65639441
submission
jfruh writes:
Japan has some of the strictest anti-gun laws in the world, and the authorities there aim to make sure that new technologies don't open any loopholes. 28-year-old engineer Yoshitomo Imura has been sentenced to two years in jail after making guns with a 3D printer in his home in Kawasaki.
65542417
submission
jfruh writes:
Google is still making billions in revenue every quarter, but its income is starting to slip a bit — and, worryingly for the advertising giant, it's making less money per ad click than it has in the past. The culprit is the shift to mobile browing, because mobile users tend to be less lucrative.
65542269
submission
jfruh writes:
You may have heard that Japan will deal with its aging population by relying more on robots. Osaka startup RT Works is showing what that might mean in practice: not humanoid robotic caregivers, but tech-enhanced versions of traditional tools like walkers. RT Works's walker automatically adjusts to help its user deal with hilly terrain, and can call for help if it moves outside an predefined range.
65517855
submission
itwbennett writes:
While programming is generally considered a solitary task, most developers still work as part of team, dividing up coding responsibilities for a single piece of software and generally helping each other out during the process. But sometimes a lone genius coder creates something so impressive that other developers take note. ITworld's Phil Johnson rounded up 8 software programs written by one person that the developer community has deemed to be particularly impressive pieces of code. Making the list: Fabrice Bellard’s JSLinux, Richard Stallman’s GNU Emacs, and Chris Sawyer’s RollerCoaster Tycoon among notable others.
65512095
submission
jfruh writes:
Despite the availability of LTE, wireless data has never replaced cable, copper, or fiber as the main pipe bringing wireless data into our home. That may change next year: Mimosa Networks, a California-based startup, is building wireless networks using commodity Wi-Fi chips running a modified protocol to provide 500 Mbps data to whole neighborhoods.
65511987
submission
jfruh writes:
The ability to cram multiple virtual servers on a single physical computer is tempting — so tempting that many shops overlook the downsides of having so many important systems subject to a single point of physical failure. But how can you isolate your servers physically but still take up less room? Matthew Mobrea takes a look at the options, including new server platforms that offer what he calls "dense isolation."
65458747
submission
itwbennett writes:
Tech workers have asked an appeals court not to approve a $324.5 million settlement in Silicon Valley's controversial employee hiring case, according to a document filed Tuesday. This move by the plaintiffs puts them in alignment with an earlier decision by Judge Lucy Koh of the federal district court in San Jose to throw out the settlement on the grounds that it wouldn't pay the workers enough. Attorneys for the defendants — Apple, Google, Adobe and Intel — subsequently appealed Koh's decision.
65411165
submission
jfruh writes:
The EU is considering watering down its data protection rules to lesen the regulatory burden on small companies processing what is deemed to be "low risk" data. Unsurprisingly, there's one group that wants these rules changed even further: large companies. DigitalEurope, a lobbying group backed by IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle, is pushing for further changes.
65410775
submission
jfruh writes:
China's Baidu is developing an operating system for "smart bikes" — not the bicycling equivalent of a self-driving car, but rather a system that will track rider activity for fitness purposes. Since millions of Chinese still use bicycles as an everyday mode of transportation, though, are they missing some possibilities?
65333551
submission
jfruh writes:
Last month, a spooky story was making the rounds on tech news sites: mysterious cell phone towers popping up all over the country claimed by nobody. In fact, the towers are almost certainly run by law enforcement agencies, while unsettling, aren't new; and almost every story includes quotes from Les Goldsmith, the CEO of ESD America, the company that sells the phones that detected the towers — stock Galaxy S IIIs turned into hardened phones with numerous exploits removed and all kinds of security added. Was the whole kerfuffle a masterful act of PR?
65276665
submission
jfruh writes:
In 2008, Sprint placed a bet on WiMax, a high-speed wireless standard that promised to displace both 3G wireless data and wired broadband connections. Seven years later, the company, now offering a suite of LTE phones, is admitting that the bet hasn't paid off and will be shutting down the network next month.
65276543
submission
jfruh writes:
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden gathered a group of tech luminaries to discuss the implications of U.S. surveillance programs, and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt didn't mince words. He said that worries over U.S. surveillance would result in servers with different sets of data for users from different countries multiplying across the world. "The simplest outcome is that we're going to end up breaking the Internet."
65232393
submission
jfruh writes:
Bugzilla is an open source bug-tracking tool that many development shops use to keep tabs on bugs — including code vulnerabilities — in their codebase that they're working on fixing. Ironically, Bugzilla has now itself been found to contain a flaw that would allow users to escalate their priviledges and gain access to information on bugs they aren't authorized to view.
65232315
submission
jfruh writes:
Traditional LCD panels are rectangular because the tiny chips that drive each pixel of the display are fitted along the edge of the glass panel on which the screen is made. But in a new breed of screens from Sharp, the chips are embedded between the pixels so that means a lot more freedom in screen shape: only one edge of the screen needs to be a straight line, which could give rise to a host of new applications.
65136189
submission
jfruh writes:
Anyone who's worked in IT long enough has come to recognize certain archtypes that can make your work day miserable: The Consultant. The Underqualified Humanities Degree Middle Manager. The Mansplainer. The Political Theorist. And more. Who's your least favorite?
