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takyon writes:

"Happy or Not" feedback kiosks will be appearing outside of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints in select airports as part of a year-long pilot program:

The silver kiosks now stand at 27 passport offices around the country and 14 Social Security offices. In the next few weeks, passengers at Reagan National, LaGuardia, Los Angeles International and San Francisco International airports will see them as they leave the Transportation Security Administration checkpoints. The Department of Veterans Affairs also plans to launch kiosks soon.

The system for customers is pretty simple, even if the technology isn't. You click on one of four emoji buttons: a happy face, a somewhat happy face, an angry face or a somewhat angry one. And someone in the agencies' customer service offices will be watching for the data to stream in seconds through a computer. The responses, all anonymous, will be summarized every hour.

Here is an official website of the US Government for the program. From the FAQ:

Will the feedback data be open to the general public?

During the pilot phase, the feedback data will only be available to GSA staff participating in this pilot, participating frontline supervisors, and other relevant staff determined by the agency. If the pilot is successful, we plan to eventually make the citizen feedback data available to the general public.

Who do I contact for more information about the pilot?

For more information, please contact FeedbackUSA@gsa.gov.

Original Submission

"gewg_" writes:

The Guardian reports

Seven months after he was elected on a promise to overturn austerity, the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has announced he is stepping down to pave the way for snap elections next month.

As the debt-crippled country received the first tranche of a punishing new €86bn (£61bn) bailout, Tsipras said on Thursday he felt "a moral obligation to place this deal in front of the people, to allow them to judge ... both what I have achieved, and my mistakes".

The 41-year-old Greek leader is still popular with voters for having at least tried to stand up to the country's creditors and his leftwing Syriza party is likely to be returned to power in the imminent general election, which government officials told Greek media was most likely to take place on 20 September.

Time magazine notes

It's one of the most basic rules of electoral politics: Keep your campaign promises or you will lose the support of your voters--but Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has deftly managed to skirt that rule. On Thursday, when he announced that he will resign and call snap elections for September 20, Tsipras wagered that voters would stay behind him regardless of the fact that he has failed to keep most of his core campaign pledges. And he is probably right.

At the end of July--after he had abandoned hopes of shielding the Greek welfare state from further cuts and austerity measures--Tsipras' approval rating was still at a comfortable 60% in all the major polls. Even now he is comfortably ahead of any other political leader in the country, and his move on Thursday to call elections is intended to lock in that support.

The prime minister will be replaced for the duration of the short campaign by the president of Greece's supreme court, Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou--a vocal bailout opponent--as head of a caretaker government.

In related news, in the first move to sell off Greece's public infrastructure, as required by the terms of the third bailout, New Media outlet enikos indicates that German corporation Fraport doesn't think it has squeezed the Greek government quite hard enough yet and wants an even better deal than €1.2B to take over Greece's airports.

While opposed to asset sales when elected in January, Tsipras reversed his pre-election promise in order to seal a bailout deal in July. The shift has split the ruling Syriza party with the prospect of new elections as early as September. Tsipras is planning a confidence vote after 44 of his lawmakers voted against him when the bailout deal was approved last week.

...and this was after a public referendum July 5 where 61 percent of the Greek electorate said NO AUSTERITY.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The administrator of AE News (an online news portal for Czech and Slovak expatriates) writes a very revealing article regarding the Windows 10 collection of user data. Here is the original Czech article. Here is a Bing translation to English. Here is a English condensed version translated by a blogger. And finally a PDF of the original Czech article.

In the post the AE News administrator states:

With the advent of Windows 10, I decided to undergo several tests. The collected knowledge for someone may be alarming. The Windows operating system 10 is essentially the end terminal, more than the operating system, because many of the processes and functions of this system is directly or indirectly dependent on remote servers and databases to Microsoft.

