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Submission + - Clearpath's public stance on Killer Robots a first in corporate responsibility (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Last week the Waterloo-based Clearpath publicly pledged not to develop lethal autonomous weapons in support of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. While the Campaign has garnered significant support since its launch, it has not previously had support from the for-profit robotics sector — making Clearpath's public statement a noteworthy demonstration of corporate responsibility, particularly given the company's background in military applications.

Submission + - EU rules limit vacuum cleaners to 1600W from the 1st of September

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: New EU rules are limiting vacuum cleaner motors to 1600W from 2014/09/01. The EU summary of the new rules explains that consumers currently equate watts with cleaning power, which is not the case. Manufacturers will be required to put ratings on packaging, including energy efficiency, cleaning efficiency on hard and carpeted floors, and dust emissions from the exhaust. In the EU vacuum cleaners use more energy than the whole of Denmark, and produce more emissions than dishwashers and washing machines.

Submission + - Critical Delphi and C++ Builder VCL library bug found

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A buffer overflow vulnerability that could be exploited to execute malicious code has been discovered in the Visual Component Library (VCL) library of Embarcadero's Delphi and C++Builder application development environments, and could, therefore, also affect applications that were built by using the software and that use the affected library. C++Builder and Delphi have been used in software development for many years. Financial institutions, healthcare organizations and companies in several other industries have developed homegrown applications using these products.

Submission + - Google Driverless Car : Who should pay the speeding fines? (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: With all the debate surrounding driverless vehicles at the moment, it seems obvious we need to develop a new regulatory framework for socialising the costs (speeding fines, accident compensation, carbon tax, etc) from one vehicle owner to all vehicles owners of the same class.

Inspired by video game design principles, one blogger outlines how we could do this by creating an insurance based licensing scheme for driverless vehicles, with some unexpected consequences.

Submission + - An Ad-Free Internet Would Cost Everyone £140-a-Year (ibtimes.co.uk) 2

Submitted by DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: Research suggests that if we wanted to live in a world without pop-up ads for penis enlargement tablets, then it would cost everyone $230 per year. So how many people would be willing to stump up this kind of cash? Just 2% of the population apparently...

Submission + - Netflix develops Oculus interface (among other hacks)

Submitted by jasper_amsterdam
jasper_amsterdam writes: At the 'Netflix hack day', several cool hacks were developed, including (menu) support for the Oculus Rift, support for Netflix controlling background lighting, and a console interface. Cool stuff, but I should note there isn't necessarily any intention of implementating these. Netflix' tech blog has a report.

Submission + - How Does Tesla Build A Supercharger Charging Site?

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Tesla's Superchargers are the talk of the electric car community. These charging stations can take a Model S battery pack from nearly empty to about 150 miles or range in around 30 minutes. That's crazy fast, and it's nothing short of impressive. But what does it take to actually build a Tesla Supercharger site? Apparently a lot of digging. A massive trench is created to run high-capacity electric cables before the charging stations themselves are even installed. A diagram and photos of the Electric Conduit Construction build out have surfaced on the Internet. The conduits connect the charging stations to a power distribution center, which in turn is connected to a transformer that provides the power for charging cars. It took 11 days to install the six charging stalls in Goodland, Kansas. If you thought it was a quick process to build a Supercharger station, you were clearly wrong. Now, what ever happened to those battery swapping stations?

Submission + - Verizon to offer discounted data rates to apps purchased through their app store (androidcentral.com) 1

Submitted by Charliemopps
Charliemopps writes: Verizon, in a clear attempt at an end run around net neutrality rules, is prepared to launch another new app store. Their last app store failed miserably. But this new one will offer a new feature, discounted data rates for apps purchased through it as well as billing directly through the carrier.

Here's a link to the summary of the article, the original is pay-walled.

