The Technology Thread

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

I never said they were a good idea. I just said I want one

 

[KevanG]

Well everyone wants one but I'm pretty sure they'd be banned within a month due to them destroying half a city thanks to DUIs.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Well I propose a compromise. Since we are already about to get the self driving cars, the logical next step is flying self driving cars. Then everyone wins. Problem solved

 

[KevanG]

That reminds me of Demolition Man. We'll need that safety foam too.

There will be those who demand to have the automatic turned off so they can drive. What then??

 

[Superwoman Prime]

I never said they were a good idea. I just said I want one

*Clint Eastwood nod of approval*

(we need emoticon for the Clint Eastwood nod of approval)

Anyhow... going to sleep alone in a self-flying car would be the ultimate test for trust in technology. Or repressed suicidal urges, either one.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

You Can Buy a Smartphone Pre-Loaded With Spyware Now

Are you a jealous lover, helicopter parent, or otherwise neurotic human being with crippling trust issues? Then we've got the answer to all your problems right here. No, it's not therapy (although, you know, good idea); it's a top-of-the-line smartphone that comes pre-loaded with all the spyware an overbearing human could ever hope for.

The surveillance company selling the devious devices, mSpy, is still in its infancy, with its first brick-and-mortar store having been recently set up in New York City. Anyone can buy one of the phones online, though, with each spyware-loaded handset going for about $200 more than the phone's usual price. And considering that these aren't just crappy burner phones (models include the iPhone 5s, HTC One, Nexus 5, and Samsung Galaxy S4), you could be looking at forking over nearly a grand.

But think of all the information that roughly $900 makes you privy to! In addition to using your (victim/loved one's) mSpy phone as a bug to record any conversations in its vicinity, there is a disconcertingly long list of features including but not limited to the ability to:

Check call histories
Record calls
Block numbers
Read text messages
Lock and wipe data
Log each keystroke
Check GPS location
Sort through every sent/received email
Browse their calendar and address book
Look through photos and videos
Block apps and websites.

Interestingly enough, this is all perfectly legal. Technically, these phones are being sold under the pretense that the eventual user will be fully informed of the wildly invasive tracking software. Of course, no one's actually enforcing these rules.

If this sounds like the phone for you(r child/employee/lover with a wandering eye), then you can head on over to mSpy now and pick one up for anywhere between $650 and $880 (before tax). And god help whoever's receiving it.

http://www.mspy.com/spy-phone/

Well this is unsettling, thankfully I would never just accept a phone from someone

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Microsoft Making Windows Phone OS Free for Some Manufacturers

Desperate times, desperate measures: the Times of India is reporting that Microsoft is starting to give its Windows Phone OS away to phone manufacturers for free.

The report claims that two Indian phone manufacturers will have the usual licence fee for Windows Phone waived as they roll out new handsets toting the OS. "For our planned Windows Phone handsets, we are not paying Microsoft a licence fee," explained an executive of an undisclosed Indian phone company to the Times. "The company is obviously exploring new models for Windows Phone. It must have realized that the older model where it licensed the OS did not work out well, even with Nokia's support."

If the report is true, it's an unprecedented move. Microsoft hasn't even given Nokia a free license, instead charging it somewhere in the region of tens of dollars per Lumia handset. If it's starting to give Windows Phone away, it shows signs of frustrations that the mobile OS isn't working out as well as it hoped. Of course, it's not clear that the rumor is definitely correct, nor that it is a practice that will spread—but if it is true, it's an interesting development.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ee-to-Indian-players/articleshow/31924651.cms

Of all my friends with a smartphone I only have one that has a windows phone and he doesn't like it very much besides the camera

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Phone Metadata Gives Away The Most Secret of Your Secrets

If you're one of the masses who inexplicably thinks that NSA phone surveillance doesn't matter, you're in for a shock: new research reveals that simple analysis of cellphone metadata can reveal masses about you, from medical conditions to firearm ownership.

