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Google

Google Launches a Marketplace To Buy Patents From Interested Sellers 40

Posted by samzenpus from the fighting-the-trolls dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Google has announced an experimental marketplace called the Patent Purchase Promotion, which aims to keep patents out of the hands of patent trolls. From the announcement: "By simplifying the process and having a concentrated submission window, we can focus our efforts into quickly evaluating patent assets and getting responses back to potential sellers quickly. Hopefully this will translate into better experiences for sellers, and remove the complications of working with entities such as patent trolls."

Submission + - Second HTTPS Snooping Flaw Breaks Security for Thousands of iOS Apps (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Attackers can potentially snoop on the encrypted traffic of over 25,000 iOS applications due to a vulnerability in a popular open-source networking library. The vulnerability stems from a failure to validate the domain names of digital certificates in AFNetworking, a library used by a large number of iOS and Mac OS X app developers to implement Web communications — including those over HTTPS (HTTP with SSL/TLS encryption).

Submission + - Smart headlights adjust to aid drivers in difficult conditions (thestack.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute are developing smart headlights that not only trace a car’s movement around bends, but are programmable to assist a driver in a wide range of driving conditions. The research team, at the institute’s Illumination and Imaging Laboratory, is looking into designing headlights which do not highlight raindrops and snowflakes in bad weather, instead passing light around the individual drops and improving visibility. Its near-future design would also be able to avoid glare even when the high beam is in use, detecting up-coming vehicles and disabling the range of light that is directed at it. They also hope to incorporate GPS data to adjust the direction of the headlights according to the lane that a driver is occupying, illuminating it more brightly compared to surrounding lanes. The technology is supported by a looped system which will constantly read, assess and react to driving conditions. The prototype also features a built-in camera to capture visual data before transferring it to a computer processor installed in the vehicle, where it can be analysed.

Submission + - NASA's Greatest Observatories View The Galactic Center

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: Sure, the Hubble Space Telescope gives us unparalleled views of our Universe. We can even use it – with its near-infrared camera, NICMOS – to view the very center of our galaxy, something completely blocked by dust in visible light. But part of the incredible power of Hubble relies not on anything to do with the spacecraft or the instruments itself, but rather on the fact that Hubble is only one part of NASA’s great observatories program. Combined with Spitzer (mid-and-far IR) and Chandra (X-ray) data, the astrophysics of this truly remarkable region is revealed in unprecedented detail.
Robotics

Robots Step Into the Backbreaking Agricultural Work That Immigrants Won't Do 285

Posted by samzenpus from the they-took-our-jobs dept.
HughPickens.com writes: Ilan Brat reports at the WSJ that technological advances are making it possible for robots to handle the backbreaking job of gently plucking ripe strawberries from below deep-green leaves, just as the shrinking supply of available fruit pickers has made the technology more financially attractive. "It's no longer a problem of how much does a strawberry harvester cost," says Juan Bravo, inventor of Agrobot, the picking machine. "Now it's about how much does it cost to leave a field unpicked, and that's a lot more expensive." The Agrobot costs about $100,000 and Bravo has a second, larger prototype in development. Other devices similarly are starting to assume delicate tasks in different parts of the fresh-produce industry, from planting vegetable seedlings to harvesting lettuce to transplanting roses. While farmers of corn and other commodity crops replaced most of their workers decades ago with giant combines, growers of produce and plants have largely stuck with human pickers—partly to avoid maladroit machines marring the blemish-free appearance of items that consumers see on store shelves. With workers in short supply, "the only way to get more out of the sunshine we have is to elevate the technology," says Soren Bjorn.

