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Microsoft

Submission + - Forbes Names Microsoft's Steve Ballmer names worst CEO

Submitted by _0x783czar
_0x783czar writes: Microsoft haters gleefully have latched on to the latest scoop that a Forbes columnist has named Steve Ballmer the worst CEO. It seems that the article has leveled some strong accusations of irresponsible and ineffective business practices; claiming that Microsoft has not progressed over the last 12 years of Ballmer's leadership.

http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/14/microsoft-steve-ballmer-worst-ceo/

(full disclosure: I'm not a Microsoft fan myself and tend to agree with this piece.)
Politics

Submission + - 3D-Printing gets boost from Obama and DOD (3dprinterhub.com)

Submitted by
jcho5
jcho5 writes: "Surprising, even politicians can see where the tech winds blow. In this case, additive manufacturing --aka 3d-printing.

With the economy in the dumps, the US needs all the jobs it can get. A hobbling manufacturing sector makes 3d-printing a promising sight. Under Obama's National Network of Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI), a new Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute is soon to be born

The Brains at DoD, DoE and NASA don't want to see another technology pass us by. Long live innovation!"
Security

Submission + - Has th3j35t3r been unmasked? (scmagazine.com.au)

Submitted by mask.of.sanity
mask.of.sanity writes: The Wikileaks-hating, cyber terrorist-fighter The Jester (th3j35t3r) has reportedly been unmasked by a former US army colleague who claims to have served alongside the hacker in the US Special Operations Command.

Twitter user cubespherical uploaded what they claimed to be a direct message exchange with The Jester in which they claimed to release the hackers' resume once a donation of 20,000 BitCoins was received.

The BitCoins would be donated to Wikileaks and help cubespherical "hide".

Submission + - Best iPad apps for computer security professional?

Submitted by CompusecKevin
CompusecKevin writes: So I just purchased a new iPad with my blazing fast LTE internet and thought to myself what all can a security professional do from the ipad? I've already installed a great SSH client (that does RDP and VNC too), nessus client, and my VPN is all setup and good to go. What other iPad apps are out there for doing pen testing and the like? No metasploit for iPad yet?
Graphics

Submission + - Modeling People and Places with Internet Photo Collections (acm.org)

Submitted by
CowboyRobot
CowboyRobot writes: "Two resarchers have created a system that aggregates thousands of photos from around the Web and integrates them into single images.
One application is creating maps by taking the GPS coordinates of photos taken from a collection. Another is creating 3D models of historical buildings by automatically pasting together tourists' photos taken from different angles.
"The challenge is that online data sets are largely unstructured and thus require sophisticated algorithms that can organize and extract meaning from noisy data. In our case, this involves developing automated techniques that can find patterns across millions of images.""

Submission + - Halo 4 Box Art Revealed (techfleece.com)

Submitted by
TheGift73
TheGift73 writes: "The box art has been revealed for 343 Industries Halo 4 which is to be released globally on November 6th 2012.

The art was pieced together by NeoGAF user spawn031 after emails were sent out to Xbox Live members titled “Your piece of the Halo 4 puzzle”. Each email came with a snip of the official Halo 4 boxart, 32 pieces in all."
Science

Submission + - photovoltaic powered retinal prosthetic (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by slew
slew writes: Although it hasn't been tested on humans yet, stanford researchers have created a new type of retinal prosthetic that is photovoltaic powered. The gist is that external googles convert an image into infrared light and that light conveys both the image and the power for the retinal implant which means no batteries, or bulky induction coils are required for the retinal implant. This should allow for higher resolution implant (the experimental device has 176 pixels where in contrast the currently available retinal implant from SecondSight is about 60 pixels and requires a bulky inductive antenna). Might be a while till we get to a bionic eye, but this should be quite a help for the sight challenged among us.

Submission + - Wall-mounted non-touchscreen Skype setup for toddler's room?

