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Submission + - Energy-generating fabric set to power battery-free wearables (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A team of researchers in Korea and Australia have developed a flexible fabric which generates power from human movement – a breakthrough which could replace batteries in future wearable devices. The effect of the fabric's nanogenerators mirrors static electricity with the two fabrics repeatedly brushing against each other and stealing electrons from the one another – this exchange creates energy from the wearer’s activity without the need for an external power source. During testing, the researchers demonstrated the nanogenerator powering a number of devices such as LEDs, a liquid crystal display, as well as a keyless car entry system embedded in a nanogenerator “power suit”.

Comment Re:A serious question (Score 2) 300

by jdschulteis (#49196991) Attached to: Mozilla: Following In Sun's Faltering Footsteps?

The question then becomes; is it bad if Mozilla were gone? What is the added value of Mozilla and their products right now?

Without Mozilla the Microsoft/Google/Apple triumvirate will control all browser standards. I think Mozilla brings a different perspective that would be missed. It would be nice if Firefox OS gained enough traction to make a similar difference in mobile but the chance of that happening seems slim.

Submission + - 'Chappie': What It Takes to Render a Robot (dice.com)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: The visual-effects supervisor on the new film 'Chappie,' Image Engine’s Chris Harvey, talked with Dice about what it took to render the titular robot. Director Neil Blomkamp thought Chappie needed to look realistic, like something you might honestly expect to see patrolling the streets a decade or two from now. Image Engine took the concept artwork created by Blomkamp and WETA and rendered it in three dimensions, refining the mechanics so the animated Chappie would move realistically for a six-foot-tall, gun-toting robot. As the movie progresses, Chappie begins to take damage from bullets, flames, and thrown debris; if that wasn’t enough, he also ends up covered in graffiti. That sort of wear-and-tear complicated things for the effects team; WETA had to produce three physical Chappie “skeletons” and a multitude of body panels representing the increasing levels of damage, and Image Engine needed to make sure every inch of the digital Chappie was rendered accurately to match. The movie itself might be scoring mediocre reviews, but at least the robot looks good.

Submission + - The Abandoned Google Project Memorial Page

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Quentin Hugon, Benjamin Benoit and Damien Leloup have created a memorial page for projects adandoned by Google over the years including: Google Answers, Lively, Reader, Deskbar, Click-to-Call, Writely, Hello, Send to Phone, Audio Ads, Google Catalogs, Dodgeball, Ride Finder, Shared Stuff, Page Creator, Marratech, Goog-411, Google Labs, Google Buzz, Powermeter, Real Estate, Google Directory, Google Sets, Fast Flip, Image Labeler, Aardvark, Google Gears, Google Bookmarks, Google Notebook, Google Code Search, News Badges, Google Related, Latitude, Flu Vaccine Finder, Google Health, Knol, One Pass, Listen, Slide, Building Maker, Meebo, Talk, SMS, iGoogle, Schemer, Notifier, Orkut, Hotpot, Music Trends, Refine, SearchWiki, US Government Search, Sparrow, Web Accelerator, Google Accelerator, Accessible Search, Google Video, and Helpouts. Missing from the list that we remember are Friend Connect, Google Radio Ads, Jaiku, SideWiki, and Wave.

We knew there were a lot, but who knew there'd be so many. Which abandoned Google project do you wish were still around?

Submission + - Sun light for your lair (lumilabs.co)

Submitted by MakeItGlow
MakeItGlow writes: A Pittsburgh based start-up has addressed a common problem of geeks everywhere. Natural light is biologically essential, but it's outside. A new light called Lumious changes like the sun. It hacks your photo-receptors to keep your circadian rhythms in check.

Submission + - World's first fully digital radio transmitter built purely from microprocessor t (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: For the first time in history, a prototype radio has been created that is claimed to be completely digital, generating high-frequency radio waves purely through the use of integrated circuits and a set of patented algorithms without using conventional analog radio circuits in any way whatsoever. This breakthrough technology promises to vastly improve the wireless communications capabilities of everything from 5G mobile technology to the multitude devices

Submission + - Anthem Refuses Full IT Security Audit (databreachtoday.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A federal watchdog agency says Anthem Inc. has refused to allow it to conduct vulnerability scans of the health insurer's systems in the wake of its recent massive data breach affecting 78.8 million individuals. Anthem also refused to allow scans by the same agency in 2013.

Submission + - Unity Releases Full-Featured Free Edition (gamasutra.com)

Submitted by fsagx
fsagx writes: On the heels of Epic's announcement of a free-to-download version, Unity releases Unity 5, the latest version of its popular multiplatform engine. Unity 5 Personal is completely free to developers with revenue or funding less than $100,000 a year, and includes the full engine (but no advanced services package.)

