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Anonymous Coward writes:

Intel has released the "Minnowboard Max", an open source, single board computer available for $99.

Not to be outflanked by rivals, Intel has released the $99 Minnowboard Max, a tiny single-board computer that runs Linux and Android. It is completely open source you can check out the firmware and software here and runs a 1.91GHz Atom E3845 processor.

Blackmoore writes:

Ars Technica brings us Prenda Law stunner: "Porn trolls" win a round, dodge sanctions.

US District Judge Joan Ericksen has overturned sanctions that were issued in November by a US Magistrate Judge in her district, Franklin Noel.

That order was stayed while Ericksen could consider Prenda's objections. Now she has considered their objections and found them convincing.

Who will stop this nagging troll from exposing your Porn habits to a court of law?

Blackmoore writes:

Science Daily brings us a report that uses solar energy to create solar energy materials based on work carried out by Oregon State University (OSU).

Researchers at OSU have discovered a way to tap the sun not only as a source of power, but also to directly produce the solar energy materials that make this possible. This breakthrough could make the sun almost a 'one-stop shop' that produces both the materials for solar devices and the eternal energy to power them. From the article:

The work is based on the use of a "continuous flow" microreactor to produce nano-particle inks that make solar cells by printing. Existing approaches based mostly on batch operations are more time-consuming and costly. In this process, simulated sunlight is focused on the solar microreactor to rapidly heat it, while allowing precise control of temperature to aid the quality of the finished product. The light in these experiments was produced artificially, but the process could be done with direct sunlight, and at a fraction of the cost of current approaches.

"Our system can synthesize solar energy materials in minutes compared to other processes that might take 30 minutes to two hours," Chang said. "This gain in operation speed can lower cost."

In these experiments, the solar materials were made with copper indium diselenide, but to lower material costs it might also be possible to use a compound such as copper zinc tin sulfide, Chang said. And to make the process something that could work 24 hours a day, sunlight might initially be used to create molten salts that could later be used as an energy source for the manufacturing. This could provide more precise control of the processing temperature needed to create the solar energy materials.

I for one am looking forward to making solar panels in my own back yard.

starcraftsicko writes:

The legality of red-light camera evidence in California is set to be reviewed by the California Supreme Court.

Ars Technica reports, the California Supreme Court is hearing the case in an attempt to answer three basic questions:

1. What testimony, if any, regarding the accuracy and reliability of the automated traffic enforcement system (ATES) is required as a prerequisite to admission of the ATES-generated evidence?
2. Is the ATES evidence hearsay?
3. If so, do any exceptions apply?

Cameras in Ohio are also facing state supreme court scrutiny. The SCOTUS has been silent so far on traffic cameras but has previously ruled on the need to be able to be able to question diagnostic equipment operators to ensure a fair trial to avoid hearsay.

negativetype writes:

Ubuntu One (Canonical's cloud storage) is being shut down June 1st, 2014. However, users of the service will have access to their content until July 31st, 2014, at which point the servers will be shut down, and all content will be rendered inaccessible.

From the blog, Jane Silber (CEO Canonical) writes:

Today we are announcing plans to shut down the Ubuntu One file services. This is a tough decision, particularly when our users rely so heavily on the functionality that Ubuntu One provides. However, like any company, we want to focus our efforts on our most important strategic initiatives and ensure we are not spread too thin.

Our strategic priority for Ubuntu is making the best converged operating system for phones, tablets, desktops and more. In fact, our user experience, developer tools for apps and scopes, and commercial relationships have been constructed specifically to highlight third party content and services (as opposed to our own); this is one of our many differentiators from our competitors. Additionally, the free storage wars aren't a sustainable place for us to be, particularly with other services now regularly offering 25GB-50GB free storage. If we offer a service, we want it to compete on a global scale, and for Ubuntu One to continue to do that would require more investment than we are willing to make. We choose instead to invest in making the absolute best, open platform and to highlight the best of our partners' services and content.

