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kaszz writes:

Using the ImageNet object classification benchmark, Baidu’s Minwa supercomputer scanned more than 1 million images and taught itself to sort them into about 1000 categories and achieved an image identification error rate of just 4.58 percent, beating humans, Microsoft and Google. Baidu's Minwa scored 95.42%, Google's system scored a 95.2%, and Microsoft's, a 95.06%, Baidu said.

“Our company is now leading the race in computer intelligence,” said Ren Wu, a Baidu scientist working on the project. “I think this is the fastest supercomputer dedicated to deep learning,” he said. “We have great power in our hands—much greater than our competitors.

A paper released Monday [May 11, 2015] is intended to provide a taste of what Minwa’s extra oomph can do. It describes how the supercomputer was used to train a neural network that set a new record on a standard benchmark for image-recognition software. The ImageNet Classification Challenge, as it is called, involves training software on a collection of 1.5 million labeled images in 1,000 different categories, and then asking that software to use what it learned to label 100,000 images it has not seen before.

kaszz writes:

Baseline hardware requirements to run the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset have been determined. They recommend a NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R9 290 equivalent or greater GPU, an Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater CPU, 8 GB RAM, 2x USB 3.0 ports and "HDMI 1.3 video output supporting a 297 MHz clock via a direct output architecture."

Oculus chief architect Atman Binstock explains: "On the raw rendering costs: a traditional [1920×1080] game at 60 Hz requires 124 million shaded pixels per second. In contrast, the Rift runs at 2160×1200 at 90 Hz split over dual displays, consuming 233 million pixels per second. At the default eye-target scale, the Rift's rendering requirements go much higher: around 400 million shaded pixels per second. This means that by raw rendering costs alone, a VR game will require approximately 3x the GPU power of 1080p rendering." He also points out that PC graphics can afford a fluctuating frame rate — it doesn't matter too much if it bounces between 30-60 fps. The Rift has no such luxury, however.

The last requirement is more onerous: Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 or newer. Binstock says their development for OS X and Linux has been "paused" so they can focus on delivering content for Microsoft Windows. They have no timeline for going back to the less popular platforms.

Are there any good alternatives that make use of a more open GPU (say, from Intel) from a VR manufacturer that provides proper support for FOSS platforms? Even better would be if the RAM requirement were lower, and something other than USB were used, perhaps Ethernet. And an alternative to HDMI that doesn't require a 10,000 US$ fee per manufacturer, regardless if you make 10 circuits or 100,000.

Tom's Hardware and Anandtech.

kaszz writes:

A team of microbiologists from the Delft University of Technology claims to have invented "bioconcrete" — concrete that heals cracks and breaks using bacteria. The goal was to find a type of bacteria that could live inside concrete and also produce small amount of limestone that could re-seal cracks. This is a difficult prospect because concrete is quite dry and strongly alkaline. The bacteria needed to be able to stay alive for years in those conditions before being activated by water. The bacteria also need a food source — simply adding sugar to concrete will make it weak. The scientists used calcium lactate instead, adding biodegradable capsules of it to the concrete mix. "When cracks eventually begin to form in the concrete, water enters and open the capsules. The bacteria then germinate, multiply and feed on the lactate, and in doing so they combine the calcium with carbonate ions to form calcite, or limestone, which closes up the cracks."

One thing that is left out of the articles mentioned above is the amount of time needed for a given crack to "heal" closed.

"gewg_" writes:

Wegmans is a family-owned grocery store chain. NYTimes noted it can actually claim a "cult following".

The Center for American Progress reports

It manages to have a huge selection while offering prices that can compete with Walmart, but that it does it while treating its employees well.

The perks start with pay, which for hourly store employees is a little more than $33,000 a year on average. By contrast, Walmart has admitted that more than half of its employees make less than $25,000 a year.

[...]but that's not what makes the company famous for employee satisfaction, landing it on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list every year since the list began. It also offers generous benefits. It pays about 85 percent of the costs of health care coverage, including dental, for its full-time employees and offers insurance to part-time workers who put in 30 hours a week. It offers 401(k) plans with a salary match of up to 3 percent of an employee's contribution.

And it has a scholarship program[...]

Wegmans also offers more work/life balance than most retail jobs.[...]

These benefits aren't just altruistic. The company generates $7.1 billion in revenue and is profitable. "When you think about employees first, the bottom line is better," the company's vice-president for human resources has said. The company boasts a 5 percent turnover rate among full-time employees, compared to a 27 percent[paywall] rate for the industry. That comes with a cost, as it often eats up about 20 percent of a worker's salary to replace him.

hubie writes:

2015 is being celebrated as the International Year of Light. As part of that celebration, the international society for optics and photonics (SPIE) is sponsoring a photo contest "to raise awareness about the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies and the vital role that light and light-based technologies play in daily life." There is an online exhibition of light-themed photography (note: it seems to present the photos in a random order, so don't comment that you like "the third one", for instance). You can also vote for your favorite, and if you are inclined to give them your email address, you'll be entered to win a GoPro camera (contest runs through 15 August).

