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Submission + - Why does Facebook need to read my Text Messages? (ibtimes.co.uk) 1

Submitted by DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: Facebook updates its Android app quite a lot, but the latest version asks for some rather odd permissions. Rolling out in the UK this week, some users have noticed that it now wants permission to read your text messages. While most suspected Facebook wanted to access the data to try and serve you more targeted ads, Facebook says it is only so it can facilitate two-factor authentication...apparently.
Microsoft

Microsoft Joins Open Compute Project, Will Share Server Designs 90

Posted by timothy from the big-tent-theory dept.
1sockchuck writes "Microsoft has joined the Open Compute Project and will be contributing specs and designs for the cloud servers that power Bing, Windows Azure and Office 365. "We came to the conclusion that sharing these hardware innovations will help us accelerate the growth of cloud computing," said Kushagra Vaid, Microsoft's General Manager of Cloud Server Engineering. The company is also releasing its Chassis Manager software that manages its servers, fans and power, which which is now available on GitHub. "We would like to help build an open source software community within OCP as well," said Microsoft's Bill Laing. Microsoft's cloud server hardware is built around a 12U chassis that can house up to 24 server and storage blades, offering a different approach from the current Open Compute server and storage designs."

Submission + - Historical carbon emissions due to Dragons on Middle Earth (uct.ac.za)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The climate of Middle Earth has recently been under the spotlight, with the current and future climate of Middle Earth simulated using the HadCM3L General Circulation Model. However, to the best of our knowledge, there has been little work investigating the historical carbon emissions of Middle Earth. Specifically, what impact has the demise of dragons had on carbon emissions? To shed some light on this question , we start by considering the carbon footprint of the antagonist, Smaug.

Submission + - Congressmen Say Clapper Lied to Congress, Ask Obama to Remove Him

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: A group of six Congressmen have asked President Barack Obama to remove James Clapper as director of national intelligence as a result of his misstatements to Congress about the NSA’s dragnet data-collection programs. The group, led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), said that Clapper’s role as DNI “is incompatible with the goal of restoring trust in our security programs”.

Clapper is the former head of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and has been DNI since 2010. In their letter to Obama, the group of Congressmen calling for his ouster said that he lied to Congress and should no longer be in office.

“The continued role of James Clapper as Director of National Intelligence is incompatible with the goal of restoring trust in our security programs and ensuring the highest level of transparency. Director Clapper continues to hold his position despite lying to Congress, under oath, about the existence of bulk data collection programs in March 2013. Asking Director Clapper, and other federal intelligence officials who misrepresented programs to Congress and the courts, to report to you on needed reforms and the future role of government surveillance is not a credible solution,” the letter from Issa, Ted Poe, Paul Broun, Doug Collins, Walter Jones and Alan Grayson says.

Submission + - Bitcoin, Dogecoin and More All Report Heavy Losses in Wake of Shrem Arrest (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: From bitcoin and litecoin to dogecoin, heavy losses are being felt across the crypto-currency landscape, with all but one of the top 60 coins registering losses.

Bitcoin fell by almost 11% in 24 hours between 27 and 28 January — a drop partly blamed on the arrest of BitInstant currency exchange CEO and Bitcoin Foundation vice president Charlie Shrem.

Submission + - The Pirate Bay block will be lifted in the Netherlands (www.nrc.nl) 1

Submitted by swinferno
swinferno writes: The Dutch ISP's Ziggo and XS4all are no longer required to block access to the websites of The Pirate Bay. This has been decided by the court in The Hague.
The blockade has proven to be ineffective. The Dutch anti-piracy organization BREIN will have to reimburse legal costs of EUR 326.000. The internet provider XS4ALL has already started lifting the ban. The website of The Pirate bay was ordered to be blocked by the two major ISPs in January 2012. Recent studies by Amsterdam University and CentERdata.showed that this did not reduce the number of downloads from illegal sources. Many people circumvented the blockade.