As of today, it will no longer be possible to purchase storage or music from the Ubuntu One store. The Ubuntu One file services will not be included in the upcoming Ubuntu 14.04 LTS release, and the Ubuntu One apps in older versions of Ubuntu and in the Ubuntu, Google, and Apple stores will be updated appropriately. The current services will be unavailable from 1 June 2014; user content will remain available for download until 31 July, at which time it will be deleted.

mendax writes:

The New York Times reports that the problems at Mozilla go beyond the conflict that led to Brendan Eich's quick departure.

From the article:

Criticism mounted and, combined with Mr. Eich's refusal to discuss his views, made the situation untenable for Mozilla and Mr. Eich, according to current and former Mozilla board members.

But issues at Mozilla, based in Mountain View, Calif., run deeper than the furor over Mr. Eich's personal views. It is an organization in flux, struggling like many others with the tech industry's migration to mobile devices.

"Mozilla has always been a messy place, and misunderstood," said John Lilly, a former chief executive and former board member of Mozilla. "People on the outside can't decide if it's the United Nations, or Apple, or a nongovernmental organization, or a soup kitchen. It's a hybrid, mission-driven organization."

An anonymous coward writes:

Question for the lentils out there: What makes and models of laptops are good these days? Traditionally, you could just get an IBM ThinkPad if you were willing and able to pay extra for quality, but judging by reviews, they aren't as consistent as they used to be. A 'nice' laptop has to get a lot of things right: fast internals, sturdy case, quality keyboard, excellent battery life, and good heat management, to name a few. Are there any manufacturers that sell machines worth buying anymore, or do you have to compromise?

migz writes:

craftclarity conducts a series of experiments at indestructibles on the hot topic of Bacon Shrinkage. It has everything, science, research, experiment, graphs. Oh and did I remember to mention Bacon? What do the soys think of this from an educational, scientific, and culinary perspective?

Main Objective Hypothesis: Running bacon under cold water before cooking will reduce shrinking by up to 50%.

Secondary Subjective Hypothesis: Maximum flavoring will be obtained by cooking bacon in the oven for 10 minutes at 365° Fahrenheit.

Scareb writes:

Business Insider has an interesting article (along with some nice illustrations via mapping software) that analyzes the apparent socioeconomic divide between average iPhone and Android users and the effect it has on app development.

Simon Khalaf, CEO of Flurry (one of the larger mobile advertising platforms) was reported as saying, "We have seen and published reports that an Android user is worth one-quarter of an iOS user, but that is based on virtual goods sales (mainly games). The IBM data seems to suggest that this is almost the same ratio for sales of physical goods (m-commerce)."

Blackmoore writes:

Science daily brings us Materials, electronics that dissolve when triggered being developed.

Iowa State University is developing "transient materials" and "transient electronics" that can quickly and completely melt away when a trigger is activated. That could mean that one day you could send out a signal to destroy a lost credit card, or when soldiers are wounded, their electronic devices could be remotely triggered to melt away.

So I'm expecting to see products that not only will fail, but actually dissolve into uselessness when it's corporate master deems fit.

Does anyone have a problem with this?

The paper and abstract can be found here.

lhsi and datapharmer wrote:

A 5 year old found that after entering the wrong password for a verification screen, it was possible to just enter spaces into the subsequent password request to log into the account. Microsoft added the child's name into its list of recognised security researchers and gave him "four free games, $50 (£30), and a year-long subscription to Xbox Live".

Dad Robert - who works in security - sent details of the flaw to Microsoft.

In a statement, the company said: "We're always listening to our customers and thank them for bringing issues to our attention.

"We take security seriously at Xbox and fixed the issue as soon as we learned about it."

Blackmoore writes:

Patent troll Macrosolve has lost its battle to enforce a patent on web forms. An Ars Technica story explains that MacroSolve is a company that got a lot of (generally negative) attention when it turned full-blown "patent troll" in 2011, suing dozens of companies (including small app development shops) over patent No.7,822,816, which it claims covers using questionnaires on a mobile app. From the article:

Now, a coalition of defendants led by Newegg and Geico Insurance has stopped MacroSolve in its tracks. MacroSolve has dismissed all remaining cases, and it has admitted that it can't proceed to go forward with a trial that was scheduled to take place this June in East Texas.

