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Submission + - Tiny Wireless Device Offers Tor Anonymity (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: The Anonabox router project, currently being funded through a Kickstarter campaign, has surpassed its original $7,000 crowdfunding goal by more than 10 times in just one day. The open source router device connects via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable making it harder for your IP address to be seen. While there have been other Tor-enabled routers in the past, they aren't small enough to fit in a shirt pocket like the Anonabox and they haven't offered data encryption on top of the routing network. The device, which is being pitched as a way for consumers to securely surf the web and share content (or allow businesses to do the same), is also being directed at journalists who may want to share stories in places where they might otherwise be censored.

Submission + - Snapchat Says Users Were Victimized By Their Use of Third-Party Apps (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Reports that the servers of photo messaging site Snapchat were hacked are being denied by the company, which is now is saying its users were instead victimized by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps. Hackers on 4chan have said broke into the site and they're preparing to release 200,000 photos or videos in their own database that will be searchable by Snapchatter name. According to one report, the third-party Snapchat client app enabled access for years to the data that was supposed have been deleted. The hackers have said they have a 13GB photo library. For its part, Snapchat in a statement reiterated its Terms of Use Policy, that "expressly prohibits" third-party app use "because they compromise our users' security."

Submission + - Intel processors fails at math. Again.

Submitted by rastos1
rastos1 writes: In a recent blog, software developer Bruce Dawson pointed out some issues with the way the FSIN instruction is described in the “Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer’s Manual.”, noting that the result of FSIN can be very inaccurate in some cases, if compared to the exact mathematical value of the sine function.

Bruce Dawson says: I was shocked when I discovered this. Both the fsin instruction and Intel’s documentation are hugely inaccurate, and the inaccurate documentation has led to poor decisions being made. ... Intel has known for years that these instructions are not as accurate as promised. They are now making updates to their documentation. Updating the instruction is not a realistic option.

Intel processors had a problem with math in past

Submission + - Are eHealth Records Responsible for Docs Missing Ebola Diagnosis? (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Thomas Eric Duncan died this morning at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. Duncan had first visited Presbyterian's ER on Sept. 23 with fever, headache and stomach pain, and even though he told a nurse he'd just returned from Liberia, he was sent home. Five days later, Duncan returned via ambulance. Initially, the hospital reported that a flaw in its eHealth records system was responsible for physicians misdiagnosing Duncan. A day later, it retracted that statement. Experts, however, say instead of improving work flow, electronic health records (EHRs) often eat healthcare worker time and distract physicians from patients, creating cognitive dissonance that leads to mistakes. Errors in patient care due to EHRs are "incredibly common," according to a report released last year by the American College of Physicians. Hospitals that are under EHR vendor contracts, however, can prevent physicians from speaking publicly about those problems by using gag clauses. Dr. Randall Case, an emergency room physician and data infomatics expert who has worked for EHR makers such as Cerner and Siemens, said the problem with EHRs is multifaceted. The systems are "thrust" on physicians and nurses, who sometimes receive minimal training and then must adapt their workflows around them. While workflows, user interfaces and the learnability of their systems have improved, the improvements have been marginal, he said.

Submission + - Solar Could Lead In Power Production By 2050 (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Solar power could be the leading source of electricity compared with other renewables and conventional sources of power, such as oil and coal, according to a pair of reports from International Energy Agency. PV panels could produce 16% of the world's electricity, while solar thermal electricity (STE) is on track to produce 11%. At the end of 2013, there had been 137GW of solar capacity deployed around the world. Each day, an additional 100MW of power is deployed. One reason solar is so promising are plummeting prices for photovoltaic cells and new technologies that promise greater solar panel efficiency. For example, MIT just published a report on a new a material that could be ideal for converting solar energy into heat by tuning the material's spectrum of absorption. Ohio State University just announced what it's referring to as the world's first solar battery, which integrates PV with storage at a microsopic level. "We've integrated both functions into one device. Any time you can do that, you reduce cost," said iying Wu, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Ohio State.

Submission + - New HDMI Stick Based on Firefox OS Challenges Chromecast (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: A new HDMI streaming media stick is preparing to launch and it's taking on Chromecast in both price and hardware performance. The new HDMI dongle from San Jose-based Matchstick will retail for $25 when it begins shipping in February. The dongle runs on a dual-core Rockchip 3066 processor. It has 4GB of onboard storage capacity and 1GB of DDR3 memory. Google's Chromecast uses a single-core Marvell Armada 1500-Mini CPU and has 2GB of flash and 512MB of DDR3. Matchstick said Mozilla recently certified the dongle and the first of the devices will ship in February. The Matchstick project is based on an open hardware and software platform and has launched a developer program called "Matchstick for Apps." The company is raising money for the project through Kickstarter. After three days, it surpassed its 30-day, $100,000 goal with more than $224,000.

