robbblack - Slashdot User

Submission + - The Leap: Gesture control like Kinect, but cheaper and higher resolution (extremetech.com)

Submitted by

MrSeb

on Monday May 21, 2012 @10:41AM

MrSeb writes: "It seems Minority Report-style computer interfaces might arrive a whole lot sooner than we expected: A new USB device, called The Leap, creates an 8-cubic-feet bubble of “interaction space,” which detects your hand gestures down to an accuracy of 0.01 millimeters — about 200 times more accurate than “existing touch-free products and technologies,” such as your smartphone’s touchscreen or Microsoft Kinect. Unfortunately Leap Motion (the company behind the Leap) is being very tight-lipped about the technology being used, but it's probably some kind of infrared LIDAR (radar, but using light), or perhaps a high-resolution version of Kinect (which only uses a 640x480 camera). It's available to pre-order for $70 — and developers can register for a free device + SDK."

Submission + - Fixing the Final Steps in the Recycling Chain (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by

itwbennett

on Tuesday September 13, 2011 @02:04PM

itwbennett writes: "The only way to rapidly and cost-effectively devolve computer products is to know the composition of the products. But we don’t, says blogger Tom Henderson. This industry — largely at the behest of COMPTIA members — pioneered bar coding schemes, asset tagging, and inventory control, and could now also add rapid product devolution to its list of credits. We need a taxonomy, a method to affix material markings, and a database access method that tells the devolvers how to make money. Do this and you could be a billionaire and a hero, says Henderson."

Submission + - Citi Bank reveals attack one month late (time.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09, 2011 @09:11AM

An anonymous reader writes: Is account security a thing of the past? Quote: "We're talking a fairly serious hack, too. The personal and account information of some 200,000 Citibank card holders in North America was breached, reports Reuters, including contact specifics like names and email addresses. The solitary bit of good news? Citibank claims far more sensitive info like social security numbers, birth dates, card expiry dates and CVV card security codes was not compromised."

Submission + - Underwater Spider Spins Itself an Aqualung (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit on Thursday June 09, 2011 @09:09AM

sciencehabit writes: In the ponds of northern Europe lives a tiny brown spider with a bubble on its back. The 10-millimeter-long Argyroneta aquatica is the only spider in the world that spends its entire life underwater. But just like land spiders, it needs oxygen to breathe. So every so often, it leaves its underwater web home to visit the surface and brings back a bubble of air that sticks to its hairy abdomen. It deposits the bubble into a little silk air tank spun for the purpose. This "diving bell," researchers have now found, is not just a repository. It's actually a gill that sucks oxygen from the water, allowing the spider to stay under for up to 24 hours.

Submission + - Fedora 16 To Use Btrfs Filesystem By Default (digitizor.com)

Submitted by dkd903 on Thursday June 09, 2011 @08:51AM

dkd903 writes: According to proposals for Fedora 16, Btrfs will be the default filesystem used in that release. The proposal has been approved by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee. In Fedora 16, the switch from EXT4 to Btrfs will be a "simple switch" — it means that major Btrfs features such as RAID and LVM capabilities will not be forced onto users.

Submission + - GUI revolutions: from flashing bulbs to Windows 8 (stormdriver.com)

Submitted by

StormDriver

on Thursday June 09, 2011 @08:34AM

StormDriver writes: "GUI has been with us for years and it went a long, long way since the early days. There were some fairly interesting developments along the way, so we took the time to line them up for you."

Submission + - UK Government Seeking to Expand Website Blocking (ispreview.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09, 2011 @08:28AM

An anonymous reader writes: The UK Internet Watch Foundation ( IWF ), which already works with most consumer broadband ISPs to block websites that contain child sexual abuse content, could soon see its "voluntary" remit extended to include internet sites that contain "violent and unlawful" content.

Submission + - Google sued over Chromebook name (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

nk497

on Thursday June 09, 2011 @06:12AM

nk497 writes: "A PC maker is suing Google over the Chromebook name, saying the brand infringes on its own computer, the ChromiumPC — which was originally intended to run the open-source Chrome OS. Isys Technologies wants Google and its partners to stop marketing Chromebooks, and is hoping to delay the 15 June launch.

The company also claims that Google had originally been planning to call the netbook-like devices "Speedbooks"."