All text typed on the keyboard is stored in temporary files, and sent (once per 30 mins) to:
oca.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net
pre.footprintpredict.com
reports.wes.df.telemetry.microsoft.com

AE News also references an arstechnica.co.uk article which states it might be impossible to stop this communication:

And finally, some traffic seems quite impenetrable. We configured our test virtual machine to use an HTTP and HTTPS proxy (both as a user-level proxy and a system-wide proxy) so that we could more easily monitor its traffic, but Windows 10 seems to make requests to a content delivery network that bypass the proxy."

arstechnica.co.uk also "asked Microsoft if there is any way to disable this additional communication or information about what its purpose is". Microsoft did not reply as to a way to disable this chatter but did respond to the 'additional communication' stating Microsoft is now 'delivering Windows 10 as a service'.

Although the original source for this story is skeptical, Smart nerds on soylentnews can easily fire up Wireshark and reveal the communication for themselves. It appears that MS has fully embraced the cloud where your OS is now a terminal. And regarding privacy? Well, according to arstechnica.co.uk: Windows 10 privacy policy is the new normal

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Think of it as a map of the rapidly changing world of computer software.

On Wednesday, GitHub published a graph tracking the popularity of various programming languages on its eponymous Internet service, a tool that lets anyone store, edit, and collaborate on software code. In recent years, GitHub.com has become the primary means of housing open source software—code that's freely available to the world at large; an increasing number of businesses are using the service for private code, as well. A look at how the languages that predominate on GitHub have changed over time is a look at how the software game is evolving.

In particular, the graph reveals just how much open source has grown in recent years. It shows that even technologies that grew up in the years before the recent open source boom are thriving in this new world order—that open source has spread well beyond the tools and the companies typically associated with the movement. Providing a quicker, cheaper, and more comprehensive way of building software, open source is now mainstream. And the mainstream is now open source.

Hmm, Perl has been declining...

Original Submission

ghost writes:

Shutdownify, the world's first "Shutdown Notice as a Service" company, is no more. Although an ever increasing number of failed startups need to post shutdown messages, it turns out they don't usually have the money to pay others to do it for them. "It is a stinging irony that we now must use our own product to post this shutdown notice. Shutdownify's last meal is its own dog food."

Original Submission

eof writes:

I came across the following ad on Indeed.com for a software position (copied directly from the ad, including errors):

Please read this job description carefully.
We are looking for solid C/C++ Engineer with valid h1b visa who are currently in US and willing to transfer his visa to our company for long term employment.

No 3rd party.

Strong mathematical and analytical skills, in linear algebra, discrete mathematics and statistics. Have a strong knowledge of methods of dynamic programming.
Strong knowledge of parallel computing theory and tools like MPI or OpenMP.
In-depth knowledge of C/C++ language, strong knowledge of standard library and boost library and have a strong knowledge of template meta programming.
Have a solid experience with cross-compilation using gnu tools.
Development experience with Linux Red Hat, embedded Linux, Windows 7 using gnu tools like make, gcc, g++. Have experience with cross platform development and testing using Cmake.
Have a prove experience working with source control system Git, Cvs.
Have a strong knowledge of HPC and cluster's architecture.
Have a strong knowledge of scripting language like bash and python.
Strong object-oriented programming and design skills, like design patterns

Salary: $85,000.00 /year

Required experience:

C/C++ experience ,Windows/Unix development: 8 years
Required education:

Master's

Is it legal to limit a search to only H1B applicants? Do people see this often? Is it reasonable to expect a US applicant would be difficult to find? Or is it just no one would expect a US applicant to work for the mentioned salary in the Metro Boston area?

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

A wearable sensor that tracks strain on a pitcher's elbow is making waves in major league baseball (MLB). This season, 27 MLB teams and their minor league affiliates are trying out the device, called the mThrow, in the hope that it will help monitor pitchers' workloads, improve pitching mechanics, and prevent injuries. The device's maker, Motus Global, in Massapequa, N.Y., plans to officially launch a consumer version this month. Teams seem to like it, but some players might have reservations about sharing their data.

Injuries to professional pitchers in the United States have become epidemic. The reconstructive procedures known as Tommy John surgeries, which repair the elbow's ulnar collateral ligament (UCL), have increased among major league players from 14 performed in 2002 to 31 in 2014, according to the blog Baseball Heat Maps. Attempting to curb such injuries by arbitrarily limiting the number of throws or innings pitched hasn't been effective, says Thomas Karakolis, an expert on the subject at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. "Baseball managers should be figuring out the forces on muscles, tendons, and ligaments for each individual player and guiding them based on that," Karakolis says.

