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Submission + - Dogecoin Moves Away from Bitcoin Dependency with US Dollar Exchange Opening (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: Dogecoin is the crypto-currency which is seen as a bit of a joke. After all how can a 'currency' based on a meme about the inner thoughts of a dog be credible? Well first it raises $30,000 to help send the Jamaican bobsled team to the Winter Olympics and now it is gaining even more legitimacy with a Canadian exchange called Vault of Satoshi allowing people buy Dogecoin directly using US or Canadian dollars — meaning it won't be so tied to the vagaries of bitcoin's value

Submission + - Federal consumer bureau data-mining hundreds of millions of consumer credit card (washingtonexaminer.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are conducting a massive, NSA-esque data-mining project collecting account information on an estimated 991 million American credit card accounts.

It was also learned at a Congressional hearing Tuesday that CFPB officials are working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency on a second data-mining effort, this one focused on the 53 million residential mortgages taken out by Americans since 1998. ...
Later in the hearing, Neugebauer remarked that CFPB "and NSA are in a contest of who can collect the most information." ...
although the CFPB disagreed with that statement.

In previous testimony before Rep. Jeb Hensarling's panel, Antonakes said “the combined data represents approximately 85-90 percent of outstanding card balances.”
The Argus contract specifies that the company must collect 96 “data points” from each of the participating card issuers for each credit card account on a monthly basis.
The 96 data points include a unique card-account identification reference number, ZIP code, monthly ending balance, borrower’s income, FICO score, credit limit, monthly payment amount, and days past due.
"Would you object to getting permission from consumers, those people who you work for, before you collect and monitor their information?" Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., asked Cordray.
"That would make it impossible to get the data," Cordray replied.
"You can't even opt out," Duffy said. "The NSA does not ask Americans' permission to collect their phone records and emails and texts. The CFPB does not ask permission to collect information on America's financial consumers."

Submission + - Check Point Discovers Critical Vulnerability In MediaWiki

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Check Point found a critical vulnerability in the MediaWiki project Web platform, which includes Wikipedia.org, with over 94 million unique visitors per month. This critical vulnerability left MediaWiki (version 1.8 onwards) exposed to remote code execution, where an attacker can gain complete control of the vulnerable web server. They alerted the WikiMedia Foundation about the vulnerability, and after verification, the Foundation issued an update and patch to the MediaWiki software.

Comment Re:Visit Twitter HQ (Score 1) 448

by Animats (#46107847) Attached to: Developer Loses Single-Letter Twitter Handle Through Extortion

Yes, there's a point in using a lawyer when $50K is involved. You don't just use lawyers for litigation. They're also useful in negotiation. If you put a lawyer on the job, the other side will usually put their lawyer on the job. This totally bypasses the customer service level and makes things happen.

Submission + - Magnetic monopole created (phys.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Nearly 85 years after pioneering theoretical physicist Paul Dirac predicted the possibility of their existence, an international collaboration led by Amherst College Physics Professor David S. Hall '91 and Aalto University (Finland) Academy Research Fellow Mikko Möttönen has created, identified and photographed synthetic magnetic monopoles in Hall's laboratory on the Amherst campus. The groundbreaking accomplishment paves the way for the detection of the particles in nature, which would be a revolutionary development comparable to the discovery of the electron.

Submission + - AMD's Mantle: Turns out it's for boosting CPUs, not GPUs (extremetech.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It’s no exaggeration to say that Mantle is one of the most anticipated graphics products of the year. It’s potentially a new competitor to Microsoft’s DirectX API, it’s been used as justification for Nvidia’s GameWorks program by Nvidia apologists, and preemptively celebrated as one of the major next-generation gaming technologies for both the PC and console space.

Submission + - Atlanta Gambled with Winter Storm and Lost

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Kim Severson reports at the NYT that by keeping schools and government offices open, and by not requiring tractor-trailers to use chains or stay out of the city’s core, metropolitan Atlanta gambled and lost. “We don’t want to be accused of crying wolf,” said Gov. Nathan Deal, who pointed out that the storm had been forecast to just brush the south side of the city. If the city had been closed and the storm had been as light as some forecasters had told him it was going to be, he said, money would have been lost, and people would have complained. Tuesday's snowfall, that brought only 2-3 inches of snow to most of the Atlanta metro area, and the hundreds of thousands of motorists who flooded the metropolitan area's roadways as the storm moved in — created travel nightmares for commuters, truckers, students and their families. Some commuters were stuck in their vehicles up to 18 hours after they first hit the roads. Others abandoned their cars in or beside the road. Hundreds of students spent the night at school. Some surrounding cities, including Hiram, Woodstock, Sandy Springs and Acworth, opened emergency shelters for stranded motorists. "It's an easy joke made by Northerners," wrote Joe Sterling and Sarah Aarthun. "A dusting of snow shuts down an entire city and hapless drivers white-knuckle their way through a handful of flurries." Further North streets are salted well in advance of a coming storm but Atlanta doesn't have the capacity for that kind of treatment. "We simply have never purchased the amount of equipment necessary," said meteorologist Chad Myers adding Atlanta had plenty of warning. "Why would you in a city that gets one snow event every three years? Why would you buy 500 snowplows and salt trucks and have them sit around for 1,000 days, waiting for the next event?"
AI

