you hadnt yet paid off the subsidy, they would probably bill you for that when you left, not force others to pay for it. And if they stiff the company on a contractually obligated fee they will most likely find themselves in court or have bill collectors harassing them, just like with every single monetary contract in the country.

Submission + - New discovery will allow large-scale quantum cryptography networks

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers from Toshiba have discovered a method to build quantum cryptography communication networks with a far greater scale than ever before. It will allow quantum cryptography to be used beyond its current niche applications, for example as part of the Smart Community Networks that will manage and control energy generation and consumption in the future.

Major obstacles still have to be overcome in order to make quantum cryptography viable for widespread use, particularly regarding the number of users than can be connected to a single network. Up until now, implementing a quantum cryptography network has required an elaborate photon detector for each additional user.

The Toshiba team has discovered a technique to allow many users to share a single detector and thereby greatly reduce the complexity of the network. The breakthrough means that with current technology, it would be possible for 64 users to connect to a single detector in a Quantum Access Network.

Submission + - Homeless hacker quits Anonymous. (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Last year, I traveled to Canada to write a long profile of "homeless hacker" Christopher Doyon, who goes by the name "Commander X" and who is on the run from the US government. .. Doyon's life has been by turns bizarre and dramatic, but last week the online drama surrounding Anonymous proved too much even for him—and he quit.

Submission + - A quantum access network moves towards reality

Submitted by santosh.k83
santosh.k83 writes: "A system that allows electronic messages to be sent with complete secrecy could be on the verge of expanding beyond niche applications. A team of British scientists has discovered a way to build communications networks with quantum cryptography at a larger scale than ever before. Quantum cryptography has the potential to transform the way sensitive data is protected. Details appear in Nature journal. The system is based on a communication system, where information is carried by individual photons — single particles of light. Once these single photons of light are observed, they change. That is, they cannot be intercepted by an "eavesdropper" without leaving a detectable trace."

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 + - Robotics Veteran Develops an Open Hardware Robotics Platform (kickstarter.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Paul Sandin, a 20 year veteran of the robotics industry, recently launched a Kickstarter page to develop an open-source open-hardware robotics platform, named Butler, for the researcher and hobbiest market. Butler will leverage existing hobbiest electronics platforms such as Arduino and BeagleBone (and, more importantly, their respective communities) to simplify and accelerate the development process. As someone who has developed several robotics platforms in the past, I can say this has real potential.

From the Kickstarter page:

Today, anyone who wants to develop a mobile robot must either design and build their own mobile base, or pay many thousands of dollars for a research robot before they can start working on their robot concept. There are no inexpensive mobile robot bases big enough to hold widgets sized to do real work.

Butler answers that need. Robot designers will no longer have to keep reinventing the wheel(s).

I have been designing and building robots for 20 years at companies such as RedZone Robotics, iRobot, and Harvest Automation. The idea for Butler came about when I noticed that smartphones with their built-in sensors, and ever more powerful micros like Arduino, Raspberry PI, and the Beaglebone Black, were being used for robot brains for much less cost than it takes to design, build, and test a custom electronics board and integrate sensors. This advantage opens the doors for a much larger community of robot developers because it reduces design effort, risk, and cost. What is missing though, is a low cost robot base big enough to hold large contraptions, robot arms, lift-tables, large monitors, follow-me grocery cart, whatever you want to be mobile.

Submission + - Independent Test of E-Cat Cold Fusion Device Might Show Promise (forbes.com)

Submitted by Agnapot
Agnapot writes: The controversy surrounding Andrea Rossi's E-Cat device has been brewing since it was first introduced in 2011. Since then there have been calls for independent experiments as well as more openness with how the device works. It seems we might have some of the former. Forbes Contributor Mark Gibbs writes:

What everyone wanted was something that Rossi has been promising was about to happen for months: An independent test by third parties who were credible. This report was delayed several times to the point where many were wondering whether it was all nothing [...]. But much to my, and I suspect many other people’s surprise, a report by credible, independent third parties is exactly what we got.

Comment Disturbed by the concept of Advertising? (Score 3, Informative) 146

by Quantus347 (#43406057) Attached to: Why AppGratis Was Pulled From the App Store
Apple was "more than a little troubled that AppGratis was pushing a business model that appeared to favor developers with the financial means to pay for exposure."

In other words they are disturbed by an advertising App whose business model is based on that of every other advertising firm on the planet?

Comment Invented Conenctions (Score 4, Insightful) 1168

by Quantus347 (#42339287) Attached to: School Shooting Prompts Legislation To Study Violent Video Games
Saying this man killed his mother and then a bunch of children and teachers because he played video games is about and logical as saying he did it because he ate fatty foods, so we need shut down all McDonald's. There is no link whatsoever, beyond the fact that somebody wants to milk the events and the heightened emotions it is generating for their own crusades. Tighter gun control would not have stopped a determined and unstable man from stealing guns to go killing. Even if there had been no guns, Im sure he could have found another way. Hell, this was the 2nd deadliest elementary school killing because the deadliest used a bomb.

This really is getting ridiculous. I am getting really tired of all the politicians and lobby groups trying to spin this tragedy to their own agenda.
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook Disables URL Login Shortcut After Google Search Exposes Security Flaw

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: security hole has been discovered that allows anyone to see the email addresses corresponding to certain Facebook accounts. Worse yet, some appear to be accessible without even entering a password. However, a Facebook engineer now says that the company has disabled the feature that created the hole.
Science

Submission + - Crushed Silicon Triples Life of Li-Ion Batteries in the Lab (vice.com)

Submitted by derekmead
derekmead writes: Batteries rule everything around us, which makes breakthroughs a big deal. A research team at Rice says they have produced a nice jump: By using a crushed silicon anode in a lithium-ion battery, they claim to have nearly tripled the energy density of current li-ion designs.

Engineer Sibani Lisa Biswal and research scientist Madhuri Thakur reported in Nature’s Scientific Reports (it has yet to be published online) that by taking porous silicon and crushing it, they were able to dramatically decrease the volume required for anode material. Silicon has long been looked at as an anode material because it holds up to ten times more lithium ions than graphite, which is most commonly used commercially.

But it’s previously been difficult to create a silicon anode with enough surface area to cycle reliably. Silicon also expands when it’s lithiated, making it harder to produce a dense anode material. After previously testing a porous silicon “sponge,” the duo decided to try crushing the sponges to make them more compact. The result is a new battery design that holds a charge of 1,000 milliamp hours per gram through 600 tested charge cycles of two hours charging, two hours discharging. According to the team, current graphite anodes can only handle 350 mAh/g.

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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