A study by Jonathan Mayer and Patrick Mutchler from Stanford probed data from 546 volunteers to ascertain the limits of just what can be found from metadata such as that collected by the NSA. We already knew, of course, that it could be used to identify you—but it can paint an alarmingly detailed picture of you, too.

The results reveal just how rich a seam of information your metadata is. The participants gave up their phone's metadata via a special app, along with publicly available information from their Facebook profile. Then, the researchers set to work, digging though it all to find out as much as they could.

So, one participant in the study "communicated with multiple local neurology groups, a specialty pharmacy, a rare condition management service, and a hotline for a pharmaceutical used solely to treat relapsing multiple sclerosis"; another "had a long, early morning call with her sister. Two days later, she placed a series of calls to the local Planned Parenthood location. She placed brief additional calls two weeks later, and made a final call a month after."

Elsewhere, another "contacted a home improvement store, locksmiths, a hydroponics dealer, and a head shop," while a fourth placed "a number of calls to a firearm store that specializes in the AR semiautomatic rifle platform. They also spoke at length with customer service for a firearm manufacturer that produces an AR line."

They're just anecdotes, but they could find similar information about all the participants: over a three months period, 30 percent contacted a pharmacy, 10 percent called a recruiting service, and 8 percent got in touch with religious institutions. In other words, the researchers knew exactly what everyone was up to.

The take-home is perhaps best summed up by Mayer himself. "Reasonable minds can disagree about the policy and legal constraints that should be imposed on those databases," he writes. "The science, however, is clear: phone metadata is highly sensitive."

http://webpolicy.org/2014/03/12/metaphone-the-sensitivity-of-telephone-metadata/

Oh joy! Glad to know all of my information is out there for anyone smart enough to get. What's that saying some people always use as an excuse? "If you don't have anything to hide..."

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Target Knew About Its Massive Hack—It Just Didn't Do Anything to Stop It

Throughout the total absurdity that's been the aftermath of Target's massive data breach, one question has continued to persist unanswered: Why the hell didn't one of the biggest retailers in the country have sufficient security software? Well, the thing is—it did. It just ignored it.

Thanks to a Bloomberg Businessweek exclusive, we now know that Target could have saved itself (and its 110 million affected customers) billions of dollars' worth of pain if it had just listened to its malware detection software's alarms the first time—or even the second, third, fourth, and fifth times.

Instead, Target executives stood idly by as the biggest retail data breach in US history happened right under their noses. Bloomberg writes:

In testimony before Congress, Target has said that it was only after the U.S. Department of Justice notified the retailer about the breach in mid-December that company investigators went back to figure out what happened. What it hasn't publicly revealed: Poring over computer logs, Target found FireEye's alerts from Nov. 30 and more from Dec. 2, when hackers installed yet another version of the malware. Not only should those alarms have been impossible to miss, they went off early enough that the hackers hadn't begun transmitting the stolen card data out of Target's network.
Yes, despite spending $1.6 million on security software FireEye, Target decided that it probably wasn't worth the trouble to actually, you know, use it. Because, even though Target's hackers were fairly elaborate in their attempt to circumvent Target's system, FireEye was more than capable of handling it.

The [FireEye] system works by creating a parallel computer network on virtual machines. Before data from the Internet reach Target, they pass through FireEye's technology, where the hackers' tools, fooled into thinking they're in real computers, go to work. The technology spots the attack before it happens, then warns the customer. Unlike antivirus systems, which flag malware from past breaches, FireEye's isn't as easily tricked when hackers use novel tools or customize their attack, customers say. "It's a very smart approach," says Robert Bigman, the CIA's former chief information security officer. "When we first started working with them several years ago, no one ever thought of doing it that way."
So why would Target just completely ignore an obvious data breach when the company itself stands to lose the most in the long run? "Incompetence" might seem a bit harsh, but after realizing that Target's security actively chose to turn off the function that automatically deletes malware, it's hard to see it any other way.

