The Technology Thread

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

They are building the first personal maglev transport system in Israel

SkyTran—a NASA Space Act company—is finally building a pilot of its computer-controlled, two-person high speed maglev transport system. Cars run 20-feet above the ground and can be ordered by a smartphone app.

While the initial trial in Israel will only involve a 1,500-feet closed campus loop, the plan is to build something much larger in the near future. My dream commute just got a little step closer.

Maglev vehicles are levitated and both lift and thrust are produced by electromagnets.

Each skyTran car can carry two-people at over 40 miles per hour and can be ordered by smartphone apps. The cost is anticipated to be less than a taxi-ride.

The skyTran trial is expected to be up and running by the end of 2015. If it is a success, a commercial roll-out in Tel-Aviv and other major global cities may follow.

[YT]OEMOpCRktm4[/YT]

http://www.skytran.us/documents/skyTran_PressRelease-14-06-23.pdf

It's not flying cars but I think most would agree we kind of thought stuff like this would already be here in the "future"

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Radar For Your Bike Gives You Long-Range Eyes on the Back of Your Head

When you're riding a bike, the world is an endless barrage of obstacles, hazards, and other vehicles sharing the road you need to avoid. Mirrors let you keep an eye on what's going on behind your cycle, but the Backtracker promises to spot vehicles up to 450 feet away using radar, and warn you to get out of the way when they're approaching a little too fast.

The system actually uses two devices strapped to your bike that work in unison. The radar transmitter mounts to the back of your seat and provides an additional visual warning to drivers that intensifies the closer they get. And an LED indicator mounts to the bike's handlebars, providing a visual indication of how fast a vehicle is approaching from behind, and a warning if the rider needs to get out of the way just to be safe.

The Backtracker's creators have turned to crowdfunding to help raise the $226,000 needed to put their device into production. And if successful, they expect it to retail for around $200 when it hits stores.

But that depends on many factors, including demand. Is this something cyclists really need when a quick turn of the head, or a glance at a mirror, can provide a similar heads up? And can the device really be effective when you're on a windy road, or already fighting your way through dense traffic? What do you think?

http://www.backtracker.io/#/the-device

I say anything that makes biking safer is a welcome addition

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Google's Response to the "Right to Be Forgotten" Is Just Perfect

In May, the EU Court of Justice ruled that because people have the "right to be forgotten," Google must remove links from European versions of search, just because people ask them to. But you can't hide from the past on the internet.

The requirement that Google take down links for the right to be forgotten is just lame censorship. Overtly! It's the removal of inconvenient facts from published public view because somebody wants the facts to disappear. It's a bit like the producers of Friday Night Lights calling on the Ministry of Truth to have Season 2 erased from the record because it's inferior to the rest of the series.

And people are taking advantage. TechDirt reports that Google has already received tens of thousands of requests from people who want embarrassing stories about them out of sight. In fairness, who doesn't have a secret they want to cover up?

But it's not as simple as just saying "please take down that link, Google" and having it quietly disappear. The search giant has taken the smart (and slyly funny) step of highlighting the stories people want removed one last time by notifying sites that they've been delinked. If you tell a journalism outfit that their story has been taken down, how do you think they're going to respond? The BBC posted one of its removal requests:

Notice of removal from Google Search: we regret to inform you that we are no longer able to show the following pages from your website in response to certain searches on European versions of Google:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/legacy/t...robertpeston/2007/10/merrills_mess.html

If you read the story in question, you'll notice that the only person mentioned is former Merrill Lynch chief Stan O'Neal who was ousted after losing huge amounts of money. The BBC obviously figured out that it was probably O'Neal that wanted the link taken down—because who else would it be?

Oopsies Stan! Looks like your dirty laundry is flapping in the wind all over again. And all because you tried to cover it up.