It's an article of faith among geeks that despite the travails of youth and high school, they shall triumph over jocks in the end. This is a rather more direct example.

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

Long-term cryogenic and hibernative sleep may be the key to getting humans to Mars — and beyond. But with research and funding active concerns, it may first come to a spa near you.

Our bodies aren't meant for space. It's heartbreaking for science fiction fans to hear, but it's also a self-evident fact. Our bodies require too much maintenance to speed through the stars. We need a steady supply of those things absent from space —namely water, food and oxygen. We crave warmth but won't find it in deep space, where the average temperature is minus 455 degrees Fahrenheit.

Even if we could survive in an icy vacuum without sustenance, we'd probably go insane without distractions and room to move. In 2013, participants in a 17-month Russian spaceflight simulation became depressed and lethargic in the cramped quarters. They grew desperate for privacy and often skipped exercises that would be crucial during a real spaceflight.

Ensuring space travellers stay healthy and active during long flights is a puzzle with two pieces: cargo and weight. Food, water, exercise equipment and televisions are heavy. Fuel is expensive and volatile. The more weight you're bringing into space, the more fuel you need. But aeronautic engineers (of SpaceWorks) believe they have found the key to solving that puzzle: put your space travellers to sleep.

https://vanwinkles.com/latest-science-of-cryogenic-sleep-human-hibernation-for-space-travel

[Also Covered By]: http://gizmodo.com/how-traveling-to-deep-space-in-cryogenic-sleep-could-ac-1725605323

[Related Blog]: http://spacetorpor.blogspot.com/

[Related NASA Coverage]: http://www.nasa.gov/content/torpor-inducing-transfer-habitat-for-human-stasis-to-mars/

Original Submission

Locust-Of-Control writes:

The Smithsonian Institution's very first online crowdfunding – an effort to restore and preserve Neil Armstrong's spacesuit from the 1969 Apollo 11 mission – has exceeded it's goal of $500,000, ending with $720,000. Additionally, the excess funds of Smithsonian's "Reboot the Suit" mission will be used to preserve and display the spacesuit worn by Alan Shepard.

The Smithsonian's first shot at online crowdfunding ended Wednesday after raising a hefty $719,779 to restore the spacesuit that Neil Armstrong wore when he walked on the moon.

A total of 9,477 people contributed to the month-long Kickstarter "Reboot the Suit" campaign, which surpassed its $500,000 goal on July 24.

The windfall means the Smithsonian will have money to spare to preserve and display a second spacesuit used by Alan Shepard, the first American in space.

"It is mind-blowing," Yoonhyung Lee, the Smithsonian's director of digital philanthropy, told AFP in an interview at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in downtown Washington.

"We did not really expect to both hit our goal so quickly and also to exceed our goal so dramatically. This was a huge triumph for us."

It was the first time the Smithsonian has turned to crowdfunding to help cover the cost of preserving its most valuable artifacts from the ravages of time.

Original Submission

The Mighty Buzzard writes:

To the surprise of absolutely nobody who's been paying attention the past few years, Mozilla has announced that it will be deprecating all current extensions and have all future extensions be compatible with Chrome and Opera via the new WebExtensions API.

• We are implementing a new extension API, called WebExtensions—largely compatible with the model used by Chrome and Opera—to make it easier to develop extensions across multiple browsers.
• A safer, faster, multi-process version of Firefox is coming soon with Electrolysis; we need developers to ensure their Firefox add-ons will be compatible with it.
• To ensure third-party extensions provide customization without sacrificing security, performance or exposing users to malware, we will require all extensions to be validated and signed by Mozilla starting in Firefox 41, which will be released on September 22nd 2015.
• We have decided on an approximate timeline for the deprecation of XPCOM- and XUL-based add-ons.

Maybe now we can get a sustainable fork going?

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

A trio of physicists with the Autonomous University of Barcelona has built what they claim is the first artificial magnetic wormhole. In their paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, Jordi Prat-Camps, Carles Navau and Alvaro Sanchez describe how they built the device and why they believe it might prove useful in building a more user-friendly MRI machine.

