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Phoenix666 writes:

A new construction worker has been lending high-efficiency help to job sites, laying bricks at almost three times the speed of a human worker. SAM (short for Semi-Automated Mason) is a robotic bricklayer that handles the repetitive tasks of basic brick laying, MIT Technology Review reports. While SAM handles picking up bricks, applying mortar and placing them at designated locations, its human partner handles worksite setup, laying bricks in specific areas (e.g. corners) and improving the aesthetic quality of the masonry.

Despite its role in completing repetitive tasks, SAM can adapt to real jobsite conditions, including differentiating between theoretical drawings and the conditions of the actual building site. It is also capable of minor detailing, such as emblazoning a logo by following a pixel map of the image, and adding texture to the wall face by bumping bricks by half an inch.

The next robot like this should use the acronym LUDD.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Tesla Studios (no relationship to Tesla Motors) recently announced that it has developed a full-body suit that will give the wearer a sensory experience to match the visual experiences now available through virtual reality headsets. Called the Teslasuit, it relies on neuro-muscular electrical stimulation technology also used in medicine, electrotherapy and professional sports to offer both tactile stimulation and temperature control.

The suit incorporates a mesh of sensors that include up to 52 channels to stimulate sensations in the skin through tiny electric pulses. The company says that it can simulate such diverse sensory experiences as touch, wind, water, heat, cold and force. For instance, the wearer can feel a warm summer breeze or the sudden impact of a bullet.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Yahoo plans to lay off 10 percent of its workforce as early as this month.

The reorganization would eliminate 1,000 positions at the troubled company, according to Business Insider, citing sources close to the situation. Cuts are expected across the board, but will hit Yahoo's media business, European operations and platforms-technology group harder than the rest of the company.

"A team is working on it and they want to do it this quarter," a source told Business Insider. The company has not commented on the report.

A key area for Yahoo's reorganization will be the media properties, or "digital magazines." Sources say the magazine units have not seen their budgets for 2016. Yahoo shut down its video hub Yahoo Screen last week, also part of the media division. Yahoo Screen launched almost two years ago as a home for Yahoo's original and syndicated programming.

How the mighty have fallen.

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takyon writes:

Wired and others report that ProPublica has become the first "major" news outlet to launch a version of the site using Tor:

On Wednesday, ProPublica became the first known major media outlet to launch a version of its site that runs as a "hidden service" on the Tor network, the anonymity system that powers the thousands of untraceable websites that are sometimes known as the darknet or dark web. The move, ProPublica says, is designed to offer the best possible privacy protections for its visitors seeking to read the site's news with their anonymity fully intact. Unlike mere SSL encryption, which hides the content of the site a web visitor is accessing, the Tor hidden service would ensure that even the fact that the reader visited ProPublica's website would be hidden from an eavesdropper or Internet service provider.

"Everyone should have the ability to decide what types of metadata they leave behind," says Mike Tigas, ProPublica's developer who worked on the Tor hidden service. "We don't want anyone to know that you came to us or what you read."

ProPublica accepts news tips using a SecureDrop hidden service. The recent move to include a Tor hidden site was motivated by concerns that Chinese readers could be put at risk by reading reports about the country's Web censorship.

The site can be reached at: propub3r6espa33w.onion

ProPublica often collaborates with The New York Times, NPR, PBS, The Intercept and others to publish stories. Here are a few ProPublica stories that have made it to our front page:

Somebody's Already Using Verizon's ID to Track Users
Fines Remain Rare as Health Data Breaches Multiply
NSA Monitors Americans' International Internet Traffic to Hunt Hackers for FBI
Fairview: AT&T's Collaborative Relationship with NSA Revealed
Psychology Practice Revealed Patients' Mental Disorders in Debt Lawsuits

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-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

El Reg reports:

Back in June, 47-year-old William Merideth shot down the camera-carrying $1,800 quadrocopter with a shotgun while it was hovering over his house in Hillview, Kentucky, claiming that he feared it was snooping on his kids.

The owner of the drone, neighbor David Boggs, was unsurprisingly not happy about the situation and confronted Merideth, who then threatened him with a handgun. The police were called and Merideth was arrested for firing a shotgun within city limits, then later charged with criminal mischief and wanton endangerment.

When the case went to court, however, the judge heard from eye witnesses who said the drone was below the tree line when it was shot, and he dismissed the case, saying, "he had a right to shoot at this drone." Owner Boggs, who was hoping to get the cost of his machine out of the case, said he would consider suing Merideth and that's exactly what he has done, filing case 3:16-cv-00006 [PDF] this week asking for $1,500 to cover the drone plus court costs.

What is interesting about the case, however, is the fact that it may help decide a critical legal question: who actually owns the space above your property?

Merideth claims that the drone was trespassing on his property, and the fact that he managed to shoot the drone down with his shotgun highlights the fact that it was relatively close to the ground.

[...] In the only federally-decided case--carried out by the Supreme Court in 1946--it was agreed that 83 feet was the distance under which a landowner can claim jurisdiction.

