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Submission + - How to Win at Rock-Paper-Scissors (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by Uncle Robert
Uncle Robert writes: Today, Zhijian Wang at Zhejiang University in China and a couple of pals say that there is more to Rock-Paper-Scissors than anyone imagined. Their work shows that the strategy of real players looks random on average but actually consists of predictable patterns that a wily opponent could exploit to gain a vital edge.

Submission + - XP Systems Getting Emergency IE Zero Day Patch (threatpost.com)

Submitted by msm1267
msm1267 writes: Microsoft announced it will release an out-of-band security update today to patch a zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer, and that the patch will also be made available for Windows XP machines through Automatic Update. At the same time, researchers said they are now seeing attacks specifically targeting XP users.

Microsoft no longer supports XP as of April 8, and that includes the development and availability of security updates. But the about-face today speaks to the seriousness of the vulnerability, which is being exploited in limited targeted attacks, Microsoft said.

Researchers at FireEye, meanwhile, said multiple attackers are now using the exploit against XP machines, prompting the inclusion of XP systems in the patch.

Submission + - An MIT Dean's Defense of the Humanities

Submitted by AthanasiusKircher
AthanasiusKircher writes: Deborah Fitzgerald, a historian of science and dean of MIT's School of the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, speaks out in a Boston Globe column about the importance of the humanities, even as STEM fields increasingly dominate public discussion surrounding higher education. '[T]he world’s problems are never tidily confined to the laboratory or spreadsheet. From climate change to poverty to disease, the challenges of our age are unwaveringly human in nature and scale, and engineering and science issues are always embedded in broader human realities, from deeply felt cultural traditions to building codes to political tensions. So our students also need an in-depth understanding of human complexities — the political, cultural, and economic realities that shape our existence — as well as fluency in the powerful forms of thinking and creativity cultivated by the humanities, arts, and social sciences.' Fitzgerald goes on to quote a variety of STEM MIT graduates who have described the essential role the humanities played in their education, and she concludes with a striking juxtaposition of important skills perhaps reminscent of Robert Heinlein's famous description of an ideal human being: 'Whatever our calling, whether we are scientists, engineers, poets, public servants, or parents, we all live in a complex, and ever-changing world, and all of us deserve what’s in this toolbox: critical thinking skills; knowledge of the past and other cultures; an ability to work with and interpret numbers and statistics; access to the insights of great writers and artists; a willingness to experiment, to open up to change; and the ability to navigate ambiguity.' What other essential knowledge or skills should we add to this imaginary 'toolbox'?

Submission + - France caught between nuclear cliff and investment wall (reuters.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: "France must decide in the next few years whether it wants to continue its nuclear-driven energy policy at a cost of up to 300 billion euros (246.8 billion pounds) or if it wants to embark on an equally costly route towards using other fuels.

Most of the country's 58 nuclear reactors were built during a short period in the 1980s, and about half will reach their designed age limits of 40 in the 2020s, pushing France towards what industry calls "the nuclear cliff."

Public support in France for nuclear power has traditionally been strong but is looking shakier since the 2011 nuclear reactor meltdown at Japan's Fukushima facility following a massive earthquake and tsunami.

And French President Francois Hollande has said he wanted to cut the share of atomic energy in France's electricity mix to 50 percent from 75 percent by 2025, reduce oil and gas consumption and boost renewable energy."

Submission + - Microsoft continues to lose money with each Surface it sells, tablet share at 6% 1

Submitted by DroidJason1
DroidJason1 writes: Revealed from a 10-Q filed by Microsoft with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Microsoft has been losing $300 million and counting for the Surface in the last nine months. Data from Strategy Analytics has also revealed that Microsoft's Windows-powered tablets now own a 6% global tablet share, in Q1 of 2014. Android, on the other hand, remains at the top with a 66% global share. Apple's iOS fell to 28%.

Submission + - GlassLight - Google Glass Voice-Controlled Flashlight

Submitted by coop0030
coop0030 writes: The Google Glass voice-controlled flashlight accessory might be one of the first hardware accessories for the Google Glass, and the software controlling it is open sourced. It can be plugged into the USB port of Google Glass and stay there. Then you can use your voice command to control this little gadget to give some extra light in a dark environment. Deging Sun at Adafruit has a write-up about how to set it up, and get everything configured.

Comment Re:In 3, 2, 1... (Score 0, Troll) 224

by NapalmV (#46869741) Attached to: 50 Years of BASIC, the Language That Made Computers Personal

Wirth acknowledged the modularity failings of Pascal in his Modula language family, but by that time he had missed the bus.

Interesting that it "missed the bus" on "modularity" issues against two languages that didn't even have the behavior of the modulo (%) operator properly defined and standardized until late in 1999 (C) and 2011 (C++) respectively.

Comment Re:In 3, 2, 1... (Score -1) 224

by NapalmV (#46869433) Attached to: 50 Years of BASIC, the Language That Made Computers Personal

C is better for doing embedded bit-twiddling

It isn't. Here's a textbook example of setting bit 4 on port A on an Atmel 8 bit processor, using gcc:

PORTA = PORTA | (1 << 4);

Looks atrocious? It actually is. The processor has a set bit instruction that would look like this in assembly:

SBI PORTA,4

which will set bit 4 on port A - *without* reading PORTA.

Now let's look at the gcc statement. One would think it *reads* PORTA first then it ORs the content with 0x10000 then *write* the result to PORTA, possibly having some collateral effects depending on the hardware attached to PORTA (as compared to setting bit 4 without reading the port). Right? Wrong. gcc will "optimize" it to a SBI PORTA, 4.

All this while they previously had a sbi() function to do exactly this, without any confusion. But they "deprecated" it so now you use the arcane method, praying that gcc will actually "optimize" it to SBI as promised.

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