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Submission + - Why time on the Apple Watch is set to 10:09 (tuaw.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In designing the Apple Watch, Jony Ive said that he and his team immersed themselves in the history of horology, the art of timekeeping. Though the Apple Watch is a undeniably complex and advanced piece of modern technology, Ive noted that it was nonetheless crafted with a great sense of deference to the science of traditional timekeeping. In fact, during the design process, Ive told BusinessWeek that Apple "invited a series of watch historians to Cupertino to speak, including French author Dominique Fléchon, an expert in antique timepieces."

Having said that, if you take a look at any promotional shot of the Apple Watch, you'll notice that the time on each one is set to 10:09. Now given Apple's penchant for sweating even the most minor of details, there must be a reason for this, right?

As it turns out, there is.

Submission + - Three-Way Comparison Shows PCs Slaying Consoles in Dragon Age Inquisition (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: BioWare's long-awaited Dragon Age Inquisition has dropped in for the PS4, Xbox One, and PCs. To say folks are excited would be an understatement. What's really interesting, however, is a comparison of the visuals in key scenes between all three platforms (Xbox One, PS4 and PC) shows that while the PC variant clearly looks the best in multiple areas (as it should), there's evidence of good, intelligent optimization for consoles and PCs alike. After the debacle of Assassin's Creed Unity, Inquisition could provide an important taste of how to do things right. As expect though, when detail levels are increased, the PC still comes away with the best overall visuals. The Xbox One and PS4 are largely matched, while PC renders of characters have better facial coloring and slightly more detailed textures. The lighting models are also far more detailed on the PC version with the PS4 following behind. The Xbox One, in contrast, is rather muddy. Overall, the PC and PS4 are closest in general detail, with the Xbox One occasionally lagging behind.

Submission + - Fish tagged for research become lunch for gray seals (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: When scientists slap an acoustic tag on a fish, they may be inadvertently helping seals find their next meal. The tags, rods a few centimeters long that give off a ping that can be detected from up to a kilometer away, are often used to follow fish for studies on their migration, hunting, or survival rates. Researchers working with 10 gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) who were captive for a year have now reported that the animals—including the female seal pictured above, named Janice—can learn to associate the pings with food. If the findings hold true in the wild, the authors warn, they could skew the results of studies trying to analyze fish survival rates or predation.

Submission + - Gecko-inspired adhesives allow people to climb walls (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: In the 2011 movie Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Tom Cruise climbs the exterior of the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, using nothing more than a pair of gloves. Now, scientists have invented the real deal: hand-sized, gecko-inspired adhesives that can lift a human up glass walls—and that one day may even catch space junk. “This is one of the most exciting things I’ve seen in years,” says biomechanist Kellar Autumn of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, who was not involved with the study.

Comment Re:How much more screw up can our government get? (Score 1) 119

by BarbaraHudson (#48414531) Attached to: US Marshals Auctioning $20M Worth of Silk Road's Bitcoins
They're going to drop anyway, because there's lots more to be auctioned off in the next few months. FTFA:

Including 144,336 Bitcoin found on computer hardware belonging to Ulbricht, the government has recovered 173,991 Bitcoins. A spokeswoman for the Marshals Service, Lynzey Donahue, said in an email that the agency anticipated selling the remaining Bitcoins "in the coming months," but that "no exact dates have been determined."

So, less than a third are going to be dumped on the market now, with other big chunks in the future. Anyone with insider knowledge of the dates of the auctions could sell before the auction date is announced, and buy back at a lower price after, when the influx lowers the price.

Submission + - 55-year-old Dark Side of the Moon Mystery Solve, Not Related to Led Zeppelin (medium.com)

Submitted by azulza
azulza writes: The far side looks *nothing* like the side that faces us. After 55 years, we may finally know why. It wasn’t until the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 (1959) swung around to the far side of the Moon, that we got our first pictures of the far side of the Moon. One thing you’ll notice right away is the almost complete absence of the dark maria (spots) on the far side, and perhaps the second thing you’ll see is how much more prominently and thoroughly cratered the far side is.

You see, there’s an obvious explanation—that perhaps you even thought of yourself—but it turns out to be wrong. Think that Earth deflects asteroids? Nope! Read on for the insightful and thought-provoking article about the formation of our only moon!

