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Phoenix666 writes:

Fun project, but perhaps one key design flaw: automatic beer dispenser, but no bathroom...

A space where a guy might retreat to in order to have some time to himself, tinker on some personal project or indulge in other masculine rituals is colloquially called a "man cave" (though apparently, women can have an equal-opportunity rejoinder with the "she shed").

Wanting to build a more high-tech version of the classic man cave, New Zealander Jono Williams built this futuristic, solar-powered, smartphone-app-controlled micro-home. It's modern-looking, has an incredible panoramic view, and conveniently comes with a beer dispenser, hidden in its custom-designed couch. Take a tour of this incredible retreat with Living Big In A Tiny House:

Original Submission

hemocyanin writes:

DST is this weekend and I'm already grumpy about it. For good reason: Daylight Saving Time is hot garbage:

When Benjamin Franklin proposed Daylight Saving Time — he invented it — it was a joke. These days, it's more like a practical joke we play on ourselves every single year. It's time to end this dumb prank once and for all.

[...] Proponents of DST will tell you that it saves energy. This is because a study in the 1970s found a 1 percent benefit to energy use in Daylight Saving Time. You may notice, though, that the 1970s are now 40 years ago, and energy consumption has changed somewhat in the interim. More recent research shows no difference in energy usage in places where it doesn't go into effect, compared to places observing DST. A few studies suggest Daylight Saving Time actually means more energy is used, rather than less.

[...] Several major disasters have also been chalked up to sleep deprivation, including the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Chernobyl nuclear accident, and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. [...] a paper presented at the American Economic Association showed that traffic accidents rise by about 6 percent nationally for the next six days after we move our clocks forward.

[Ed Note: Daylight Saving Time starts tonight at 2:00am in the majority of the United States. Please check your local listings for your beginning and end dates and times.]

Original Submission

Nic Doye writes:

Facebook have worked closely with Intel to create the new Xeon-D class of CPUs. By eliminating the need for chipsets to deal with two separate, physical CPUs, optimising the CPU for their workload, and reducing the footprint and power of other components, they can achieve better throughput per watt (and per rack) than using 2 CPU servers.

For a reasonably deep description, read more on Facebook's Hardware Blog.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A long-running case against the Church of Scientology and Belgium has been thrown out by a judge:

A court in Brussels has thrown out charges that could have seen Church of Scientology banned as a "criminal enterprise" in Belgium, after a judge said the defendants were targeted because of their religion. Eleven members of the celebrity-backed, US-based church and two affiliated bodies had been charged with fraud, extortion, the illegal practice of medicine, running a criminal enterprise and violating the right to privacy.

"The entire proceedings are declared inadmissible for a serious and irremediable breach of the right to a fair trial," the presiding judge, Yves Regimont, said on Friday. He criticised the investigators involved in an 18-year inquiry into Scientology in Belgium for what he said was prejudice, and prosecutors for being vague in their case against the religion. "The defendants were prosecuted primarily because they were Scientologists," Regimont added.

Original Submission

c0lo writes:

Many news sites report on the discovery of a plastic-eating bacterium which can break down PET. The original discovery was announced in the Science magazine (DOI: 10.1126/science.aad6359).

After reading this piece of news on many sites, I considered the best details are presented on the Australian Broadcast Corporation site:

[...]a team of Japanese researchers, led by Dr Shosuke Yoshida from the Kyoto Institute of Technology, have discovered a new species of bacteria that produces a never-before-seen plastic-eating enzyme.

The researchers collected 250 debris samples — including soil and other sediments, wastewater and sludge — from a PET recycling plant and screened the microbial communities present in the samples [...]
"One sediment sample contained a distinct microbial consortium," Dr Kenji Miyamoto from Keio University, who was part of the study published today in Science, said. "The consortium contained a mixture of bacteria, yeast-like cells, and protozoa."
When they applied the microbes to a thin PET film, prominent pits formed on the film surface as it was consumed. It completely degraded after six weeks.

"We then successfully isolated a bacterium, Ideonella sakaiensis, from the group and found that this strain produces two enzymes," researchers said.
Further analysis showed the two enzymes — PETase and MHETase — could break down both PET and another compound called MHET — (mono 92-hydroxyethyl) terephthalic acid — which forms during the breakdown process.

[Continues...]

Phoenix666 writes:

This looked like a fun and accessible tutorial on the topic of image processing that might be especially appealing to Python fans.

Image processing is the process of manipulating or performing operations on images to achieve a certain effect (making an image grayscale, for example), or of getting some information out of an image with a computer (like counting the number of circles in it).

