May 1, 2013 – Ken May

E-Sports League Stuffed Bitcoin Mining Code Inside Client Software

hypnosec writes “The E-Sports Entertainment Association (ESEA) gaming league has admitted to embedding Bitcoin mining code inside the league’s client software. It began as an April Fools’ Day joke idea, but the code ended up mining as many as 29 Bitcoins, worth over $3,700, for ESEA in a span of two weeks. According to Eric Thunberg, one of the league’s administrators, the mining code was included as early as April. Tests were run for a few days, after which they ‘decided it wasn’t worth the potential drama, and pulled the plug, or so we thought.’ The code was discovered by users after they noticed that their GPUs were working away with unusually high loads over the past two weeks. After users started posting on the ESEA forums about discovery of the Bitcoin mining code, Thunberg acknowledged the existence of a problem – a mistake caused a server restart to enable it for all idle users.” ESEA posted an apology and offered a free month of their Premium service to all players affected by the mining. They’ve also provided data dumps of the Bitcoin addresses involved and donated double the USD monetary value of the mined coins to the American Cancer Society. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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E-Sports League Stuffed Bitcoin Mining Code Inside Client Software

E-Reading Rainbow: Hachette to bring entire e-book catalog to public libraries

If you’re still balking at the cost of download-to-own e-books, and would rather stick to the tried-and-true library lending system , then this Hachette news is for you. Come next Wednesday, the entirety of Hachette’s ebook catalog — over 5,000 titles — will be made available to nonprofit libraries throughout the US. The announcement and finalized pricing model follows two years worth of pilot testing, during which the publisher examined ebook consumption and lending habits at select libraries. Under the currently set terms of sale, e-books that bow in tandem with print editions will run three times the price of their physical counterparts for “single-user-at-a-time circulations, ” with prices falling to just one and a half that of the hard copy one year later. By Hachette’s own admission, this pricing scheme is not entirely set in stone — the company plans to continually reevaluate the model on a per-year basis. So, there’s hope yet the publisher will gouge libraries a bit less for the perks of e-borrowing. Comments

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E-Reading Rainbow: Hachette to bring entire e-book catalog to public libraries

TitanArm Exoskeleton: Elysium Is Basically Already Real

There’s unfortunately no secret shortcut to building muscle and toning your body. But if you’re just after the extra strength, not the six-pack abs, the TitanArm exoskeleton lets you cheat your way to impressive feats of heavy lifting. Read more…

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TitanArm Exoskeleton: Elysium Is Basically Already Real

The First Full-Color 3D Printer Is Even Lovelier Than Its Creations

3D printers have promised to revolutionize manufacturing as we know it, but are we really going to spend the future with such a limited color palette for our 3D creations? Not if botObjects’ new full color ProDesk3D printer delivers on its lofty promises. Read more…

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The First Full-Color 3D Printer Is Even Lovelier Than Its Creations

White Graphene: The New Supermaterial That Sucks Up Pollution

There’s a new supermaterial in town, and while it might be known as white graphene, it doesn’t contain a single atom of carbon. But that doesn’t make the new form of boron nitride any less useful—because it can suck chemicals and oil out of contaminated water in a jiffy . Read more…

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White Graphene: The New Supermaterial That Sucks Up Pollution

This Sensor Will Give Your Phone a 1080p, 60fps Front Camera

Most front-facing phone cameras suck. It’s not their fault, though: they have to be squeezed in to a tiny gap, which puts obvious limits on their geometry. Fortunately, this new Omnivision sensor squeezes a lot more performance into that minuscule frame. Read more…

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This Sensor Will Give Your Phone a 1080p, 60fps Front Camera

Extreme closeup! IBM makes ‘world’s smallest movie’ using atoms (video)

After taking a few shadowy pictures for the scientific world’s paparazzi, the atom is now ready for its closeup. Today, a team of IBM scientists are bypassing the big screen to unveil what they call the “world’s smallest movie.” This atomic motion picture was created with the help of a two-ton IBM-made microscope that operates at a bone-chilling negative 268 degrees Celsius. This hardware was used to control a probe that pulled and arranged atoms for stop-motion shots used in the 242-frame film. A playful spin on microcomputing, the short was made by the same team of IBM eggheads who recently developed the world’s smallest magnetic bit . Now that the atom’s gone Hollywood, what’s next, a molecular entourage? Filed under: Storage , Science , Alt Comments

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Extreme closeup! IBM makes ‘world’s smallest movie’ using atoms (video)

Here Are the Best Movies on Netflix That Will Disappear Tomorrow

Another Netflix purge is happening. By tomorrow, 1794 movies will disappear from Netflix’s catalog which means the last chance you have to stream these movies is tonight. Pick wisely! We’ve narrowed the choices down for you. Read more…