ErnieKey - Slashdot User

Submission + - The weight of a butterfly: A beautiful essay about work on the Bomb (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by Lasrick on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @12:57PM

Lasrick writes: Emily Strasser with a lovely essay as she grapples with trying to better understand her long deceased grandfather, a chemist who help build the first atomic bomb. Strasser illuminates the lives of the 75k people who came to live in Oak Ridge to work at the Y-12 enrichment facility, most of whom didn't know what they were working on as they went about their lives in a government-built city that wasn't to be plotted on any map. Her description of what they were doing there is both scientific and beautiful: 'The uranium in the Hiroshima bomb was about 80 percent uranium 235. One metric ton of natural uranium typically contains only 7 kilograms of uranium 235. Of the 64 kilograms of uranium in the bomb, less than one kilogram underwent fission, and the entire energy of the explosion came from just over half a gram of matter that was converted to energy. That is about the weight of a butterfly.'

Submission + - Inventors Revolutionize Beekeeping

Submitted by wombatmobile on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @12:42PM

wombatmobile writes: For more than 5,000 years, apiarists donned protective suits and lit bundles of grass to subdue swarms of angry bees while they robbed their hives of precious, golden honey. Now two Australian inventors have made harvesting honey as easy as turning a tap — literally. Cedar Anderson and his father Stuart have just been rewarded for a decades worth of inventing and refining with a $2 million overnight success on Indiegogo. Their Flow Hive coopts bees to produce honey in plastic cells that can be drained and restored by turning a handle, leaving the bees in situ and freeing apiarists from hours of smoke filled danger time every day.

Submission + - 5 white collar jobs robots already have taken (fortune.com)

Submitted by bizwriter on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @11:39AM

bizwriter writes: University of Oxford researchers Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne estimated in 2013 that 47 percent of total U.S. jobs could be automated and taken over by computers by 2033. That now includes occupations once thought safe from automation, AI, and robotics. Such positions as journalists, lawyers, doctors, marketers, and financial analysts are already being invaded by our robot overlords.

Submission + - Amazon Files Patent for Mobile 3D Printing Delivery Trucks (3dprint.com)

Submitted by ErnieKey on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @08:34AM

ErnieKey writes: Amazon has been inching their way into the 3D printing space over the past 10 months or so. This week, however, the US Patent office published a filing by Amazon for mobile 3D printing delivery trucks. The trucks would have 3D printers and CNC machines on board and be able to communicate with a central hub. When a product is ordered, the mobile 3D printing truck that's closest to the consumer's home or office would then get the order, print it and deliver it ASAP.

Submission + - Men unhappy to be circumcised might be able to regenerate their foreskin

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 18, 2015 @02:48PM

An anonymous reader writes: Slashdot has covered advances in regenerative medicine for various body parts, but not the most personal one of them all. It seems that there are enough men who are unhappy about being circumcised that a company, appropriately named Foregen, has been founded with the aim to regrow foreskins.

Submission + - Government, military and private sector fighting over next-gen cyber-warriors (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 18, 2015 @01:20PM

An anonymous reader writes: On the 10th of February both the US Army and Britain's intelligence agency GCHQ launched new initiatives to address their severe shortfalls in cyber-security specialists. The United States Army Reserve launched the 'cyber private public partnership' (Cyber P3) on Capitol Hill, which will give reservists the opportunity to train as cyber-warriors in six US universities, in partnership with 11 employers. In the UK GCHQ announced an 'Insiders Summer School', where first and second-year computer science undergraduates will be paid to attend a ten week intensive cyber-training course, culminating in a live display of their online and hacking acumen. The Government Accountability Office estimates a shortfall of 40,000 cyber security operatives, and with multiple branches of government in several western countries fighting each other (and the private sector, and the criminal arena) for the patronage of computer science students, cyber-security is looking to be the safest career path an undergraduate could pursue.

Submission + - One year of data proves the Hacker community is tight-knit and welcoming. (hackaday.com)

Submitted by szczys on Wednesday February 18, 2015 @12:24PM

szczys writes: The Hacker (sometimes called maker) movement holds sharing of ideas at its core. We are in the unique position to look at a huge data set from the last 365 day showing how people share their own work, and how they discover and interact with others. Check out these data visualizations which cover project topic distribution, views throughout year and by hour in the day, interactions between members of this community, and more.

