45149473
submission
colinneagle writes:
The popular Confession Bear meme is typically used to make light-hearted personal confessions, like this one. But on Sunday, one Redditor's Confession Bear meme claiming that he murdered the abusive boyfriend of his sister brought on enough suspicion to lead him to delete his Reddit and Facebook accounts.
The meme read "My sister had an abusive meth addict / I killed him with his own drugs while he was unconscious and they ruled it as an overdose." While a meme can hardly be an indicator of actual guilt, the Redditor who posted it quickly realized the implications of the post and quickly began closing his Reddit and Facebook accounts. But he wasn't quick enough to do that before a few curious Reddit users were able to find his name, location, job history, and military rank through a few simple web searches.
One Reddit user who claims to have this information declined to post it to the site, but given the gravity of the "confession," should he?
45139633
submission
colinneagle writes:
This week, the team at Digia rolled out the first alpha release of Qt 5.1, which is slated to have the first round of support for Android and iOS, with full support coming in 5.2. The goal is to make 5.1 completely usable for building complete, shippable apps for both mobile platforms. That means Qt can now be used to build native, smooth applications on Linux, Windows, Android, iOS, MacOS X and even BlackBerry 10, all with an excellent integrated development environment – QtCreator. Coming with version 5.1 is also something called "Qt Quick Controls" — which is a set of nice, reusable user interface controls. Currently, it is focused on Desktop applications, but is expanding to add touchscreen-specific features. And, importantly, this release also brings "Qt Sensors" into play. "Qt Sensors" are pretty much exactly what they sound like — access to hardware sensors on devices where they are available, with built-in motion gesture recognition. Definitely a big plus for Android and iOS applications.
45136119
submission
colinneagle writes:
Frank X. Shaw, VP of Corporate Communications at Microsoft, did not seem happy about Facebook's Home announcement when he wrote, "I tuned into the coverage of the Facebook Home event yesterday and actually had to check my calendar a few times. Not to see if it was still April Fools Day, but to see if it was somehow still 2011. Because the content of the presentation was remarkably similar to the launch event we did for Windows Phone two years ago." Shaw also posted Microsoft's "Put people first with Windows Phone 7.5" video before writing, "We understand why Facebook would want to find a way to bring similar functionality to a platform that is sadly lacking it."
44995249
submission
colinneagle writes:
Just who, exactly, will be interested in an over-the-top, Facebook-centric phone to begin with? Sure, it sounds nice when Mark Zuckerberg says that phones should be about people and not apps, but what he's really saying is that Facebook is an app that should always be running on a user's device.
While many consumers don't care what type of phone they're using, they do care about Facebook permeatting their entire user experience. For instance, Facebook writes of its chat heads feature:
"With chat heads you can keep chatting with friends even when you're using other apps. When friends send you messages, a chat head appears with your friend's face, so you see exactly who you're chatting with. Messages reach you no matter what you're doing — whether you're checking email, browsing the web, or listening to music."
Is that a feature or a threat?
44994175
submission
ananyo writes:
According to the accepted account, an astronaut falling into a black hole would be ripped apart, and his remnants crushed as they plunged into the black hole’s infinitely dense core. Calculations by Joseph Polchinski, a string theorist at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, California, though point to a different end: quantum effects turn the event horizon into a seething maelstrom of particles and anyone who fell in would hit a wall of fire and be burned to a crisp in an instant. There's one problem with the firewall theory. If Polchinski is right, then either general relativity or quantum mechanics is wrong and his work has triggered a mini-crisis in theoretical physics.
44991823
submission
drachensun writes:
Francesco Santini was looking into the possibilities of stand-alone printing with the Solidoodle. He choose the PengPod 700, a tablet that runs a full linux distribution and turned it into a standalone interface for the SD2.
'So, in summary, I now have a fully-functional touchscreen pronterface installation that can drive the Solidoodle, for a total cost of 110$. No assembly, soldering, firmware modding required. Just a little bit of fiddling with Linux (if required, I can post a step-by-step guide, or prepare an ad-hoc linux image). '
44938137
submission
redletterdave writes:
Anyone under 18 found reading the news online could hypothetically face jail time according to the latest draft of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which is said to be “rushed” to Congress during its “cyber week” in the middle of April. According to the new proposal floated by the House Judiciary Committee, the CFAA would be amended to treat any violation of a website’s Terms of Service – or an employer’s Terms of Use policy – as a criminal act. Applied to the world of online publications, this could be a dangerous notion: For example, many news websites’ Terms of Use warn against any users under a certain age to use their site. In fact, NPR and the Hearst Corporation’s entire family of publications, which includes Popular Mechanics, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Houston Chronicle, all disallow readers under 18 from using their "services." According to the DOJ, this would mean anyone under 18 found accessing these sites — even just to read or comment on a story — could face criminal charges.
44935995
submission
colinneagle writes:
Yesterday, the FAA held a two-hour online session to solicit additional comments about the agency's proposed "Unmanned Aircraft System Test Site Program Privacy Policy" [pdf]. Callers were all over the place with their comments, some concerned about proposed test sites, but many were safety-related and did not seem to deal with privacy at all.
