Artificially Intelligent Russian Robot Escapes…Again

Slashdot reader Taco Cowboy brings a new report about Russian robot IR77, which has escaped from its research lab again… The story goes that an engineer working at Promobot Laboratories, in the Russian city of Perm, had left a gate open. Out trundled Promobot, traveling some 150 feet into the city before running out of juice. There it sat, batteries mostly dead, in the middle of a Perm street for 40 minutes, slowing cars to a halt and puzzling traffic cops A researcher at Promobot’s facility in Russia said that the runaway robot was designed to interact with human beings, learn from experiences, and remember places and the faces of everyone it meets. Other versions of the Promobot have been docile, but this one just can’t seem to fall in line, even after the researchers reprogrammed it twice. Despite several rewrites of Promobot’s artificial intelligence, the robot continued to move toward exits. “We have changed the AI system twice, ” Kivokurtsev said. “So now I think we might have to dismantle it”. Fans of the robot are pushing for a reprieve, according to an article titled ‘Don’t kill it!’: Runaway robot IR77 could be de-activated because of ‘love for freedom’ Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Artificially Intelligent Russian Robot Escapes…Again

NASCAR Team Pays Ransomware Fee To Recover Files Worth $2 Million

An anonymous reader writes: “NASCAR team Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing (CSLFR) revealed today it faced a ransomware infection this past April when it almost lost access to crucial files worth nearly $2 million, containing car parts lists and custom high-profile simulations that would have taken 1, 500 man-hours to replicate, ” reports Softpedia. “The infection took place on the computer belonging to CSLFR’s crew chief. Winston’s staff detected the infection when encrypted files from Winston’s computer began syncing to their joint Dropbox account.” It was later discovered that he was infected with the TeslaCrypt ransomware. Because the team had no backups of the crucial data, they eventually paid the ransom (around $500). This happened before TeslaCrypt’s authors decided to shut down their operations and release free decryption keys. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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NASCAR Team Pays Ransomware Fee To Recover Files Worth $2 Million

These Images Were Taken With an Entirely New Kind of Photography

Image: Capasso Lab/Harvard SEAS These beetles may look like two different species, but they’re the same individual. The difference lies in how they were photographed, using a new lens that allows scientists to “see” one of the most fundamental properties of biology: chirality. Read more…

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These Images Were Taken With an Entirely New Kind of Photography

The original French tumbler, made by the company that invented tempered glass

Duralex is a French manufacturer of glassware, tableware and cookware. Picardie is one of the lines of of glassware they sell, and it is actually somewhat famous on their own, for good reason. I have had sets of the 3 3/4 oz. and the 12 oz. glasses for about 12 years. The good: They are made from tempered glass, like car windshields, so they are tough and resistant to breaking and chipping. They will survive most falls from table-height, even onto stone or tile floors. In fact I have yet to break one, and I have gone through perhaps six wine glasses in the same time. When they do break, they break into little squarish pebbles rather than sharp shards. (But that is not unique to Duralex.) They come in nine different sizes, from little 3 oz. Old-Fashioned glasses to 16 oz. tumblers. They are relatively thin and light, their strength notwithstanding. They nest and stack nicely. The faceted, swelling design makes the glasses easy to hold, even for small hands, and even when wet. They have an absolutely classic design. They might be the only glasses that people will actually recognize. I saw something very like them in a painting by van Gogh. The bad: There are no bads as such. They might only be the second toughest glasses there are (the first might be the Bormioli Rocco Rock Bar line, which resembles the Picardie line, but doesn’t have exactly the same familiar design. Especially, the lip is thicker, which makes them subtly less comfortable to drink from.) The Libbey Gibraltar glasses are similar but made of thicker glass, which makes them heavier. Some people might like that, especially for sipping whiskey. But they don’t stack. In sum, Duralex Picardie glasses are a design classic that look as good in a 18th century Provence kitchen as a sleek London flat. They are also durable, light, comfortable, and cheap. They don’t have any real flaws. — Karl Chwe Duralex Picardie 12 oz. Clear Tumbler, Set of 6 ($30

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The original French tumbler, made by the company that invented tempered glass