Submission + - Will Microsoft release its own Windows 8 tablet? (extremetech.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08, 2011 @12:32PM

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft isn't exactly known for its hardware prowess. Sure, it's churned out plenty of nice mice, keyboards, and game controllers over the years, but success with actual devices has been mixed. The Xbox 360 has exceeded all expectations, while the Zune and Kin hardware have been monumental failures. According to industry sources in Taiwan, however, Microsoft is working on a Windows 8 tablet that will be powered by Texas Instrument's next-generation 1.8GHz dual core processor.

Feed Google News Sci Tech: Nintendo Admits It Used PS3 and Xbox Footage in Wii U Presentation - PC Magazine (google.com)

From feed by feedfeeder on Wednesday June 08, 2011 @12:12PM

Nintendo Admits It Used PS3 and Xbox Footage in Wii U Presentation
PC Magazine
If you thought the game footage seen at yesterday's Nintendo press conference at E3 looked better than anything you ever saw from Nintendo, you were right. In fact, you're still right: Some of the clips were actually from Xbox 360 and ...
Nintendo admits E3 Wii U reel used PS3 and Xbox 360 clipsVentureBeat
E3 2011: Wii U Highlight Reel Sexed Up with PS3 and 360 FootageGamePro.com
Wii U network to rival Xbox LIVE and PSNVideogamer.com
Examiner.com-Guyism-T3
all 77 news articles

Submission + - Could the US phase out nuclear power? (csmonitor.com)

Submitted by

mdsolar

on Wednesday June 08, 2011 @12:11PM

mdsolar writes: "In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, [German Chancellor] Merkel announced that her country would close all of its 17 existing reactors by 2022. Other nations, including Japan, Italy, and Switzerland, have announced plans to pare back nuclear power, but none have gone as far as Germany, the world’s fourth-largest economy. Merkel vows to replace nuclear power with alternatives that do not increase greenhouse gases or shackle the economic growth.

Could the US do the same? An increasing number of reports suggest it is not beyond the realm of possibility, and Germany could provide a road map."

Submission + - Kino.to Raided In Massive Police Operation, Admins (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by freedumb2000 on Wednesday June 08, 2011 @12:10PM

freedumb2000 writes: Europe just witnessed one of the largest piracy-related busts in history with the raid of the popular movie streaming portal Kino.to. More than a dozen people connected to the site were arrested after police officers in Germany, Spain, France and the Netherlands raided several residential addresses and data centers. Kino.to hosted no illicit content itself, but indexed material stored on file-hosters and other streaming services.

Submission + - Many Stuxnet Bugs Still Unpatched by Siemens (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7 on Wednesday June 08, 2011 @12:08PM

Trailrunner7 writes: The media storm over the Stuxnet worm may have passed, but many of the software holes that were used by the worm remain unpatched and leave Siemens customers open to a wide range of potentially damaging cyber attacks, according to industrial control system expert Ralph Langner.
Langner said that the media paid too much attention to the four, zero day Windows vulnerabilities that enabled the Stuxnet worm, but overlooked the other security holes used by the worm. Unlike the Windows vulnerabilities, which Microsoft quickly fixed, many of the holes in Siemens' products remain unpatched, he contends.

Langner enumerates three types of exploits used by Stuxnet — only one category of which (Windows operating system exploits) have been closed. The other two are Windows applications exploits aimed at Siemens Siemens Simatic Manager and the Siemens WinCC SCADA application, and controller exploits aimed at Siemens S70-300 and 400 series controllers.

Submission + - Most Vulns Used by Stuxnet Worm Remain Unpatched (threatpost.com)

Submitted by chicksdaddy on Wednesday June 08, 2011 @12:06PM

chicksdaddy writes: The media storm over the Stuxnet worm may have passed, but many of the software holes that were used by the worm remain unpatched and leave Siemens customers open to a wide range of potentially damaging cyber attacks, according to industrial control system expert Ralph Langner.
Writing on his personal blog, Langner said that critical vulnerabilities remain in Windows-based management applications and software used to directly manage industrial controllers by Siemens Inc., whose products were targeted by the Stuxnet worm, Threatpost reports.

Submission + - Cloud-based, ray traced games on Intel tablets (intel.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08, 2011 @11:13AM

An anonymous reader writes: After Intel showed a ray traced version of Wolfenstein last year running cloud-based streamed to a laptop the company that has just recently announced its shift to the mobile market shows now their research project also running on various x86-tablets with 5 to 10 inch screens. The heavy calculations are performed by a cloud consisting of a machine with a Knights Ferry card (32 cores) inside. The achieved frame rates are around 20-30 fps.

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