Submission + - Students at UCL discover nearby supernova (ucl.ac.uk)

Submitted by clive_p
clive_p writes: Students and staff at UCL’s teaching observatory, the University of London Observatory, have spotted one of the closest supernova to Earth in recent decades. At 19:20 GMT on 21 January, a team of students – Ben Cooke, Tom Wright, Matthew Wilde and Guy Pollack – assisted by Dr Steve Fossey, spotted the exploding star in nearby galaxy Messier 82 (the Cigar Galaxy).

The discovery was a fluke – a 10 minute telescope workshop for undergraduate students that led to a global scramble to acquire confirming images and spectra of a supernova in one of the most unusual and interesting of our near-neighbour galaxies.

Submission + - How OSS projects use pull requests on Github (gousios.gr)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In a paper about to be presented at the International Conference on Software Engineering, researchers analyzed all Github projects initially and then went in depth with about 300 big ones, including Ruby on Rails and Django, to see how they use pull requests. The research uncovered several interesting facts: most projects on Github are one man shows, most pull requests are merged in under a day while only a few are rejected due to technical reasons. In addition, the paper claims that we can predict whether a pull request will be merged or not and how long the merge process will take.

What is your take? Are pull requests an effective way to get contributions in OSS projects?

Submission + - Predator Drone Sends North Dakota Man to Jail (suasnews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: What do you say to a drone that makes an arrest?

“Book him, Predator?”

This was no joke for a North Dakota farmer who has the dubious honor of being the first American sentenced to prison with the assistance of a Predator drone. Rodney Brossart was sentenced to three years in prison, of which all but six months was suspended, for a June 2011 incident in which police attempted to arrest him over his failure to return three cows from a neighboring farm that had strayed on to his property.

Comment Same press release as last year (Score 3, Informative) 49

by Animats (#46088141) Attached to: The Changing Face of Robotics

The 2012 interview was more informative:

" Indeed. We don't mean "common sense" from a Marvin Minsky-like strong AI perspective. Baxter's "execution" application consists of a series of behavior-based systems. During "training," the robot detects task-relevant features and uses it to build up the behavior based system.
For example, let's say a user is training the robot for a pick and place task. During the "pick" phase, a user places the gripper above an object and closes the gripper. The force on the gripper is detected by the robot. Our "training" application detects this sequence as "the robot is grasping an object"... so during "execution", Baxter won't proceed unless it actually detects an object in the robots gripper. Thus, if the object fell out, it would stop (or do something else). This is different from how existing industrial robots work -- they'd just merrily continue the pick-and-place without the object.
Collectively, these "behavior primitives" are assigned and composed, ie. "learned", during "training" by having non-technical users directly manipulate the robot rather than programming it (which is also possible for those inclined). This gives the robot an air of common sense."

This is useful, but not that intelligent. Take a look at these PR videos to see what it can do. Basically, it can pack and unpack things, and move them from one place to another. It's not good enough to assemble much of anything. Plugging in connectors to assemble a phone? Not with this machine and software.

Submission + - Microsoft Joins Open Compute Project, Will Share Server Designs (datacenterknowledge.com)

Submitted by 1sockchuck
1sockchuck writes: Microsoft has joined the Open Compute Project and will be contributing specs and designs for the cloud servers that power Bing, Windows Azure and Office 365. “We came to the conclusion that sharing these hardware innovations will help us accelerate the growth of cloud computing,” said Kushagra Vaid, Microsoft's General Manager of Cloud Server Engineering. The company is also releasing its Chassis Manager software that manages its servers, fans and power, which which is now available on GitHub. "We would like to help build an open source software community within OCP as well," said Microsoft's Bill Laing. Microsoft's cloud server hardware is built around a 12U chassis that can house up to 24 server and storage blades, offering a different approach from the current Open Compute server and storage designs.