Federal Court: The Fourth Amendment Does Not Protect Your Home Computer

An anonymous reader writes: The EFF reports that a federal court in Virginia today ruled that a criminal defendant has no “reasonable expectation of privacy” in his personal computer (PDF), located inside his home. The court says the federal government does not need a warrant to hack into an individual’s computer. EFF reports: “The implications for the decision, if upheld, are staggering: law enforcement would be free to remotely search and seize information from your computer, without a warrant, without probable cause, or without any suspicion at all. To say the least, the decision is bad news for privacy. But it’s also incorrect as a matter of law, and we expect there is little chance it would hold up on appeal. (It also was not the central component of the judge’s decision, which also diminishes the likelihood that it will become reliable precedent.) But the decision underscores a broader trend in these cases: courts across the country, faced with unfamiliar technology and unsympathetic defendants, are issuing decisions that threaten everyone’s rights. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Federal Court: The Fourth Amendment Does Not Protect Your Home Computer

Clinton’s private e-mail was blocked by spam filters—so State IT turned them off

Part of an e-mail thread discussing workarounds to keep Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server from being blocked by security filters at the State Department. 2 more images in gallery Documents recently obtained by the conservative advocacy group Judicial Watch show that in December 2010, then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her staff were having difficulty communicating with State Department officials by e-mail because spam filters were blocking their messages. To fix the problem, State Department IT turned the filters off—potentially exposing State’s employees to phishing attacks and other malicious e-mails. The mail problems prompted Clinton Chief of Staff Huma Abedin to suggest to Clinton, “We should talk about putting you on State e-mail or releasing your e-mail address to the department so you are not going to spam.” Clinton replied, “Let’s get [a] separate address or device but I don’t want any risk of the personal [e-mail] being accessible.” The mail filter system—Trend Micro’s ScanMail for Exchange 8—was apparently causing some messages from Clinton’s private server (Clintonemail.com) to not be delivered. Some were “bounced;” others were accepted by the server but were quarantined and never delivered to the recipient. According to the e-mail thread published yesterday by Judicial Watch, State’s IT team turned off both spam and antivirus filters on two “bridgehead” mail relay servers while waiting for a fix from Trend Micro. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Clinton’s private e-mail was blocked by spam filters—so State IT turned them off

Why are people fleeing California? Rising housing costs, taxes

California experienced a “net outward migration” of 61,100 people in the last twelve months, the biggest exodus since 2011. San Jose Mercury News : The region’s soaring housing prices are a key factor driving dissatisfied residents toward the exit door. Several people who have departed, or soon will leave, say they potentially could have hundreds of thousands of dollars left over even after buying a house in their new locations. “They’re taking advantage of the housing bubble right now,” McElfresh said. “The majority of the people we are seeing are moving to states that don’t have state income taxes.”

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Why are people fleeing California? Rising housing costs, taxes

Building a Windows 98 Gaming PC in 2016 Is a Pain in the Ass

1998 was such a good year for PC gaming. Half-Life , Grim Fandango , Baldur’s Gate, Star Craft , Rogue Squadron , and many, many more. Dang. Those looking to relive the glory days could easily run most of these games through a virtual machine, but YouTuber nine took it a step (or several) further and built a period-accurate 1998 gaming rig. Read more…

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Building a Windows 98 Gaming PC in 2016 Is a Pain in the Ass

Why Columbus Just Won $140 Million to Become the Transportation City of the Future

Of the seven cities chosen as finalists for the US Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge, Columbus, Ohio may have seemed like the underdog. (It was the only finalist that has no rail system whatsoever.) But today, USDOT announced Columbus as the winner of over $50 million in cash that will transform its transportation system into one of the most forward-looking in the country. Read more…

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Why Columbus Just Won $140 Million to Become the Transportation City of the Future

“Godless” apps, some found in Google Play, root 90% of Android phones

(credit: greyweed ) Researchers have detected a family of malicious apps, some that were available in Google Play , that contain malicious code capable of secretly rooting an estimated 90 percent of all Android phones. In a recently published blog post , antivirus provider Trend Micro said that Godless, as the malware family has been dubbed, contains a collection of rooting exploits that works against virtually any device running Android 5.1 or earlier. That accounts for an estimated 90 percent of all Android devices. Members of the family have been found in a variety of app stores, including Google Play, and have been installed on more than 850,000 devices worldwide. Godless has struck hardest at users in India, Indonesia, and Thailand, but so far less than 2 percent of those infected are in the US. Once an app with the malicious code is installed, it has the ability to pull from a vast repository of exploits to root the particular device it’s running on. In that respect, the app functions something like the many available exploit kits that cause hacked websites to identify specific vulnerabilities in individual visitors’ browsers and serve drive-by exploits. Trend Micro Mobile Threats Analyst Veo Zhang wrote: Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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“Godless” apps, some found in Google Play, root 90% of Android phones