[...] Why 83 feet? That was due to the very specific details of the case. Farmer Thomas Lee Causby, of Greensboro, North Carolina sued the government for disturbing him and his chickens by flying too low across his land. He claimed the noise from military plans resulted in the death of many of his animals (they flew into the walls in fright at the noise) and he was forced to abandon his business. He sued for compensation saying the government had effectively confiscated his property without compensation.

TFA also talks about a 400-foot rule and a 500-foot rule.

Previous: Update: Dad Who Shot "Snooping Vid Drone" Out of the Sky is Cleared of Charges

Man Arrested for Shooting Down Drone Flying Over His Property

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Phoenix666 writes:

http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2016/01/07/the-floor-of-the-ocean-comes-into-better-focus/

The bottom of the ocean just keeps getting better. Or at least more interesting to look at.

In an ongoing project, mappers at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have been gathering data from hundreds of research cruises and turning it all into accessible maps of the ocean floor with resolutions down to 25 meters.

You can see some of the results here, at a mapping site that allows scientists—and you—to zero in on a particular location, zoom in and download topographical maps of the ocean floor. The Lamont data has also contributed to the latest version of Google ocean map, which now offers its own more closely resolved view of the ocean floor globally. (You can take a quick tour of the updated Google map here.)
...
Those measurements allowed researchers to discover a new "microplate" in the Indian Ocean—a remnant from the crustal shifts that sent the Indian subcontinent crashing into Eurasia, creating (and still forming) the Himalaya mountains. Researchers studying that plate have come up with a more precise date for when that collision began, 47.3 million years ago.

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HughPickens.com writes:

Annie Correal reports at the NY Times that although New York City may be better known for its rat population, the city's 311 help line received 1,581 inquiries about raccoon control in 2015 as of mid-December, up from 936 in all of 2014, according to official data. Raccoons are often thought of as forest-dwelling creatures, but raccoons can reach a very high density in cities, says Samuel I. Zeveloff, author of "Raccoons, A Natural History." "They're truly incredible in their adaptability," says Zeveloff. Raccoons are omnivorous and opportunistic, easily switching from eating grubs or bird eggs to devouring human and pet food, and from living in tree hollows to inhabiting attics and chimneys. This flexibility, combined with a relative lack of predators, can lead to rapid population growth. Flexible about where they den, willing to eat just about anything, raccoons transited seamlessly from forest to city. Brick walls proved as easy to climb as trees. Attics and chimneys turned out to be perfectly cozy places for sleeping and for rearing young. Compared to other wildlife species living near humans, such as coyotes and deer, raccoons are in a league of their own.

The problem is that is difficult to dispose of a raccoon. New York City law dictates that any captured raccoon must be killed in a humane fashion, because raccoons are known to carry rabies. But many trappers, as well as homeowners who do the job themselves, say they transport raccoons to parks or wilderness areas and set them free instead, because they don't have the heart to do what is legally required. "Now, everybody is just releasing them," says one urban trapper. "They're letting them go in any quiet place." The problem, experts say, is that from there, the animals tend to wander into the nearest neighborhood. People see wooded areas as the animals' natural habitat, where they belong. But these are city raccoons that tend to make a U-turn for civilization when dropped off in nature, says Stanley D. Gehrt who has studied urban raccoons for two decades. "When you take them and drop them off in a natural environment, they're going to look for buildings," says Gehrt. "It's what they're used to."

takyon: Baylisascariasis! The Tragic Parasitic Implications of Raccoons In Your Backyard

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Phoenix666 writes:

CES is full of wild sights, but you don't often see US Marshals raid a display booth.

On Thursday, gadget lovers were treated to the sight of federal law enforcement officials packing up a booth run by Changzhou First International Trade Co., which makes a one-wheeled skateboard called the Trotter.

The raid was prompted by an emergency motion for injunctive relief filed by California-based Future Motion, which makes a similar board that balances over a single wheel, imaginatively called the One Wheel. The raid was earlier reported by Bloomberg.

The Marshals' actions highlights tension at the country's biggest consumer gadget tradeshow over cheap knock-offs and copy cats. The annual Las Vegas tradeshow often features bargain basement tech that appears to closely resemble existing products, some of which are protected by patents.

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fliptop writes:

About a month ago we learned Mozilla was ceasing development of the Firefox OS, admiting it was "a failure." Today (Friday) it was announced that Japanese company MozillaFactory.org is developing a board called Chirimen that

aims to be a development board for Web developers who want to build Web-connected Internet of Things devices powered by the technologies implemented in the Firefox web browser, which means Firefox OS.

Chirimen was designed from the offset to use web browser technologies in various science projects by extending the I2C and GPIO WebAPIs to control devices powered by Mozilla's Firefox OS 2.0 and higher operating systems. As such, Web developers can easily use browser technologies to develop really awesome things.

"We will share openly the firmware code, board design, manufacturing process, API spec, and all necessary sources. In this project, we honor developer's will and work on the standardization," said the Mozilla Japan community in the project's website.

Chirimen's page on Mozilla's site.