Google's passionless transparency is a wonderful reaction to censorship, and in this case, a triumph for truth. It'd be better if nothing was getting de-indexed at all, but this is at least a delicious reminder that you can't run away from your past on the internet. Nothing really goes away, and if you're an idiot, you'll pay the price forever.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...emovals-putting-those-stories-back-news.shtml

Now that is funny, way to troll Google

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This Clever App Turns Your Chromecast Into a Bootleg Wii

Chromecast's new mirroring feature lets users pull up an Android phone screen onto a TV. And why would you want to put your little screen on your bigger screen? If game maker Rolocule has its way, to play Nintendo Wii-like games without bothering with a console.

Rolocule has introduced its Motion Tennis to the Googlesphere. The team's demo works on the Chromecast by using the new mirroring capability announced at Google I/O, and it plans to launch a public beta in the near future. A Chromecast dongle is considerably cheaper than a gaming console, so if Rolocule can fix the lag issue it has with the demo, this could be a very affordable way to play gesture-based games.

[YT]lF9GcJhaUws[/YT]

Motion Tennis is already available for Apple fans, since you can use Apple TV and iPhone mirroring to set up the phone-gesturing gaming situations. It will also work with Miracast.

But this is the first time it's been proven that the same sort of system will work for Chromecast, and it stands to ruin some console makers' afternoons. If other game makers follow in Rolecule's footsteps, this could become a mainstream alternative to Wii-like motion controls, though in fairness the Wii is preeetty old at this point. Rolecule has already prepared a second game for Apple, and if I was betting blogger, I'd bet that they're planning to release that same game for Chromecast eventually.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/02/rolocule-s-motion-tennis-will-use-chromecast-mirroring-to-recrea/

Just one of the many reasons I love my Chromecast

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Raspberry Pi Has a Tiny $45 PC Competitor

The Hummingboard, a personal ARM computer the size of a mouse, is available for pre-order today, starting at $45 from SolidRun. It looks like a toy for a child with small, delicate hands, but it's really a toy for adults of all hand sizes who like to rig up their own media centers. Finally, Raspberry Pi has some competition.

This is good news for people who like to tinker and bad news for the Raspberry Pi, the original tiny personal computer. Like the Raspberry Pi, the Hummingboard is aimed at people who make homebrew tech. People can run Android, Ubuntu, or a variety of other open-source operating systems on the computer.

Here's SolidRun's overview:

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There are three versions: the HummingBoard-i1 is the basic and most inexpensive, while the HummingBoard-i2 and the HummingBoard-i2eX offer more advanced options (the i2eX has four USB options and a faster processor, for example). They're priced at $45, $75, and $100. That's slightly pricier than your basic Raspberry Pi, but certainly not bank-breaking.

Here's how the two stack up, in easily digestible video form:

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Raspberry Pi has the advantage of being the beloved innovator with a dedicated fanbase, but SolidRun's Hummingboard offers more advanced specs for just a little more money. If Hummingboard works as advertised, the world of affordable mini-computers just got far more competitive.

http://www.businessinsider.com/hummingboard-raspberry-pi-competitor-2014-7

I know some guys that will be very happy about this

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A Genuinely Smarter Toaster That Guarantees Perfect Toast

You'd think by now, after at least 100 years of development, mankind would have perfected the toaster. Burnt bread is still an all too common problem, though, but maybe, just maybe, Dualit has finally found a solution with a new toaster that measures the room conditions to help ensure perfect browning.

Your standard given-away-free-with-a-new-checking-account toaster really only relies on its internal temperature to guess when a slice of bread is properly toasted. And more often than not, it's wrong.

But Dualit's new Dualit Stoneware and Brushed Architect Lite four-slice toasters use a custom algorithm that takes into account the temperature and conditions of the room it's in, its own internal temperature, how many slices have been toasted, and how long the toaster has been cooling between uses. You still need to set the dial for your browning preferences, but the algorithm helps guarantee consistent results, no matter how heavily the toaster is being used.

Is that enough to justify the cost of toasters that start at around $145? For most of us who often skip breakfast, probably not. But for die-hard breakfast and brunchers, this could mean never having to scrape burnt toast ever again.

http://www.dualit.com/

It's about time we got us some smart toasters, now if only I could connect it to my WiFi

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Audi Suspension Springs Are Trading Steel for Composites

Forget what you know about car suspension: Audi is tearing up the rule book and making its latest springs from glass fiber-reinforced composite instead of steel. It's not gone mad, though; this is the future.

