smolloy writes “Apparently some users of reCAPTCHA have recently begun seeing photographs appear in their CAPTCHA puzzles — photos that look very much like zoomed in house numbers taken from Google Streetview. It appears that Google has decided to put the reCAPTCHA system to help clean up Google streetview images, and ‘according to a Google spokesperson, the system isn’t limited to street addresses, but also involves street names and even traffic signs.’ A large collection of these has appeared on the Blackhatworld website.”

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Google Using ReCAPTCHA To Decode Street Addresses

Being able to touch, click and press your way around an operating system with a variety of hardware configurations, while not alienating potential upgraders, is no mean feat. That said, Microsoft thinks it might have the solution. By introducing a new mode, a 20 pixel buffer will be designated to working with those edge swipes we’ve heard about. It’ll also go towards preventing accidental hits around the, typically less sensitive, edges of older screens. It does mean that you’ll be losing a little real estate, but perhaps a small trade-off for being able to keep your Windows 7 touchscreen device. Going forward, Microsoft will be working with hardware providers to ensure new gear really shows off the new features of Win 8, but for now, legacy users can look forward to a better experience. Hit the source below for the full rundown.

Continue reading Microsoft reveals how your old slate will get all of Windows 8’s charms (video)

Microsoft reveals how your old slate will get all of Windows 8’s charms (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft reveals how your old slate will get all of Windows 8’s charms (video)

Robert sez, “The gamified EyeWire project, now in open beta, is about using human computation to help trace the neurons in a retina. Tracing the neurons will help nail down the computation that goes on inside the retina leading up to the optic nerve, and lead to better methods of brain mapping. Come and help explore the eye’s jungle!”

Game 1: Reconstructing Neurons
The first step of the challenge is to reconstruct the tree-like shapes of retinal neurons by tracing their branches through the images. You will accomplish this by playing a simple game: helping the computer color a neuron as if the images were a three-dimensional coloring book. The collective efforts of you and other players will result in three-dimensional reconstructions of neurons like this. Playing the game does not require any specialized knowledge of neuroscience — just sharp eyes and practice. If you like, you can stop reading this page, and proceed to detailed instructions for the game here or simply start playing. On the other hand, if you’d like to know more about the scientific plan, read on.

Game 2: Identifying Synapses
Reconstructing neurons involves tracing their branches, which are like the “wires” of the retina. This by itself is not enough for finding connectomes; we also need to identify synapses. This kind of image analysis will be accomplished through another game that will be introduced on this website in the near future. The identification of synapses will involve subtleties, due to limitations of the dataset, as will be discussed in detail later on.

Rules of Connection
Playing either of the above games will produce information that will be valuable for understanding how the retina functions. How exactly will the information be used? To answer this question, we should confront the issue of variability. We expect that every retina will be wired somewhat differently. In that case, would mapping the connections in one retina tell us anything that is applicable to other retinas? We expect that retinal connectomes will obey invariant rules of connection, and it is these rules that really interest researchers. Many of the rules are expected to depend on neuronal cell types, i.e., of the form “Cell type A receives synapses from cell type B.” Some such rules are already known, but the vast majority remain undiscovered.

EyeWire – Help Map the Retinal Connectome

(Thanks, Robert!)

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EyeWire: a videogame to help scientists trace the neurons in a retina

The big one-eight. Another few months and another version of the Google browser is now up for grabs. With GPU-accelerated Canvas 2D now enabled, you can expect to see even smoother interactions with games and other media-heavy content. WebGL also gets a look-in with a new software-based addition that should help older computers access simple 3D web content. Anyone that’s already furnished with Chrome should get auto-updated to the latest version today, while anyone now left with no excuses not to sample the web browser can hit up the download at the source.

Chrome hits version 18, improves graphics performance originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chrome hits version 18, improves graphics performance

Still driving to your local Best Buy to fondle all the latest gadgets before swiping your card, or hopping to the web to pull the trigger? That tradition could be short-lived, if you happen to live near one of 50 big box retail stores that the company plans to shutter in 2013. The move was announced alongside Best Buy’s Q4 earnings report, which includes action items aimed to trim $800 million in costs by 2015. The closings will no-doubt come along with staffer reductions, some of whom could be transferred to one of 100 Best Buy Mobile “small format stand-alone stores” set to launch next year. While an unfortunate move for some customers and employees, it does show some foresight on behalf of BBY management, who likely recognize a continuing shift to online purchasing, and a greater emphasis on mobile devices, which require significantly smaller showrooms, cost less to ship and could offer greater margins to boot.