As the hackers inserted more versions of the same malware (they may have used as many as five, security researchers say), the security system sent out more alerts, each the most urgent on FireEye's graded scale, says the person who has consulted on Target's probe. The breach could have been stopped there without human intervention. The system has an option to automatically delete malware as it's detected. But according to two people who audited FireEye's performance after the breach, Target's security team turned that function off… Target had done a months-long test of FireEye that ended in May and was rolling out the technology throughout the company's massive IT system. It's possible that FireEye was still viewed with some skepticism by its minders at the time of the hack, say two people familiar with Target's security operations…

http://www.businessweek.com/article...ed-alarms-in-epic-hack-of-credit-card-data#p2

Truly amazing that a company that big could be so spectacularly stupid

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

I Wore the Navy's Oculus Rift, and It Showed Me the Future of Warfare

When we think of the future of the military, we think of bigger and better weapons. Laser canons and the like. But what about the people operating those lasers? How can a behemoth like the Navy ready its future sailors for the high-tech combat of tomorrow? Believe it or not, with an Oculus Rift.

At the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies, a mix of real life, augmented reality, and virtual worlds come together to form a project known as BlueShark. It's an experiment to discover not only how the Navy of the future could work, but how it should work. I went there to train the way midshipmen will a decade from now.

What Is BlueShark?

BlueShark is the sexy codename given to the Enhanced Environment for Communication and Collaboration (aka E2C2). As the true name suggests, despite being largely funded by the U.S. military (a division of the Office of Naval Research known as SwampWorks), the work done here has much broader implications. The project is essentially a collection of technologies and environments (both physical and virtual) that examine how we humans may collaborate in the future, whether we're in the same room or on the other side of the planet.

As for its Naval involvement, BlueShark's focus is to ensure that ships with 50-year lifespans and the generations of sailors manning them can work in harmony far into the future. A control room full of dusty analog switches and knobs may be perfectly functional, but will they be intuitive five decades from now? Or would it be like handing a rotary phone to a seven-year old?

It's a tall order. But considering that BlueShark's working on projects for 2025, it's amazing how far they've already gotten.

The Experience

On our recent trip to the Institute for Creative Technologies at USC, I had the opportunity to run through the BlueShark demo as it currently stands. It essentially mimics the type of training that a new sailor might go through.

The ICT's Mixed Reality lab practically overflows with gigantic screens, cameras, sensors, goggles, and more fun toys. Definitely not the kind of place you imagine when you think of classic "Navy training." It looks more like something out of a WarGames remake.

I was led through the demo by Senior Chief Foster, a human-sized virtual avatar displayed on a large flatscreen TV. When you step into your designated position a camera (just a cheap Logitech webcam) senses you, and Foster snaps to life. He gave me a brief overview, had me tell him my name, and then guided me to the first (and most impressive) station.

Command Center

The BlueShark Command Center is, as you might have guessed from the name, a simulated command outpost. It features four large screens in front of you, a swivel chair, and a tweaked-out Oculus Rift. The Oculus isn't just there because it's in fashion; its founder, Palmer Luckey, was a lab assistant in the Mixed Reality Lab when he launched his Oculus Kickstarter campaign, and elements in the Oculus were informed by the MxR Lab's open-source designs.

Oh, and this also isn't your regular-old Oculus. BlueShark's, as you might guess, has a few extra bells and whistles.

As you can see in the photo above, the BlueShark Oculus has been outfitted with several red LEDs. While they appear to be solidly lit to the naked eye, in reality each one is strobing at a different frequency. This enables cameras in the room to tell which LED is which, and thus give accurate positioning data, which in turn informs what you are seeing in your virtual display. If you lean in or out, the imagery matches, making the virtual world feel that much more real.

The headset LEDs are matched by LED-covered straps that give accurate positioning data for your hands. It doesn't register finger-wiggles or anything that precise, but I was able to manipulate objects in the virtual world as easily as I would have been able to on a touchscreen.

In the photo at the top of this post, you can see my point of view, looking at a touchscreen with options for Crow's Nest Cam, Bridge, Combat Decision Center, and UAS Cam. In the real world, there was no interface. It was just a plain, cheap square of plexiglass on a stand. Yet, when I touched the spot where the buttons supposedly were, it registered the input perfectly and switched me to a different room.