Phoenix666 writes:

That giant sucking sound you hear is 30% of the world's productivity being sucked away:

In what is no doubt a sign that humanity as we know it is coming to a swift, unproductive end, Microsoft has announced that King's notoriously moreish Candy Crush Saga will come pre-installed with Windows 10. That's right, pre-installed. In what appears to be an entirely non-ironic post over at Xbox Wire, Microsoft says that "as an added bonus, Candy Crush Saga will automatically be installed for customers that upgrade to or download Windows 10 for periods of time following the game launch."

There's no word on whether you'll be able to opt out of the automatic install, although it's likely King will want to get as many people as possible hooked on Candy Crush given its recent financial struggles. Earlier today, the company's shares fell as much as 14 percent in after-hours trading after it issued a profit warning. It noted in its first quarter financials that revenue was lower than expected due to slowing Candy Crush sales, and players moving to "more mature games."

I dropped Candy Crush a year ago when they got cute with roadblocks that force you to spend money, but maybe this will be the Minesweeper of Win10?

ticho writes:

It turns out that Microsoft not only has the power to ban you from Xbox Live permanently, but it can also turn your Xbox One console in to a useless brick, as the beta testers behind the Gears of War Remastered leak have found out.

This week, videos showing off the latest internal build of Microsoft's unannounced Gears of War remake were leaked on to the web. These videos originated from testers working for VMC, a third-party agency hired by Microsoft. Obviously neither company was particularly happy when the leaks hit the web. The leakers were quickly found and have been banned from VMC's beta testing program. Additionally, Microsoft has taken matters in to its own hands, removing access to their consoles entirely.

Microsoft also permanently disabled their Xbox LIVE accounts (as well as other suspected accounts present on their Xbox One kits) and temporarily blocked all of their Xbox One privileges – meaning that for a period of time which Microsoft decides on depending on the severity of the offense, their Xbox One is entirely unusable.

fliptop writes:

Claiming it's because there's no poles to mount them on, the City of Paradise Valley, Arizona began installing license plate readers inside towering, fake cacti:

LPRs are normally mounted on light poles and traffic lights to scan for stolen cars or vehicles involved in an Amber Alert, but cities and counties have been stashing them in dozens of different covert locations, from car's fog lamps to retrofitted ladders. And in Arizona, it's not uncommon to see antennas camouflaged as a cactus, so the decision – at least from an aesthetic point-of-view – makes sense.

[...] [Town manager Kevin] Burke said the cameras are not being put in fake cactus to be secretive, but because there are no light poles in the area to put them on. He says they're trying to make the cameras aesthetically pleasing. It's all part of a $2 million police technology upgrade the council passed last year.

Is it safe to say the cameras are operated by a bunch of pricks?

kaszz writes:

GE Aviation's Additive Development Center near Cincinnati has produced a number of firsts but they are now demonstrating a working 3D-printed jet engine for an RC-sized model. The engine turns at 550 rotations per second and is made entirely from metal 3D-printed parts. They used the same EOS M270 3D printer that they use to produce the first and only FAA flight-approved 3D-printed hardware, a T25 pressure and temperature sensor for use in GE90 jumbo jet engines.

kaszz writes:

Spying software maker mSpy sells their offerings as a service package and claims to enable its customers to spy on iPhones and Android phones. It is used by ~2 million people to spy on their children, partners, exes, etc. Retrieved data is stored on mSpy's servers. Brian Krebs reports that mSpy has been hacked and their entire database of spying data (with a size of several hundred gigabytes) has been posted on the Dark Web. The trove includes Apple IDs and passwords, and the complete contents of phones including photos and emails, etc.

"gewg_" writes:

The Center for American Progress reports:

Researchers are still trying to figure out what could convince the estimated 40 million smokers in the U.S. to kick the habit for good.

[...] That was the subject of an innovative study that tracked a group of [employees of the CVS drug store chain] who were recruited to participate in an incentive-based cessation program. According to the researchers, who published their results in the New England Journal of Medicine this week, offering smokers varying financial rewards and penalties in exchange for cutting out cigarettes worked better than they expected.

Participants were recruited through CVS and randomly assigned to several different groups. They could choose whether or not they wanted to join their assigned group or drop out of the study.