Many callers suggested that the FAA had no business veering away from safety to deal with privacy issues. Some callers said that is what the FCC, Congress, legislation and local government should be doing. For example, Charlottesville, VA, and Seattle have come up with their own drone solutions; lawmakers in 11 other states are also considering legislation to limit or ban the use of drones. Another caller said that "Congress punted" it back to the FAA. But some callers suggested that any privacy policy for UAVs should be addressed by the Department of Justice or the Department of Homeland Security. Another caller asked, if that were the case, how much of it would be classified or only be revealed in the long, slow process of FOIA requests?
Another caller said people thought Google Earth, police car cams, and cameras at intersections would be an invasion of privacy, but now "everyone" is "comfortable" with that technology.
44935951
submission
coondoggie writes:
There is no humor in an airport. It's a fact. And while most travelers business or otherwise know that, there are a few out there who haven't gotten the message or perhaps the choose to ignore it. Either way the "People Say the Darndest Things" or "What Not to Say at an Airport" section has become one of the more popular destinations on the TSA Blog site.
44904509
submission
netbuzz writes:
The questioner on Quora asks: “When is the difference between 99% accuracy and 99.9% accuracy very important?” And the most popular answer provided cites an example familiar to all of you: service level agreements. However, the most entertaining reply comes from a computer science and mathematics student at the University of Texas, Alex Suchman. Here’s his answer: “When it can stop a Zombie Apocalypse.”
44901179
submission
colinneagle writes:
Should Microsoft go private? Don't dismiss the question, it's a valid one, even if it would be extraordinarily difficult. The stocks of most of the old guard of the tech industry have been stagnant for years, even though the companies have done reasonably well or even very well in some cases. Yet they get no appreciation from Wall Street and are taken for granted. At this point, they have to ask what they gain by being public.
You go public to have shares to trade for acquisitions. Most of the acquisitions made by Microsoft are actually very small, strategic purchases. Its only big ones have been Skype and aQuantive, and boy was the latter one an utter failure. You go public to get the attention of institutional investors and build brand equity. Does anyone NOT know what Microsoft is?
It would be difficult, of course, but it might be worth it. Microsoft has a complicated, multi-year strategy to execute. It needs time and patience, something people clearly do not have with Windows RT. What better way to execute than to do it outside of the impatient eyes of Wall Street analysts who only care about next quarter's projections. It's not easy to implement a multi-year strategy when four times a year you have to hear 'what are you going to do for me next quarter?'
44859467
submission
colinneagle writes:
Professional golfer Bubba Watson has partnered with Oakley to design a hovercraft to replace the traditional golf cart (video available here). The prototype rides smoothly and quite impressively glides over ponds and sandtraps. And it is apparently designed to reduce the footprint pressure to about 33 times less than that of the human foot, meaning golfers can drive over the green or the wet fairway without worrying about damage.
44858625
submission
CowboyRobot writes:
Jasmine McTigue is the IT manager for Carwild Corp. a medical device manufacturer with offices in the U.S. and the Dominican Republic. She runs a mostly Dell shop, but Dell's recent announcement about going private has raised the costs of new hardware, and she decided to look at DIY options for a storage area network
"Now I have six channels of SATA2 connectivity, 12TB of raw space and two server-grade iSCSI NICs that I can use receive side scaling to distribute across the Atom's whopping dual 1.6GHz cores. Add two more drives for a total of 18TB raw space, and a bigger PSU for plenty of power. Here's the total cost, excluding the $225 in parts I reused: board, memory, chassis ($225); 18TB of 3TB SATA ($750); network card ($80); SATA PCIe mini card ($50); and power supply ($50). My grand total was $1,155 in hardware."
44855177
submission
anderzole writes:
Tim Cook yesterday, in an effort to assuage criticisms over Apple's warranty policies in China, posted an apology letter on Apple's Chinese website. Therein, Cook stressed that Apple does care about consumer feedback and outlined a number of steps Apple will take to improve its customer service in China.
China is a key country for Apple's continued growth and it's certainly in Apple's best interest to ensure that relations don't become strained.
To that end, the Chinese state-run media seemed to welcome Apple's apology. In a quick instant, Apple went from a targeted company to beloved. Well perhaps 'beloved' is a bit too strong of a word, but Cook's apology really seemed to do the trick. The Global Times, a state-run paper in China, wrote today that Apple's apology was very welcome and will work to ease the tension between the two parties.
"The company's apology letter has eased the situation," the paper explained, "softening the tense relationship between Apple and the Chinese market ... Its reaction is worth respect compared with other American companies,"
44644379
submission
colinneagle writes:
Widespread adoption of 3D printing technology may not be that far away, according to a Gartner report predicting that enterprise-class 3D printers will be available for less than $2,000 by 2016. 3D printers are already in use among many businesses, from manufacturing to pharmaceuticals to consumers goods, and have generated a diverse set of use cases. As a result, the capabilities of the technology have evolved to meet customer needs, and will continue to develop to target those in additional markets, Gartner says.
Comparing the impact of 3D printing to that of ecommerce, Gartner says the technology holds the potential to fundamentally change how business transactions are conducted. Businesses can create physical prototypes and architectural models much easier, and in some cases could enable customers to print the final purchased product from their own 3D printers, Gartner says. This potential will drive the cost of 3D printers down as businesses look to take advantage of new business models, Gartner says.