Submission + - US Military Soon Able to Copy & 3D Print Exact Replicas of Bones & Limbs (3dprint.com)

Submitted by ErnieKey on Sunday February 15, 2015 @10:11AM

ErnieKey writes: The US military is working with technology that will allow them to create exact virtual replicas of their soldiers. Then in case of an injury, these replicas, which are created using x-rays, MRI and Ultrasound technology, will be able to be restored for surgeons to 3D print both exact medical models for rebuilding the injured patient's body and even 3D print exact replica implants. Could we all one day soon have virtual backups of ourselves that we can access and have new body parts 3D printed on demand? It appears as though we are getting closer.

Submission + - Radioshack declares bankruptcy (cnn.com)

Submitted by gemtech on Thursday February 05, 2015 @06:53PM

gemtech writes: No real surprises here.
"It has struck a deal to sell up to 2,400 of its approximately 4,000 stores. Wireless company Sprint (S) will create a "store within a store" in up to 1,750 of those. "
http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/0...

Submission + - Samsung releases source code of Tizen Phone Z1 (tizenexperts.com)

Submitted by rzr on Thursday February 05, 2015 @04:07PM

rzr writes: Last month Samsung launched Tizen Z1 mobile for Indian market and some of them managed to be in developers hands (or the opposite). Anyway we all knew it ships mostly FLOSS to start with the kernel Linux, so Samsung made it available to anyone.

If you want to study tizen 2.3 mobile profile or even try to port OS to other devices (ie: previous tizen references devices) you have no excuse to not doing so.

Also author shared some pratical informations about making apps for the only "GNU/Linux inspired " system for mobile. At least with devices and support from the industry .. am I right ? I wish not... but still community depends on actual devices.

Submission + - The 'Cool Brick' Can Cool Off an Entire Room Using Nothing But Water (3dprint.com) 1

Submitted by ErnieKey on Sunday February 01, 2015 @12:00PM

ErnieKey writes: Emerging Objects, a company which experiments with 3d printing technology has created what they call the 'Cool Brick'. Using basic concepts of evaporation, it holds water like a sponge, takes in hot dry air and converts it into cool moist air. 3d printed with a specially engineered lattice using ceramics, it can be formed into entire walls which could be placed in different rooms of a house or building, thus replacing the need for air conditioning in hot, dry climates such as deserts.

Submission + - NASA looking at nuclear thermal rockets to explore the solar system (examiner.com)

Submitted by MarkWhittington on Saturday January 31, 2015 @03:22PM

MarkWhittington writes: Officially, NASA has been charged with sending astronauts to Mars sometime in the 2030s. Toward that end, according to a story in Universe Today, space agency engineers at the Marshall Space Flight Center are looking at an old concept for interplanetary travel, nuclear thermal engines. However, some doubts have been expressed whether NASA will be granted the budget to develop such engines.

Submission + - Comcast employees change customer names to "Dummy" and other insults (elliott.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31, 2015 @11:23AM

An anonymous reader writes: According to customer bills and screenshots submitted to and reported by blogger Chris Elliot at BoardingArea, Comcast employees have repeatedly changed the names of customers to insults like "dummy", "whore", "asshole", and "bitch". Elliott notes although reasons and consequences for this behavior are unclear, "one thing is clear: At least one person, and maybe more than one person, really doesn’t like Comcast’s customers. Enough to put it in writing. Repeatedly."

Submission + - Georgia Institute of Technology Researchers Bridge the Airgap (hacked.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 29, 2015 @05:20AM

An anonymous reader writes: Hacked has a piece about Georgia Institute of Technology Researchers keylogging from a distance using the electromagnetic radiation of CPUs. They can reportedly do this from up to 6 meters away. In this video, using two Ubuntu laptops, they demonstrate that keystrokes are easily interpreted with the software they have developed. In their whitepaper they talk about the need for more research in this area so that hardware and software manufacturers will be able to develop more secure devices. For now, Farraday cages don't seem as crazy as they used to, or do they?

Submission + - Architect Reveals Plans to 3D Print Entire Concrete Village (3dprint.com)

Submitted by ErnieKey on Wednesday January 28, 2015 @02:59PM

ErnieKey writes: We've seen and heard about 3d printed houses, apartments and even entire estates being erected all throughout the world. Now, one architect, who happens to be the man who brought us the first 3d printed castle, looks to create an entire village using a 3d printer. Andrey Rudenko has revealed his plans to create an entirely 3D printed village which he hopes will allow students and engineers to experiment with the capabilities that 3d printing offers the construction industry, while at the same time, create a tourist destination like none other.

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