Submission + - VertiKUL Drone "Delivers" on Both Hovering and Forward Flight (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: When something is sent to you by airmail, it travels in a fast and relatively fuel-efficient fixed-wing aircraft, not a fuel-guzzling helicopter. Nonetheless, when we hear about the possibility of drones being used to deliver items within cities, multirotor-style aircraft are almost always what's proposed – while they're good at maneuvering in urban spaces, they're essentially just little unmanned helicopters. With that in mind, a group of three engineering students from Belgium's KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) have created a prototype delivery drone known as VertiKUL, which combines the best features of both types of aircraft.

Submission + - Recycled Car Batteries Transformed into Low-Cost Solar Panels

Submitted by rofkool
rofkool writes: MIT researcher have developed a method of transforming old lead-acid car batteries into long-lasting, low-cost solar panels.

It is estimated that a single battery could be used to produce enough solar cells to power up to 30 homes.

The discovery addresses two key problems: Firstly the problem of disposing of lead-acid batteries in an environmentally-responsible way, and secondly the difficulty of producing raw lead ore for use in solar cells.

Angela Belcher, W.M. Keck Professor of Energy at MIT and co-author of the study, said: "Once the battery technology evolves, over 200 million lead-acid batteries will potentially be retired in the United States, and that could cause a lot of environmental issues."

Submission + - CA Court Rules Businesses Must Reimburse Cell Phone Bills

Submitted by dszd0g
dszd0g writes: The Court of Appeal of the State of California has ruled in Cochran v. Schwan's Home Service that California Businesses must reimburse employees who BYOD for work. "We hold that when employees must use their personal cell phones for work-related calls, Labor Code section 2802 requires the employer to reimburse them. Whether the employees have cell phone plans with unlimited minutes or limited minutes, the reimbursement owed is a reasonable percentage of their cell phone bills." Forbes recommends businesses that require cell phone use for employees either provide cell phones to employees or establish forms for reimbursement, and that businesses that do not require cell phones establish a formal policy.

Comment Re:"new" (Score 3, Informative) 34

by timothy (#47704675) Attached to: Introducing Slashdot's New Build Section

Well ... only about 1 percent of the site's lifespan so far, by back-of-envelope figures ;)

But you're right -- we've been playing with it a while. Nifty new graphic (if you see the beta version of it), too. More changes and section-specific stuff eventually, too, but it's much readier to explore, now that we've added in a lot of the older stories that make sense in this section.

Submission + - Modular Hive Homes for Mars Wins NASA & MakerBot Competition (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by Taffykay
Taffykay writes: Living on Mars might seem like a dream, but we're one step closer thanks to a brilliant new housing design. Noah Hornberger won NASA and MakerBot’s Mars Base Challenge with a series of hive homes. The contest called for 3D designers to imagine a scenario that would make Mars habitable by designing homes built either from materials found on the Red Planet, or brought from Earth and 3D-printed on site. Hornberger’s 3D-printed two bedroom, two bathroom Queen B nabbed first prize with its bee-inspired hexagonal grid.

Submission + - Systemd: Harbinger of the Linux Apocalypse (infoworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It might not be the end of the world, but the design of systemd and the attitudes of its developers have been counterproductive

Now that Red Hat has released RHEL 7 with systemd in place of the erstwhile SysVinit, it appears that the end of the world is indeed approaching. A schism and war of egos is unfolding within the Linux community right now, and it is drawing blood on both sides. Ultimately, no matter who "wins," Linux looks to lose this one

Submission + - US City Introduces Draft Ordinance To Criminalize Certain Drone Uses 1

Submitted by Fubar
Fubar writes: Two city council members from Phoenix, AZ are introducing "draft language" for public discussion that would make it illegal to use a drone to film people without their knowledge. The council members are worred about privacy of people in their own yards, even including the requirement that law enforcement obtain a warrant for drone surveillance. A violation of the ordinance would be a Class 1 misdemeanor, which carries up to a $2,500 fine and six months in jail.

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