Continue reading Best Buy to close 50 big box US retail stores, open 100 Mobile stand-alone outlets in 2013

Best Buy to close 50 big box US retail stores, open 100 Mobile stand-alone outlets in 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Mar 2012 09:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Best Buy to close 50 big box US retail stores, open 100 Mobile stand-alone outlets in 2013

LG has made no secret of its fondness for flexible e-paper, but those dreams became a reality today, with the announcement of a six-inch display that promises to “revolutionize the e-book market.” The malleable plastic display sports a resolution of 1024 x 768 and can bend at an angle of up to 40 degrees. At just 0.7 millimeters thick, it’s about one-third thinner than similarly-specced glass displays, and weighs in at 14 grams — about half the weight of its glassy competition. LG also claims that the display is super durable, as evidenced by a series of successful drop tests from a height of 1.5 meters. The plan going forward is to supply the display to ODMs in China, in the hopes of bringing final products to Europe by “the beginning of next month.” For more details, check out the full press release after the break.

Continue reading LG unveils flexible plastic e-paper display, aims for European launch next month

LG unveils flexible plastic e-paper display, aims for European launch next month originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Mar 2012 02:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG unveils flexible plastic e-paper display, aims for European launch next month

In a post to Microsoft’s Windows Server blog, Microsoft Senior Program Manager Gaurav Gupta revealed that the company will offer an integrated cloud backup service for Windows Server “8”(the current designation of Microsoft’s next release of its server operating system). Microsoft Online Backup Service is now available as a free preview, but is limited to 10 gigabytes of cloud storage, works only with Windows Server “8” beta, and will only be offered to a limited number of customers. While it’s not an enterprise data protection solution, it does provide an option that may be attractive for small and medium businesses, as well as for servers that are hosted in the cloud.

Microsoft Online Backup is designed to provide incremental backups of server data, tracking changes at both the file and storage block level and only copying changes to backup storage. It also encrypts and compresses files before transferring them to Microsoft’s cloud, and can throttle the network usage of backup during business hours.

The Online Backup client integrates into the backup functionality of Windows Server “8,” and can be managed both through the existing Windows Server Backup utility and Windows PowerShell command line. In addition to backing up to the cloud, it can also manage backups to local storage.

Gupta said in his post that the service also provided data integrity checks on the cloud side, to ensure no data was corrupted in transit. And administrators can also put a retention policy in effect that sets how long to retain backups in the cloud—based on how much cloud storage they’re willing to pay for, as well as company policy. The service can also be customized to work with other providers through Microsoft’s Cloud Backup Provider API.

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Microsoft offers free cloud backup beta for Windows Server “8”

Trailrunner7 writes “Welcome to the age of targeted attacks, Mac users. Perhaps having grown tired of owning Windows machines around the world for the last few years, attackers have now taken up the challenge of going after Macs with the same kind of targeted attack tactics that have served them so well in the Windows world. Researchers have found a new attack that employs two separate pieces of malware, a malicious Word document and some techniques for maintaining persistence on compromised machines, and the campaign is specifically targeted at Mac users. The command-and-control domain involved in the attack is located in China and the attack exploits a three-year-old vulnerability in the way that Office for Mac handles certain Word files, according to researchers at AlienVault, who discovered and analyzed the attacks.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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MacControl Trojan Being Used In Targeted Attacks Against OS X Users

Adobe has released a long-awaited update to its Flash Player that allows users to apply security patches with no prodding.

The background updater, which Adobe announced in a blog post published on Tuesday, is designed to better protect users against malware attacks that exploit newly discovered vulnerabilities in the ubiquitous media player. Over the past few years, organized crime gangs and spy rings have milked such zero-day flaws to surreptitiously install keyloggers and other data-stealing software on vulnerable machines. The new mechanism is intended to reverse that trend by reducing the time it takes for the majority of Flash users to plug critical holes that come under attack.

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New, easier-to-update Flash designed to snuff out malware attacks

Just because Sony isn’t planning to unveil its next game console at this year’s E3 doesn’t mean the system isn’t in the works, or that information about it isn’t going to leak out. Case in point: Kotaku is citing unnamed “reliable sources” in reporting that “select developers” are already receiving development kits for the follow-up to the PS3, code-named “Orbis.” It will reportedly hit stores in time for the 2013 holiday season.

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PS3 successor “Orbis” rumored for late 2013, ties retail games to online accounts