Image processing is also very closely related to computer vision, and we do blur the line between them a lot. Don't worry too much about that – you just need to remember that we are going to learn about methods of manipulating images, and how we can use those methods to collect information about them.

In this article, I will go through some basic building blocks of image processing, and share some code and approaches to basic how-tos. All code written is in Python and uses OpenCV, a powerful image processing and computer vision library.

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

Samsung Electronics has announced new models in its most expensive line of mobile phones, the Galaxy S series. Changes in the S7 and S7 Edge include a new version of Android, removal of Microsoft Office, a slight curvature in the front and back, a flatter rear camera with fewer pixels, resistance to dust and water, a fingerprint reader, and a new rendition by the Swedish band Dirty Loops of Samsung's "Over the Horizon" ring tone. An official upload of the ring tone, with video of the band, is available on Youtube.

The company presents a tear-down of its handsets.

Reported by:

• stuff.co.nz
• Mirror Online
• CNBC
• Korea Times
• Engadget tear-down article
• Engadget review
• The Independent
• iFixit
• Mashable
• Samsung Web site

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Scientists have found another way to deanonymize somebody:

Researchers have developed a way that may identify masked terrorists through their hand gestures -- more specifically, from the "V" signs they make when posing for photos or videos.

A group of scientists at Mu'tah University in Jordan recently published a report on the study, which used an artificial intelligence algorithm and biometrics to determine the identities of their subjects through these gestures, the MIT Technology Review reported this week.

"Sometimes the only evidence to identify a person is their hand geometry, and not the whole hand -- only two fingers (the index and the middle fingers) while showing the victory sign, as seen in many terrorists videos," the study's abstract reads.

The technique's identification accuracy can vary greatly:

We have created a new database in this regard using a mobile phone camera, imaging the victory signs of 50 different persons over two sessions. Simple measurements for the fingers, in addition to the Hu Moments for the areas of the fingers were used to extract the geometric features of the shown part of the hand shown after segmentation. The experimental results using the KNN classifier were encouraging for most of the recorded persons; with about 40% to 93% total identification accuracy, depending on the features, distance metric and K used.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Blizzard has released a new patch for Diablo II:

According to Blizzard, the main focus of the patch, version 1.14a, was to repair "system glitches on modern operating systems." The company's official PC requirements for the game, which was recently updated, now list the 64-bit versions of Windows 7, 8 and 10 as the recommended OS for the game (the minimum OS requirements are Windows Vista or XP).

The patch also introduced a new launcher for the game on OS X and made improvements to Blizzard's "cheat-detection and hack-prevention" systems.

However, this doesn't seem to be the final update for the game. The company stated that making Diablo II work on current systems is just the first step. The developers will continue to make more improvements to the game and release them at some point in the future.

Median XL is regarded as one of the best mods for Diablo II. You may also be interested in the D2SE mod manager. Checking "Use PlugY" when running it will enable a shared inventory between characters and essentially infinite storage space. These mods will probably need to be updated to work with 1.14a.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

California Governor Jerry Brown signed the End of Life Option Act in October, permitting medically assisted suicide, but the legislation could not take effect until 90 days after the special legislative session in which it was passed ended. The session ended on March 10th, so the bill is set to go into effect on June 9th. Here are some more details about the Act:

As written, the law requires two doctors to agree, before prescribing the drugs, that a patient has six months or less to live. Patients must be able to swallow the medication themselves and must affirm in writing, 48 hours before taking the medication, that they will do so.

California is the fifth state to permit this option at the end of life. It joins Vermont, Oregon, Washington and Montana.

The California legislature has also raised the age required to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21. The governor has not yet indicated whether he will sign the legislation. Hawaii previously raised the minimum smoking age to 21 in early January:

A week ago, the California Assembly approved the measure, which — in addition to raising the age limit — regulates electronic cigarettes the same as tobacco products, expands smoke-free areas, increases smoking bans and allows counties to levy higher taxes on cigarettes than the 87-cent per pack state tax. According to NPR member station KQED, the Assembly's vote came a few days after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors increased the age to buy tobacco products to 21.

canopic jug writes:

Simon Phipps comments on Microsoft's latest antics in regards to open source. Specifically, while the public is distracted by show, Microsoft is shaking down the Android/Linux and GNU/Linux communities for patent licenses.

Phipps asserts that it's time for them to put up or shut up by either joining the OIN or admitting that they can't be trusted in the open source community they now claim to love.

Roy Schestowitz has some harsher words on the same topic, noting that the media is ignoring malicious actions in favor of paying attention to the public relations campaign.