Submitted by
mmmmdave
mmmmdave writes: "My parents love to Skype with my kid. My kid loves to mash laptop buttons and drool on the screen. And because we don't want to spend forty minutes every night holding the laptop outside of baby arms' length, we're looking to build some sort of wall-mounted monitor + webcam thingy. I'm sure there's a much cheaper option than sticking an iPad on the wall; what's more, non-touchscreen is probably better, so my daughter can't hang up the calls. Any ideas?"
Data Storage

Submission + - War of the Cloud Drives (Dropbox vs SkyDrive vs Google Drive vs iCloud vs Box) (wordpress.com)

Submitted by
talbott
talbott writes: "Today, users have many choices for synchronizing files and backing important memories and personal assets including music, pictures, notes, business documents, and other personal or business files. Recently Microsoft and Google have upped the ante against Dropbox and Apple with their latest offerings. The offerings range from free to premium services, also known as the “freemium” model. Amazon also has some interesting benefits, such as unlimited music storage which I have started to use. Finally Box which also competes in the space for “personal” cloud storage may be better suited for company or team based scenarios. In this post I will cover some of the pros and cons of each and some common scenarios for usage. I will also discuss what you get for free, and what some extra charges will get you an how much it will cost (measured in gigabytes per month)."

Submission + - LulzSec member pleads not guilty to charges he hacked Stratfor website (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
TheGift73
TheGift73 writes: "A former LulzSec member has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he hacked into the servers of global intelligence company Stratfor and stole credit card data and personal details of 860,000 of its clients.

Jeremy Hammond entered the plea on Monday during a brief hearing in US District Court in Manhattan, the Associated Press reported. He's been held in federal custody since an initial court appearance in Chicago in early March, when federal prosecutors named him as a lieutenant of LulzSec ringleader Hector Xavier "Sabu" Monsegur. There was no request for Hammond to be released on bail during Monday's hearing, according to the AP report."

Submission + - ZeroTouch Sensor: Ready for Large Televisions and ESports Gaming

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers Jon Moeller, Andruid Kerne, and a team from the Interface Ecology Lab at Texas A&M University showcased the latest ZeroTouch multi-finger sensing technology at ACM CHI, in Austin. ZeroTouch is a new spin on infrared sensing technology, which optimizes the sensor readout cycle for a linear array of modulated infrared light receivers.

ZeroTouch is a high performance cost-effective solution for television scale multi-touch sensing, as the researchers showed through integration of the sensor with a 55 inch LCD TV. ZeroTouch also constitutes a precise free-air sensing technology (Kinect can be used as a complementary technology to sense depth). Researcher Bill Hamilton uses ZeroTouch integrated with Wacom Cintiq to showcase new embodied eSports interaction for the open source Zero-K real time strategy game.

Submission + - Biggest Kickstarter Project Ever Surpasses $10 Million; Cuts Off Funding (techdirt.com)

Submitted by
TheGift73
TheGift73 writes: "We keep hearing that these new business models and platforms really can't handle "big" projects. While part of the charm and power of these platforms is that they can fund smaller "long tail" projects that might never otherwise see the light of day, there's no reason that they can't do bigger projects as well. A few weeks ago, we told you about the Kickstarter campaign for the Pebble e-watch, which was the fastest growing Kickstarter project ever, surpassing $1 million in just 28 hours, and hitting $4.5 million by the time we got our post out."
Technology

Submission + - Microchips, lollipops and echolocation: New ways to help the blind see (patexia.com)

Submitted by
ericjones12398
ericjones12398 writes: "Two men in the United Kingdom who had lost their vision after birth due to a genetic condition called retinitis pigmentosa, wherein light-sensitive cells in the eye stop working, just received the gift of sight due to an innovative new microchip implant. Surgeons partially restored vision to both men by implanting tiny electronic chips (0.12 by 0.12 inches) in a thin sheet of tissue at the back of the men’s eyes. When switched on, the chips perform the duties of the malfunctioning photoreceptors, converting light into electrical impulses that travel to the brain. A thin cable threaded beneath the skin connects the chip to a battery back, which sits under the skin near the ear.
These chips were designed by Retina Implant AG, a medical technology company in Germany, and have been implanted in at least ten patients so far as part of clinical trials. The current implants cannot help people with glaucoma or other conditions that degrade the optic nerve, and they do not offer the blind crisp and colorful images, but rather offer blurred outlines. Even so, these indistinct images are a vast improvement over complete blindness, and with the proper training, allow patients to distinguish food, tools, and sometimes people’s faces."
Privacy

Submission + - Drone Flights Increasingly Rapidly in U.S. Airspace (vice.com)

Submitted by derekmead
derekmead writes: Drones are already being tested in civilian airspace, and they're about to become a lot more popular. The first major milestone of the FAA’s Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 (.pdf) says that within 90 days of passagethe agency has to permit “local government and public safety agencies” to fly drones that exceed neither 4.4 pounds nor 400-foot altitudes.President Obama signed the $63 billion funding bill Feb. 14, which means the 90 days are now up.