The new springs , pictured on the left, are made of thin glass fibers held together in epoxy resin. A machine—which I would really love to see in action—twirls fibers around a small central core at plus or minus 45 degrees to the direction of the coil. Its then coated in epoxy and cured at around 100 degrees Celsius.

The resulting springs feature a larger diameter spiral than their steel siblings, and their overall diameter is bigger too. So what's the point?

Weight, my friend. And lot's of it. While a steel spring for a mid-size car weighs about 6 pounds, these new GFRP coils weigh just 3.5. That's a 40 percent saving, and adds up to 9.7 pounds across the whole car. Sure, that's not a huge overall percentage gain, but it's rare a single component can shed so much weight in one go. Oh, they're also corrosion resistant, too, and require less energy to manufacture.

The new springs will feature in at least one of Audi's mid-sized models before the end of the year.

https://www.audi-mediaservices.com/...itteilungen/2014/06/30/audi_bringing_new.html

I don't know jack about cars but this does sound cool

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

For-Profit Corinthians Colleges to Sell 85 Schools, Close 12 Others

For-profit Corinthians Colleges Inc. will sell off 85 of its campuses and close 12 others in a new deal with the U.S. Department of Education following an investigation of allegations that the company was altering grades and attendance records and falsifying job placement data that was used in marketing material aimed at potential students. Per the deal, most students will be fully reimbursed.

Corinthians operates about 100-odd campuses in 26 states (and Ontario, Canada)—largely in California, Florida, and Texas— and includes Everest College, Heald College, and WyoTech schools. More than 70,000 students are enrolled in the company's colleges.

The company had been dogged by investigations from federal and state agencies looking into its use of the $1.4 billion in federal financial student aid it was receiving annually. Last month, the Department of Education put a freeze on its federal aid money. Their new deal with the department includes funds to help transition and reimburse students. From the San Jose Mercury-News:

Corinthian's luck ran out in June when the education department put a 21-day freeze on its federal student aid money, saying "the company failed to address concerns about its practices.''

Days later, the department agreed to release $16 million in exchange for a deal ensuring a shutdown that would minimize students' disruption. The original deadline was Tuesday night.

The education department agreed to release another $35 million in federal student aid to the company to be used exclusively to help students complete their programs if they choose to do so after being fully informed of their options.

"This agreement allows our students to continue their education and helps minimize the personal and financial issues that affect our 12,000 employees and their families," Jack Massimino, Corinthians' chairman and chief officer, said in a statement. "It also provides a blueprint for allowing most of our campuses to continue serving their students and communities under new ownership."

Corinthians' closing is another strike against for-profit colleges, long criticized for being overpriced and leading to poor job prospects. Should the students enrolled at a Corinthians school choose to attend to another college, their credits from a for-profit school likely won't transfer.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/article/For-profit-Corinthian-to-sell-most-campuses-5599654.php

These schools are such a scam. Everest out here in FL not only has super annoying commercials but an old roommate went there and said they would constantly interrupt you in class about money if there was ever any problem. Sucks for the people who got suckered into wasting there time and money to go there

 

[KevanG]

All for profit schools will alter records of any type to make themselves look better and get more funding. I don't see what the shock is. I'm not surprised at all that they're closing down so many after they get caught doing this crap.

 

[Teelie]

The plasma TV business is fading to black

AKA, it's dead.

Samsung confirmed Thursday that it was shutting down its plasma TV business "due to changes in market demands," choosing instead to focus on curved and ultra-high-definition models that use LED technology. The news was first reported by Reuters.

Samsung's announcement follows news last year that Panasonic had decided to stop making plasma panels. Seoul-based LG, the last major international plasma TV manufacturer, is also planning on shutting down plasma production, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

Manufacturers are increasingly looking to LED and LCD screens as they develop the next generation of TV sets. Veronica Thayer, a consumer electronics analyst with IHS, said the last shipments of plasma TVs for American retail shelves will come by the end of this year.

There are still a few Chinese companies producing plasma TVs, Thayer added, but those too will likely be gone by 2016.