American farmers have in recent years resorted to bringing hundreds of thousands of workers in from Mexico on costly, temporary visas for such work. But the decades-old system needs to be replaced because "we don't have the unlimited labor supply we once did," says Rick Antle. "Americans themselves don't seem willing to take the harder farming jobs," says Charles Trauger, who has a farm in Nebraska. "Nobody's taking them. People want to live in the city instead of the farm. Hispanics who usually do that work are going to higher paying jobs in packing plants and other industrial areas." The labor shortage spurred Tanimura & Antle Fresh Foods, one of the country's largest vegetable farmers, to buy a Spanish startup called Plant Tape, whose system transplants vegetable seedlings from greenhouse to field using strips of biodegradable material fed through a tractor-pulled planting device. "This is the least desirable job in the entire company," says Becky Drumright. With machines, "there are no complaints whatsoever. The robots don't have workers' compensation, they don't take breaks."

Submission + - Conde Nast to announce VR series targeting digital viewers (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Lifestyle and fashion publishing giant Conde Nast is planning to move into virtual reality in an effort to trial new marketing and advertising streams to attract digital consumers [http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/27/uk-media-condenast-digital-idUKKBN0NI01H20150427]. The privately-owned company is expected to announce two new virtual reality series hosted by its TV and film division, Conde Nast Entertainment (CNE), at the Newfronts advertising and digital content showcase in New York tomorrow. The entertainment firm is not revealing much information on the shows that it is producing alongside virtual reality group Jaunt VR. However, it is though that the series will follow a storytelling narrative – Conde Nast becoming one of the first publishing houses to use the technology in this format. The series will be aired on CNE’s The Scene, a digital platform launched in 2014 to showcase video content from Conde Nast publications as well as media partners including BuzzFeed, Forbes, Variety and ABC News.

Submission + - How to make law enforcement much less accountable (technologyreview.com) 1

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: According to Google and Facebook, letting the U.S. government unlock encrypted customer data would make law enforcement less accountable

Their comments came a day after the White House cybersecurity czar and the U.S. secretary for homeland security both said encryption was hobbling law enforcement and that the government needed ways around it

Keith Enright, Google’s chief privacy officer said that such tools could also undermine the accountability of law enforcement officials seeking access to private data

Enright added that a lack of transparency in government access to user data is already a problem. “Law enforcement has been overreaching,” he said. “We want to drive as much transparency for law enforcement access as possible”

“The trust of the people that use our services is paramount,” said Erin Egan, of Facebook “Anything antithetical to that we’re not going to be okay with"

Trevor Hughes, CEO of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, believes that most Internet companies would be similarly wary of any program or technology that gave the U.S. government a way to beat encryption

The bad press that has affected companies targeted by NSA surveillance has inspired many to be more stringent in checking that the government requests they receive are valid, Hughes said. And protecting customer privacy has come to be seen as a competitive necessity. “Differentiation based on better privacy and encryption is in the marketplace today, and I think it’s going to increase,” he said

Submission + - Tractor Software and the DMCA (wired.com)

Submitted by moeinvt
moeinvt writes: From Wired: In a particularly spectacular display of corporate delusion, John Deere—the world’s largest agricultural machinery maker —told the Copyright Office that farmers don’t own their tractors. Because computer code snakes through the DNA of modern tractors, farmers receive “an implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle.”

It’s John Deere’s tractor, folks. You’re just driving it.
AI

Japan Looks To Distributed Control Theory To Manage Energy Market Deregulation 54

Posted by Soulskill from the what-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.
Hallie Siegel writes: Japan's power industry is currently centralized, but it aims to deregulate by around 2020. Coupled with this major structural market change, the expansion of thermal, nuclear and renewable power generation will place additional demands on the management of the country's energy market. Researchers from the Namerikawa lab at Keio University are working with control engineers, power engineers and economists to designing mechanical and control algorithms that can manage this large-scale problem.

Submission + - Software, tractors, and property rights

Submitted by Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace writes: We Can’t Let John Deere Destroy the Very Idea of Ownership

In a particularly spectacular display of corporate delusion, John Deere—the world’s largest agricultural machinery maker —told the Copyright Office that farmers don’t own their tractors. Because computer code snakes through the DNA of modern tractors, farmers receive “an implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle.”

