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Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, May 25 2013 @ 12:45 PM EDT |
For the first time, scientists working at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology have demonstrated a new type of lens that bends and
focuses ultraviolet (UV) light in such an unusual way that it can create
ghostly, 3D images of objects that float in free space.
The easy-to-build
lens could lead to improved photolithography, nanoscale manipulation and
manufacturing, and even high-resolution three-dimensional imaging, as well as a
number of as-yet-unimagined applications in a diverse range of
fields.
[...]
An article published in the journal Nature explains
that the new lens is formed from a flat slab of metamaterial with special
characteristics that cause light to flow backward—a counterintuitive situation
in which waves and energy travel in opposite directions, creating a negative
refractive index.
http://phys.org/news/2013-05-scientists-record-setting-metamaterial-flat-lens.ht
ml
---
Nature abstract
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v497/n7450/full/nature12158.html [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: SilverWave on Saturday, May 25 2013 @ 03:34 PM EDT |
Android is winning. Apple is
winning. --- RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, May 25 2013 @ 08:41 PM EDT |
Why in the world did MSFT & Nokia use Alt-J's song Fitz
pleasure for their new ad? And don't watch the original music
video on which the ad is based, it is very disturbing, as are
the lyrics at the link below.
http://www.songmeanings.net/m/songs/view/3530822107859433246/[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: JamesK on Sunday, May 26 2013 @ 08:23 AM EDT |
NEWS ANALYSIS: Over the past
40 years, Ethernet—a standard that a bunch of tinkerers at Xerox PARC created to
run a printer—continues to deliver as it grows bigger and
faster.
"And those devices also demand something else—an address.
Intel's Radia Perlman, inventor of Spanning Tree, noted that the 48-bit address
that was once thought to be enough to last forever may now be in danger. So
what's next beyond that? Perhaps we'll start to see addresses that are defined
by a 64-bit number."
As it is, there is already a move toward 64 bit
MAC addresses, known as EUI-64. In MAC address based IPv6 addresses, the 48 bit
EUI-48 address is padded out to 64 bits by inserting FFFE in the middle. Also,
while MAC addresses were intended to be globally unique, they don't have to be.
They only have to be unique on the local network, as the MAC address is
discarded when the packet passes through a routers.
--- The following
program contains immature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, May 26 2013 @ 02:27 PM EDT |
"In his lifetime, Steve Jobs was roundly criticized for
seemingly not
donating enough money to philanthropic causes.
However, it has been
revealed recently that the late founder
of Apple and his wife - both intensely
private individuals -
quietly made large donations to charity.
Jobs
never addressed his philanthropic endeavors and refused
to discuss the subject
even with his biographer, Walter
Isaacson. But now, his widow, Laurene Powell
Jobs, has
publicly spoken out about her charitable work." link[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, May 26 2013 @ 11:11 PM EDT |
Jim Fruchterman, founder of the NGO Benetech, writes in frustration
from the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, where the US Trade
Representative is scuttling a treaty that will help blind people and people with
other disabilities access copyrighted works, largely by making the (actually
rather good) US laws the standard around the world.
Rather than promoting
the US approach -- which allows for the creation of works in accessible formats
without permission -- the US Trade Rep and his friends from the MPAA are
advocating for a treaty that is far more restrictive than US law, ensuring that
the US itself could never sign it.
In the process, they're killing a badly
needed project to help people with disabilities around the world help each other
to access creative works in formats that are adapted for their
use.
Cory
Doctorow,Boing Boing [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: JamesK on Monday, May 27 2013 @ 08:02 AM EDT |
D-Wave Systems is installing one of its advanced high performance
computers to help research into machine learning, speech recognition and the
search for exoplanets --- The following program contains immature
subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 27 2013 @ 05:01 PM EDT |
We're sorry, but we can't find the page you have requested.
