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Submission + - NASA gives away over 1000 of its tool to the public (nextgov.com)

Submitted by ganjadude
ganjadude writes: Once again NASA is giving back to the people. They just recently released over 1000 of the tools that it uses to the people in its second annual Software Catalog.
From the article :

The program tools are organized into 15 separate categories, which range in scope from aeronautics and propulsion, to system testing and handling, according to the catalog.
For example, the Vehicle Sketch Pad, or OpenVSP, is a tool NASA uses to design aircrafts by way of geometry modeling.

so go have a look and see what kind of use you can get from these tools

Submission + - China plans to land on the far side of the moon by 2020 (examiner.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: According to a story in Quartz, the Chinese have decided to land the Chang’e 4 probe on the far side of the moon. Chang’e 4 is a backup probe to the Chang’e 3, which landed on the lunar surface in December 2013 and carried a rover called Yutu. Because the spacecraft will have to be reconfigured, its scheduled launch will be delayed until sometime before 2020, likely after the Chang’e 5 sample return mission which is currently scheduled to launch in 2017.

Submission + - Google Offers Cheap Cloud Computing For Low-Priority Tasks (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruh
jfruh writes: Much of the history of computing products and services involves getting people desperate for better performance and faster results to pay a premium to get what they want. But Google has a new beta service that's going in the other direction — offering cheap cloud computing services for customers who don't mind waiting. Jobs like data analytics, genomics, and simulation and modeling can require lots of computational power, but they can run periodically, can be interrupted, and can even keep going if one or more nodes they're using goes offline.

Submission + - Should I get an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi? (opensource.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I spend a lot of time at conferences and events like Maker Faires, and having co-authored a book on the Raspberry Pi, I spend a lot of time talking to people about things like small electronics and open hardware. Probably the most frequent question I hear is, "Should I get a Raspberry Pi or an Arduino?" They're both inexpensive boards, but if you want to reuse it in the future, you'll need to think about multiple projects as you're planning.

Submission + - Microsoft Graph Engine 1.0 Preview Released

Submitted by Yatao Li
Yatao Li writes: We are very pleased to announce that the Graph Engine 1.0 preview has finally been released to the public. Graph Engine, previously known as Trinity, is a distributed, in-memory, large graph processing engine.

Submission + - World's Smallest Beamsplitter Paves Way Toward Computing at the Speed of Light (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Silicon photonics is an emerging technology that incorporates electronic circuits using photons of laser light rather than electrons to transmit, receive, and manipulate information. As such, a silicon photonic CPU could potentially process information at the speed of light – millions of times faster than computers available today. In a step towards this goal, engineers working at the University of Utah have developed an ultra-compact photonic beam-splitter so small that millions of these devices could fit on a single silicon chip.

Submission + - Why Apple decided to axe its mythical HDTV (bgr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After nearly a decade worth of research and prototyping, Apple last year finally put to bed any designs it may have had on releasing a branded HDTV set, this according to a recently published report in The Wall Street Journal.

The report claims that Apple seriously investigated the development of an HDTV but was ultimately unable to come up with a set of differentiating features that would position its own offering apart from the competition.

Submission + - Two thirds of public sector workers keep quiet on major security breaches (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A cybersecurity survey conducted by British IT and telecom firm Daisy Group has revealed that almost two thirds of public sector employees would not report a serious data breach that they thought would cause problems in the workplace. The research, which was based on a study involving 2,000 public sector staff, also discovered that many workers held a negligent attitude toward sufficient password protection. It found that respondents were willing to sidestep corporate security policies to ease their work life. The survey showed that 64% of employees in the public sector would keep quiet about major security breaches, and that 5% had disabled password protection features on a laptop, mobile or other mobile devices. 20% confirmed that they do not regularly update their passwords, while a further 8% answered that they used ‘simple’ passwords that could be easily guessed. Daisy Group’s product director of cloud services Graham Harris explained that the survey served to highlight the importance of staff awareness and involvement in effective IT security management.

