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Medicine

How Biostamps Can Replace Clunky Biomedical Sensors 43

Posted by samzenpus from the stamp-me dept.
An anonymous reader writes: The biostamp--a type of temporary tattoo that feels like skin, yet is laden with electronics--is just about ready for prime time. The technology has entered clinical trials for medical use, and consumer versions, costing just tens of cents, are coming soon. A visit to the University of Illinois researchers developing the technology reveals details about how biostamps work and how they are manufactured. A year from now, don't be surprised if you're wearing one--or two, or three--yourself.
Space

Fuel Free Spacecrafts Using Graphene 265

Posted by samzenpus from the to-the-stars-and-beyond dept.
William Robinson writes: While using a laser to cut a sponge made of crumpled sheets of Graphene oxide, researchers accidentally discovered that it can turn light into motion. As the laser cut into the material, it mysteriously propelled forward. Baffled, researchers investigated further. The Graphene material was put in a vacuum and again shot with a laser. Incredibly, the laser still pushed the sponge forward, and by as much as 40 centimeters. Researchers even got the Graphene to move by focusing ordinary sunlight on it with a lens. Though scientists are not sure why this happens, they are excited with new possibilities such as light propelled spacecraft that does not need fuel.
Advertising

Netflix Is Experimenting With Advertising 318

Posted by samzenpus from the here-comes-hulu-2 dept.
derekmead writes: Netflix is experimenting with pre-roll and post-roll advertisements for some of its users. For now, it's just pitching it's own original programming. However, many are concerned that they plan to serve third-party ads, but the company says they have no plans to do so. They told Mashable in a statement: "We are not planning to test or implement third-party advertising on the Netflix service. For some time, we've teased Netflix originals with short trailers after a member finishes watching a show. Some members in a limited test now are seeing teases before a show begins. We test hundreds of potential improvements to the service every year. Many never extend beyond that."
Games

LEGO Launches a Minecraft Competitor On Steam 108

Posted by samzenpus from the original-builders dept.
An anonymous reader writes: There's been plenty of rumors that LEGO was developing a competitor to Minecraft, and today they released it on Steam. "Lego Worlds enables you to populate your worlds with many weird and wonderful characters, creatures, models, and driveable vehicles, and then play out your own unique adventures," the game's Steam page explains. Unlike "Minecraft," LEGO's new game won't have multiplayer gameplay yet.
Science

MIT Physicists Build World's First Fermion Microscope 31

Posted by samzenpus from the all-the-better-to-see-you-with dept.
Zothecula writes: Researchers working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) claim to have created a method to better observe fermions – the sub-atomic building blocks of matter – by constructing a microscope capable of viewing them in groups of a thousand at a time. A laser technique is used to herd the fermions into a viewing area and then freeze them in place so all of the captured particles can be imaged simultaneously.

Submission + - Netflix Is Experimenting with Advertising (vice.com)

Submitted by derekmead
derekmead writes: Netflix is experimenting with advertisements that run both before and after users watch a video. It's unclear whether or not the company will eventually push ads to everyone.

For now, the company is primarily experimenting with the HBO model of pitching its own original programming to viewers. The company is only showing trailers for shows like Orange Is the New Black and House of Cards—it has not attempted to sell third party ads, and the company told me that, for the moment, only specific users in specific markets are seeing ads.

Comment Re:Seems to Be a Pattern of Behavior (Score 1) 384

by timothy (#49816373) Attached to: SourceForge and GIMP [Updated]

Y'know, a "tl;dr" line for every single story would be interesting -- good idea. I'm going to put that is as a feature request. I think that would be a cool thing on many sites, actually; it would be a cool thing if more newsy/texty sites had a checkbox to turn on that feature.

And I wish idiotic clickbait image ads (the "You'll never believe which naked celebrity said you should eat this one weird vegetable ..." ones) came with it, too, you could could at least kill the curiosity by knowing the answer to their tease questions. "It's Roseanne Barr! And the weird vegetable is just Boy Choi, nothing all that weird!"
Medicine

The Artificial Pancreas For Diabetics Is Nearly Here 95

Posted by samzenpus from the no-more-daily-testing dept.
the_newsbeagle writes: It's the tech that type 1 diabetics have long been waiting for: An implanted "closed-loop" system that monitors a person's blood-sugar level and adjusts injections from an insulin pump. Such a system would liberate diabetics from constant self-monitoring and give parents of diabetic children peace of mind. Thanks to improvements in glucose sensors and control algorithms, the first artificial pancreas systems are now in clinical trials.

Submission + - New Wind Turbine Has No Blades

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: The Guardian reports that Vortex Bladeless has developed a new bladeless wind turbine that promises to be more efficient, less visually intrusive, and safer for birdlife than conventional turbines. Using the principle of natural frequency and vorticity, the turbine oscillates in swirling air caused by the wind bypassing the mast, and then builds exponentially as it reaches the structure’s natural resonance. It’s a powerful effect that famously caused the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940, footage of which inspired David Yáñez to try to build a structure to harness this energy rather than prevent it. The turbine “floats” on magnets, which as well as significantly amplifying the oscillation, also eliminates any friction and the need for expensive lubricating oils or mechanical parts. “Wind turbines now are too noisy for people’s backyard,” says David Suriol. “We want to bring wind power generation to people’s houses like solar power.”