Submission + - Blizzard Releases In-House Design Tools To Starcraft Modders (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: Blizzard has released a powerful new suite of tools for Starcraft 2 modders and developers that fundamentally change the nature of what's possible in the popular RTS game. Now, players can use the same architectural and graphics design toolsets that Blizzard has used internally to build new units, tilesets, and models. Furthermore, these tools are now available even with the Starcraft 2: Starter Edition kit. Critically, artists will now be able to incorporate images and effects designed in programs like 3ds Max, Photoshop, or other high-end particle systems. The exciting thing about these releases is that Starcraft 2's modding list is as interesting as the primary game, if not moreso. Fans have faithfully created adaptations of famous Starcraft maps, implemented entirely new rulesets that blend the old, micro-friendly playstyle of Starcraft with the modern engine, and even gone total conversion with Warcraft ported over into the SC2 game.
Transportation

Nissan Unveils 88 Pound 400-HP Race Car Engine 239

Posted by samzenpus from the packs-a-punch dept.
cartechboy writes "Motorsports used to be about lots of horsepower, torque, and big engines. In recent years there's been a shift to downsizing engines, using less fuel, and even using alternative energy such as clean diesel and hybrid powertrains. Today Nissan unveiled a 400-horsepower 1.5-liter three-cylinder turbocharged engine that weighs only 88 pounds. This engine will be part of the advanced plug-in hybrid drivetrain that will power the ZEOD RC electrified race car that will run in the 2015 LMP1 class during the race season. Nissan says the driver of the ZEOD RC will be able to switch between electric power and gasoline power with the batteries being recharged via regenerative braking. Even more impressive, according to Nissan, for every hour the ZEOD RC races, the car will be able to run one lap of the Le Mans' 8.5-mile Circuit de la Sarthe on electric power alone. If true, that will make it the first race car in history to complete a lap during a formal race with absolutely zero emissions. If this all works, we could be witnessing the future of motorsports unfold before our eyes later this year when the ZEOD RC (video) makes its race debut at this year's Le Mans 24 Hours in June."

Submission + - New Zealand Schools find less structure improve childrens' behavior

Submitted by geminidomino
geminidomino writes: A research project involving eight schools in Dunedin and Auckland report that loosening rules on the playground may lead to fewer incidents of bullying, vandalism, and injury. One principal opines ""The kids were motivated, busy and engaged. In my experience, the time children get into trouble is when they are not busy, motivated and engaged. It's during that time they bully other kids, graffiti or wreck things around the school."

As one might expect, the article states that there was a lot of resistance to the project, and I'm kind of surprised they got as many administrators to sign on as they did. The story may be premature, as the article states that "the results of the study will be collated this year," but it may be interesting to see how the numbers shake out.

Comment Re:Not one single action... (Score 5, Informative) 330

by Animats (#46084771) Attached to: Bitcoin Exchange CEO Charlie Shrem Arrested On Money Laundering Charge

Mod parent up. A U.S. Senate commitee held a hearing on Bitcoin a few months ago. All the regulatory agencies were there.

FinCen: We're watching it, no big deal.
DEA: the big cartels aren't using it, the street dealers aren't using it.
FBI: We took down Silk Road, which was using Bitcoin, and Bitcoin didn't make it harder to do that.
Secret Service: No big deal.
Homeland Security: terrorists don't seem to be using it.
IRS: Taxable income is taxable income; we'll deal with it.
SEC: Trading Bitcoin is just like trading anything else. We busted one guy running a Ponzi scheme with Bitcoins and the judge agreed that using Bitcoins didn't make it special.

Conclusion of the Senate committee: no need for special Bitcoin legislation.

All the US law enforcement action involving Bitcoins has been for doing routine crook stuff. Now, China is cracking down on Bitcoins, but they have exchange controls; you have to get permission to swap yuan for dollars or euros. The US has an open market in foreign currencies; you can swap dollars for yen without asking anyone's permission. There are reports to make to FinCen, but they just log the info.

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