Submission + - Mercedes-Benz Reveals Self-Driving Semi-Trailer Truck (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Mercedes-Benz displayed an 18-wheel semi-trailer truck that can drive itself on highways. The Mercedes-Benz Future Truck 2025 was demonstrated at the 2014 International Commercial Vehicle show this month. Like other self-driving vehicles, the truck uses sensors and exterior cameras to stay within lanes and detect objects around it in order to adjust speed. The inside of the truck's cab looks like a lounge. The driver's seat rotates 45 degrees to allow autonomous driving away from the steering wheel, and instead of the speedometer and tachometer digital displays, monitors and tablets are placed in the cockpit. Because acceleration and braking is optimized, creating a constant flow of traffic, gas consumption and emissions of the Future Truck 2025 can be reduced, the company said. Transport times are also predictable.

Submission + - 3D Printer Able to Produce Skin w/Hair Follicles and Sweat Glands (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: A 3D printer developed by researchers at the University of Toronto is capable of using a patient's own cells to print skin. The technology could be used to treat burn victims and patients with other types of injuries, as well as to test pharmaceutical drugs. While still in pilot mode, the new PrintAlive Bioprinter is in the process of being commercialized by MaRS Innovations in collaboration with the Innovations and Partnerships Office (IPO) of the University of Toronto, whose labs have filed two patents on the device. The 3D skin printer works by placing the patient's cells along with other biomaterials into a micro-device, which then pushes them out through several channels. The biomaterials are then mixed, causing a chemical reaction that forms a "mosaic hydrogel", a sheet-like substance compatible with the growth of cells into living tissues. The hydrogel allows the various dermis cells to be seeded in precise and controlled patterns. The resulting thin film is then rolled up to crease thicker layers of tissue.

Submission + - Consumer Reports Sells Out To Apple (consumerreports.org) 2

Submitted by wiredog
wiredog writes: CR claims that supposedly "unbiased" tests show that " both iPhones seem tougher" than #bendgate would imply and that the 6+ "outperformed the HTC One". CR also claims that "the Note 3's screen splintered and it stopped working."

Submission + - Utilities Should Worry. Rooftop Solar Could Soon Cut Their Profit (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: A study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory predicts that distributed rooftop solar panel installations will grow from 0.2% market penetration today to 10% by 2022, during which time they're likely to cut utility profits from 8% to 41%. Using those same metrics, electricity rates for utility customers will grow only by as much as 2.7% over the next eight years. By comparison, the cost of electricity on average rose 3.1% from 2013 to 2014. The study was performed for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy under the U.S. Department of Energy. One of the main purposes of the study was to evaluate measures that could be pursued by utilities and regulators to reduce the financial impacts of distributed photovoltaics.

Submission + - Acer Launches First 4K Panel With NVIDIA G-Sync Technology On Board (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Save for a smattering of relatively small, 3K and 4K laptop displays, we haven't quite gotten to the same type of pixel density on the PC platform, that is available on today's high-end ultra-mobile devices. That said, the desktop display space has really heated up as of late and 4K panels have generated a large part of the buzz. Acer just launched the first 4K display with NVIDIA G-Sync technology on board. To put it simply, G-SYNC keeps a display and the output from an NVIDIA GPU in sync, regardless of frame rates or whether or not V-Sync is enabled. Instead of the monitor controlling the timing and refreshing at say 60Hz, the timing control is transferred to the GPU. The GPU scans a frame out to the monitor and the monitor doesn't update until a frame is done drawing, in lock-step with the GPU. This method completely eliminates tearing or frame stuttering associated with synchronization anomalies of standard panels. There are still some quirks with Windows and many applications that don't always scale properly on high-DPI displays, but the situation is getting better every day. If you're a gamer in the market for a 4K display, that's primed for gaming, the Acer XB280HK is a decent new option with this technology on board, though it does come at a bit of a premium at $799 versus standard 28-inch panels.

Submission + - IBM Solar Concentrator Can Produce12kW/day, and Act as Desalinator, Cooler (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: IBM Research and Switzerland-based Airlight Energy today announced a parabolic dish that increases the sun's radiation by 2,000 times while also producing fresh water and air conditioning. The new Concentrator PhotoVoltaics (CPV) system uses a dense array of water-cooled solar chips that can convert 80% of the sun's radiation into useful energy. The CPV, which looks like a 33-foot-high sunflower, can generate 12 kilowatts of electrical power and 20 kilowatts of heat on a sunny day — enough to power several average homes, according to Bruno Michel, the project's lead scientists at IBM Research in Switzerland.

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