Plasma TVs are composed of pixels filled with gas that light up in different colors when they're hit with an electrical current. LED and LCD televisions uses screens made of liquid crystals that are lit up from behind to create images.

Plasma TVs offered what many considered to be the best picture quality on the market in the past few years, albeit at higher prices than LCDs. They gained favor thanks to their brighter images, warmer tones and wider viewing angles.

But plasma screens are now being supplanted at the high end of the market by LED technology, which offers comparable picture quality on thinner screens that use less power.

IHS reported last month that plasma TV shipments dropped 16% globally in the first quarter versus a year prior, and that they "are on their way out of the industry permanently."

CNN Money

 

[KevanG]

I'm not that surprised. I've always preferred LCD to Plasma.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Ya plasma was never really worth the money to begin with since they had a a relatively short life span compared to LED. Plus you get a dead pixel and the TV is shot. The blacks were good though, that's about it

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Daimler's Self-Driving Truck Isn't Good for Nervous Highway Drivers

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Attention Google: Your self-driving car looks wimpy compared to this self-driving beast-turned-truck. On Thursday, German automaker Daimler demonstrated the Mercedes-Benz Future Truck 2025 (that's when it hopes the vehicle will hit the marketplace) to spectators.

The New York Times reports that it's "capable of responding to traffic while driving completely autonomously down a freeway" reaching speeds as high as 52 miles per hour. To simulate real traffic conditions, the truck was surrounded by other tests cars that slowed down in front of it to prove that it's capable of speed control. In another instance, it shifted to the far-right lane to allow an emergency vehicle to pass on its left.

But, unlike Google's prototype, the truck doesn't ditch the steering wheel because it's still needed for safety maneuvers, such as "overtaking a slower-moving vehicle in the left lane," the newspaper adds. There's only one prototype in existence and a price hasn't yet been announced.

Regardless, this should make a lot of tired truckers either happy—and a lot of other drivers very nervous.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/04/b...-a-self-driving-truck.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1

Not sure how I feel about large tonnage vehicles cruising down the road on auto-pilot

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

If the FDA Has Its Way, Drug Companies Could Soon Tweet Side Effects

Realizing that social media isn't a passing fad, the Food and Drug Administration has finally laid out its highly anticipated guidelines for how drug companies should act on the Internet.

The Wall Street Journal reports the agency has laid out tentative regulations, including a proposed rule that if a drug's side effects and other information can't be relayed in a single tweet, firms should "reconsider using Twitter for the intended promotional message." The new rules also take aim at other websites, like Wikipedia. In the draft, drug companies are allowed to edit a page if they find something wrong, however the correction "must include balanced information and the source of the revision or update must be noted."

The 18-page proposal was released late last month — nearly five years after the FDA held a public hearing about how it should regulate drug firms on the Internet. Until recently, companies have largely shied away from using social media since they were afraid of violating the FDA's promotional rules.

Although disclosure regarding the drugs that we're putting into our bodies is a good thing, the question remains of who is going to seek out a pharmaceutical's Twitter account to follow tweets that are dizzying parade of less-than-desirable side effects, like nausea or diarrhea. Bleh.

The FDA is lawfully required to finalize these rules before a July deadline rolls around. If approved, the guidelines could go into effect in 90 days.

http://blogs.wsj.com/pharmalot/2014/06/17/tweet-this-fda-finally-proposes-social-media-guidelines/

Why are they just now getting around to this in 2014?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Silicone Pads Make Everything Stick To Your Fridge, Not Just Magnets

We've probably all seen those silicone pads that promise to keep your smartphone or sunglasses from sliding off your dashboard while driving. But a company called Siconi has one you can adhere to your fridge—or any vertical surface—to hold everything from shopping lists to car keys.

