Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - DARPA developing the ultimate auto-pilot software (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: Call it the ultimate auto-pilot — an automated system that can help take care of all phases of aircraft flight-even perhaps helping pilots overcome system failures in-flight. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will in May detail a new program called Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) that would build upon what the agency called the considerable advances that have been made in aircraft automation systems over the past 50 years, as well as the advances made in remotely piloted aircraft automation, to help reduce pilot workload, augment mission performance and improve aircraft safety.

Submission + - Heartbleed Sparks 'Responsible' Disclosure Debate

Submitted by bennyboy64
bennyboy64 writes: IT security industry experts are beginning to turn on Google and OpenSSL, questioning whether the Heartbleed bug was disclosed "responsibly". A number of selective leaks to Facebook, Akamai and CloudFlare occurred prior to disclosure on April 7. A separate, informal pre-notification program run by Red Hat on behalf OpenSSL to Linux and Unix operating system distributions also occurred. But router manufactures and VPN appliance makers Cisco and Juniper had no heads up. Nor did large web entities such as Amazon Web Services, Twitter, Yahoo, Tumblr and GoDaddy, just to name a few. The Sydney Morning Herald has spoken to many people who think Google should've told OpenSSL as soon as it uncovered the critical OpenSSL bug in March, and not as late as it did on April 1. The National Cyber Security Centre Finland (NCSC-FI), which reported the bug to OpenSSL after Google, on April 7, which spurred the rushed public disclosure by OpenSSL, also thinks it was handled incorrectly. Jussi Eronen, of NCSC-FI, said Heartbleed should have continued to remain a secret and be shared only in security circles when OpenSSL received a second bug report from the Finnish cyber security centre that it was passing on from security testing firm Codenomicon. "This would have minimised the exposure to the vulnerability for end users," Mr Eronen said, adding that "many websites would already have patched" by the time it was made public if this procedure was followed.

Submission + - Samsung's Position On Tizen May Hurt Developer Recruitment (programmableweb.com)

Submitted by CowboyRobot
CowboyRobot writes: Samsung isn’t making it easy for developers. The company may have released a handful of SDKs for its latest devices, but Samsung’s non-committal approach to its Tizen platform is probably going to cost it developer support. Samsung’s first smartwatch, released in October last year, ran a modified version of Google’s Android platform. The device had access to about 80 apps at launch, all of which were managed by a central smartphone app. Samsung offered developers an SDK for the Galaxy Gear so they could create more apps. Developers obliged. Then Samsung changed direction.

Submission + - Use drones and infrared cameras to find illegal cannabis, and steal it (independent.co.uk)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: There has been a huge surge in the number of hidden cannabis farms across Halesowen, Cradley Heath and Oldbury, towns on the outskirts of rural Shropshire some seven miles from central Birmingham.

They require hydroponic lights for the marijuana plants to grow – and the huge amounts of excess heat given off make them easily spottable for a would-be criminal in the know.

One such man told the Halesowen News that after finding a property with a cannabis farm he and his crew either burgle or “tax” the victim.

Submission + - MIT Designs Tsunami Proof Floating Nuclear Reactor (mit.edu)

Submitted by Amtrak
Amtrak writes: MIT has created designs for a nuclear plant that would avoid the downfall of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The new design calls for the nuclear plant to be placed on a floating platform modeled after the platforms used for offshore oil drilling.

A floating platform several miles offshore, moored in about 100 meters of water, would be unaffected by the motions of a tsunami; earthquakes would have no direct effect at all. Meanwhile, the biggest issue that faces most nuclear plants under emergency conditions — overheating and potential meltdown, as happened at Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island — would be virtually impossible at sea.

Submission + - Plant Breeders Release First 'Open Source Seeds' (npr.org)

Submitted by mr crypto
mr crypto writes: Ag with an OSS twist: "A group of scientists and food activists is launching a campaign Thursday to change the rules that govern seeds. They're releasing 29 new varieties of crops under a new "open source pledge" that's intended to safeguard the ability of farmers, gardeners and plant breeders to share those seeds freely."

Submission + - Americans Wary of Some Futuristic Technology

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Doug Gross reports at CNN that Americans are generally excited about the new technology they expect to see in their lifetimes but when confronted with some advances that already appear possible — from skies filled with drones to meat made in a lab — they get nervous. Overall, respondents to a survey by the Pew Research Center were upbeat about how technology will shape the near future. In the report, 59% of Americans think tech developments will make life in the next half-century better, while only 30% said they will make life worse. More than eight out of 10 respondents (81%) said they think that in the next 50 years, people who need transplants will be able to get them with organs grown in labs. More than half (51%) think computers will be able to create art as skillfully as humans do. But Americans are a little less optimistic about some science-fiction staples. Only 39% think it's likely scientists will have figured out how to teleport things (or, presumably, people), 33% say we'll have long-term space colonies by 2064 and a mere 19% expect humans will be able to control the weather.

But some of the advances that may be closest to becoming reality are the ones survey respondents were most worried about (PDF). Nearly two out of three Americans think it would make things worse if U.S. airspace is opened up to personal drones. A similar number dislike the idea of robots being used to care for the sick and elderly, and of parents being able to alter the DNA of their unborn children. Only 37% of respondents think it will be good if wearable devices or implants allow us to be digitally connected all the time. People were split almost evenly (48%-50%) on whether they would ride in a driverless car. But only 26% said they'd get a brain implant to improve their memory or intelligence, and a mere 20% said they'd try eating meat made in a lab. Some 9% said they'd like to be able to time travel. A similar number said they'd like something that would keep them healthy or extend their lives, 6% said they wanted a flying car (or bike), 3% said they'd take a teleportation device and a mere 1% said they want their own jetpack.

