57631389
submission
concertina226 writes:
Drone operator Shaun O'Callaghan sent his DJI Phantom 2 quadcopter drone armed with a GoPro camera to the crater at the top of Mount Yasur, an active volcano that stands 361 metres above sea level and is considered to be one of the most easily accessible live volcanos in the world.
The drone was able to dodge scorching debris and lava at temperatures of up to 1,200 degrees Celsius, record the footage and still return safely to its owner.
57630067
submission
concertina226 writes:
The controversial Netflix-style movie streaming app for pirated films called Popcorn Time is no longer available to download, having been removed from Kim Dotcom's Mega file-hosting site.
While the official Popcorn Time website is still online there is no longer an option to download the software needed to stream the pirated movies.
Instead, a message where the download link should be reads: "Download links are down for a bit. We'll be right back! Careful when downloading from other sources, as we have the only official ones."
A member of the Popcorn Time says that this could be the end for the team, which has been collaborating to build the app on Github.
It appears that a copyright infringement notice sent to Mega has prompted Dotcom, who is already controversial enough, to remove the file. After sharing Torrent Freak's article on his Twitter, Dotcom has tweeted that Mega and Megaupload has always respected "takedown notices" and is now defending Mega, saying that he has no idea what files users are sharing on it since they are encrypted.
57622665
submission
concertina226 writes:
Yik Yak was launched four months ago by Buffington and his friend Tyler Droll and has so far amassed over 200,000 users. The 23-year-old founders have both just graduated from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina with degrees in business and software development respectively.
"We wanted to enable people to be really connected with the people around you, even if you don't know them. It's like a virtual bulletin board, a hyper-local version of Twitter where people can use it to post information and everyone in the area can see it," Buffington explains.
"Alabama recently had severe snow storms and the University of Alabama's extreme weather alert system was down [so] all of the students found out about the university being closed through Yik Yak."
57619029
submission
concertina226 writes:
A document filed on the US Federal Register website indicates that aircraft manufacturer Boeing applied to have additional security installed aboard some of its 777 series of airplanes five months ago to prevent onboard hacking of critical computer systems.
"This proposed data network and design integration may result in security vulnerabilities from intentional or unintentional corruption of data and systems critical to the safety and maintenance of the airplane," the document reads.
"The existing regulations and guidance material did not anticipate this type of system architecture or electronic access to aircraft systems. Furthermore, regulations and current system safety assessment policy and techniques do not address potential security vulnerabilities, which could be caused by unauthorised access to aircraft data buses and servers."
57591883
submission
concertina226 writes:
Disney has announced that it will be rolling out MyMagic+ over the next few months, a $1bn system featuring wearable technology which is capable of monitoring visitors and collecting data about their behaviour in Disney World theme parks.
The MagicBand wristbands take big data to another level – they come with radio frequency identification (RFID) chips that send signals wirelessly that connects to Disney's database server, meaning the wristbands can serve as hotel room keys, admission tickets and even be linked to debit or credit cards so people can tap to pay for items instantly.
They also enable Disney to keep track of visitors. In a theme park restaurant, users can select their orders on a touchscreen and choose to sit at any table, and the restaurant waiter can look on the system and see where the users are sitting as their wristbands identify them.
57589223
submission
concertina226 writes:
Americans who believe they are allergic to Wi-Fi are taking refuge in Green Bank, a tiny remote town in West Virginia where all electromagnetic signals including mobile phones are banned.
At least 36 people moved to live in Green Bank last year, claiming that they suffer from a condition known as "Electromagnetic Sensitivity", where symptoms include acute headaches, heart palpitations, tinnitus, eye problems and feeling the sensation of burning skin.
57583015
submission
concertina226 writes:
In Alabama, a teenager used Yik Yak to make school shooting threats at Marblehead High School last month, while in Orange County, California, threatening posts on the app caused a bomb scare at San Clemente High School and the school had to be locked down and searched by a bomb squad.
"The app was made for college-age users or above, for college campuses and to act as a virtual bulletin board, so it acts as local Twitter for their campus," app co-founder Brooks Buffington told CNN.