MacroSolve was able to "extort over $4M from over 60 defendants," Newegg Chief Legal Officer Lee Cheng wrote in a victory e-mail to his coalition. Last year, Newegg began to organize the final group of MacroSolve defendants, urging them to band together and stop paying MacroSolve, which was generally demanding between $50,000 to $100,000 to settle a lawsuit. (Those demands are on the low side for patent troll settlements; five-figure settlements are considered to be in the "nuisance" range.) In addition, Geico Insurance filed an ex parte reexam against the MacroSolve patent. That move paid off, and all claims were rejected on March 7. A couple of weeks later, MacroSolve started dismissing defendants.

"MacroSolve is now trading at a smidge above $0.01 per share," noted Cheng in his e-mail to allies, which he shared with Ars. "Why those asshats continue to trade at ANY value, I do not know. The world would be a better place without them and their advantage-taking ways. Please continue to support efforts to bring symmetry to patent law, legislatively, administratively, in the courts, and in the court of public opinion."

Cheng's "stop feeding the trolls" pitch didn't meet with 100 percent success, but it worked well enough. Macrosolve financial filings and court documents show that most of the companies in the final batch of targets did not settle. The holdouts included Chipotle, Kayak, HBO, Meetup.com, Mediafire, Carlson Hotels, and Five Guys Burgers.

lhsi writes:

A new open access study has been released that looks at whether video gaming has an effect on academic performance in industrialised nations.

"In sum, across more than 192,000 students in 22 countries, video-gaming behaviour had little effect on psychometrically valid assessments of academic performance in science, mathematics, or reading. The results suggest that the impact of video-gaming on academic performance is too small to be considered problematic."

mendax writes:

The Associated Press is reporting that it is now believed that the North Korean military has been flying drones over various South Korean targets based upon evidence gathered from two crash sites.

As the article states:

South Korean experts say two small drones believed to have been flown across the border by the North amid rising military tensions were crude and decidedly low-tech - equipped with cameras available on the Internet for hundreds of dollars - but underscore a potential new threat that must be taken seriously. If the South Korean claims that the drones were from the North are true, they would be the first solid, public evidence that North Korea is using its drones to infiltrate South Korean airspace, including the skies over the capital Seoul and its surroundings.

South Korean defense officials say the drones are rudimentary, equipped with Japanese-made cameras capable of taking only still photos that cannot be transmitted in real time but must instead be retrieved.

lennier writes:

The New York Times is reporting that Nest Labs have halted sales of the Nest Protect smoke alarm due to a concern that the 'temporarily silence alarm' feature could be activated too easily by users. But more worrying, and only briefly skimmed over in the article, is the report that Nest remotely accessed already installed Nest Protect alarms to disable this misfeature.

It seems like this sets a very dangerous precedent. A smoke alarm has life-critical functionality; this is not something that a manufacturer should even be able to modify in real time over the Internet. Are we comfortable with this level of control over critical safety infrastructure resting in a software company's hands? Even if you are, what about the potential for criminals and intelligence agencies to do the same thing?

c0lo writes:

After a closely-fought contest, Europe's crucial telecoms package has passed through its first European Parliament vote, as have amendments that remove loopholes that would have clashed with the open internet.

Deputies on the Parliament's Industry committee had previously backed a proposal tabled by the European Commission which would allow internet providers to prioritise access to specialised service, but the assembly's Socialist, Liberal and Green groups formed a majority to back amendments overturning the committee position. This would correct situations like the one revealed by BEREC (a group of that represents EU telecom regulators), which in a 2012 study over 250 fixed-line and 150 mobile operators across Europe, have shown that blocking of Skype/VoIP traffic was common.

Under the new rules, Internet providers would only be able to offer consumers specialised services of higher quality, such as video on demand and business-critical data-intensive "cloud" applications, if they were not supplied to "the detriment of the availability or quality of internet access services" offered to other companies or service suppliers.
Specialized services will still be possible as long as the network capacity is sufficient to provide them in addition to normal Internet access services.

The new legislation will also ban mobile roaming charges starting with 2016. A similar law was struck down by US in Jan 2014