On the minus side the oscillating turbine design will sweep a smaller area and have a lower conversion efficiency. “The best wind turbine will collect around 50% of energy from the wind,” says Suriol. “We are close to 40% with bladeless turbines in our wind tunnel laboratory.” To offset this disadvantage, "you can put four, five or six 4kW turbines in the space of one conventional turbine, which need 5 meter diameter space around them,” he says. In fact, wind tunnel tests have shown they perform even better placed closer together as they benefit from the vortices each of them creates.

Submission + - City CCTV networks vulnerable to cyberattacks (thestack.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Public CCTV and security surveillance networks are vulnerable to hacking attacks, according to recent findings from cybersecurity research group Kaspersky Lab. Designed to protect civilians from crime and terrorism, city video surveillance systems could easily be misused by third parties who exploit configuration flaws to access data recorded by the security cameras said Kaspersky. CCTV systems usually connect across a mesh network through which data travels along a series of nodes to a central control center. Kaspersky warned that the majority of camera systems use no encryption at all, or if encryption tools are employed they are not being used correctly. The cybersecurity firm underlined that this means that clear data is readily sent across the mesh network and freely available for anyone with access. Consequently if a hacker is able to gain access to a single node in a network, they would be able to observe and manipulate the data travelling through it, replacing real content with a fake recording for example.

Submission + - What is your most unusual hardware hack?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It has been recently asked what kind of things someone can power with an external USB battery by another slashdotter. In the light of this, what kind of modifications have you made to your gadgets to do things that they were never meant to do? Consider old routers, cell phones, monitors, etc. that have absolutely no use or value anymore in their intended form. What can you do with them?

Submission + - KFC suing Chinese marketeers over false rumors (ap.org)

Submitted by mi
mi writes: KFC — China's largest restaurant operator — filed a lawsuit in Shanghai Xuhui District People's Court against three companies in China, whose social media accounts spread false claims about its food, including that its chickens are "genetically modified" to have six wings and eight legs. KFC is demanding 1.5 million yuan ($242,000) and an apology from each of three companies that operated accounts on the popular mobile phone app WeChat. It is also seeking an immediate stop to their infringements.

In the past Internet marketers have been convicted of trying to manipulate online sentiment on behalf of clients by posting false information about competitors or deleting critical posts.
SourceForge

SourceForge and GIMP [Updated] 384

Posted by Soulskill from the yelling-on-the-internet dept.
New submitter tresf writes: In response to a Google+ post from the Gimp project claiming that "[Sourceforge] is now distributing an ads-enabled installer of GIMP," Sourceforge had this response: "In cases where a project is no longer actively being maintained, SourceForge has in some cases established a mirror of releases that are hosted elsewhere. This was done for GIMP-Win.

Submitter's note: Gimp is actively being maintained and the definition of "mirror" is quite misleading here as a modified binary is no longer a verbatim copy. Download statistics for Gimp on Windows show SourceForge as offering over 1,000 downloads per day of the Gimp software.

In an official response to this incident, the official Gimp project team reminds users to use official download methods. Slashdotters may remember the last time news like this surfaced (2013) when the Gimp team decided to move downloads from SourceForge to their own FTP service. "Therefore, we remind you again that GIMP only provides builds for Windows via its official Downloads page." Note: SourceForge and Slashdot share a corporate parent. Editor's note: I just got back from a busy weekend to see that a bunch of people are freaking out that we're "burying" this story, so here it is. Go hog wild. Sorry it took so long. (And for future reference, user submissions are easily found in the firehose, listed in the order they appear, newest first.)

Update: 06/01 22:37 GMT by T : The SourceForge blog has a welcome update; SourceForge, it says, has effective today "stopped presenting third party offers for unmaintained SourceForge projects. ... At this time, we present third party offers only with a few projects where it is explicitly approved by the project developer, or if the project is already bundling third party offers."
Patents

Khan Academy Seeks Patents On Learning Computer Programming, Social Programming 97

Posted by timothy from the well-that-sounds-bad dept.
theodp writes: When it announced its brand new Computer Science platform in August 2012, Khan Academy explained it drew inspiration from both Bret Victor and GitHub (SlideShare). Still, that didn't stop Khan Academy from eventually seeking patents on its apparently Victor-inspired Methods and Systems for Learning Computer Programming and GitHub-inspired Systems and Methods for Social Programming, applications for which were quietly disclosed by the USPTO earlier this year. Silicon Valley legal powerhouse Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which provides a pro bono team of 20+ to assist billionaire-backed Khan Academy with its legal needs, filed provisional patent applications for KA in August 2013 — provisional applications can be filed up to 12 months following an inventor's public disclosure of the invention — giving it another 12 months before formal claims had to be filed (KA's non-provisional applications were filed in August 2014).

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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