Submission + - Robotic Space Plane Launches in Mystery Mission This Week (discovery.com) 1

Submitted by mpicpp
mpicpp writes: he United States Air Force’s mysterious X-37B space plane will head to orbit this week for the fourth time.

The unmanned X-37B spacecraft is scheduled to launch Wednesday (May 20) at 10:45 a.m. EDT (1445 GMT) atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The liftoff will begin the reusable space plane’s fourth mission, which is known as OTV-4 (short for Orbital Test Vehicle-4).

Most of the X-37B’s payloads and specific activities are classified, so it’s not entirely clear what the space plane will be doing once it leaves Earth Wednesday. This secrecy has led to some speculation that the vehicle might be some sort of space weapon, but Air Force officials have repeatedly refuted that notion, saying X-37B flights simply test a variety of new space technologies

Submission + - Is Lily a Drone? Or Is It a Camera? (ieee.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Antoine Balaresque and Henry Bradlow have developed an autonomous flying video camera for use in filming action sports on land and water, capturing scenery while hiking and sightseeing, and covering family events (so everyone gets in the picture). They think they’ve made it simple enough that a parent could just toss it in the air and forget about it while coaxing a child to take her first steps. They have enough seed money ($1 million in investment) to get the prototype they’ve been developing for the past year into production. The technology is coming along nicely; they’ve been able to hire the experts in computer vision, controls, and industrial design that they need, and they’re on track to ship in February 2016.

But they have a problem. Their product looks an awful lot like a drone—and they don’t want to be a drone company, they want to be a camera company. Has drone technology evolved to the point that it's not a drone--in the same way a smart coffeemaker is not a computer--and they really can call this a camera, not a drone?

Submission + - Firefox 38 Arrives With DRM Tech Required To Watch Netflix Video

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla today launched Firefox 38 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Notable additions to the browser include Digital Rights Management (DRM) tech for playing protected content in the HTML5 video tag on Windows, Ruby annotation support, and improved user interfaces on Android. Firefox 38 for the desktop is available for download now on Firefox.com, and all existing users should be able to upgrade to it automatically. As always, the Android version is trickling out slowly on Google Play. Release notes are here: desktop and Android.

Submission + - Music streaming is killing digital downloads faster than we thought (bgr.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Even though we don’t need more proof that music streaming is the wave of the future, recent comments made by Warner Music Group CEO Stephen Cooper really underscore just how fast the transition from digital downloads to music streaming is happening.

During an earnings conference call on Monday, Cooper said that Warner Music, the third largest recording company on the planet, generated more money from streaming than they did from digital downloads, representing the first time this has ever happened at a big music label.

Submission + - Dissolvable Electronic Stent Can Monitor Blocked Arteries (acs.org)

Submitted by ckwu
ckwu writes: To restore blood flow in a narrowed or blocked artery, doctors can implant a metal stent to hold open the vessel. But over time, stents can cause inflammation and turbulent blood flow that lead to new blockages. Now, researchers have designed a stent carrying a suite of onboard electronic blood-flow and temperature sensors, drug delivery particles, data storage, and communication capabilities to detect and overcome these problems. The entire device is designed to dissolve as the artery heals. Medical device companies and cardiologists could look at this electronic stent as a kind of menu from which they can pick whatever components are most promising for treating certain kinds of cardiovascular disease, the researchers say.

Submission + - US Passport Agency Contractor Stole Applicants' Data To Steal Their Identities

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Three women from Houston, Texas, stand accusedof engaging in an identity theft scheme in which one of them, a contract employee of the Department of State Passport Agency, was in charge of stealing personally identifiable information of persons applying for a passport. The information was then used to create counterfeit identification documents, which the other two women would use to successfully impersonate the affected individuals in order to fraudulently obtain commercial lines of credit and to purchase iPhones, iPads and other electronic merchandise.

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