Comment shop class (Score 5, Interesting) 292
High school intro to programming should fill the same niche as shop class -- to get students interested in creating stuff.
Submission + - My WiFi can hear you breathing (i-programmer.info)
mikejuk writes: A team of researchers has devised a novel use for WiFi that could potentially save lives or add to the collection of methods that can be used to snoop on you.
This is another of those chance observations that turned out to be of potentially practical value. Most WiFi devices have a RSS — Received Signal Strength — detector which can be read by software. Someone noticed that when a human stands in front of a WiFi unit then the RSS changed as they breathed in or out — only a small change but any change can be the start of a detection system.
This is another of those chance observations that turned out to be of potentially practical value. Most WiFi devices have a RSS — Received Signal Strength — detector which can be read by software. Someone noticed that when a human stands in front of a WiFi unit then the RSS changed as they breathed in or out — only a small change but any change can be the start of a detection system.
Submission + - Crayons under the Spectrophotometer (photo-mark.com)
Volhav writes: Like many as a child, the photographer Mark Meyer wondered what the difference between Yellow-Green and Green-Yellow was in that Crayola box of crayons. Using a monitor calibration tool and the Argyll 3rd party software he evaluated a box of 64 color box of Crayola crayons, and plotted them out with sRGB values. He even included a nice printable poster size version of the chart in his blog post. For the geek or curious this was a pretty interesting plot.
Submission + - Apple Tax?: Laptop Manufactures Can't Match Apple (electronista.com)
An anonymous reader writes: cer Taiwan's president Scott Lin and Compal's equivalent Ray Chen have both put out public complaints that Intel isn't cutting chip prices to let their ultrabooks compete with the MacBook Air. Lin insisted that Acer and other Windows PC builders couldn't get below $1,000 with their ultraportables without a subsidy while meeting the performance targets. Mac tax, my Acer!
Submission + - Cellphones Increasingly Used as Evidence in Court
Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times reports that the case of Mikhail Mallayev, who was convicted in March of murder after data from his his cellphone disproved his alibi, highlights the surge in law enforcement's use of increasingly sophisticated cellular tracking techniques to keep tabs on suspects before they are arrested and build criminal cases against them by mapping their past movements. But cellphone tracking is raising concerns about civil liberties in a debate that pits public safety against privacy rights. Investigators seeking warrants must provide a judge with probable cause that a crime has been committed but investigators often obtain cell-tracking records under lower standards of judicial review — through subpoenas, which are granted routinely, or through an intermediate type of court order based on an argument that the information requested would be relevant to an investigation. "Cell phone providers store an increasing amount of sensitive data about where you are and when, based on which cell towers your phone uses when making a call. Until now, the government has routinely seized these records without search warrants," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. Last year the Federal District Court in Pittsburgh ruled that a search warrant was required even for historical phone location records, but the Justice Department has appealed the ruling. "The cost of carrying a cellphone should not include the loss of one's personal privacy," said Catherine Crump, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union."
Comment Galactus? (Score 1) 716
The Silver Surfer wouldn't be detectable at astronomical ranges.
