Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Bitcoin Battleships (cointelegraph.com)

Submitted by Haweinn
Haweinn writes: Bitcoin has been identified by the US Navy as a force for supreme evil, it has emerged.

A Broad Agency Announcement project for Navy Engineering Logistics Office of the Department of the Navy is currently being bid for by interested parties.

- See more at: http://cointelegraph.com/post/...

Submission + - Google mulling Wi-Fi for cities with Google Fiber (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Google is considering deploying Wi-Fi networks in towns and cities covered by its Google Fiber high-speed Internet service. The disclosure is made in a document Google is circulating to 34 cities that are the next candidates to receive Google Fiber in 2015. Specific details of the Wi-Fi plan are not included in the document, which was seen by IDG News Service, but Google says it will be "discussing our Wi-Fi plans and related requirements with your city as we move forward with your city during this planning process."

Submission + - Algorithm Distinguishes Memes from Ordinary Information (medium.com)

Submitted by KentuckyFC
KentuckyFC writes: Memes are the cultural equivalent of genes: units that transfer ideas or practices from one human to another by means of imitation. In recent years, network scientists have become increasingly interested in how memes spread, work that has led to important insights into the nature of news cycles, into information avalanches on social networks and so on. But what exactly makes a meme and distinguishes it from other forms of information is not well understood. Now a team of researchers has developed a way to automatically distinguish scientific memes from other forms of information for the first time. Their technique exploits the way scientific papers reference older papers on related topics. They scoured the half a million papers published by Physical Review between 1893 and 2010 looking for common words or phrases. They define an interesting meme as one that is more likely to appear in a paper that cites another paper in which the same meme occurs. In other words, interesting memes are more likely to replicate. They end up with a list of words and phrases that have spread by replication and can also see how this spreading has changed over the last 100 years. The top five phrases are: loop quantum cosmology, unparticle, sonoluminescence, MgB2 and stochastic resonance; all of which are important topics in physics. The team say the technique is interesting because it provides a way to distinguish memes from other forms of information that do not spread in the same way through replication.

Submission + - Sina suspends book site after pornography reported (wfsb.com)

Submitted by Elizaberp
Elizaberp writes: BEIJING (AP) — Sina.com temporarily closed its literature site Friday after being accused of hosting pornography, and authorities confirmed they were revoking two crucial licenses, ensnaring one of China's top web portals in an intensifying online crackdown.

Sina decided to take books off its site while it undergoes "a self-correction action" to screen their content, according to a notice on its reading channel. Book reviews, cultural news, author biographies and interviews were still available.

Submission + - The debate ends - Siphons work due to gravity and not atmospheric pressure (theguardian.com)

Submitted by knwny
knwny writes: Peeved by the widespread misconception that siphons work because of atmospheric pressure, physics lecturer Dr. Stephen Hughes, wrote a mail to the prestigious Oxford English Dictionary(OED) pointing out the error. To back his claim, Dr.Hughes tested a siphon inside a hypobaric chamber to check if changes in atmospheric pressure had any effect on the siphon and demonstrated that gravity and not atmospheric pressure was the driving principle. The paper detailing his experiment was published in Nature. The OED spokesperson responded saying that his suggestions would be taken into account during the next rewrite.

Submission + - FTC Approves Tesla's Direct Sales Model

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: We've all read about Tesla and the ongoing battles its having with different dealer associations. Basically, dealer associations aren't too pleased about the Silicon Valley startup's direct sales model. Today the FTC has had made a statement on the matter and it's actually in favor of Tesla's direct sales model. "In this case and others, many state and local regulators have eliminated the direct purchasing option for consumers, by taking steps to protect existing middlemen from new competition. We believe this is bad policy for a number of reasons," wrote Andy Gavil, Debbie Feinstein, and Marty Gaynor in the FTC's "Who decides how consumers should shop?" posting to the Competition Matters blog. The FTC appears to take issue not with those laws, but with how they're being used, and with the direct-sales bans being passed in several states. Now the only real question is how long will it be before Tesla prevails in all states?