The largest of the three available sizes is just $12, and they should stay sticky forever with an occasional cleaning using mild soap and water. But don't let your mind be limited to only using them in cars and on fridges. Imagine wallpapering a room with these pads, you could hang art, photos, even small children while they're serving a time-out.

http://www.siconi.com/?Sticky-Tablet

I'm sure lots of people will want to get their hands on these

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

India's Building a Huge Floating Solar Farm (This Is Just the Start)

Solar power is quickly coming into its own, growing some 35 percent worldwide last year to a total installed capacity of 136,697 MW. It's going to get a nice boost from India, which hopes to float a similar 50MW plant—on a 1.27 million square meter floating platform—by the end of this year.

The Kagoshima Nanatsujima plant consists of some 290,000 solar panels arrayed just off the coast of Kagoshima City, and will generate just north of 70 MW of power annually. That's enough to power more than 22,000 local homes and still leave leftover juice to feed back into the national grid. With its completion earlier this year, the Kagoshima plant is now the single largest solar installation in all of Japan.

India actually faces a similar energy situation to Japan's. Both nations have precious little territory to install these huge arrays. It's not like either nation has a baking hot wasteland in which to install these plants like the US does (I'm looking at you, Arizona). India, which has already begun installing 10MW solar plants atop the country's numerous canals, has begun looking to its waters instead.

"There are large stretches of water bodies in Kerala which NHPC [a local energy company] wants to harness for solar power. This floating solar power technology was developed by the Renewable Energy College and has been implemented in the city. The first plant — a pilot project — is scheduled to be commissioned in October this year. NHPC had contacted us for offering technical know-how and installation assistance for their proposed 50-mw plant," said SP Gon Choudhury, chairman of the Renewable Energy College. "Each station would require around 3,000 square feet of space to generate 20 kilo watt of power. There are many water bodies that could be used for this," he continued.

Currently, land earmarked for solar development in India is rapidly increasing in value with prices jumping around 10 to 20 percent per parcel. By building out this capacity over water, government and energy company developers can save both cash and valuable real estate.

And there's reportedly very little environmental impact as well. "The ecology of the water body is not likely to be affected much and it will also reduce evaporation, thus helping preserve water levels during extreme summer. Solar panels installed on land, face reduction of yield as the ground heats up. When such panels are installed on a floating platform, the heating problem is solved to a great extent," said Choudhury. This isn't an ideal solution, it's not as though we can go and cover the world's oceans with photovoltaic cells, but it's certainly a solid intermediary step until we get those space-based solar farms up and running.

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/07/02/india-plans-worlds-largest-floating-solar-power-project-50-mw/

Good to see nations focusing on clean energy

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Popcorn Time's "Netflix for Torrents" Is Coming to Chromecast

Popcorn Time is a miracle: It lets you stream torrents of movies and TV shows as though they were on Netflix or Hulu. Is it illegal? Probably! But it's also awesome, hard to trace, and soon, it'll work with your Chromecast.

Recently, we've been following the development of Time4Popcorn, a very popular and fast-developing fork of the open source Popcorn Time code. (The original Popcorn Time team hung it up earlier this year.) In recent months the Time4Popcorn team has launched everything from an Android app to VPN support.

Now, you'll be able to stream movies to your Chromecast so you can watch movies on a big screen with no wires. Today, the Windows version of the app with Chromecast support is in alpha, and the shadowy team says that Mac and Android support for Chromecast is on the way too. Development has been moving very fast so we'd expect updates in the near future. Keep on keeping on you magnificent coders.

http://time4popcorn.eu/alpha.html

This is awesome news! Yet another reason Chromecast is awesome

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The Latest Super-Thin ATM Skimmers Are Virtually Unspottable

Just like consumer tech, criminal tech advances in leaps and bounds—and none more so than the ATM skimmer. Now, the kinds of skimmers being used are so slim and small that you'll never see them—and their battery life means they last an age, too.

Krebs on Security has a round-up of some of the miniaturized fraud devices that have been found in cash machines so far this year—and it's pretty grim reading. While many card skimmers sit on the outside of an ATM, there's an increasing trend for using devices that are so small, such as the ones below, that they're hidden inside the card slot.