People have grown familiar with the term wormhole as it applies to physics and science-fiction. It has been described as a portal in space-time, where an object, or perhaps a person, could be transported from one region of space to another, nearly instantaneously. And while the theory has stood the test of time, no one has ever been able to prove that they actually exist. In this new effort, the researchers built a much simpler version, one that applies only to a magnetic field. Their device essentially allows for a magnetic field to be conveyed from one point to another, while remaining magnetically invisible.

http://phys.org/news/2015-08-trio-artificial-magnetic-wormhole.html

[Abstract]: http://www.nature.com/articles/srep12488

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Whistled Turkish is a non-conformist. Most obviously, it bucks the normal language trend of using consonants and vowels, opting instead for a bird-like whistle. But more importantly, it departs from other language forms in a more fundamental respect: it's processed differently by the brain.

Language is usually processed asymmetrically by the brain. The left hemisphere does the heavy lifting, regardless of whether the language in question is spoken, written, or signed. Whistled Turkish is the first exception to this rule, according to a paper in this week's issue of Current Biology. There's evidence that both hemispheres pitch in about the same amount of effort when processing the whistled words.

This evidence could contribute to our general understanding of how the brain works by answering some of the many mysteries about how and why we have asymmetrical processing. And perhaps very far down the road, this research could help stroke sufferers regain some of their lost communicative skills.

Good article for those interested in linguistics.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

I found this story Astronomers discover the biggest thing in the Universe in gizmag:

According to a team of Hungarian-US scientists led by Prof Lajos Balazs, the largest regular formation in the Universe is a ring of nine galaxies 7 billion light years away and 5 billion light years wide. Though not visible from Earth, the newly discovered feature covers a third of our sky.

The ring was revealed by nine Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) originating from the nine galaxies. GRBs are the brightest, most energetic events in the cosmos, putting out as much energy in seconds as the Sun will in its entire lifetime. They're caused by supernovae or hypernovae – supermassive stars collapse into neutron stars or black holes in times ranging from milliseconds to a few hours. Aside from their spectacular deaths, they also help astronomers to measure the distance of other galaxies.

... [The ring] casts doubts on the Cosmological Principle. First asserted by Sir Isaac Newton and developed based on observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation and the structure of the early universe in the past century, it states that at the largest scale, the Universe is uniform, so no matter where you are, it looks essentially the same.

According to the team, recent work indicates that the largest structures can't be more than 1.2 billion light years across. This is at odds with the new discovery, as the ring is about five times as big, implying a much more uneven cosmos.

Original report at Royal Astronomical Society; an abstract is available as well as the full report in HTML and as a pdf.

Any astronomers and/or cosmologists like to weigh in on this one? How earth-shaking a result is this? What would be impacted and how much?

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Want to own your own island but can't find one in your desired location?

Such issues could soon be consigned to history - for the super-wealthy, at least - after plans were unveiled for the world's first PORTABLE islands.

These artists' impressions show the self -sustaining, eco-friendly creations that will allow people to create their own getaways anywhere on Earth.

Each home will adhere to the customer's every need - with the renderings including options such as swimming pools, boat docks and greenery.

The article's photos depict idyllic, luxurious island retreats. Potential customers are presumably advised not to check into this or this.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

From Wired:

Researchers at the University of North Carolina have developed an experimental system of so-called "visual cryptography" designed to communicate secret messages to the wearer of an augmented reality headset. In the system they created and tested, information is encrypted in what look like random collections of black and white static. But when the recipient's augmented reality glasses overlay another random-seeming image over their vision, the two images combine to form a readable message.

That system could, for instance, allow someone to unscramble encrypted text in a way that couldn't be spied on by an over-the-shoulder snoop, since the text is never decrypted on the reader's screen. Or it could be used to overlay a keypad with randomized numbers onto an ATM's display, so that no one watching could learn the bank customer's PIN as they typed it. "When you overlay the secret visual share, only you can see the final message," says UNC researcher Sarah Andrabi, using the technical term "visual share" to refer to each of the two indecipherable images that add up to a message. "That secret is now only for the user's eye."

The original paper can be found on scribd.com.

Reminds you a bit of the glasses from They Live, don't they?

Original Submission