Silicon Brains That Think As Fast As a Fly Can Smell 84

Posted by samzenpus from the greased-lightning dept.
Nerval's Lobster writes "Researchers in Germany have discovered what they say is a way to get computers to do more than execute all the steps of a problem-solving calculation as fast as possible – by getting them to imitate the human brain's habit of finding shortcuts to the right answer. A team of scientists from Freie Universität Berlin, the Bernstein Center Berlin, and Heidelberg University have refined the idea of parallel computing into one they describe as neuromorphic computing. In their design, a whole series of processors designed as silicon neurons rather than ordinary CPUs are linked together in a network similar to the highly interconnected mesh that links nerve cells in the human brain. Problems fed into the neuro mesh are broken up and processed in parallel, but not always using the same process. The method by which neuromorphic processors handle problems varies with the way they're linked together, as is the case with neurons in the brain. The chips are designed to copy the layout and functions of brain cells, but the way they're interconnected is based on another highly efficient biological model. 'The design of the network architecture has been inspired by the odor-processing nervous system of insects,' said one of the researchers. 'This system is optimized by nature for a highly parallel processing of the complex chemical world.' In tests using real-world datasets, the prototype was able to match the performance of specialized Bayeseian pattern-matching systems. Even better, the stable decisions reached by 'output neuron populations' take approximately 100 milliseconds, which is the same speed required by the insect nervous systems on which the network design is based, according to the paper."

Submission + - Peanut Allergy Treatment Trial In UK 'A Success' (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by cold fjord
cold fjord writes: The BBC reports, "Peanuts are the most common cause of fatal allergic reactions to food. There is no treatment so the only option for patients is to avoid them completely, leading to a lifetime of checking every food label before a meal. The trial ... tried to train the children's immune system to tolerate peanut. Every day they were given a peanut protein powder — starting off on a dose equivalent to a one 70th of a peanut. Once a fortnight the dose was increased while the children were in hospital and then they continued taking the higher dose at home. The majority of patients learned to tolerate the peanut. ... Dr Andrew Clark, told the BBC: "It really transformed their lives dramatically, this really comes across during the trial. ... Dr Pamela Ewan added ... further studies would be needed and that people should not try this on their own as this "should only be done by medical professionals in specialist settings"." The story also notes, "The findings, published in the Lancet, suggest 84% of allergic children could eat the equivalent of five peanuts a day after six months."
Media

Is Amazon Making a Sub-$300 Console To Play Mobile Games? 76

Posted by samzenpus from the play-time dept.
itwbennett writes "Yesterday, a story suggesting that Amazon was planning to launch a sub-$300 Android game console made the rounds. A $300 box to play mobile games on your TV? ITworld's Peter Smith doesn't buy it. 'If Amazon is working on some kind of set-top box, it's going to be about streaming,' says Smith. 'Music, video, and games. Remember back in November when Amazon announced G2, a new AWS instance type designed for streaming GPU intensive tasks like games? Combine Amazon's G2 cloud servers and an Amazon set top box for console-like game streaming, plus supporting Android and/or iOS games (possibly the latter would also be streamed), and of course support for Amazon Video and MP3, and we're getting closer to something that may be worth $300.'"

Submission + - Occulus Rift Used in Virtual Reality Prototype with Live Motion Capture (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by arisvega
arisvega writes: A researcher at University College London has developed a prototype augmented reality system which enables users to interact with virtual objects, avatars and websites, all bundled with live motion tracking.

Before you get too excited, note that the system is rather difficult to be made portable, as it uses fixed cameras to perform motion capture.

The system, developed by William Steptoe (and presumably his team?), researcher at University College London, uses a head-mounted display and panels fitted to the hands to insert virtual objects into the room in which you sit or stand, enabling interaction with virtual objects, avatars and websites.

In this demonstration he uses the technology to interact with objects around him and brings up tablet-like displays to get online. He even uses his Occulus Rift to put on a virtual Occulus Rift on.
Data Storage

Hard Drive Reliability Study Flawed? 237

Posted by samzenpus from the on-the-other-hand dept.
storagedude writes "A recent study of hard drive reliability by Backblaze was deeply flawed, according to Henry Newman, a longtime HPC storage consultant. Writing in Enterprise Storage Forum, Newman notes that the tested Seagate drives that had a high failure rate were either very old or had known issues. The study also failed to address manufacturer's specifications, drive burn-in and data reliability, among other issues. 'The oldest drive in the list is the Seagate Barracuda 1.5 TB drive from 2006. A drive that is almost 8 years old! Since it is well known in study after study that disk drives last about 5 years and no other drive is that old, I find it pretty disingenuous to leave out that information. Add to this that the Seagate 1.5 TB has a well-known problem that Seagate publicly admitted to, it is no surprise that these old drives are failing.'"

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