Please feel free to check the main page or the search page.
http://groklawstatic.ibiblio.org/www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2013/s13
05.pdf%E2%80%8E
Looks like some funny characters accidentally tacked on at
the end?[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 27 2013 @ 05:11 PM EDT |
Apple 1 sells at auction for >600 billion. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 27 2013 @ 05:41 PM EDT |
http://theweek.com/article/index/244482/how-an-apple-affiliate-made-30-billion-a
nd-paid-no-taxes
"Apple CEO Tim Cook defended the tech giant's tax strategies before a
Senate panel on Tuesday, saying that Apple is proud to be an American company.
"We pay all the taxes we owe — every single dollar," Cook said.
"We don't depend on tax gimmicks." Cook faced harsh questioning,
however, from the members of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations, which unveiled a report Monday accusing Apple of using a
"complex web" of offshore shell subsidiaries to avoid paying taxes on
$74 billion in profits earned overseas between 2009 and 2012."
Apple, scum? Well, it appears so after all.
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: SirHumphrey on Monday, May 27 2013 @ 06:36 PM EDT |
Clicky [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 27 2013 @ 07:29 PM EDT |
"Classified blueprints of the new ASIO headquarters in
Canberra have been
stolen in a cyber hit believed to have
been mounted by hackers in China" link [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Monday, May 27 2013 @ 09:10 PM EDT |
Link
It is impossible to follow the news without being
confronted with ‘cyber’ related issues. Cybercrime, cyber police, cyber-attack,
cyber war, cyber terrorism, cyber Monday, cyber punk, cyber party, cybersex and
cyberspace are only a few of a long list of words that have joined our
vocabulary in recent years. Everything seems to be ‘cyber’.
Though so far,
cyber-attacks have not lead to immediate deaths or large-scale destruction, when
talking about cyber security, it is important to know what it is we seek to
defend: digital freedoms and our open societies. We need to defend democratic
principles not only against outside attacks, but also against erosion from
within. Too often freedom is compromised for alleged security or by a focus on a
misperceived threat.
...
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You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Gringo_ on Tuesday, May 28 2013 @ 08:39 AM EDT |
The Washington Post has yet another report on the
extent of Chinese penetration into US military technology.
AFAIK, technology
is what gives (or gave) the US the edge
and allowed it to become a superpower
on the world stage.
Now they are in the process of losing that edge, what have
they got, outnumber as they are by the Chinese ten to one?
The Defense Science Board report also listed
broad
technologies that have been compromised, such as drone
video systems,
nanotechnology, tactical data links and
electronic warfare systems — all areas
where the Pentagon
and Chinese military are investing heavily.
Winslow
T. Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform
Project at the Project on
Government Oversight, made a
similar point. “If they got into the combat
systems, it
enables them to understand it to be able to jam it or
otherwise
disable it,” he said. “If they’ve got into the
basic algorithms for the missile
and how they behave,
somebody better get out a clean piece of paper and start
to
design all over again.”
The experts said the cybertheft creates
three major
problems. First, access to advanced U.S. designs gives China
an
immediate operational edge that could be exploited in a
conflict. Second, it
accelerates China’s acquisition of
advanced military technology and saves
billions in
development costs. And third, the U.S. designs can be used
to
benefit China’s own defense industry. There are long-
standing suspicions that
China’s theft of designs for the F-
35 fighter allowed Beijing to develop its
version much
faster.
Among more than two dozen major weapons systems
whose
designs were breached were programs critical to U.S. missile
defenses
and combat aircraft and ships, according to a
previously undisclosed section of
a confidential report
prepared for Pentagon leaders by the Defense Science
Board.
Experts warn that the electronic intrusions gave China
access
to advanced technology that could accelerate the
development of its weapons
systems and weaken the U.S.
military advantage in a future
conflict.
The magnitude of the stupidity involved here on
the part
of the US government, the military, and defence contractors
is
staggering. They have known they have been under
surveillance by the Chinese
for years, even a decade or
more, yet they go right on nonchalantly making this
technology available on the Internet to anyone who cares to
go looking for it.
They have already lost the war. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Gringo_ on Tuesday, May 28 2013 @ 12:15 PM EDT |
From PC
World...
