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Comment Disappointing tech journilism (Score 1) 105

What they actually did was use ram to create intentional EMI in the 2.4Ghz spectrum. It happens to be shared with WiFi but in no way does it share anything with the Wifi standard. The article title is grossly wrong and highly misrepresentative but I guess thats the kind of trash that passes for tech journalism nowadays.

Comment Re:How do companies not TEST firmware updates firs (Score 1) 171

by Bad_Feeling (#60208886) Attached to: Samsung Blu-Ray Players Suddenly Stop Working Worldwide

I've got a Samsung Bluray that is one of the affected models. However, it's not connected to the internet (except every couple of months, when I switch on its powerstrip to watch netflix) and it continues to work. For that reason, this doesn't seem to be something inside the player itself, more like an external update.
IOS

Why iOS 7 Is Making Some Users Feel 'Sick' 261

Posted by Soulskill from the you're-not-supposed-to-eat-the-phone dept.
dryriver sends this story from The Guardian: "The introduction of fake zooms, parallax, sliding and other changes in Apple's new iPhone and iPad software has a very real effect on people with vestibular disorders. ... It makes frequent use of zoom and slide animations; the home screen boasts parallax, with icons apparently floating above subtly animating wallpaper. And it's making people sick. Triggers and symptoms vary, but TidePool mobile app developer Jenni Leder's experience is not uncommon. A self-professed power-user, she frequently switches apps; but on iOS 7, this has caused headaches and feelings associated with motion sickness. 'I now have to close my eyes or cover the screen during transitions, which is ridiculous,' she told The Guardian, adding that there's nowhere to hide: 'It's not apps that affect me, but accessing them. Tap a folder and the view zooms in. Tap an app and it's like flying through the icon and landing in that app's micro world — and I'm getting dizzy on the journey there.' Reactions to screen-based systems — especially those utilizing 3D effects — aren't new. Cynthia Ryan, executive director of the Vestibular Disorders Association, says 3D effects can cause 'intense nausea, dizziness and vertigo,' sometimes from general vision problems, but also from visual-vestibular conflict. She added symptoms 'manifest more severely if a viewer already has a disorder of the vestibular system.'"
Robotics

Will Robots Replace Rent-a-Cops? 157

Posted by timothy from the gradual-and-inexorable dept.
Daniel_Stuckey writes "Now, an EU-funded, £7.2 million ($11 million USD) collaborative project, called Strands, is underway in England to develop 4D, artificial intelligence for security and care applications. It aims to produce intelligent robo-sentinels that can patrol areas, and learn to detect abnormalities in human behavior. Could their project eventually replace security guards with robots? It looks possible. Strands, as Nick Hawes of the University of Birmingham said, will 'develop novel approaches to extract spatio-temporal structure from sensor data gathered during months of autonomous operation,' to develop intelligence that can then 'exploit [those] structures to yield adaptive behavior in highly demanding, real-world security and care scenarios.'"
Earth

World Population Grows Beyond 7 Billion 349

Posted by samzenpus from the bigger-is-nor-better dept.
First time accepted submitter assertation writes in with a LA Times feature about the booming world population and the strain it puts on the environment and governments. "After remaining stable for most of human history, the world's population has exploded over the last two centuries. The boom is not over: The biggest generation in history is just entering its childbearing years. The coming wave will reshape the planet, and the impact will be greatest in the poorest, most unstable countries."
Piracy

Submission + - Sony, Universal, Fox caught pirating TV, movies, m (extremetech.com)

Submitted by Bad_Feeling
Bad_Feeling writes: Ernesto, the piratical kingpin of TorrentFreak, has discovered that US movie and TV studios, including Sony Pictures, Fox Entertainment, and NBC Universal, are eager pirates as well. Sony employees were caught downloading dubstep music and a rip of Conan the Barbarian. Someone at the NBC Universal office in Fort Lauderdale downloaded the entirety of Game of Thrones season one. If the problem of piracy has taken root within the walls of the publishers and producers, suing hapless consumers seems stupendously hypocritical.
Software

TOSAmend Automates Counteroffer Terms For Service Agreements 138

Posted by timothy from the cross-out-with-a-broad-brush dept.
First time accepted submitter BigSlowTarget writes "Are we simply subject to whatever a software provider demands of us in their clickthrough TOS agreement or are they real contracts where we can counteroffer our preferred terms and expect a refund if they are rejected? One blogger has come up with an applet to change TOS agreements and automatically submit the changes for approval (or rejection). Even he is not sure of the legal standing for the offer, but with these contracts so common they have been featured on South Park the issue certainly could be coming to the courts soon."
Biotech

New Transistor Could Let Chips Interface With Living Systems 72

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the we-have-the-technology dept.
An anonymous reader writes with a UW news item about a really neat new transistor design. From the release: "Human [sic, probably meant Electronic] devices, from light bulbs to iPods, send information using electrons. Human bodies and all other living things, on the other hand, send signals and perform work using ions or protons. Materials scientists at the University of Washington have built a novel transistor that uses protons, creating a key piece for devices that can communicate directly with living things. Among the many potential areas for application is that of prosthetic limbs." The paper's abstract is available, but the full paper is unfortunately paywalled. The Rolandi research group has a few other neat projects in related areas.

Comment Re:Lowers? (Score 1) 339

by Bad_Feeling (#35799326) Attached to: AT&T Lowers Data Access To Just $500/GB

Here in India, you pay $2.45 for a 1GB chunk. Larger chunks, cost even less. 5GB goes for just over $6!! Pay-as-you-go is all fine if one sticks to small data transfers, but in the long run, is certainly not worth it. Works out to many times the cost.

I understand that fewer players in the market tends to resist cost reduction, but seriously, $500 per GB is ridiculous, right? What am I missing here?

Thats all well and good but how much does the average Indian make in a day? $5?
The Internet

Vatican Warns That Internet Promotes Satanism 585

Posted by timothy from the perhaps-this-is-why-I'm-not-at-church dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that the Roman Catholic Church has warned that the internet has fueled a surge in Satanism that has led to a sharp rise in the demand for exorcists. 'The internet makes it much easier than in the past to find information about Satanism. In just a few minutes you can contact Satanist groups and research occultism,' says Carlo Climati, a member of the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome who specializes in the dangers posed to young people by Satanism. Organizers of a six-day conference that has brought together more than 60 Catholic clergy as well as doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, teachers and youth workers, co-sponsored by the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments and the Congregation for Clergy, say the rise of Satanism has been dangerously underestimated in recent years."
Image

Quadruped CHEETAH Robot To Outrun Any Human 177

Posted by samzenpus from the robot-gorillas-to-hunt-the-robot-cats dept.
cylonlover writes "Robots are faster than humans at a lot of things, but up until now running hasn't been one of them. That is set to change with robotics company Boston Dynamics recently awarded a contract by DARPA to design and build a quadraped CHEETAH robot that is faster than any human. The contract also includes the creation of an agile, bipedal humanoid robot. It's hard to say which one might ultimately be creepier."
Perl

RubyGems' Module Count Soon To Surpass CPAN's 206

Posted by timothy from the we-finally-know-who's-counting dept.
mfarver writes "According to the data gathered by modulecounts.com, the total number of modules checked into RubyGems (18,894, and growing at about 27/day) will probably exceed CPAN (18,928, and growing about 8/day) this week."

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