While the OIN cannot protect against NPE's aka patent trolls, it is created for just this kind of situation and choosing to join -- or not -- sends a very clear message about their intentions towards the community.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Researchers report they have worked out a more energy efficient process to synthesize plastic (polyethylene furandicarboxylate (PEF)) from CO₂ and biomass:

"PEF is an attractive replacement for PET, because FDCA [PEF is made from ethylene glycol and a compound called 2-5-Furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA).] can be sourced from biomass instead of petroleum," Kanan says. "PEF is also superior to PET at sealing out oxygen, which is useful for bottling applications."

Despite the many desirable attributes of PEF, the plastics industry has yet to find a low-cost way to manufacture it at scale. The bottleneck has been figuring out a commercially viable way to produce FDCA sustainably.

[...] Instead of using sugar from corn to make FDCA, the team has been experimenting with furfural, a compound made from agricultural waste that has been widely used for decades. About 400,000 tons are produced annually for use in resins, solvents, and other products.

But making FDCA from furfural and CO₂ typically requires hazardous chemicals that are expensive and energy-intensive to make. "That really defeats the purpose of what we're trying to do," Kanan says.

They solved the problem using a far more benign compound: carbonate. Graduate student Aanindeeta Banerjee, lead author of the Nature study, combined carbonate with CO2 and furoic acid, a derivative of furfural. She then heated the mixture to about 290 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius) to form a molten salt.

The results were dramatic. After five hours, 89 percent of the molten-salt mixture had been converted to FDCA. The next step, transforming FDCA into PEF plastic, is a straightforward process that has been worked out by other researchers, Kanan says.

The use of petroleum and other fossil fuels to manufacture plastics is an argument made by those who conclude oil will remain relevant even after the transportation sector has transitioned to fully-electric alternatives. If this process to synthesize PEF proves out it could spell more trouble for the oil industry. The original study is here (DOI: 10.1038/531180a).

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Verge has published an interview with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler which touches on net neutrality, software defined radio, software defined networking, zero-rating cell-phone data plans, opening up the cablebox to 3rd party access and how his experience as a telecom lobbyist has inured him to lobbyist tactics. In recent days, Wheeler has suggested that, contrary to convention, he might not leave his seat at the FCC when Obama leaves office.

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

The European Union's interoperability page reports

The revenue and number of IT workers employed by open source service providers in the Basque Country has nearly doubled in 2015, according to figures published by a regional trade group for the sector, ESLE[1]. The combined 2015 revenue of the nearly 40 companies that ESLE represents is €58 million compared to €31 million the year before. The number of workers grew by 413 new staff members. Altogether, ESLE members now employ 1033 people.

Part of this growth is thanks to the Basque Country's IT policies, says Eneko Astigarraga, the trade group's president. The regional government promotes the use of free and open source software.

"The policies boost demand in the public sector itself, but government programmes running on open source are also helping indirectly", Astigarraga says, "by promoting these tools to companies and citizens. Examples include Euskadi Innova[1]--the region's innovation programme, and KzGunea,[1] a digital literacy project."

Additionally, the ESLE president says that the region's open source service providers are proving to be more innovative and more competitive. "In this, we are part of a global trend", Astigarraga adds. "The future is open."

"The Basque Country is emerging as a force of Open Knowledge and Free Software at the national level", the ESLE president is quoted as saying in the review for 2015.[1] Now in its 11th year, ESLE has grown in experience, and has become the reference point for free software, for both the commercial and the public sector, the trade group writes.

[1] En Español

The Basque region is home to the Mondragon worker-owned cooperative, a widely-referenced example of successfully doing things in non-traditional ways. Its business model is sometimes favorably compared to the Open Source ethos.

[NOTE: The "Basque Country" variously refers to either an autonomous community or a greater region of northern Spain. -Ed.]

Original Submission

bitstream writes:

The U.S. military is spending millions of dollars on an advanced implant to enable the human brain to communicate directly with computers. If successful, cyborgs will be a reality. The goal is to "open the channel between the human brain and modern electronics" according to DARPA's program manager, Phillip Alvelda.

In January 2016, DARPA announced it plans to spend up to 62 million USD on the project, which is part of its Neural Engineering System Design program. DARPA states that the implant would be smaller than one cm³. The aim according to DARPA is to connect neurons in the brain with electronic signals and provide an unprecedented "data-transfer bandwidth between the human brain and the digital world,".

DARPA sees the implant as a foundation for new therapies that could help people with deficits like sight or hearing by "feeding digital auditory or visual information into the brain." A DARPA spokesman told CNN that the program is not intended for military applications.

Original Submission