Submission + - Heartbleed Sparks 'Responsible' Disclosure Debate

Submitted by bennyboy64
bennyboy64 writes: IT security industry experts are beginning to turn on Google and OpenSSL, questioning whether the Heartbleed bug was disclosed "responsibly". A number of selective leaks to Facebook, Akamai and CloudFlare occurred prior to disclosure on April 7. A separate, informal pre-notification program run by Red Hat on behalf OpenSSL to Linux and Unix operating system distributions also occurred. But router manufactures and VPN appliance makers Cisco and Juniper had no heads up. Nor did large web entities such as Amazon Web Services, Twitter, Yahoo, Tumblr and GoDaddy, just to name a few. The Sydney Morning Herald has spoken to many people who think Google should've told OpenSSL as soon as it uncovered the critical OpenSSL bug in March, and not as late as it did on April 1. The National Cyber Security Centre Finland (NCSC-FI), which reported the bug to OpenSSL after Google, on April 7, which spurred the rushed public disclosure by OpenSSL, also thinks it was handled incorrectly. Jussi Eronen, of NCSC-FI, said Heartbleed should have continued to remain a secret and be shared only in security circles when OpenSSL received a second bug report from the Finnish cyber security centre that it was passing on from security testing firm Codenomicon. "This would have minimised the exposure to the vulnerability for end users," Mr Eronen said, adding that "many websites would already have patched" by the time it was made public if this procedure was followed.

Submission + - Use drones and infrared cameras to find illegal cannabis, and steal it (independent.co.uk)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: There has been a huge surge in the number of hidden cannabis farms across Halesowen, Cradley Heath and Oldbury, towns on the outskirts of rural Shropshire some seven miles from central Birmingham.

They require hydroponic lights for the marijuana plants to grow – and the huge amounts of excess heat given off make them easily spottable for a would-be criminal in the know.

One such man told the Halesowen News that after finding a property with a cannabis farm he and his crew either burgle or “tax” the victim.

Submission + - #IoTH: The Internet of Things and Humans

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Speculating the future of human computer interaction, Tim O'Reilly contemplates how humans and things cooperate differently when things get smarter. "Rod Smith of IBM and I had a call the other day to prepare for our onstage conversation at O'Reilly's upcoming Solid Conference, and I was surprised to find how much we were in agreement about one idea: so many of the most interesting applications of the Internet of Things involve new ways of thinking about how humans and things cooperate differently when the things get smarter. It really ought to be called the Internet of Things and Humans — #IoTH, not just #IoT!"

Submission + - Big win for Open Government and Transparency in Mississippi (djournal.com)

Submitted by Chris Elkins
Chris Elkins writes: Text messages are now officially considered public records. An investigative reporter fought for access to what he believed were public records. He took his fight to the state and won. Mississippi open government and transparency advocates view this unanimous commission opinion as precedent-setting for all government bodies and public officials in the state.

Submission + - Cringely on Big Data and AI

Submitted by squideatingdough
squideatingdough writes: Once again, Robert X. Cringely provides an insightful (and somewhat scary) vision of the future: http://www.cringely.com/2014/0.... He describes how today's Artificial Intelligence is so very different from the vision of those IT folks working in the field back in the 80's. And then he goes on to posit how algorithms are improving at a rate that exceeds Moore's Law for hardware. A very interesting read.

Submission + - Bill Gates Patents Detecting, Responding to "Glassholes" 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: As Google Glass goes on sale to the general public, GeekWire reports that Bill Gates has already snagged one patent for 'detecting and responding to an intruding camera' and has another in the works. The invention proposes to equip computer and device displays with technology for detecting and responding to any cameras in the vicinity by editing or blurring the content on the screen, or alerting the user to the presence of the camera. Gates and Nathan Myhrvold are among the 16 co-inventors of the so-called Unauthorized Viewer Detection System and Method, which the patent application notes is useful "while a user is taking public transportation, where intruding cameras are likely to be present." So, is Bill's patent muse none other than NYC subway rider Sergey Brin?

Submission + - Now you can get an Office 365 subscription for $6.99 a month 1

Submitted by DroidJason1
DroidJason1 writes: Microsoft has launched Office 365 Personal, a lower-priced subscription option for users who want to use Office on only one PC. You can even use it on the iPad or a tablet. Office 365 Personal is priced at $6.99 a month, or $69.99 for a year. Previously, the company offered a package that costed $10 a month or $100 a year for five PCs.

Comment Bhut Jolokia is a common ingredient... (Score 1) 285

by knwny (#46581751) Attached to: I prefer my peppers ...
..of many dishes from the north-eastern part of India. Contrary to the cuisines from other parts of India which are rich in spices and condiments, food preparations in the north-eastern states are generally low on spices and one of the ways to counter this is to include generous amounts of Bhut Jolokia. Having had my share of many of these fiery tastes, I prefer my peppers the Bhut Jolokia way.

Slashdot Top Deals

One man's constant is another man's variable. -- A.J. Perlis

Close