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: BSD on the Desktop

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: So for a variety of reasons (some related to recent events, some ongoing for a while) I've kinda soured on Linux and have been looking at giving BSD a shot on the desktop.

I've been a Gentoo user for many years and am reasonably comfortable diving into stuff, so I don't anticipate user friendliness being a show stopper. I suspect it's more likely something I currently do will have poor support in the BSD world.

I have of course been doing some reading and will probably just give it a try at some point regardless, but I was curious what experience and advice other slashdot users could share. There's been many bold comments on slashdot about moving away from Linux, so I suspect I'm not the only one asking these questions.

Use case wise, my list of must haves is:
- Minecraft, and probably more dubiously, FTB
- mplayer or equivalent (very much prefer mplayer as it's what I've used forever)
- VirtualBox or something equivilant
- Firefox (like mplayer, it's just what I've always used, and while I would consider alternatives would definitely be a negative)
- Flash (I hate it, but browsing the web sans-flash is still a pain)
- OpenRA (this is the one I anticipate giving me the most trouble, but playing it is somewhat of an obsession)

Stuff that would be nice but I can live without:
- Full disk encryption
- Openbox / XFCE (It's what I use now and would like to keep using, but I could probably switch to something else without too much grief)
- jackd/rakarrack or something equivalent (currently use my computer as a cheap guitar amp/effects stack)
- Qt (toolkit of choice for my own stuff)

Submission + - Hotel in UK tries to stifle freedom of speach (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Bizzeh
Bizzeh writes: A couple have been "fined" £100 by a Blackpool hotel for leaving critical comments on Trip Advisor. Not only unfair trading practices, but stifling freedom of speech, and a violation of privacy and illegally storing credit card details.

Submission + - Debian Votes not to Mandate Non-systemd Compatibility

Submitted by paskie
paskie writes: Voting on a Debian General Resolution that would require packagers to maintain support even for systems not running systemd ended tonight with the resolution failing to gather enough support.

This means that some Debian packages could require users to run systemd on their systems in theory — however, in practice Debian still works fine without systemd (even with e.g. GNOME) and this will certainly stay the case at least for the next stable release Jessie.

However, the controversial GR proposed late in the development cycle opened many wounds in the community, prompting some prominent developers to resign or leave altogether, stirring strong emotions — not due to adoption of systemd per se, but because of the emotional burn-out and shortcomings in the decision processes apparent in the wake of the systemd controversy.

Nevertheless, work on the next stable release is well underway and some developers are already trying to mend the community and soothe the wounds.

Submission + - Facebook's Flow Could Help JavaScript Programmers Spot Elusive Bugs (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Facebook has released as open source a debugging tool for JavaScript, called Flow. Flow is a static type checker, one that ensures that when a program is run that its variables, functions and other elements of code will adhere to their original specifications. 'Flow improves speed and efficiency so developers can be more productive while using JavaScript,' Facebook engineers said in a blog post on Tuesday.

Submission + - Nokia's N1 Android tablet is actually a Foxconn tablet (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: Nokia surprised everyone when it announced the N1 Android tablet during the Slush conference in Finland, today. There is a twist in the story though: This is not a Nokia device.

Nokia doesn’t have a device unit anymore: it sold its Devices and Services business to Microsof, in 2013. N1 is made by Chinese contract manufacturing company Foxconn, which also manufactures the iPhone and the iPad.

But Nokia’s relationship with Foxconn is different from Apple’s. You buy iDevices from Apple, not Foxconn; you call Apple for support, not Foxconn. You never deal with Foxconn.

In the case of N1, Nokia will be nowhere in the picture. Foxconn will be handling the sales, distribution and customer care for the device. Nokia is licensing the brand, the industrial design, Z Launcher software layer and IP on a running royalty basis to Foxconn.

Submission + - Researchers discover ancient massive landslide (sciencemag.org) 1

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: For decades, geologists have noted the signs of ancient landslides in southwestern Utah. Although many parts of the landscape don’t look that odd at first glance, certain layers include jumbled masses of fractured rock sandwiched among thick veins of lava, ash, and mud. Now, new fieldwork suggests that many of those ancient debris flows are the result of one of Earth’s largest known landslides, which covered an area nearly 39 times the size of Manhattan.

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