After the steep losses in the disastrous
first
quarter, IDC now predicts PC shipments to drop a
whopping 7.8 percent in
2013—nearly twice the rate of 2012's
4 percent decline
The
update that is supposed to fix Windows 8 is not
expected to arrive in time for
back-to-school sales, and
this will have a disastrous impact in
itself.
In any event, the Windows Blue update will be too little,
too
late to save Microsoft. Metro was a bad idea for many
reasons, both aesthetic
and technical, and no number of
tweaks will make it palatable to the
masses. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: squib on Tuesday, May 28 2013 @ 02:15 PM EDT |
Give people in third wold countries access to knowledge about how they can look
after their own health and make their own water safe to drink will probably be
more cost effective than Billy G. injecting them with vaccines but leaving them
still living in an unhealthy germ ridden environment. People can only do what
they know how to do – give them access to ideas and solutions that match their
needs and they can shrug off their dependance on well meant hand-outs that
imprison them in a cycle of never-ending poverty and disease.
Google
to bring net access to Africa using blimps, masts and satellites
Now why
didn't Billy - that great technological visionary - think of this? [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 28 2013 @ 03:25 PM EDT |
Vaccinate your children or declare why not, parents
told
Parents will be forced to either vaccinate their children or
register for an exemption in order to enrol them in childcare, after changes to
the Public Health Act passed through cabinet Monday night.
The changes mean
parents or guardians must provide evidence their child is fully vaccinated for
age, is on a recognised catch-up schedule, or has an exemption approved by a
doctor when they enrol their child.
To get an exemption, parents will have
to receive counselling and fill out forms along with their doctor. Valid
exemptions include personal, philosophical or religious beliefs.
Childcare
facilities may be fined if directors fail to comply with the changes and obtain
vaccination records before enrollment.
Melissa Davey, The Sydney Morning
Herald
---
Compulsory voting in Australia [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 28 2013 @ 07:58 PM EDT |
"software contributes considerably more value to national
economies if it is
properly licensed than it does if it is
pirated .. Every dollar invested in
properly licensed
software in low-income countries yields an astounding
$437
in additional national production, on average .. Fully
licensed
software, in particular, improves effectiveness and
efficiencies in enterprises
by reducing exposure to
viruses"
link
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: JamesK on Tuesday, May 28 2013 @ 09:08 PM EDT |
A decade ago, SCO attacked Linux but it hadn't counted on running into a
paralegal turned legal journalist named Pamela Jones and her Website
Groklaw. --- The following program contains immature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 28 2013 @ 09:12 PM EDT |
It is worth noting that earlier this year Canadian business groups
led
by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce recommended that the Canadian
government introduce a regulation that would permit the use of spyware
for
these kinds of purposes.
The proposed regulation would remove
the need for express consent
for:
a program that is installed by or
on behalf of a person to
prevent, detect, investigate, or terminate activities
that the
person reasonably believes (i) present a risk or threatens
the
security, privacy, or unauthorized or fraudulent use, of a
computer system,
telecommunications facility, or network, or (ii)
involves the contravention of
any law of Canada, of a province or
municipality of Canada or of a foreign
state;
As I noted
at the time,
this provision would effectively legalize spyware
in Canada on behalf of these
industry groups.
Michael Geist[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: JamesK on Tuesday, May 28 2013 @ 09:13 PM EDT |
I recently came across a Firefox add-on, called "EPUBReader" which
allows Firefox to be used as an ePub e=book reader. It seems to work well so
far and looks nice too. I had been using FBReader, but, while generally working
OK, it had some issues. I also us Aldiko on my tablet for e-books. Another
add-on is "Save as EPUB" which enables saving web sites as epub. Both
add-ons are available through the Firefox add-on manager.
---
The following program contains immature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 28 2013 @ 10:51 PM EDT |
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy released a
study last week that found the majority of arrestees in five metropolitan areas
tested positive for marijuana at the time they were booked, and that many other
arrestees tested positive for harder drugs.
There was one drug missing from
the report, however, and it appears it was omitted intentionally. That drug is
alcohol.
Mike Riggs, Reason[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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