Asked to describe in their own words the futuristic inventions they themselves would like to own, the public offered three common themes: 1) travel improvements like flying cars and bikes, or even personal space crafts; 2) time travel; and 3) health improvements that extend human longevity or cure major diseases. "In the long run, Americans are optimistic about the impact that scientific developments will have on their lives and the lives of their children — but they definitely expect to encounter some bumps along the way," says Aaron Smith, a senior researcher at Pew and the author of the report. "They are especially concerned about developments that have the potential to upend long-standing social norms around things like personal privacy, surveillance, and the nature of social relationships."

Comment IAP is pathetic (Score 1) 181

by melting_clock (#46719073) Attached to: Do Free-To-Play Games Get a Fair Shake?

Personally, I avoid any game or application that uses in app payments now, after being burned by developers. The most expensive Android game I have purchased had a single IAP to convert from a one level demo to the full game which was acceptable. When the same game was released with a "micro" IAP model, it was clear quickly that the dev had ruined the game and it would cost a lot more to complete the game. The best part was the payments were mostly for consumables that didn't carry across when starting a new game. They even removed the original game from the store... Their excuse was the usual pathetic nonsense claims of piracy with the old model which always ignores the fact that their new model harms the honest customer far more than any pirate.

Trying a limited demo or ad supported version first and then purchasing a full version or unlocker is my preferred option. Combating intrusive Adware and Spyware from the truly evil developers means that I simply start out not trusting an app or developer at all. There are a small number of developers that have my complete trust and support. The end result is that I now only install new apps very rarely, with a firewall and other security software in place. While that saves plenty of money, it does limit access to the latest games and apps.

Comment Re:Banks are responsible too (Score 0) 87

by melting_clock (#46587909) Attached to: Target and Trustwave Sued Over Credit Card Breach
I realise that this is a US based issue but I've spent a lot of time in the US in recent years. I first needed chip and pin for trips to Europe where it was rapidly becoming the only option available. Australia (home) shifted to chip and pin being preferred a few years ago. Now my bank is saying that only my PIN can be used for in store purchases. A signature will not work... On my last trip to the US, there were still many stores asking for a signatures with credit cards so my next trip might be really painful.

Submission + - Spacecraft Returns Seven Particles From Birth of the Solar System (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: After a massive, years-long search, researchers have recovered seven interstellar dust particles returned to Earth by the Stardust spacecraft. The whole sample weighs just a few trillionths of a gram, but it’s the first time scientists have laid their hands on primordial material unaltered by the violent birth of the solar system.

Once the sample panel was back on Earth, the problem quickly became finding any collected particles embedded in the aerogel. Out of desperation, Stardust team members called on 30,714 members of the general public. The “dusters” of the Stardust@home project volunteered to examine microscopic images taken down through the aerogel. They used the world’s best pattern-recognition system—the human eye and brain—to pick out the telltale tracks left by speeding particles.

Submission + - The Net routes around censorship in Turkey (blogspot.com) 1

Submitted by lpress
lpress writes: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been embarrassed by social media showing corruption, vowed yesterday to "eradicate Twitter." He followed through by cutting off access, but users soon found work-arounds like posting by email and using VPNs. The hashtag #TwitterOlmadanYaayamam (I can't live without Twitter) quickly rose to the top of Twitter's worldwide trending topics.

Submission + - The Surprising Origin Of The Big Bang Theory (wgbhnews.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Public radio's WGBH News reports, "Between the announcement this week that scientists have detected primordial gravitation waves and FOX's reboot of Carl Sagan's groundbreaking series, "Cosmos", the Big Bang theory is enjoying its biggest moment since it banged the observable universe into existence 13.8 billion years ago. While the Big Bang is as old as the universe itself, our concept of it is still strikingly new — less than 100 years old. And if you dig into its origins, you come across a curious fact. ... The Big Bang theory was first proposed by a Roman Catholic priest. It wasn't just any priest. It was Monseigneur George Lemaître, a brilliant Belgian who entered the priesthood following his service as an artillery officer in the Belgian army during World War I. He was also an accomplished astronomer and a talented mathematician and physician. After earning his graduate degree in astronomy from the University of Cambridge in England, he came to Boston and spent a year at the Harvard College Observatory before earning his doctorate at MIT. ... At a conference in the 1930s, where Lemaître presented his theory, Einstein reportedly remarked, "This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I have ever listened.""

Submission + - NASA Wants Developers To Simulate Coastal Floods

Submitted by rjmarvin
rjmarvin writes: NASA has challenged developers to build software that improves life on Earth and advances space exploration before, but now they're asking them to simulate cataclysmic natural disaster http://sdt.bz/68958. The space agency is partnering with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the third annual International Space Apps Challenge https://2014.spaceappschalleng.... Participants are tasked to create and deploy data-driven visualizations and simulations charting the impact of sea level rise and erosion on future coastal flooding.

Submission + - Linux may succeed Windows XP as OS of choice for ATMs (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Dega704
Dega704 writes: Some financial services companies are looking to migrate their ATM fleets from Windows to Linux in a bid to have better control over hardware and software upgrade cycles.

Pushing them in that direction apparently is Microsoft's decision to end support for Windows XP on April 8, said David Tente, executive director, USA, of the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA).

"There is some heartburn in the industry" over Microsoft's end-of-support decision, Tente said.

ATM operators would like to be able to synchronize their hardware and software upgrade cycles. But that's hard to do with Microsoft dictating the software upgrade timetable. As a result, "some are looking at the possibility of using a non-Microsoft operating system to synch up their hardware and software upgrades," Tente said.

Slashdot Top Deals

Scientists will study your brain to learn more about your distant cousin, Man.

Close