This has profound implications. Let's say the Navy decides that a room full of touchscreens is the best way to control a new warship. Today, in order to train sailors on it, you'd have to build physical replicas of that control room. But what if you could just place plain pieces of plastic that approximate where the screens would be, slap an Oculus Rift on your face, and perfectly simulate what will be there? Outside of the VR headset, it's just a room full of cheap, blank plastic panels, but for the soldier in training, it would look and behave exactly as the real thing would. This would not only save a ton of money, but it would make the Navy far more adaptable.

The most incredible thing about this system, though, is how just a single press of a button can shift your perspective to a whole new vantage-point. When I hit that virtual button for Crow's Nest, I was instantly transported to the top of the ship's mast. It actually made me want to grab the sides of my chair at first. There I was, floating a hundred feet above the deck of the boat, and yet I still had all of my important screens and controls at my fingertips.

And then the best magic yet; another press of a button and I was even higher, looking down from a drone's point of view. I was flying high above the water, looking down at the boat that my physical body would be on, and looking out over enemy ships, too.

Obviously, this has profound implications. Imagine a drone pilot actually being able to see the entire world from the drone he or she is flying, not just from a single camera angle, but as if they were sitting in the cockpit. You would have so much more situational awareness. You might also have more of a sense that what you are doing is a part of the real world, not just some game, along with all of the moral implications that implies.

It stunned me silent.

A Flexible Future

Another advantage of this system is its extreme customizability. Maybe you're left-handed, and you want the ship's throttle over on the left. You can just drag and drop it to where you need it to be. When the next user logs in, it would reset to his or her preferred settings. In this way you can customize the ship itself to work in the way that makes most sense to you.

It also allows for fewer personnel to be physically on a ship. As long as the data speed could handle it, you could virtually pipe in an expert on any subject you needed, and they would be able to see the situation exactly as they would if they were on the ship with you. This could be extremely useful in specialized repair situations, or when a crucial translation is in need.

As incredible as BlueShark sounds—and will become—the system is a long way from perfect. There was occasional lag in the display, and when there's a slight disparity between what you are seeing and what you are physically experiencing, dizziness happens. I don't easily get motion-sick, but I definitely found myself getting queasy. At one point, when the screen froze completely, I became so disoriented I almost took a nose-dive out of my chair.

But we're at the very beginning of this technology. That it's this good at such a rudimentary stage is staggering.

Where It's Going

What remains to be seen is how the military adopts and implements BlueShark. One of the banner features of the Ford-class aircraft carriers is that they're made to be modular, so as technology progresses, theoretically entire control rooms could be swapped out. Might we see one that's just a bunch of lifeless glass panels that come to life when you look at them in virtual reality?

Even if that would make it endlessly customizable for the sailors using it, would the Navy ever trust a 100-percent digital system to pilot its boats? Would it be vulnerable to hacking? We asked the Navy these questions and got an official (and surprisingly candid) response from Lieutenant Commander Brent Olde, ONR Deputy, Human & Bio-Engineered Systems Division:

"Due to rapid advances in unmanned systems capabilities, the military is currently experiencing a paradigm shift in how it commands and controls its assets. With growing confidence and verified reliability in these new control mechanisms, I'd say yes, someday the Navy could have a completely new way of controlling large vessels - as depicted in BlueShark. However combat systems require multiple fail-safe redundancies to be in place in the case of system failures (some systems have quadruple redundancy), so if the Navy ever did replace the entire control system, it would only be after rigorous testing and redundant back-up mechanisms to maintain positive control."
Emphasis added, but suffice it to say that BlueShark could well be a reality, assuming it proved safe and reliable enough.

Suffice it to say that BlueShark could well be a reality, assuming it proved safe and reliable enough.

