69890121
submission
itwbennett writes:
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a data structure that they claim can help large multicore processors churn through their workloads more effectively. Their trick? Do away with the traditional first-come, first-served work queue and assign tasks more randomly. The SprayList algorithm allows processors with many cores to spread out their work so they don't stumble over one another, creating bottlenecks that hamper performance.
69830439
submission
jfruh writes:
Once you've built humanoid-shaped robots, how do you get them to move and act like humans? Well, one way to teach them how to do it is to have them watch one of the greatest repository of recorded human experience ever: YouTube. Robots in a Maryland lab have learned how to prepare meals by watching and processing a slew of cooking videos, one of YouTube's most popular genres.
69830243
submission
jfruh writes:
Most of us know at this point that looking for a job means sending a resume into the teeth of a computerized filtering system. There are ways to hack around the filters blocks, of course — but there are also ways to hack your way through the social networking that often provides a better means to get your resume into the right hands.
69823587
submission
itwbennett writes:
Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, an MIT graduate student, and his colleagues analyzed credit card transactions provided by an unnamed major bank from 1.1 million people over a three-month period in some 10,000 stores to see how much (or little) data they needed to identify an individual’s transactions from a larger set of transaction records. Ninety percent of the time, they could identify an individual using just four pieces of data, such the locations where four purchases were made. Adding price information to the location data — for example, purchase receipts — allowed the researchers to identify a person with just three transactions.
69794095
submission
itwbennett writes:
Although Apple has never officially acknowledged issues surrounding Yosemite and Wi-Fi connectivity, the company is clearly aware of the problem: Leading off the improvements offered in the update 10.10.2 update released Tuesday was 'resolves an issue that might cause Wi-Fi to disconnect,' according to the release notes. Despite this, Apple's support forum was filled with tales of frustrated users. And Mac owners aren’t the only Apple users experiencing wireless connection failures after updating their OS. Wi-Fi connectivity issues have also dogged iOS 8 since Apple released the mobile OS on Sept. 17.
69748133
submission
itwbennett writes:
Researchers from Drexel University, the University of Maryland, the University of Goettingen, and Princeton have developed a 'code stylometry' that uses natural language processing and machine learning to determine the authors of source code based on coding style. To test how well their code stylometry works, the researchers gathered publicly available data from Google’s Code Jam, an annual programming competition that attracts a wide range of programmers, from students to professionals to hobbyists. Looking at data from 250 coders over multiple years, averaging 630 lines of code per author their code stylometry achieved 95% accuracy in identifying the author of anonymous code. Using a dataset with fewer programmers (30) but more lines of code per person (1,900), the identification accuracy rate reached 97%.
69680363
submission
itwbennett writes:
A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration program set up in 2008 to keep tabs on cars close to the U.S.-Mexican border has been gradually expanded nationwide and is regularly used by other law enforcement agencies in their hunt for suspects. The extent of the system, which is said to contain hundreds of millions of records on motorists and their journeys, was disclosed in documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union as part of a Freedom of Information Act request.
69676041
submission
itwbennett writes:
As the first step in investigating Silk Road, IRS agent Gary Alford, who was part of an agency task force investigating organized crime, simply entered 'Silk Road' into Google and looked for the oldest mention on the site. The details he found would ultimately lead to the arrest of Ross Ulbricht in October 2013, as well as to the forfeiture of all the assets of Silk Road itself.
69668073
submission
itwbennett writes:
The promise of modular smartphones like Google’s Project Ara is that buyers will be able to upgrade components at will — and now Finnish company Circular Devices has come up with a use for discarded computing modules, which they're calling Puzzlecluster. Drawings of the Puzzlecluster architecture show a chassis with slots for the reused modules, which can then be interconnected with others to create the cluster. Just one unit could also be used as a desktop computer.
69663247
submission
itwbennett writes:
IBM is expected to go through a massive reorg next month that will see 26% of its 430,000-strong work force let go, or 111,800 people, according to a report by long-time Silicon Valley journalist Robert X. Cringely. If that figure holds true, that would make it far and away the largest corporate layoff event in history, breaking the record previously held by IBM, when it cut 60,000 in 1993.
69567733
submission
itwbennett writes:
They of the square jaws and famous dispute with Mark Zuckerberg over the origins of Facebook, are also believed to be among the largest holders of Bitcoin in the world. Now they want to launch a regulated Bitcoin exchange—named Gemini, of course. To bolster confidence, they said they have formed a relationship with a chartered bank in the state of New York. 'This means that your money will never leave the country,' the twins wrote in a blog post. 'It also means that U.S. dollars on Gemini will be eligible for FDIC insurance and held by a U.S.-regulated bank.'
69567365
submission
itwbennett writes:
Automated tank gauges (ATGs), which are used by gas stations in the U.S. to monitor their fuel tank levels can be manipulated over the Internet by malicious attackers, according to security firm Rapid7. 'An attacker with access to the serial port interface of an ATG may be able to shut down the station by spoofing the reported fuel level, generating false alarms, and locking the monitoring service out of the system,' said HD Moore, the chief research officer at Rapid7.
69535777
submission
itwbennett writes:
According to a story in the Beijing News, Apple CEO Tim Cook has agreed to let China’s State Internet Information Office to run security audits on products the company sells in China in an effort to counter concerns that other governments are using its devices for surveillance.
69524947
submission
itwbennett writes:
You can now download and install an official LibreOffice Viewer for Android — the very first release of LibreOffice Viewer that is capable of handling text documents and presentations. Unfortunately, its newness shows. LibreOffice, in its current state, is not solving any problems that Android face. There are already a few document readers for Android that can open ODF files. Open source apps such as OpenDocument Reader can even edit and save ODF files.
69523273
submission
itwbennett writes:
Fujitsu Laboratories is developing an enterprise tool that can identify and advise people who are more vulnerable to cyberattacks, based on certain traits. For example, the researchers found that users who are more comfortable taking risks are also more susceptible to virus infections, while those who are confident of their computer knowledge were at greater risk for data leaks. Rather than being like an antivirus program, the software is more like 'an action log analysis than looks into the potential risks of a user,' said a spokesman for the lab. 'It judges risk based on human behavior and then assigns a security countermeasure for a given user.'