The control group offered standard counseling with free smoking cessation tools, like nicorette gum. The other groups were divided between "deposit" and "reward" strategies. In the "deposit program", smokers were required to fork over $150. If they successfully quit, they got their deposit back as well as a $650 bonus; if they didn't quit, they lost their $150 for good. In the "reward program", meanwhile, smokers weren't required to make an initial deposit and simply received a $800 reward for quitting.

Smokers were significantly less likely to consent to participate in the deposit program; about 14 percent of people agreed to join it, compared to 90 percent of people who agreed to try for the $800 reward. However, the people who did agree to pay out the $150 deposit upfront were much more successful at quitting.

[...] More than 80 percent of smokers in the largest rewards-based group had not given up cigarettes by the end of the study.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

After many years of waiting, version 1.0 of the Rust programming language has finally been released. The Rust home page describes Rust as "a systems programming language that runs blazingly fast, prevents nearly all segfaults, and guarantees thread safety."

Thanks to the hard work of noted Rust core team members Yehuda Katz and Steve Klabnik, Rust is now poised to become a serious competitor to established systems programming languages like C and C++.

The announcement has brought much jubilation to the followers of Rust, who have been eagerly awaiting this milestone release for so long. With only 1,940 open issues and over 11,500 issues already closed, Rust is finally ready for users to build fantastically reliable software systems using it.

takyon writes:

Steven Aftergood at the Secrecy News blog is reporting that the U.S. is planning to adopt a new government-wide designation for information that is unclassified, yet withheld from the public, replacing "100 different markings for such information [that] existed across the executive branch":

After years of preparation, the executive branch is poised to adopt a government-wide system for designating and safeguarding unclassified information that is to be withheld from public disclosure. The new system of "controlled unclassified information" (CUI) will replace the dozens of improvised control markings used by various agencies that have created confusion and impeded information sharing inside and outside of government. A proposed rule on CUI was published for public comment on May 8 in the Federal Register. While CUI is by definition unclassified, it is nevertheless understood to require protection against public disclosure on the basis of statute, regulation, or agency policy. In many or most cases, the categories of information that qualify as CUI are non-controversial, and include sensitive information related to law enforcement, nuclear security, grand jury proceedings, and so on.

One of the striking features of the new CUI program is that it limits the prevailing autonomy of individual agencies and obliges them to conform to a consistent government-wide standard. "CUI categories and subcategories are the exclusive means of designating CUI throughout the executive branch," the proposed rule states. "Agencies may not control any unclassified information outside of the CUI Program." Nor do agencies get to decide on their own what qualifies as CUI.

"The mere fact that information is designated as CUI has no bearing on determinations pursuant to any law requiring the disclosure of information or permitting disclosure as a matter of discretion," the new proposed rule said. The possibility that CUI information could or should be publicly disclosed on an authorized basis is not precluded. More specifically, a CUI marking in itself does not constitute an exemption to the Freedom of Information Act, the rule said. However, a statutory restriction that justifies designating information as CUI would also likely make it exempt from release under FOIA.

More subtly, noted John P. Fitzpatrick, the director of the Information Security Oversight Office, there is a large mass of material that is neither CUI nor non-CUI– until someone looks at it and makes an assessment. In all such cases (other than voluntary disclosure by an agency), public access would be governed by the provisions and exemptions of the FOIA.

Public comments are due by July 7.

fliptop writes:

If you're a frequent flier and like looking for software bugs, United Airlines may have an offer you can't refuse. While most companies pay monetary rewards,

United Airlines, in keeping with the company's services, has chosen to offer air miles.

"We believe that this program will further bolster our security and allow us to continue to provide excellent service," United says. "If you think you have discovered a potential bug that affects our websites, apps and/or online portals, please let us know. If the submission meets our requirements, we'll gladly reward you for your time and effort."

If a researcher discovers bugs in the system which affect the "confidentiality, integrity and/or availability of customer or company information," through customer-facing websites and third-party programs used by United, they may be eligible for reward. Low-severity rated vulnerabilities, such as cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery and third-party problems which affect United are worth 50,000 air miles.

Medium- and high-severity attacks will net 250,000 and 1 million miles, respectively. You probably don't want to conduct any research while in flight, though:

The airline says brute-force attacks, code injection on live systems, DDoS attacks, testing on MileagePlus accounts that are not your own and testing on in-flight systems will result in disqualification and possible criminal investigation.

tonyPick writes:

Spotted at Laughing Squid is an link to the Jet Powered Go-Kart developed by Colin Furze.

From the linked YouTube video summary:

So it's finished and it's brilliant, it's stable it starts easy and the fuel system after a slight redesign (see website) works perfectly. Top speed so far is 60mph but i run out of airstrip so might be more in it.

More details are available at Colin's project site. Colin is also known for previously developing this Jet powered bicycle.