Submission + - Building a Personal Cloud VPN in case geo-dodging VPN services are blocked (theconversation.com)

Submitted by oztechmuse
oztechmuse writes: The battle of largely US-based media companies against Australian consumers has turned temporarily from concern about illegal downloads, to Australians circumventing geographic streaming restrictions. Media companies are hoping that proposed amendments to copyright law in Australia will allow them to force ISPs to block VPN services.

A solution may be for consumers to go through the relatively simple process of setting up their own VPN. This has become much simpler thanks to software such as SoftEther VPN and cloud services from a range of providers. Setting up a VPN in this way only takes someone with moderate technical skills, about 30 minutes.

Submission + - GAO warns FAA of hacking threat to airliners (securityledger.com)

Submitted by chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: A report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) warns that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration may be failing to address cyber security vulnerabilities that could allow remote attacks on avionics systems needed to keep the plane airborne, Security Ledger reports. (https://securityledger.com/2015/04/gao-warns-of-cyber-risks-in-flight/)

In a report issued Tuesday (GAO-15-370) (http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/669628.pdf), the GAO said that the FAA faces “challenges protecting aircraft avionics used to operate and guide aircraft” and that “significant security-control weaknesses remain that threaten the agency’s ability to ensure the safe and uninterrupted operation of the national airspace system.” Among those: a lack of clear certification for aircraft airworthy readiness that encompasses cyber security protections. That lapse could allow planes to fly with remotely exploitable vulnerabilities that could affect aircraft controls and guidance systems.

The GAO report did not provide details of any specific vulnerability affecting any specific aircraft. Rather, GAO cited FAA personnel and experts, saying that the possibility exists that “unauthorized individuals might access and compromise aircraft avionics systems,” in part by moving between Internet-connected in-flight entertainment systems and critical avionics systems in the aircraft cabin.

“According to FAA and experts we spoke to, IP networking may allow an attacker to gain remote access to avionics systems and compromise them,” GAO said.

Security researchers have long warned that hackers could jump from in-flight entertainment systems in the passenger cabin to cockpit avionics systems if airlines did not take proper precautions, such as so-called "air gapping" the networks. At last year's Black Hat Briefings, researcher Ruben Santamarta of IOActive demonstrated a method of hacking the satellite communications equipment on passenger jets through their WiFi and inflight entertainment systems. (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/04/us-cybersecurity-hackers-airplanes-idUSKBN0G40WQ20140804)

Submission + - Hillary Clinton Was Asked About Email 2 Years Ago

Submitted by RoccamOccam
RoccamOccam writes: The New York Times reports that Hillary Clinton was directly asked by congressional investigators as to whether she had used private email to conduct official business as Secretary of State, more than two years ago. Clinton declined to respond to that question.

Submission + - Drone Racing better than any video game (youtube.com)

Submitted by Slashdis
Slashdis writes: Drone Racing is becoming bigger and bigger by the day, with better technology and cheaper drones becoming more easily available, the FPV drone racing scene is growing. This video should help shed some light on why!

Feed Google News Sci Tech: Google's Latest (Potential) Disruption: Per-Gigabyte Wireless Data Charges - Rea (google.com)

From feed by feedfeeder

ReadWrite
Google's Latest (Potential) Disruption: Per-Gigabyte Wireless Data Charges
ReadWrite
Google's forthcoming wireless service could allow customers to pay for data by the gigabyte, says a new report from Android Police Monday—a move that could force the hands of U.S. carriers used to roping customers into complicated data-cap plans that...
Google's phone service reportedly has you paying by the gigabyteEngadget
Google's wireless service plans take shape in leaked appThe Verge
Google's Wireless Service, Dubbed 'Project Fi,' Offers Free Calls, Metered DataInternational Business Times
BGR-Business Insider
all 32 news articles

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