The European ATM Security Team claims that these new insert skimmers are getting harder and harder to detect. In fact, that skimmer was used in conjunction with a tiny camera supported by a rather meaty battery (pictured below) which will keep it running as long as possible. Krebs explains how it works:

The miniaturized insert skimmer above was used in tandem with a tiny spy camera to record each customer's PIN. The image on the left shows the hidden camera situated just to the left of the large square battery; the photo on the right shows the false ATM fascia that obscures the hidden camera as it was found attached to the compromised ATM (notice the tiny pinhole at the top left edge of the device).

Elsewhere, there's another new type of transparent skimmer in use that sits mainly inside the card slot—but is made from high-grade plastics so that the part sticking out of the ATM looks intentional.

All that, alongside the more traditional externally mounted skimmers, many powered by cell phones to deliver bank details straight from the ATM keypad to a crook's smartphone. The advice, as ever, remains the same: if anything ever looks suspicious at an ATM, don't use it. It's just annoying that spotting the problem is getting more and more difficult.

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/07/the-rise-of-thin-mini-and-insert-skimmers/

Well that is scary news. Be careful with those cards people!

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

New Instant Messenger Plans to Leave No Metadata Worth Harvest​ing

A murders' row of cyber security experts have announced their intention to produce a new instant messaging service, designed for government and corporate whistleblowers (obviously) and the journalists they blow their whistles to. This should be fun.

Invisible.im is still in its nascent phases, but has a functional proof-of-concept, according to its FAQ, which lays out in broad strokes the group's primary intention with the software: to better anonymize the metadata in communications between journalists and sources. From the FAQ:

As demonstrated several times over, the content of communications barely matters when determining the identity of a leaker. Simply proving that a communication occurred between a source and a journalist prior to the publication of a story/package is often enough to see the source identified, fired or arrested. In some countries the identification of a journalist's source can even result in their torture and murder.

In other words, the general context of the communication can almost always be inferred from the "metadata", which is information about a communication, not the content of the communication.

Toward this end, Invisible.im does several things that differ uniquely from other popular options (e.g. linking up a Jabber IM account with Off The Record encryption à la training from the Center for Investigative Journalism).

In current IM services, user's install an XMPP client that then connects with — and, more often than not, stores messages with — that company's servers, Yahoo, AIM, Jabber, whomever. Invisible's strategy is to let the user locally run their own XMPP server, a handy trick that allows for more robust anonymity when the chats are run through a distributed anonymizing network, like TOR or I2P. Invisible.im also forces Off The Record encyrption on all of its chats, automatically generating and discarding encryption keys between each session, so that no potentially incriminating keys are left on a source's hardware, if and when that hardware's confiscated. ("Journalists will have established, provable ID," according to one member of the Invisible.im team.)

Is it a foolproof system? No. The group readily acknowledges that.

Will your confidential source always wind up hemorrhaging blood on the concrete floor of a parking garage, with just enough breath to whisper one last cryptic message before dying in your arms? Yes, dammit. Why!? Who is behind this? Who let us fool ourselves into thinking it would be different this time!?

Four people are currently attached to Invisible.im.

One of the big names is HD Moore, a founder and developer of Metasploit, an open-source suite of penetration testing software, and the Chief Research Officer of Boston-based security firm Rapid7. (Penetration testing software is sort of an industry-wide euphemism for "scary impressive digital armories of hacking tools that, frankly, could just as easily be used for mischief or evil, but which we promise we only use to test your systems against such mischief/evil makers." Good penetration testing software is cool.) Another is "the Grugq" — a Bangkok-based security researcher who, according to Forbes, has a million-dollar sideline selling software vulnerabilities, zero-day exploits, to government agencies on behalf of even more privacy-conscious hackers. Rounding out the Invisible.im team are Australian IT security analyst Patrick Gray, who has a podcast about such things, and some guy that's calling himself Ducktor Richö, M.D. on Twitter.

http://invisible.im/#about-us

Score 1 for the whistle blowers of the world

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Now YouTube Is Shaming ISPs For Slow Streaming Video

Sometime in the past few days, YouTube started showing a new error bar on slow-loading videos. "Experiencing interruptions? Find out why," it implores. Clicking through takes you to Google's Video Quality Report page, comparing streaming quality of your local ISPs. If your provider's slow, Google wants you to know.