There are obviously also manifold applications for this technology outside of the military. You could put together a team of experts from around the world, who could collaborate in a virtual environment (with everything they say being instantly translated into the language of each individual listener) on a project. And, obviously, the gaming potential is off the charts.

But ultimately, seeing the world from the perspective of a drone, turning a blank space into the world's most high-tech command center just by looking through some glasses; these have huge implications for our military. If we aren't always ready to adapt, we lose. The more flexible we make ourselves, the more adaptable we'll be. BlueShark is the future—and it's closer than you think.

http://e2c2.ict.usc.edu/

Pretty awesome

 

[Teelie]

Phone Metadata Gives Away The Most Secret of Your Secrets



http://webpolicy.org/2014/03/12/metaphone-the-sensitivity-of-telephone-metadata/

Oh joy! Glad to know all of my information is out there for anyone smart enough to get. What's that saying some people always use as an excuse? "If you don't have anything to hide..."

I always think the people saying that change their tunes once they are the ones targeted.

No one ever has anything to hide, until they start to look at you.

Target Knew About Its Massive Hack—It Just Didn't Do Anything to Stop It



http://www.businessweek.com/article...ed-alarms-in-epic-hack-of-credit-card-data#p2

Truly amazing that a company that big could be so spectacularly stupid

And there goes my business at Target.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Fast Food Workers Are Suing McDonald's for Wage Theft

A coalition of McDonald's workers today announced that they're filing several class action McLawsuits against the company for "forcing them to work off the clock, shaving hours off their time cards and not paying them overtime."

The workers, who are affiliated with the ongoing union-led movement to raise wages in the dead-end fast food industry, announced in a conference call and press release this morning that they've filed suits in California, New York, and Michigan alleging wage theft by McDonald's. An example of their complaints, from the press release:

In three California suits, workers claim that McDonald's and its franchise owners failed to pay them for all time worked, failed to pay proper overtime, altered pay records and deprived them of timely meal periods and rest breaks. A fourth case makes similar claims on behalf of a statewide class of workers in McDonald's corporate-owned restaurants, who are adding their claims to a lawsuit for unpaid wages, penalties, and other relief that is already pending against McDonald's in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Other suits challenge Mcdonald's practice of making workers purchase and pay to clean their own uniforms.

Fast food workers, who are people just like you, can use every dollar they can get.

I'm all for giving them a living wage, I hope they win

 

[Teelie]

What, zombie wages aren't good enough? That's an insult to the zombies.

 

[NickNitro]

McDonald's apparently hasn't been doing too hot recently. I hope this is a trend. I hate everything about the big fast food chains and their corporate greed. I also hate the commercials athletes do promoting such garbage.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

You Can Now Get 1TB of Google Drive Storage For Just $10 a Month

Google has dramatically cut the price of Google Drive storage—you can now get a whole terabyte for just 10 bucks a month. That's a pretty insane deal.

Prices have been cut across all tiers. Now 10TB—which you'd never use all of in a million years—is $100/month, 100GB is $2, and 15GB is still free. The catch is if you're using Google instead of other stuff, it's almost definitely just a price play. But regardless, that's a whole lotta storage for a whole lotta nothing.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/save-more-with-google-drive.html

I know several DJs who in the not too distant future will need more than 10TB for storage. But this is an awesome deal. I could def use the 1TB for 10$ to back up all my tunes when I get them recovered. I will gladly pay that just to know I have my tunes stored in a safe spot and it's cheaper per month than my dental insurance

 

[Superwoman Prime]

You have 1TB worth of music, Kiddvicious? Damn.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Oh no, not currently. I have about 120 GB of DJ music and 100 GB of personal music but I recently had a friend break my external HD by accident and now it's costing me several hundred dollars to recover my music. So it will be nice to have it all backed up on the cloud so if either of my 2 new HDs get broke it will be easy to recover and I can just junk the broken HD. But I know several DJs that have over 1 TB of tunes easily and we get more every day usually. On average I'd say I download about 2-4 GB of music to DJ with a week

 

[KevanG]

I have a 2TB external HDD that I paid $115 for a few years back. It's maybe half full. Still good to know.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This migrane preventing space tiara was just approved by the FDA

Fantastic news for people who suffer regularly from migraine headaches. The FDA has just approved a wearable electrical stimulation device for sales in the United States — a headband that prevents the onset of migraines when worn for just 20 minutes each day.

