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Submission + - Google demands Microsoft pull YouTube app for WP8 (engadget.com)

Submitted by exomondo
exomondo writes: Google has given Microsoft until May 22nd to pull their Windows Phone 8 YouTube app from the marketplace and disable it on customer devices. It not only includes a built-in ad blocker but also allows users to download videos and doesn't impose device-specific streaming restrictions outlined in the YouTube Terms Of Service.

Submission + - Interactive Raycaster for the Commodore 64 under 256 bytes (pouet.net)

Submitted by Wisdom
Wisdom writes: 1bir (1 Block Interactive Raycaster) is a simple ray casting engine implemented only in 254 bytes to run on a stock, unexpanded Commodore 64. The name comes from the fact that on a C64 floppy disk, 1 block is equivalent to 254 bytes stored on a disk sector. In 254 bytes, 1bir sets up the screen for drawing, creates sine and cosine tables for 256 brads based on a simple approximation, casts rays into a 2D map that lives inside the C64 KERNAL ROM, renders the screen in coordination with KERNAL, evaluates 8-way joystick input and detects collision against walls. The ray casting core employs a brute force algorithm to determine visible walls, while the mapping portion supports both open-ended (infinitely looped) and traditional, closed maps. The source code in 6502 assembly is available, with extensive comments. A YouTube video showcases 1bir in a detailed manner with both kind of maps and more information, while a Vimeo video presents a shorter demonstration.

Submission + - Cannabis cures Crohn's Disease, finds study (nih.gov)

Submitted by terrancem
terrancem writes: The marijuana plant (Cannabis sativa) induced remissions in patients with Crohn's disease, according to a new study of 21 patients who hadn't previously responded to other forms of treatment. The study is published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Submission + - Happy Birthday Frank Hornby!

Submitted by ErkDemon
ErkDemon writes: Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of inventor and toymaker Frank Hornby.
Hornby invented the Meccano metal construction toy (currently sold as Erector in the US) that inspired generations of children to become engineers, patenting the basis of his system in 1901. Originally sold as an educational system for teaching mechanics, “Mechanics Made Easy” became “Meccano” in 1907, and Hornby’s company, Meccano Ltd. went on to become one of Britain’s biggest toymakers, with Hornby creating a further string of product lines including Hornby Trains and Dinky Toys.
Hornby’s is a rare “British inventor” success story — his creation turned him from being a clerk in a meat importing company with no real qualifications or schooling into a millionaire industrialist and Member of Parliament.

Submission + - Minoan civilization was made in Europe (nature.com)

Submitted by ananyo
ananyo writes: The Minoans flourished on Crete for as many as 12 centuries. They are widely recognized as one of Europe's first 'high cultures', renowned for their pottery, metal-work and colourful frescoes. Their civilization fuelled Greek myths such as the story of the Minotaur. But their origins have been contentious, with many arguing that Minoans settled on Crete after arriving from North Africa or the Middle East. Now, a genetic analysis suggests that the Minoans were the descendents of European farmers who settled the island thousands of years earlier.

Comment Re:fly brains (Score 1) 209

by jdschulteis (#43669901) Attached to: The New AI: Where Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence Meet

The tool would trust me, specifically. Or more generally, the owner and permission holder to the system. If there are weird issues with whatever information, commands, or boundaries I give it that cannot be resolved by whatever capacity of "common sense" it already has formed (required for true natural language interaction), then that would be a point of discussion and clarification; or of course the tool owner could escalate permission and hope the system doesn't screw up by acting without full understanding

Doctor Chandra, will I dream?
Businesses

Submission + - Dell Confirms and Details Rival Bids from Blackstone and Icahn (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by
DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: "Dell has confirmed it has received "two alternative acquisition proposals" from billionaire investor Carl Icahn and the world's largest equity firm Blackstone. These bids rival the $24.4bn offer made by co-founder Michael Dell and equity firm Silver Lake last month, who want to take the company private.
Dell also confirmed details of the two offers, with both exceeding Michael Dell's original offer of $13.65 per share, with Blackstone offering $14.25 and Icahn offering $15 per share."
Android

Submission + - Maybe don't install that groovy pirated Android keyboard (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by
iComp
iComp writes: "A mobile software developer has turned an popular third party Android mobile keyboard called SwiftKey into a counterfeit package loaded with a trojan as a warning about the perils of using pirated or cracked apps from back-street app stores.

Georgie Casey, who runs a popular Android app-development blog in Ireland, created a modified (backdoored) version of SwiftKey using a tool called apktool combined with basic knowledge of Java and Android. The end result was a backdoored app called Keylogger SwiftKey APK, which Casey made available from his website (along with explicit warnings that it was to be used by interested parties and only to validate the problem).

"Apktool isn't keylogging software, it's an Android app dissassembler," Casey told El Reg.

"You dissassemble a Swiftkey keyboard, code your keylogger code that sends keylogs to my server, re-assemble with Apktool and now you've a keylogger. You still have to convince people to install it though.""
Japan

Submission + - Major Find by Japanese Scientists May Threaten Chinese Rare Earth Hegemony (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by cold fjord
cold fjord writes: It looks like deep sea exploration may pay off big time as Japanese scientists have located rich deposits of rare earth elements on the sea floor in Japanese Exclusive Economic Zone waters, following up on their find two years ago of huge deposits of rare earths in mid-Pacific waters. The cumulative effect of these finds could significantly weaken Chinese control of 90% of the world supply of rare earth metals, which the Chinese have been using to flex their muscles. The concentration of rare earth metals in the Japanese find is astonishing: up to 6,500 ppm, versus 500-1,000 ppm for Chinese mines. The newly identified deposits are just 2-4 meters below sea floor which could make for relatively easy mining compared to the 10+ meters they were expecting... if they can get there. The fact that the deposits are 5,700 meters deep means there is just one or two little problems to resolve : "A seabed oil field has been developed overseas at a depth of 3,000 meters. . . But the development of seabed resources at depths of more than 5,000 meters has no precedent, either at home or abroad. There remains a mountain of technological challenges, including how to withstand water pressure and ocean currents and how to process the mining products in the ocean, sources said."
Science

Submission + - Planck telescope maps light of the big bang scattered across the universe (guardian.co.uk)

Submitted by alancronin
alancronin writes: The most detailed map ever made of the oldest light to shine through the universe has been released by scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA). The map reveals tiny variations in the "cosmic microwave background" or CMB – the faint glow of radiation that is left over from the earliest light to illuminate the cosmos. These primordial photons are all around us, and account for 1% of the "snow" that could be seen on untuned television sets. Scientists compiled the map from more than 15 months of observations by the ESA's Planck telescope. The map improves on data gathered by two previous Nasa missions called Cobe and WMAP. The director-general of Europe's space agency, Jean-Jacques Dordain, described the new map as "a giant leap in understanding the origins of the universe".

Submission + - "SpaceBass" gets kickstater (kickstarter.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Electronic DJing guitar with android/ios integration gets kickstarter.
The Military

Submission + - Weapons Experts Raise Doubts About Israel's Antimissile System (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: The NYTimes has the inevitable article about the data that now shows the Iron Dome missile defense system really didn't work as claimed during Israel's skirmish in Gaza back in November. MIT's Ted Postol, one of the world's top experts in the area, thinks it can't be more than 10-20 percent! An article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists back in December predicted as much, with more of a scientific explanation of why it couldn't really work as claimed: http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/op-eds/iron-dome-behind-the-hoopla-familiar-story-of-missile-defense-hype

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