The Video Quality Report has been around for a few months, but the blue error bar that leads you there seems to be new. It comes off a lot like Netflix's ISP-shaming slow-load messages, which appeared out of nowhere but have since disappeared amid lawsuits from ISPs.

But YouTube's take on stream-shaming actually offers you some actual data, whereas Netflix's stunt basically consisted of the streaming site shrugging and saying "it's not my fault, it's [Verizon/AT&T/whoever]'s fault!" Google's Video Quality Report tells you which providers consistently offer uninterrupted HD, SD, or crap-D streaming in your area. You can even pick different locations to compare your streaming with your friends in fiber neighborhoods or whatever.

Is that data really useful? Hard to say—the graphs on the Video Quality Report aren't labeled with any kind of numerical value, so the best you can do is figure out which time of day is worst for streaming, and do a non-numerical comparison of which ISP is doing best in your neck of the woods. Still, it's kind of nice to see ISPs feeling some pressure to perform better, even if it comes across a little petty and finger-pointy.

http://qz.com/230603/youtube-like-netflix-is-now-publicly-shaming-internet-providers-for-slow-video/

I'm all for shaming ISP's so we can all get better service

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

GE's Made a Microwave That Can Measure the Calories on Your Plate

Health and fitness monitoring is helping us all look after ourselves a little better, but there's one stumbling block: calorie intake is still self-reported, making it laborious and often inaccurate. GE, however, thinks it has a way to change that.

Researchers from the company have developed a prototype device which uses low-energy microwaves to measure the calories contained within food. The device currently requires the food be blended, because it can only provide accurate measurements if the sample it's analyzing is homogeneous, but they're now working on one which will work with normal, solid foods.

Imagine: pop your dinner into a microwave to warm it up, and seconds later a message is sent to your smartphone's health tracker to tell you how many calories you're eating. It's not as far fetched as it might sound, either, because GE senior scientist Matt Webster explained to Technology Review that the device could be incorporated into kitchen appliances.

So how does it work? Well, Webster realized that accurate calorie counts can be determined using just three pieces of data: fat content, water content, and weight. Calories counts for sugar, fiber, and protein can, apparently, be fairly well approximated by subtracting water and fat weight from the total weight. Fortunately, those three key measurements can be easily recorded using low-energy microwaves.

Indeed, tests using different purees, with a mixture of oils, sugars, and water, provided results within 5 to 10 percent of tests performed using normal destructive calories measurement techniques (that is, burning the samples). To extend the technique to work with solid food, Webster is going to use what he refers to as "virtual blending": by progressively scanning the food, say, or using complex microwave fields and some algorithms to generate average readings across a plate.

Either way, it seems that GE is keen to make a microwave that will tell you how many calories you're eating. You might not be able to lie to yourself about what exactly is in that burrito for much longer.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/528721/ge-device-measures-the-calories-on-your-plate/

Maybe with this America can start losing some weight

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This Compact Microwave Is a Must-Have For Your Car

Designer Jake Rich has come up with a better design for the microwave that no longer requires a permanent parking spot on your kitchen counter. His Mediumwave concept has a footprint about the size of a dinner plate, and the traditional metal box form factor of microwaves of old has been improved with a removable dome lid that makes it easier to monitor and stir food as it's being heated.

It's even got a set of wheels so it's easy to move around and store. And while it retains the traditional light inside that lets you know when the microwave is running, it automatically adjusts its brightness depending on the heating intensity. So if you accidentally set it too high, it will be immediately obvious when the Mediumwave starts running.

But forget the kitchen. Were Jake to find a way to make his concept a reality, this improved microwave design also seems like it would be the perfect accessory for a long morning commute. You can make breakfast while sitting in traffic, and keep your mug of coffee perpetually piping hot.

http://www.dezeen.com/2014/07/07/jake-rich-mediumwave-microwave-wheels/

Cool to see an update on the old standard microwave

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Self-Serve Beer Vending Machines Are Coming to the Ballpark

The Minnesota Twins' Target Field will be one of the first sports venues in the country to introduce DraftServ's beer vending machines, which will reduce the long lines at concession stands, help regulate alcohol consumption, and give attendees more choice when it comes to what they're drinking.