Submission + - Intel Reveals Unlocked, Socketed Broadwell CPU And Core i7 NUC w/ Iris Graphics (hothardware.com) 1

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Intel held an event at a location adjacent to GDC last night, where the company discussed some updates to its 5th Gen Core processor line-up, Intel graphics developments, the Intel Hardware SDK, and its various game developer tools. Chris Silva, Director of Marketing for Premium Notebook and Client Graphics teams disclosed a few details that a socketed, unlocked, 65W desktop processor based on Intel's Broadwell architecture, featuring Iris graphics, is due to arrive sometime in mid-2015. It's noteworthy because this will be Intel's first desktop CPU with Iris Pro graphics and because it is multiplier unlocked. It will be interesting to see what Iris Pro can do with some overclocking. Intel then showed off a new NUC mini PC powered by a 28W, quad-core Core i7 Broadwell processor, which also featured Iris graphics. The device has a tiny .63 liter enclosure with support for high-performance M.2 solid state drives and features an array of built-in IO options, like USB3, BT4, and 802.11ac WiFi. Bryan Langley, Principal PM for Windows Graphics also talked a bit about DirectX 12, disclosing that the company would be ready with DX12 support when Windows 10 arrives and that there are optimizations in DX12 and their drivers that would deliver performance enhancements to current and future Intel graphics platforms.

Submission + - Major security flaw in Mac password system. (cnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: CNET is putting a positive spin on a major security flaw in the Mac ecosystem. Apparently, Apple created a "feature" where if you forget the password to your Mac, simply pressing command R at boot up lets you into administrator settings allowing you to reset the computer's password. This is a great "feature" to forgetful owners, hackers, and thiefs alike.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Why there is not a campaign against "Cloud Exclusive Hardware" ?

Submitted by martiniturbide
martiniturbide writes: Today we can see a lot of hardware that is being sold that only works only against a cloud. There are many examples, like the Belkin NetCam HD+ (wifi webcam) that only works if you run it against their service (by seedonk) and if you don’t want to use their cloud, this hardware is useless. This is happening with a lot of new hardware and it does mean that you get the device cheap for being locked to their cloud, you are paying full price for this devices. On the internet there are just little groups trying to hack some of this hardware, but the consumer does not seems to care that if the manufacturer discontinue the service the hardware will be useless. Why there are no complains against this kind of hardware on the internet? Is it useless to fight “cloud exclusive hardware”? Should we care about it? Or we are so used to disposable hardware that we don’t care anymore?

Submission + - Culberson charges NASA with the 'development of the first interstellar rocket' (examiner.com)

Submitted by MarkWhittington
MarkWhittington writes: Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, the chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee that determines NASA funding, has been the driving force behind a mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. However, according to a story in Space Policy Online, the congressman has an even greater challenge for the space agency. During a hearing on the FY 2016 NASA budget request, Culberson charged NASA Administrator Charles Bolden to further “the development of the first interstellar rocket propulsion system that would carry us to Alpha Centauri and beyond.” Culberson is very keen to start the exploration of exoplanets that have been discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope. Considering NASA's experiments in warp drive and the em drive, there may be some method to the congressman's madness.

Comment Re:Easier to Analyze or Change == More Maintainabl (Score 1) 247

by jdschulteis (#49182005) Attached to: Study: Refactoring Doesn't Improve Code Quality

But I've certainly had cases where I needed to copy and paste a few lines of code maybe even 100 times and then tweak each instance to put in the data values or validations I want.

This leads to bugs where a tweak gets missed in one of the copies (copy, paste, do tweak 1, interruption!, forget tweak 2). It also causes maintenance problems when the person coding a bug fix doesn't know there are a bunch of other places that need to be fixed.

Submission + - Apple, Microsoft and Google need just one mobile improvement -- battery life (betanews.com)

Submitted by Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson writes: Let’s face it, you’ve picked the mobile operating system you like. Whether you’ve opted for an iPhone, a Lumia handset or a device running Android, the chances are you’re not going to switch allegiances no matter what others may do or say to try to convince you otherwise. At the same time, few people would argue that their handset of choice is perfect.

You’ve picked your side when it comes to OS, but what about the handset itself? Apple, Samsung, HTC et al keep releasing slightly tweaked versions of last year’s handset, perhaps adding a faster processor, a larger screen and more memory. One thing is constantly overlooked, however — battery life. And it’s time for things to change.

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