A device like this is definitely long overdue. Some 10% of people worldwide suffer from migraines, a condition characterized by intense pulsing or throbbing pain in one area of the head, accompanied by nausea or vomiting and sensitivity to light and sound.

Developed by STX-Med in Beligum, Cefaly is a compact, portable, battery-powered, prescription device. It's placed at the center of the forehead, just above the eyes, using a self-adhesive electrode. The headband then delivers transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) to the trigeminal nerve known to be involved in migraine headaches. The only known noticeable effect is a tingling or massaging sensation where the electrode is applied. It can only be used by people age 18 or older and should be used no more than once per day for 20 minutes.

[YT]S_p0WlJd_dw[/YT]

A recent study showed that people who use Cefaly experience significantly fewer days with migraines each month. They also rely less on medication. It's not effective in completely eliminating migraines, but 54% of patients were satisfied enough that they'd be willing to purchase the device.

http://www.medgadget.com/2014/03/cefaly.html

I know a few people who would probably buy this thing in a heart beat. But does anyone else see the old Power Man headband when they look at this thing?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

In-Car Facial Recognition Detects Angry Drivers To Prevent Road Rage

[YT]NDP1w8sWHhg[/YT]

Passengers in a car can help calm an angry driver when another vehicle cuts them off. But when a driver is alone, that anger can easily turn into road rage which puts everyone at risk. So researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne—or EPFL for short—are working on an in-car facial recognition system that knows when the driver isn't happy.

Working alongside engineers from PSA Peugeot Citroen, the team adapted an infrared camera-based facial detection system (so it works all hours of the day) to keep an eye out for two specific expressions: anger and disgust, which indicate the driver is upset.

The hardest part of knowing for sure if a driver is angry is that not everyone uses the same facial expressions to indicate it. Someone could have a big smile on their face as they accelerate to run someone off the road. But in the majority of test situations the facial-detection system was able to accurately spot an enraged driver, and eventually it could be used to limit a vehicle's speed, or flash and sound a warning that they need to calm down. Because there's nothing like a computer beeping at you to sooth your inner beast.

http://phys.org/news/2014-03-emotion-detectors-safer.html

I know this could help save lives. I have seen way too many of my friends get irate while driving and do dumb stuff

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Leaked Controller Suggests Amazon's Set-Top-Box Will Be a Gaming Machine

Zatz Not Funny just posted images of an Amazon-branded gaming controller that supposedly found its way to the world through an overseas regulatory agency. If real, the controller suggests that Amazon could be planning to use gaming to differentiate its long-rumored set-top-box from the Apple TVs and Rokus of the world.

Following the success of Android-based gaming boxes like Mad Catz's Mojo Micro Console and Ouya, Amazon's offering here would seem to make sense. Mobile operating systems and today's burly multi-core chipsets have proved a more than suitable platform for serious gaming. That's part of the reason that people expect the overhauled Apple TV to come with at least an optional controller.

As for this little piece of hardware, the matte black finish certainly feels Amazon-y, and the Android-like buttons also make sense. We can't say for sure these images are real but if a Prime-powered Kindle-box (or whatever) is coming, seems like it would be a nice touch.

http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2014-03/amazon-streamer-feature-bluetooth-gaming-controller/

Not sure why you would want to try and compete with Sony and Microsoft when they have such a staggering fan base and lead in the market but I guess ya gotta start somewhere

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

WSJ: Microsoft and Google Are Crushing the Dual-OS Dream

A report by the Wall Street Journal claims that Intel's grand plans to stuff Android and Windows into the same tablet have hit a brick wall: neither Google nor Microsoft want hardware to sport the competitor's OS alongside their own.