"One of the things we were planning to do is to essentially geo-sense every high school and middle school in America, so if they try to open the app in their school, it will say something like 'no, no no, looks like you are trying to open the app on a high school or middle school and this is only for college kids,' and it will disable it and the app won't work."
But is this enough to protect young people? In the UK, we've already had enough problems with Ask.fm, a social network where users can ask questions and send messages to each other anonymously.
57553771
submission
concertina226 writes:
If you missed Edward Snowden's interview with SXSW 2014 and don't fancy watching the hour-long video, here are most of the best quotes from the live video stream.
SXSW: "A question from Twitter: Is there anything we can do to make sure are data is secure from the NSA?"
ES: "There are a couple of technologies. There's full disc encryption, then there's network encryption and then there's also TOR, a mixed-routing network that's encrypted from the user, through the IP to a network of clouds, so because of this, your ISP can no longer spy on you by default, when you go to any website. In order to spy on TOR, you'd have to try to hack into the TOR cloud or monitor exits from TOR, but that's really difficult for any sort of mass surveillance. You'll be much safer."
57463629
submission
concertina226 writes:
"Ballmer was so loud that day his shouts could be heard outside the conference room. He'd just been told the board didn't back his plan to acquire two Nokia units," said the wire, citing sources.
IBTimes UK contacted Microsoft for comment but the company declined.
According to a former Microsoft engineer, Ballmer could react "very strongly" to things he did not like. In a statement filed as part of a lawsuit between Microsoft and Google, Mark Lucovsky wrote that Ballmer flew into a fury when he told him he was leaving Microsoft and going to Google.
57453981
submission
concertina226 writes:
Hackaday user Shenzhen cut open a suit jacket and lined it with strip after strip of carbon-fibre tape together with iron-on interfacing.
When he tried to shock himself with a Taser, the carbon-fibre conducted the 50,000-volt electrical charge but he did not receive a shock. He also attempted to shock himself with the Taser needle piercing through the suit into his skin — and still came out unscathed.
57444531
submission
concertina226 writes:
"Building a robot that has legs and walks around is a very expensive proposition. Mother Nature has created many wonderful things but one thing we do have that nature doesn't is the wheel, a continuous rotating joint, and tracks, so we need to make use of inventions to make things simpler," Angle tells IBTimes UK.
"The reason it has taken so long for the robotics industry to move forward is because people keep trying to make something that is cool but difficult to achieve, rather than trying to find solutions to actual human problems. Technology can be extremely expensive if you don't focus."
57414211
submission
concertina226 writes:
PowaTag, an innovative point and click mobile commerce app for iOS and Android, has launched in the UK and US with 240 leading retail brands on board, but the app creator has gone with low-energy Bluetooth Beacon technology rather than Near Field Communications (NFC).
"There's a lot of resistance from merchants, the jury's still out on NFC. Apple has not put NFC into its phones and that's always been a problem for NFC as an adoption strategy. Will it be successful? Maybe, but I don't think so," Powa Technologies' CEO Dan Wagner tells IBTimes UK.
57373919
submission
concertina226 writes:
It seems that the US is afraid of other countries damaging its valuable space assets orbiting Earth, as the Air Force has publicly declared its intention to send two new satellites into space to monitor and help protect the space objects in orbit around Earth.
"One cheap shot against the AEHF constellation would be devastating," Shelton said. "Similarly, with our Space Based Infrared System, SBIRS, one cheap shot creates a hole in our environment."
Sounds a bit like the movie plot of Gravity...
57341169
submission
realized writes:
Social media site Meetup.com is currently fighting off a DDOS attack after the company refused to pay a $300 ransom to not go through with the attack.
According to reports, the company's CEO, Scott Heiferman, got an email that said “A competitor asked me to perform a DDoS attack on your website. I can stop the attack for $300 USD. Let me know if you are interested in my offer”.
Before Heiferman finished reading the email the company started getting attacked.
The attack has been going on since last Thursday.
More information can be found on meetup’s official blog