So-called civilian drones are becoming big, big business. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, a drone industry lobbying group that boasts over 500 corporate members in 55 countries, took credit for language responsible for the FAA’s expedited approval of agencies that are eager to build up drone fleets beginning this year. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that nearly 50 companies are tinkering on some 150 different civilian unmanned systems, from micro drones to airliner-sized giants, all specifically designed to carry surveillance gear, not explosives. Some estimates have the American drone market in 2016 pulling down $6 billion in sales. So, too, will it come as no great shock to hear theFAAgot it together for today’s deadline.
Hardware

Submission + - An 8,000 Ton Giant Made the Jet Age Possible

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Tim Heffernan writes that when "The Fifty," as it’s known in company circles, broke down three years ago, there was talk of retiring it for good. Instead, Alcoa decided to overhaul their 50,000-ton, 6-story high forging press, now scheduled to resume service early this year. "What sets the Fifty apart is its extraordinary scale," writes Heffernan. "Its 14 major structural components, cast in ductile iron, weigh as much as 250 tons each; those yard-thick steel bolts are also 78 feet long; all told, the machine weighs 16 million pounds, and when activated its eight main hydraulic cylinders deliver up to 50,000 tons of compressive force." The Fifty could bench-press the battleship Iowa, with 860 tons to spare but it's the Fifty's amazing precision—its tolerances are measured in thousandths of an inch—that gives it such far-reaching utility. Every manned US military aircraft now flying uses parts forged by the Fifty as does every commercial aircraft made by Airbus and Boeing making the Jet Age possible. "On a plane, a pound of weight saved is a pound of thrust gained—or a pound of lift, or a pound of cargo," writes Heffernan. "Without the ultra-strong, ultra-light components that only forging can produce, they’d all be pushing much smaller envelopes." The now-forgotten Heavy Press Program (PDF), inaugurated in 1950 and completed in 1957, resulted in four presses (including the Fifty) and six extruders—giant toothpaste tubes squeezing out long, complex metal structures such as wing ribs and missile bodies. "Today, America lacks the ability to make anything like the Heavy Press Program machines," concludes Heffernan adding that "The Fifty" will be supplying bulkheads through 2034 for the Joint Strike Fighter. "Big machines are the product of big visions, and they make big visions real. How about a Heavy Fusion Program?""

Submission + - IAEA, Iran begins new nuke talks (mail.com)

Submitted by
Jetra
Jetra writes: "With the US checking Iraq and Afghanistan, it seems that Iran wants to join the Atomic Age, testing multipoint explosives to detonate a charge. As always, Iran denies such claims. This could either go one of three ways, Nuclear Annihilation, Atomic Power, or a Cold War between Iran and the Middleeast. Isreal warns that it will destroy all silos unless tensions are eased by other countries such as US, UK, Japan, and Russia."

Submission + - Plastic Logic Shows Off a Color ePaper Screen (the-digital-reader.com)

Submitted by Nate the greatest
Nate the greatest writes: I'm sure you've heard about the color E-ink screen which was rumored to be used on the next Kindle. As of today E-ink no longer has that market niche to themselves.

Plastic Logic held a press conference in Russia this morning where they unveiled a new color screen that uses their plastic based screen tech. The resolution is low (75ppi), but if the video is any sign then this might be an better screen than the 9.7" Triton color E-ink screen used on the Jetbook Color.

And that's not all Plastic Logic showed off this morning. They also developed a frontlight for their screen and they can play video at 12 frames per second. But best of all PL cut one of their screens in half just to show that it could still work.

Submission + - Ron Paul effectively ending presidential campaign (latimes.com)

Submitted by Dainsanefh
Dainsanefh writes: Ron Paul, Mitt Romney’s lone remaining rival for the Republican presidential nomination, announced Monday that he would stop spending money on the party’s 11 remaining primaries, in effect suspending his campaign.

Apart from President Obama and Romney, Paul has raised more money than any other White House contender this year – more than $36 million. His calls for strict adherence to the Constitution and his no-nonsense manner have spawned a vocal and well organized group of followers, but not enough to give him a realistic shot at the presidency.

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