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Submission + - VMware unveils Workplace Suite and NVIDIA partnership for Chromebooks (citeworld.com)

Submitted by Gamoid
Gamoid writes: At VMworld today, VMware introduced the Workplace Suite, a platform for securely delivering applications and content across desktops and mobile devices from the cloud. The really cool part, though, is a partnership with Google and NVIDIA to deliver even graphics-intensive Windows applications on a Chromebook. I was on the scene.

Submission + - California DMV Told Google Cars Still Need Steering Wheels

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Google showed us what it feels is the car of the future. It drives itself, it doesn't have a gas or brake pedal, and there's no steering wheel. But that last one might be an issue. Back in May California's Department of Motor Vehicles published safety guidelines aimed at manufacturers of self-driving vehicles. After seeing Google's self-driving car vision, the California DMV has told the company it needs to add all those things back to their traditional locations so that occupants can take "immediate physical control" of the vehicle if necessary. Don't for a second think this is a major setback for Google, as the prototypes unveiled weren't even close to production ready. While the DMV may loosen some of these restrictions in the future as well all become more comfortable with the idea of self-driving vehicles, there's no question when it comes down to the safety of those on the road.

Submission + - Feds creating database to track hate speech on Twitter (foxnews.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: The federal government is spending nearly $1 million to create an online database that will track “misinformation” and hate speech on Twitter.

The National Science Foundation is financing the creation of a web service that will monitor “suspicious memes” and what it considers “false and misleading ideas,” with a major focus on political activity online.

The “Truthy” database, created by researchers at Indiana University, is designed to “detect political smears, astroturfing, misinformation, and other social pollution.”

The university has received $919,917 so far for the project.

Submission + - Amazon sold fewer Fire phones than Jack White sold VINYL records (morningstar.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Marketwatch reports that Amazon likely had sold fewer than 35,000 Amazon Fire phones in the device's first 25 days on the market. In comparison, American musician Jack White sold 40,000 copies of his Lazaretto album on VINYL in the first week after its release in June.

Amazon's Fire phone made up just 0.02% of market share in July, according to online ads network Chitika, which analyzed tens of millions of smartphone-based online ad impressions generated within the Chitika ad network from July 25, the day the Fire was launched, through Aug. 14. When comparing that against recent data from comScore, which put total U.S. smartphone penetration at 173 million people in June, Fire sales would not have exceeded 35,000 in its first three weeks, assuming U.S. smartphone penetration remained relatively flat month-over-month.

"While the Fire Phone was listed atop Amazon's Best Seller list for several days in early August, North American usage of the device has grown only incrementally, rather than exponentially," Chitika said in a report.

Submission + - IBM Gearing up Mega Power 8 Servers for October Launch (serverwatch.com)

Submitted by darthcamaro
darthcamaro writes: Now that IBM has sold off its x86 server business to Lenovo, it's full steam ahead for IBM's Power business. While Intel is ramping up its next generation of server silicon for a September launch, IBM has its next lineup of Power 8 servers set to be announced in October.

There is a larger than 4U, 2 socket system coming out," Doug Balong ,General Manager of Power Systems within IBM's System and Technology Group said.

Can IBM Power 8 actually take on x86? Or has that ship already sailed?

Submission + - Patent trolls and open document formats with open source thought leaders

Submitted by Czech37
Czech37 writes: Gordon Haff, senior cloud evangelist for Red Hat, and Simon Phipps, president of the Open Source Initiative, sat down during OSCON 2014 and had a chat about software patent cases and the United Kingdom's decision to move to the Open Document Format. The full transcript of their discussion, as well as a recording, are available over at Opensource.com.

Submission + - Chrome 37 Launches With DirectWrite Support For Better-Looking Fonts On Windows

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google today released Chrome version 37 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Among the changes are better-looking fonts on Windows and a revamped password manager; you can update to the latest release now using the browser’s built-in silent updater, or download it directly from google.com/chrome.

Submission + - A horrifying interactive map of global Internet censorship (bgr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Imagine a world where the book burners had won. A world where information is filtered and must be approved by governments before it can be accessed by their citizens. A world where people are held down and kept in line by oppressive regimes that restrict the free flow of information and bombard citizens with government-approved messages.

Now stop imagining, because this horrifying world already exists...

Submission + - How Facebook could accidentally make its engineers into military targets (thebulletin.org) 1

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: Adam Henshke and Patrick Lin write that because of a lack of clear rules for cyberwarfare, technology workers could find themselves fair game in enemy attacks and counterattacks. 'If they participate in military cyberoperations—intentionally or not—employees at Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Sprint, AT&T, Vodaphone, and many other companies may find themselves considered “civilians directly participating in hostilities” and therefore legitimate targets of war, according to the legal definitions of the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols.' This is a fascinating read about the myriad questions that cybersecurity raises--among them: Would nations ever target Google engineers if a cyberattack was launched with gmail? Could a company be justified in launching it's own military operations if it were under cyberattack from a hostile country? Great read.

Submission + - Northrop Grumman Gives Early Look at its XS-1 Experimental Spaceplane Design (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Northrop Grumman, in partnership with Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic, has unveiled the preliminary design it is developing as part of DARPA’s XS-1 Spaceplane project. Looking like a windowless update of a 1960s Dyna Soar orbiter, it’s the next step in producing launch systems that will dramatically reduce the costs of getting into orbit.

Submission + - gcc LTO reduces firefox package size by 50% (gnu.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Link Time Optimization used to be a lot of promise for little gain, and typically unable to deal with packages in the MSLOC range. Seemingly no longer. Reported in gcc's bugzilla is an impressive result for firefox:
'Firefox since version 30 as well as Thunderbird since version 31 both compile fine with LTO enabled without the need of any additional patches. The package size was reduced by 51% (firefox ~420MB -> ~207MB) and 59% (thunderbird ~480MB -> ~200MB). Both programs work as intended, no crashes or unexpected behaviour so far.'
Has time come to rebuild the world using LTO ?

Submission + - Bioengineered Opiates Don't Require Poppy Plants

Submitted by Jason Koebler
Jason Koebler writes: Opiate drugs are on their way to being fully synthesized. Drug makers will no longer have to rely on a plant, the same basic organism that's delivered narcotics to humans since the Neolithic, for the most basic raw materials of opiate painkillers.
Fields of flowering poppies are out, and bioengineered microorganisms are in, at least according to a new paper published in Nature Chemical Biology, which describes a new method of producing opiates with help from a genetically tweaked version of regular baker's yeast.

Submission + - Animal Welfare is Actually Worse in Accredited Laboratories (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: The international gold standard of laboratory animal care may have lost a bit of its luster. Labs accredited by the United States’ only independent certifier of research animal welfare violate national animal welfare guidelines more frequently than do unaccredited facilities, a study has found. As both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense (DOD) waive certain inspection requirements for labs vetted by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) International, the findings may force a rethink of how lab animal welfare is overseen in the United States and other countries

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