The Journal reports that the Asus Transformer Book Duet—a hybrid laptop-***-tablet capable of switching between Windows and Android on the hoof—has been cancelled because of strong opposition from both Microsoft and Google. It was known as early as January that Microsoft was uncomfortable with the idea of hardware running both Windows and Android, but sources now tell the Journal that "Google wants all-Android devices" too.

A leaked memo from Asus, seen by the newspaper, explains that the Duet is being scrapped and two dual-OS all-in-one PCs that it launched last year being pulled from sale. The memo goes on to explain that a major reason for halting the sales is a "new policy" at Microsoft of not supporting dual-OS products.

Given the current craze for all things dual-booting, the news will probably comes as a major blow to some hardware manufacturers who were pinning their colors to this particular mast. For the rest of us, it's arguably not quite as a big a deal—it's unclear, after all, just how much benefit there is in a dual-booting tablet anyway.

It will, however, be interesting to see how the year of populist dual boots now plays out—given the two big OS developers are standing squarely against it.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303546204579438351054533592

I was wondering why these two were playing nice and doing the dual boot thing. Now it seems like it was all a pipe dream

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Magic floor sinks into the ground to transform into an outdoor pool

Everyone wants a pool in their backyard until they realize they never actually swim in it. Those neglected pools become nothing more than holes in the ground filled with cloudy water that act as mosquito magnets. Not this pool though. This outdoor pool is magic. The floors sinks into the ground and it fills itself up with water. Lovely.

We fell in love with hydrofloor pools before but there's just something about putting a pool outdoors that makes it seem even more fun.

[YT]PChL21DBu94[/YT]

I want one

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

US Government Is Finally Giving Up Control of the Internet

That's all folks. Officials announced on Friday that the U.S. government would surrender control over the internet—or at least the administration of the internet. It's unclear who will take over the responsibility, but as The Washington Post points out, it will almost surely not be the United Nations.

You're probably thinking, "Wait a second… the U.S. government had control over the internet?" And you would right to wonder what the heck is going on. After all, the internet by its very definition is a free and open global communication network. Or at least it's supposed to be.

However, the U.S. government did sort of invent the internet. The internet grew out of a Defense Department project in the 1960s called ARPANET, though the network was really built by many many scientists from around the country and around the world. Nevertheless, for a complicated set of reasons, the U.S. government maintain administrative control over certain parts of how the internet works, specifically through a long-running contract between the Commerce Department and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The latter party is who controls the assigning of internet domains like .com, .org, etc.

Friday's news is hardly a surprise, though. As you've surely noticed, the government's been taking a lot of flak for spying on seemingly everyone in the entire world and compromising that free-and-open principle pretty hard. Plus—NSA shenanigans aside—the internet really is a tool for the entire world. It's not very nice of the Americans to maintain control over it, even if its just control over how domains work. "I welcome the beginning of this transition process that you have outlined," said Fadi Chehade, president of ICANN, in response to the news. "The global community will be included in full."

So what happens now? Don't worry. Netflix isn't going to suddenly shut down this weekend, and you can still register new domains to your heart's content. What happens now is leaders from around the world will start the conversation and come up with some sort of compromise. Again, the U.S. announcement made it pretty clear that it would not surrender control to the UN. Uncle Sam has never liked that idea. It's certainly possible that a new international organization will be created to take over the U.S. government's responsibilities, but it's too soon to tell.

So get back to your House of Cards binge. It's more or less business as usual for the time being.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...7472d0-abb5-11e3-adbc-888c8010c799_story.html

Can't say I don't think this isn't a good thing for the denizens of the world

 

[Superwoman Prime]

In-Car Facial Recognition Detects Angry Drivers To Prevent Road Rage

[YT]NDP1w8sWHhg[/YT]



http://phys.org/news/2014-03-emotion-detectors-safer.html

I know this could help save lives. I have seen way too many of my friends get irate while driving and do dumb stuff

What they need to do when the driver becomes angry is play a recording of a soothing female voice. Perhaps give it some conversational AI ability. Not flash a freaking light.