Board specs:

RK3066 SoC, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 1GB NAND Flash, two I2C ports, two UART ports, two SPI ports, a single, configurable GPIO port, one MicroSD slot, one USB port, and one USB microUSB OTG port.

Additionally, the board will come with a video micro HDMI female port, one Analog IN port, one PWM port, as well as audio analog/stereo input and output ports. Chirimen is quite compact at a size of 80 mm x 48 mm, and it's colored in red. Its hardware design is open, and the XX GPIO pins will allow devs to connect and program a wide range of physical components, such as LEDs, sensors, buttons, etc.

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Anonymous Coward writes with an article from The Guardian:

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tt0076984 writes:

A landmark study by the Environmental Protection Agency that concluded fracking causes no widespread harm to drinking water is coming under fire — this time, from the agency's own science advisers.

Members of the EPA Science Advisory Board, which reviews major studies by the agency, says the main conclusion — that there's no evidence fracking has led to "widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water" — requires clarification, David Dzombak, a Carnegie Mellon University environmental engineering professor leading the review panel, wrote in an email.

[...] "Major findings are ambiguous or are inconsistent with the observations/data presented in the body of the report," the 31 scientists on the panel said in December, in a response to the study.

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CoolHand writes:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/linksys-to-provide-dd-wrt-support-for-all-current-wrt-routers-498572.shtml

Linksys has just revealed at CES 2016 that all the WRT routers now have DD-WRT support, making this the first company of its type to fully embrace an open source solution.

Linksys is one of the most important companies that builds networking hardware, and it's known for its quality hardware. In this case we're talking about routers in the WRT series, which are already very good. The company decided to partner up with DD-WRT in order to provide better support for their products.

Many Linksys users were already installing DD-WRT and other similar products on their routers, so the company figured out that providing official support for this kind of firmware is actually beneficial to its customers. Unfortunately, what Linksys is doing is a drop of water in an ocean, as the majority of companies providing networking hardware don't have this kind of openness.

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Phoenix666 writes:

The [Comprehensive-Test-Ban Treaty Organization] has a vast global monitoring system to confirm secret (or in North Korea's case, not-so-secret) nuclear tests.
...
the organization's 280 monitoring stations around the world collect a lot of data—seismic, infrasound, hydroacoustic, radionuclide, and so on. That dataset, 16 GB a day, is a goldmine for researchers in fields as disparate as seismology and whale biology. "Basically we want to use the scientific framework to convince diplomats this is a solid organization with the technological capacity to go beyond the day-to-day monitoring of potential nuclear explosions," says executive secretary Lassina Zerbo. This year, the commission held its fifth science and technology conference in Vienna, drawing over 1,000 scientists from 104 countries.

"Nothing at all is comparable," says Margaret Campbell-Brown, a physicist at the University of Western Ontario. She uses the network's infrasound arrays to study meteors that whiz through the Earth's atmosphere. The magnitude of the meteors' blast waves let scientists calculate the falling rock's energy. When the Chelyabinsk meteor streaked across the Russian sky in 2013, Campbell-Brown's colleague was able to start downloading the sensors' infrasound data immediately—except, in some cases, he had to wait for the blast wave to reach a listening station halfway around the world. "The speed of sound is more of a limit than getting data off the network," she says.

It's interesting that the monitoring system is used much more for other things than only its intended purpose.

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

El Reg reports

The US Copyright Office is asking the tech industry and members of the public to comment about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and in particular the rules governing copyright infringement.

Section 512 of the DMCA gives ISPs and internet hosts immunity from prosecution if material that infringes copyright, such as music tracks, is taken down promptly if the entity owning the rights to it protests. "Repeat infringers" are penalized.

[...] The DMCA was signed into law in 1998, and since then flaws have been consistently pointed out in the legislation, not least with section 512. So the Copyright Office wants to know how to improve things.

"The Office will consider the costs and burdens of the notice-and-takedown process on large- and small-scale copyright owners, online service providers, and the general public", the request reads.

"The Office will also review how successfully section 512 addresses online infringement and protects against improper takedown notices. To aid in this effort, and to provide thorough assistance to Congress, the Office is seeking public input on a number of key questions."

In the request for responses, the Office posits 28 questions it would like answered, including how the legislation is working in practice, what legal precedents are affecting its operation, and whether takedown notices are effective. It also asks for any academic studies on the matter.

[...] The guidelines for submissions will be posted on February 1 and the open period for comments ends on March 21, so there's plenty of time to get a submission ready. How much good this will do, however, remains to be seen.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Since now you're going to either register your drone or have to be flying yours indoors anywhere in the USA, you might as well celebrate the one freedom you still have: the freedom to re-flash the firmware with open source!

The Eachine H8 is a typical-looking mini-quadcopter of the kind that sells for under $20. Inside, the whole show is powered by an ARM Cortex-M3 processor, with the programming pins easily visible. Who could resist? Garagedrone takes you through a step-by-step guide to re-flashing the device with a custom firmware to enable acrobatic mode, or simply to tweak the throttle-to-gyro mapping for the quad. The firmware author silverxxx from RCGroups.com even has the code up on GitHub if you're interested in taking a peek.

Next step, Skynet!

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