Customers first need to visit a manned register and show ID in order to purchase a pre-paid debit card in $10, $20, or $50 amounts. They're then free to visit the DraftServ vending machines whenever they like, and choose one of four different beers ranging in price from 0.38 cents per ounce for Bud Light, to 0.40 cents per ounce for a pale ale.

The vending machines are mostly automatic, but staff is still on hand to prevent minors from borrowing someone's card and serving themselves a cold one. And patrons can only use their card to pour up to 48 ounces every fifteen minutes, to prevent someone from getting completely blotto before the game has even started. Still, given that most baseball games run three-plus hours, one could do a lot of damage depending on the line wait.

http://www.foodbeast.com/2014/07/07/self-serve-beer-vending-machines-and-lobster-corn-dogs/

I think any fan that has been to any major sporting event will gladly welcome these

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Amazon Is Baiting Hachette Authors With 100 Percent Profits

Amazon and publishing company Hachette remain in negotiations after a very public brawl over ebook pricing, and Amazon's pulling out some down and dirty trick to win its battle, including jacking up Hachette book prices. Amazon's latest gambit is more carrot than stick: Amazon executive David Naggar sent a letter to a number of Hachette authors proposing that they keep 100 percent of their sales while the dispute persists.

Naggar laid the blame on Hachette for stalled negotiations:

We agree that authors are caught in the middle while these negotiations drag on, and we're particularly sensitive to the effect on debut and midlist authors. But Hachette's unresponsiveness and unwillingness to talk until we took action put us in this position, and unless Hachette dramatically changes their negotiating tempo, this is going to take a really long time.

And then he laid out Amazon's proposal to give 100 percent of the sales price directly to the authors, causing both Amazon and Hachette to lose all potential profits until they reached an agreement.

Is this sincere? Naggar admitted that Amazon hasn't actually offered this deal to Hachette yet...and Authors Guild president Roxana Robinson thinks it's 100 percent bogus. "If Amazon wants to have a constructive conversation about this, we're ready to have one at any time," she wrote the New York Times in an email. "But this seems like a short-term solution that encourages authors to take sides against their publishers. It doesn't get authors out of the middle of this – we're still in the middle. Our books are at the center of this struggle."

Amazon has already acknowledged that it's messing with Hachette until the publishing company acquiesces. The 100 percent sales might sound like a sweet deal for Hachette's authors, but the publishing company is in this slog because it's trying to protect its interests — and those of its authors — from Amazon. This letter is intended to sway Hachette authors onto Amazon's side, but it's dangling a short-term benefit while glossing over the root of the problem.

http://gigaom.com/2014/07/08/amazon-makes-a-direct-offer-to-hachette-authors-heres-the-full-letter/

Pretty damn shady on Amazon's part

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Huge Scam Sends 30,000 Fake Copyright Notices Containing Trojans

TorrentFreak reports that in recent days some 30,000 fake copyright infringement notices demanding cash settlements have been circulating in Germany. In addition to defrauding unwitting folks out of cash, the notices also come bundled with malicious software designed to steal personal info.

According to the report, which originates with a posting from the German law firm Wilde Beuger Solmecke, the email notices claim copyright infringement over content belonging to EMI, Sony, DreamWorks, and Paramount, and demand 200 to 500 Euros within 48 hours to avoid a lawsuit. The notices look very credible, and even contain the names of real lawyers and law firms.

Additionally, the notices come with an attached Zip file that's supposed to contain more information. Not surprisingly, the file actually contains a virus which spies on the infected computer waiting for credit card info.

This is a nasty trick that the web savvy won't fall for, but which will also surely catch a few unfortunate internet users. We're vulnerable to theses scams in large measure due to to the aggressive tactics of copyright holders that frequently use third-party clearing house services to go after internet users. It's impersonal and threatening and scary and so people just pay up and don't ask questions. It's more disappointing that the fake notices could be real than that regular people might fall for them.

http://torrentfreak.com/30000-pirates-receive-fake-fines-with-trojans-attached-140708/

Another day, another internet scam